07.24.2011 LT Sunday

07.24.2011 Grace Summit - LT Sunday - Kara from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

07.24.2011 Grace Summit - LT Sunday - Kayla from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

07.24.2011 Grace Summit - LT Sunday - Miles from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

07.24.2011 Grace Summit - LT Sunday - Abby from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

07.24.2010 Grace Summit - LT Sunday - Andrew from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

One of the speakers started this – when someone gets up to share, she would say, Hi, my name is Kara (or whatever his or her name is) – and everyone would respond, Hi, Kara, What’s your story?
Hi, my name is Kara (Hi Kara, what’s your story?)
I went as a leader this year – I thought it was my turn to boss everyone around - but when we were driving there I realized I didn’t know what I was doing – and when we got there, I realized I REALLY didn’t know what I was doing. While I didn’t know what I was doing, God was there to show me. One of the leaders was talking about how to be a good leader – What is a leader? The first person I thought of was Hitler! He must have been a good leader – but he had a few things off that I shouldn’t do – but he must have had something right?! The leader told us that a true leader is a servant – leading by example. Normally, you don’t think of a leader as a servant, but one who directs others. I realized that I need to start leading by example more – even at work, where I am not in charge, but I should be a servant leader and an example.
A servant gives his life for others. I watched Captain America the other day – he started off as a short, skinny weakling. He is in the army and there was a group of soldiers there who would make fun of him– and the commander threw a fake grenade into the midst of those who had been making fun of him – and all of those ran away, but he jumped on top of the grenade to save the others. While I shouldn’t take my leadership tips from Hitler and superhero movies, and while I may never be asked to jump on a grenade for others, I realized that I need to be willing to give myself for others.
The teens were great – they showed me that I didn’t need to be the perfect leader (yes, I forgot to take my Bible to LT). It was inspiring to think that I don’t have to be perfect to be a leader, but God can still use me even if I don’t know what I am doing.
Hi, my name is Kayla (Hi Kayla, what’s your story?)
The one thing Kara forgot to say – you can’t fire volunteer leaders.
Tom Short said that within 48 hours of leaving LT, Satan would try to hurt us, to ruin our faith – he doesn’t like what happened there; he is our adversary – we made an enemy. At LT, we were on kind of a spiritual high – it’s not bad, listening to sermons - and you can’t stay on that high forever. We were around others like us – the theme this year was True Disciples. True Disciples are leaders that share God’s love and never give up, no matter how hard it is. Our quiet times were from John 13-18. John 15: 17 "This I command you, that you love one another. 18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before [it hated] you. 19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
As Christians, we are different – and haters hate. On twitter – I know I shouldn’t be quoting twitter – HATERS: Having Anger Toward Everyone Reaching Success
Friends can give you feedback, but when God speaks, we have to listen.
Acts 4:23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: "`Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.' 27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
For me the part that stood out – the Holy Spirit was filled in these people and they could speak the word of God boldly – I realized that is what I wanted. When it comes to sharing about God, I am not as outgoing as at other times. Being a Christian is more than just being close to God, but doing God’s will and that includes evangelizing to those who don’t know God.
Matt. 5: 13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
It is like the NBA draft (since Pastor Marette is not here, I have to share a sports analogy) – you were picked to be on His team. We do these things because we are on God’s team. I could lose a bunch of friends, but even if I lost them all, I have God. And because I have LT – I have a bunch of new friends! With the help of God and my friends, they will help to push me forward and I hope to do the same for them.
Hi, my name is Miles (Hi Miles, what’s your story?)
Miles: One of the things I struggled with right before LT – I am a visual guy – and I started wondering – why do I believe in God? There are a lot of religions out there – all would say that they are right and it gets more and more confusing. What is my reason? How do I know that He loves ME?
This was Seth’s first year there – I’m going to call him out right now– the first couple days he wasn’t really getting into it – and after a few days it really started to click with him – I turned around and he was rocking out – belting it out to God - really worshiping – and I thought if God can do that for him He can do that for me.
Thomas Lemus was telling a story about a friend who ran away from a girl on the beach – and I asked him – why did you run away? I asked him – why did you run away from that girl. He replied, ‘The Bible says to flee from temptation!’
We laugh at that – but there are times when we really want to submit to temptation – but we need to run TO God.God loves me so much, it should never be a doubt. I may doubt myself, but He doesn’t need to be doubted.
Another speaker – Jeremiah 4:14 - 14 O Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?
We can’t control what comes in and out of our minds – sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad. But we CAN control HOW LONG it stays in our minds.
Running into Your arms – Your love is enough. We run FROM temptation – but then we need to run INTO His arms. There are a lot of sins we might want to do, and we really want to – bt we need to physically turn from them. Reading the Bible really helps – sometimes I really struggle and I just flip it open and usually I end up in Psalms and that really gets me – that is my story. I am convicted to share my faith more.
Hi, I’m Abby (Hi Abby, what’s your story?)
This year at LT was very different – the past few years I have gone with both of my parents and at least one of my siblings. This year I had none. Housing was different and it was hard to adjust. It is LT – and it is not real life, and it is hard to adjust.
The first morning we were there – Tom Short – who is this awesome Campus Preacher - talked about living a life of purpose. Having fun is not the purpose of life and entertainment will not cure your boredom. He shared
1 Cor. 9 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize
I’ve always liked this verse. If we have a goal, we can run to win – if you don’t have a goal, the race is pointless – and our goal is heaven.
We need to build our lives on the foundation of Christ. If we live our lives in a way that is worthy of the gospel, we will build with materials that will last for eternity. I realized I was not living with purpose. I was building with things that will rot – I’m not doing things that will make an impact.
