High School Musical

Something new

High School Musical would not have been one of my natural choices for a theme but hey it’s popular and most like it. It contains good moral themes of which two run through this programme, being yourself in Christ and the importance of being a friend. This popular medium allows you to stretch the ideas of popularity to the extent in which you have expose them for what they are, empty and vain. Only following Jesus brings satisfaction not being popular or having the current moves or fashion.

Memory Verse: Psalm 51; 10, 11
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”


Lesson 1 : “Who are You on an Ordinary Day?”
‘Isaac and Rebekah’ Genesis 24
‘The start of something new!’

Objectives
Anyone can primp or get to looking good but what’s your attitude on an ordinary day?
If people saw you on an ordinary day, would they be impressed?
Does the spirit of Christ shine through you?

Troy and Gabriella just saw each other as a Jock and a Geek not really looking further than what they could see but when placed in a situation where they could saw beyond their preconceptions they saw something new. It wasn’t a special day. It wasn’t met with great fanfare. Instead it was an ordinary trip to the well on an ordinary day. But on this particular day, young Rebekah so impressed Abraham’s servant, the man sent to find a suitable mate for Isaac. What maybe impressed Abraham’s servant - was Rebekah spirit of servant hood. Like most young girls, she took at least two trips to the well, one in the morning and one in the evening. It was a routine she’d carried out thousands of times. On this particular day, she was probably tired from a long day’s work. She probably wasn’t in a very talkative mood. She was probably hoping to get her pot filled and get it home. But there was something different about Rebekah. She had the heart of a servant. Her eyes reached beyond her own circumstances and saw the needs of others. With aching arms, she lowered that bucket into the well several times, filled her pot, and fed the thirsty camels of Abraham’s servant. Anyone can primp or get to looking mighty fine for a first date. Anyone can put on his or her best behaviour for a someone special. Anyone can freshen up for an important interview. But what about those chance encounters when you’re caught off guard? If people saw you on an ordinary day, would they be impressed? Would they see something different about you? I don’t know about you, but I’ve gotten pretty good at impressing the “important people” in my life. But who am I on an ordinary day at school? In the playground? At home? In the car? Does the spirit of Christ shine through me? Can people see something different? Something attractive? It is in these routines of life where we are most tested. This is where God comes to us with opportunity for growth. Rebekah was ready. Are you?

Object Lesson—Light and Torch. Ask them, have you ever sat outside on a bright sunny day and used a mirror to reflect the sun’s light? Get one of them to take the light and shine it on you to show what you mean. Explain, you see, as the light shines on me, I hold up my mirror and I can reflect the light to shine on you. I am not the light, I am just letting my mirror reflect the light to shine on you. If I am going to reflect the light on you, there are a couple of things that are very important, I must keep my mirror facing toward the light. If I turn away from the light, I cannot reflect the light. I must make sure that nothing comes between the light and me. If that happens, I cannot reflect the light. The Bible tells us that "There was a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light: he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world." Who do you think the true light is that the Bible said was coming into the world? That is right! It was Jesus. Jesus is the light of the world. You and I need to be like John. The Bible says that we are to let our light shine, but we need to remember that "Our Light" is Jesus. We are not the light, we are just mirrors that reflect His light. If we are going to reflect the light of Jesus, we must remember a couple of things, we must keep our faces turned toward Jesus, We must not let anything come between us and Jesus. When we remember those two things, we will reflect His light to the entire world.

Lesson 2: “Distraction or Attraction”
‘David and Bathsheba’ 2 Samuel 11, 12
‘Get cha Head In The Game’

Objectives
When we neglect to do the small things, we can easily fall into temptation.
Laziness allows temptation to grow strong in our lives.
The way of temptation is down-hill; when we begin to do bad, it becomes hard to stop.

