Christian Atheist: Don't Think You Can Change

This is the last part of the series based on the book, Christian Atheist. So far, we've talked about not knowing God, being ashamed of your past/not being sure that God loves you, pursuing happiness at any cost, and when He's not fair.

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This topic is going to be written a little differently, as the nature of this one is step-by-step. Whatever it is that you are addicted to or want to change, you can change it.

• Identify the lie. We begin to think that even though I believe in God, I don't think He can help me. This is how He made me, so I can't change. These thoughts are lies.
• Admit to the problem. You've mastered the problem, and don't know it. You need to realize and admit that you have a problem.
• Want to change. After you admit that you have a problem, you have to WANT to change before you can finish the process. If you don't want it, it will be impossible for you to finish the process and actually change.
• God can help you change. You must invite God to work with you. He is the only one who can help you make the change. Reject the lies of the devil and embrace the truth of God and allow God to change you.

²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
~Mark 10 (NIV)

• Ask youself. There are 6 questions to ask yourself in the process, if you are answering yes to at least 3 of these questions, you may have a problem.
1. Do your family and friends say you have a problem?
2. Do you continue even though you are hurting people?
3. Do you arrange your schedule, priorities or spending around it?
4. Can you go one week without it?
5. Is it driving others away?
6. Are you denying it is a problem or trying to keep it a secret?
• Stop making excuses. You may have tried to change before, you may think that nothing works, but stop making excuses and try until it works. In John 5, Jesus asked a man who couldn't walk if he wanted to get well. That would be like asking a poor person if they wanted $1 million. Instead of saying "Yes!," he just said that there was no one to help him, and made excuses.
• Cut the ties. Surround yourself with new, good friends who are positive to your progress.
• Surrender to God's power. Your strength is limited, your will-power is not bottomless, and your determination will run dry. Surrendering to God's power is the only way you can keep the strength. Just let go and let God take care of it.

¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

~Philippians 4 (NIV)

You may not be able to fix everything, but you can do something. Do what you can today, rely on God to do what you can't do. Let God be the power you need in your weakness.

Christian Atheist: He's Not Fair

As part of our Christian Atheist series, we've talked about not knowing God, being ashamed of your past/not being sure that God loves you, and pursuing happiness at any cost. This week, we're talking about when you believe in God, but think that He's not fair.

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Is God always fair? In what ways? I'm not thinking in the sense of having a car to drive or enough money to buy a candy bar, I'm going a little deeper than that.

I have a few examples:

1. Job. There is a great summary of the book of Job here, or you can read it here. Basically, God and Satan talk, and God lets Satan take everything away from Job that God gave him, just to see if Job would still believe in God.
2. Paula Merrill, one of our youth leaders, was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer 2 weeks after graduating college and 3 months before getting married.
3. Katie Moore, Josh Merrill's sister, was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer (one of the more deadly cancers) 4 months after giving birth to her first child.
4. Shane Billings, Amy Hogue's brother, stepped on an IED on a volunteer mission for the Marines, and has been struggling through surgeries to save his foot.

 ¹ As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  ³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
~John 9:1-3 (NIV)

²⁴ A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” ²⁵ He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
~John 9:24-25 (NIV)

There are three facts:

1. We don't deserve good things
2. Good things happen to bad people (us)
3. God is present in your pain

Just because these bad things are happening, it does not mean that we are alone in the event. God is with us through the pain, whether we realize it or not. The reason that we have to experience pain in our lives is so that we can show the works of God, as the first passage says. In the story of Job, Job never stopped believing in God, and he got his possessions back. In the story of Paula, after surgery and one treatment, she is basically cured. In the story of Katie, after surgery, the doctors found that her situation is very unique, leading her to be virtually cured. Shane's story is currently in progress, but the IED did not full explode, and rain let the mud take most of the impact. In each of these stories, there was a tremendous amount of pain that each individual experienced, but God was present at each step.

It's very hard to understand, but luckily, we don't have to! All that we need to know, like the blind man, is that we were sick, and He healed us.

We started the evening with singing the song below during music. It's a great songs showing that the bad things that happen to us are from God too, and if that's how we find God, maybe it's not the worst thing in the world.

