Weekly Update 4.26

First of all, a very special thanks to Franklin and the worship team for a great worship service last night. Also we want to thank those who came to celebrate The Movement's 1st birthday party Saturday. We're glad the rain didn't keep you away and we had a great time! Now to the week ahead:

Sunday, May 2
In our Sunday School classes we will be studying 2 John. On Sunday night, we will continue our "Life's Toughest Questions" series. We will send out an e-mail soon with the topic that will be covered.

4/25 Sunday School "God is....Life"

Lessons by Jared Graves

Introduction

Review. This is the final week of our series on 1 John. We have learned two attributes of God so far. The first week we learned that God is… (Light) and last week we talked about God being… (Love). Today, we are going to talk about God being life.

Activity: Have a large dry-erase board to mark on for this lesson. On one side of the board have written “Good world”. With a line dividing the two sides, write “Bad world” on the other side of the board. Students are going to list the difference in the two and which aspects of everyday life fit in which category.

One of the predominant misconceptions of our faith is that we are to be completely and utterly secluded from the world. It is especially bad when people have kids and remember all the stuff they had to deal with in high school and life and so they are ULTRA protective to try and keep them away from the things of this world. In our English translations of the Bible we find that we are supposed to stay away from the world and out of the world. However, we find that in the original language, there is a difference in “worlds”. There is the world of the flesh, which is all the things that are sinful and detrimental to our Christian walk, and then there is the world of people and creation that God loves and created. That is why the phrase be in the world, but of the world makes sense. We are supposed live in this world, be with all different types of people, but we need to avoid sin and the things that would compromise our faith.

Before we begin today, let’s discuss and list the differences in the “good world” that we are to be apart of, and the “bad world that we should avoid”.

Bible Study/Exegesis (What it meant then)- 1 John 5

Everyone turn to 1 John 5

Read 1 John 5:1-5

·      In Christ we are victorious. What is the end for all those in the world? Death. 10 out of every 10 people die. It is the ultimate statistic. However, if we have Christ, we are victorious over this world and we can hope in a life that is given by the Life-Giver.

·      What does it mean that we have victory over our faith?

Read 1 John 5:6-12

·      Do you see what John has done here? There is pattern that he followed the entire letter: This is who God is, this is how God does this, and this is what you should do about it. Now look at what He did with the pattern: This is who God is (Life), this is how God does it (overcoming the world), but now John shows that this is what God did about it. God sent His Son to live in worldly terms.

·      What is the big deal about the difference in water and blood? Water came from Heaven as an inanimate object. It doesn’t breathe, etc. Jesus wasn’t a vapor, or something that was not real, He was real, He bled, He was like us.

Read 1 John 5:13-21

·      What is this sin that leads to death? Which sins do not lead to death? Should we more concerned with discerning which sin is which or just try not to sin at all?

·      Why is verse 21 there? How does it relate to God being life? Idols are temporary and lead to death. God is living and offers us life.

Application/Hermeneutics (What it means now):

Which of the three attributes of God that we have studied this month appeals most to people?

What is one thing you learned today?

Weekly Update 4.20

Saturday, April 24
You are invited to a birthday party! It's not for a specific person, but for the Movement. On April 25, 2009 we took part in Launch Day, where we launched ourselves into motion. This Saturday from 1-3, we are going to celebrate a year of moving. We will see highlights from a great year, eat birthday cake, and play party games. Please let us know if you will be attending by e-mailing youth@bowlinggreenchristian.org, calling the office, or joining the event on Facebook.

Sunday, April 25
We will be concluding our Sunday School series on 1 John this week as we look at God being life. So far we have talked about God being light and love, and how we should continue to strive to be light and love as well. As always, if you miss a lesson, feel free to go to the blog and check out the outline for the lesson.

Sunday night we will be continuing our "Life's Toughest Questions" series. Franklin Wiggins will come and speak about baptism and our band will be playing. We hope to see everyone out Sunday night. Remember, you can still send in your questions to 502-517-9170, or e-mail them to youth@bowlinggreenchristian.org.

4/18 Sunday School "God Is...Love"

Introduction

Review. Last week we began the series called “God Is…” by looking at basically the first two chapters of 1 John. We said that “God is light”. We noted that God doesn’t live a private life, He is the same every second of every day, and has always been that way. We also discussed how, as followers of God, we cannot say that we belong to him and live a lifestyle of darkness, or with any hint of darkness.

Online, we had a discussion about the rest of the chapter dealing with the Antichrists. You can get on the blog and check out what you missed if you did not participate. Any questions from last week?

While I’m not sure that one word “best describes” God, this one comes close. Today, we are going to explore John’s discussion of God being love.

Bible Study/Exegesis (What it meant then)- 1 John 2:28-4:21

Everyone turn to 1 John 2:28. We are going to ready through chapter 4 today.

Read 1 John 2:28-29.

