Cold Case: Overcoming Your Past -- Wednesday, November 4th

Tonight we focused on the idea of overcoming our pasts. We read from John 8:2-11, in which a woman is caught committing adultery, dragged in front of Jesus, with the intent of having her executed. The woman was captured and sentanced to die for something she had done, something wrong. Who knows how long she had been going in this circle, her sexual sin trapping her. I once saw a dog tied up to a tree by a chain and it had been running around it until it had become completely wrapped, getting worse and worse until it was completely trapped against the tree. This woman's sins of the past were liked this chain, causing her to circle around and do the same thing over and over again until she too was trapped by her past, with no hope. She was going to die. But then Jesus set her free from that chain, so she no longer had to live with it and could move around freely. He told her to go and sin no more, free from the past, changing how she would act now.

Some of you are TRAPPED, bound up by your sins in the past. Things like drugs, alcohol, sex, porn, lying, stealing, cheating, witchcraft, etc... you are tied and keep circling back to the same thing over and over again, like a person stuck in a whirlpool. You don't have a way to escape, you are full of guilt and feel completely trapped. But there is HOPE, because God looks and sees you as you are, and still loves you, still wants to help you. He is willing to give you FREEDOM but removing those chains of the past, to free you from your past, so that you can start to live in freedom. Do you want freedom from your past? Turn to Jesus!

Favorite Moment: Woman at the Well Poetry
I Give Tonight: A-

Death Starts the Promise -- Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Today we continued our story of Abraham and Sarah in the book of Genesis. We started by reading from 6 passages in which God promises Abraham that he would own the land around him. We reach Genesis 23 (24 years have passed since the last story, nearly 100 since they left Ur) and in two chapters Abraham will die. We read from Genesis 23:1-20. In these verses we find Sarah, at the age of 127, die. Up to this point Abraham had no land, he had servants, possessions, and a son, but no land. But Abraham is able to purchase a small field with a cave to bury sarah in. It wasn't the whole land but it was a start. It wasn't until over 800 years later when David and Solomon were kings that the land was totally taken over. But the death started the fulfullment of the promise. It took many years of complications before it was done but through patience, perseverance, action, and God's miracles the promise was fulfilled.

For you, Jesus' death bought a foothold in overcoming sin. Victory was guaranteed by his death, just like buying the cave guaranteed vicotry. But you will still go through hard times, times of slavery to sin, times of half-victories over it, but you will eventually have complete victory. But it all started with Jesus' death, but won't end until either he returns or you die. We now live in the middle, the place os truggle. And we have to use patience. Patience is knowing you won't be perfect, so not feeling guilty and frustrated. We have to use perseverance which still trying to rid your life of sin even when you fail. We have to use action, which is actually putting Godly things in our lives and removing the sin. And finally we need God's miracles of forgivness and strength. He also provides others to give us strength as we struggle.

I give this morning: A-
Favorite Moment: Being encouraged

Heroes #3 -- Change Your World -- October 28th, 2009

Tonight we finished our series entitled Heroes. We started off by talking about a man named Mordecai Hamm (pictured above). He was born in 1877 and at the age of 8 felt like God had called him to preach but instead ended up in the photo enlargement business until 1900 when he felt God calling him to use his superpower of preaching and became an evangelist in 1901. In 1934 he went to Charlottesville, North Carolina and preached at a revival for 12 weeks. He continued preaching until 1961, the year that he died. He used his superpower. Not really known by him at the time but in the 1934 revival a 16 year old boy that cared nothing about God showed up and got saved. The boy grew up to be voted the #7 most admired person of the 21st Centure, advised 12 presidents, preached to somwhere aruond 2.2 billion people (more than anyone else that has ever lived), and has seen 2.5 million people accept Jesus under his preaching. His name....Billy Graham. One man used his superpower in the middle of nowhere and because he was willing to use the gifting and talent and passion God gave him he was able to change the world.

Every superhero finds out: What their power is; where thier power came from, and what their weaknesses are. The next thing they do is use their superpowers to do something. You have a superpower, the passions and talents God has placed in your life. What will you do with them? You have a chance to make a difference with those powers and God has a plan for them. Are you willing to do something with them?

Matthew 25:14-30 tells us a parable of talents (money) being used or hidden by servants. And we can treat our talents (passion and talents) the same way. We can use it for evil, we can hide it, or we can use it however God wants us to.

No matter what your superpower you have it can be used ot change the world, if you give it to God and use it!

