Hey guys... the outline is coming along slowly. I spent most of the day trying to hammer out a topic. God is a lot of things. It's hard to pick one that is meaningful and relevant to the kids.
Anyway... the idea that I landed on was that God is joyful. Or, maybe a better way to put it is that God is a God of joy.
There are three basic points I want to cover, and there is a logical progression.
1. God is joyful (cf John 15:11, 17:13). I don't really want to get into what it means for God to be joyful. The point is that true joy comes from God. The joy that God desires for us to have is His joy. This is kind of the foundational truth, but I probably won't spend much time on this point. It leads us to the core of the message in points 2 + 3.
2. True and lasting joy is found in God, not things. The point of this section is that we have a distorted picture of joy. We think of happiness and pleasure, and we seek those things out in the world. Joy is better than both of those things, and we find it in God.
3. We are called to be a joyful people. The main reason I wanted to talk about joy is because I don't think we tend to associate faith and joy. We tend to get bogged down with the struggles and difficulties in faith. When we think of our relationship with God, we're so focused on what's wrong. Faith should be the source of a constant joy.
That's where I'm at now. I want to spend more time studying the idea of a biblical joy so that I can help the kids understand what it means to be truly joyful (and how to distinguish joy from happiness and pleasure). But ultimately, I want them to walk away feeling like their faith is a good thing. I'm kind of tired of us being downer Christians who always feel like crap and always feel like something is wrong.
Let's be a joyful people.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Friday, April 15
hey guys. brett said he couldn't speak this friday so i guess i'm up. here are my thoughts thus far, though i don't really have an outline yet.
my point for this week is "God is Praying". its a bit different in that "praying" is not really a characteristic, but i think it is characteristic of God, not only that He prayed for us, but that He is praying for us right now also. i think we don't typically have this thought. we know God sent Christ to die for us, that He has forgiven us our sins, that He loves us, that He hears our prayers, etc., but we don't always remember that Jesus is praying for us and that He has already prayed for us.
the text i'm going to look into is John 17, particularly vv20-26 which is Jesus praying for future believers--us. and also Rom. 8:34, which says that Christ was raised to the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
so i'm going to draw out the idea that God, particuarly Jesus, prayed for us and is praying for us still. i think it is such a comforting fact to be reminded of. and i will likely also hit at least somewhat on how Christ valued prayer. even in His impending death, He still went to the Father and prayed (Gethsemene). prayer to Him was precious time with the Father and to that end in John 17 is what He was praying for us.
so that's my rough thought so far. i have a lot of ideas, but they are jumbled still. i'll try to get a more concrete outline up by tomorrow. but that is my main idea.
my point for this week is "God is Praying". its a bit different in that "praying" is not really a characteristic, but i think it is characteristic of God, not only that He prayed for us, but that He is praying for us right now also. i think we don't typically have this thought. we know God sent Christ to die for us, that He has forgiven us our sins, that He loves us, that He hears our prayers, etc., but we don't always remember that Jesus is praying for us and that He has already prayed for us.
the text i'm going to look into is John 17, particularly vv20-26 which is Jesus praying for future believers--us. and also Rom. 8:34, which says that Christ was raised to the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
so i'm going to draw out the idea that God, particuarly Jesus, prayed for us and is praying for us still. i think it is such a comforting fact to be reminded of. and i will likely also hit at least somewhat on how Christ valued prayer. even in His impending death, He still went to the Father and prayed (Gethsemene). prayer to Him was precious time with the Father and to that end in John 17 is what He was praying for us.
so that's my rough thought so far. i have a lot of ideas, but they are jumbled still. i'll try to get a more concrete outline up by tomorrow. but that is my main idea.
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