Roots Student Ministry Podcast: Recent Episodes
Roots Student Ministry
The story of the shepherds hearing about Jesus wasn't enough for them, they had to go experience Jesus for themselves. So they traveled to the town of Bethlehem to go see Jesus with their very own eyes. This story helps us know that a relationship with Jesus is meant for everyone.
When we go all the way back to the very first Christmas, we realize that Jesus really shook things up. He didn't come exactly how everyone expected their Savior to come, but He came in a way that was far better for everyone. Because He came, everyone can now live a life with a relationship with Jesus.
The invitation that Jesus came to bring is the biggest invitation that you can have...a relationship with Him. We saw this invitation the very first day that Jesus was born, when the lowly Shepherds were invited to see Jesus. And that story can let you know that you're invited too.
It's good to have people you can look up to. But sometimes, if we are not careful, we start to compare ourselves to them and think that we can't live up to the standard they laid out for us. If we find ourselves comparing, we need to let God transform and renew our hearts and rest in the identity that He gave us.
When we start to compare ourselves to others, we start to become envious and jealous of the person who we compare ourselves too. We may even wonder if we can ever live up to the way they live or every have the talent they have. But the best way to combat that jealousy is to celebrate what you have and celebrate what they have. It will make you an overall joy-filled person.
In a world that is full of comparison, we can be confident in ourselves knowing that God doesn't compare ourselves to others. Instead, we should turn our focus on God and know that He made us just the way He wanted to make us.
When we're in a dark world, the Bible helps bring clarity to the darkness. It lights it up so we can see clearly around us. It may not illuminate all the answers we're looking for, but within context, it helps us know what our next step should be.
The Holy Spirit speaks to us when we are reading scripture. So it's important to keep the words of Scripture on our hearts. We do that by memorizing and living out the Scripture that we have memorized.
There are a lot of confusing things that we can read in the Bible. Most of the time it's confusing because we open the Bible to a random page and start reading. But when we really spend time looking into the context of what is happening at that time, it creates clarity for us so we can understand the Bible better.
We all probably have different views about the Bible. Some of us may love reading it, while others of us may get confused when we read the Bible. What's important is that we understand that Jesus is the main part of the WHOLE Bible. Which means we need to read Scripture through the filter of Jesus. That way we can get to know God and how He works.
Many of us may have family that isn't very consistent for us. Maybe our family is going through a hard season. It's important that we have friends that we trust as family. That's why the church is so important, because you have a church family who can come alongside you and support you.
One thing is inevitable in life, things are going to change. And when things change in our family, the way we handle it matters. Instead of fighting change and pretending that everything will always stay the same, we can open our hands and give up control to God. We can trust Him with it all.
Every family has it's challenges. Families have tension, secrets and maybe even wounds from the past. But just because every family is imperfect, it doesn't mean that your family should be counted out. God has a plan for your family and your family story isn't finished.
When it comes to family, there are a whole bunch of things in the mix. Faith can even be another big thing to add into the family mix. Maybe your family doesn't believe. Maybe your family puts a lot of pressure on you to believe what they believe. For others of us, it feels like faith is one thing and family is a completely other thing. But if you want faith to help your family, you must show as much love as you can.
Jesus has already come down to this earth and showed us how to make a difference in the world around us. We can look at Jesus' life to know how we can spread the good news of God's party here on this earth. The Kingdom of Heaven has already been brought down to this earth. It's our role to show it to everyone else.
When we're Christians, we feel like we have to defend anything that seems to be different than what we learned about faith growing up. When we're trying to defend, we stop spending time listening. But we can learn from Jesus that it's important to spend time learning. If you want to walk with wisdom, you need to know that there is always something to learn from others.
Everyone has worth and value. It's important to remember that we are valuable. And if we are valuable, that means others are valuable as well and we need to treat them that way. We need to get creative in how we celebrate others. That very act of creativity can be an act of worship to God.
We can have a lot of insecurity about where we stand when it comes to our influence. As believers, we have the light of Jesus in us that gives us the influence that we can have towards others. We can tell other people about Jesus and the relationship we have with Him.
We have all been gifted with many gifts and talents, but sometimes it seems like there is so much going on in the world that we can't really make a difference to change it. Instead of us trying to think how we can change the world, we need to think about how we can change our neighbors life around us.
Sometimes it's hard for us to be generous to others. We may even fear what other people's response would be. But a true party starter is someone who goes above and beyond. Someone who is generous to others. They celebrate and help others win.
It's easy to be a party starter in peoples lives when things are going great. It's easy to celebrate the great times in life. It's harder to come alongside those who are struggling. But in order to be a good party starter, we need to walk alongside others through their pain.
In a lot of ways in our lives, it can feel like there are two groups in life: the insiders and the outsiders. Sometimes, if we realize it or not, we can be the ones to make other people feel "out". But Jesus gave us an example that with God, everyone gets a seat at the table. Jesus spent time with the tax collectors and the sinners. The people in that society that everyone looked down upon. But with Jesus, everyone belongs.
It's easy for us to do the bare minimum. We may do it because we're tired, or it seems like it wouldn't be any benefit to do more, or maybe we're afraid of what would happen if we put more effort into something, or maybe it's simply a lack of motivation. But Jesus came and gave an example of going the extra mile for someone else. To literally go above and beyond what is expected of you. So if we want to make a difference around us, we need to do more of what is asked of us.
We may think that to be a Christian, it means we have to follow a bunch of rules. And if that were true, then Christianity would not be like a party at all. But Jesus said that He came so that we can have life to the full. That means that Jesus came so we can celebrate the life that God gave us. When we choose to follow Jesus, we’re choosing to say yes to believing that His promise of a full life is possible, no matter what comes our way. Because we have Jesus, we can start the faith party around us every day.
