RE-CAPTURING CHRISTMAS

RECAPTURING CHRISTMAS - A VERTIGO COMMUNITY MISSION
Christ tends to get overlooked at Christmas. Let’s be honest. December comes and you think, “OK, this is the year.” This is the year you will make the most with family. Help the needy. Zero in on what it really means to be a Christ follower during this holy season. We’ll together we can make this the year we actually do that. Our goal this season is to:

WORSHIP MORE - SPEND LESS TO GIVE MORE - LOVE ALL

The Mission: Vertigo Youth Group is adopting two local families that without our help Christmas will not happen. We are also raising money to help build a well in Africa. We will be partnering with blood water mission [www.bloodwatermission.org] to help bring clean drinking water to African villiages where people die daily because of water borne diseases.

The Plan: We are asking that each student voluntarily asks their parents to receive one present less this season and use that money to buy the local family a present (the amount the student wants to give up is up to them - we suggest shopping for the family together). We are also asking each student to come up with at least $10 to donate to blood water mission. Starting next week there will be a place to drop off the presents. Last collection will be Dec 19th. Next week we will have a detailed wish list from the families. We hope you will participate in this mission.


How can we a youth community worship Jesus more, spend less, and love all this christmas season?

Every student needs to raise at least $10 to give to blood water mission for clean wells in africa. You can dig up change around the house - do more chores - work a couple more hours - give up a movie etc.

What actions can we take to reclaim Jesus in christmas in our own lives, our spending, and the world?

The idea "re-capturing Christmas" was inspired by Advent Conspiracy. Advent Conspiracy was formed by a few churches to re-think and re-shape how Christ followers celebrate Christmas. The idea is to spend less, give more relationally, and worship more. We are doing a piggy back off this idea and tweaking it for Vertigo. Visit www.adventconspiracy.com for more details.

JOHN 15 - THE VINE

The passage in the Bible we are going to center around is in John 15. What is really interesting about this passage is it falls right after the famous last supper and right before Jesus crucifixion. What Jesus tells his disciples in John 15 you know is of great importance because it is one of the last times he talks to them before his death.

Let’s start by reading through John 15

What is the Good Life?
I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. (John 15:1-2)
Greek Word: Airo - To lift up, to prune
Jesus uses the ancient image and well-known metaphor of the vine to teach his followers about life with God. In the vineyard, the Father decides which branches bear fruit and which are capable of bearing more. The word airo literally means to lift up. The vines of ancient vineyards ran along the ground and not on modern trellises. It was the farmer's job to come along and gently lift the branch out of the dirt so that grapes wouldn't rot.
How does this image affect your understanding of the role of God as the Vine Dresser?
In what ways do we "cut off" when perhaps we should be "lifting up?"

LIFE IS ON THE VINE ONLY
By Ourselves What Do We Have - We try to do a lot on our own - in fact many around us that’s all they have ever done. But the only way to true life is in God. To stay connected to him like the branches are connected to God. The life source - if the branches detach from the vine they will die.

The deal is God wants us to have a full life - like it says in John 15 God wants each of us to bear fruit and if god is the vinedresser then a vinedresser wants to get the most out of each branch that he possibly can.

FULL LIFE
In John 10:10 Jesus says that he came to give us life and life to the full

God offers the best for each and every one of us. But we often settle - we often do our own thing - and what we fail to realize is that life is in God alone.

What I have come to find out is that it is a trust issue. One of the most important questions you can ask yourself is do i believe that God has what is best for me. Do you?

If you question God’s goodness and that life in him is not the best than you are going to do your own thing. Let’s explore what life on our own vs. life that God intends looks like.

Life on own leads to greed, selfishness, pride, etc. and those all lead to addictions, hurt, pain, brokeness. Just look at the world - you don’t have to look to far to see that it’s hurt, broken, life on it’s own isn’t working.

So if God brings life - he can’t help it that’s what he does - that’s who he is. And we our nature brings nothing good on it’s own then by our actions our choices we either choose to bring life into our lives or the opposite.

Many of us who are christians those who follow Jesus. Have got caught in an invisible net we are just moping through life try to be “good” and we have no connection with God. We don’t connect with the life source regularly and when we don’t we become like the vine that is overgrown and the sun can’t shine in.

Our lives get filled with little things that turn into bigger things. Or maybe we haven’t dealt with the feelings that our inside of us and they now control us. GOD IS SCREAMING AT US HE IS PURSUING US saying I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO OFFER.

How many of you want your life to count for something. You want to make a difference you want to make a mark. Of course all of us do. The only way to do so is to be connected to God.

