Youth Night

Okay.

So I do have a message for you guys tonight, let's pray first, father.

God, we just thank you, lord, for today.

We thank you For your loving kindness, father.

I Thank you, father, that eyes that I bring the word.

Father, it's not me, but it's you through me.

Father, I thank you that Our hearts are open to your word.

Our hearts are teachable, they're moldable.

Father, I think you that our ears are open to what the spirit is saying to us.

Father, we know that your word is sharp, father, and it breaks through barriers.

So we just thank you that that, as we hear your word, father, that any barriers or obstacles that are in our lives will be, will come crashing down, just like the Jericho wall did.

Father.

So we just thank you, we glorify you, we praise you and Jesus name, amen, amen.

Are you all ready for the word I meant?

So I don't know if you've noticed, some of the teens are wearing Our bold as the lion t-shirt.

I just have bold, but I do have the boldest line t-shirt.

So that's been our theme for a while now.

Parvus 28 one the wicked flea, when no one pursues.

But the righteous are as bold as the lion.

So we've been teaching them what boldness looks like, and, and the Bible has a lot to say about being bold, and it also shows us how to be bold and and what to do during tough times.

The gods not called us to be timid or shy or weak or embarrassed, right, but he's called us to be bold, and so that's not the title for tonight of my message.

So, as I was praying and like God, what do you, what do you, you know, want me to teach on?

Because I would love to teach on the God kind of love first, 20 and 13, we have taught on that.

In February, almost the whole month, we taught on the God kind of love.

But just I got a.

So I was, I just was reading my Bible, an Act 17 6.

It was just part of a verse.

Let me turn there act 17 6.

So in act 17 6, the last part of that verse.

So I was reading about Paul and Silas.

It says these who have turned the world upside down have come here too.

And so I just thought of world changers.

Right, the Paul and Silas Turned the world upside down.

Now, right there, it wasn't talking about it in a good way.

They've disrupted, they were disrupting some things.

Right, they were in this town and people weren't happy.

You know that they were preaching the word, and so I Like that it says they.

They turned the world upside down, and so me growing up in you.

So that was the name of my youth group world changers.

And how many of y'all world changers?

We are all called to be world changers.

Now I don't know if you know about Paul, but Paul wasn't always Paul.

He was Saul right.

And so if you turn with me to acts 9, and he didn't like Christians, he was very mean towards Christians, and so Paul was Saul.

And I want to read, starting with verse 1, acts 9 1.

Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder Against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked Letters from him to the synagogue of Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

As he journeyed, he came Near Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.

Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying Saul, saul, why are you persecuting me?

And he said who are you, lord?

Everybody say question number one who are you, lord?

Then the Lord said I am Jesus whom you are persecuting?

It is it.

It is hard for you to kick against the goats then.

So the?

So he, trembling in astonish, said Lord, what do you want me to do ever say?

Question number two.

So he said who are you and what do you want me to do?

Then the Lord said to him arise and go into the city and you shall be told what you must do.

And so I have a couple of points tonight, and that leads me to my first point.

World-changers stay yielded to the Lord.

What do you want me to do is a question of submission.

That's the first thing I think of when I hear, when I when I read that what do you want me to do, lord?

When's the last time we've asked him that?

What do you want me to do?

A world-changer, somebody who changes the world, somebody who's made an impact, is yielded to God, is In submission to God.

Think about your life.

Who who's rocked your world, who's changed your world?

I can think, on one hand, pastors have changed my world.

My mom, my fourth-grade teacher, right, not very many, but but my youth pastor, people who spoke into my life, people who were bold, people who were loving and kind, right, and so.

So, to be a world changer, you have to be submitted to God, and sometimes we can have a picture of what that looks like.

But true submission and true being yielded, it's just being teachable, right.

What do you want me to do, lord?

And that's what Paul was asking Jesus.

Hey, who, first?

Who are you?

And then, what do you want me to do?

