Andy Stanley Collection Grow up (1): Big Faith

ANDY STANLEY COLLECTION GROW UP (1): BIG FAITH

BOTTOM LINE: THE FOUNDATION OF HOW MUCH YOU GROW IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS BASED ON YOUR TRUST IN HIM.

INTRODUCTION Your faith in God matters to God. In fact, God is most honored through your living, active, death-defying, out-of-the-box faith. That being the case, He’s committed to growing it. Big. Imagine how WONDER. differently you would respond to difficulties, temptations, and even DISCOVERY. good things if you knew with certainty that God was in all of it and PASSION. was planning to leverage it for good. But in order for all of that to WWW.WHATISORANGE.ORG/ happen, there’s one thing it all hinges on—your trust. XP3STUDENTS

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jared Herd

WRITER Andy Stanley

XP3 TEAM Tim Walker Sarah Anderson Sarah Bragg

CONTRIBUTORS Mark Brown Laura Whelan Wyndi Lebrecque

GRAPHICS USER AGREEMENT Scott Bragg The reThink Group, Inc. gladly grants permission to churches, schools and other licensees to tailor XP3TM materials to fit their unique leadership ORANGE SPECIALISTS requirements, locale and format preferences. However, if you wish to Kristie McCollister edit the content substantively, including teaching scripts, small group Jeremy Zach dialog and any other content in which biblical principles and concepts are presented, you are obligated to do so within the doctrinal guidelines TECHNICAL & WEB SUPPORT we’ve expressed in our Statement of Faith (see page 2). Hadley Brandt Alex VanRossum These resources are intended to be downloaded and printed for use by the subscribing entity only and may not be electronically transferred CHIEF EXECUTIVE to or duplicated by other non-subscribing entities. Any unauthorized OFFICER reproduction of this material or incorporation into a new work— Reggie Joiner including podcasts or video of this content—is a direct violation of U.S. copyright laws. ©2010 The reThink Group, Inc. All rights reserved. XP3 CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER and the XP3 logo are trademarks of The reThink Group, Inc. Reggie Goodin www.whatisorange.org/xp3students © 2010 Andy Stanley All Rights Reserved A product of Orange STATEMENT OF FAITH

ABOUT GOD God is the one and only true God, yet He exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God is the Creator, so everything belongs to Him and is under His control. God is holy, so He is righteous, majestic and loving. God is all knowing and purposeful, so He’s at work to bring about His will. No person, thing or idea compares to God.

ABOUT THE SCRIPTURES God reveals Himself to us through the Bible, and it is 100% accurate, reliable and authoritative.

ABOUT PEOPLE People are made in God’s image and for His pleasure. But everybody falls short of God’s intention, or ideal, for people. In other words, everyone has sinned. As a result, we are all separated from Him, even though He wants an intimate relationship with each of us.

ABOUT SALVATION That’s why Jesus, God’s Son, came and lived on this earth, died and rose again. God offers His free gift of salvation to all who believe in Jesus and accept Him as Savior, the only way to be forgiven and reconciled to God. Anyone who accepts this gift is adopted as a son or daughter into God’s family and will live with Him forever in heaven.

Scripture marked “NIV” is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. www.whatisorange.org/xp3students © 2010 Andy Stanley All Rights Reserved A product of Orange CREATING THE ENVIRONMENT

We believe that the set, stage, music and everything in your room communicates a message—without you saying a word. That’s why we put together a list of production ideas to help you set the stage for the session and the series. From the music you play when students come into the room to the worship set your band plays, we want to make sure that your room conveys “Grow Up” in a multi-sensory way. There is a downloadable checklist available in your series downloads that will give you all the elements for this session (and the entire series).

