What am I here for? Week 3 Connect

This is week 3 of our series "What am I here for?"   This week we will be dealing with the purpose of Fellowship or Connecting.  Take a minute to read Acts 2:42-47.  To me this shows a great picture of what Connecting is and could be.  The key word for this week is devotion.  We are going to talk about being devoted to each other and how that looks in today's setting.  The truth of the matter is unless we are devoted to each other then true connection will never happen and we will be missing one of the main reasons God has put us here for.  For this week we have three points.

Connecting with others;

1.  Allows me to belong

By connecting I will belong to people who have a common interest in mind.

2.  Requires me to be devoted

I need to be devoted to the group in order to truly connect to them

3.  Will bring Glory to God while impacting lives

When a group is connected to each other in Christlike unity it glorifies God.

Small Group Questions

You need your Bibles!

1.  Read Hebrews 10:23-25

The passage says we ought to spur one another on.  Who have you given up on and need to start spurring again?  How might you spur on a person in your small group, youth group, church, or the one you are focused on?

2.  Read Ephesians 4:25-32

These verses contain several do's, don'ts, and a "get rid of."  Identify them on a sheet of paper.  When you're in conflict, why is it easier to talk to everyone but the person you have the conflict with?  Why can it be so difficult to tell the other person the truth?  How can conflict hurt the connection you have with others?

3.  Name some of the benefits in taking connecting seriously?  As a small group, youth group, and church, what are we going to do to make connecting to our group easier?

Week 2 "What am I here for?"

Focusing on God

We are in our second week of "What am I here for?" and this week we will be looking more at what it means to worship God.  I was thinking and reading this week about what it truly means to live a life of worship and here is what I am discovering.  We are told to Love God this is the greatest commandment.  If we Love God we are worshiping Him so what does it take to truly love God?  Think for a moment about the person you love or the things you love what do you do all day about the things you love?  You focus on them.  I think about my wife I love her and I tend to spend a great deal of time focused in on her.  I love ministry so I tend to focus a great deal of time on ministry.  I love the relationships in my life so I tend to focus in on those relationships.  When I focus on these things they become the priority in my life, they matter to me and they deserve the time that I give them.  So what does it mean to Love God?  I need to focus on the creator because He is worthy of that focus.  When I focus on Him and who He is then I am willing to surrender my life to Him on a daily basis.  For this week we are going to ask and answer three questions.

Am I focused on God?

Colossians 3:1-3

Is God worthy of all my focus?

Isaiah 40:28-31

Have I surrendered my past, present, and future to God?

Philippians 3:4-11

Small Group Questions

Read Hebrews 11:1-3, 6-16

Look back at verses 1 and 6.  What are the core components of faith as described in these verses?  What are the things you hope for as a Christ follower and do not see yet?

If worshipping God is putting our focus on Him, is having faith in Him with our past present and future an act of worship as well?  Why do you think it is impossible to please God without Faith?  Does this statement seem harsh or unfair?

Read Psalm 145

Pick out all the reasons why the Psalmist praises God.  Now go through verse 14-20, look for specific things God does, which of these things seem most important to you or for you?

When you consider the condition of your life, do you think God is ashamed to be identified with you?  Why do you think that?  What would it take for you to surrender your past present and future to God as a life of worship?

Please Bring your Bible with you to small group! 

What am I here for?

This week starts our new series that will run till the end of May.  Just a reminder that we will not be meeting on Mother's Day!  We are going to go through the "Five Purposes" with the first week covering the age old question, "What am I here for?"  

Here are my points:

Matthew 22:34-40

Matthew 28:16-20

*You are here to LOVE GOD - surrender/worship

Matthew 22:37-38

*You are here to SERVE OTHER PEOPLE - serve/ministry

Matthew 22:39

*You are here to GO SHARE WITH OTHERS - share/evangelism

Matthew 28:18-19a

*You are here to CONNECT WITH OTHERS - connect/fellowship

Matthew 28:19b

*You are here to GROW WITH OTHERS - grow/discipleship

We shot a video to show before hand so it should be somewhat funny.  If you have any ideas on a clip let me know.  Small group will be just prayer time and reconnect time since we haven't meet in two weeks.

Schedule

6:10 - 6:25 songs

6:25 - 6:40 game

6:40 - 7:05 message

7:05 - 7:25 small group

See you Sunday!

Get Up Week 2!

