Warrior Stories: Secrets of Following Jesus

Warrior Stories: Secrets of Following Jesus

Hello everybody. Welcome to this battle council. It's a pretty special one today with some pretty special people. So some of you in this room um probably made the greatest decision of your life last night. Um to become a member of uh To become a member of this family, so welcome to the family. Um so everyone on our team here remembers what that feels like, like the day after. Um And all the questions that we had. And we just want to give you the best possible start to this life with Jesus. So we want to share a little bit of our stories and what we've learned from following Jesus.

He can change your life. Alright, so how's everybody doing today? Good? Great. I'm glad to hear it. So full yeah make sure you eat. I know it's hot sometimes you don't want to eat when you're when you're hot or whatever, but trust me. Um so I have secret well my story and the secret number one is uh making sure you belong with Jesus.

Secret #1: Belong with Jesus

So, uh let's say my early teenage years uh gave my life to Jesus, but I didn't understand the relational aspect of what that was. And So there was a lot of baggage that I carried from a young age into my early 20s. And a lot of that had to do with uh some trauma, experienced a lot of bad stuff with my mom and dad Just a quick um story about that. My parents are alcoholics. They seem to go out with friends and uh seem to party a lot. And they would be gone for most weekends from what I remember, sometimes during the week, just uh partying and doing whatever they could to uh I guess at that point get away from everything else that was going on, but then there's different periods in my life when my mom was uh had left.

So there I had questions about like where she was at and things like that and I there's like there's two specific instances of my younger life that I remember and the first one being There's the times when my mom was gone, when she came back, my mom and dad were arguing one night, and my dad was yelling at my mom, and he said, You know, every time that you're out uh with your friends uh or family or whatever. Uh I have to lie to our son and make up an excuse to let him know that you're okay when in reality we don't know where you're at. And hearing that at a young age, I had already started to develop these thoughts of I'm the issue.

I'm the reason why my family's broken. I'm the reason why My parents don't have a great relationship and I'm the reason why everything around me just feels like it's hopeless. The second one being My dad when whenever he was when he would be drunk and whenever I got in trouble, it always seemed like whatever things that my dad was dealing with in those moments, like in his life When he was drunk and I got in trouble, I had to face the brunt of that. And I never did anything out of spite against my dad. I was just being a kid making dumb decisions.

But My dad, one night he said, you know son, if you ever decide to kill me in my sleep, you better make sure I'm dead, because if not, I'm gonna come after you. And that was something that I didn't understand why I had to hear that from my dad, somebody that's supposed to love me, somebody that's supposed to guide me through life and give me direction. And in those moments there was a a break in that father-son relationship. And the crazy thing is, my family came to visit a few weeks ago. And uh we went to dinner. We live in uh Syracuse area, upstate New York, and uh my dad he bought us all dinner that night.

We didn't know that he was gonna do that, but afterward he um He got us into the parking lot and he said uh hey I want to talk to you guys and share something with you. So we're like, all right, cool. We I didn't know what it was And I guess my aunt had already known this, but I didn't know this until he said it that night, but my dad's been sober for about a year now. Um so that was like I was like, what holy cow? Like that was like the like I thought that was like the crazy part of the news that he was gonna share with us. But then my dad said, um I th my my guess what I is what I think is like throughout this year of sobriety he's had some time to sit and really think about all the things that has happened through his life and his addiction of an alcoholic And he asked for forgiveness from each of us individually, my aunt, my mom, and my wife, and myself.

And he asked us forgiveness as a family as a whole. So all that to say, like, going back to my story. In my early 20s, a lot of that stuff that I was dealing with at a young age, I was still carrying that If you remember the illustration that Ron used last night with a bag of rocks, I was just continuing to add rocks into my backpack, not understanding that Jesus wanted to take that away from me. And it wasn't until I was at my breaking point. When I was at a point where it was life or death and I was really considering taking my life and I said, Jesus God, if you're real.

