Current MSM Topics

One of the ways you can connect with your Middle School aged kids is by knowing what we’re talking about each Saturday and continuing the discussion at home. In this section, we will put information about the last few topics to help you understand the message as well as give you some ideas for things to talk about at home.

Current Series: How To Talk To God

It doesn’t seem that hard, right? Just talk to God – tell him what you want. Then why is it so hard to do? Why do so many Christians have a tough time talking to Him consistently? Why is it so uncomfortable for so many people to pray to God out loud? In this series, we’re learning how to pray. Jesus’ closest friends asked him one day to teach them how to pray. Jesus gave them guidance in how to pray and told them that God wants to give his followers what they ask for – so who wouldn’t want to find out what Jesus wants in our life?! The main scripture we’re looking at during this series, is Jesus’ answer to the disciple who asked for guidance in prayer. It’s found in Luke 11:1-4

11:1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he stopped, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples. 11:2 So he said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, 3 Give us each day, our daily bread 4 And forgive us our sins and those who have sinned against us. And lead us not into temptation.

We find a few principles in Jesus’ answer that help us know How To Talk To God, it spells out an acrostic: PART, which we’ll talk about over the next few weeks. God wants us to know what he wants, but we need to do our PART by talking to him.

Week 1: Jesus Isn’t My Best Friend – HE’S GOD!!!

The first letter, “P” stands for “Praise.” God wants us to recognize our role and our identity in relationship to Him. He is our Father, our Creator, and our Sustainer. He is perfect, he is righteous, and he is patient (and a few hundred other pretty awesome things!). God is not our friend, he’s not a genie who gives us what we want when we want it, he’s not just looking for us to say we’re sorry and move on. God wants our Praise! Praising God is not thanking Him, it is acknowledging his Character, his Traits, and his Identity, to remind us of His role in the universe, in the world, and in our lives – which gives us perspective in dealing with life events, situations, and relationships.

Here’s the main point: We praise God for WHO HE IS, not WHAT HE DOES

Suggestions for Location of Conversation:

•  When you have a few minutes in the car
•  At a meal as a family discussion
•  Stopping by their room before they go to bed
•  Take them on a “date” (ice cream, bike ride, dog walk)

Engage Your Child:

•  Share your own experience with prayer

•  Ask your child if they’ve ever seen God answer a prayer (How about you?  Have you seen God answer a prayer? Share that experience)

•  Ask what three characteristics of God they appreciate most?

•  Challenge as a family to write prayers down for 30 days and commit to praying for them as a family (bed time, meal time, ???) and writing down answers to prayer

• Find ten characteristics or descriptions of God (Psalms is a good place to look) and praise those characteristics of God together as a family

Make it Real Challenge:

Read a Psalm a day and spend 2 minutes praising God based on what you read about God

Week 2: Not Quite a Bulls Eye

The second letter, “A” stands for “Admit.”  When we come into a relationship with Jesus, we admit that we fall short of God’s perfection – we put our wants ahead of the wants of others and the wants of God (we’re selfish). The word “sin” was a Greek archery term that meant “to miss the mark.” Our aim is to “hit the bulls eye” of perfection, but we admit that we “miss the mark.” When we initially admit our sin and ask for God’s forgiveness, He uses the sacrifice of Jesus’ life to pay for all of our sin – past, present, and future, ONCE and for ALL. Even though we’re forgiven once and for all, we are not immediately perfect. God continues to mold us, shape us, and refine us. So during that process (sanctification), we still need to “admit” our sins so that we know and God knows that we know, that we fall short and we are in need of God to change our heart and our action. When we do our PART in prayer, we Admit that we miss the mark and are in need of God’s forgiveness.

4 And forgive us our sins and those who have sinned against us. And lead us not into temptation.

Engage Your Child:

•  Ask your child their biggest sin and then share yours (just kidding – kind of. Admit an appropriate area of struggle that God is working on you, then ask if they want to share.)

•  Have you seen God smooth rough areas in your life? Have a conversation about those. Are any of those areas struggles for you child? (Sometimes the good AND the bad rubs off on our kids)

•  How do you know and how does your child know what character issues in their heart or behaviors in their life are missing the mark and need to be confessed? Check out the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22,23 – make an agreement with your child to individually pray through those at the end of the day and evaluate your actions of the day by each of these fruits. As you see areas in which you’re struggling, ask God to change your heart so you don’t act sinfully and don’t even have a desire to act sinfully.

•  You can do the same thing as above with the 10 commandments in Exodus 20.

Week 3: Some of God’s Greatest Gifts are Unanswered Prayers

The third letter, “R” stands for “Request”

God will give you anything you ask for!  That’s right, ANYTHING!  Stop – I know what you’re thinking, “God’s been sleeping on the job, because there are lots of things he hasn’t given me when I asked!”  God always answers prayer – every time (I’ll get to that in a minute)!  As you’ve studied God’s characteristics to Praise Him, you’ve probably noticed that God wants the absolute best for us and for His creation – so every time He we pray, He answers. He answers it with our best interest and the best interest of His Creation in mind – He will always answer either, Yes, No, or Slow (wait).  But what do we request?  I like to work in system that starts far from me, then works inward (it reminds me that there are a lot of other needs in the world besides mine and it puts my requests in perspective.)  World, National, Local, Community, Friends, Family, Me

The more we get to know God, our heart and our desire gets shaped by Him, so the things we want are the things He wants, so when we ask Him for things, He wants to bless us with those requests.

3 Give us each day, our daily bread

Matthew 7:7 ⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Mark 11:24 ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Matthew 18:19 ¹⁹ “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

Matthew 21:22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Engage Your Child:

• Ask your child if they’ve ever seen God answer any prayers.  Do you have examples in your own life of God answering prayer?
• Make a list with your list with things in the World, National, Local, Community, Friends, Family, Me that you can pray for everyday before bed.
• On that list, mark down ways in which God gives a Yes, No, or Slow.
• Challenge your child and yourself to ask one person everyday if there’s anyway you can pray for them.

Week 4: Thank God Allways

The fourth letter, “T” stands for “Thanks”

When we Praise God, we acknowledge His character.  When we Admit our sins, we acknowledge His perfection and how we fall short.  When we Request things from God, we acknowledge God’s desire to bless us.  When we Thank God, we acknowledge His character and how it affects us, His forgiveness of our sin and redemption in our heart, and His blessings in our life and in our world.  We are able to recognize that “all things work for the good of those who love Him,” so regardless of how much we enjoy or want our circumstances, we thank God for His ability to restore, heal, and redeem any and all situations for His glory and our good.

1Thessalonians 5

¹⁶ Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Pray continually, ¹⁸ and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:28

²⁸ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Philippians 4:4-7

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Engage Your Child:

• Ask your child what they’re thankful for.
• Make a list of relationships and circumstances (keep “stuff” off of this list) for which you and your child is thankful (try to let them come up with ideas, rather than “feeding” them everything)
• Resolve with your child to always be thankful and ask them to lovingly hold you to that commitment if they see your heart and attitude grumbling and complaining