Lesson Loop 9.8.11

This week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: "Galatians - applying the gospel"
We took some time to really apply the gospel to our unique life situations. Students wrote on a 3x5 card what their biggest struggle/temptation/difficulty is right now (without their name), and then they were redistributed for students to pray for the person whom the card represented. The students also had to spend some time thinking of how Christ's life, death and resurrection applied to this situation.

Then when we came back together I shared from my heart how God has been applying the truths of the gospel to my heart over the last 6 months with Preslie's situation.

My prayer is that we begin to see how the gospel ties into EVERYTHING we do and EVERY challenge we face.




LUCID: "Worship: Inside and Out"
This was our final week in our series on Worship. This was a time to really emphasize what we have been talking  - that worship is our whole lives, and not just the time on Sundays and Wednesdays when we come together in the church building. In fact, we have no right praising God with our lips when we refuse to worship Him with our lives during the week.
Our text was Psalm 15, and we saw 10 ways that someone worships God in that text.

1. walks blamelessly


2. does what is right


3. speaks truth in his heart


4. does not slander with his tongue


5. does no evil to his neighbor


6. casts no slur on his fellowman


7. despises a vile man


8. honors those who fear the Lord


9. keeps his oath (even when it hurts)


10. lends his money without interest

Lesson Loop 2.26.11

This week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: "Esther: The Hidden Hand of God"
We only have one more week of studying the book of Esther, and this past week we looked at:

God's Just Sovereignty (from chapter 6-7)

• GOD WILL REWARD RIGHTEOUSNESS (SO BE HUMBLE)


• GOD WILL PUNISH EVIL  (SO BE PATIENT)
  

We then looked at Psalm 131, which could serve as a commentary for the story of Esther. In Psalm 131:1-8 we considered -

•Because god will reward righteousness, we should not fret (1,7,8)

•Because god will reward righteousness, we should walk humbly with Him (3-5)

We talked about how our world is messed up, and injustice is everywhere. But one day Christ will come to earth and set up perfect justice. Hallelujah for that.

Until that day, God desires to use us to be agents of change to bring about justice in the areas we can, and trust Him to be the sovereign God in the areas we cannot control.

LUCID: "Angels and Demons"

We are in the middle of a series on the Supernatural and Spiritual Warfare, and this past Wednesday we talked about common misconceptions about angels and demons; then we split into groups and each group looked at a different Scripture that revealed something about either angels or demons. After that we jotted down what the Bible had to say, and ended with encouragement from Romans 8:35-39

Romans 8:35–39 (ESV)

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

*We must always remember that "greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world." No supernatural force (angel or demon) could ever separate us from God's love in Jesus Christ.

So while it is important to study angels and demons from the Bible, we should not be consumed with them and we must remember Christ has given us the victory already in the battle that Ephesians 6 talks about.

Lesson Loop 10.11.10

This past week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE:

Zack Panto shared with the high school students this past week about we as a church body are called to love one another. A couple ways that Zack shared we should do this -

• being charitable when discussing questionable things in the Bible


• showing the fruits of the Spirit towards one another


• sacrificing our own rights and serving others


• making people feel welcome at youth group

It was a great time, and Zack really shared what God had put on his heart!

LUCID: “Salvation through Suffering”

This was our last week focusing on the topic of suffering, and we started by looking at Romans 8 and noticing the difficulties of this life but the unbelievable glory that awaits those who suffer for Christ.

Then we spent some time going through 1 Peter 4:12-19 and listing what we should do when we suffer. The teens came up with:

1. Praise God


2. Continue to Do Good


3. Commit yourself to God


4. Do not be Ashamed


5. Rejoice


6. Be Joyful


7. Do not be Surprised

 

Lesson Loop 10.1.10

This past week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE:

We have been exploring the lives of Old Testament Saints, and this past Tuesday we looked at David. We talked about the devastating consequences when we hide our sin.  The further down the path of sin David traveled without repenting, the harder it became to humble himself and repent. Only after Nathan confronted David on his sin did repentance finally happen, and we have that prayer of repentance  recorded in Psalm 51.

