Alive at 45

This week was about convincing students that more than likely they will be old one day. The things that they now see as cool, will one day be considered out-dated or old school.

The challenge is helping students understand that how they live today will affect their futures. The decisions made today will inevitably direct their path for the future.

We utilized the following "Life Graph" to help cement this idea.

The BIG QUESTION we posed for students to ask as they are in the decision making process is:

NOT WHAT IT GETS ME...

BUT WHERE IT TAKES ME!!!

In other words, let's not live for the short term, but attempt to think long term consequences. No one ever stops and says, I want to ruin my future! It can happen as a result of poor choices.

Ephesians 5: 15-17 (TNIV) Puts it this way...

15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the
most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be
foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.

Being foolish is about making decisions today that will have a negative affect on our future.

FUEL

This message was a simple way to cast the vision of our ministry to the students who attended. Sharing the same mission statement as the church, “To Make Disciples, More and Better Disciples,” we wanted every student to know how essential it is for them to participate in FUEL, be in a small group, and serve (go on a trip). We stressed that EVERY student matters at FUEL and used the following outline to reinforce this teaching.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (TNIV)
Unity and Diversity in the Body

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Many = 1

15 Now if the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

God Placed You

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Care for Each Other

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.