Here is the message spoken to your children this last Sunday night. The Nerf war was a blast this last Friday. Young men were made heroes as they went into battle facing their fears and fighting for their friends. Thank you for your support and faithfulness.
THE MESSAGE
Last Sunday was our last message for the Series of James. In James 4:4-10, James tells us that we cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of God at the same time. James is telling us to choose sides. In Matthew 12:30 Jesus says, “If a man is not for me, then he is against me.” In other words, a line has been drawn in the sand and you must choose your side.
Because choosing a side is so costly to us, whether it’s sacrificing what our flesh desires or what our spirit desires, we will sometimes decide to not choose a side. We do this believing that we will get the benefits of both sides as we have one foot on God’s side and one foot on the world’s side. We tell ourselves, “I’ll just live life in between. It’s so much easier.” But the truth of the matter is not choosing is choosing. It’s like a basketball shot, you either miss it or make it. There is no such thing as half points.
An example of this is shown in I Samuel 13. God commands King Saul to totally destroy the Amalekites, to leave nothing alive. Saul goes to battle with the Amalekites, and God gives Saul the victory, but Saul keeps the best cattle and possessions, along with the king. God is angry with Saul’s disobedience and tells Samuel to inform Saul that he has been rejected as king. As Samuel and Saul meet each other Saul says, “Hey Samuel, I did everything God told me to do. I destroyed the Amalekites.” Samuel replies, “Then what is this bleating of sheep that I hear. You have not obeyed God but have kept the best for yourself. To obey is better than sacrifice. Because of this God has rejected you as King!” Where did Saul go wrong? Saul tried to keep his feet in both worlds. He was not willing to give up everything for God.
I then explained that our world has launched an all out attack on God. Prayer has been taken out of schools. Creation has been removed from science. Christians have been taken out of history. We rarely, if ever, hear any Biblical history when the Bible contains the most accurate and greatest amount of history of any history book on the planet. There have been countless attempts of the enemy to remove God from the pledge of allegiance to the flag. Because of this attack there is a war going on and we must choose sides.
If we don’t choose to fight for God’s Kingdom we are siding with the enemy. If what the world offers is too appealing to risk loosing, or if our image or reputation is too important to us, then we will be siding with the enemy. In I Samuel 13, after Saul is rebuked by Samuel, Saul says that the reason he failed to obey God was because he was too concerned with what the people thought of him. He wanted to look good in their eyes. We must, therefore, be willing to lay down everything we are to fight for God’s Kingdom.
The number one tool that the enemy uses for today’s youth is apathy. Apathy is a lack of emotion; indifference. It’s the, “I don’t care” mentality. James shows us in verses 8 through 10 how to battle this. He says, “Grieve, mourn, wail!” In other words, get mad at what the enemy is doing to your friends, get upset and then get excited to go fight him. This is a war we are in. For example, in battle your best friend has just been shot by the enemy and you have the choice to fight back. You are going to be sad and mad at the same time and you are going to fight with all your heart. You are not going to say, “Oh well…”
I closed the message with telling everyone, “Choose your side! Pray, talk about God, read your Bible and pray!” You choose which side you are fighting on everyday you wake up when you have the choice of reading your Bible and praying. The question is will you be on the winning or the losing side?
Thanks again,
Ryan Austin
Element Leader