This week we are trying something totally different.  I preached the message from my house actually I preached it from my bed.  So the whole message will be on video.  It could flop but we wanted something different.  The message comes from Luke 8:40-42; 49-56.  The story takes place before and after Jesus heals the woman who was bleeding for years.  Jairus a synagogue ruler came and wanted Jesus to heal his dying daughter.  By the time Jesus heals the woman and continues to make his way to Jairus' house the daughter is supposedly dead.  The interesting thing is Jesus tells Jairus to believe and his daughter will be healed.  When Jesus arrives at the house He informs everyone that the girl is sleeping and proceeds to tell the daughter to "Get Up."  So here is what we are pulling from the story.

1.  Who in our lives could we say is spiritually dying or sleeping?

vs. 40-42

2.  Never Give up on anyone even yourself!

vs. 49

3.  Believe Jesus is willing and able!

vs. 50-53

4.  Listen, He is Telling you to GET UP!

vs. 54-56

Small Group Questions

1.  What ways have you fallen asleep spiritually or seen others fall asleep spiritually? What are some events that lead you to fall asleep?  

2.  Who have you given up on that may be spiritually sleeping?  (could include yourself)  And why have you given up?

3.  What keeps you from believing that God is able to do what He says He can do?

4.  What are some of the things that God has done or allowed to happen in your life to get you up from your spiritual nap?  ( by using people, events, circumstances)

"Get Up"

The other day I was reading from Luke and I came across the passage where Jesus went to the Mount of Olives to pray before He was taken away to be crucified.  As I was reading the part where Jesus had to go back to the disciples and tell them to Get Up and pray so that they don't fall into temptation stood out for some reason.  You see the night before I read this was Youth Group and I was standing in the back listening to our Student Band play and I noticed that the students looked blah and asleep.  I know that in all ministries they have seasons like this but I don't think it would be right of me to let this go by.  It's like the disciples who were with Jesus at the Mount of Olives, when they should have been praying they were sleeping.  How many times do we fall asleep spiritually in life.  We let everything else in life suck the energy out of us and we fall asleep.  Well in the passage Jesus looks at His disciples and tell them to "Get Up!"  Sometimes I think God is telling us to "GET UP!" because we are asleep.  

For the next couple of weeks we are going to be in a series called, "GET UP!"  I want us to GET UP for God and stop being tired when we worship Him,  I want us to GET UP for God when we are talking to our Friends, I want us to GET UP for God when we are letting life cripple us and keep us from His purpose for our lives.  Do you hear it, listen closely, THAT'S GOD TELLING US TO GET UP!  What must we do to crawl out of our spiritual bed we have grown so comfortable with in order to Get Up for God?

Week 1

John 5:1-15

My senior year of high school was one of the years in my life where I feel asleep.  I laid down in my walk with God and became ineffective for God.  I let all the stuff in life keep me from being who God wanted me to be.  I used any excuse I could to get out of church and for the most part it worked.  This is probably the reason I ended up where I did the next four years after H.S. the interesting thing is that while I laid there spiritually I let all of life's junk weigh me down, I was like the invalid who lay in his own stuff not getting any better.  One day God asked me if I wanted to get better and I said yes.  He told me to GET UP and start living for Him and that is what I have been trying to do ever since that day.  The interesting thing is every now and then I start to take a nap and I hear that voice telling me to GET UP sometimes it's loud sometimes it's soft depending on how long I have been napping.

How long do you plan on laying in your junk?

vs. 1-5

Is there even a desire to GET UP?

vs. 6-7

Now is the time to GET UP!

vs. 8-9

When we Get Up we will: be obedient - walk with God

My Warning!

Don't get caught up in the distractions but continue to be obedient!

vs. 10-11

Small Group Questions

What excuses, stuff, events are you laying in that is keeping you from getting up for God?

What do you desire in life?  Do you even have a desire to Get Up for Christ or are you comfortable napping right now?  Explain 

What are you struggling with?  Obedience and/or Your Walk

What distractions are keeping you from Getting Up?  What can we do as small group leaders to help you?

Tipping the Scales

Have you ever noticed in life what we want tends to weigh us down and we lose the joy that God has for our lives?  As I read from John this week I noticed something more about the passage that contains "He must become greater, I must become less."  The scripture before this well known verse talks about John experiencing great joy because of the bridegroom that is coming to take his bride.  The thought I had is how much joy I lose because what I want and what I desire in life weighs me down which causes God to be less in my life.

