Unity

With the absence of unity there is war, struggles, jealousy, hatred and discomfort. So the fact is this; we need unity in our lives. We need peace, comfort, love and compassion. We need to be united. As a Christian it is important to have unity, in your relationships and between you and God.

The reason it is so important to have unity is simply this; it creates better Communication.

When your in a relationship it is very important for you to have unity with that person. I know in Pastor Kayla and I’s relationship when we allow things to take up our time and distract us from each other. We will start failing to communicate.

And in our lives when there is a wall in between us and God, our communication becomes harder. The reason we have a hard time hearing from God and it seems like he doesn’t answer our prayers is because we haven’t truly tore down those things between us.
And unity is simply this; When more than one thing combines into one.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want to do this thing called life by myself. I want to be one with God. I want to come into unity with Jesus. I want to have full communication with him.

Without communication any relationship will fail. Because you have to communicate to succeed.

 The bible says that iron sharpens iron and that we can help each other! In Ecclesiastes it says; Ecclesiastes 4:12 ¹² By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you find a third friend? A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped.

If you have a problem with someone in your life or you don’t like someone that comes to youth group, you need to get over it! Your friends, your family and even the people that are in your lives that you don’t like. You need to find a way to get into unity with them. You wanna know why we need to? Because the bible says so, because God says this;

1^st Corinthians 1:10

¹⁰I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.

As I talk about this I’m  dreaming a dream with you. Of what we want to see in this youth group. And that is young people who are passionate for God and want nothing else and will settle for nothing but a move of God, in their lives, in their families and in their friend's lives.

Today I hope that we can start something amazing. Today I dream that we can start having the unity that we need. Today I wanna challenge you to step out of the NORM.

We need to grab a hold of that unity and ask God to come down in our lives.

Read Matthew 18: 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

Pastor Phil

Represent

Did you know that there are more than 3.5 BILLION pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts etc.) shared on facebook every single day? And that there are now more than 800 million active facebook users? That means that every day, LOTS of people see LOTS of posts. We live in a generation where people post statuses about everything. People tweet or update when they're eating, when they're sleeping, when they're having trouble sleeping, when they're angry, when they're sad, when they're bored. You get the idea, and more than likely, you have seen all of these types of posts. Every time we snap a photo it is judged to see if it is our next "profile picture". When we want to talk to someone, we private message them, or just send them a text.

Because facebook and twitter are so widely used, if someone wants to know who we really are, they just visit our profile page. So, what does your profile page say about you? Does it tell the world that when you are angry with someone you post it all over facebook? Does it tell others that you hate your parents, or that you hate you life, or that you are always bored? Or does it tell people that you are respectful of your friends, that you love others, that you enjoy church, or does it share a bible verse you found particularly encouraging? Facebook can be used as a tool, or it can completely destroy your testimony. It is hard to invite your friends to church and make a lasting impact when people see another side of your personality in your tweets.

Romans 12:1-2 says:
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

We are meant to be different, we are meant to stand out and glorify Jesus Christ in everything we do, everything we say, and yes... everything we facebook post.

A Beautiful Collision

Have you ever been involved in a car accident?

I have.

When I was 16 years old I was involved in a 2 car accident that actually injured 3 other people and myself.
Looking back 9 years later many things come to mind. How'd this happen, why did it happen?

But the thing I'm most thoughtful of is the fact that it could have been much worse.
When you are involved in a collision it is a life altering action that you are involved with.
Things change.
You're perspective on life changes.

When two moving objects come together in a collision something happens.

Sometimes you leave the collision with pieces from the other object, sometimes you don't leave the same. Sometimes you can't leave without changing, sometimes the IMPACT of those two objects is so powerful that a total life change, a total reconstruction has to happen. Sometimes a complete change has to be made.

For example in my accident I had to buy a new car, I had alot to think about concerning where my life was and if I was really ready to meet my maker.

This week at One Way we are talking about a Beautiful Collision and what happens when you and God collide.

This month we pray that you would have a head on collision with your maker, with your savior Jesus Christ and that you would walk away eternally changed.

Don't miss this Wednesday night at One Way Student Ministries as we wreck into the arms of our Savior!

    http://www.onewaysm.org/#!current-series