It's easy to draw conclusions on other people. Many times we may even create bad conclusions about others because of choices they have made or ways that they act. But when we look at who we were created to be as image bearers of God, then we also need to recognize that everyone else was created as an image bearer of God as well. Knowing you’re valuable to God is never meant to make other people less valuable to you. It's important to remember that everyone is someone made uniquely in God's image.
The real question that we are all asking is "Who am I?" We can be one way with one group of people that is different than we are with another group of people. It's all a search to find out who we really are deep down inside of us. But the truth is found in God. Scripture says we are image bearers of God. And Jesus came to give us a true example of what that looks like. When we look to Jesus on how to live, then we are being our true self.
It can be easy for us to look down on other people, especially those who are different than us. We can even justify it and say what they are doing is not the "Christian" think they should be doing. But in the story of Jesus' interaction with the woman at the well, we see that Jesus includes anyone...even the people that were different than Him. We need to see people the way God sees people.
Sometimes our own worst enemy is ourselves. Maybe we don't love ourselves, or maybe we think that loving ourselves is selfish. In some ways, the idea of loving God and others is much easier than the idea of loving ourselves. But Jesus changes everything. Jesus connects our ability to love God and love others to our ability to love ourselves. It's not about building more self-confidence or having a better self-esteem. It's about truly knowing your identity in Christ and who God created you to be.
Jesus said the most important command is to love God and to love others. But how exactly do we love God? Well, God gave us an example by sending His Son to this earth and showing us how to live. If we live like Jesus, we are loving God with everything we have.
Our faith can get a little complicated. We start to ask deep questions and we don't fully understand what the Bible says about it. It seems like we have to be a Bible scholar in order to be a "good" Christian. But when Jesus came down to earth, He made sure to let everyone know that your faith should not be complicated. Simply put: love God and love others.
Everyone goes through struggles and hardships. But what are we supposed to do about them? This week, we look at the story where Jesus heals the blind man in John 9. In this story, we see that our hardships that we go through are ways that God can show Himself to be faithful in our lives.
No matter how much you have messed up, God's grace still forgives you. When you rest in His forgiveness, you can learn from your mistakes and become stronger in your faith. This week's message was written and delivered by students from Camarillo High School, Newbury Park High School and Homeschool students who are a part of Roots.
There's a lot of unfair things that happen around us. And when something feels unfair, it can bring up a lot of emotions in us. But when we look at what happened because of the death and resurrection of Christ, we learn that God is full of grace. We see this in how Jesus restores Peter back to right-standing with Him. Did Peter deserve it? No. But through the life of Jesus, we can see that God's grace is unfairly good.
Jesus went to the cross for us. He abolished the need to work hard so we can be saved. He said "It is finished". That means that we can have a relationship with God all because of the work that Jesus did on the cross and His resurrection from the grave.
Sometimes we can get the wrong view of God. We may even think that God is the bad guy who makes us live by rules or even the guy who's in control of the chaos that is happening in your life. Sometimes how we feel about God doesn't represent what is true about God. When we look at the way that Jesus lived, we realized that He was real and honest with His Father. We need to learn from Jesus and know that we can be real with God and trust that He will be good no matter what the outcome.
We always hear about how opposites attract, but that really isn't the case. We are drawn to people who are more like us. It just feels more natural. But we are surrounded by people who are nothing like us, even at church. Maybe that's why Jesus prayed for unity for the Church near the end of His life. He knew that people would start to see Him through the unity of the people who love Him.
It's easy for us to forget things. We forget what others have done for us and take them for granted. We forget things that have happened to others, and it communicates a lack of care. And we forget promises we make, and it hurts the feelings of other people. Just before Jesus went to the cross, He sat down with His disciples for a final supper to help them always remember what He has done on this earth. Jesus knows that we tend to forget, so before He left, He taught the disciples to remember. When we remember, we come to realize that Jesus never changes.
When thoughts about suicide start to creep in, you may start to believe the lie that the world would just move on without you, or even be a better place. In turn, you just feel like everything is hopeless. And if you give that through enough time and repetition in an isolated brain, eventually it will become comfortable there. But Jesus came to give life. So no matter what our temporary problem is, we can't make a permanent decision because of a temporary problem. Through the hope of Jesus, we can choose hope today and life tomorrow.
We like having our space and freedom and we don't like when others tell us what to do. We don't like when boundaries are put in place. But we also don't like when others cross the boundaries that we have put up. In this message, we talk about how boundaries can not only be good for us when it comes to our sexual integrity, but also boundaries can be very powerful. Boundaries help us be wiser when it comes to our sexual integrity.
We all go through difficult times and we all make mistakes. It's tempting to keep all those mistakes in the darkness. One of the healthiest things for us is to have a trusted person who we can go to so we can share about our struggles and temptations. That way we an turn the light on and see things as they truly are.
Technology can be really difficult to manage. We have probably all gone down an online rabbit hole that we are not proud of. Whether it's pornography, stalking an ex, or even sending or receiving nudes. Things online aren't always what they seem and technology can become a poor substitute for real sexual connection the way that God intended. We'll take a look at 1 Corinthians 6:18 and talk about the importance of fleeing from sexual immorality.
It's not always fun having the sex talk. But we do believe it's important. And when it comes to sex, we know that everyone has an opinion. But what does the Bible say about it? Well, when we look at the very beginning of the Bible, we see that God created sex and He created it to be good. But it's also important to know that sex was also created to be very powerful. So how we treat sex and how we treat other people matters. So the best way to treat sex is with sexual integrity with appropriate boundaries and mutual respect.
Anxiety has been more prevalent over the last decade. Most, if not all of you have have struggled with anxiety. Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure. There is helpful anxiety, unhelpful anxiety, and consistent anxiety. But how do we deal with this anxiety that we feel? This message will bring up ideas on how to can get through your anxiety with God on your side. There is a way that you know you'll be ok.