Troy is an ace basketball player, he is the star player always got his head in the game, when he shoots it goes in the hoop. But, he’s met a girl Gabriella, he finds it hard to concentrate, the game is suffering. What should he do, concentrate on the game or spend time day dreaming about this beautiful girl. The bible story speaks powerfully about integrity and integrity lost. The righteous judgment of God and repentance of King David are powerfully seen. The story centre’s around David’s sin with Bathsheba, but reveals the dedication and honour of Uriah, (Bathsheba’s husband). Uriah, though when faced with a very hard decision, he does the right thing. It also reveals the judgment of God through his prophet, Nathan toward David and then the mercy of God through David’s repentance. God not only forgave David, but restored him and fulfilled a prophecy spoken by Nathan that it would be one of David’s sons that God would use to build the temple. We’ve come to know that son as Solomon, which was born of David and Bathsheba. The fifty-first Psalm is written as a result of David’s repentance of that sin, David says “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” Even after failure the Lord can still restore, heal and forgive us so our bones can dance again. It brings Old Testament characters to the New Testament. Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", but it was David who penned it in the old testament. Jesus was quoting David from the cross. This mix of old and new brings Calvary into new light as David is translated to the foot of the cross. Bathsheba lost her son because of David trying to hide the sin from God and God the Father lost his Son at Calvary for all people’s sin.

Object Lesson—A bowl of sweets. Tell this story; There was a bowl of sweets like this one sitting on the coffee table in the living room of Mary's house. Mary's mother noticed that she was looking at the sweets and said, "Now, don't you eat any sweets until after dinner or you will spoil your appetite." The sweets looked so good and the temptation was so great. "Surely just one little piece won't hurt -- and mother will never know the difference," Mary thought to herself. Have any of you ever had an experience like that? Here is another story which might sound familiar. "Put away your books and take out one sheet of paper and a pencil," the teacher said. "We are going to take our weekly spelling test." Johnny had an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew that they were going to have a spelling test today, but he watched TV last night instead of studying for the spelling test and he wasn't ready for the test. As the test began, Johnny looked around the room and realized that he had a clear view of Sally's paper. "It won't hurt if I look at Sally's paper just this once," Johnny thought to himself. "I promise -- I'll never do it again and nobody will ever know." All of us have faced temptations such as these, haven't we? Take a sweet from this bowl. I am not going to tell you not to eat it until after the club, but as you eat it, I want you to think about what we have learned in our Bible lesson today.

Lesson 3: “Keep your Spirit Level”
‘Ahab and Jezebel’ 1 Kings 21
‘Bop To The Top’

Objectives
Try to be content with what you’ve got.
Commit your life to God and He will ensure you get all you need.
Saying sorry only with your lips means nothing, sorry must be said from the heart

Sharpay and Ryan are very ambitious and see themselves as being the only ones who can be lead in the play, but when Troy and Gabriella show competition they do all they can to make sure they cannot perform in the auditions. Jezebel was a woman who was married to a wimpy king named Ahab who hated the prophets of God and had them murdered. If anyone got in her way or the way of her husband, she just had them murdered. As we see in the story, for Jezebel killing someone was not a problem, if it would get her way. But who did God hold responsible? The rebuke of the Lord came to Ahab before it came to his wife, even though the idea, and the carrying out of the idea, came from Jezebel herself. Not only does God look at the person who does wrong but also the person who doesn’t stop the wrong doing. There is a Jezebel spirit that needs to be resisted and fought, but we must look at Ahab’s spirit as well. The spirit of Jezebel - one who does whatever it takes to get what she wants can creep up on us all firstly in small things, but we see that it is the Ahab spirit who allows it to happen this is just as wrong. There are two types of people who are affected, first are those who get in the way and the second are those who are lead by the wrong example into believing that what is wrong is right. Some people can be so overwhelmed that they are incapable of making a quality decision without fear. When a person is following Jesus, the Holy Spirit’s seed is at work to grow and manifest His fruit. When you are transformed by the renewing of your mind, you can act on what you know is right and live in the freedom of love that Christ has for all of us.

