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Game Ideas, Object Lessons

Stretched by God – Games and an Object Lesson

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Stretched by God

There is going to be a tug-of-war in our spiritual life because God is always in the process of transforming us. Change causes tension and we are stretched. This week’s lesson uses rubber bands for games and as an object lesson on the topic of being stretched by God.

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Rubber Band Games

  • Rubber Band Face – Youth compete by stretching a rubber band over their heads and open their mouths so that the rubber band is stretched between their teeth and below their ears. Without using their hands, they must move the rubber band down their faces so that it ends up around their neck. They will need to use their tongue, lips and teeth and lots of chin wriggling to make this happen. be sure to have a camera because the distorted faces are hilarious. (You can also place the rubber band on the upper lip just below the nose for a different variation)
  • Rubber Band Face – Youth compete by stretching a rubber band over their heads and open their mouths so that the rubber band is stretched between their teeth and below their ears. Without using their hands, they must move the rubber band down their faces so that it ends up around their neck. They will need to use their tongue, lips and teeth and lots of chin wriggling to make this happen. be sure to have a camera because the distorted faces are hilarious. (You can also place the rubber band on the upper lip just below the nose for a different variation)
  • Rubber Band War – Set up two fortresses in a classroom using folding tables turned on their sides about 8-10 feet apart. Put a line of masking tape down the middle of the playing field between the two tables. Give two teams tons of rubber bands (you can buy them by the bag at office supply stores). Teams try to hide behind the fortress, but can jump out and run around as long as they stay on their side of the dividing line. If anyone gets shot by a rubber band, even from their own team, they are out of the game. The last team standing (or crawling around the floor) wins. Rubber bands must be shot directly in order to get a person out. Simply tossing them over the table doesn’t count. Stress the importance of honesty. Try different configurations with your tables to keep it interesting. Use thin rubber bands so they don’t hurt too much or cause injuries.
  • Rubber Band Targets – Hang aluminum pie tins from string across one end of the room. Use a marker to label them with different point values. When hit with a rubber band they will make a definite sound. Give each youth 5 to 10 rubber bands to shoot from the other side of the room. Highest score wins.
  • Rubber Band Pass – The objective of this youth group game is to pass the most rubber bands to the end of your team’s line as possible in a given amount of time. Divide into teams and give every team member a plastic drinking straw to place in his or her mouth. (You can also use dried spaghetti in place of a straw) Once the straw is in the mouth you cannot adjust it or touch it with your hands. The first person on each team places a rubber band on his or her straw, then using the straws only must pass it to the second person in line, and continue until it reaches the end of the line. Only one rubber band can be on a straw at a time.
  • Rubber Band Man – You’ll need a lot of rubber bands for each team. Give each team 1 minute to place as many rubber bands as possible on their rubber band man (or woman). A rubber band on the rubber band man’s hands or arms is worth 1 point. The feet and legs are two points. Face is 3 points. Hanging it on the ears doesn’t count. The neck is not allowed. The team with the most points wins. Use different size rubber bands to make the game more interesting. Be prepared for some outrageous photos.
  • Rubber Band Rope Jumping – Loop a number of rubber bands together tightly until you have a larger one (You can select the length you want). Teams then compete to see who can make the most jumps using the rubber band.
  • Loop Groups – Tie a number of rubber bands together to form a big loop about the size of a hula hoop. Ask the youth to stand in a circle and hold hands. Then have one pair of youth release their hands and reach through the loop circle and then re-connect hands. The ring of rubber bands must travel in a clockwise direction and return to the initial starting position without anyone letting go of the hands on either side of them. The youth must stay in one location while the rubber band loop moves around the circle. Fastest time wins.
  • Rubber Band Limbo – This game, is like the traditional game of limbo, except that the string of rubber bands replaces the pole. The rubber bands are stretched at progressively lower levels and the youth try to pass under it.
  • Rubber band wrestling – This game is played between pairs of youths. They must sit at a table facing each other, and resting their right hands on the table. They then hook their fingers together with their thumbs raised up in the air. A rubber band is then placed around the two thumbs. On “go” they each try to capture the rubber band without dropping it by wiggling their thumbs. The side with the most winners can be the winning team or you can have successive play off until you have a single winner.
  • Elastic Bull’s Eye – You will need loop of rubber bands tied together into a circle and one “target” (non-elastic string loop) for each group. The group must release the stretched out rubber band in such a way that the elastic falls inside the target (inside the bulls eye). Divide the youth group into teams of 4-8 and supply each group with one loop of rubber bands and one “target” (non-elastic string). Each person in the group holds onto the elastic with two fingers and then the group backs up so the elastic is stretched out in a big circle (people are spaced evenly from each other). Place the target in the center of the circle. The group must now release the elastic simultaneously and in such a way that the elastic falls into the target. Most number of success in a given time wins. Rules: The group must keep the loop stretched just before the release. The group must release the loop simultaneously. The stretched loop must be kept parallel to the ground. The target must stay in the center of the circle. The loop can only land inside the target as a result of the simultaneous release of the loop by the group (example: the elastic cannot be thrown by one person)
  • Focus Ring – You’ll need a large thick rubber band that is a bit smaller than a tennis ball for each team. Each team will also need two empty plastic soda bottles. Finally you will need about 3 ft or 1 meter of string for each team member. Tie the strings to the rubber band in a radiating pattern so that the rubber band is in the center of all the strings. Place the tennis ball on top of one of the empty soda bottles as a pedestal. The objective it to pull on the strings and use the rubber band to move the tennis ball on top of the other. Each person in the group holds on to at least one string (depending on the size of the group, some will have more than one string). The participants spread out like spokes of a wheel, holding on to the end of their string. Rules: Each participant gets to operate at least one string. Participants must hold onto the end of the string and no other place. Participants must stay at a distance of at least the length of a stretched out string (very important). If the ball falls the group must start again. If the pedestal falls over the group must start again. The group is successful when the ball is balanced on the pedestal.