Our words matter. Have you ever had someone say something to you that you have remembered for years, but they probably forgot they said it just a couple seconds after they say it? That's because we remember the words that are spoken to us. So no matter the type of conflict we are in, our words play a key roll in how the conflict resolves. That's why it's important to use gentle words.
Your integrity matters. Integrity is being the same person with your friends than you are with adults. Integrity is being the same person when you're alone and when you're with people. Integrity is choosing to make the right decisions even when no one else is choosing to make the right decisions. The decisions that you make that no one sees builds a good reputation that everyone remembers.
There are a lot of gray areas with decisions that we have to make. Sometimes decisions we make are not technically bad, but they may be categorized as unwise. Learning how to discern wisdom helps us avoid foolish decisions. We can discern wisdom by spending time with God by reading scripture and learning from older God-fearing adults who can speak into our lives.
How can you be one of the smartest people in the world yet still make dumb decisions? You may know people who have a really high IQ but they seem to throw their life away. It's because IQ doesn't really matter in the long run. But your wisdom does. Your knowledge may be nice in school, but your wisdom helps you succeed in life. Wisdom is gained through evaluated experiences.
Christmas can bring a lot of messes to the surface. And most of the time we try to manage the mess on our own. We manage our image, expectations, relationships and even our behavior. We try to manage the mess and when things get out of control, we don't like it. When we realize that Jesus came so that we could finally have real joy, peace, hope, and love, everything changes. He came so that we don't have to be the one to keep everything together. We can trust Him in the midst of the messy circumstances.
When your Christmas is starting to feel messy and complicated, it's important for us to remember that the circumstances when Jesus came into this world were messy and complicated. We can learn from the Christmas story that Jesus shows up in the middle of the mess.
The Christmas season is all about joy and peace and hope, but sometimes the Christmas season just doesn't feel that way. Sure, everything around you can be decorated beautifully, but when it comes to your home life, what's happening at school, or even what you feel inside of you, this Christmas season doesn't feel all that joy filled. So when it seems like this Christmas season is getting a little messy, then remember that you are not alone because God is always with you. Jesus came down to this earth as a child to prove that God is with us.
Treating people like "trash" has become the new normal. Our culture has gotten used to being mean to people. We either have been bullied, been the one bullying or watched someone be bullied. But when we start to see everyone as masterpieces created by God, we can solve the problem of bullying.
Holding onto our faith is important. But what happens when what we've believed in the past gets shaken? We may have based our foundation of our faith on Bible stories that we learned about when we were in Sunday school, or maybe on other peoples expectations of us to believe in Jesus, or even holding onto God through tragedy or trauma in our lives. But what happens when that foundation gets rattled? Will our whole faith crumble? In this message, we talk about what our foundational belief should be. The death and resurrection of Jesus. That foundation has held true for over 2000 years. We can believe in the work of Jesus because of the proof of the resurrection.
From the very beginning, Jesus was there. So when we are asking questions about how the earth was created, or how/when did dinosaurs exist, we can be confident knowing that we can trust the Who behind it all. Jesus came down as the Son of God and people were eye witnesses to His death and resurrection. Because of the work that Jesus did, we can be sure that even if we don't know all the answers, we can still trust Him with our lives.
Wondering is part of who we are. When it comes to faith and science, we have probably wondered if they can even go together. Many may even argue that faith and science are complete opposites of each other. But as we start to explore more about science, we should be able to learn more about our faith. As we begin to explore science, we can see the God behind it all.
We are inundated with bad news every day. From the war in Europe, to what political leader did the wrong thing, to which celebrity got cancelled this last week. It's easy for us to focus on the negative things that happen. But what would happen to the world around us if we truly lived out the fruit of the Spirit? People would see the change in us and want to be around us because we will feel "safe" to them. When we set our minds on things of the Spirit, you're more likely to see the Spirit at work around you and through you. And others will see it in you as well.
You may feel that in order to live the fruits of the Spirit, you need to do it all on your own. But if we've done that before, we know that living the good life is just out of reach. But in order to find what we're truly looking for, we need to be living with God as our focus and be in step with Him. In order to live the good life, we need to stay in step with the Spirit.
In this weeks message, we talk specifically about what each fruit of the Spirit means. Instead of just understanding each word from a basic point of view, let's dig deeper into what a better view of each fruit means.
We may think that we need to make the good life happen on our own. We need the nicest car, newest iPhone, the spot on the team, the A on the test in order to have the good life. But ultimately the good life comes from the inside. It comes from God working inside of you so you can become who He created you to be. When you start to practice that in your life, then you'll start to find the good life.
We all want to live the good life, but most of our lives we just live on auto-pilot. We do our day to day activities with minimal change. We may think the good life is fun, good food, lots of money, nice cars and living in big cities, but those will all fall short. The good life is when we can live life with the Holy Spirit inside of us. The Spirit will produce great characteristics inside of us so that we can live out the good life.
One thing that all of us have experienced is a changing of friendship. Maybe someone moved away and your friendship changed. Maybe a friend hurt you and the friendship changed. So what do we do when it's time to change the friendship? Or more specifically, how do we "unfriend" someone? If we're honest, we realize that some friendships are not meant to be forever, but just a season. So how can we let those friendships go and yet still be friendly? Well, that's what we're talking about in this podcast.
The people around you definitely have a big impact on your life. And the friend you have now will have a big influence on your quality of life now and where your life ends up later. That's because friends are a big deal. So we need to surround ourselves with the right influences who make our lives better. We get to choose the impact they have on our lives.
