The Responsibility Of Influence | Elevation YTH | Charles Metcalf

what's up elevation youth tim summers here and we are talking about how influence and loneliness go hand in hand and i really think you're about to enjoy this video because it's a message from my good friend charles metcalf from transformation nation come on somebody in tulsa oklahoma i really believe you're going to be blessed by it here's what i want you to do before it starts i want to make sure you smash that like button hit that subscribe and be commenting every single note that you take i know you'll enjoy it check this out what is up elevation youth hello hello i hope you're doing well i am so glad that uh you are here today that i'm here today that we're here today i'm just glad and excited for what god's gonna do as we spend some time together talking around his word and uh listen i am so honored and excited and just grateful to spend some time with you today um and really just grateful for this opportunity i love elevation youth and that is no cap i'm not lying i'm not making that up y'all are literally like the dopest youth group ever like if i i wish you could have seen how lame my youth group was like i grew up in such a lame youth group thank god i'm here the youth group was amazing but i'm saying that y'all are in one of the most amazing moves of gods and uh at elevation church elevation rhythm nights elevation youth everything that's happening there is really so amazing so inspiring so challenging um and just special to be a part of and sometimes because you're in it you don't realize how special it is but this is just a reminder that pastor tim summers the entire elevation youth team pastor steven furtick pastor holly furtick are the best of the best like they are amazing and i just want to say thank you to all of them for this opportunity to share with you tonight um i don't take it lightly i don't take it as just another time to speak but i really believe that tonight's going to be special it's gonna be powerful and it's gonna impact you and uh i'm excited because i had to invite some of my friends up here to be with me these are some of the most amazing people this is miesh angel by me shout out if you don't know this is ron john hodge kids hide your wife i didn't even think about that but you got that on this is destiny she's one of our worship leaders she's one of my favorite worship leaders in the world and this is will heckenbach my tattoo gangster friend so uh i got all my people up here with me today they're gonna help me preach but i'm excited today to share a message that i believe is gonna be helpful it's gonna be practical i'm sitting down i may stand up and preach we'll see what happens um but before i jump in i gotta show you a picture of the most beautiful family in the world and that is my family this is uh my wife abby and our two chicken nuggets arlo and luna luna is shook and uh in all of our family photos she looks surprised and so that's just awesome but that is our family i love my wife i love my kids i grew up wanting to be a dad like that's the only thing i wanted to do so the fact that i'm preaching is bonus um so today's going to be good though i need you to um turn in your bibles to first samuel first samuel chapter nine is where we're gonna be uh this message i'm gonna go ahead and give you the title the title of today's message is chosen with choice chosen with choice i need you to type it in the chat if you're if you're not social distancing for some reason i need you to elbow your neighbor maybe you're uh quarantined with some of your friends or your mom or your brother or your sister or you're holding a dog right now tell your dog chosen with choice i'm gonna read uh two portions of scripture um out of first samuel they're a little lengthy um but if you didn't read your bible today you're about to get it so get ready read your bible every day because if you don't 20 20 will bust you up i'm not gonna lie anyways okay first samuel 9 20. that's what the bible says and don't worry this is such a random spot to pick up a scripture let me give you context sorry saul is um about to be um kind of addressed by a prophet named samuel and he's about to tell him hey you're going to be the first king of israel now we pick up the story and saul is actually looking for three donkeys it's very random completely unnecessary but i was just about to read it it was going to throw some of y'all off so i just wanted to let you know it's coming and don't worry about those donkeys that were lost three days ago for they have been found i am here to tell you that you and your family are the focus of all of israel hopes this is a big deal he's saying you and your family are the focus of all of israel's hopes saul replied but i'm only from the tribe of benjamin the smallest tribe in israel and my family is the least important of the families of that tribe why are you talking to me like this saul is looking at himself and i mean we can all have moments where we realized like there was something that was spoken over us there was something that was said to us that we were like yeah nah like have you ever felt that like you felt like maybe there was a leader in your life or a friend in your life or maybe it was a parent or maybe it was just time and prayer and they're like hey there's greatness on the inside of you god wants to do something in you and through you and saul's first response is like yeah but no like i know you said this but i don't believe it and we're going to start looking at how this really perception of saul's self started to affect everything that he did it affected his influence it affected how he led it affected his relationships and i want to keep reading in first samuel this is further on it's in chapter 10 this is actually when he is about to be appointed as king it says so samuel brought all the tribe of israel before the lord and the tribe of benjamin was chosen by lot then they brought each family of the tribe of benjamin before the lord and the family of the matrix was chosen and finally saul son of kish was chosen from among them but when they looked for them he had disappeared come on he pulled david blaine on him and he david blaine is that it right david blaine is that the crazy guy all right david blaine what up man if you're watching this shout out to you um you should talk to jesus anyways i don't know what i'm saying so they asked the lord where is he where is he at and the lord replied he's hiding among the baggage i never said nothing yet destiny he's hiding among the baggage so they found him and brought him out and he stood head and shoulders above everyone else again if you're taking notes type it in the chat tell your pet fish the title of the sermon is chosen with choice i'm gonna take a moment and pray lord god we love you so much holy spirit i thank you that you are so present you're so near