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

One of the key characteristics of a rubber band is that it is stretched. In fact, a rubber band isn’t much use unless it is stretched.

  • What are some things that we use rubber bands for?
  • Why are the rubber bands ideal for such tasks?
  • What happens to a rubber band after it is stretched many times?

MAKE IT SPIRITUAL

Just as a rubber band becomes more useful when stretched, God also stretches us to make us more effective and use us more fully for his glory. When stretched you expand your usefulness to God. See the scripture section below for verses that talk about us being stretched in the Christian walk. Stretching means trusting God in moments of stress, tension, pressure, and discomfort. Sometimes it is painful and sometimes merely uncomfortable.

MAKE IT PRACTICAL

There is going to be a tug-of-war in our spiritual life because God is always in the process of transforming us. Change causes tension and we are stretched. But in these times God is moving us forward into the likeness of Christ. When God stretches us, He is not making us somebody we do not want to be. He is actually stretching us to be the person He created us to be.

  • When a muscle is regularly stretched it becomes more flexible, versatile, efficient, strong, and growing. What difference would it make in your Christian walk if these characteristics were also true of you spiritual life?
  • Consider also the opposites of those qualities. How would your spiritual life be different if it was characterized by inflexible, limited, ineffective, atrophied, weak and brittle?
  • When a muscle is not regularly stretched it atrophies or shrinks. How does this relate to spiritually exercising our faith?
  • There is always a purpose to being stretched. How do we cooperate with God and grow in the stretch?

MAKE IT PERSONAL

  • How is God growing and stretching you right now?
  • Do you tend to cooperate and hear what God is doing, or pull away when you are being stretched
  • How can you personally cooperate with God when he is stretching you?

