Break Down The Walls

We currently in a four part series entitled "Break Down The Walls." In this series we will uncover ways that we can break down the barriers in our life that can hinder us from living out our faith. As followers of Christ, we should create opportunities for others to experience Christ. Many church goers will be an obstacle instead of an opportunity. We want break through the barriers of our culture, even our church culture, in order to reach out and help those who are in great need of love. Join us Wednesday night as we learn how we can break down the walls.

-Daniel

Ditch Your Life Now

No one wants to look back on their life and realize they've wasted it. We all desire to live a great life worthy of retelling. This carries the idea of leading a great story. One that can be shared and enjoyed. We all want to live great stories, but very few of us are actually committed to doing the work needed to complete such a task. No one desires to waste their life, but so many will. Our students are at a crucial stage of their development. This is a key time to take a stand and say "I will not waste my life." The unwasted life is one that places Jesus on display. Simply, we exist to make Him famous. We've been told our whole lives to go to college, get a great job, marry a wonderful partner, have kids, buy a huge house, own multiple cars, obtain the largest t.v. you can possible find, and start a 401k. At the heart of this American Dream is a lie. We are told to make much of ourselves. Seek security and comfort in all that you do. This seems like a bold contradiction to lives of early believers and the words of Christ himself.

In Hebrews 12:1-3, we see that we are not alone in this great battle. Many great men and women have gone before us. We have a great example in the faith that they have displayed. We even see our greatest example in Christ. We must be reminded to through off any weight that would hinder us from the ultimate goal of making Jesus famous. Roughly 75% of the students in our county do not attend any local church gatherings. We have a huge task ahead of us. Let us not be weighed down by selfish longings and greed.

In Matthew 13:44 we are reminded to treasure Christ above all things. The way we use money should tell the world that money is not our treasure; Christ is our treasure. The way the use our homes should tell the world that our home is not our treasure; our hope is in Christ. Christ is more valuable than any of the stuff we can hope to obtain. Does your life scream, "Christ Is My Treasure!"

Youth Sunday 2010

Youth Sunday

We will hold the annual Youth Sunday on August 15th. This will be for the 8:30 & 11:00 a.m. services. We will have many of the youth involved in the service & serving in areas such as: music, offering, announcements, testimonies & games! I have the great honor of bringing the message for this great time. I hope to issue a challenge to our students to be the change in our community. I am certain that our students can change the world. I am confident. If we are to do this, we must first put off our selfish ambitions and dive into the commands of our God. We must long for justice, mercy, and compassion. It is possible to change everything. That is the challenge. To be the change. This is not just for our students. This is for our church. I hope you are ready. I must also warn you that these services will look very similar to our Cultivate services on Wednesday nights. This means: loud music, loud rap music, funny videos, media, gross games, fun, jokes, & words old people don't use....such as dude. You have been warned!

-Daniel

Breakable: Alabama Youth Evangelism Conference

I just arrived safely home from yet another wonderful youth trip. This time we attended the annual YEC in Birmingham, AL. We experienced a wonderful weekend of worship lead by David Walker. David's worship sets were original and compelling. The theme was "Breakable." God wants to break in our lives, break through all that's holding us back & break out into the world. Our students were challenged to live out God's word in their schools & communities. The team from Wayfarer Ministries were the creative masterminds behind the event. They also provided the speakers for the event. We took 19 and report one first time response to the gospel.

Titus

Tonight we will begin a 5-6 week series on the book of Titus. This was a pastoral epistle from Paul to his friend Titus. Paul wrote this letter of instruction to help his fellow worker. The book of Titus is much like a repair manual for us. We all have flaws and failures. Face it, we all need a little repair work. The theme of Titus is the inseparable link between faith & practice, belief & behavior. Titus is currently serving in Crete. Crete was a dirty & immoral city. Titus had his hands full. We have our hands full. Our city is not much different from Titus'. The South says you can believe but not practice. The book of Titus shatters that idea. We'll post content soon.