I give tonight: C

Favorite Moment: Worship

God Will Provide -- Sunday, October 25th

We continued our study of the book of Genesis this morning. We read from Genesis 22:1-18. In the story we find Abraham and Sarah 13 years after their first and only son, Isaac, was born. They had waited nearly 60 years for this promise from God to be fulfilled. Then one day God tells Abraham to take this son, who it was promised he would produce a great nation from him, and go and sacrifice him on a mountain. Abraham and his son go to the hill and he ties Isaac up and is about to sacrifice him. God stops him and provides a ram to take Isaac's place and makes a promise to follow through on his promise.

We looked at this from 4 different perspectives: Abraham's, Isaac's, God's, and our own.

Abraham's Perspective -- Abraham knew God promised to use Isaac as a starting point for his "great nation". He knew that God's promises came true. He loved Isaac and didn't want to have anything bad happen to him. He found himself in a excruciatingly tought rock and a hard place. Would he obey God or put his son's life above that. He decided that he trusted God more than he loved his son, in fact the bible tells us that he thought God would raise him from the dead.

Isaac's Perspective -- Isaac was confused, he knew his dad loved him but had no idea what was going on. He probably noticed his dad was acting oddly and was most likely terrified, thinking his dad had gone insane. Then God provided the ram and he was relieved and grateful for God saving him.

God's Perspective -- God knew everything that was going to happen. He knew Abraham had put Isaac in a high place, almost equal with God and his promise. It used this to show Abraham that God is the most important, not his son. He also used this as a picture of what he would do later with His Son Jesus. He would take our place, sacrificing himself so that we could have real life.

Your Perspective -- People put a lot of things in place of God: money, pleasure, sports, academics, friends, family, work, future plans/goals, dreams, significant others, kids, substances, power, passions, talents, music, entertainment, etc... This is by no means a comprehensive list. Some of these things are good things, some are bad, but even if it is a great thing if it goes above God it is wrong!

We played a game in which we tied a kid up with a rope (Ben Potterton) that represented one of these things and then he had to get up and grab a bible off the ground. We increased the ropes to three and each time he got loose, but each time it took longer. When we put one thing in the place of God it takes us longer to do what we are supposed to do, and the more things we put in front of God the harder it is to do the things we are supposed to do.

What have you put in the pace of God? Are you willing to let it go? Does it scare you to? In the story Abraham was willing to give up the one thing he loved the most for God, and after God provided the Ram he named the hill the Place that God Will Provide. When you give up things that are standing in the way of you and God...God will provide. Sometimes he will hand back that thing to you now that you recognize it isn't the most important thing, sometimes he will take it away and give you something better. Regardless He will provide!

I give this morning: B+
Favorite Moment: Ben's awesome breakouts

Heroes #2 -- Wednesday, October 21st

Tonight we continued our series about being Heroes. Last week we discussed how every hero has a superpower and there is a need to discover what it is and how we got it. We decided our superpowers are our talents/passions and we get them from God, so they should be directed by Him. The next step in all superhero stories is they find out what their weakness is.

We all have weaknesses, things that consistently get in between you and God. Your enemy knows what your weaknesses are and will use it. And it can be more than one thing. We read from Mark 9:43-47 in which Jesus tells us to gid rid of anything that causes us to sin, no matter how important it is to us (he doesn't mean literally to gouge out your eyes). So we came up witha 5 step plan to help you overcome your weaknesses.

#1 -- Admit it (actually admit to yourself and God that you have a weakness and what it is)

#2 -- Give it (to God to handle and forgive)

#3 -- Leave it (get rid of whatever is causing you to get entangled in it. Which means if it is porn, get rid of the internet, if it is partying with a friend, stop hanging out with that friend)

#4 -- Show it (tell others what your weakness is so that they can encourage and pray for you)

#5 -- Repeat #1-#4 as necessary

Make sure you go and check out our picture website for pictures of youth that dressed up as superheroes tonight! Find it at: http://thetabyouth.spaces.live.com/

I give tonight: A

Favorite Moment: Joshua Justman Stripping

Heroes #1: Know Your Powers -- Wednesday, October 14th

We started our three week series called Heroes tonight. The focus of this evening was finding out about our superpowers. We began with the story of a girl named Agnes who was born to small upper-middle class family. At the age of 8 her father died, leaving their family in extreme poverty. Yet during this time they continued to go to church. At the age of 12 she decided that she was called to be a missionary and at the age of 18 she left. She worked in the country of India for 20 years as a missionary. Then one day while riding a train she had a vision of Jesus telling her to go after her passion, which was the same as his, the poor, hurting, and unloved. She dedicated the next 49 years of her life going after that passion, reaching out to lepers, the homeless, widows, and the extremely poor. God used her passion, her past, and even her stature (she was 4'10") to change many lives and help many people. Her name was changed and she became known as Mother Teresa.

