Welcome to this week’s online youth group lesson. Catch up with previous lessons here.
We kick off this week’s lesson with a song we shared for the first time last week, from newcomer Anne Wilson called “My Jesus:”
Please continue to pray for Pastor Paul Sheets, who announced on Sunday that he will be retiring at the end of his current term in 2023.
Also be praying for Beth Freed and Blake Walter (and extended family) under COVID quarantine. Clayton and Kimmie’s daughter, Abigail, fell from a porch on Tuesday and ultimately needed 10 stitches in her ear. Please continue to remember Julianna Jordan and Hunter Sauers as they recover from different injuries.
Also, we need to praise God for his blessings during the recent youth yard sale, for the community ministry it provided and opportunity to earn finds. We earned $2,300, although we may need to pay out some to recycle TVs that didn’t sell.
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Before we get into this week’s lesson, some of the youth had shared interest in hearing more about Anne Wilson, the 19-year-old musician we introduced via her “My Jesus” song shared also above. Her testimony is pretty powerful, and can be found in this video:
Late last week while running errands ahead of our youth yard sale, I was driving south on Route 15 just outside of South Williamsport (near the Little League Museum). I was driving in the passing lane next to another car. The lanes were soon about to merge, so I sped up a bit to get over in front of the other vehicle.
A few moments later, flashing red and blue lights filled my rearview mirror. It turned out there was an officer with a speed gun at the very place where I had sped up to get around the other driver. He asked me if I knew why he pulled me over, I mentioned that I had sped up to get around another driver and had gone over the speed limit. He took my drivers license, car registration and insurance and a few moments later handed me a $166 speeding ticket for going 41 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone.
It was just six miles an hour over the speed limit. I was a little frustrated at first, feeling like the drivers must have felt in this video:
Regardless, I was speeding, even if it was only by a little bit.
On the way home, I thought about how often I find myself sneaking over the speed limit while driving. In fact, many people speed. Paige, who is still on her learners permit a little while longer, is very particular about watching her speed and gets annoyed when others zip past her because she is following the rules and they are too impatient to wait.
It made me think … why do I speed? I used to be pretty on top of that when I was Paige’s age, too. Since getting the ticket, I have been more mindful of watching my speed, and it is actually very hard to break the habit of pushing the envelope of our local speed limits.
Many of us start speeding — and develop a habit of it — because we so often can get away with it. There aren’t enough officers to watch every road 24/7 to enforce the speed limits. At our yard sale Saturday, an officer set up a speed trap along Troxelville Road, and numerous times, pulled over speeders into our church parking lot to issue tickets. We had conversations with people who were shopping at those moments, including some people who attend our church, who admitted to speeding most of their lives and never getting a ticket.
Imagine how different things would be if we knew an officer was watching our speedometer every time we got behind the wheel. What if our speeds were electronically recorded at a central police office and we received a fine every time we snuck past the posted limit? Even if that fine was small, we’d likely be much more mindful of how hard we pushed down the gas pedal.
The whole scenario made me wonder what other rules I had developed a habit of breaking — what sins do I commit because I don’t see an immediate consequence? And just because we don’t get “nailed” for breaking a rule or committing a sin at the moment of the infraction, that doesn’t mean that God isn’t keeping record of each of our transgressions. Consider what is written in 2 Corinthians 5:10 (NIV) about judgement saved specifically for believers in Christ:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
In Revelation, after Jesus’ second coming, the non-believers will be judged according to the lives they lived, the sins they committed and none of them, on their own merit, will be pure enough to enter Heaven, via Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV):
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Ultimately, as Christians, we need to be mindful of the limits God provides and do everything we can to avoid crossing those lines. Again, what sins (or sin-adjacent) activities are you doing almost by habit because you aren’t getting an immediate consequence? Something to think about as you consider this, look over this passage from Matthew 7:16-20 (NIV):
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
So, ultimately, what foundation are we, as Christians, building our lives around with the knowledge that one day we will account for our actions in front of Jesus? Consider the object lesson shared in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 (NIV):
If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
For more on this topic, check out this video from Allen Parr:
Wrapping up this lesson, here is another song from Anne Wilson:
