Acts 2:42-47 - 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
We started off the night reading Acts 2:42-47 and listing on the board all of the characteristics of the believers in the early church.
- Devoted to teaching, fellowship, & prayer
- Filled with awe
- Together with other believers
- Things in Common with other believers
- Gave to others in need
- Had glad and sincere hearts
- Praised God
- Enjoyed favor of all people
- Numbers of saved multiplied
Then we talked about our relationships with other believers, as well as our relationship with our Savior. Our relationships with each other are best represented by the horizontal line of the cross. As believers, we need the fellowship we can have only by spending time together, worshiping together, praying together, discipling each other, and evangelizing together to add to the body of Christ's numbers. We need to need and be there for each other in addition to needing the relationship we have with our heavenly Father...which is best represented by the vertical line of the cross. It's a two-way street!
To demonstrate how we need each other and can be there for each other, we played a little game. We blindfolded one person and gave them a kickball. We told them their goal was to kick the ball out the door on the opposite side of the room. We spun them around a few times and then let them have at it. Everyone else in the room was encouraged to be as quiet as possible. After a few minutes, we allowed several other youth, chosen by the blindfolded person, to use their words to guide and give directions to help the one blindfolded reach their goal of getting the kickball out the door. We all saw how much easier it was to reach our goal with the help of other believers than it was to reach it on our own. We made it a little more challenging and lengthened the course just a bit too. At one point, the blindfolded youth had to make it out one door, down the hall, through the foyer, and in through the other youth room door!
We reminded the kids that, according to Paul, our goal is to become more like Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-15 - 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
We need our relationships with each other, as well as our relationship with Jesus (through prayer and His Word) to reach this goal! Friends can help keep us on the right path. God can use our friends to encourage us to keep striving to reach our goal. He can also use them to turn us around and get us going back in the right direction when we've strayed.
And once we have these relationships with each other and our Savior, we have a Spirit-filled church.
So what does a Spirit-filled church look like? It's healthy, growing with new believers, and multiplying in numbers all the time. It's a church that ministers to the needs of its own body, as well as to the needs of the community at large...through missions and outreaches. It's explosive in its example of Christ's love and the ministry He lived out when He walked this earth.
Explosive like...
Mentos and Diet Coke...oh yeah!!
To challenge the kids to give explosively of themselves and in a very practical way, we introduced them to the eBay Offering Challenge. We asked each of the kids to bring in something of value (monetarily and of value to themselves personally) that they would consider a sacrifice to part with. It could be an electronic device, a collection, a doll, a video game...whatever. We are then going to eBay each of these items and give the money as our gift to Billie Fogle to help with her ongoing medical expenses. Yes, we are going to sell our possessions and give to those in need...just like the early church believers did!
It'll be interesting to see what the kids bring in for this challenge! We challenged them to try and outgive each other, but reminded them that they can NEVER outgive God!
