Roots Student Ministry Podcast

It's easy to be a party starter in peoples lives when things are going great. It's easy to celebrate the great times in life. It's harder to come alongside those who are struggling. But in order to be a good party starter, we need to walk alongside others through their pain.

In a lot of ways in our lives, it can feel like there are two groups in life: the insiders and the outsiders. Sometimes, if we realize it or not, we can be the ones to make other people feel "out". But Jesus gave us an example that with God, everyone gets a seat at the table. Jesus spent time with the tax collectors and the sinners. The people in that society that everyone looked down upon. But with Jesus, everyone belongs.

It's easy for us to do the bare minimum. We may do it because we're tired, or it seems like it wouldn't be any benefit to do more, or maybe we're afraid of what would happen if we put more effort into something, or maybe it's simply a lack of motivation. But Jesus came and gave an example of going the extra mile for someone else. To literally go above and beyond what is expected of you. So if we want to make a difference around us, we need to do more of what is asked of us.

We may think that to be a Christian, it means we have to follow a bunch of rules. And if that were true, then Christianity would not be like a party at all. But Jesus said that He came so that we can have life to the full. That means that Jesus came so we can celebrate the life that God gave us. When we choose to follow Jesus, we’re choosing to say yes to believing that His promise of a full life is possible, no matter what comes our way. Because we have Jesus, we can start the faith party around us every day.

It's easy to draw conclusions on other people. Many times we may even create bad conclusions about others because of choices they have made or ways that they act. But when we look at who we were created to be as image bearers of God, then we also need to recognize that everyone else was created as an image bearer of God as well. Knowing you’re valuable to God is never meant to make other people less valuable to you. It's important to remember that everyone is someone made uniquely in God's image.

The real question that we are all asking is "Who am I?" We can be one way with one group of people that is different than we are with another group of people. It's all a search to find out who we really are deep down inside of us. But the truth is found in God. Scripture says we are image bearers of God. And Jesus came to give us a true example of what that looks like. When we look to Jesus on how to live, then we are being our true self.

It can be easy for us to look down on other people, especially those who are different than us. We can even justify it and say what they are doing is not the "Christian" think they should be doing. But in the story of Jesus' interaction with the woman at the well, we see that Jesus includes anyone...even the people that were different than Him. We need to see people the way God sees people.

Sometimes our own worst enemy is ourselves. Maybe we don't love ourselves, or maybe we think that loving ourselves is selfish. In some ways, the idea of loving God and others is much easier than the idea of loving ourselves. But Jesus changes everything. Jesus connects our ability to love God and love others to our ability to love ourselves. It's not about building more self-confidence or having a better self-esteem. It's about truly knowing your identity in Christ and who God created you to be.

Jesus said the most important command is to love God and to love others. But how exactly do we love God? Well, God gave us an example by sending His Son to this earth and showing us how to live. If we live like Jesus, we are loving God with everything we have.

Our faith can get a little complicated. We start to ask deep questions and we don't fully understand what the Bible says about it. It seems like we have to be a Bible scholar in order to be a "good" Christian. But when Jesus came down to earth, He made sure to let everyone know that your faith should not be complicated. Simply put: love God and love others.