Hi guys!!!!

This is alex, yeah i made a mistake, i am sorry, this is why lesson is up so late.

We are starting on a new book, the main theme or topic or point of the book would be learning about jesus and his life.

When i prayed about what the lesson should be for tomorrow, there were a few things swimming in my head.

Things such as

1) How nice my get away trip with my cell was.... haha.

2) What the state of the ministry is right now, how the boys are doing that well. 

3) How some leaders have dropped out

4) Zhan feng and i talking about how the youths are in a state of jadedness 

4) Ariel talking about prayer.

5) Edmund and i talking about girls and their make up. 

6) The combined ocean cell retreat

And then a question hit me. What was the one spiritual thing you needed the most when you were in sec3?

I asked a few leaders and continued to seek God.

Then it hit me, no matter what age, what point of life, what circumstances you are in. The one spiritual thing you need the most is Jesus.

That is why i have entitled the lesson as God speaking to us, How have you been?

Cause at the end of the day that is essentially the heart of life. To have a relationship with God. To be in commune with God. That is the one thing that we as leaders need to do. To tell them about God, how wonderful our shepherd is!!!! What he did, what he is like!!!

Not tell them what to do, how they should be talking their parents, when they should start dating. yes we have good intentions, yes it is christian like but if you really look back, all we have been doing is picking verses from the bible and telling them a set of  rules to follow. Like what zhan feng pointed out to be last week. Even though we are called leaders, but we dont actually lead our youths in life cause sheep cant lead sheep.  

What our kids need to know is our God, our shepherd and how awesome he is. Cause when one knows and acknowledges how awesome something is, he or she will naturally be drawn to it. I say again the crux of christianity is the relationship with God. Will your youth have a better relationship with God, once he acknowledges and knows more about God? DAM STRAIGHT HE WILL! cause you have as well.  And who better to talk about than Jesus,the full embodiment  of God's glory, his awesomeness.

Ok down to business,

Tuner: You need pieces of paper and a lighter. Im thinking to get them to write down all the deep dark secret sins on the piece of paper. Yeah you get it

Verse for today: John 3:16

There is a reason why every single christian can remember this verse. Im going to refer to desiringgod.org, yeah going to change certain things.

Some key things i picked out to expound on the verse

1. God

“For God so loved . . .” There is no reason to think that Jesus means any other God than the God of the Old Testament. He is the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of the universe. He is personal and not a mere force, meaning he thinks and wills and feels. He loves, and he hates. And as personal, he is moral—that is, he deals with us in terms of right and wrong and good and bad. And as moral, he is unwaveringly righteous. He only does what is right. And the infinite worth of what he is defines what is right. To do right is to think and feel and act in a way that accords with (is in harmony with) God’s infinite worth.

All of us were made by this God, and our first and highest duty and reason for being is to honor him and give him thanks (Romans 1:21). Ask them to look at the words on their paper. We have all failed, and we are all under his righteous displeasure. This is what makes John 3:16 so needed and so precious. It describes the way God is acting to rescue us from this condition.

2. Gave

“For God so loved the world, that he gave. . .” Two things need to be said about this giving. One is that it is a giving from heaven. And the other is that it is a giving, not just to come to earth, but to die. Verse 17 replaces the word give with send.  “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” So the giving of verse 16 is God’s sending his Son into the world on a mission from heaven.

In John 10:17–18, we see what the climax of that mission from the Father is. Jesus says, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” That last sentence shows that the reason the Father sent the Son was so that the Son would lay down his life. “I lay it down of my own accord. . . . This charge I have received from my father.”

So when John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave . . .”, the giving is God sending his Son to earth on a mission to die. It’s just as amazing—only a million times more so—as if you should say to your son, “There is something I want you to do for me: I have some enemies that deserve to perish, and I want you to go and die in their place, so that they can have eternal life.” Whatever else you know about God, make sure you know he is like that

3. Believe

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes . . .” Four observations about this believing.

First, it means that not everybody will benefit from what Jesus came to do. But “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” The rest will perish—and not have eternal life.

Second, if we are to believe this would mean to embrace something as true; and when it’s a person, it means to trust them to be what they are and do what they say.

Third, John 1:11–12 shows that another word John has in mind to explain believe is receive. “[Jesus] came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” So receiving Jesus and believing Jesus explain each other.

This means that we believe, we receive for we acknowledge God. That he cleansed us of ALL OUR SINS. 

(go burn that piece of paper full of your sins cause in God's eyes it is cleansed.)

That we are made holy and righteous by his blood once and for all. And you can enter bodly into the presence of almighty without guilt, condemnation or expectation of punishment. Because of the cross, the price for sin has been paid. Sin no longer hinders you from entering his presence.

Believing in Jesus also means believing that Jesus has fulfilled completely the righteous requirements of the law. Everytime you fail, you should not feel condemned, cause God doesnt condemn you cause Jesus has already fulfilled that, he has already wiped that clean. God doesnt count it on you anymore. If  God doesnt condemn you then why should you condemn yourself? You are perfect in Christ Jesus. I sined but i can pick myself up again because of Jesus, God has forgiven me and through Jesus's power has enabled me to be the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.

This righteousness is the grace of God. Grace is a gift. In john 3:16, it has nothing in it that says we humans merited this gift of righteousness through our acts. And even now we cannot achieve it by our obedience of the law, that is self righteousness. This righteousness of Jesus christ that you have. In God's eyes you are righteous as Jesus himself cause of Jesus.

That is the beauty and reason why all Christians remember john 3:16

To put the icing on the cake, dont you think we should tell our fellow woolly creatures how awesome our shepherd is personally? How he has made you lied down on green pastures this week.

Yeah break up into groups and start telling each other how awesome God is your life.