Youth Sunday - 8/2/2026

Father, we thank you for your provision for provision through work through various gifts and unforeseen ways that you provide for us.

And as we give back to you as an act of worship, as a declaring, as a way of declaring that you are our Lord over every part of our life, we ask that you would bless these gifts toward your kingdom purposes.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

All right.

Thank you, worship team.

Well, my name is Adam Case.

I'm the lead pastor here on staff.

We've got a fun morning because it's our youth Sunday.

So, parents, as a reminder, parents of young ones, fifth grade and younger, we do have some coloring sheets back there by the prayer room on that table.

More than just coloring sheets, there's games to help them follow along, as our speakers will be up here sharing.

So those are available.

Also, the preschool room for parents of preschoolers is open.

We don't have volunteers, but that room is open.

Nursery.

That's what I meant.

You all heard preschool.

I said nursery.

But I brought the interpretation.

All right.

Also, uh, our mission is to encounter the love and power of God and give it away to the world.

If you are new, what a great Sunday to show up.

Really glad you're here.

Uh, but if you're new or want to get more connected, you can the best thing to do is to fill out a connect card.

You can do that physically.

There are physical connect cards in front of you.

Um, drop those in the offering box or uh take them out to the welcome desk, or you can scan that QR digital code.

That'll allow us to add you to our weekly email list to know various ministries that are meeting and different events that we have coming up in in future weeks.

Uh, you also should have received a bulletin as you came in.

All that information is there as well with some more QR codes.

Uh, one thing I do want to say, uh it talks about the baptism class today in the youth room.

That's not going to be in the youth room.

Um, if you are interested in being baptized, come find me after the service.

Okay.

So not in the youth room, but but let me know if you are interested in being baptized.

If you are a first-time guest this morning, we have a gift for you.

And so if you would raise your hand, one of our amazing greeters will come along and give you a gift.

We're not going to ask anything of you, rather, just a little gift to say welcome.

So if you any any first time guest this morning.

All right.

Well, welcome back, everybody.

Let's do this.

Everybody stand.

Uh, find somebody you've never met before, smile, shake their hand, and say, I'm glad you're here.

You can make your way back to your seat.

As I said at the beginning of the service, uh, this Sunday is Youth Sunday.

Yes, we give our youth a hand.

It's also special and fun because we've got all of the kids in with us.

So one of the rare times we have the whole body gathered together.

So a lot more life going on.

It's a lot of fun.

Uh the reason we do these youth Sundays is because there is no junior Holy Spirit.

And so the way we can tangibly live that out is to have our youth lead us and minister minister to us, serve us.

Uh, you know, this is not an opportunity for the the youth to play church.

They're just up here playing church.

They're really serving us this morning.

So you would have been greeted by the youth.

Uh they helped set up the coffee and the bagels this morning.

We were led in worship.

And then we're gonna hear from a couple of our students this morning uh who are really gonna teach us from the scriptures.

They're gonna encourage us and exhort us.

And then at the end, all of the the youth group who are here will be up here to pray for you.

And I'm gonna say right now, come forward for ministry time and be prayed for by our youth.

Uh first, I want to recognize our graduating seniors.

I think we've got two in the room this morning.

Aria Lemme.

Stand up.

Go ahead, Aria.

Arabelle King.

Stand up, yeah.

All right.

We got one other.

So just bless you as you go on to the next thing that the Lord has for you.

You can sit down.

I know it's it's amazing to have to stand up and have everybody look at you.

That's why I'm up here.

All right.

Uh, one of the other reasons or the things that as I think about this youth sundae uh as an encouragement from the scriptures, 1 Timothy 4.12.

Paul, the Apostle Paul, writing to one of his disciples.

Paul even calls him his spiritual son.

This is one of the things he he encourages Timothy.

Timothy seems to be nervous about leading a congregation.

And Paul says, Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young.

Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

Jesus' disciples were were likely young men, probably closer to, if not the same age as our students, but but closer in age than they were to their thirties.

They would have been young men.

It's easy for those of us who are beyond that stage to allow life to make us complacent or discouraged.

So this morning I know they're gonna inspire us and and challenge us in things that the Lord has given them uh to say.

And so with that, I'm gonna invite up uh Annabelle Manley.

So one of the things, yeah, encourage Annabelle as she comes forward.

As I've gotten to know Annabelle a little bit, one of the things that's really evident from her is she's got such a heart for the nations, she's got a missionary heart and really wants the fullness of life and the spirit and in the kingdom of God.

And so I'm encouraged uh uh by what she has for us this morning.

And before I hand the mic over to her, I'm just gonna pray and ask God's blessing.

