13 Lessons, part 2

So, last week I posted part one of this and I continue now with more lessons I've learned in 13 yrs on this journey with Christ as my Lord. I've developed these lessons into a sermon series and am preaching this to our Grace Alive Youth Ministry on Wednesday nights at Grace Baptist Church, Belleview, FL.

Before I proceed with more lessons I've learned, it's worth noting that life is full of lessons and with each lesson comes an opportunity for us to either learn and grow from the experience or fail to learn and remain the same. I must be honest, I haven't always taken the former route, and quite frankly, I've taken the latter route too often. Let's remember that it's best to look at the experiences we go through as opportunities to become more experienced in life. Allow me to create an illustration that will hopefully clear that up: an employer seeking to hire an experienced professional is looking for someone with experience for one reason: they've most likely learned what to do/what not to do over the course of their years working in the field. In the same way, I believe that when God saves us, as we mature in our faith, we too will become more experienced and know what to do or not to do as it relates to our walk with God. So, many of these lessons have been learned the hard way, nonetheless, I am thankful I have had the opportunities to learn them and believe I have grown as a result of each experience.

Following are lessons 7-13 of the 13 lessons learned (see part 1 for the first 6):

7. OBEDIENCE TO GOD DOESN'T MEAN WE CAN'T HAVE FUN!
8. GOD IS ALWAYS IN CONTROL AND GOD IS FOR ME (AND YOU)!
9. THE BIBLE WILL KEEP YOU FROM SIN OR SIN WILL KEEP YOU FROM THE BIBLE! (this was a quote a preacher mentioned while preaching probably 10 yrs ago, and I wrote it down in the front of my Bible and have remembered it since...it's also very true.)
10. WORSHIP IS A LIFESTYLE, NOT JUST A MUSIC STYLE!
11. THE GOSPEL MESSAGE NEVER CHANGES, BUT OUR METHODS MUST IN ORDER TO REACH NEW GENERATIONS OF PEOPLE!
12. AGE DOESN'T MATTER IN CHRIST'S SERVICE...GOD CAN USE YOU NO MATTER HOW YOUNG (OR OLD) YOU ARE!
13. WE ARE SAVED TO GOOD WORKS, NOT BY GOOD WORKS! (Another way to say it: "We do good works because we're saved, not to get saved."

These lessons are not the only things that I have learned (as some of our teens have said: "wow, you only learned 13 things in 13 yrs" - LOL), however, they are thoughts that have stuck with me throughout this spiritual journey. These have become guding principles in my life, and knowing these lessons has allowed me to get a clearer picture of God and what He expects/desires of me.

My prayer is that each of you come to the same realization that I have: We serve an AMAZING GOD who wants to do AMAZING THINGS in our lives...but not just in our lives, He wants to do AMAZING THINGS through our lives to touch those around us in AMAZING WAYS.

Salvation is an AMAZING miracle and being able to serve the God of my salvation is an AMAZING opportunity. We believers must understand how great a responsibility we have and take our service to Him seriously.

I shall elaborate a little more in future post, but until then, I remain grateful to be in His service!