Roots Student Ministry Podcast

The idea of power can be complicated. Even if you have it, there is always someone else who has more. Or maybe you aren't always sure what to do with the power that you have. Or maybe you have realized that it isn't always as great as you think it was going to be. In this message, we see that we were created to have power and authority. That is who we are as humans. But we are to use our power for...

Most young people are asking a deep question about themselves. They're asking "What difference can I make?" It's easy to think that we're too young or inexperienced to make a difference around us. It's important to notice that God doesn't ask us to do anything HUGE; He asks us to be faithful in whatever is put before us. He has gifted each of us uniquely and the real question that we need to be as...

We have a natural desire to belong. It is hardwired into us. Asking the question, "Where do I fit in?" is one of life's biggest questions, especially for middle school and high school students. It's like we are constantly having to work to fin in where we want to fit. But the great thing is, that we belong in the family of God because of the work of Jesus. There is nothing that can separate us fro...

It's easy to feel tremendous pressure to decide who you are as a teenager, but you are still just beginning to discover yourself. It's important to remember that defining who you are is not a destination that you reach, but a lifelong process and no matter how your interests, talents, and life circumstances change, Jesus says that you are enough.

We ask questions all the time, and many times when we want to find answers to our questions we then go to Google. But what happens when you have a question where you get many different answers when you google it? We don't know what to believe. This happens with the question "What does it mean to follow Jesus?" Today we want to tackle that question and look at what it means to be a true disciple of...

Whenever you go through hardships in life, it usually comes with some major change. When we face these hardships, we can trust that God is with us and that He is making us stronger through it all. You can work through your pain and hardships which will ultimately make you stronger personally and spiritually.

Whenever we are facing changes in our lives, it is often attached to some fear. Many times the fear that grips us can hold us back from making the necessary changes that we need to make. What's great is that we know that God is with us through all the changes we go through. So it's not about being scared, but about following God even though we may be scared. The things we face may be real, but we...

We can go through a lot of bad change in our lives. Bad change can be very difficult. Sometimes that change even means that whatever has broken simply cannot be fixed. We may even wonder where God is when we are going through some difficult change. The fact of the matter is, we will face change that is hard. God doesn't promise that He will fix those hardships, but He does promise that He will be...

Middle school and high school students understand change. I mean, it happens on a constant basis. But when everything is swirling in change, we can rest assured that God will always stay the same. So whenever we have change that we may not like, we can know that God is faithful to be constant in our lives because God doesn't change...He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Many have different experiences in their life group. Some struggle to connect with those in their group, while others think it's the best thing in their week. No matter how you feel about your life group, God created us to be in connection with each other. If you put in energy into your life group, you'll get great things out of it. So make this years life groups the best yet, because you get out...

Money can be a touchy subject and it can bring up a lot of tough questions. Maybe because you don't want anyone to tell you what to do with your money, or maybe you don't have enough to feel like you can keep up with everyone else. The problem with money is that we all wish we had more. But the love of money can cause problems. It can cause greed, stealing, jealousy, and lying. It's important for...

Whenever temptation comes our way and we give in, we can start to feel ashamed for what we did. When we are ashamed, we feel like there is no turning back...we screwed up too much. Thankfully, Jesus came to this earth and died on the cross so that we can start life fresh again. When we start again, we can keep our eyes focused on making good decisions that honor God.

We're always looking for what we can get away with and when we are doing that we usually have a battle within us. One side of our mind thinks that God is going to be mad, while the other side thinks that God will show us grace. While God's grace is amazing, His grace doesn't promise us that there will be no consequences. Based on this, we need to have wisdom in the choices that we make. We need to...

Our temptations will often come with the thought, “I need ______.” That's why it's important to trust God knows what we need and is looking out for us. 

We're starting a new series on how to resist temptation. Temptation in and of itself is not bad. Everyone experiences it. It's what we do with temptation that matters. So it's important to know who we are in Christ so that we can resist the temptation, because what we think is TRUE about us influences what we DO. And God knows us better than we know ourselves, so we need to let what God says about...

It's easy for us to focus in on worship as being singing during church only. Yes, that is a form of worship, but it is not the only form of worship. Worship is a way for us to connect to God better and love God better. Worship is putting our focus and our energy towards God. It's a way of declaring "God, you are greater than we are. You're bigger than anything we can imagine." When you learn to tr...

Many times we may be afraid to bring up a conversation about God because we either don't know what to say, or we don't know enough about what we believe, or we don't want to sound stupid, or we don't want to offend someone. But talking about God can really help us become close to Him. That's why it's important for us to share our story about our faith in God. We can start to share the reason for t...

Whether we feel like prayer doesn't work or that it's hard to talk to an invisible God, prayer can be difficult. But it's important to know that any time you talk to God, you're close to God and He's close to you. Prayer is less about asking God for the things that you want and more about spending time connecting with Him. Be honest with God, praise Him with your prayers, thank Him with your praye...

If you have grown up around the church, or around church people, you have probably heard the importance of the Bible in our lives. Maybe you have even tried to read it before, but you feel like you just didn't connect with it. Maybe it was too hard to read, or you felt like what you read was not relevant to your life. But the fact of the matter is that we need to spend time making a habit of liste...

Is there anything that you ever wanted to do so bad, and you had all the intentions of following through with it, but over time you forgot about it and then that desire just faded away? The quickest way for something to go from “super important” to “kinda forgot about it” is for it to be out of our sight. Out of sight, out of mind is a real thing. We can do the same thing with our own faith. We ca...

When we go through a hard season in our lives, it's very easy for us to turn to unhealthy things to cope. Maybe it's binge watching Netflix, or scrolling through TikTok, or overeating, or self harm, or going into porn or a relationship. When something happens, we turn to something to escape. But ignoring things doesn't make it disappear. In order for us to fully feel hope, we need to fully feel ou...

We may hold back on our dreams because we are afraid to fail, or we think we're not good enough. But God calls us to DREAM BIG and He wants us to know that we can accomplish anything through Him. In this podcast, we will be looking at the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 and how the disciples were able to accomplish it even though it seemed impossible. God can use us wherever we are. 

When we talk about a rebel in church, we seem to always talk about it in a negative sense. But when we talk about a rebellious Christian, it's someone who goes against the rules of our culture. Jesus was a rebel in His time and shifted history. If we are to be a rebel like Jesus, then we have to do things above and beyond for others. We don't just settle for average, but we set the bar high by lov...

In a world where there is so much pressure, and everyone has an opinion, it's hard to decide what is right and wrong. Especially when it comes to sex. In this message, we'll see that Jesus has more in mind for your life. He wants you to pay attention to every action and every thought and every feeling that you have. Paying attention helps you be aware of how you can set boundaries when it comes to...

The topic of sex can be confusing. Some people talk about sex like it's dangerous or bad while others seem to think it's no big deal at all. When you talk about sex within the church, it seems like it's a HUGE deal, but when you weigh it with what culture says about it, it seems like sex is just a normal thing of life and can be treated casually. In this weeks message, we look at how sex is never...