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Youthstreet: Becoming the youth God wants us to be! (Michael Hands)

Tonight Mike preached up a storm speaking out of 1 Tim 4:12 "Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." He issued a call that we are to be different. We are to live in such a way thatwe are somehow different to those who are not followers of Jesus. That the transformation Jesus has done in us, shines through, so that we're the ones who don't drink at parties when everyone else is getting drunk, that we're the ones who refuse to start gossip and bag-out othes, that we're the ones who respect and listen to our parents or teachers. So why not take a listen and let God challenge you to live out the transformation that God is doing in your heart!

Mike Hands - Youthstreet

The Story of Stuff as it relates to faith (God and consumerism)

Tonight we watched a movie called the Story of Stuff, a short movie about the way consumerism has so powerfully dominated our lives and culture, and how blind we have been to it. The movie is featured below for you to watch now! It takes 20 minutes to watch and will not be a waste of your time. In that 20 minutes you will have your eyes opened up to the fact that we are consuming stuff at an unsustainable rate, and the affects of which are not only destroying this planet but destroying people’s lives, including our own!

In the movie you will hear a quote by Victor Lebow who says… “Our enormously productive economy . . . demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption . . . we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.”

To say it in theological terms, our identity and reason for existence, our purpose as human beings has become about stuff. We judge our value based on stuff. If you’ve got or wear, or use the right stuff you are a valuable person to others, Ie. You’re cool. If you’ve got the wrong stuff you’re not cool. If you have the right stuff, others will find you more attractive and that in turn will feed your reason for living.

Now Annie will unpack all of this, but what struck me as I first watched it was the very powerful question of 'What affect is consumerism having on our faith?' Because if everything that Annie says is true, then the implications for out faith are huge!

Let me just throw a few ideas at you…

It means our faith becomes a consumable commodity, which we discard when something better comes along.

It means our faith is there to serve us, not save us, so the way we live can easily fail to be informed by our faith.

It means we can come to church and to worship, to get something from it, rather than offer God something through it.

It means hearing the tough words of Jesus as he speaks to our behavior is an optional extra we can simply deny.

It means that we can publicly claim Christianity when it might be cool, but deny Christ and what he calls us to when it might not be.

It means we might go on mission trips because it’s a cool adventure into the unknown and it appeases my conscience, rather than going to show people they are important and valuable also.

Now you hear that potentially uncomfortable list of assertions and all of a sudden we each realize how consumer driven we have become! How easy it is to be the object of our faith, and not God. So watch the movie and we’ll chat some more…

 

Some questions that may help in your digestion of that are:

Thinking Theologically: From what you heard and saw in the movie what concerns do you think God would have about the consumerist cycle we are in and why?

“Our enormously productive economy . . . demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption . . . we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.” Do you think that what Victor Lebow’s proposed has come to pass? What’s the evidence of this?

What are the implications of this for us as we try to live obediently to what God calls us to?

What thing (small or large) can you/we do to contribute more to the new system, and less to the linear system? 

So where should you start if you seriously want to change things? Have a look at some of the following resources that may inform and equip you in new and interesting ways:

Here is the script that captures everything that Annie shared in the video. Story of Stuff script: http://dev.storyofstuff.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/annie_leonard_footnoted_script.pdf

7 resources to find out about the lives of your stuff!!!! http://www.storyofstuff.org/2011/06/16/7-rescources-for-finding-out-about-the-secret-lives-of-your-stuff/

You can check out these two blogs that offer some different ideas, philosophies and approaches to this whole issue: 

http://zenhabits.net/

http://mnmal.org/

The Story of Stuff ideas for changing things: http://www.storyofstuff.org/category/community/good-stuff/

I have found Kurt Williams blog to be very clear and informative: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/

If you are after further Bible study material on the Story of Stuff movie take a peek here: http://www.storyofstuff.org/2011/02/24/faith-based-program-for-christian-teens/

There is also this website called http://www.betterworldshopper.org. It will tell you, from years of research which companies can be trusted and which companies can’t be trusted when it comes to issues of Human rights, Social justice, the environment, animal protection and community involvement. You can also view the contents of the accompanying book on Amazon. As well as download the iPhone app of the same name. Only drawback is it is an American and I am yet to find an Australian equivalent.

