What I Learned From 2 Lego Cars

What I Learned From 2 Lego Cars

During a recent Upper Room Teen Ministry’s Sunday Night Live we built Lego cars! Two teams each had one small Lego car to build with one small twist. The twist was that the instructions were across the hall and only one team member could look at the instructions. She then had to tell her other team members what to build. The one who looked at the instructions could not build the car, that wasn’t their job. The other team members were the only ones who could build. Amazingly it took more than 30 minutes for a group of 7th - 12th grade students to build these cars.
So why did I do this to them? So they would learn 3 important things.
First, I wanted them to learn that instructions are important. If we want to know how to build something right we need to look at the instructions. In life we don’t have an instruction book but we do have the Bible that gives us guidelines as to how the LORD calls us to live. If we want to know how faithful followers of God live, we read their stories in the Bible. If we are called to follow Jesus, we need to know how Jesus lived. We need to read those stories in the Bible. Instructions also need to be interpreted. Sometimes it isn’t really clear what the Lego instructions are showing us. The Bible is similar. We have to take what we read and ask, “How do we live this?” We need to carefully observe our lives, the stories we find in the Bible and merge the two into a life that is pleasing to the LORD.
The next lesson I wanted them to learn was that they are needed as part of the church. No member of the construction team was more important than another. The one who looked at the instructions was just as important as the ones who built. The same is true in the church. The church is the Body of Christ and each part of the body is needed for it to continue the work of the LORD. The church is the Family of God. Each family member is needed to complete the family and for the family to function. For this Family of God or Body of Christ to function properly, we need teachers for Bible classes. We need people to volunteer to lead singing, pray, give a Communion devotional and introduce visitors. We need people to volunteer to set up tables and chairs for fellowship meals and other activities. If the parts of the Body or the members of the Family don’t do their part it won’t function.
The third lesson is closely linked with the second, not only are you needed as part of the Body of Christ or the Family of God but you need to be present when they meet. In our Lego car building if one of the construction team members decides not to participate, the team would have been able to finish the task. If the person who looked at the instructions decided not to do their job, the rest of the team would not know what to do. If the builders decided not to do their job, the instructor would not have anyone to build. If we don’t show up when the Family of God meets then the family is not complete. If parts of the body don’t show up when the Body of Christ meets, then the body is incomplete. The Family, the Body can not be what it is called to be if the parts or members are absent.
Isn’t it amazing what you can learn from a small Lego set.

The Spiritual Implication of Play-Doh (Romans 12.1 & .2)

I really enjoy Play-doh. When you open the little yellow container to that wonderful smell a whole world of opportunity opens up. I dump out the lump and begin to shape it. With my hands, I can make abstract shapes, little people, creatures, plants, vehicles or buildings. These things aren’t going to make themselves. I have to shape them and mold them. I have to take my time to form what I have in my mind to create.

Play-Doh has no choice but to conform to how it is shaped. It can’t ask me to be a square, a car or a little kid. It is going to become what I want to make. It will conform to the shape of a cookie cutter. It will conform to the shape of various tools that come with Play-Doh kits to make spaghetti or tube or stars. It has no choice but to conform to the outside forces placed upon it.

We, on the other hand, are not like play-doh. We have some choices. We can choose to conform to the patterns of the prevailing culture. We can choose to look, act, talk and think like the culture, the world, around us. If we choose to conform ourselves to our culture we will only find sin and death.

But...

We can also choose to cut across that culture and live differently. We can’t do this on our own. We can only be transformed into something new through our faith and obedience in the LORD Jesus Christ. It is our participation in His sacrifice, through baptism, that our relationship with God is restored. It is only then that the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit directs how we live our lives. When we choose to be conformed into the image of Christ we becoming a holy, pleasing and living sacrifice to God the Father each and everyday.

You are not a lump of clay to be shaped and molded by forces outside or your control.
If we choose to be conformed to our culture we will only find sin and death. If we choose to be conformed into the image of Christ we will find grace, love and life. Which choice will you make?

What is love?

check out my latest sermon it is about love! click here to listen