A People of God - The Other Side of Yes

man tonight is going to be such an amazing and incredible night i had the honor and privilege of introducing our guest speaker tonight um she is one of those people that when you meet her just her life her character her walk with jesus is infectious um and as a communicator i was telling our team in the back uh it's awesome to give a great message that's that's great but the goal of a when when you speak and communicate the gospel is that your life would hopefully at least match your ability to communicate it um that hopefully your character behind the mic off stage far exceeds any ability that you have to speak and our guest tonight could be the greatest communicator on the planet but her character in her life would far exceed any message she would be able to give and i think that you're going to sense that when she begins to talk and share her heart and share her story our communicator tonight her name is lauren bond she works at our littleton campus in operations but she is one of the most gifted and amazing speakers on our staff and so young adults would you please put your hands together and lose your mind for miss warren bond give it up hello red rocks young adult how are you guys it is so good to be here i love love love this ministry um you guys have the best leaders andrew connor moana she's probably in the back somewhere keaton um you guys are beyond blessed to have um people that truly care about you guys can sit down just have a seat you don't stand up it'll be time for that later especially after that song jumping around seeing a little rest um but yeah it's an honor to be here i had the privilege to speak with you guys almost two years ago so most of you in this room probably don't know who i am um and that's okay i i'm gonna give you just a real brief spark notes version of me just so you can feel a little bit comfortable we can be friends right we want to be friends right i want to be your friend and i don't get to hear all your stories but um i want you just to feel comfortable just who i am so real quick i am a wisconsin-born colorado raised gal i will forever hear a little woo-hoo i will forever say rag tag and bag and there's nothing that you can do to change my mind that's how you should say those words so reg tagging big um i was a homeschool kid any homeschoolers yeah yeah homeschool high five all by yourself give yourself a high five throughout the day that's real i was a homeschool kid from second grade all the way to my freshman year and my mom put me in public school my freshman year i attended columbine high school some of you may know this some of you may not but yeah call mine but i was at columbine uh freshman year 1999 the year that the shooting happened and so um i was in the cafeteria eating lunch my life was miraculously spared there was a propane tank size bomb right next to my table set on a timer to go off at 11 20 and it did not and i truly believe that is only because of the lord so i am here today um because of that um after that obvious situation kind of changes what you thought you were going to do in your life i wanted to go into like architecture interior design and then tragedy happened and god went nope that's not what i'm going to have you do i had the opportunity to start traveling and sharing my story and i knew i wanted to be in full-time ministry at a very young age my now husband read a newspaper article about me so single people listen it can happen really wild and someday i'll get up here and i'll share my whole story about how we met but um brent read a newspaper article about me uh he was in wisconsin at the time i was in colorado the newspaper was on his kitchen table and he opened it up and said i want to marry a girl like that i want to marry a girl like this in this newspaper and a few years later our paths crossed crazy turn of events and we have now been married 18 and a half years if you can believe it yes the love of my life and so 18 and a half years we've done full-time ministry for most of that but in the most recent years god has called brent into the arena of hockey and so he is a full-time hockey coach for okay i have to say this right brent top tier one girls u19 team colorado okay that's what he does now and it's awesome and i love seeing him thrive and be doing what god's called him to do in the 18 years we had one beautiful amazing talented most perfect child and her name is felicity joy facet bonn that's just the coolest name right i feel like we did good with that so felicity is here she is now a sophomore at columbine so we are full circle i work at red rocks at the littleton campus and i love it so much i just feel like i really am living my best life but um i want you guys to know that whenever i do have the opportunity to speak my one and only goal is only to ever point you to jesus by using scripture to encourage your hearts testimonies of his goodness with as little words as possible and then let the holy spirit come in and do what only he can do um and one thing that i do promise to be is honest and authentic and real um i love that our senior pastor sean johnson has been so vulnerable with his life in the last few years if you've been around you know all about that and the people that get on the stage week in and week out are just vulnerable and real with their lives and we've heard too many bible teachers and too many speakers come around that act like they have it all together they know it all and their lives are perfect and you just leave feeling like well i'll just never never get there that's that's not me it's never going to be me and so just like just know that i'm up here um not more loved by god not more spiritual than anybody in this room we're all on this journey god loves us all the same um and i just just want you to know that so this message is birthed out of um really having not much to give if i'm going to be completely honest with you um i feel like i have really been struggling in my life and i don't know if that's just like a coveted hangover or finally just processing the last 15 months i feel like though a lot in me has just been like coming up and it's hitting me now it's been hitting me in the last few months um and so i'm going to read you a list okay again i said i would be honest i'm going to read you a list of my current state so that's fun right okay so here i am i feel like i mean if you can relate to this i hope i'm not the only one in the room that feels this way but i'm sure i'm