Freshman, Winter 2013

Introduction
New Year. New school. New clothes. New friends. Everything for this year has been a pretty significant change. Some of you have coasted through the first semester of high school with ease. Sometimes I talk with people who say that theyve gone to Sunday school their whole lives and have never really thought about what Jesus life and teachings really mean... and how those teachings actually apply to their own lives. I think that this question is everything. I believe that how we answer and how we think about these questions will determine whether we live out a vibrant, alive, organic Christian faith, or whether we let our faith become stale and moldy. I hope you dont want your faith to be stale and moldy. The longer Ive walked with Jesus, the more Ive realized that real Christian faith doesnt run away from tough questions, but rather real Christian faith freely asks these questions in a community like your small group. I hope that the life and the teachings of Jesus challenge, bother, and change you. One of my favorite pastors writes: Community, community, community. Together, with others, wrestling and searching and engaging the Bible as a group of people hungry to know God in order to follow God... Perhaps this is why the Bible can be confusing for some the first time they read it. I dont think any of the writers of the Bible ever intended people to read their letters alone. I think they assumed that people who were hearing these words for the first time would be sitting next to someone who was further along on her spiritual journey, someone who was more in tune with what the writer was saying. If it didnt make sense, you could stop the person who was reading and say, help me understand this. -Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis This is what small groups is about. This is why we made the agreements that we did at the very beginning of the year. If you have a question, dont be embarrassed to ask, chances are the person sitting right next to you has the same questions. Faith is an adventure. Enjoy the ride. with Lovingkindness, Steve Dang

Track 1: Manifesto
Leaders: This week you will read the introduction with your small group. Encourage them that the purpose of small groups is to help us understand scripture, in community. If you dont understand something, ask. If you cant answer a question, dont make it up. Christian communities wrestle through these questions together. Tonight were going to start looking at the Sermon on the Mount. This outlines what the Kingdom of God is about, but also what it means to live our faith centered in the life and teachings of Jesus. What I love about the SotM is the fact that Jesus doesnt just address our actions, but our hearts. manifesto [man-uh-fes-toh] noun, plural -toes. a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization. Tonight we are going to start a section that is known today as the Sermon on the Mount. Many scholars believe that the Sermon on the Mount is actually a collection of Jesus sayings put together by Matthew to weave together a story and a point. It might be best to say, the sermons on the Mount. The way that I like to think about it: the sermons are like the mixes and playlists that we make on iTunes for when we work out, or for big events. We carefully coordinate the songs and the music to tell a story. Take a look at the definition of manifesto its a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives and motives. The Sermon on the Mount is kind of like a manifesto for what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Its a manifesto of discipleship. The sermon tells us about the heart of God. If we are going to call ourselves Christians and if we claim to be followers of Jesus then His manifesto (his intentions, opinions, objectives and motives) need to be ours. In order to figure out what Christians believe, we need to go back to the source the life and the teachings of Jesus. 1

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Connection: Here is your opportunity to connect and share about the highs and lows of everyday life. Have you ever made a playlist for the different moods that youre in? Or maybe even different events? How do you pick the songs? Do you pick the most memorable ones? The Sermon on the Mount is a lot like that a greatest hits album if you will. Read: Matthew 5:1-12 These passages are known in the church as the Beatitudes which means, happy or blessed. So you end up having this rhythm, blessed are By Blessed Jesus means, God is on your side o Try reading the Beatitudes by substituting, Blessed with God is on your side. Reflections: Do any of the blessings stand out to you? o Which ones stand out? o Why? o Any Blessings that you like or connect with? Any Blessings that you struggle with. Do any of the blessings seem kind of funny or weird to you? o What does Jesus imply when he says that you are blessed when you are poor in spirit mourning gentlehunger and thirst o Why do they seem weird? Why doesnt Jesus say, God is on your side when you are rich? or God is on your side when you are happy? What does this say about who God cares about? What does this mean for following Jesus? If God is on the side of the broken, what does this mean for Christians and for churches who follow Jesus? Do you have any friends who say, God doesnt care? o How do the beatitudes respond to that? o The truth is, that God is always on the side of the brokenhearted, the oppressed, and those who suffer. Read this passage from Psalm 34:18 Movement: Think about the people that you know in your life. o Are there any people who you know who are poor in spirit? Mourning? o How is God on their side? o Do you believe that God is on their side? How do these passages change the way that you view God? Think about whether or not you really believe that God is on their side that God is on your side. Give your life away: This week I want to you get on the side of someone who is morning, or someone who is hungry, or someone who is a peacemaker. Pick a group from Jesus list and stand by them. Say hi to them. Come back next week and tell us what it was like. Prayer: Father it can be pretty hard to accept that you are on the side of the broken hearted, that you are on the side of the oppressed, that you are on the side of the poor. Often we think that you are only on the side of the wealthy, healthy, and good, but thats not true. Because you are on the side of the poor, mourning, gentle, hungry, merciful, peaceful, and persecuted that means that we as followers need to do the same. Help us to open our eyes to see these people in our lives. Give us the courage to reach out, the way that you would. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. 2

