The Locker Room (Sermon Outline for Youth 07/26)

THE LOCKER ROOM

THE GAME

LIFE

Ephesians 6:10-12 - This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.”

NEEDS

1.       TEAM

2.       COACH

3.       TEAM MATES

4.       PLAY BOOK

5.       HUDDLE

6.       PRACTICE

7.       LOCKER ROOM

TEAM

C.S. LEWIS, "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'

THE WINNING TEAM = CHRIST

Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.

COACH

MENTOR and PASTORS

Proverbs 22:6 - "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

TEAM MATES

ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER

Ecclesiastes 4:9,12 - Two are better than one, Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

PLAY BOOK

THE BIBLE

2 Timothy 3:16-17 -  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work

PRACTICE

SMALL GROUPS

Hebrews 10:25 -  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and god deeds, not giving up meeting together, but encouraging one another

THE HUDDLE

PRAYER

Ephesians 6:18 - In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out

THE LOCKER ROOM

CHURCH

ROMANS 12:2 - Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

STANDING OUT

Matthew 5:14-16 - You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

1. Is my life about self-fulfillment or Christ fulfillment

2. Do I live as one who is IN this world or as one who is OF this world

3. Am I ashamed of my faith, or do I profess the gospel to all who would hear it

4. Is my life a living sacrifice to Jesus

Stop or Go

I went to  a couple of different churches for services on Easter Sunday. I went to the church that I attend, which is New Life Church. I then went to a church in Branson that is my father-in-laws church, which is called Woodland Hills Family Church. I really enjoyed both services that I attended.

I always love the lessons at my church. We are blessed with Pastor Dan Call, who gives some of the most informative and passionate lessons I have ever heard. During worship and the service I can feel the Holy Spirit working on me. If that is happening to me, I know that it is happening to others. In future blogs I can guarantee that I will expound on the virtues of my Pastor, my home church, my brothers and sisters there as well as the worship team. We are truly blessed at New Life.

The true reason that I am blogging about an Easter service 3 weeks later is that Pastor Ted Cunningham at Woodland Hills had a great sermon. There were a couple of visuals that he handed out that were quite memorable. He handed us a piece of red candy and a piece of green candy as we came into the church.
There was a purpose that is pretty easy to understand. "The red piece stands for stop and the green piece stands for go," he told us. "Ask yourself if you and your family, does your life reflect a resurrected Jesus. I want you to ask yourself, am I a stop Christian or am I a go Christian."

That is some pretty heavy stuff to discuss during an Easter service. There are many that come on Easter that do not usually come, and based on his service there are many will not come back. He said that there are many driving the roads who would leave church that day who think that they are Christians, and they are not. If he were asked to pick a color, that color would be red. He then said that he was not judging, he was fruit inspecting (I found that to be a pretty funny way to look at it).

The best part of his sermon was his acknowledging the truth. He said that he knew that he might offend some of the people there, but was okay with that. "I have not seen some of you since Christmas, and I will not see you again until Christmas. How do you explain to your kids why you only go to church twice a year." He did not talk about heaven or hell, instead he asked everyone to think about what motivates them.

What he talked about was a way to try and get the people who were there that day to think. Christ loved you enough to die, and He did not die a peaceful death. He died one of the most horrific deaths that is possible, and He did not have to. He chose to! That is huge, and the question is.......Do we live our lives in a way that says thank you to Jesus for his sacrifice (a go Christian), or do we slap Jesus in the face with the actions that we make (a stop Christian).

Tithing, showing up at church several times a week and even volunteering make a good church member, but do not make you a go Christian. We are to make disciples of others. We do this by proclaiming the good news that Jesus extolled. We do this by talking to that family member who does not know Christ, even if it makes them mad.

Jesus stated that He would divide families. If you love your family more than you do Jesus, He says that you are not worthy of Him, and that if you do not take up your cross and follow Him is not worthy of Him in Matthew 10:34-38. This is pretty hard to do, if you ask me. Choose Christ over our families if it comes down to it. I am sure it was also hard to walk the Via Dolorosa on the way to Golgotha, but Christ did. To quote a song, Jesus paid it all, yet we seem to be content to ride on his coattails instead of picking up our cross.

So ask yourself this question, are you a stop or a go Christian? Tomorrow we will look at what it means to take up Jesus cross and become a go Christian!!