If I was created for more than the drugs and the alcohol, if I was really created for more than the depression and these dark thoughts that I'm that I'm battling with in these moments, like you're gonna have to prove it because I'm lost. I don't feel like I have any other way out. And I'm reaching out to you as a last resort, basically. And so I ended up going home that night, and that's when the relational aspect Started in my life with Jesus. I gave Jesus everything. All the all the depression, all the hurt, all the the trauma, all those things that I had dealt with from A young age into my adult life, I finally recognized it, clicked in my brain that Jesus wanted to take that from me And if it wasn't for that night, if it wasn't for Jesus, I know I wouldn't be standing here today in front of you guys, being able to share my story.

Every opportunity that I get to share my story is an answer to that prayer. That I prayed that night. I was considering taking my own life. So part of this is helping you be sure. What does it mean to believe in Jesus, right? Putting all your trust in the one who came to rescue you. God says eternal life is a gift. He paid for, not a reward for doing good. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So there's two parts to this. The wages of sin is death. Who can tell me what a wage is?

Payment? Payment for what? For a service. A service? Exactly. So without Jesus, we are working our way to eternal separation from God The second half of this is that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It's a gift. It's not something that we have to work for. Jesus already did that. He paid the sin debt that was placed on our lives from birth, from the beginning of time with Adam and Eve when they chose to disobey God in the garden. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. If you if you look at that, that's uh first John chapter five, verse thirteen.

Pull it up real quick. It says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. So right there in this little bit of scripture, for those of you that made a decision last night to believe that Jesus paid for your sin debt, your name is written in the Bible Your name is written in this verse, particular verse of Scripture. To you who believe in the name of the Son of God To Walton, who believes in the name of the Son of God. To Sirianna, who believes in the name of the Son of God.

To Glenn, who believes in the name of the Son of God. E Everybody that's in here that made that decision last night, your name is in this scripture. If you're in here today and you're still unsure about that relationship that Ron talked about last night, I want to lead you guys through a simple prayer. But before I do that, I'm going to explain to you that it was just if you did this last night and you know 100% sure that you have Jesus in your life, you don't have to do this. A second time. It's not a thing that you have to do every time somebody mentions it.

It's a one-time thing, a one-time promise of eternal life with God the Father through Jesus Christ by the spilling of his blood and his death on the cross. So if you're here this morning or this afternoon and you're still unsure, but you feel like God's pulling on your heartstrings in these moments, I'm going to say a prayer. And it's going to be similar to what Ron prayed last night. It's not church words, it's not anything like that. It's just a simple conversation between you and Jesus. The one who on that cross was looking at each and every one of us this afternoon and said, I want to die for you.

So if you want to make sure that you have that relationship this afternoon, you can pray these with me. Dear Jesus. I've made mistakes in my life. Would you please forgive me of my sin? I trust that you, Jesus, died for me, paid for my sin, and rose from the grave three days later. I'm placing all my hope and all my trust in you. Would you come into my life And give me hope and freedom. In Jesus' name, amen.

A New Beginning

Alright, so if that was your first time doing that this afternoon, just want to say welcome to the family of God. You have tons of brothers and sisters around here that are gonna love on you and support you. But that's all that I have to share for this portion, and I'm going to turn it over to Jenna.

Secret #2: Spend Time with Him

Hello, oof. Okay, my name is Jenna. Um, you might have seen me around here. I've been coming for like eight years now But so the section that they gave me is secret number two, which is spending time with him. Um Let's see. Okay. So the first point, the Bible is like Jesus' love letter to you. The Bible is a love story of a creator who desires a personal relationship with his creation. One verse I want to share with you is Ephesians 2, 4 to 5. But God who is rich in mercy. Because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ, even though we were dead in trespasses.

We are saved by grace. So it was nothing that you did to deserve God's love. He did this because He just loves us. And that's one thing reading the Bible teaches us is um how deeply he loves us. Um one other thing that the Bible um provides for us is transformation. Um The Bible has a profound cup capacity to transform our hearts and our minds. Reading scripture can reveal truths about ourselves that we may not be aware of, helping us grow in our spiritual journey. The Bible can also teach us how to respond in many situations, for instance When you are going through trials and challenges, the Bible reinforces your trust and clarity in God.

