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Object Lessons

Popcorn Christians

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Popcorn Christians
Popcorn is a seed that is hard and tasteless, until placed in the fire. And then the white goodness on the inside comes out for us to not only smell the aroma, but also to taste. It’s a powerful object lesson and metaphor for Christ working in us and drawing others to himself through as as Christians.

What You Need

  • Lots of popped Popcorn
  • Some unpopped popcorn
  • There are several games below that may require additional materials such as drinking straws, cups, blindfolds, and a spoon.

Preparation

Pop some popcorn, preferably in the room in which you have the meeting, so the smell of popcorn permeates the room before the youth arrive.

Popcorn Games

  • Popcorn Race: Using a drinking straw, the youth must blow a popped kernel of popcorn across a table. First to blow it from one end to the other wins.
  • Popcorn Catcher: You must stand on a chair and dropped popped kernels of popcorn into a cup. The person with the most kernels in the cup when time is up wins.
  • Popcorn Toss: Each youth tries to throw a piece of popcorn as far as possible. The farthest throw wins.
  • Popcorn Collector: Each youth is blindfolded, given a metal spoon, and placed in from of a large bowl of popcorn. They must also hold a bowl or cup on top of their head. In the time given they youth compete by using the spoon to scoop popcorn into the cups on their heads while everyone else watches. Many times, they will deliver empty spoons to their heads and many times they will miss the cup. When time is up, the youth with the most kernels of popcorn in the cup wins.
  • Popcorn on the fire: Play a game in which two teams simulate being popcorn in a pan. Explain that in the activity, everyone on a team sits on the floor and each is a piece of popcorn. The floor is a big pan on the fire. As the pan begins to heat, some kernels of corn begin to pop. A youth pops by jumping up, clapping their hands together, and saying “Pop”. Usually popcorn begins to gradually pop and builds up to become very active and loud and then eventually stops. The team that best demonstrates the making of popcorn gets a prize.

Enjoy some Popcorn

Finish off by sharing popcorn for all the youth to enjoy. First offer the un-popped kernels and then when the youth refuse, pass around the popped popcorn.

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

DEBRIEF

  • Ask the youth to tell you everything they know about popcorn.
  • Ask the youth to tell you the way they have experienced popcorn in the meeting

MAKE IT SPIRITUAL

  • How is a kernel of popcorn similar to a person’s heart?
  • What are some lessons and truths we can learn from a kernel of popcorn?
  • What are some of the things that heat up our situations and cause us to respond?

Touch Points

  • The seeds start as hard and tasteless, can’t be digested
  • When heated, some respond, but some do not.
  • At some point, a change occurs, and all the potential inside the kernel is released.
    • Some remain hard and tasteless and may even burn
    • Others, the sweet inside is exposed and can be enjoyed
    • We not only taste it, but there is also a pleasant aroma that attracts people
  • Everything comes from inside the kernel
  • Most people love the smell of popcorn. One small bag fills the room. with the smell. Another word for smell is aroma. God compares us to an aroma. We experience it from a distance. It attracts us. We want it. We want to taste it for ourselves. In the same way, We must live our lives in such a way that Christ in us, is noticed by others, and they want to experience Christ for themselves.
  • Human hearts can either be like a hard kernel or the soft, fluffy, fragrant popcorn.
  • God places us in the heat – circumstances so our hearts can open up (Visually express this by changing a clenched fist to an open hand)

MAKE IT PRACTICAL

  • How do circumstances change us? Why does God allow difficult circumstances? See James 1:2-4 and Romans 5:3-5
  • In what ways are Christians an aroma of Christ?
  • What are some actions, attitudes, mindsets, and other characteristics of Christians and their relationship with Christ that are attractive to the lost?

MAKE IT PERSONAL

  • Would you consider your heart hard and tightly closed up, or soft and open?
  • What are some of the circumstances God has used in your own life to bring about a pleasant change in your life?
  • If you were to do a self test on your life as a Christian, what would it reveal? Does your life express an aroma of Christ?
  • What can you personally do this week that will serve like a pleasant aroma to draw others to Christ and want to experience Christ for themselves?

