The first week in July our Senior High Youth Group made the way to Laguna Beach Christian Retreat in Panama City, Floria for RYM and I had the pleasure of serving as a chaperone for this one, too.
A fun side note--with all the chaperoning I did this summer Mom and I calculated how many times I've been to RYM as both a student and a chaperone and this was my 12th RYM to attend!
Cyril Chavis, who was the RUF pastor at JSU was the main speaker and he had some great take aways throughout the week. I took so many notes from our sessions and our elective classes so among the pictures, I am going to share with you some of my favorite snippets.
Large Group Session #1:
Looking at Matthew 27:11-26
We have a notorious Savior for a notorious people
We know what tragic irony is, right? When the audience knows something that the character's don't. Like Romeo and Juliet--how we know Juliet isn't really dead when Romeo sees her and decides to follow in her footsteps. Just as with in this passage, we know something that the people in the passage do not.
There are three tragic ironies found in this passage.
1. The notorious Savior (vs. 11-19)
What does notorious mean?
They are well knowns for a bad quality.
Jesus was considered to be know as notorious in his time by some people because he went against the flow--a lot of the religious elite hated Jesus because he didn't fit into their "rules" which is exactly why we see Jesus in this passage on trial for His life.
Pilate realized that Jesus was notorious for his righteousness--and we, the audience, know that the people found here in Matthew are trying to charge Him for anything--they are grasping at straws and we know it's an injustice.
But, doesn't this happen in our lives still? There are times when we question His righteousness and we start to doubt when in reality, He's not the one that's even on trial.
2. A notorious people (vs. 20-23)
When Pilate brings out Barabbas next to Jesus, he was trying to place someone so evil, and so guilty so that the people wouldn't think twice when choosing who to set free. But, the people chose Barabbas, a known murderer.
They thought they were doing a service to God by killing Jesus because they believed there was no way he was who he said he was.
Every time we sin, we are temporarily exchanging Jesus for Barabbas--we are choosing momentary goodness instead of choosing eternal greatness.
At times, we prefer to be among people like Barabbas because we can feel better about ourselves, we know that we aren't "as bad" as him--we choose to hold Jesus at arms length so that we don't feel guilty about ourselves.
3. A notorious exchange (vs. 24-26)
What's happening in this passage shows us what it looks like to not be at peace with God.
Pilate washes his hands with water--not knowing that his actions were sending Jesus to His death that would shed the blood that would cleanse the nations.
Think for a moment that you are Barabbas here...you know that you deserve to be the one chosen to be put to death...but, he's released...an exchange was made.
When Jesus went to the cross, we were Barabbas, and an exchange was made where He exchanged my guilt for His complete and total righteousness.
We are GIVEN His righteousness and we receive all the blessings that come with that because of this exchange.
This type of grace is notorious...it's radical and we need to recognize what a beautiful gift it is.
Large Group Session #2:
Looking at Ephesians 2:11-22
The church is a big deal for God's plan for the world.
The way you know you have peace with God is in part, shown through how you treat one another.
Part of God's plan is to unite everyone and everything under The Lordship of Jesus.
He used the illustration of the movie Black Panther and how at a time, Wakanda was closed off from all of the other nations and everything they had to offer was only available to those that lived there. T'Challa decided to open up the doors to all people and share their resources.
God has opened up the door to all people...so make yourself at home.
Like Wakanda, Israel had a strict code--there were codes in place to make themselves a separate nation--and when Jesus came, this strict code changed.
We know that to this day, there are present age divisions and the question is "how do we contribute to these divisions? How do I contribute to these divisions?"
The door was closed and it has opened (vs. 13) when Jesus came and died, the strict laws were no longer necessary for perfection--we see here that Jesus is for everyone. He abolished the strict code--the curtain was torn as a symbol of our full access to God and all that He offers.
Now, you have to close those present age divisions and make "new creation unity"--inclusion and diversity are not trendy, they are a command. God's people should make us feel at home--we should feel at home when we are with God's people.
We see here is vs. 20-21 that the temple construction happened and that He uses all types of material (all types of people) with Himself as the cornerstone. We have to do the hard work of pursuing peace within the church and amongst the people of God--our brothers and sisters.
There are no second class citizens within the Body of Christ.
So how do we "do" this peace?
We can't treat people differently--when we do, we are communicating that these people need more than Jesus to be a part of the church. When we do this, we are putting up walls that Jesus has torn down.
Looking at John 4:27-42
God's people pursue people with His message of peace.
1. Jesus mission is scandalous (vs. 27-30)
The Samaritan woman would have been considered "off limits" in a sense--in that time, people didn't talk to women about much and more so, Jews most certainly didn't talk to Samaritans. But here we have Jesus, the Son of God, talking with her and sharing God with her.
Scandal is anything that causes public outrage and this was something unheard of in this time.
But, God's mission is like a mosaic in a sense--when we look at things separately, like Jesus talking with this woman, it may not make sense at the time but, when we put various pieces together to make a large picture...we get it.
He's showing us that He wants us to reach out and share the gospel with all people.
2. Jesus message is urgent (vs. 31-38)
The message is urgent because it's ready.
