Looking back into 2013

Each week as I prepare to preach to young people, I spend time seeking God’s will and plan for that service. I want to take you through each month of 2013 of some the great spiritual implications that God gracefully gave me as I was used for His Kingdom! All Glory goes to the King of Kings! It’s always good to go back and read over the great things God has done and count those blessings!

January 2013: God wants us to THRIVE not just SURVIVE! Little Faith will bring your soul to Heaven, but Great Faith will bring Heaven to your soul. We grew in Faith as we recognized that little faith was survival mode, but God wanted us to have Great Faith which was our goal in 2013-  Thrival Mode! Which God knew we would need!

February 2013- We stepped into the great TANGLE OF relationships. Tangled and in Love was our sermon title this month. We unraveled our love lives. We truly accepted that God is Love (1 John 4:8) We learned settling for the feeling of love was countless compared to the Love that is unconditional which comes from our Savior. We grew in understanding of how to make good decisions in those romantic moments. Decision points are not easy, but most things in life that really count aren’t.

March 2013- Inside Out was the theme this month. We searched out topics and dove deep into the Word to find out what the word had to say about topics like Gossip, Drinking and Music. Major topics that everyone deals with each day. We saw what the world had to say compared to what the Word said…then we turned these topics inside out, because truly the inside counts. We used Philippians 4:8 to determine if these things should really be in our life, like the styles and genres of music we allow to enter our hearts and ears.

April 2013- This month was a rocker and we grew close together as we lost one of our very own youth leaders to a tragic car accident. He moved to Heaven and we truly miss him. We dedicated one Wednesday night to the legacy of our beloved friend. (BLB) We discussed His heroism in our lives, many people do not love the Hero, they love the person who makes them a Hero. Then we began to get ready for our Spring Retreat…so we had special services titled Tent of Meeting. We met in God’s presence weekly to grow in our desire for God.

May 2013- We stepped into a new series Titled Grey Matter. This is that area of our lives that we are not so sure about. It’s the grey area. We have black and white decisions, and then there is those times that we have to Trust God with our situation because we are very unsure of what steps to take. We talked about the Bible and how we have to trust God’s word even when we feel it may not be clear enough for us. The moment you give your life to Christ, you become apart of the Family of God. So when it is grey (I don’t know what to do), you can go back to who you are.

June 2013- We got things in Motion for summer as we took on seven interns to work the summer here at the church and develop and teach them about the Ministry of Jesus and the local church. We discussed the state of motion, how we needed to stay in motion and keep moving forward so that when Summer was over we were fired back up to go back into our High School and share God’s love. We stopped going through the motions, but instead got in the motion and started doing God’s ministry.

July 2013- The greater problem in modern American Christianity is when “so called” Christians wear their sheep’s clothing on Sunday only to put on their wolves clothing on Monday. What motive do you have? This was our theme for the month, as we cleansed our Motives and became Christians all day every day, not just Sunday.

August 2013- One of our interns kept repeating a saying over the Summer that spiraled into a sermon title for this month. How to Deal? The struggle is real. The struggles that we face from day-to-day are very REAL. Satan is working up a plan and tactic to take us down, but if you will accept the struggle is real it won’t take you down! We grabbed confidence in God’s word and held onto the promises God makes us and his thoughtful advice on overcoming those struggles.

September 2013- As a church whole we began a series entitled “One Month to Live”…wow it changed my world. With the first date, the potential begins! With the last date, the reality ends. We talked about the Dash of our lives, that symbol on our tombstone that reads our birthdate to our death date. (-) That simple dash defines our life. How will we live our lives? Something to think about if you only have one month to live.

October 2013- In the middle of this Halloween season we discussed, So You’re Dead now what?, as part 2 to One month to live. We discussed God’s rich plans for all those who believed in Christ and had accepted Him. We discussed Heaven, but then we took a road down into Hell, and discussed the dangers and the fear in this dark place. This month really opened our eyes to the after life.

November 2013- One thing about teenagers today, is that most of them have never been to an old school sunday school class where they have learned some of the things we think they should already know, like the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer is one that really teaches us the pattern of prayer. The Lord’s prayer came alive in our sermon Hallow as we discussed the pattern not the chant. Such a powerful time when every week we spent time in God-honoring prayer God’s way.

December 2013- The Christmas Story is exceptional, so we dove into this great story that changed the world through a different perspective, called Frames. We learned that God will never leave us Home Alone, and when life gets messy he will walk through it with us. Life is messy and lonely sometimes, but God never left Mary and Joseph the entire time they were the parents of the Son of God. Powerful stuff!

It’s been a spectacular year. There have been ups and downs, heartbreak and blessings but above all God has been glorified. I hope you can go back over your 2013 and see what God did for you, what prayers he has answered, what people he has allowed you to meet, etc…start jotting down those blessings now! Count them out loud! And then give God the Glory!

Looking forward to 2014…I Can!!!