Christian Object Lesson - The Hand of God at Work Within Us

Christian
Object Lesson
- The Hand of
God at Work
Within Us
www.CreativeYouthIdeas.com
www.CreativeObjectLessons.com

Finding one’s identity,
purpose, and meaning in life
are common struggles that
every youth faces. They are
seeking an answer to the
question, “Why am I here?”
In their search for purpose,
they may try to find
fulfillment in a variety of
things, some good, some
bad. But our purpose cannot
be found in things.

Our identity is found by filling
the emptiness in our lives
with Christ. When God’s
Hand is at work in our lives,
only then will we find true
meaning and purpose. Gloves
are a great object lesson to
remind youth of this spiritual
truth and a simplified version
of this lesson makes a great
Children’s Sermon.

GLOVES
Resources
Collect a variety of gloves.
Here are some of the possible
gloves you could choose from:
• baseball glove
• welder’s glove
• leather gloves
• Winter gloves or mittens
• boxing gloves
• work gloves
• Surgical gloves
• Food preparation gloves
• Kitchen gloves
• Gardening Gloves

• Fingerless Gloves
• White Gloves
• Cycling Gloves
• Fur gloves
• Sequined gloves
• Goal Keeper’s Gloves
• Catcher’s Glove
• Golf Glove
• Driving Gloves
• Scuba Gloves
• Ski Gloves
• Washing Mitt
• Wheelchair Gloves

You might also have on
hand a variety of items to
fill the gloves with. Here are
some possibilities: marbles,
golf balls, M&Ms, skittles,
coins, sand, water, salt,
beans, paper clips, sticks,
straws, pencils, ice, jello,
baby powder, etc. The
possibilities are endless.
These can be symbolic or
simply for fun.

Marbles could represent
gems, golf balls can represent
sports, paper clips – work,
M&M’s sweets or desires,
coins – wealth, aspirin or
beer – drugs, condoms – sex.
You can also add a wacky
game to this object lesson by
planning to divide the youth
into teams and providing a
rubber glove for each team

Preparation
• Display the gloves in a way
that all the youth can see
them.
• Have the items to fill the
gloves readily available
but hidden from sight.
Have them hidden in such
a way that you only need
to reveal one at a time.
Suspense and curiosity are
great tools for teaching as
the youth will be trying to
guess what you will fill the
gloves with next.

Wacky Game – Optional
• Divide the youth into
teams and give each
team a rubber kitchen
glove.
• The youth must select
one team member to
put the rubber glove on
over his (or her) head
and pull it down over
their nose and inflate it
using air from his nose.

Once the glove is filled
with air so that it is
inflated and stands up
on top of the youth’s
head, they must run to
you while crowing like a
rooster.
• It is not only hilarious,
but it is also fun for the
youth. If you want to
make it last a little
longer, have it as a relay
race between the teams
of youth.

What to Do
• Begin by showing the youth
the various other types of
gloves, and then ask the
youth to identify the
various types of gloves, the
purpose for each, and who
might use each of them?
• Explain that the empty
gloves are like the lives of
youth. Both youth and
adults try to fill the
emptiness in their lives with
different things.

• Demonstrate by filling the
gloves with various objects.
As you go through each
collection of items, ask the
youth, “Is this what the glove
is intended to be used for?”
• After you go through the
items, ask the youth what
the emptiness in the glove is
supposed to be filled with?
Of course the answer is
someone’s hand.
• Ask the youth, what can the
glove do by itself? Of course
the answer is nothing.

Take It to the Next Level
Make it Spiritual
(Note you might share some
of the things you tried to fill
your life with before you
accepted Christ as you share
the following information:
Every person tries to fill their
glove (or life) with different
things: like money, sports,
drugs, sex, work, food,
money, friends, family, or
even church to find meaning.

While some things are
obviously bad, others
aren’t necessarily bad
things, but simply not
what the glove (life) was
created for. In fact some of
the things are good in the
right context, but become
bad when they become
the primary goal for our
existence.

Explain that those things
don’t allow the glove to be
used the way it was created
to be used.
You can use the example of
alcohol as something that
may seem fulfilling for a
while, but in the end leaves
you even emptier than
before. (You can fill up a
specially prepared rubber
glove that has been slit at
the finger tips so that all the
liquid drains out.)

At the very end of your
examples, put your hand in
the glove, and show how it is
now useful and can fulfill its
intended purpose. Explain
that a glove can do all sorts of
things – pick up a book, wave
good-bye, scratch my head,
play golf, work, pat someone
on the back. By itself, it can
do nothing. But if I put my
hand in the glove… [put it
on]… this glove can do almost
anything I want.

Different gloves are created
with a different intended
purpose. But a glove can do
nothing once the hand as
been removed. It is the
same with our lives, in an of
ourselves we can do nothing
of lasting significance, but
with God in us all things
become possible.

Blaise Pascal said that we
have all been created with a
God-shaped vacuum that only
he can fill. We will only find
true meaning and purpose
when we let the hand of God
work in our lives to
accomplish his will here on
earth.
Make it Personal
What are some of the
purposes that God has for
Christians?

Make it Practical
The easiest way to find that
purpose, is to yield to God.
What is an area of your life
that God has been speaking
to you about yielding to
him?
Ask God to use you this
week in a way that glorifies
him and gives you a clearer
understanding of his
purpose for your life.

Scripture References
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.”

Philippians 4:13
“I can do all this through
him who gives me strength.”
Colossians 1:27
“To them God has chosen to
make known among the
Gentiles the glorious riches
of this mystery, which is
Christ in you, the hope of
glory.”

Philippians 2:13
“for it is God who works in
you to will and to act in
order to fulfill his good
purpose.”
2 Corinthians 3:5
“Not that we are competent
in ourselves to claim
anything for ourselves, but
our competence comes
from God.”

Ephesians 3:19-20
“and to know this love that
surpasses knowledge—that
you may be filled to the
measure of all the fullness
of God. Now to him who is
able to do immeasurably
more than all we ask or
imagine, according to his
power that is at work within
us,”

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…
Creative Object Lessons
www.creativeobjectlessons.com

Christian Object Lesson - The Hand of God at Work Within Us

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