BACKGROUND PLAYLIST FOR THE GROW UP SERIES “Beautiful Mistake” by Eddy (from Start An Uproar!) “Gotta Serve Somebody” by Nichole Nordeman (from Brave) “You’re Not Shaken” by Phil Stacey (from Into the Light) “Jump Then Fall” by Taylor Swift (from Fearless) “Walk On” by U2 (from All That You Can’t Leave Behind) “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys” by Willie Nelson (from Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits) “Held” by Natalie Grant (from Awaken) “This Is Your Life” by Switchfoot (from The Beautiful Letdown) “Move Forward” by Bethany Dillon (from Bethany Dillon) “Calling All Angels” by Train (from My Private Nation) “We Never Change” by Coldplay (from Parachutes)

WORSHIP PLAYLIST FOR GROW UP SESSION 1 “Let The Praises Ring” by Lincoln Brewster (from Let The Praises Ring-The Best of Lincoln Brewster) “Yesterday, Today and Forever” by Vicky Beeching (from Yesterday, Today and Forever) “Trust In You” by Drew Bodine (from Everything Is Yours) “I Will Trust You” by Vineyard Music (from More Than Ever: Live from the Rockies)

THE SET For the Grow Up Series, the set will be dynamic, meaning that it will change over the course of this six-week series. For the first couple of weeks, create a set that looks like a kid’s room. Decorate with things that were popular during your students’ childhood. Think along the lines of old toys, curtains with Power Rangers, Bar- bies, etc. (You may want to enlist the help of parents for some of this stuff.) You may even want to put a single bed on stage with a comforter that has a kid-friendly print. Then slowly, over the remaining four weeks, begin to replace the toys and items in the room with older, more sophisticated items—like computers, stereos, pil- lows, and a cleaner, more modern design (Ikea-ish).

SERIES ART Art for PowerPoint backgrounds and for series promotional ads is available as a free download with every series. Visit the XP3 web site, log on to your account and download the images to use in your presentation, newsletters and web site.

VIDEO Both a video bumper and a video communicator are available for the “Grow Up” series as a video download from the reThink store. You can purchase the videos by logging into your XP3 account and clicking on the “XP3 videos” link. The Grow Up video communicator was created to be used in Session 1 of this series in place of a live communicator. The bumper video was created to be used as an intro for all six sessions of Grow Up series.

The following activities and illustrations will help middle school students connect with the subject matter in ways that engage them physically, mentally, socially and sometimes emotionally. You can also adapt the Grow Up series for middle school students by using the teaching outline found in this document to edit the teaching script to a 20-minute presentation. In addition, by using the separate middle school small group dialog questions (found in the series downloads) that are geared specifically for 6th-8th graders, you can make each section more middle school friendly.

SESSION 1 GAME: RED ROVER (Play this game as an icebreaker to Session 1.) For an icebreaker, play the classic childhood game, Red Rover, but with a twist. You will need to play this game outside. Set up a table with various items on them. These will be items that you will fling via a slingshot. Some possible items include: • cut up pieces of melon (watermelon, cantaloupe, etc.) • cold baked beans • a large bowl of cereal with milk • marshmallows • candy bars (still in the wrappers)

Write down each item on a slip of paper, then fold each piece of paper and place it in a bowl so that students can draw from the bowl to select the item.

Select a group of students (the number is up to you) and give each student a poncho. Have students put on the ponchos and stand in a single line on the opposite side from the table. Then have a student select a piece of paper from the bowl, and he or she must tell everyone what item they’ve drawn. Then the entire group of students should chant, “Red Rover” and insert the name of the item.

For example, “Red Rover, Red Rover, send marshmallows on over.”

After sending the requested food, keep drawing slips of paper from the bowl and play the game until all your items have been sent over.

SESSION 1 ILLUSTRATION: LEAN ON ME (Use this illustration at the end of the TRUTH section of the teaching script.) Sometimes the word “trust” can be an abstract concept to think through. But really every situation we encounter is about trusting God—whether that’s temptation, relationships, our future—it all boils down to God can I trust you with this.

But a way that we trust in everyday life is when we lean on something. For example, when you lean against a wall, you trust it will support you. When you lean on your mom’s shoulder, you trust that she won’t move.

Bring a couple of students up to the stage and have them stand back-to-back a distance apart. (You may want to select students who are around the same height and weight.) Then, keeping their feet in the same position, have them lean back on each other to support one another. Continue to increase the distance.

The greater the distance, the more apprehensive they may be about leaning, and the same is true for things we encounter in life. The bigger the situation, the greater our apprehension about trusting God—about leaning in for support. www.whatisorange.org/xp3students © 2010 Andy Stanley All Rights Reserved A product of Orange TEACHING SCRIPT

The teaching script is divided into five sections.

INTRODUCTION This introduction is intended to connect you, the communicator, to the audience usually through a personal story or observation. We’ve included our stories, but you may want to substitute your own story in this section.

