Archive for the ‘Ice Age – Christ’s 3 Year Ministry’ Category

This weekend was a big one for the Ice Age series. We started off on Friday night by taking the youth group to Pineville’s Ice House to go ice skating and play a little broom ball. It was a great time and everyone really enjoyed themselves. We had a short devo on pr”ice” and the value of our relationship with Christ. We talked about His annointing in bethany and the woman that used the very expensive perfume on His feet. Was a great trip except our camera bag went missing from Steak n Shake.

The lesson tonight circled around Matthew 25:14-30 which is the parable of the talents. Tonight’s word for the ice age was serv”ice”. Throughout Christ’s ministry here on earth, we see Him focus on serving others. We even know that the scripture says that he came, not to be served, but to serve. We took a look at what it means to serve, and why deeds must go along with our faith. We also took a look at 1 Cor. 3:12-15 and James 2:20-25 to see the ever lasting effect that our service now has on our eternity with Him.

One of the biggest questions I asked the youth tonight was “What good is a fruit tree if it bears no fruit?” I wanted them to really get to thinking is just believing enough? Is being “Saved” enough? What does Jesus expect of us while we are here, and what does that mean for our eternal responsibilities. We examined the idea of “serve-us” versus “service”. Many people come to church and want a good sermon, to sing the songs they really like, to chat with their friends, and have a “complete” service, but that means that they are following the “serve-us” mentality. We are comissioned to go and make disciples. We can’t do that in our own back yard if we don’t start becoming part of the body and serving right where we are first.

We ended up with a challenge to really look for a place to serve within the church and do not settle for once in a blue moon helping clean up. I charged them with coming up with their own ministry, or area to serve if they cannot find a current one.

Next week – Sacrif”ice”
Gary

We are starting our new series this week on the Ice Age that was Christ’s Ministry. Now understand that by Ice Age, I’m actually playing off of the word ICE. Each week of this series, we will look at one word that was a key partof Christ’s ministry here on earth, and each word ends in the Word ICE.

This week, we took a look at the very start of jesus’s ministry, right after His baptism, when the Holy Spirit came and filled Him. The word this week is Cho”ice”. You see, right after this, He was led into the desert by the Spirit and was tempted by the Devil.

We find from this encounter that Jesus has three big choices to make. The first comes from Luke 4:3 where the devil tells Jesus to turn a rock into bread. Jesus’s choice is to not rely on himself only. Jesus says that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from God. This points us right back to the manna delivered to the Israelites in the desert in Deutoronomy.

The next two choices for the next two temptations are to choose not to take the easy way out, and choose not to believe only when we see. The Devil has a way of preverting the truth, to tempt us to look outside of Gods live and provision.

It all starts with a choice, just as Jesus’s ministry did. This week we encouraged all the teens to examine their choices and start their own ICE AGE!

Gary
Family Pastor