you are the closest um one lord god you're always with us regardless of what we're going through regardless of what happens in our life lord god regardless of how 2020 is going and how we thought it would go lord god you are present you are near lord god and you're the comforter so right now we invite you in i thank you that we would feel your spirit in your presence i thank you for every person that's watching lord god that they would know without a shadow of a doubt that you are with them lord i love you and thank you it's in jesus name we pray and everybody said amen i just shouted that we're in an empty arena right now and in my head i heard like the the loud amens and it was just my four homies behind me so um you know this year has been crazy ron it's been insane it's been crazy this year has been so much i think it's something that you know when i start thinking about this year and and at the beginning of the year this was it was all the cliche memes i don't know if you saw these all the stuff that was like 2020 the year of vision like it's gonna be clear it's gonna be and all of that made so much sense in january like but now it doesn't make sense and yet it does like how do you really get perspective like how do you how do you how are you really able to see the state of something how are you really able to see parts of yourself unless everything stops and you're forced to look at you like and that's what everybody's had to do everybody has been faced with the reality that dang i'm still me like and that's the thing in life sometimes we can get so caught up in what we want to do and who we want to be and i'm going to accomplish all these great things and i'm gonna all this stuff but we haven't dealt with who we are and then we start functioning out of insecurities and then we wonder why we're not able to walk in god's plan for our life but really it's because we never who knew who we were or we never really knew who god was so we didn't know who we were so we didn't know who our friends were and we're blaming all of this stuff on outward circumstance can i tell you it's not corona's fault that we are struggling with identity it's not it's not the pandemic's fault that we're like up in arms and struggling with me it's because we haven't truly sought god to understand who he is so we can't understand who we are so there's no way we can make sense of what he's called us to do i'm coming today to talk to you about what i believe god has put on your life the intentionality with which he crafted you together it's not an accident it's not random it's not by happenstance there is greatness on the inside of you there is so much greatness on the inside of you and some of you you have looked at your current circumstance you have looked at the year to determine what's inside of you i'm going to say it again you've looked at the year to determine what's on the inside of you and so many times in life we get so caught up with our circumstance and we let start shaping what our future is going to look like how we're going to make decisions who we're going to be friends with who we're not going to be friends with if we're going to do certain things and god is saying hey listen regardless of if the seasons change i don't regardless of if the government changes i don't so you can be up in haywire there can be racial tension you cannot know where you're going to go to school and you can still have peace you can still have contentment you can still have purpose because i know what i put in you and i put it in you because i knew what you were gonna go through like god knew what you were gonna go through so he put things on the inside of you to prepare you for this very moment there is so much greatness on the inside of you through this year um you know this is perfect i didn't even tell you to wear that shirt ron john is that's just your name now like it's become like this alter ego ron john um ron john is wearing a bulls t-shirt and uh the last dance came out if you haven't watched the last dance these people have had me heard me yap about it for way too long but um it's a documentary on michael jordan and it's showing really just how insanely good he was at what he did like there was so much dedication so much commitment and it made me start thinking of what it takes to be great like there are so many people who are so great at what they do they're so talented at what they do and i started asking myself like what does it really take to be great what does it take to accomplish great things to to do something worthwhile to do something that leaves a lasting impact just recently um on august 24th it was kobe bryant's birthday and and and i was looking at that and just thinking about someone that was so great that impacted the world that literally the the way we did things was changed we had a day after him and i was like how does an individual live their life in such a great way that it goes beyond them and i realized that great people have a lot of different things like there's a natural like if you think of people who are great at stuff there's natural things that they have one thing i realized is great people um they usually have an amount of influence like and whether this influence has been given to them or they they earned it like there's something people naturally associate if you have influence you're great this is the way our culture works like we automatically assume if you have a lot of followers on instagram you must be great if you have a lot of people that talk to you or if you um you know everybody wants to be your friend you automatically be are great but i started challenging that concept because there are people with influence who haven't made the commitment to be great now i don't want to say this in any type of way that's like offensive or or trying to come for anybody but influence is not the only attribute attribute of greatness there is more and and what i'm saying this because is i want to talk about influence for a second so many people we have this idea of how much influence we would like to have and i'm saying that in the context of you know we are in um it was funny i was looking the other day i got one of those uh what's the app time time hop you know like you were saying that i don't even know i had the app you ever got apps on your phone they're like well i still have that what the world so it popped up and it showed like my first post on instagram ever and it was just horrible it was like you know the the brown like sephia filter and then it was like the contrast was all the way up it was just so bad i was so insecure and i didn't know what i was doing anyways but um i was looking at this post and i was thinking about i remember when instagram first came out and it was just so like oh dang like how many people i literally my first like 10 photos have three likes and it's like my dad mom and little brother