Archive for May, 2009

Even though we are right in the middle of our Indiana Jones series, I took a little sideline this week. Even though this topic isn’t officially a spiritual discipline, it was pretty interesting to talk to the youth about it. This week we talked about spiritual hunger.

Just as our phsyical bodies hunger, so does our spiritual bodies. When I asked the youth how they know they are hungry, they said that their stomachs growl. When I asked them about how they know when they are spiritually hungry I heard some incredible insight. One of the youth said that she feels like there is this emptiness within her that needs filling.

We talked about ways that you can answer your hunger. You can go to a fast food restaurant, which we all agreed was quick, but usually not very healthy. We can nuke leftovers in a microwave, and that may give us some nutritian, but is probably not sustaining, and certainly not as good tasting. Lastly, we can have a home cooked meal. I asked the students to think of their favorite home cooked meal, and as I watched their faces, I see their eyes close, and smiles cross their faces. They started to describle what sounded like some incredible meals!

We looked at the way we feed our spiritual bodies and it’s much the same way. We can use these fast food quick fixes to fill our void with many different things like ipods, games systems, boy friends, girl friends, whatever we thing we can quickly stuff in there, but they have no lasting value. We also microwave things to put in there. That would be like going to church every once in a while, or reading your bible. Just like a microwaved meal, that’s like reheating something that at one time tasted great, but loses the real value over time. Now, a home cooked meal for the soul is excatly like what you imagine. You can smell it cooking throughout the house, you can eat until you’re stuffed because there’s always some left. It’s the kind of meal you crave over and over. That’s what a good relationship with Christ is like, a home cooked meal.

Christ says in John 4 that anyone that drinks the water he provides will never thirst and in John 6 He says that He IS the bread of life, that with His bread, no one would ever hunger again. This reminds me of Ezekiel 3:1-3 where God instructs him to eat the scroll and digest it, and then tell all of Israel, and when he ate the scroll, it tasted like honey in his mount. We need to digest the Word of God and share it!

Of course, we had to end the lesson with ice cream calling it the “Make your own Sundae, Sunday!”
I had a great time tonight!
Gary

16 Teenagers set out on a search for 50 items on Sunday, May 17th.  Their goal was to take digital pictures with as many of the items as possible and return by 6pm.  I have to say that it was an incredible blast to see the teens working together with their adult captains to capture the moments on film.  Below is the winning team that had the most photos.  The “GREEN” team was led by Ashleigh Anderson and they really went all out to get the photos.  All of the photos can be seen in our photo album from the link above.

After the hunt, we settled down and had some pizza, soda and our 3rd in a series of 6 sermons on spiritual habits.  You can read more about our sermons to the right under the sermon heading.  Our current series is “Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Treasured Life”.

Way to go, Green Team!

This week was a special week for the youth group because we not only had our 3rd in a 6 week series, but we also had our 2nd annual Digital Photo Scavenger Hunt.  This tied in well with our theme of being in search of a treasured life.  The teens had a blast and I hope you can take a second to check out some of the pictures from the event from the Photos link at the top of the page.

Our spiritual discipline this week was Bible Memorization.  We covered bascially two things.  The first was why it’s important to memorize scripture.  As I went through the lesson, I learned myself the value of keeping God’s word impressed in my heart.  I think of it almost like the letters on a credit card that are hard pressed into the plastic.  It’s not just written  on there, but pressed in, permanent.

I don’t know how often we consider that memorizing scripture, first and foremost, is conforming to Christ.  In each opportunity that Christ had to deal with the church officials, he quoted from the scriptures.  Did you know that Jesus quoted from 24 of the 39 books of the old testament?  He found value in God’s word to impress it upon His heart and to share it.   Not only that, but we also know that the Word is a sword and the Sword of the Spirit can slay sin, and what better tool to have close to our minds and hearts than the sword of the spirit.  We ended this section talking about the comfort we can bring to loved ones by giving God’s word to to them in a time of encouragement, love, or need, and for unbelievers, it helps us to communicate the love of God through His word.