It brings correction and wisdom to navigate through difficulties or difficult choices. And the big thing that I wanted to talk about was purpose and identity that we that the Bible gives us. Um it helps us understand our identity in Christ and the purpose he has for each of us. Ephesians 2, 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ. Jesus Created in Jesus Christ for good works which God prepared ahead of time for us to do. Um so I grew up in a Christian family. Um and What that brought me, what I struggled with was finding my own faith in God.

So I grew up, of course, going to church, um, reading the Bible and I gave my life to Christ when I was twelve. And I started to slowly fall away because I wasn't reading my Bible. I wasn't spending that personal time with Jesus. I wasn't taking that time to learn more about him and I slowly started to forget about his love and I started to go back to sinning, going back to hating and being uh just a bitter person. And yeah. I was tired of that and I recommitted my life to Jews when I was eighteen and um Here I am, 23, better be 24 next month, and I'm still going strong in my faith and in my walk with God.

And a big part of that was setting a time aside to spend with God every single day. Um but uh sorry, completely forgot about the notes. So it was the Bible is like Jesus' love letter to you. And then the verse that he gave us or or that we put down was your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalms 119-105 And from that, I want to give it to Walton.

Secret #3: Communicate with Jesus

Hi y'all, my name is Walton. Nice to meet you guys. Hi Walton. So what I'll the the the topic I will be um covering and discussing with you guys is prayer And the main idea I want to point out is prayer is communicating with God through a relationship made possible by Jesus Christ. Now If someone asks you, what is prayer, what would you say? Shoot some answers. If I ask you what is prayer, what would some of you say? Talking to Jesus? Okay. Any others? Spending time with Jesus. Alright. What is prayer? One more. Asking for things? Okay, I heard something like that.

Alrighty. So all those are pretty true. But prayer is so much bigger than that. So when I was younger, I didn't know how to pray I remember I grew up in church and I'm like, oh, these people, so many big words. Oh, God is like that. God is like this. Oh, God is this to them. And I thought I don't deserve to pray. And I thought, I I don't want to pray because these people are so holy, these people are so Christian. And I thought, yeah, I I don't I don't want to pray publicly to anybody. I I I don't know how to pray. So with that mindset of Praying is like saying special magic words to God.

I just thought, yeah, that's not for me. And The one thing that I did learn was prayer isn't magic words. Prayer is a conversation with God. And God isn't creating your vocabulary, He's just inviting you to a relationship. Now in Hebrews 4. 16 it states, I just want to get it word for word So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. So I thought. Prayer is going to the throne of God and asking him for something or even praising him for something.

Now, why can we come so boldly to the throne of grace? Not because we're good. Not because we earned it, but because of Jesus. Jesus opened the way. Now, I don't have to wonder if God, if he hears me. He invited me to his throne room. He invited you guys to his throne room. To think of that, the God of the universe saying, I want you in my presence. I want you in my throne room. It gives you a bit of chills or spine goosebumps or something. It makes you think about it. Now If you had a relationship with somebody, like a best friend, could you consider them your best friend if you've ever talked if you've never talked to them?

You really can't. You've never met them, you've never talked to them. There's no way you can say that they're your best friend. So no, communication builds relationships. Same with God. Prayer isn't earning God's love. It's enjoying God's presence. And then the four simple parts of prayer I want to talk to you. The secret number three, communicate with Jesus. And then the first example is I love you. Praise Tell God who He is. For example, God is holy. God is faithful. God is good. God is merciful. God is loving. God is Father. He is Lord. The list can go on Just praise God for who he is.

And how you get to know who he is is if you read more in the Bible on who he is, spending time with the community describing how he's like, getting a feel for the Lord That's how you praise God. For example, when you're praying, most people start with Dear Father in heaven. You're already acknowledging him as dear father. Some people say, dear Lord. Um there's some others, but like dear Father in heaven, that's the one I usually say the most. So prayer isn't always like asking. Sometimes it's simply loving God, praising God for who He is. And then for the second point, I wanted to get to Thank you for on your notes.

