Bottle Rockets

Sex: Love In Between The Lines

Sex. The world can't stop talking about it and the church rarely does. This Sunday we set out to change that. As we concluded our four week series "Love In Between The Lines," we tackled the huge, scary, awkward, amazing topic of sex. In a world saturated with the three letter word, Satan has done a pretty good job of convincing us that sex is just sex. It's no different than eating a sandwhich or riding a bike. The truth is, sex is so much more than that.

Take biology for example. When we take our relationships to the physical level our bodies release chemicals in our brains that cause us to feel deep emotional connections as well as a longing for more. Maybe that's why Scripture tells us to flee from sexual immorality. Sex can literally rewire our brains to crave it and feel something just because we were intimate.

When we look at the Bible, it tells us that sex isn't bad, in fact, it's great because God created it. It's actually a gift from God. The problem is when we don't use it the way God intended. Imagine I gave you a new Corvette and you decided to see how it handled in a river. You wouldn't think of ruining such a great present, but that's exactly what we do with sex.

So if you're not married, what do you do with sex? We looked at four passages to give us some help.

1. Honor It- Hebrews 13:4
2. Not a Hint - Ephesians 5:3
3. Put it to Death - Colossians 3:5
4. Find Forgiveness - John 8

It was a great morning. If you'd like to hear it for yourself, check out the podcast (there's a link on this page on the top right called Awake Podcast).

Decision Points: Book Review

This Christmas I got a lot of iTunes gift cards and spent some buying George W. Bush's book Decision Points. In the book he chronicles the major decisions of his presidency. I'll admit, politics are interesting to me, but I'm far from an "informed" american. As I listened to the book in the car over the course of the past three months I journeyed with the President through his decision to stop drinking, 911, Iraq and Katrina. how easily we forget just how turbulent those eight years really were.

While he never admits handling everything perfectly, I admired him for making decisions in crisis, standing by his decisions and admitting his mistakes. One of the highlights for me was hearing how his faith in Jesus shaped him as a man and leader. While SNL and talkshows painted the picture of blundering fool, the book painted a different picture. Many could argue different courses of action he could have taken, his wit, character, humor and intelligence aren't up for debate. I simply refuse to believe that an idiot could rise to the highest office in american government.

While it was painfully long, I came out respecting the office of the presidency, the man and our country even more. It reminded me of my responsibility to pray for our leaders and to give them the respect they deserve. Despite political views, they are still our leaders. Their job isn't easy and it isn't a job I would want to do. In fact, I think few would. Bush may have not been a perfect president, but his leadership was invaluable in a time when America faced some of the biggest issues in her history. Terrorism, war, financial crisis, natural disasters, one would have defined his presidency, instead he was responsible for answering them all. To be honest, I respect him for not quitting!

Thanks to my family for the iTunes gift cards! 

A Generous Generation

Eight months ago our students took two charter buses to Southern Illinois University for a week at CIY's Move conference. We expected to experience amazing worship, challenging messages and a ton of fun. What we didn't expect was to come face to face with a global problem that most of us knew very little about, water.

Since the trip, students have failed to forget the heart wrenching truth that thousands are dying, simply because they don't have a resource we waste daily. We had to do something, that something was Waterdrop. This past Friday night students, friends and family filled the church to raise awareness and support for the global water crisis.

The night kicked off with a student sharing her experience with this huge issue and how God was leading her to do something. We followed that up by showing the same powerful documentary we saw at Move, Zambia's Song. The film brings you face to face with a very real problem, facing very real people.

After the film, the crowd was released to the lobby to bid on dozens of students auctioning themselves off. Babysitting, car washes, slaves for a day, photography sessions and art work were all up for bidding.

It was an incredible night. The auction alone brought in over $1700! But that wasn't the only way money came in. Two volunteers set up a raffle with about a dozen prizes in just two days that brought in almost $400. That was impressive, but our students had one last gift.

A month before Waterdrop, as we explained to students the idea of auctioning themselves off for the cause, we challenged them to sacrifice first. Before they could ask others to give, we had to give. So students began to sacrifice. Some gave up cokes for a month. Others gave up eating lunch at school. Some students sold video game systems and games. Students gave up birthday money, paychecks, change collections and allowances.

