At St. Andrews Presbyterian Church we believe that growing in our relationship with God means working things out in community. Find out what's going on below, so you can play, eat, learn, laugh, grow, dance, serve, pray and worship with us!
This summer we’re going to do something a little different and we hope that you
get as excited about it as we are. For this summer St. Andrews Pres and
Resurrection Lutheran are going to combine their youth groups and dive into
something we’re calling: Reel Spirituality. Media plays such a large role in
our lives. We are inundated with images, themes, and slogans designed
to set up shop in our minds. This summer we want to use that media to draw
us closer to God. We want to turn the tables and help us
see exactly who it is that God has made us to be. We know that with the
combined talents of both groups we can engage in some really important
dialogue.
Each Sunday night we will view a movie at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church. The
movies were chosen specifically by us to help illustrate an important theme or
lesson. Then on Wednesday we will meet at St. Andrews and split into discussion
groups. Our hope is that what was seen on Sunday can be dissected on Wednesday.
WITH OUT FURTHER ADOO,
THESE ARE THE MOVIES TOPICS FOR THE SUMMER!
Sunday, 7/1 (6:30pm): Harry Potter 7.1- Intro to story
Wednesday, 7/4 (4pm): We’ll be discussing the role “story” plays in our
lives.
Sunday, 7/8 (6:30pm): Lord of the Rings- Community, Adventure
Wednesday, 7/11 (4pm): How do we choose the people to walk with us as we
journey through life? How do we learn to step out bravely and accept the
adventures God puts before us?
Sunday, 7/22 (6:30pm): A Walk to Remember- Relationships
Wednesday, 7/25 (4pm): What does a healthy relationship look like? How do we
love others?
Sunday, 7/29 (6:30pm): Toy Story 3- Transition
Wednesday, 8/1 (4pm): How do we deal with the many changes and transitions
in our lives? How do we learn to trust God when life seems unsteady?
Sunday, 8/12 (6:30pm): Super 8- Processing pain/grief
Wednesday, 8/15 (4pm): How do we grieve? What does God say about our pain?
Does He care?
Sunday, 8/19 (6:30pm): Mulan- Identity
Wednesday, 8/22 (4pm): Who are we? Who has God created us to be? How do we
learn to feel comfortable in our own skin?
If you have ever walked into a Church service broken, and felt like the music did not quite express the lament/sadness that you were feeling. You are not alone. The big Church has a lot of work to do in the area of lament, frustration, and doubt. All Son and Daughters have started to pave the way for this much needed style of worship music in our time, fortunately scripture got there way before they did,
THIS IS A WORSHIP SONG OF LAMENT This is a psalm of lament This is Psalm 88 Lord, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you. 2 May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry.
3 I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. 4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like one without strength. 5 I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care.
6 You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. 7 Your wrath lies heavily on me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. 8 You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them.I am confined and cannot escape; 9 my eyes are dim with grief.
I call to you, Lord, every day; I spread out my hands to you. 10 Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do their spirits rise up and praise you? 11 Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction? 12 Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?
13 But I cry to you for help, Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before you. 14 Why, Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me?
15 From my youth I have suffered and been close to death; I have borne your terrors and am in despair. 16 Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me. 17 All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me. 18 You have taken from me friend and neighbor— darkness is my closest friend.
MAY THE LORD GIVE YOU A REASON TO SING AGAIN. UNTILL THEN, CONTINUE TO CRY OUT TO HIM.
What
comes to mind for you, when you think of the word Jealousy, honestly, for me, one
of the firs things that I think about is Cruellea De vilfrom the Dalmations movies. With her large fur coat, and how she is totally
rich, but totally unhappy, isn’t she like the most transparent bad guy ever, I mean
her name is Cruella…really Cruella… man her parents must have really hated her,
she never had a chance with a name like Cruella De vil...(real subtle)
But
jealousy is a much bigger thing then just some puppy haters, it is a constant
companion.
Jealousy
is a big deal.
Proverbs 27:4
Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?