Scriptures

  • Matthew 12:35 – “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”
  • Luke 6:45 – “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
  • Matthew 15:11 – “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
  • Matthew 15:16-20 – “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
  • James 1:2-4 – “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
  • Romans 5:3-5 – “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
  • Romans 8:18 – “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
  • 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 – “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?”

MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

Learn More…

Object Lessons

Trick or Treat? – Sharing the Gift of Salvation

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This youth activity uses Halloween candy as a discussion starter for the topic of evangelism. The Gospel is often called the “Good News” and it is something we should be excited about sharing with others. But like the popular Halloween phrase “Trick or Treat?” we sometimes wonder if evangelism is a trick or a treat? Is it something that frightens us, that we are tricked into doing, or are so excited about the Good News that we can’t help but share it with others.

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What you need

  • A bag of candy (As Halloween is just around the corner, you can easily get a variety of candy in individually wrapped snack sizes.)
  • a Bible

What to do

  1. Play some games with the youth as an icebreaker, preferably sitting in a circle.
  2. Once you have played a few rounds of a popular icebreaker game, simply reward one of the youth with a big bag of candy, preferable one of those who did not win any of the games. Describe and show the contents of the bag of candy to the youth and then simply reward it to one of them.
  3. If youth ask why the particular youth got the candy, simply explain that it is yours and you just wanted to give it to someone – not because of anything they did, but simply because of who you are – a good person.
  4. After you have given the candy to one of the youth, join the circle and stare expectantly at the person with the candy with your hand held out to receive a piece. Without saying anything, encourage other youth to also stare in expectation to get some candy.
  5. When the youth offers to share the candy, affirm them and thank them. (If the youth never offers to share, tell them that now is the time to share the candy, as if it was planned and they had forgotten.)
  6. Once everyone has some candy, debrief.

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Debrief

To the Youth receiving the candy

  • How did it feel to be given the big bag of candy, even though you were not a winner in any of the games?
  • How did it feel when everyone stared at you expecting you to share the candy?
  • What made you decide to share?

To the Rest of the Youth

  • What were you hoping would happen when you saw the big bag of candy?
  • How did it feel to see someone else get something good when you received nothing?
  • Once the candy was given to someone else, what did you then hope for?
  • How would you have felt if the candy had not been shared?

MAKE IT SPIRITUAL

Read Acts 4:18-20

  • How was Peter and John’s sharing Jesus similar to (person’s name) sharing the candy with the rest of the youth?
  • What was Peter and John’s motivation for sharing?
  • How is salvation a gift? (Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-10)
  • How is does the experience with the candy, relate to us receiving the sweet gift of salvation?
  • How would keeping the candy to yourself be like not sharing Jesus with others?
  • How is the Gospel Sweet? Why does the popular hymn begin with “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound?”

One of the definitions of GRACE is

God’s
Riches
At
Christ’s
Expense

Jesus left the glory of heaven and suffererd through the agony of Calvary, dying on a cross to pay the penalty of sin in our place, so that God could give us the gift of eternal life. It is not something we deserved, but an undeserved gift. When we put our trust in him, we accept the gift and he calls us to share the same opportunity with others.

MAKE IT PRACTICAL

  • What are some of the gifts we receive as a child of God?
  • How can we share those gifts with others?
  • What is the greatest gift you could give to someone?
  • How can we share the gift of salvation with others in words?
  • How can we share the gift of salvation with others in actions?
  • Why do we need to share in both words and actions? (Romans 15:18)

MAKE IT PERSONAL

  • What is your favorite thing to talk about (share) with others?
  • Why do we find it easy to talk about things that we love, but difficult to talk about the Saviour we love?
  • What is something that you can do this week to share the gift of salvation both in words and action?

Additional Scriptures

Acts 4:18-20
“Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, ‘Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.'”

2 Corinthians 2:14-17 (NASB)
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Ephesians 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith•and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Matthew 5:16
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

1 Peter 2:12
“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

Romans 15:18
“For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience•by word and deed,”

MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

Learn More…

Icebreakers

Pass Your Name Icebreaker

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It is said a person has three names: the one given at birth, the one other people give, and the one (s)he gives him/herself. Names have meaning. Sometimes names are changed to reflect a new direction in a person’s life. In his icebreaker game, youth not only learn each other’s names, but they also explore what it means to be called a Christian, a disciple, a saint, a believer.

