Three
Things Important to us at
Peace Youth Group
Youth Group confuses some people. Christians confuse some people. Why do Christians act so differently than "normal" people?
I tried to think of three simple things to help people understand what we're all about. I tried to find three core beliefs that shape what we do. Sure, there are other things I could have picked, but I wanted to find three simple and basic things.
You might not agree with these, at least not right away. That's okay for now. The main point here is to give the people looking in an idea of the things that are important to us. If these things are true, then certain things aren't as crazy as they might seem otherwise! Anyway... on to the first point:
#1. What We Do In Life Echoes In Eternity
In the movie Gladiator the main character says the line, "What we do in life echoes in eternity." There is truth in that. A lot of our choices have lasting consequences. Some of these last our whole lives; many last even longer. Our choices have ripples and waves that go on forever. That can be a good thing. That can be a bad thing. Either way, it's important! If something lasts forever, that is important! People need to think about this more than they do.
The Bible talks about these things. It talks about what we can gain permanently...
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves don't break in and steal.” –Matthew 6:19-20
...and it also talks about the things we can lose. Jesus Himself spoke about the most important thing we can lose.
“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul.” –Matthew 16:26a
That is pretty important, wouldn't you say?
When Hurricane Katrina was bearing down toward New Orleans, several thousand people took shelter in the Superdome. Those who fled to the Superdome for safety were saved from the storm. The roof of the Superdome was badly damaged, but the people inside were saved.
The illustration isn't perfect, but in a few ways, this is like what Jesus did for us.
If someone thought that they could stay outside during the hurricane, there is a good chance they would have been killed. But if they fled to the Superdome for safety, they were saved. The Superdome took the blows of the wind and debris that was have hit the people inside. It was damaged, but they were saved. In the same way, Jesus took our penalty for sin when He was on the cross. He died in our place, and those who take refuge in Christ as their Savior are saved.
We have seen the destruction that came because of Katrina. Because of this, we know that the smart thing to do was to flee the city if at all possible. This is easy to say after the fact. But one survey, prior to Katrina, reported that one third of New Orleans residents said they would not evacuate the city even if they knew there was a hurricane approaching. That doesn't seem to make sense, does it?
In the same way, if people knew what eternity would be like without Jesus, we would hope that they would flee to Jesus for safety. Yet too many people think it won't be all that bad, or that it won't happen to them. They just don't believe they are in danger. It doesn't make sense either.
Imagine that you could go back in time to a few days before the hurricane to warn people. How many would listen to you? You might plead with people to take refuge in the Superdome. How would people respond? Some would say that the hurricane isn't really coming. Some would say that they can handle it on their own. Some would tell you to mind your own business. Some would say that you are being negative. Some would accuse you of being "pushy."
The same things get said to Christians who are worried about people they care about.
The Bible teaches that the Lord Jesus came to the earth to die in our place on the cross. He took the penalty for sin for all who would put their trust in Him alone as their sin-bearer. People think that trying to be good is what gets a person to Heaven. The Bible is clear that it isn't. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Salvation comes as a free offer from God. All we need to do is believe God and flee to Christ for refuge. Will you do that?
What you do with Christ will be the biggest echo in your eternity.
#2. God is the Greatest Good
Coming to Christ is more than fleeing to a building for safety. The Superdome is just a building. The Superdome doesn't care about you. A building can't fulfill your longings. A building can't fulfill the reason why you were created.
Christ can.
"Getting saved" isn't mainly about avoiding hell. In fact, it isn't even mainly about going to Heaven. The best thing about being salvation is going to be with God!
God is the greatest good. If you ranked everything in the universe according to its value, God would be on top. If you ranked everything according to its ability to bring people happiness, God would be on top. Therefore, we should live our lives in a way that reflects that.
“Delight yourself in the Lord.” –Psalm 37:4
We are told to "delight ourselves in the Lord." Notice what kind of a sentence this is: this is a command. This is something we are being told to do. This means that delighting in the Lord is something that we can choose either to do or not. I am not saying that this is something we can switch on or off like a light switch, but our choices influence and determine what we delight in.
God is delightful. He is satisfying. He is the highest treasure. He is the highest value. He is the greatest good. Finding your delight in Him is the best thing that could ever happen to you!
