Habits: Accountability (Week 2 of 6)

Wednesday Night Service - August 11, 2010

In our second week of a 6-wk. series on "Habits", Bro. James was teaching us this week on "Accountability" we should have with one another. Scripture comes from Matthew 12:33-37. He talked about when do we start living our life right? Do we start when someone gets seriously hurt or dies? The time to start is right now! You can start right now developing habits that will change you for the rest of your life so someday people will look back at your life and say, "I can see no wrong in that person."

This week we continue our series on devoping good HABITS for spiritual growth. We talked this week about Accountable Friendships. Accountability is when we hold somebody responsible for their actions. We all need friends who know our weaknesses and love us for who we are and hold us accountable to our commitments. These are the type of friends who will come up to us one on one when they see us making choices that might hurt us spiritually.

In Psalm 133:1-3, David talks about how wonderful it was when people lived in unity/harmony. This psalm teaches us 3 things about harmony:

1. It provides satisfaction.
2. It provides refreshment.
3. It takes work to get along with others.

There are rewards when you live in harmony. (John 13:35)...Your love for one another will prove to the world you are Jesus' disciples.

3 Relationships for Accountability:

1. Find a Mentor (Proverbs 13:20)...Mentor should be a teacher and have a spiritual commitment
2. Find an Accountability Partner (Proverbs 27:17)...that person should love you but not be impressed with you
3. Be a Mentor (Philippians 2:22)...you can help lead someone else

CHALLENGE: Are there any areas in your life that you would want me to hold you accountable? Ask someone if they would want you to hold them accountable. Are there any areas in your life that you see where you could be growing or improving? Something for you to think about!

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?

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.