Youth Retreat Intro - Monday Evening
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Session 1 (Monday Evening / Intro):
Session 1 (Monday Evening / Intro):
Hey guys,
Welcome to our very first Youth Camping Retreat! Really, this is the first retreat our church has done on it’s own - so you’re a pretty special group!
And while I’m kinda joking, I’m also not! In fact, the theme of this retreat is about how special you are! The official theme is:
God loves me and has a purpose for my life!
Basically, God thinks you’re extremely special. And this theme is based on verses out of the book Deuteronomy:
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
While that sounds really good, and you probably can see how it connects to the theme, you really have to know the story behind this verse...
If we turn all the way to the beginning of the Bible, we find this passage:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
God goes onto create everything else we know, including us - human beings. And while everything God creates is valuable, only humans are truly special! We find out why a few verses later...
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
You see, what makes humans the most special creation is we ALONE are made in the image of God. Not even angels - which are created beings - have that! We are incredibly special. You are incredibly special.
A little side note. You have probably heard a lot about racism lately. We’ve talked about it at Youth Group too. And if you remember, the main reason racism is wrong is because every human being is made in God’s image, regardless of race. So, all are equally special before God!
But very quickly, something tragic happens. Man sins against God. He willingly chooses to rebel against God. And everything becomes cursed. And ever since, sin and death, evil and pain, have become a normal part of the world. It still is, right? Answer this:
Do you ever have trouble doing the right thing?
Do people still die?
Do bad things happen to good people?
Have you ever experienced anything painful?
That’s all because sin has been passed down from generation to generation. And the earth is still experiencing the effects of the curse.
Now, here’s an interesting thing...
The Bible tells us that God is perfect. And part of that perfection means He knows everything… I mean, literally, EVERYTHING! Which means this...
…just a warning, it might be a little confusing...
Before it happened, God knew his special people would choose to rebel and sin against him. So, why did He choose to go through with creating us? The answer involves the theme of our retreat:
He chose to still create us because He loves us and has a purpose for our lives.
I know that’s hard to understand. And God has given us his word to help us understand some of these things. But ultimately, we just have to trust God is being truthful about loving us and having a purpose for all of this.
It’s kinda like what Diego from the Umbrella Academy says… “You don’t have to understand how yogurt is made to enjoy it and benefit from it.”
That’s kinda like faith. We don’t have to fully understand everything about God to enjoy Him and benefit from Him.
But one reason we can trust God is being truthful about His promises of love and purpose is He proves His love. He makes good on His promises. He does what He says!
Like… right after the Adam and Eve (the first people) sinned, God promised to one day send a Savior. And then God eventually makes promises clarifying how the Savior would come and what He would do. One of these clarifications is the verse I read earlier...
He told the nation of Israel, “You are special to me! I have a purpose for you! The Savior of the world will come through your nation! (Jesus was Jewish).” See - full of purpose!
But then God says, “I chose you… not because you DID anything special… but simply because I love you!” And even though, when that was first spoken, it was directed specifically to Israel when they were following Moses, that message of love and purpose is for us too! Today in 2020! To you guys!
How do we know that? Well, think about this...
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
So, a couple of things are going on...
This passage is meant to remind us about the beginning of the world. What we read in Genesis. But it’s also meant to tell us that in the beginning, was the Savior! You see, the “Word” is Jesus.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
So, Jesus is in the beginning. Because He is God. But also telling us something important… He was the Savior before the creation. What does that mean? It means He was ready to save before creation, because He knew we would sin and would need Him to save us. And He was willing. Because He loves us. How do I know?
The most famous bible verse in the world is...
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus coming to earth is proof that God loves us and has a purpose for us. And that purpose involves a lot of things, but it ultimately involves the purpose of spending forever with God. In heaven. In the best life ever.
So… in just 10 mins we’ve discussed:
The beginning of creation.
The purpose and end of creation (as we know it).
And that from beginning to end, God loves us and has a purpose for all of us in this plan.
And so, it’s my hope that over the next few days, you will come to understand and experience that God loves you and has a purpose for you life. That you are incredibly special to God. And there’s a reason why you’re here. It’s not by chance! There’s only one of you and you play a special part in God’s plan of love and restoration!
Now, I’m not the type of pastor, and we’re not the type of church, that pretends Christianity is this super clean, super organized, polished, religious thing. It’s messy! It’s hard! It can be confusing to us. It’s full of up and downs.
And in the midst of all that, God is teaching us to trust Him. To believe His promise of love. To believe that He has a purpose for everything we’re going through!
And to help you with that, I’ve asked some special people in our church to tell you their stories over the next few session. Stories about God’s love and purposes in a super messy world. Stories that will help us trust God, even when we don’t understand.
So, tonight’s first speaker is Mrs. Jackie Owens. And she’s going to tell her story and speak to you about how, “God loves me and has a purpose for my life… even when I didn’t grow up in the church.”
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Jackie’s testimony...
Story.
One main response:
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Breakdown of Schedule:
S’mores Debrief tonight - talk about Mrs. Jackie’s story.
Tomorrow morning (Must attend):
Morning Devotional at 8am (We will wake you up).
Then, we’ll have breakfast at 9.
Then, we start session 2 at 10am
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S’mores Debrief:
What’s one thing that stuck with you from the session?
What’s God speaking to you about love and purpose?
What’s one question you have about God?
What’s one way you can respond/change based on what you’ve learned?