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Track 2: Salt and Light

Leaders: Jesus is the only hope this broken world has, but we play a role in that. The truth is God doesnt need us but He wants to work through us. I love that. He doesnt picked the best skilled, or the most rich, He uses everyday people like you and me. Freshman? God doesnt care how old you are. Feel free to share stories of how God has used you to be salt and light to the world. Maybe even from when you were in high school. My life was changed my freshman year the moment another freshman came up to me and said, we should hang out sometime. Its starts that simple, but it could be a three even four-year process. Second thing is this, righteousness is more than just about doing the right thing Jesus is addressing our hearts and our attitudes as well. Kate is a nurse at OConnor Hospital. Its a catholic hospital that refuses to turn patients away because they cant pay. The hospital has to raise tens of millions of dollars so that people who dont have health care (i.e. the poor) can still have access to doctors. When you go through out church history, the people you see who are against slavery before it was cool to be against slavery were Christians the people who sought to make sure that hospital, soup kitchens, orphanages, and community clinics were Christians. My friends who arent Christians say, there are a lot of things that I dont understand about Christianity, but serving the helpless and ignored I do understand. The world is changed by the lives of Christians who say, I want to make a real difference in the world. History been transformed by those who simply pray, God, break my heart where your heart breaks. Being Salt and Light has less to do with standing on the street corner and shouting than it has to do with standing among the broken and walking with them to a place of healing and wholeness. Truly being salt and light changes everything. Connections: Here is your opportunity to connect and share about the highs and lows of everyday life. Did anyone do the homework assignment from last week? Tell us a story about something that you have done big or small that helped out another person? Did it change their life? Maybe it changed their life and you dont know it. Read: Matthew 5:13-20 Is there anything confusing about this passage? What do you think it means for Christians to be salt and light? o To be salt and light is more than just words. Its action. It makes a real difference in peoples life. Have you ever done anything for someone else and have them say to you that what you did made a difference in their life? o Multiply that possibility by everyone in the youth group. How many lives is that? Reflection: What do you think it means to be righteous? o How does Jesus change what it means to be righteous? o Does it seem as though Jesus is saying that being righteous is more than just keeping the laws? Maybe it has to do with living out the heart of the laws. What does it mean to be a good citizen? Yes, its following the laws, but its more than that. Think about this: Think about traffic lights, what do you think happens when people view the traffic lights more as guidelines then laws? In some weird way, maybe keeping the traffic light laws are ways of being good citizens of the U.S. so we dont end up killing each other with our cars. o But lets face it.., being a good citizen is more than following the laws. o Gods laws are deeper than just being a good citizen. Maybe there is a real purpose behind the laws of God. Maybe it has to do with the way that we love each other. Think about this: Maybe righteousness has to do with doing the right thing for your neighbor actually caring deep 3

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down for them and not just looking good for them. Maybe being salt and light is much more than being a church that looks pretty. o What if people could tell how good a church is by the dirt we have on our hands because we build homes for the homeless, because we feed the hungry, because we love the unlovable, because we care for those who have no hope. Maybe being salt and light is about giving your life away. Give Your Life Away: This week look for opportunities big and small to be salt and light to your family, friends or strangers. Journal about what the experience was like. Fears. Triumphs. Prayer: Father, you cant make us love people. You cant make us become salt and light, but maybe when we realize what you have done for us it will help us do the same for others. Maybe when we see the how powerful, how good, and how beautiful your redemption is it will cause us to be salt and light because of what you have done. Father sometimes we are tempted to think that righteousness is simply about doing the right thing, but the reality is that its not. Its about living out the life that you modeled for us in Jesus Christ. Help us to figure out what it really means to be salt and light.

