Roots Student Ministry Podcast

The story of the shepherds hearing about Jesus wasn't enough for them, they had to go experience Jesus for themselves. So they traveled to the town of Bethlehem to go see Jesus with their very own eyes. This story helps us know that a relationship with Jesus is meant for everyone.

When we go all the way back to the very first Christmas, we realize that Jesus really shook things up. He didn't come exactly how everyone expected their Savior to come, but He came in a way that was far better for everyone. Because He came, everyone can now live a life with a relationship with Jesus.

The invitation that Jesus came to bring is the biggest invitation that you can have...a relationship with Him. We saw this invitation the very first day that Jesus was born, when the lowly Shepherds were invited to see Jesus. And that story can let you know that you're invited too.

It's good to have people you can look up to. But sometimes, if we are not careful, we start to compare ourselves to them and think that we can't live up to the standard they laid out for us. If we find ourselves comparing, we need to let God transform and renew our hearts and rest in the identity that He gave us.

When we start to compare ourselves to others, we start to become envious and jealous of the person who we compare ourselves too. We may even wonder if we can ever live up to the way they live or every have the talent they have. But the best way to combat that jealousy is to celebrate what you have and celebrate what they have. It will make you an overall joy-filled person.

In a world that is full of comparison, we can be confident in ourselves knowing that God doesn't compare ourselves to others. Instead, we should turn our focus on God and know that He made us just the way He wanted to make us.

When we're in a dark world, the Bible helps bring clarity to the darkness. It lights it up so we can see clearly around us. It may not illuminate all the answers we're looking for, but within context, it helps us know what our next step should be.

The Holy Spirit speaks to us when we are reading scripture. So it's important to keep the words of Scripture on our hearts. We do that by memorizing and living out the Scripture that we have memorized.

There are a lot of confusing things that we can read in the Bible. Most of the time it's confusing because we open the Bible to a random page and start reading. But when we really spend time looking into the context of what is happening at that time, it creates clarity for us so we can understand the Bible better.

We all probably have different views about the Bible. Some of us may love reading it, while others of us may get confused when we read the Bible. What's important is that we understand that Jesus is the main part of the WHOLE Bible. Which means we need to read Scripture through the filter of Jesus. That way we can get to know God and how He works.

Many of us may have family that isn't very consistent for us. Maybe our family is going through a hard season. It's important that we have friends that we trust as family. That's why the church is so important, because you have a church family who can come alongside you and support you.

One thing is inevitable in life, things are going to change. And when things change in our family, the way we handle it matters. Instead of fighting change and pretending that everything will always stay the same, we can open our hands and give up control to God. We can trust Him with it all.

Every family has it's challenges. Families have tension, secrets and maybe even wounds from the past. But just because every family is imperfect, it doesn't mean that your family should be counted out. God has a plan for your family and your family story isn't finished.

When it comes to family, there are a whole bunch of things in the mix. Faith can even be another big thing to add into the family mix. Maybe your family doesn't believe. Maybe your family puts a lot of pressure on you to believe what they believe. For others of us, it feels like faith is one thing and family is a completely other thing. But if you want faith to help your family, you must show as much love as you can.

Jesus has already come down to this earth and showed us how to make a difference in the world around us. We can look at Jesus' life to know how we can spread the good news of God's party here on this earth. The Kingdom of Heaven has already been brought down to this earth. It's our role to show it to everyone else.

When we're Christians, we feel like we have to defend anything that seems to be different than what we learned about faith growing up. When we're trying to defend, we stop spending time listening. But we can learn from Jesus that it's important to spend time learning. If you want to walk with wisdom, you need to know that there is always something to learn from others.

Everyone has worth and value. It's important to remember that we are valuable. And if we are valuable, that means others are valuable as well and we need to treat them that way. We need to get creative in how we celebrate others. That very act of creativity can be an act of worship to God.

We can have a lot of insecurity about where we stand when it comes to our influence. As believers, we have the light of Jesus in us that gives us the influence that we can have towards others. We can tell other people about Jesus and the relationship we have with Him.

We have all been gifted with many gifts and talents, but sometimes it seems like there is so much going on in the world that we can't really make a difference to change it. Instead of us trying to think how we can change the world, we need to think about how we can change our neighbors life around us.

Sometimes it's hard for us to be generous to others. We may even fear what other people's response would be. But a true party starter is someone who goes above and beyond. Someone who is generous to others. They celebrate and help others win.

It's easy to be a party starter in peoples lives when things are going great. It's easy to celebrate the great times in life. It's harder to come alongside those who are struggling. But in order to be a good party starter, we need to walk alongside others through their pain.