I hope this theological peak (reflection) at the Story of Stuff has stirred some interesting and challenging thought that you might develop further in your own lives.

Naivety Scene 2: Are we holy or compromised?

Instead of looking at the Nativity Scene as we approach Christmas Day we thought it would be more of a challenge to examine the Naivety Scene. What things are we naive to?

Naivety is the lacking of wisdom, knowledge and experience. And this week, the second in the series we looked at how we are naive to the things God expects of us. It is so easy for our personal holiness to compromise the glory of God as expressed in our lives, unless we make a concious descision to do something about it.

You can listen to the second message of the series here.

'Taking something for granted'

I live on the Gold Coast! Maybe one of the most affluent, well-to-do, privileged societies in the world! Yet I, like most people I know, in fact all people I know, take this and most other things for granted!

That phrase 'taking something for granted' is an interesting phrase. A grant is something you get for nothing, the 'taking' part implies that we feel we have a right to it! So to take something for granted is for us to think we have a right to something that is actually a gift, privilege or blessing!

Just think for a moment all the things you are taking for granted right now! On my list would be some of the following: Relationships, Opportunities, Where we live, Wealth, Resources, Education, Clothes, Food, Drink, Shelter.

We take these things for granted, and we can no longer afford to. Not because they will stop if we don't, I doubt they will. We need to stop because if we continue to, we are placing ourselves at the mercy of our consumerist age, and a selfish and toxic perspective on and attitue in life. An attitude and perspective that seeks to drown out the Christ in all of us, and feed the 'it's my life, I'm going to do what I want!' value people so readily claim.

It's not enough however to just acknowledge that we take things for granted! If we only do this we feel noble, cause others to feel guilty, all the while continuing to keep on taking things for granted!

In response I think we need to do several things:

We need to thank God specifically for what He has given us. Go, do it, it'll take you a while, but it will shift something deep within you.

We need to thank others. Who are those people who, in the last week, helped you out, blessed you, benefited you, but your response has been less than fitting? Make a point of honouring and thanking them.

We need to look at all we have and ask the very serious and difficult question: How can I use what I have to help others and actively advance the Kingdom of God? The answer is alot more than we currently are.

We need to start looking for ways to bless and help others, in such a way that it costs us. Only when it costs us something will it mean something to us and release us from the attitude we are talking about. 

At its core a 'take-it-for-granted' attitude stands against the cause and life of Christ, and because of this we need to actively and aggressively weed it out!

Are you good at following Jesus?

How do you judge the effectiveness of your life as a disciple? I put it to you that too often we are drawn to rate ourselves against the law. Am I a good person? Am I doing everything that the Bible says to do? Am I upsetting God?

But I'm not sure that God wants us to be like that. The goal of what God is doing in the world and in our lives is not to conform us to his law, but in fact to see us bear the fruit of his grace, love, power and purpose. If this is true then the real question we need to be wrestling with is, what is the fruit of my life? What is the result of that belief I hold and does it benefit others? What is the fruit of that descision I've made and how does it affect others?

We make descisions everyday, and those descisions bear fruit. Is that fruit healthy, helpful, nutritious fruit or is that fruit rotten, off and damaging fruit to us and/or others?

What is the fruit of the gospel in your life?

Getting into the Groove

Last night at 12two, Orrell Batersby preached on what it looks like to live in God's groove. How we need to live in God's reality, follow God's initiative and rely daily on God' provision. It was an excellenet message and I trust you will get as much out of it as we did!

DOWNLOAD AUDIO HERE: Living in God's Groove

Harbouring hurt

Every night Lyndal religiously reads her devotional, her Bible and prays. And every so often she stumbles across something that she feels she wants to share. And the other night she stumbled across this quote:

"It is a sin when we harbour a hurt that then distorts our judgment of another."

Why would such a thing be a sin? Perhaps because when our judgment of another is tainted we fail to se them the way God would want us to see them. I'm not sure that declaring such a thing, based on hurt we have received is very helpful. But it certainly is a challenge for us to resolve and find healing for the hurts we may carry, knowing that if we continue to it may well affect a bigger picture that God has in mind.