What's Next?

-Celebrate Junior High Retreat.

-Senior High Mission Trip sign up’s have begun.

-Talk about this month’s schedule.

Have you ever done something in the wrong direction?

(Share story of me driving wrong way in parking garage.)

I think it’s so important that as a ministry we talk about, we pray about, and we actively run the same way together.

After all, the Bible says we are better together.

As a youth ministry, I think it’s important for us to know the vision and run in it together.

*GIVEAWAY* who can tell me our vision?

what does that vision mean to you?

Reaching the lost. Discipling the found.

Share wins from this past year and the growth we have seen.

Our prayer as a ministry is that this would be a place for every person no matter who they are, what they believe, to belong here as family.

Isn’t that what we really want?

For those paralyzed by fear, they meet the God of the Bible who is the prince of peace.

For those racked by loneliness, they meet their heavenly Father who has adopted them into a forever family.

For some of us with a past, you hear about God’s grace that’s greater than all our sin.

See here’s the question, for us to run together, we first have to see a movement of God in our life.

The good news is that Jesus has something to say and, I want to take you to John 2 – go ahead and turn there if you have your Bibles – where we see a pivotal moment in the life of Jesus and it all gets started because of a HUGE wedding fail.

But it was actually worse in Jesus’ day. As stressful as they can be today, in Jesus’ day, weddings were a social status thing. Weddings were a way to show off one’s wealth and popularity by throwing the most extravagant parties and inviting the most influential people.

This was the backdrop for Jesus’ first miracle.

John 2:1-11 (NIV)

1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

This would have been a major problem. This isn’t like running out of Chick fil A sauce with two nuggets left. No, so much was riding on this wedding – so much pressure and intensity. And, running out of food or drink would be a major fail and the groom’s family would be humiliated.

4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

It just so happened that that nearby stood six large stone water jars that held twenty-to-thirty gallons each.

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons

7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”;

Can you imagine what the servants must have been thinking? It was probably along the lines of, uh, Jesus, were you listening? She said they are out of wine, not water! We’re in a crisis and I thought you would have a solution! I don’t see how what this does anything!

so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

Again, they listened to Jesus’ instructions and did what he said.

9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

One And Only Point: When we align our life to the movement of God, we become a people who represent Him well.

In this story we see three ideas of how we can see a move of God in our lives. Here’s the first one:

1. ) Realize God Wants to Use YOU!

-You see, it’s easy to miss, but did you notice who Jesus chose to use in this miracle? You’d expect maybe a king, a celebrity, maybe a general… but Jesus used simple workers at a wedding in the small town of Cana to work His first miracle.

-Story of finding myself and God desiring to use my life. (Talk about my youth pastor wanting me to come up with Games every week.)

-Just flip through the Bible and you see that God specializes in using…

Cowards (Gideon) Murderers (Moses) Those who couldn’t speak (Moses) Drunks (Noah) Liars (Jacob) A donkey (Balaam’s donkey) Widows Teenagers (David) The sick (miracles of Jesus) And He even brought a dead guy back to life

-So, if we are going to see a movement of God it’s going to come through who? YOU!

2.) Listen to the voice of Jesus.

-The second way we are going to see God move in our lives is for us to listen to what Jesus is telling us to do.

Remember in the story, Mary told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them, and what did the servants do? They listened to Jesus. They clearly heard His instructions! He gave them their marching orders.

-Talk about 2020 when COVID happened and how anxious I got. I listened more to media concerns than God.

-Let’s be real. Students, if you are listening more and more to influencers on social media and less time with your Bible, who are you really listening to?

Listening to the voice of Jesus re-centers our thinking and reminds us of who we belong to. It reminds us of where our hope lies. It challenges the lies were’ tempted to believe.

3.) Recognize there is work to do.

-Think back to the story. How did the servants get the water to fill up the jars? Did they pull out a hose and fill those clay pots up? No! We have to think, these servants had to go to a water source like a well, draw it up, carry it, dump it. And then again. And again. And again.

-Imagine the amount of work it took for these servants to fill up these six jars. Scholars tell us that each of these jars would hold twenty to thirty gallons each. That’s a lot of trips!

Here’s the point: if we are going to see a move of God we have to recognize there is work to do.

-Listen every time you listen to the voice of the Lord, you are growing in Him. Students that stay planted in their youth group, become world changers and history makers.

-I don’t know about you, but I desperately want this group to grow both spiritually and physically. I want to see students who are so far from the Lord, that it seems impossible for them to find Jesus. Why because Mount Joy will be forever changed. Our church will be forever changed.

Share story of Reach41 and Trevor and Travis. They knew there was work to do, and they put their foot to the pedal.

So, do you want to see a movement of God in your life and in our city? We’ve got realize that God uses us – ordinary people. And we’ve got to listen to His voice. Then thirdly, we have to recognize there’s work to do.

where we are going-

mission trips

retreats

partnering with other youth groups.

more community impact

more school impact

growing closer together

Let’s pray. Family prayer.