Campus Missionaries! SERVE

This week we talked about the third thing we must do as a Christian that also helps lead us to become Campus Missionaries… Serve. Just as God has called us to pray and live, God also calls us to serve. We must serve God and serve People.

In order to serve, we must become servants. A servant is a person who does things for other people.

God calls all of us to serve. We get to choose if we serve because we love God and want to serve, or because we Love God and he has asked us to serve. Which ever way we choose, we should always be actively looking for ways to serve. We must serve and meet the needs of everyone we possibly can. And we must serve with a cheerful heart.

There are tons of ways we can serve… What are some of the ways that you can serve?

Serving should be infused with the way that we live our lives. Its how we show people who Jesus truly is. Because we serve, Jesus will be seen in everything we do, and people will see Jesus in our lives.

Just like prayer and spending time with the Word of God helps us to live a life pleasing to God, serving helps us develop our spiritual maturity. This happens when we get out of the “all about me” mode and get into the “all about others” mode. We need to remember that Jesus has called us to serve, not to be served.

Sadly, some of us are so concerned with their own needs that they fail to serve others, and in stead they end up walking all over people. Let me tell you from my experience of being walked on, unclean feet smell. We know in our heads how to live and what we should be doing, but our feet smell because we don’t live and do what we should. That’s when we end up walking on people.

We must serve God and serve People.

Lets take a look a what John 13:12-17 says about serving.

John 13:12-17
“When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.  “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

Typically, foot washing was done by a servant. This would be someone like a made, a house boy, a slave, a child, or someone like that. It was unheard of that someone who was an authority figure (such as a king, a father, a guest, a priest, or some sort of a leader) to do such a thing. Jesus wanted to show that everything must be done away with that kept people from doing what they should do. He washed the Disciples feet so that he could show the value of spiritual washing and cleansing people form the bad things they do, aka sin. Jesus washed people clean of all the bad things, all the sin that they commit when he is accepted as Lord God and Savior.

Jesus washed the disciples feet for 3 reasons: to show his love for them, to foreshadow his sacrifice on the cross, and to show that people are to follow his example and serve others.
When the Disciples saw that Jesus was serving people, they had a light bulb moment. They found that they need to follow in Jesus’ foot steps and serve people. The knew at that moment that by serving they will show people Jesus’ love, and the sacrifice he made for them on the cross.

As a Christian, you call Jesus your Lord God and Savior because that is what he is. Now that Jesus has served you, you must follow his example and serve the people around you.
Everyday you must actively look for ways to serve people in every way possible. When you serve people you will show them the love of Jesus, and the sacrifice he made on the cross for them.

You should serve people for the right reason. You should not serve and be looking for thanks or recognition. If you serve and look for thanks or recognition then you will eventually fail at serving. You must serve people with a loving heart, and serve those who have nothing to give you in return. When you serve others with the proper intent, you will honor God.

God has called each person in this room to serve, because the kingdom of God is built on servant hood.

When we serve other people, it will help tear down walls that have been build up, and open doors to share the Gospel with people. When we look for ways to lead people to Jesus, it is best done when we serve. Look at Jesus’ life, he had influence on people because he served. When we serve people, like Jesus did, we will gain influence in the lives of the people around us. We may have to serve by providing food, fixing homes and communities, or simply visiting with people as friends before they will open up and allow us to share our faith with them.

Now the question is, “Do you understand what Jesus has done for you?”

Jesus was beaten and bruised, he hung on the cross, and died an agonizing death. He did it all because he loves each and every one of us so much that he wanted to be the sacrifice for all the bad things, the sin, that we have done in our lives, so that one day we can spend eternity in heaven with God. Jesus conquered death are rose from the grave to sit at the right hand of God.

Jesus died on the cross in our place. If he didn’t, it would have been left up to us to pay for all the bad things, the sin, we have done. Let me tell you, there is no way we could have ever paid the price for the bad things, the sin, that we have done, and we would have ended up in Hell suffering for eternity do to not being able to pay it.

If you accept Jesus as Lord God and Savior, the Bible tells us that God will forgive us of all the bad things we have done. He will throw our sin into the sea of forgetfulness.

Today is your day… If you want God to forgive you of all the bad things you've done, and accept Jesus as your Lord God and Savior, say the following prayer from your heart and you will be forgiven and saved.

Jesus,
Thank you for dying on the cross in my place. Please forgive me of all the bad things that I have done. Today, I want to accept you as my Lord God and Savior. Come and live in my heart, and teach me to love you and love people.
Amen.

 If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord God and Savior, the next step is to find a Bible believing church, start attending, and getting involved. To find a church in your area Click Here. If you accepted Jesus as your Lord God and Savior while reading this post please let me know, because I want to pray for you.

Silly Bandz

Last week I got my first 2 Silly Bandz!