-Daniel

We Survived!

First, I would like to say that I am sorry for not updating the content of the blog until now. I've been busy.

Summer camp was amazing. We had such an amazing time experiencing God. The facilities were decent, the sun was bearing down, we were all short on sleep, but God was there. We so often ask God to "show up." I have found myself say in the past, " God it would be awesome if you would should up tonight. It would be great if you were here for this event." But I have learned some valuable lessons while working on this camp. God was there. He was there before we arrived. I don't need to ask God to show up, because He is already there. I didn't need to invite God to the party, He invited me! What we witnessed was God moving in the hearts and minds of our students. I am glad to report that several did commit their lives to Christ, several made recommitted, but what really rocked my world was the "church kids" who finally decided they wanted to be salt & light in a broken world. There are students who were wonderfully saved and they have such powerful testimonies. There are also students who would say they have been Christians as long as they can remember, but at camp they decided to live like it. God was there.

Our theme for the week was "Salt & Light." We challenged the youth to come home and live out their faith in radical ways. Don't settle for your best life now or becoming a better you. Ditch your life, die to self, and follow Christ. I watched a light go off in some of the student's minds. God moved. Pray that the students would continue to pursue this God who calls us to serve the broken.

Daniel

Reveal

A couple of weeks ago we finally revealed our new theme/identity. The identity is "Grow" and our mission statement is "Growing in the abundant life." This ofcourse matches the churches overall goal of reaching and teaching people how to live out the abundant life which is found in John 10:10. Our girls small group will be know as "bloom" and the guys small group will be known as "rooted." Our Wednesday night services for the student ministry will be known as "Cultivate." We wanted to have an organic theme. We see Jesus use the example of agriculture and growing in the gospels. Our key verse will be 2 Peter 3:18, here we are told to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

We celebrated by having a party in honor of the new theme. We had atleast 51 youth attend the service with a total attendance of around 65+ people. We had games, prizes, and pizza. By the end of the night, we had 3 students pray to recieve Christ!

I'm excited about what God is doing. If we practice the great commission I believe we will see students won to the Lord. I want to challenge all the students to grow in the Word. We live in a world where church kids are just as ignorant concerning the bible and spiritual matters as pagan kids. I believe this says much about our discpleship programs and even parenting. I run into many church leaders, deacons, sunday school teachers, and other church members who don't value the bible, doctrine, and knowledge. What a sad day! Let us follow Peter's instructions and GROW in grace and knowledge!

Daniel

Krispy Kreme!

We will be selling Krispy Kreme donuts in order to raise some cash for camp. If you placed an order, you can pick it up at the church on Saturday (April 24). We will also have a few extra boxes on Sunday if you would like to pick some up then. We will have a booth set up at the Auburn Wal-Mart on Saturday morning. Come hang out and sell donuts!

Daniel

Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness

The Declaration of Independence guarantees 3 things. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Do you notice anything different about the last item? No one is guaranteed happiness. We only have the right to pursue it. And we pursue it. There are 2 major areas that we are told to find happiness: Culture & Religion.

Cutlure says find happiness in people, money, possessions, fame, sexuality, television, etc....
If you look at the life of Solomon, you will find a man who had all of these things. He was the wisest man of all time, had more money than any person ever, and had 1,000 women at his service. He seemed to have had everything that culture says is important. What did Solomon think of all this? He writes in the book of Ecclesiastes, "Meaningless, Meaningless, It's All Meaningless."

What???

He had it all and says it was meaningless. I did not make him happy. It can't fill your soul.

We often think that if we can achieve/obtain certain things we will be happy, such as:
If I could only get that degree, then I'd be happy.
If I could only marry that girl/boy, then I'd be happy.
If I could only get that job, then I'd be happy.
If I could only have this car, then I'd be happy.
If I could only..................

What happens when we don't get those things? Will we become bitter? Or question God?

Or what happens when you do get that thing and it doesn't make you happy?


