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Unite is an event in Murfreesboro, Tennessee where hundreds of students ranging from 11 to 18 years old come together and lift one name high. The theme of this year was "Focus", our speaker Jeff Wallace preached on the story of the prodicle son, here are some recaps from the weekend.
FOCUS ON THE FATHER
Starting in Luke 15:11-18, we see two stories that go hand in hand the first being a shepherd with 100 sheep, one sheep goes astray leaving only 99. In the second story we see a women with money who loses a penny. In both situations they still had 99% to most of us 99% is an accepted thing; whether it's a grade on a test, how full our gas tank is, how charged our phone is, or the percentage that it's going to rain; if it's at 99% that's seen as a good thing. This is not the case for Jesus, He will go great lengths to go after the one that got away. If we lost one penny we wouldn't turn our whole house upside down to find it, if we lost one sheep we wouldn't move mountains for it, we just wouldn't. There are a trillion distractions in our lives to not give one lost thing a second look, do those distractions point us towards God?
As we keep reading to Luke 15:18-32 we hear about the story of the prodicle son. The youngest son went to his father and basically told him hey i want you to die and give me money. The loving father gave the son his inheiritance like he wanted and the son left; as the son goes off he indulges in sin and is not mindful of his money until it runs out. When starving the son finds himself in a pigs pit staring at the trough and finding the pigs slop appetizing. In that moment he knew he couldn't do this on his own and went back to his father, the son was ashamed and knew he had been disrespectful so upon his return he didnt ask for his father to accept him back to his household or accept him back as his son but rather he asked to be allowed to be a servant so he could make what little money he could and have food. His father's response was "his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him...the father said to his servants, 'bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. and bring the fattened calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry, for my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found." This is an example of God's love. No matter how far we wander, how bad we sin God is always there for us to turn to with wide open arms. God relentlessly pursues us, He would leave the 99 to find the one and the beautiful thing is that there isnt a catch, we dont have to earn His love we already have it.
God can rewrite your story. Too many of us are living our life with a period at the end of it when really it should be a comma, dont find your faith and stop there. Too many of us are comfortable in our dysfunction (Acts 3:19) "Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord" Without change your story will remain the same, a novel would be boring without character development our lives are the same. With that when you turn to God dont turn back on Him; we turn to God and then we turn to our sin sending us right back to the place God just delivered us from. We, ourselves, are the only people for responsible for putting ourselves on the path of freedom or the path of destruction, but we cant walk two different roads at the same time which is what many of us are trying to manage. (2 Chronicles 30:9) If you return to the LORD, then you... and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will return to this land, for the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him." When the prodicle son returns he returns embarassed and broken but the father gives him the best things he has and rejoices that he is home. Our heavenly father is also like this, but we often take this for granted. Because we know God will forgive us we sin to be forgiven and we wait to turn back on our old ways. God sent His son to die for us so that we would be free from sin, not so we could freely sin.
At the high school and middle school age the majority is too worried about temporary popularity and satisfaction from our peers that we push aside eternal salvation. Many of us are in the pigs pen sitting in a pile of pig slop (sin); we get so used to the stench that we dont smell it anymore. When you first commit a sin it may seem like a big deal, and it is, but when you repeat that sin over and over again the guilt of it fades over time because you have gotten comfortable and lost the significance it had at first.
CAPTURE YOUR IDENTITY
Finding one's identity can come in many different forms. Whether you are an adult or a teenager many of us find our identity in our status or in others. We want to be heard above the masses rather than be spoken to. Your identity is tied with who you are connected to and what you prioritize. Is it sin or God you are putting first?
"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,". (Acts 3:19) When people hurt us they have to go through a process to be forgiven and get back into our good graces, with God this isnt the case. When you repent you are forgiven, it's as simple as that. Something to remember that is often overlooked is God is a God of grace not a God of karma. Our mistakes are not going to determine what happens to us, when we turn to God everything is washed away, we are clean. If we focus on our failures we are going to miss the love the father is giving us. Getting the wrong idea about God is common because it's more than rare, its unheard of that God loves us as much as He does, wants us, and will go to great lengths for us. We mimic the relationship we have with people to the relationship we have with God. God isnt man and isnt part of the flesh!!! Arriving at home the prodicle son is given new sandals to put on his feet symbolizing him turning his life around and starting on a new path. He stopped seeing the world through his view and realized he couldnt do this thing called life on his own. If you're already been forgiven stop walking as if you're still in your low place. Your life may not be what you want it to be, but there's nothing but yourself stopping it from getting there. Thank God that your life isnt what it used to be and walk a new path without wandering.
