Life in Relationship

I Love My Shepherd 29 – Chasing Freedom YA Bonus 4: Freedom isn’t all about you

What is the difference in God being willing to die for each of us individually and God dying for the whole world? How is it possible both are true at the same time?

John 10:10

Galatians 4:7, 31

What things can we become enslaved to in life? What questions can weigh us down? What areas of life feel most overwhelming right now?

Areas youth/young adults feel the yokes the most and why

• Who am I? Identity confusion of adolescence + young adulthood – Satan would love to take this and run with it, weigh you down with confusion, trying to figure it out is a yoke somewhat specific to young adulthood, but not necessarily
• Relationship decisions – identity + who do I want to spend time with, dating, sexuality, friendship
• What do I believe for myself, rebellion, conformity, and everything in between – what is truth, what matters most
• Academics, knowing feels more important than anything, freedom doesn’t come from knowing, although it’s a start
• The struggle of worth, guilt, shame, Am I forgivable?
• Why in the world am I here? Purpose - God’s plans for our future – What plans are you concerned about?

Why your voice matters for someone next to you…

• The uniqueness of your life position, place, and time
• Don’t want to hear it from an adult
• We need each other
• God created the church for a purpose
• It isn’t all about you…contrary to what Satan would have you believe, he wants isolation and self obsession

Knowing Christ – Psalm 119:36-40

Knowing one another – Philippians 2:3-5

Question: How do we begin to know God more and deeper through the work of the Spirit according to these verses?

Question: How do we begin to know others deeper according to these verses? How does God lead and guide us in our relationship with others?

Challenge: Who do I have unique influence with around me? What questions might they have about life, freedom, and Christ, what yokes do they bear?

ESV Bible translation - Copyright © 2001 by Crossway,

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

All rights reserved.

ilovemyshepherd.com

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I Love My Shepherd 28 – Chasing Freedom Audio Bonus 4: Refusing Someone Else’s Identity: It’s a Joint Effort

What does it mean to be a Child of God?

Freedom from the beginning, through the redemption plan

• Sin’s confusion in our existing freedom

What identities would Satan want us to find ourselves in, rather than as God’s child?

• Sexual identity
• Vocational identity
• Identity in hobbies and recreation

The difference between in identity in creation v. restoration

• God has always been at work for our freedom
• Sin distrupts our status as children
• We need restoration in Christ though to return to this relationship to be God’s children
• Baptized children of God have already been given restoration that created children do not

This is our identity –

Created Child of God

Baptized Child of God

What is remembering our baptisms? How do you remember yours? How can we remind one another of ours?

Why is this so hard to hold on to, to remember? This is the core – Satan wants to destroy our identity. He wants us to doubt it. He wants us to trade it in for the yoke –

worthless, not enough, hurtful, untrustworthy, powerless, helpless, etc. etc.

Which of these does he try to put in your head? (Or add your own! Let’s give it light.)

The Galatians had this same problem – Galatians 4:28-31

• They need Paul and one another to remember who they are in Christ
• Satan starts at the root with all of us, including the Galatians – Who are you?
• Paul says, “Children of the Promise.” Children of the Promised Messiah.
• God gives us Jesus for this freedom – Galatians 5:1

God created the Church for this purpose – to hold on to freedom, it’s a joint effort

• Acts 1:14-15

What place does our relationship with one another have in helping us understand our identity as well as our freedom?

• Remind one another of freedom
• Discern freedom
• Release for freedom, helping one another throw the yokes off

Let us begin with grace today and every day...together. To Walk in grace is to offer freedom to someone, quite tangibly.

James 4:6-8 – more grace, humility to be a people who need each other – it’s a joint effort

Challenge: Who can you share grace with today? How can you begin with grace this day and every day to remember your baptismal identity and to help one other person remember theirs?

I Love My Shepherd 27 – Chasing Freedom YA Bonus 3: Arguing for freedom with open eyes

Have you ever slept with your eyes open? When, where?

Talking about things that matter, does not always mean we will be heard.

• Identifying Truth + speaking it in love
• If you can, name one situation in your life you’d like to help someone with a specific problem…or what is an argument you see around you that you’d like to speak about clearly?

Review: What do you remember from Galatians so far?

What is the problem? What arguments does Paul offer as solutions as you look through Galatians?