Jealousy is a funny thing, because you hate it when you see it In others, but it is often so hard to see it in yourself.
I
know this is true for me, because I spent a couple years of my life being
totally jealous of the guys on my college baseball team, (I didn’t want to be
them, but I wanted what they had) I was sitting on the bench, and they got to
play all of the time, and the coaches liked them better, and ultimately
treated them better to. After a while, my jelousy made me tell some of the worst lies I have ever told in my life.
I got so sick and tired of being around these guys, (because they had what I wanted
and could not get) I made up an injury. For two weeks I said I
hurt my arm, because I was so tired of having no excuse for why I wasn’t playing. And I went to the doctors
and I lied, and I went to my coaches and I lied. All because I wanted something
somebody else had, and if I couldn’t have it, I needed a good excuse for why. Truth be told
I really don’t like that part of myself, but it is so hard to escape this endless mind game of compare and contrast.
I tell you this story because I want
you to know that jealousy is a dangerous thing. I was willing to lie, to
compromise my charecture, and my relationship with God, all because I wanted
something that I could not get, so badly, that it seemed like it was all that mattered. Jealousy is a sin source in my life for sure.
It
says in Deuteronomy 6:14-15
14 Do not follow
other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;15
for the Lord your God who is among you,
is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you
from the face of the land.
This section of the 10 commandments makes it clear that God
is jealous for us. And God is jealous for us, so we don't have to be jealous.
After a few weeks I felt so
guilty about all the lying, I decided to quit playing baseball. Baseball
had become a huge idol in my life.It statred of really good for me, but for far to long I had based all of my self-worth on
wether I was better then the people around me at sports. And God was telling
me that he wanted me to get my sense of self worth from Him and Him alone. He was jealous for me. He wanted
all of me. Not just one part. He wanted my attention, about all of those other
things I like to keep to myself, pretending as if God doesn't know about them. And He still does.
Some
of the most important leaders in the bible had some of there darkest moments
because of jealousy, guys like David. This leader of all of Israel was an extremely Jealous
man. Check this drama out.......
2
Samuel 11
11
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with
the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and
besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2
One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of
the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,
3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She
is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then
David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now
she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back
home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am
pregnant.”
6
So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab
sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how
Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then
David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left
the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah
slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not
go down to his house.
10
David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you
just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”
11
Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents,[a] and my
commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go
to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I
will not do such a thing!”
12
Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send
you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At
David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in
the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he
did not go home.
14
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15
In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest.
Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die. ”
16
So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he
knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When the men of the city came
out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover,
Uriah the Hittite died.
David
screwed up big time, jealousy can make us do things we would never
normally do. It will make us do totally stupid things and thenlie to cover them up, just like it did for david. (A man after Gods own heart!).
The bible is full of stories of great triumphs and total screw ups. Both are there for a reason. Practically speaking, we are supposed to duplicate the good stuff, and try not to be quite so bad as the bad stuff.
Lets learn from David's story. Flat out, straight up, If you can be rooted in God's love, then you
can overcome your jealousy. When God is your first priority, you will never
worry about how good someone else has it. Even better, you will be able to cheer people on
when they have sucess, by getting to start over you, or getting an A or learning how to play the obow better than you,
or get that pretty girlfriend, or that handsome dude. In heaven we will be endlessly applauding eachother, because we will finally see how perfect God's final plan was for each of us. Why he gifted us in the unique ways he did. God put this don’t follow
after Idols thing in the bible, because he knew, just like there is good and
bad anger. There is also good and bad jealousy. And all the good jealousy comes from HIM! God wants us to focused on
him, and to let Him care for us. He wants us to know that we are so loved and
approved of that we don’t need to seek the approval of others. If you
feel a jealousy in your heart that is leading you to make some bad decisions
like, me, or like david, I pray that you would have the courage to make a
change in your life. And to live in the freedom of not having to constantly play the compare and contrast game.
Here is the video that won the Youth video announcements this sunday for the Youth/Mothers Day/30 Hour Famine extravaganza! Click on the youtube channel "Remingtondunn"at the bottom of the page (on youtube) to see the others!