Track 3: Pranks
Leaders: Love your enemies is one of the scariest commands of Jesus that I can barely wrap my head around because this is the heart of our faith. God loves us because when he sees us, he doesnt see our sin, but sees His son. Romans 5 likens us to enemies of God until we were reconciled through the blood of Christ. I think one of the most challenging parts about being a Christian is actually living like Jesus did and if Jesus was able to say, Father forgive them for they know not what they do as they were hanging him on a cross then this is quite the task. Jesus gave us the example. If you see people the way that God sees us than maybe it makes it a little easier for us to love our enemies. Wow Ive got a long way to go. God help us all. When I was in high school and college we used to play pranks on each other all the time. We would glue things that we need to the ground, like homework. We would go and short sheet each other, we would put shampoo on toilet seats, and many other things I cant share here, but you can ask me about them later. What would happen is that it would start a war. It would keep escalating until someone got hurt and at some point it would get out of hand. There is something deep within us that calls for the need for us to pay someone back for wrongs that they do to you. Whether it is a prank or something criminal, this is our idea of justice. Jesus jumps into pretty heavy stuff right off the bat. Divorce, sin, but perhaps the one that is the most difficult for us is forgiving our enemies. We live in a world that says, if your enemies do something to you you gotta get them back. This is our view of justice. Jesus tells us to forgive our enemies. Its not just forgiving our enemies, its praying for your enemies. Jesus is flipping our idea of justice. Its taking justice out of our hands and putting it in Gods. Connection: Here is your opportunity to connect and share about the highs and lows of everyday life. Has someone every played a mean prank on you? What did you do? Did you get them back? o Why do you think human beings have this inward need to pay it back? Read: Matthew 5:38-48 Reflection: Do you find that Jesus asking us to forgive our enemies is an impossible task? o How do you justify it? o Did you catch yourself thinking but God you dont understand because this person hurt me real bad by doing ____ and ____. The truth is, we try and rationalize this passage and say, what Jesus actually meant is to love the people who annoy you, but thats not what he says, he says enemies. As in, people you hate. 4

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Jesus isnt talking about just forgiving the people who kinda-sorta hurt you. He isnt talking about the people who step on your clean white Vans. Hes talking about some real enemies. Hate. Think about a person you hate the most then think about this, Jesus is saying, if you say you are one of my followers, then you are supposed to love them too. Ouch, right? I know it is difficult to put your head around this idea that God knows what you are going through, but regardless, He asks you to forgive your enemies. o For more reading see Luke 23:13-47 o Isnt it interesting that after being abandoned, beaten, whipped and crucified that this God would say, Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing? (v. 34) What I find interesting is that there are a lot of people who follow Jesus who say, you need to do what he tells you. But for one reason or another forgiving our enemies is the one we quickly rationalize. Does this mean to ignore or let people walk all over us? No. o I think that forgiveness is part of the healing process. Its not a switch that you turn on and off. o For some of you this means that you need to start looking at the deep wounds in your life because the reality is that if you dont deal with some of the things you are dealing with, they arent going to go away. The chances are that if you dont deal with these hurts now, you will deal with this when you turn 16, 24, 34 chances are you are going to carry these wounds from relationship to relationship. What do you think happens when you choose not to forgive someone? Do you think its good for you to be perpetually angry? When you choose to be angry who has the control? When you choose to forgive who has control? You have the control right? When you choose not to forgive, you give them all the control. Its a crazy concept, but think about it. o How? o Do you believe that? The reality is that learning how to forgive is going to take a lifetime. But its foundational in order for us to live, healthy, complete, and beautiful lives the way that God intended. Give your life away: Maybe this is the first time that you need to deal with some people who have hurt you. It might take you a long time to come to a place where you can forgive them. But know that forgiveness can be the beginning of freedom and healing for you. Prayer: Take this moment to pray for one another. Pray for the difficult people in your life that make it hard to forgive. Pray that God would remind you of how he forgave you. Pray that God would help you forgive those people in your life.

Track 4: Unseen
Leaders: There is too much good stuff that happens in the passage this week, but the one I like to focus on is the fact that when you start to see the Kingdom of God at work, it changes your priorities. It changes what your life is going to be about. The first time I saw the Blind Side. I was balling. Its a movie about a wealthy family who finds this one poor African-American kid named Michael from the ghettos of Memphis attending the school where their children go. They end up adopting this kid who has nowhere else to go, no family, no money, no clothes and they give him a real shot. The people around them dont really understand it at first. One of the main characters in the movie, Leanne played by Sandra Bullock, is in a scene where she has a regular lunch with a bunch of the upper class women from Memphis. Leanne listens to these women make some pretty ignorant statements about the poor and start to question Leannes motives for taking in Michael. The rich women see the poor community as something that you just throw money at, but thats not the reality, so Leanne gives her them a peace of her mind. One of the ladies tries to diffuse the 5