And so Philippians 310, and the amplified says for my deter and this is Paul, paul writing for my determined purpose is that I may know him, ever say that I may know him, that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of his person more strongly and more clearly, more strongly and more clearly, and that I may, in that same way, come to know the power outflowing from his resurrection, which it exerts over believers, and that I may so share his sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit and to his likeness, even to his death and hope.

And so here Paul's primary pursuit was was what To know Jesus?

Right To get acquainted with him, to know him, to spend time with him, 100% yielded to him, 100% submitted to God, you know, and that comes through just simple acts of obedience, right, simple acts of obedience of honor thy father and mother right.

Go to church, read your Bible, right.

And so and the more we read the word, the more we dig into the word, the more we get acquainted with his ways, right.

So you got like teens.

You guys know your parents pretty well, right, because you live with them.

Right, you know what mom.

If you, if you go to mom for a question, you know what mom's gonna say.

And then if you go to dad for I hope you don't go to mom with the same question and you don't get the answer then you go to dad for that with that same question.

But you know, you know your parents, you live with them, you're acquainted with them.

Right.

For the older guys, you work with somebody.

You know your boss, you, you're acquainted with them, you know their ways, right.

Why?

Because you spend time with them.

You get to know them, you know their personality, right.

And so, just in the same way, paul is saying here that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him, and that comes through just reading the Bible, right, and getting full of the word of God.

So so then we can be a world changer and change somebody's world for the good.

Right, you leave a lasting impression on somebody, whether you realize it or not.

When you talk to somebody, it's either good or bad.

It's either, it's not, neutral.

You're either you left that conversation and it was encouraging, you know, and the word was deposited, or it wasn't.

And so God's calling us to step it up, and not God's calling us to be bold, to just to get more acquainted with him, amen.

So if you turn back to Acts 9, I want to read the rest of Acts 9.

Okay, so verse 7,.

So I read verse 6, arise and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.

Verse 7, acts 9, 7, and the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one.

Then Saul arose from the ground and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one.

But they led him by hand and brought him into Damascus.

And when he was, and he was three days without sight and neither ate nor drank.

So here he was, blind, right, go to a house, sit there for three days.

But, lord I, you know, I want to do this, I want to do that.

No, go, stay right.

You were there for three days and he didn't have anything to drink or eat Total submission.

And then verse 10, now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, damascus named Ananias, and to him the Lord said an a vision, ananias.

And he said here I am, lord, willing, right, willing to be used.

So the Lord said to him arise and go to the street called straight how many of y'all live on straight street that's a funny name and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus.

For behold, he is praying.

And in a vision verse 12 and in a vision he has seen a man named Anna and I is coming in and putting his hand on him so that he might receive his sight.

Then Anna and I is answered.

Lord, I have heard from many about this man.

I heard rumors he's a Democrat.

I heard you know all kinds of evil things about him.

Come on, lord, really.

Then, anna, I is answered.

Lord, I've heard lots of bad things.

How much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem and here.

He has the authority from the chief priest to bind all who call in your name.

But the Lord said to him go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine.

Everybody say chosen.

He is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake.

And Anna and I is went his way and entered the house and, laying his hands on him, he said brother Saul, which is Paul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Immediately, there fell from his eyes something like scales and he received his sight at once and he arose and was baptized.

Hallelujah, isn't that good.

So so God gives us here.

You know, when I was, as I was meditating on this and I was reading this chapter, god just show me.

You know, what Just obedience.

You know God's looking for simple obedience.

You know.

And Annias, you know he was at the right place at the right time.

God used him to go see Saul.

You know he didn't want to.

At first he was scared.

You mean Saul of Tarsus the one hit him?

No, surely not.

But God said yes, he is chosen, he's a chosen one, right?

And so we can't skip levels of just simple obedience.

I think sometimes we want to.

You know, just skip some levels and you know like.

How many of you all taken a driver's drive, how many of you all have your driver's license?

Katie, everybody here, just about.