Each student was challenged to examine their own heart and consider where they are on that path. Are they only entertaining the thoughts of sin (like David did on the rooftop)? Or are they in the midst of trying to cover up their sin and heading further down the path every day (like David tried to cover his tracks with Uriah)? Or are there some of our students who have traveled so far down the path they actually doubt that forgiveness is possible (like David after he murdered and committed adultery)?

Regardless of where any of us are, the solution remains the same: REPENTANCE.
We must "change our mind", and walk  run away from sin with all that we have, crying out to God and falling in His arms. We know He will forgive because He gave up His only Son for us.

LUCID: "Salvation through Suffering"

We broke into small groups, looking at the following passages on suffering:

•Romans 5:1-5 •Romans 8:16-17 •James 1:2-4 •1 Peter 1:3-7As each group looked at one of these passages they answered the question: Why might God possibly allow us to suffer?

We considered how suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance builds character, and character gives us hope. This HOPE is key to enduring suffering, and so the process continues.

The object of our hope is Christ - specifically that He rose from the dead, lives right now and promises to deliver us from death into His presence where we will spend eternity with Him. The worse possible thing that could happen in our life (physical death) is no match for this hope.

The students finished by writing a prayer to God about how they are suffering.

Lesson Loop 8.28.10

This past week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE:

We have been exploring the lives of Old Testament Saints, and this past Tuesday we looked at Rahab. We focused on 3 words:

FAITH - Hebrews 11:29-31 highlights Rahab and like the other old testament saints her faith is what is the focal point. We talked about how faith is only true faith when it is accompanied by action.

ACTION - Rahab's faith was shown to be authentic because she acted - she went to bat for God's people despite the fact that she was a foreigner and had been living a wicked lifestyle.

Next we talked about how action without faith is merely good works and the Bible says that even our "righteousness" is "filthy rags" if it is not done in Christ.

So faith and action must be linked in our life.

GRACE - This last component is essential as well. It is not that we have faith in ourselves, and it is not that we do good things because we are good. It is only because the grace of God that we can ever do anything pleasing before such a holy God, and even the faith we have is a gift of grace according to Ephesians 2:8-9.
This is clearly seen in the life of Rahab because of her sketchy past. Clearly, the fact that she was used by God and even included in the line of Christ was because of God's amazing grace, and not because of anything within her.

LUCID: "Salvation through Suffering"

We began a new series which fits into our overarching series of humanity.

We sprinted through the life of Job, and saw that Job endured more suffering than we could ever imagine, yet never received a clear answer why.

His friends were obsessed with finding out why Job was suffering, but Job was more concerned with how he suffered.

That really is the bigger question that we talked about - how does God want us to respond to suffering in our life - and it will come.

Each student was encouraged to consider what their biggest struggle is right now, think about what might be causing that, but then move onto how God wants them to respond to that struggle.

I encouraged them to share this with a friend, parent, mentor, etc....

So maybe you want to ask them about it! :)

lesson loop 6.20.10

This past week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: "Legendary Faith - Joseph "

We have been going through Old Testament character sketches each week now, and we start off each night with some trivia from the character the week before.

This week we focused on Joseph, and we broke up into small groups where each group studied a particular aspect of Joseph's life. Then when we came back together we looked at Joseph's mention in the "Hall of Faith" of Hebrews 11:
"By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones."

Strange what God decided to include about Joseph's faith... or is it?

We looked at how Joseph was so confident in God's plan of redemption for Israel, and how he knew so assuredly that God would bring them out of the land of Egypt and into the Promised land that he demanded his descendants carry his bones out and bury them in that land. Joseph's faith was rooted in all that had been promised to his forefathers, just as our faith is bolstered by the great storyline that has been passed down to us through the Scriptures.

