Loneliness & The Battle to Trust Jesus

John 15:12-17

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit-fruit that will last-and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17This is my command: Love each other.


 I have heard many stories of missionaries being persecuted for their faith.  I started to ask myself how we (in America) face persecution. We aren’t necessarily beaten for our faith. We are however alienated, rejected, and at times it can be lonely. The world will not understand why we trust Jesus. In John 15:18-21 it says,

 18"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.


We are going to be hated by the world and we must ask ourselves if it is worth it. Is it worth it to forsake & give up this world for Jesus? Are we willing to be lonely for Christ? My father knew of an older woman when he was in seminary and she was a missionary to Burma. She was single and alone on the mission field. She was eventually kicked out of the country for causing “disruption” and telling people about Jesus. She didn’t know what to do because she felt that Burma was where she needed to be, but God had closed that door.  When I heard this story, I wanted to ask her if it was really worth it. I also had to ask myself if Jesus is worth the emotional pain that I will get from the world for being a Christian. Is He worth the hatred; is He worth the strange looks I will get when I tell people about Him? I believe He is.
Philippians 3:7 says,

7But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Romans 8:18,

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.


It is worth it because we will stand before the throne of God one day and all of the pain that we suffer here on earth will be nothing compared to being with Jesus in heaven. When you deal with things like loneliness or rejection, remember that it is worth the pain to follow God. Sometimes, you must be lonely to follow Jesus. God wants you to rely on Him rather than earthly relationships or things. Friendship is a good thing and I am not discouraging you from them, but I want us to realize that that may not be readily available to us at all times. God may call us to give up those precious friendships for a short time in order to serve him better.

 I want to ask you if you believe that Jesus is worth it. Right now, we live in Christian homes, we go to church on Sunday and we rely heavily on our parents when it comes to our faith. I want to ask you honestly, do you believe that Jesus is worth the hate, the pain, and the rejection? Is Christ everything to you?  These are questions that I have had to ask myself and answer honestly.  I want to challenge us. Over the next month, I want you to do a couple things. These are very simple and easy to do.

1. Read your bible in the morning and evening.
2. Pray 3 times a day. If you don’t have a habit of praying more often, then I suggest starting at 3 times a day. Start with meals, but don’t just thank God for your food. Pray for 2 things. 1- A personal thing. Something that you are going through. This is for you to decide on and change. 2- Ask God to give you a desire to follow Him no matter what. We see a pattern of praying three times a day from Daniel.  Daniel 6:10 When Daniel learned that the written document had been signed, he went to an upstairs room in his house that had windows opened facing Jerusalem. Three times a day he would kneel down, pray, and give thanks to his God, just as he had previously done. 
3, Have an accountability partner.
4. Read more, waste less time. Pick a few good books and read instead of spending time on email/games, etc. You can pick a few good biographies on strong Christians of the past or have your parents choose.
5.Share the gospel with at least 1 person this month. Ask God to show you someone to share your faith with.
6. Pick five verses and memorize them. When you deal with temptation and you find it difficult to focus on the Lord, scripture will help you fight against sin.


This is to encourage you to develop and grow your own faith. So, that when the difficult times come and you find your faith being tested, you can learn to rely on Jesus.

Compromise

There are two common definitions of the word "compromise"--one is a good one and means you're willing to negotiate with someone else on something minor, instead of being stubborn. 

The other one is bad, and means that you're willing to be lax on your convictions and principles. That's the one we're talking about today. 

Common areas teen girls are tempted to compromise: 

          1. Words/language 

1. Ephesians 4:29 
2. James 3:2-12 
3. Proverbs 16:23-24

Nails in the Fence

There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he said something in anger, to hammer a nail in the back fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his tongue than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn’t say a single angry word. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his tongue.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say ‘I’m sorry’, the wound is still there.”

          2. Guys 

1. 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 (Satan's goal in distracting us with guys is often to steal our TIME...) 
2. 1 Timothy 5:1-2

Little compromises lead to big ones. 