I really don't understand what students love about Silly Bandz. They are just silly, and are rubber bands.

Any ways, I went out and bought a 5 packs to give away at H2O last week, and I still have 3 packs left.

Silly Bandz Give Away!

Wednesday, July 21 2010, I will be giving away 2 packages of Silly Bandz.

1. to the winner of the game.
2. and one to the person who brings the most friends.

Be at H2O this Wednesday for your chance to win some silly bands, and to meet some awesome students!

See you there!!!

H2O Student Update!!!

Last night at H2O we had an awesome night…

We covered our second part of our six part series on Campus Missionaries… LIVE.
There were 3 Students who accepted Jesus as their Lord God and Savior, and all 16 students committed themselves to LIVE their Lives to set the example and to please God.

Announcements:

1. Kids Summer Block Party this Saturday Meet at the Church at 9am sharp
2. The Pen Florida District Youth Director, Al Force, has challenged H2O to give $1000 dollars to Speed the Light (STL) this year. With our first ever STL offering we took last month we raised an amazing $61.72. That is 6.2% of our goal. Our Speed The Light offering will be in 2 weeks (July 28th). Each student is challenged to bring $5 or more to help reach the Goal of $1000!
3. H2O student Ministries is in the RED!!! This is bad, very bad. We owe Sunset Chapel $381.40. This money was used to get Sunday School Curriculum, Prizes, Food, helping students get to camp and other events, along with other supplies for H2O. If you can help out, so we can pay the church back that would be great. PARENTS: All donations are Tax Deductible :D. This is why it is so important for you to give in the offering each week. The more money we have in the H2O fund, the more we can go and do Bigger, Better, and Funner things.
4. Musicians: If you or someone you know plays and instrument, and would be interested in playing in the youth band please contact Pastor Adam.

SHOUT OUTS!!!

MAX-

Thanks for visiting us last night. It was nice to meet you, and we hope that you will come back next week.

ANDREW-

Get Well Soon!!! We missed you this week.

ALISSA, RAQUEL, & MRS. NEYDA-

Thank you for bringing the food this week! From what I understand it was good. While I was talking to a parent the students ate all of it, so i didn't get any. Oh well… maybe next time. Thanks!!!

Campus Missionaries! LIVE

Last night we covered the 2nd part of our 6 part series on Campus Missions. There are 5 things that every Christian must do, and those 5 things lead us to become Campus Missionaries. Those 5 things are to Pray Live Serve Tell and Give. Last night we talked about LIVE… we all need to LIVE our lives to please God and to set the example for those around us.

Last week we talked about how we need to have a TAG time (Time Alone with God) where we pray to God and read His word. But, spending time alone with God praying and reading the Bible isn’t good enough. Don’t get me wrong here, Prayer and reading the Bible are awesome and very important things to do. But, we have to put what we learn from our TAG time into practice… we must LIVE!

If we have true faith in Jesus then we are obligated to take action in and with our own lives. We must LIVE our lives as an example. Every aspect of our lives should set the example: our speech, our life, our love, our faith, and our purity are all part of the way we live. We should LIVE our lives to set the example to everyone we come in contact with, and we must LIVE our lives to please God.

1Timothy 4:12
“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”

Paul assigned Timothy to be a minister to the Church of the Ephesians. 1 Timothy was a letter written to Timothy to encourage him and to give him some instructions on how to minister to the Ephesians.

While encouraging Timothy, Paul stressed how important it was for Timothy to LIVE a life pleaseing to God, reguardless of how old he was. Paul knew that people were looking at Timothy as an example on how to LIVE even though he was very young compaired to Paul and the people of the Ephesian church.

There are 5 areas of our lives that Paul mentions here. They are Speech, Life, Love, Faith, and Purity. These can be divided up into 2 Groups: outwardly observable public traits and inner non-observable traits.

Group 1, the outwardly observable public traits consists of speech and life.

• Speech is our verbal expression or the way we say things.

Colossians 3:8
“…rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.”

• Life is our behavior in general. we must live our lives in a way that is pleaseing to God.

Colosians 3:12-14
“As God’s chosen people holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive what ever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all theses virtues put on love, wich binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Group 2 are the inner non-observable traits. This consists of Love, Faith, and Purity.

• Love is talking about a love for both God and Others.

Matt 22:37-39
“Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

• Faith. Paul wasn’t talking about right or wrong beliefs, but instead he was talking about an attitude of faithfullness or trustworthiness.

Luke 16:10
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”

• Purity is talking about both sexual purity and integrity of the heart.

Colossians 3:5
“Put to death, therefore, what ever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed which is idolatry.

Titus 2:7-8
“In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned; so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”

There is no reason or excuse for you not setting an example of the way you LIVE your life. Not even your age.

