Youth Rally
⁃ Pastor Judah Smith
Our God is the God of all generation!
God set people free, cause blind eyes to open, He will do the same tonight!
They walk into the stadium, limping, but they left it all behind.
Whatever challenges you have, physical or mental, we are living in dark days, it is sad to see all those things, whatever darkness you are currently in, the same Jesus, He is the same yesterday today and forever. This Jesus who free the man or woman from the clutch will free you tonight!
Jesus was drawn to free sickness and diseases and depression.
Jesus came down the mountain and met the lepers. Maybe you feel you cannot shake the depression off, this grace will come your way! This Grace is Relentless!
Grace is the Person of Jesus Christ! He will come your way and set you free!
Does God help those who help themselves?
Am I helping Jesus or am I following Jesus?
We are all human beings trying to make sense of this thing called life.
What it would look like if you are a follower of Jesus?
Jesus gets “gooder and gooder” everyday in our lives
Philippians 3:1-11
To Know Him Personally
And that’s about it, friends. Be glad in God!
I don’t mind repeating what I have written in earlier letters, and I hope you don’t mind hearing it again. Better safe than sorry—so here goes.
Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it— even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting Christians; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.
The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.
I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10
At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
There are two areas in our lives are transformed
1. How we relate to our strength
2. How we relate to our weakness
Maybe you heard the “verse” that God help those who help themselves.
So many people believe that God won’t help people who are not willing to help themselves
Does God help those who help themselves?
We miss the whole message of Jesus when we say God help those who help themselves
Our lifestyle our approach, what discourages us tell us that we got to keep up our end of the deal.
We are like “God’s little helpers”
But if God needs help, than He cannot be God. It means He is in needs.
We work from this premise that if we don’t help God out, we cannot have a promise of future.
The basis of our discouragement is our performances.
A lot of time, our journey with Jesus is connected with our performance. My strength in my weaknesses.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
We relate to our strength as we have earned it.
When it comes to our weaknesses, we are embarrassed
Paul said his weaknesses helped him to embrace Jesus who is embracing him.
God’s reply is “I am enough. When you are weak than i am strong”
Have you tried to hug someone who is not a good hugger?
Embrace grace
Luke 15
His speech was he is no longer worthy to be his son. His father ignored his speech altogether.
While his father was embracing his son fully, his son was trying to say out his speech.
We try to –
Earn it with our strength
Explain it with our weaknesses
God wants us to embrace Him
We got far great things in front of us than behind us. Our best days are ahead!
God got more for us to do!
Gift.
Your strength is your gift.
Your weakness is your gift.
Your relationship with Jesus will be extraordinary
It will be so warm and so deep.
How your strength and weaknesses can be gift
1 Corinthians 15:10
But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I’m not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven’t I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then, my work didn’t amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me the energy to do it.
You will know something is your strength
God will give us the work and God will give us the passion to do the work
It is all a gift.
Desire and passion to do the work. When it comes to your strength, He will give us the passion and desire to do it!
God will give us the want-to and not the have-to
What about your weaknesses?
Now I boast about my weakness (ESV)
We normally make excuses or make light of our weaknesses but Paul boast about his weaknesses.
Boast -> think well
Think well about our weaknesses
When I am weak than I am strong.
Say thank you to your weaknesses
Tell your weaknesses this –
You (weaknesses) have done more for me than you ever know
Change our mind on what we are seeing our weaknesses.
Every time our weaknesses tell us we are weak, and have fall, and remind us of our weaknesses, we are driven further in to embrace Jesus!
For when I am weak than I am strong and His grace upon me!
The power of desperation.
I cannot do any of these without You.
He is running after you!
Worth deserving and earning is never a part of our relationship with Jesus.
We don’t need to earn and talk certain way to earn a relationship with Jesus.
He is running after me and He loves me.