TENSION The tension moves the message from the “me” mentality of the introduction to a “we” mentality. For example, a transition statement might be, “At some point in our lives, we have all been jealous of someone over something.”

TRUTH Once the tension builds, the next logical step is to uncover the truth of what the Bible says about the topic.

APPLICATION At this point, the message moves to a “you” mentality in order to teach the application. The “you” is the student. Take God’s truth and unpack how it relates to each student so that he or she can apply it to everyday life.

LANDING Here it is important to land the message on what each student needs to know and do with what they’ve heard. Just as the message began with a personal story or observation, the message also ends with a “me” mentality. For example, one possible landing statement might be, “I have a greater sense of purpose knowing that God created me in His image.” Leave the students with a clear sense of what all of you should do with what you’ve heard. Unless otherwise noted, the landing will always set up the small group dialog and give students an opportunity to process and internalize what they’ve heard.

BOTTOM LINE: THE FOUNDATION OF HOW MUCH YOU GROW IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS BASED ON YOUR TRUST IN HIM.

INTRODUCTION What really matters, when it comes to the people who have the biggest investment in our lives, isn’t the facts about them or the information surrounding them.

What really matters, is if we trust them—if they are trustworthy, if they deserve my confidence and my investment.

What will really change the way we relate to Him, is how we gauge our trust in Him.

What would your life be like if you had an unshakable, relentless faith?

TENSION When God launched Israel as a nation, the first thing He did was prove He was trustworthy—so Israel would trust Him.

The driving message of the New Testament is asking us to put our faith in Him to fix what a lack of trust broke in the Garden of Eden.

The best relationships are characterized by trust.

If you were to ask me what God is doing in your life, I wouldn’t have to know much about you to tell you that He’s trying to teach you to trust Him.

TRUTH When he [Jesus] came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean” (Matthew 8:1-2 NIV).

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy (Matthew 8:3 NIV).

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help (Matthew 8:5 NIV).

“Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering” (Matthew 8:6 NIV).

Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him” (Matthew 8:7 NIV).

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof” (Matthew 8:8 NIV).

“But just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8 NIV).

“For I myself am a man under authority” (Matthew 8:9 NIV).

(CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE)

TRUTH (CONTINUED) “For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was astonished (Matthew 8:9-10 NIV).

This is the first and only time in the whole entire Bible that the word “astonished” is associated with Jesus. And it’s not associated with someone’s act of obedience; it’s associated with someone’s incredible faith.

And [he] said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith” (Matthew 8:10 NIV).

As you read the rest of the New Testament you will see that the thing that makes God jump up and down is faith.

APPLICATION God wants a relationship with you. He wants you to trust Him—He wants you to have a big faith. He wants to respond to your faith in astonishment.

Imagine that you believe with all your heart that God is a God you can trust completely, that He is a God who knows your name, hears your prayers and wants what is best for you.

What would your daily life in middle school or high school be like? What would it be like in your home? What would it be like right now?

LANDING God wants to build our faith. The greater the faith, the greater the relationship. They are intimately connected.

To start, you have to be dependent on God.

This teaching script is designed to set up your small groups. The goal is that by the end of this talk, students will ask themselves, “Do I really trust God?” Use the small group time to help them process through what that means with the various issues and challenges in their lives—what helps them to trust God more and what may be keeping them from taking that leap of faith.

MAKING IT PERSONAL (Points in the teaching script you can make more personal) • Have you ever been in a situation that required total trust for your survival? Whether it’s skydiving, mountain climbing or riding with a legally blind relative—all require that you trust someone other than yourself. Tell your story in the INTRODUCTION section of the teaching script in place of teaching points “A” through “C.”

BOTTOM LINE: THE FOUNDATION OF HOW MUCH YOU GROW IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS BASED ON YOUR TRUST IN HIM.

INTRODUCTION A. A couple of years ago I went skydiving. It was one of those things I just had to do and cross off the bucket list. I didn’t enjoy it, not really, but I am glad I did it. Before going and taking the literal plunge, I had all sorts of fears going through my head—questions and “what if” scenarios. What if the chute doesn’t open? What if this nauseous feeling actually leads me to throw up mid air? What if I want to chicken out last minute? What if I look like a fool and land on my backside? What if the instructor guy I am strapped too on the way down messes up and we both end up flat as pancakes somewhere over the north Georgia landscape?