like it's like but i started thinking about this concept of influence and really how even social media has shaped how we have connected influence to someone's ability to be great like we have taken the fact that if i'm gonna be great i have to have this amount of influence if i'm gonna be impactful i have to have this many followers people have to know my name when i walk in a certain place people have to know who i am and i came to challenge your definition of greatness because the truth is many of you have made a definition of greatness that excludes what god put on the inside of you and if you could get some perspective from the one who created you you would stop comparing yourself you would stop looking around for other people you would stop setting unrealistic goals and you would find a confidence that understands whether i have a thousand people whether i have a hundred thousand people or a million people following me my greatness is not determined by my influence but my greatness is determined by the great one and what he put on the inside of me some of you need to realize that regardless of the amount of influence that you feel like you have it does not determine your ability to be great so many times we associate so many times in my life we associate our ability to step into the greatness that god has called us to and we say you know what it when i get to that point then i can really walk in it like this is what we do we have these like these imaginary i did so so much i had these imaginary markers where i was like by that time i'll be filling the blank like by the time i'm this age by the way and the bad thing is like that i'm realizing is literally i said one of the first markers i remember setting is like when i'm married i'll probably be more like i'll be more mature or i'll be able to handle myself in a certain way and then i got married and i was like i'm still kind of dumb like i'm still like i'm not like where i thought i would be and then i was like well you know like by the time we have our first kid and then arlo shows up on the scene and i'm like i'm still kind of dumb like well by the second one i'm 27 two kids and i still got some issues so i'm saying that to say if we set these markers these spots but we don't take something i want to talk about this we're going to talk about if we don't take responsibility for now if we if we always project that one day i'll be filling the blank what happens is is samuel shows up on your doorstep and you think i'm only. what happens if you don't take responsibility for now god shows up on your doorstep and he says hey it's time to break that generational curse that's been on your family for a lot your whole life it's time to change the narrative of the story and because you haven't focused on now and you've been focused on when i have all this influence or when i become this or when i do that you're not ready for what god has called you to but the thing is he's been preparing you this whole time i want to talk about um this idea of influence and responsibility write this down influence is given responsibility is taken influence is given responsibility is taken in saul's life when he is uh kind of nominated or acknowledged to be the first king that influence was given to him like he didn't it wasn't like saul was like yo he's going you remember when you were in school and you and some of you are in school so it's very easy for you to remember um but when you people would run for like class president you had to make all the signs saul wasn't running for class president like literally god comes up to him in the form of samuel he says hey just so you know you and your family are the hope of all of israel so his influence was given to him now what's so interesting to me in the scripture in 1st samuel 9 is this is what happens sometime and again we're talking about greatness about influence about responsibility when god starts to call out the greatness that is in you the enemy immediate start immediately starts attacking not who you will become but who you already are let me help you in scripture it says right here in verse 21 in chapter nine i'm only from the tribe of benjamin the smallest tribe in israel my family is the least important of all those families of the tribe why are you talking to me i've always heard the scripture where saul was like hey listen i'm not that big of a deal i don't know why you're talking to me like this but no one ever showed me the first verse in chapter nine it literally says there was a wealthy influential man named kish from the tribe of benjamin this is saul's dad literally in scripture he's like hey i'm not a big deal i'm like i'm the smallest of all the tribe in our family literally god is trying to give him influence he came from influence but he can't see it he can't just like many of you god has called you great he's called you anointed he's called you to be one that is changing things and you can't see that the very thing he's called you to it's not this lofty idea that one day you'll have to arrive he says i'm calling you who you've always been listen some of you need to realize the things that god's spoken on your life it's not this different person it says god that's actually who you are right now i just got to show you here's the here's the uh dichotomy of or or the or the duality of being great and being called you are chosen but you still have choice so many of us what happens is is we start questioning am i chosen like in this moment saul is thinking like am i really chosen like why would you pick me why would you and this is a real thought like i've like god why would you pick me will you've shared your story so many times about what god has done in your life and yeah i mean will let me i leaned over like this because will was and is a gangster but he was a little more real real gangster uh in his in his latter days latter days is that right i'm just all over the place anyways but i'm talking is to say is it's been amazing to see in will's life that when god called will and his story is so beautiful he literally he said god called he was literally in jail and god spoke to him that you're gonna pastor people you're gonna be a leader you're gonna be the thing was god knew that that was always in him it wasn't like hey you're gonna do this one day and it's not really you so you should feel really afraid god was calling out what was always in him in the same way there are things that god will speak to you that don't look like your current circumstance but it's still you it doesn't look like your current position it doesn't look like your current level of confidence it doesn't look like your current amount of peace that you have but god said this is still you and some of you you need to stop doubting the word that's been spoken over your life and you need to realize regardless of how i feel right now if i feel insecure if