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Experience the life-changing messages from the Church of God’s annual Winterfest youth gathering. These are the sermons, moments, and voices that have shaped generations of young believers — now available anytime, anywhere.
Times Square Church, where we are from, meets one of the largest theaters in
Broadway right in New York City. Run 51st and Broadway on what is considered to be
one of the largest stages. And right across the street from where we hold
worship service is another Broadway play called Wicked. We are right across the
from wicked. What a great place to be. We've had people go to want to know where
the church is. We go go to wicked and turn right and you'll find what you're
supposed to be and where you're supposed to be.
What's been exciting for us also is that just last spring one of the most
Broadway plays just shut down called Phantom of the Opera. And right now,
because they shut down, Times Square Church is the longest-running show on
Broadway right now. So the exciting thing is God wins. Not only is God winning in
New York City, but I believe this weekend God is gonna win here in Pigeon Forge.
There's something I'm gonna share with you today and then we're gonna pray. I
and I'll explain this word, a trajectory yes.
A trajectory yes.
It's a decision, it's a yes that changes the course of life, changes the past, changes
literally everything.
And I believe it's going to start tonight.
That a yes tonight could literally begin to change your future.
And I believe that the Holy Spirit is going to come in a special way.
My job is to get you ready for yes tonight.
Let's pray.
Lord, I pray what David prayed in Psalm 71 when he said, "O God, you have taught me from
my youth and I still declare your wondrous deeds.
And even now as I'm old and gray, O God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength
to this generation."
So I'm asking you tonight, God, on this first night of Winterfest, would you take this old
gray man and allow me to declare your strength to this generation once again.
Would you allow me to do what this verse says?
Help me to declare your power even here with these students from all over the United States
and all over the world.
Let this be a night that their yes is going to change their future tonight.
Something is going to take place tonight that lives are going to be changed.
not a word fall to the ground. Let there be, God, would you just begin to just come and
rivet the attention of everyone in this place because their yes tonight will change the
course of their future. It's your trajectory and you're going to do something tonight.
We pray this in Jesus' name and everybody said, "Amen." God bless you. You may be seated.
Thank you, worship team. Thank you. We'll call you up in just a second. Take out a piece
of paper to write with. Put some notes on your phone that I want to share with you tonight.
I want to talk to you about another theater that has changed my life.
I'm going to tell you a story about another theater where I pastored before coming to
New York City.
I pastored in Detroit, Michigan for 30 years.
The theater in Detroit was a little bit different than our theater in New York City.
That theater in Detroit where I pastored for 20 years was a XXX movie theater that we turned
into a church.
The day we bought it, they showed pornography in the theater.
When we came in and bought it and turned it into a church, the neighborhood couldn't believe
it.
We would have men coming to the theater asking when the movies would start.
And we would tell them Sundays 10 and 6.
And we would see men that used to sit in that theater in bondage absolutely set free by
the power of God.
That the very screen that used to hold them bondage no longer held them bondage anymore.
But the trajectory started of getting me to Detroit.
It was a weekend just like this. It was in Fort Worth, Texas.
We moved from New York City to Texas.
I was starting at Baylor University and I decided to go to a weekend conference just like this.
Little did I know that a yes would literally bring a trajectory that would bring me here to speak to you tonight.
At that conference, I was just a worker.
I was 19 years old, I was just a freshman,
and it was the spring break for us at Baylor.
And then there was a man that was speaking that night
named David Wilkerson.
David Wilkerson wrote a book called
The Cross and the Sush Plate,
and it was his work with the gangs in New York City.
It's his work with a man named Nicky Cruz
that began to start a program called Teen Challenge
that has gone all over the world.
Nicky Cruz was considered the most fiendish gang member
in all of New York City for what he has done,
Still alive today, Nicky is 87 years old,
speaks all over the world and just got a video from him
that's speaking to 200,000 in Nicaragua.
That what God did in his life in 1957
still continues to go on 70 years later
when he got saved as a young teenager.
David Wilkerson asked me to go for two months,
two months in the summer to Detroit, Michigan
to help start a church, two months.
I said yes, and I didn't realize that the yes of going to a weekend like you're here
and said yes to coming here, and then a yes to a two month mission strip, much like what
you saw on the screen and what you gave to in Kenya, a yes to go to this.
I didn't realize it was a trajectory that was unfolding.
When I got to Detroit at 19 years old, my first assignment, this was my first mission
strip, was they put me in a prostitution hotel and said, "That's your Bible study."