As they walked in to Waterdrop they quietly turned in their sacrifices which totalled up to over $1800, more money than they raised in the auction. Teenagers are truly amazing people. They are generous, they are sacrificial and they are the church, living out their calling as sons and daughters of God. I couldn't be prouder! Over the past eight months students have raised over $2500. Add to that $4000 from Waterdrop and you've got over $6500! That's enought to provide a new well for an entire village as well as almost 20 filters for individual families.

Thanks so much for everyone that came and supported our students and this amazing cause!

Marriage - Week 3 of Love In Between the Lines

As we continued our series, Love In Between the Lines, we dove into the topic of marriage. Why talk to high school students about marriage? Because, one day they'll get married and you shouldn't spend years of your life looking for the person to marry if you don't understand what marriage is truly about. Paul called it a mystery, but marriage is ultimately about Christ and the church.

That's probably not what I was thinking about when I asked Laura to marry me, but the longer I'm married the more I'm learning how true it actually is. The first marriage in the Bible was Adam and Eve and came because Adam needed a helper, someone to walk through life with. When we get married our spouse is supposed to help us as well. Not help with the laundry or cutting the grass, but to help us become more like Christ.

We also talked about a concept that most of us either have never noticed in Scripture or simply don't like to think about, marriage is temporary. I'm not eluding to falling out of love or divorce. God hates divorce. Marriage was meant to be for a lifetime, but only a lifetime. When a group of religious leaders tried to trap Jesus in a verbal argument, Jesus taught that in Heaven we won't be married anymore (Luke 20:27). We don't like to think about that very much, but we won't need marriage any more. When we get to Heaven we'll be with Christ!

The last idea was that marriage is about sacrifice. I got a great quote from Kevin Kalstad last week. Marriage isn't 50/50 it's 100/100. You are both called to give everything! Paul teaches the same thing in Ephesians 5. He tells women to submit to their husbands as they do to the Lord and for husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Submitting isn't a popular idea these days and following Jesus' example of dying for the church isn't exactly our most common ideas of marriage, but marriage is supposed to be about sacrifice.

When we get it right, when we live out marriages that are about helping one another become more like Christ, when we remember that He is the our highest love, when we are willing to sacrifices for one another, we show the world just how incredible our God is. When I was in high school my senior pastor showed a video that has been an example of marriage for me that I still remember ten years later. It's a recording of the resignation speech of Robert McQuilken. He was the president of a university when his wife became sick. It's a story of helping, sacrificing, to the very end. It's a story of marriage and picture of Christ and the church.

 

Dating - Love in Between the Lines Week 2

This week we dived into the wild world of dating. Since most marriages in Bible times were arranged marriages, it's a little hard to figure out exactly how God would have us pursue a relationship in our culutre. The Bible does however give us principles to live by that can be applied to all areas of our lives like other things that aren't in the Bible like the internet, driving and of course dating. This Sunday we look at my 5 Rules to High School Dating.

1. Don't Date to Date
Let's face it, dating maybe fun at first, but it's also dangerous. If you only get married once, then 99% of your relationships will fail! Dating to date is kind of like parking your car on the train tracks. If you see someone worth crossing the tracks for then go ahead and cross, but parking your car on them is just stupid. Sooner or later the train is going to come. We've got to be wise about it. Proverbs 4:23 says "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

2. Date for a Mate
Dating can be dangerous, but marriage can be awesome so how do we find that person to marry without getting hit by a train? Paul gives us some really good advice in 2 Corinthians 6:14, "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" Paul was talking about any close relationship so this certainly would apply to dating as well. How can we have our closest relationship be someone we don't share the most important thing with? When looking for a mate we need to find someone that is not only a believer, but someone who is chasing after Christ the same way we are.

3. Listen
Like it or not, dating has a way of blinding us. That's why we need help. We need other people who know us like friends and family to tell us what they see. Jeremiah 17:9 tell us that "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure." Our heart will lie to us so we need to trust and listen to other believers around us. Proverbs pushes this idea pretty hard. Proverbs 19:20 says Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life. Proverbs 12:15 says Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others. We tend to think that we always know best but Scripture tells us that we should listen to the wisdom of others! Our parents, small group leaders, Christian friends, sometimes they see the truth clearer than we'd like to admit.

4. Limits
Every dating relationship needs boundaries, this week we talked about two areas to set boundaries in. The first is your time. It's so easy to invest a ton of time in a relationship, but sometimes it steals time away from other important things like friends, family and church. Set healthy boundaries.

