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(2020. 05. 10 Sunday) Gospel Project for Youth - Jesus shows his Power


Family Talk Youth: 1. What motivates you to obey/submit to authority (parents, teachers, government) more? Fear of punishment or love? How many laws do you break that can get you a life sentence or execution? How often are we disobedient to our parents who love us? Often, it is easier to submit to the rules made by those who love us, like our parents, but it is also easier to take them for granted and break their rules. However, the government doesn’t love us, it only cares that its rules are respected and that society runs according to its laws; these laws are more difficult to obey, but we do not treat it as lightly as we do the rules of our parents. When we are immature, we need both negative and positive reinforcements, that is, we need punishments as well as compliments. This is why parents often use rods or other forms of punishments to dissuade their children from breaking certain rules. However, as we grow in maturity, we should not need negative reinforcements as much, but we still need positive reinforcements to encourage us. For those who are young adults and take advantage of the fact that their parents no longer spank them, they show that they are still immature. Are you still an immature Christian? Do you still need to be reminded of the discipline of God? Or are you a mature Christian? Is his love for you, his sacrifice of his son on the cross, enough encouragement to pursue a life of obedience? Jesus showed his power through miracles, and he often used his power to heal the sick, especially healing sinners of their sin. However, he will also use his power to judge the world with fire one day. Which aspect of his power motivates you to obey him more? Meditate on this and pray to God for spiritual maturity so that you may obey joyfully! 2. Why did Jesus pray? Why do we not pray? Praying allowed Jesus to focus on the plan on God. We see that Jesus prayed before and after he served God and people. Some examples: Jesus prayed before heading to Galilee, choosing his 12 disciples, feeding the 5000, and raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus prayed after healing people, the return of the seventy disciples, and being nailed to the cross. Jesus goes to the point of saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise...” (John 5:19). Jesus shows that he never did anything just because he thought it was a good idea, or because it seemed like the most obvious choice. Jesus only made decisions through prayer and getting confirmation from God. Why do we not pray? There must be hundreds of reasons, but perhaps the core reason beneath our thousand excuses is unbelief. Unbelief that God doesn’t care about our daily decisions and life unless an ‘important’ decision arises or unless it’s something church related. Unbelief that God doesn’t answer our prayers, and not only that, but that God doesn’t even listen to our prayers. Unbelief that God won’t do anything about it even if he hears. Unbelief which causes us to think that investing time in prayer is not the most efficient way to spend our time, it’s best rather to find our own ways of making the best decision. Is prayer simply the cherry on top of your decision making? Hebrews 11:6 says that, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, and whoever would draw near to him MUST believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” 3. How many goals, visions, and bucket list entries do you have? How many did Jesus have and what was it? I have many things I want to do and accomplish while living this life. However, I must admit that I did not consider to pray over those desires to see if they were what God had in mind for me as well. Many people have personal goals while some do not know that they want to pursue, but both of these people should consider less about what they feel like doing but what God desires for them to do. Many young people are bombarded with the question, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” Or “What are you going to major in?” And often it feels like the most important decision and answer in the life of the young person. A pastor of mine once shared the phenomenon of how people feel that they need to pray over things that are clearly stated in the Bible for us to do, yet do not feel the need to pray over things that are not so clearly stated in the Bible. For example, people feel like they need to pray to see if God would want them to serve the church or to go evangelizing, even though the Bible clearly tells them to do it. While people do not pray when choosing to hang out with friends or deciding which movie to watch, when this is not explicitly written in the Bible. What is God’s desire for us? For us to love him and to love our neighbors. How does he want us to love him and our neighbors? By sharing the gospel to those all around the world, teaching them the truths of the Bible, and baptizing them in the name of the Trinity (Matthew 28:19-20), by bearing one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), and using our gifts to serve the church (Ephesians 4:11-16). When does he want us to do this? Now. Why does he want us to do this? Because he has called us out of the darkness and into the light, we should no longer concern ourselves with the greed of the darkness but rather the works of the light (1 Peter 2:9)

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