not um but hopefully this relates to you a little bit i feel like i am incessantly tired like extremely exhausted um i feel overwhelmed and i'm typically not an overwhelmed type of person i can usually spin a lot of plates and do a lot of tasks and i pride myself at being an excellent multitasker but recently i am completely overwhelmed um that overwhelmed feeling has lent itself to a lack of energy to start anything so instead of dealing with anything i just don't start anything which leads to more being overwhelmed so it's great um i feel like i am easily distracted um it's hard to finish tasks sitting down is at my computer i'm just like all the tabs are open and it's just there's just so much and then you know working at home you can get up you can go get a snack you can watch some netflix you can do it just it's i'm very distracted i feel like i'm anxious over really small things um and i typically am not an anxious person but the smallest things have brought up this sense of anxiety inside of me i feel like i am the most unhealthy i have ever been in my own life and this is hysterical because um i put in here that i have found myself eating mcdonald's alone in my car in random parking lots like that's a low that is not a help but then they brought mcdonald's into the green room and i was like okay hey there's nothing wrong with mcdonald's but when you're sitting in your car at night by yourself in a parking lot eating it that's kind of that's a low spot okay that's not good um i feel like i have been stressed out about the future and i think part of that is because there's just been so much unknown you wake up every day and you open up your news app or wherever you get your news and you're like hey what random wild thing is happening in the world today um so it's just stressed out about the future how many of you are students or students uh this year current year maybe some of you just finished okay a few students i have a child in school and that has been the one of the biggest stresses um not your fault felicity um the the fact though that's like sometimes your kid is in school four days sometimes your kid is in two days sometimes they're just quarantined for a week and sometimes you have to um get tested before you go to school sometimes you have to turn in assignments on this platform or that platform or this way for that teacher and i have like no idea what is happening ever and it's just it's really hard it's stressful to see your kid go through that she made the lacrosse team at uh columbine this year and hasn't been able to play one game all of her games have been cancelled due to covid or a series of events and so that is just disappointment all this disappointment i feel like i could cry at the drop of a hat i am an enneagram eight this goes against all that i stand for that is not who i am but all of a sudden it's like i could just cry over anything and i have found myself distracting myself with things like netflix you all know how that goes there's season one two three four five six um you know social media uh i okay again i'm kind of old i didn't even say this but i i'm an old soul i will be 38 in a couple weeks and um facebook for me it was cool back in the day okay i know it's not anymore but facebook was real for me so facebook social media instagram the whole thing um i had to download the app tick tock because my kid had tick tock i needed to know what that was all about well that is a black hole that will suck you in for hours and then i find myself in the kitchen trying to do the renegade dance with my kid it's wild okay there's good things on there but then there's really bad things on there too so that's a black hole fiction books i would read a book that has nothing to do with being a better human at all take me away from all of reality but at the end of the day i just feel like i am just not close to jesus right now i have had enough of a faith journey um to know what it's like to walk in step with my savior on a daily basis to know what it's like to feel his presence near and when i'm not in that it's painful and i feel that right now and you guys are probably like wow connor what a great uplifting inspirational speaker you brought us today she's great this is going to be real fun but i was actually speaking at a women's conference this uh or a woman's little gathering this saturday and after sharing my current state with you it literally took everything out of me um every waking moment every minute that i had to spare i spent staring at my laptop just praying that god would download something for these ladies and it went good it was a wonderful time with a wonderful group of girls but um i got in the car and feeling like i can breathe that is off my plate thank you god i'm just gonna go back to that netflix show that i stopped at uh season three i didn't want to pick back up no connor called and said hey uh would you be interested in speaking uh this thursday and i'm like wait saturday sunday monday tuesday thursday i was like okay and for the first time in a really long time i heard the voice of the lord clear clear then like i said it's been very clouded for me and i heard him say as i'm in the car my mother was driving connor's actually on the phone talking there is blessing on the other side of your yes not just for you but for others and so the title of my message is the other side of yes so you guys have been in this series people of god and you've looked at different ways we as christ followers should um live set apart and god has shown me that very clearly this week so this is hot off the press revelation just a few days old from me to you but when god calls his people to do things in his name all he needs is our obedient yes and then he takes care of the rest um here i am this tired overwhelmed car eating mcdonald's parking lot girl and god has given me this platform to speak to you tonight and i will be forever grateful for that it's been stretching it's been good but when you look in the bible you're going to see in scripture where people that actually did say yes to god when he called them out asked them to do something no matter how big that was or how little these are the things that happen number one god is glorified number two your faith is confirmed and number three there is a ripple effect to your obedience the bible is full of stories like this where he called normal untitled uneducated not wealthy no no means to their name um very unqualified people he called young adults like yourself