Youth Sunday 2024

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Good morning.

Today we are telling stories.

The churchy word for what I'm referring to is testimonies.

But we talk often in youth group about how that word can sometimes feel loaded or place an expectation on emotion having a turbulent story.

Those stories are really important.

They help us experience God in a radically merciful way.

But really, the word testimony means that you have borne witness to something that you saw, you experienced, and you are declaring exactly what that is.

The way that testimony is talked about in the New Testament specifically is about bearing witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

How by his sacrifice, while we were still sinners, we might be made alive, being transformed into his very likeness.

It is by grace we have been saved through faith through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

This is what the church has borne witness to.

And as the built-in advocate for youth ministry, I assure you, teenagers are part of this witness.

What the church has known and proclaimed and passed on from generation to generation, they are a part of.

They are as much a vital, irreplaceable member of the body of Christ as much of the rest of us.

And the beauty of a service like this one is that we might be blessed and encouraged by the faith of the young and the unexpected.

The kind of faith that knows how to hold tensions of doubt and hope, is not afraid of wrestling and embracing life in all of its gray, and believes with great conviction the truth of the gospel for themselves and our world.

I'm up here for now, but I'm not going to be the one telling stories.

You will hear from the mouths of students themselves how they have been awakened into new life in Jesus, how they are being transformed into his image, and how the gospel is living and active in them.

But before they start to come up, I'd love to just take a couple of minutes just to set them up well because they are showing great courage and boldness by sharing this morning.

To do that, I want to let you guys in on my prayer life for this ministry that God has entrusted to me.

This summer will be my third year on staff at Awakening.

And from the very beginning, there's been a scripture that I've prayed over my students.

There's been many, but this is a big one.

So if you have your Bibles, you're going to turn with me to the book of Psalms.

It'll be on the screen.

We're going to be in Psalm 71, verses 15 to 18.

Psalms 71:15–18

My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long, though I know not how to relate them all.

I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign Lord.

I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone.

Since my youth, God, you have taught me.

And to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.

Even when I am old and grey, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.

I'm a teacher and I can't help it, so we're going to note a couple things here.

It is God who does what the psalmist calls righteous deeds, mighty acts.

It is God who holds power.

This might seem obvious, but the psalmist is painting a picture for us of our relationship with the Father, of our relationship with the Sovereign Lord.

Where it is he who does every powerful saving act that we are recipients of, whereas we might boast in nothing but him.

The psalmist says it really plainly, I will proclaim your righteous deeds yours alone.

All good and perfect gifts come from above.

Our very help comes from the hills, from God Himself.

And in his goodness, the focus of his help, his riches, his love, his wisdom is us, that we might know him and be filled with the fullness of God.

But it does not end there with a personal revelation, because the second thing that I want to point out is that as much as God has you in mind, God has generations in mind.

Not only does God sustain us in our very living and moving and being, but he sustains us that we might declare that he has done so.

Not only are we recipients of the restorative power of the gospel, but we are participants in it.

God has chosen that it is his word and his people that would bear witness of his glory and his mighty acts to the next generation, to our neighbor, to all who are to come.

And the Bible says it elsewhere, how else are people to know if no one tells them?

I pray this scripture for my students, because the only thing that can be given to them that cannot be taken away, that cannot be tampered with, is the word of God.

When all else fades, the word of God will remain.

The assurance of who he says he is will stand.

And my prayer is that their eyes might be opened and they would experience him that way in their life tangibly.

That they might believe and declare what generations and generations of followers of Jesus have before them, that his word is true, that he lives.

And more than this, that he has done a powerful work in their life.

That they have called on the Lord and He was faithful to meet them, to hear them, to comfort them.

The psalmist says it plainly.

He says, From my youth you, God, have taught me.

I think of me and my story.

I was a youth group kid, I went to camp, I sat under sermon after sermon, and though faith did not come until I was in college, God had been orchestrating a foundation of doctrine and spiritual leaders that did much in upholding me when I later did confess Jesus' Lordship and meant it.

It is grace that He has been active in my life far beyond and before my recognition of it.

What was true of the psalmist is true today.

God is moving and at work in the lives of young people, teaching, rebuking, correcting, training in righteousness, that they might be equipped for every good work in Christ Jesus.

