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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.
Y'all ready to get in the Word?
Oh yeah, I'm ready to preach.
I'm ready to preach.
Listen, we've heard incredible messages all week long.
On Friday night, we heard Pastor Bo teach us
that we needed to know God and not just know about God.
Yesterday morning, we heard Pastor Aubrey teach us
that God doesn't see you as your struggle.
God doesn't see you as what you're going through,
but he sees you as a child, as a son or a daughter of God.
And last night we had a powerful service where Pastor Josh Carter taught us that it's time to go all in.
It's time to go overboard in what God has for us.
And as I was preparing the message today and listening to everyone else's message,
I felt like God was instructing me to give you one final reminder of what all he's done this weekend.
One final message that's a reminder of what everyone else has said already, because here is what's going to happen.
All of the life change that you've received here, all of the healings and the miracles and the freedom that you've received here,
may feel good here, but as you make your way home, guess what's waiting for you when you get there?
The same struggle that you left. The same temptations that you left. The same things that
you were trying to run away from may be waiting for you when you get home. Because here's one
thing about the enemy. He's okay with you feeling good here as long as you're still the same there.
So I don't want us to go home this weekend and let this just be a memory of what God did.
We want this to be a movement of what he's still doing in our lives from here on out.
So this final message to you this morning is simply titled this, a reminder to remember.
A reminder to remember.
Remember all that he's done for you this weekend.
Remember to know God and not just know about him.
Remember that God sees you as a child and not your struggle.
And remember to continue to go overboard with him everywhere that you go.
I'm going to be reading Psalms chapter 77 verses 11 and 12.
It's going to be on the screen behind me, but if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open that or swipe there as well.
Psalm 77, 11, and 12.
And as you guys look for that, I want to give you a little bit of the context, a little bit of history in this psalm.
And I love the book of Psalms.
Psalms was written by many, many different authors.
One of the most popular is King David himself who wrote a lot of the psalms.
But I love the book of Psalms because it's very relatable.
Matter of fact, a lot of the psalmists are very much like me because if you read the book of Psalms, a lot of them seem to be a little bipolar.
A little bipolar.
And if you read the beginning of this psalm, Psalm 77, it actually starts off with the psalmist yelling at God.
Being angry with him.
Saying things like, God, where are you?
Why have you abandoned me?
Why have you forsaken me?
And it starts off with the psalmist being angry with God.
I don't know.
I don't know if you're perfect, but I've never been.
I've been there before where I've been angry with God, where I've had questions with God,
where I felt that at times, God, I don't feel you.
I don't see you.
I don't sense you.
Where are you?
Have you ever been there before?
But something powerful happens in this chapter.
And we get down to verse 11, and it says this,
But then I recall all you have done, O Lord.
I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.
They are constantly in my thoughts.
I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.
That word there is powerful.
He says, but then I remember in the middle of his struggle, in the middle of his pain, in the middle of his anxiety, he remembered who God is.
In the middle of it all, he remembered who God said he was.
He remembered because he knows that God is still the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.
And if God came through before, he will come through again.
And I want to tell you something this morning.
You will go through struggles.
You will go through pain.
This high that you're feeling right now, eventually you're not going to feel this feeling.
But guess what?
God is still good.
God is still there.
God is still present.
and we must always remember.
We cannot forget to remind ourselves of his goodness, of his promise,
so that when our feelings are telling us that we don't feel good,
our faith can remind us that God is still good.
So I want to leave you with a few reminders.
The first reminder I want to leave you is remember who God is.
Remember who God is.
Friday night, we already learned that we need to get to know God and not just know about God. So who
who is this God? Revelations 22 13 says this, I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last,
the beginning and the end. In John 14 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the
the life. In Titus, it says that God is the hope for eternal life. We know that God goes by many
names and has been described in many ways. Jehovah Jireh, my provider. Jehovah Shalom,
Prince of Peace. We know that God is love. We know that God is good. We know that God is faithful,
and he is everything that we'll ever need.
We know that he is your rock.
I know that he is your foundation.
I know that he is my joy, that he is my sustainer,
that he is my father, that he is my friend,
that God is everything that I'll ever need.
He's all that you need.
And here's the thing,
why am I declaring all of these wonderful attributes,
all of these wonderful titles about God.
It's because we live in a world that wants to constantly tell us who God is not.
And if we are not careful, if we forget to remind ourselves who God is,
we'll start to think he's not who he said that he was.
Have you ever heard this phrase before?
If God is good, then why?