Lessons learned from Paul for argument –

Paul spend ½ chapter of Galatians presenting the problem

5 ½ chapters identifying a solution

check outline in study bible (I have The Lutheran Study Bible, Concordia Publishing House)

What we can learn from Paul about eyes wide open?

• Galatians 3:1-2
• share ideas and examples of Paul’s tone, practice saying the verses in different ways to communicate

Question 1: Do we have a foundation with them?

• strong words with prior relationship
• Discerning together previously
• What is the ifference between a discussion with someone you talk t all the time and someone you have only spoken to once or twice?

Question 2: Where is the best place for this conversation? Have I thought through it?

• Paul frequently mentions in his letters that he would rather be with them (Galatians 4:20)
• Where are some good places for conversation in your life? (cafeteria, restaurant, home, etc)

Have I thought this through?

• Think first,
• What makes for a well developed argument? (big words, complicated topic, multiple points, etc.)

Question 3: What has God already done for this person? What does God do in our lives to share His love that is our foundation?

• Justification, life in the Spirit, Christ’s work on the cross
• Meeting Galatians where they are at
• Wrap the argument, the problem/solution in love of Christ for that person

Question 4: Are we helping or are we picking?

• Why are we arguing? Who are we helping, ourselves or that person?
• Message of Christ needs to be upheld, truth matters, but love does too
• What are some ways we can open the Word in a conversation without being weird about it?
• We are not the Guardians of who belongs (Galatians 3:24-28)
• Right not rude

Where do you go to hear about God’s promises and grace for you?

What promises from God have you heard outloud in Sunday School, church, from your parents, your youth leader, reading the Word, whatever that have stuck with you? What stories from Scripture or messages give you hope?

Challenge: What problems do people have around you, friends or strangers that you can bring Jesus into, to care, and share hope?

ESV Bible translation - Copyright © 2001 by Crossway,

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

All rights reserved.

ilovemyshepherd.com

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd0fe9BbadMkIZwWx-esd-g

Facebook - @ilovemyshepherd

Twitter -  @ilovemyshepherd

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I Love My Shepherd 26 – Chasing Freedom 3: Freedom in Fresh Ink

We are marked people. 

Maybe you have a tattoo, maybe you don't. Maybe you believe in tattoos, maybe you don't.

• Tattoos and the Bible = Levitical law (Leviticus 19:28)
• Bigger question is what are we marking ourselves with, what is worth marking ourselves with
• Consider our cultural context and heart, what is the purpose here, where is the glory going

Galatians 3:23-29

Humankind has a long and complicated history with marking one another. It's painful. Slavery has been alive in virtually every generation and I don't think you can think of marks on human skin without considering the past. 

• Israel being delivered from slavery
• Brand of slaves, Amazing Grace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-4NFvI5U9w

• Canaan-ite religion and markings on the person
• Jefferson's Son - https://www.amazon.com/Jeffersons-Sons-Founding-Father%C2%92s-Children/dp/0142421847/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506966225&sr=8-1&keywords=jefferson%27s+sons

Marking ourselves, that's one thing. Marking another. That's another thing entirely. 

• Bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, not our own
• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

How are we marked? What is God's link over time and history to tattoos and marking, and freedom?

Ephesians 1:12-14 – sealed, Greek - sfrag-id'-zo

http://biblehub.com/greek/4972.htm

• signet ring, early religious markings (for audience understanding)
• mark of ownership
• free will, FREEDOM - we submit, offer ourselves v. slavery
• to the praise of His glory, hope

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 – God establishes us, secure, guarantee, ratify (like Galatians 3)

http://biblehub.com/greek/950.htm - to walk where it is solid, seal gives us footing and freedom in our identity

• tattoos disturbing because they remind us of something darker, the history of it all
• God takes what we know and brings grace into all of it

Challenge: What tattoo would you get, or do you have, to proclaim a little Jesus? What other ways can we proclaim God’s seal on our lives?

ESV Bible translation - Copyright © 2001 by Crossway,

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

All rights reserved.

ilovemyshepherd.com

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd0fe9BbadMkIZwWx-esd-g

Facebook - @ilovemyshepherd

Twitter -  @ilovemyshepherd

Instagram - @ilovemyshepherdministries

I Love My Shepherd 25 – Chasing Freedom YA Bonus 2: Freedom in Friendship without Fear

Questions to consider:

Do you have a friendship you wish you could get back? Reconnect with again, go deeper, love more?

What is real friendship? What does it look like?