Object Lesson - A windsock. (Or a picture) How many of you know what this is? It is a windsock. A windsock is a type of kite. The windsock was invented many years ago in Japan and was flown on "Boys Day." The family would hang one windsock for each son in the family on the end of a pole outside of their house and let it blow in the wind. Where else would you possibly see a windsock? You may have seen a windsock at an airport. Windsocks are used at airports to show which way the wind is blowing to help pilots to take off and land safely. Windsocks are also used to help predict the weather and they are also used to help guide to Space Shuttle pilots to a safe landing upon their return from space. No one can see the wind, but we know the wind is there because the windsock shows us that it is there. The wind is very important to us. What are some of the ways that the wind helps us? It helps to cool us off when we get too hot. It helps to clean the air we breathe of smoke and smog. It can be converted to electrical power to light our homes. God's Holy Spirit is somewhat like the wind. We can't see him, but we know that he is there because we can see the effects of his power in our lives. The Holy Spirit is very important to us. What are some of the ways that the Holy Spirit helps us? He comforts us when we are sad and alone. He guides us in the way of truth. He helps us when we don't know how to pray. He lives inside us and gives us life. He shows us the good things God has for us. We are thankful for all of the ways that the wind helps us, but we are even more thankful for all of the ways the Holy Spirit helps us every day. You might say, "He is the wind in your socks!"

Lesson 4: “Against the Odds” ‘Mary and Joseph’ Matthew 1:18-25‘Breaking Free’

Objectives
It’s important to dream, and tell God your dreams.
Are you willing to give up your dreams for God’s.
Don’t let others put you down or put you off from pursuing your dreams.

Troy and Gabriella had dreams of being a basketball player and scientist but this was what everyone expected them to be, their heart dream was to be singers. Even after Sharpey and Ryan’s attempts to sabotage their dream they push on and reach for their dream. Today’s bible story is about one whopper of a dream—the dream of Joseph. Not Mary's dream, but Joseph's dream. In Matthew's gospel, the angel appears to Joseph, it doesn’t mention Mary. And of all the great men and women of faith in the Bible, one of my favourite heroes is Joseph. Joseph is a real man’s man, a practical man—a real “salt of the earth” kind of guy, not prone to fantasies and day dreaming so if you have trouble swallowing the idea of the virgin birth, try putting yourself in his shoes! An honourable and decent man. You’re overjoyed in having found a young woman with an excellent reputation, someone who will be a good wife. Already engaged, you’re looking forward to the wedding, when BANG!! Here comes Mary. You see her lovely face and know at once that something is wrong. You ask her what’s bothering her. She replies, “Please don’t be upset...I’m pregnant. But guess what—I haven’t been unfaithful to you. This is what happened to me...” She proceeds to tell the story we all know, he’s thinking, “As if being unfaithful to me isn’t bad enough, my wife-to-be apparently has lost her mind!” For you know beyond a shadow of doubt that this child of Mary’s is not yours. Marriage is suddenly impossible. Despite all this, Joseph wants to protect Mary. Thus with his mind made up on how best to handle the situation, he goes to bed to get a good night’s sleep; he has a dream! We know what the angel tells him. So, going against everything that the practical side of his brain is telling him to do, Joseph decides to go with his dream. Before he acted, he rested and God was able to communicate with him, and so it is with us. What have you been dreaming about lately? Joseph and Mary had lots of plans, people getting married often do, but they were willing to give up all their dreams to do what God wished not their desires and dreams but His. We need to dream and God will help us fulfil our dreams but we need to be willing to follow God’s dreams as He has so much to give us, never underestimate the power of your or God’s dream.

