All My Belongings (Part 4 of 5)

Pastor Shane took us through week 4 of a 5-week series called, "All My Belongings." It is teaching the youth where they belong and Who they belong to.

Last night the series was about our fakeness. When close friends fake, can you tell they are faking or are they being real? Are we all fake to a degree? What about our fakeness? What about faking in front of our parents? Did your parents fake-out their parents? Where did it all start?

Genesis 3:6-13 NLT (Garden of Eden)

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"

He replied, "I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked."

"Who told you that you were naked?" the Lord God asked. "Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?"

The man replied, "It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it."

Then the Lord God asked the woman, "What have you done?" "The serpent deceived me," she replied. "That's why I ate it."

It all started with shame of their nakedness. Are you being fake with God? Do you have something to hide? God is all knowing. He is calling us back to Him into a relationship. He cares about you. He knows about your skeletons in the closet...we all have them. So, really how are you doing? You typically always say...fine. But, are you really fine? Do you act differently at home than you do at school? What about acting differently at church? Should we be acting differently at church than we do at home? How fake are we?

We need to be taught...

1. No More Good Girls and Boys...be who God has called you to be!


2. How to be Godly Wives to our Husbands and Godly Husbands to our Wives...the divorce rate is the same in church today as it is in the world. That needs to change! We are the chosen ones that need to set the example for others to follow!

So, how fine are we? Why do you say your fine when you are hurting?

Galatians 3:1-4 NLT

Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ's death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?

We are living a life, a close connection from God...then we do it our way. We get messed up then need to call on God for help.

The Trouble with Honesty... when we take our barriers down, we become vunerable and ashamed. So what do we do?

We learn the Greatest Commandment:

1. Love the Lord God with all your heart...


2. Love your neighbor as yourself

We all have a desire to be connected. Jesus came for the ones who were sinners.

John 15:5 NLT

"Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing."

So, to answer your question in what to do...be vunerable to God. Be real for Him. Get out of that fakeness and let God restore you! Are you ready to be restored?

Women of Faith’s Nicole Johnson Recaps Revolve

October 21, 2009
Yes, it’s loud and they love it! I’m not talking about the six thousand teenaged girls at Revolve this past weekend; I’m talking about their moms!
I attended the Revolve Tour this past weekend in Ontario, CA. Many of you know that for the last four years I’ve written and directed the drama for the conference. It’s always a highlight to attend one of the events and see the drama performed live. I love to cheer on the actors and scream right along with the girls, but this time as one of the more “vintage” women in the crowd, I noticed I was not alone.
On every row in the packed out arena there was at least one mom, sometimes more. They were there in their jeans and comfy shoes and they stood and sang and clapped and sometimes cried right along with the girls they love. Maybe because I was there as a new mom of a little girl (Abigail is 7 weeks old—no, she was not in the loud arena) but I found myself thinking of what a mom had to give up to bring a group of girls to a Revolve event… a weekend at home, a good night’s sleep, quiet time for themselves, healthy food, and probably a couple of years worth of good hearing. But there they were, jumping up down and singing right alongside the girls they packed in the vans.
They know, like I do, that you don’t get too many chances to bring young girls to a safe place where they
can hear about a God who loves them and a Savior who can forgive them. To a place where a girl can look around and see that not only is she not alone, she can see firsthand that there is a “totally awesome” time to be had with people who love God. So these moms make the extra effort, take the time off, drive the van and “herd the cats” all weekend long, forgoing a weekend that might include getting their nails done or reading on the couch or catching up on some work around the house because they believe the good news will change the lives of the girls they know and love.
So, here’s a special shout out to all the moms who load up their cars and vans, pack lots of snacks and anticipate seeing the work of God in the lives of young girls. You are heroes in the kingdom of God.
With gratitude for you,
Nicole Johnson

All My Belongings (Part 3 of 5)

On Wednesday, Pastore Shane led us through the 3rd week in a 5-week series called "All My Belongings". In the last two weeks, we learned:

There’s some serious power in the word “belonging”. Cliques, clubs, teams… there is always some group or another that students are trying to belong to in order to be connected and find value. But what the world offers easily is ultimately fleeting. Only what God provides—and the belonging that comes from being in him—can truly satisfy.

In this five-week super-series, we are exposing some of the world’s more deceptive lies about belonging. On the flip side, we are getting a picture of how the church can be a place where everyone belongs.