So, Jesus, thank you so much for Annabelle.

Thank you for this message that you've given her, for the work that you are doing in her, for the calling that you have on her life.

Um, we just ask for your peace over her now this morning, and that you would anoint the very words that you've given her in your name.

Amen.

And Annabelle is starting her senior year in high school.

So thank you.

All right.

There's a quote by Jonathan Brennan that I've been thinking about, and it's from his book, The Mechanics of Miracles.

Fascinating book.

Y'all should go read it.

Shout out to David Bradbury for recommending it.

But on page 16, he says this.

Some say we let the Holy Spirit move.

Really?

Does he need our permission?

Or is he our Lord and we submit to him?

What if we stop thinking in terms of what we will let God do, and instead started thinking in terms of what he will let us do?

This is a quote that kind of stopped me in my tracks.

How often do I think like this?

How often do I think that I have the power to invite the Holy Spirit to work?

Do h does he really need my permission?

With reading this quote, I was convicted.

I started thinking about the areas of my life that are restricted.

Like, really, what are the areas in my life that are closed off to the Holy Spirit fixing up or working through?

One Sunday morning I was in worship and I felt like the Holy Spirit said this to me, and about your limitations are not my limitations.

I needed to hear this.

It was a reminder that I tend to place God in a box.

I tend to unintentionally tell him, you can have this area of my life, but this area over here you can't have.

What I am unintentionally saying to God is that you are not powerful enough or big enough to handle the situation that I'm walking through.

Obviously, I'm getting better at it, but this skill takes time.

So I think there's a difference between permission and surrender.

Permission assumes you have the authority to allow something to happen or the authority to give someone the full go-ahead to act.

But surrender is understanding that full control is not in your hands.

It's willingly placing control in the hands of the one who actually has it.

So with this in mind, I want you to think about the quote that I shared earlier.

Now, if we look at the body of Christ, we will sadly see the same kind of thinking.

We will see that we think that we need to give God permission to move in our lives.

Now, obviously, we all do this.

We do it intentionally and unintentionally.

So, how do we stop this?

One of my favorite prayers is come, Holy Spirit.

Now, you might be sitting here thinking, Annabelle, you totally just contradicted yourself.

Let me explain.

I know full well that the Lord has the right to move in any way that he wants to.

He's all powerful.

But there is something special about physically asking Jesus or the Holy Spirit to come.

And when I say come, I mean he's already here and is already present.

I just want my eyes to be open to that.

But that prayer is one that allows for me to remove the blinders off of my eyes.

I want to tell you a short story.

So I was traveling back from a conference uh in Dallas, Texas, and before I left for the trip, I prayed a prayer that I pray quite often.

Lord, highlight someone that needs to know about you.

Help me to have a divine conversation.

All weekend I had my eyes peeled for that person, but that conference was coming to an end.

And it was time to head home.

I hadn't slept much because I was hanging out with some dear friends and I was volunteering.

I was headed back to Indiana with a flight from Dallas to Houston and Houston to Indy, and I went to bed at about 1 30 a.m.

and woke up at 3 30 a.m.

Which was a terrible idea, I know.

So I got on the plane and I was sort of deliriously picking out my seat, still waiting for the Holy Spirit to highlight someone.

He highlighted a man and his son, so I plopped down and started chatting.

Since the new year was approaching, I'd asked him what his goals were for the year.

That question opened the door to be able to ask about the importance of goals if we just rot in a grave when we die.

That led to about 45 minutes of one of the most intriguing and genuine conversations I've ever had.

We talked about the existence of God, if Jesus was real, if miracles actually ex actually exist, and if Christianity is worth uh betting on and committing to.

Halfway through the conversation, he said, Annabelle, if you can prove the existence of God, I'll believe.

Big pill to swallow, I know.

He was an atheist, I am not.

Now we continued talking, but for some reason the Lord wouldn't give me the perfect answer to his question.

I learned that he grew up Mormon and had been hurt by the church.

So he walked away from religion at a young age.

After some time, the conversation fizzled out.

And I was getting and as the plane was getting ready to land, I suddenly heard the Holy Spirit say, Annabelle, ask him if he has pain in his left leg and pain in his spine.

My immediate thought was, no, bro, this guy already thinks I'm insane, this is not happening, I'm not doing this.

But the Holy Spirit won that battle.

I looked over and I said, Hey Kenneth, this is gonna sound crazy and weird, but do you happen to have pain in your left leg in your spine?

He looked at me and he said, How did you know?

He said, I have a ruptured disc in my spine and nerve damage in my left leg.

