November 21, 2014, OUT OF HIDING

Tonight, I shared about the story of Peter, one of Jesus' disciples who had witnessed all kinds of miraculous things (even Lazarus being raised from the dead). The Bible makes it pretty clear that Peter believed that Jesus was the Son of God (Matthew 16:16). Peter also told Jesus that "even if all the other disciples desert you, I will NEVER desert you". (Matthew 26:33). When Jesus challenged him about those words, Peter even had the audacity to say, "Even if I have to die with you. I will never deny you!" (Matthew 26:35).

Peter talked a pretty good game, but Matthew 26:69-75 records that, just a few hours after making those brazen statements in front of Jesus and the disciples, after Jesus had been arrested, Peter denied even knowing him THREE times! What's so interesting about this passage is that nowhere does it indicate that the people asking Peter the questions were out for blood. It doesn't appear that they were asking with any amount of hostility. In fact, the questioners were likely people who had heard about Jesus, the things he taught, the miracles he had done, and they were probably a little confused as to why Jesus had been arrested. Peter missed out on an amazing opportunity to tell people about his experience with Jesus, all because he was too afraid of WHY the crowd was asking questions and too afraid of how they might respond if he told them the truth.

If we call ourselves Christians (Jesus-followers) we need to be open and honest with people about what we believe. That doesn't mean we need to preach a sermon in our school hallway, but it could mean something as simple as telling people we were at CATALYST when we're asked what we did on Friday night. There is a lot of temptation to hide our faith and live like we don't know Jesus in order to be accepted by the crowd, but when we keep what we believe hidden, we might be missing HUGE opportunities to point our friends towards the God who loves them like crazy.

Coming in January, we'll be starting YOUTH ALPHA, a video-based series that explores some of the deep questions about faith, life and God. I'm really encouraging teens to bring a friend along with them! It might be a bit scary or intimidating to invite someone to a "church" event, but if we push past that fear, God might do something awesome in our friend's lives as a result!

DISCUSSION:

1. Have you ever let fear get in the way of you doing something that would have been awesome? Do you ever regret being too afraid to do something?

2. Encourage your teens to think and pray about who they can invite with them to ALPHA in January. Take the time to pray with them for those friends....that they would love to come, and that through the questions and discussions, that they would be introduced to Jesus.

2. Challenge your teen to mention the ALPHA series to one of those friends within the next week. Even though it might be a little intimidating or uncomfortable, encourage your teen to push past the fear. It could be as simple as saying, "My youth group is doing a cool video/discussion series that tackles big questions about God and life-- like 'does God exist?' and 'what's the purpose of my life?'. There's also going to be some fun games and free food-- like pizza!" It's going to start in January, would you be interested in coming with me?"