he called women he called teenagers and the list goes on in the world eyes when god is calling these people to do things in his name the world's eyes will say um no they're stronger better faster people god like out of all the cream of the crop you're gonna choose them to do something in your name there are are people that are more educated more knowledgeable of the word why not choose them well in tandem to that what i love is that god calls these types of people to do really wild and crazy things for him it makes no sense in our minds when you look at the stories in this bible and we're going to talk about a few of them here when the creator of the universe asks seemingly insignificant people to do great things in his name the ripple of effect of that this side of heaven we will never know so let's look at a few examples okay this is old testament sunday school style which i love going back i wish does anybody remember the felt boards am i too old okay a good old felt board they just don't make them anymore i wish i had one i need a good felt board right now so noah said yes when god asked him to build an ark when there have not been a drop of rain some scholars believe in noah's lifetime abraham said yes to god when he asked him to sacrifice his only son as a test of faith and as a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of jesus moses said yes to god when he told him to go to pharaoh to ask him to let the israelites go even though he had a stutter and originally ran away from egypt for murder rahab said yes when asked to hide the israelite spies and risk her own family and the lives of herself and the people in her in her community a scrawny shepherd boy named david said yes when god asked him to fight the giant goliath with only a slingshot and a few stones esther said yes when mordecai told her to go to the king to save her people even though it meant risking death daniel said yes to god when he told him not to bow down and worship other idols knowing that the penalty was going to be thrown in a pit with lions mary said yes when the angel told her she would carry god's son knowing jesus no or carry god's son jesus knowing that that would bring shame as she was unmarried the disciples said yes when jesus asked them to leave everything behind and follow him so as people of god as you've been in this series and when you give your life to christ you consider yourself a people of god our obedience to step out in faith with a yes gives god the opportunity to show off in really big ways because without him we remain insignificant and unqualified to do anything so when god shows up in and through you out of your obedience in that yes watch out just watch out so how do you say yes to god what does that look like what does this even mean what does that mean well the first thing you have to do is you have to listen to his voice right in john 10 27 my sheep my people my sheep listen to my voice i know them and they follow me um doug welcome in one of our our austin you guys all know doug probably but he's our austin campus pastor absolutely amazing he preached a message in big church and yes i still say big church because i will forever be a kid in kids church so in big church but during our weekend experience he preached a message called the four ways to hear the voice of god and i don't have time to go into it all but start there if you haven't heard that message go listen to it it is so powerful it is so good um but pray and ask the lord to start speaking to you and then create space i love that conor said that make yourself available to actually hear him and i'm not talking about your five minute coffee shop devotional where you put your bible and most skin journal out in your cup of coffee and you snap an instagram picture and say okay god speak to me oh never mind bye and you move out that's just not how it works that's not how it works you have to make space and availability and a part posture to hear the heart of god for you and to you um if you're like okay i want to get started i want to get started now the best number way best number one way to hear the voice of god is going to be right here in the word this is living and active and relevant to you right now this is the active word of god in your life and as you read scripture you'll see it jump off the page and it'll hit you in a way that has never hit you before so start there if you don't know where re listen to that message from doug and get in your word those are my two best um words of advice when it comes to getting started to hearing the voice of god second when he speaks and asks you to do something you cannot look at it through the lens of the world you have to look at it through the lens of faith first corinthians 3 19 says for the wisdom of this world is foolishness in god's sight god is going to ask you to do some things that when the world looks at they're going to be like wait what that makes no sense you have to tune out those voices the ones that are going to say it may not be in your best interest it's probably not financially wise to sell everything you have and go on the mission field although the data just doesn't add up or that's just not how we do things in our family you may be going against all cultural norms to follow the voice of god but remember that you are a people of god so you are set apart to do those types of things and your reasoning is heavenly your reasoning is not earthly so your lens has to be different when listening to that voice when listening to the still small voice or the holy spirit prompting you the lens is through faith faith and knowing that if god did it all the way back then he's surely going to do it now and i can be a part of that and third just be obedient plain and simple when god asks you to do something just do it even when you don't feel like it even when you feel like you're not qualified or there's somebody else on the team that could do it better no god asked you god called you and he knows your name and he specifically reached out to all the people on all the planet he said you you i want you to do it and you don't get to say actually no god i think that's a better choice that is not your place listen don't you think if god calls you out calls you to do something that he's going to equip you to do it when god asks noah to build the ark to save humanity and the animals above water he didn't say can you just go build that ark real quick and hopefully you can find the right wood and hopefully you know the