SCRIPTURES

  • Philippians 3:14 – “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
  • Isaiah 54:2 – “Enlarge the place of your tent, And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.”
  • Philippians 3:13 and 14 – “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
  • Matthew 12:13 – “Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other.”
  • James 1:2-4 – “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials; knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
  • 1 Corinthians 10:13 – “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
  • Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”

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Game Ideas, Object Lessons

Spiritually Measuring Up

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Spiritually_Measuring_Up

It’s back to school time. Time to get all your school supplies and meet new friends. These games all have a ruler as the central prop and serve as a discussion start for measuring up to God’s standards. I remember the days of using a ruler to create a growth chart on the door frame. But how do we measure our growth as Christians?

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Games using a Ruler

  • Back Flip Rulers – Back flip rulers is a variation of the minute-to-win-it game “Back Flip” The objective is simple – palms down, rest several rulers on the back of your hand. Now flip them up and catch them all in the same hand. Person who can catch the most rulers at once wins.
  • Dice it Up – Another Minute-to-win-it game, youth must place a ruler into their mouth and stack a die on the end of the ruler. The die is not allowed to touch a youth’s nose or face. If the die falls off, the youth must choose another die to put on the ruler. Once the first die is in place, the player can pick up another die and put it on top of the first die. He has to continue adding a die until he’s stacked six die on top of one another. The dice have to be balanced for 3 seconds at least. First youth to be successful wins.
  • Feather Relay – Give individuals or teams a ruler with a feather, leaf or some other light object on it. The idea is to see who can go across the room and back again, keeping the elusive object on his or her ruler. If the object blows off, it must be replaced before the contestant can continue.
  • Herding Cats – Ever tried to herd a cat? They have a mind of their own. Give each team of youth one ruler and a cat (a lemon or raw egg.) Teams line up at the starting line, than at the signal, the first player pushes the cat to the goal and back using only the ruler. That player passes the ruler to the teammate who is next in line, and so on until all youth on a team have run. The team that finishes first wins. Other variations are to set up an obstacle course.
  • Longest Line – Give each group a ruler and a few school supplies if you have some. Then give the following instructions – “Using what you have, create the longest line possible.” The key to this game is they have more than the objects you have given to them. They can use a belt, a shoe lace, keys, coins, paper money, etc to create a long line of objects. We often look to God to give us resources to get things done, but we often have more than we realise if we expand our thinking.
  • Peas on a Ruler – Place a pile of peas (equal number of peas in each) for each team at one end of the room and an empty bowl for each at the opposite end. Give the first person in each line a ruler. Youth must run to their pea pile and scoop up as many peas on the ruler as they can, and bring them back and dump them into the empty bowl. They then give the rulers to the next person in line, who repeat the process. The first team to transfer its peas from the pile to the bowl is the winner. Any peas which fall along the way must also he picked up on the ruler and brought to the bowl. Players may have more than one run until all the peas are transfered, but must continue in the same order as they inititially began. They may not put the experts at the beginning of the line the second time through.
  • Ruler Catapult – Take a ruler and a square rubber pencil eraser. Place the ruler on the edge of a book or table. Place the eraser at one of the ruler and slam the other end of the ruler towards the floor. HARD. Whoever can get the eraser to fly the furthest wins!
  • Ruler Delivery – Choose a collection of objects of increasing size to be passed from the front of the line to the back of the line for each team using a ruler in each person’s mouth. First team to pass all the objects to the end of the line wins. Here are some ideas for objects: Cotton Balls, Ping Pong Balls, an egg (raw or hard boiled), marbles, lemon, apple, inflated balloon, ice cube.
  • Ruler Fencing – Players hold a ruler with a square rubber eraser on it in one hand. In the other hand the players hold an empty ruler. Then they try to knock the opponents’ eraser off the ruler without losing their own eraser.
  • Ruler of the world – roll a marble down a ruler and into a bowl. First team to do it successfully wins. Make it more difficult by using a yardstick or meter ruler.
  • Rulers – This is the game of spoons but played with rulers. Depending on the number of players, you need at least one deck of cards, and one ruler less than the number of players. Players sit in a circle with the rulers in the middle of the circle with their ends touching. To begin, each player is dealt 4 cards. The first player picks up a card from the top of the pile, and can choose to keep it, or pass it to the person on his or her left. Players can only hold a maximum of four cards. When someone gets four of a kind, he grabs a ruler. Once one person grabs a ruler, everyone else also grabs one until all the rulers are gone and 1 person is left without a ruler. Play resumes with one less player and one less ruler. Play continues until there is only one player left, the winner.
  • Standing Broad Grin – Measure everyone’s grin with a ruler to see who has the widest smile. Offer first, second, and third place prizes to the biggest smiles.
  • Tallest Tower – Bring in a variety of school supplies, including a ruler. Each team of students must create the tallest tower using the supplies you have provided. Then bring the school supplies back together and command the them to create the tallest tower. Of course the tools will simply lie where they are put. NOTE: These tools are very useful, but only when they are in someone’s hands. The same thing is true of us. We can be useful to God, and be used to teach others life changing truths, but only when we place ourselves in God’s hands.

