River Of Life Youth Group - Stand Up - Indianapolis, IN
Hebrews 11:1 says "Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". Always be
believing God for something in your life. Mark 4:24 says "Take
heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured
to you; and to you who hear, more will be given". The
more you use your faith the stronger it will get. Today, exercise
your faith muscles. Believe God for your miracle!
As we cry out
to God to help us through our circumstances, He has already given
us the very tool that we need to triumph over the attacks of the devil.
The Word. See Hebrews 5:1-9. When we were saved, we
were selected by God from all men (the world) to become high priests.
We have been given the authority in our salvation to be high priests
just as Christ is our high priest. Remember, we are joint heirs with
Christ. By the power of God through our salvation, we also were made
high priests. We as Christians (high priests) are to deal gently with
those that are lost and misguided (5:2). We are to offer sacrifices
of prayer to God for people of the world just as Christ offered His
body in sacrifice for all of us. As a high priest and a fisher of
men, pray for those around you that are lost and be kind and gentle
with them because they are blinded to the truth of Jesus Christ. Be
a light to the world, salt of the earth, and a fisher of men.
State Of
America's Young People
Today, I am going to begin a series of articles concerning the
state of America's young people and what we can do to change it. Here
are some statistics for you to get things started.
·
1 out of 12 attempt SUICIDE each year.
· 1 out of 10 fifteen year olds and younger have gone through
family divorce in their life-time.
· 58% have been involved in objectionable content on the web.
· 40% have experimented with SELF-INJURY ("are cutters").
· Use of prescription DRUGS (Ritalin, anti-depressants etc.)
by children/teens has increased substantially in the past few years.
· By the time the average child graduates from high school,
he/she will have watched 19,000 hours of TV including about 200,000
sexual acts and 1 million ACTS OF VIOLENCE.
· 1 in 10 high school females have reported being RAPED at
some point in their life.
· Fear of violence in schools is now the leading "worry"
of public school teens.
· 48% of high school seniors are SEXUALLY ACTIVE (had sexual
intercourse in past 3 months).
· 91% say there is NO ABSOLUTE TRUTH.
· 75% of teens in America believe the central message of the
Bible is, "God helps those who help themselves".
· 53% believe Jesus committed sin (40% of born again teens
believe Jesus committed sin).
To Be Continued...
State Of
America's Young People Part 2
If
you read the bulletin last time, you saw some very alarming statistics
about America's young people. We live in a culture that wants everything
now, from our entertainment to our food to our very success and achievement
in life. The young people of today are feeling the pressure of life
like no generation before them. They are feeling the pressure of the
war zones we call schools, to be accepted and popular among their
peers, and to achieve success in school. They are also feeling the
pressure to live up to what MTV, magazines, and their friends are
saying they should be. They are feeling the devastation of their families
falling apart. They are constantly being bombarded by sounds and images
of sex, crime, violence, and drug & alcohol use. They have 24/7
access to the internet where they can get involved in pornography
or inappropriate relationships. Today's young people are going through
life so fast that they are yearning for something real. There is an
emptiness in their lives that cannot be filled by 5 minute music videos,
30 second commercials, video games, chat rooms, and surfing the web.
Next time I will address what will fill the emptiness in America's
young people.
To Be Continued...
State Of America's
Young People Part 3
Today's young people need to see through all the junk that is in the
media today. They want to be a part of something that is bigger than
themselves. They want to be accepted for what and who they are. They
want to be needed. They want to experience unconditional love. So
we ask, what will fill the void in the lives of America's youth? JESUS!
Okay, so you saw that coming. If we dive deeper into the question,
we would ask "How can we expose the young people to Jesus?"
By Christian media, witnessing, youth groups? All of the above? Okay,
we expose the young people to Jesus by living our lives for Him unapologetically.
We show them who Jesus is by loving people around us, by not compromising
on moral issues, and sometimes separating ourselves from the crowd
when the crowd is going in the wrong direction. We need not to be
ashamed of who we are in Christ.
Lessons Learned From The Louisville Believers' Convention
Today I want to talk about some of the things I learned during the
Louisville Believers' Convention. As many of you know, I work with
Glenn and perform the "day to day" activities of his ministry.
I was frankly humbled to see God move in the way that He did during
the convention. We as a ministry stretched our faith and sowed seeds
into Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Mike Murdock Ministries for the
convention. We were believing God for at least $35,000 for the church
in Mauritius. Well, as you read above, that came in plus some. Praise
God! Here is the number one thing I learned through the convention.