i'm comparing myself to people if i feel like i may not be able to reach it god is saying hey it's still you and i'm gonna show you how to grow into who you've always been how does it that this is how good god is he allows us to grow into ourselves like he allows us to become who we've always been he gives us grace to grow into who we already are and this is the thing when we're talking about greatness when we're talking about influence what i love is again that statement influence was given but responsibility is a choice and when it comes to influence and the greatness that god has put on the inside of you i want to talk about the choice and the part you have to play many of us we downplay our anointing our responsibility in the call of god in our life and when you downplay your part you give yourself an excuse to require less of yourself when you downplay the greatness on the inside of you you set a low standard so that you can maybe feel better about yourself maybe out of fear maybe out of fear of failure out of worry of maybe i won't be able to reach it but what's happening is is when you are not taking when you god gives you influence just like he did to saul but you are afraid to take responsibility and own it own it it gives you an excuse to live beneath your anointing i'm going to say it again when you do not take responsibility when you realize that you know what i have influence but i won't take responsibility it gives you an excuse to live beneath your anointing and the truth is no matter how old you are no matter if you're in school out of school if you're about to graduate if you're just going into middle school if you're in high school many of you you're living beneath your anointing now some of you are like charles but anointing what are you talking about anointing is the approval of god it's god's hand on your life it's god saying i'm with this person in a special way i've uniquely designed them in a way that i haven't designed everybody else and many of you because you're maybe afraid because you're worried maybe because lies that have been spoken over you your god has given you influence but because you're so insecure and you're focused on the wrong voices you're not able to stand in confidence and take responsibility for what he's put on the inside of you but today that's going to change today you're going to realize that regardless of what lies people have said regardless of the lies i've even believed about myself i'm going to choose to focus on who god says i am i'm gonna choose to focus on who he says i am and i'm gonna realize that i not only has he given me influence but i'm taking responsibility today i'm gonna stand in my spot i'm gonna stand in confidence in security not in comparison and i'll be the one to change the games come on some of you you're going to stop looking for someone else to step up in a spot you're going to stop looking well if my mom would just change it or if my dad would just change it or my siblings are a little bit older than me no god called you and it doesn't matter how old you are it doesn't matter what you've done today is the day where you stand up and you say you know what i'm taking responsibility for the influence that god has given me some of you today and here's the thing even when i say influence some people start thinking a certain amount of people influence does not have a number connected to it you have influence with anybody you're around you have influence with people that that go to your school you have influence with people in your home you have influence with people you go to church with you influence is simply the relational equity it's spending time together it's it's being impacted by someone you have influence but when you downplay the influence god is giving you it gives you an excuse to not take responsibility and here's the truth a lot of people want influence but they won't take responsibility a lot of people want to be like a lot of people they want to be known they want but they don't have any responsibility for what they say for what they do for how they treat people but greatness is not simply influence greatness is influence aligned with responsibility and if you would step up and say you know what today i'm gonna recognize no matter how many people it is i have influence but i'm gonna take responsibility for this influence you're chosen and you still have a choice that's the that's what god does he says i choose you but i also give you a choice that's what he did with saul saul didn't like i said he wasn't running for class president got chosen but every time god chose him when god anointed him when god empowered him and when god ultimately assigned him to the position in between at each one of those moments he had a choice and every single day you have a choice you have a choice to acknowledge what god has put on the inside of you or you have a choice to downplay it you have a choice to stand in confidence or you have a choice to stand in comparison you have a choice every single morning when you wake up will i accept the responsibility that god has given me will i stand in the unique spot will i recognize that regardless of how many people i i have following me on instagram that god has gifted me a unique way to be great and i'm going to take responsibility i want to look forward in this in this story and there are a couple of moments that happen in saul's life and the first one is in um in chapter 9. in chapter nine when when he is chosen there's a choice that saul has to take ownership there's a church now here's the thing when you uh there's a difference have you you know y'all ever you were into the house or rented an apartment you know when you're renting something it's different than when you own it like when you're when you're renting something your level of responsibility and care is just different now like again i'm at all these markers that by the time i fill in the blank i would be blank and one of them is me and my wife just moved into um a new home and we're in the process of buying it and in the process of that we started doing all these projects ron john i was building so much i built playhouses i was drilling stuff in the wall okay this is an l y'all i don't even know if i've told this story let me send people that i literally screwed up a tv that boy fell out the wall and busted yeah that's a real story y'all just a whole tv the production people are shook right now because that's the actual they didn't know that it's a real story the tv i have right now was not the first tv i bought that's why you don't do stuff by yourself i could have called my homies i thought no you know what i could do this i hung it up there i was like wow that's nice and it just ripped right out the wall and yeah it busted shattered and it's just in a box in my garage right now just a whole brand new tv shattered anyways why was it yeah ownership