HT Chapter 4 (Thursday Evening)
Notes
Transcript
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
HOW TO PLAY THE GAME
Team members play Rock-Paper-Scissors with each other until they have a winner.
(Those who tie both lose.)
The winner gets to be the team captain and picks a co-captain.
Today's game is simple but not easy.
Each team will send their captain and co-captain to the table where they will find Play-Doh, a cookie cutter, a blindfold and a Transformer.
This game is a race.
The captain gets to choose which job he or she wants to do.The co-captain gets the other job. The one choosing Play-Doh has to use all the Play-Doh in both containers, along with the cookie cutter to make as many identical "cookies" as possible.
Be sure they are uniform, like you would see on Master Chef or a show like that.
The one choosing the Transformer will move the pieces of the toy around until the vehicle/creature is in its "robot" form.
The only catch is that he or she will be wearing a blindfold the entire time.
However, his or her partner can give verbal clues to help as he makes the cookies.But the "cookie maker" is not allowed to touch the partner or the toy.
Ready for our race?
Captains and co-captains make your picks and get into position.
Ready! Set! Go!
Copyright – Ministry To Youth 4
The first team to have their identical "cookies" complete and the Transformer in robot form first win! . . . or the one who gets closest before time runs out (usually five minutes.
1. Who really loved playing with Play-Doh as a kid?
What was the best part?
2. Anyone have a favorite cookie cutter that you got to use in helping make cookies as
a kid?
Or now when you help younger kids make cookies?
3. For those of you who played with the toys or watched the cartoons or movies, who is
your favorite Transformer and why?
4. Who in our group is really good in school?
What is your favorite subject and why?
5. Who in our group maybe is not so good in school, but knows tons of sports, movie, or video game trivia?
Share some with us.
6. Peer pressure is having people your age try to get you to do what they want you to do.
You are a generation who are probably facing just as much pressure from media, celebrities and influencers.
Yesterday we read a quote from Paul, a follower of Jesus, who wrote a bunch of letters to encourage and challenge Christians, people who were supposed to be living "all in"with Jesus. We read a quote from his letter to the church in Philppi, called Philippians in our Bibles.
Today, we're going to look at a passage from his letter to the church in a city you've actually probably heard before: Rome.
In case you haven’t guessed it, the letter is called Romans.
Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
There is a lot packed into this one verse so let's get to it!
First of all, Paul instructs us not to copy the world.
He means for us to not try to fit into the mold the world is providing, much like some of you did with the play dough and the cookie cutters.
Ads, videos, billboards, commercials, influencers, celebrities, and more are trying to get you to like them, follow them, subscribe to them, be like them, mainly so that you will give them money, fame, or both.
God doesn't want you to be squeezed into a mold. He doesn’t want us to try and be like all the people we see on TV, in music, and social media. Instead he wants us to be Like Christ.
That's why when it comes to being "all in" with Jesus, Paul says we need to "let God transform you into a new person."
How many of you like playing with transformers?
Now, it's fun to play with Transformer toys, but that's not exactly what Paul had in mind.
Transformer toys go from being one thing to another and keep changing back and forth.
In fact, if I can get all grammar-nerd on you for a minute, both the "not conforming" and
the "be transformed" are actually present imperatives which in everyday language means that we must continually be refusing to conform to the world's ways and continually letting ourselves be transformed by God.
It's a lifelong process, not a one-time decision.
And how does God do this transformation and help us to not conform?
Paul doesn't get specific in this letter.
But from others that he wrote, a lot of it has to do with us reading and studying the Bible and allowing God's Holy Spirit living inside of us to do His work.
You have to first realize that the world is trying to fit you into its mold.
In order to
And then you have to ask for God's help, (like our lesson yesterday on not worrying).
Then you trust that He will help you not get pressed into that conformity.
At the same time, involve yourself in reading the Bible.
If you could have pizza with Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Paul,Peter, James, Lydia, and others, it would be an unforgettable meal! Why?
All these people were "all in" with Jesus and either wrote about him, were written about,or helped others to be "all in" with Jesus.
Like Hudson Taylor.
They're also all in heaven now.
So pizza is kind of out of the question.
However, since they lived before social media, we can't just pull up their YouTubeplaylist, so the next best thing is to read what they wrote or their stories.
That's what makes up the Bible, especially the part called the New Testament.
If you read about five minutes a day, you'll read about one chapter each day and canget through all four of the biographies of Jesus, (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in about four months.
If you'd like to read a little more, you can read three to five chapters a day or about fifteen to twenty-five minutes of reading and get through all four of those Gospels in just four weeks.
Either way, you'd be spending time every day reading about the life and ministry ofJesus.
It's the closest thing to being with Him and knowing how He lived, which is the way He wants us to live.
If you develop that habit, you can expand into reading the letters that people like Paul wrote explaining more about how to live like Jesus.
And if you're not a big fan of reading, there are a wide variety of audio Bibles, including the very cool Streetlights Bible which is unlike any audio Bible you have ever heard.
That's how God transforms your mind, by filling it with His words through His people.And then you'll be more aware when the world is trying to push you into its mold and you can trust in God to help you.
That's a lot to think about today.
So enough of me talking.
Let's split up into our small groups and give you a chance to talk through your thoughts
on this subject.
As you head to small group, think about this question:
What is one way I have been
Teach me your way, Lord, and I will live by your truth. Give me an undivided mind to fear your name.
I will praise you with all my heart, Lord my God, and will honor your name forever.
For your faithful love for me is great, and you rescue my life from the depths of Sheol.