B-10 Patriots and Prophets

Theme: The Holy Spirit

Main point: The Holy Spirit changed ordinary men into the Patriots and Prophets we studied in our lesson this week. He can do the same for you.

Object lesson (view how to do the object lesson here)

Materials:

• Balloon
• Small-mouthed bottle (cleaned glass beverage bottle will work well)
• Small funnel
• Baking soda (2 tablespoons)
• Vinegar (4 ounces)

Directions:

• Using the funnel, add the baking soda to the balloon
• Pour the vinegar into the bottle.
• Carefully fit the balloon over the bottle opening (be careful not to drop the baking soda into the vinegar yet).
• Once the balloon is fitted snugly on the nozzle, hold up the balloon and allow the baking soda to fall into the vinegar.

While the balloon fills up, ask:

1. What made the balloon fill up?
2. Could the balloon fill itself?
3. Hosea mourned as he saw that Israel kept turning away from God. Could rules alone change their hearts?
4. In our object lesson, the reaction happened inside the bottle. Where does the Holy Spirit work first — outside behavior or inside the heart?
5. What happens when we try to obey God without asking Him to change our hearts first?
6. Joel talks about God pouring out His Spirit. Does God only want to give us a little bit of His Holy Spirit?
7. Joel also says God will restore what was lost. How does the Holy Spirit help restore broken things?

Appeal:

• Let's ask Jesus to send us the Holy Spirit today, to be in our class, to change our hearts, and to restore anything that is broken in our lives.