Messages that use the Basic 3 ball pattern

I hope that you can learn to use juggling to honor God! Maybe you can use some of these ideas to get started. If you do, and you continue to seek new ways to honor God, I'm sure God will bless you and that you will have plenty of unique ideas of your own on how to use juggling to serve God.

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1. God's perfection and man's imperfection:

I stand before you today an imperfect man. And since I'm going to juggle these three balls, and I'm not perfect, something could happen. Can you tell me what that is? (let the audience answer) That's right, I might drop. But if I do, I want you to say "Praise God!" as loud as you can...if you want to praise God today. Because even though none of us are perfect, He is! And we should praise Him because He is perfect! Here goes...(start juggling and do however much juggling you want...but make sure you drop several times!) You see, the Bible says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23) We all mess up in life...we all do things that we aren't supposed to do. We fall short of the glory of God...but the glory of God is that He is perfect! He is the GREATEST! And we should honor and praise Him for who He is!

2. Comparing Jugglers and Christians:

Did you know that jugglers and Christians are a lot alike? You see, a lot of people learn how to do this with 2 balls. (juggle two balls in two hands--if you know how to do two in one hand...don't do it here in this illustration, because 2 in 1 hand really is juggling, but juggling two in two hands is not.) And they're satisfied and say, "at least I learned how to juggle." But did you know that by definition, juggling is only juggling when you have more objects than the number of hands you are using? That's right. 2 in 2 hands is not juggling. But just like that, a lot of people are satisfied with just going to church and believing in God. The Bible says in James 2:19, "So you believe there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder." You see it's not about going to church and believing with your mind. The Bible says that the important thing is our relationship to God, through Jesus. "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you shall be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth you confess and are saved." Don't settle for anything less than truly being a child of God! Turning from your sin, believing with your heart and knowing Him as Lord!

3. Following His Instructions:

You know, there are a lot of books out there that teach juggling. (you might want to have a few--or make a large pretend book entitled "How To JUGGLE".) I think I'll try to learn today. (put the books aside and try--but drop everything each time). I wonder what my problem is. I thought juggling would be easy. What do you think I should do? (hopefully someone will yell out "read the book".) Ooh, that's a good idea. (now read through the book and make some motions with your hands while reading.) I get it! (pick up the balls and start getting it and then start juggling.) You know, I actually already knew how to juggle, but I wanted to point something out to you. We have the instruction book on how to be a Christian--it's the Bible. We need to read it and learn it in order to live the way God wants and to follow His instructions! The Bible says, "How can a young man remain pure? I have hidden your word on my heart that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:9,11

4. Using our talents for God:

How many of you have something that you're good at or that you really like to do? What are those talents? (ask several of the people who have their hands up.) Did you know that God gives each of us our talents? A talent that He has given me is the talent of juggling! Check this out (juggle). Now that wasn't a talent that any of you mentioned. But each one of the talents you mentioned can be used to honor God just like I can use juggling to honor God. The Bible says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31

5. Persistence in Prayer:

Have you ever read the story about the persistent widow that Jesus told? Luke 18:1 says "Jesus told them a parable to show them that they should always pray and never give up." Jesus told that parable about the woman and the unjust judge to teach them about prayer. A lot of times as Christians we don't take prayer seriously. Someone asks us to pray for something (take one ball in your hand and look at it) we say we will and MAYBE we give it a gentle lift up to heaven (throw it up and let it plop on the ground.) Or maybe we might take some of the requests we get a little seriously (take three and throw them up a few times and let them plop on the ground.) But that's not the kind of prayer life Jesus wants us to have. He wants us to continually lift requests to his throne. Just like it takes a little persistence to juggle, prayer is meant to be a persistent and constant lifting up of everything before God.