Our Student Pastor, Trent Cornwell, has started a series of blog article for our teenagers. The articles are written for teenagers but have strong applications to all of us. We would encourage you check out the website for our Student Ministry. You can subscribe to get articles and read this blog in its entirety.

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The phrase “What hath God wrought?” is first seen in history in the story told by Moses in Numbers 23. Here, at the close of their journey, we find the power of men and Satan combined to curse them. It was  the very thing they deserved, if dealt with according to their sins. But Balaam continues by affirming that no divination is effective against Israel. The point is not what Israel can do, but “what God has done!”

This short phrase from the Book of Numbers was the first words transmitted by the newly invented marvel of the electric.. (read more at StudentsofVision.com)

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Intimacy Belongs in Marriage:  I Corinthians 5:1-13 

I Corinthians 5 is a chapter about open sexual sin and the church’s arrogance in permitting it to happen.  Paul made it clear that he didn’t even have to be present to make a judgment on that.  It is simply wrong.  For the grown leadership of the church, the lesson is about their obligation to keep the church pure and free from open and unrepentant sin and their destructive forces.  Really, they should have been sad about it but were not.  For our high school aged youth it’s a lesson about the dangers of fornication and a warning against hanging out with those involved in it.  God made our teens and He made intimacy also.  It is designed to be a beautiful thing in the context of marriage.  Outside of marriage it is physically and emotionally damaging and while the promise is happiness, the real outcome is lifelong baggage.

I Corinthians has a lot to say about sexual purity because so many believe the lie that you can manage sins like fornication and that its ok to do so.  Our young people live in a super-sensual world that has made the physical act of sex very casual and “normal” for the unmarried.  The reality is that God designed it to be first a relationship based on loving Him and loving a spouse (that you get married to) then secondly a physically wonderful experience.  Our girls were created by God to be loved and cherished and should never give themselves physically to any guy that will not first make a commitment to marriage and prove that commitment by waiting.  Our high school guys should live in a church full of men that honor their wives and make it evident that intimacy with only one woman (your wife) is the best and worth the wait.

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Text: Romans 10:14-21

February 8, 2015

Romans 10:14 “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?.”  Our young people have to be the preacher in this verse for their friends, or they at least have to be the one that gets them to the preacher.  They will not be saved by accident.  We know two basic things about evangelizing our neighborhood and the world; first, it is an intentional act and second it’s only good news if it gets to those that don’t have it in time.

One young lady in the high school class took that verse very much to heart last week and decided to invite one of her friends from school to come on Thursday night.  The young man heard the Gospel and made a decision to trust Christ.  How beautiful are the feet of those that bring the Gospel to their friends and family or even to those that they do not know.  How will they believe in Him in whom they have not heard and how will they hear without one of us that already know that will testify about what Christ has done in our lives.  We that have the truth owe a debt to those that do not to make sure they hear.

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Don’t Waste Your Advantage!

Text: Romans 9:1-3

You had the advantage and you wasted it!  That is Paul’s message to Israel in Romans 9:1-3.  He is grieved to the point where he offers to trade his salvation for the salvation of the Israelites.  Though that wasn’t possible, it demonstrated the measure of his grief over the fact that his people had blown the greatest advantage ever given to a nation.  They were the nation chosen by God to take the Gospel to the world.  Because of that, they had all the advantages of the covenant, the law, the tabernacle the lead in all the worship and above all, they were the nation through which God sent us Jesus.  They had all the things that pictured Christ, but when Christ came they rejected Him.  They totally wasted their advantage.

God has given the church the advantage today.  Though just for this time, it is still the greatest advantage a body can have.  We have the truth of the Bible, the fellowship of the body of Christ and most of all the blessings on the work of the great commission.  God is for us which means that nothing that is against us measures up.  God is using His church in this age to do His work.  Anyone that has been made His child and become a part of His church has the advantage of His blessings while they live out their new life in Christ.  To live any other way is to squander the advantage that we have and not to learn from the lessons of men like Esau (Romans 9:11-13) who traded his birth right advantage for one meal.  He was sorry afterwards, but it was too late.  Don’t be sorry, take advantage of your advantage.

