Wed. Night Impact

Last night, I feel like we had a great night. It was Jerry's last Wed., and he just went around hanging out with kids. Gideon led worship. He's going to be taking over for good with Jerry leaving. He did a very good job. Michaela was his other singer, and she sounded great. It was the best I've ever heard her.
I spoke about the Fruits of the Spirit. The scripture was Galatians 5:16-26. First, the sinful nature and living by the Spirit have different goals. The sinful nature puts the self first and doesn't think about others. Living by the Spirit goes over what is best for you and what is best for others.
We went through some of the things that you do when living by the sinful nature. Some of them seem like fun. Some of them seem easier. For instance, it's easier to be jealous of somebody than to be happy for somebody. Because being happy for somebody means that you have to put the other person.
Then we went through the fruits of the Spirit. These should be evident in our lives. When we accepted Jesus as savior and made him the Lord of our lives, our sinful nature died. We are no longer slaves to that. We can't use that as an excuse, "well, I'm going to do these things because I'm a sinner." No, God will help us. It doesn't mean that we aren't going to sin. We're never going to be perfect. God knows this. If we were able to be perfect, that's what he would expect from us. If we were able to be perfect, then there was no sense in sending Jesus to die on the cross. He shows us crazy grace, but it's not a license to sin. I think we have a responsibility to try to live out the Fruits of the Spirit.
So, I ended with challenging them to see how they can make these more evident in their lives. How can they be more patient with the teacher who is driving them crazy? How can they show kindness to the kid that treats them bad? How can they show gentleness to the little brother or sister who is going to give them a brain seizure because they are bothering them so much?

Then we played a big game of dodgeball, and the new 6th graders kept getting me out. I was taking it easy on them...NOT ANYMORE!