• List as many qualities as you can that make up a real friendship

Who is a real friend to you?

Where have you found real friendship?

When have you struggled with a friendship, been ditched or deserted?

Galatians 2:4-6 – false brothers, differentiating false/fake from real

How can you tell if someone is fake? Do you have anything that helps you discern real from false friends?

4 Characteristics of Real Relationships:

• Share truth (not gossip, making stuff up about themselves or others)
• Don’t expect you to be a different person (does this friendship help me grow or tear me down?)
• Impartiality (no choosing or judging friends on material things, family background, etc.)

What are some things teens/young adults choose friends based on?

• Offer love and forgiveness (tell each other the truth, but offer care and forgiveness)

Christ does this best – friendship without fear, never afraid of Him leaving us, ditching us

• Judas: Matthew 26:14-16
• Without distrespecting the plight of actual slavery: How is slavery a good metaphor for junky friendship?

Fear in friendships -

• look like demands, put downs, over the top sarcasm, expectations on things that don’t matter, constant suggestions that are uninvited, “You should really” or hurtful comments followed by “just joking”
• Internal fear in friendship – may have nothing to do with the other person, but this relationship may not work for you if you are constantly concerned what they think of you, want to make them proud or unhealthy trying to impress
• God never asks us to impress Him, He asks us to seek Him, converse with Him
• God’s friendship is sacrificial

Freedom in Friendship –

• Open conversation, exchange of topics and ideas
• No one looks the same, God values different races and ethnicities, ideas and genders
• Challenge you, ask you to take risks, help you grow
• Offer trust, do not misjudge character, give people the benefit of the doubt
• Include other people, willing to let others in, no partiality
• Identifying fake v. real, heavy boundaries against fake
• look for friendship mentors, those around you doing friendship well

Question of the week: Is this friendship offering freedom or fear?

ESV Bible translation - Copyright © 2001 by Crossway,

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

All rights reserved.

ilovemyshepherd.com

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd0fe9BbadMkIZwWx-esd-g

Facebook - @ilovemyshepherd

Twitter -  @ilovemyshepherd

Instagram - @ilovemyshepherdministries

I Love My Shepherd 24 – Chasing Freedom 2: Freedom from the pendulum swing of self

What is the pendulum swing?

I’m a good person, I’m pretty great = self love

I’m terrible, I can’t do anything= self hate

Both are destructive, what can Galatians 2:19-21 teach us:

God walks us through a path that might seem uncomfortable first, but it opens up to freedom.

Law/Gospel –

The law bears down.

1 Timothy 1:15 – worst of sinners

• facing the law, dying to the law v. ignoring it, running from it
• facing the law is different from living in the law

Gospel –

God is doing something in us with all that junk.

We died to the law to live to God. (Galatians 2:19)

• Christ carried our sins and our not enough
• When I see all the messiness all my inadequacy, I think of Him now

I died to me, so I can remember who I am in Him.

1 Timothy 1:16

Freedom to look at the law, so that I can see the mercy.

ESV Bible translation - Copyright © 2001 by Crossway,

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

All rights reserved.

ilovemyshepherd.com

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd0fe9BbadMkIZwWx-esd-g

Facebook - @ilovemyshepherd

Twitter -  @ilovemyshepherd

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Show notes:

I Love My Shepherd 23 – Chasing Freedom YA Bonus 1: Freedom to Speak Up

In the book of Galatians, the apostle Paul talks a lot about freedom.

            Our study of Galatians is designed around Galatians 5:1 –

                        It is for freedom Christ has set you free.

Each week we'll talk about a freedom we are given by God, and what the yoke is we need to let go of by the power of the Holy Spirit – how Satan wants to hold us back from God.

What yokes do you feel in life? What feels like a lot of weight or anxiety in the world? What burdens do you carry, does Satan try to throw in your backpack?

            Freedom to Speak Up, to be used by God, Yoke: Apathy

Google definitions of apathy and share some that you find…

Why do you think it is so tempting to be apathetic? What outside influences encourage apathy? (such as adults not valuing youth opinion, needing so much time to study and do sports/activities, etc.)

Walk through 1 Timothy 4:4-14

• 12 reminds us we are valued no matter our age, education level, interests, etc.
• God is writing your story, no one else’s looks the same
• look at surrounding verses for the promises

When you want to check out, check in! Turn to the word of God.

Questions:

When do you most feel like you want to check out? What things in life make you want to check out?

