God’s Church is YOU!

I want you guys to do an activity with me, and in this i want you to be very straight and not pull any punches. Give me the first words that pop into your head when I say these words, just shout them out. Church, Sunday Service, Youth group….

Now it wasn’t too long ago that i was in your shoes, in youth group and my answers would’ve probably been fairly similar to some of what you guys said here. I always viewed Sunday service as for the adults and Pastor Tom wasn’t up there to speak to me, but to speak to my parents. Some of the things Pastor Tom would say would go over my head, or he’d use big words I’d never heard of before, and while I’m not that old this was before I had a bible on my phone with 4000 translations on it and Google at my fingertips. If whoever was talking up there went in a direction I didn’t know about, I was toast and I checked out. Anyone here ever feel like that?

On the flip side, my youth group was SO FUN, idk how many of you know Pastor Andy now, it’s been a minute since he’s been here. But for those of you who do know the guy you get what I’m talking about. Some of the things we did I look back at and wonder how we got away with doing this stuff, or how he got the OK to do it in a youth group setting. I have stories, so many stories, about the crazy insane stuff we would do Sundays Weds. retreats, mission trips, lunch trips. you name it, Andy was able to make it relate to me and so that made me relate to the Bible, and I was hooked. I could recite hundreds of verses, sword drills (anyone ever do those now that its on your phone?), all of it I was there and i was in. But here’s my point to telling y’all about my youth group experience and what I’ve come to realize about it all know that i can look back at those years and kinda reflect. We had a lot of fun, We did a lot of crazy stupid ridiculous stuff but it was always church. This place, this group is church just as much as Sunday service is church, just as much as the Church softball team is church or the charity packing thing we did a couple weeks ago. Lets look into some spots in scripture and i can give you a view from there to show more what I mean.

Matthew 16:17-18 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

why is this important? He gives his disciple Simon a new name, Peter, now Im gonna get a little nerdy here but Pastor Aaron gave me some new programs I’ve been trying out and I found something cool. He doesn’t just pick peter because it sounds cool or it rolls of the tongue. The greek word for Peter Πέτρος, is almost identical to the greek word for rock, πέτρᾳ. Again why do we care right? like Cool there’s gotta be a bunch of cool words in other languages that you could turn into a catchy nickname. But here’s the thing when you think of something nature that is sturdy, doesn’t move easily and you can ensure will be in the same spot that you left it what do you think of? A Rock.

Jesus doesn’t say in this building i will build my church. He says on this rock meaning Peter. By saying this he attaches his church and the following of God’s word not to a place, traditions, or an area of the world but to people. Meaning anywhere there is a group of people there is a church. Think of it like this.. In my head in the Brandon Rayburn translation, I substitute in my name for Peter. For my family for my friends I absolutely can be a rock that Jesus can build his church on. I can be that foundational stone that my family can lean on, and so can each one of you. Lets look at another verse here….

Does anyone have a favorite verse in the Bible, one that really grabs what your life is about in this moment? I’m under the thought process that your favorites are allowed to change. This verse here, I just keep coming back to it guys. every time I’m worried about if I am doing what I should be down here with you guys or think about how do we as a group consisting of ages from just 12 years old settle into being a foundational part of this church, I come back to this verse.

1 Timothy 4:12 “Let no one despise you (my translation says look down on you) for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

We went over this verse in detail in our previous series but I think it is so important to everyone in this room. Look around at the other people in this room, who is the oldest person in this room? Its ME! And want to know the crazy thing about this verse for me?? Even though I’m going through and giving this lesson for you all as teenagers, this verse is a giant mirror for me and hopefully Hannah, James, AJ, Chloe and Kendall too, as we wonder how do we teach and direct this group? We’ll get into that next week when we talk about leaders in the church but still, GUYS, im 31, I’m young! there have been plenty of times when talking to some of your parents or the elders when they approached us to step into this role, where i sit back and kinda think, How do they expect me to do this? I’m not old enough, mature enough but here’s the crazy thing and this just hit me as i was putting this together the other night. Pop quiz, how old was Jesus when he died? 33. How old was he started his ministry? 30. What about when he was teaching in the temple of Jerusalem during Passover? 12! Think about that! Pastor Aaron brought up the child king Josiah when he was down here during our ‘How to’ series. Why did he bring that up? To drive home a point that is brought up in this verse! We shouldn’t be worried about someone looking down on us because of our youth, or inexperience or mistakes we might make along the way. If we are truly following this verse and setting ourselves as a rock that Christ can build his church upon then we shouldn’t view ourselves as inexperienced or wavering. We need to be solid in our faith and stand on business knowing that we can direct change and we can be a foundation going forward in the lives of all around us, not just those who are our age or younger.