Sink or Float | Time to Go on a Spiritual Diet

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What you need:

• Something clear and full of enough water to completely submerge two cans of soda.  A large vase or small aquarium would work nicely.
• One diet soda of any kind (make sure it floats)
• One regular soda of any kind (make sure it sinks)

About the Lesson:

This lesson teaches about either how we need to go on a spiritual diet so we are ready when the rapture comes OR how we need to repent and get the sin out of our lives so we can rise above the things of this world.

Lesson:

START OUT WITH THE AQUARIUM ON THE TABLE FULL OF WATER

Now I don’t know about you but occasionally I feel really yucky because I have eaten too many things I KNOW I shouldn’t have. Things like nachos, Slim Jims, Wheat Thins, CHEEZ-ITS! OH YEAH! CHEEZ-ITS ARE JUST AMAZING! Doughnuts, Twinkies, pie, Cheez-its! YEAH FOR CHEEZ ITS! But I am getting off topic.

Anyway, sometimes I KNOW I shouldn’t eat something but I do it anyway because it just tastes so stinkin’ good but what is that doing to me? It is making me unhealthy, could make me sick if I did it enough and could cause me to get really big.

But it is SO tempting. Who here has ever gone on a fast? Well, if you have you know that when you fast even one meal you get weird. Suddenly everything looks good, even things you don’t like! I don’t like tomatoes but when I’m fasting, I would hurt somebody for a tomato. AND it seems like that stinkin’ devil does everything he can to make it tough on people that fast.  It seems like ONLY on your fast day that someone offers you something REALLY good… like CHEEZ-ITS!. When you aren’t fasting people seem so stingy with the good stuff.

Well, did you know our Spiritual lives aren’t that much different from our physical ones? Really! The same way that eating the wrong things can make us… you know… heavy… in our bodies, our spiritual bodies can get the same way.

If we do things that aren’t good for our spiritual bodies all the time, we can get SPIRITUALLY overweight and out of shape. And I am not JUST talking about sin, but I am also talking about those things that while they aren’t sin may not be the best for us spiritually… like ALWAYS playing video games instead of praying which is kind of like eating tootsie rolls instead of celery… OR reading comic books all the time instead of reading your bible… watching goofy stuff on your phone… whatever. If you do stuff like THAT long enough you get spiritually heavy, spiritually gross and out of shape.

You see, one day there is going to come the rapture of the church when Jesus comes back for His people and only those that are READY will go with Him to heaven. I WANT TO BE ONE OF THE NUMBER THAT GOES WITH HIM! But what if we are so heavy with the yucky things of this life that we just aren’t in the shape He needs us to be in?

This is what can happen…

PUT THE REGULAR SODA CAN IN THE AQUARIUM AND WATCH IT SINK

Yes, instead of rising to meet Him in the air, we are so full of the things of this life that we won’t be ready to rise to meet Him in the air.

SOMETIMES we just need to go on a spiritual DIET!

We need to get rid of the things that keep us from concentrating on God. Just like our bodies need to eat the RIGHT things, salads, fish, fruit, chicken and vegetables, our Spirits to concentrate on those things that are important… prayer, going to church, reading our bibles, being kind to others, being a witness to those around us.

When we do that consistently, we WILL be in shape so when Jesus comes back we are ready to go with Him. Just like this!

PUT IN THE DIET SODA AND WATCH IT RISE

See what it says on the can here? DIET! It is slimmed down spiritually and ready to go.

1 Thes 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

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For a similar but slightly different take on this you can also teach this lesson about SIN specifically. You can put the regular soda and the diet soda in together right off the bat and show that one sinks and one floats. What is the difference? The only difference is that one has something the other does not.

Does anyone know what that is?

SUGAR! And lots of it. You can pull out a baggy showing how much sugar is in a regular soda and explain that this represents sin. When it is in your life you will sink… you won’t float above the things of this world and you certainly won’t rise to meet Jesus in the air when He comes back.

The diet soda has no sugar/sin and therefore is ready to go.