measurements for that and hopefully that can just like float and again carry all of the rest of humanity and all the animals two by two uh best to you hope you don't die he didn't say that no he gave him the instructions down to the last inch that it was supposed to be designed and he still is that specific with you so you listen you have a lens of faith and you obey and watch watch him be glorified in your weakness watch him be glorified and lifted up when people look back and go that just didn't make sense but wow look what god did there is an epic story in the bible about a man named jonah god told him to go to the city of nineveh okay jonah wanted nothing to do with nineveh he was like i'm not going there and he ran away from god he ran away actually um so far that he got in a boat and went out onto the water and thought oh that'd be the best hiding place so he's out on this boat with these people hiding from god when god told him to go to the city to bring them a message that was very important and he ran so he's on this boat and god's like oh you think you can hide from me okay let's just watch this okay so god brings this storm and the storm is raging and the boat is starting to fall apart and the people on the boat are like um somebody on this boat has really made god mad and we need to figure out who that person is so they discover that it's jonah and they actually just throw him off the boat they're like you gotta go and they threw him off the boat and the storm actually ceased at that moment but jonah started to drown jonah is drowning and god sends a large fish this just sounds wild okay our god is extravagant he has a flair for the dramatics it's a lot i know but just this is real this is real okay so he sends this fish i like to picture it as the big whale in pinocchio you know like the really big blue one he comes out of the water's mouth is massive he swallows jonah up jonah sits in the belly of that whale for three days and three nights and god gives him the opportunity to repent and jonah does he repents and i love that he says this in jonah 2 9 he makes it right with god he says what i have vowed i will make good. i will say salvation comes from the lord and so god's like okay let's try this again so the fish literally spits them out on the beach again with the dramatics it's a lot i know but jonah where do you think he goes as soon as he's out of the mouth of that fish he went to nineveh even though the first time god asked him to do something he said no and ran and he hid god gave him the opportunity to make it right god gave him a second chance and as it so he will go to nevada he delivers the message it's great so as people of god there is grace abundant for us when we know that god's calling us asking us to do something and we just don't and i love this quote by lisa revere and it's kind of old and i'm sure you've seen it all over instagram and all the places but i just i love it i love it so much it says if you think you've blown god's plan for your life rest in this you my beautiful friend are not that powerful god is a god of second chances god is a redemptive god and god can use anything for his glory even jonah's disobedience he used for his glory and i love that so did you know that sometimes your yes may not 100 be about you i know it's shocking the world doesn't always revolve around you or me right oh there's other people involved in my life story there is always benefit obviously to obedience but i firmly believe that there are people waiting to be impacted on the other side of your yes so the second biggest yes in my life took place about well less than 30 days after the most obviously horrific tragic experience of my life i was 15 still processing all that had taken place at the school grieving 13 precious people that lost their lives i think mentally i was just in shock and i got an ask to go to lafayette indiana this random church in this lafayette and yeah okay great this is kind of a random place there's a college there that's really big i hear purdue is purdue there yeah producer i know things so purdue's there but um lafayette indiana i'm at this church uh get asked to come speak and share i had no idea what i was getting into i was used to small church youth group in the attic four couches in a circle doing nothing so i wasn't used to big church like that and so i go to this church and i share my story and god moved despite who i was i love that god chose to use a scrawny traumatized biblically educated unpolished 15 year old teenage girl to have an impact on eternity and because of that one yes that yes that i didn't want to say yes to but i knew in my gut i knew in my soul that that was something that i had to be a part of because of that one yes god opened up doors for me to have the humble amazing privilege to see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of young people throughout the years give their lives to jesus christ so god can use that scrawny awkward 15 year old girl to do great things that just don't make sense in the world's eyes he can use anybody trust me on that first corinthians first corinthians 1 26 through 31 says this brothers and sisters think of what you were when you were called not many of you were wise by human standards not many were influential not many were of noble birth but god chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise god chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong god chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him it is because of him that you are in christ jesus who has become for us wisdom from god that is our righteousness holiness and redemption therefore as it is written let no one who boasts but boasts in the lord it is only because of the lord that you have anything good to say or anything good to do it is only because of him so young adults here at this campus on a thursday in lakewood colorado my question to you is this what do you feel the lord is prompting you to do what is he calling out of you what is he hoping you become available for what could your life look like as a people of god that allow him to use us fully and completely when you wake up the first thing that is on your mind is what does god have for me to do today to bring glory to him because it's not about us sometimes christianity gets really really selfish about i gotta have the feels and i gotta get in the with the people who know the people and the people who say the right things and sing the most beautiful songs that's not what