Some fears were realistic. Others not so much. But what I came to realize as the time got closer and closer for me to jump out of the plane, was just how much was out of my hands. I had very little control in this situation, for better or for worse. In fact, if anyone had any semblance of control at all in this series of events, it was the instructor who was literally attached to my back. When it came down to it, my life depended on him, and his so called expertise.

B. I remember arriving at the place where the actual skydiving would take place and going through all the things people tell themselves before deciding to endanger their lives by doing what I was about to do. I was going to be with a professional. He had done, literally, hundreds of jumps before. He did this for a living. He doesn’t want to die either, so he wouldn’t do anything stupid. These were the facts. But truth be told, they didn’t do very much for me. I got little to no comfort from this. I didn’t care what my instructor had or hadn’t done. I didn’t care what the facts were. The truth was, I was about to put my life in the hands of a complete stranger—someone I had never met before and who I had no relationship with. I didn’t want to just know about this guy, I wanted to know him as much as I could in the window of time I had leading up to the jump. Because maybe if we felt invested in each other, I would feel more at ease under his care.

C. See, what I learned via the countdown to skydiving is that when it comes to the things that really matter, the things in life, or death, depending on how the skydiving experience went, what really matters isn’t what we know or don’t know, do or don’t do. What really matters, when it comes to the people who have the biggest investment in our lives, isn’t the facts about them or the information surrounding them. What really matters, is if we trust them—if they are trustworthy, if they deserve my confidence and my investment. Facts only get us so far. Trust gets us much farther.

D. It is no surprise that, as it is with human relationships and human experience, it is with God. When it comes to our relationship with Him, the facts about Him will only get us so far. We can only grow so much by just knowing the right stuff. But what will really change the way we relate to Him, is how we gauge our trust in Him. How we measure our belief in Him. And if we want to grow up in our relationship with God, if we are interested in deepening the way we relate to Him and developing a relationship more marked by confidence in who He is, then we need to make some leaps and bounds when it comes to our faith. Our faith is what needs to grow. Our faith is what needs to mature.

E. Think about this for a second. What would your life be like if you had an unshakable, relentless faith? Imagine a life without fear, without anxiety, without doubt. Not that bad things don’t or won’t happen to you, but that when they do, you put your faith and trust in this constant, sovereign God. Imagine believ- ing beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything God does, He does in order to draw you into relationship with Him so He can build your faith. Imagine what your life would be like with that kind of relationship. Everything in your life—your school, your family, your friendships—everything would be impacted if we woke up with that kind of confidence in God. This is what God wants to give you—big faith, and a way to grow that faith. That would be pretty amazing, right?

TENSION A. But before we begin tackling what we can do to get this kind of faith, to make this faith possible, let’s get some history. When you read the Old and New Testaments, the story of the Bible is about God trying to build into people an extraordinary kind of confidence in Him. In the beginning, when God created the world and Adam and Eve, man and God were in perfect union with one another. Then there was a break between God and man over man’s refusal to trust God. As a result of that break, God has been reworking our trust relationship with Him ever since.

B. When God launched Israel as a nation, He didn’t just immediately give them a set of rules to follow—the Ten Commandments—and say that they had to follow those rules in order for their faith to grow. Nope, what God did first was reach into Egypt and deliver the nation of Israel from the Egyptians. The first thing God did was prove He was trustworthy—so Israel would trust Him. And once they had established a trust relationship, God said, “Hey, this is how I want you to live your life.” That was when the Ten Command- ments came in. And He gave Israel these rules not so they would have a relationship with Him—they already did. He gave the commandments because they trusted Him first. The law did not proceed the relationship; the relationship proceeded the law.

C. And like with Israel, where God was working to establish trust, the driving message of the New Testament is God asking us to put our faith in Him to fix what our lack of trust broke in the Garden of Eden. That’s what God wants more than anything else: our complete, unwavering trust. He wants you to trust Him as your Lord and Savior. Because our relationship with God is initiated through an act of trust just like God’s break with humankind happened through a lack of trust. As you read the New Testament, you see that God is about growing people’s faith—increasing their trust. Because the more confidence and trust you have in a relationship, the better the quality of that relationship. That’s true in families and friendships. It’s true in dating relationships. It will be true some day in your marriage. It’s true of all relationships. The best relationships are characterized by trust. And this is why God is after trust in a relationship with you.

