Student Take Over // Sammy Feliciano, Avani Williams, Julian Hernandez // Aug 23th, 2026

How are we feeling today, church?

Good, good, good.

My name is Samuel Feliciano.

I've been attending this church for six years, and I have the honor of preaching today, or this morning, I should say.

Before I just get started, I just wanted to uh give honor to my family over here, uh Cecilia and Samuel Feliciano.

Love you guys, thank you.

And can we just give honor to the senior pastors?

Pastor Shauna, Pastor Chuck here, NPM.

Alright, let's get started.

Today's title is The Mind.

And basically, how the mind is more powerful than what you think.

Fun fact your brain could generate 20 watts of electricity while sleeping, enough to power a light bulb.

Um I don't know if you guys noticed, but today's theme is holy marathon.

And it basically symbolizes your run and your whole entire life with God.

We usually talk about, you know, marathons, we usually talk about preparation and how preparation is needed.

And you know, when we talk about preparation, we usually talk about constant repetition, planning, we used to talk about discipline.

But today, I just want to talk about something different.

I don't know if you guys knew, but I've been a gymnast for four years, freshman year through senior year.

And I I did I did okay, but I just want to take you back to senior year.

It was the third to last meet.

And usually in gymnastics, there's the really good people, and then there's the um really okay, I would say people.

And luckily I was on, or not luckily, I was blessed to be on a team that was actually really good.

And you know, we were going up, and today, I don't know if it was because I like drunk too many Red Bulls or like stayed up too late, but I was just jittery, and my mind was just overwhelmed.

And I remember walking up on that just tumble track and just feeling like nervous, feeling just down, feeling like anxiety, and just all the like bad stuff, and I be I tanked every single skill.

I flopped, I ended up just falling on all of them that I literally just did yesterday.

Like, mind you, 24 hours before, I was landing everything perfectly fine.

And I remember just going home after the bus ride and just feeling defeated.

And I questioned, I'm like, why do I feel this way?

Why did I feel this way?

And while my heart wasn't was in it, my mind wasn't.

And I was blessed to we like one we won the meet, and we ended up going to state by the grace of God.

But I just want to tell you the story because I just wanted to really just give an example of how much the mind infects your everyday life and how it affects the race with God.

1 Peter chapter 1, verse 13 says, Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

1 Peter 1:13

You know what we need to run a long race?

A sober mind.

And people are like, okay, sober mind.

What does that mean?

There's two Greek translations.

One of them is nepho, to be clear-headed and watchful.

And the other one, sofrano, to be of sound mind and self-controlled.

Today we're gonna talk about nifo.

It says to be clear-headed and watchful.

Guys, I just want to say, as Christians, we are called to be alert.

But there's a difference between being alert and nervous and alert and hopeful.

No, there's a difference between waiting and anticipation and waiting and anxiety.

Revelations 22, verse 20 says, He who testifies, who's he?

Revelation 22:20

Jesus.

Jesus who testifies to these things says, Surely I am coming soon.

Amen.

Come, Lord Jesus.

I don't know about you guys, but I can't wait for the day that Jesus comes.

I can't wait for the day that he comes on his horse.

And I'm gonna be a bride to a groomsman, just waiting for Jesus Christ.

And I don't know if that just makes you nervous or makes you anxious, but luckily, can I just remind you that we serve a God that is over any anxiety?

We serve a God that is only over nervousness, we serve a God that is over any struggle, we serve a God that not only allows us to think, but think freely.

Think thoughts of joy, think thoughts of peace, think thoughts of love.

And can I just tell you that we serve a God that pulls us from the darkness?

We serve a God that is loving and that loves us.

Because how are you supposed to run away run a race if your head is filled with doubt?

How are you supposed to imagine you winning when you already thought you lost?

It says in 1 Peter, let's go back to that.

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

For this message, I just want to take, I just want to ask that you guys take two things back.

One, be patient.

Because you guys are here, not of coincidence, not of luck, but because God called you to be here.

And he has so much more planned for you.

This is of divine appointment that you are here, and he loves all you guys.

But two, have rejoiceful thoughts because your father has never abandoned you, and he will be with you for all the days of your life.

You guys perceive that today?

And then can we just give them a welcome hands and money?

And I am a junior at Fenwick High School.

And I have the honor of speaking today, and I just want to thank all of you guys, and especially PM, so much for this whole entire week and um just helping me with my faith and just like showing me everything I feel like.

And I want to thank um Pastor Chuck and Pastor Ursh so much for giving me this opportunity, and my parents, Autumn and Travis, just for um encouraging me and helping me and strengthening me in everything that I do.

Um, and for myself, three years ago or even six months ago, I would have never thought that I would be speaking in front of all of you guys.

Um so this is definitely public speaking, definitely a new thing for me, but um yeah.

Throughout this whole week, I feel like the Lord has shown me different ways that I've lived this sermon and what we have been looking at today.

This week I've struggled with friends' issues, anxiety, and confusion.

