Respect

What is respect?
Some student answers included kindness, not defacing property, listening, honoring other's wishes, following rules and doing what is right.

Those are all great answers! Webster's Dictionary defines respect as admiration, or acting in a way that you are aware of others and treat them in a proper way.

Are there people in your life that you don't respect? Why?
Students answered yes. The feel that these people are rude and don't deserve it.

We then read the story about Saul and David in 1 Samuel 24. Saul was the current king, and David was next in line to be king. David was not happy that Saul was king and he was not, and Saul was not happy that David wanted to take over and wanted to kill David.

⁸ Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. ⁹ He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? ¹⁰ This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’

David had respect for Saul because Saul was chosen by God. Saul did not really deserve it, especially since he tried killing David. David finally realized that everything is in God's time, and he needed to be respectful of those in charge. David would someday take his place and be a great king.

Do you respect people, even though you think they don't deserve it? Why?

What is the first commandment that Jesus asks of us? Love your God, love your neighbor (your neighbor is everyone you come in contact with.

Respect others, even if they don't respect you. Do not return fire with fire. Even if they have rules or boundaries that you think are wrong. Respectfully talk to them.

How can you show respect to someone today?

Love

Let's start with a well-known passage: 1 Corinthians 13 (NIV):

¹ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 

What is the first part of this passage saying?

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 We see that even if you do all of the right things, but have no love, you have nothing.

 

What is your definition of love?

 

Why is love the greatest?

We have faith and hope on Earth, but no longer in death. Love grows stronger in death, because God is love. 1 John 4 tells us this.

 

Love is the greatest commandment:

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

God has unconditional love for YOU personally. He does not love all of your decisions, but God loves YOU.

New Year, New Day

 

We made it through our first week of the new year!

 

New Year's is typically a time people look at for starting over. Even a week or 2 later, people may give up their resolutions and just wait until next year.

Lamentations 3 says:
²² Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

 

Everyday is new. Everyday is a new start. If we can just remember that each day is new, we can do so many great things. God will be faithful to us if we can be faithful to Him each day as we try to live our lives to the best we can. Remember that each day is a fresh start, and even if you have one bad day, you can start over the next.

 

Valentine's Dinner Fundraiser

Our fifth annual Valentine's Dinner fundraiser for Parma Christian Fellowship Church's building. Come have a nice dinner with your spouse, parents, kids or friends, where you don't have to worry about cooking! Our teens will serve you! We will also have free babysitting if you wish to eat without your young children.

Meals:
Spaghetti & Meatballs
Vegetable Lasagna
Chicken Parmesan
(Gluten Free and Kids meals available upon request)
*This price includes the beverage, salad, garlic bread, main entrée and dessert. (If anyone would like to donate a dessert, let us know!)

ALL TICKETS WILL BE PRE-SALE ORDERS. See our teens or leaders for tickets. Please pre-order by February 1st.

If you would like to help us give more to the building fund, please talk to Paula Merrill about donating a dessert, spaghetti or pasta sauce.

Feel free to invite family and friends who you think would be interested or able to attend!

If you've never been to our Valentine's Dinner before, check out some pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiltontpym/sets/72157629319245145/