CATALYST

Series:  “It’s Just Sex”

Focus:  Sex/Purity

Family Discussion:

 Over the next four weeks we will be walking through God’s plan and purpose for sex in our lives.  This topic may be an uneasy one to discuss as a family, but that’s OK.  The most important aspect to the Parent Connection each week is the simple fact that you are having a dialogue with your student about sex!  Because, believe me, everyone else they meet is talking about it!  This week, let’s start by looking at the origins of sex:

Genesis 1:26-28 “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” 

From the very start of humanity we see that sex is God’s idea.  Not Adam.  Not MTV.  God.  He created man and woman for the purpose of populating the earth.  It is key to understand that sex isn’t simply a physical act.  Sex is physical, emotional and spiritual.  Beyond God just inventing sex, He actually cares how we treat sex:

I Thessalonians 4:3-4 “God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor”

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do you think sex is such a difficult subject to talk about?
2. Why is it easy to simply think of sex as physical, without the emotional and spiritual sides of it?
3. How does the conversation change when we recognize that God created sex?

Parents, over the next few weeks we will continue to unpack this topic and discover the incredible benefits we can experience by following His plan for our sexual decisions.  Keep using this Parent Connection to spark conversations with your student!

*Special Parent Announcement *

On March 2, 2011, the last week of this series, YOU are invited to join us at Catalyst.  Starting at 6:30pm at the Pellissippi campus we will have a special Parent Breakout experience about this series followed by a unique panel discussion that is all geared around how to handle your student’s dating process.  Please check in at the info kiosk upon your arrival.  If you have questions contact the student office at (865) 251-2590.

 

REMIX

Tonight begins a journey to discover life the way God intended us to live it.  As you read through scripture it does not take long to realize that God desires for his people to look different than those around them.  Our lives should be flipped, opposite of the world around us.  In Romans Paul brings us face to face with the flipped life God designed us to live.  Over the next four weeks we will discover just what this life looks like.

Tonight in Remix we are focused in on Romans chapter 3, to discover that we are all messed up.  The world we live in tells us to hide our failures and imperfections.  We are encouraged and rewarded to cover up our flaws and make ourselves into the people we think the world around us wants us to be.  We end up getting caught up in the rat race of masking ourselves so we look better than the people around us.  Paul challenges us in Romans 3:23 by saying there is no distinction, all of us have messed up and don’t deserve God.  We are all broken.  No matter how hard we try to cover it up, we are all in the same boat.  God desires for us to embrace our imperfection because in our weakness, imperfection we find our hope and that is Jesus Christ.  In large group we discussed two specific resolutions we can make to embrace our weakness, instead of trying to cover it up.  Resolution # 1:  drop the mask, Resolution # 2: find our perfection in Christ in us. 

 Listed below are some questions that you can use to spark conversation with your students and connect with what we talked about this week:

• How are you encouraged by the world around you to hide your imperfections?
• What are some areas where you have messed up, where you are not perfect?  What would it feel like to embrace and recognize it, instead of trying to cover it up and act like it does not exist?
• What does it mean to drop the mask?
• How is God’s strength made known in our weakness/imperfection?
• What does it mean for Christ to make us perfect? (Hebrews 10:14)
• How is embracing our weakness and finding our hope in Christ in us, flipped to the way the world around us lives?  What impact do you think you would have on those around you if you chose to lay down the mask, quit pretending live this way? 

 

BLOUNT

Tonight begins a journey to discover life the way God intended us to live it.  As you read through scripture it does not take long to realize that God desires for his people to look different than those around them.  Our lives should be flipped, opposite of the world around us.  In Romans Paul brings us face to face with the flipped life God designed us to live.  Over the next four weeks we will discover just what this life looks like.

Tonight in Remix we are focused in on Romans chapter 3, to discover that we are all messed up.  The world we live in tells us to hide our failures and imperfections.  We are encouraged and rewarded to cover up our flaws and make ourselves into the people we think the world around us wants us to be.  We end up getting caught up in the rat race of masking ourselves so we look better than the people around us.  Paul challenges us in Romans 3:23 by saying there is no distinction, all of us have messed up and don’t deserve God.  We are all broken.  No matter how hard we try to cover it up, we are all in the same boat.  God desires for us to embrace our imperfection because in our weakness, imperfection we find our hope and that is Jesus Christ.  In large group we discussed two specific resolutions we can make to embrace our weakness, instead of trying to cover it up.  Resolution # 1:  drop the mask, Resolution # 2: find our perfection in Christ in us. 

 Listed below are some questions that you can use to spark conversation with your students and connect with what we talked about this week:

• How are you encouraged by the world around you to hide your imperfections?
• What are some areas where you have messed up, where you are not perfect?  What would it feel like to embrace and recognize it, instead of trying to cover it up and act like it does not exist?
• What does it mean to drop the mask?
• How is God’s strength made known in our weakness/imperfection?
• What does it mean for Christ to make us perfect? (Hebrews 10:14)
• How is embracing our weakness and finding our hope in Christ in us, flipped to the way the world around us lives?  What impact do you think you would have on those around you if you chose to lay down the mask, quit pretending live this way?