LUCID: "Connect"

We continue to look at who we are as humans, and how God created us. We have been made in the image of God and because of that we are designed for relationships. We first considered how important relationships are to God and how the first relationship in the Bible is not Adam and Eve but between the Godhead.

Then we talked aboutwhat we can do to improve our relationship with God and with those around us.

Lesson Loop 4.2.10

This past week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: "Purity Challenge"
We began our purity series, and I believe it is going to be a good one. We are separating the girls and guys for this, with my wife heading up the girls lessons.

The first week we focused on the Biblical call to purity - how it encompasses so much more than just sexuality, although that is definitely a huge area for students.

We talked about the lies that Satan tries to throw at us, and how he is a deceiver.

I also know that my wife focused a lot on the meaning of integrity - how we cannot be half-pure, or half a person of integrity. It's all or nothing.

Please let me know if you have any questions at all about this purity series we are going through. We want to partner with you parents - you play the most important role in this!

LUCID: "Humility"

We broke into 4 groups, and each group considered different passages that focus on humility. Than each group had a task to complete - either writing a song, writing a letter, making a video, or answering a handout.

We then focused the remainder of our time on Luke 18:9-25, 35-43
Here we looked at the contrast between 2 sets of individuals:

1) The Tax-Collector (humble and repentant) vs.
2) The Pharisee (proud and self-righteous)

3) The Rich Young Ruler (didn't feel a need for Christ) vs.
4) The Man Born Blind (desperately felt his need for Christ)

*What a great reminder to always strive for humility. When we realize we are out of whack in this area, we need to cry out in repentance just like the tax-collector did.

Lesson Loop 3.9.10

This past week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: "Jesus as Victor"
After a dramatic reenactment of the resurrection by the students, we studied 1 Corinthians 15 and considered the Resurrection.
We talked about how important the resurrection is to our faith, and saw that if Christ had not resurrected:

1. Our message & faith is useless (14)

2. We are liars (15)

3. We are still in our sins (17)

4. It gets worse after death (18)

5. We are the most pitiful people alive (19)

We also looked at some of the criticisms of the resurrections, and why they cannot be valid reasons for discounting its truthfulness:

1. Swoon Theory

2. Jesus’ Body Stolen

3. Wrong Tomb

4. Legend Theory

5. Contradictions in gospel accounts

6. Appearances were hallucinations

Finally, we considered some additional proofs of the resurrections:

1. Early, simple historical accounts (esp. Acts, 1 Cor. And Mark)

2. Empty Tomb

3. Over 500 witnesses

4. Martyred Disciples




LUCID: "The World of Adults"

We began a new series last week called "Life Rollercoaster", and we talked about the relationship between parents and teenagers during the teen years. Half of the group looked at some passages that map out what the God-given role of parents is:
Deuteronomy 6:5-7; Psalm 103:13; Proverbs 13:24, 22:6, 29:17; Ephesians 6:4; 1 Timothy 3:4, 5:8

The other half looked at the God-given role that children have been given:
Proverbs 1:1-7, 3:1-2, 10:1, 13:1, 15:5, 17:25, 19:26-27, 23:15-24, 28:7

We then talked about all that parents do to care for their children, and how a child's response should be one of respect, thankfulness and contribution to the family.

Lesson Loop 1.22.10

This past week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: "Jesus as Forgiver"
We considered the lives of some of the most heinous criminals, and then talked about varying degrees of sin. Are all sins the same, or are some worse than others? Then we talked about how no matter what our sin, we stand guilty before God - we only have to break God's law in one point to be guilty of all of it as the Bible says.
On the flip side though, God offers us forgiveness for all our sin (past, present and future), no matter what we have done.
We considered the story of Christ and the woman caught in adultery, and saw how Jesus forgave her and gave her a new start. We mentioned that no one is beyond God's forgiveness, not even the heinous criminals who we talked about in the beginning of class.

Then, we watched a video snippet from the testimony of David Berkowitz ("The Son of Sam"), and saw how God has radically changed that man's life.