Object Lesson—A picture of Martin Luther King, (or the video footage of the speech) Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.? Dr. King was a black preacher and civil rights leader who not only believed we needed to change the way people of different races were treated, but also insisted that we needed to solve these problems peacefully. Dr. King worked very hard to bring about changes that would ensure that people of every race would be treated equally. Dr. King was a wonderful speaker and many of his speeches are still remembered and quoted today. One of Dr. King's most famous speeches was called, "I Have a Dream." In this speech he said he had a dream that all people, regardless of race or religion, would live peacefully together and that we would be free of hatred and racial prejudice. The speech ended with these stirring words: "When we let freedom ring, … we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, ... will be able to join hands and sing 'Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!' That was the dream of Dr. King, that all men would be free. All of us want to be free, don't we? One day Jesus was talking to a group of people and he said, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. A slave has no place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." If we put our trust in Jesus, he will free us from our sin.

Lesson 5: “Life’s a Journey” ‘Abram and Sarai’ Genesis 12
‘We’re All In This Together’

Objectives
The best way is to work together for the best future.
Life is a journey, journey’s are best when travelling with friends.
God has given us clear instructions in the Bible, not always easy ones but clear ones.

It’s the end of movie one and they are all looking forward to whatever the future holds, they all realise that the best way is to work together for the best future. YOU'RE TAKING A JOURNEY. Yet once you get on board the craft that will carry you on this marvellous, exciting trip, you discover that you don't know where you're going. You don't know why you're going, and you don't know what you'll do once you get there. Sounds rather absurd doesn't it? That’s exactly what Abram and Sarai had to do. Abram didn't know exactly what God had in mind, but he did know that anything God told him to do would be for Abram's own good. So Abram, acting on faith, prepared to leave Haran. Moving was no easy task, for Abram had many personal possessions and then there were the large flocks of sheep and cattle that needed to be driven across country. Lot, who was going to come with Sarai and Abram, also had animals that needed to be taken care of. With hired shepherds and herdsmen to help them, Abram and Sarai, along with their nephew, Lot, travelled to the land of Canaan. Yet all of us are on a journey and few indeed know where we're going, why we're on our way, or what we'll be doing once we reach our final destination. We were all placed, at birth, aboard the same space craft, planet earth. Our lives are our journey. Why are we on board? Where are we going and why? If we study the Bible, we'll discover that God laid out a path for us to follow as we journey through this physical existence. It helps us to understand WHY God created us. Before we can travel on the path that has been laid out for us, we need to know HOW to read the map God has provided, the Bible.

Object Lesson - Days or our life.
Get a photo or several photos of exciting events in your life such as the birth of a child, your wedding day, or your graduation day. Talk about the events, about how they were the happiest days of your life. Talk about how good it would be if that day had never ended? But, that day was not a stopping place, it was a starting place. It was the start of a wonderful journey. There would be many happy days to come. Have you ever had a day that was so wonderful that you wanted it to last forever? I am sure you probably have. God sends a lot of happy days into our life. The day that we meet Jesus is, without a doubt, the happiest day of our life, but it isn't a stopping place -- it is a starting point for a journey that leads to eternal life in heaven with Him.

Lesson 6: “Celebrate Love”
Stories of Jesus ‘What Time Is It?’

Objectives
To understand what unconditional love is.
The best way to celebrate love is to give help.
You are complete in God’s love.

Schools finished, no more work, no more exams , no more teachers only warm sunny days and holidays, getting friends and having fun, as you might expect the High School Musiclers start their summer with a song. You will have to work a little harder in this one and choose some stories about Jesus and how He showed His love, I know the first story you think of is the crucifixion but try to think of some less obvious ones. We long to celebrate love because we feel that in many ways love completes us. But what is it about love that does this? The kind of love that fulfils us is unconditional love, called "Agape". It is the True Love with which God loves us, and with which God asks us to love each other. True love is not romantic love, though God intended for romance to be carried out within the context of True Love (Agape). True Love, the kind of love we should be celebrating, is about giving rather than getting. We are most complete when we have accepted God's love for us and are in turn conduits of God's love to others. We are most fulfilled when we are pouring out to others what God has poured into us, not when we are demanding or expecting or even just simply wishing for human love. Consider these words of God: "I have loved you with an everlasting love." "I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you." "You will be called Sought After." "You are precious and honoured in my sight." "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." Do these words which describe the love God has for us inspire you to celebrate? The best way to celebrate His love is to turn around and give it to someone else. There are many who are longing for True Love, for unconditional love, and we can have the privilege of multiplying love many times over. This kind of love is not exclusive between two people, but can be shared freely, not with just one but with many! It is true that there is something wonderful about romantic love; none of us can deny that. However, hard as it may be to believe, Agape is the better of the two and is not limited just to those who are "in love". I challenge you, and myself, to acquire God's perspective of which kind of love is the most valuable, to realize that this most valuable love is available to everyone, and to spend this summer celebrating Agape, that love with which God loves us so completely, and with which we find so much fulfilment in giving to others. You are already complete in the arms of True Love! Take time to celebrate!