Thank you for. And it's gratitude. And Weston talked about yesterday on how we change our expectation to appreciation. And in Psalms 1 111, I wanted to read it to you guys. Here is um is a man named David, and he's known for praying to God about everything. And I just want to read you a quick prayer on what he says to the Lord. And kind of like close your eyes or just kind of like feel, have get a feeling of what it's like to pray to the Lord. Praise the Lord, I will thank the Lord with all my heart, as I meet with his godly people. How amazing are the deeds of the Lord!

All who delight in him should ponder them. Everything he does reveals his glory and his majesty. His righteousness never fails. He causes us to remember his wonderful works. How gracious and merciful is our Lord. He gives food to those who fear him. He always remembers his covenant. He has shown his great power to his people by giving him giving them the lands of other nations. All he does is good just and good, and all his commandments are trustworthy. They are all forever true, to be obeyed faithfully and with integrity. He has paid a full ransom for his people.

He has guaranteed his covenant with them forever. What a holy, awe-inspiring name he has. Fear the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom. All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom. Praise him forever And this is a man who is praying to God. This is a man who is praising God for who he is. So, for example, some things you can thank him for is your family. Food, friends, the roof over our heads, protection. Even difficult times, even difficult seasons he um uses us in. Um the first breath that we take in the morning, um one thing I like to thank him for is these.

Get to communicate with other people over long, vast distance and ranges to imagine that God put that thought into somebody's head. Just having that gratitude to thank the Lord. And gratitude always changes our perspective on how we view things. And then the third point I wanted to go over is I'm sorry on your notes. I'm sorry. And what that is, it's confession. God already knows what you're gonna confess. God, like, for example, there are times in my life where I'm not so proud of the things that I do that go against what God intends for me to do.

And He gives me the outlet to fully confess like, hey, I I I sorry Lord, I done this wrong. Please forgive me. So God already knows what you're gonna pray to him. God already knows what you're feeling like. And confession restores that fellowship between you and him. And I'd say don't hide from the Lord. He already knows your heart. And he already knows who you are on the inside. And if anything, he sees you as his beloved child. And bring that sin to the light. It really restores you and your relationship with God. And just to let you know, God's mercy is much more greater than any sin that you can ever think of.

And my last subject I wanted to talk about, or my second last, is please for your notes. So God absolutely loves it when you bring a heart of honesty before him. He loves it when you ask him stuff like he calls you his children. So if a father would um respond to his child for a child asks something of him, for example, I see Nix's daughters um always asking him for stuff and for example food. They want food. Nick gives them food naturally. So Jesus tells us to ask. Nothing is too small and nothing is too big. If you really think about it, there's nothing outside of God's control.

And God, again, he cares for you because you're his child. And one more thing I like to add is prayer isn't only talking, but it's also listening. How does God normally speak his word, the Bible? Some of us would think, oh God, He does not respond to me at all. Well, those are usually the people with their Bibles closed. So my suggestion is get to know your father in heaven. Get to know what God is like. And prayer and Bible reading together. It's really you're enjoying that presence with the Lord and a lot of times God speaks and then we respond.

So again, prayer is not magic words. It's not impressing God. It's not earning his love. It's not twisting God's arm. Prayer is always loving the Father. Prayer is trusting a loving father. Now, my suggestion is keep praying. It's like communication when you're communicating with someone. It's not always going to be perfect, but it's always gonna improve Like when I was younger, back to um not thinking I perfectly knew how to pray. Well now a prayer can simply say God thank you for this day God, can you watch over me today? God, can you be able to open the hearts of the speaker people that I'm going to be speaking to today?

Lord, just thank you for everything. Those are simple prayers to the Father in heaven. So I'd like to thank you guys so much for your time and attention, and I will be turning this to Allison.

Secret #4: Live for Jesus

I'm a little shorter, but um as Walton said, my name's Alison and I have Hello. And I have the privilege of sharing with you guys secret number four, which is live for Jesus. So Um that can kind of what comes to mind when you guys hear that, I know for some people it sounds like a long list of rules Maybe you think I have to stop doing this or I have to start doing that. And it can feel like following Jesus is just trying really hard to be a good person. But that's not really what Jesus invites us into. Living for Jesus isn't about following a bunch of rules.