The other area is intimacy. Intimacy can be anything from the physical to the emotional. It can be holding hands or sharing a secret. It can be sharing something private to having sex. It comes in many shapes and sizes, but too much intimacy in a dating relationship can be dangerous. Intimate feelings usually leads towards being intimate physically. Therefore, the more intimacy in a relationship, the more temptation to progress things physically. In a marriage, intimacy is great! In dating it can lead to temptation. Guard your heart!!!

5. Dating isn't marriage
This one is really hard. If we're dating for a mate then shouldn't we treat our dating relationship like a marriage? The problem is, it's not a marriage, you don't have the same tools. It's like trying to build a fence without wood, a hammer or nails. There are things that work great in marriage, but might be too intimate for a dating relationship. For example, confessing sins to one another. Great thing, but why not do it with a same sex friend? Praying together. How could that be a bad thing, right? It's not. Praying is incredibly important, but it also really intimate. I'm not saying those types of things are forbidden, I'm just saying proceed with caution.

If we aren't carefully, things that make us feel like we are having a mature relationship are actually just increasing intimacy to a level that brings a lot of temptation. Pursue God, but do it as individuals. Husbands are to lead their wives and be spiritual leaders of the house, but until you are a husband or wive, pursue Christ for yourself!

This week was a really tough one, because so many students come to the dating topic from so many angles. These aren't concrete rules, but I do think they are good things to think about. Our small groups will be talking about them on Thursday. I think it will make for great conversations.

What is Love, and what it isn't!

This week we kicked off a new series at Awake called Love In Between the Lines. We'll look at dating, marriage, sex and this week Love. Micah kicked off the series with a little pop song medly tribute to love!

We started our discussion by talking about all of the reasons we get into a relationship. From attention, a kiss, self-esteem or for to "fall in love," we all have our reasons. The problem is that sometimes, in our pursuit of all of these things we make a relationship our number one priority. We fall into the same trap that man has fallen into since the garden.

Romans 1:25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.

We've exchanged the God who is enough for us for the relationship that could never be enough. We've started worshipping each other instead of our Creator!

The problem is that in our culture we call a lot of things "love," but most of them aren't love at all. We label any strong emotion or new feeling love, but they leave many of us hurting, broken and in pieces. There are three things we often mistake for love.

1. Like. It's the butterflies in your stomach and the sweaty palms. Nothings wrong with "like" but it's not love. It's fresh, it's the spark, it's fun, but it isn't love.

2. Infatuation. Sooner or later we all end up there. It's the place past like where we temporarily loose our minds. It's the hours on the phone, the ignoring of friends and family and the late night texting. It's a natural part of a relationship, but it's dangerous. It's the phase where we are temped to dethrone God and replace the King of Kings with a person.

3. Lust. Whether physical or emotional, lust is a strong desire for something. It's the moment that we find ourselves craving more. For guys it often tempts us to take things just a little bit further. For girls it's the need to be the most important thing in his world. We lust for more intamcy, more attention, more time and ultimately more worship.

So what is love? Well, the Bible gives us a great picture in 1 Corinthians 13. It's a long list of things that are far from emotions, they are choices. Choices to put the other person first and ultimately a choice to never fail. Love isn't a feeling or an emotion, it's a commitment!

*We had a little difficulty with the podcast so I had to re-record it in my office. Not quite the same as speaking to an audience, but it's there if you want to check it out!*

Rehab Week 6- Those in Real Need

Better late than never I guess. Two weeks ago we finished our series on Rehab by talking about a group of people that really do need our help, the persecuted church. Prison, beatings, torture, rape, and murder, the persecution of Christians started with each of the disciples and continues today. This year a Christian will die every 3 minutes. Every 3 minutes!

During Paul's last days as he was traveling under Roman guard to Rome and his death, other believers reached out to care for him. They opened their homes and provided for a fellow brother in anyway that they could. I believe we are called to do the same. When we come face to face with the persecuted church we are called to reach out!

But what if we've never met anyone facing real persecution? Well, Paul gave us very clear instuctions, pray!

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Romans 15:30

We may not face the intense challenges that some people face, but we can join in their battle by hitting our knees praying for them!

At Awake, we closed by thinking about what God would ask us to do if persecution ever turned towards us here in Indiana. We read the story of Paul and Silas when they were thrown in prison for casting demons out of a young girl. Micah and the band were off stage and started singing. We closed the morning by praising our God hopeing that if true persecution comes our way that we would continue this song. It was a beautiful moment hearing the voice of 100 teenagers singing out to their God.