there we go that's all thanks destiny i realized as i was doing all these projects me and my wife um we signed what's called an intent to buy so we're in the process of buying our house but we don't own it yet and i realized that you can live in something and still not take ownership of it so you can be in the position that that you've always dreamed of you can be in the spot that god has anointed you for but you have a choice to sign the papers you see when me and my wife buy this home until we sign our name on the dotted line that says we're taking ownership we're going to have to sacrifice we're going to have to pay it's going to cost something until we take ownership of it there's a level of responsibility that we can't ever take it's the same way when it comes to the chosenness and i don't even know if that's the thing chosen this the anointing that god has put on your life it can be in you but you not own it and many of you there's something that god has put in you but you haven't taken ownership of it and this is what happens throughout saul's life he literally has so many moments and i'm just going to go through these real quick in in first samuel 9 20 is when saul is first chosen but in that moment he has to decide okay god has chosen me but will i accept or god has called me but will i accept the call this is a choice that you'll have to make if someone were to call me right now it doesn't matter how many times they call me i still have to accept the call i still until i push accept it doesn't matter what they're saying it doesn't matter if they're calling me to tell me i won a million dollars it doesn't matter what the message is until i accept the call i'm never never able to receive the information the things that they want to tell me maybe if there's a blessing on the other side of it and in the same way god is calling some of you but you're too worried to answer the call you're too fearful to answer the call but today you're gonna answer and you'll say you know what regardless of how i feel regardless if i'm worried i'm gonna answer the call and i'm gonna take responsibility so he got called but he had a decision am i going to accept it the second thing that happens in solid life is in verse 10 is he's chosen or called and then he's anointed in the scripture i want to show you this in first samuel um it says this and i've got to flip back through it hopefully i can find it in a way that's not awkward hey oh look at god um it says right here in verse in chapter 10 verse 1 then samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it over saul's head he kissed saul and said i am doing this because the lord not samuel this is the thing people don't approve you then i'm going to hit this real quick the anointing of god is god's approval he said i'm doing this because the lord has anointed and appointed you i'm doing this because god chose you some of you need to realize there is no human on earth that can give you the approval that some of you are looking for some of you are looking to people to tell you who you are you're looking to your parents to your friends you're looking to the kardashians you're looking to whoever you're looking to different people and you're saying if you would just tell me who i am if you would give me security if i dm that guy or if i if i snapchat that girl maybe i'll start to feel approved but until you understand that god has approved you until you understand it says in jeremiah 1 5 before you were in your mother's womb i knew you when you get your approval from god man's doesn't matter when you get your approval from god it doesn't matter else who it doesn't matter anybody else who tries to approve you what they say about you because you're approved by god in this moment it says he is approved by god i'm doing this because the lord has appointed you as the ruler over this moment over the israel in this moment again he's chosen it's not a question if he's chosen it's question what is his choice going to be it's not a it's not a matter of if he's the guy it's not a matter if he's going to be able to do it it's not it's the question is will you accept it and this is the question that god presents to us today i've chosen you i've equipped you i've given you influence i've put greatness on the inside of you but you have a choice every single morning will you walk in that anointing here's another thing that happens as we go on throughout the scripture it says that he's chosen for the job but then there's a moment where he's anointed and then there's a moment where he's empowered and i want to read this because these are so many different things god chooses you he approves you and then he empowers you and this is the order and here's what many of us want ron we want god to empower us before he chooses us we would much rather say god give me all of the skill first so i feel confident in what i can do then i'll step into the position then i'll step up and be the leader but god says i choose you before i empower you so that you know it's me because if i gave you everything before you would think that you did it if i gave you that gift now you would think you did it but god said i choose you first then i tell you you're approved and then i give you everything you need listen some of you this is gonna help you so much because you feel like right now you don't have what it takes you feel like i feel like god's calling me to something that's greater than me and it's god is saying hey listen it's in you but i'm going to choose you and i'm going to say it to you i'm going to assign you to this position before i reveal what those gifts are on the inside of you and here's the thing i'm going to say this statement when you say yes it gives god the space to transform you in the process i'm going to say it again when you say yes to being chosen it gives god access to transform you in the process and it's not trying to change you it's revealing who you already are this is what he does to saul in the scripture it literally says in chapter 10 verse 6 it says at that time the spirit of the lord will come powerfully upon you you will prophesy listen to this you will be changed into a different person now some of you are like charles you just said it's always in me it's good it's it's the same me what do you mean what god does is okay let me illustrate this way if if if you if y'all would have met me at in middle school four foot seven charles i was four i was so short guys it was really bad it was really bad i'm this i'm still charles but i'm different like if you were to say like look at yourself 10 years ago or five years ago it's not that you're not you you're just different you're not and when god says hey you will be changed into a different person it's like saying hey the same person you were in middle school is not the same person you are in high school but it's still you the same person i was