"Anna" was a girl who grew up in church. She memorized Bible verses. She was a "good girl" who wouldn't do many of the bad things that other kids were doing. But she started to compromise just a little bit in the area of guys. She let some little things slip with one boy that she really liked. One thing led to another, and a little while later, she was pregnant. She and the boy got married very quickly, but it was only a little while before they were divorced. 

How did she get from "good church girl" to divorced single mom before she was out of college? Baby steps. 

          3. Modesty 

1. 1 Peter 3:3-4 
2. Proverbs 11:22 
3. Matthew 5:27-28

          4. Media 

1. Psalm 101:3
2. Philippians 4:8 
3. Colossians 3:16 
4. Romans 12:2 

          5. Thoughts 

"Thoughts" underscore all of these areas. We often don't think much about compromising in the area of thoughts, because they're so small and invisible--no one else can see them--but "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." Our thoughts become our words and actions. And when God looks at our hearts, we see in Matthew 5:21-30 that if our thoughts are wrong, He considers them to be sin. 

1. Philippians 4:4-9 
2. Romans 12:2 
3. 2 Corinthians 10:5 

Ways We Compromise 

1. Self-focus, either negative or positive 
1. Matthew 14:22-33 and Hebrews 12...when we focus on ourselves, we can't accomplish anything...it's when we fix our eyes on JESUS that He works miracles through and in us! 
2. Just being lukewarm (Revelation 3:14-22) 

Why we compromise 

1. It's easier 
2. We don't have to fight 
3. We feel overwhelmed and don't think we can do anything else 

What we're supposed to do instead of compromising 

1. Battle through 
1. Hebrews 10:26 
2. God loves us too much to leave us where we are
2. Rely on the Lord, and He will give us strength 
1. 1 Corinthians 10:13 
2. Have faith and actively trust in Him 
3. Surround ourselves with godly influences, and be aware of negative influences and how they impact our behavior 
1. 2 Timothy 2:22 
4. "Struggles are to be fought through, not surrendered to." -Jael 

Fighting compromise is hardly ever easy. But at the end of the day, it is so worth it! Not only do we see the fruits of God's presence in our lives when we refuse to give in and accept lesser things, but we also get to experience His faithfulness in leading us through temptation. 

He loves us, and He's offering us unimaginable gifts. All we have to do is trust in Him and follow His leading. 

Jealousy: November 1, 2016

  It was a Friday night and I still had not completed my lesson for Bright Lights on Tuesday. I only had a couple of days to complete it, and I was struggling. Jealousy has consistently been a hurdle I have had to overcome. I have always wrestled with thoughts of, "I wish I had this or that", or "If only I had (insert admirable quality)". So, as soon as I said I wanted to teach on jealousy I thought to myself, "Are you crazy!" Nevertheless, a couple weeks later,  I was sitting in front of my computer screen, wondering how in the world I was going to finish this. Then, it dawned on me. Did I pray? I realized that I could not write this lesson by my own strength, but I needed to rely on Jesus to give me the right words to say.

We discussed two definitions of jealousy...

#1 Jealousy: An unhappy or angry feeling of wanting to have what someone else has.

Here are a few verses we looked at referring to this type of jealousy.

James 3:14-15
14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

James 3:16
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice

#2 Jealousy: A strong feeling of possessiveness, often caused by the possibility that something which belongs, or ought to belong, to one is about to be taken away.

I talked about Exodus 34:14.
Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

We tackled how we are to deal with our jealousy-#1 definition.

We asked volunteers to act out Genesis 3:1-8. Somehow I ended up being the tree. Sophi was an amazing snake. Abbey was a wonderful Eve, and Reyna was a fantastic narrator. :)

I taught about Eve and how she looked at the fruit and desired something God had not given her. Ungratefulness started to grow in her heart.

We discussed a great way to battle envy/jealousy is by turning our thought life to Him. ( Colossians 3:2)
When we think thoughts that are bitter or ungrateful, our hearts tend to follow. I encouraged the girls to focus on Jesus and look for ways to serve Him better. A great way to do this is to memorize scripture. Here are a few verses that are pretty easy to memorize:

Proverbs 18:10
 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.

1 Peter 5:7
 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Psalm 119:50
My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.

