Youth First Podcast

Have you ever heard the phrase, "If you know better, you do better?" I wish this was true but unfortunately there are many of us who don't always choose better and sometimes we entertain the fool in us. We all have to come to the honest conclusion that there is a fool in all us whether we want to believe it or not, but God has wisdom and God wants to give wisdom to those who ask.

In Psalm 1:1-3, we see what it means to blessed biblically, and if we don't learn what makes us blessed we will live in a constant state of stress and depression trying to get there. Stress is often a symptom and a sign of chasing the wrong things. We want you to pursue God. Why? Because when you think things make you blessed you can have a lot and still not have enough. You can have more than enough and it still not be enough. You can have so much, you can have "everything" and still feel like something is missing. If we don't define blessed biblically and Scripturally, culture will define it carnally.

Jesus tells Thomas, "Blessed are those who cannot see." What does that mean? It's because even though Jesus said those words to Thomas, we believe in Him without having to see Him for ourselves. We don't have to see Him to know He is working on our behalf. We don't have to see every part of the plan to know that it is good. All we have to do is lean on Him and trust that He has everything under control for He is faithful.

Blessed and happy are not the same thing. In this message we look at the verses that are a written record of the first public sermon and teaching of Jesus. Believed to be the greatest sermon ever preached knows as the Sermon on the Mount. The introduction of this message is called the Beatitudes which translate as meaning the Blessings or supreme blessedness. Deeper than just happy, it means deeply satisfied, spiritually prosperous, approved by God, living in divine favor, experiencing soul=level wholeness. Don't you want to be blessed?

Being salt and light in the world is not a compliment, it's a responsibility. They are not optional, but rather obligations for the believer. It's important to be salt and light because it helps us spread the Gospel not only with the way we talk, but more importantly in the way we live.

Every relationship is either pushing you toward the Kingdom of God or pulling you away from it and Jesus, and we want you to do relationships the Kingdom way! We don't want you to know how to cheat, but give you cheat codes in how to succeed in your relationships so that you won't prematurely commit to vows and a covenant that you're not ready to keep or have no intention of honoring.

There has to be a point in our walk with the Lord where there is no turning back. Where our prayer is, "More of You and less of me God, where I am nothing without You." We can't hold on so tightly to our will, our dreams, our plans, or our lives that we completely shut out God. If we never accomplish another thing in this life but we have God... We have everything.

The Kingdom of God is the culture of heaven expressed through the character and the life of the believer. The Kingdom is what life looks like when God has His way and will. It's the rule of God, exercised through the Spirit of God in the people of God for the glory of God. That's what it's like.

First Things First simply means having proper priorities... Ensuring that your life is in order. Order gives us the freedom to respond to God quickly. Order is putting God first and everything else in its proper place.

There is nothing more consequential to your life than choices. There is nothing more detrimental t your life than decisions. Decisions can develop you or destroy you. Either way it's your choice: Decisions, decisions.

Forgiveness is the first and greatest act of generosity. It is the purest form of giving because it gives without return. God modeled this with Jesus. In other words, forgiveness gives freedom to people who deserve it and that's the Gospel! That's what being generous means and we can't talk about being generous without talking about Jesus!

In our series we've talked about the importance of time, eternity, perspective, assignment and purpose. All believers have a common mission, it's called the Great Commission! It's a commanded mission and we must be actively doing it. But in order to do that we must live disciplined lives as disciples of Jesus and that means having holy habits. It's putting ourselves in positions, places and a heart posture of let God touch and transform our lives!

If you want your life to change, you have to change how and where you spend your time... And if you want to be with God, you must be willing to go where time doesn't matter. Where nothing else matters but Him, because spending time with God is never time wasted, it is always time invested. And yes it's true that we don't have as much time as we think, that time is running out, but we still have time, it's not too late yet... It's TIME to CHANGE!

We are in a series called It's Time to Ride and we've been talking about living with eternity in mind. In this message we look at a moment in time where Isaiah the prophet encounters the divine, supernatural presence of God. In this we see the reality that in the presence of a most holy God is where we realize how unholy we truly are, and as a result we have one response that can be summed up in the phrase The Time is Now! There is a day coming when we will worship the Lord out of obligation and not opportunity. As it is written in John 4:23, The Time is NOW! And we ask you the same questions, what are you doing with your time? Where will you spend eternity as a result of how you spent your time? We believe right NOW is the right TIME to do the right THING!

