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Youthstreet: Being an example in speech! (Michael Hands/Ralph Mayhew)

Tonight Mike and Ralph tag-team preached on 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."

We spoke about how our speech not only has a powerful affect on other people, but whilst we speak words to others the true recipient of those words is God!

James 3:9-10 says "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be." So we thought we needed to explore just how all of this works, and we found out it's all a matter of the heart. So how do we change the condition of our heart, so we not only value the likeness of God in other people, but are able to come to God with pure and holy praise. Have a listen below!

Setting an example in speech

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

Limitless 3: Money

Limitless is our Youthstreet series about watching God blow past our limits and do the impossible. The idea is that each week we are going to issue a weeklong challenge that ties in with the Limitless theme, as we watch what God will do with our obedience and courage!

This week we had a serious look at what it means to use our money in a limitless way for God, so that our lives as well as the money we spend points toward Jesus!

You can listen to the third message of the series, here! 

"There's a trail of our time, our affections, our allegiance, our devotion, our money. That trail leads to a throne, and whatever's on that throne is what we worship. We're all doing a great job of it because God has created us to be worshipers. The problem is that a lot of us have really bad gods." - Louie Giglio,

What are your gods?

Where does your time lead?

Who or what does your affection lead you to?

If we were to see everything you spend your money on, what would rise to the top as being most important to you?

When we talk about money in Church, we’re not actually talking about money, we’re actually talking about what is most important to you.

And if that is the case, you can easily work it out what is most important to you:

• What do you spend the most money on?
• What do you spend money on, on a regular basis?
• Where is your time going?
• Who do you spend lots of time with, compared to God?
• When it comes to actions and doing stuff, do you serve others lots, or just thing about yourself?

What we spend our money on is what we honour, value and desire!

Leviticus 27:30
“‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.”

The currency of earth is money. If you need something, you have to buy it! The currency of heaven is love. The problem is, we’re on earth, not in heaven.

Do we allow God to do what we want to see him do? What we do with our money influences this! You can influence how effective God’s mission is! We want to use the world’s currency to share God’s currency!

Jesus tells us what to do….

Mat 19:16-22

Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”

“Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

When we read this we think we have to sell everything! But that’s not what Jesus was saying. Jesus wasn't telling everyone to sell all their possessions. He was telling this guy to do that! The question he was actually answering was “how do we follow Jesus?”

And the answer he gave: We follow Jesus by giving up our lives and living it for God! Which for this guy meant he had to sell all of his possessions. For us it means being willing to give up everything, even our money. ‘Being willing,’ not actually selling everything, but if you heard Jesus say it to you really clearly, could you?

Jesus wants to know that everything we have points toward him!

Does the way you spend money point toward him?

Does the stuff you watch on TV point toward him?

Does the language you speak point toward him?

Does the way you treat other people point toward him?

I want you to give to God, because he first gave to you! Jesus is all about giving, if we want to become more like Jesus then we need to be all about giving. If we want to make more space in our lives for Jesus heart to grow in us we need to start doing consistently the things Jesus does.

Farewell Grade 12s

Last Friday night I had the amazing privelege to speak to our Grade 12's and encourage them to embrace the life that awaited them, a life with God! If you want to have a listen you can check it out here.

How to run a small group for young people

Recently I attempted to run a training session for my Youth Leaders on how to run a small group for young people. We run small groups each week as part of our gathering. I say attempted because we ran out of time and I didn't get to it. So what follows are some thoughts I had to help anyone think about running a small group, in particular one for young people:

• Let them have some breathing time.
• Get their attention and officially start.
• Welcome new people.
• If you feel like it do 'highs' and 'lows' of people's weeks.
• Ask for immediate feedback from sermon: how was that for you?
• The questions (that work best) are usually structured to engage and then go deeper.
• Don't be afraid to follow a tangent if it's beneficial.
• Don't be afraid to head a tangent off if it's not beneficial.
• Don't do all the talking, leave space for people to fill the silence.
• Help everyone have a say, but never humiliate or embarrass people by putting them on the spot. There could be a thousand reasons for their disengagement.
• Be sure to follow up anything that arises in the group afterwards.
• If the study is not working, go where the group wants to go.
• If the group is not working, cut it back to purely relationship building and story telling.
• Remember you are the leader. Whilst you may not have full control you set the temperature and direction (doesn't mean it's a foregone conclusion though).
• Hold in balance the group experience as well as the individual experience.