Object Lesson - The Sunday paper; The Sunday paper sure is big! I'm sure many of you have a Sunday paper delivered to your house. There is so much to read. People have a favourite part of the newspaper? Comics? Sports? Ads? Newspapers are important, because they help us know what is going on in our town, in our state, in our country -- even in other parts of the world. You can be a better citizen when you know what is happening, and the newspaper helps us keep up. As Christians, it is also important for us to keep up with God's will for our lives. And He has given us a wonderful source of all the most important news: the Bible. In the Bible, God shows us how much He loves us, and how we can live to receive the most joy out of life. When you read the Bible, it's as if God wrote it just for you! So the next time you see a newspaper, remember that the greatest news of all is found in the Bible -- the news that God loves you. He loves you unconditionally without ant bars, no matter what you do He will always want to be your friend. Respond to His love by trying to follow Him as best as you can, become His friend today.

Lesson 7: “Best Friends”
‘Adam and Eve’ Genesis 1: 24 - 31, 2: 4 - 23
‘You Are the Music in Me’

Objectives
Friendship is one of the most important things in life.
God gave us each other to help each other.
Jesus will always be your best friend.

Kelsi, Troy and Gabriella friend, is inspired by their relationship, so writes a ballad for Troy and Gabriella, and Troy agrees to sing with his friends in the upcoming talent show. Sharpay tries to get Troy to perform with her in the show, what should he do sing with Sharpay or his friend Gabriella. On the sixth day God made all the animals for the land, and of course He made a man, ‘and he can be just like me’, He thought. He made the most beautiful garden which He called the Garden of Eden, it had wonderful trees, and flowers. It even had lots of birds and animals in it, whatever your favourite animal is, it was there. God put the man He had made into the garden. The man probably rubbed his eyes and looked all round. God said to him, ‘Now listen, Adam you can eat the fruit, climb the trees, paddle in the rivers and jump over the bushes, but there’s one thing you must never do. You must never eat the apples from the big tree in the middle of the garden because that tree tells you what is good and what is bad.’ Adam said, ‘What’s bad?’ ‘Never mind,’ said God, ‘you go and have a nice time, and forget about that tree.’ God came quite often to see how Adam was getting on, and soon he realised Adam was lonely. God thought, ‘He hasn’t got any friends, no one to talk to, He will become unhappy soon.’ So one night, when Adam was asleep, God made a woman to be a friend for him. He called her Eve. Adam and Eve got on very well together. They used to play with the animals, and eat lots of fruit from all the trees. Except one - the forbidden tree - well for a little while cause they did touch it eventually we all know this and he turned them out of the garden of Eden and said they must look after themselves. But that’s not the part of the story we are concentrating but the part about friendship, you see we have got it all mixed up, when we think of boys and girls we think of ‘kissy, kissy’ but God did not make Eve to just be Adam’s girlfriend and wife but to be his friend. Friendship is one of the most important things to God, the best way we can show people what God wants is to be friends and the most important thing to God is to be friends with Him, Jesus. If you want to have a happy life there should be nothing more important to you than being the best friend you can be, once you’re able to do that everything else in life will fall into place, especially if your best friend is Jesus.

