What is your church or youth group going over right now?

What I mean is, what has your pastor or youth pastor been preaching about recently?

I'll start. Last night my youth pastor gave an overview of the whole Old Testament. There are about eight "backbone" books that cover all of the OT period in chronological order, with the other books being grouped into the same time period as one of those backbone books. I didn't have enough time or paper to copy the list, so I can't quite remember it all. Maybe when he finally gets the webmaster of our youth group website to actually work on it (he's a fellow teenager with limited time), I can see the whole list and post it here!

Kody

Our church is about to take a several month in depth study on the doctrine of the christian faith. We all have a book called "Know What You Believe" by Paul E. Little.

It's time for another KODY 105 youth group update. Tonight the youth pastor gave an overview of the whole New Testament. He explained that the Gospel of Matthew was written to the Jews, and it shows Jesus as the King of the Jews. The Gospel of Mark was written to the Romans (the empire's citizens in general, not just the city of Rome) and shows Jesus as a Servant. The Romans could understand this concept. Luke's Gospel shows Jesus as a Man, perfect and holy. Luke, a well-educated doctor, showed the Greeks that salvation is for Jews and for Gentiles!
Let me pause here and praise God that Gentiles are offered salvation from sins! I, and probably most of you, are Gentiles. God did say that through Abraham all the nations of the world would be blessed! OK, back on track here...
John shows everyone that Jesus is God.
Each of the four gospels shows us a view of Jesus that is correct. Jesus is King of Kings, He is Servant to us in His sacrifice, He came to earth as a Man and showed that He is perfect, and He is God. Let no one be confused: Jesus Christ, born by the virgin Mary (a regular human like you and me), is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Philippians 2:10-11: "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Whether now on earth, voluntarily, or later at the day of judgment, everyone will confess that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Wow, amazing post!!

I have no idea what my youth group is going through, I've been away for a month.

Actually, the last half of that was off-topic. The youth pastor did not get into all that: he discussed Paul's missionary journeys. He explained how Paul wrote letters as he was traveling, and he showed us an animated map of his journey, where he was when he wrote letters, and to which city he sent them.

That's great!

Our world view course did a study of the gospels and who they were written for etc. It was really fascinating!

As Storm said, our church is going through doctrine right now. Sadly, we had to miss our service last Sunday (at least I did) because our parents were out of town and we stayed with friends. I went to my friend's church (her dad is the pastor) and the sermon was wonderful! The only problem was that it is a Spanish church so all I heard was what was being whispered in my ear by my friend. It was really good, though.

I'll try to recall it an tell you about it, but I really don't remember it as well as I would have if it had been in English. I usually take detailed notes, but this time was an exception

Today my youth group went to a youth rally. A well-known (in my circles, anyway) preacher came and gave three sermons. They were very excellent and stirred many people's hearts. He presented salvation as being rescued out of the ocean of sins. We are drowning in our own sins, and Jesus Christ is offering to pull us out of it.

About three-eighths of the youth group showed up. Many, many churches in the area came for the fun, games, and preaching.

(and please, someone, post after this so I can post again about my youth group! I want to keep you updated without double posting!)

Sounds great! And edifying. Who was the pastor?

Tonight, my youth pastor started talking about dating and relationships. He's covered music and overviews of the Old Testament and New Testament. He doesn't know how long our current topic will take, but he started by discussing how our relationship with God must come first. Our relationships with others are indicators of our relationship with God. If our relationship with God is broken, then we will act poorly with others.

Stick around for more KODY 105 youth group updates!

KODY 105 wrote:Tonight, my youth pastor started talking about dating and relationships. He's covered music and overviews of the Old Testament and New Testament. He doesn't know how long our current topic will take, but he started by discussing how our relationship with God must come first. Our relationships with others are indicators of our relationship with God. If our relationship with God is broken, then we will act poorly with others.

Stick around for more KODY 105 youth group updates!

Very true. When I am not spending time with Christ e.g. not reading the Bible.... I tend to be more crabby and irritable with my family especially. Our relationship with God MUST come first.

We had a "Teen fit," which is really just a mini-activity after an evening church service. We usually goto a couple's house and eat junk food and play games for about an hour and a half. Then we listen to the youth pastor or owner of the house give a Bible challenge.

Last night, we consumed (at the homeowner's count) 64 hotdogs of two variations: regular and turkey. Scattered around the house were a total of four bowls filled with mini candy bars and bags of Skittles. After stuffing our faces with these delectable goodies and popsicles, we kicked off our shoes and went upstairs to have a Wii Mario Cart tournament. I made it to the final round, but got eliminated at the last second by this Mario Cart guru who plays every other day. Our youth pastor then gave us a challenge from Proverbs 4:23: "Guard thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." We need to protect what we see, hear, think, and do very, very carefully. We represent God to all people, and we need to represent Him in the best way possible for His glory.

I finally went to church Saturday for the first time in like.. 2 and a half months! Because I went home! Sweet!

I missed the sermon because of Brittni and Alisha (it was the Romanian dude anyway... Well, let's just say, he's as bad as um... Kerry. And that can say things sometimes. But he is still loved!).

For Sabbath School though, as it went long, We talked about how we can be absolutely right in our minds, people could agree, we could test it, EVERYTHING, and STILL be wrong. Mostly about Boys and Firefox 3.... no comment on the latter. On boys, Doug told us to be careful, ro know who we want, and find that person. Any little difference can be bad. Be careful when looking. And if you can't handle being engaged for 2 years, then it wasn't meant to be... don't ask. Mostly that lesson though... and it went long...

