Object Lesson on Heart Changes - Dollar Bill
Use this object lesson on heart changes to teach kids how God can move our hearts.
Object Needed: Dollar Bill (note the security thread mentioned is only on bills of $5 or more not on $1 bills)
Bible Verse: 1 Samuel 16:7
Big Idea: Let God change your heart, so that people will see the heart of a true Christ follower.
We've included the text for this object lesson below and we even recorded a video to help give you ideas for how to teach it. Enjoy watching!
Heart Changes Object Lesson Script
Would anybody like one of these? This is a dollar bill, isn't it? Doesn't anyone want a dollar bill? You know I could hand you this dollar bill and let you take it to a store, but if you tried to buy anything with it, it wouldn't work. You know why? Because this is Monopoly money. It's only good for paying bills in a Monopoly game, isn't it?
(Pull out a real dollar bill.)
Now I bet all of you would like to have this dollar, right? This is a real dollar bill, right? How can you tell? It's larger than the Monopoly money. It's a different color. It has printing on both sides. It says United States Treasury written on it, and George Washington's portrait.
You know, as distinct as this dollar bill is, there are people out there who still try to copy it. They can copy the paper, the ink, the colors, and the designs to make counterfeit money. But even if they do all that, you can tell a real dollar bill not by the outside. You see, every dollar bill has security thread inside the fibers of the bill. Did you know that? This little fiber, made of plastic or metal, depending on the size of the bill is actually woven into the dollar bill. It's almost invisible when you look at the dollar, but if you hold it up to the light, you can see that security thread appear as a solid line. So we can say this is a dollar bill not because of the outside, what we can see, but what's inside.
You know the Bible says something similar about us. We can go to church, sing songs to God, put money in the offering plate. But God doesn't just look at these outward signs. He also looks where? At the heart. The Bible says, "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16 :7) In other words, you can't fool God.
I want to challenge you guys not to be counterfeit Christians, but real. Let God change the inner fibers of your heart so when people see you, they don't see just a smiling face, but the heart of a real Christian.