What is your favorite way to check out? (Just being honest, we all do it!)

Where do you see apathy around you in school, work, church, your family?

What promises from God, for you, can you find in 1 Timothy 4:4-14?

Challenge: Chose one way you can speak up this week!

Show Notes:

I Love My Shepherd 22 – Chasing Freedom Audio Bonus 1: Freedom to Let Him Write that Story

It can not be argued that the apostle Paul has a fantastic story.

We can chase freedom through rumors, gossip, and reputation.

            Where have you seen this?

We can chase freedom by wanting someone else’s life and testimony.

            What parts of your life or times in your life have you wished for something else?

Galatians 1:11-24

Paul's story is different from every other apostle's story

• each of our stories are different and look different

What has God done in your story that stands out to you, looks different?

• no one’s story is lesser than, or better than

• Wiersbe Bible Commentary – His nonconformity was divinely deliberate.

Freedom through transformation

Paul's transformation is a huge testimony to God's work that can not be ignored

• We are the giant blinking sign that says, “God at work here!”
• 3 things God did in Paul's life, through the Spirit, to reveal Himself to others

1. v17 Paul studied the Word
2. v18 Paul met with people 
3. v19-20 Paul let his story shine God's Gospel light

The beauty of letting God, not man, not even myself write that story, write my story.

Challenge: Who can you share your story with today? How can you share your story?

ESV Bible translation - Copyright © 2001 by Crossway,

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

All rights reserved.

ilovemyshepherd.com

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd0fe9BbadMkIZwWx-esd-g

Facebook - @ilovemyshepherd

Twitter -  @ilovemyshepherd

Instagram - @ilovemyshepherdministries

Show Notes:

I Love My Shepherd 21 – Dear Girls, He is Not Your Savior

http://ilovemyshepherd.com/ya/

Genesis 2:18

Genesis 3:16

Complement v. fulfillment

What are we looking for in our desire for a man in our life?

Our need for men is killing our relationship with men.

What we're looking for and what He provides:

Salvation – Acts 4:12, Philippians 2:9-11

Someone to pick up the broken pieces – Luke 7:36-48

Someone to show them their value – Isaiah 43:4

JJ Heller – Love me for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgGUKWiw7Wk&list=PLwVpDiBxpr_iqr47IXni0cNaxSljqhl4v

Affection and tenderness - Deuteronomy 10:15

Hebrew: chashak http://biblehub.com/lexicon/deuteronomy/10-15.htm

Protection - Psalm 34:17-19

What are we looking for in a relationship? Can man do this, or only Jesus?

ESV Bible translation - Copyright © 2001 by Crossway,

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

All rights reserved.

ilovemyshepherd.com

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd0fe9BbadMkIZwWx-esd-g

Facebook - @ilovemyshepherd

Twitter - @ilovemyshepherd

Instagram - @ilovemyshepherdministries

I Love My Shepherd 20 – Ministry Moment: Connecting Kids

Church as people, not a place -

1 Corinthians 12:12-14

Article about some unintended consequences of church as building-

https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-the-church.html

https://relevantmagazine.com/god/church/when-we-think-church-building

How do children begin to understand grace?

Kids spell grace – Forgiveness and Fun

- Ephesians 4:7

• envision a playground of grace

• kids have the gift of zest and energy and seeing things through fresh eyes, and fun!

Erickson's Developmental Stages

https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

Trust v. Mistrust (pregnancy-18 months) – Do we provide anything for infants?

Autonomy v. Shame (Ages 18 months–3 yrs) - Where can we give more patience and independence?

Initiative v. Guilt (Ages 3-5) – Where can we include them?

Industry v. Inferiority (Ages 5-12) – What gifts do they have to share?

Ego identity v. Role Confusion (Ages 12-18) – Have I asked their opinion? +

How can we encourage questions?

Simple ideas to connect with kids:

• make room for them and rooms for them

• things hung from kid friendly levels

• bright colors

• things to touch and feel

• room and time for questions

• get down on their level

• treats, food, food, treats ;)

• Little people sets, books, worship bags

   

ESV Bible translation - Copyright © 2001 by Crossway,

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

All rights reserved.

ilovemyshepherd.com

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd0fe9BbadMkIZwWx-esd-g

Facebook - @ilovemyshepherd

Twitter - @ilovemyshepherd

Instagram - @ilovemyshepherdministries