it's about it's about being in an intimate personal relationship with jesus christ how could your faith grow in stepping out that may seem foolish to others what could happen if this generation this set apart group of young adults walked by faith and not by sight and were obedient to the calling on the spot that jesus has for you we are going to sing this song here in just a moment and it's called available and it has been on repeat for me um for the last few weeks and [Music] during this song i really want you to process and think about and dig deep am i listening to the voice of god am i obedient to his word when he or when he calls my name or he's asked me to go call that friend he's asked me to go pray with that person he's asked me to be kind to that person at work or that family member he's asked me to um you know be generous in a way that i've never been generous before what is god speaking to you about that's between you and the lord but i just really want to challenge you that as people of god set apart to do big things for him the responsibility of that is huge but it's also an honor it's a weight to carry but god says his burden is light and his yoke is easy so it's not like a weight that brings you down but it's just something that you're like i gotta carry this and i gotta do good by it and i wanna make my father proud with the way that i am living i want to be an example as people of god to others who don't know god i want them to be able to look at me and say there's something different about me what is that and when god starts calling you out and you start being obedient watch out watch what he is going to be able to do in and through a generation it's exciting that there's a group of people here that are actually interested in knowing what that could be like the ripple effect of each person in this room being obedient to their heavenly father the ripple effect of that is immense what he can do through one person times all of you and then you affect somebody and then guess what they go do they want to go share and they want to go share and then they go share and then it's just that is what the presence of the holy spirit can do and in through one person saying yes um if you guys want to stand i think sometimes we get lazy i have been in a season of just lazy christianity if i can be like i said honest with you but there's something when you physically have a physical response to what you know god is doing inside and so during this song covet friendly if we can i want to encourage you to actually physically step out in faith if that's coming down here having a moment with jesus if that's going in the back if that's do whatever you feel like you need to raising your hands if that's kneeling down i want you to physically respond to the presence of the lord i mentioned before that my second biggest yes was going and speaking traumatized but my first and most important yes was the day that i said yes to jesus that was the most important yes anybody can ever do and so you may be in this room and you maybe as a young child prayed a prayer but you didn't really understand what that meant or maybe you have never made the decision to want to follow christ or have the opportunity to hear what even what that means and what that means is it's acknowledging the fact that we are broken we are sinful and we are in need of a savior and jesus came to this earth and died on a cross and rose on the third day so that you could have relationship with him you could have life with him and eventually eternity on the other side and there is peace and joy and forgiveness and hope in his name and it is a free gift there is absolutely not one thing you can do to work or earn it it is a free gift and that gift is available today and i'm going to read some statements of what is possible on the other side of your yes whether that's your first yes today or it's a yes in knowing that god is asking you to step out in faith and do something big so on the other side of your yes is closeness to your creator on the other side of your yes is peace knowing you are right where god wants you on the other side of your yes is soul rest on the other side of your yes miracles are waiting on the other side of your yes joy is overflowing on the other side of your yes there are god-given opportunities on the other side of your yes there is restoration some of you need some restoration tonight some of you need healing in your heart some of you have some deep hurts there's healing on the other side of your yes on the other side of your yes there is clarity in a world that is ragingly confusing there is clarity in jesus on the other side of your yes is blessings on the other side of your yes there is a laying down of pride and sweet surrender on the other side of yes people are waiting to hear the gospel on the other side of your yes god is glorified and there's no greater honor than getting to be a part of that and so we're going to sing this song it's really special i love it so much and i want you to make yourself available right now to get into the presence of the lord right now he is here he wants to call you out he's speaking to some of you right now maybe this is confirming some things that you already know god has started to put in your heart in your mind maybe you've had some dreams that are coming back to life and god is saying now is the time today is the day we're gonna start that but most importantly if you have never made that commitment to jesus today is the day of salvation do not wait because tomorrow is so unknown and this is not a fear-based decision this is a love-based decision this is an invitation into the family of god and that is available to you right now my husband and i will be available there will be prayer team members down here as well i want to invite you to again step out come down answer the call that the father has on you and let's worship like people of god only can amen amen

Channel: Red Rocks Young Adults

Views: 132

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: red rocks church, red rocks, red rocks young adults, rrya, red rocks ya, young adult ministry, ministry, 20 something, denver, colorado, thursdays, church, faith, god, christian, christianity, motivation, sermon, message, self help, women in ministry, women, female, jesus, lord, christ, holy spirit, obedience, jonah, lauren bohn, connor grim, andrew matrone, church series, love, hope, joy

Id: c0L39HBoN4U

Length: 41min 25sec (2485 seconds)

Published: Tue May 18 2021