Sunday February 7 Communion message

I teach a curriculum that I wrote myself called Men of Character. In it I talk about a lot of things, but one of the main points is that we are failing young men. Every generation gets a little bit worse in the way they treat each other, in the way they treat and objectify women and in the things that are important. We watch as young men are sexually promiscuous and they are almost rewarded for it by their peers and by their elders. Boys being boys we say. Then, we watch each generation as they create an obsession with successs which is painted as being rich, powerful and or athletic and talented. What we DO NOT do is teach them how to be men. WE don’t take the time to teach them about the importance of respect. Respect for one another, respect for others, respect for the person they date and marry. Harrell and Harrell has a commercial on the radio right now talking about how little ones watch our moves. They talk about texting and driving with kids in the car and about wearing your seat belt when kids are in the car because they will eventually copy those behaviors. Every good parent in the world wants things to be better for their kids then they were for them. They also want their kids to be better at the things that they do than they were. Well, here is the flip side parents, your kids want that too. They want to do what you do and do it better. They want to out do you, and odds are they will. The things you do wrong they will do even worse, the things that you make important and do well they will do much better. Leadership, everyone wants to be a leader but what our teens don’t realize is that most every leader is actually a follower. Leaders aren’t popular and cool, leaders are people who do what is write no matter what. They do what their gut and their morals say they should regardless of who or what the circumstances are that are surrounding them. In kindergarten PJ went to staggered start. Basically, this meant that she went to school with about 4 other classmates. Well that day the teacher let her lead the lines because she knew her way around. Tara worked at the school so PJ already knew where everything was. When they returned for the first day with the full class the teacher assigned a line leader. As they walked to lunch she looked up and PJ was up front leading the way. Well, the teacher asked her to let the young man she assigned lead and she said No. PJ, it's his day to lead I want him up front. I cannot do that Ms Johnson, my dad told me I had to be a leader so I have to be up front. This sadly is the picture of leadership our young people are carrying around, being up front and in charge, being pushy and overpowering people. Next, and finally this is so big and this is so where we are killing our next generation. Community. I am going to tell you this, if you want to have a strong relationship with Jeff Gatlin you better sit down with him on occasion and talk. I borderline demand it. WE need to grab a bite to eat and hang out, we need to crash at my office, or here at the church, or on your front porch and talk because that is community. Facebook is not community. Twitter, KIK, Instagram, snap chat are not community. Sitting and talking and interacting are community. But think about this with me, babies come into this world completely innocent. Their eyes are opened and they are taking in everything they come across. We use words like cute, cuddly, adorable, and innocent but something happens. Their environment changes and they are slowly exposed to more and more. Eventually they are no longer surrounded by people who love them. They are surrounded by people in competition with them for attention and for progress. People who instead of building them up and telling them they love them, they are beautiful and they are the best are calling them names, pointing out their weaknesses and hurting them regularly. Community, it is where America is most failing this generation and we have to do something about it. Today we are going to take Communion, the Lords Supper regardless of what you call it you are sitting down and focusing on what is important in this world. As Christians what is important in this world is that God loves us, continues to love us and had a plan from day one to prove that love to us. What is important is that we bring ourselves back to a place where we have to be very real with ourselves and the people around us. I remember as a kid eating breakfast and dinner with my family. Breakfast was at the table. Dinner was sometimes at the table sometimes in the living room. Regardless of where it was it was a time to be genuine and real. If one person wasn’t it was awkward(I am an only child) Today my schedule will not permit me to eat at home every night, but we do our best to eat together as often as possible. And when we do we are forced to think about what is important on the family side of things. Community. I long for community in my life, if you know me you know I hate relationships based on texting and even phone calls for that matter. Communion is a time when we as a church family are sat down together. Focused on what God has done for us, What Jesus accomplished for us. It is also a time for making sure we are on track where God wants us to be and a time to become more thankful for God’s grace than ever. Go wash up my parents would tell me, clean up for dinner I would hear from the back door to the hosue. I would come in from outside playing run into the bathroom and wash my hands. Without fail I would sit down and be told to try again. Sometimes two or three times I would be told to try again. This happened all the time. Why? Because I just washed my hands, not the back of my hands or my arms or elbows. Communion is a time for community, a time where we sit completely transparent in front of God’s table and remember all that Jesus did for us. But, if we do it correctly it will remind us of all the places we need to clean up so that we can sit transparently in front of a God who knows everything about us. 1 Corinthians 11:26 Luke 22:19-21 So here we are, I am going to pray and during this prayer I would encourage you to do the same thing. Pray that God will help you to focus on the elements, the imagery of them, and pray that He will help to prepare your mind and heart and clean up all the places where you have sinned and fallen short.