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Appetites and temptations are both liars.  Our young people know that their new life in Christ is supposed to include something about old things being passed away and all things becoming new.  They have to wonder sometimes why the appetites of the flesh still seem to be in full working order, and yet their power to control them seems to be out of order.   I know that I wonder it sometimes.  Romans 6:1-14 deals with this challenge with an explanation about our liberty in Christ.  Though we shouldn’t want to continue to serve sin because Christ lives in us, our appetites live there too and we are given full liberty to choose what we will do.  We usually choose poorly and try to satisfy the appetite by feeding it.  It comes back quickly and wants a bigger fix.

The truth is that we have the power to overcome this, but find it hard to yield to the holy, when the unholy is so flashy and attractive.  We are tricked pretty easily by the shiny, tasty, good feeling or good sounding bait.  This is not a cruel situation that we are left with, rather a testimony to the true unconditional nature of the love of God that never forces nor coerces but gives us full liberty to serve Him or serve sin.  The key is to think of ourselves as dead to the appetites of the old life and know that we have the power to refuse the old and replace it with the new things.  The challenge is that at the same time, we have the liberty to do either.  We should remember that our appetites lie about how much they want and the temptations of this world lie about their ability to fulfill the wants!  We have the power to stop serving liars and yield ourselves to Christ.

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In Christ, we go from enemies to children of God (Romans 5:10).  Reconciliation is not just a truce, it’s the creation of a Father – son relationship.  Since we are no longer enemies, we are safe from the anger of God toward sin, but with our new family relationship we are given our lives to live as sons of God.  It is a life that is guided by the new reigning king in our lives.  His name is Jesus and He reigns over the kingdom of grace (Romans 5:21).

Many of our young people are wondering what the Christian life means for them out on their own.  Some are starting to own their own faith, or admit that they have been living on borrowed faith and need their own.  Some don’t really see how it matters.  They may know, or need to know that Jesus died to save them from Hell, but they also need to see how His life saves their lives each day.  In Christ we are handed our lives to live in faith without fear of condemnation.  There is joy even in tribulations and an abundance of grace for every sin.  That is the way to live.

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Our young people know that idols are bad.  What they need to know is that it is just as wrong to form a god in their mind that doesn’t exist as it is to form one with their hands.  Through an abundance of TV, movies, school, facebook, friends and all the other opinions flying around our young people it is easy for them to fashion a god in their minds that allows them to indulge in selfishness, self-righteousness, carnality or worse.   That god doesn’t exist and the true God goes misunderstood.    True Theology comes from the revelation that God makes about Himself in the Bible and Jesus Christ which is the central theme.

Romans is a theology book and the study of the book of Romans is an investigation into the way God presents the central theme of the Bible which is Jesus Christ.   The Bible is the only reliable source of truth about God because it is what God says about Himself.  The Bible also is the tool that the Holy Spirit uses to perform the transformation from sinner to saint and from new Christian to a true disciple of Christ.  Young people can handle Theology so they might as well get good Theology.  Truth is a powerful defense against mind-made idols.

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[clear-line] 2 Timothy 3:10-17 Our young people need godly adult relationships                                           

Our young people need to know our lives outside of the classroom and need to see us go through difficult times.  They need a genuine and durable relationship with adults that have become the things we teach in the class.  Living by faith is not a guarantee against harassment or injury, in fact it’s an invitation for it (II Timothy 3:12).  The thing our young people need to help them live out their faith is to see the victory and joy in our lives that come after our endurance and Jesus’ deliverance (II Timothy 3:11). II Timothy 3:10-17 lays out two paths that each have a defined outcome.  The path that the Word of God calls profitable is the Scripture which perfects the man of God (Christian) and readies him to do the good works he was designed to do.  The path taken by those that pursue evil and deceive people for gain is a death spiral that ends in disaster.  One would think that simply knowing both outcomes would be a sure fire way for our young people to choose wisely. It’s just not that simple.  Perilous times look fun when they come packaged as those who want to be our teenager’s friends and it’s the excitement of the moment that catches them up, not the thought of the outcome.  Our young people stand at the fork needing more than a point in the right direction, they need someone way down the right path calling back to them to come.

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