Message for teens draft

The best way to start any sort of thing is with scripture. So I will begin with Ephesians 2:10, which says "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, works which have been prepared in advance for us to do." Have you heard that verse before? Does anything in it surprise you? How about that phrase, 'prepared in advance'? That is interesting, yes? 'Prepared in advance' of what? In advance of our birth? Our acceptance of Christ as Lord of our lives? Makes you wonder. But let's wonder farther. The core of this verse is this: Once we accepted Christ, we accepted His Way. We said, Yes, we will live a different life, in service of this wonderful God who has given us absolute freedom from our former bondage of sin, who has promised us eternity with Him! But what is that different life? Does your Christian life look any different than your former life? Maybe you stopped doing certain morally-iffy things. Stopped dropping f-bombs all over the place. Traded the Saturday night party circuit for hanging out with Christian friends at a coffee house or something. All that is well and good, yeah? But what about that Ephesians verse...

And, just to stir this pot of thought a little more, let's take a look at a pretty well-known verse, James 2:17. The NLT says it like this: 17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

Just for fun, I have a little illustration, an analogy for ya'll. Let's say, on the day you accept Christ, you've gotten this Faith- and here is your Faith, this adorable, cute puppy. So, it's new, it's adorable, you love it, you are all about it, you spend every moment with it, thinking about it, doting on it, it's super. Yeah? You take it out and about, showing it to everybody. And it's all good. Fast forward a few months, and your Faith has grown- it's a gorgeous full-grown dog now. You don't go all ooey-gooey with it anymore, but you've got it with you all the time, being all loyal and taking it to church with you, keeping it close to you at home and stuff. But you aren't taking it out and about quite as much. You've kinda got into this mold, this way of 'doing' the whole faith thing. So, more fast-forwarding, maybe a few years, and there you are with your faith, in church every Sunday, rocking out on Wednesdays with your faith, hanging out with other Christians and their faith, making sure your faith is with you as you go through 'regular' life...yeah, your faith is there.
But now let's get serious. Fast forward to your death. To you, standing before God as He gets ready to decide what's going down with you. Now, Jesus stands right up, because you've got Him in your heart, you knew Him, right? And then God says, Show me your Faith in my Son. Show me. So, you yank on the leash that your Faith has always been connected to, right? Good old Faith, right there where he always is....except this is what you show to God: A decrepid skeleton of Faith. Dead Faith. That is one heckuva OMG moment, to be sure, yes?

So what is the deal? But isn't that what James is saying? You can have all the faith in the world, but unless you are manifesting that faith in your life by serving as our Lord served- how do you answer God with that? You can go around saying, "I've got faith in Christ" all you want, but on the day God says, "Prove it. Show me." what have you got then?

Let me show you a little example of just how serious this is: Jesus Himself says to us in Matthew 7:21-23: 21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
So, raise your hand if you call Jesus Lord. Yeah? So did these guys, these guys to whom Jesus said, "Get away from me, I never knew you!!" Um, shocker, ya think? You can call Jesus Lord all you want. Talk is cheap, yeah? "Only those who actually DO THE WILL of my Father in heaven will enter." Bam, there it is. So, we gotta do stuff to get into heaven? Yes, and no.
Back to our Ephesians 2, this time 8-9. 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. There is nothing you can do to be saved, it is Christ alone through whom we are saved, make no mistake. You cannot work your way into heaven. You NEED Jesus. But right after this verse comes Ephesiand 2:10, back where we started: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, works which He prepared in advance for us to do." We got marching orders. We are in the service of our King. He has it laid out for us!! Stuff designed just for us to be doing, with our gifts, with our talents, and most of all, with LOVE. Love for Jesus, Love for each other, and Love for everyone else. This is what it is all about.

Somebody, tell me, what is the Greatest Commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength! What does Jesus add on there? The second is like it- Love your neighbor as yourself. Then he says that everything HANGS on these two. Check it out in Matthew 22:36. Now, how about John 15:12. Jesus gives a 'new command'- Love each other as I have loved you. Now, he says LOVED you. This is before the cross. So how has He loved us? By serving- washing his disciples feet, humbling himself and giving, serving, loving His friends.

Let's check out Philippians 2:1-16 in the Message: 1-4If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
Rejoicing Together 12-13What I'm getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you've done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I'm separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.
14-16Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I'll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You'll be living proof that I didn't go to all this work for nothing.

It's all about God and how our lives, how everything we do brings Him glory. Think of your faith not as what it keeps you from- sin, naughty business, shady stuff, etc- but think of your faith in terms of what YOU DO with it. Through your faith you have gifts, you have power. And all of that is to be used in Jesus' name, for God's glory. So that anyone who sees you will say, 'Whoa. I need to know this Jesus guy, I need to see what is going on with this whole God thing.'

It's very important, all of this. Remember what Jesus said to those guys- those guys who did call Him Lord! Remember that God has business for you to attend to- business He's had all planned out beforehand. How much have you missed out on by keeping your faith on a leash?

Here is one more way that Jesus makes Himself abundantly clear: This is a parable about judgment day- the big day, the be-all, end-all day-of-days. The Final Judgment 31 “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
37 “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? 39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
41 “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. 42 For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
44 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’
45 “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’
46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”

What does that tell you? Did Christ talk to them about how they didn't get all drunk on a Friday night? How they didn't have pre-marital sex, how they didn't shoplift, how they didn't disrespect their parents? Don't get me wrong, that all matters because we need to be the whole package, right? But look at what He points out to them! Think about that, and think about what you need to be doing to be on that sheep side instead of the goat side, yeah?

The important thing is to do all of this together- remember we are a body, right? No wayward eyeballs rolling around alone trying to accomplish something that requires a thumb, or maybe an ear. It's got to be done together! Get together, and get moving! Find out who to you need to talk to in the church so you can get involved and fulfill the 'love each other' command- love your brothers and sisters by helping out with church activities! Help with the kids, serve in the nursery, volunteer for FLOW, I'm sure the opportunities are out there. And then, get moving on the 'love your neighbor' command. Find a ministry and hook up with them to feed the hungry in Lancaster city, hook up with a food bank, Salvation Army, or organize something yourself! You will only fail if you do nothing. Mother Theresa said, We cannot do great things, but small things with great love.

Because that is the bottom line. Our Lord LOVES us, He loves everyone! We've got to be that Love. We must be that Love!! And do not doubt this: You will be blessed beyond your imagination, you will witness the glory of God firsthand, you will see miracles, and you will experience a relationship with our Great God like you would have never thought possible. I will say it again, do not doubt this! He does not join us in our work, but we join Him in His. Live life as you were meant to live it. Starting now.