Greed

Attention Funnel: Superbowl Commercials

• What are they advertising? What are they promising?
• Pepsi Commercial, Audi Commercial, Dorito Commercial
• Commercials are for the most part all about getting you to want something you don’t already have.
• Commercials play on our desire to want more. And this desire is at the center of greed.

Big Idea: Greed says I want more. Contentment says I have enough.

Introduction:

• Greed is a tough topic to teach on… because everyone, myself included, immediately jumps to the conclusion that they aren’t greedy.
• It’s like talking to a group of kids about the importance of sharing. Everyone’s mind immediately kicks in to say, “I don’t have a problem with not sharing. Timmy on the other hand, he’s a real tightwad when it comes to toys. He’s the one you need to talk to.”
• We are so good at justifying ourselves that before we even here the message we are already throwing up defenses as to why the message does not apply to us.
• And perhaps nowhere is that truer than with greed

 Main Points:

• Money and Possession are dangerous.
• Greed believes more will be enough.
• Greed chokes out love.
• Contentment believes God is enough.

Pleasure Pursuit

Attention Funnel: Food-Eating Contests

 Introduction:

• Often in this life we take good things and we end up misusing them.
• We hope to get more out of them then what they really offer.
• Rather than accepting the good things for what they are, we take them and try to make them what gives us life, purpose, meaning, and satisfaction.
  • Rather than accepting Hot Dogs as a thing to be enjoyed, people take them and try to eat as many as they can in order to win a prize,
• One of the ways we do this as humans is that we take pleasure and make it the end all of life.
• Solomon is going to test this way of life out for us… he’s going to put pleasure to the test, to see if it can give him the meaning and satisfaction in life that he craves for.
• And spoiler alert, He is going to find that it comes up empty.

Big Idea: Pleasure is a good gift from God.

 Passage: Ecclesiastes 2:1-11; 2:24-26

 Main Points:

• Pleasure is not the problem
• Pleasure unhinged from God is the problem.
• Enjoy pleasure as a gift from God.

Stinky Feet #2: Go and Serve

Introduction:

• Last week we talked about Jesus coming to serve us.
• We talked about the fact that Jesus went all out to serve us and that we need to be served by him.
• I said that this is our ultimate motivation for serving.
• If you remember I used the illustration of a fire used to cook burgers to give to others. Last week I talked about the fire – what is the fuel, the drive, the motivation that leads us to serve? Jesus serving us! This week I want to talk about the burgers – what is it that we have to offer other people. What is it that we have to serve with?

 Passage: 1 Peter 4:7-11

 Big Idea: God uniquely gifts us to serve other people.

 Main Points:

• Everyone has a gift
• God gives us gifts to serve other people.
• We are called to serve in a way that glorifies God.

Jr. High Retreat #2: “Debt and Devotion”

Big Idea: Being a part of God’s kingdom is a gift, not paycheck.

• What is the difference between a gift and a paycheck?
• A gift is freely given, a paycheck is earned.
• Most kingdoms work based on the paycheck mentality.
• If you do something for the king you are given something in return.
• Example: You show your devotion to the king by giving him a gift, revealing a plot to kill him, or fighting for him in battle and in return you receive something – a position, a land, a new sword etc.
• The kingdom of God does not work this way.

Out of the Box and Into the Fire #4: What is your name?

 Opening Activity: Youtube Videos

Introduction: Recap last week, set the stage for this week.

Purpose: To look at how God reveals himself in the first four chapters of Exodus. To show that God is far greater than our minds can comprehend and to combat the desire that we have to fit God into a neat box.

 Big Idea: We need God more than we need anything else.

Main Points:

God needs nothing.

We desperately need God.

God’s greatest gift to us is himself.

Read Exodus 3:11-22

• Moses is still speaking to God at the burning bush
• God has just told Moses that God he his going to send Moses to Egypt to free the Israelites
• Moses responds to God with 5 questions – we will look at the first two: Who am I? and Who are you?
• God responds by giving Moses a promise, and telling Moses who he is, and he reminds Moses of his promises to the Israelites.
• God gives his proper name to Moses along with a description of that name.
• Were going to work our way backwards to look at Moses’ second question first and God’s answer and then we will look at Moses’ first question and God’s answer.

Time, Talents, and 20’s Lesson #3

Time Talents, and 20’s Lesson #3 – Money

Introduction: Which Costs More?

Clarifications:

• Amount of money does not determine your value
• Money and possessions are not bad in and of themselves

Why talk about money to Youth? – You all have some amount of money (jobs, allowances, gifts, etc). – Many of you are beginning to think about what career/college path you will pursue – often money plays some sort of role in this decision. –Money is something you can’t avoid and we are called to understand money through the lens of what we say we believe.

Purpose: To show that money is a gift from God that can be used to enjoy this life and be a blessing to other people, and to caution students on how easy it is to turn money (and possessions) into an idol.

Big Idea: Money is a gift from God that can point us to God, reveal what we truly value, and be used to build God’s kingdom.

 Primary Passages – Matthew 6:19-24; 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Time, Talents, and 20’s Lesson #2

Time, Talents, and 20’s Lesson #2 – Talents:

• Introduction: Jimmy Kimmel Christmas Gifts youtube video and Steven Wiltshire youtube video.
• Most of us probably don’t have the same skill of Stephen Wiltshire, but that doesn’t mean that God has overlooked us and given us terrible gifts as the parents did in the first video.

• Define talent: A special natural ability or aptitude.

• Big Idea: God calls us to be faithful to him as we discover and use the natural abilities that he has given to us.

• Explain Passage: This passage is a parable that Jesus spoke concerning the resources God has entrusted to us and how we are called to use those resources during our time here on earth as we await his returns. Talents in this passage is not speaking of our natural abilities but rather of a financial weight that was used in Jesus’ era. It is a large sum of money. I believe it signifies the resources that God entrusts to us. So while this broadly covers all the things God has given to us, I want to look at the specific applications it has for the natural abilities that God has given us.

• Read Matthew 25:14-30

• The parable is made up of 3 scenes
• Scene One explains that the master entrusts three servants with a certain amount of his money as he leaves to go away on a long journey. He gives five talents to one servant, two talents to another servant, and one talent to a third servant. We are not told why this is the case.
• Scene Two explains what each of the servants did with what was given to them. The first and the second go to work with what they’ve been given and double the amount. The third servant sticks out because he instead goes and digs and hole and puts the money in the ground.
• Scene Three explains the masters return and his response to what each servant has done with what was given. The first and second servants are praised for their faithfulness, and rewarded with more responsibility and “entering in to the joy of the master.” The third servant comes to God explaining that because of his view of the master he simply buried his money in the ground until the master returned.