And my personal favorite - Micah 7:7.
But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

Another way to battle jealousy is to read God's word.
 I can’t emphasize this enough. God’s word is so important in a Christian’s life. It isn’t something that should be tossed aside, or considered an old book that has no meaning to our lives right now. Research. Ask questions. Dig deep in the word of God.  Read the boring books…read the exciting books. Write questions down and ask people’s opinions. I love reading the bible and then emailing a friend about his or her thoughts on the subject. I would encourage you to think about what your reading. I know that we all have responsibilities and school work, but the bible is more important. The bible I more important than our scripts, the bible is more important than our science books, the bible is more important than our sheet music. However, the Bible is not an excuse for laziness.

Conclusion:

When we look at others and desire what they have or what they have accomplished we seem to look at our own lives as less than. When we forget about Jesus and what He has done for us we forget we already have so much. If Jesus is our everything, our first love, our hope, we won’t desire earthly things.When Jesus is all whom we desire to imitate, that is when we find true joy.
How can we want riches that are eventually going to rot or become stolen? This world can offer nothing in comparison to the King of Kings! Now, some say it is foolish, but I think that the most foolish thing a person can do is look at our world and refuse to believe there is a creator. And when we realize all that Jesus went through to be our final sacrifice- how can we be jealous of others?  

Fear

 Fear 

~Our memory verse was Isaiah 43:1 and our bonus verse was Isaiah 43:2.~

We first dealt with what exactly fear is. Here are a few notes....

According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, it is “To feel a painful apprehension of some impending evil; to be afraid of; to consider or expect with emotions of alarm or solicitude.”  And in the American Heritage Dictionary, it is described as “An emotion of alarm and agitation caused by the expectation or realization of danger; to be afraid, frightened, or terrified.”  
 there is a difference between being scared and fearing the Lord.  When the Bible talks about “fearing the Lord”, it means treating the Lord with reverence, awe, and respect.  Psalms 19:9 says that “the fear of the Lord is clean”, and in Ecclesiastes 12:14 we are told to “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”  
 - Is fear a sin?
Just plain fear is not a sin in and of itself; it is an emotion.  But we can allow our fear to overtake us and keep us from obeying God.  That’s when it can become a sin or lead us into sin. 

Then We went into Part two.....

Apply His word to your life

What I mean by that is we need to memorize scripture more. Now I know pretty much everyone here does a really good job at this--I am the worst at memorizing scripture and am telling myself this as much as you girls--. But we need to memorize verses for those times of fear and suffering. Our living God has given us words to live by so...let’s live by them!! I remember a couple of years ago I had a horrible nightmare and I awoke very frightened. I was so scared i didn’t even want to get out of bed to go to my parents who were just in the next bedroom. So as a way to know that I was safe I started to repeat a verse (and I don’t remember what verse it was that I kept repeating). Well, anyway as I kept saying this verse I started to feel this peace come over me, and I realized that the Lord had come to me when I called out to Him to rescue me from my fear and dread.

And if you don’t get anything back from this lesson i want you to understand that the Lord is stronger than any fear you have. Remember in the beginning of the lesson I asked you to think about your greatest fear, now I want you to compare that to Christ. That fear seems scary compared to us puny little humans, but when we compare it to the Lord who defeated death itself! He wins Every time.

Having a Greater fear When I was about 5 years old my greatest fear was the dark. When everything seemed to creak and footsteps could be heard in my imagination. When I was about 9 my greatest fear was not having any friends (we had just moved here). When I was about 11 my greatest fear was me having to leave my friends when my parents had decided to home school me. Now that I am almost 15 my greatest fear is not being good enough. Do you see a pattern? When I grow I seem to shed off my fears. Sylvia and I are both Christians who love the Lord, but we are in different stages of life. And that is perfectly fine, but I know for a fact we have different fears. I know that in 10 years I will have a different fear that will be just as hard to overcome as it is to overcome the one I am facing right now. When I look back at myself when I was 5 years old….the dark doesn’t scare me anymore, and a big part of it is that I developed a greater fear. If my greatest fear is the Lord then soon enough He will be the only one I fear, but it takes time and prayer and a whole lot of suffering to get there.

-Taylor and Olivia