And I said, Well, can I pray for you?

He said yes.

So I prayed for him and the flight landed and I went on my way.

I haven't spoken to him since, but that experience caused me to think long and hard about the Christian walk.

Everyone has different gifts, but if we commit our lives to Jesus and choose to surrender our lives over to him, we must act with obedience.

Acts 1.8 says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

I love this verse for a couple of reasons.

First being the fact that it says, The Holy Spirit has come upon you.

If we have believed on Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we know that the Holy Spirit has come and he will be our helper.

But I love the second part of this verse.

It says, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

This I believe tells us that we can't just encounter Jesus.

And we can't just believe in Jesus and stay the same.

No, something must change.

We have to go and tell what has happened in our lives.

See, the gospel is the single most important message anybody can hear.

So why do we so often avoid sharing it?

In order to model Jesus, we must first understand that we have to surrender our full lives over to Him.

Not just part of our lives, no, our full lives.

I believe that is one of the most difficult things we will do here on earth.

Why you might ask?

Well, it's because as humans we are stubborn and strong-willed.

We want what we want, and if we can't have it, we throw a fit.

If we can't be independent, we go crazy.

And we seem to grasp for control in every single area of our life, myself included.

And you know, I think Satan uses this to his advantage.

His goal is to sell us on the idea that we can live a life without God.

Remember, Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

John 10, 10.

Satan is in the business of packaging poison as irresistible and innocent.

Another quote that I love is by Luke Smallbone.

He says this, in the West, we don't need God all that much.

And what I mean by that is we desperately do, we just act as if we don't.

When he says the West, he means United States, Canada, Western Europe, and nations like Australia and New Zealand.

But just think about this.

When looking at the lives around us and even our own lives, we see a familiar pattern.

And that is we claim to be Christians.

We stick the Christian sticker on, proudly, walk with it while times are good.

But what about time what about time?

What about when times turn south?

What happens when we go through difficulty?

What do we do then?

See, we seem to check all other options, and then as a last resort, we run to God.

Why?

Well, it's because we are asleep to the fact that we desperately need him in every single area of our lives.

Titus 3 5 says, He has saved us not because of works done by righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the washing of and regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Basically, this verse tells us the best news ever given to humanity, which is the fact that Jesus chose to die in our place.

He died the death that you and I deserve, willingly.

That's a crazy kind of love.

Not because we did anything to deserve it, no, he knew that we couldn't save ourselves.

So he chose to humble himself and die.

But he didn't stay dead.

No, he rose again, defeating death, bridging the gap that you and I desperately needed bridged.

He gave us a mercy we can never deserve and never pay back.

The verse goes on and says, regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Regeneration meaning rebirth, old life dying with Christ, and new life resurrected with Christ.

And then renewal of the Holy Spirit, basically meaning the Holy Spirit coming into our lives and weeding out the junk, transforming our lives from the inside out.

So what does all this mean and why in the world am I sharing it?

Well, hopefully this has given you a glimpse into the fact that following Jesus isn't about giving him permission to work.

He doesn't need our permission, like I said earlier.

Instead, I believe it's about surrendering our plans, our lives, and even our expectations at the feet of Jesus, stepping back and letting the Holy Spirit come and start construction on our hearts.

It's not that he isn't working, it's that we forget to slow down and take the blinders off of our eyes to what he's doing.

We are called to walk in step with the Holy Spirit.

He's there to guide us.

So like Adam would say, here's my challenge for you this week.

Every morning that you wake up, as soon as your eyelids pop open, before you touch your phone, before life gets busy, choose to take a second and pray.

Pray this prayer.

Come, Holy Spirit.

But don't just stop there.

Instead, ask him to open your eyes to what he's doing.

See, the goal is to become like Jesus.

And what did Jesus do?

Well, Jesus was locked in on his mission.

He knew he needed to be aligned with God.

So he spent time with his father through prayer and meditating on him, which in turn gives us the example of what we're supposed to do.

And that is choosing to remove the distractions in our lives that cause us to ignore them.

When you start intentionally doing this, you will notice the times where you are trying to play God.

There's a difference between claiming to be a Christian and actually living like one.

Most of the Christian population claims to be Christian.

Very few actually live like Jesus.

Let's live out Galatians 5.25, which says, Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

I'll leave you with this quote by the wise Billy Graham.

He said, This the Christian life is not lived by our own strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit living within us.

Thank you.

Thanks, Annabelle.

Good word, good encouragement and challenge for us this morning.

So we have one other uh rising senior to share with us this morning.

Eva Anderson, why don't you come on forward?