Or maybe you've heard it this way, if there is a God, then how could he allow?
Fill in the blank.
We are surrounded by people who are constantly trying to find a reason in for which God cannot exist.
And if we forget to remember, if we forget to remind ourselves of who God is and his word,
we'll start to believe the lies of this world.
And we'll start to think that God is not who God said he was.
Now, here's the thing, and this is where I want to get to.
All of these titles are beautiful.
All of these titles are amazing.
And oftentimes when we start declaring the goodness of God and we start naming him and describing all of these attributes,
something inside of us gets fired up and we want to worship and we want to praise.
Like, yes, God, you are good.
You are my sustainer.
You are my healer.
You are all that we ever need.
Something in us gets fired up when we declare all of these things.
But here's the thing.
All of these titles are beautiful, but they don't mean anything unless you actually believe it.
I mentioned it earlier.
It's so easy for us to say it with our words but not really mean it with our hearts.
It's so easy for us to get caught up in the routine of Christianity that we have an outward appearance, a shell appearance of living like a Christian, but our hearts are wicked and far from God.
We know how to act like we know him, but we don't truly know him.
We know how to act like we have a relationship, but on the inside we really do not mean it.
This is what I mean.
I can say that God is my provider all I want, but every time the offering plate comes around
and I start thinking about what I need to do with my money instead of giving it,
maybe we're just saying it and not living it.
I can say that God is a healer all I want, but if I never pray for healing
and have the faith to say I am healed, you will be healed,
then all we're doing is making noise with our voice and not truly living it with our hearts.
See, there's a difference between belief and faith.
I can go as far as saying, matter of fact, there's a lot of people who believe in God but don't have faith in him.
See, a lot of people are comfortable with just believing in God.
But can I tell you, God does not care about your belief.
He wants your faith.
here's what I mean you can go into the world anywhere and say hey do you believe a God and
people say oh yeah I believe in God you go to church I don't do all that stuff I don't do the
religious stuff oh but I believe in God you know what belief in God does this is this come from the
Bible belief puts you on the same level as demons because the Bible says even the demons believe but
yet they tremble with fear.
See, belief, belief can make you feel good,
and belief can sustain you while everything around you is good,
but when things go down and struggle comes and pain comes,
belief is not going to keep you, your faith will.
See, belief says God is good when life is good.
Faith says God is good when life is not.
See, I grew up in an old school church,
And we used to say this phrase all the time, God is good.
And all the time, I used to hate that.
Because we would say it every week, all the time.
God is good all the time.
And all the time, God is good.
And I'm like, man, God knows he's good.
So why do we keep repeating this and repeating this and repeating this?
Does God really need that praise, that reminder that he is good?
Until I realize one thing.
We are not just worshiping and praising God when we say that phrase, but we're reminding ourselves that God is good all the time.
And all the time, God is good.
Life's not good all the time.
My friends ain't good all the time.
My relationships aren't good all the time.
My pockets are not good all the time.
But God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.
It's a reminder to remind ourselves that God's goodness is not dictated by your circumstances.
So even when I'm going through the struggle, I can have the faith to believe, to say this season is not forever.
I may go through the shadows and the mountains and the valleys of death, but God is my sustainer.
He's the one who guides my step.
And as long as I have God, it doesn't matter how dark the times may be because I got the light within me.
See, life may not be good, but if we forget to remember that God is good, we'll start to think that God is not who he said he was.
There's a difference between belief and faith.
We have to have active faith because that's what it is.
Belief is passive.
Faith is active.
Belief says I will move when I see everything the way it's supposed to be.
Faith says I don't know where I'm going, but I'm going to take a step of faith.
That's why the Bible says we walk by and not by sight.
Because you may not always know where God is guiding you, but as long as he's guiding you, he will never steer you in the wrong direction.
You will not always know where he's taking you, but as long as he's the one in control, you better believe that he has something good for you.
There's a difference between belief and faith.
Can I give you one more example?
I heard this story a long time ago.
My youth pastor told me it, and it stuck with me.
And he told me the story about this tightrope walker who wanted to break the Guinness World Book of Records about the longest tightrope walk.
and he wanted to walk across Niagara Falls from Canada to New York.
And the media came out, and there was thousands of people to watch him walk across this tightrope.
And he looked out into the crowd, and he said,
how many of you believe that I can walk across this tightrope?
And everybody in the crowd said, yes, we believe you can.
And he got on that tightrope, and he walked all the way across.
And the crowd went crazy.
Yeah, we knew you could do it.
We believe.
And he looked out and he said, I'm going to do it again.
