Session Two: Letting Go
Chances are when we began talking about forgiveness, someone very specific came to mind—someone who did something to hurt you and who you haven’t quite figured out how to pardon. Who is that person that wounded you or disappointed you? When you think of your hurt do you see only the person who offended you? If you’re like most, it’s hard to separate the wrong done to you from the person who hurt you. But what if you began to see him or her as a human being? What if you learned how to name the origin of the hurt? It may help you move forward. It may even begin to help you release the pain.

Bottom Line: Letting go involves identifying the offense and trusting God to fix what was broken.

Scripture References: 1 Peter 4:8; Proverbs 10:12; Colossians 3:13; Genesis 1:27; 1 Peter 5:7

Do You Know Me?

So you decided to fight, to stay in your relationship with God even though you’re feeling not that into Him. And for some of you, you’ve already seen a big change. There’s a new connection. There’s excitement. But for others, you’re fighting and nothing’s happening. You’re working, but you’re not getting anything in return. So what’s the problem? It may be that “me” is getting in the way, that your focus is on you. And in the process, you have made God very small, boring and predictable—a God you think you know, but One who is actually so much bigger than us.

Bottom Line: When I am so focused on me, I can miss seeing God for who He really is and make Him into someone who is easy to walk away from.

Scripture References: Job 3:3, 11, 20-21; Job 7:19-20; Job 38:4-7; Job 42:2-6

Week Two: Search
The Bible says that God is omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere at all times. Sometimes we are in such a rush, we don’t even notice Him. But what if life became a big search? What if, as you went through every day, you paused and looked for God to show up everywhere you went? And what if you realized that no matter where you go or what you do, He is there? It might completely change the way you look at life—even the most mundane, ordinary parts of your day. So today, pause . . . and then search.

Bottom Line: We need to pause in order to experience God.
Scripture References: Exodus 3:1-5

Do you ever wonder...where is God, or wonder, why do some people "hear" or "see" God and why others don't.

Bottom Line: We are tempted to believe we know how God works and how we think we can work Him.

In the boxing world, sometimes things aren’t always what they seem. Sometimes the winner is known before anyone walks into the ring. Sometimes the outcome is pre-determined by a person who has manipulated things behind the scene. Sometimes a fighter takes a dive. Sometimes a boxer throws the fight. And if each one of us were completely honest, sometimes we try to work things as well in our fight with temptation. And who or what we are manipulating isn’t the temptation, it’s God.

Scripture References: Matthew 4:5-7; Psalm 91:12; Exodus 17:2-3

Question for the week: Are you cooperating with God or are you manipulating him?

What has helped you grow closer to God:
Study, ritual, prayer...or something else? We want to see your answers!

We have an enemy whose goal is to destroy our ability to see ourselves the way God sees us.

Look in the mirror long enough, and it’s easy to pick apart the things you see. It starts with your looks, moves to your abilities, then your worth, your purpose, and before long it’s hard to know why anyone even gives you the time of day. The condemning voices certainly are convincing voices. But they aren’t God’s. God calls Gideon—an unassuming, and formerly nameless Jewish boy—a “mighty warrior”. And God calls us—just as unassuming, and sometimes nameless—His. Imagine if students left middle school and high school believing that. Imagine if we, as adults, started living like we knew that. Do we let the Enemy’s voice skew our thoughts and twist our value? Or do we trust God’s freeing declaration that in Him, we are enough? We are worthy? We are accepted? Then what would it take to start acting like it?

We have an enemy whose goal is to destroy our ability to see ourselves the way God sees us.

Look in the mirror long enough, and it’s easy to pick apart the things you see. It starts with your looks, moves to your abilities, then your worth, your purpose, and before long it’s hard to know why anyone even gives you the time of day. The condemning voices certainly are convincing voices. But they aren’t God’s. God calls Gideon—an unassuming, and formerly nameless Jewish boy—a “mighty warrior”. And God calls us—just as unassuming, and sometimes nameless—His. Imagine if students left middle school and high school believing that. Imagine if we, as adults, started living like we knew that. Do we let the Enemy’s voice skew our thoughts and twist our value? Or do we trust God’s freeing declaration that in Him, we are enough? We are worthy? We are accepted? Then what would it take to start acting like it?

We have an Enemy whose goal is to destroy our trust in God.

Most of us can recall a time when the Enemy’s voice lured us into a temptation that appeared too good to resist. On the other side, we see the error of our ways, but at the time, the whispers seemed impossible to ignore. The lies and the deception we are so quick to believe often have to do with the character of God. Is He holding out on me? Does He want me to be miserable? Are all of these rules keeping me from being truly happy? And the Enemy steadily and stealthily whispers, “Yes.” Our battle with the Enemy comes down to this one thing—whose voice do we trust? Are we willing to surrender a sense of wonder in our big God for the voice of empty promises coming from the one who is set on our destruction? In our own lives, whose voice do we allow to get the last word?

