lesson loop 5.15.14

MS Lesson: "Creation: For What Purpose?"
After a few students had a chance to make something out of clay with a purpose in mind, we started by mentioning that God formed us for a very specific purpose.
Big Idea: Everything is Created for God's Glory.
We saw this in 3 passages:

1. God's People are Created for His Glory ( Isaiah 43:1,6-7 )
2. God's Enemies are Created for His Glory ( Romans 9:15-17 )
3. God's Universe is Created for His Glory ( Romans 11:36 )

While this is a very truth - that God created us to glorify Him, we talked about how many Christians get this wrong. Somehow we become so self-centered that we feel as though God exists for us - to make our life better and prosper us. This is backwards. We are here to bring God glory, through the good and the bad - no matter what. If we will glorify Him, we will find this is the best thing in the world for us.

HS Lesson: James 4:1-12

We continue to work our way through the book of James. We began with a summary of what we have seen so far in our study. A "faith that works":

• endures temptation
• submits to Scripture
• fights prejudice
• keeps God’s law
• is accompanied by works
• tames the tongue
• lives a wise life

This past Tuesday the Big Idea was: Having a faith that works means pursuing friendship with God

The question we all asked ourselves was "Am I a friend of God or a friend of the World?

Friendship with the World Looks Like:

1. Brokenness in the Church (vs. 1-3, 11-12)
2. Unfaithfulness to God (vs. 4-5)

Friendship with God Looks Like:

1. Submission to God (vs. 7,10)
2. Resistance to Sin (vs. 7-8) *Doing Battle *Flight sometimes *Purification *Repentance
3. Intimacy with God (vs. 8) It really is worth it to submit to God and resist sin!!

The Difference is Grace!! (vs. 6)

lesson loop 5.2.17

Middle and High School Lesson:
We had the neat privilege of hearing from a student this past week at youth group. Preston Young taught from James 3:13-18, and his big idea was: Our actions should reflect godly wisdom.
The lesson can be listened to by clicking on the player on the right.

lesson loop 4.16.14

Middle School: "You're Guided by the Holy Spirit"
We finished our series on the Holy Spirit last night by focusing on how the Holy Spirit guides us. Without the leading of the Holy Spirit, we would be completely lost. But praise God He has given His children the Holy Spirit who leads and guides us each step of the way.
We first considered a few examples from Scripture of where we see the Holy Spirit's leading:

• Matthew 4:1 (we can be led into a time of testing)
• Acts 16:6-10 (directs us and prevents us from certain things)
• Mark 13:9-11 (the right words to say - Stephen, Peter, Paul)

Then we dug into Galatians 5:16-25, and learned 3 ways the Holy Spirit leads us:

1. Prevents us from sin. (by warring against our fleshly desires) v. 16-17, 24

2. Produces fruit in our life. - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. v. 22-23

3. Succeeds where rules cannot. v. 18

High School: James 2:14-26

We continue our journey through the book of James, and this week we looked at the relationship between faith and works.

Our big idea: Genuine faith is accompanied by works.

We explored this with 2 main points, the first negative and the second positive.

1. Faith without works is counterfeit. a. It can't save. b. It's dead. c. It's all in the head. d. It's useless.
2. Faith with works is genuine. (Here we looked at 4 key words from the passage): a. Evidence - Works are the only evidence of faith that there is. b. Synergy - Works and Faith work together. c. Maturity - Works are the completion of faith, the sign of a genuine mature faith. d. Relationship - Abraham was called a "friend of God". So it is with everyone who has genuine faith in Jesus Christ.

We ended by considering the illustration of a Locomotive, and this quote:

"It is faith alone that saves. But the faith that saves is never alone."

Just like the locomotive (faith) is the active agent, it always is accompanied by train cars (works). There is no power in the train cars, but they follow the locomotive.

Save on tickets to see Third Day and Skillet in Reading!