And the only thing that has brought me back and having peace is the Lord.

I'd struggled writing my sermon because I had thought, how am I going to preach on confidence when it's something that I struggle with every day?

I struggle with anxiety, overthinking my identity, who I want people to see me as, and who I wanted people to see me as.

And I know a lot of teenagers struggle with the same exact thing.

They can even struggle with lust or substance abuse.

The first thing, when I first started coming here, I was known as the basketball player.

And I'm sure if you asked someone, they would know me as a really good basketball player.

And yes, basketball is a huge part of my life.

It is something that I work at every day.

I take the time, I put in reps, I go to the gym, I work on my game, I work on my shooting form, I take hundreds of shots, I do spend hours on ball handling, even if I'd rather be shooting.

So when it's time to play, I walk into the gym feeling confident, and I can look back and trust my training.

For I've been playing basketball for as long as I can remember.

And if you know anything about being an athlete, you know that confidence doesn't always appear.

My dad and my coaches always say the game is 80 to 90% mental.

And that's the same thing with your relationship and walking with the Lord.

There will be ups and downs, and it's how you prepare and trust in the Lord to keep you stable.

Just like the reps I put in for basketball, I need to take those exact same reps to walk with my relationship in the Lord.

Some may ask, what does this look like and what does it look like for me?

It means being in your word, even if it's just for 10 to 15 minutes a day.

It means building a godly community, people that you can go to for anything.

Like PM said this morning, when you're feeling down, they can help bring you up and you know that you're not in your walk alone.

And worshiping.

Worship is a big one for me.

I love to sing, and now I'm always front row, in the front row, which I love.

Um, it did take me a while.

I was nervous um to come up here, but now I'm here on time.

I make sure I get out the door on time, and um I just love lifting my hands to the Lord now, and it doesn't matter what anybody thinks, so um, yeah.

Something that I heard here one morning was worship is a lifestyle.

When we worship him, we are surrendering to him in response to his character and everything that he does for us.

Worship means showing deep love, honor, and respect to him.

We worship God not just by song, but by prayer, sharing his word, even how we treat others.

It is in everything that we do every day, even if we don't realize it.

Every morning to school, I worship the Lord by song.

And even most nights after my training, I will drive home in silence, praying to God, not just my thanks, but my worries and my thoughts.

In these moments, I'm able to sit and listen to him to know what he wants me to hear.

Which brings me to Proverbs 3.

Proverbs was written by Solomon, and in these verses, he's showing us how and what will happen when we walk with the Lord.

In verses 23 and 24, it says, Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble.

If you lie down, you will not be afraid.

When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

When we walk with the Lord, he will not let us stumble.

He will steer us away from the negative thoughts, the lustful thoughts, and from going down the wrong path with anything that you're struggling with.

When you know who you are in Christ, he will give you direction.

The more I trust in the Lord, the more confidence that I walk with, the more peace that I have.

In verses 26 and 27, it says, For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do so.

Our confidence is not whom or what we do, it is who He is.

I'm able to walk with my shoulders high and walk out of situations that I don't want to put myself in.

And for even if that means for teenagers, that could be walking away from the party or doing things that you know will not bring you closer to God.

What does this rep look like for all of us?

It means choosing to open our Bible instead of opening TikTok or Instagram.

It means going to church instead of sleeping in.

It means taking the reps and sacrificing the things that we would want to do for ourselves to get closer to Him.

Peace and confidence is not an object, it's not an emotion, it's not a thought, it's a person's, and that person's is God.

I'm so grateful to be able to trust in the Lord.

Last baptism Sunday, I was baptized and I gave my life to the Lord.

And for the rest of my life, I will be continue to walk with him because he is my Lord and Savior, he is my confidence, and he is my peace.

This leads me to tell you: just trust in the Lord, give everything to him.

He already knows what you're going through.

Just surrender everything and give everything to him.

Take the initiative to seek him, put in those reps to build a closer relationship with him and rest in his peace.

Resting in God's peace means stopping your anxious thoughts, giving him what you're struggling with, and trusting him completely.

He has a plan for all of us.

Before I put my confidence in basketball, I had sought validation through my performance, and now I know that I need to sacrifice this theme's things and put my confidence in him, like I put my confidence in basketball from my training.

Now I know and can say I am first a woman of God, but I'm also really good at basketball.

And now I get the honor of introducing one of my witness youth leaders, Julian.

For those who don't know me, my name is Julian Hernandez, and I have the honor and privilege of serving here in our amazing Witness Youth Ministry.

Before I start, I just want to say thank you to Pastor Matthew, Pastor Chuck, and Arshana for giving me this opportunity to come up here and preach to you all.

And I just, in this moment, I just want to thank my appearance, Mama Pa.

Um I've barely seen you guys all weekend yet.

And I'm so grateful for you too.

Um love you guys so much.

But let's dive right into the word.

PC, I'm trying to be like you today.

So, like uh PM talked about before we start, our student takeover theme is built on the message or the scriptures, Hebrews 12, 1 through 2.