PRUNING
The stuff that has to go because it is choking you to death and nothing good is coming - no fruit is growing. A vine left alone to do it's own thing will kill itself, make the wrong choices. Cutting away what can appear to be good to untrained eye. Things in our life that can keep us from bearing the most fruit possible - things that waste our time and energy. What are those things in your life?

TRAINING THE BRANCHES
The Vinedresser (GOD) goes through the vineyard daily and knows what the vine needs. He is training the vine in a very specific way so that the vine can produce the most fruit possible.

LAYERS - HEART #4
This month we have been talking about the heart and the importance of getting our heart in order. From the heart all life flows. Jesus came to show the heart of God in everything. We started off with fake plants, cleaning cups, last week with fruit, and tonight we are going to talk about layers - specifically onion layers.

I know many of you aren’t doctors but tonight you get to pretend that you are. I am going to give you a list of symptoms and you have to tell me what sickness these symptoms describe.
Here are some symptoms - your goal is to guess what symptoms go with what sickness.
symptoms :: fever, shivering, chills, malaise, dry cough, loss of appetite, and body aches. = YOU MAY HAVE THE FLU
Symptoms : : the stuffy nose, sore throat, and cough = YOU HAVE A COMMON COLD
Symptoms : : Aching, tiredness, headache, fever, sore throat, itchy skin rash, blisters =Chix Pox

If you have more than one symptom you know that there is something else going on. You start linking them together and discover you have a cold, fever, flue etc. We go to the doctor and try and fix the root problem that is causing the symptoms. The symptoms are bad but the root of the symptoms is the disease which causes the symptoms - find the root and you solve the symptoms. If we don't treat the root cause the symptoms never go away.

Things in our life our the same way we can look at our lives and see symptoms but few of us actually ever look and try and link the symptoms to the root cause. See there is nothing that shows up on the outside of our life that cannot be tied to what is going on in the inside of our lives.
If we have pride in our hearts it’s going to show up on the outside in many different symptoms. Anything that shows up on the outside is a direct tie to something that is happening on the inside.

Our lives are like onions. You know what I mean?
Well what i mean is - our lives have many layers as well. If everything on the outside points to something going on in the inside then we have to peel away the layers to see what the root of all the symptoms is - what is causing us to do _______.
Let’s deconstruct our onions - our lives. See on the outside an onion has a little smell to it but it looks whole - together. When we get into it we see that there are layers, lots of layers. The stink comes out.
If our lives are like onions then let’s take a life and look at it and see if we can get to the root of what’s going on.
The guy sitting in traffic just full of rage that he is going to be late - and he is honking his horn yelling. That’s the top layer. The next layer is he is so busy - he is always running around and he feels like his plate is full and it is. Why does he continue to say yes to things? Is he trying to win people’s approval? Insecurity? The symptom is he has road rage the core issue is he isn’t yelling it’s much deeper.
What are your symptoms? Have you ever tried and linked the symptoms together to see what the root issue is? Anger, Bitterness, Lust, Control, Un-Forgiveness, etc. What are the big circumstances that have happened in your life that could cause symptoms? Divorce, Parent leaving, Friendship broken, etc. Have you dealt with those? Have you healed from those? Anger, bitterness whatever it is doesn't go away on it's own it only gets bigger and worse. Treat the root, find the root, peel back the layers - before the symptoms take over.

Give Yourself Away!

Everyone check out these websites! www.bloodwatermission.com, www.adventconspiracy.org/water/, www.fermiproject.com/act/rwanda/downloads.asp - How can we a community of faith join in with giving ourselves away to something bigger than us to make our God the God of love real around the world. Could we start with something as simple as clean water.

According to the World Water Council, 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water; 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. 1.8 million People die every year from diarrheal diseases and 3,900 children die every day from water born diseases.

It is truly a declaration to the world that Jesus cares and that is why He came and created the church to act on His behalf. How you go about spending the money for clean water is up to how God leads you.

Last night we watched the video of the young student who started a program called loose change to loosen chains. There is an estimated 10+ billion in loose change in the U.S. What if we the Vertigo Student Community collected loose change to build wells for clean drinking water? What if we could raise enough to build more than just 1 well but several. If we all pitched in and collected change and then gave $1 a week we could do some real damage. If we all gave $1 a week that would be around $200 a month and $2,400 a year. If we collect loose change on top of that who knows what we could do. A well is around $3,000 and gives water to thousands for a lifetime of clean water supply. Together we can do huge things.