Last night, Wednesday night, August 6th, I was not able to be in Youth.  I hate it when I miss. I was at church working most of the day, and I was even there until church began right at 7 o’clock.  But during the afternoon my stomach blew up on me and it was too much to overcome.  I had hoped to perservere through the cramping so that I could still teach, but I couldnt.  I am so thankful for Josh Wamble.  He is a dear brother, and he was able to teach youth on very short notice.  I look forward to being back with the youth on Sunday morning.

Last night during our K2G (wednesday night youth) service, I did something that we don’t do too often.   I took about 30 minutes to allow the youth to ask me any question they wanted to.  I introduced it by praying to God about how all of us have hearts and minds that are full of so many thoughts, concerns, and questions.   Teens are curious and have many things they would like to have answered.

Many are way too shy and would never speak up in front of many of their peers to ask a serious question, but some did.   Here are some of their questions.

-What is Psalm 90 about?

-Is it possible that we aren’t the first things God created? (could God have created more before this creation in Genesis?)  Great question by the way?

-Will God allow someone into heaven that does not love Him?

-If someone has never sinned, but they don’t believe in Jesus, will they still go to heaven?

Those are just a few of the good questions they were asking. I like to see them think and open up their minds.  Society is teaching kids more and more to not get serious about anything. So I like to see them taking very serious the things in life that should be taken seriously…namely, Jesus and His death and His Word.

By the way, I did my best to answer from Scripture all of those questions.  Then someone asked, at the end when God judges everyone and He divides the sheep from the goats, where will that take place?  So we turned to Revelation 20 and I taught on the defeat of Satan, the great white throne judgement, and the new heaven and new earth.   Verse 20:11 says that “from His presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.” Then verses 12-15 are the judgement and dividing up of people to heaven or hell. And then in 21:1 John sees the new heaven and new earth.

So the actual judgement takes place somewhere in the midst of all that.  We know this, it is before the great throne of God. it seems to be not on earth.  The old earth has fled and the new earth is not yet.  This is possible because with God we don’t need anything. We won’t need food, or light, or anything.  He will sustain it all. So I suppose we wont need an earth either. Maybe judgement will just be us and the throne.

Here’s the point. Verse 20:15 says “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

I asked “is your name there?”

Christ was slain by God so that you wouldnt be.  Will you turn from yourself and turn to God for forgiveness and life?  And will you through faith in King Jesus find your name in the Lamb’s book of life?

Last night, Wed. July 23rd, I taught the youth on the sweet parable of the lost sheep.  It was good to see this well known text new and afresh.  Its been 2 weeks since the last Bible study blog, we had VBS last week and therefore no youth service.

This passage is in Luke 15:1-7.  We discussed how intruiging Jesus was when He was here on earth.  He was one of those people that everyone wanted to be around.  He made things better.  But He did it differently.  Today the cool people are the ones who attract others.  In schools, the best looking & best dressed tend to have the most people around them.  Jesus wasn’t like that.  Jesus had people around Him because He was so kind, so honest, so genuine, so holy, so gracious, and so fascinating.  We see this in the many places in Scripture where it says people were coming near to Him.  Like here in Luke 15 it says they were all drawing near to Him.

Well, as sinners were drawing near to Him, (notice that Jesus doesn’t have a problem with hanging out with sinners. I told the youth it shouldn’t matter who you hang out with because you should be influencing them. However, if they influence you more than you influence them, then it may be a bad thing. And while Jesus doesn’t mind sinners coming to Him, He also doesn’t mind telling anyone that they cannot be His disciple. see Luke 14:25-33.) So while sinners were drawing near to Him, the religious folks began to grumble.  Upon hearing their grumblings, Jesus tells this great parable of the lost sheep.

You may already know the story.  Jesus asks the rhetorical question, what Shepherd who has 100 sheep, if he loses one, doesn’t leave the flock to go get the one?  And upon finding the one lost sheep, the shepherd places it on his shoulders and rejoices while returning it to the flock.

Then Jesus adds “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Lk. 15:7)

Heaven rejoices!  Heaven rejoices when 15 year olds turn from their sins!  Heaven rejoices when 13 year olds commit all of themselves to Christ.  Heaven rejoices when youth and all people repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus!

Have you done that?  Have you ever repented?  Has there been rejoicing in heaven over you?

Last night, Wednesday, July 9th the YouthRoom was very intense again for the 2nd week in a row.  It seems to me that God is really working in the hearts of several students.  I pray so.

I taught again from Luke.  This time it was Luke 12:35-53.

This is such a rich passage loaded with good stuff.  As I was preaching, it dawned on me that this could easily be broken up into several good sermons.

Verses 35 through 40 are a wake up call…literally!  Jesus is saying to us that he is coming back soon and we do not know when that will be so we best be ready.  He says, stay awake waiting for Him.  Verse 37 states it so well “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.”  I love the word servants, and I love the fact that the redeemed are servants of our Master Jesus.  I asked the youth, when Christ returns, will He find your ready, waiting?  Will you be wide awake?

Verses 41 through 53 are so radical.  They are the Jesus that many people who do not read the Bible are not aware of.  In these verses, Jesus through a parable speaks of the Master (who refers to Him) coming home to find the servants not ready, so he cuts them to pieces and beats them.  Then later on Jesus asks the question “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?”  Then He answers it by saying “No, but rather division.”  These statements are radical.  Jesus Christ is radical. There is no one like Him. And He can save you.

Right in the middle of these radical statements Jesus speaks “to whom much is given, much is required.”  We spent some time seeking to understand this statement.  We discussed how we have been given much, and so are we doing what is required?  Are we taking what we know & have (the good news of Jesus. His salvation.) and taking it to others?  This is required of us.

Finally, these three things (Ready, Radical, Responsible) are the reality.  That is the truth. Jesus is real and what He says here in Luke 12 is the reality.  We cannot continue to think that He is the god who is not serious about disobedience and punishing sin and hating sin. We must know what he love and hates so that we will grow to love and hate the same things. 

I hope and pray that the youth are grasping the reality of God’s Word and God’s Son.