We ended by discussing the justice in God allowing people like David Berkowitz to be completely forgiven of his sins, and how that is sometimes an objection to Christianity.

LUCID: "Grace"

We began Lucid the same way that we began Third Place this week - considering the lives of some of the most heinous criminals, and then talked about varying degrees of sin. Are all sins the same, or are some worse than others? Then we talked about how no matter what our sin, we stand guilty before God - we only have to break God's law in one point to be guilty of all of it as the Bible says.
On the flip side though, God offers us forgiveness for all our sin (past, present and future), no matter what we have done.

In Lucid we then went to Luke 7 and the story of woman who washed Jesus' feet.  Even though Scripture refers to her as a "Sinner", she finds forgiveness with Jesus and shows her genuine love for her Savior. The contrast to this woman is Simon, who invited Jesus into his house, but did not take care of him as he should because he didn't really love Jesus. In fact, Simon did not think he had much to be forgiven from.

We then talked about how all of us are desperate sinners, and no matter what our sin we stand guilty before God and we need forgiveness.

We then watched the video testimony of David Berkowitz (The Son of Sam), and ended rejoicing God that He can save such sinners - that gives all of us hope that no matter what we might be struggling with, God is powerful enough and Christ's death is sufficient enough for us to be completely free!

Lesson Loop 1.6.10

Third Place:
This past Tuesday we spent quite a while discussing the movie "Expelled" which we watched last week. Many of the students had obviously thought about the movie and had quite a few things to say about it. I believe the topics of Evolution and Atheism are ones which many of our students find themselves confronted with on a regular basis.
I highlighted 4 problems that we see when we examine the Atheist/Darwinian Worldview:
1. Logic - Granted, there is quite a bit of faith that goes into both Creationism and Evolution, but many of the arguments made by the atheist scientists in our movie don't even hold up logically
2. Pride & Anger - Many Atheists (like Richard Dawkins) are extremely angry and hateful towards the God of the Bible. We saw from Romans 1 it is because they rejected God and He has given them over to their own flesh.
3. Ignorance - Some of the comments that were made against Christianity (that it is nothing more than a weekend hobby for people like knitting) are made by people who are simply ignorant. They have obviously never experienced the life transforming power of the gospel - it makes everything new, and it consumes our life. It is not a mere hobby - at least not authentic faith.
4. Hopelessness - One of the saddest parts of the movie was hearing Dr. Provine talk about the natural process that one goes through when they begin to embrace Darwinian idealogy -
A. Reject the idea that there is a God
B. Reject the idea that there is an afterlife.
C. Reject the idea that there is morality.
D. Reject the idea that mankind has a free will.
E. Realize that there is absolutely no meaning to the human existence - we are born, we live, and we die. And that's it.

Yet after recognizing that this is the process he went through, Dr. Provine still remains content to live in that state of hopelessness. Really, really sad.
We however considered how we have infinite hope offered through Jesus Christ!


Lucid;
We started a new series on Salvation. We talked about how the entire Bible is one big story of salvation, from the 1st page to the last.
It begins with the beautiful story Of Creation, where God declares everything He has made good, and then enjoys relationship with Adam and Eve... Until the devastation of the fall. Then everything changed. Not only did Adam and Eve's lives change forever, their disobedience caused sin to spread to every human who would ever live - including us.
And so Adam's story is our story. From birth we go our own way, and our sin causes us to miss the mark - we are bent towards sin.
But there is hope, because Christ (the 2nd Adam) came and made things right. His sacrificial death on the cross made forgiveness available to all who receive Christ.
And so the devastation of sin can be undone. We can be healed. Praise God for His glorious salvation!!

Lesson Loop 12.31.09

This past Tuesday at Third Place we watched the movie "Expelled", which was an excellent documentary done by Ben Stein. This movie highlights how in both the academic and scientific realms, those who believe in "Intelligent Design" as the theory for how our universe originated are being silenced and penalized.

