No Response

At tonight's lesson I talked about faith but the response was low. I have been wondering, do the lessons not attract the interest of the youth or are they dull and unimpressive. I am enclosing my lesson to this blog. Read over it...What do you agree with? What do you disagree with? What can I add? WHat should I have stayed away from? Your opinions will help me as I develop new lessons. You are helping the adults of tomorrow :)

**The following as many misspellings and sentences not written well**

Faith

10/18/2006

What is faith?

What does it mean?

What does it mean to be faithful?

Is it different to be faithful to your friends than to your family? How about God?

Definition of Faith

–noun

1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.

2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.

3. belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.

4. belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.

5. a system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.

6. the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.: Failure to appear would be breaking faith.

7. the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one's promise, oath, allegiance, etc.: He was the only one who proved his faith during our recent troubles.

8. Christian Theology. the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.

—Idiom

9. in faith, in truth; indeed: In faith, he is a fine lad.

What do you think is more important?

To be authentic about your faith?

To be connected to faith?

I think sometimes we are apt to become connected to our faith rather than authentic with our faith. We have faith through association, rather than having faith within us. For example:

I go to the First Church of God – Connected to the church

I am part of the First Church of God and we are doing ministry by doing a local missions to the poor, by going to the neighborhood kids showing Christ love by inviting them to be a part of the church.

By being authentic we are excited about it, we are finding ways to get others to enter his kingdom. Our faith is shining through what we do as much as how we feel. Authentic faith does amazing things:

¹⁴When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. ¹⁵"Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. ¹⁶I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him."
¹⁷"O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." ¹⁸Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
¹⁹Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"
²⁰He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Matthew 17:14-20

Disciples	Jesus
Were not able to heal the boy	Was able to heal the boy
Faith: Not Enough	Faith: Well it’s Jesus
Very little faith: Smaller than a mustard seed	A lot of faith: Way beyond mustard seed
Believed in the faith the Jesus had, Connected	Believed in the faith of God Authentic

How to be authentic

1^st – Jesus is our guide

We can not be as spiritually attuned as Jesus. He was the son of God, part of God, the God. We have our drawback…100% Human 0% God

Faith is something we have to work at but to look at an ultimate example gives us hope. Jesus was 100% human, he had to learn like we learn. If I am a basketball player I look at the ultimate example to allow for me hope. My generation looked to Michael Jordon, you studied his moves, bought his shoes, bought into what he was saying.

In the same way, Jesus is our ultimate example. We must buy into who he is. First off he says, “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you”

Our goal: To work on a fraction of faith.

2^nd – Look for opportunities to put faith into action

The disciples failed in this account in Matthew. But failure is part of the learning process. Someone who doesn’t fail or struggle has a harder time with success. (in my opinion)

If someone is needed you, be there. Put your faith in God that things will turn out. Failure comes with trying.

3^rd – Faith is about your heart and where you place Jesus – not results

People will not heal 100% of the time. Sometimes it is their time to go, or God has a new plan for their lives. We don’t know God’s direction so sometimes we need to except that things don’t turn out right. Were you faithful to Christ? Were you faithful in praying for that person or thing? Then your faith was right on.

Sometimes faith is perfected through community. It is good to talk with each other about how faith has worked in your lives. How it is working in your life. Sometimes it good to work the faith of others in your life.

Faith has to be authentic, it has to go beyond words. Lets stop being connected with faith through our Christianity but using faith as part of our journey. If faith is what leads us, and as action results, this youth group, this church and this community could change.