And the psalmist goes on to ask for what we now, you and I now have assurance of that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ.

And until that day, Jesus has made our charge really clear to make disciples of all nations and all tongues.

And teenagers, those we might least expect, are essential to this charge.

They're essential to God's activity on earth.

They get it.

They're armed with the good news of the gospel, they have seen God, and they follow him faithfully.

But frankly, I've said enough.

And it's all the better coming from them anyway, because the witness of the young will push us towards Jesus in a very unique way.

We have three students who will be sharing today, and I will introduce you to each of them.

But it is my joy to introduce you to one of our eighth graders, Lauren.

Hi, I'm Lauren.

I'm in eighth grade.

I've been going to Awakening since I was six years old.

I've gone to church since I was just a baby all my life.

Um, and every Sunday I knew the drill.

Even though I went to church since I was just a baby, I only really went because of my friends or for the snacks.

Um I didn't have a relationship with God until sixth grade when I got baptized.

Awakening announced that there was this baptism class at church, and I went, and they explained that getting baptized was proclaiming your faith in Jesus to the church.

At that point, I knew that Jesus was real, so I thought I would just do it.

And about a month later, I realized that I didn't even know God.

I knew he was real, but I didn't know what he was doing in my life or what he was like.

Um, so that's when I started praying.

I prayed that God would show me something, a sign that he was there.

And I prayed for months and months, and nothing happened, or at least not that I could see.

And I was getting desperate.

Um, I wondered why it felt like God was ignoring me.

And that's what I experienced for a while until about uh until you Sunday, about a year ago.

After all that waiting, God showed up.

Um, Molly was speaking on stage, and everything around her kind of went dark, and she just lit up.

It wasn't like something like the stage lights or anything like that, but I knew it was from God.

After that happened, I realized that God had been working in my life even before that happened.

God works all the time, and sometimes it might seem like small ways, but he's always working.

God doesn't always do big things like give people visions or dreams.

But when I look back on my life, I can see like the things he's done for me before.

When I was in kindergarten, my family and I moved churches and to come to awakening, and I did not want to go.

I was like furious when my parents told me I was coming here, and I remember on the way to church, I was like begging my parents to stay home, and they said no.

So I went to church and I had a lot of fun.

I made a lot of friends, and thinking back on like that day, it probably wasn't that big of a deal.

Like, but God provided for me and my family by bringing us here, and I didn't even realize like how he had started working in my life.

When I was heading to middle school, I was going to go to a public middle school, but my parents decided to send me to the school that my cousin went to, and I was furious again, and I did not want to go.

All my friends were going to a different middle school, but I went and I made a bunch of friends and I had a lot of fun again, and I love my school now.

God gave my parents the wisdom to send me there, and it's been such a gift.

Even when I thought that going to my school was the worst idea, God brought good through it.

Drama middle school and all the drama it can bring sometimes, God has always been there for me.

When I think something happens, that's the end of my world, God provides and it's not.

God has provided by bringing me a community here at Awakening that is so good.

They help me give like get wisdom when there's drama at school, and they help me look at what we are learning in church from different perspectives.

Every Tuesday night we have youth group, and I used to never want to come.

I would make up excuses like, I have too much homework or I'm too tired.

But when I started coming, I realized how much peace it gives me.

No matter how much homework I have, God somehow provides and I always get it done.

No matter how different we all are, we all have one thing in common that brings us together: our faith.

James 117 says, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly light, which with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.

Everything good comes from God, so we should keep our eyes open to see what he is doing.

He is working all the time if we are open to see it.

These are only a few ways that God has provided for me.

He has done so much more.

He lets me experience joy, and he gives me friends that make me laugh.

God is never gone, and he is always working in my life and in your life.

I still have good days and bad days, but through it all, I want to keep my eyes on Jesus.

Sometimes God can still feel absent, but I can look back on my life and see all the things that He has done for me before, and remind myself that He is always in control.

I remember there's this one Bible class at my school where we're talking about how God has a plan and everybody has a place in that plan.

We read Jeremiah 29, 11, and it says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Listening to this verse brings peace to me because I know that I'm not being left by God.

He will work in his timing and not mine.

I really want to work on trying to see that all the ways that God moves in my life, even when I think nothing is happening, he is always working in some way.