I brought a guitar there just like Ricardo led us tonight.
I brought my Bible and at 19 years old,
I would meet with pimps, prostitutes, and drug addicts
and would preach to them.
That was my seminary.
That's where I learned homiletics and hermeneutics
was speaking to drug addicts, pimps, and prostitutes
every single Thursday night.
It would be my seminary.
I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my father
who was a New York City policeman,
but God did something when I kept saying yes
to what God wanted, yes, to a conference in Fort Worth, Texas, yes, to Detroit, and then
yes, to doing something that I didn't think I was even capable of doing because I grew
up in the church.
I grew up from the beginning of just in New York City, the church that my parents attended
was right across the street from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
And it was there that I grew up going to conferences like this, going to kids camps, going to everything
that you're experiencing here, and I thought this is not the place I was supposed to be.
And every time I said yes, God began to do something.
The freshman year, yes, changed everything in my life.
That weekend changed the trajectory of my life.
That yes, for the summer, changed my life.
And what I thought would be two months ended up being 30 years of my life.
I never came back to Texas, Baylor, or desire to be in law enforcement.
And I just simply said yes.
And I believe a yes here at Winterfest this weekend that something can change in people's
lives here this weekend as we say yes to God.
At the very end, I want you to prepare yourself because at the very end I'm going to invite
you to these altars to say yes.
I want to already want you to think about this.
But I have to take you to another David.
This evening I want you to see another invitation
from another David.
Mine was from a David Wilkerson.
This one was from David in the Bible.
First Samuel 26 six was an invitation
which would define a man's life.
He had to say yes for that change to take place.
The man giving the invitation was David, that's it.
No last name, not Wilkerson, nothing, just David.
And all he was doing was looking for a volunteer.
I'm gonna read to a verse that there are just two names
It's an invitation to both of these men.
There's a first time they're being mentioned in the Bible
and it'll be the last time for one of them.
And that's why tonight I understand,
not everyone will take this invitation
that I'll give you to you at the end.
Let me read this to you, 1 Samuel 26.6.
The Bible says that David said to Ahimelech and to Abishai,
who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?
And Abishai said, I will go down with you.
Quick background, David is in the middle of filling a prophecy that what he received as a young man,
that he would be the next king of Israel.
David was told this by Samuel in 1 Samuel 16 and didn't receive a crown till 2 Samuel 15 or Samuel 5.
It'd be a 17 year process and David is in the middle of it.
He's eight years into a journey that took him on a trajectory when he said yes,
that I don't think he knew what was taking place.
Saul, who was the present king when David found out that he would be the next king,
is wanting to kill David because he's threatened by him.
And in one of those killing missions, David is surrounded by 3,000 of Saul's finest men.
And here's the plot.
So David wants to go into Saul's camp, take his spear, a jug of water, without killing
Saul to show him that he's honorable, that he's not gonna hurt Saul, that he has no reason
to be threatened by him.
But he doesn't want to go into Saul's camp alone.
So he asked for a volunteer, one volunteer,
but he asked two men, Abishai and a Himmelek.
Abishai and a Himmelek.
That yes on that day from one of those men
changed everything like for me and like for you tonight.
Write these three things down for just a moment
because this is so important.
There's three ways I found out in my life to be wise.
Number one is prayer.
The Bible says in James 1.5,
"If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God."
The second way we learn wisdom is through pain.
Ecclesiastes 1.18 says, "In much wisdom,
"there is much pain or grief,
"and increasing in knowledge results,
"even when pain increases."
There is prayer, there's pain,
but this is what we're gonna do tonight.
There's also people.
He who walks with wise men,
Bible says in Proverbs 13.20, will be wise.
I want us to walk for just a moment tonight with Abishai.
I want us to walk with this man,
and I want you to see something that happened in his life
on this very first night of Winterfest.
This is what I learned about God's invitations.
These are the three things I want you to write down tonight.
How do we make sure that those yeses
in starting tonight are trajectory
are gonna begin to unfold,
a domino will begin to take place?
Here's what I've learned, drop these three things down.
Number one, say yes a lot to God.
Say yes a lot.
C.S. Lewis said, "I didn't go to Christianity
"to make me happy."
He said, "I knew a bottle of wine could do that."
He said, "If you want a religion to make you feel comfortable,
"I don't recommend Christianity."
That is difficult for us, especially in a nation
where the number one chair is called lazy boy,
not risky boy.
