Hey parents! Here's some information regarding Saturday (Aug 15th) Night's lesson.
-Don't forget we'll meet at IL Primo @ 5pm and be back by 830!

-We are leading into a curriculum on experiencing God.
-The lesson tonight is our final introduction before leading into our main topics beginning Sunday the 23rd.

-Tonight's topic is on the difference between Religion and the Gospel.
Key Quote: "Religions are a man’s search for God. The Gospel is God’s search for Man."
Key Scriptures: John 1:10-13: (Summary: God entered the world and lived among those he created...and they did not recognize him.)

-We will begin with an activity involving RED and GREEN paper. The task is to get to know the Youth Leaders. Good way to engage your student is to ask them about this activity!

-The RED sheet will have multiple questions on it that the students can ask the leaders. Each question will have a "cost" attached to it...such as 10 push ups. In order to get their answer, they will have to "pay the price". They will be given everything they need to complete the task.
-The Green sheet will simply have the youth leaders' names on it. These students will be responsible for coming up with questions on their own. However, they will be allowed to ask others for help and to generate questions with their friends.

-Following the activity we will turn to the passage in John. It states that the world was created through Jesus but The world did not recognize him.

-These were a religious people that failed to recognize the God they claimed to worship whole heartedly. The pharisees followed every letter of the law (religion) but yet did not recognize GOD when he was standing right in front of them. Not only did they not recognize him, but the message He brought, threatened the religion they were worshiping instead of God himself. So the religious people, the people God called his chosen nation, killed their God because his message...his life threatened their religion. In essence, what they practiced had became more important than seeking the face of God himself.

-Don't get me wrong. Religion is good to a degree. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law. See the pharisees got so used to the routine that obeying God became just another concept instead of something that enabled them to experience the love of God. Jesus was without sin, and it wasn't because he worshiped the law but rather because he sought the face of the Father.

-Application: The RED Sheet had some good questions on it. If we just keep asking the questions and performing the tasks...what we know about God is limited to those tasks and questions. Most of us have asked the questions and done the tasks for so long that we no longer really care what the answers are or why we're doing the tasks. Our faith has become a concept rather than something we experience. If we aren't careful we will have such a distorted view of who God is that he could be standing right in front of us and we wouldn't even recognize him (Just like the pharisees). Hopefully we would never get to the point where who God really is becomes so threatening to who we are that we want to kill him.

-Casting Crowns wrote a song called "While You Were Sleeping"... the first verse discusses how Jesus was born in Bethlehem and few noticed that God had just encased himself and flesh and entered the world. The second verse describes a scene where Jesus, the King of Kings is crucified in Jerusalem because the world he came to save did not recognize him. The third verse is a challenge to the religious...who are trapped by their philosophies and may in fact miss God when He returns for his Bride. Bethlehem was sleeping, Jerusalem was sleeping, "Will We be sleeping?" is the challenge Casting Crowns makes.

-See the Green sheet is harder...there are no questions laid out for you...and there are no simple steps by which you can go and receive what you seek. But we have the promise that when we seek with all of our hearts...we will find God! God is not a concept...We can experience him. He longs to reveal himself...we don't have all the right answers..or questions for that matter...but like the green sheet, we're not walking alone and what we can learn is limitless! We can seek out his heart together. When one of us is low and needs help asking the right questions, we band together. When someone finds an exciting answer, we share it with our community. Because seeking the face of God is meant to be a group process! Together we will seek his face and be changed by the very sight of the one who pursues us with his love! His gospel is the story of God becoming a man so that the world would know the face of God. He was crucified so that we would know the depth of his love...this my friends is a face worth seeking!

-Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks! ajhawks43@gmail.com