Youth Group Backup Plan
Notes
Transcript
What Comes Out When You Are Squeezed? (Galatians 5:13-26)
What Comes Out When You Are Squeezed? (Galatians 5:13-26)
Key Passage
Key Passage
For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.
For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.
The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,
idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,
envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.
Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.
Activity
Activity
Bring up three students to squeeze three different fruits into three different glasses
Orange
Lemon
Grapes
Give one minute to squeeze as much as you can, then give a prize to the person who drinks it the fastest.
Ask each student to describe the fruit
How it felt, how hard to squeeze, color, density, flavor, etc.
Teaching
Teaching
I am going to talk about pressure in our lives.
There is a truth that I want us to hear today:
Truth #1- Circumstances Reveal the Heart
Pressure Reveals, It Doesn’t Invent
What squeezes us in life?
Stress, conflict, disappointment, isolation, grief
It isn’t the situation that is squeezing our lives that makes us respond how we do.
It is what is in our hearts that is revealed when our lives are squeezed.
When these things strike, what comes out of our hearts?
It is going to be one of those two lists that we read from Galatians 5:19-21
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,
idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,
envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
If you are like me, you will likely try the route of “Try Harder”
I need to try harder, have more accountability,
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
Truth #1- Circumstances Reveal the Heart
Truth #2- You Can’t Produce New Juice Without New Fruit
An lemon cannot decide to become sweeter and make orange juice.
Behavior does not change our hearts.
Jesus gives us a new heart
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Truth #1- Circumstances Reveal the Heart
Truth #2- You Can’t Produce New Juice Without New Fruit
Truth #3- New Fruit Still Needs Time To Grow
I have grapes in my back yard. When they start growing, they look like clusters of little BB’s.
But they begin to grow. They are grapes, but they need to mature.
I’ve tried one before they were ripe. There is the hint of grape flavor in there, but it will suck your eyeballs into your skull because they are so sour.
It takes time for the fruit to mature into a beneficial fruit.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This is the journey of a disciple
We follow Jesus
As we follow
We are changed by Jesus
This change takes time.
We grow from infancy, when we are closer to our past life than we are to Jesus.
Then as we continue to walk, our old self fades into the distance, and we find ourselves dependent on Jesus.
We become more like Him, day by day and step by step.
Conclusion
Conclusion
“Jesus doesn’t just clean us up. He makes us something new.”
This week, you will find one of two things.
You will either feel some pressure this week. You will feel life squeezing you like we saw these fruits be squeezed.
Or, you fill find the qualities that you are displaying are not the qualities that look like Jesus and you will realize that you need to have a new heart.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Discussion Questions:
Discussion Questions:
Think about the fruit squeezing activity: Why did the various juices come out of the various fruits? Was it the because of the person squeezing? Was it because of the fruit?
What kinds of pressures are squeezing your life right now? (i.e. specific classes at school, relational tensions, family, etc.)
Read Galatians 5:19-23. What is coming out of your life as you are being squeezed? What list looks more like you?
In our lesson, we said, “You can’t produce new juice without new fruit”. Does trying harder for better fruit create better outcomes? What does it take for Jesus to give us a new heart?
New fruit takes time to grow. Where is one part of your life that you want Jesus to create new fruit? What has God given you to help mature in that part of your life?
