Purity Banquet

What a wonderful evening we had Saturday night!  30 guests and a handful of volunteers made this year's Purity Banquet a night to remember!!!

The evening began for most of our attendees with a limo ride through beautiful Rhinelander.  Then we had our resident photographer, Sarah Hall snap portraits of them so they could remember the evening for years to come.

Thanks to Kim and Ann Prom, we had a wonderful three course dinner that included Chicken Cordon Bleu.

The message portion of the evening centered around, "Getting to the Root of the Problem".  We were able to deal with all aspects of purity in a very "PG" way!  The object lesson was a tree that I made to illustrate that very point.  Many times in our lives we try and "pluck" the "bad fruit" from our "trees", only to see them grow back days, weeks, or months later.  What we tried to get across is that by dealing with the root issues of sin, that would take care of the fruit problem.  Not only in the short term - but the long term as well!

We had a teenage couple share their testimony of how accountability counseling with Kim and I has really allowed them to remain pure.  We are greatful that God is using us in their lives and that HE is the one allowing them to stick to their pledge of purity!!!

We closed the evening off with a pledge of purity.  It was a five point pledge that was based off of Ephesians 5:3-4 and the points were:

1. To keep my body pure in every way.
2. To be in God's Word daily.
3. To be committed to my prayer life.
4. To deal with the root issues in my life, not just pluck to fruit off and move on.
5. To be aware of EVERY word coming out of my mouth.  I commit to building others up - not tearing them down.

Once again, it was an amazing evening and we pray that the Holy Spirit will guard and enable the people that attended to stick to their commitments.  That they would be able to live a life of purity!!!

Love (Monday night recap)

Well, Valentine's day was on Monday this year so the logical thing to talk about at Youth Group was "Love"!

We started by talking about what most people are thinking about when they think of Valentine's day.  Cards, Chocolate, Flowers, and being romantic.

An interesting thing that we did before my message was play a game of charades.  We took the candy hearts and the teens had to act out the words on the hearts (don't worry, we took out the bad ones!).  But before the game began, we had them each act out an emotion.  They were: Bored, Anger, Love, and Pride.  The interesting thing was that if the people didn't cheat and "draw" a heart, acting out Love was by far the hardest emotion to portray.  That led nicely into my lesson for the night!

I asked the question, "What does love look like?".  Does it look like the picture to the left?  That's what most Sr. High students equate with the word love!

I also asked "How can we see love?", and, "How do we find love?".

Of course, I had to bring my lovely wife Kim up front and share about our love for each other!  (I also presented her with her flowers and chocolate - score one for Chris!)  But seriously, I touched on several different points about our relationship and they were:

1. After 14 years of marriage, I'm still madly in love with my bride!
2. She makes me a better person!
3. She accepts me for who I am, and as I am!
4. She knows ALL my weaknesses, faults, and imperfections and she STILL loves me!

Kim & I in 50 years!!!

We then looked at our main portion of Scripture - 1 John 4:7-16.  The main verse that I looked at was verse 10, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.".

This passage in 1 John answered all the questions that I posed before!  We find love and see love in the God that IS love!!!  God in His very being IS love (1 John 4:8).  When we realize how much God loved and loves us it is truly humbling!  Because all four of the statements that I made about Kim, are true about God as well.

1. After 17 years of being a Christian, I am still madly in love with my Savior!
2. God definitely makes me a better person!
3. God accepts me for who I am, and as I am! (no perfection needed to be accepted)
4. Most importantly, He knows all my past, current, and future sins - AND YET HE STILL LOVES ME!!!

That, my friends is love.  When we become a Christ follower and allow Him to flow through us, we will show to this world such radical love that they won't know what hit them!  They will have to stop and wonder why we would love the way that we did!

But why isn't that happening?  I think we all know that answer.  It isn't happening because all of us, myself included, DON'T love consistently like God does!  Probably because we CAN'T love like God does.  My challenge was and is that we would allow God to flow through us.  That we wouldn't keep a record of wrongs.  That we would turn the other cheek.  That we would love sacrificially the way that God did and does.

We can see love!  We can define love!  It is all wrapped up in one picture...

Monday message recap

Well, I'm a little behind in posting this as my normal day of posting was interrupted by the celebration at Lambeau Field!!! Here I am standing on the front steps right before we went inside and saw the Packers return from Texas with the Lombardi trophy. The reason that I bring that up is because that is what my message was about on Monday - The Packers!!!

Now, it wasn't a review of the play-by-play from Sunday night as the Pack won their 4th Super Bowl. It was just an illustration for the point that I was trying to make.

That point being, even through devastating injury after injury (14 on IR, three during the game) the Packers pulled through and played at a very high level. It was a testament to the management of the team to have the right guys on the team. It was also a testament to the "back up" players that were there who stepped in and carried the load. Many of which no one other than extremely die hard stat guys would even know their names.

