3/8 Ignite "March Madness-Belonging"

Devotion- Jared Graves


Summary:
At this time of the year, when it comes to NCAA basketball, there are many teams who are trying to prove that they belong in the NCAA tournament. While all conference winners get into the 65-team tournament, 30+ spots are still out there to be filled by "at large teams". These are teams who did not win their conference, but still deserve to belong in the tourney based on their win-loss record and who they beat throughout the season.


A few years ago there was a team called George Mason. They did not win their conference tournament and they got in as an at-large team. Now, they were from a small conference so there were plenty of people, notably CBS Commentator Billy Packer, who stated that there were more deserving teams that got left out of the tourney. They basically said George Mason did not belong.


As a 13 seed, George Mason made it to the final four. They were one of the last four teams playing for a national championship. They proved that they belonged.


We are constantly longing to belong to something. We don't want to be left out, and we do not want to be socially inadequate. Sometimes we change things about ourselves in order to fit in. Sometimes we decide to take on new hobbies or interests in order to find a group of people to belong to. Belonging is important. However, we need to find out what type of belonging is healthy, and what is not.


1 Peter 2:9-12


Christians were now at a crossroads. They had to leave everything they knew and adjust to a new way of thinking and living. Some of these people were confused as to where they fit in with their new morals and way of life.


Bad belonging (two extremes):

• Compromising our beliefs or friendships. This is never a healthy belonging. This always causes you to discard what is right and the good relationships that you have in order to seek acceptance from someone else.
• Secluding ourselves, or becoming social hermit. We are not called to live in isolation. Peter did not tell the Christians to isolate themselves, rather to be a key part in the world. They just needed to safeguard their hearts and actions to make sure that they were not doing anything contradicting their beliefs. Belonging to comfort-zone groups who look, think, and act like us is not healthy.

Good Belonging:

• Wide variety of people from different races, colors, and backgrounds
• A community that you can give and receive freely

10/11 Snooze Button BFC "Blurred Lines: Friendship"

Introduction

“The Friendship Game”

• You will fill out a questionnaire about someone you know in the room. Don’t answer questions for each other, make the best guess. See who knows the other person the most.

Lesson

• Read 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. Why do you think that it is important that he mentions the past? He shows that purity and righteousness is a communal effort.
• 1 Corinthians 10:14-22. This is a further explanation on food sacrificed to idols. What was the big deal about this?
• Read 1 Corinthians 10:-11:1. Verses 23-24:  Do we have a mindset like this? Do we seek our own good or the good of others? Verses 10.31-11.1: What is the limit on being a people pleaser?

Blurred Lines

• The world sees friendship how? (You do for me, I do for you, etc).
• However the Bible has a different view of friendship. Friendship is all about going all out for other people. It is expecting nothing in return, but striving to be always giving and lending a helping hand. 
• Do you think that any of your actions cause your friends to stumble?
• Do you think that any of your actions or words cause non-Christian friends to stay away from the faith?

10/4 Wake Up! BFC "Tug O' War-Friendship"

Introduction

• "The Friendship Game”- Get with whomever your best friend is. You will fill out a questionnaire and then your friend will have to answer those questions.

Lesson

1 Corinthians 8

•  The issue is food sacrificed to idols. They would sacrifice food to these false gods, and then sell what was left on the market. Paul says there’s nothing wrong with the meat itself, as long as you are not placing any value on that meat.  However, there are some who have come from that background and are new Christians. They might not be able to blow it off as not a big deal and have an issue with it.  Paul states that we must watch our actions to make sure that we are not causing others to stumble.

Read 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

• Why do you think that it is important that he mentions the past? He shows that purity and righteousness is a communal effort.

1 Corinthians 10:14-22

•  This is a further explanation on food sacrificed to idols. What was the big deal about this?

 Read 1 Corinthians 10:-11:1

•  Verses 23-24: Do we have a mindset like this? Do we seek our own good or the good of others?
• Verses 10.31-11.1: What is the limit on being a people pleaser?

Tug O’ War

• The world sees friendship how? (You do for me, I do for you, etc).  However the Bible has a different view of friendship. Friendship is all about going all out for other people. It is expecting nothing in return, but striving to be always giving and lending a helping hand. 
•  Do you think that any of your actions cause your friends to stumble?
• Do you think that any of your actions or words cause non-Christian friends to stay away from the faith?
•  In our tug o’ war, where does the church fall? Where do you?

8/30 Bankrupt- The Story of Job, Job 38-42

Introduction:

• Where did we leave off in the story?
• If you were God, would you have come to explain yourself to Job? When would you have done it?
• For whatever reason, now is the time for God to show up and to give all the answers that they were looking for

Lesson

Job 38-39

• God doesn’t sit Job down in a nice comfy chair and ask him to go through all of his problems. Instead God starts by stating exactly who He is, and exactly what He does.
• Do you think God wants to go on one of these explanations when we start to whine and complain?
• God continues His’ statements in chapter 40-41.

Job 42:1-6

• Throughout the book of Job, his friends tried to get Job to repent from his sin. Job finally repents here, but it is not the kind called for by his friends. He did not ask for forgiveness for committing secret sins, but for questioning God’s sovereignty and justice.