Growing up, we weren't always taught how to be good friends. We were taught to say thank you, work hard and behave, but we weren't taught how to manage friendships well. So we are left to try to figure out friendships naturally on our own, which is hard to do when friendships are always changing and expectations aren't always met. But to create good friendships, we need to be proactive instead of reactive. That means we need to serve our friends, just like Jesus served His disciples.
All teenagers think about their body image. In fact, even adults think about their body image all the time. We have a specific way that we view ourselves, and we have a specific way that we think that other people view us. And this can center around any number of things. Things like our height, muscle mass, hair, acne, skin tone, weight, as well as other things. But when it comes to body image, you and I need to examine our thoughts. We need to be kind to ourselves and see ourselves as made in the image of God, as a beautiful creation.
No one is meant to figure out life on their own. With so much noise going on around us, we need to figure out who to listen to. When we look for someone who is older than us who is living the life that we want ours to look like, then we should allow ourselves to listen to them. Everyone needs a mentor in their life who can speak truth into our lives so we can grow in wisdom.
When Paul wrote to the young leader, Timothy, He didn't see him as someone who would be a great leader later. Paul saw him as someone who could be a great leader while he was young. Even though you're young now, God still has a purpose for your time as a teenager. So decide what you want your teenagers years to be all about, and live it out.
When it comes to our faith, some of us feel underestimated by others. We feel like our faith is not challenged. But some of us feel like there are just too many pressures when it comes to our faith. Like we have to live up to a certain level to be a "good Christian." Today we look at the example in 1 Timothy where Paul tells Timothy to be the example and don't let anyone look down on you because of your age. When we see how Timothy lived, we can realize that we can own our own faith and grow to be more like Jesus.
Most of us feel like we have to fight for ourselves to get through life on top. That may mean cutting others down so we can feel better about ourselves. But Jesus flipped that idea upside down. He cared more about how we love and serve other people. He knew that when we served others, we would experience the true freedom that Jesus wants us to have. We are free to make a difference in other people's lives.
When we think about sin, we think about it like a sliding scale. Some sin is definitely worst than others. So then we start to naturally ask the question, "What can I get away with and still not be a 'bad person'?" But that shouldn't be the question we ask at all. What we should do is think about what our future will look like with the choices we make now. Because what we plant now is what we'll harvest later. So the real question we should ask is, "What do we want to harvest?"
As teenagers, we're always worrying about winning the approval from others. Maybe it's our parents, our teachers, our coaches, or even our friends. We care what people think about us. But scripture tells us that the only approval we need to be thinking about is God's approval. When we do things for God, it changes the priorities of everything else in our lives.
Many of us may think that when it comes to our faith, it's all about the rules. "Thou shalt not do certain things and thou shalt do other things" is what we have probably heard while growing up. But because of Jesus, we are set free from the rules. Instead of thinking of faith as things that you can and cannot do, it's more important to think of faith like a destination. What do we want our future to look like? Now start setting the right course for our lives.
We have hard things that we face all the time. When something comes up that takes a lot of work, or takes longer than we are used to, and we haven’t had the practice to be resilient, it feels impossible to take on. But knowing Jesus can help change everything. He can help us see ourselves in the right perspective and see ourselves as strong, capable and resilient.
Many times we feel like we have to do everything on our own. So we start to pull away from others, hold things back from other people, or start to think that life is "all about me". But true resilience is built with others around you, who support you to keep going. Others help us grow, help us see the good and give the support that we need.
Life gets hard. We will face trouble. And that can sometimes make us question everything about God. But God, the Father sent Jesus down to this earth to show us that He has overcome the world. Because of that, we can take heart and have peace. So whenever we are facing trouble, we know that God has never given up on us, so we can never give up on God.
We all know the stories of the sports star who came from humble beginnings. They rose to the top because of hard work. They faced setbacks, but that made them stronger. We can get knocked down in our own lives too. But it's how we respond which will show how we become stronger. When we get back up, it's called resilience. And resilience helps us never give up.
There are probably two main categories that we fall into. The first, we make a lot of mistakes and we know what it's like to get disciplined by our parents, teachers or administrators. The second, we don't make a lot of mistakes but we look at the people who do make mistakes and make judgments based on their decisions. When we look at the story of the adulterous woman, Jesus points out that both sides are in the wrong position. The great thing is, Jesus offers us grace and so we are to offer grace to others as well.
Jesus always looked out for those who were overlooked. Whether everyone else cast them aside, or whether their sin has separated them from society, Jesus still engaged and shared the good news that God had for them. When we look at the story of the woman at the well, we see that Jesus loved the Samaritan woman even though Jewish culture did not associate with the Samaritan culture. Through this story, we can see that reaching out to someone can make all the difference to make a major change in their life.
We can put all our attention on our dating life. We can daydream all day about that crush and it takes our attention away from other things that are more important. But what we think about matters. And we need to look at our lives, including our dating lives, through the lens of Christ. So many thoughts that run through our head can be negative. But we have the power to choose what we think about, which allows us to pick our perspective...so choose wisely.
A relationship inevitably is going to go one of two ways. Either you're going to spend forever with that person, or it's going to end in a breakup. The fact of the matter is that most relationships end in a breakup. And breakups can be hard. But that doesn't mean you have freedom to hurt the other person because of the way you are feeling. It is important to remember that they are still a real person and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Just because a breakup happens doesn't mean it has to break you.
It's tempting to want a relationship so bad that it's all you think about. Or when you are in a relationship, you drop all your friends and spend all your time with your significant other. But when you do that, you miss out on a lot of other good things you have going on in your life, you alienate people, and you end up losing yourself. You were never meant to have a narrow minded focus on any one thing, especially in high school. That is why it is important to not let anyone become your everything.
Dating can be a complicated subject in High School. Many high schoolers are looking for "The One". Maybe not the one to marry, but at least the one to be in a relationship and make them happy throughout their high school lives. When it comes to dating, gaining and applying wisdom is the best way to figure out how to think about relationships. When you apply the wisdom, you realize that becoming the one is better than finding the one.