For me, the hard part isn’t the why, but the how.  In life, I find myself makign all of these to-do lists.  I have post it notes everywhere, and my desk is nothing more than several trees that have been shredded down to pieces of paper that I use to put notes everywhere.  I tried to think back to my youth and the tricks we learned in school about memorization.  Everyone seems to have their own style, their own method.  With the students, we looked at first praying about memorization, to let God in on this task and to help us.  I also explained to them the importance of writing the verse down, putting it on a card for them to look at daily, when they wake, when they go to bed, when they leave their homes, and when the walk with others.  We should say it out loud.  There’s power in our voice when we proclaim the words of God.  If we can do this, and picture it in our mind, you know, visually imagine the verse and create a scene, we can remember.  How else do you think we remember lines from movies so easily?!?

The bottom line is that God wants us to not just read His Word, but to live it.  I don’t know about you, but there are lots of times that I don’t have my bible with me.  Maybe it’s in the car, maybe it’s on my desk, but at that moment, in the grocery line at the store, or waiting at the DMV, or getting my oil changed, I need to have access to the treasures God gives us in His word and by memorizing key verses, we have instant access in our hearts to live with His word daily.

Gary

I hope that some of you are finding the website, and that this will be a tool we can really use.  I’m very excited about the ability to put into words some of my feelings about the youth sermons we give on Sunday nights.  My hope is that this will be a good way for parents to hear about what we are learning, and that it can be a good review for teens that possibly missed the night.  In any case, it’s good for me to be able to just let my thoughts out in writing.

I’m pretty sure there is a way to subscribe to this stuff so that you can get an email or something when a new blog has been added.  I had thought about going back to sermons from a long time ago, but instead, I’m starting with the last series and moving forward from here.  I’ll be updating the Indiana Jones series this week.  You can find these on the side bar to the right.  I hope you find them useful.

Gary

If you’re checking back on the website, you will notice a TON of new things that I’ve added.  I’ll list some of the changes below and just know that I’m going to be adding and keep adding until we have the best website we can!!!!!  You guys can subscribe to the site too and get updates whenever I update it too.

Another important feature that I’m adding to this site if sort of a blog if you will.  Each sermon series that we do as a youth group will have it’s own link on the right, and for each night we meet, I will be posting some thoughts about the night and what we discussed.  This is going to be a great way for you to go back and review topics we’ve covered, or read up on one that you might have missed, but also, it will be a great place for your parents to check out what we’re learning and what you are actually doing in the youth group!  Keep checking back, I’m so excited about this site!

• Added several more photo albums back from the old site.
• Added an Announcements box to the right which will show upcoming events.
• Added a Now Showing and Coming Soon to display the posters of our series
• Added a “Verse of the Day” to the bottom of the right side of the page.
• Added the Youth Sermons Blogs to the right, click on the links to read.
• Added a download page to put things like forms, sermon MP3, etc.

Wow!  That’s a lot of stuff.
Gary

Skipper

We were so fortunate to have Chris Anderson teach the accountability lesson.  I wish that I would have gotten his thoughts as he taught the actual lesson, but I’m sure he will be posting future lessons he shares with the youth.

This week we spent time learning about accountability and how important it is to not only rely on one another but to use one another.  As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.  This spiritual discipline is so important because alone we are weaker than we are with others.

We know from the Word that two are better than one, and a cord of three stands is even stronger.  The more people you surround yourself with to help hold you to Christian morals and standards, the more likely you are to walk a straighter path.  As brothers and sisters, we are called to help one another to walk.  This means that we should understand that we have the responsibility to hold those around us that are believers accountable for the way they talk, they way they live, the way they act, in ever aspect of life.

The bible teach us that far better are hurtful words from a friend, than kisses from an enemy.  The most important thing a teenager can have in their pool of friends is another believer that they can confess to, be held accountable by, and truly help one another.  We encouraged each teenager to look at their closest believing friends and find an accountability partner that they can work with.  Someone that will not be afraid to pull them aside and show them the love of Christ by telling them what might be hurting others, or ungodly.

Again we gave them time to sit and write in their journals and time to pray over scripture, and hang with God.  Our deepest hopes through this series is that they will continue these disciplines long after they finish this series, and long after they graduate high school.  Committing to these spiritual habits will enable them to stay strong when they are faced with the pressures of the world views in college and beyond.

Next week is Mothers Day so NO YOUTH!  We will start back on the 17th with the “B” of HABITS and we’ll learn the importance of Bible memorization by imprinting God’s Word on our hearts.