at 19 is not the same person i am at 27 but it's still me what happens is is your yes gives god access to transform you in the process many of you because in really the choice you have in this moment when god says i want to empower you that's what happens as the holy spirit comes upon you and that's the empowerment of god the ability to to to do things outside of your natural human ability he says when i empower you you have a decision to submit to the process of transformation that's the choice that you have you're chosen but you still have your choice and your choices will you submit to this process will you allow me to change who you thought you were going to be i had this idea for a sermon series and monday one day we'll do it and then literally this happens this has happened a couple times i had ideas like oh this is gonna be strong and then pastor steven ferdinand preached the whole sermon i'm like well i guess i won't be doing that one literally it was like a six week sermon series he did the whole six weeks in one sermon so i was like wow maybe that's how you do that so anyways but i had this thought that like it's 2020 is not what i thought like and and honestly my life my job what my friend group it's not what i thought and i started realizing that what if the the disappointment of what we thought life was going to be was always the destiny that god had created for us like what if understanding that it's not what you thought god said this to me he said charles if it was what you thought i couldn't do with ephesians 3 20. because he does exceedingly abundantly more than you could ever ask think or imagine and many of us are struggling with our inner greatness because we set a picture of what life was going to look like and now we're struggling with our picture and god's plan and it's causing you to not have the confidence you need but really what you have to do is submit to the process when you say yes it gives god access to transform you in the process but again that takes responsibility that takes a choice that stakes humility that takes having people in your life that'll say hey that there's something that's a little off and i want to correct it in you hey there's something that you may not realize but when you're just telling a funny story you kind of start to cut people down and really it seems like because you're insecure but if you allow realize that you don't have to prove anything that you don't have to be anybody you're not if you would get secure in those things you would realize that just because it's not what you thought doesn't mean it wasn't in god's plan just because you don't have the amount of influence or the amount of friends or maybe some of you in the season you've lost friends like maybe some of you in this time of being quarantined and being separated there have been there have been friends that were in your life that were like yo we homies forever and now you ain't talk to him at all what if the disappointment was always a part of your destiny like i had this thought and will this is this is the thing i think sometimes it's hard for us to to um to like make sense of god's plan and it makes sense because it says his ways are not his ways thoughts are not our thought but it's so funny that we look at this year and for so many people it's like oh my gosh this is the worst year this is horrible i didn't see this coming but i realized i heard people say and i've said this before like man this was just not in the plan like this was like 2020 wasn't in the like i just did not my life going this way this decision it wasn't in the plan me your store me going to jail at this age wasn't in the plan like me struggling with this it just wasn't in the plan like me moving wrong was traveling around the world and they came here to plant and be it just wasn't in the plant like and god said to me he's like let me help you with that statement it actually was always in the plan wasn't in your plan but it was always in my plan scripture says many other plans of a man's heart but god's purpose prevails many of you the detours in life the things that have gotten you off track you feel like it's not in the plan god said it's always been in my plan it was always in my plan as we go to the end of this scripture and really kind of um where saul's story starts to change there's that moment where he's chosen and he has this moment where he says you know i'm only a benjamite like i'm just i'm just i'm just a and i've had that language in my head for so long it's been so stuck that every time god has asked me to do something my immediate thought is i'm only like i'm i'm not i'm not qualified i'm not the person for the job i'm just i'm not i'm and in that moment what's happening is i don't know if we always understand that many times god chooses us for a purpose but really what allows us to make the decision or the choice to take responsibility for that is our perception so what many of us are battling in 2020 is god's purpose and our perception our god's purpose and our perception our view our perspective what we thought was going to happen our outlook what happens if you get too connected to your perception or your perspective you will miss that god always had a purpose saul had a perspective and a perception of himself that he was only a and because of this for self-perception it was hard for him to truly walk in god's purpose and many of you right now there's a self-perception or a perspective of who you are of what god has put on the inside of you and until you submit that to god until you allow that to die i was having a conversation with someone that said you know what charles i think so many people the issue is is we don't know how to grieve and when we talk about grief like many times we talk about grief in the context of loss like someone passing away but grief isn't connected to loss of only life it's just loss and many of us we feel like we've lost something we feel like we lost where we thought we would be by this time we thought we lost the love of our life many of us we have lost our picture of what our life would look like now and i was talking to this person they said until you grieve that loss until you have a funeral for what you thought it would be for how you thought it would look for the father you thought you would have for the mother you thought we until you grieve that loss there's always a piece of you that is hanging on to this other picture there's always a piece of you that is insecure there's always a piece of you that is worried about what they're going to say and what they're going to do and some of you you need to go through the grieving process for what you thought 2020 was gonna be you need to understand that okay i am disappointed maybe i'm not where i thought i was gonna be maybe i'm not who i thought was getting but you have to let that die because it's only until oh my goodness