·      These verses serve as a transition between light and love. The reiterate the idea of Christians continuing a light-filled life, and staying away from the darkness.

Read 1 John 3:1-6

·      Just from these verses, what evidence do we have that God loves us?

·      We are also seeing a continuation of the idea that we are to strive to be like God.

Read 1 John 3:7-10

·      Is this saying that once we accept Christ we should no longer sin, and if we do we lose that salvation?

Read 1 John 3:11-24

·      We asked earlier for the evidence we have that God loves us. Let us now ask a similar question. From what we just read, what evidence should we give to the world that we are full of love?

·      1 John 4:1-6 will be our on-line discussion this week. We will be talking about false teachers and figuring out a way for us to identify them.

Read 1 John 4:7-21

·      John does the same thing here that he did with the discussion on God being light. He takes the truth that God is love, and now implies that we are to take that truth and live it out. Our actions and everything we do should reflect love. We should love God, love friends, and love enemies. We should be full of love.

Application/Hermeneutics (What it means now):

What is one thing you learned today?

Weekly Update 4.12

Wednesday, April 14
We are going to A 10th for the Lord a little late, but it is better than never. This Wednesday from 3:30-6:30 we are going to be painting and working on our adopted part of the campus. Hope to see you guys out!

Sunday, April 18
This Sunday morning we will be exploring 1 John looking at God as love. Sunday night at Ignite, we will continue to answer the question "What does it mean to be a Christian?" Hope you will join us.

4/12 Sunday School "God Is...Light"

Introduction

Let’s begin by noting that there is no way that someone could do a series called “God is…” and have all the names and attributes of God listed. It is impossible. So what we are going to look at over the next three weeks are not a complete summary of God, rather it is a look at three attributes of God that the writer of 1 John wants to highlight. We are going to look at the three L’s: Light, Love, and Life.

Bible Study/Exegesis (What it meant then)- 1 John 1:1-2:27

Everyone turn to 1 John 1. While we are turning there here is a little background. While some say this book was written by John the beloved the disciple, others say it was John the Elder, and others someone else, we know fairly certain that this was written by the same person as the person who wrote John the Gospel. The word structure and some of the same themes are present in these letters as in the Gospel.

Also, the reason for the writing of this letter is to address the problem of declining commitment to the cause of Christ. This is after the Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem and the Christians, as well as Jews, were dispersed throughout the land. Along with declining commitment, there was the problem of false teachers who were coming and leading the people astray. So we need to see this letter as an apologetic letter, standing up for the Christian faith and correct teaching.

Read 1 John 1:1-4

·      Starts very similarly as the Gospel (Read the first few verses of John)

·      Think about our series on evangelism, what is John trying to do here in the introduction? He is trying to show his credibility and showing that he knows this Jesus that he is writing about.

Read 1 John 1:5

·      This is one of the eternal truths that no one will dispute. Light and dark cannot coexist. What this statement says is basically this, as a human, you have a public life, but some of us have lives that we live in secret that are in stark contrast to who we are in front of others. God is not like that. He does not put on a mask, and He does not change. He is the same God all the time and in every situation.

Read 1 John 1:6-2:17

·      It is almost like John talks about God and has everyone nodding their heads, and then very abruptly he turns it into, “But you aren’t acting like that is the God you are following”.

·      These verses highlight a hypocritical life. It is not just the life lived by what we like to label as “Sunday Christians” but all Christians. In a very simplistic way it is like saying don’t work at McDonalds but eat on your breaks at Burger King.

·      Remember, the epistle was written to combat the decline in commitment. What do these verses say about our commitment to God?

·      What was the other reason for writing this letter? To combat false teachings. There was a teaching (how quickly people twisted Christianity to be easy to do) that there actually was no one thing called “sin”.

Application/Hermeneutics (What it means now):

Is there a thought in people’s lives that God has a secret life?

What do you derive from 1 John 1:6-10, when he discussed the Christian walk?

What is one thing you learned today?

Weekly Update 4.6

Hope that you had a great Easter! Here's what is coming up in the coming days for us here at BGCC:

Saturday, April 10th...maybe
We ARE going to do "A 10th for the Lord" this month. It just might not be on the 10th. We are trying to work out some things with people here at church and the community and we will let you know ASAP what we are going to be doing and when we are going to do it. This is probably the most vague announcement we've ever done...

Sunday, April 11th
Our Sunday School classes will be beginning a series entitled "God is...". We are going to be looking at 1 John and finding the three things that John describes God as being.

On Sunday night, we will begin an exciting new series called "Life's Toughest Questions". However, this series goes NOWHERE, unless we get your input. We have some questions that have been submitted for the series, but WE NEED MORE. We need more texted in questions to 502-517-9170. We need more e-mailed questions to questions@bowlinggreenchristian.org. However you do it, please send in your questions.
This Sunday night, we will be starting answering one of our questions. We are going to answer it in two parts, one this week, and one next week. Hope you will join us at 6:00 Sunday night.