When you go through hard times, it feels lonely. The great thing about Jesus coming to this earth is that He understands what we are going through. He knows what it feels like to go through tough times because He went through tough times. Not only does Jesus get how you feel, but He can help you. Because of Jesus, you can know that you're never alone.
We all make mistakes and we all sin. And sin is damaging because it always takes something away from someone and creates distance. Most of the time, sin hurts us or hurts someone else. It hurts friendships, dreams, relationships, your self-worth, your health, and any of the other things you value most. But sin is the very reason why Jesus died on the cross. We tend to let our past hold us back from the relationship that God wants with us. But when we look to the cross, we realize that we are forgiven of our sin. Our past doesn't have to hold us back.
For many of us, we go throughout life making decisions based on whether or not that decision will make our lives better or not. We can do that same thing with church and our relationship with God as well. In turn, we start to think about our faith being more about rules, so we can decide not to attend church or engage our faith on a regular basis. But Jesus came down to this earth not to establish more rules for us to follow, but to show us how we can live life to the full. In order to have that life, we need to say yes to Jesus, to say yes the things that He said yes to, and to serve others along the way.
Jesus came to fulfill all the Old Testament Law...but why is there still bad in this world? Why do bad things happen like war, hunger, racism, sexism, genocide, injustice and pandemics still happen? Well, Jesus had a plan for making wrong things right. It wasn’t just miracles, and it wasn’t temporary politics when He was walking on this earth. His plan was us. We, as Christians, are the ones who He calls to make wrong things right.
40% of middle school and high school students feel lonely or disconnected from others most of the time. Maybe you have felt that way too. The great news is that Jesus came down on earth to show us that God cares for us. You can feel distant from friends and family but God is close to you. You can be confident that because of Jesus, you can be close to God. You are never alone.
Many of us probably think of prayer as a way to ask God for something. Maybe for him to fix a problem you are going through. Or maybe it's for something good to happen that you are expecting. Or maybe it's to do well on your math test coming up. For many of us, prayer is a one way street...just us talking to God. But what if we saw prayer in a different way? What if we saw prayer as more than just one way? There are many ways that we can pray, but what's most important is for us to be real, be honest, and to be consistent. When we practice prayer, we learn to find the way that we connect with God the most.
When we're praying in church, sometimes we get the idea that we have to use fancy words, formal words or even fake words to sound more spiritual to God. Maybe even if we pray the right way, then we'll get what we want. But the point of prayer is not what you say to God, but rather about being near and close to God. The way we get close to God is similar to how we get close to friends...we have real and honest conversations. God can handle our thoughts and the things we say to Him in prayer and He wants that honesty to grow a close relationship with you.
If you want your faith to grow, you need to establish spiritual habits in your life. You cannot just expect God to grow your faith while just showing up to church on Sunday and that is all you do throughout the week. In order to create good spiritual habits, you need to start small and continue to grow those habits. Just like any sport or instrument that you play, there is always a starting point. So start learning the ins and the outs of how you connect with God, and keep growing in it on a daily basis.
We will all go through hard turning points in our lives. These turning points can effect our faith in two different ways: It can pull us away from God or push us towards God. When we look at the story of Jesus and Lazarus, we can know that Jesus is with us in our emotions throughout these turning points. When we acknowledge that God is with us, these turning points can grow our faith.
It's easy to go to church and listen to sermons on a regular basis, but when you actually start to put into practice when you learn, then you can really see what God wants to do through you. A main part of our faith is serving others. When you truly learn who Jesus is, He changes your heart to learn to love others better. Whether it's starting small like serving within your life group, or something bigger, like serving on a mission trip, take the step today to serve other people. When you serve, you'll realize that you cannot get over what God wants to do through you.
Part of growing up is developing a personal faith on your own. The problem with trying to do it alone, is that you won't be able to grow as fast. We need other people to help us grow to our greatest potential in the faith. If we surround ourselves with the right people, they can help move our faith in the right direction. It all comes down to the point where real faith grows with other people.
As we grow older, we easily grasp on to the faith of someone we look up to. It could be our parents faith, or because our grandma believes. But when you have someone else's faith, it's easy to come to church every week and go through the motions. You may even pay attention to the messages every week. But that is a counterfeit faith that believes because someone else believes. This, in fact, is not wrong, but it is not where God wants to keep you. Real faith is about putting what you learn to practice. Real faith is about doing something about what you know about faith. Real faith allows Jesus to change everything in you.
Whether you have been hurt or you have hurt someone, it takes awhile for the relationship to go back to the way it was. It's all because healing takes time. There is no quick fix. There’s no “feeling better” when you forgive. There’s no immediate reward. There’s no way to get your emotions to follow what you know is true deep down. There’s no way to make it all immediately better—for you or for someone else. Forgiveness takes time. But there is a process that we can go through to make sure we handle the healing process in the right way.
Many times when we get hurt, we want to shove the other person out of our lives...we want to cancel them. But it is important to remember that Jesus canceled our debts when He hung up on that cross. If we can be forgiven of anything, why can't we forgive others who have hurt us? We have to remember that no one is perfect, and we have to offer a little grace to those who hurt us. It's then that we can remember that we can cancel the debt, not the person.
Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping that the person you are not forgiving will be hurt from it. Unforgiveness leads to bitterness in our own hearts which leads us to be the one carrying around the hurt. The only way we can let go of that bitterness and that grudge that we are holding on to is by forgiving the person who hurt us. It's ok to feel hurt, it's ok to feel angry, but forgiveness is the first step towards healing.
