Do you have some messes in your life? Maybe you see all the things piling up around you. Maybe you have known for a while that there are things you need to deal with. Problems with friends. Challenges with parents. Maybe you are a different person at school than you are at home or at church. Maybe you have felt your relationship with God slip further and further to the background of your life, as "more pressing, more urgent, more important," things have taken His place.
Now that we have been forced to slow down, maybe this can be the time we have been waiting for, but have never had. Maybe now we can finally take care of all those "House Cleaning" things that we have been putting off for so long.
What do you need to take care of? What has been lacking in your life? What has taken too much of your time, and your energy and your attention? How can you cut those things out and get your house in order?
It's time to clean house.
(This lesson comes from Clark Bundy, who told me that he had something he wanted to share. In the coming weeks, I would love to have some of our teens bring a message that God has placed on their hearts, that they would like to share with the rest of the group. If you have something that you'd like to share, please let me know!)
Cleaning House
April 6, 2020 • Clark Bundy
Stress
April 27, 2020 • Will Bundy
1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. It's not always easy to lay our burdens down. Thankfully we serve a God who has promised us to be with us, to rejoice with us, and to mourn with us. We can rest in his promise that if we lay our burdens down, he will carry them for us. What burdens are you carrying right now? Are you ready to lay them down?
Yearning
April 20, 2020 • The Boren Family
Romans 8:19-23 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Are you yearning for things to get back to normal? As we endure together one of the most bizarre times in any of our lives, we face an unsettling truth. Things may never be "normal" again. We may have to adapt ourselves to a new normal. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. We know that God is good and that he is in control. So, as we wait out this time of uncertainty, we can hold on to the promise that God works for the good always. We may not know what the future is going to look like, but we can rest in the knowledge that God will work. God will restore. And God will provide. Maybe our new normal is a deeper faith, a truer trust, and a firmer hope.