And here we are in a place that David is gonna ask them
to risk.
All of us have the potential in this story tonight
to be an Abishai or an Heimilek.
Always say yes to God,
because there is this Heimilek bent inside of us.
It's yes to mission strips, yes to giving to Kenya,
yes to a small group, yes to serving,
yes to Winterfest, yes to leading,
yes to evangelism, yes to working or tithing
or in a convalescent home.
Sitting in the back here, it could even be,
is our Bible school is in the hallway out here called Summit,
where David Wilkerson started it some 25 years ago.
And there you are with young people
from all over the world.
70% of that Bible school are from different nations
all over the world.
And they are sitting here tonight
and they said yes to going to Bible school.
It may even be you saying yes to going to a Bible school.
Yes to even worship.
Yes to the Holy Spirit.
But there is this bent in us.
This is the part I want you to hear tonight, students.
When David asked, "Who will go down with me?"
Don't miss this.
It was Abishai who said, "I will go."
But here's the part I want you to see.
A himalek didn't say no.
A himalek did nothing.
A himalek didn't say, "I won't go."
He just sat there.
Another man raised his hand.
That's what happens in Winterfest.
You're gonna have people that said,
"Yes!" and others who won't say no,
but they just won't do anything.
That's the Heimilech spirit that seems to come over us.
That's the bent that seems to come over us.
Because the life of yes, the life of an Abishai is amazing.
It's challenging and it's surprising.
Because every time you say yes to God,
you have no idea what God's gonna do.
No idea what God will do.
I sat in a weekend just similar to this,
but it was college students.
I wasn't speaking, I was attending.
I was in college myself and attended it.
And while I was there with all these students
that were from Christians in college universities,
we were in downtown Indianapolis.
And while we were there at this Hilton Hotel,
we found out that the Houston Rockets
were playing the Indiana Pacers.
And while they were there,
they were on the secure floor that you couldn't get up there
unless you use the key card to get up there.
I was on floor 18 and while I was there,
because I said yes to God to go to this
and I said yes to God everything.
I prayed a prayer, I said,
God, if you give me the opportunity to see any player,
I will share the gospel with him, whatever it is.
Little did I know that I was waiting to get on the elevator
and when I got on, it went down to the next floor,
When it opened up, all we saw were legs.
It was the starting five of the Houston Rockets
in the elevator.
I walked in with my friend knowing that I said yes
and said, "God, I have 18 floors
to share the gospel with these men."
So as soon as the door shut, I looked at my friend
and God just helped me with this
And I looked and I said, okay, so you're saying
if I give my heart to Jesus right now,
that I can be born again right here
in this elevator right now.
You're saying that as this elevator is going down,
my soul can go down to hell.
So you're saying to me, as we're going down,
all I've gotta do is surrender to Jesus right
that all these men are looking at me going,
what in the world are they talking about?
So all of a sudden, as we got to floor 11,
I said, I want Jesus to come into my heart.
I want Jesus to come in.
He died for my sins and he goes, yes,
let me lead you to Christ.
I knelt in that elevator and I asked Jesus
to come into my heart though I was pastoring a church.
I just said, Jesus, come into my heart.
And all of a sudden it's floor seven.
Change me from the inside out.
Floor six, I don't wanna go to hell.
I wanna go to heaven.
Floor four, you die for every one of my sins.
Floor three, I make you Lord of my life.
and hit the lobby and I lifted my hands and said,
"I'm born again."
I don't know if they got saved, but they heard the gospel.
(congregation applauding)
When you say yes, everything changes.
I learned a prayer from an Alabama youth pastor who said this,
God, the answer is yes, even before you ask.
A student asked me not too long ago,
they said, "Do you have any moments in your life
"where you should have said yes and you did nothing?"
And my mind went back to a moment on a Delta flight.
As I boarded this flight, I found out that my seat,
because of flying a lot was upgraded to row one.
Not only was it upgraded to row one,
but I was sitting there with an empty seat by me,
thinking, this is awesome, I can put my Bible
and my books down and I can just study
for the next two hours.
Until some skinny hillbilly kid walked in
and said, I'm sitting in 1B and me,
I'm picking up my stuff,
I'm putting it here, he pushed down his hoodie
and put it over his eyes.
He went to sleep and I'm bitter, I'm thinking to myself,
man, I'm trying to read, he took my desk,
I can't even believe this.