This is a post from one of the Blogs I follow. "Pastor Steven Furtick" This is great advice for parents but is also great wisdom for Christ Followers!

But He’s always loving.
Don’t confuse God’s love with like ability. He is most certainly a loving Father. But that doesn’t always mean He’s like able.

When a parent sets out to be like able, the primary intention is to make the child happy. Like able parents want their children to have favorable opinions of them at all times. So, in order to enforce this opinion, like able parents give their children whatever the children want, whenever they want it.God is not that kind of Father. He is entirely unconcerned about how He fares in the paternal popularity poll.And every parent knows that in order to be truly loving toward your children, sometimes you have to be utterly unlikeable.

Sometimes being loving means saying a firm no, refusing to capitulate no matter how much your children scream or cry or beg.Sometimes being loving means taking something away from your child because it’s bad for them, even if they don’t understand the danger of the object they’re playing with.Sometimes being loving means measuring out discipline to correct and train, even though you hate giving the punishment more than they hate receiving it.

Maybe you don’t like what the Lord is doing in your life right now.That’s okay.He’s infinitely more moved by how much He loves you than how much you like Him.

Hebrews 12:5-7And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,because the Lord disciplines those he loves,and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?

“The great weakness of North American spirituality is that it is all about us: fulfilling our potential, getting in on the blessings of God, expanding our influence, finding our gifts, getting a handle on principles by which we can get an edge over the competition. And the more there is of us, the less there is of God.” Eugene Peterson

Bottom Line: How you view God determines both your expectations and your responses.

Many of us have a distorted Godview because we think God’s primary goal is either for us to be good or for us to be happy. While there may be some truth in those statements, if we see those as His primary goals, then we walk through life with remarkable–and self-made–expectations. Then, when those expectations aren’t met, our faith is shattered and destroyed. This week, we want students to see that following God is bigger than our expectations. Following God requires surrendering control.

Scripture References: Matthew 11:2-3, 11:4-6

Bottom Line: The most important thing about a person is what they think about when they think about God.
No matter who we are, we all have a Godview. And the way we think about God affects how we interact with our world. Many people struggle because they have a negative or distorted view of God. This first week, we will take a look at the life of one of Jesus’ closest followers who struggled for the very same reason. In the end, we want to challenge students to begin to see how their view of God shapes the way they live.
Scripture References: Matthew 16:13-23; John 18:10, 17; John 21:15-19

Every one of us has a Godview. It’s what comes to mind when we think about God. It’s who we believe God is and how we believe God interacts with us personally and with our world. Our Godview affects everything we do. But here’s the reality—we don’t instantly know everything about God. In fact, we never really know everything about God. Instead, God is constantly revealing Himself to us through the relationship that we have with Him. There are things that each one of us knows about Him now that we didn’t know five years ago. And while we’ll never know all there is to know about God—because He’s that big and that mysterious—the things we learn about Him can help us respond to whatever life brings. That’s why author A.W. Tozer said, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

We live in a culture that moves fast. We can get a burger and fries in less than three minutes, and we can download new music in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, this fast pace usually means we don’t stop to think about the money that constantly comes and goes, passing through our hands feeding our desire for more. But did you know throughout Jesus ministry one of His most prevalent topics was money? That’s right. The way we use our resources is important to God. The next three weeks we are going to take a look at the way we give, spend and save our money, and how these habits reveal the thin green line between our hearts and our money.

Week two:Where you spend your time and money is a reflection of how you see God.

Have you ever walked into Target to buy toothpaste? You walk in the door focused on the one thing you need, and walk out with $40 of stuff you realized you “had to have” once you entered the magical land of marketing. This week we will be talking about how what we see affects our desire and ultimately our pocketbook.

Scripture References: Matthew 6:19-25; Genesis 3:6; 1 Corinthians 10:23

All families fight; we just fight in different ways. But regardless of how your family handles disagreements, we can choose what we will fight about. In The Good Fight series, we will begin with the sometimes difficult call to honor our parents, found in Ephesians 6:1. Then we’ll build on that to show that God desires for children and parents to turn their hearts toward each other and have a relationship. In order to have the good relationship with our parents God intends, we have to learn how to change the fight first. We have to stop fighting against "their way" and start fighting for a relationship. That sometimes means surrendering our right to be right and prioritizing relationship regardless of the cost.