Talk 4- what keeps you going? MO-TI-VA-TION Youth Retreat, Ovoca Manor, 2006

The seed

How to keep it alive YOUTH RETREAT CARE GROUP EXAMS/ WORK STUFF DUBLIN LIFE PLEASE, PLEASE YOUTH RETREAT

Survey -What three words describes me Direct, shy, independent, optimistic, loyal, caring, stubborn, low self-esteem, selfish, impatient, talkative, energetic, loud, chubby, quiet Ambitious, neat, busy Sportive,

What is most important to me My own directions Family, college, education Friends, happiness Food, games Jesus To please God To serve God

How do I show love Give a hug and say I love you Showing unconditional love Spending time with the person Giving help Using the phone to ring To serve others in this retreat

How did someone else show their love to me. Encouraging words I cannot remember the last time someone show kindness to me Taking notice Try to cheer me up Friend treated to a game By a gift

Task/feelings Feel like it- energised I have to Example of me. Cannot have no emotions – dead Emotion swings -

How to live Christian life - summarised 2 commandments LOVE GOD LOVE OTHERS as yourself

How do you know that He loves you? How you feel / what do you know? What He says? What He does?

What He says Isaiah- I will give men in exchange for you I love you with an everlasting love You belong to me I gave my son for you.

What He does He came for you He died for you He speaks to you He thinks about you He created the heavens and the earth for you He moved the heaven and earth for you, causes all things to work for you He seeks you out He surprises you

The most powerful person loves you The person that knows everything about you loves you The person that shares every moment with you, even situations where you cannot put into words and when you cannot even describe or text your best friend Personal trainer, tutor, teacher, helper Knows where you need to go and supply the ability and know how Provide the resource as well

WE learn to love from Him. 1John 4:19 We love Him, because He first loved us. John 13: 34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." You cannot give what you haven ’ t got.

Obedience 1John 5 :1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 18 We know [absolutely] that anyone born of God does not [deliberately and knowingly] practice committing sin, but the One Who was begotten of God carefully watches over and protects him [Christ's divine presence within him preserves him against the evil], and the wicked one does not lay hold (get a grip) on him or touch [him].

How He loves us 1 John 3 : 1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (live accordingly)

To love one another 1John 3:11This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God loved us so [very much], we also ought to love one another.

Love- nothing about feelings Patient – long suffering Kind Does not envy or boast Not proud Not rude, not self seeking Not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres Love never fails

Christmas story 20 And we [have seen and] know [positively] that the Son of God has [actually] come to this world and has given us understanding and insight [progressively] to perceive (recognize) and come to know better and more clearly Him Who is true; and we are in Him Who is true--in His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah). This [Man] is the true God and Life eternal. So that we will know Him

Inner drive The whole point is to develop a deep deep love for God Stay for life – love that compels you 2 Corinthians 5:14 (Contemporary English Version) 14We are ruled by Christ's love for us. Or Love of God compels us. Determines how you live your life Directions, decisions Become the passion of your life (example, eat, sleep, breathe) to please Him Absolutely anything in order to reach Him The love that motivates, compels, draws you.

HIS LOVE PUSHES YOU TO HIS BEST FOR YOU

Inner drive Not lifestyle – change lifestyle There ’ s nothing in moderation about God ’ s love for you The Person that loves you deeply, passionately, persistently, faithfully To be there at every waking moment – every breath you take, every move you make Psalm 27:4 (New International Version) One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.

How to keep it alive Gain understanding Rehearse the story Remember Meditate Keep the love going Practice YOUTH RETREAT CARE GROUP EXAMS/ WORK STUFF DUBLIN LIFE PLEASE, PLEASE YOUTH RETREAT

summary X-factor – leave you thinking, wanting, focused How your thinking affects you How your action reflects what ’ s within Love of God that sustains Once you develop relationship you do all you can to maintain it Guidance to know what to do, want to do it as well.

Questions & Actions What have I learnt? What can I change? How has God shown me that He loves me? How do I live from here on? End with a prayer to God.