And all of a sudden, when the plane gets to the gate,
these ladies, these girls pop up behind me
and they just go, can we take a picture?
And I said, with me?
They said, no, with him.
And I found out for two hours I sat next to Kid Rock.
(audience laughing)
And said nothing.
And said nothing.
On a crazy note, I could have saved the nation
from a really bad halftime show
is what I could have done on that day.
On a serious note, I missed a moment
because a hymolech inside of me
was thinking of me when an Abishai should have said yes,
whoever I'm next to, it doesn't matter.
God, I wanna be used by you.
Say yes a lot to God.
(congregation applauding)
Write this down for me.
Number two, so important, do things that need a miracle.
Say yes a lot.
Number two, do things that need a miracle.
Things that need for God to show up.
When David goes, who will go with me?
Who will go with me?
Abishai goes, I'll go.
Ahimalek, nothing.
But he wasn't asking for a Starbucks run,
like who wants a caramel macchiato?
He said, we may die on this mission.
We may get killed.
We're gonna go into a camp with 3,000 men,
And if God doesn't show up and put Saul and those men to sleep,
I can't grab the jug, I can't grab the spear.
If God doesn't do something here, we're in a lot of trouble.
There was a very, very, very, very average movie
that came out 10 years ago called We Bought a Zoo
with Matt Damon.
The only thing good about the movie was one line.
He says this one thing when he plays Benjamin Me
who rescues a failing zoo.
And he says this, "Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage to do something."
That's the line.
That's it.
20 seconds to get to Detroit.
20 seconds to purchase a triple X movie theater.
20 seconds just to say, "Yes, I'll go down with you, David."
Yes, 20 seconds of courage just to do that.
He needed a miracle.
I need a miracle every day in New York City.
I needed a miracle every day in Detroit,
every day in New York City.
There's something that's coming after us,
whether it's a thousand person protest outside
or parades that come by or people that will literally stand up
sometimes in the middle of a service and shout,
but those are just normal occurs.
But because you said yes, you go, God,
you're in charge here.
If I say yes, then I need you to show up.
I said yes to God for a prayer meeting in Detroit.
We had a prayer meeting.
It wasn't even a very good prayer meeting,
but I said yes.
We would meet on Friday nights,
and there would just be five of us
that would meet at this prayer meeting
when we bought this Triple X movie theater.
Five of us.
I would be there, two ladies would pray.
One guy would come in, all he did was read the Bible,
and usually one demoniac.
Every single week, it was the same group.
Two praying ladies, one Bible reader,
and one demoniac, every single week it would take place.
But I'll never forget the two praying ladies
coming in one Friday night, and they said,
we brought in a guy from the streets,
he's got three broken ribs because he got beat up
last night, and we told him Jesus heals,
and you're gonna pray for him.
And I'm thinking, I don't even like the prayer meeting.
How in the world am I gonna pray for him?
But I said yes, I said yes to God,
and I remember laying hands on this guy,
I'm thinking to myself, this is gonna be the worst prayer
because I believe in healing,
but not on this Friday night prayer meeting.
I don't even know if it's gonna work.
And I remember praying for this guy, just going,
God, just do something, do something in his heart,
and if you feel like it's your will,
you always say if it's your will
when you don't have any faith.
If it's your will, you can heal him right now.
And I just said, and amen.
And all of a sudden, the man goes, he goes, I'm healed.
I said, no, you're not.
Not at this prayer meeting.
Nobody gets healed at this prayer meeting.
He goes, "No, I'm healed."
And he pulls off the bandages and he says, "Hit me."
And I'm just thinking, "I'm going to court if I hit you."
There's not even a shot.
But all of a sudden I realize,
God can do whatever he wants to do
if somebody just says yes.
(congregation applauding)
It's doing things that need a miracle.
It's beginning to say yes a lot to God.
And finally tonight,
Who you hang out with is what you'll become.
(congregation applauding)
Who you hang out with is what you become.
Or as one of my friends, one of the chaplains
for the Oakland A's would say it like this,
show me your friends and I'll show you your future.
We can tell you your future.
If you hold out your palm, hold it out just for a moment.
Hold out your palm for a moment.
Look at your palm right there.
But then look at those five fingers.
Tell me the five closest people in your life
without using your family.
That's your future.
That's your future.
It's amazing to watch when praise and worship took place.
I was up close watching people jumping and twirling
and jumping out of that grave.
It was hard for somebody not to do it
if you're standing next to a jumper.