What I really appreciate about Eva is she really desires to handle the scriptures well, um, really commits to understandings, to studying the scriptures, and uh to living a life honoring the Lord.

And so really excited for what she has for us and would love to just pray for you.

All right.

So, Jesus, thank you so much for Eva.

Thanks for this message that you've given her, for just capturing her heart to desiring to honor you and to love you, and thank you for this word that you've given her.

We ask for your anointing on her this morning as she shares in your name.

Amen.

Hello everyone, how are you?

No, you can turn it off.

So I have a tendency for talking kind of fast.

So if I do, you guys can just do this.

You're not booing me.

This is just tubing lingo for slow down.

So the real ones, the real ones will do this and I will know.

Okay.

So I have a question for you.

If someone were to unknowingly record every conversation that you had this week, what would they hear more of?

Gratitude or complaining, fear or faith, problems or praise.

So as I started to prepare the sermon, I prayed that God would reveal a topic to me that could apply to anyone at any time or any age.

Um, later that week, I was listening to a video that was taught talking and telling us that we should uh begin our prayers with gratitude.

So something good God did in our day that we can thank him for.

The video basically implied that we lack appreciation and we let the worst parts of our lives make up the most of our thinking and it our talks with each other.

And when I heard this, I was in slight denial.

I would consider myself to be a pretty positive person.

I try to have a good look outlook on a lot of situations, including the hard ones.

But this can be true sometimes.

And uh I started to then listen to what I was saying and what came out of my mouth.

I realized how often my words revolved around stress, inconvenience, and frustration instead of God's goodness.

I noticed that unnecessary pessimism found its way into my mouth and into the mouths of others at some point.

Uh, whether it was related to school, whether it was related to money, sickness, anxiety about the future, current events, stress relationships, awkward encounters, etc., those types of topics were heavily present.

Um we have become experts in noticing what is wrong with our lives while being blind to what we're doing.

God has done or is doing right in front of us.

Frankly, that needs to change.

See, there is a difference between our complaining that questions God's goodness and our genuine lamenting that brings our pain to Him, yet still acknowledges His goodness.

There's a place and a time to talk about the difficult parts of our lives.

Like Pastor Adams said a few weeks back, every loss needs to be grieved.

Struggles and uncomfortable moments should be addressed, but it's whether or not we choose to continue to follow down a path of despair that is life-changing.

God invites us to pour out our hearts before him, but he also calls us to remember his faithfulness and trust his promises.

Philippians 4, 6 says, Do not worry about anything.

Instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need and thank him for all that he has done.

A bit down, verse 8 says, And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.

Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

When it comes to keeping a good mentality and extremely hard scenarios, there are multiple people in the Bible we can take notes from.

One example would be the Apostle Paul.

Paul wrote some of the most joyful letters in Scripture while sitting in prison.

And this is because his circumstances didn't determine his gratitude, his focus on Christ did.

The truth is we still live in a fallen world with where sin remains.

So complete happiness won't come until Christ returns.

And I know I'm starting to sound like a pessimist as I'm talking about happiness, but I'm not talking about happiness, I'm talking about joy.

There's always an opportunity for joy.

If we can s uh the source of our joy in Christ never changes, even when our emotions are on a roller coaster of ups and downs.

I'm not saying that you should suck it up and be a positive little butterfly, but I'm also saying suck it up and stop embodying a pessimistic little caterpillar.

If we can still look for God's goodness in the hardest times, we can remember his love, which is our foundation.

If you catch yourself beginning to mindlessly complain about something, try to change your heart posture, turn it around and give thanks to the Lord for his faithfulness.

And some of you, you may have a hard time identifying things you can be grateful for.

At one point a few months back, I just had the idea I'm gonna write everything that I'm thankful for and see where it ends.

And I came to the conclusion that it could be endless.

The list could go on and on.

I could thank God for every single functioning cell in my body.

And the thing is, life will be hard, and there's no doubt about it.

I'll say this again, but even though all of us carry real pain and suffering, we still have countless reasons to thank God every single day.

We need to we need to look at the bigger picture and make ourselves aware of his love, especially in the midst of tribulation.

One of my all-time favorite passages describes how we should view hard times.

This is Romans 5, 3 through 5, which says, We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.

And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

See, me personally, I have had many low points in my own life, many moments of fear for the future just in my 17 years of existence.

Like I struggled with sleep for over a year and a half in middle school.

I've had really intense months of depression, my insecurity has made rifts in my relationships with God and with others, and I have experienced loss.

But looking at every single one of those moments, I can see so clearly how God was there, his hand was in everything, and he has helped me grow.

