This Week #3-11

This week in OFF ROAD we kicked off our 2 part series on identity theft and the struggle we all face with discovering who we are. This topic is so important for everyone, but is particularly important for middle schoolers as they are all facing an identity crisis. To find out our identity we went back to the very beginning. Genesis 1 talks about the creation of all things, including man. If we want to know where our identity lays it would be a good idea to see what the creator of us says we made for and how we were made. In these verses we discover 3 things: 1. although creation is awesome (and we are so quickly awed by it) the most impressive thing God made is us. Notice how all of creation is made, and then, when man is made, we are made in his image. When is the last time we just were in awe of each other? Maybe if we took this truth to heart our identity struggle wouldn’t be so tough. 2. We were created by God for God. We so often look in other places for our identity, but if we were created by God for God than it is God we should be looking to for our identity. When is the last time you searched the bible for God’s view of you? 3. When God created you it wasn’t, “alright,” or “decent.” When he made us he looked at us and said, “This is very good.” God loves you so much and thinks the world of you (enough to allow his own son to die). If we hold onto our identity in Christ, our identity crisis becomes firmed founded in God’s view of us, and the crisis becomes a clear understanding of who we really are.

This Week #3-10

OFF ROAD this weekend was an all worship weekend. We spent time singing, reflecting, in silence, and focusing ourselves on God. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! God is good!!! In the end we challenged the students that worship isn‘t something that just happens when we are singing or just at church, but it is a lifestyle. Worship is deciding to live for God and give him praise and it is something that can and should be happening all the time. Like main service I challenge you to sit down, as a family, every night this week and thank God for 5 things (make them different each night). Spend time worshiping God through thanksgiving.

This Week #3-9

This Week in OFF ROAD we continued our series, “Someone Else’s Shoe’s,” looking at what it means to serve God. We started off asking the question, “What does it mean to serve God?” If God created everything, is all knowing and all powerful, how can we serve Him? We found the answer to these questions in John 12:20-26 and Matthew 25:31-46. Read these verses with your child to see what God says about following Him. The first verse describes what God’s calling is (to serve him is to follow him and god where he goes- vs. 26) and the second verse tells us where God goes (to the least of these). So the answer to, “What does it mean to serve God?” is, “To serve God means to follow Him by going where he goes, by serving those who are difficult to love.”

Questions:
Who are the “least of these,” in your life?
How can you serve them?

This Week #3-8

This Week in OFF ROAD we kicked off our new series titled, “Someone Else’s Shoes.” In this series we will be looking at what it means to service others the way Christ has called us. In this week’s lesson we focused on humility in service. We looked at Philippians 2: 1-11. I would encourage you to read this verse throughout the week with your child as it talks about the heart of service. You will notice that the verses begin by asking questions, essentially say does your relationship with Christ change anything about who you are? DO you find encouragement from him and the body of Christ? Then it says, if you do then you should be motivated to be humble. In the NIV it actually says, “Do NOTHING out of selfish ambition, but in EVERYTHING you do, do it with humility.” The calling for humility isn’t in certain circumstances, but in every word we speak, every interaction we have we are to do it with humility. This is should be motivated by our love for God and by these actions others will notice something different about us. The last part of the verses is the encouragement for us, that Christ was the ultimate example of humility. If God, who is way above us, can humble himself to below our level, us humans, who are well below Him should be able to humble ourselves to those around us.

Questions for this week:
Who do you have the hardest time humbling yourself to? Why do you thing that is?
Who do you have the easiest time humbling yourself to? Why do you think that is?
What steps can you take to humble yourself to those around you?
Tell of a time in the last couple weeks where you could have humbled yourself to someone, but decided not to? What could you have done different? What do you think the outcome of that would have been if you handled it differently?
Pray together, throughout this week, for strength to be humble.