And it's gonna be up on the screen, but just want to talk about and read that scripture specifically.

So, Hebrews 12, 1 through 2, in my Bible, it's labeled a call to endurance.

So it starts off, therefore, since we have also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us.

Let us run off endurance, the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, underlined up.

The pioneer and perfecter of our faith, for the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, underlined, endured, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Like I said, that's titled The Call to Endurance.

That's just telling us that as we live our life, we have a call to continue to endure everything that's put before us.

What's a practical way of understanding endurance?

Think about marathon runners, right?

Me personally, I'm not running no marathon.

I'll tell you that right now.

Okay, I'm good about 55 meters and I'm done.

But endurance is just a representation of continuing to go on and on to your end goal, to your finish line, right?

Um, you know, Sammy Vani gave their athletic stories, and you know, my athletic days are long gone.

But I'm now a coach in my old high school, and I used to coach girls' softball.

My first year of coaching girl softball, I had this girl, and she never played softball before.

But the thing is, she walked in, she made JV one softball, and she's like, Coach Julian, I want to be playing varsity softball one day.

I started smiling right away.

I was like, You never played softball before, yet you had that aspiration.

I said, Well, it's time to get to work.

So she worked and she showed up day in and day out, became one of our best defensive players that year.

Sophomore year, she makes the JV team again.

She was a little struggling, she ends up getting hurt, and it was a pretty bad shoulder injury, but she continued to train before that.

She trained during that, she came out of her injury recovery a lot quicker and ended up making varsity softball by the end of her sophomore season.

So I tell her in that process, I'm like, I'm not gonna say the name, but I'm like, you did so much.

You trusted the coaching, you trusted the process, you kept on going on through your injury, and look where you're at right now.

You knew what your end goal, and you knew what it was going to take to get to that point.

So you may be asking, Julian, what are you trying to say?

I'm saying this is that we need to know who our end goal is.

And our end goal is Jesus Christ and being with him for eternity.

That's our finish line, right?

And the thing is, we have to train to get to that point.

And when we get that endurance, we cannot expect to run off endurance to Jesus if we don't train for it in the first place.

So, how do we train?

We train in the secret place, and a secret place is a word that gets thrown a lot within church.

The secret place is just moments of just privacy and intimacy with the Lord.

Just depending on him, talking to him, opening up your heart.

If you translate the word secret into Hebrew, it comes back and it's called Sod or Sod.

Translate back that to English and it's counsel.

Do you see the connection here?

The fire, our God is called the wise counselor in the first place.

He's our coach in this process.

So as we run this race, we have to go to him, his counseling to continue to stay on this race all the way to him until he comes back, like Sammy talked about.

What can you do in a secret place?

Journal.

He already knows how you feel and everything that you desire, but if you just go to him with an open heart, knowing that you cannot run this race by yourself and you need him, he's gonna help you in that process.

He's gonna give you peace.

Opening up his word, his living, breathing word right here gives us direction and clarity.

When all the world and everything in the world is crashing down on us, his word lifts us right back up.

We have to seek his counseling.

So we know what to do, but when do we do it?

We have to consistently train in the secret place, we have to dwell here.

Seek his counseling because counseling with the Lord prepares your heart in order to be aligned with his spirit in order to run your race.

Hear me, we have to counsel with him.

You can't do this by yourself.

It's like godly community, but we also have to counsel with him first.

So we go, we get we train for endurance, we seek his counseling, but we also have to understand there's gonna be some hardships as well, too.

And Hebrews 12, 4 through 7 talks about that, and it's gonna be up on a screen, and it says, And struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood, and you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons.

My son, do not take the Lord's discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him.

Okay, the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives, endure suffering, endure hardships, endure tribulation as discipline from him.

God is dealing with you as sons.

For what son is there that a father does not discipline?

So, just real quick, what does that mean?

Those hardships that we go to, church, that we go through, those are not just the Lord just trying to shame us down.

No, those are the testing of your faith.

Are we going to depend on him?

Are we going to trust in him?

Because we could go through these hardships and just back right down and end our race there, or could we continue to train in a secret place to lead us to the finish line at the end of the day?

Train to be like Jesus.

He is the perfect example of our race, of how to run this race.

Expect these hardships yet, endure through it as discipline.

You have trained so hard.

Why?

Stop now.

There is greater joy to come.

Your training will lead you through these obstacles, will lead you through all this to the finish line of eternity, to Jesus.

Because, like I said in the beginning, Jesus is our finish line.

That's it, nothing else.

That's it.

So as I close, I just want to leave you with this.

Like we talked about in Hebrews 12, 4 through 7, Jesus also promises this in John 16, 33.

So it's talked about in Hebrews, but he also promises this to his disciple as it goes, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.

He promises trouble and tribulation, but in him there's peace.

In him and him alone.

But, hear me, but he also promises victory.

Because he says, Take heart, I have overcome the world.

Can you receive that word today?