Wanted to pass this on to anyone who might be interested in going to see Christian rock bands Third Day and Skillet at the Santander Arena in Reading on 3/22/14:

http://blogs.mcall.com/lehighvalleymusic/2014/03/see-third-day-and-skillet-at-readings-santander-arena-for-25-percent-off-tickets.html

Blessings!
Todd

lesson loop 2.28.14

Middle School - I believe in the Holy Spirit
We began a brand new mini-series on the Holy Spirit. We looked at several passages (John 14:15-21, 25-27; 16:5-11; and Acts 1:8 and introduced 2 main points:

1. The Holy Spirit is God
2. The Holy Spirit is a Person

We listed all the things from both passages that show that the Holy Spirit is God and that He is a Person, not a force. After considering all the things that are true of the Holy Spirit from these passages, I had students think about what encourages them personally right now -

He is our helper, He is eternal, He is truth, He brings peace, guides us away from sin, dispenses God’s power to us, He is like a Father to us, He is our teacher, and we can truly know Him!

High School - James 1:12-18

We continued our study of the book of James as we transitioned from talking about trials and suffering to talking about temptation.  We talked about how James uses the same word for trial and temptation, and how they are related. A trial always brings with it temptation - to doubt God, get angry, etc. And temptation is always a trial.

We noticed a few things about trials:

• Sin is Alluring
• Sin is Entrapping
• Sin is Serious (leads to death)
• Sin is not what God wants for us

We then looked at how to endure temptation:

1. Love God (v. 12)
   Only affections for God can replace and dethrone affection for our sin.
2. Recognize my inability (v. 13-15)
   We are sinful to the core, and all temptation and sin comes from within us. We cannot be trusted, and we can't be victorious over sin in our own strength.
3. Embrace grace (v. 16-18)
   God is the Giver of all good gifts, the greatest of which is salvation through grace. We must cling to Christ and believe the gospel every single day of our life to defeat sin.

lesson loop 2.20.14

Middle School - "The Ascension"
We continued our "Messiah" study by looking at Jesus ascension in Luke 24, as well as the account in Acts 1. The main points were as follows:

1. In Suspense
The book of Luke ends leaving us in suspense, wondering what happens next. A couple things we can learn from the ascension:

• The disciples are blessed by Jesus
• The disciples are full of joy
• The disciples worship continually

Jesus can be worshiped by us because He shows Himself through the ascension to be our Prophet, Priest and King!

2. The Sequel

What happens in the book of Acts satisfies the suspense at the end of Luke. We find out that the disciples are commissioned by Christ to take the gospel to the ends of the earth by the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. He Reigns
Jesus reigns today in heaven, but He will return in the sky one day. Just as he ascended, he will one day descend. We can look forward to the day when He comes back, knowing he will make things right.


High School - "James 1:2-11"
We continued our study in the book of James, looking at "How to Endure Suffering".
We learned that James is addressing trials of various kinds, so no matter what trials you are going through, this chapter applies to us.
We learned that we endure suffering by choosing 3 things:

1. Pure Joy
   Everything is not joyous, but God is working all things together which gives us a pure or whole joy. We must "consider" this to be - this means we decide it to be. We may not feel happy emotions, but we can still have a state of joy.
   There is a formula we must remember so that we can have joy -
   Testing -> Steadfastness -> Maturity
   
2. Divine Wisdom
   All wisdom comes from God, and He promises to give wisdom to those who humbly ask in faith. We must not doubt but we must believe He has the wisdom to give us.
   
3. A Heavenly Perspective
   The kingdom of this world and the kingdom of heaven have different measuring sticks for success - Those who are the poor in spirit are rich in heavenly rewards, so we must only boast in our salvation and what we have in Christ - nothing material or earthly.

Here is a great way to pray for your daughter!

Free Pray For Your Daughter App Now Available http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mikeleake/blog/~3/4p5BiPZnTrE/free-pray-for-your-daughter-app-now-available.html