As we had discussions at unite I was amazed by my group of girls, they spoke about their real world problems with an open mind and made themselves vulnerable and each time encouraging and lifting others up in the process. We discussed trying to find our identities, talking about how many of us look up to a parent or sibling and we want to be just like them if not better. We talked about being jealous. One thing I really liked was two girls who are close friends bounced their thoughts off one another when sharing; one girl turned to her friend and said I often get jealous when my boyfriend and I are fighting and you and your boyfriend arent fighting -the other girl felt the same way- she thought "why cant we be like that" but then she said that she has to catch herself and realize that sometimes they fight when we dont and they dont know every good or bad thing that happens in my relationship. She realized that they dont have to be perfect couples and they dont have to be the same and they dont need to compete. Another girl talked about college and beauty and said we are surrounded by pretty people everyday and sometimes I just think why cant i be them? Why can't I look like them? Why can't I be as smart as they are? Why Can't I have what they have? The same girl also stated "Everyone has different victories and just because someone else is succeeding that doesn't mean that you can't succeed too. Someone doing good does not affect you doing good, there's room for more than one person to succeed, but we get so caught up in ourselves that we forget to rejoice in others victories."
FILTER MISPERCEPTIONS
If we believe we are better than others we end up putting them down. We feel that we are better than others because we arent doing what they are doing. You may look as someone and think "well at least I dont smoke", but have you lied? Stolen? You aren't perfect and sin isnt weighted in God's eyes. You also respond to the image you see and follow, on instagram a picture will get likes but if it's edited or has a nice filter it will gain more likes. We put up fronts and personas that become our filterss, are you being authentic of edited for others?
In Luke 15:29 as the younger son returns after being disrespectful to his father and wasting all of his inheiritance the older son is upset. He tells his father that he has stayed with him this whole time, has never disobeyed him and yet was never given a big meal with friends, a calf, or nice things. This is relatable because is this not unfair? The father tells his oldest son that he should be merry for the one who was lost and is now found. This reveals a spirit of entitlement that is alive in many of us today. God doesnt owe you anything. We should desire to be Christ like because we love Christ not for others to see. The older son is viewing this situation through the wrong lense and instead of being excited for his brothers return he is struggling with comparison. The younger son essentially got a deluxe chicken sandwich from chic fil a while the older son got something worse than white castle!! But that isnt what mattered. For example think about two students in class, student one makes straight A's while student two averages at a D. On the next test if student two makes an A on his test, thats something to celebrate while if student one makes an A that is also good but doesnt have the same importance because it's not as much of an accomplishment, student two exceeded expectations while student one just met them. Until your heart bleeds for your own sin and the people who are lost, all of this will be for nothing.
DEVELOP YOUR CALLING
When something good happens to you you run and go and tell everyone who is willing to listen and post it all over the place. Why aren't you that excited about God if He's the best thing that's ever happened to you? Are you comfortable in your little church circle to the point of where you wont go beyond that? Revival wont occur until you step into God's calling.
Have compassion for others! We all know someone who isnt like us and doesnt have the same beliefs as we do, but love them in spite of their differences, singling them out and ostracizing them isn't cool.
Celebrate others return! Dont pass up lost people, pursue them. We see something we dont like and we tend to remove ourselves from that situation and in certain situations thats ok, but in others we have the opportunity to befriend them and give them guidance in a trivial time for them.
Bring light to everyone everywhere! Your efforts and good deeds dont go unnoticed, although they arent done for others to see they do make an impact and someone is always watching or looking up to you. We have a light called Jesus and we let it shine but we also try to cover it up, when you hang out with a certain group of friends or go to a certain place you should not be putting a lampshade over your faith. Lights were made to shine outward not inward, and trust me they do a lot more good if they're shining outwards.
Nonverbal leadership speaks volumes! Imagine wearing a VR headset, it covers everything in your view till you only see what you want to see. Some of us have an impaired vision that often gets skewed in the wrong direction. If people know your a Christian but you dont practice what you preach what are they going to think? What impression are they getting? Let faith be your filter, not the world.
I hope this message resonated with you, to wrap up below are some pictures from an amazing Unite weekend!
