I just finished reading an article in the June edition of Time magazine written by John Cloud of San Diego entitled Should you Drink with Your Kids?

He states that “our effort to stamp out underage alcohol use failed, creating a culture in which young people binge in secret.” He says the better way to handle this is to help the young people learn how to drink resonably. There going to drink before there 21 anyways so why not be there when they drink? It is not even illegal is 45 states for the adolescent to drink your house, it is just illegal in public?

It is mind boggling to me that he even asks these questions. It isn’t that I didn’t see my fair share of alcohol growing up in rural west Kentucky. It is just I thought there was a moral law/ code of conduct that we all lived by even if we were not Christian. My father, who had a substance abuse problem, never tried to get rid of his guilt he felt as I stared at him as he would get drink by having me join him. He may have not strived to be Christ like.. but there was a line in his conscience he would have had to cross.

Horrible things happen when you try to work on the results of a problem instead of dealing with a root cause. If the goal was to lower the amount of kids who secretly binge - then quite obviously bringing it our into the open would help take care of that problem. There are so many seemingly good programs out there that are trying to help the teenagers “do better”. However, they do not take care of the sin problem anymore then the blood of a goat makes you righteous.

I am reminded of the verses in Hebrews..

“One of the reasons mature people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.” (John Gardner)

I write when I am intentionally learning. Even though we learn things everyday. I desire to be a learner. My life is greatly benefited by the knowledge and information God has given me in my short life. I know that there is things I need to learn today to help me do what God has for me tomorrow. However, I deal with the struggle of not having a desire to learn that is strong enough to cause me to give my time to studying. Okay… I admit it, you deny it.. but we all have this problem on occassion.

Here is the comclusion I came today today from speaking with a friend and mentor, Austin Gardner.

• When I dream I study to reach my God given dream. When I study God gives me a bigger and clearer dream of what He wants from and with my life. Which in turn causes me to want to study even more, especially and most importantly in His Word.

• As Bruce Wilkinson stats in the “7 Laws of the Learner” it is the teachers job to cause the students to learn. It is my responsibility to cause myself to learn. I know how to teach.. so I should be able to cause myself to learn.

• It also stats that the succes of the teacher is seen by the succes of the student. I can not become a good teacher until I am able to make myself a good student. I must judge my ability to teach by my ability to learn.

So, as with most things in life. The solution to the problem is just do it. Today I wanted to kick start a desire to learn so what I did was placed myself in a place to learn something.

I am very much excited about tomorrow nights “Tuesday Night Dive’! The Singles Pastor from our church and I are coming together to put on an 1.5 hour program on Tuesday nights this summer to help create an environment that will motivate people to fall in love with the Word of God. We are going to encourage them and show them how to dive in!

Here are a few reasons we chose to do this:

1. We wanted the young people of our church (especially, those in high school and college) to know that studying the Word of God is something that is exciting to us and that we want to do it during our “free time”.
2. If the students we lead do not fall in love with the Word during this time in their lives they may never do so.
3. They say 8 out of 10 high school students will live the church after high school. We do not want that to be true about our students. We are going to try to build a bridge between the two ministries.
4. Philip, Singles Pastor, have different strengths and I think working with him on a project will be fun for both of us.
5. Many of our youth activities tend to have a tendency to be taken over by our junior high students. I know the juniors and seniors will enjoy a Bible study with more mature people in it.

This morning I have greatly enjoyed reading the first few chapters of 2 Chronicles. It is amazing how different the application of the verses of scripture seem to be when you change ministries. I can remember reading this story of a college student and praying for wisdom, I can remember reading this story while I traveled in missions mobilization and praying that God would raise up people like Solomon to go and do what I had set my “affections to”, now as a youth pastor I am praying for gifted men to come and do what I can not do in the building of God’s house!

I desire a great youth ministry as I am sure all of you do. Listen to what Solomon said “And the house which I build is great: for great is our God above all gods.But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?”

We are way over our heads. We are trying to build a house of worship for the God of Heaven that can not be contained. What a great motive to strive even harder to work to build a great ministry for His name sake!

Here is what realy grabbed my attention this morning!

In 2 Chron. 1:12 wisdom is granted unto Solomon. Then look  what he prays for immediately afterwards in chapter 2.

With all the wisdom that anyman on this earth has ever received Solomon stops and takes time to pray that God will give him..