This time I'm going to walk across blindfolded.
How many of you believe that I can do it?
The crowd said, yeah, we believe.
So he got his blindfolded, put it on, and he walked across a second time.
And the crowd went crazy.
Yeah, we knew you could do it.
We believe.
and he looked out in the crowd he said I'm going to do it a third time
this time I'm going to walk across
blindfolded pushing a wheelbarrow
how many of y'all believe that I can do it
the crowd looked at each other they're like man this guy's crazy
but we believe you can do it
so he blindfolded himself got the wheelbarrow
and he walked all the way across and the crowd went crazy
yeah, we believe. And he looked out into the crowd one last time and he said, I'm going to do it one
more time. Last one. This time I'm going to walk across blindfolded, pushing the wheelbarrow
with somebody inside of it. How many of y'all believe I can do it? And the crowd went, man,
this guy's super crazy now but we believe that you can do it and he said all right I need a volunteer
and not one person raised their hand because it was easy for them to believe that he could do it
but they would not be willing to put their life in his hands and if we're not careful we'll start
to treat our spiritual lives that same way. God, I believe you can until you call me to do it. God,
I believe that you're a healer until I'm the one that needs healing. God, I believe that you can
do miracles and I believe that you can bring freedom down and I believe that you can do all
things until I'm the one that has to put my life in your hands. God is not looking for a generation
of spectator Christians. He wants people to go all in, to go overboard and say, God, I'll put my life
in your hands. God, I'll put my life in your wheelbarrow. I don't want to be a believing
Christian. I want to have faith. I want to have the active faith that says, God, when you tell me to go,
that's where I'm going to go. What you tell me to do, that's what I'm going to do because, God,
I am going all in with you.
God, I know who you are.
I don't just know about you, but I know you.
Therefore, I trust you and I have active faith to walk with you.
Are there any Christians in this building who have active faith this morning?
Not only do you have to remember who God is,
but you also have to remember who you are.
Yesterday morning, Pastor Aubrey preached an amazing message
talking about the identity that God has for us,
that we are not our struggle, that we are not our pain,
but we are a son, we are a daughter, we are a child of God.
In Psalms 139, 13 and 14 says this,
For you formed my inward parts.
You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
My soul knows it very well.
Why am I reminding you of who you are?
Why am I reminding you of your identity in Christ this morning before we head out of here?
Because we're living in a world that constantly wants to confuse you.
and constantly wants to tell you who you are and who you're not.
And if we allow culture to shape our view of who we are, you'll never know who you are.
If you want to know who you are, you need to know whose you are.
And you are God's very own creation.
See, God doesn't just know you, he created you.
He knows you so intimately that the Bible says he knows the amount of hairs that you have on your head.
Now, for me, that's very easy.
But for you, that's very beautiful.
Because it means that God not only cares about you, but he cares about your details.
It means that God not only knows you, but he chooses you.
And he loves you.
and I want to remind you of that phrase right there.
God doesn't just know you, but he loves you.
And I know, I know that could be a cliche
and you can think, yeah, I know God loves me.
No, no, no, no, no.
I need you to really think about that and meditate on it,
that God loves you.
He doesn't just loves you, but the Bible says that God so loves you that he gave his only son to die on a cross so that he may have relationship with you again.
Now, why is this the reminder that I want to kind of end on and stay on that God loves you?
Because it's so easy for us to believe that God loves people, but it's hard for us to accept that God loves me.
And God is a personal God.
That he cares about you, that he cares about your life, that he cares about the details in your life.
That God hears you.
That God sees you.
And this is one of the attacks of the enemy to make you feel that God is a distant God.
See, I believe that the enemy doesn't cause a generation of unbelievers.
It causes a generation of mute believers.
Believers who will believe in his word, but will never speak his truth.
Believers who will believe in God but will never accept his love.
And that ultimate truth that God loves you, the minute you accept that for yourself, it'll change your life.
It'll change your view from a distant God who's in heaven with his hands crossed waiting for you to mess up.
To a personal God who says, I know you messed up, but I'm still here for you.
I know what you did last night, but my love covers that.
I know what you did, but I died for that.
I died so that I can have access to you and your life.
And I don't want you just to know about me, but I want you to know me the way I know you.
You need to remember who you are and whose you are so that you may live the life that God has called you to live.
an overboard life, an all-in life,
a life that is so anchored to Christ
that even when pain comes our way,
we can cry and we can yell and say,
God, I don't feel you in this moment.