I encourage you to look for the things that God has done for you, big or small.

She is just fantastic.

On the last high school group event, before the summer kickoff this year, we wanted to spend some time together and reflect on the year.

And we did this through three ways: encouragement, reading God's Word, and worship.

After we went around the group encouraging each other and saying how some people just bring life to the group and how they reflect Jesus, Molly went up and laid some of these letters down with little gold stickers on them.

Each of the letters having a different verse with a different message inside of it.

As she did this, she said, You guys are praying after the worship.

I want you guys to ask for God's word to speak to you.

And know that God's word will not come back void.

So we sat there, the group of us, and we prayed.

Each of us something different, but mine went along the lines of, Hey God.

We both know I've been struggling with some things, and I need your word.

Let your word be something clear and something that will help me out in the situation that I'm in.

This one introduced the topic of praying for what you need.

In that moment, I prayed, and I prayed for some scripture to purely fix my problems.

Like, yes, this is gonna fix everything.

So as other people started getting up, I sat still and I kept praying.

Just praying for something to help me.

Because I knew he could do it, and I wanted something to purely fix my problems.

Like a step-by-step guide on how to get me through this.

So as I got up, I knew I needed something to help me.

At random, I chose one of these letters with the little gold stickers on it, and I opened it.

On the front it said, God is with you.

And I flipped it around to read Joshua 1.9, which says, Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

For context, this is where Joshua is instructed to serve and lead the Israelites after Moses' passing.

This was right before crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land.

And even through the darkest times of Moses' passing, the Lord gave the Israelites what they needed: a new leader who would help them going into the promised land.

The Lord said to Joshua that he would give him every place his foot landed, the same promise he gave to Moses.

Because the Lord does not back down from his promises.

Joshua needed to hear that.

He needed to hear do not be afraid.

To put his trust in the Lord and to God in full faith.

And as I read this verse from Joshua that night, four little words stood out.

Do not be discouraged.

I prayed for a solution.

And God said, wait, be still.

Don't be afraid.

Don't be discouraged.

One little mess up, no matter how big, isn't gonna ruin you forever.

He has a plan for you in your life, and he has not abandoned you.

So don't be discouraged.

When it comes to our lives, when we are feeling abandoned by the Lord, he still has us in his plan and still cares for us.

When you need help at work or at school or in your home, we can seek out the Lord knowing that he will provide for us.

In Luke 11 9, he says, Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock, and the door will be open to you.

Whatever problem that you are facing, no matter how big or how small, pray on it.

Bring it to God because He can do great things.

He has helped us time and time again.

He has never let us out of his promise, just like Joshua.

God gave the same promise that he gave to Moses and said, You got this.

Just try again and trust in me.

He will not let us out of his promise no matter what we do.

I prayed for what I needed, even though I didn't know I needed it.

God knew though.

So I encourage you to, in all your struggles, take a seat, breathe, and ask the Lord for what you need.

Thank you.

Good job, Solon.

Next, I'm so excited to introduce you to one of our 11th graders, my girl Reagan.

Hi everyone, my name is Reagan, and I'm a junior in Awakening Youth.

I've been coming to Awakening for a long time.

It's my home.

I've known that the fruits of the Spirit aren't actually coconuts or cherries, but that they are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control since I was about seven.

I think that a lot of people who grew up in church realize is that we have what most people call a boring testimony.

Or at least in my experience, that's how it felt.

And if you've ever felt like that, my hope is that after today, your view of your testimony has changed.

Something that I've noticed is that almost always when you ask someone about their testimony, they tell you about their life and the really hard things that they've been through and how God has met them in those moments.

And if you're anything like me, you're always left awestrucked at the amazing things that God has done in their lives.

But you're also left feeling a little bit down.

I've known who God is my whole life, but it's hard to pinpoint a time when I remember him doing something crazy in my life.

When Molly first asked us to share our testimonies today, I was honestly really confused.

I couldn't figure out why she had asked me, and I was really worried that I wasn't gonna have anything to talk about.

Growing up here, I did all the things that Christian kids were supposed to do.

I went to church, I prayed, and I read my Bible, so I figured that God and I would just be pretty solid.

I did everything that I was supposed to do, but to my surprise, that's not how it works.

Not being automatically close to God led me to feel really distant from Him and question my beliefs.

