JUNIOR HIGH SUNDAY SCHOOL

This past Sunday we cancelled our Sunday and served in various departments (nursery, preschool, schoolage - StarKids, greeting and sound/A.V.)

YOUTHQUEST BASKETBALL

Last Wednesday was our finale. Here's a couple of pictures of some of the participants.

YOUTHQUEST BASKETBALL

Thanks to Matt and Justin Tan for the great video!

JUNIOR HIGH SUNDAY SCHOOL

RHYTHM (4): Passion (May 22)

God made Eve for Adam because He knew that all people needed relationship.

“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’ ” (Genesis 2:18 NIV).

Having rhythm with others sounds simple, but it’s hard to live out. Right rhythm means that we need to be in right relationships. When our relationships are out of whack, our rhythm with those people is messed up and spills over into our relationship with God. Jesus teaches that murder is bad, but there are other ways you can murder someone.

Jesus said: “ ‘You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell” (Matthew 5:21-22 NLT).

You may have good reasons for not liking someone. But Jesus said: “So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God” (Matthew 5:23-24 NLT).

For God, the indicator of our spiritual lives is not how often we pray. The indicator is the health of our relationships with
one another.To Jesus, our relational, emotional and spiritual lives are all connected--in the same way different instruments come together to play a song. Staying in rhythm with others comes down to power. Jesus calls on us to be weak with one another. Jesus calls on us to love our enemies--and then He hangs on a cross and dies for His enemies. When we push ourselves down, God pushes us up.

Loving others is an act of loving God.

BOTTOM LINE: If we aren’t in rhythm with others, we can’t be in rhythm with God.

YOUTHQUEST BASKETBALL

Yesterday was our last night to play basketball for the year. It was a great night, all teams played hard and the scores came down to the last minute of play in both sessions! We talked about optimism - We maintain a positive attitude. We look on the brighter side of situations. We are able to see opportunities even in the face of adversity. We have hope for the future. Congrats to both our MVC's!

JUNIOR HIGH SUNDAY SCHOOL

SESSION 3 (sUNDAY mAY 15)

The foundation to everything in your life is . . . you. When we aren’t okay with who we are, when we are off and something in us isn’t right, then everything else is affected . . . relationships, spiritual life, everything. If we don’t care what’s done to us, how are we going to care what is done to others? If we don’t understand that we are worthy of being loved, how can we genuinely love others?

Jesus met a woman at a well who was hiding and avoiding others because she had secrets.

“Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Please give me a drink’ ” (John 4:6-7 NLT).

Jesus literally sat down next to this woman and basically said, “Life isn’t working out for you, is it? Let me offer you another way of living, the way you were created to live.”

“Jesus replied, ‘If you only knew the gift God has for you and who I am, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.’

‘But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,’ she said, ‘and this is a very deep well. Where would you get this living water? And besides, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his cattle enjoyed?’

Jesus replied, ‘People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life.’

‘Please, sir,’ the woman said, ‘give me some of that water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to haul water’ ” (John 4:10-15 NLT).

The woman was hiding, just like Adam and Eve. We’re good at hiding too. To be in rhythm with yourself means to love yourself. When you don’t love yourself, you naturally begin not to love God. We can try to hide from others, but we can’t hide from God. Every horrible thing that you are painfully aware of, every bad thing you’ve said or done, every defect in who you are--He sees and doesn’t run away.

If the rhythm between you and God is off, maybe it’s because you are at war with yourself and you don’t like you. If the rhythm between you and others is off, maybe the issue isn’t that person you are mad at; maybe the issue is you. What does it look like for you to be in rhythm with yourself? How can you begin to like yourself?

BOTTOM LINE: We cannot be in rhythm with God or in rhythm with others without learning to be in rhythm with ourselves.

YOUTHQUEST BASKETBALL

Tonight we were back on after a week off. It was a full house of boys as we embarked on a new month and a new Character Matters Trait, - Courage - We face challenges directly. We seek help from others when necessary. We do the right thing even when it may be unpopular. We are able to recognize risks and danger and do not take unwise risks to gain the approval of others. Congrats to our MVP's of the week.

JUNIOR HIGH SUNDAY SCHOOL

Session 2 (Sunday May 8)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CBNE25rtnE (Worship Song - God of Wonders)

White noise is simply noise that fills the air and takes up space. It has no meaning. For some of you, there are many things about your faith that have become white noise. You’ve heard it all and seen it all. We know God is big, but we live like He’s so small. What if we saw God for who He is? Every one of us was created with a sense of wonder. We want something to amaze us. But somewhere along the way, we begin to settle for another song.

“The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?’

The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”

‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman” (Genesis 3:1-4 NIV).

Sin steals our sense of wonder. Adam and Eve lost their sense of the wonder of God. The serpent gave them a narrow perspective of God.

“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5 NIV).

Wonder is when our words, affection, attention and soul can’t explain or get enough of something. When something seems too unbelievable to grasp and too amazing to be true, it has captured our sense of wonder. In our lives, we have things that steal our attention and grab our affection.

Our wonder is designed by God. When we lose it, we lose rhythm with Him.

What has captured your wonder?

BOTTOM LINE: Being in rhythm with God means that He alone has captured our sense of wonder.

http://www.whatisorange.org/xp3students/ (Orange Website)

YOUTHQUEST BASKETBALL

Last Wednesday (May 4), we cancelled the program so that we could have a leaders meeting. We discussed our end of the year program (May 25) and even had time to celebrate one of our adult leader's birthdays.

JUNIOR HIGH SUNDAY SCHOOL

Rhythm 1 - The Song

Rhythm is the invisible quality that holds everything together. Many of us aren’t aware of the rhythm, we only notice when it is missing.

We are created to exist in rhythm--with God, with ourselves and with others.

In the beginning, the conductor (God) started assembling the band and putting the song together.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:1-4 NIV).

God created man and woman. There was rhythm in three areas:

• Rhythm between God and humanity.

• Rhythm between man and woman.

• Rhythm between man and himself.

But then the song fell apart.

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Genesis 3:6 NIV).

Every action has consequences. Sin affects one thing; then it begins to affect another. Our problems start when we lose rhythm with God. We were designed to be in rhythm with God. The most amazing thing about the creation story is that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, He didn’t simply walk away, He went looking for them.

“The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ ” (Genesis 3:8-9 NIV).

We were created to be in rhythm with God, to walk in step with Him.

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 NIV).

YOUTHQUEST BASKETBALL

On Wednesday (April 27) we went back to our normal format for our drop in. The boys shoot around for a bit, then there's a talk on Character Matters (this month - integrity), then they do a drill, then divide into teams for a game. Congrats to our MVCs (Most Valuable Character). Note that the the program is cancelled on Wednesday May 4.