Students are challenged with questions like:

• What groups do I automatically associate myself with?


• Are my groups healthy? Smart?


• What do my choices say about who I am and what I value?


• Does God have a better plan for helping me feel loved and cared for?

This week we studied that it is All About the Church and how it fits into God's plan for our lives...The church has not been perfect. It is made up of sinners and we all make mistakes. God's disciples were sinners, and God still used them. We are learning the world's way is wrong, God's way is right.

Matthew 22:37-40... Jesus replied, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." (NLT)

Even in cliques or groups, we all have a desire to be needed. We have a fear of being alone.

Symptoms of Loneliness:

1. Overdependant


2. Need of Attention


3. Finding Fault in Others


4. Having prolonged sins that make us numb to the world. (Ex. drinking, doing drugs)

How does Jesus instruct us to live? We must Love God and Love Others. (You can't have one without the other).

Who did Jesus hang out with? Beggars, whores, thieves. (Those that needed His love the most).

Have you ever favored one person over another? A Warning against Prejudice: James 2:1,9 My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?...If you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are found guilty of breaking the law. (NLT)

Luke 6:12-16 One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. (NLT)

1. Simon (whom he named Peter)


2. Andrew (Peter's brother)


3. James


4. John


5. Philip


6. Bartholomew


7. Matthew


8. Thomas (later doubted Jesus)


9. James (son of Alphaeus)


10. Simon (who was called the zealot)


11. Judas (son of James)


12. Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him)

Jesus chose disciples who were the least of these... we all fall short of the glory. We all sin.

God set up His church and it will never be destroyed. Jesus is coming back, soon...are you ready?

All My Belongings (Part 2 of 5)

Wednesday, Pastor Shane took us through the 2nd week in a series called, "All My Belongings." He talked about the groups youth belong to such as Male, Female, Sports, Goth/Emo, etc. Even in groups you may feel leftout, angry, depressed, etc. Even in groups you may feel lonely. But why? Who do you really belong to?

Like Kids In the Playground

The youth form their own groups. In those groups, we still feel abandoned and someone always gets left out.

• In Genesis 2:7-9, it tells us that...Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground--trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.(NLT) In verse 18 God said that it was not good for the man to be alone, ...so He made woman to be the man's companion and helper and made her just right for him. Later on, Eve was deceived by a serpent in the garden (Satan) and ate some of the forbiden fruit and gave some to Adam, who was with her, and he ate it, too. God was not pleased with their willful disobedience. It disrupted their relationship and separated them from God. Adam rebelled and went hiding into the garden. This was the first sign we see when Adam became aware of his alienation. Isolation started at the fall of man.

• God wanted a connection with us. So, in Genesis 17:2-14 God told Abram to serve Him faithfully and live a blameless life and He would make a covenant with him. God would make him the father of many nations and changed his name to Abraham. God promised to make him extremely fruitful and his descendants will become many nations and there will be kings among them. He would always be Abraham's God and the God of his descendants after him. God promised to give the entire land of Canaan to him and his descendants and it would remain in their possession forever. God told Abraham that his responsibility and all his descendants was to obey the terms of the covenant. The terms were: each male must be circumcised. They have to cut off the flesh of their foreskin as a sign of the convenant between them and God. From generation to generation, every male child must be circumcised on the eighth day after their birth. This applies not only to their families, but also their servants that were born in their household and also those that were foreign-born that they purchased that worked for them. Their bodies will bear the mark of God's everlasting covenant. Any male who does not get circumcised will be cut off from the covenant family for breaking the covenant.

• Note: In an indepth study, the Bible uses circumcision to symbolize the removal of sin. It was God's signature in flesh that would identify Abraham and his descendants as the chosen ones...God's own people. Circumcision is a symbol of separation from the world, of purity, and of loyalty to the covenant. It shows that their heart should be dedicated to God and inwardly set apart to Him, rather than for the world. What is the evidence that we see today? Salvation and fellowship with God. Today, baptism replaces circumcision and must be done by faith. You must believe in God and his promises, lay aside your own strength and the world's way of doing things, and live a new life by faith. (NLT Study Bible)

• God is saying YOU belong to ME and I belong to YOU...in his covenant. Webster defines a covenant as a binding and solemn agreement to do or keep from doing a specified thing.

• God made a covenant with his people when he wrote the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 20:3 God gave his 1st Commandment...You must not have any other god but me. In verse 4, his 2nd Commandment...You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.

