Rooted - Week 1

The relentless pursuit of what means nothing

Alright, before we sned you into small groups we are going to try something new this year. Rather than just send all of you JH students away, I am going to be giving a 5 minute overview of the topic we are talking about then sending you guys to small groups.

OVERVIEW:

As we get starting with small groups for the year many of you have gone through changes. Some of you are here for the very first time. Some of you have been here for 6 years. Some of you entered HS for the first time or perhapse you have decided to transfer schools. For some of you this is familiar. You might be a Jr at the same high school with the same people you have been in school with since elementary school. Regardless of the life situation in which you find yourself, there is a common theme of striving for something or to get somewhere. As you begin a new chapter of that journey, ask yourself, what is the reason I am striving for the thing I want?

Two years ago when I became your youth Pastor, I sat with our leadership team and estrablished a theme for the year. The theme was to embrace being a circle. A circle represents an unbreakable shape that revolves aropund a central point. So we established this as a safe sapce to share and be vulnarable with one another. Year two we felt like there was a need for establishing a desire to learn and grow in God’s word. So the theme was puzzle pieces. We built our own curriculum that was tailored to helping you grow as a group and individually. We introduced worship as a normal thing we did and created things like Creed to help put together some of those puzzle pieces. As we launch this year, there is a new theme that you will hear a lot. At this point, we have established a safe space, a culture of growth and now comes the part where we are challenged to fulfill our purpose as image bearers. The theme this year is rooted, which leans on the importance of discipleship. Both for you to be discipled and for you to disciple. We are starting the year with a series called rooted where we will start at the establishing our roots in Christ. We will answer the three questions:

What should we be striving for?

When should I take the next step in my faith?

How can I use wisdom to reamina rooted?

Today we are going to start with the first question, What should be striving for?

LETS PRAY

JH you are dismissed to small groups.

INTRODUCTION:

When I was in HS. I had a hunger to achieve greater than at any other point in my life. It was so bad that I would get upset when others achieved something even when their achievement benefitted me. My senior year, I was competing for a scholarship which went to the student that portrayed academic success and knowledge of scripture (I went to a pentacostal HS). The purpose of the schilarship was to get students to find excitment in studying the Bible and it gave us an incentive to do so. The scholarship was fopr $1,000 toward any Christian college you wanted to go to. At the time, I wanted to be a journalist, I had applied to Northwestern and was adament about not going to a Christian school. I had convinced myself and every one else that I was done going to a school that made me study the Bible. But one of my friends wanted to win the scholarship so bad and the competative side of me and the need to validate myself got the best of me. So here I was studying the Bible and looking up techniques on how to do that. About a month in, I realized that the goal was to learn what pentacostals believed and not what the Bible says. Now I am not going to go into the details about the pentacostal religion, but it is important to know that I never believed what was the core of their statement of faith. Still I refused to let anyone beat me. I won the scholarship. They held a ceremony and everything. You would think it was good that I was able to make a biblical argument, but what I represented was something I didn’t believe. I was so concerend about winning, that what was supposed to be an excercise leading to something good, was made pointless by my strive for something greater.

Section 1: Vanity

Solomon, the Son of David, was the King of Israel. He was rthe one many people attributed as one of the wisest people who ever lived. He is considered the author of the books of wisdom liturature in the Bible which are Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiates. They are written in a way that examines human downfall and man’s constant need to be greater than. This series will focus on one of those books which is Eccelsiastes.

If you have your Bible, open it to Ecclesiastes chapter 1. 3

Ecclesiastes 1:1–3 ESV

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

Okay, who can tell me what vanity means?

The word vanity which means worthless, but it also means pride in one’s own achievments.

Basically, everything that we achieve in life is worthless.

Now be honest, how does that make you feel? A little empty? Confused? Like nothing we do matters?

