Week 4Main Point and Overview:    Over the course of Israel’s history as a “split kingdom” most of their kings were evil, focused on their own prosperity, power, and prestige. They failed to honor Jehovah God, and it led to worship of foreign gods. In the face of all of this dysfunction, God “raised up” a special leader who was different – King Asa. He wasn’t influenced by his corrupt family; in f...  Read More

1 Peter 5:2-3 “You don’t have to, you get to.” My husband reminds me of this often! Sometimes we have to remember things we don't want to do are actually privileges given to us by God. I’m a very task-oriented person. I’m also very independent. I would rather work alone than as a team. Loving others and going out of my way for people has been something I've had to work on. I am not a people person...  Read More

Philippians 2:3-4 Pride will always come before a fall. I have been reading Colossians lately and it is our focus right now in youth group and young adults. Colossians focuses heavily on the supremacy of Christ and one thing that has always amazed me and hardly even makes sense to me is why Jesus the Son of God, the authority of all things on earth and in Heaven, God Himself, came down from heaven...  Read More

Mark 10:42-45 Jesus turns our human understanding of power completely upside down by calling us to a life of servitude. James and John had just asked for positions of ultimate prestige and authority. They wanted to sit at Christ’s right hand and left hands, basking in glory. Their request mirrored how the world operates. We naturally equate success with how many people report to us, how much contr...  Read More

1 Kings 12:16-21 In the 1860’s our country plunged into a civil war that tore the country in two. The cause of this split was slavery, the ungodly practice of owning and exploiting people for a workforce. This war causes an estimated 750,000 casualties and destruction of much of the south’s economy. This split caused a generation of young men to be slaughtered on the battlefields because of an imm...  Read More

1 Kings 12:1-15 Have you ever reached out to someone seeking wisdom and guidance? You hope they are going to tell you what you think is right in a situation just to tell you almost the opposite. In that moment you struggle to hear it because it's not what you want to hear but maybe it's what you needed to hear. In today's passage we are going to see the struggles of rejecting wise counsel and how ...  Read More