The Person In The Mirror Is Staring At You Series

Today is the start of a new chapter in this churches’ history. And it all begins right now.

For the past year, I have been the youth pastor. But for the most part, we have not had a youth group. We have had about 10 teenagers who are friends. But we have never had a group.

Today that is going to change. Today we are going to become a group.

The first thing we must do is define the difference between a group and a bunch of individuals. So, what is the difference?

A group is multiple people working together for one common goal. It is 2 or more people who are all on the same page and all want the same thing.

A bunch of individuals are people all headed different directions. They are all living their own lives and doing their own thing. They don’t have any real commitment to a group.

Now, I am not saying that we are either one of those things. I think that we are somewhere in the middle.

And to be completely honest, this is about 90% my fault. As our leader, I have done a poor job of making us into a group.

Let me give you an example, what is our purpose? What is our youth group trying to do?

Let me read for you our purpose statement that I made a couple months after I got here. The purpose of the Bible Baptist Church Student Ministries is to DO the Great Commission by LIVE-ing the Great Commandment, while being a vital part of Bible Baptist Church.

I refer to this more as (GC)2. And that means? Great Commission and Great Commandment. Love God/Love People/Make Disciples.

You have heard this? I hope…

So, today we are going to start 3 weeks discussing how we can change from being a bunch of individuals to a youth group.

And there are 3 key ingredients to growing a ministry. ME! God! And My Friends!

Today we are going to be looking at Me/Myself/and I. Next week we will have a guest speaker talking about how God is our only hope. And then, I will be back to finish by talking about how your friends are essential to keeping us alive.

I brought a special friend today. This person is the person I spend the most time thinking about. He is probably the most important person in the world to me.

It’s ME!!! I love me. I can’t get enough of me. I am always thinking about myself. I spend more time with myself than with anyone else. I am the most important person in my life.

I sound pretty self-obsessed, huh? Well, I really try not to be obsessed with myself, but if we are all honest, we only think about ourselves at least 95% of the time.

Driving down the road… whose car am I worried about? Mine. Sitting at the movies… who am I concerned is enjoying the movie? Me. Watching TV… who am I concerned if this show is good for? Me.

If we are all honest, we NATURALLY think about ourselves almost all of the time. There are times when we are thinking about other people, but our natural reaction is to think, how does this make ME feel?

So, my friend in the mirror… today we are going to be talking about you. And for each of you, I will be talking about your best friend in the mirror.

I called today’s lesson, The Person in the Mirror is Staring at You. The person in the mirror is not looking at the person next to you. The person in the mirror is not looking at your parents. The person in the mirror is not looking at Brent (except for my mirror). The person in the mirror is staring at you.

Today we are talking about you. Your contribution to this youth group. And we are going to be looking at probably the most common response.

We see it in the Bible all of the time, but I think the best example is in John 21.

Jesus has just died on the cross and has been resurrected. Now, He is going to be on earth for 40 days. And today’s story probably happens within the first couple days after his resurrection.

We are going to be looking at Peter. What do you know about Peter’s life? He denied Jesus three times before He died.

So, I want you to picture what is happening in this conversation. Peter hasn’t talked to Jesus since he rose again. Or maybe he has, but there is just this elephant in the room that Peter denied Jesus.

Have you ever been in a situation where you said or did something that hurt a friend and then there is that awkward time between doing it and working it out with them? That is exactly what is going on here. Peter and Jesus have the awkward relationship, because Peter hurt Jesus deeply and it has been dealt with yet.