Another example that we used this week to illustrate the point that God only accepts things that He does was based on bananas. The illustration went like this. God talked to two men and asked each one to bring Him a banana. One man, realizing he wasn’t able to manufacture a banana on his own, planted a banana tree and looked to God to cause that tree to produce bananas. After some time, sure enough the banana produced a nice bunch of bananas. He took one to God and indeed God was pleased with the banana because He was the one who made it.
The other man, seeing that God wanted a banana, did his best to give Him what He wanted. He decided that on his own he could manufacture a beautiful plastic banana that God would be impressed with. He got some plastic and formed a fake plastic banana (we used one from the kid’s toy food collection). His banana looked real enough and when compared with the real thing you could hardly tell the difference. But God, upon receiving it, was not pleased. This fake banana was of human manufacture and inedible, it was not acceptable to Him.
We used this to illustrate the principle that God only accepts that which He does! He does want us to produce good works, but He wants to be the one to do them through us. He doesn’t want us doing good works in our own strength on His behalf. That would be like offering Him a fake banana.