If you're standing next to a turner or a twister,
everybody was doing it.
I was watching students that I was going,
there's no way they're gonna do it
until everybody around them did it.
They're jumping up and down.
They're doing this.
And if you sit next to someone who's just sitting there like this the whole time, this
is you the whole time.
And that's why who you hang with is what you become.
When David said, "Do you want to go with me?"
He wasn't saying not just simply on a mission, but he says, "Well, do you want to go with
me?"
That is why I pray even for my children's relationships.
Proverbs 12, 26 says,
"The righteous choose their friends carefully."
Let me say that again.
Proverbs 12, 26,
"The righteous choose their friends carefully."
You partner, what you partner with is what you become.
You'll talk that way, think that way, do things that way.
And here's the most amazing thing.
David is known as a giant killer.
killed a giant named Goliath.
So what would you expect Abishai to do?
You hang out with a giant killer,
you find yourself beginning to do what that man did.
The last giant David faced was a Philistine giant.
And nobody realizes that David couldn't take this giant out.
He couldn't kill it.
It was a Philistine.
It's David at the end of his life,
and I want you to see what happens
in 2 Samuel 21, 15.
The Bible says that when the Philistines
were at war again with Israel,
David went down and his servants with him.
As they fought against the Philistines,
David became weary.
This is the giant's name, then Ish-Bibinab,
that's just not even worried why that mother
or what that mother was thinking at that moment.
Then Ish-Bibinab, who was among the descendants
of the giants, intended to kill David.
Now here it comes, look at this, verse 17.
But Abishai helped him and struck the Philistine and killed him.
Where do you think Abishai learned how to take out Philistine giants?
He hung out with a Philistine giant killer.
That's what happens when you begin to do that.
[Applause]
Hang out with a worshipper, you're going to worship.
Hang out with a Winterfest person, you're coming back to Winterfest.
Hang out with a giver, you'll be a giver.
Hang out with someone that can't, who reads the Bible,
you'll read the Bible.
Hang out with the people that God is using.
Hang out with Abishai's, is who you wanna hang out with.
(congregation applauding)
Let me finish with this as Willie comes.
Let me share this with you tonight.
I was speaking at a university in Minnesota,
and I'll never forget,
And so I was sitting there with the vice president over lunch,
we just finished speaking to the student body.
I remember sitting with the vice president over lunch.
He said, "I don't know why I'm supposed to tell you this,
but I feel like I'm supposed to.
I wanna give you," and I didn't know if he taught on this,
if he was even somebody that had his degree in this,
in literature or English.
He said, "I wanna give you a piece of Greek prose."
I said, "Okay."
He said, "I just feel like I'm supposed to tell you this.
"And tonight I feel like I'm supposed to tell you
"what this vice president told me."
And as we're sitting there at this table,
he says, "This is the way it goes."
He said, "Come to the edge."
They said, "We won't."
He said, "Come to the edge."
They said, "We can."
He said, "Come to the edge."
They came.
He pushed them and they flew.
I want to push you tonight because some of you have got wings and are going to do something
for God.
I believe in this place.
I believe sitting amongst 11,000 students there are abishai's in this place.
That something inside of them is going, "I'm going.
I'm there because I want to get ready to push you for a second.
I want to prepare you for saying yes a lot to God.
I want to prepare you that even tonight I want to push you.
I want to nudge you.
When I kept praying about a time at the altar, I kept thinking, "God, what are we doing here?"
And he just, I felt so strongly.
I want to push you to say, "God, it's yes even before you ask."
It's yes. It's yes to worship. It's yes to your word.
It's yes, it could be to Lee University. It could be to Summit Bible School.
It could be yes to anything. It could be yes to evangelize.
It could be yes to anything. But it's a push.
Abishai's trajectory changed when he said, "Who will go down with me?"
I'll go. I'll go. I'll do it.
When a David Wilkerson says, "Who will go to Detroit with us?"
A 19-year-old kid who had no idea what to expect.
I said, "I'll go, I'll go, I'll go."
Look at me for just a moment.
Some of you had no idea what was to be expected
when someone says, "Do you wanna go to Winterfest?"
You go, "I'll go, I'll go."
I don't know what it's gonna be like.
Oh, you're gonna see King Kong on a building there
and you're gonna see roller coasters
and you're gonna see about 5,000 putt-putt golf courses
all over this place.
You're gonna see everything that you can imagine,
like Pigeon Forge is like Disney World City.
