Hiding Behind a Screen

Attention Funnel:

• When was it invented? (Boys vs. Girls)
• Technology often has the ability to either connect us as humans… or to isolate us from one another.
  • TV – I can find out what is happening around the world, but I can use it to avoid spending time with other people.
  • Video Games – I can play a game with people who are on the other side of the world – while also sitting in my room and ignoring my family.
  • Our phones can connect us with people all over the place, while ignoring the people right in front of us.

Big Idea: We can use technology to ignore one another.

 Main Points:

• We can use technology to avoid one another.
• We can ignore the humanity of other people.
• Face-to-face is better then a screen.

Distracted to Death

Series Attention Funnel: Videos

Series Introduction:

• Do you see what each of those videos are saying? They’re saying technology and specifically the smartphone is having an effect on our lives.
• And they are saying that we would be foolish to not step back and at least ask what effects they are having.
• This year the current pinnacle of technology, the iPhone turned 10.
• 50 years before the first iPhone, a man by the name of John Culkin coined the quote “First we shape our tools and then our tools shape us.”
• First we create our tools, and then they turn around and recreate us.
• Goal/Purpose of This Series:
• The Goal of this series is to take a step back and ask, what are the ways that technology, and specifically our phones, are affecting us. And how does the Bible call us to respond in order to live wisely.
• As Denzel said in the second video, we need to ask “Are you using your device, or is your device using you?”
• And with Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:12 we want to be able to say, “I will not be dominated by anything” including my phone.

In this first lesson of this series I want to talk about the ways that technology and our phones are distracting us and what that is doing to us.

Lesson Introduction:

• On the day after I got my license, I was driving with a friend in the car. We stopped at a stop sign as I cranked up the radio and talked about how much Bri had been checking me out that dayJ. I looked one way, pulled out, and HOOOONNNK! Just as I looked the other way a car swerved to miss my driver’s side and swing around the front.
• The distractions in that car almost led to physical injury or death.
• While the distractions of our phone can also produce physical harm or death, I am more concerned about how the distractions of our phones can lead to spiritual harm or death. One of the main ways they can do that is…

Big Idea: Our phones are capable of distracting us from what really matters.

Jr. High Retreat #3: “King of the Lost”

 Attention Funnel: Where’s Waldo.

• What is the goal of where’s Waldo? It’s to find Waldo. This morning we are going to look at a Story Jesus told about two brothers that were ultimately lost and outside the kingdom of God.

 Introduction: The Parable of the Prodigal Son is up there with the Parable of the Good Samaritan as one of Jesus’s greatest stories. It shows us the love and Grace of God, but it also shows us the ways that we try to live apart from God and outside of his kingdom. There are two ways to be lost.

Big Idea: There are two main ways to live outside of God’s kingdom.

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.

Jr. High Retreat #1: “Hear Ye, Hear Ye”

Attention Funnel:

• Sense of Hearing – Maybe show some videos of deaf people hearing for the first time.
• Have a hearing contest – two people come up and sit in chairs – you begin to play a sound very quietly and slowly bring up the volume. The goal is to be the first one to guess the sound correctly.

Introduction: Our Sense of Hearing is incredible. Think about all the things we hear, and how hearing often produced certain feelings in us. We hear music that inspires us, we hear the sizzling sound of bacon or the sound of coffee dripping through a filter in the morning that excites us, we hear the voice of a friend that gives us happiness. Our sense of hearing is incredible. Jesus tells a parable that is all about hearing. It’s about hearing a message. It’s about hearing a message that invites us to be part of the kingdom of God. This parable is called the Parable of the Sower

Big Idea: Hearing the gospel demands a response.

What is Justice? (Part 2)

Session 2: What is justice? (Part 2)

Attention Funnel: Surprise Endings/Twists.

 Introduction: Refresh from last week. Reintroduce Series.

• We talked a little bit last week about how justice involves love for other people. But we want to key in on this more closely this week.
• Last week we talked a little more about big picture justice. This week we want to narrow it down to a more personal level.
• Last week we went hiking through the woods of Justice. This week we’re going to camp out at the center of what it means to do justice.

Big Idea: Doing justice means loving your neighbor.

To talk about this we are going to look at the parable of the Good Samaritan.