It was very thought-provoking, and I encourage you as parents to check out the website and ask your children about the movie. If you click the picture, it will take you to the website.

"Expelled" doesn't come from a distinctively Christian perspective (Ben Stein is Jewish), but it does a great job at showing that Evolution is nothing more than a theory (and a very implausible one at that), and in actuality the more we learn about science the more and more the Biblical creation gains credibility. I also believe the best thing the movie does is show the hopelessness of those who adopt an atheistic/Darwinian perspective.

We are planning on following up this next Tuesday and discussing this movie from a Biblical perspective. I am looking forward to it!

Lesson Loop 9.21.09

This past week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: "Jesus as God"
We began our study of the Life of Christ, and week one was examining Jesus' nature: 1oo percent God, 100 percent man.
We talked about how there a lot of things about God that we can't wrap our minds around, and near the top of the list is how Jesus can be 100 percent God and 100 percent man. But He is.
We covered C.S. Lewis' "Tri-lemma" (Lord, Liar, Lunatic), and also went over some of the major heresies through the ages concerning who Jesus is.
Another important thing we covered is that God is not surprised by our doubts and questions, and instead He desires that we cry out to Him with our disbelief, so that He by His grace can strengthen our faith.
We ended by writing down some of the things we believe about Jesus, as well as some of the questions we have for Jesus, and then sealed them up. I have them in my office and will give them back after our series in the Life of Christ is complete.

LUCID: "God's Masterpieces"


First thing we did was look at famous works of art and come to the conclusion that these masterpieces had significant value because of the artist - who designed them. Likewise, we discussed that we all have tremendous value not because of anything intrinsic in us, but because of who our Creator is.
One of the biggest problems we have as humans is how self-centered we are. We often have such a distorted view of ourselves - either we think of ourselves too highly, or too lowly, and both lead us to sin.
Instead of looking at ourselves, we need to focus more on our God, and so we spent some time in Psalm 95 considering how God is our:

1) MAKER/CREATOR

2) KING

3) SAVIOR

4) SHEPHERD

In the end, we are God's sheep, which is both humbling and precious all at the same time.

Lesson Loop 9.18.09

This past week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: "Jesus as God"
We began our study of the Life of Christ, and week one was examining Jesus' nature: 1oo percent God, 100 percent man.
We talked about how there a lot of things about God that we can't wrap our minds around, and near the top of the list is how Jesus can be 100 percent God and 100 percent man. But He is.
We covered C.S. Lewis' "Tri-lemma" (Lord, Liar, Lunatic), and also went over some of the major heresies through the ages concerning who Jesus is.
Another important thing we covered is that God is not surprised by our doubts and questions, and instead He desires that we cry out to Him with our disbelief, so that He by His grace can strengthen our faith.
We ended by writing down some of the things we believe about Jesus, as well as some of the questions we have for Jesus, and then sealed them up. I have them in my office and will give them back after our series in the Life of Christ is complete.

LUCID: "God's Masterpieces"


First thing we did was look at famous works of art and come to the conclusion that these masterpieces had significant value because of the artist - who designed them. Likewise, we discussed that we all have tremendous value not because of anything intrinsic in us, but because of who our Creator is.
One of the biggest problems we have as humans is how self-centered we are. We often have such a distorted view of ourselves - either we think of ourselves too highly, or too lowly, and both lead us to sin.
Instead of looking at ourselves, we need to focus more on our God, and so we spent some time in Psalm 95 considering how God is our:

1) MAKER/CREATOR

2) KING

3) SAVIOR

4) SHEPHERD

In the end, we are God's sheep, which is both humbling and precious all at the same time.

Lesson Loop 8.14.09

This week in our Student Ministry:

High School Beach Day
We had a great time fellowship together at the beach, and God gave us beautiful weather!
Afterward we headed over to the Beebe's relatives house and enjoyed a picnic. Good times!