This week we are going to look at this passage in John 3:22-30.  We are going to look at how we put so much on our plates that we fail to experience the joy that comes with allowing God to have more of us and us to have less.  I asked myself two questions to get started.  Where must God become greater in my life? (Schedule, Relationships (family, friends), Future, What I watch, conduct, attitude, priorities, listen to, Prayer Life (selfish prayers or God centered prayers).  The other question is what will it take to allow God to have more weight in my life so that the joy I should be having in life will be real?  (Where does my focus need to be?  What do I need to be consumed with?  What needs to be removed?)

These are some of the things we will be talking about tomorrow night.  This will just be one stand-alone message before the retreat.

Small Group questions

What are the things that weigh us down?

Why do we feel that these things are important?

What areas of your life do you need to allow God to carry more weight?

How do you allow God to be more and you to be less?  What does that look like to you?  How can you make that real today?  What is keeping you from making that happen?

Programming:

Game 6:10

Song 6:20

Message 6:45

Small Group 7:10

Pain Killers III

We are in our third and final week of our "Pain Killers" series.  I am grateful that we have such an awesome team who is willing to share about their own pains in the corporate setting along with in the group setting.  Thanks for your willingness to share your own pains with the students you get to sit with on Sunday Nights.

For our last week I want to talk from some personal pains that I know each student has dealt with in their lives.  The pain of rejection.  Each of us has been rejected in some way by a loved one, a friend, a coach, or someone they admire.  It may not have been intentional or may have been but I believe we all have felt rejected as some point in our lives.

When I was in the ninth grade I tried out for the school baseball team.  Most of my life up to this point I had always excelled at baseball.  It was the one sport that my dad spent a lot of time with me through the years throwing, hitting, all that father son stuff.  I had made ever all star team from Farm League all the way up to Babe Ruth so I thought I had a good chance of making the team.  I know some people like to exaggerate their playing abilities but I am being honest here.  I had made it through to the last cut and as the coach read off the list of players that made the team I never heard my name.  I was defeated, depressed, angry, you name it.  The one thing I kept telling myself was I wasn't good enough to even play the sport any more.  I noticed that that rejection changed me.  It brought about pain that paralyzed me in so many ways.  I had spent so much time practicing, not to mention all the 5 am conditioning deals I went to leading up to tryouts.  Simply put I was defeated.  The next year when baseball season came around my dad encouraged me to go out and I agreed.  He drove me to all the 5 am conditioning practices up to tryouts (6 weeks 4 days a week).  When tryouts started I got scared and decided I didn't want to get cut again.  The reality is I didn't want to be rejected again.  Rejection is embarrassing and can cause pain.  This week we are going to talk about this pain and what the response should be to this pain.  My response was unhealthy and cause regret down the road.

The Message will be from Mark 5:24-34 "Jesus heals the sick woman"

Here we have this woman who was bleeding for years.  She tried everything and spent everything to get well but only got worse.  By the way if a woman was bleeding in this day they were considered unclean, untouchable because anyone who touched them would be considered unclean.  Can you imagine living this long being considered unclean, untouchable?  The rejection that this woman felt must have been just as painful as her physical ailment.  She was healed by simply believing that all she had to do was touch the hem of Jesus' garment, not Him personally but His garment.  It was her faith that healed her.  How many times do we do our own thing looking for the pain to be removed when all we need to do is put that faith in Christ?

Points

1.  vs 26  The pain of rejection will causes more pain then we realize.

2.  vs 27-28  Jesus won't reject you.

3.  vs 29-30 Jesus is the Pain Killer we need.

4.  vs 31-34  How do we respond when Jesus is our Pain Killer?

Small Group Questions

1.   Share with the group how you have been rejected in the past or even now.

2.  How do you tend to deal with rejection in your life?  What are some pain killers you use to kill the pain?

3.  If you know that Jesus loves you, and you know that we must experience pain during life,  do you have faith or believe that Jesus is capable and willing to kill the pain we experience?  Have you ever allowed or believed enough that Jesus is willing to be your Pain Killer?

4.  What road blocks do you have that keep you from relying on the ultimate Pain Killer?  How can we start to remove those blocks as a group?

If you read these and know of a better way to put it let me know.  