And then you're gonna realize that in this place
that God was bringing you here.
You had no idea that you were gonna have somebody stand up
and say, "Who will go down with us?"
(congregation applauding)
Because if there's a yes tonight,
then I'm telling you, listen to me, students,
when a yes is coming out, when someone just says,
"I'll go, I'll go, I'll do it,"
you have no idea what can happen next.
You have no idea what God does.
And I'm just telling you, this is just the first night
to say, "God, I'm gonna say yes.
"God, I'm gonna do things that need a miracle.
"God, I'm gonna hang out with those that are giant killers.
"I wanna be with the right folks.
"I wanna say yes a lot.
"And God, if you push me, I'm going, I'm doing it."
Because I know that you're able to do something, Lord God,
in this place.
You can have a whole row of Abishai's and the Hymnalek's,
but there is some that are sitting here
that are going, "Choose me, pick me, God, pick me."
Stand with me for just a moment.
It's in Luke chapter 5.
I want every youth pastor, I want every leader to look at this.
You'll see it on the screen.
Jesus is on a shore.
And while he is on the shore, the Bible says in Luke 5.2, and he saw two boats.
at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and they were washing
their nets and he got into one of those boats.
Look at it, I hope we have it on the screen, I guess we don't.
And he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out
of them and they were washing their nets and he got into one of the boats.
Saw two and he chose one.
He saw two and he chose one.
He saw two and he chose one boat.
And he chooses Peter's boat.
He says, now launch out into the deep.
Two boats lying at the edge.
He saw two and he chose one.
And oh my goodness, what happened with that one?
He preaches from the one boat.
What happened with that one boat?
They bring in a drought of fish.
That was so intense that they needed the other boats to come.
In fact, the boat that he didn't choose had to come
open with the fish. And here's what I told God. I just simply said this. Listen to me
now students. Listen to me leaders. This is what I told God. Pick my boat. Pick my boat.
Leaders look at me for a second. All of you at the front. You know what I told God? I
said I got tired of telling other boats stories. I said I want my own fish story. Pick my boat.
I'm tired of telling I said God I want to say yes
If we don't say yes, then we're telling everybody else's stories I
Go God. I want my own fish story. I
Want my own fish story. I
Want to tell the things what God is doing it could be
It could be tonight going God. I'm gonna give I'm gonna give to this tribe in Africa
I got this I was saving this money for this and this and this and all of a sudden
you're gonna get a fish story that comes out of that.
It's raising a hand and saying,
"God, I'm gonna say yes to this."
Abishai, you ready for this?
Gets 41 years.
Here it is, students.
Here it is, leaders.
Here's what's incredible.
A Himmelek says nothing, stays in his seat at Winterfest.
And here's what's amazing.
He gets one scripture in the whole Bible.
That's all you get.
Abishai gets 41 years of scriptures.
41 years killing giants, taking out the enemy, seeing miracles take place.
Pick my boat. Pick my boat tonight God.
I get it. When the call comes out, who will go down? Who will go down?
Here's Abishai's going, pick me, I'm going. I say yes. And there are some
that have, that don't have the courage to say no, but they'll say nothing.
And they'll sit, but there are abishai's all over this place. And when you say yes,
you have no idea what God can do. You have no idea what elevator door is going to open up
with an NBA team. You have no idea if he's going to put you in a
prostitution hotel will send you with gangs in New York City. You have no idea if they'll send you
to a school or a universe. You have no idea. But every time you say yes, I'm telling you
God does something. Just say yes. Tonight, for just a moment, just close your eyes for just a moment.
Just close it for just a second.
As the worship team in just a moment.
Tim, what am I saying yes to?
I want you to say yes to being uncomfortable.
I want you to say yes to being inconvenienced.
I want you to say yes to walk away from someone.
I want you to say yes to God's will.
I want you to say yes to whatever the Holy Spirit wants to do I want you to say yes
I want you to say yes to the mission
I want you to say yes to the hard things
I want you to say yes to cracking open the Scriptures
I want you
really the question is this students, who will go down? Who will go down? I have to
believe that there are some abishai's in this place. If there is a resounding yes
that just simply inside of you, it's more than what your mouth says. A heart is
burning inside of you that says, I want all that God wants for my life. No matter
what I walk away from, who I walk away from. Having to get out of the seat. It
doesn't matter. Inconvenience. I say yes to it. The hard and the uncomfortable. I say
yes to it. I say yes to worship. I say yes to giving. I say yes to the baptism of
the Holy Spirit. I say yes to this weekend. I said yes this is the trajectory
to sing songs, but this is so much different.