Religion: We are also told to find happiness in religion.

Some look to Oprah and her form of spiritualism.

Some look to "Christian" leaders for happiness. And where do we find the happiest preachers? Is it on Christian television? Is it the televangelist? Who's the happiest preacher? That would be Joel Osteen. The problem with many of these preachers, and Joel, is that they say happiness is found in the same place as the culture. They say that Christians will not be poor, will not be sick, will not have strained relations. They say that everyone will like you. Everything will be great. The problem with this view is that it excludes the God we worship. Jesus was poor, homeless, victimized, and had strained relationships. We worhsip a man that was murdered.

For those of us living in the real world, we know that life can be hard. People die, people are starving, and life is hard. We know that happiness can not be found in culture or spiritualism. It must be found in Jesus.

If you read the first two verses from Ch. 1 of Philippians, you will notice 2 important words. Servants & Saints. Everyone who is a Christian is a saint. It doesn't take much for me to convince you that you want to be a saint. The other word is a little harder to commit to. The word servant litterally means slave. Paul is telling us that our joy comes not from culture and is not of ourselves. Rather, happiness comes from Jesus, the cross, and in serving Him. I am joyful because I am His. I am joyful not because of what I have done, but because of what He has done for me.

PS.....Thanks for all the plaid. It looke like we were filming a Western!

To make Him famous,

Daniel

Philippians

The day is finally upon us! We start the book of Philippians this week. We want to encourage all of you to read Philippians as we study it on Wed. nights. Read ahead, dig deep, ask yourself the tough questions, find out what the Word is saying. I know that God has something for us in this series. We've all asked the tough questions: "Why is there suffering?" "Why did this happen to me?" "Are you there God?" We all want to know the answers to these questions. I feel the Bible has the answer and Philippians will begin our attempt to answer the questions that we have. No question is too hard, not question too tought. God is a big boy and he can handle our questions. We want to encourage you to dig into this series. Listen to God speak as you read his words. We also want you to tell us what you're learning. If you discover something for the first time, if you read something encouraging, if you hear God speak to you throught he text, let us know. If you read something and can't understand it, let us know. If you have any questions, let us know. You can reply to this post, or, you can post on our Facebook page . I'll use what you say to create a lesson that answers all the questions and highlights all the points you're interested in.

Parents: We would also like to encourage you to study allong with us. Ask your youth questions concerning the lesson, discuss the passage on your drive to school, around the dinner table, or in the car. Your youth will benefit from your interest in God's Word and their lives.

PS............This Wed. night will be plaid night. So join my lead and break out those plaid shirts, shorts, skirts, or whateva' you got in the form of plaid.

Praise His Holy Name!!
Daniel

Crash Course Evangelism

Here are a few verses that are excellent for sharing the gospel. These verses can be used as an outline for sharing the good news.

Joh 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rom 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Rom 10:9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Act 3:19 Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,


Romans Road To Salvation
1. Man's Problem
-Rom 3:23, Rom 6:23
2. God's Answer
-Rom 5:8, John 3:16
3. Man's Response
-Rom 10:9, Acts 3:19

Way of the Master

Here is a link to a promo video by Way of the Master
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SmEu8DaM58

and here is a link to the Way of the Master website and other free resources
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SmEu8DaM58

"Easy Start Questions"

These are a few examples of questions that I use to start a conversation and lead into the gospel.

1. "In the gospels, Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was. So, who would you say Jesus is?"

2. "If you could ask God any question and you knew he would answer, what would you ask Him?"

3. "Do you think Jesus was sinless?"

"5 Step Questions"

1. Do you have any kind of spiritual belief?
2. Who do you think Jesus is?
3. Do you think there is a heaven?
4. Why would God let you in heaven?
5. If what you believe wasn't true, would you want to know?
Then lead into the gospel

Important Questions Before The Decision

1. are you a sinner?
2. do you want forgiveness of sins?
3. do you believe Jesus died on the cross and rose again?
4. are you willing to surrender your life to Christ?
5. are you ready to invite Jesus into your life?