LUCID: "Creation"


We began a new series called God's Story, Our Story.
This begins with the account of Creation, and so we focused on Genesis 1 and on how we are made in the image of God. We considered how we are called to live in holiness and portray God's image to the world, and we also focused on how God formed us out of the dust of the ground - we were nothing until God breathed life into us.

Lesson Loop 7.24.09

This week in our Student Ministry:

Third Place: "Joseph and Sex"
Genesis 39

We looked at the infamous story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, and we considered 4 things (from Gen. 39) to remember when sexual temptation hits you:

*Remember that you are accountable to God and others (vs. 8-9)

*Remember that temptation and avoid it in the future if possible (vs. 10)

*Remember to run! (vs. 11-12)

*Remember that lust is not love (vs. 13-18)

We also spent some time in the book of Proverbs (Prov. 5:1-9; Prov. 6:23-26; Prov. 7:14-18) looking at the deceitfulness of sexual temptation - it sure looks good, but in the end it is death.

Good Biblical truths we must all remember!

LUCID: Middle School Beach Day


We had a great time at the beach, and we thank God that He have us beautiful weather!

After a nice day of sunbathing, bodysurfing, seagull chasing, bodyburying (in the sand; but don't worry - everyone who was buried came back out...) we headed over to The Beebe's relatives house in Ocean Grove where we had a cookout and enjoyed some more fellowship together.

All in all a very nice day!

Lesson Loop 7.17.09

This week in our Student Ministry:

Third Place: "Wrestling with God"
Genesis 32

Ronnie Ani taught the students from Genesis 32 about how Jacob wrestles the angel.

LUCID: "Guided by the Holy Spirit"


We dove into Galatians 5:16-25, and saw how we are called to keep in step with the Spirit. This means that we spend time with God, and learn how to match His rythms, rather than go out on our own and try to live this life. Spending time with God will enable us to "live by the Spirit" rather than by the flesh.

We talked about how we are a new creation if we have placed our faith solely in Christ, and we have  a new nature. Yet some how, mysteriously, we are still susceptible to the temptation of sin. Yes, we have died to sin, but we still live in these fleshly bodies and we are weak. Because of this we must daily abide in Christ and allow Him to renew our mind. Without this ongoing renewal we will begin to think worldly and follow our fleshly desires.

The most significant thing we emphasized was that there is a direct contrast between the "works of the flesh" and the "fruit of the Spirit". Works are something we accomplish (work for), while fruit is something that God produces in us. We cannot become more like Jesus simply by wishing it any more than a tree can produce fruit by wishing really hard. A tree is completely dependent on God to send rain, sunshine, good soil filled with nutrients, etc... Likewise, we are dependent on God to make us more like Jesus, and this means keeping in step with the Spirit.

To conclude each student signed their initials on a pair of sneakers I have, so that they can be reminded to "keep in step with the Spirit"  Of course, Todd made me promise to wear them to Beach Day, so I will be sporting them on Wednesday!

Lesson Loop 5.8.09

This week in our Student Ministry:

Third Place: "The Call of Abraham"
Genesis 12, 15, 17

2 Things about Abraham’s Faith

1. ABRAHAM’S FAITH WAS REAL

• 12) leaves everything to wander with family


• 15) believes he and his wife will have a child (even though their bodies are “as good as dead”)


• 17) commanded to circumcise – just does it.

1. ABRAHAM’S FAITH WAS FLAWED
   
   
   
   • 12) deceives Pharaoh and puts family in harm’s way
   
   
   • 15) believes but then asks for evidence (God performs ritual)
   
   
   • 17) laughs at God’s claims
   
   
   
   

LUCID: Service Series Ice Cream Party


This was the day of reckoning for the Lucid Service Series - and the winner was......

The girls!!!!!!

So the guys served the girls some ice cream and then partook themselves.

I then challenged the students  for a few minutes from Luke 22, where we considered the kind of service Christ calls us to:
"the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves."

Christ says in Luke 22 that we were the ones at the banqueting table, and He served us. Wow!