I ask because these are feelings that were so present in my life. You have to understand that Solomon is writing from the ultimate position of success. He is the King of Israel which puts him at the top of the social construct. He is the top of the philosophy construct in that he is widekly considered the smarteat and wisest guy around. He is at the top of the spiritual contruct in that he is seen as a Godly man. Yet he looks at the contruct of the world and considers all of his accolades pointless. There is no use in what he has because they are earthly things that in large part do not matter. Even the things he works so hard for are seen as worthless. Imagine putting in all the effort you have into something, achieving it and then being told it doesn’t matter. I would be so deflated if after every message you guys all just looked at me and went “eh. doesn’t matter.” But here is Soloman who has achieved everything you can possibke achieve in life and he starts by saying it doesn’t matter. All of it is nothing but vanity.

What we achieve is meaningless.

Section 1: Cycles

Okay so if everything is pointless, then why do we do anything? Afterall it doesn’t matter right?

Solomon continues on in the passage explaining that we operate in cycles.

Ecclesiastes 1:4–11 ESV

4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. 7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. 11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

So Solomon goes on explaining how life operates in cycles. He touches on the need for us to understand that what we are doing is nothing new. We have seen it. Man has achieved and failed and achievex agian, just as the sun rises to set to riuse again and the seas is filled with water that is recylced back to where it came from just to refill it again.

Life operates in cycles.

How many times have you heard an adult tell you “I have been in your shoes?”

I used to hate that statement. I used to say that there is no way you could have walked in my shoes because things were different.

Some of the differences between when I was in HS and when you are in HS are that:

Iphone 3G had just come out my freshmen year.

People still had pagers.

The first MCU movie came out.

We were enterring a recession that destroyed our economy.

Our first black president was getting ready to take office.

Things like Facetime and snapchat didn’t exist yet.

Facebook was the primary and in large the only form of social media and it had no ads.

It is funny to thing that 14 years makes a big enough difference to where the world doesn’t look the same at all.

But in school, there was still struggles of mental health, suicides, drugs were everywhere. All of my firends got drunk every night.…

As I have gotten older I have realized that though things may present themselves differently, it doesn’t mean that they are still present. The things you struggle with now, hough they may look different, are the same things I struggled with or your parents or grandparents struggled with.

Life moves in cycles.

Section 3: Faith

What do we do then if everything is meaningless and life goes in cycles of meaningless existence? Do we just fold and move on?

It is not quite that simple. Rather than ask is everything is meaningless, ask yourself the question, “What is the meaning of what I am doing?”

Reality is that it is good to strive for more. It is important to have goals and to execute those goals. It is necessary for us to have a drive to be better and to do better and to operate in a way that shows that we want to be better. But where is your focus? If it is for achievment, it is going to lead to emptiness. But if we are filled with the fullness of Christ, the accolades and wisdom and social status becomes secondary. They are not what our focus is on. When writing a letter to the church in Colossae, Paul writes about what it means to feel full spirituallly.

Colossians 2:6–22 ESV

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. 16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?

When we remain rooted in Christ, we are filled with life through Christ. The things that we are held captive by in this world release us. Spiritual freedom is the understanding that everything outside of abiding in Christ is vapor. It serves no purpose to memorize scripture if you don’tknow how to apply it. It is meaningless to achieve earthly greatness if it comes at the expense of spiritual formation.

Conclusion:

As we launch the new year, I want this to be the foundaitonal message you take with you. Strive for greatness. Achieve and work hard to achieve. Gain knowledge and wisdom. Look to share with others and let others share that with you, but do it in a way that is meant to keep you rooted in Christ. do not just learn to learn. Rather learn to apply and to grow in your walk with Christ.

One thing that winning that scholarship did for me was remind me what not to do when studyng scripture. From that point forward it became about what scripture has for me, not about what I can use scripture for. It became about the kingdom acheivment and not the earthly one.

So as we go through the year remember these 3 things:

Earthly achievment is meaningless

It does you no good to be the best because it will lead to emptiness in your life without Jesus.

Life operates in cycles.

Let those that came before you speak life into yours. Learn from the mistakes and achievments of others and actively seek to have someone who is pushing you to grow.

Remain rooted in Christ

When the focus is with spiritual growth and formation, everything else is vapor. Let what you do be shaped by the roots that are in Christ and not the other way around.

LETS PRAY