here's the thing thank you holy spirit you only can see god's power i'll say it this way god's power is revealed through death what do you need the power for unless it's dead what do you need the holy spirit for if it's still alive and well why do martha and mary do they ever talk to jesus if their brother isn't dead does jairus ever push through and come to jesus and say come heal my daughter if she's not dead does does what what happen until there's a death there is no need for the resurrection power and life and many of you right now you have to let your picture of you your insecurities the things you thought you were going to do the influence you thought you would have god is saying if you would just let that thing die i promise you i would come back and i would raise it from the grave and it would be different it would be stronger it would be better listen some of you right now my challenge to you is to stop setting markers of where you will be one be where you will be one day and just take responsibility for now what here's the thing the bible talks about who can add a day to their life by worrying who can what what is that going to do many of you right now you're worried about your future you're worried about maybe the things that god's put in your heart today god is saying hey just take responsibility for now like the influence i've given you now the friends i've put in your life now the dreams i've put in your heart now because the thing is now always shows up tomorrow and that's the thing i think we think tomorrow shows up tomorrow but today shows up tomorrow think about it we think like tomorrow will be whenever but today always shows up tomorrow how you think about yourself today shows up how you're going to think about yourself tomorrow how you treat people today shows up how you treat people tomorrow and god is saying hey don't worry about the influence of tomorrow take the responsibility for today don't worry about the plans of tomorrow but take responsibility for today don't worry about the friend group you're going to have tomorrow but take responsibility for today don't worry about where your family is going to be tomorrow but take responsibility for today don't worry about the business i'm gonna ask you to open up tomorrow but take responsibility today don't worry about the song that you'll write tomorrow but write the song today don't worry about the thing you'll do one day but take responsibility for today saul saul's today showed up tomorrow and the thing is it didn't just impact him a young man comes on the scene named david and there's this giant that saul is supposed to kill i never thought about that did you think that if saul would have killed his own giant that david would have never [Music] like there are people this is this is a thought i'm never having there are people that are having to fight battles at a young age that they didn't they're not even supposed to be fighting at that age a boy isn't supposed to fight a giant a man fights a giant but if you don't take responsibility now god will have to empower someone who's not even supposed to be in that season and it'll all work out in god's plan but many of you if you if you don't take responsibility today your little sister will have to fight something that she was never supposed to fight at that time many of you if you don't show up today your children are gonna have to fight something and god will be with them and he'll empower them it'll work all things together for the good of those who love him are called according to his purposes but saul goliath was saul's giant david shows up and he's like if you ain't gonna do it i'm gonna do it and look at the language of saul the perception the view of himself that was today when he was called that was today when he was anointed when he was empowered it shows up tomorrow look at the scripture there's no way you can fight this philistine and possibly win you're only a boy the i'm only that he perceived about himself he projected onto other people who were called by god the reason you have to get a right view of yourself today the reason you have to take responsibility for the influence god has given you today is because it's not even about you it's not even about what you're going through right now it says god i want to teach you something right now i want to give you a confidence right now that is able to empower other people that's able for people to show up and you not compare yourself but to empower them and celebrate them some of you today god's challenge and word to you let's don't worry about tomorrow don't don't downplay your influence don't downplay what i've put in your life some of you you're and i'm saying this because i remember being in this spot i remember um i'm trying to think of which which story to tell i remember when uh i was in i think i was in middle school or maybe a freshman in high school and um i was joking about it earlier but your boy was short i'm still short and i think god did that to humble me if i was like three inches taller i would just i wouldn't be following the will of god for my life god knew what i could handle um but i remember i was so insecure of like literally just how tall i was and people make fun of me and all this stuff that literally there was a moment where i packed up all my bags like i say all my bags i had like two bags you don't have a lot of stuff on here um i packed them up and i was literally about to run away from home i had no idea where i was going to go i was just like i can't take it like i just can't do it i'm not strong enough i don't know what like and it's funny how in one season the the uh the pressures of life that literally will be nothing one day the enemy can deceive you to think make you think that it's everything you know how many of them ninth graders i think about today when i woke up at six with my son but i almost made a decision that impacted him when it never would have mattered that's a different word for another day i'm about to run away from home and literally i'm about to go out the front door but i had to walk past my little brother's room i have a little brother his name's chandler he's uh he's not little anymore he's grown he's 18 and uh and i had to walk past his his room and right as i walked past his room he woke up and he kind of started wrestling in his bed and he kind of woke up and he was just like like he was probably four or five and he wakes up and i walk in his room and in that moment it was a moment of me realizing that if i run away from my purpose now like if i if i leave now what picture does he have what what view does he have how does he handle not and god said if you run away now it will show up tomorrow it'll show up in his hurt tomorrow it'll show up in his worry tomorrow and many of you i'm telling you the reason god is asking you to say the reason 2020 came was because he's trying to give