Pastor Kevin Hayashida

Church and Parachurch
Three areas where PKevin was impacted during college and him getting plugged into the local church ~

Use college as a preparation for when you graduate and become a young adult
We are in college for a season
We need a place to transition to, to have community and to be in God’s love.

Devotion to God

• Defining relationship with God
• Did an experiment to see where his beliefs were and if he truly believe in God
• God spoke to him, saying that if it were not for God’s grace, he would surely fall away
• Take up your cross daily and follow God
• What does it mean to be devoted to God as a young adult? To be working with people in the marketplace with completely different viewpoints than you?
• What is helpful for the transition is a community that will help you stay devoted after college

Relationships

• growing healthy relationships is so important
• we are created to be in community
• learn to love people who are different
• practice sacrifical loving, just as Christ sacrifically loved us

Ministry

• fulfilling your mission
• discerning your mission from God
• time moves fast, be a good steward of your time

Mission: Reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ

Set good habits
Serve and be devoted to the Church
Get out of your comfort zone

Pastor Ted Kau
Rooted in God’s Word
Pslam 1:1-6

So much brokenness and hardship can result from not being rooted in God’s word.
Christ, God’s son, is uniquely revealed in God’s word
How do we know lyrics and jingles so well? It’s because we’re exposed so much to them. What about God’s word??? How well can you finish a verse?

“God’s word will keep you from sinning, or sin will keep you from God’s word.” Richard Baxton
In a survey, a majority of Christians only read their Bible four times a year.
On the average, we spend 3.5 hours on social media, while we spend 3 minutes a day reading God’s word. Ratio: 70 world: 1 the Word
If we do not hide God’s word in our hearts, what do we hide there instead?

It’s not because of the speaker that you are convicted by God’s word. It’s because of the receptivity of your heart.
v1 Blessed (happy) is the person who

• does not walk in the wicked’s counsel
• does not stand in the way of sinners (normalize what sinners do)
• does not ridicule God’s people

It’s not about doing good or evil, it’s about where you find your delight.

Is your delight in the sinner’s way, or in God’s way?

v3 Being rooted in God’s word will cause us to prosper spiritually, to bear good fruit, to be spiritually resilient.
v4 sinners will be blown away
v5 the arguments and evidence of the sinner will have no weight before God’s judgment
v6 we will have no more sin in heaven, because the way of the wicked will perish
GODS WORD CHANGES. TRANSFORMS. FEEDS YOUR SOUL. SPIRITUAL FLOURISHING WILL OCCUR. BE ROOTED IN HIS WORD!!!
You can have a good relationship, good kids, good career, but you need God’s word, otherwise you are just like any nonChristian.

Pastor Terry Coon
Rooted in Love
Romans 5

How rooted are you? And what are you rooted in?

In Romans 5, God establishes his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us . The reason Christians have peace is because they know that there is a great God who loves them. When we hear that God loves us instead of acting in humility we think of course God love us/say “Duh why wouldn’t he?”
God is the standard of righteousness that we should be comparing ourselves to not other people. All of us apart from Christ are not deserving of his love . God loves us not because we are loveable, not because we are so great, not because we are saving ourselves, not because we are lovely looking. God loves you because he loves you and that’s just who he is
God’s love is the only unconditional and secure love that we will find. Rooting yourself in God’s love changes everything. Until you understand how unloveable you are from Christ you will never be able to understand God’s love for us. Until you realize how bad you are at the core you will never be able to embrace God’s love. God’s love doesn’t guarantee a problem free life but it does mean that whatever we face, God has fully committed himself to us in that every experience we have, He has a way of working it out for our good and His glory 

Three reasons to be rooted in His love:

(1) God’s love saves (Romans 5:9)
God’s love is strong enough to save even the worst of sinners
Ephesians 2: the only reason anybody gets saved is because God loves them and his love saves them 

(2) God’s love sustains us
God takes the bad and good in our lives and works in such a way that it produces good
God’s love is so strong that on our worst days we can be confident that God is doing something in it 
The only reason we’ve gotten this far in life is because God has kept us 

(3) God’s love secures 
Even though we struggle with sin God’s love never gives up on us 
God will never reject us 
Once we are loved by God, we don’t have to fear God’s love ever running out on us or in our lives 
Nothing can separate us from God’s love 
If you are looking for something to root your life in, root it in god’s love - it is the only thing that is secure and that remains 

Pastor Crit
Enduring Faith in College

Who youre with and who youre around is important during your college years. About 70% of youth church goers, after 5 years post-college, no longer have any distinguishable signs of faith.
This is linked to what happens to you during your college years
James 1:2-4
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

What is going to show when your faith endures is how you make it through trials, temptations, and testing. You will be faced with trials and temptation, you may face simple testings such as having distractions from going to church.

Walkthrough of PCrit's past in college:
Graduated high school, attended Christian camps, had a basic understanding of salvation. Going to college was a drastic change. Living away from parents, didn’t know anyone. What he should have realized is what he needed was not just to remember the gospel and stay away from bad things, but to be around the body of Christ, to bear his burdens, to have his faith strengthened, to be spurred on towards love and good deeds. He had an isolated faith. He felt he knew the basic gospel so he didn't need to be a part of church or a fellowship. All his support systems were gone. Transferred to USC, specifically looked for a AACF. Joined a fraternity and began to have a very worldly faith. Began dating a nonChristian; didn't renounce Christ verbally, but through actions. The trap: You meet someone who meets ALL your criteria, except they don’t have a faith.

Many of us are in the middle: between not wanting to renounce Christ and not wanting to be around Christians.

When you don't choose to be in Gods community in college, you will choose to be in another community, because we all need community as God has designed us.

Turning point: Intervarsity students took him out on his birthday for dinner, was introduced to a group of college students who showed the love of Christ. Joined church college fellowship @ Wintersburg. Students had same struggles as him, “where is God in my life”. He was brought back to the faith, through IV, through AACF, through Wintersburg.

There is no such thing as a "lone-ranger" Christian. If you try to go "lone-ranger", you lose out on your faith, and you lose out on blessing others with the gifts He has given you.

Through AACF, he got involved in serving in youth ministry, Mount Hermon, and he got inspired to go to seminary and help bring others to faith

Wherever you're at in your faith journey, look around at your community. This is who God provided to help you along in your journey in faith. This is the people God has given you to help them in their journey of faith.