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uncomfortable situation with a speech and goes on to say, Leanne, youre changing that boys life. Leannes response is beautiful, No. Hes changing mine. Simple. Shes getting the reward of something so much more. Its not money. Its not fame. Its not recognition. Its simply the gift of having another son. Its the gift of giving a kid with no hope, hope. Spoiler alert: We come to find out that Michael Oher becomes an All-American College football player and gets drafted to the NFL in 2009, all because this family opened up their home. They didnt do it because they knew he would become a professional football player one day. They didnt do it because he would be able to pay them back one day. They did it because it was the right thing to do and their lives were changed. What was really her reward? Connecting: Here is your opportunity to connect and share about the highs and lows of everyday life. Is it hard to do something if you arent recognized for it? o Why? Reading: Matthew 6:1-24 This passage is long so focus on what youd like to focus in on, but if you get hung up, then you can talk about this: Jesus in this passage is saying, if you are do good deeds to get noticed, to get recognized, or to get rich, then when you do, thats all you get. If you do it to get recognized, your reward stops there. True richness, true recognition are the things that dont get noticed, because it is God who sees you. Perhaps the greatest reward you can get is when you can respond, No. Theyve changed me. Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, this is a very interesting prayer. This means, Lord let your kingdom be working in and through my life as it is in heaven. This prayer means, Lord, let the principles, the manifesto that runs in heaven, be made a reality here on earth, through my life, as it is in heaven. Reflection: Does it feel good to get recognized for something you have done? o How does the need to be recognized change how we do things? o In which ways is it healthy? o In which ways is it unhealthy? How would rewards which are unseen be better than what is seen? Are there any things that you do for recognition? Why do you think Jesus would make this statement? Why do you think he would say this? How could being recognized hurt your relationship with God? I think because we can substitute praise of people for the praise of God. Jesus wraps up this section with prayer. Being a disciple of Jesus, is to pray. For others. For your self. For the kingdom of God. So we are going to wrap tonight up in prayer. Give your life away: There are many things that we can do that are simple. Perhaps one of the most powerful things we can do is to pray for each other. So this is what I want you to do. I want you to grab a friend from your small group. Maybe even two and take a moment to pray for each other.

Track 5: Worry
Leaders: Tonight were talking about worry. Worry and faith go hand-in-hand and the truth is that we will never stop worrying about stuff. There is always something to be worried about. But the more that we give it up to God and as He takes care of things one by one, we begin to trust him more and more. So when an unknown future comes and meets us on life road, we are able to say, weve been here before and since God carried me through _____ and _____, I can trust him to carry me through this _______. 6

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One of my good friends says what one of his worst fears, is worry. Worry is one of the things that can really hurt our faith because, worry comes from unbelief in God when you get to the root of it. Its sort of a sobering reality to think about worry as distrust or even unbelief of God. The reality is that worry never stops happening, the longer you live, the more stuff you end up worrying about. Its school now, money later, majors after that, careers after that, relationships, parents, and the list goes on and on. But, a greater truth than that is, you can never stop relying on God. Trust and faith go hand-in-hand. Connecting: Here is your opportunity to connect and share about the highs and lows of everyday life. What things do you really worry about? o What things are immediate (i.e. tomorrow, tonight)? o What things are long term? o What things are deep? Leaders: Dont be afraid to share your real worries. Reading: Matthew 6:25-34 I find it so interesting that a passage about worry would be included in a manifesto of discipleship. Sometimes worrying is a matter of getting perspectives. Are people still going to care in 5, 10, 15 years? Chances are no if they remember it at all they will probably just laugh about it. Reflection: How do you think trust, worry, faith and discipleship have to do with each other? Do you find that worry or anxiety is crippling? How do you think you could trust God more with the things in your life? What are some things that you want to trust over into Gods hands? o Which things are going to be the most difficult to hand trust over to God? o Are there things that you dont think that God cares about? How can we as a small group help you? Give your life away: This week I want you to take some time to yourself. I want you to carve out 2 hours in the week for just you. Thats right, TWO HOURS. Dont spend it with a friend. Dont check Facebook. I want you just to do this on your own. For the first hour I want you to do something to clear some thinking space in your head, go ride your bike for an hour, play your guitar for an hour, go for a walk, go for a swim sometimes doing something that you enjoy and gets you tired can really help you clear some space for God to speak. Sometimes we get frustrated because are quite for 15 minutes to let God speak and you end up spending that 15 minutes thinking about all the stuff that you need to do next and then wonder why God hasnt spoken. So I want you to take an hour to do all your thinking and then the next hour, just listen. Maybe this is your time to journal. Maybe its your time to consider all the things that you worry about in your life and finally turn them over to God. Prayer: Take this moment to pray for each other.