“I can remember it like it was yesterday. My heart was beating out of my chest, my eyes were filled with tears, and I had a thousand thoughts running through my mind. I knew that the decision I would make any moment now could alter my life for ever. I closed my eyes and pointed as to hope that all the options but the one that was best for me would just disappear. A nice young lady across from me startled me with her answer… “would you like fries with that?”

I have vivid memories of some great and not so great stories I have heard while people are preaching. Some are hilarious, other terrifying, and many were very moving. I love good stories and illustrations. Illustrations are normally a powerful part of many men’s sermons. A well placed, emotional story can do a great deal to move people to better understanding of the matter you are preaching on.However, I have noticed in my life that I often do not use stories as I should. They should be windows of light that bring better understanding of the message I am preaching. They should not be a stand alone point. They Bible is our authority not our experience. I believe we are more passionate and clear in our story telling then in Bible preaching because we experienced the story and only read the Bible. Our hearts race when we think about the last second shot we took. We can smell the popcorn, feel the pain from the long game, and hear the crowd as we tell that story. Often, when we tell the stories of the Bible we are simply rehearsing information that quickly memorized.I want to be a Bible teacher, a voice for the text and not simply a great story teller. If you are like me then you must join me as we experience the Bible in our reading! 

Magnified In My Body

Philippians 1:12-20

Introduction:This chapter is saturated with Christ. Remember, the gospel is not about Christ, but is Christ. (Romans 1:16)1:5 – Fellowship (partnership) in the gospel.1:7 – Confirmation (to make stable) of the gospel.1:12 – Furtherance (advancement) of the gospel.1:17 – Defense (apologetics) of the gospel.1:27 – Conversation (live as a citizen of heaven) be as it becometh the gospel.1:27 – Faith (teaching) of the gospel.1:20 - Paul’s desire was for Christ to be magnified through his life. Magnify = meg-al-oo’-no -  to make (or declare) great, that is, increase or (figuratively) extol: - enlarge, magnify, shew great.a.       John the Baptist – John 3:30 – He must increase, but I must decrease.b.      Col 1:27 – Christ in you the hope of glory.  Do people see you or Christ from your life.  1.       Christ can not be magnified if we live defeated lives. We must remember that God has a purpose for all things in our lives. (vs. 12)a.       People get confused why “bad things happen to good people”.  b.       God is not mad or angry.  Don’t take offense at God. The man in John  Joh 9:1-3  And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.   And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. a.       We are not losing the battle either. (12 - ….rather…)b.      People thought they could shut down Paul but they were only making the gospel spread. (…furtherance…)c.       (vs. 14) many gained courage to speak more boldly about Christ. d.      Rom 8:37 – We are more than conquerors.e.      I Cor 15:57 – Victory through Jesus Christ.f.        Exodus 1:12 – the more they afflicted Israel, the more they grew.g.      Acts 6:7 – Word of God increased.  You can try to burn it, shut down the presses, think it is destroyed only to find it increasing.h.      You can not shut down God!  We win!! 2.      Christ can not be magnified if we live life only for ourselves.a.      Rom 6:11 – I should be dead to sin and alive to God.b.      II Cor 12:7-9 – Paul had problems, but he also had power!c.       (vs. 15a, 16) – Though Paul encouraged some, he enraged others. Not everyone will like you.d.      (vs. 18) It is all about Christ being preached.e.      Col 3:4 – Christ is our life, not just part 3.       Christ will not be magnified if it is not our passion.a.      (vs. 20) earnest expectation – watching, intense anticipation.b.      His hope – confidencec.       He did not want to be ashamed before Christ because he loved him so.d.      Boldness – did not matter what anyone thoughte.      “as always” – not just a one time thing.

Last night Tony Howeth, the deputation director for MWBM, preached the evening service of Vision Baptist Church. As to be expected from this great preacher it was an exciting, emotional, “warm and fuzzy” service that everyone present enjoyed greatly.

His main text was..    Philippians 1:7 Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart;

He showed us the importance and way to get people on our hearts. It really struck home with me as a youth worker. There our many teens that I want in my Sunday school class, in our church, and at our events that are not in my heart. If I spent more time keeping these teens “in remembrance” I would be a better minister to them when I see them. I have a tendency to think about programs more then people. I am especially quilty of not have the teens who have Christian families on my heart. I just think they have more going for them then most teens their age so I do need to be as concerned about them.