What you need
No resources are needed for this icebreaker

What to do

Round ONE

  1. Form the youth into several circles, with everyone faced toward the center of the circle with their arms to their side.
  2. Choose someone to start”Everyone put your right hand in the air. Hand in the air!””On the count of three, everyone point to the happiest person in the circle.”

    The person that the most people are pointing to will go first in this game.

  3. He or she must choose someone in the group and use his entire arm to point at them and while pointing to this person call out his or her OWN name. They do not call out the name of the person they are pointing to, but call out their own name. He or she than crosses his or her arms.
  4. The person who was just pointed to, repeats the action, pointing to someone in the circle whose arms are not crossed and calling out his or her own name.
  5. Continue until everyone has been pointed to in the circle. It’s not as easy as it seems.

Round TWO

  1. Repeat the activity, but this round, time make it a competition between groups to see which circle will complete the activity in the quickest time.

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Debrief

  • When you played this activity, what happened?
  • Why was this game difficult?
  • Is a person’s name significant?
  • It is said a person has three names: the one (s)he is given at birth, the one other people give him/her, and the one (s)he gives him/herself. What does this mean?
  • What does your name say about you?
  • Do you feel that your birth name adequately expresses who you are? Why or why not?

Teaching Point: Names are often given in reference to: aspects of a person’s birth, hopes the parent has for his or her child, something a parent likes, a connection the parent wants to draw attention to, family ties

  • What name would your mentor or the person you most look up to in life give to you?
  • If you had to choose a name to express your essence, what would it be?
  • If you were to choose a new name for yourself today, what would you choose and why?

MAKE IT SPIRITUAL

  • What significance do people’s names in the Bible have?

Share a few of the familiar ones if not mentioned by the youth.
– Abram -> Abraham “Father of a multitude”
– Simon -> Peter “Peter” or “Rock”
– Saul -> Paul
– Jacob “supplanter” -> Israel “Prince of God” “He who struggles with God”
– Sarai -> Sarah “Princess” “mother of nations”

In the Bible’s most famous name change situations, God is making a statement about the person.
– spiritual accomplishments
– spiritual potential
– a promise or blessing
– change or new direction in life
– new identity
– Indication of God’s plan for them

The name “Christians was first used at Antioch (Acts 11:19-26)
As Christians
– We are called Christians – new identity / nature
– We are given a new name (Revelation 2:17, 21:12, 21:7; Philippians 4:4)
– Our life takes a change of direction
– The disciples called each other, “brethren”, “disciples”, “apostles”, “servants”, “believers”, “followers”, “the faithful”, “the elect”, “the called”, and “saints.” We can also identify ourselves as “bondservants” of Christ.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

  • What name do you think God would give to you? Why
  • How can you live according to the name “Christian” “Disciple” “servant” “Believer” or “Saint” this week?

Additional Scriptures

Here are some interesting scriptures related to becoming “Christ”-like

1 Corinthians 1:3-15 – “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, …”

1 Corinthians 11:1 – “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”

1 John 2:29 – “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

1 John 2:6 – “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

1 John 3:2-3 – “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

1 John 4:17 – “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.”

1 Peter 2:21 – “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”

1 Thessalonians 1:6 – “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit,”

2 Corinthians 2:14 – “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 – “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Ephesians 4:11-13 – “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

Ephesians 4:22-24 – “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Ephesians 5:1-2 – “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”

Galatians 3:27 – “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Galatians 4:19 – “My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!”

John 13:14-15 – “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.”

John 13:34 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 15:10 – “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

John 15:12 – “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

Luke 6:40 – “A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.”

Luke 6:46 – “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

Matthew 10:25 – “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign the members of his household!”

Matthew 5:48 – “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Philippians 2:4-5 – “do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,”

Romans 12:2 – “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Romans 6:11 – “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 6:4 – “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Romans 8:2-8 – “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. …”

Romans 8:28-29 – “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

Titus 3:1-8 – “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, …

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