It's urgent not because it depends on us, but because we are entering in to something amazing and we want to be a part of it.
vs. 35-38 shows us the urgency--the time between sowing and reaping
Jesus message is also urgent because it's joyous--vs. 34 + 36--there is satisfaction to be had when you are on God's mission.
3. Jesus mission is successful (vs. 39-42)
They knew and believed that He was The Savior of the world
Looking at Philippians 2:1-11
Jesus new creation should be shaped by unity
Satan is out to see us at war with God and with one another.
The end work of salvation is peace and unity and the devil hates that.
Paul, in this passage, is asking the people to be united--peace is maintained by unity
1. The how of unity
Humility
When we are united, it's one sign that God is with us. It's a sign that God is real and He is doing a work in His people. This means there are no divisions, no cliques, and when this happens, when there's unity, you are less likely to fall.
The enemy of unity is pride--high self-esteem, low self-esteem are both prideful, they each have a successive self-love at the root of them.
Pride tries to infiltrate the body of Christ and kill unity and peace. We must combat pride with humility. Pride creeps into all aspects of our lives and we need to take the time to identify those things and combat them with humility.
More often than not, we are humbled before we are humble.
2. The who of unity
The humiliated one, Jesus.
When we are converted, the Holy Spirit provides us with humble minds/humility.
Even though Jesus was equal with God, He did not demand to be treated that way. He still was 100% God, but humbled Himself by becoming 100% man. Jesus created the whole world and He had to enter the world through one of His creations. He was a legitimate, humble, human and...the eternal Son of God. He became just like us--and even more so, He experienced the ultimate form of death on the cross--WHY?--because He loves me and He wants a unified people under His Lordship.
He experienced the depths of humility for us to be able to experience the heights of His love.
So how do we live this out?
Practical deeds of love for the sake of unity--grace extended to others through out humility.
Continue to pursue Jesus...pursue humility...pursue unity...pursue peace...value these things, even when it's hard.
Elective Class #1, Session #1:
We know that anyone can be addicted to something. Even now though, addiction is misunderstood. Phones seem to help us solve a lot of problems--alarms, GPS, google, etc. But, the depths of the effects of smartphone use are not really known yet and on top of that, we still don't understand addiction the way we truly should.
There's also the fact of behavioral addiction--things like shopping, pornography, biting your nails, whatever it may be--it becomes a coping mechanism and it becomes like a drug to us and we're starting to see that smartphones enhance our behavioral addictions.
We have trained ourselves to the point to when our phones ring, we answer--it controls us to an extent and we even get agitated when we can't get to our phones sometimes.
The question becomes--who is in charge of what?
When we look at Romans 1:24-25 we can see that the phone functions somewhat as an idol--it's an instance where we worship the creation rather than the creator. An idol is a good thing that we make into an ultimate thing. And maybe it's not even the phone...maybe it's what the phone gives you access to.
So smartphones--we have to face the reality that phones may have become ultimate things and the access it gives us.
We are not as advanced and far removed from biblical times as we think we are. They would carry idols in their hands when walking around...think about it.
When people worshipped idols, they weren't worshipping the idol, it was what the idol gave them access to and what it represented to them. Access to things we feel like we can't live without.
How are phones changing us?
We are addicted to distractions and we actually enjoy that distraction if we're honest with ourselves. We want to keep work, people, and eternity away from us--these things were true even before we had smartphones and now, phones enable and encourage it all the while making it easier to do.
1. to keep work away
We avoid deadlines and tasks.
When life is demanding, anything to distract us will do (it doesn't even have to be something that's that good)
The phone is excellent at providing that "anything" we are searching for and now, we always have our phones with us to act on it. It's always been in our hearts and the phone makes it accessible.
2. to keep people away
We don't have to endure boring, awkward people anymore.
We have a tiny shield to let others know that we are important and have things to do, texts to answer, phone calls to get, things to search, things to post
Our phones are a constant reminder that something better MIGHT come along and we cling to that for some reason or another.
When our phones are present, we inadvertently tell the person we're with that they are down the totem pole and we have our phones out because something more important could come through.
At any moment, I can put up my "shield"
3. to keep eternity away
We have already done this, the phone just makes it easier.
We actively avoid solitude and deep thought.
These days, we are never alone and therefore, we are never alone with God.
We use our phones to keep thoughts of eternity away--like when we can't sleep--we just browse out phones rather than read our Bibles or pray--we do mindless, focusless activities.
When we don't have these mindless activities and we have to sit in the uncomfortable quiet, It forces you to think about the deeper, most meaningful things in your life.
Jesus himself took time to be alone with God--if it was important to/for Him, then it should be important for us, too.
"For if we had leisure, we would look at ourselves and listen to our hearts and see the great, gaping hole in our hearts and would be terrified because that hole is so deep that only God can fill it"
Mark 12:29-31--4 times the word all is used. Am I ever giving my ALL to anything these days? or trying to give my all to anything? Because of our phones, we more than often aren't giving our all to anything.
We ignore flesh and blood.