God, I don't know where you are,
but nevertheless, I know you are good
and I know you are here.
I'm speaking to someone because I grew up in an old school type of church that told me you never question God.
You never question God.
You can't be angry.
You can't yell at him.
So that caused my view to feel like God was always distant and angry with me.
Until the love of God wrecked my life.
And I saw that he was never far from me.
He was always close.
to me. And the Bible says that he is near to the brokenhearted. So in my anger, God was there.
In my pain, God was there. In my brokenhearted seasons, God was there. And I want to talk to
a generation that may be angry with God. You may be angry with God, but God is not angry with you.
And I want to give you permission this morning that if you're going through something and if you've gone through a struggle that you've been struggling with and you're like, God, I want to have faith, but I'm struggling with this and I'm angry.
I want to give you permission this morning to give it to him.
Whether you have to cry, whether you have to yell, whatever it is that you have to do, God is not afraid of your emotions.
Because he created you with your emotions.
he knows your thoughts
he knows what you're going through
he knows who you are
so you don't have to run away from God in anger
you can run towards him with it
and lay it at his feet
because when you yell at God
at least you're taking it to the right person
who can do something about it
God knows you
and he's not afraid of your emotions
he's not afraid of your history
he's not afraid of your past
he's not afraid of what you've gone through
he invites you
to bring it to him
come to me
all who are heavy laden and burdened
and I will give you
rest
maybe the reason you haven't been able to sleep well at night
is because you're carrying something you were never meant to carry
maybe the reason you've been feeling so heavy in your life even when you try to do it on your own
is because God didn't call you to deal with it on your own he called you to lay it at his feet
some of you have been trying to fix your life on your own and all you do is make it worse
and feel worse about it when God is saying I'm right here
you can lay it at my feet
I died for that
I'm not here to make you feel bad about yourself
I'm here to show you the life that I have for you
and even if you feel bad
conviction was never meant to bring us shame
it was meant to bring us freedom
it was never meant to bring us shame it was meant to bring us freedom it was meant to make us turn
around do a 180 repent that's what repentance is i'm heading this direction i repent i'm doing a
180 and i'm coming back to god and i believe this morning there's a generation who said i was going
in the wrong direction but i'm repenting i'm turning around and i'm coming back to god because
I remember who God is. I remember what he said about me. And now I'm going overboard and I'm
going all in with him. I'm not leaving Winterfest the same way I came. I'm not leaving Premier
with the same struggles, with the same anxiety, with the same depression, with the same stress
that I've been dealing with on my own. This morning is the morning that I'm going to lay
at his feet because I remember who God is and I remember what he said about me, that you're not
just living, but you have life. You're not just love, but you are accepted. That God says you are
a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's very own possession. That you are
you are his
I'm going to ask you guys to stand up with me as I close
I don't know who I'm speaking to this morning
and I know we've had powerful altar moments all weekend long
and I believe in the miracles and the healing that God has done all weekend long
so today this is the call that I want to make
that we will remember
that this weekend will not just be a memory.
It will not just be a monument
that we just look back on and say,
okay, God did what he did there,
but he's not doing it here.
No, this is gonna be a movement
that this weekend is gonna cause momentum
in our spiritual lives.
That I'm not just gonna be a spectating Christian
believing in God, but I'm going to be an active faith Christian walking with him,
stepping with him. Wherever he tells me to go, that's where I'm going to go. Whatever he tells
me to do, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be an overboard Christian. If that's you right
now, the altars are open. I invite you to come up front making that decision that I will remember.
I will not forget that I'm going to remind myself of who God is.
I'm going TO remind myself of who I am.
I don't want to just know about God, I want to know him.
I don't want to look at myself as my struggles.
I don't want to look at myself as my past.
But I want to see myself as his son, as his daughter, as his very own possession that I am loved.
That I am his.
Look at this.
So many decisions.
Walking up here saying that I'm not leaving the same way I came in.
Saying that I will remember and I will walk by faith.
And I will live an overboard life.
Knowing who God is and knowing who I am.
Because of what he's done.
Hands up all around this altar.
In this room.
All around.
This is what I want to do as we get into worship and prayer.
before we start singing, I want you right where you are
because we're talking about a personal God.
And oftentimes when we come up to the altar,
we come up here waiting for someone to come lay hands on us.
But we serve a personal God who hears your prayer
just like he hears my prayer.
The same power that's in your youth, Pastor,
is the same power that's inside of you.
The same Holy Spirit that's in your senior pastor is the same Holy Spirit that's inside of you.
