High School / Calvary Church

This week we will be looking at the spiritual discipline of prayer. Prayer is so foundational to our spiritual walks, it is our access and communication with the almighty God of the universe. We want to follow Jesus’ example of not only how to pray, the words we use, but more importantly what our hearts should be.

The bible is God’s written word to us, full of incredible stories, songs, letters, and wisdom that change our lives. The bible is not meant to be read like any other book, it is to be studied, meditated on, and applied to our lives. In this series, we will be looking at why we read, how we read, and the importance of reading together.

From Jeremiah 1:4-11, Jeremiah embraces his role in God’s story. He recognized that he wasn’t the main character, that it wasn’t his party and was willing to go through suffering and things that are hard to fulfill God’s plan for his life. Tonight we focus on two questions: Who am I and Why am I here?

God invites us to be part of the greatest story ever told. Our role is to accept his invitation and join the party. Have you accepted God’s invitation to choose Him? Are you choosing God daily from your heart or choosing the deceptions of the evil one?

We all know what it’s like to lose something important or valuable to us. The reality of our world is that it is filled with lost people, people that God wants to return to relationship with him. Nothing brings God more joy than when lost people come back to Him. How are we a part of doing that?

It’s hard to imagine sometimes, but even the largest trees start out as just a tiny little seed. Packed inside that seed is all the potential of a large tree filled with fruit and life. Jesus challenges our idea that our faith is too small and insignificant. Just like a small seed, with the Holy Spirit inside of us, we have the potential to do big things for God’s Kingdom!

A story of two brothers, both lost in their own way, and a loving father who welcomes them home. Are you running from God in sin or legalism? God is our loving father and is always waiting, ready to run to you and bring you back home!

The shortest parable in the Bible, just one verse (Matthew 13:44), but it packs a big punch! What do we value most in our lives, our treasures, and kingdom or building God’s kingdom and the treasure of loving and serving Him? Are we willing to give up everything to follow Jesus?

As we start off our year in Student Groups, we want to get back to the basics, why do we even do student groups? What is their purpose and what should we commit to when we show up on a Wednesday night?

This week we dig deep into Romans 3:21-31, as we learn how we are saved by faith alone. Though we were dead in our sins, we can be saved through faith in Jesus. This salvation is not dependent on us and our actions, but on God, who forgives, justifies and makes us righteous through faith. When we realize that it is God who saves us, not ourselves, we can only be grateful and humbled by His love.

In this series we will be looking at the book of Romans. In the first week, our goal is to recognize the position that sin has put us in relation to God. We will look at the realistic truth of the effects of sin in our lives. We will be looking at Romans 1:18-32. We will focus on the wrath of God, who we choose to worship, and how God is fighting to bring us back into his arms.

In our last look at the book of Nehemiah, after the wall has been built, the scripture is read and the people respond! But this revival is short-lived, the people quickly turn from God’s words. The book ends with a challenge, will we be like the Israelites, or will we allow God to change our hearts, to not only be hearers but doers of the word.

It can often seem in our lives, that just as things are going well and we are living out our mission, that opposition arises. This is certainly true in the book of Nehemiah. As the rebuilding of the wall begins, Nehemiah begins to experience opposition from outside and division from within. How will he respond to these setbacks? In Nehemiah 4-6, we will learn how Godly leaders deal with criticism, gossip and injustice.

God has placed you where you are for a purpose, He uses all manner of people in all manner of places doing all manner of work to make an impact in the world. Nehemiah has a prayer, a passion, and preparation for the work that God has laid on his heart, rebuilding the wall in Jerusalem. Where has God placed you? Wherever it is, you are there for a purpose, and God wants to work in and through you to show His glory in our world!

In 1 Corinthians 6:16-20, Paul commands us to flee from sexual immorality. Flee is certainly a strong word and we want to take that command seriously because Paul knows the potential power that sexuality can have in our lives for good and for brokenness. When it comes to living our lives with sexual integrity, we want to talk about what we should be running from, but also what we should be running to! Paul’s challenge to us is so much more than just, "don’t have sex before marriage", but how can we think, speak and act in ways that guard our potential for intimacy, for the rest of our lives.

Right at the start of scripture, God creates the world and it is good. As a part of this creation, God creates marriage, the union of male and female in commitment and intimacy. God creates us as sexual beings before the fall, before sin distorts and breaks what God made to be good. This week we will talk about what it means to live with sexual integrity in a broken world.

With our new identity as rescued ones, God gives us a new life and purpose. David describes it as a new song to sing! What songs do you identify with? What is a new song, a new mission that God has put on your heart? When we sing this new song, we begin to focus on helping to rescue others, so “Many will see and put their trust in the Lord.”

As we continue to identify with David’s story, when we call out to Jesus, He is our rescue! David says, “He drew me up from the pit.” Like a life preserver in the ocean, Jesus enters our lives and pulls us out of the pit and the mire. Only Jesus can rescue me.

When we are saved, we are not left alone floating in the ocean. When Jesus rescues us, he gives us a new direction, a new identity in him. David says, “My feet are upon a rock and my steps are secure.” Who am I and how do I live as a rescued one?

No matter who we are, where we come from or how we grow up, one thing is true of every person, we are all in a pit, a miry bog and we need to be rescued. In John 8, Jesus encounters a woman caught in sin and a large crowd wanting to stone her. In this powerful story, we see that none of us is perfect, we all have sinned, and we all need a rescuer.