Every comic book hero in their first book has to find out two things: What is their secret power and how did they get their secret power. We have been giving superpowers by God, each and every one of us. What is your superpower? It is made of three parts: 1. Who you are (character, past, personality). 2. Your talents and God-given gifts. These can be something that you are born with, something God enhances, or something God adds later on. 3. Your passion, that is the things that you care about the most. Once you know your superpower you have to figure out how you got it. The answer for real humans is simple: 1. You were born with it, 2. You grew up into it, and 3. God gave it to you. Since God is the one that gave you the power, it means that the best use of your power is wherever God directs it and however he directs you to use it.

I give tonight: A-
Favorite Moment: The story of Agnes

What Bothers You? -- Sunday, October 11th

This morning we continued our story in the book of Genesis. In Genesis 18:16-19:26 we find the story of Abraham's nephew Lot. God threatens to destory the city that Lot is living in (Sodom) but Abraham makes a deal that if God finds 10 righteous people living there, then God will not destory it. Angels arrive in Sodom and find the town ready to gang rape them. There are less than 10 righteous people so the angels send Lot and his family out of town before they destroy it and its neihboring towns. Lot is dragged from the town by the angels and his wife looks back (turning into a salt pillar because of it). In 2nd Peter 2:6-8 we find out that Lot was a righteous man but taht he was distressed and tormented by what was going on in his town. Yet he was never so bothered that he left, even though he could have left at any time. And because he didn't want to leave he was almost destoryed along with it.

So what does this mean for us? Our lives as Christians are filledd with sin and we are many times bothered by it and we could leave it behind at any time. But many times we don't because are never bothered enough to leave it behind. We don't leave it behind becasue we don't see a good reason to change or because it is easier not to or because we don't think it is a big deal. But just like Lot, if we don't leave those sins behind we will be destroyed by them.

I give this morning: B+
Favorite Moment: Hercules vs. the Monstor

Youth Conference 2009 -- October 9th-10th, 2009

We had a fantastic time at youth conference. Go to the youth photo page to see what went down! It is at: http://thetabyouth.spaces.live.com/

7th Annual Yearly Anennium -- Wednesday, October 7th

We are so excited for all that attended this year, hopefully you had a fantastic time! You can see pictures of the evening at: http://thetabyouth.spaces.live.com/

Here is to another great year at The TAB!!!

Set Apart -- Sunday, October 4th

This morning we covered a very ackward but very meaningful section of scripture, Genesis 17:1-27. In these verses we find that Abram and Sarai have their names changed by God to Abraham and Sarah. We also find that God sets a sign between him and Abraham's family to show that he has set them apart as different. This sign was the covenent of circumcision. This circumcison wasn't a way for Abraham and his descendants to have salvation but instead it was a sign of the covenant between God and them, to set them apart to God so that they were different from the world.

When we read from Romans 2:25-29 we find that God isn't looking for us to be physically circumcised but instead have our hearts (soul) circumcised to him. This means that we have our hearts set apart to God. We will struction our lives around God rather than pleasure, wealth, people, a dream, sports, popularity, etc... When we are truly set apart to God it will make you stand out and it will cause others to try and mock and tear you down.

How does it make us stand out? Let me give you some examples...

Christians will pratice abstinance till marriage instead of indulging in pre-marital sex.
Christians will live a pure life instead of using pornography
Christians will give rather than steal
Christians will tell the truth rather than lie
Christians will take care of their bodies rather than using drugs, alcohol, etc...
Christians will repsect thos in leadership rather than mocking them
Christians will love others rather than hating and mocking them
Christians will dress modestly rather than dressing inappropriatly
Christians will use good speech rather than crass or crude speech
Christians will watch/listen to/read things that are pure rather than whatever is fun

And this is not a full list. When we do these things we will look different. We are called to be different (not strange, just different). Are you willing to stand up and stand out for God? Are you willing to be set apart to God in your heart?

I give this morning: A+
Favorite Moment: The challenge to purify our lives