D. If you were to ask me what God is doing in your life, I wouldn’t have to know much about you to tell you that He’s trying to teach you to trust Him. How do I know that? Because whether you are new to this Chris- tianity thing or you’re just curious and checking it out, the issue isn’t whether or not you can follow the rules. The issue is whether or not you believe it to be true. Do you believe what the Bible says? Do you believe what God says? The issue is whether or not you can really turn your life over to God and place your trust in Him. More than obedience, more than anything else, God wants you to have confidence in Him. He wants you to be able to say, “I don’t always understand You, but I trust You.” And when that happens, our faith begins to grow—when our confidence in God begins to increase, things change as He begins to ignite our faith.

TRUTH A. There’s a story that illustrates this point in the book of Matthew, the first book in the New Testament. In Mat- thew 8, God performs two miracles, and the people who are involved in the interaction have two different responses—two different expressions of faith. But the coolest part of these verses isn’t the miracles. The coolest part is that this is the only time in the Bible when Jesus is amazed by what someone else does.

Here’s how the story begins: When he [Jesus] came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean” (Matthew 8:1-2 NIV).

B. Basically, the man is saying, “I don’t know if You will or not, but I believe You can heal me instantly if You’d like to. I submit myself to Your will.” And here’s how Jesus responds:

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy (Matthew 8:3 NIV).

And everyone was politely impressed; you know, golf clap (demonstrate the golf clap). They had seen Jesus heal people before. The man expressed a lot of faith, but no big deal, comparatively speaking.

C. The story continues: When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help (Mat- thew 8:5 NIV).

A centurion is a soldier who was put in charge of 100 other soldiers. I want you to imagine for a minute what this probably looked like. Here’s Jesus and His guys walking through the town, and all of the sud- den this Roman centurion approaches Him—possibly flanked by a couple of his guys, some soldiers. The disciples were probably looking at one another thinking, “Man, we’re so busted. Who did it this time? Matthew, what have you done? Why are the police here?”

D. See, this would have been kind of a tense moment because the Romans are the bad guys in first-century Judea. They had invaded the land and set up the ruling government—not exactly endearing qualities for the local residents. The Romans took up the taxes; they made people they didn’t like disappear. And in the story we are reading, here comes this Roman, pagan, non-God-fearing heathen who is asking for Jesus’ help.

“Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering” (Matthew 8:6 NIV).

I’m reading between the lines here, but Jesus’ followers are probably thinking, “Good! We hope he is suffering! We hope he dies! And that he’s contagious! And that you die! And that all of your men die! And that you take it to the emperor and he dies for all we care. Come on, Jesus, let’s go heal some Jewish people! We’re not interested in helping a Roman!” But listen to how Jesus responds instead.

Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him” (Matthew 8:7 NIV).

E. I can imagine Jesus’ friends saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! We can’t start healing Romans. I mean, the Jew- ish leadership already thinks we’re crazy. If you start running around helping the Romans, it’s over for us!” But this doesn’t bother Jesus. He tells the centurion that He will go to his home and help him.

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof” (Matthew 8:8 NIV).

Jesus’ disciples are probably thinking, “Well, that is true. Good point. You don’t deserve it.” But listen to what the centurion says next:

“But just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8 NIV).

In other words, the centurion is saying, “Jesus, I’ve been watching. And I don’t need You to come home with me. I think if You just said right here and right now that my servant should be healed, it would happen. You have the power to heal my servant long distance.” And then there’s this long pause and everybody’s thinking, “Wow. Now that’s a lot of faith.” And the centurion continues:

“For I myself am a man under authority” (Matthew 8:9 NIV).

F. Now this is really cool because the centurion notes a commonality that he and Jesus share. When the guard tells his men to do something, they do so without question. And it’s not because he’s bigger, faster or stronger, but because they realize he carries the weight of a greater authority. He represents not just a man, but Rome itself. Likewise, Jesus is working under the authority and representing Someone else. He is no ordinary man. Whoever Jesus represents, the centurion had witnessed enough to know that this person could do anything, even heal a man from across town. Just like the guard had 100 men at his beck and call, Jesus has sickness and disease at His. Here’s the rest of the verse:

“For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was astonished (Matthew 8:9-10 NIV).

