A Spark Lesson

(Every Tuesday nights – except for the last Tuesday of every month – I help lead and teach my churches youth home group, Spark. For the past month and for these next two months, I have been teaching the Junior High Group – I love you guys! I thought it’d be cool to start sharing with you all – whoever you are – what I’m teaching these awesome Junior High students. This is a bit more revised then what actually came out of my mouth, but you get the idea!)

DEADHEADING

I’ve just finished a five-week house sitting gig for a good friend of mine. One thing she had me do while she was away was tend to her garden – simply just watering it every day. This in itself did make me a bit weary – I did not want to be recognized as Katrina A.K.A. Flower Killer. But how hard can watering a garden be? With that in mind, I think I went at it with some good enthusiasm. The process was, well, simply put, a process. There were some casualties I am sad to say, and I don’t care for squirrels much now (stinkin’ critters attacking those flowers!.. Squirrel! – he he, Up reference…), but in the end, the flowers bloomed rather nicely – take that flower killer!

So going back to some of those causalities, I would be watering and enjoying the flowers that had in fact bloomed, but then, next to that pretty sprouted flower would be a dead, shriveled up flower! What the French toast!!! Maybe the flower didn’t get enough water – amateur waterer here! – But in the end, there were flowers like that. Thankfully this didn’t kill my gardener ego, because I really didn’t have a gardener ego in the first place!

I mentioned this to my friend – the one who has spent time, money, and energy in putting together the garden and all the other pots of plants – and she in turn mentioned to me a gardening process, called deadheading. No, not like that band Dead Heads.

Deadheading is the when you cut off the dead flowers in order to let the nutrients/nourishments be used on the flowers that are still alive.

Ese es un mensaje! (“That’s a message!”)

So how does this apply to us?

Being with Christ produces great fruit in our lives (think the fruits of the spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). Areas and things in our life that are dedicated to Him (maybe a certain skill like singing, or ministry, or your job even) are like flowers. Remember, we’re still human – an imperfect creation loved by a perfect creator. So there may still be some areas in our life that we do not allow God into, a dead area in our life, a dead flower. This relates more to the areas that are covered with sin. However, if there’s an area in our life that God isn’t a part of, nor has reign over, it will essentially end up dead.

So here are my questions…

What are our priorities (what we’re spending our time, money, and energy on)? What are we giving all our energy to? What’s our focus on?

For me, I have spent a LOT of time and energy on worrying and focusing on the future. It did NOT produce something that was living in my life; instead it harbored anxiety and doubt in my life.

This can be the same with an addiction.

If we put all our time and energy into something that in itself is a dead thing … what a waste!

1 Corinthians 6:12 – "Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything.

Today we can do pretty much whatever we want, but even so, not everything we do is good for us (drugs, sex outside of marriage, cheating on a test, fighting, worrying). We got to set our priorities straight. We got to refocus.

We got to allow God to cut away the dead flowers – this way our energy can be put to use to grow things that are living. With worrying for me, I had to share my worries with Christ, surrender them to Him, and now daily, I got to make the choice to not “Be anxious in anything” (Philippians 4:6-7).

Some dead flowers are close to the living flowers – maybe even attached to them. There are some things in life that are not bad, but within it there can still be sin, for example, a dating relationship. Dating in itself is not sinful. However, sex outside of marriage is. So if you cut that out of the relationship – the dead flower - the flower will nourish, giving you a growing, healthy relationship.

Or let’s say school. School is not sinful, obviously. However, cheating is wrong. If you are spending all your time and energy on cheating, it will only produce something that is dead – and in the end it won’t help you. So if you cut cheating out and spend that time say on getting extra help, not only will it produce a healthier flower, but probably even a better grade.

Cutting these things out of our life can and will be hard and even painful. But it isn’t through our own strength that we do this…its through Jesus and His boundless strength (Philippians 4:13). What is an area in your life that may be considered a dead flower?
John 15
1"I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
By having our priorities revolve around Christ and letting Him be our main focus in life, the only thing in the end that we will produce in our life is living flowers.