This is not singing songs.
This is saying I volunteer.
I'm in. Count me in. Pick my boat. Pick. Here it is. Pick my life.
Pick me tonight. God walks through this place. These two people I'm going, pick me.
Pick me. I choose me, God. Choose me. Choose our youth group.
Choose our church. Choose our city.
Choose our denomination.
Choose us God.
He walks through a city and sees a church of God over here in Chicago,
a church of God here in Texas, a church of God in Florida,
a church of God in Arizona, and all of a sudden a city full of churches.
And is there a leader, is there a youth group, is there a pastor
that's here tonight, is there a student that says, "Pick our church, God.
pick us. we say yes. we say yes tonight. god pick us. pick us god. pick us.
can i just ask for abishai's to get out of your seat tonight and come up here if you're
an abishai tonight and say god i'm saying yes tonight. pick me tonight. just sing something.
whatever's on your heart let's sing this as you come. abishai's come and just say yes.
He's the rock on which I stand, everything around me is shamed.
I've never been more glad, but I'll build my faith in Jesus.
♪ He's never let me down ♪
♪ It's faithful through generations ♪
♪ So why would he fail now ♪
Come on, sing it.
♪ He won't ♪
Come on, lift the hands and say yes.
Come on, abishai, lift your hands
and say these hands are not just for worship.
Let these be hands of volunteering.
Come on, hold those hands up to volunteer.
Say, pick me.
♪ I'm not a piece
♪ He will fail ♪
Oh, Oh,
♪ He won't fail, yeah ♪
♪ He won't ♪
♪ He won't, He won't ♪
♪ He won't fail, yeah ♪
♪ He won't fail ♪
Here's what I
Put them on someone's shoulder right around you.
And here's what I want you to do.
I want you to start to pray out loud.
God make them an abishai.
God choose their lives.
Come on, pray right now.
Just say, God, choose them.
Pick their life.
Pick their city.
Pick their youth group.
Pick them right now.
God, they're volunteering.
Make them an abishai.
God we're going to believe for right now.
That every time we lift our hands, it's not just to worship.
volunteering. It's surrendering. It's surrendering to say, "God, we're here. I'll say yes. I need
a miracle and I choose to hang out with those that are gonna begin to see giants,
slain, giants come down and we're gonna believe for the Holy Spirit just to come."
Come on, you believe as you put a hand on that shoulder. Make them an abishai.
Choose their life. Let them go down, O God.
It will be dark, but there will be miracles.
It will be difficult, but there will be God.
It will be hard, but you will be helmed by the Holy Spirit.
There will be difficulty, but there will be Heaven that will show up in the midst of it.
Come on, as we sing over that bridge. Come on, lift those hands now.
♪ I'm shaking ♪
(I
my house
♪ She is my third foundation ♪
♪ Lord, I've got a way to stand ♪
♪ And everything around me is sacred ♪
- Never be more than.
♪ I've never been more than ♪
♪ 'Cause I've heard my faith in Jesus ♪
♪ She's never let me down ♪
- Hallelujah, Jesus.
Stayed on the damn rake up
Before we sing one more final song here, come on, lift those hands one more time.
These hands will signify this. This is my yes, God.
I'm not a hymnalek tonight. I'm lifting my hands and saying, "God, choose me. Pick me."
Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Call me into the ministry.
Say whatever you want. "God, use me." These hands are volunteering.
hearing. That's what these are. It's not just worshipping the songs. Those that are willing
to say, "God, I volunteer," whatever you want, lift those hands high. Lift them up high to
say, "God, I volunteer right now." So Father, equip me any way you need to. Fill me, call
me, change me, do something deep inside of me. So Father, tonight, calling all abishaks,
calling all those that are willing to say yes, calling all those that are saying one
The verse in the Bible is not enough.
God, I wanna walk with you with decades, for decades ahead.
So Father, I'm gonna pray that this is just the beginning.
Them responding, each student responding tonight
is the beginning.
Let this be a trajectory yes.
Let the dominoes begin to fall here tonight.
Let the trajectory begin in this place tonight.
Let it begin in this place tonight.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Start the work tonight.
Come on, let's begin, let's begin.
Come on, let's begin just to thank Him.
Hallelujah! Come on!