Never go to God about a need without a seed. I am not saying that
you can "pay off" God to get your need met. I am saying
that sowing seeds with an expected harvest set the wheels of heaven
in motion. If you have a financial, physical, emotional, or spiritual
need in your life, sow a seed of time, money, or whatever you have
to offer to God and start expecting to see a miracle in your life.
Today, I want to talk about the mission that God has given us for
the youth ministry here at ROL. Our mission statement is as follows:"
Our mission is to raise up a generation of young people who love Jesus
Christ enough to give their all to serve others, to take back their
schools, and to spread the gospel to the entire world; No matter what
it takes." In addition to that, we have a desire to discover
what God has called our young people to do and then teach them the
necessary skills to accomplish those things. My wife and I have a
vision to launch young people out into the world in the areas of business
and ministry. We want to see a day where our young people that have
become wealthy through business, will fund the ministries of those
who have gone into the ministry. When we establish this, we will have
strong ministries flowing from our church for decades to come. I encourage
all of you to think of our youth ministry as preparation for the strength
and success of our church in the future. We are very excited about
what God is doing in our youth ministry. If you would like to know
more about our plans and vision for the youth ministry, my wife and
I invite you to come speak to us about it or you are welcome to sit
in on a youth service. Thank you again for your support.
I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about the Cross-Culture Youth
Ministry Summit that Pastor Tom & Barbara as well as myself and
Tina attended a few weeks ago. The goal of the summit hosts (Teen
Mania and Josh McDowell) was to enable our minds, enable our hearts,
and enable our hands. That is exactly what happened. We heard from
the best and the brightest in the field of youth ministry. As Pastor
Tom and Barbara would testify, there were many things in the summit
that could be used to help the church as a whole, not just the youth
ministry. We received such a download of information, we are still
sorting through it all weeks later. The highlight of the event however
was the pre-screening of Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion Of Christ".
Mel Gibson is a devout Catholic and he & his team painstakingly
researched the Bible to make sure that they accurately told the story
of the crucifixion of Christ. This is the most realistic portrayal
of the crucifixion ever made. Frankly, it was difficult to watch.
It showed the torture, mocking, and murder of Jesus. The thing that
I kept thinking over and over was "I could never repay this.
There is no way any of us could ever repay what Jesus did for us."
After the movie was over, the crowd in attendance (pastors, youth
pastors, youth leaders) began to cry out to God. The people then began
to sing Amazing Grace. The band Delirious then began to sing praises
to God. Back stage, the representative from Icon Pictures (Mel Gibson's
production company) said with tears in his eyes, "This has never
happened before. We have never had this kind of reaction to the movie."
This film has changed the lives of everyone who saw it that night.
I urge you to see this film when it is released February 25, 2004.
Your life will never be the same.
Seasons
When we say the word seasons, most people think of the seasons of
the year or maybe sports seasons or a variety of other meanings of
the word. Many of us don’t often think about the seasons of life.
As it says in the famous passage of Eccl 3:1-8 it mentions that to
everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.
God has put all of us in different places for different reasons. We
all have different skills and talents that are developed throughout
the seasons of our lives. I have heard it said “You will be promoted
in life when you become over qualified for your present position.”
I want to encourage those of you who want and need to be promoted
in your life. Understand that your present circumstance is a season
of your life. Use it to your advantage. Learn all you can, develop
your skills and talents and when the right time comes, God will launch
you into what he has for your life.
Do Not Worry about Anything
This past week I have been thinking about the times that we are facing
in our country and the world. Around the world, we see continued unrest
in the Middle East. Economies are struggling. There is political upheaval
around the world. Greece is facing major problems as they try to prepare
for the Olympics. There have been bombings and riots. Here at home,
we are concerned about the war in Iraq, prison scandals, the execution
of civilian contractors at the hands of terrorists, gas prices, the
911 commission, a presidential election, and many other issues. These
are some pretty dark times. On the cover of our last bulletin, we
had a scripture about peace. Today, a scripture telling us that Jesus
is the light in these dark times. Let's remember that despite what
happens in our world, country, state, county, city, neighborhood,
or individual lives; God is in control. We are His children. Think
about it. Those of us that are parents would never allow anything
bad to happen to our kids. I will leave you with this. Take a look
at Matthew 6:25-34. Do not worry about anything.