Main Lesson Idea – Measuring Up

Measuring Up – Participants must scour the room and use a ruler find objects that match the measurements they are given… first to get them all correct gets a prize. You must first of course, make a list of measurements of various items found in the youth room or throughout the church.

Rules

  1. Teams must stay together as a group. You may not split up.
  2. Stay within the designated game area. Any group found outside the game area or in banned areas will be disqualified.
  3. No communicating or collaborating with other teams.
  4. Be respectful and courteous in everything you do. Crude language, inappropriate behavior, and offensive actions are not allowed. Respect other people’s property. Do not destroy things. When the hunt is over, there should be no sign that it took place.
  5. Respect each other. Do not cheat. Do not hinder other teams.

Scoring

  1. Only one submission for each item on the list. Multiple submissions are not allowed. Label submissions with corresponding numbers so the judges know which items are intended for which things on the list. You are not required to complete every item on the list.
  2. Teams can only qualify once for each item on the list.
  3. Stick to the Time Limit. A penalty will be imposed for each minute after the deadline that you are late. In case of a tie, the first team to finish wins.
  4. How to Win? Points will be assigned to these based on the difficulty to accomplish each, creativity and the fun factor. The team with the most points wins!

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

MAKE IT SPIRITUAL

  • What are some things people use to measure or evaluate living a good life?
  • What are some things people use to measure other people?
  • What are some things people use to measure themselves?
  • How do we measure a person as a success or failure?
  • What are some of the standards of measurement from God’s Word?

You might give them some helpful scriptures to write on their rulers:

  • Love – I Corinthians 13:4-7
  • Holiness – Hebrews 12.14; Revelation 21.27
  • Righteousness – 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 3:23
  • Christian Living – Romans 12:10-21
  • Maturity – Ephesians 4:1-13

Discussion: If your ruler had been marked wrongly, you would have found it difficult to find any of the objects. When our measurements of obedience, ourselves (pride), expectations (jealousy), comparisons with others, and timing (patience) are wrong it messes up our results. Our standards for measurement must be exact and based on God’s Word or every measurement we make will be wrong. God’s Word is to be the ruler for our life. When we use other things as rulers our measurements come out wrong.

MAKE IT PRACTICAL

In the Old Testament, the focus on godliness was living by God’s Laws and commandments. But as a Christian, the focus of the life is no longer the laws and standards, but instesd focused on a person – Christ. It’s not a set of rules but a relationship. We are to follow Christ and live for Him.

  • Romans 6:14 “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
  • Romans 8:1-17
  • What difference does it make in the way you live your life to know that you are no longer under the law, but under grace?
  • Under the law you are fearful of making a mistake, but under grace you are focused on pleasing God and acting out of gratitude. How does this make a difference in how you live life?

MAKE IT PERSONAL

  • How do you measure your life? How do you measure up?
  • What are some of the things you use to measure your spiritual growth? Your spiritual journey?
  • In what way does Grace give you freedom to live more effectively for Christ?