Um it's actually about responding to the incredible love that He has already shown us. So um one of the ways that we show Jesus that we love him is by doing the things that make him happy and turning away from the things that make him sad. So that's really what living for Jesus is all about. Jesus says in John 14, 15, if you love me, you will do what I command. Personally, I love this verse. Um, but what it doesn't say is if you obey me, then I will love you. Um he already loves us and he proved that by giving his life on the cross for us. Instead, he says, if you love me.

And when we understand how much Jesus really loves us, we naturally want to love him back. So, and one of the ways we love him back is by doing the things that make him happy and turning away from the things that grieve his heart. So I want you guys to take a second and think about somebody that you love, whether it be your mom or your dad, your grandparents, your siblings, or even a really close friend So um when you love someone, you want to do things that make them happy, you want to do things that make them smile, and you don't wake up in the morning thinking things like, how can I hurt this person today?

You care about what matters to them because they matter so much to you. And it's the same with Jesus. The more we know him, the more we begin to care about what he cares about. Um we start wanting to do the things that make him happy and turn away from the things that pull us away from him, not because we're forced to, but because we love him that much. So um When Ron gave me this topic, it reminded me a lot of when I first started following Jesus And what he was teaching me through that season. So when I first started my relationship with him, I thought that following him was mostly about avoiding like the really obvious sins that it like says in the Bible.

But the closer I grew to him, the more I realized that living for Jesus wasn't about what I had to stop doing. It was about loving him enough. to care about what mattered to him. So one of the areas that God really challenged me with was what I was filling my mind with. Show of hands, who really likes like horror movies and like crime shows and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So I used to too and I used to use the excuse it's just entertainment. But um Nobody came up to me and told me I had to stop watching these shows, but the more time I spent reading my Bible, the more time I spent praying and getting to know Jesus, I started to feel really convicted about it.

Because the things that fill like that are in these shows aren't things that Jesus like wants us to fill our brains with. Um I realize that choosing to watch these things wasn't helping me become more like Christ So um at first I didn't want to let them go because I really enjoyed them. Like Criminal Minds was pretty high for me. Yeah. But I had to ask myself, do I love these shows more than I love Jesus? Um And that was a hard question for me to wrestle with. And I realized that if I truly love Jesus, then I wanted my life to reflect that love.

Not because I was trying to earn his approval, not because I was afraid he would stop loving me, but because I loved him back. So I choose I chose to let all of that go. Um and looking back, I don't regret it for a second God wasn't trying to take something good away from me. He was protecting my heart and helping me become more like him in the process. So that experience taught me that living like Jesus isn't about checking boxes. It's about loving Jesus so much that you begin to care about what brings him joy. And what greets his heart. So the closer you grow to him, the more your heart begins to look like his.

And personally, that's I think that's true for all of us. Maybe for you it's not about the shows that you watch. It could be about the music you listen to or the people you talk to. Maybe it's somebody that you have to forgive who hurt you. Maybe it's the friends you choose to surround yourself with or how you choose to spend your time. Or maybe God is putting his finger on something completely different in your life. Whatever it is, Jesus isn't trying to take away your joy. He's inviting you into a deeper relationship with him. Every time we choose him, our relationship with him grows.

That doesn't mean we get it right every time. I still make mistakes, probably every day. But um But following Jesus, it's not about pretending to be perfect when we mess up. We don't run away from him, we actually run towards him. We ask for forgiveness and we receive his grace through that. And then we keep walking with him. Um and that's what that relationship looks like. So I wanted to leave you guys with a qu with a question. Um Tomorrow morning when you wake up, what if the first thing you asked wasn't, what do I want to do today? But instead, Jesus, what would make you happy today?

It could be encouraging somebody, praying for somebody, opening your Bible, forgiving someone, or choosing honesty, or even taking one small step of obedience because the little yeses matter. Because every yes helps us become more like Jesus. And I want you to remember this. This relationship that you guys started with Jesus is the more you were made for. Nothing this nothing in this world at all compares to walking with him. So take that step. It doesn't have to be a huge one, just one step because every time you choose to love Jesus Through what you do, what you say, your relationships, and everything, you grow in your relationship with Him.