The Bridge Illustration

Here is a link of Pastor Pete Briscoe showing us how to use this tool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LA6GgPlxes

Daniel
danielbeckworth@gmail.com

Sex & Dating: Part 2

We tried to answer the question "What if I crossed the line?"
Here is the basic outline of what we discussed.

Sin Affects Our Lives
+ Sin is like cancer
+ Sin wants to consume our lives
+ Sin will ruin your life and affect others

Paul warns the church in Corinth to guard itself against sin. He tells us that like leaven, a little sin has the tendency to grow and affect the whole. Sexual sin is like this.

Can This Be Made Right?
Many who fallen into sexual immorality often ask the following questions
+ Can I be loved?
+ Does God still care about me?
We find an answer to this question in this passage
+ The Story of David
- 2 Samuel Ch. 11-12 (please read)
We all know the story of David and Bathesheba. He spots a lady bathing on top of her roof. This leads into an affair, which leads into the murder of Bathesheba's husband. David then takes her as his wife in order to hide the pregnancy. The crime scene seems to have been cleared of all evidence. But, God sends a man named Nathan. We read of this in 2 Sam. 12. Nathan sets up a story of a poor man with only one sheep, whom he loves, and a rich man, who has more than he could hope for. Sound familiar? The rich man then takes the poor man's sheep for his own. Nathan has set the story up perfect. David takes the bait and replies, "Bring the man to me and we will kill him." and Nathan triumphantly replies, " You Are The Man!" David is immediately convicted. When we find ourselves in this position, we may ask, "What do we have to do to make this right? Name it Lord and we will do it. Whatever it takes we will do it. Name it and we will give it." and we find the answer to this question in Ps. 51. God doesn't desire our sacrifices. He doesn't need anything that we can do for him, he desires a broken and contrite heart.

If you have fallen into sexual immorality, you need to repent. Stop doing what you are doing. Repent.

1 John 1:9
+ Forgiveness
+ cleansing

What About My Guilt?
+Does your sin make you feel guilty or dirty?
+ Remember 1 Jn. 1:9
- Jesus will cleanse us
Out of this comes the doctrine of Expiation or
+ The cleansing work of Christ on the Cross
+ On the Cross, Jesus bore your sins, your failures, and your guilt and shame. Those things now belong to him. Don't try to hold on to them, they are no longer yours.

We closed with this:

Sin- It destroys us. Yours destroys you. Mine destroys me. And so God doesn't accept it. He hates it with all that is within him. To cut the cancer out of us, he will do whatever it takes- Like a surgeon. No, more than like a surgeon. If you let him, he will even take the cancer upon himself and die in your place. Budzwowski

Daniel

Sex & Dating: Part 1

Here are some of my sermon notes from this past Wednesday night. This is not a word-4-word outline, just the basics........

We obviously know that God has a standard for sex. We can look at 1 Cor. 6:9 and see that it matters to Jesus. But the question is, what exactly is sexual sin? What exactly is included? Is it just sex outside or marriage? Is it only homosexual sins? We find the answer in the Greek word "Pornea." This word is like a junk drawer of sexual sins. If God made a long list of sexual sins, He knows that eventual someone will create something that is not on the list and try to justify his actions. The word "Pornea"(where we get our word pornography) handles all these questions.

If you google the phrase "how far is too......." it automatically completes the statement with "......for Christian couples." Students want to know. Adults want to know. So, how far is too far? We find the answer in the Songs of Solomons where we are find that the real question is not how far, but when. We are told not to awaken love until its proper time. The only proper time is within the confines of marriage.