Pain Killers

We are starting a new series this week called "Pain Killers."  The series came about when one of the small group leaders noticed the pain that students face each day, week, month, and year.  The interesting thing about this series is that we all experience pain in one form or another.  Whether it be emotional pain, physical pain, spiritual pain, or mental pain.  Pain can come as a result of ourselves, others, or life.  So as we kick this series off we are going to hear from a couple of different leaders about the pain they have gone through in life and how they have dealt with it.  For this series we took a trip down memory lane to the middle and high schools that I graduated from.  I looked back at the pain I had growing up and how I dealt with it.  I had to ask myself what did I use as a pain killer and why?  What should I have done differently?  Why do I constantly over look the ultimate pain killer Jesus?  And where do I go from here now that I know what to do about the pain I experience in life.

The scripture I want us to look at for this series is found in; 

Luke 4:18-19

"The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

This is why Jesus came not only to save us from our sins but to allow us to see again, to release us from all the pains and stuff in life that keep us down, to give us good news of what He wants to do in our lives.  It's funny so many times we run from the pain, ignore it, even excuse it, or deal with it in unhealthy manners when the reality is we have a Savior that is willing and able to be our ultimate "Pain Killer" if we would simply turn to Him and ask and have faith.  What pain are you dealing with or have dealt with that you continue to search for that ultimate pain killer?  Let's do this, instead of searching let's just trust, trust the ultimate pain killer to use the pain for His glory and for His purpose.  Jesus performed a lot of miracle while He walked the earth, He continues to perform them today.  Why do we continue to doubt His abilities?  Wait on Him, trust Him, expect that miracle in the midst of your own pain and you'll see the ultimate "Pain Killer" kill your pain in a way that only He can kill the pain.

Energize Week 3 "A New Day"

A New Day

Have you ever woke up one day just excited for what may come.  Ready for the challenges and the adventure that the day may bring.  It is interesting how each day with God can bring something new to our lives.  This week we are going to focus on "A New Day" and how that energizes us when we have God in the center of that new day.  As I finished reading 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 I couldn't help but think of how God has made me new, from the time I accepted Him as my savior to each day I wake up and live for Him.  When I put Him in the center of my life He brings me a New Day to get energized about.  I get energized when I think and meditate on His word and when I spend time on my knees praying to the awesome God we have.  So as we wrap up this series "Energize"  I want us to focus on this idea of "A New Day."

Here are some ways we can look at each day as "A New Day."

-Change the way we see!

vs 16 - "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  Though we once regarded  Christ in this way, we do so no longer."

Maybe we need to begin how we look at the people around us and for that matter Jesus.  When we look at people we know or for that matter we don't know.  Do we look at them as just another person on the Earth or do we see them the way God sees them?  Maybe if we change the way we see we start to see people for who God has made them.  Precious, worth dying for, worth His faithfulness, worth His forgiveness, worth His time, His child.  And if they are all these things shouldn't we take the time to love them, to talk to them, to show them who our savior is.  We need to have His eyes so we can see His children the way He wants us to.

In your own life look at how you treat others, your parents, teachers, friends, acquaintances, people you know a little or not at all.  How do you treat them?  Give examples on how you see the people around you?

-Embrace the New!

vs 17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

As God's children we need to realize that we are new, we have been created for something new, we need to embrace this new thing and allow God to do a work in our lives.  If we hold onto the old then we don't allow this new thing to transform and energize our lives.

Do you consider each day a new day?  What about your life with Christ is it a new Day or are you holding on to the old?

-Make things Right!

vs 18-19 "All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.  And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation."

Have you ever noticed that when we have conflict in our lives some of us, mainly  I am speaking of me here, allow that conflict to fester and even suck the energy right out of me.  It becomes something that takes or drains my energy and eventually makes me ineffective.  When we think of making things right we need to know that we need to make things right between God and ourselves, and then ourselves and others.  God called us to reconcile or make it right with Him and with others.  When we reconcile we get energized and it is awesome what God will do when things are right with Him and others.

Who in your life do you need to be reconciled to tonight?  God? Family? Friends?

-Accept Our Purpose!

vs 20-21 "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

When we make things right with God we are His ambassadors.  We are made for a purpose and when we accept what that purpose is our lives start to change.  It's amazing that He wants us to be His ambassadors.  That is our purpose to live for Him and Him alone.  In order to live for Him He must be the center of our lives, the One that Energizes us so that we can carry out His purpose for our lives.