you the right view of yourself he's trying to show you that hey you don't have to compare you don't have to worry you don't have to hide so i was hiding from who god called him to be so i'm going to take him home right now i just want to close in prayer for every person who's watching for two two groups of people some of you you've been downplaying your influence you've been downplaying i'm i'm not you know it's not that big of a deal or i don't have that many followers or i don't have that many friends or my family is not that big of a deal or or we've never you know you've been downplaying your influence today i want you to realize the influence and the anointing that god has put on your life that it's not like everybody and it's that's for a reason it's not in one hand you feel like man i'm just not that important but god could have chosen everybody to be in that family but he didn't choose everybody he chose you so that shows me that there's something in and on your life that is unique for that situation i want to pray right now for every person if you say you know what that's me i'm struggling with realizing the influence that god's given me or i'm struggling with realizing and seeing myself how god sees me i want to pray for you right now lord god i pray for every single person right now that is listening to this lord god i thank you that we would no longer downplay the influence and the anointing that you've put on our life we would no longer downplay the things that you put on the inside of us lord god but we would realize that there is greatness on the inside of that we have been chosen we have been anointed and we have been empowered by you i thank you lord god that people every lie of the enemy that they have believed every lie that they've believed about themselves that they're not enough that they can't communicate that they can't write the song that they'll never be confident enough lord i speak against that lie and i speak truth lord i thank you right now that they are called that they are anointed that they are confident that they are secure i thank you right now in the name of jesus that you know what you put on the inside of them and i thank you that their yes is giving you access to transform them through the process of god i thank you that they would submit themselves daily every day they wake up they would say god not my will but your will be done lord i pray and thank you lord god for your empowering spirit so we continue to pray there's some of you right now that it's not the issue is an influence the issue is responsibility the issue isn't whether you're chosen the issue is your choice you haven't decided to own it you haven't decided to walk in confidence but today you're going to realize that god has put everything on the inside of you that you've needed and he's going to reveal it to you in the process right now lord god i pray for every person that has downplayed their influence not only that lord god but they haven't taken responsibility i pray right now lord god that a sense of responsibility of ownership of confidence would rise up lord god and people wouldn't worry about tomorrow but they would take responsibility for today lord i thank you right now that every person that is listening lord god that as they own today as they own the anointing that god's put on their life as they own everything that he has done for them and in the lord god that there will be a sense of confidence and responsibility that would transform generations as we continue to pray there's some of you right now there's a choice you need to make and it's for jesus it's that clear some of you you will not be able to realize who you are until you talk to the person who created you nobody else can tell you they can't your parents don't have the answer your friends don't have the answer that person you look up to on instagram doesn't have the answer god has the answer and he is approved of you he cares about you he loves you and in this moment right now some of you need to accept jesus into your heart you need to submit your life to him you need to stop trying to do it on your own trying to act like you have it all together like you can do it by yourself in this moment if you would submit to god you would find that security that you're looking for unless god is enough until he is everything that you need until you surrender it to him no boy no girl no amount of money no amount of influence ever will be enough to fill that void some of you right now what i'm going to do is i'm going to pray a prayer and i want everybody who is watching this to repeat it after me and when i pray this prayer the bible says that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that jesus is lord you will be saved i'm believing that as we pray this prayer today your life would be transformed right now everybody that is listening repeat this after me say dear god thank you for loving me dear jesus thank you for laying down your life to save mine i've made mistakes save me change me transform me it's in jesus name i pray amen hey listen if you just prayed that prayer that is the best decision you could ever make in your life we're cheering because the bible says when one person comes in a relationship with god that heaven stops everything they celebrate they throw a party hey listen i want to challenge you get planted in a church elevation is one of the most amazing churches that you could be a part of watch online participate in e-groups and the e-fam and and get involved in elevation youth the leaders there the pastors there they care about you you don't have to be perfect we say here at transformation church you don't have to be perfect but god is about progression when you say yes he'll transform you in the process hey listen i love you so much god cares about you and my challenge to you today is to go out and live a transformed life love you guys thank you so much hey we hope you enjoyed that video honestly we create content like this just for you and whether you're engaging with your friends and your family or whether it's just with the comments below we would love for you to continue to do that make sure you subscribe click that bell for notifications and we hope to see you at the next video love ya

Channel: Elevation YTH

Views: 13,499

Rating: 4.9389734 out of 5

Keywords: elevation youth, elevation yth, elevation church yth, elevation church youth, youth ministry, student ministry, college ministry, high school, middle school, teenagers, youth events, what do I do with my teenager?, rhythm nights, elevation rhythm, youth experience, influence, choice, chosen with choice, transformation church, charles metcalf, yth catalog, responsibility, teen influence, responsibility of influence, mike todd, decisions, pastor mike todd, influencers

Id: mY2bs4AMXa0

Length: 53min 49sec (3229 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2020