We have two awesome events for middle school students coming up on March 5!
Guys: Boys 2 Men, 12pm-6pm
We're heading to east Knoxville for some epic paintball battles! Meet at The Shed at 12pm. We'll travel by bus to Buffat Heights Baptist Church (where the paintball field is located). We'll return to The Shed and be done by 6pm. Cost is $25. Release forms must be completed and signed! They are on The Mix website!
Gals: Girls Night, 6pm-8pm
All middle school girls are invited to attend this party FOR GIRLS ONLY! Be assured that chocolate will be included in the night's festivities...and probably dancing! Cost is FREE! Event is located in the River Room and Cafe area at Two Rivers Church.
If you've ever been chased by a big brother or a neighbor's dog, you know what I'm talking about! Another example would be the famous running of the bulls in Spain! Those people are running for their lives!
That's exactly what God's Word means in 1 Corinthians 6:18: "Run away from sexual immorality..."
Joseph was a man who ran away from sexual temptation! Check out Genesis 39.
Potiphar's wife was aggressively after Joseph! She wanted his attention. She wanted his body! But Joseph rejected her advances because he did not want to sin against God! He understood the fence God has placed around sex!
So here are a few things we can draw out of this story:
Sexual pressure can come from anywhere! Our world is sexually charged. Therefore we must be on guard!
You think Potiphar's wife simply asked Joseph to come to bed with her? Not likely! I'm guessing she was flirty. She probably made sure there were great-smelling snacks and cookies waiting for Joseph each day he came to work in her husband's house. I'm also going to guess that she was dressed to impress! Modesty was probably not her mode of getting Joseph into bed.
Girls: Modest is Hottest! Don't dress for the attention of boys! Be aware of what you wear! Those short soffe shorts and little cami shirts with your bra straps showing are not helping our boys stay pure!
Boys: You've got to do what Joseph did. He ran. He didn't listen to her. He RAN!
Difficult Situations - One day Joseph showed up to work and no one was there but Potiphar's wife! That's bad news! We have to be aware of these situations! Don't go to a party where everyone is sneaking off into the woods! Don't get yourself into a game of Truth or Dare! Don't get on the internet late at night when your parents are in bed and you're all alone!
This could have been so easy for Joseph and Potiphar's wife. No one had to know. But God would have known. And Joseph would have known, too. Don't fall for the trick that "no one will know."
Doing the right thing isn't always easy; it's not always popular, either! Joseph got framed and thrown in prison.
BUT...God blesses our obedience.
You can listen to the podcast of this talk from The Mix by clicking here.
Do you have a fence around your yard? Why have a fence? There are some obvious answers:
To keep bad things/people OUT
To keep precious things/people IN
To keep our dogs from running away and mauling people or becoming roadkill!
We're glad certain places have fences...places like prisons, power plants and zoos!
Fences are used to mark boundaries. We can look at God's commands in Scripture like fences that draw boundaries for us.
God has placed one of those fences around SEX. God designed sex to be an incredible act of intimacy between a husband and a wife. Any sexual activity outside of that fence is out of bounds.
And God did this for a reason. He loves us and wants the best for us. He wants to keep us close to Him. He wants to protect us from running off and doing something we are not ready to handle.
The Bible says we should "run away from sexual immorality..." (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).
The reality is...sex is everywhere. Our world is kicking down the fences God has put in place. So it's that much harder for a middle school student (or adults for that matter) to stay pure.
We need to understand God's heart. The fence is there for our protection. To keep us from running away from Him and getting hurt.
You can listen to the Mix podcast from 2-13-11 here.
Last Sunday at The Mix I made a joke. There was a huge open area on one side of the room directly in front of the stage. Since no one was going to fill it I decided to proclaim it the worship "mosh pit". I was just joking.
So...Brantley and the worship team start rocking and all of a sudden there is a student doing the worm during one of the worship songs! It was hilarious and awesome! (Don't know the worm?)