We can easily think that "joy" is just better than "happiness". If you are joy filled, then you are always happy. But joy is deeper than that. Joy doesn’t ignore the hard stuff in life, but it doesn’t let the hard stuff determine how you feel. When we look at the Christmas story, we see that Jesus coming was good news for all people. That Good News allows us to experience joy in all areas of our lives because we can trust Jesus with our lives. So if we experience the joy ourselves from Jesus, we need to share that joy with others.
When we look at Christmas, there really is not a lot of peace about it. There is a lot of chaos in our schedules, at the stores, and our packages are coming late in the mail. When we look at the Christmas story, Jesus came to bring peace. Not peace to our circumstances, but peace in our hearts. So when things in your life seem to be crazy around you, bring the peace of Jesus with you to those who need it.
As we start our new Christmas series, we look at the life of the shepherds who heard from the Angels that the Messiah had come. Before that time, there was 400 years of silence from God. People weren't hearing from prophets, they weren't hearing signs from God...nothing. But that special day of Jesus' birth, the noise was turned all the way up and people could now learn what God's character was like...in person. Through Jesus, we can know that God loves us.
When we look at the upside down Kingdom, our lives are supposed to look different. The power that we have is meant to lift others up, not tear them down. We do this by loving others well. Jesus is a prime example for us to use power well. In this message, we look at what it looks like to lead ourselves well and lead others well.
We may have a lot of leaders in our lives who do not use their leadership well. You may not even have respect for them. But in the upside down Kingdom that God wants for us, we are to honor those who we may not respect. We need to honor all of those who are in authority, even if we do not feel like it. In today's message, we learn about how David still was honorable even when he had the chance to take matters into his own hands. Through his story, we learn that honor is greater than power.
The idea of power can be complicated. Even if you have it, there is always someone else who has more. Or maybe you aren't always sure what to do with the power that you have. Or maybe you have realized that it isn't always as great as you think it was going to be. In this message, we see that we were created to have power and authority. That is who we are as humans. But we are to use our power for good and never to make others feel small, hurt, or oppressed. That is how Jesus showed His power while He walked around on this earth. Jesus really did turn the idea of power upside down.
Most young people are asking a deep question about themselves. They're asking "What difference can I make?" It's easy to think that we're too young or inexperienced to make a difference around us. It's important to notice that God doesn't ask us to do anything HUGE; He asks us to be faithful in whatever is put before us. He has gifted each of us uniquely and the real question that we need to be asking is "Am I doing what only I can do?" When you start to work through that question, then you start to see areas that you can make a difference in the world around you.
We have a natural desire to belong. It is hardwired into us. Asking the question, "Where do I fit in?" is one of life's biggest questions, especially for middle school and high school students. It's like we are constantly having to work to fin in where we want to fit. But the great thing is, that we belong in the family of God because of the work of Jesus. There is nothing that can separate us from God or from His family.
It's easy to feel tremendous pressure to decide who you are as a teenager, but you are still just beginning to discover yourself. It's important to remember that defining who you are is not a destination that you reach, but a lifelong process and no matter how your interests, talents, and life circumstances change, Jesus says that you are enough.
We ask questions all the time, and many times when we want to find answers to our questions we then go to Google. But what happens when you have a question where you get many different answers when you google it? We don't know what to believe. This happens with the question "What does it mean to follow Jesus?" Today we want to tackle that question and look at what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus. When we look at how the first disciples were called to follow Jesus, it can help us understand what the first step is that we need to take and follow just the same.
Whenever you go through hardships in life, it usually comes with some major change. When we face these hardships, we can trust that God is with us and that He is making us stronger through it all. You can work through your pain and hardships which will ultimately make you stronger personally and spiritually.
Whenever we are facing changes in our lives, it is often attached to some fear. Many times the fear that grips us can hold us back from making the necessary changes that we need to make. What's great is that we know that God is with us through all the changes we go through. So it's not about being scared, but about following God even though we may be scared. The things we face may be real, but we can have courage because we have God with us.
We can go through a lot of bad change in our lives. Bad change can be very difficult. Sometimes that change even means that whatever has broken simply cannot be fixed. We may even wonder where God is when we are going through some difficult change. The fact of the matter is, we will face change that is hard. God doesn't promise that He will fix those hardships, but He does promise that He will be WITH us through those hardships.
Middle school and high school students understand change. I mean, it happens on a constant basis. But when everything is swirling in change, we can rest assured that God will always stay the same. So whenever we have change that we may not like, we can know that God is faithful to be constant in our lives because God doesn't change...He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Many have different experiences in their life group. Some struggle to connect with those in their group, while others think it's the best thing in their week. No matter how you feel about your life group, God created us to be in connection with each other. If you put in energy into your life group, you'll get great things out of it. So make this years life groups the best yet, because you get out what you put in.
Money can be a touchy subject and it can bring up a lot of tough questions. Maybe because you don't want anyone to tell you what to do with your money, or maybe you don't have enough to feel like you can keep up with everyone else. The problem with money is that we all wish we had more. But the love of money can cause problems. It can cause greed, stealing, jealousy, and lying. It's important for us to learn how to handle money properly so we can own the money instead of the other way around.
Whenever temptation comes our way and we give in, we can start to feel ashamed for what we did. When we are ashamed, we feel like there is no turning back...we screwed up too much. Thankfully, Jesus came to this earth and died on the cross so that we can start life fresh again. When we start again, we can keep our eyes focused on making good decisions that honor God.
We're always looking for what we can get away with and when we are doing that we usually have a battle within us. One side of our mind thinks that God is going to be mad, while the other side thinks that God will show us grace. While God's grace is amazing, His grace doesn't promise us that there will be no consequences. Based on this, we need to have wisdom in the choices that we make. We need to look at the bigger picture. We can find how to live through scripture and the words that God provides for us. When we do that, we can trust what God has labeled as true.
