Young Guns U

This series has been so cool to me for when you begin to talk about young leaders who are dangerous to hell, dangerous to the Devil, dangerous to everything evil and destructive that fires me up like no other.

Proverbs 10:5 (NLT)
"A wise youth harvests in the summer, but one who sleeps during harvest is a disgrace."

• Here is just blame of those who blow off opportunities, both for here and for hereafter.
• sleeps--in indolence(avoidance of activity or exertion, laziness,) and not for rest
• Disgrace-causes shame--literally, "is base" (the lowest part or the edge of something)
• Lazy people have never inspired me.
• Never, like never, like never ever, ever, never.
• He/she harvests at the right time and rests at the right time.
• A lot of people try to harvest(work) for God at the the House of God.
• While God actually wants us to be in His rest at the House of God and be in harvest(work) everywhere else.
• Rest meaning that we utilize our time in the House of God to connect with Him, connect with others, respond to His word, communicate to Him with prayer, and worship.
• Prayer is letting God know what you need, what your struggling with, what your upset for, what challenges others or your self might be facing, bringing your requests to Him.
• Prayer is moving the hand of God, worship moves the heart of God.
• Prayer says I need, worship says I'm thankful, I'm grateful for.
• Worship is thanking God for all of those things, showing adoration, love, respect, and honoring Him.
• Worshiping God is bringing my honor, bringing my love, bringing my respect, and bringing my worth of God to God.
• Work meaning ready to share our faith, ready to share our confidence in Him, ready to rescue others with the message of Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 14:35 (NLT)
"A king rejoices in wise servants but is angry with those who disgrace him."

Disgrace-Loss of reputation or respect especially as the result of a dishonorable action.

• Being young, being influential is such an enormous opportunity in this life.
• We have such an opportunity to shape this culture, to inspire our families, to witness to our friends with our lifestyle.
• A lot of people disregard their own youth with their time, disregard their youth with their efforts, disregard their youth with their talent, disregard their youth with their activity thinking that none of it matters until they get old.
• They refuse to share their gifting, talent, ability, ideas, with the world.
• Essentially they never share their "real self."
• They share a substitute.
• Substitutions are rarely ever better than the original.
• Like one in a million.

Illustrate here: Pop tarts, off brand pop tarts, 
Oreos, hydrox, sandwich cookie
Heinz ketchup, catsup
Mountain Dew, Mountain Lightning,
Mcdonald's French fries, apples
Rock & Roll, Country

• Identifying who and what you are in Christ is the key to this life.
• God's dream, desire, and plan for you.
• Why live my young life for Christ?
• Why get baptized?
• Why give in the offering?
• Why read my bible and pray?
• Why a missions trip?
• Why influence the world for good, for Christ?
• Young Leaders of the bible never did everything right but they always got Him right.
• They always leaned on, trusted, obeyed, and placed their faith in God, their complete confidence in Him.
• We're they without fear?
• No.
• We're they without questions?
• Are you kidding me?
• We're they unclear about all the outcomes?
• Yes!
• Young Guns, see their need and see their supply, in Him.
• God is both for us.
• Culture thinks God is all about what I can't do, God will get me if I smoke, drink, cuss, or chew, God will get me if I hang around those that do.

God "so loved the world, John 3:16" not God so hated us, not God is so displeased with us, not God can't wait to catch you doing something wrong but God "so loved" us that His Son chose to trade His perfect existence for our imperfect one.

• Do we really want Jesus to show up?

Mark 5:15-17 "When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region."

• Do we really want Jesus to show up?
• Because when He showed up in this community, they lost a huge part of their economy.
• Yes, He had done a great thing for a crazy man living by himself in a cave.
• But He was messing up their way of doing things and their why of doing it.
• So they asked Him to leave.
• As soon as He touched their structure, their possessions, their money, His presence wasn’t welcome.
• I think most people want Jesus to show up and have their lives improve.
• Fair enough.
• Jesus told us He came to bring us abundant life, full life, and that’s what His presence brings.
• The problem is that in addition to wanting an abundant life, we usually want everything else to remain the same.
• Business as usual.
• Status quo...intact.
• My system, good to go.
• On both global and personal levels.
• We want Jesus plus economic prosperity.
• Jesus plus national security.
• Jesus plus safety.
• Jesus plus wrongdoing.
• Jesus doesn't always work like that.
• It’s not that safety, security, and prosperity cannot coexist with Jesus and His movement among us.
• It’s just that our desire for safety, security, and prosperity at the expense of Jesus cannot coexist with Jesus and His movement among us.
• One of the greatest things standing between you and the uninhibited, powerful presence of Jesus in your life is probably the thing you believe must coexist alongside Him.
• Big things like the economy.
• World peace.
• Or smaller things like your boyfriend/girlfriend.
• Sleeping in.
• Not working hard or even not pursuing God passionately and purposefully.
• In order to bring us what we really want, abundant life, sometimes God has to take away what we think we need.
• It’s often the things that we hold onto most tightly that we need to let go of most desperately.
• Do we really want Jesus to show up?
• What if Jesus comes and messes everything up?
• What if we ask Him to show up in our nation and the economy goes down?
• What if we ask Him to show up in our family and our preferred path and scenario for them isn't their vision for them or isn't God’s vision for them?
• What if God told you not to date that person because of their lack of a value system.
• Some of us probably wouldn’t want Jesus to show up then.
• But that would be our loss.
• Jesus’ presence may mess everything up.
• But by messing everything up, He is actually putting everything exactly where it belongs and positioning us for exactly what we need.
• And that’s Himself.
• It's not His hate for us, His judgment, of us, His ruling over us that would change us it's His love.