Phones enable us to ignore those around us for those that are nowhere near us (physically). For example, when we text and drive, what we're really doing is holding other people's lives in our hands (in a sense) and consider some lives less important than others because we aren't considering the lives of the drivers around us.
Phones accelerate viral anger. For example, the angry posts, tweets, etc are what get shared, liked, and commented on the most--we love to be angry and to share in other people's anger.
Phones drive us toward mediated communication instead of unmediated communication. We prefer the mediated communication rather than face to face unmediated communication--we want as much distance as possible. But, we were made for unmediated communication. Our ultimate mediator is Jesus Christ and no one else will do. (2 John 12, Romans 15:32, 2 Timothy 1:4)
Be present where you are. Don't see the whole world through your screen. Ask yourself, "Am I experiencing my own life? Or just watching it pass by?"
We crave immediate approval.
Our phones encourage and enable us to represent ourselves as we please.
We all too often trust in the acceptance and approval from people when all we need is the approval of Jesus Christ. (Proverbs 29:25, Psalm 146:3-4, and Luke 6:26).
2 more problems to piggyback off of the last lesson
4. we are losing our literacy
We read more words, but retain less content because we simply skim for highlights--we don't read for meaning and context.
We struggle to concentrate and remember.
This affects Christians because our whole religion is based on a book that we must read and believe!
Deuteronomy 6:4-8--God expects us to dwell on His word
These days, we see/hear so many people taking one verse out of scripture and out of context and making it fit/apply to all situations and that's simply wrong. We MUST take it in context to learn from it. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
5. we get lonelier
Technology in all actuality drives us apart, not together.
We are alone in public.
We are never alone in private.
We sleep less, and less deeply.
Screen use and depression are directly correlated.
Technology divides and separates us--think of the progression of music from only being able to hear music at a live show when it first began now to complete isolation and wearing your air pods at all times.
There's a shared experience we are missing out of because of technology and we are becoming more and more lonely. Exodus 33:14, Joshua 1:13, and Matthew 11:28--In these vs, we see that God promises us the things that social media and phones take from us.
So, what can we do about this? What's the solution? How can we take ownership over our phones?
And here he gave us some practical, small steps that he's taken and we can take to help us take ownership over our phones:
1. Turn off all non-essential notifications.
2. Delete expired, non-essential apps.
3. Keep your phone out of your bedroom
We want to LIMIT what/when our phones alert us. We will do it on our own time when we want to do it, not when we're alerted to do it.
4. Use self-restricting apps to limit your use--have accountability in this.
5. Check your phone on your schedule
6. Invite criticism--ask someone, "Am I on my phone too much?"
7. Fast from your screens:
1 hour a day
1 day a week
1 week a year
We need to start using our phones because we WANT to and not because we feel like we need/have to
8. Give over full access to your phone
9. Create more than you consume
Take the time to create things, not just consume things. God is the only thing that is all consuming, not us. We were made to create--we were made in God's image and He is The Creator.
10. Use car times for conversations
Scott was the youth director for a good bit of the time while I was in youth group.
The last RYM we all attended together was in 2008, my Senior year of high school.
It was so much fun attending together as chaperones and reminiscing on all those years before!
If you don't truly find Jesus precious and beautiful, you may not value community as you should.
Part of the reason we can connect with people is because of Jesus.
We were made in God's image and He lived in community before He even made us (with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) and He didn't even NEED US but, out of love, He created us. In Genesis 2:18, we see that "it is not good for man to be alone".
Because of the fall, we have broken community.
Our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others, and the earth are all broken.
So what keeps us from the types of relationships and communities we were meant to have?
Most of the time, the relationships we have turn out to be self-serving and when they stop serving us/are no longer of use to us, we stop them.
He came around to talking about how this should look in the church.
More often times than not, we sit in church and think to ourselves, "well, this isn't the kind of music I like, this song doesn't speak to me, that sermon wasn't good today, I don't think they have a good children's ministry" when it's not about that. You don't GO to church, you ARE the church. If you are sitting next to someone in church, you should desire that your church meet their needs, not your own. We need a redeemed community that's for people and not for self.
When God brings you into Himself, He brings you into a community of people that love God and that means that we should love the things that Jesus loves and hate the things that Jesus hates. He loves community and He loves the body of Christ--it should be precious to us.
If eternity is real and we will be with one another forever, we should start acting like it more now. We are being made now for eternity.
In community, we find sanctification, mutual care, fellowship, and evangelism
Ephesians 4:16--we need all the pieces--without all the pieces of the body, we could not function--this is true for the church and for the body of Christ.
We happened to be there on the 4th of July!
If we love one another well, it will draw people in.
There's something supernatural about it and it's mysterious and compelling to unbelievers.
If you are actively being salt and light in this world, you are going to take on some of the dirt that the world pulls you through and you may be tired and need rest and to be renewed + refreshed and that's where our Christian communities come in--paired with quiet times in The Word and worship.
On a fun note, these videos are one of our elective teachers, Christian Graham, doing MAGIC TRICKS. I could only post a few because most of them were too long but, it was so much fun watching him do tricks before and after class.
He had done shows for multiple Presidents throughout his lifetime and if you watch the last video...well, he does some pretty insane tricks!
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