I hope this helps you in any leadership you might do of any group. 

Limitless 2: Encouragement (Michael Hands)

Limitless is our Youthstreet series about watching God blow past our limits and do the impossible. The idea is that each week we are going to issue a weeklong challenge that ties in with the Limitless theme, as we watch what God will do with our obedience and courage!

The second week we looked at what it means to be encouraged by the Scriptures and as a result encourage others. The challenge this week is to authentically encourage as many people as you can, whilst being encouraged by the Gospel.

You can listen to the second message of the series, here!

 

Limitless 1: Big Asks of God

Welcome to the new Youthstreet series called Limitless. Limitless is about watching God blow past our limits and do the impossible. The idea is that each week we are going to issue a weeklong challenge that ties in with the Limitless theme, as we watch what God will do with our obedience and courage!

The first week we jumped into asking the huge impossible things of God, and watching him blow us away with how he moves!

You can listen to the first message, of the series, here!

Youthstreet: Hungry For Strength (Odine Retief)

Last night at youthstreet Odine Retief shared her story of choosing strength over weakness and victory over defeat. She spoke of finding the triumph of christ through our worship, our belief, our focus and our choices. Listen to this amazing message here!

Youthstreet: Hungry For Love

At Youthstreet the other week @Michael Hands spoke of the power of God's love, which is made so powerful because of his wrath and anger. It's a brilliant message that reveals how it's only because of God's anger that we have the amazing gift of God's love and grace, which we are all hungry for. You can download the sermon audio here.

Can a young person ever be perfect?

Recently I've found in a number of settings that when I use phrases to describe the change I would like to see in the Young People I serve, such as, "Fully devoted followers of Christ", "People who are sold out for God", "Youth who are passionately in love with Jesus." I get the same push back "Are you expecting too much of the young people you care for?" "They shouldn't feel judged or pushed away because they are not up to scratch."

 

Until now this has made absolutely no sense to me. You see our primary objective at Youthstreet (our Youth Ministry) is to care for the whole of the person and too offer a safe fun place where they can meet with and engage each other and God, and come away transformed. If we, as leaders, are effective stewards of this mission, then we will see young people radically changed by God. It then follows that a person radically changed by God, lives in such a way:

• That increases the safety they experience on a Friday night to every other hour and part of their life.
• That they feel cared for not only by us but by God, in a way that is far beyond our human ability.
• That they feel, experience and are participants in their's and other's hope and joy and purpose and servanthood and love and grace and mercy.
• That they become the influencer in their circles of non-chrisitan friends.
• That they develop a growing passion for ministry, service and evangelism.
• That, above all else, they experience the grace and love of God and respond to that regularly through prayer, Scripture reading and worship.

These points, and probably some others if I were pressed, are what forms my definition of a 'fully devoted follower of Christ', 'a person who is sold out for God', 'a young person who is passionately in love with Jesus'. I think where the misunderstanding has taken place, is that it is easy to jump to the conclusion that any of my above slogans 'sold out for God', etc. imply perfection (especially regarding the moral code by which they live), leading people to say that young people are not perfect, 'they are still learning', therefore are we expecting too much of and from them.

This is very dangerous ground for us to be on, because growing as a disciple, is not about attaining moral perfection. Jesus gave his life, not just his life (cliche reference), but his actual life, so that moral perfection was not the standard we were to be judged by anymore. Discipleship, following Jesus, is all about a journey we go on with Jesus toward restoration and wholeness! So it doesn't matter how old the person on this journey is, they are not to be measured by their moral behaviour, but they are to find their measurement in God against that transformational power of what Jesus did on the cross. If this becomes someone's experience then we will see a life transformed by God.

That is my hope hope, dream and desire for our young people. Not that they are perfect, who can or wants to be perfect? But that they know, experience and exude the transforming presence of God. It is this that can and will make all the difference!