Items needed
- a $5 bill
- a co-conspirator
Dr Adrian Rogers gave a Focus on the Family devotional and this story is from that devotional:
A minister was giving a sermon that was several hours long. There was a small break for the audience to get up and walk around at bit. The minister knew many of the people in the audience and he went down to talk to some of the people at the front. He was talking to a man whose wife had left the room for a few minutes. The minister asked the husband if that was his wife's bible, and asked if he could look at it. The minister took the bible and put a $5 bill inside then told the husband that in a few minutes he would be asking for a volunteer and he would call on the wife. The husband was to make sure the wife brought up her bible, but not to tell her that she was going to be chosen.
So the sermon got started again and after a few minutes the minister asked for a volunteer from the audience and then pointed out the wife and asked her to come forward. The husband told her to bring her bible because she might need it. The minister then says, "Do you believe I am a man of God?" "Yes" "Do you know me as a friend and trust me?" "Yes" "Do you think that I would lie to you?" "No, of course not" "If I gave you a very simple task, that you could accomplish right up here with me, would you do it?" "sure" "OK. Give me $5 [right now]"
The wife looks at him strangely and gives a questioning gesture. "Just let me go get my purse." "But I said you could do this simple task right up here. Don't you trust me? Would I lie to you?" "But I don't have $5" This conversation goes on for a few more lines and then the minister asks the wife to give him the bible. He opens it and shows her the $5 bill. She says, "How did that get in there?" "I put it there."
Adapt the example to your class, or tell it in your own words, then you can go on to sight some scriptures that show us that God will never give us a task that he has not already given us the talents and ability to accomplish. We may not see them at first, but he has put them there and we must ask for his help and strength in doing his will.
Jenny says: I think you could set this object lesson up by watching for a student to leave the class to go to the bathroom and place the $5 in her scriptures or purse, contact a student's parents to get them to help you, or pass out hymn books or scriptures to those who need them with the $5 already in them (just make sure you don't need the scriptures or hymnal BEFORE you give the lesson! ) God qualifies the called.
See also 1 Nephi 3:7
Source: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Flats/4746/lessons.html, additions by Jenny Smith