In a lot of ways in our lives, it can feel like there are two groups in life: the insiders and the outsiders. Sometimes, if we realize it or not, we can be the ones to make other people feel "out". But Jesus gave us an example that with God, everyone gets a seat at the table. Jesus spent time with the tax collectors and the sinners. The people in that society that everyone looked down upon. But with Jesus, everyone belongs.

It's easy for us to do the bare minimum. We may do it because we're tired, or it seems like it wouldn't be any benefit to do more, or maybe we're afraid of what would happen if we put more effort into something, or maybe it's simply a lack of motivation. But Jesus came and gave an example of going the extra mile for someone else. To literally go above and beyond what is expected of you. So if we want to make a difference around us, we need to do more of what is asked of us.

We may think that to be a Christian, it means we have to follow a bunch of rules. And if that were true, then Christianity would not be like a party at all. But Jesus said that He came so that we can have life to the full. That means that Jesus came so we can celebrate the life that God gave us. When we choose to follow Jesus, we're choosing to say yes to believing that His promise of a full life is possible, no matter what comes our way. Because we have Jesus, we can start the faith party around us every day.

It's easy to draw conclusions on other people. Many times we may even create bad conclusions about others because of choices they have made or ways that they act. But when we look at who we were created to be as image bearers of God, then we also need to recognize that everyone else was created as an image bearer of God as well. Knowing you're valuable to God is never meant to make other people less valuable to you. It's important to remember that everyone is someone made uniquely in God's image.

The real question that we are all asking is "Who am I?" We can be one way with one group of people that is different than we are with another group of people. It's all a search to find out who we really are deep down inside of us. But the truth is found in God. Scripture says we are image bearers of God. And Jesus came to give us a true example of what that looks like. When we look to Jesus on how to live, then we are being our true self.

It can be easy for us to look down on other people, especially those who are different than us. We can even justify it and say what they are doing is not the "Christian" think they should be doing. But in the story of Jesus' interaction with the woman at the well, we see that Jesus includes anyone...even the people that were different than Him. We need to see people the way God sees people.

Sometimes our own worst enemy is ourselves. Maybe we don't love ourselves, or maybe we think that loving ourselves is selfish. In some ways, the idea of loving God and others is much easier than the idea of loving ourselves. But Jesus changes everything. Jesus connects our ability to love God and love others to our ability to love ourselves. It's not about building more self-confidence or having a better self-esteem. It's about truly knowing your identity in Christ and who God created you to be.

Jesus said the most important command is to love God and to love others. But how exactly do we love God? Well, God gave us an example by sending His Son to this earth and showing us how to live. If we live like Jesus, we are loving God with everything we have.

Our faith can get a little complicated. We start to ask deep questions and we don't fully understand what the Bible says about it. It seems like we have to be a Bible scholar in order to be a "good" Christian. But when Jesus came down to earth, He made sure to let everyone know that your faith should not be complicated. Simply put: love God and love others.

Everyone goes through struggles and hardships. But what are we supposed to do about them? This week, we look at the story where Jesus heals the blind man in John 9. In this story, we see that our hardships that we go through are ways that God can show Himself to be faithful in our lives.

No matter how much you have messed up, God's grace still forgives you. When you rest in His forgiveness, you can learn from your mistakes and become stronger in your faith. This week's message was written and delivered by students from Camarillo High School, Newbury Park High School and Homeschool students who are a part of Roots.

There's a lot of unfair things that happen around us. And when something feels unfair, it can bring up a lot of emotions in us. But when we look at what happened because of the death and resurrection of Christ, we learn that God is full of grace. We see this in how Jesus restores Peter back to right-standing with Him. Did Peter deserve it? No. But through the life of Jesus, we can see that God's grace is unfairly good.

Jesus went to the cross for us. He abolished the need to work hard so we can be saved. He said "It is finished". That means that we can have a relationship with God all because of the work that Jesus did on the cross and His resurrection from the grave.

Sometimes we can get the wrong view of God. We may even think that God is the bad guy who makes us live by rules or even the guy who's in control of the chaos that is happening in your life. Sometimes how we feel about God doesn't represent what is true about God. When we look at the way that Jesus lived, we realized that He was real and honest with His Father. We need to learn from Jesus and know that we can be real with God and trust that He will be good no matter what the outcome.

We always hear about how opposites attract, but that really isn't the case. We are drawn to people who are more like us. It just feels more natural. But we are surrounded by people who are nothing like us, even at church. Maybe that's why Jesus prayed for unity for the Church near the end of His life. He knew that people would start to see Him through the unity of the people who love Him.