Personal Application:

Today to help me get this teens on my heart I will keep them in remembrance. I have listed their names and will spend time praying over them, thinking about them, and calling them through out this week. I encourage you to do the same!

Tonight the Pastor knocked it out of the park with a great message from Acts 27. Click here to listen to it. I don’t often say he knocks it out of the park and it is not becuase I do not think he is a good preacher. He is a phenomenal preacher and voice for the text. However, when he finishes preaching I don’t think about him I think about how awesome the passage was. I know that is the way it should be and the way he works hard to make it.

I may write more about this later. I am working on an article to post on www.bcwe.org about it and will send it out in our email update. (email me at Trent@bcwe.org) if you do not recieve our BCWE Resources emails.

Paul wanted to get to Rome to spread the Gospel. He had good intentions and the promise of God it would happen. However, a great deal of things had to happen to make that all come together. Paul’s journey turned out to be more legal and complicated then missionary.

• Acts 21:30-34    Paul arrived in Jerusalem and a riot boke out. Roman soldiers took him into custody. Paul ask for a chance to defend himself to the people. He told them what God was doing in the lives of the Gentiles.
• Acts 22:24, 25    A Roman commander ordered a beating to get a confession from Paul. Paul made them aware he was a Roman and escaped the whip.
• Acts 22:30   Paul was brought before the Jewish Council.
• Acts 23:10   Roman commander put him in protective cutody.
• Acts 23:21-24   Due to a plot to kill Paul, the commander tranferred him to Caesarea, which was in control of Governor Felix.
• Acts 23:35  Paul defends himself before Felix.
• Acts 24:25,26  Paul is put in jail and occassionally gets to speak to Felix and Drusilla.
• Acts 24:27  Felix was replaced by Festus.
• Acts 25:1,10  New accusations were brought against Paul.
• Acts 25:12   Festus promised to send him to Rome.
• Acts 25:13, 14 Festus discusses Paul’s case with Herod Agrippa II
• Acts 26:1   Paul tells his story to Agrippa and Festus.
• 26:24-28  Agrippa interrupts with a sarcastic rejection of the Gospel.
• Acts 26:30-32   They decide Paul is not quilty and he would have been released accept if he had not appealed to Rome.
• Acts 27:1,2  Paul left for Rome, courtesy of the Roman Empire.

I left many things out but that is an overview of it. Paul’s journey did not turn out as the way he wanted them to, they worked out even better than we expected.

There is a place in youth ministry that I want to get to asap. It isn’t a number but an ability. When a missionary comes by and makes a plead for a city is in his country (such as Fez, Morocco) we would have a group of young men and women who take responsibility for that city. Some of them will go, some will get stratgic about how they make and invest their money, others will become an advocate for the people through prayer and mobilization.

On my way there I would like to go first class if possible. I do not want to be falsely accused. I do not want anyone to talk bad about me. I do not want people to reject me and the Gospel I present. I do not want any financial trouble. I do not want any health problems. I want it to happen now, right now!

It is so God does not work according to my plan. He makes sure that by the time I get to “Rome” I will prepared for it.

I had a conversation on the phone yesterday afternoon that I fear that I may have several more times in the coming years. A young man that I had invested alot of time into called to explain why he hadn’t been at our church recently. He explained how he was going to another church in our town. It was more fun and the music is awesome, in his words. I was no way surprised by his call, however, even though I imagined it would be coming I was ready for it.

II Kings 17:24-30 tells the story of how the King of Assyria replaced the children of Israel in Samaria with people from Bablyon and different cities. When this happened God sent lions into Samaria to kill and chase out the these people. So they decided to get one of the priests that had been carried to come to Bethel and teach them about the Lord. He taught them of their need to fear the Lord. After they listened they went back to making and serving their own gods.

I feel like that priest in Bethel as times. I think this guy was the first youth pastor. The people listened to them teach because they feared lions not the Lord. The young man mentioned at the beginning had a mother who was all about our Bible teaching until her son got to a place where he didn’t look he might get eaten by lions.

As a youth pastor, more importantly as a “voice for the text”, I am not here to teach kids to fear lions (stds, meaningless life, bad marriage) I want them to have a reverential fear for our Lord. We have plenty of examples of men in the Bible who had a fear for the Lord and becuase of that they overcame lions!!