Grace justifies us... "Just-as-if we never sinned." This is known as justification. It makes us in right standing and right relationship with God, also known as righteous. It's His freely given grace that frees us. We're talking about this idea, this concept of grace because it seems to be one of the most misunderstood, least used and most abused gifts God has given us. As a result, there seems to be some extremes when it comes to this gift of grace.

God is the MASTER of HIDING and we must become MASTERS of DISCOVERY. Maybe you've heard it said before or maybe you've experienced this truth in your life but it's true... "God works in mYSTERIOUS ways." Meaning God does things at times that we don't understand because His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Also revealing to us this truth that God is a God of secrets and the beautiful part is He wants to share them with us.

God loves family even though sometimes we don't. He loves family so much that it was one of the first things He created in the beginning, however family can be a trigger. Why? Because some of us have momma drama and daddy issues... At the end of the day though we all come from family, and all of us have dysfunction in our families. The only difference is, your dysfunction is different from mine. But no place has greater influence and impact on your character and spiritual development more than your family, and most of the problems we're dealing with are patterns that we learned at home. Aren't you thankful that we have a Father who never stops raising His children?

Trust is belief and confidence in something or someone. That's what it means to entrust someone. To place your confidence in someone. Trust is an expression of faith. It is believing with confident expectation, but trust issues are when you lack reliance, assurance, and confidence in a thing, a person or God. When trust is solely in people it is misplaced, however trust should always be rooted in God. You should not trust people more than you trust God. Besides, God tells us to love everybody, He doesn't command us to trust everyone!

Have you ever looked at someone and thought, "Who raised you?" Or said, "You ain't got no home training!" Those statements reveal one common truth and it's this... How you love is learned, and your family is the key contributor to the thing you learned good or bad. However, one of the most consequential relationships in your life is your relationship or the lack thereof with your father. Let's just be honest, it's hard to grasp the concept of our Heavenly Father due to the absence, abuse and neglect of our earthly ones. Even if they're a good father, God is the best dad!

Questions... All of us have them. All of us ask them. Questions are natural. Questions are normal, and if God did not allow us to ask questions we would've never arrived at the answer (Jesus). God answered our questions with Jesus... He is everything we need and He is everything we are not. For every need in our life God gave us a name, and for every question in our life, God gives us an answer... Jesus. But the question we're asking today is Who am I?

Have you ever asked God why? Have you ever wondered why? Why would a loving God create an eternal hell? Why does God allow "bad" things to happen to "good" people? One of the undeniable, identifiable traits of people is our proclivity, our predisposition, our tendency and frequency to ask questions... And not just any question, but our favorite and most asked question is... Why? Listen as we learn for every why in our life God responded with "I AM." Bringing your questions to Jesus doesn't mean you'll leave with AN ANSWER, but you will always leave with THE ANSWER. It may not be the answer you want, but it will be the answer you need.

The Bible tells us to remember God's miracles and obey His commands, but it also says to forget the former things. That can seem a bit contradictory... However, the lesson is this, the past is where we go to learn, but never to live. It's a place of reference, not a place of residence. We don't forget the past, we are just more focused on the future. We must all come to the conclusion that if we don't let our past die, it won't let our future live. God was good back then, but He's still good now!

We have a tendency, a natural proclivity to leave. Our knee jerk reaction is to run. To leave the Church, to leave community, to leave Christians, to leave the group and go out on our own... To run away from the place and people you should run to. We want independence without inheritance, we desire resources without relationship, we want God's hand on our life, but not His involvement in our life. We want God's favor, but not the Father's commands. We want God's blessing on our way of life. We want what the Father has more than we want Him. The sad truth is, most people don't want God, they want what He has. We need to learn, realize and recognize that if all you have is Jesus, you have all you need. And you can always come home!

Have you ever asked yourself... Why am I here? What my purpose in life? What is my reason for living? We think the answer to those questions is found in God's Word. Everything God made was intended to survive in the environment that God placed it in, and anything outside of God's intended environment dies. With that being said, the answer to why you are here, your purpose can only be found in the One who placed you here.