Christianity... in many ways.... is a response to a party that is
going on.
I remember when I found my new apartment in Redondo Beach, I
was really excited, It felt like I had lucked out…… because ....it was right by the
pool, and the workout area, and it looked like a nice little sleepy apartment
complex, where I could get some peace and quiet….unwind a little.
But that first Saturday night, it was total chaos in Prairie
Gardens! (thats the name of my complex)
Imagine this, it’s
late… your T. V. show ends, you turn off the lights in the living room, and
then you start to hear this thumping base music… (like insane dubstep or
something)….
and you go to brush your teeth and you start hearing tons of
footsteps,…… and the clanking of high heels
against cement stairs… and you realize, the awful truth, that there are many,
many, awkward white people dancing in the apartment, that is literally right
above your head. (Annoying much?)
Of course my first thought was “is this going to happen
every Saturday night?”
Thankfully, I found out later that it was just one of my
neighbors celebrating a birthday. PTL, when the next Saturday rolled arond things were a lot quieter.
But it got me thinking…………………..
It's really interesting how one person’s celebration, can be
a totally annoying night for someone else, especially if they don’t understand the
reason for the party.
Something like this is what Jesus is talking about in Luke
15:1-10,
Now the tax collectors
and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law
muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then
Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose
one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the
ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on
his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together
and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be
more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine
righteous persons who do not need to repent.
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and
loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until
she finds it? And when she finds it, she
calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have
found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I
tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner who repents.”
Jesus is telling this story because he is making a habit out
of spending time with all the wrong people.
Jesus was eating with tax collectors, Jesus was eating with alcoholics,
Jesus was eating with straight up sinners (people who were not following the
pharisaic law), and the religious establishment of his day, was none too
pleased.
Don’t miss-understand, Jesus friendship with these guys does
not completely condone their behavior. The addict (something we all are:in one form or another) is
best loved by being told that they are not defined by their disease, but
also, ensuring that their disease is completely done away with……… it has to go...........so
that the person it is destroying...........can be made....whole.....alive.....well.
The sheep…
The lost coin….
are eventually ….found.
For Jesus critics, repentance meant adopting a strict
standard of moral purity, and law observance, for Jesus, when people follow
him, and his way…..that will do. And in the underwriting of these parables Jesus is suggesting
that the Pharisees need to repent too.
What Jesus is trying
to do here is expose the two halves of God’s creation to one another. He knows
that if humans could just discover what was going on in heaven, they would know
how things were supposed to be on earth.
For the Pharisees and legal experts, the closest you could
get to heaven was in the temple. And, the temple required strict purity from the
priests; and the closest a non-priest could get, was to maintain a similarly
strict purity in every aspect of life.
But now, Jesus was declaring that heaven was having a great
noisy party every time a single sinner saw the light, and began to follow Gods
way!
Imagine you are at a party, one that was thrown to celebrate
the life of someone who left a normal comfortable life, so that they could start an orphanage
in Africa. Year after year, she dedicated her life to raising hundreds of children
who had ended up on he doorstep because they had no one to care for them.
And while you are there, after you have eaten cake, and
danced a little bit, they switch things up, and through the mic some one says, if anyone in this room
has been affected by what this courageous person has done, will you please
stand up……………………………..and one by one….you watch...... as hundreds and hundreds of orphans........
who are now doctors, lawyers, and teachers, ..........who now have beautiful families of
their own…… stand up….. to give their most heartfelt thank you.
Jesus left a seat in heaven so that
he might seek and save the lost. The
bible teaches us that though lots of us have earthly parents……. that at one time..... we are all ......orphans, totally separated from out Father God.The really, truly, good news, is that
God desperately wants to adopt us, ..........in fact he is willing to drop everything in order to seek us out,......... and embraces us,
..........and bring another lost child back home; truth is, there is a whole host of orphans in
heaven having the most glorius party!
