Object Lesson on the Kingdom of God - Gumball Machine
Use this object lesson on the Kingdom of God to teach kids how to enter it.
Object Needed:Â Gumball Machine
Big Idea: Remember what God gave up for you, so you can enter his Kingdom.
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. Â Enjoy watching!
Kingdom of God Object Lesson Script
How many of you guys like to hit the gumball machines when you see them? It’s always so tempting when you see those brightly colored gumballs stacked in the glass ball. That’s why they put them in glass, you know—so you can see all those pretty colors calling to you!
I want you to imagine for a moment that at the top of this stack of gumballs, right in the center, is the shiniest, prettiest, best-tasting gumball in the entire world. This gumball is so amazing, it won’t lose its flavor, and it won’t make your jaw tired. If you put a quarter in the gumball machine, what are the odds you would get that gumball on the first try?
What if you put two coins in? Three? Four? Since the gumball’s way on top, it’s going to take a lot of coins to even get close to the magic gumball. You could very well end up purchasing every other gumball in the machine before you get to it. If the gumballs cost 25 cents apiece, it could cost you a lot of money!
In the Bible, Jesus tells a story a lot like this illustration. There was a man who saw a pearl of priceless value. When he saw it, he had to have it. He went and sold everything he had just so he could have that one pearl.
Can you imagine selling everything you have for a gumball? You wouldn’t have a bed, toys, food, a house, or even clothes to wear. But you’d have a gumball that would never lose flavor or make your jaw tired.
Jesus didn’t compare the pearl to a gumball. He compared it to the Kingdom of God. Jesus was saying that having the Kingdom of God—a place where we will live with him forever—is worth more than all our possessions combined. We could be homeless, penniless, and have nothing at all to our names. If we have the Kingdom of God, we have a greater treasure than all the world’s treasures combined.
The good news is that we don’t have to sell everything to get the Kingdom of God. Jesus paid the price on the cross so that all of us could come to him and gain entrance to his kingdom. But one thing still remains: We have to accept that invitation. Have you accepted the invitation to God’s kingdom?