Encounter Youth

This week Jake talks about what boundaries are good to have in your dating relationship. We talk about what's fun and cute vs what's deep/intimate and how to protect your heart and your purity in your relationship with a buuunch of different tips. This message is funny and super helpful.

This week Jake talks about purity, and how sometimes we think of purity in the wrong way. Purity isn't just about what we have or haven't done, its about your heart. Purity is a commitment to live a holy life before God, and a value for yourself that won't compromise and give yourself away cheaply in a relationship. Purity is something that is totally redeemable, just like any other area of our lives where we have compromised, because of God's mercy, and tonight we make a commitment to walk in purity. Skip through the blank part to the end to hear a vision and testimony from Krista Beiler.

This week Jake talks about about all the false ideas the world give us about what is really attractive. The worlds definition of what the perfect guy/girl looks like is so superficial, but what really matters is the heart. What does biblical masculinity and femininity really look like?

In this message Jake answers two of the biggest questions about dating! 1) Why would God give us all these desires so strongly if he didn't want us to act on them?! Why are is marriage and Covenant important? And 2) Am I ready to date in Middle/High School. It involves a flamethrower and a lot of fun. You'll have to listen to find out more.

In this last message on the power of knowing God's Word, we actually have an encounter with God's word for ourselves. This message on how to meditate on God's word and let the truth go from your head to your heart culminates in a meditation time where we meditate on Isaiah 43:1-3 and Romans 8. The Holy Spirit showed up so strongly and some people felt God's love for the first time! This is a good one for a 2nd listen.

This week Jake talks about 4 ways to describe how powerful the Bible is in our lives. It's like a lamp that guides us, like bread that sustains us, like a mirror that helps us see ourselves clearly, and like a sword that we can fight with. And he gives some tips about what to do if you don't understand something when you're reading.

This week Jake shares about the basics of what the Bible is, how it was written, and awesome some tips for how to read it.

This week Katie King shares her testimony about trusting God with her future, the challenges of obeying God when you can't see the bigger picture, and God's faithfulness when we are obedient.

This was an important message. This week Jake shares about how knowing God goes beyond having an emotional encounter in a worship service. God wants to know you as a friend. He wants you to have a relationship with him when you are all alone in your room. That's the place where we tune our hearts and our minds in to hear his voice and recognize how he's leading us. Its the place where we get connected to God the same way a branch is connected to the vine that gives it its life.

This week Jake shares about how following Jesus means living a whole different lifestyle from the rest of the world; how the world tells us that there is something in the world that can fill us up - more popularity, more attention, more love, more money, more achievement - but Jesus calls us to a totally different way of living where the only thing that can fill the whole inside of us is the love of God.

This week Katie shared her testimony about being saved from lying and rebellion as a kid, and how her life changed. She also shares about struggling with sickness and loss later in life and learning how to trust God in the midst of seasons where His goodness is hard to see.

This was a message that is going to shift things for our group. All of our confiedence in prayer, in fighting the enemy in our lives, in believing God can really change our lives comes from really knowing who Jesus is. So many times we think faith is something we have to do, like we have to work it up inside of ourselves. But really faith is when we get a revelation of how amazing Jesus is and how much he wants to step in and change our lives. This is where everything starts.

This week Jake talks about Jesus' mission in coming to earth. Jesus had a mission to destroy all of the power of sin and death that have made a hostile takeover of God's world, kind of like a spy on a mission to overthrow an evil government. Check out the attached pdf to see the beautiful drawings that we used this week.

This week Jake shares on revelation. Revelation is when God opens the eyes of your heart to truly understand the power of what Jesus did on the cross. Revelation is where revival starts.

This week Jake shares what it means to be justified before God. Using an apple that gets all cut, and bruised and broken apart, Jake shares about how our hearts get broken and messed up by sin. But justification is when Jesus takes the old apple of our heart and replaces it with a new one. Now when God looks at us, he sees us as having that pure, perfect, and clean heart that Jesus had.

This week Mikey shares his testimony and Jake shares his tips with the seniors on how to stay faithful to Jesus moving into young adulthood.

Students from the Love the Hill trip share the testimonies of all the stuff God did and everything we learned! We share how the distinctions we usually make between "good people" and "bad people" are false. There are just sinful people who need the Gospel of Jesus.

This week Kephas shares about learning to hear from God in the twists and turns of his life, Zach talks about being proud of his story, and Willem shares about how God encountered him even through viewing a dead body.

This week we hear from two of our seniors about their testimonies, and from Emily Hastings on receiving God's righteousness as a gift. All three of them talked about laying down our striving, trust in ourselves, and performance to receive what God has for us. His love and his righteousness can't be earned. They are a free gift when we put our faith in Jesus.

This week our senior testimonies continue with Evan Saunders, who shares about his experience of coming home to God after a time of running, and Sarah Stoltzfus, who shares about overcoming legalism and perfectionism.