We are all like Timothy, because people are watching us. Think about who could be watching you… Your parents, your brothers and sisters, your grandparents, your friends, your teammates, your teachers, your school mates, and even people that consider you an enemy. Now, through social networking, people are watching you that you have never met in your life.

You are being watched wheather you want to be or not. The people that are watching you are dicecting every little thing about your life. The way you talk, the way you act, the way you respond to things, your devotion to God, whether or not you LIVE the life in public the same as when your by yourself, and everything you say or comment about on Facebook or what ever social networking site you use. You are being watched!

That is why it is so important that you LIVE your life to set and example, and LIVE to please God.

Statistics say that the average (does not include celebrities, politicians, or pastors) person will influence over 10,000 people in their life time. Because of your influence on people, you must LIVE your life as an example. You must do what Luke 9:23 says and pick up your cross everyday to follow Jesus. When you LIVE your life as an example you will show people what Jesus is truly like. You won't be like the Hypocritical Christians that go to church on Sundays and act all holy then their lives like the devil the rest of the week doing stuff they should not be doing.

By LIVING a life pleasing to God, and not conforming to this word, you will have a huge influence on people around you. You will have hope, joy, and love in your life nomatter how tough life gets, and people around you will see that.


As Christians, we are to strive to become more and more like Jesus everyday through the way we LIVE. The way we LIVE our lives, our character, our speech, and our behavior must come from the time we spend with God everyday. When we LIVE our lives to please God we will be different from those around us. We will have an influence on people around us. People will see that we are different, and will ask us about what makes us so different.

We must LIVE our Lives as an example, and to please God!

Campus Missionaries! PRAY

Last night we started our six week series talking about being Campus Missionaries.
In order to be a Campus Missionary there are 5 characteristics that we need to have in our lives. These 5 Characteristics are to Pray Live Serve Tell Give.

Colossians 4:2-6
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.  And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.  Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.  Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Paul wrote this letter to refute false teachings that threatened the Colossian Church. He also wrote it to encourage them to stay focused on Jesus through some practical instructions. Paul wanted the Colossians to have a strong passion for prayer, because he wanted them to be alert to spiritual war fair, and to what God was doing around them. He wanted them to pray for both themselves, and for others so that the Gospel of Jesus would be spread all over the world.

These verses also apply to us today…

Verse 2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thanful.

We need to have a strong passion and determination for prayer and the word of God. We need to be spiritualy awake and alert. We must be alert to the things that will distract us from prayer and reading the bible, be alert to what God is doing in and around us, and be alert to what Satan is doing.

Verse 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ… 

God may open doors. God doesn’t want us to sit and wait until he gives us a shign before we serve him. Instead we should pray that God opens doors of opportunities for us and help us see those open doors so we can go through them.

Verse 4 and 5 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most out of every opportunity.

We should pray for the boldness to step through the doors, trusting that God will help us make the most our of every opportunity, and accomplish all that He indends for us to do.
 
Verse 6 Let your conversations be always full of Grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Our speach should be worthy of being identified with Jesus. It should be an example for everyone that hears it and should always speak the truth in Love. It should give people a thirst and an appetite for God.

We must all devote ourselves to prayer and reading Gods word.

When you do what Paul says you need to do, and truly devote yourself to prayer and reading God’s word your life will change.

You will grow closer to God and will feel his presents in your life, Combat the things that distract you, you will find God’s direction for your life, the effectiveness of your life, service, and witness for God will be much greater.

When you devote yourself to praying for other people you will see lives changed. People will come to know Jesus as their Lord God and Savior, you’ll see people healed from all kinds of sicknesses, you’ll see families brought back together, and you’ll see doors and opportunities open up for them.

When you pray for Gods will in your life, God will open doors you never knew existed, people will start seeing that there is something different about you that they want, and you’ll beable to talk to people about Jesus and what he has done for you.

When you devote your life to prayer and reading God’s word you’ll see mountains move and seas parted.

Everyday we need to have our own personal TAG (Time Alone with God). We need to pray and read our Bibles. When you do I promise you that it will change your life. There may not be an immediate change, but over time, when you look back to see where you have come from and notice everything that changed as a result of your devotion to prayer and reading God’s word.

If we truly devote our selves to prayer then we will be in tune to what God’s plan and desires are for us. Through Prayer God will prepare us to serve His plan for our lives, and will help us to communicate the Gospel. As you spend more time with God, your faith will grow. The Holy Spirit will help you to step out boldly in faith to share the Gospel with your friends, family, and co-workers.

Not only does prayer help prepare us, it also prepares people to receive Jesus as their Savior. It is not our presentation of the Gospel that brings people, it is the Holy Spirit who works in response to our prayers. It is through the Holy Spirit that shows people the truth and turn their hearts to God. When God’s people pray, the path will be made for people to find and receive the one true King, the Savior of all man kind... Jesus.