SCRIPTURE

Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” – We don’t measure up to God’s standard.

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.” – Because we don’t measure up, we cannot boast. This free us to advance in good works, not out of striving to be worthy.

Ephesians 4:11-12 – “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” – our goal is to measure up to the life of Christ.

Galatians 2:16 – “know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”

Hebrews 12:1 – “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race MARKED OUT for us.” God still marks out a direction for us to strive toward as Christians.

2 Corinthians 5:21 – “God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – We don’t have to measure up to righteousness because we wear Christ’s righteousness.

Colossians 2:13-14 – “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” – God wiped away the shortcoming so that before him we measure up in Christ.

2 Peter 1:3-9 – “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.” – Now we are measure by growth in the our journey to becoming more and more Christlike.

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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 Teaching Ideas, Game Ideas, Object Lessons

Spoon Fed Christians

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We often use the term “spoon fed” to refer to babies. It is also used for people who have been given so much by others that they never learn how to think for themselves or take care of themselves. Scripture uses a similar term to describe some Christians. Like a spoon fed baby, some Christians have never grown up in their faith.

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Games using Spoons

  • Cotton Ball Spooner – Each youth is blindfolded, given a metal spoon, and placed in front of a large bowl of cotton balls. 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 the cotton balls 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 cotton balls in the cup wins.
  • Fastest Spoon – Get two volunteer victims from each team. Both youths will need to put on a big garbage bag with arm / head holes so they don’t get messy! The first youth sits on a chair. The second person is given a bowl of chocolate pudding with a spoon and stands behind them whilst blindfolded. The idea is that the person who is blindfolded has to feed the other person by following their verbal instructions. Alternatively you could get other members of the team to hold to bowl or give instructions. First team to finish wins.
  • Hang it on your beak – The first youth to hang a spoon on his or her nose for mmore than 30 seconds wins. Variation: how many spoons can they hang from their face? Variation: See who can get the spoon off the nose and into his or her mouth using only his or her tongue. BTW, there is a world record for the most spoons hanging on a person’s face. It is 31 and was achieved by Dalibor Jablanovic (Serbia), in Stubica, Serbia, on 28 September 2013. Can you break it?
  • Musical Spoons – While the music is playing, a spoon is passed from person to person. When the music stops, the person holding the spoon must eat something gross like babyfood and is eliminated from the game play.
  • Potato Fencing – Players hold a spoon with a potato on it in one hand. In the other hand the players hold an empty spoon. Then they try to knock the opponents potato off the spoon without losing their own potato.
  • Pudding Slurp – A new pair of stockings per contestant, a small bowl of pudding, some newspaper to play on and some damp towels for cleaning up. Contestants pull the stocking over their face and must race to eat all their pudding through the stocking.
  • Spoon clumps – Clang two metal spoons together. If they clang 5 times then the youth must clump together in groups of 5 persons. If anyone is not in a group of five they are eliminated from play. Continue with different numbers of clangs until there is one small group of winners.
  • Spoon Delivery – Choose a collection of objects of increasing size to be passed from the front of the line to the back of the line for each team. To avoid chipping teeth it might be best to use plastic or wooden spoons. First team to pass all the objects to the end of the line wins. Here are some ideas for objects: Cotton Balls, Ping Pong Balls, an egg (raw or hard boiled), marbles, lemon, apple, inflated balloon, ice cube.
  • Spoon Feeding – Divide into pairs. For each pair, tape a spoon to the end of a broomstick and place a bowl of food on the table. One person stands on one side of the table and attempts to feed his or her partner the food using the spoon. The pair that eats the most food in a minute wins. Chocolate pudding works great for this.
  • Spoon frog – Teams must launch teaspoons into plastic cups, using another spoon as a catapult. When the timer starts, the person must place a spoon in front of the cup with the spoon end facing him/her. Place the second spoon, facing the same way, so that the rounded end of the spoon is resting on the end of the first spoon. Then give the rounded end of the first spoon a good whack to send the second spoom flying. Keep sending spoons into the air and try to get one to land in a the cups. First to get one in, or the person who gets the most in the cup in one minute wins.
  • Spoon fulls – Using spoons in the mouth for each team member, each individual team member will scoop up dried beans or popcorn kernels from a bowl and then drop them into a 1 liter soda bottle. At the end of one minute, the team with the highest filled bottle wins.
  • Spoon Launch – One team member uses a spoon to launch food to the other. The youth that catches the most launched peanuts, M&Ms, or kernels of popcorn in their mouth wins.
  • Spoon Tunes – Place ten tall drinking glasses that are filled with different amounts of water in order so that, when you tap them in a row with a spoon, they play a simple but familiar tune like Mary Had a Little Lamb. There should be one set for each team. Set them up and then scramble them so they have to figure out the order. Get the song right in under a minute to win the game.
  • Spoons – Depending on the number of players, you need at least one deck of cards, and one spoon less than the number of players. Players sit in a circle with the spoons in the middle of the circle with their ends touching. To begin, each player is dealt 4 cards. The first player picks up a card from the top of the pile, and can choose to keep it, or pass it to the person on his or her left. Players can only hold a maximum of four cards. When someone gets four of a kind, he grabs a spoon. Once one person grabs a spoon, everyone else also grabs one until all the spoons are gone and 1 person is left without a spoon. Play resumes with one less player and one less spoon. Play continues until there is only one player left, the winner.
  • Thread the Spoon – Cut some yarn into long segments, allowing about 4 feet of yarn per team member. If in doubt, always make your yarn longer than necessary. Tie one end of one piece of yarn to the end of one metal spoon to create a needle and thread for each team. Put the spoons (with the yarn attached) in the FREEZER to chill for at least an hour. If you want to make it even more fun, feed the string through an ice-cube tray so that when the ice is removed it forms cubes spaced along the string. In teams, the first youth must put the spoon down their shirt, through pants legs (or skirts) and out by their feet and repeat it down the line until everyone on the team is connected. First to finish wins.
  • Wooden Spoons – Blindfolded, a youth must guess someone’s identity by feeling them with wooden spoons. Each person in the youth group in turn is guessed. Of course, any outburst of laughter when the spoons are going over a face would disclose the identity, so participants must keep perfect silence. When anyone’s identity is guessed, he/she has to be blindfolded and must take the spoons. Be careful when using the spoons to touch another person with them quite lightly, so as not to hurt anyone.

