Youth Group Devotionals

This Sunday is the celebration of the day of Pentecost on the Christian and Jewish calendar.Pentecost was not originally a Christian holiday. It was a Jewish festival called the Feast of Weeks and was celebrated 50 days after Passover. Because it is a Jewish festival, Jerusalem would have been filled with Jews visiting from many different nations. We will see that this is a crucial detail on Friday.Today’s passage takes us back to just before Jesus’ ascension when Jesus tells His disciples that they should return to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit to arrive.

Each of our lives is built on a foundation. Right now, a big part of your foundation probably comes from your family. Some people grow up with strong, healthy foundations, while others come from difficult situations that didn’t give them much stability moving into adulthood.As you grow up, though, there comes a point where you must decide what your own foundation will be. That’s what Jesus is talking about in this passage.Over the last few weeks, we’ve been walking through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and now we’ve reached the ending. Jesus finishes with a picture of two houses. One house is built high up on solid rock. The other is built on shifting sand next to the water. When the storm comes and the floodwaters rise, the house on the sand gets swept away while the house on the rock stands strong.Jesus says that when we build our lives centered on His teachings, it’s like building on the rock. Storms will still come (hard seasons, struggles, pressure, pain) but our foundation will hold firm because it’s grounded in our faith in Christ.But if we ignore what Jesus teaches and build our lives centered on things that don’t last (culture, money, relationships, appearance, feelings, success, popularity, other people’s opinions), we’ll end up like the house on the sand: unstable, tossed around by every storm, with no solid direction for where our lives are headed.Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been teaching us what life in God’s Kingdom looks like. He’s covered anger, lust, forgiveness, prayer, anxiety, generosity, judging others, loving your enemies, and trusting God. Here at the end, we see that Jesus makes it clear that this sermon was never just meant to be listened to. It was meant to be lived out.The wise builder isn’t the person who simply hears Jesus’ words. The wise builder is the person who puts them into practice.So, let’s not just admire Jesus’ teaching. Let’s build our lives on it.

In Matthew 7, Jesus gives a serious warning: not everyone who says they know Him belongs to Him. Some people will call Him “Lord” and look like a Christ follower on the outside, but Jesus says, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23). That’s hard to hear because it shows that Christianity is more than just professing Christ as Lord.Even demons know who Jesus is. In Matthew 8:28–30, demons immediately recognize Jesus as the Son of God. They know the truth about Him, but they don’t love Him, trust Him, or follow Him. Knowing facts about Jesus is not the same as having a relationship with Him.Jesus says we should recognize fellow Christians by their fruit. A healthy tree produces healthy fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit. In other words, what comes out of our lives reveals what’s really happening in our hearts.Real faith changes us. When someone truly knows and follows Christ, the Holy Spirit begins producing fruit in their life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (the fruits of the spirit). That doesn’t mean Christians are perfect, but it does mean there should be evidence that Jesus is changing us over time.The question isn’t simply, “Do I know Jesus?” The real question is, “Does my life show that I love and follow Him?” Jesus isn’t looking for people to just proclaim who He is, He wants people to do as He does.

I am reading and listening to N.T. Wright a lot in my personal study time and today's devotional relies heavily on his writing.Sometimes we treat prayer like we’re bothering God, like our problems are too small or too selfish to bring to Him. But Jesus teaches the opposite. God is our Father. He isn’t a distant boss or an annoyed dictator. Good fathers want their children to talk to them honestly about what they need, what they’re feeling, and what’s going on in their lives.That doesn’t mean we should pray for selfish things just to make ourselves look better or feel more important. But a lot of us actually have the opposite problem: we don’t ask God enough. We hold back, thinking He’s too busy for us. Yet even with all the pain and chaos in the world, God still cares deeply about our daily needs too.Do you remember when you were smaller and you would ask your parents for something? Sometimes you received it and sometimes you didn't. You did not understand why you didn't get that thing, maybe you were too young for it, maybe it was too dangerous for you, maybe your parent's had something better in mine. In the same way, prayer is mysterious. Sometimes God says yes, sometimes no, and sometimes we don’t understand why. But prayer isn’t pointless. God invites us to be part of what He’s doing in the world, and somehow prayer matters in that process. So Jesus says to ask, seek, and knock, trusting that God won’t let us down.When we really understand God’s love as our Father, it changes the way we treat people too. Jesus sums it all up with the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated. When we know God’s love personally, we can reflect that same love to the people around us.

Today we’re going to dig deeper into Matthew 7:6. When Jesus talked about dogs and pigs (swine), the people listening in the 1st century would’ve immediately pictured something very different than we do today. According to Jewish law, dogs and pigs were considered unclean animals, pigs being the most unclean of animals, so Jews were not allowed to eat or handle them. If they did, they would not be allowed back into the community until they ritually cleansed themselves.These animals were also used as insults toward other people. Dogs referred to Gentiles and pigs referred to pagans, people who didn’t follow God’s law. Jewish people looked down on them because they believed they were living outside of God’s law.With this context we can now look at the verse with better understanding. When Jesus talks about “What is holy” and “your pearls” He’s talking about the good news that Christ had come to share about God fulfilling the law through Christ. This is something that we have been called to share with others, but not everyone is ready to hear about spiritual things like these when we meet them.So, this verse is a call to practice discernment, using our good eyes (remember Matthew 6:22-23), to recognize those who are ready to hear the good news as opposed to those that continue to reject and attack Jesus’ teaching.Lastly, have you ever felt convicted by something Pastor Nate, Kyle, your parents, or another leader said? Maybe you heard truth that exposed something in your heart. Did you respond humbly and let God work on you? Or did you get defensive, angry, or start criticizing them in your mind?If I’m honest, I’ve done both. And when I read this verse again, sometimes I realize I’ve been the one acting like the dogs and pigs Jesus talked about. That’s probably a good moment to stop, check the mirror, and ask God if maybe there’s still a log stuck in our own eye.