Many students also would like to know what my opinion is concerning dating. I will say that is not my decision. That right is reserved for the parents. The Bible doesn't specifically mention dating. Our concept of dating is relatively knew and a product of Western Culture. I will say this concerning dating....... 1. You should only date with the intentions of marriage. Dating purely for the purpose of having fun, fulfilling sexual desires, ego, etc... is evil. Please do not play with someone'e emotions or waste their time.
2. 2 Cor. 5 makes it clear that we should not be unequally yoked, therefore, you should only date Christians.
3. Since dating carries such great responsibility, I do not believe the majority of our youth group are prepared to handle the responsibility that comes with dating. Let's be honest, 98.99% or the 14 yr. olds will not marry their current middle school fling. Let's be honest, if they don't clean their room, pick/layout their own clothes in the morning, if they are completely dependent, what makes you think they are capable of handling the responsibility of dating? Some of the youth are capable of handling this responsibility. Most are not. Once again, this is a decision of the parents.
4. I will discourage dating within the group. When this teens break-up, and the most likely will, it will split the group, and potentially cause students to stop coming. It also offers a greater opportunity of distraction during services and events.
5. This is what I have noticed (and this is not true of all girls and boys, but it is true of most)
a. Guys date in order to fulfill sexual desires and ego
b. Girls date in order to fulfill a romantic fantasy (ex. Titantic, any other chic flick)

We also asked what the purpose of SEX really is???? and it is not pleasure. Pleasure is simply a by-product. The biological function is to have babies. We have plenty of biological functions; like eating, going to the potty, breathing, etc.....But this particular biological function requires 2 people. Obviously God is trying to tell us something.

Please read Matt 19:1-6. You see that God designed marriage so that the man and woman become ONE (keyword). This is crucial. You can't become one without marriage. You can't fully engage in this oneness without marriage and sexual intimacy, if practiced according to God. We tend to treat sex as if it were bad. We do this in our legalistic culture. If we see something that has the capability to be abused, we then treat that "thing" as if it were bad. Sex is one of those. Music is one of those. Alcohol is one of those. We learn in Genesis that God created ALL things in peace and rhythm with Himself. We as sinful man have fractured this relationship and thereby abused the things that God meant for good. Sex is great. You heard it here. Sex is awesome, if practiced according to God's standard.

The word "ONE" is important. We see this word mention in Deut. 6:4. The word used to describe the relationship between the Trinity is the same word used to describe the relationship between and husband and wife.

Remember... Your body is not your own, you have been bought for a price (1 Cor. 6) Jesus Christ purchased the rights to His church the night he died on the cross for our sins. You belong to Jesus. and Jesus repeatedly said, "If you love me, you will keep my commands." The real question is do you love Jesus? If so, live your life in a manner that honors Him.

Common Responses and my simple answers: More responses like these can be found in the book "Ask Me Anything" by J. Budziszewski
"I have always believed that I should wait to have sex on my wedding night, but due to our situation, I feel that it would be o.k."

answer: Everyone feels that their situation is special, everyone feels that they are the exception. Stop telling yourself stories. God's Word is clear. It's not o.k. and it will never be o.k. for you to lie to yourself

"I think it's o.k. to have premarital sex as long as you love the person"

answer: this is a classic response. We must first acknowledge that love is not an emotion, although an emotion may be a by-product of love. Love = Commitment. If marriage was based on emotions, and how I feel, I would want to get a divorce on a weekly basis, and then re-marry the very next hour. We know that Jesus loved the world so much that He laid down his life. Was it pure emotions that drove Jesus to die on the cross? No. Love is not, it has never been, and it will never be purely an emotion.

" My girlfriend and I feel that we are already married" or "We are married in our hearts"

answer: This statement is trying to imply that the couple is "committed" to each other. But if you were really committed, you would marry that person. Feeling married doesn't make it so.

"We've prayed about it, and we feel that God understands our situation"

answer: God will never contradict His Word. and His Word is clear. There is no need in wasting time asking God questions He has already answered.