Tom also talked about how operating in the will of God is energizing. If you operate outside of His will, trying to do things on your own - you will be exhausted. At LT, it is exhausting – but because you are in the will of God, you will be energized. Tuesday of every LT is worship night – I was physically and emotionally tired. I had not been feeling well after dinner that night and we went over to the center and rested a little bit. People started getting there – everyone is so enthusiastic about worship night, and I wasn’t feeling it – and they had us pray together in groups – and I was just crying – why am I not into this? The band plays an acoustic set – and I was writing and crying.
I am tired, emotional, can’t do it on my own. I feel attacked, but this is not about me, I am here to worship God no matter how I feel – that took me so long to write, probably 5 minutes. I looked at my paper and I saw the word “I” way too much and I realized that I was there to get something for myself, not to worship God. Worshiping God is the greatest thing to do. After I wrote that, I felt so free – I realized it is not about me, not about myself. The theme is freedom. I cried and felt so much better – and a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders and it felt so good. Many got up and told how God had freed them from big things – but this was something that God freed me from.
Throughout the rest of the week – something else that got me – Berk Wilson’s teachings. The first night he spoke about loving one another. That is not hard for our group. He talked about how unity in the body of Christ is so important. If we are not guarding ourselves, unity will not happen. We should commit to showing unique love for one another – don’t just do the ordinary ways of showing love.
Renewing your mind – submitting to God daily and asking God to fill you with Him.
Do you want to live or exist? If you want to exist, you can do whatever you want and nothing will really happen in your life. If you want to really live, you need to get into the Word and worship God with your life.
Worship that changes lives is the commitment to be renewed daily. That is crucial to renewing yourself and hearing what God
Isaiah 50:4
God woke you up to tell you something – have you heard it yet? God wakes us up to tell us stuff. Are we listening to Him? What are you telling me God?
Andrew – Hi everyone, I’m Soul Candy –
I think there will be another song afterwards…that aint gonna happen.
This was my first LT and my first LT as a leader. I wrote out my notes by hand – and I apologize – I have terrible handwriting! The theme was True Disicpleship. This was my first year and I had a set of goals and topics – it is not easy to see what God is doing inside of a person – most of the topics I wanted to do this year were hit in one of the sermons. I often ask if I am doing what God wants me to do – and it seemed that what I was trying to accomplish is the same thing that LT was trying to accomplish and must be what God is trying to accomplish in the teens’ lives.
Am I supposed to be inspiring? But one of the goals of a leader is to learn. Some of the church leader meetings – well, the other leader was my sister – and you might think we talk a lot – but not usually about really significant things – we were both being personally challenged a lot in how we live out lives. We were able to challenge each other a lot. If you are not living out your faith, you don’t have any.
Speaking of discussions – we often talk about Man in the Middle at LT – each person has a chance to share and answer questions – anything is fair game. Most of the guys ask one question – how is everything? And they long to share what is going on in their lives. It was eye-opening to me to see the maturity of these teens and I want to have the same relationship with my friends.
Tuesday – yes, as Abby mentioned – is Worship Night. And some say this is because I have a girlfriend – I don’t know – I’ve been getting more emotional lately – especially in worship. I felt that way in the morning – and Tuesday night – is this whole worship setup. There was an atrium where some of the adults did prayer counseling. They had some cool stations set up – and I was one of the prayer counselors. As the teens were coming out – after the testimonies – I was hoping no one would share something difficult. I saw a teen come over and pray with her leader – and they started crying – and I’m a sympathetic crier – and I realized I don’t know what I’m doing. But I went in and sat down in the back – and they were singing It is well – My sin, not in part, but the whole – is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Being adequate comes from God –
A couple songs later – I was next to Kara – and they told us to put our arms around each other. And then Kara pointed out Miles – and we had a group hug and Miles gave me one of the biggest Man Hugs ever. It was like God hugged me through Miles.
You know the part in Job where Satan is talking to God – it was like Satan was saying to me – you are alone – you are inadequate – and God was saying – you are not alone, you are not inadequate.
Some of the things – many of the teens hit on the key points. One talked about being a fulltime Christian. I am post college and have a job now. Has anyone ever applied for a job? You know the wanted ads – seeking self-motivated people. Seeking a well-organized individual – which I am not – but I realized -
Galatians 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
As a Christian, this describes what we are to be like. Jesus is the example – Christian means Imitator of Christ. Jesus’ job description – this reminded me of John the Baptist – who knew his purpose. When he baptized Jesus – and then hears the voice from heaven. And John was imprisoned – and it was like he was questioning – and sent some messengers to Jesus – are you sure you’re the Messiah? Go and report to John what you hear and see – the blind receive sight…the poor have the gospel preached to them.
That is a job description of a Christian.
While Jesus was here – that is what he spent his time doing – and now we have the Spirit and this is what we should be doing.
Evangelism – I have not had a lot of experience in this – I was challenged to think through what it is. One thing it is not is optional. How did Jesus share the gospel? Repent, the Kingdom of heaven is at hand – and I could go on and on about the Kingdom of heaven.
There is the sales pitch aspect of evangelism – are you ready to pray and accept Christ? – but Jesus said – Follow Me.
Three points to summarize –
1) Get involved with youth or kids, it is really awesome! However old you are, it is important to be involved with younger Christians. I’ve found that I learn a lot with them.
2) Have deep conversations. It is vital to be known – to talk- to have those deep conversations. I realized that it is important to go beyond the weather and heat and Hitler. But to talk about the deeper issues in a person’s life.
3) How is God challenging you? Are we doing what God has called us to do? I asked the youth as we were about to leave LT – what to work on – they had insights –
Many of the teens – it is exciting to go – meet people -