So you can't just go to the DPS office and say I'm ready, never, never, have driven a car Right, never have had an exam online or whatever you do nowadays, right, you have to get your hours in your day driving, your night driving, all of that.

You can't just go to the DPS and say I'm here, I'm ready, I want to drive Right.

They'll be like well, show me some proof, show me some proof that you've passed some tests Right, that you've done some night driving, that you've done some day driving, that you, your parents or whoever you know is teaching you, and so a lot of times, I think, in life, sometimes, we want to skip these levels of simple obedience.

Right, go to church, read your Bible, love your neighbor Fun, fun, right.

Actually, it says love your enemies.

What does that look like?

So the people that don't like you, you love them even stronger.

Right, simple obedience.

And so this story is simple obedience which produced a miracle.

Yes God, I want a miracle.

God's saying go talk to your neighbor, love them, bake them a cake, right?

Simple obedience.

But simple obedience is big in the eyes of God.

It's not simple, it's not minor, it's major right.

And so, just like we see with Paul, simple obedience.

Yes, lord, I'll stay at this house for three days, you know, but I got work to do.

I got to do this, I got to do that.

You know my house is falling apart.

I got to no, stay, be quiet, stay, pray in the spirit.

But I got to do that.

No, be in my presence, and then I'll show you the next step.

Right.

So God works through simple obedience yielded, being yielded to the Lord, amen.

If we go back to Philippians three, so number one is just world changers are yielded to the Lord.

Number two world changers don't live in the past but they reach forward.

Philippians three, 13 and 14.

Yeah, verse 13.

Brother, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of Christ Jesus.

The passion translation says I fast in my heart to the future.

This one thing I do.

Paul says I forget that right, I forget that.

I would just stone Stephen and did all kinds of other things.

I forget that and I press forward.

Right, I forget that and just press forward.

So, world changers, they don't live in the past with the baggage, even if it happened yesterday.

I press forward, forgive me, lord.

I press forward, I'm moving forward to something right?

Not looking back, not looking back at who did this to me, who messed up my life, who rude or whatever it may be baggage, no, we press forward, amen.

So to be a world changer, you have to look forward, you have to look beyond Hebrews 12,.

My third point is world changers travel light.

How many of you all when you're going vacation, you all travel light?

I try to, but usually no, we're on the road a lot this month and I'm trying to consolidate everything into like one bag and then one hanging bag and then a little bag.

Hebrews 12 says therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us I would say let us let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So world changers, travel light.

Right, when you run a race in the natural, you don't see somebody wearing, you know, sweatpants and five sweaters and a backpack and all the things.

They travel light because then they can go the distance.

Right, because all of those things hold them down.

And so, to be a world changer, travel light.

Don't let things get to you Easy peasy, cheesy, right.

Be easy going about stuff.

Yeah, there are some things that need to be done.

Right, there's work that needs to be done.

In John 3.16 it says for God so loved, he so loved the world that he sent what, who, jesus, right.

And so he so loved us, he so loved that world, everybody, everybody.

He so loved everybody that he sent Jesus to die on the cross.

And so, with that in mind, we travel light.

We don't allow things to get to us right, we press forward, we pray, we pray much in the Holy Ghost, we read our Bible and we just don't allow the distractions of this world.

You know when Rachel was receiving the offering, you know God's not interested in three quarters crop failure.

That's what he's not interested in.

Three quarters crop, that's bad.

You plan a garden and three fourths is dead.

Nothing wrong with a seed, right, it's the soil, people hearts right, it's the way you receive it.

Oh, I've heard that before.

Ms Selena taught on that before.

What kind of soil do you have, if you've already said that out of your mouth?

Not good soil, right.

So God's not interested in three fourths crop failure.

That just won't do.

There's nothing wrong with the word of God, there's nothing wrong with the seed.

And so if there's nothing wrong with that seed, it must be me, it must be my heart right.

Have I let offense in there?

Am I jealous?

Am I bitter?