This this verse has more to say. Take a look at the rest of it.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” –Psalm 37:4
Who wouldn't want their heart's desire to be fulfilled? That is the great part of this... not only does God's plan put Him at the center of things, like He should be, but it is the best possible thing for each person as well! If you make God your desire, God will give the desire of your heart. ...And God can satisfy your desires like nothing else possibly could.
The word "worship" means to ascribe "worth" to something. Sometimes we do this by singing about how great God is. Even more, we do this by our choices when we choose to live in a way that shows that God is worth more to us than anything else. When someone chooses God instead of sin or self, they are displaying to the universe that God is worth more to them than these other things.
This also shows why sin is such a serious thing. When we treasure something, we are proclaiming the value we think it has... we are proclaiming its worth. When we choose to delight in sin, we are saying that sin is a greater treasure than God. When we choose sin over God, we are proclaiming to the universe that we think God is worth less than that sin.
Now, I realize there is a good chance that this doesn't fully make sense yet. A lot of people will read this and think "huh? God is not all that fantastic." Well... that's what we hope to help people with. We want to see God work through His Word to convince you how awesome He really is. That is what we try to do each week.
All of this leads me to think of two phrases:
"GOD-CENTERED"
and
"TREASURE CHRIST"
Peace Youth Group needs to be God-centered. God is worth it. God needs to be our main focus for everything! God is more important than any of us. Any other way of thinking screws everything up.
We also want to see people's hearts changed so that they treasure Christ. That's the goal. When people treasure Christ, God is glorified and people are satisfied. Our goal is to help teens make God their heart's desire.
Yep, that's it. That's our big "secret plan." We want you to love Jesus.
and now, a story...
When I was in second grade, our teacher took us outside for a contest. It was boys vs. girls. We were each given a trash bag and told to pick up garbage. We were too young to realize that we were being tricked into child labor, so we eagerly scampered about picking up trash and trying to win the prize.
Everyone was picking up small things that hardly amounted to anything. Gum wrappers, things like that. Meanwhile, I wandered over to the boundary of the school's property by some trees, near a field. I saw a tattered white plastic bag and picked it up. It was heavy and filled with something large. I was thrilled! This would fill up our garbage bag and make us win! I ran back to the group with my treasure... and when I got there to show them, the contents of the bag dropped out.
A dead dog.
We were all traumatized. And I learned a lesson.
Don't make the wrong thing your treasure. It will turn out to be something different from what you expected.
#3. What God Says Matters
If GOD... the all knowing, all powerful, perfectly good creator of everything in the universe including you... says something, we should take it seriously! That seems to make sense, eh?
When the Apostle Paul was in prison, about to be beheaded for following Christ, he wrote a last letter to Timothy, a young man he was training to be a Christian leader. Here are some of Paul's final words:
“...you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” –2 Timothy 3:15b-17
Paul taught that Scriptures are the Word of God. God worked through the human authors to make sure that the exact words He wanted written down were recorded. That is why Paul wrote that all Scripture is "God-breathed."
He then went on to give Timothy this important charge. Remember, these were Paul's last words.
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word.” –2 Timothy 4:1-2a
The most important thing was to "preach the Word." Paul wanted Timothy to keep on communicating God's message to people. This is exactly what we want to do also. People don't need to hear our opinions; they need to know what God says.
“...Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage- with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” –2 Timothy 4:1-3
We could probably get more people to come to youth group if we just told people what they wanted to hear... but we wouldn't be helping them. In fact, it would be unloving to do that! A doctor would be really popular if he only told people good news. A lot of his patients would DIE, but in the meantime he would be a very popular doctor.
A lot of times, God needs to tell us things we don't want to hear in order to help make us into the people He made us to be.
When GOD says something, we need to listen...
...even if we don't "like" it.
If we care about people, we need to teach them what the Bible actually teaches. We can't skip the parts that we don't like. Lots of places do that; we don't want to. God doesn't want us to. And in reality, you shouldn't want us to either. If we change God, we make Him into something less glorious and wonderful than He really is. That isn't loving to you or to Him.
So, to sum it all up...
Sure, there are a lot of other things I could have written, but I hope that these three gives you a good start into figuring out what life looks like through a Christian worldview. I hope it helped. These are three of the things we believe and care about.
We care about YOU
"What we do in life echoes in eternity"
We care about GOD
"God is the greatest good."
We care about the BIBLE
"What God says matters."
Crazy isn't it?
-Nate Archer