Preteen Camp Rooted

NIGHT 1 — “PLANTED”-Plant the Root

Introduce ourselves/welcome

ROOTED DANCE- COLOSSIANS 2:7

Colossians 2:7 “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” 

“ROOTED” Motion Version

“Let your roots grow down into Him” 🌳 With hands out at side, squat down, then wiggling your fingers downward toward the ground as your “roots” growing deep.

“And let your lives be built on Him” 🏠 Stack your hands on top of each other like you’re building blocks or constructing a house.

“Then your faith will grow strong” 💪 Make a big muscle pose with both arms and show your “strength.”

“In the truth you were taught” 📖 Open your hands like opening a Bible, then point to your head to show learning truth.

“And you will overflow” 🌊 Teapot pouring over

“With thankfulness” ❤️ Place both hands over your heart, then raise them toward the sky with a big smile.

Scriptures:

Matthew 7:24–27 ““Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”” 

-You guys heard today how important it is to build a house on solid rock. Do you want to be the little pig whose house was made of straw and blows away? Or the one who built a house made of sticks and it wasn't strong enough to withstand the wolfs wind? If we had our choice, we want to be the one who builds their house with brick so that it can stand strong and has a firm foundation!

-What have you been building your identity on? Whats your foundation?

CALL UP WRANGLERS TO HELP

Matthew 13: 1-8, 18-23

Later that same day Jesus left the house and sat beside the lake. 2 A large crowd soon gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then he sat there and taught as the people stood on the shore. 3 He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one: 

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. 4 As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. THROW A WRANGLER INTO THE AISLE THEN HAVE WRANGLERS COME AND DRAG THEM AWAY5 Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. 6 But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. HAVE 2 WRANGLERS ACT LIKE THEY ARE SEEDS SPROUTING UP SLOWLY, BUT THEN ONE WALKS BY WITH A SPOTLIGHT AND THEY IMMEDIATELY FLOP OVER AND DIE 7 Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. ONE WRANGLER GROWING UP BUT THEN 4 OTHER WRANGLERS DOGPILE AND COVER HIM 8 Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! HAVE ONE WRANGLER ON STAGE GROWING UP STRONG AND THEY GRAB HANDS TO OTHER WRANGLERS TO PULL THEM UP AND GROW TOGETHER 9 Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” 

DISMISS THE WRANGLERS 

Now Jesus explains this parable a little further down picking back up in verse 18:

18 “Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: 19 The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. 20 The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 21 But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. 22 The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. 23 The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” 

So often, we as people tend to find ourselves rooted in ALL the wrong things. Just like the sower in the parable, we sometimes plant our seeds (ourselves) in bad soil. 

Sometimes we’re rooted in the sports we play or even the activities were involved in-talk about finding identity in sports “im only valuable if i win”, caught up in winning. 

Sometime we find ourselves rooted in other people -talk about the way we get caught up in our looks compared others, our friends opinions, peoples approval, being popular

Sometimes we find ourselves rooted in the things we have- our houses (good vs bad), having the newest toys, cell phones, money, clothes

We as humans are so quick to label ourselves:

“The athlete”

“The gamer”

“The popular kid”

“The class clown”

“The quiet kid”

“The troublemaker”

“The broken home”

“The never good enough”

These labels can at first seem like a good thing, depending on the situation. But like the seeds who were not planted in good soil, we can be shaken and our whole world can come crumbling apart. 

These labels can quickly turn into nasty lies from the enemy, telling us “we’re not good enough, that we don’t matter, that we will never be enough”. Because our roots are planted in worldly things, it makes it easy for the enemy to come in and disrupt us and whisper those nasty things into our ears. 

He encourages us to find ourselves not firmly planted in God, but in the things of this world. He wants us as far away from God as possible so that we can not be the masterpieces God intended us to be. 

God wants good for us, and wants us firmly rooted in him. When the enemy tries to speak those lies into our ears and attempts to disrupt our roots, we have to take big steps to remind ourselves who we are rooted in. 

KICK THE DEVIL IN THE TEETH WORKOUT

WRAP IT UP:

If your roots are shallow, life shakes you easily. Jesus gives roots that last. So tonight, we heard about all the things we find ourselves rooted in. So we ask the question, what do you find yourself rooted in? Sports, popularity, appearance, relationships, social media, success? What lies is the enemy trying to speak into your life to keep you separated from God? We encourage you to think about these things. 

Now that we have taken tonight to identify what we find ourselves rooted in, we’ll dive deeper this week into learning how to root ourselves in God with our daily actions, how to face life's storms cause they are bound to happen, and what a life rooted in Christ looks like. 

But before we can dive into that, you need to ask yourself what roots do you have other than God? For some of you, you may not even know who God is, but thats okay tonight. We want you to just focus and recognize what areas have control of your life? What labels are you wearing? Hopefully throughout clinics tomorrow and through tomorrow nights message, we can help better explain who God is. Talk about the war room 

PRAY

That’s great for plants…but what do you think it means to be rooted in Christ? Does that even make sense? How can we be rooted in our faith or connected that firmly to Jesus? The Bible tells us that we are to be rooted in Christ’s love. In the letter Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he encouraged them to dwell on that. This means that we get our spiritual ability to grow and live from knowing how much Jesus loves us. We have a firm foundation in that. We can be absolutely confident that Christ gives us all we need, because He gave Himself for us!

We know He loves us enough to die for us. In fact, His love for us is bigger than we can understand. Think about some really big plants, like oak or pine trees. They can get massive. They can be so high you have to tilt your head back just to look at the top. Well, the love God has for us is much bigger than that. And it’s much deeper than the deepest roots we can imagine. We are covered in and supported by that love, even though we don’t fully know what it means. But Jesus can help us there, too! He promises to be with us and to guide our hearts. What might encourage and nourish our faith? We can pray. We read the Bible. We listen to other Christians and go to church. There are many wonderful ways that we stay rooted in Jesus. Many times people talk about roots in terms of a family or heritage connection. We know that we are in God’s family, and our connection to Him is worth more than anything else.