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

MAKE IT SPIRITUAL

Some of these games required us to feed others with a spoon. We often use the term spoon fed to refer to babies. It is also used for people who have been given so much by others that they never learn how to think for themselves or take care of themselves. Scripture uses a similar term to describe some Christians. Like a spoon fed baby, they have never grown up in their faith. What is normal for a baby is NOT normal behaviour for an adult.

  • What are some things that babies do, that adults normally do not do?
  • What are some immature, childlike habits and actions that might be ok for children, but are not acceptable for adults?

MAKE IT PRACTICAL

Read Hebrews 5:12-14 and 1 Corinthians 3:1-3.

  • What were some of the characteristics of the Christians referred to in the scriptures?
  • What are some of the signs of Christian immaturity?
  • What is it that spiritual babies need to know and do in order to mature?
  • What are some characteristics of spiritual maturity? What attitudes and actions would you expect to find in a mature Christian?

MAKE IT PERSONAL

  • How would you describe your current level of spiritual maturity? Why?
  • In what ways have you grown as a Christian?
  • What do you need to do to continue to grow and mature as a Christian?

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE VERSES

  • 1 Peter 2:2-3 “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
  • 2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
  • Ephesians 4:11-15 “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
  • 2 Thessalonians 1:3 “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,[a] and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.”
  • Philippians 3:12-14 “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

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