"What's the big deal? It's not like it's hurting anyone else."

answer: This response implies that we should be able to do whatever we want as long as it does not affect others. After tens of millions of babies have been aborted, millions of men addicted to porn, divorces, fatherless children, diseases, and broken hearts, maybe, just maybe, it's time we redefined HURT. Sexual impurity does affect others, it does affect you, and it does affect your relationship with God.

I also included some quick tips to help stay holy.....
1. Don't be alone, not in the car, at your house, or on your dates
2. No Horizontal. Don't lay down just to talk, watch a flick, or any reason
3. No missionary dating. We are only allowed to marry/date Christians
4. Don't date unless you are seeking marriage.

more coming soon.......

Daniel

danielbeckworth@gmail.com

The Vineyard Retreat

We have selected the destination of our summer camp. We will be making our way to Ariton, AL to the Vineyard Retreat. The facilities are amazing and tucked away in the countryside. The Vineyard will only supply the facilities. We will be responsible for the lessons, sermons, activities, games, food, etc...... We are currently working on the theme for this event. After the theme is locked in, we will begin preparing the lessons and small group material which will be built around our theme and sermons. We're also planning some activities and games. This should be an excellent time to grow and get to know each other. I'm extremely excited about what God has in store for us. We are in charge of food, so I will ofcourse need to some talented volunteers that can work their magic in the kitchen. It seems that there will be no problem finding plenty of women who would love to go and be involved, but the tricky part is getting some men to go. So, I'm recruiting (let me know if you're interested). The camp will be in the price range of $130-140 (pretty cheap for a camp). The camp will run June 29-July 3, and yes, your kids will be back for the 4th.

If you have any questions, please comment on this post and I will respond.
If you are interested in going, please comment or see me.
If you have any great ideas for games/activities, please comment or see me.

Daniel
2 Cor. 5:21

Summer Camps

I need your help. We have yet to determine which camp we will attend this summer. I need you to vote on which camp you would like to go to. You can vote on this page on the column on your right. We will be doing some fundraisers to help you pay for this trip and scholarships will be available. (for more info email me danielbeckworth@gmail.com) Here is some information and the link to each of the camps....


New Camp at Dayton, TN. I have been to this camp and it is pretty. You get the beautiful hills of Tennessee, some good messages and music, activities, and white water rafting. This will be a week long trip with meals provided. Prices coming soon


Fuge/CentriFuge at Panama City Beach, FL. Who doesn't love the beach? This will be a high production event with great themes, great messages, and hopefully a good band. Did i mention it was at the beach? This will also be a week long event with meals provided. The cost will be $296 per person.


or

http://www2.lifeway.com/fuge/index.php/2010/events/centrifuge/


Icthus Ministries in Bryson City, NC. Many of you are familiar with this little gem. This camp would be more intimate. If you want time away with God, time with out all the distractions, this is probably the camp for you. This will also be a week long camp. I've never booked this retreat, so you all are more familiar with how much it cost.....




if you have anymore questions, please feel free to email me or call,

NOW VOTE!

Daniel
Youth Pastor
334.759.0320
danielbeckworth@gmail.com

BTW

Don't get used to this background or logo/pictures. We'll be updating this page soon with our new logo (being designed as we speak!) and pics, etc.

Welcome!

Welcome all to our new blog site. This page will be a great source of valuable information concerning our growing yout ministry at UGBC. I'll be updating this site regularly, so stop by often to find out what is going on from week to week. I'll also be posting my sermon notes online from each lesson on Wednesday nights for those who would like the content. I'll also be sure to provide a schedule of all upcoming events. Remember, we'll be unveiling our new theme/identity at the end of January. It's gonna be off tha' chain! Don't forget about our new series we'll be starting on the book of Phillipians, a book about joy during trials/hard times. I feel this book will really resognate with some of you. We all, at some point of time, face hard times, but it seems that some of us face these trials more often than others. That's exactly why we will dig deep and discover God's purpose during our suffering and His grace is all we need! Also, get ready for FM419. Sign up today if you haven't done so. Peace!

Daniel
2 Cor. 5:21