Our temptations will often come with the thought, “I need ______.” That's why it's important to trust God knows what we need and is looking out for us.
We're starting a new series on how to resist temptation. Temptation in and of itself is not bad. Everyone experiences it. It's what we do with temptation that matters. So it's important to know who we are in Christ so that we can resist the temptation, because what we think is TRUE about us influences what we DO. And God knows us better than we know ourselves, so we need to let what God says about us influence what we do.
It's easy for us to focus in on worship as being singing during church only. Yes, that is a form of worship, but it is not the only form of worship. Worship is a way for us to connect to God better and love God better. Worship is putting our focus and our energy towards God. It's a way of declaring "God, you are greater than we are. You're bigger than anything we can imagine." When you learn to truly worship God with your heart, you will learn what it is like to get to know Him better.
Many times we may be afraid to bring up a conversation about God because we either don't know what to say, or we don't know enough about what we believe, or we don't want to sound stupid, or we don't want to offend someone. But talking about God can really help us become close to Him. That's why it's important for us to share our story about our faith in God. We can start to share the reason for the hope we have in our lives and when we do that, then we start to get to know God better.
Whether we feel like prayer doesn't work or that it's hard to talk to an invisible God, prayer can be difficult. But it's important to know that any time you talk to God, you're close to God and He's close to you. Prayer is less about asking God for the things that you want and more about spending time connecting with Him. Be honest with God, praise Him with your prayers, thank Him with your prayers. When you do these things, you will start to realize that when you talk to God, it is helping you get to know Him better.
If you have grown up around the church, or around church people, you have probably heard the importance of the Bible in our lives. Maybe you have even tried to read it before, but you feel like you just didn't connect with it. Maybe it was too hard to read, or you felt like what you read was not relevant to your life. But the fact of the matter is that we need to spend time making a habit of listening to God through reading scripture. God's Word changes us as we spend time reading it and pondering the deeper meaning. It gives us perspective, wisdom and guidance. But in order for us to receive that, we have to put time into reading and understanding it. Listening to God through His Word helps us know Him better.
Is there anything that you ever wanted to do so bad, and you had all the intentions of following through with it, but over time you forgot about it and then that desire just faded away? The quickest way for something to go from “super important” to “kinda forgot about it” is for it to be out of our sight. Out of sight, out of mind is a real thing. We can do the same thing with our own faith. We can have all the desire in the world to love God and get to know Him better, but unless we make it a habit to be intentional with connecting with Him, we won't actually get to know Him better. In order for us to connect with God more, we need to consistently spend time with God. When we do that, we can truly get to know Him better.
When we go through a hard season in our lives, it's very easy for us to turn to unhealthy things to cope. Maybe it's binge watching Netflix, or scrolling through TikTok, or overeating, or self harm, or going into porn or a relationship. When something happens, we turn to something to escape. But ignoring things doesn't make it disappear. In order for us to fully feel hope, we need to fully feel our emotions no matter how painful they might be. We have to feel to move forward.
We may hold back on our dreams because we are afraid to fail, or we think we're not good enough. But God calls us to DREAM BIG and He wants us to know that we can accomplish anything through Him. In this podcast, we will be looking at the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 and how the disciples were able to accomplish it even though it seemed impossible. God can use us wherever we are.
When we talk about a rebel in church, we seem to always talk about it in a negative sense. But when we talk about a rebellious Christian, it's someone who goes against the rules of our culture. Jesus was a rebel in His time and shifted history. If we are to be a rebel like Jesus, then we have to do things above and beyond for others. We don't just settle for average, but we set the bar high by loving, respecting and honoring others well.
In a world where there is so much pressure, and everyone has an opinion, it's hard to decide what is right and wrong. Especially when it comes to sex. In this message, we'll see that Jesus has more in mind for your life. He wants you to pay attention to every action and every thought and every feeling that you have. Paying attention helps you be aware of how you can set boundaries when it comes to loving and treating others.
The topic of sex can be confusing. Some people talk about sex like it's dangerous or bad while others seem to think it's no big deal at all. When you talk about sex within the church, it seems like it's a HUGE deal, but when you weigh it with what culture says about it, it seems like sex is just a normal thing of life and can be treated casually. In this weeks message, we look at how sex is never casual no matter how casually it is treated around you. We will learn that God is calling us to be the kind of people who understand that how we treat another human being is never casual, no matter how casually people act about it.
We're not just affected by porn, we are all actually influenced by the culture of porn. The culture of porn is all around us in our music, TV shows, movies and other entertainment choices that we choose. But porn teaches us a fake education on God's intended plan for sex. In fact, studies have shown that porn can even damage your future sex life within marriage because of its false promises that it makes. It's important to know that porn never tells the whole story, and we can make wise choices now that will have better effects on our future.
Talking about sex can be a little weird...until you notice that it is everywhere around us. Singers sing about it. Netflix shows don't avoid it. Magazines at the grocery stores talk about it on their covers. It's taught at school. It's joked about with friends. Because it is everywhere, we believe it is important for the church to talk about it too. This week we are starting a new series talking about how we can live according to God's plan for sex. When we do that, we learn that we can live with sexual integrity.
We all mess up. None of us have lived up to what God's standard is. Peter was someone who messed up big time by denying Jesus right before Jesus was killed on a cross. But Jesus rose from the grave on the third day and then showed Peter that because of the resurrection, Peter didn't have to be defined by his mistake. He was forgiven because of the work of Jesus. We are also forgiven any mistakes that we have made. Because of the resurrection, we have a new life in Christ.
Have you ever felt unnoticed and unimportant? Maybe when you're at school you feel like everyone is watching you, but doesn't actually care about who you truly are. In this message, we see how Jesus shows that Mary Magdalene matters, where many overlooked and didn't think much of her. But after Jesus resurrected, He chose to appear before Mary first, showing her that she matters to Him. Just like Mary matters, we matter to Jesus as well. That is why He died on the cross for us and conquered death on the 3rd day.