I was left feeling really hopeless, and I saw all these people around me growing in their relationships with God, and I wasn't getting anywhere.

As I was preparing for today, I was reading through different parts of the Bible and trying to find a verse that would have helped me when I was really feeling distant from God.

And a verse that stuck out to me was Ephesians 1, 11 through 12.

It says, In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

A common saying in church is to have a childlike faith.

When you're a kid, it's really easy to have hope in things and believe in things.

You hear fun stories, sing fun games, sing silly songs, or play fun games.

And so it's really easy to believe in God.

But as you get older, it gets more complicated.

Even though I've grown up in church, as I've gotten older, it's hard for me to stay strong in my beliefs.

Verse 11 describes how we are chosen by God, that it wasn't an accident, but that he wants to use us for the good of his kingdom.

In verse 12, it says that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

This verse is like a call to action to Christians.

Because we were the first to put our hope in Christ, it's our responsibility to bring others to God.

We get to be a part of showing people who God is and the amazing things that He has done.

As I got older and you started to grow, I realized that like all relationships, my relationship with God took work and effort.

It wasn't going to just be good.

I needed to actively pursue God in order for it to be good.

I talked with my leaders and they helped me find ways to help me feel close to God.

They helped me realize that I love to journal.

Whether that's taking notes during the sermon or prayer journaling helps me stay focused while I'm praying and then feel more connected to God.

Something that I've learned as I've gotten older is that even though I've grown up in church, I don't have a boring testimony.

And in fact, saying that I have a boring testimony.

Kind of downgrades what God has done in my life.

Countless times, God has asked me to be brave and trust Him.

And because of that, He has been able to use me for His good.

Youth has gone through waves of people.

For a long time, there haven't been very many consistent people, especially girls.

For several years, I prayed and asked God to bring more girls into youth.

And because of my consistency in prayers, youth has grown.

At first there were one to two girls every week, but now there are seven to eight every single week.

I've had to work for my relationship with God, and it hasn't always been easy.

But my testimony is important, and my relationship with God isn't easy, even though I've known him my whole life.

No one has a boring testimony.

Because we all get to be a part of the amazing things that God has done, and he gets to use all of us for his plan.

I think one of the reasons that a lot of people who grew up in church feel like they have a boring testimony is because everything starts to become second nature.

We go to church because we're supposed to, and we read the Bible because we are supposed to, but until you start to actively pursue God, your relationship with him isn't going to get anywhere.

God chooses all of us, and he wants to use us in good ways to serve his kingdom.

It's hard to do that when we aren't personally connected to him.

God's intricate plan has a special place for you and is going to impact your life.

Faithfully, we can follow and praise God and bring others into his light.

God is using your story exactly the way that it is now.

No matter how boring your testimony seems, God is using you.

Thank you.

We miss out on a part of his heart and his hands.

The leaders on our youth team serve twice a week, sometimes more, because they so believe in this generation and what God is doing in them and through them.

All of my leaders are wearing badges this morning, it says youth leader.

I encourage you to find them, encourage them in their ministry, and thank them and ask how you can be praying for them and be a part of elevating our youth ministry.

Because in the midst of them, Jesus is so present.

Just like the witness of these students matters, church, so does yours.

Have we not all been rescued?

Do we not all have help and hope and peace and refuge in Jesus Christ where we would not have it otherwise?

Has he not been good to you?

All people who have experienced being adopted into the family of God have a testimony to give.

A story of who they were before the transforming power of the gospel.

Encountering Jesus changes you.

His kindness that leads to repentance changes you.

Abiding in him changes you.

His what work in your life is worth telling.

Your call to action this morning is to reflect on the wondrous works of God and participate in his activity on earth by bearing witness to it.

May that lead us into the deep and unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ.

And with that, we're gonna pray.

We're not clapping.

Pray with me.

Father, it is by your grace and power that we have breath in our lungs in which to laugh, in which to praise you, in which to breathe and move and have being.

Jesus, it is by your goodness, your wisdom, your love that we are here at all.

Father, we look to you, we seek you, we fix our eyes on you.

God, and how good you have been to us.

Jesus, how else are we to respond but in worship?

The marvelous, marvelous things you have done, you have always done, you will continue to do.

All God's people said.

Amen.

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