Series: Best Sex Ever

Attendance: 189

Mixer/Game: Would You Rather/Thumb War/Paper, Rock Scissors – aka A Bunch of Randomness

Extra fun things: We went student led with worship again last night. One of our sophomores has a very bright future in leading worship and he led for us for the second time. It was his first time playing with us in a few months because of basketball and he was great. His dad was one of the original worship leaders at Two Rivers before he passed away and it’s been awesome to hear the stories from everyone who knew him about how much his son reminds them of him and how the gift was passed on.

This wasn’t a fun thing for everyone else, but it was definitely fun for me. I normally sit in the tech booth to work with our student that runs the lights for us during band practice. I’ve been training him and he’s been getting better and better. Last night I let him go on his own and he did great. So, instead of sitting back there and doing that, I was able to sit on one of our couches, listen to the band practice, and play Angry Birds on an iPad.

Oh, and it wasn’t very fun, but I made my first typo since I’ve been here on a slide. At the end of one of the verses, I accidentally put this:

“The Lord will judge his people.”tIt is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

I don’t know how many people caught it (probably a ton because it said tit) but I ended up changing it on the spot and me and the two students running tech stuff had a good laugh about it. I’m also not sure if I should’ve put this on here but it was funny and figured anyone in ministry would laugh at this because they’ve done something similar.

Worship Set: Jesus Saves (Tim Hughes), Your Love Never Fails (Jesus Culture), How He Loves (Jesus Culture), Give Me Faith (Elevation Worship)

Bumper Video: None this week

Topic: So What Do I Do Now?

Scripture: James 1:22; Mark 7:8; Hebrews 10:26-31; Song of Solomon 8:4; Mark 9:42; Proverbs 10:17

Thoughts: My favorite part of the entire night was the response from our students. The whole point of the night was to somewhat get in their faces and call them out on the stupid stuff they’re doing. For example, this is part of what Chris said to our guys during his talk:

Stop being stupid. Stop talking junk about girls. Stop bragging about what you did with someone because you’re either lying or a complete jerk for ruining a girl’s reputation. Treat our girls with respect. All girls. Open the doors. Carry heavy things. Serve. Love sacrificially…it will be good practice for marriage.

Don’t try to kiss her unless you’re serious about dating her. Don’t date her unless she’s marriage material. She’s not marriage material if she doesn’t love Jesus – Period (I tried that…bad idea). Make out buddies never work and chances are you’re just going to hurt her so stop before you start.

We’d spent five weeks talking about sex and what the Bible says about it and last night was the point where we wanted our kids to finally take a stand and change their lives.

At the end of the talk, Chris challenged the students to admit whatever it was that God was telling them that they needed to change. We used a program called Text The Mob and had the students text in what they were going to change. While the worship band played a song, we gave them time and space to have it out with God and to text in their answers. Chris had his iPad up front and I had my laptop in the back and we were able to see the answers as soon as the students sent them in.

The responses were amazing. One girl said she needed to stop letting guys use her as a toy. A guy sent in “Freaking girls that don’t even know Jesus. Porn. Lust. Pray for me.” Another girl said she needed to stop looking for a boyfriend and “to embrace God. Trust in him more.” I could go on and on with the answers that were sent in.

I’m 24 years old. I graduated high school seven years ago. The things these students are going through sexually are completely different than what I went through. Many of them are hurt. Many of them are shamed. Many of them are embarrassed.

But deep down, I think they want to do what’s right.

Our sex series ended last night but the battle that these kids are going through keeps going and going. Many of them are going places on spring break next week and will be put in situations where they can trust what they learned over the last six weeks or they can give in to what their body is telling them that they want. Chris summed up the entire thing in one statement that I think is way more profound than he even realizes:

This is a battle, and if you’re not fighting, you’re losing.

Our kids have to keep fighting, but more importantly, they need people fighting beside them and with them through everything.

We have to be those people.