•THE TALK – it may no longer be the case, but there used to be a mindset in parenting that at a certain time in the life of your child, you sat them down and had “the talk.” The joke, which has been played on a hundred different ways, is that the parents were often more uncomfortable about the subject than their children. I never had “the talk” growing up; which is probably the case for a lot of you. The difference for me is that my parents talked a lot about sex – and still do to my discomfort. The real joke is we, especially as Christians, get embarrassed by the topic but the rest of our culture talks about sex 24/7. Movies, TV, music, magazines, newspapers, even the radio are filled with sex and sex related topics. It’s hard to remove yourself from the onslaught of sex in your daily life. I drove on I-90 a few days ago towards the city and saw numerous billboards that were trying to appeal to my sex drive (and of course my wallet). So it’s time to have “the talk.” We’re going to look at what the bible says about sex, some of the information from CORs survey and finally some ways to improve our intimate relationships.

•Watching Out – Our human condition is to look out for #1. You could argue that sin is putting ourselves over others regardless of what that does to the people around us. Therefore, Paul reminds us that we must be humble, and think of others before we act. We can follow our dreams and our callings, but we have to be careful that what we do doesn’t hurt others. So he says, watch out for each other. This has to be true in marriage and in all Christian relationships. We have to get each other’s backs. So let’s explore some ways we can, “watch out for what is better for others.”

•What is Marriage? – over the years many pastors, including myself have sat with young couples wanting to get married and asked the following question, “why do you want to get married?” The answer is almost always the same: “because we are in love” this is usually followed by the couple turning towards each other, reaching for each other’s hands, and gazing into each other’s eyes with a romantic, yet somewhat nauseating look. My father, a retired pastor, used to say, “Love is not enough.” Harsh, but true. If the love those young couple experienced was truly enough, if, as the Beatles once sang, “all you need is love” why do so many marriages fail? Why does that love not last? Where does it go? Over the next six weeks we are going to look at what Christian Marriage truly is, what happens over the course of a lifetime, and how we can get love to stay.

•Reason for the Season! – If I asked you “what’s the meaning of Christmas?” you would know the right answer. Even if this is your first worship experience, you probably know the answer. It isn’t “presents” or “so stores can make a profit” or “so our economy can continue to grow.” You probably wouldn’t say family or ‘good will towards men’ or something else that would look good on a Christmas Card. After all, you are in church and the person asking is clergy; so you’d say Jesus. Jesus is the reason for the season. And you would be right. Jesus is the right answer – to a lot of questions actually. But is Christmas just a celebration of Jesus’ birthday? Do we just give gifts because some rich guys from Asia gave Jesus presents? I don’t think so. I think there is more to the story. So tonight, as we celebrate the reason for the season, let’s relive the story and try and see what Christmas is really all about.

•Bubblegum Evangelism – Tonight we are concluding our series, “Treasures of the Transformed Life” by John Ed Mathison. We’ve seen how we are called to commit in our relationship with God through prayers, presence, gifts, and service. As we end tonight we need to consider another treasure, witness. I need a couple of volunteers. One person has to be able to chew bubblegum and the other person has to be able listen and respond to the first. Now person #2, I need you to play a role. I want you to imagine you have never tasted bubblegum. Never chewed it, never blown a bubble, never even heard of it. Can you do that? Great. Now person #1. I want you to take this piece of bubblegum, chew it and explain to person #2 what the experience of bubblegum is like. What does it taste like? What does it feel like? Is it enjoyable? Most of us have had bubblegum, but if we hadn’t it would be hard to describe. Our relationship to God is the same way. It can be difficult to describe, yet we are called to witness to it and the Good News of Jesus Christ. Tonight we’re going to try and make our commitment to witness a little easier to live out.

•Treasures – over the last four weeks we have looked at ways we can commit in our relationship with God. These treasures are who we live our transformed/new lives in the church and in the community. So far we have discussed prayer, presence, and gifts. Today we continue with a look at service.

•Treasures – We have been exploring the “treasures of the transformed life” based on the book by John Ed Mathison. These treasures are ways we have to commit to our relationship with God; and therefore with each other. We’ve already seen how we have to commit with our prayers and our presence. This week to turn to a touchy subject, committing with our gifts.

•Treasures – we are focusing on the “Treasures of the Transformed Life” using the resource by the same name by John Ed Mathison. Jesus offers us living water that quenches our thirst, renews us, and transforms us. We need that water throughout our lives if we decide to follow Jesus. Commitment primes the pump. Last week we learned about the importance of prayer, communication with God. This week we are going to turn our attention to being present.

•Why pray – that brings us to our next question, “why pray?” If living new life is all about having a relationship with God you need to treat that relationship like any other. And what is the key to a healthy relationship? Healthy communication. Most conflict in relationships come about because of miscommunication. This happens at home, at work, in every relationship we have. I often get frustrated with characters in televisions shows because they never talk to each other and communicate through conflict. The good news is God never gives us the “silent treatment.” But if we want a healthy relationship with God we have to communicate. How else will you know God’s will for your life? How else will you know where God is calling you? How else will you sense opportunities to share Christ with others? It’s by talking and listening to God. That’s why we prayer. But prayer also does something else. Prayer can bridge the gap between us and other people. Jesus tells us to “pray for our enemies and those that hurt us” and the more we pray for others the stronger our relationship to them becomes. So prayer strengthens our relationship with God and with others. That’s why we pray, but how do we pray?

•Priming the Pump – in Jesus’ time if you wanted water you needed to go to the source (i.e. a river or lake) or you needed to dig a well deep into the ground and pull water out with a bucket. In more recent times people started using pumps for their wells. With some manual labor you could “pump” water out of the well. But he’s the thing: if you found a well with a pump like that you could pump all day and never see any water. The manual pumping made the water flow only if the pump was primed. How do you prime the pump? You have to put a little water in. Once the pump is primed, it can pump water all day. But the first step is priming the pump.