We looked at the Biblical account of Moses and Joshua. We picked up the story with one of the first times we see who Joshua is in Exodus 17 where Moses tells Joshua to fight the Amelekites. This is the cool story (and another completely different message!) where Moses held out his hands and while he did so, the Israelites would be winning. Whenever he dropped them, they would begin to lose.

Another example was when Moses was going up to get the 10 Commandments, we see that Joshua is his aide. This idea was what I was trying to get across to the teens - Joshua had a mentor and it was Moses.

You see at the time Moses was the rock star! God used him in unbelievable ways, from the plagues to the crossing of the Red Sea. The people ALL knew who Moses was, not so much with Joshua. But Joshua was learning, growing, and gaining trust with both Moses and God! He was being prepared to be the next leader!

Then in Numbers 27 we see that Moses and God both make his transition official. Moses lays his hands on Joshua and commissions him.

Well, we all know what happens next, Joshua found favor with the Lord as one of the two spies that gave a good report of the Promised Land. He was the leader who walked THROUGH the Jordan. He was in charge as the Israelites conquered the land.

We saw the effects of a man who was willing to be used by God. A man who was prepared when his time came. A man who affected an entire nation, a nation that followed his example and worshiped God.

Perhaps one of the greatest final words ever in the Bible is found in Joshua 24 where he is addressing the nation. He challenges them to "Pick a team!" and then lays it all on the line - "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord".

It goes on to say that the nation continued to serve the Lord after his death. He left a legacy.

So going back to the opening illustration, when one player would get hurt - another would be ready to take his place on the team. Not only taking his place, but performing just as well if not better than the person before him. Performing well enough to win the Super Bowl.

So the question that I left the teens, and now leave with you is two fold: who's your Moses, and who's your Joshua? Who is pouring into your life? Who is holding you accountable and building you up in the Lord? Also, who are you pouring yourself into? Who are you grooming to be the next spiritual leader?

We need to be prepared to do battle. We can't leave all the work for our Pastors and "Church People". Are you ready to "get in the game" if your name is called? Or are you hoping that someone else will do it? Let's all be ready, prepared, and chomping at the bit to affect this world for Jesus!!!

Testing, testing, 1-2-3!

Just giving the whole webcam/mic a run through here!

Faith

So I'm starting a new thing here on my blog. I'm going to share with everyone what my lessons were the night before. I hope to start some discussion and allow the teens (and adults) that hear my messages to sound off and give their opinions on what they learned.

Last night we talked about faith. What it is and what God says about it. We started with an illustration of a chair. I can stand 10 feet away and say to that chair, "I have faith in you to hold me up". But I really don't have complete faith in that chair because I'm not sitting in it. I went through several different examples without sitting in the chair. They all demonstrated one point - if I'm not sitting in it, I don't fully have faith in it!

It's not until we get to the tipping point and fall back into that chair that we have complete faith in it!!!

Probably the most known Bible passage on the subject of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1 where it says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." That is from the NIV, one that most of us "Old people" will remember is from the King James version and it says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen".

We talked about how we put our faith in many things everyday without even thinking about it! Things like a car, an airplane pilot, doctors, and our parents. But ultimately they all end up letting us down. We can put our faith in God who will "Never leave us or forsake us", and "Has a plan and purpose for our lives".

The second passage that we looked at was from James 2 where he was talking about the action that needs to go along with our faith. The example that was given was that of a brother or sister that was naked and hungry. The pat answer that we so many times give is "Well, I'll pray for you"! That was the response given in this passage. "I wish you well, be warm and well fed!!!"

James finishes off the passage with a stern warning in verse 26, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead".

We then tried to illustrate that point by doing the "Trust Walk". One young lady was blindfolded, and then led around the room by listening to an adult voice. The rest of us, along with some chairs and various other obstacles, tried to distract and disorient her. The goal was to make it through the course by listening to the adult voice and not listening to everyone else. The application is easy here, the young lady = us, adult voice = God, journey = our lives, everyone else = the distractions of this world.

We were able to illustrate the need to block out all voices except God's as we go through life's journey. It also illustrated the need to actually TAKE THE JOURNEY!!! She wouldn't have reached her destination had she just stood there!

What is your faith like? Is it evidenced by your actions, or is it all talk? Just like last night, I want to make sure that you understand that I'm not preaching salvation through works! Far from it! I believe in salvation by grace through faith. But as James said, "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do".

What will you do after reading this? Will we continue to give pat answers and be non effective for Christ? Or will we fully lean back and trust God to carry out His promises? Will we allow the Holy Spirit to work through us and help a lost and dying world? I pray that we will see this as a call to action, a proverbial "kick in the backside"!

Your thoughts????