There has been a misconception, misinterpretation, and a misunderstanding of what love is. Love is probably the most misinterpreted, misconstrued, misunderstood word in our language. It's deep, it's intricate, it's detailed, it's complex and at the same time it's simple. It's only four letters long but it has a deep meaning. We dare say, love is the most overused and the least understood word in the history of language. However, love is the theme of this life, it's the anthem of this life, it's a key part of our very existence, it's in our DNA and nothing will ever change that. Everyone has an inward desire to love and to be loved. People are so thirsty for a love they cannot find that they are settling for the counterfeit our world has to offer. Afraid of real love so they settle with the fake kind. Living off likes, follows, views and shares while starving for real love, enamored with, infatuated with the idea of love yet frustrated with the elusive pursuit of it. We’re in love with love and not the truth of it. But thank God that He is love, and we find it in Him because we are created FROM love, FOR love, WITH love and TO love.

Aren't you tired of being tired? That seems to be a common theme or phrase today. "I'm tired!" In our current hustle culture, our rise and grind mentality, we say foolish things like, "I'll sleep when I'm dead." Not realizing that not resting is killing us! We need to learn to take a break or we will break, we must learn to work at resting, because rest isn't to hinder us, it's to help us. It's a gift from God, it's for us, and the way the weary find rest is in Jesus. It's biblical, scriptural, spiritual and supernatural, it's a commandment and a blessing. We must remember to rest because busy isn't working! It's the PAUSE in your life that gives your life POWER!

Our value is revealed in the fact that God chose us. In the fact that He still chooses us. The Owner adds value to ordinary things. But just like sin has a cost, salvation has a cost. How so? Salvation is free for us, it didn't cost us anything, it doesn't cost you anything to be saved, but it cost God His Son. There is a price to being picked, there is a cost to being chosen, and the value of anything is determined by what someone is willing to pay... And you cost the blood of Jesus!

According to Scripture, if you are a believer in Jesus, you are no longer a sinner, but a citizen of heaven, a child of God, a son and a daughter, you are saved, sanctified, called, appointed, selected, set apart, holy, CHOSEN! And God in His goodness, grace and mercy... In His divine wisdom, the Almighty chooses the least likely to do the unlikely. God chose you!

If we're honest, we can all admit that believing is hard. Believing gets hard when options are few, but thank God He is too good to not believe. I mean it takes faith to be an atheist, it takes faith to believe in nothing... It's hard to believe. However, through God's Word and the life of Jesus the Holy Spirit wants to help us with our unbelief and disbelief. At times, even though it's hard to believe because it hard to see, we trust that God doesn't just want us to have ears to hear, but eyes to see what He is doing. The Bible even says, no eye has seen, ears have not heard, nor has it entered the heart of man what God has planned for you. We don't see to believe, we believe to see!

Saints are God's holy people set apart for God's special purpose, and the truth is very saint has a past... But thank God that every sinner has a future. That's why being a saint, being a follower of Jesus is so much more than being a fan. Why? Because God has more in store for your future if you will just follow Him.

We need the power, presence, presents and the Person of the Holy Spirit. We can't live a life of faith without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit isn't just beneficial, He is essential. Without the Holy Spirit there wouldn't be faith. Without the Holy Spirit there wouldn't be the Bible. Without the Holy Spirit there wouldn't be a resurrection. If Jesus needed the Holy Spirit so do we!

As you'll hear in this message and throughout this series called Saints & Ain'ts we recognize that every SAINT has a past, but every SINNER has a future. We also acknowledge that religious people are known to throw stones, but God uses them to build His Church. the Bible is clear that we're not supposed to judge people because it doesn't help lead people to Jesus, but grace does. I think we all need to come to the honest conclusion that we all need grace. Unfortunately, many of us are good judges of other people's sin, and even better lawyers of our own. In this message we learn that our job isn't to judge, but to witness and testify.

"If it's in the Bible, you need it in your life." This is my biblical stance on every promise in God's Word because if God thought it was necessary to be mentioned in the Scriptures then it must be beneficial and vital for your life. We need to Be Filled with the power, presence and Person of God the Holy Spirit.

Resolutions alone will not resolve the issues in your life. Setting goals alone is not the solution to your situation. But hard work, working out your salvation can bring forth life changing results. We do this by creating a workout plan for our life, a plan that requires us to set the right kind of goals, to set real goals, to set good goals, to set God goals, to make our goals big and our steps to achieve them too small to fail. It's time for a workout plan!