So the same prayers that we all pray is the same prayer that God listens to when you pray it yourself.
So before the leaders and you pastors lay hands on you and pray for you,
I want to take just 30 seconds for you right where you are to pray to God.
Hands lifted all around.
Talk to him right there.
it's simple you can say God
I know you love me
I know you see me
I know you hear me
God I apologize for the times that I've run away from you
I apologize for those times that I've made it about myself
but God right now
I don't just believe in you but I have faith in you
God right here at Premier Winterfest
I am declaring that you are good
all the time and all the time
you are good
God right here I am declaring
that I am going to have the active faith
to follow you
to know you and not just know about you
God thank you for what you say about me
and who you say that I am.
God, thank you that I am yours.
Thank you that you love me so much
that you sent your son to die on the cross for me.
Thank you, God, for the reminder of who you are
and who I am.
And now, I wanna pray for all of those
who have some type of stress in their lives.
who have this thing that the enemy just keeps reminding you about.
And no matter how much you try to forget about it,
no matter how much you try to pray it out of your life,
it's like the enemy just keeps reminding you
and makes you think that you're not good enough,
that you're not Christian enough,
that you're not holy enough.
And every time you try to do right,
it's like the enemy keeps reminding you
of what you've done in your past.
And I believe that God can heal you of that right here, right now.
And I believe that we can lay it down at the feet of Jesus here right now, and he will take those burdens off of us so that we can walk out of here feeling lighter and feeling free.
The Bible says, he who is free is free indeed.
And I believe we're going to walk out of here not just free, but free indeed.
If that's you, I just want you to lift your hands where you are.
If that's you.
If there's something that you need to lay at the feet of Jesus, if there's something that you're saying, this is the thing that's been bothering me, this is my thorn, this is the thing that just keeps tormenting me and I want to lay it at the feet of Jesus today.
Father God, I just come before you right now, Lord Jesus.
God, you see every student, every person in this room who has their hands raised right now, God.
You see that thought.
You see that action.
You see that past mistake, God.
You see that thing that the enemy just keeps trying to bring up in their minds, God.
God, I just pray that freedom may fall right now, God.
God, I pray that that burden that they're carrying may just fall off of them right now at your feet, Lord Jesus.
That, God, that as they lift their hands and as they drop their burden, they may feel your peace upon them.
God, I pray for supernatural rest in their bodies tonight.
God, I pray, Lord Jesus, that as they go home and when they make it home, they may feel rest like never before.
Because they have this supernatural peace on them that you promise us.
God, I pray for that situation that they can't forgive themselves about.
And God, I pray that your holy forgiveness may fill their hearts right now.
And God, when you look at them, you don't see that mistake.
You see a child.
So God, help them to see themselves the way you see them.
As child, as son, as daughter.
As free, as healed, as yours.
your possession.
Lord Jesus, thank you for all that you've done
here this morning.
Thank you for all that you've done
this weekend, God.
And thank you for the reminder
that we're not leaving the same way we came.
Thank you for the reminder
that we now know who you are,
that we now know who we are
and we're living an overboard life.
Thank you, God,
for all that you're doing,
all that you've done.
and more importantly, all that you will continue to do in our lives.
In Jesus' name I pray.
We say, oh, come on, if you believe that God's healed you,
if you believe that God's touched you,
if you believe that God knows you,
give him a moment of praise right there where you are.
Come on, come on, come on, let him hear it.
Now, this is what we're going to do.
This is what we're going to do.
because this is what the Bible teaches me.
Every single time that God heals us,
every single time that Jesus healed somebody,
he would tell them to go and tell people.
What God has done in this weekend
is not meant for you to keep to yourself.
The healing that took place,
the salvation that took place here in this weekend
is not for you to go home
and shut it in and keep it to yourself.
God wants you to go and tell all the world
what he's done,
making disciples of all the nations.
That's not just your pastor's responsibility.
That is our responsibility.
The Bible says that we overcome by the blood of the lamb,
which is what Jesus did on the cross
and the word of our testimony.
So as we walk out of here,
we're gonna do two things.
We're gonna declare
that we're gonna share our testimony to everyone.
and this is what we're going to do.
We're going to celebrate.
We're going to remember all that he's done
and right now, right here, right now,
we're going going to celebrate all that God's done.
So I knew it's a little bit different,
but it's
You moved on Saturday morning, you moved on Saturday night, and you moved Sunday morning,
so I'm going to celebrate all you've done.
Are you ready?
Oh, come on.
I said, are you ready to celebrate this morning?
- It's it!