Object Lesson - A package of cookies. A few weeks ago, my wife (or whoever) came home and told me about some new cookies she had eaten. "They were called Chocolate Cream Oreos" she said. "Were they good?" I asked her. "Good? They were delicious. They were so good I wanted you to try one. Here, just taste and see how good they are," she said as she offered me a cookie. Mmmm, Mmmm! They were good! They were so good that I couldn't wait to tell you about them. In fact, I wanted to share some with you. I have a whole package of them so that you can taste them and see how good they are. (Pass out some of the cookies for the children to try.) Don't you agree that those are really good cookies? That is why my wife couldn't wait to share them with me and I couldn't wait to share them with you. Have you ever found something so good that you couldn't wait to share it with a friend? When we find a really good cookie, we can't wait to tell a friend about it. Shouldn't we be even more anxious to tell our friends about Jesus?

Lesson 8: “The trouble with friends”
“Children of Isaac and Rebekah” Genesis 25: 19-34
‘I Don't Dance’

Objectives
God turns trouble into Good.
God’s plan should not be doubted.
God’s plan is to end all conflict

After a visit from a local college basketball team, this causes a fight between Troy and Chad when Troy chooses to spend time with them, instead of his friends. Ryan also realises that he no longer means much to Sharpay anymore. Taylor and Gabriella invite Ryan to the baseball game, and Chad offers him Troy's place in the game. This helps old enemies to become new friends, later Chad forgives Troy for his absence and they become friends again. So, for the last lesson let’s go back to the first lesson. The marriage of Isaac and Rebekah was arranged by Isaac's father Abraham but it was actually the Lord's choice however, a factor that both Isaac and Rebekah realized and accepted when they met. There may have been a substantial age difference between Isaac and Rebekah; "Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah," while Rebekah "the maiden" may have been only young. When Isaac and Rebekah did not have children after some time, "Isaac prayed to The Lord for his wife, because she was barren" - not the first time that was a problem in that family. Isaac's mother Sarah was also "barren" until The Lord made it possible for her to have a child, while Rebekah "was barren" until The Lord also made it possible for her to have a child. Although the prayer was answered, it soon became evident to their mother that Jacob and Esau had a natural inclination for a lifelong struggle. Jacob's later name change to "Israel" was based, in part, upon that very conflict. Isaac and Rebekah were maybe meant to be together but even things that were meant to be can cause conflict, even the best of friends, never mind brothers and sister’s can fight and boy did Jacob and Esau fight they were completely different in every way. But it was The Lord's will that Jacob would prevail, not because he was His favourite, but because out of Jacob, Israel, the Messiah, Jesus would come to save the world, to end all conflict. So, never doubt God’s plan for you, when times are good and everything seems perfect it’s easy to have faith in Jesus but times will get tough, people will bring conflict and maybe you will bring conflict into others lives but keep having faith, God has a plan and it’s one to bless you not to harm you, keep fighting for Him not against Him.

Object Lesson - A Stress Buster. Hold a squeezable "stress reliever". Can anyone tell me what this is? As you can see, it is small and round and fits into my hand in such a way that I can squeeze it with my fist. Many people carry one like this in their pocket. They call it a "stress buster." Whenever they are troubled about something, they just reach into their pocket and squeeze the stress buster. They believe that squeezing it helps relieve stress and gives them a peaceful feeling and helps them to quit worrying about their troubles. I don't carry one in my pocket. That doesn't mean that I never have any trouble in my life, it is just that I don't find that squeezing the ball keeps me from worrying about the troubles in my life. Why do troubles come into our life? I believe that troubles come for the very reason that Jesus said -- so that God's name will be glorified. I have known people who followed the example of Jesus when they faced trouble in their life. I have even known people who faced death with such courage and faith that God's name was glorified. Wouldn't it be pleasing to God if all of us faced trouble in such a way that His name is glorified?