Even if his works weren't as evident to me in the moment.

If you ever find yourself feeling like you have nothing, God's love will still be sufficient.

His love will never let you down.

You just need to let him love you.

Romans five uh eight, thirty-eight through thirty-nine says, and I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow.

Even the powers of hell cannot separate us from God's love.

No power in the sky above or in the earth below, indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that was revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That right there is what we should be proclaiming every single day to the world and over ourselves, whether that be to Christians or unbelievers, Jesus' sacrifice is our greatest reason for gratitude.

To some, this sermon may sound like toxic positivity, but I want to say that biblical gratitude is not pretending that life is easy.

Jesus himself wept.

Paul talked openly about suffering.

Gratitude does not ignore pain, but it recognizes that God is still good in the middle of it.

So, after identifying the things that you are grateful for, I would encourage you all to just talk to each other about something you noticed God did in your day, in your everyday conversations.

Share a random testimony instead of complaining about how you almost ran into somebody on the road today or how some stressful situation just, you know, some person was really ticking you off.

Instead, maybe point out something you saw that God did and encourage the other person with that.

Proverbs 27, 17 says, as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

This verse implies that people improve characteristically, become wiser, and grow through relationships where we can encourage and be honest with each other, keep each other accountable.

So through our conversations with each other about our faith and God's doings, we can encounter spiritual growth.

I find personally that it can be uncomfortable to talk about faith sometimes, just in casual conversation.

And it's not because I don't want to, but I have some fear deep inside of me.

And it makes me wonder, am I afraid of an unenthusiastic response?

Do I think that my testimonies are not worthy of excitement?

To that I say do not let the devil whisper in your ear and try to steer your joy in what God has done for you.

Testimonies can be the biggest transformations and the smallest ones as well.

By definition, a testimony is an evident eyewitness account or personal narrative declaring God's power, faithfulness, and work of grace in a believer's life.

I like to think that the small testimonies especially reveal how God cares about the little things, just as he much as he does the big.

And think about this for a minute.

Our religion of Christianity was spread through testimony.

Not everyone who experienced Jesus saw him resurrected.

In fact, people who never even met the man had faith because of the testimony that other people shared of Jesus' resurrection, case in point us.

We never met Jesus personally, but we firmly believe in him because other people have been able to share that with us.

Just goes to show that sharing testimonies and proclaiming God's goodness carries so much influence and power.

There's an example example in Mark chapter 5.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

After Jesus casts out multiple demons from a man who is possessed, the man wants to go with Jesus.

But Jesus tells him, No.

Go home to your family and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.

The next verse says, So the man started off to visit the ten towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus has done for him.

And everyone was amazed at what he told them.

They believed because this man was a walking testimony.

So if you feel blessed by God in some area of your life, I encourage you to share that with people.

Someone might be experiencing similar struggles that you yourself have experienced and have overcame.

And you can encourage them with the testimony that God has helped you.

So my English teacher always told me if you're writing a persuasive speech or persuasive paper, you should have a clear call to action.

So my call to action to you is the following.

And I encourage you all to also write out as much as you can the things that you're thankful for.

And contrarily, write out the things that have been hard recently.

Every season even in seasons of deep sorrow, ask God to help you notice evidence of his grace that remains.

We cannot live off of yesterday's bread, so look throughout the day and see how God is going to move and identify what you can be thankful for.

And once you are aware of your testimonies, do not let fear stop you from being joyful and enthusiastic about your faith.

Talk about God's works in your everyday conversation.

You still have breath in your lungs, you still have a reason to praise, and you still have a testimony.

So this week, stop only declaring what's wrong and start declaring what God has done.

Awesome.

Thank you, Eva.

All right.

So really appreciated both their their vulnerability.

Let's all stand.

So we're going to respond, Michelle.

Youth, come on up.

You guys get to continue ministering to us.

Partner up.

Groups, no more than three, two or three.

If you're a little uncomfortable praying for somebody, find one of your youth leaders to pray with you or an upperclassman.

Alright.

We need one more over here.

So here's a couple of things.

Um about the Lord breaking off fear and moving us into freedom.

Moving us into freedom.

So if that resonated with you at all, come forward.

Have one of these students pray for you.

If there was something about you know stepping more into gratitude, have one of these students pray for you.

Or um around just uh feeling that invitation to daily pray, come, Holy Spirit, have one of these students pray for you.

Maybe things are great.

That's awesome.

Have one of these students pray for you.

All right.

So we're gonna have an opportunity right now to to respond.

Uh invite you to come forward and um be blessed by one of our one of these teams of students.