Now here's where it gets better...this particular student doesn't like our worship time at The Mix! He usually goes outside or hangs out in the back of the building. He doesn't like the noise. So what was different about this past Sunday?
It dawned on me this week...this student accepted Jesus as Savior at Big Hot Wednesday two weeks ago! I think this could be the first fruits of a radically transformed heart!
So is it OK to do the worm during worship? Absolutely! Praise God for taking our brokenness and giving us joy!
We kicked off a new series this week called Live Pure. Over the next few weeks we are going to look at pursuing purity in the areas of sex, words and media.
Ephesians 5:3 says: There must be not even a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God's people.
Have you ever been sick from something you ate or drank? I have! Pretty much every time I leave the country! I seem to have a big problem with the microscopic impurities and gremlins that contaminate much of the food and water in other countries. It doesn't take much bacteria to create major problems.
I think that's why God commands that we not allow even a little bitty hint of immorality or impurity in our lives.
If I offered you a nice, fresh glass of pure drinking water, I imagine you'd drink it right up. But what if I dropped in just a hint of dog poop from my front yard?! C'mon...it's just a teeny bit!
No way! That little bit of garbage contaminates the whole glass, and it can really cause you problems!
It's the same way with little teeny sins. We watch a movie that just has one 'bad' scene in it; we just say one bad comment in a conversation about someone; we drop a little cuss word every now and then...
These things may seem small, especially in a world that does not have the same values and standards as God. But these 'small' impurities can do real damage to our lives.
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
God, is there impurity in my life? Show me. Lead me away from it! Thank you for your forgiveness and love!
The podcast for this talk at The Mix on 2/6/11 will be available HERE on Monday, 2/7.
I want to fill you in on how God has been working in the lives of middle school students and then give you an update on what's coming up in The Mix! Last week we had Big HOT Wednesday! Over 125 middle school students attended! At least 20 of those were brand new students! We consumed 200 Chick fil-a spicy chicken sandwiches! It was a crazy night, but the best part was the work God did in the hearts of our students! Many students were moved to receive prayer from our adult leaders and prayer team members. We prayed with 8 students who accepted Jesus Chist as Savior! Praise God! He is lighting a fire in the hearts of our students!
Outpouring Worship Night @ Two Rivers Church - February 11, 7-9pm I am encouraging all of our middle school students to attend this night of worship! We've been asking God to light a fire in our hearts. This night will be a perfect opportunity to practice passionately loving our God. Pastor Brad and I will be facilitating the evening, and our worship director Tae Cho will be leading the worship team. It's going to be a great night and I want all of our students there representing the next generation!
Sex Education for Parents - Wednesday Nights thru March 2, 7-8:30pm It's not too late to join this series as Matthew Parsons educates and inspires you to raise young men and women who are able to make wise choices in our sexually-saturated culture. Matthew has been teaching abstinence education in local schools for five years. He also served as the creative director for Silver Ring Thing, which is a gospel-oriented approach to sexual purity for teenagers.
The program runs until 8pm, then there is prayer and Q&A for the final thirty minutes. Our small group leaders understand that we may have some parents running late over the next few weeks (small groups run from 6:30-8pm).
Purity Series @ The Mix Over the next five weeks we will be talking about how to Live Pure! We will look at pursuing purity sexually (Feb 13), in our media intake and in our words. Please encourage your students to attend The Mix at 9am on Sunday mornings in The Shed! At the end of this series we will invite students to a fast from something that represents an area where they struggle with pursuing purity. I'll give you more info as we get closer, but I wanted you to know that invitation was coming.
Guys and Girls Events - March 5 We are planning a couple of great events for our guys and gals! You can be sure the boys will be shooting at each other in some way! And the girls will probably eat chocolate at some point in the evening. We'll send you something in the next few weeks providing times and details.
Feel free to contact me or anyone on our student ministry staff for more information!
We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. -1Thess 2:8