Lesson Loop 5.1.09

This week in our Student Ministry:

Third Place: "From Babel to Blessing"


Why did they build the tower of babel?

1) To Make  a Name for Themselves (pride)

2) Avoid Being Scattered Throughout the Earth (disobedience to God's command)

Why did God scatter mankind and create diversity

1) To Accomplish His Will (that mankind resisted) (Gen. 1:28, 9:1-3, 11:8, 12:1-3)

2) There Needed to be Various Nations for God to Call Out a Unique People (Gen. 12:1-3)

3) This In Turn Allows God's People to Bless All the Nations (Mt. 28:19; Acts 2:1-6; Eph. 2:1-6; Rev. 7:9-10)

Some final thoughts:

1) You Can't Run from God's Plan (embrace His will)

2) Diversity is Part of God's Plan (love and serve all mankind)


LUCID: "Jesus' Resurrection"  I Cor. 15


We started by discussing how outrageous our claims of Jesus' resurrection are to the world who does not take the Bible seriously.

We looked at a few proofs of the resurrection:

• Empty Tomb

It's tough to explain away this. People have tried, but there has been no satisfying explanation for why that tomb was empty

• Over 500 reliable witnesses

This would be plenty of proof in any court of law today! Over 500 people saw, touched, and experienced the Risen Christ. We know that the apostles are reliable witnesses because they all were martyred for their faith. Would men who were hiding a cover-up really allow themselves to be tortured for a lie?

• Lack of evidence that disproves resurrection

If the Roman officials and Jewish Religious leaders were so passionate about squelching this talk of the "resurrection" (Acts 4), why did they not take the time to find Christ's body and end these "rumors".

We closed by talking about how Christ's resurrection "perfects" salvation.

*If Christ did not rise from the dead…

1) Our message and faith is useless (vs. 14)

2)  We are liars (vs. 15)

3) We are still condemned in our sins (vs. 17)

4) Death is the end. (vs. 18)

5) We are the most pitiful people alive. (vs. 19)

But, thank God He is Alive!! (vs. 20)

Out of Jesus Death Springs Eternal Life!

Lesson Loop

This is what happened during our midweek student gatherings:

Third Place: Growth Groups


This week was a week for HS growth groups, so all the teens met with their respective leader!

LUCID: "More Than Mr. Nice Guy"


We talked about how people tag Jesus with all kind of titles (moral teacher, great guy, sacrificial leader, etc..) but unfortunately most people's opinions of Christ are innacurate.

What did Jesus say about Himself? He called Himself :

The Gate of Salvation, The Great Shepherd who lays down His life and takes it up again, The Son of God, The One who gives eternal life, etc...
Jesus never claimed to be just a good man. He claimed to be God.

The Pharisees figured this out, and that is why they tried to kill Him.

We were challenged to share the authentic Jesus with people and dispel the false opinions of Him.

Lesson Loop

This is what happened during our midweek student gatherings:

Third Place: Genesis 6-9 ("Noah and the Bow")

We studied the Flood account, and considered one question - Is God Just or Cruel?

The Scriptures teach that God is just, and the Flood account reinforces this:

1) God's Reaction was grief, not anger
It broke our God's heart that His creation rebelled. It pained Him to destroy that which He had formed. But He had to.

2) God's Provision was the Covenant
There is always a remnant, and in this case it was Noah and his family. He continued His plan of redemption through them

3) 2 Peter also teaches us that:

*God created all things with His Words
*God recreated all things through the Flood
*God will one day recreate the earth with His words at the end of time.
*God is still patient and He loves us (He is not willing that any should perish)

Basically, God is the Potter and we are the clay. He can do whatever He wants - yet that doesn't make Him arrogant or manipulative - no, not when we consider His great Sacrifice when He gave up His only Son for our sins. We deserve hell, and yet we have been given so much through Christ!

LUCID: Growth Groups


This week was a week for MS growth groups, so all the teens met with their respective leader!