These are good questions to ask yourself.

It's a check.

You know the word of God is a mirror when you read it.

It oh, you know what.

Maybe I am, chisel me, god, use me, change me, so then I can become a world changer and I can proclaim your name.

Clearly not with through the lens of offense, right, and through the lens of bitterness, because then you portrayed in a way that that's not how Jesus works, that's not the Jesus I know, right, but when you portrayed in a loving, kind way, when you're traveling easy, light, no baggage, loving people even if they don't love you back, loving anyways, traveling light, loving life, preaching the word right.

Staying in my lane, doing what God has called me to do, staying yielded, submitted to him, right.

Amen, amen.

And I put this down.

The Lord showed me.

I just jotted this little phrase down walk in the God plan, don't measure your lives by the wrong standards.

God is my Creator and he has standards, and I don't operate and live by the world standards.

Right.

And so we can allow world changers.

If we're going to change the world, either we're changing the world or we're allowing it to change us.

Just like Romans 12 says don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God.

So we have to allow God to transform us, not to be conformed to this world.

Amen, amen.

I'm on my last point, number four world changers carry the baton of faith.

World changers carry the baton of faith to the next generation.

And this point I got from.

Well, he didn't have this point, but this point came from a message, jane, I heard at REMA.

Our daughter's at REMA, a Bible training center, and he's her third year and she's going to graduate.

I'm so excited to have her back and her youth pastor there taught a message on carrying the baton of faith to our next generation.

And it was such a powerful message, don't you agree, jay?

It was yes, and so he taught on just carrying the baton.

And he said in that baton, so I don't run track, kate, he does.

Do you do the baton races?

Is that the four by one?

Oh, that's right, yeah, four by four.

So he said that.

So I wrote this down.

So that exchange zone when you pass the baton is 1.9 seconds and 20 meters.

And so he said there's an entire generation hanging in that exchange zone.

And so how can I take what I have and give it to the next generation?

And so a scripture, judges 2, 7 through 10 in the ESV.

So this is what happens if we don't pass the baton, if you don't have a seamless exchange between runners, between generations.

Judges 2, 7 in the ESV says and the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua, in all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel.

And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years and they buried him with the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath Heiris, in the hill country Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gash, verse 10.

And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers.

And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work he had done for Israel.

Let me read that again and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

Pretty sad verse in the Bible, right?

It's because of those scriptures that we can't relax, that we can't just say you know what?

I'm just going to come to church, get my coffee in the lobby, do my thing, got my reserve parking space, got my reserve seat, I'm good, I'm good, get here at 9.59.

Get out of the door before pastor's done.

Because of that scripture we can't relax, right, we can't relax and take a back seat.

There was a generation that didn't know the works of the Lord.

And it's a shame that youth ministry and children's ministry that nobody will want to work in there.

If they knew that verse, they might.

We can't relax.

I mean, that's our next generation, this is our next generation, amen.

Our kids' ministry, that's our next generation, amen.

So it's because of that that we can't just take a back seat.

Relax.

Oh, I'm good, I'm coming to church.

Check, check, you know.

No, god's called us for greatness, god's called us to impart to the next generation.

And you guys have something to impart to the next generation.

Our children's church and our youth ministry should be booming.

Those two ministries should be the biggest ministries and you'll find that the church at large, all the churches, it's.

I mean, you can't even get people to work with kids, why?

Why is that?

They're fine, it's a joy to work with them.

Oh, I get to miss, I get to miss.

I can't be in the adult service.

But if you knew who you're helping those parents get the word.

You're over there teaching the word to the next generation.

It's an honor, amen, it's an honor, it's an honor.

So I just want to encourage you with that.

If I can have the worship team come on up, I'm going to read one more scripture.

It's in Acts 20, verse 24 in the New King James.

Acts 20:24

But none of these things move me.

Here's Paul at the end of his life.

Nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with sadness, regret, anxiety.

No, he says that I may finish my race with joy and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.