What do you think your ultimate purpose is for your life?  Are you fulfilling that purpose?  Are you confused what that looks like?  Describe what goes through your head when we talk about our purpose for life?  What can we do this week to put God and His Purposes at the center of your life?

Energize Week 2

Energize My Life

2 Corinthians 5:11-15

Last week we talked about the things we put in the center of our lives.  These are the things that we think makes us who we are or gives us a purpose for life as we know it.  These things may not be bad things, they could very well be good things but the problem is they take the place of God in my life.  When I replace God as the center I get tired and loose focus in life.  So in order to Energize my life I must allow God to be the center of my life.  Just like the Earth revolves around the Sun and it gets energy and light from the Sun I must revolve my life around the Son so that I am Energized for what each day has to offer.  I need to be energized so that I can be who God made me to be and accomplish the things that I was made to accomplish.  I often get tired and weary because I allow the stuff in life to push God out of the center, when this happens I feel like giving up or quitting.  I need to remember and constantly keep God as my center the One I revolve my life around so that He can "Energize My Life."

vs 11-12

Be who God made me to be!

vs 13

Be consumed by God!

vs 14

Be willing to act!

vs 15

Be willing to change!

May I be consumed by God so that I am willing to act on and change the things that I revolve my life around and let God Energize My Life so that I can be who God made me to be!

Energize Week 1

Here are my thoughts for week two of our Energize series.

Recap

When we make everything else in life the center of our lives we will no longer be Energized.  We must make God the center of our lives and when He is kept there we will continue to be Energized for Him and for all that life has to offer.  It is when we try to put all the meaningless things we do as the center is when we become drained and tired in life because we have lost sight of the purpose God has created us for.  Put God as our Energizer (center) and the way we look at life and the things we do will start to change from self pleasing to God Pleasing.

Week 1:  Three questions were asked.

Scripture was 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

What keeps me from being Energized?

Our Desire for Something that is meaningless

What will Energize me?

Our Desire for God's Purpose

Our Desire for More of God

How do I stay Energized?

Striving to Please God 

Energize

So lately it seems that I have been reading articles, in a conversation, or just thinking about getting back to making Christ the center of my life.  I have heard the term "Centrality of Christ" used in a conversation with my Brother in-law and the need to get back to Christ being the reason behind and in everything we do.  

The other day during my quiet time I started to read Ecclesiastes.  As I continued reading hoping that it would get better it kept going back to the point of everything being "meaningless."  The more I read the more depressed I got till I got the big picture of this book in the Bible.  I then continued to read simply to see if there was a point to why the author was depressed and found no purpose for all he had accomplished.   The author continued to do all these different things to please himself and found nothing out of it.  How often do I do the same thing with my life yet find it to be meaningless?  This book in the Bible helped me see the importance of what I found in the final chapter 12:13-14 "The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.  For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil."  This spoke volumes to me.  I need to live for Him not me.  My life should be centered on His purpose not my own because I am not here for me but for Him and His purpose.

We are starting a series called "Energizer" this Sunday night for the Student Ministry and I am so excited about it.  In 2008 I made a personal goal to take the Student Ministry to the next level and in some ways it happened in others it didn't.  My goal for 2009 is simple make Christ the center of everything.  The church I serve at is a purpose driven church which covers the Five Biblical purposes that a church should strive to achieve within the church.  Worship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Ministry, Fellowship make up the five purposes of our lives as well as our church.  The interesting thing is while programing and planning out all the things we do I have lost sight of the important part which is Christ being the center of my life, my marriage, my ministry, my relationships.  I need to return to putting Christ at the center not everything else that I have done here lately.  

This may sound weird but when I first got into ministry Christ was the center.  I focused in on my quiet times and spending time in worship.  By doing this I was energized, I had more energy then ever before because Christ was the center.  I need to get back to that in my life so that it pours out into the rest of my endeavors.   I can honestly say that I thought at the beginning of my ministry career that I would never loose sight of this simple concept but I have.  I have lost sight of having Him as my center and for 2009 better yet for my life my goal is to make Him my center.  I want to preach more Christ then ever before, I want to go back to the basics of a relationship with Him and let all else come after that.  That is my goal to let Christ be the "Energizer" in my life not all the other stuff I have attempted to bring me energy.  My prayer for this series is that God will become the "Energizer" of my students, my student ministry, my marriage, and most important my life.