G. Jesus went “Whoa.” This is the first and only time in the whole entire Bible that the word “astonished” is associated with Jesus. And it’s not associated with someone’s act of obedience; it’s associated with someone’s incredible faith. If I had to guess, I bet Jesus was thinking, “I wish all the Jews were more like this Roman centurion.” The only time Jesus was astounded in the New Testament was because of somebody’s great faith and confidence in Him, because somebody realized that He was Jesus and there was somebody bigger than Him. He was worthy of this man’s trust because the centurion had confidence in who Jesus represented. Here’s how the story ends:

And [he] said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith” (Matthew 8:10 NIV).

H. That’s what blew Jesus’ mind—faith. Here’s a man who may have worshiped Zeus or some other Roman god. This guy didn’t know the Ten Commandments. He didn’t go to the Temple. But that didn’t matter. It wasn’t the man’s obedience, knowledge or religious status that impressed Jesus. It was his faith. This is why Jesus came—to restore the relationship between people and God—to make confidence, trust and faith in God accessible. www.whatisorange.org/xp3students © 2010 Andy Stanley All Rights Reserved A product of Orange ANDY STANLEY TEACHING COLLECTION SCRIPT GROW UP (1): BIG FAITH PG.5

As you read the rest of the New Testament you will see that the thing that makes God jump up and down is faith. The same is true today. The thing that is most honoring to God is your faith. Your faith thrills God when you say, “I’m going to do what You want me to do” as an expression of confidence in Him.

APPLICATION A. If God is after the kind of faith that makes Him go “Whoa!”, the kind of faith that makes Him astonished, then what does that faith look like? How can I really trust God? How can I have a faith like that? It has to start with a relationship with Him. And how you develop a relationship with God involves lots of different ways that we are going to start to take a look at the next few weeks.

B. Take a look at your life—the people around you, the places you’ve been, the circumstances you’ve faced and moments you’ve experienced. All of those things and people contribute to who you are. Relation- ships were probably even built around them. Those things and people played a part in shaping you into the kind of person you are. Now think of that in spiritual terms. All of those same things help shape faith. Those things helped build the faith you have. And just like those things build relationships with people, they help build a relationship with God.

C. God wants a relationship with you. He wants you to trust Him—He wants you to have a big faith. He wants to respond to your faith with astonishment.

Imagine that you believe with all your heart that God is a God you can trust completely, that He is a God who knows your name, hears your prayers and wants what is best for you. Imagine that no matter what happens, your faith is unwavering. Not that you are in denial, but that whatever comes your way, you know God is in control. You simply trust God. Think about how different your life would be if you had confidence in God like that. What would daily life in middle school or high school be like? What would it be like in your home? What would it be like right now?

D. Most of us wish we had that kind of faith. We wish that when bad things happen, we would just trust God. We wish that we would trust God no matter what happens. We want that kind of confidence in God. This is the kind of faith God is trying to grow in all of us. He wants to reestablish a perfect faith relationship with us. Because our problem with God came along from the beginning, in the garden, when we began to distrust Him. Jesus came to earth to say that if you put your faith and trust in Him, you can be recon- nected with God—you can be made right with your Creator, the way it was always meant to be.

E. So the question is: Do you want a relationship with God? I am not talking about praying a prayer and rais- ing your hand and saying the right words to ensure where you spend eternity. I am talking about having a relationship—about getting to know the God who pursues you. I am talking about working at getting a confidence in God, a trust in Him that stands up to anything that comes your way. It’s not just about what happens in here, in this room; it’s about what happens in our everyday life. Do you want that kind of faith? Do you want to know this God who went to the ends of the earth to make right the relationship broken by sin? You can. You can have this kind of faith. You can trust in God in a way you never have before—in good times and bad times. You can do it because God is a God who is worthy of your trust, your faith, your confidence.

LANDING A.God wants to build our faith. The greater the faith, the greater the relationship. They are intimately connected.

B. But to start, you have to be dependent on God. That’s the key. That is what leads to relationship. That is what fires God up; that is what is going to catapult your faith to where you want it to be. That is what catches God’s attention more than anything else. That’s what leads to intimacy. And that’s the heavenly Father’s heart.

[TRANSITION INTO SMALL GROUPS]