I know this is Monday, but I never posted what my youth group went over last Wednesday. You may call me a slacker now!

My youth pastor talked about dating. He showed us three wrong reasons teenagers date. They date because they are lonely, or they date for their pride, or they date because they are impatient.

If a person is lonely, he needs to strengthen his relationship with God, as He says in Psalm 63:1-5, and other actively growing Christians.

Post here what your youth group or church has been learning about from God's Word.

Well, let's see.

This week at church is our annual "Missions Conference" and this year my family is participating in it. We had a special speaker Sunday morning who preached an excellent sermon. The subject was "Whom Shall I Send: The Brokenhearted God". He pointed out, I know that it was somewhere in Matthew, where Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." He said that what breaks God's heart is lost people, and those who do not say "Here am I Lord, send me." He said that sometimes there are those who respond to God's call, but then do nothing about it. There are also those who do not respond to the call, and there are those who do. He painted pictures of the need in different countries, and told about a time when he was in India, where he began to "become accustomed to" the bad there. It was a very convicting sermon, many of the congregation was in tears. I'm sure our family would have been also, if we were not already going and responding to God's call.

The next hour was my Sunday School class. I co-teach the 3rd and 4th grade. It was my week to teach, and the lesson was God testing Abraham. We had some really great discussion, talking about how they must of felt, and how we must of felt. We also continued to be amazed at Abraham's faith in God. This has been a recurring point in our lessons for the past month, how God tells Abraham that his decedents will be a numerous as the sand, though his wife is barred. Also the key words like, "...The we will come back down to you..." that Abraham spoke to his servants before climbing the mountain. We then emphasized how, when God called him, Abraham responded, "Here I am Lord," and talked about ways that we can respond that way. We talked about things that are super hard to do, and how we can do them by faith, just like Abraham, knowing that God will keep his promise and we will not go astray. I then shared with them about my family going to China. Let's just say that, that was emotionally draining. No, I didn't cry.... but teaching that lesson just wore me out.

Next hour my family went around to the other children's classes and told them about what we were doing, but I won't go into that.

Oh, and yesterday I read a really great verse from Psalm 29:

27 The righteous detest the dishonest;
the wicked detest the upright.

Sheds a lot of light on persecution doesn't it?

5 bonus points to everybody who actually read the whole thing

The time has come for another KODY 105 update. I had forgotten about this thread until yesterday!

My youth pastor preached in Sunday school from James 2. He said that Christians cannot have true faith and respect of persons. He said that the youth group should not be segregated between the schoolers and the homeschoolers. That is having respect of persons- respect to what method of education they use. The youth pastor mentioned a specific activity when, while we were all in the lobby of the building, the schoolers were in one corner, and the homeschoolers were in another. Our self-segregation broke his heart he said.

My pastor preached in the morning sermon from John 6:40-45. He has been preaching from here for the last few weeks. The Pharisees in that passage are ready to stone Jesus for saying He is God. (Saying you are from heaven, in the ancient Hebrew culture, meant that you were claiming to be God.) The Pharisees thought that they knew His parents: "Isn't this Jesus of Nazareth, the son of the carpenter Joseph?"

A side note about carpenters in that day: carpenters were house-builders. Back then, one person could know all there was to know about building houses. Nowadays it takes a host of workers and inspectors to complete a house, but one person could do it all back in the Roman days.

Ah.. I finally went to church yesterday. And Brian Reed was the speaker!

So, all week long has been week of prayer (and I was REALLY sad to see it pass so quickly. I like Brian speaking!) All week long, Brian has been talking about practical ways to have a relationship with Christ.
A few things were: Prayer (having a conversation with God), Reading his word (growing in him), be still and silent and listening, and worship. I forget what the other two days were about... hmm... oh well.
Well, yesterday in WWVA church, Brian talked about worship. How worship is not just singing. Have your whole heart and mind into singing praises to God, and worshipping God in ALL we do, not just in church or during worship times. Worship should be everything we do to Glorify God.

I wouldn't have given up learning these things this week because it helped me set up something I am striving to reach for. A better relationship with Christ. I need it, and I hope I can stay on track.

That is what I learned all this last week...

Yesterday my youth pastor finished preaching about Biblical dating. He said that the best way to stay honorable and avoiding all appearance of and actual evil is to have a "NO TOUCH" policy.

My youth pastor came up with a list of "practical dating tips" and I will list them here.

1. Only date/marry someone you would be friends with.
   
2. Does he or she have a servant's heart?
   Watch what he or she does when there is work to be done at church/school without pay. (Walk away? Leaves? Talks in a group?)
   
3. Dating can become exclusive very quickly and your closest friends are neglected.
   
4. Guard against making life decisions around your dating life. (i.e. college, career, camp, work, etc.)
   God's will must come first.
   

My youth group is just finished a study on Justice. We talked about true justice vs. the world's view of justice. If anyone wants I can go into more detail on a later post.

DolphinLover wrote:My youth group is just finished a study on Justice. We talked about true justice vs. the world's view of justice. If anyone wants I can go into more detail on a later post.

Wow! I forgot about this thread.

I would like to know more regarding true justice and the world's (going to be incorrect) view of justice.

We were using a curiculum called [u]The Justice Mission[/u]. This study lasted about 3 months. Each meeting we would watch a video about real oppression, read some scripture, and talk about justice.
One of the first things that the video showed was that there are more slaves today then there have ever been before.
They may not be in physical chains they are still slaves through forced labor. This is a form of injustice and we talked about other parts of injustice as well.

...I've got to go now; I'll finish my post later.