1 John 3:11 “This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 14 If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 18 Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.”

• Young Guns love when it's time and when it's inconvenient.
• They lead when others refuse.
• They rescue when others chose to only concern themselves with themselves.
• They serve when it would so much easier to be served.

Next Month at Youthrock: Uncaged Christianity

Live Second through serving (guest blog post by Kassie Milner)

Kassie Milner

1-17-13

-         Passion: serve/ worship (one of the seven P’s)

-         Live second through serving 

My Testimony:

-         Parents divorced at a very young age
-         Biological father never cared, never wanted me
-         Three older brothers one younger sister
-         God has blessed me with an amazing step dad that has been there for me ever since I was 2, he’s my dad
-         Raised in a Christian home
-         Accepted Jesus into my heart at a very young age, but growing up I still struggled with some things and when I got in to HS I started to backslide and live my life the way I wanted to live it
-         Never got into drugs and alcohol or anything, just wasn’t living for the Lord
-         I was one of those people who acted like a Christian on Sundays and did whatever I wanted outside of church
-         Summer between my Junior and Senior year at church camp got a hold of my life and radically changed me
-         I had the fire and passion to serve God and to do whatever He wanted me to do with my life…I was sold and I told God that I would do whatever He wanted me to do and go wherever He wanted me to go
-         Senior year I was looking into colleges, I wanted to move away from home when I signed my life away…..to a 3 month missions trip called Mission One Elven based off the scripture Joshua 1:11, 6 weeks in Cali for training and 6 weeks in Ethiopia where we spent our time sharing the gospel with tribes who have never heard before
-         When we were in Ethiopia we drove as far as we could South until there was no more road and we couldn’t drive anymore and from there we were helicoptered out into the Borana tribe
-         We lived with them, slept in tents that we brought like we were camping and we only got to shower if it rained, and every day we would walk to surrounding villages and share the gospel with them, telling them bible stories from the creation to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
-         Who has heard the gospel before? EVERYONE right? Can you imagine, living life without knowing what Jesus did for us on the cross?
-         When me and my team went to the Borana tribe that was the first time they had EVER heard the gospel, EVER!!
-         After we told the resurrection story and old man in the tribe asked us, “If you guys have known about these stories for so long, how come this is the first time anyone has ever come to tell us?”
-         Think about it: we come to youth Wednesday nights, church on Sundays and other events that the church puts on and we are comfortable just coming to church, that’s all we do…when there are people out there who have never had the chance to hear the Gospel before because people who have heard, people like us don’t go and share with others the good news of Jesus Christ
**- while I was in Ethiopia I felt a call to student ministry
-         I live in a very small town 3,000, high school 220, graduating class 57, my dad pastors a church of about 75
-         Our student ministry has always struggled, on average there were about 5 kids who would come to youth on a regular basis, me, my brother and sister and our worship leaders sons, every now and then we would bring our friends
-         When I left for my trip 5-8 youth when I got back from my trip 5-8 youth…sad right?
-         I talked to my youth pastor about serving under her and helping her, gave her some ideas that I had, she was so excited she put me in charge of making it all happen and I was preaching every other week
-         Within 3 to 4 weeks our youth group exploded, 5 to 30
-         I don’t take credit for that, it was definitely all God but I had to have that passion to serve and live second for God to use me like that
** a year later our youth group was still growing and going strong when I got call from the director of mission one eleven to come back and be a leader for the next trip and take them into Ethiopia…this time I took one of the young ladies in my youth group that just graduated and my mom…we just got back in December
-         This last trip we went to the Karo tribe and they live along the Omo river so we were able to take showers everyday… with crocodiles and I almost got eaten by one but I’d rather not share that story because I might have nightmares tonight
-         Ya’ll are probably like, “Eww, who does this white girl think she is, coming up in here telling us that she’s been there and done that AND she doesn’t shower for 6 weeks at a time!!”
-         Really, camping and not showering for 6 weeks is the least of my favorite things to do but Jesus was beaten, bruised, spit on, walked through town half naked and died on the cross for me, the least I could do is take time out of my life and go share His love with some people who have never had the chance to hear
-         I’m nothing special, just a normal 19 year old girl, who still goes through life struggling with stuff but I LIVE SECOND because God forgave me when  I was doing my own thing and gave me the chance to live for Him

Matthew 28 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,* baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

• If you put yourself aside, live second with a passion to serve God, you can’t even begin to image the ways that God can use you
• Don’t think that your too young or the things you’ve done in the past are two bad…the bible says that your never to young, God will forgive you and He’ll take you just as you are
• But you have to want it, you have to want to live second…in the end living second is way better than living first