In today’s culture the respect for elders is dying. Popular movies and t.v. shows like Borat and family guy are being viewed by the majority of young people. Even if you don’t listen to the music or watch these types of programs as a young person you are still being exposed to this poison. Today middle school and high school students will yell, cus out teachers to their face, sleep in class, not listen to their parents and feel completely okay about it because according to media authority is evil and stupid.
What does the Bible say about disrespecting authority? 2 Kings tells us a story about a young King named Rehoboam who ruled harshly. One day the people came to him and asked him to not be so harsh. At first Rehoboam asked the elders what he should do. They told him to lighten the load and the people would always served him. But Rehoboam ignored this advice and asked his cool friends what they thought they should do. They told him to tell the people to stop being babies and that he would make life even harder for them.
Rehoboam, wanting to please his young friends, did what they told him to do and he ended up losing everything. The people ended up rebelling against him and the throne was taken from him.
Today if we as young people do not learn to respect our elders, we will be haunted by anarchy and lose our kingship just like Rehoboam. When you fail to submit to authority, your personal authority in the future will be stolen from you. When you disrespect authority you disrespect God.
How do you battle this? You must R.E.S.P.E.C.T. your elders. This is a simple way to remember practical ways to submit to authority that has been lost in today’s world:
1. R.each out your hand when meeting an older person.
2. E.ye contact – look at older people right in the eye when talking with them.
3. S.ir, Mam – say “yes sir,” “yes mam.”
4. P.ray for them
5. E.ars- listen to them
6. C.reate conversation – talk to them. They want you to.
7. T.eachable- Don’t be like Rehoboam. Listen to what they tell you. They’ve lived life longer than you.
RESPECT your elders, respect God, respect his church, respect His Word and God’s favor will rest upon you. Disrespect these and you will be like Rehoboam and have disfavor.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Solomon's Lunch Table
We started off the day with playing a game known as chubby bunny. The goal of this game is to stuff a marsh mellow at a time into your mouth and then say “chubby bunny.” The person that can stuff the most marsh mellows and still pronounce chubby bunny wins. The winners were Hampton Jacobs and Kayla Vining.
The room was set up as a lunch room with 2 long tables that everyone sat at while we played our games and the message was taught. After playing Chubby Bunny I talked about the conversation that goes on at our lunch tables today. When I was in high school our lunches consisted of talking about sports and making clean jokes. Today’s culture though is completely different. I have surveyed many young people from 6th to 8th grade about what their table talks about at lunch today. The top at the list is girl friends and boy friends with video games following. When I first heard that this is what 6th graders talk about I was shocked.
In I Kings 11 we find that king Solomon faced a similar situation that young people face today. King Solomon was gifted with wisdom. Because of this everything that he did he did it right. He was probably the richest man to ever walk the planet and it says in the Bible that all the people of Israel lived in peace in happiness during this time. Solomon and his kingdom had all of this, but then something tragic occurred. Solomon however loved many foreign women. He fell into the trap o f making women his God and because of this he lost everything.
It would be like this. Solomon had the sweetest lunch table ever! He had the choice of any food –Chic-fil-a, Cheesecake, t-bone steak, Al’s pizza…All of his friends were happy. No one talked bad about each other. Every time Solomon did something, he did it right. At the guys’ tables they had virtual reality Call of Duty 4 with virtual suites that were similar to Ironman. The greatest part of lunch was that it lasted for 2 hrs rather than 25 minutes. The lunch room was hooked up to the mall so that girls had 1 hour to shop for clothes earned by bonus points from class. Not only did this lunch room have all this but it was gigantic and had a go cart path that went in between the tables. There was one rule that allowed all of this fun: place God 1st. As long as God is # 1 lunch will be amazing.
This was Solomon’s lunch table at school, then something tragic happened. At lunch one day, while he was eating his Joey Bag of Donuts, a new guy from out of town sat at Sol’s table. This new guy was good looking, athletic and smart, but he did not know Jesus. Everyone thought he was the coolest kid in town. It was less than a week and everyone knew who Tom was. Solomon and Tom became buddies. They were both incredibly smart and cool. 2 months after Tom arrived the disaster began. As Tom and Solomon and their friends were eating their lunch, Tom said, “Has anyone noticed the hot new girl?” (everyone froze at the table) “What?” Tom then asked a guy across from him, “Al, who do you like? I heard that Erica thinks you’re cute.”
