Middle School / Calvary Church

If we truly love our neighbor we should not be a bully or do nothing when we see injustice happening. Bullying is sadly apart of most student's lives and Jesus has called us to something so much better, LOVE. Scripture: Luke 10:25-37

Jesus came to usher in the new kingdom and this new kingdom is an upside-down kingdom from how the world sees kingdom. The first will be last. The meek will inherit the kingdom. In Matthew 18 Jesus called us to be humble like a child. As followers of Jesus, we need to trust that our Heavenly Father knows what is best and that trust will produce humility.

Money at times can be a place we go to for security and comfort. We can put our trust in our money, but we are called to find our security and comfort in God. How can we give sacrificially and put our trust in God instead of our money? Scripture: Luke 12:32-34

We want our students to know that our joy is not based on pain and suffering being taken away but that in the middle of pain and suffering we can find Joy in our relationship with Jesus. This week Rich Sparling will be sharing how true Joy is found in Jesus! Passage: Luke 6:22-23

Once we have been made alive spiritually, God wants to give us a new life, a life dedicated to Him. You might say that you are a Christian, but are you really alive for Christ? What does your heart beat for? We want our lives and our hearts to align with God, that is truly living.

Only the life, death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross can bring us from death to life. God is the great I Am, he has always been and always will be. That is so important to understand because only God can forgive us of everything we have, are and will do. So how should we respond to what God has done? In true repentance!

Before we can speak about life, we need to talk about death. The bible describes our spiritual state before we come to know Jesus as dead. That is a serious diagnosis. Only when we understand what it means for us to be dead in our sins, can we understand what it means to be alive in Christ.

We all have passions in our lives, things that get us excited and make us want to get out of bed in the morning. This week we will hear from Alex Vocature, as he shares his passion with us. As we look at Romans 12:1-5, he will be sharing his passion for moving students from information to transformation. We don’t just want to know about God, but for all of us to be change the way we think and live. We will see what our ultimate purpose in life is, to bring glory to God.

Friendships aren’t always fun and laughter, we have high and low moments in all of our relationships. The reality of living in a broken world is that every relationship between two people will have conflict. When conflict arises, we want students to learn to choose love and forgiveness. Friends also walk together with each other through the lows of life, supporting and encouraging. This week Scott Messner will be talking through how we can be friends in these hard times, as Galatians 6:2 "Bear one another's burdens”.

Friends are those that stick with you during the hard times. Trials and adversity can usually separate true friends from those who are just fair-weather friends. Why? Because, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity” (Prov 17:17). This week Grif Jack will be looking at Jesus, who was the greatest friend ever known, and we will learn how we can be a good friend to others.

Proverbs 15 is a chapter full of wise sayings that relate to many different topics, but many point to the foolishness of anger and the wisdom found in gladness. Anger brings with it harsh words, hurt and brokenness, but a heart of gladness is gentle, peaceful and full of love.

The book of Proverbs is full of ways that we can live wisely in all aspects of our life. One of the main themes throughout the book is how we speak. Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” That is a powerful statement, the way we speak can have powerful consequences! This week Grif Jack, one of our elders at Calvary Church will help us unpack how we can speak words that bring life to those around us. Out of our heart, our mouth speaks (Luke 6:45) and we need Jesus to change our heart, so we can speak words of grace and truth.

In Proverbs 10, we are challenged to be wise and pursue virtue, integrity, and generosity instead of the foolishness of selfishness and pride. It can be hard to do what we know is right, with temptations and friends that sometimes lead us down the wrong path. Proverbs 10:9 says, “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.” This week, Dan Rice will be sharing with our students how they can walk in integrity, not just following the rules, but have a heart that loves God and walks in His commands.

We find ourselves telling students to make wise decisions, but sometimes our students don’t know where to go to find good advice. If only the wisest man who ever lived would write a book on the source of wisdom and how to make wise choices. Good news, he has! King Solomon was blessed by God with wisdom and Solomon tells us that the fear of God is the start of all wisdom. All through the book of Proverbs, Solomon contrasts wisdom and foolishness and this week we will discover what that means and how we can live wisely and not as fools.

This is our final week in our summer series on the Fruit of the Spirit. Our final characteristic of a Spirit-led life is Self Control. In Galatians 5:19-21, just before Paul gives us the Fruit of the Spirit, he gives us the acts of the flesh. These horrible actions show us what a life without self-control looks like. A life without self-control brings destruction and pain to the world around us. As we learn to walk by the Spirit, we are not controlled by our desires, instead, the Spirit controls our natural tendency towards sin and allows us to live in step with God.

What do you think about when you hear gentleness? It can often have negative connotations, but gentleness is so important in the Christian life that Paul includes it in his Fruit of the Spirit. Gentleness is shown in how we react to others when they are aggressive towards us, how do we respond to them? A gentle response doesn’t just mean saying nothing, but gentleness can also be strong, firm and clear, but without responding with anger or rage.

As followers of Jesus, we long to one day hear Him say, “well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21-23), but what does it mean to be faithful to God? In the Fruit of the Spirit, faithfulness is being dependable and trustworthy, someone who proves themselves consistently. Being faithful is not something we can do on our own, we need God to be working in us through his Spirit.

When we say that someone is a “good person”, we mean that they have integrity, they not only do the right thing, but they do it for the right reasons. God is in His very nature good and as a result he does good things. God wants us to not only do good, but to do it with a pure heart. In Ephesians 2:8-10, we are challenged as those who have been saved by faith, to walk in the Spirit by doing the good works that God has prepared for us.

Biblical patience comes from Spirit as we wait on the Lord to work according to His will.

When we trust Christ, he gives us the Holy Spirit, and we experience, internal peace, peace with others, and peace with God.