After a very long break from blogging here, God gave me something that I feel like I need to share...
A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of participating in a service project with the youth group from our church. I, along with our Youth Pastor Jared & his wife Courtney, took 9 students to Jireh Sports, a Sports Ministry of Shepherd Community near downtown Indianapolis. We spent a few hours cleaning all of the gym equipment in the building, vacuuming, mopping, weeding, etc. It was a hot & sweaty day! Everyone worked so hard, and I never heard a complaint all day. They were happy to serve!
Today, Jared shared about our experience at Jireh. He started by sharing Matthew 16:21-48, but really focused (at least in my mind) on verses 22-23, "Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!' But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." In this passage it appears that Jesus is calling Peter Satan. Yikes! Jared explained that Jesus isn't calling Peter Satan. Jesus is telling Peter that the way he is thinking is like Satan. When Jesus said "Get behind Me, Satan!". He is really saying "Get behind me and follow what I am doing. I am The Example by which you must live your life."
As I was sitting in our worship service this morning watching our Youth lead worship I thought, "Many people think the 'kids of today' are selfish and don't really care about anyone or anything besides themselves." Well, what kinds of examples are they seeing in the adults around them? Are we, their parents, teachers, leaders, etc., setting The Example for them that we are supposed to? As adults, we have a huge and awesome responsibility to follow Jesus as we should, by living our lives as an example of the "speech, conduct, love, faith and purity" (1 Timothy 4:12) Jesus calls us to. If every adult stood up to that challenge I believe we could raise up a generation of servants ready to go into the world and live for Jesus.
Every day we wake up to a new day we are all given the gift of "A Little More Time to Love". Let's not waste a single moment to love like Jesus and be The Example for the next generation.
Getting your children & teens involved in serving others is simple. Find a project & do it! Enjoy this video of our day! The Landing - Jireh Sports Service Project