The question that we need to be asking
ourselves every day is……………………am I ready to join the Jesus party?
What if you were with your brother, and you were fishing, and unfortunately not
catching anything?!! and then some random guy walks up to your boat, and
tells you to throw down your nets into the sea... again.... and for some odd reason, you say what the heck, and listen to him….. and all of a sudden in your boat, you have more fish then you could possibly contain.
But just before you ask this guy to
stick around, and help you make millions from a new, highly successful, highly
miraculous, fishing business; He informs you that you are
going to join him and go fishing for people. (?) and for some odd reason (probably because it worked
so well for you the first time)……..you say yes. drop your nets, and
follow.
Flash forward… a few
weeks later…. during your travels with this guy, you are walking by a certain
part of town that is known for having a highly dangerous man, the kind of gholuish charecture who roams the cemetery
yard at night, pacing between the tombs, ranting and raving…(it says in the book
of Luke that this man is possessed by multiple demons.) The startling part is, instead of taking a longer road, to be safe and avoid this scary individual;
this "fisher of men" you are following, is taking you directly towards sir-creeps-a-lot.
While you’re there, knees knocking, palms sweaty, (vomit on your sweater already) second guessing why you even decided to follow this obviously “at risk” character……you learn something more about him from the most unusual place….as you approach….you hear a demon call out from inside this man, and this is what he says,
What have you to do
with me, Jesus, Son of the most high God? I beg you do not torment me? (Luke
8:28)
and you discover eventhe demons shudder when they see Jesus coming.
But this strange exsperience doesn’t end there,
Jesus casts demons out of this incredibly
tormented and scary guy, makeing it safer for everyone in the town.
But the oddest thing happens, instead of rejoicing,…. all the people in the
town tell Jesus to leave.............................. they were afraid.
They had never seen such power on
earth, and they didn’t want anything to do with this "Son of the most high God."
They were looking right at you, when they told Jesus to leave. You could sense they knew you had been sleeping outside, and walking long distances for days on end, and they saw your only possessions were contianed in the small satchel you had on your back. They knew that if they accepted the full reality of what they just saw, they would
have, (like you) needed to drop their tools, and their families, and start following behind this mysterious man, who has the power to free people from the deepest forms of torment.
If they totally accepted the truth of what they just saw, they would have had to change everything….
and you knew they had decided that it would be much easier, to make sure Jesus never did anything like that in their town again.
So now you begin to catch on, and the rest of your gang does
to. This guy has real power.
So much so, two guys from your group send their mom! up to ask if they can
have a special seat right next to this Son of the most high, (playing favorites)… and He tells her, you have no idea what
you are asking. He says you are not ready to drink the cup that I am about to
drink (referring to his death)
and they retort, “yes we are”
and Jesus agrees with them,
but He realizes he needs to explain to them what
His power is really all about. He says,
You know that the
rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise
authority over them. It shall no be so among you. But whoever wants to be great
among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be
your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to
give his life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 10:42)
And then this mysterious and powerful man, lives this
teaching out in a way no one in your group could imagine. He allows himself to
be turned over to the Roman authorities and sentenced to death.
And you watch…..as
Roman soldiers begin to mock Him
and hit him…. and they say if you are so powerful then why don’t you prophesy
which one of us hit you, and they put a crown of thorns on his head, and they
put an ironic sign up that says "king of
the Jews” on the top of the cross, after they nail Him to it....and you watch in despair as He looses His life.
But then, three days later, everything changes.
And one of your friends remembers a wedding, where this "King of the Jews" said,
“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it
again in three days.”
and your friend remembers, the Jews did not like what Jesus had said, and how they questioned Him saying, “It has taken forty-six years to build this
temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
And then like a flickering light that finally shines brightly, you realize, the
temple he had spoken of was his body. And, right then and there, life becomes electric. You are overwhelemed by an inexplicable belief that all of the words that Jesus had spoken in your time together were....actually......true. And you know from now on nothing else matters but the blooming of this new creation, that is bursting forth, right in front of you.
