The theme of this message was God has called us to reach out and change our friends for Him. I began by telling them that God wants to use you by reaching your friends, but in order to do so you must first REALIZE WHO YOU ARE.
I told them the story in Judges 6-7 about Gideon, how the Israelites were in captivity and God called out to a young man named Gideon and said, “Rise up Oh mighty warrior for I am with you!” and used this young man who thought he was a loser to save an entire nation by destroying the altars of Baal and defeating the Midianites. I then explained to them that they too are called to fight the same battle God called Gideon to fight. They are called rescue their friends from the hand of the enemy and to be God’s light to their friends and show them who he is.
I then asked them, “Who likes Spiderman? Batman? Super heros? Who would like to be one?” (everyone raised their hands). I then explained, “You are one! You may be saying, ‘I don’t have any super powers’ but the truth is you have powers far greater than these. You can move mountains. You can catch your friends on fire for God. You can run faster than a horse. You can stop the fiery darts of the devil. You can walk on water. You can defeat an army of 10,000, you can single handedly beat a lion and a bear in a fight…etc. In other words, you can defeat the Midianites and change this world for God. In fact, you are even greater than Superman, Batman, and Spiderman combined. You have something that they don’t have. They can be stopped, you cannot. The devil doesn’t have kryptonite to stop you. ONLY YOU CAN STOP YOU!
Finally, I explained to them that the source of our power is Jesus Christ and I read Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” We are just like Gideon. What made Gideon a mighty warrior was not that he was born some super hero but this simple truth, “Rise up, Oh mighty warrior for I am with you!” Because God was with him he was a mighty warrior and was able to conquer the Midianites and destroy the altars of Baal. You too are a mighty warrior, I reemphasized.
At the end of the message we handed out orange cards and asked your sons and daughters to write down 2 of their friends names and place them on their mirrors at home so that they could start praying for them everyday. THIS IS WHERE WE BELIEVE YOU COULD PLAY A HUGE ROLE by praying with your child for their friends before they go to bed, driving on the way to sports camp, etc.
Thank you for your help,
Ryan Austin
Element Youth Leader