Sometimes we can have incorrect views on God. We may think that God is a perfectionist and expects us to never mess up. Or that God is an angry God and will strike us down if we make a big mistake. Or maybe we think God is a distant God, being up in Heaven and all and doesn't care much about us here on earth. But because of Jesus and the resurrection, it proves that God loved us so much that He sent His only son. Today, we look at the life of John and how he experienced God's love through the resurrection of Christ.
One of Jesus' biggest commandments is to love others. Not just love our friends and hate our enemies, but to even love our enemies. We love others by serving others. When we truly learn to submit to God, He starts to transform our hearts to find ways to serve others in small ways and big ways. Thankfully He also provides a church family to serve alongside you so you don't have to do it alone. This message is all about the importance of serving others.
Isn't it hard to deal with when someone says they will do something, but they end up doing the complete opposite? None of us like hanging around people who are hypocrites. We also don't want to be known as someone who is a hypocrite. Today, we look at when we do something that we know we shouldn't be doing, or don't do something that we should be doing, all stems from our hearts. Jesus talks a lot about hypocrites in the Gospels. He especially challenges the religious leaders of their time as being hypocrites. It had nothing to do with their actions, but everything to do with their heart. The deal is, we're all going to mess up, but it's how we respond afterwards that exposes what is truly inside of us.
When we commit to Christ, we don't get a free pass to take advantage of His grace. We have died to our sin and are alive in Christ. We learn that it is only when we submit to Christ that we experience the true freedom that He talks about in the Gospel of John. Being alive in Christ may cost us something that we want and it may be a sacrifice. But thankfully, God is for us and will give us the desires of our heart that are honoring to Him.
Whatever emotions are inside of us are what is going to come out of us. If we are feeling a lot of guilt, then a lot of negative emotions are also going to come out of us. But Jesus has already taken care of our guilt. He took our guilt and our shame to the cross with Him so that sin no longer can have a hold on us. The Holy Spirit has set us free from guilt and shame. Because of Jesus, guilt doesn't have to rule over us or be the boss of us.
Fear can be a good thing and can keep us safe when we need to be, but fear can also stop us dead in our tracks. Teenagers especially can struggle the most with the fear of other people's opinions, which stop them from living the full life that God has for them. This message will look at the story in Matthew 8 where the disciples feared for their lives because their boat was being tossed and turned by a storm. But Jesus had other plans for them and used the time for a teaching moment for His disciples. Teaching that taught that He can be trusted and they do not need to fear.
One of the hardest emotions to control is anger. When something doesn't go our way or when someone hurts us by talking behind our back, we want to throw some sort of fit. It may be an outburst, or it may even be a quiet treatment towards the person who hurt us. But, what if there was a better way to handle anger? What if we could hand over our anger to God and trust Him with it? When we are able to give our anger up to God, then we gain wisdom and understanding on how to live our life. I think every one of us would choose wisdom over anger.
We are starting a new series where we talk about emotions. We all experience emotions, it's part of how God created us. In today's message, we look at how feeling emotions is not a bad thing unless we start to act out of those emotions. What defiles our witness for Christ is what comes out of our reactions to the emotions. Today, we learn that emotions do not have to control us and be the boss of us.
In our final week of "It's Personal" we continue to take a look at the life of Zacchaeus. In this story we see how Jesus sees the potential in Zacchaeus when everyone else counted him out. Jesus is the same with us. He sees that we have potential to do great things, so we must also see that potential in others as well.
No matter what your past looks like or if you have shame for what you have done, Jesus still loves you. We continue to look at the life of Zacchaeus and how Jesus loves him even though his reputation was not favorable. We hope that through this story of Zacchaeus you can know that Jesus loves you no matter what.
We all have a story. No matter what your story looks like, whether it's been good or bad, Jesus understands it and welcomes you with open arms. This week, we continue to look at the story of Zacchaeus as our intern Jennifer Allen gives the message.
Jesus cares about what you care about. If we want to be personal with others, we need to care about what other people care about. When we do this, we can really become personal with others, just like how Jesus became personal with Zacchaeus.
It's amazing that the God who made the universe also knows your name. How do we know that? We see it in the story of Zacchaeus which we will be looking at throughout this series called "It's Personal." In this series we will realize how much Jesus loves us and cares about us and gives us an example to live out for others.
Jesus gives an amazing example of a garden with vines. He explains why it's so important that we stay connected to the vine so that our spiritual lives can continue to bear fruit.
The reason why Jesus came to this earth was to help you know that you are not just invited to belong in the Kingdom, you also belong in the Kingdom. Remember that we celebrate Christmas because it was God's way of saying that we belong with Him.
Some things are so hard to believe, or just so crazy, that you just need to see it for yourself. This Christmas season, our challenge to you is to really get to know the Christmas story yourself. You won’t be disappointed.
Oftentimes we have expectations that aren't met - for our friends, our family, and even God. But no matter what our reality is, God is with us through it all.
Words really are powerful and they have the potential to hurt others. As Christ followers, we are called to build people up with our words. We need to plant kindness, selflessness, and humility so that we can grow a positive view of others (as people loved and made in God's image!) and speak to them in a loving way.
We all get in arguments. Some of us may even be masters at winning them. But it's never good if you win an argument but you lose the relationship with the person you were arguing with. The argument may last for a season, but the relationship could last way longer.
God provides us with a Church family who can spur us on to be better. Today we talk about the story of David and Johnathan and the friendship that became more like family.
Family change is the hardest change. But it doesn't always have to be difficult. Your mindset and how you view the change matters. It's important to look at the bigger picture.