At first everyone was shocked that Tom had said this. But each day Tom continued talking about girls and one by one Tom rubbed off on other people, until girls were talking about guys and guys were talking about girls. At first there seemed to be no harm from this. They were innocent, having fun. But then guys began to day dream about girls during class and girls thought about guys constantly. When they would go to lunch their conversation turned from God to girlfriends and boyfriends. God was being erased from the lunch room. He was placed on the back burner. It was all about who liked who. God had always warned Solomon to place Him first and things would be great, but this was his downfall. These blessings were torn from him. He lost the freedom of 2 hour lunches. The fun at the lunch table was gone. Lunch became boring.
It says in the Bible that Solomon’s blessings were torn away from him because he made women his idol and served their idols.
God created us to have this amazing life that Solomon had before he fell but we have let it be torn away from us by following culture’s ways. It is up to us to change the conversation in our lunch room. God has placed you at your lunch table to change the conversation and place Him first.
Imagine what your lunch room would look like if one by one your friends and classmates began making God the number one conversation. The blessings would come and you would have an incredible transformed lunch room.
We ended the day with playing musical pies. This was a blast. The girls just dabbed the pie on their noses (except for Kaley VanAlstyne, who completely dunked her head), while the guys went all out. The winners got to pie Kyle (leader) and I, which was interesting for picture day.
The room was set up as a lunch room with 2 long tables that everyone sat at while we played our games and the message was taught. After playing Chubby Bunny I talked about the conversation that goes on at our lunch tables today. When I was in high school our lunches consisted of talking about sports and making clean jokes. Today’s culture though is completely different. I have surveyed many young people from 6th to 8th grade about what their table talks about at lunch today. The top at the list is girl friends and boy friends with video games following. When I first heard that this is what 6th graders talk about I was shocked.
In I Kings 11 we find that king Solomon faced a similar situation that young people face today. King Solomon was gifted with wisdom. Because of this everything that he did he did it right. He was probably the richest man to ever walk the planet and it says in the Bible that all the people of Israel lived in peace in happiness during this time. Solomon and his kingdom had all of this, but then something tragic occurred. Solomon however loved many foreign women. He fell into the trap o f making women his God and because of this he lost everything.
It would be like this. Solomon had the sweetest lunch table ever! He had the choice of any food –Chic-fil-a, Cheesecake, t-bone steak, Al’s pizza…All of his friends were happy. No one talked bad about each other. Every time Solomon did something, he did it right. At the guys’ tables they had virtual reality Call of Duty 4 with virtual suites that were similar to Ironman. The greatest part of lunch was that it lasted for 2 hrs rather than 25 minutes. The lunch room was hooked up to the mall so that girls had 1 hour to shop for clothes earned by bonus points from class. Not only did this lunch room have all this but it was gigantic and had a go cart path that went in between the tables. There was one rule that allowed all of this fun: place God 1st. As long as God is # 1 lunch will be amazing.
This was Solomon’s lunch table at school, then something tragic happened. At lunch one day, while he was eating his Joey Bag of Donuts, a new guy from out of town sat at Sol’s table. This new guy was good looking, athletic and smart, but he did not know Jesus. Everyone thought he was the coolest kid in town. It was less than a week and everyone knew who Tom was. Solomon and Tom became buddies. They were both incredibly smart and cool. 2 months after Tom arrived the disaster began. As Tom and Solomon and their friends were eating their lunch, Tom said, “Has anyone noticed the hot new girl?” (everyone froze at the table) “What?” Tom then asked a guy across from him, “Al, who do you like? I heard that Erica thinks you’re cute.”
At first everyone was shocked that Tom had said this. But each day Tom continued talking about girls and one by one Tom rubbed off on other people, until girls were talking about guys and guys were talking about girls. At first there seemed to be no harm from this. They were innocent, having fun. But then guys began to day dream about girls during class and girls thought about guys constantly. When they would go to lunch their conversation turned from God to girlfriends and boyfriends. God was being erased from the lunch room. He was placed on the back burner. It was all about who liked who. God had always warned Solomon to place Him first and things would be great, but this was his downfall. These blessings were torn from him. He lost the freedom of 2 hour lunches. The fun at the lunch table was gone. Lunch became boring.
It says in the Bible that Solomon’s blessings were torn away from him because he made women his idol and served their idols.
God created us to have this amazing life that Solomon had before he fell but we have let it be torn away from us by following culture’s ways. It is up to us to change the conversation in our lunch room. God has placed you at your lunch table to change the conversation and place Him first.
Imagine what your lunch room would look like if one by one your friends and classmates began making God the number one conversation. The blessings would come and you would have an incredible transformed lunch room.
We ended the day with playing musical pies. This was a blast. The girls just dabbed the pie on their noses (except for Kaley VanAlstyne, who completely dunked her head), while the guys went all out. The winners got to pie Kyle (leader) and I, which was interesting for picture day.
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