Christian Atheist: Pursue Happiness At Any Cost

We're in the middle of a series about Christian Atheism. So far, we've talked about not knowing God and being ashamed of your past/not being sure that God loves you. This week, we're talking about when you believe in God, but pursue happiness at any cost.

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What makes you happy? Does it make God happy?

Does He always want you to be happy?

This may surprise you, but he doesn't ALWAYS want you to be happy.

God does not want you happy when:

1. It causes you to do something wrong. The example in the book was about the author's daughter. A family friend had a zipline in their yard that was apparently pretty intense. The homeowners made a rule that anyone who rode the zipline had to be at least 15 years old. The author's 4 year old daughter decided to go on the zipline anyway, didn't know how to jump off and went full force into a tree.
2. It's only based on this world. If you toss a fish onto the floor and it starts flopping around, it isn't happy. Even if you offer the fish $1 million, alcohol, or anything else, it still won't be happy. Why? Because it was made for the water. The same goes for us. We are not made for the Earth, we are made for Heaven.

^15-17Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.
~1 John 2 (The Message)

The more you fall in love with God, the less the things of this world will pull on you and draw you into them. When you lower your expectations of this world and pursue God instead, then you can be more happy.

God wants so much more than happiness. Can you believe that? He doesn't always answer you, but He wants to bless you, to give you joy that's overflowing. Don't settle for second class when God offers you first class.

Christian Atheist: Ashamed of Your Past/Aren't Sure He Loves You

Last week, we started a series on Christian Atheism. This week, we're talking about when you believe in God, but are ashamed of your past and aren't sure that He loves you.

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• Our past becomes a cycle. We believe that pain and failure is who we are, not just an event. Because of this, we just keep doing what we are doing because we think that's all we can be.  WE ARE NOT OUR SINS OR PAST.
• We need to heal by accepting. If we do not accept our past, we cannot know God because we cannot live for Him.
• We are forgiveable, changeable, capable and moldable. Forgiveable: God forgives us for any and all of our sins, as long as we ask. Changeable: We can change. It doesn't matter what our past is, we can change from it, as long as we have God's help and willing to do so. Capable: We are capable of changing. Moldable: God can shape us to be more Christ-like.
• Embrace God. It's the ONLY way to change our future. God loves you regardless of what you did in your past.

In Matthew 18, there is a story about a shepherd and 100 sheep. If one sheep goes astray, the shepherd will leave the 99 sheep to save it. God is the same way with us. He will leave to find the one person straying.

It is hard to understand God's love. We are used to temporary love; love that lasts for a week, a month, a year, even a marriage is temporary. Eventually we all die. This life is temporary.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ~John 3:16 (NIV)

Now, take John 3:16 and phrase it: "For God so loved (your name) that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

God loves you so much that He sent Jesus to die for you and give you a future in Heaven, if you embrace God.

Christian Atheist: Intro/Don't Know Him

Today, we're starting a series on the Christian Atheist. This series is from Craig Groeschel's book, The Christian Atheist: Believing in God But Living As If He Doesn't Exist. All information is from the book, verses are from the bible, and examples are personal examples.

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Did you know that 94% of Americans claim to believe in God or a universal being? Most people do not act that way. If you look at the dollar bill, it says "In God We Trust," except people put more trust in money than they do in God.

Some important terms to think about:

• Theism: Belief in the existence of God
• Atheism: Disbelief in the existence of God
• Christian: Professes belief in the teachings of Christ
• Christian Atheist: Believing in Christ, but living as if he does not exist.

Christian Atheist may sound like a faith problem or confusion. This is not really the case at all. The core problem is NOT about belief, but about intimacy. Belief is not the same as personal knowledge. We need to think of God as a friend and get to know him, as you do with your friends.

Romans 7:14-19  New International Version (NIV)

 ¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

We all sin. We will always sin. We know when things are wrong, but still do them anyway. As we get closer to God, we begin to change. We will still sin, but we will make smarter decisions and grow.

Before we finished, we asked the teens to answer these questions. We wanted to figure out which themes to do during the series.



*All information is from the book, verses are from the bible, and examples are from the book, the bible and personal examples.