Job 42:7-9

• God turns his attention to the friends. He says that they are not speaking the truth and telling Job what God was actually doing. In our society, do you think there are people like Job’s friends who either intentionally, or unintentionally say things on the behalf of God that are completely false?
• How can this be a warning to us?

Job 42:10-17

• God replenishes what he took from Job. Why?
• Does this mean anytime something bad happens we will receive everything back?

Application

• What are your thoughts on the ending of the book of Job?
• What lessons have you learned throughout this study of Job?

8/16 Bankrupt- The Story of Job (Job 22-31)

To begin, the junior high held a mock trial.

Lesson:

• Job 22-This is the final speech from Eliphaz. What has he basically said in his first two speeches to Job? Read 22.4-11. Now Eliphaz gets more specific in his indictments of Job. Is he correct in his accusations?  If Job did all this, why is he still considered righteous? Read 22.12-14  He accuses Job of having a view of God that was too small.  Is he truthful in this accusation?
• Job 23-24 Job continues to question everything. He says that suffering would be more bearable if he knew why it was happening to him.  He tries to show that his questions about God, life, and justice are not as simple as the friend’s assumed 
• Job 25- Bildad’s final speech.  It’s weak.  He simply accuses Job of pride because he would not say sin was the reason that he was suffering. Read 25.1-6
• Job 26 is a refute of Bildad.  Read v. 1-4
• Job 27- Job continues to stand against the friend’s advice
•  Job 28 is a beautiful hymn for wisdom.  Read Chapter 28. It's almost as if this were a commercial during the soap opera that is Job's story 
• Job 29-31 is Job’s last stand.  Chapter 29 is Job looking back at his past happiness, chapter 30 is Job looking at his present misery, and  chapter 31 Job asserts his integrity, as in a court of law. Read Chapter 31. Job mentions that he has: never looked lustfully at a girl, been fair to his menservants and maidservants, always reached out to the poor and met their needs, loved God over money, had compassion for even his enemies, was a great steward of whatever God gave him.

Senior High discussion question:

• At this point in the story, what would you say to Job?

Junior High discussion questions:

• Based on what we know about Job, is his defense truthful.
• If you were the judge, would you find God guilty of unfairly doing this to Job?

8/9 Bankrupt: The Story of Job (Job 2:11-21:34)

Introduction:

• What is the worst advice you ever received from a friend?

Lesson:

•  Read Job 2.11-13: The friend’s come to the rescue, they are going help Job through the hard time in his life.
• Read Job 3: Can you feel the absurd amount of grief that Job is experiencing here?  We see that Job is beginning to lose perspective; he’s losing his purpose in life.
• Job 4-5:  Eliphaz starts in his advice to Job. What does he say the reason for Job’s suffering is?  Read Job 5:17-27
• Job 6-7 Job’s response: What does Job say to Eliphaz? Read Job 6:14-29, 7:20-21. Job knows that he has done nothing to deserve what has happened to him.
• Job 8: Bildad reaffirms what Eliphaz tried to tell Job. Read Job 8:1-7, 20-22
• Job 9-10:  Job refutes Bildad. Read 9:21-24. Then he turns to God asking why these things are happening to him. Read 10:8-17.  Job acknowledges the fact that the more he puts his faith in God, the more is taken away from him
• Job 11: Zophar gets a little angry at Job for not admitting his sins. Read Job 11:2-5
• Job 12-14: Job refutes Zophar. Read Job 12:2-4, 13:1-6.  However, he possibly starts to think that his friends have a point, look at his plea: Read Job 13:20-28.  Now he loses hope: Read Job 14:7-22
• Job 15: You would think that good friends would now let bygones be bygones and console their friend.  Not so much.  Here comes round two. Though the accusation is the same, Eliphaz is ruder, more intense, more threatening. Read Job 15:17-35
• Job 16-17: Job’s friends were supposed to be comforting him in his grief; instead they condemned him for causing his own suffering. Read Job 16:2-5
• Job 18: Bildad is back at it again, he thinks he knows how the universe should be run, and he saw Job as an illustration of the consequences of sin.
• Job 19: Job gives another rebuttal: Read Job 19:2-6
• Job 20: Zophar’s speech showed that he presumed that Job was an evil hypocrite.  He said that although Job had it good for a while, he didn’t live righteously, so God took his wealth from him.  According to Zophar, Job’s calamities proved his wickedness
• Job 21: Job's final rebuttal (at least for this week): Verses 1-21- Job points out that even the wicked live better lives than he is right now. They are prosperous and happy. Verses   22-26-  What do Adolf Hitler, Mother Teresa, Saddam Hussein, and Martin Luther King have in common?  They are all dead and buried. Job says that those who live good lives and live bad lives both end up side by side in a graveyard.  By looking at things through a worldly point of view, things get quite upsetting and disappointing.  Life seems meaningless. Verses 27-34- Job tells his friends that no matter how many times they try to get him to admit his sins, he will not do it.  He knows he didn’t do anything to deserve this, but his friends just won’t listen.

 Application 

• What are your thoughts on what we went through today?