• Idols can become our master. In 1 Corinthians 6:12-14... You say, "I am allowed to do anything"--but not everything is good for you. And even though "I am allowed to do anything," I must not become a slave to anything. You say, "Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food." (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can't say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. What are the things that are slowly becoming your master? Is it sports, video games, etc? Idols are anything that take the place of God.

• God said to love your neighbors and your enemies. You don't have to like what they do, but he commands us to love them anyway.

• God told Moses, "I'm the Lord your God."

• In Luke 22:19-20, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me." After supper he took another cup of wine and said, "This cup is the new covenant between God and his people--an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you." At the Lord's Supper, we remember his act of love for us on the cross.

• Jesus went to the cross to bear our sins, so that we could come to him...Jesus to the Cross...Us to Jesus.

Summary:

1. You need to understand that God wants a close relationship with you.
2. There will be no other gods before Him.
3. Make no idols or any addictions come before Him.

All My Belongings (Part 1 of 5)

Pastor Shane took us Wednesday, on a new 5 week series called "All My Belongings". He talked about the groups that youth belong to.

Who Do We Really Belong To?

1. Human Race
2. Male and Female Race
3. American
4. Sports Teams: Alabama, Auburn, Georgia
5. School Groups: RCMS, RCHS
6. School Sports: Athletes, Cheerleaders, Football, Basketball, Softball, Volleyball, etc.

If you are not in a group, you may feel: leftout, angry, depressed, etc.

If we are in a group, then why do we feel so lonely? We work so hard to not feel alone. The world tells us how and where we should belong. If we don't reach a certain expectation, we feel abandoned.

The world we live in is destructive. 1 John 2:16...For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

What Do We Really Need?

Everyone needs a church. Some people have been hurt, rejected and gossiped about by some people in the church. Now is the time to get rid of the pain and come back to church and learn what God is all about. Colossians 3:10-15...Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. Since God chose you ...you must be merciful, kind, show humility, gentleness, and patience. Allow for each other's faults, forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, show love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body, we are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

What Does It Mean To Leave the World Behind?

The world wants you to live a certain way...dress a certain way...and look a certain way. It is nothing but a broken system. It's way of doing things don't work. So, what do we do? Call the world what it is...a broken system based on cravings that only satisfies for a short time and you need to leave your past behind...don't do what the world wants you to do!

What Does It Mean To Love Myself?

There are 3 people involved: Jesus, Others, and Yourself (JOY). Mark 12:28-31... You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. If you can learn to love yourself as God loves you, then all the rest will fall in place. If God sees you as valuable, you should too. Romans 8:15...we are spiritual orphans that God adopts into his family.

How Do I Learn To Live With My Family?

1. Above all, love each other.
2. Respect each other.
3. Help each other.

The world will want you to crave more, but God is all you need. He is your Creator and Provider! How do I become part of the church family? You accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Jesus is the sacrifice for all of you!

Winter Retreat at Snowbird in Andrews, NC

Hey Everyone,

Our Winter Retreat this year is going to be at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters in Andrews, NC. The dates for this trip are 31 Dec. to 2 Jan. The cost of the trip will be $160. The cost includes lodging, food, recreation at Snowbird, and skiing at Cataloochee Ski Mountain. Sign ups will start Wednesday Oct. 7 and will close out Oct. 28. Due to the cost of the trip, we are requiring a $50 non-refundable deposit in order to sign up.

Our Part in the Great Commission

This week Pastor Shane talked about the Great Commission and what the youth can do to bring it together.

Jesus came and told the disciples, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18

5 Areas in Student Ministry:

1. Reach the Lost (witness to those that have not accepted Jesus into their lives, invite friends and family to church, witness at schools)


2. Connect Students (go to Sunday School and Small Groups...learning about each other while getting to know God and His Word)


3. Grow (going to DNow and Snowbird...getting deeper into the Word of God)


4. Serve (doing something for others in Mission Serve, Sound Ministry, Greeting Team)


5. Honor God (putting God first in our Talents, Gifts, Treasures)--The Most Important Commandment: ...Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength...Love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:28-31

Memory Verse of the Week:

In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

Next Week: Pastor Shane will be starting a new 5 week series on "All My Belongings"

Upcoming Events:

1. Judgement Journey- Friday, October 16th...will leave church @ 6:00 pm ET


2. Winter Retreat (Snowbird)- December 31-January 2, 2010