It's easy for us to forget things. We forget what others have done for us and take them for granted. We forget things that have happened to others, and it communicates a lack of care. And we forget promises we make, and it hurts the feelings of other people. Just before Jesus went to the cross, He sat down with His disciples for a final supper to help them always remember what He has done on this earth. Jesus knows that we tend to forget, so before He left, He taught the disciples to remember. When we remember, we come to realize that Jesus never changes.

When thoughts about suicide start to creep in, you may start to believe the lie that the world would just move on without you, or even be a better place. In turn, you just feel like everything is hopeless. And if you give that through enough time and repetition in an isolated brain, eventually it will become comfortable there. But Jesus came to give life. So no matter what our temporary problem is, we can't make a permanent decision because of a temporary problem. Through the hope of Jesus, we can choose hope today and life tomorrow.

We like having our space and freedom and we don't like when others tell us what to do. We don't like when boundaries are put in place. But we also don't like when others cross the boundaries that we have put up. In this message, we talk about how boundaries can not only be good for us when it comes to our sexual integrity, but also boundaries can be very powerful. Boundaries help us be wiser when it comes to our sexual integrity.

We all go through difficult times and we all make mistakes. It's tempting to keep all those mistakes in the darkness. One of the healthiest things for us is to have a trusted person who we can go to so we can share about our struggles and temptations. That way we an turn the light on and see things as they truly are.

Technology can be really difficult to manage. We have probably all gone down an online rabbit hole that we are not proud of. Whether it's pornography, stalking an ex, or even sending or receiving nudes. Things online aren't always what they seem and technology can become a poor substitute for real sexual connection the way that God intended. We'll take a look at 1 Corinthians 6:18 and talk about the importance of fleeing from sexual immorality.

It's not always fun having the sex talk. But we do believe it's important. And when it comes to sex, we know that everyone has an opinion. But what does the Bible say about it? Well, when we look at the very beginning of the Bible, we see that God created sex and He created it to be good. But it's also important to know that sex was also created to be very powerful. So how we treat sex and how we treat other people matters. So the best way to treat sex is with sexual integrity with appropriate boundaries and mutual respect.

Anxiety has been more prevalent over the last decade. Most, if not all of you have have struggled with anxiety. Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure. There is helpful anxiety, unhelpful anxiety, and consistent anxiety. But how do we deal with this anxiety that we feel? This message will bring up ideas on how to can get through your anxiety with God on your side. There is a way that you know you'll be ok.

Our words matter. Have you ever had someone say something to you that you have remembered for years, but they probably forgot they said it just a couple seconds after they say it? That's because we remember the words that are spoken to us. So no matter the type of conflict we are in, our words play a key roll in how the conflict resolves. That's why it's important to use gentle words.

Your integrity matters. Integrity is being the same person with your friends than you are with adults. Integrity is being the same person when you're alone and when you're with people. Integrity is choosing to make the right decisions even when no one else is choosing to make the right decisions. The decisions that you make that no one sees builds a good reputation that everyone remembers.

There are a lot of gray areas with decisions that we have to make. Sometimes decisions we make are not technically bad, but they may be categorized as unwise. Learning how to discern wisdom helps us avoid foolish decisions. We can discern wisdom by spending time with God by reading scripture and learning from older God-fearing adults who can speak into our lives.

How can you be one of the smartest people in the world yet still make dumb decisions? You may know people who have a really high IQ but they seem to throw their life away. It's because IQ doesn't really matter in the long run. But your wisdom does. Your knowledge may be nice in school, but your wisdom helps you succeed in life. Wisdom is gained through evaluated experiences.

Christmas can bring a lot of messes to the surface. And most of the time we try to manage the mess on our own. We manage our image, expectations, relationships and even our behavior. We try to manage the mess and when things get out of control, we don't like it. When we realize that Jesus came so that we could finally have real joy, peace, hope, and love, everything changes. He came so that we don't have to be the one to keep everything together. We can trust Him in the midst of the messy circumstances.

When your Christmas is starting to feel messy and complicated, it's important for us to remember that the circumstances when Jesus came into this world were messy and complicated. We can learn from the Christmas story that Jesus shows up in the middle of the mess.

The Christmas season is all about joy and peace and hope, but sometimes the Christmas season just doesn't feel that way. Sure, everything around you can be decorated beautifully, but when it comes to your home life, what's happening at school, or even what you feel inside of you, this Christmas season doesn't feel all that joy filled. So when it seems like this Christmas season is getting a little messy, then remember that you are not alone because God is always with you. Jesus came down to this earth as a child to prove that God is with us.

Treating people like "trash" has become the new normal. Our culture has gotten used to being mean to people. We either have been bullied, been the one bullying or watched someone be bullied. But when we start to see everyone as masterpieces created by God, we can solve the problem of bullying.