Age is inevitable, but growth is optional. However, we should all be growing because healthy things grow. Truth be told, if we're not growing, we're dying. That's why it's time to grow! We think we all need to rest in the fact that real growth takes time, the best things in life take time, and we need to steward the time we have well because we don't have a lot of it. So I ask you what are you doing with time? How are you investing it?

It is important when God speaks because after the first time He spoke it was followed with the first attack against His Word, which was a question of doubt... "Did God really say?" So as we continue to give you tips on how to talk to God, how God talks to us and how to talk to each other, in this message God's Word reveals to us how to talk to Satan and how we need to quote Him because God only does what He says, not what we say.

We believe God speaks, He is still speaking, He wants us to talk to Him through prayer, and God talks to us through His Word and when we align our words with His Word some amazing things take place. Especially when we say what God says.

Don't you hate fake?! I hate fake jewelry, fake friends, fake shoes, fake social media accounts, wrestling because it's fake, Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny because they're fake! We hate fake, but the real issue we is that at times we act as fake as the things we hate... But we're not doing this no more!

We're always believing God to do more than what we're asking for. To do more in us, through us, with us and for us, and the truth is God will fill whatever we give Him. If you want God to do more in your life, what are you willing to give Him to fill?

You don't change your life by making changes in your life alone... We change our life by letting God change our mind. We need a new mind, a renewed mind because our life follows our thoughts., and where our mind wanders our life follows. So we need to repent, to change the way we live by changing the way we think.

Do you know what it's like to be in the middle? To feel stuck? In between? To be in a place where you're not where you used to be, but you're not where you want to be? You're in the middle. But there's Good News! Jesus is in the middle, and you don't know what's in you until you are in the middle. You don't know what will come out of you until you are in the middle. You don't know how faithful God is until you're in the middle. It's in the middle that you find out what you're made of. It's in the middle that you discover there's more.

According to the Bible we are made for more, and God wants to do far more than we can ask think or imagine. Because God doesn't just want us to have enough, He wants us to have more than enough. There's more to your life than just getting by, status quo, business as usual. You are more than a job, you are more than a 9 to 5, your are more than a dollar amount, you are more than likes, comments, views and follows. You are made for more!

Pain has many different names: suffering, agony, affliction, torture, torment, discomfort, hurt... But one thing it does that we may not realize is that it helps. That's right! Pain hurts, but it helps. See life can be painful, but pain has a purpose, and we don't want you to waste your pain. We want you to use your pain. Why? Because it's inevitable, unavoidable, and unescapable so instead of going through pain, we might as well grow through it. God wants us to be long-suffering, to have endurance, to be patient, because your greatest purpose will come out of your deepest pain.

Your thinking matters. It is believed that the average person thinks anywhere from 12,000-60,000 thoughts a day, and 70% of those thoughts are negative. 95% of them are the same repetitive thoughts as the day before. Your thoughts matter. Therefore, if you want to change your life, we must let God change our mind. Because you will never truly know who you are until you know Whose you are.

You're not normal. Nothing about you is regular, ordinary or basic. You are extraordinary, you are an original, an anomaly, a deviation, you aren't just different, you are different different. There's nothing wrong with being different because we're not called to be normal. We are called to become more like Jesus and unlike anyone else He created. We are not better than anybody, but we are different from everybody. Why? Because average is not optional, ordinary is not enough, normal is unnecessary, God is allergic to basic, and He has called us to be different!

God is such a storyteller, He loves stories so much that He wrote a book and it's called the Bible. However, it isn't just a book of stories of what God has done in other people's lives, the Bible is filled with examples of what God wants to do in your life. We're obligated to share our story, to share our faith, to share our hope, to share the greatest story ever told that's hardly ever told. Your story is God's modern-day parable and you don't even know it. It is a key that will set someone free. Because your testimony is when your story becomes God's story.

Often times we think in the abundance of choices there is more freedom, but we have found that in the abundance of choices there is actually more bondage. The average person makes 35,000 decisions a day. As you can tell, life is consisted and made up of choices, and we want you to realize your decisions dictate your direction in life. Besides, the wisest choice you could ever make is to follow Jesus. So make a decision today that will change your life forever.

Porn is typically something we don't hear about at church, but this is something that God talks about clearly so we wanted to approach this directly, delicately and biblically. In a way that's helpful and not hurtful, in a way that leads from fantasy to freedom, in a way that helps you become Pornogra-Free!