Track 6: Gold
Leaders: this is going to be a tough week, but the truth is that Gods work in us is meant to be evident. This doesnt mean that were going to have it all together, but it does mean that we are constantly going back to God to ask us to transform us. The problem with this week is that you might be tempted to get overly legalistic about this stuff, but thats not the case at all. The truth is that we are all work in progress. And were going to screw up, but Gods grace allows us to get up and try again. The most important thing is stay rooted to the source; the fruit will grow in its right season. This week we encounter one of the most famous lines that Jesus ever said. It has been quoted time and time again. It is something that no matter what culture you come from or what you believe you 7

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know the golden rule, which is _____. I think what I find the most interesting about this passage is that right after the Golden Rule, Jesus starts talking about a narrow gate. Kind of weird, right? After looking at the Sermon on the Mount, forgiving your enemies, being salt and light, caring without being seen, giving your life away, not worrying, figuring out what it means to be a follower of Jesus you might think, this is all impossible. I think that Jesus might agree with the last statement. Its easy to take a look at this entire situation and feel pretty overwhelmed with it all. The temptation is for you to think, Im o.k. I can do it on my own. I think what Jesus might be saying is, if you are going to try and do this all on your own if you think that its just a matter of being good, youre all wrong its not a matter of being good its a matter of being transformed. This isnt a checklist, its meant to make you examine your hearts and learn how to trust God to do His work in and through your life. Connecting: Here is your opportunity to connect and share about the highs and lows of everyday life. Have you ever had a new years resolution you couldnt keep? What happened? o I think it can be easy to give up when you get overwhelmed by the task. But have no fear, you are a work in progress.

Reading: Matthew 7:1-24 We get tempted to segment these passages into different sections, a teaching on judging others, the golden rule, and the narrow gates, but I think they are all connected. When Jesus is talking about the narrow gates and the false prophets hes connecting it to all the verses that come before it and after it. Maybe what separates the false prophets and the true prophets are those that actually do what Jesus told them to do maybe the true prophets are those who practice mercy, those who practice forgiveness, those who practice love, those who practice embrace instead of judging, and the people who dont are false. I love the analogy that Jesus gives about fruit. Image: Im not a farmer, so I cant tell the different between an apple tree and an orange tree until it blossoms. Jesus is saying the same thing. If you look at a prophet you might not be able to tell from their clothes what they are about but if you look at their lives, thats when you can really tell. o There is a cool saying that I take to heart, what you say you believe is not what you believe, what you believe is what you do. Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz. o What do you think this means? Reflection: I dont think that Jesus means to be harsh here, but I do think that Jesus means to be very honest o Can you be a follower of Jesus and still be angry, bitter, judgmental, unforgiving and vengeful? Maybe. But does that mean that you are producing good fruit or bad fruit? What does Jesus say about producing bad fruit? o If you take a look at the entire Sermon on the Mount, its an entire manifesto for what it means to be a follower of Jesus. If you get a chance to read it again, What does having good fruit look like? What does being a good disciple of Jesus look like? Does being a disciple of Jesus mean that you need to do all these things on your own? o No. o I think that Jesus is saying, if you continue to faithfully follow Jesus, to remind yourself of His life and his teachings, its going to transform the way that you live and these things are going to come naturally. Think about this idea of fruit? 8

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How long does it take for an apple to grow on a tree? What kind of things does a farmer need to do to make sure that he gets the best apple possible? How can we apply these same ideas and principles to our relationship with God? o I think what is funny is that the farmer can only do so much, the rest is up to God. The farmer can try as hard as he can and the sun wont come up any faster. He has no control over the elements and over nature. o Maybe some of the things that we want are going to be left up to God. Narrow Gates. I think that Jesus is pretty clear here. Hes going to be the only way this is going to happen. Fruit only can grow when its connected to the tree. Life can only happen in Jesus.

o o

Give your life away: This week I want you to re-read through a part in the sermon on the mount, one verse, two verses, and ask God to transform you that you might live a life that is inline with Jesus teaching. Prayer: Take this time to pray for each other