Wendy’s FCA Message May 8th 2008

The Following is Wendy’s message. It is longer than the typical blog but it needs to be read. I thank God for our Youth, Wendy you are one of my hero’s.

Ronnie

There is so much I could say. So many things I have thought about saying. When I went to resurrection this year there Starfield played a song called I Will Go. The words to that song really made me think. So, I’m going to have Cody play it really fast. Take a minute to listen to the words.

This song is all about being willing to go. To go and do whatever God may have for you to do. It’s about being willing to go whenever He calls you. It’s about wanting to find the people that need your help and being willing to go and help them.

The first verse is about the people in need of our help. The ones we need to be willing to go to. 

To the desperate eyes and reaching hands. These are the people who look to you, a person they see coming out of FCA every morning, and they wonder why you are so happy. They are reaching their hands out to you begging for help. They might not say anything out loud but you can tell they want what you have. They can’t see why you are happy, but they look at you with desperate eyes, calling out to you for help.

To the suffering and the need, to the ones the world has cast aside. Everyone has at some point in their day saw someone who was having a bad day and everything seems to be going wrong for them. Or you’ve saw someone being made fun of for the way they dress or act. Or you have looked at someone and known something was bothering them. Or you might know someone who has a bad home life. Those people are the suffering the need and the ones the world has cast aside.

Where you want me I will be. That should be us. The people in this room. We should be calling out to God telling him that no matter where He wants to take us, we are willing to go.

The chorus is our prayer to God telling Him we are willing to go to them.

The chorus says I will go Lord send me. This should be our prayer. We should be shouting this to Jesus telling him how willing we are to go. Telling Him to send us that we are ready to go.

To the world to the lost to the poor and hungry. We should be willing to go where ever He needs us. We should look for those people in our every day life. Search and find them where ever we look.

Take everything I am. You may not think you are much, but God thinks the world of you. There is nothing you can do to make Him not love you. And no matter how many mistakes you have made you are still something. We should be praying to God to take everything we are. All we have to offer we should offer to Him. 

I’m clay within your hands. How many of y’all have made a clay pot before. You took a lump of grayish stuff and made it into something that is useful. God can take you, whatever you may be and make you great. We are that grayish stuff that gets turned into something useful.

The last part of the chorus is I will go send me. That line is you humbling yourself. Telling God that you are willing to go where ever He needs you. We all have positions for God. I don’t know how many of y’all know anything about volleyball, but there are six positions. You have your setter, middle hitter, outside hitter, left side hitter, your middle back and your left back. Every position has a specific job that has to be done. The middle back and left back have to pass the ball. Without the pass the setter could never get under it to set it. Without a good set the hitters would never get a good hit. And while the hitter is hitting, if the other positions aren’t covering the ball can be slammed back down on the court. Every position is important, just like every person is important. Each person may do different things but if one person is out of place it can effect the whole team. We need to be willing to go into whatever position God might want to put us in.

The second verse is a prayer that you are able to go out and find the people that need your help. A prayer that your life makes changes. And that you can share God’s love with other people.

Let me not be blind with privilege. Don’t get caught up in the things you have. Don’t get caught in your little group of friends. Don’t get so caught up in the things you have and are lucky to have and forget about the people who really need your help.

Give me eyes to see the pain. Its like the song Open the Eyes of My Heart. It’s saying let me see the people that are suffering. The ones I have never saw before. Let me see how to help them. How many times do you hear a song for the first time and then all the sudden it seems like it’s everywhere you look. You hear it every time you turn on the radio or you hear it on a commercial. You hadn’t ever heard it before but all of the sudden it is every where. If you are looking for people that are in need of your help you will see them. You will be surprised by how many people are out there that you have never even noticed before. It might even be a really close friend. If you look you will find them.

Let the mercy you’ve poured out on me. Take a second to look around. The fact that you are surrounded by students in a Christian meeting is a mercy God has poured out on you. You have friends that will go with you to this meeting. Friends that would do anything for you. Look at Ms. Sasser, Ms. Pruett, and Ms. Matney. They are always willing to help you if you need it. Every morning you wake up and there are so many things around you that are mercies God has poured out on you. You may think you have the worst life in the world but you are always able to find at least one good thing.

Not be spent on me in vain. It says take the mercy God has given you and share it with others. Don’t let God’s great gift just waste. God sent Jesus and Jesus died for your sins. Even if you were the only person in the world Jesus still would have came and died for you. He has given you the most wonderful gift of all. He gave you a free ticket in to Heaven. All you have to do is say I accept. Its like if someone drove up to your house in a brand new cherry red convertible mustang and said this is a gift to you. You would say what is the catch. The person would say all you have to do is accept. Of course you would accept. Jesus is doing the same thing. But He doesn’t want his gift to be in vain He wants you to use it. You wouldn’t just accept the car and then leave it in the garage. You would drive it and be proud. Jesus’s gift is the same way. He gave it to you, you need to use it.

Let this life be used for change. Your telling God you want to use everything He has made you. The life He has gave you and you want to go out and change other peoples lives. I don’t know how many of you have been saved, but it is one of the most amazing feelings in the world. Your whole life has been changed. You don’t have to change your actions, but you want to so you can please God. Why do we do the things we do? Its because we feel the need to please someone. It might be pleasing your parents or pleasing your friends, your teachers, or even yourself, but you do it because you want to please someone. This line tells God that you want to please Him and you want to give others the same feeling you have. 

I want to live for You, Go where you lead me, I want to follow you. It is a simple prayer. A commitment to live for God and to follow Him and go where He leads you. No matter if He leads you into a fiery furnace like Meshach, Shaderach, and Abendigo, or if it’s a lion’s den like Daniel, if he tells you to build an ark like Noah, its about being willing to go and do for Him.

Where you think you need to be may not be where God wants to put you. What you want isn’t always what is best for you. Like when you were little and you would go out trick or treating on Halloween and you would come home with a big bag of candy. The candy looks soooo wonderful and as soon as you get home you start shoving it into your mouth. It taste good but if you get too much it will make you sick. Or you want to roll down the hill but when you get up you’re really itchy. You thought it would be a good idea to roll, but then you have to deal with itching the whole day.

Matthew 28:18 says Go and make disciples of everyone you meet in this way of life. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the ages.

God commands us to GO and tell people about Him. But, he lets us know we aren’t going alone. He says, He will be with us until the end of time, day after day after day. You may feel so alone, but your not. God tells us He will be with us. Don’t be afraid to go where God sends you. He created you and He would never put something in your path that would harm you. Some of my favorite verses are Matthew 5:3-4 which says, You are blessed when you are at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and His rule. You are blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. Those versus tell us that God knows we will go through hard times, but He tells us that we are blessed. And it really makes since, doesn’t it. When you are over stressed, and really tired and you don’t feel like you could go on you are more likely to turn to God for help. When you have something you concentrate on totally when do you find time for God? If you lose that thing you can find God again.

God also tells us in Matthew 5:5 You are blessed when you are content with just who you are- no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that cannot be bought. When you stop trying to be something you aren’t and start embracing who you are, you become confident within yourself. When your confident it is easier to show people God. God tells us that when we are content with ourselves we find ourselves proud owners of things that cannot be bought, things like happiness, love, confidence, just simple things that make everything so much easier. You are never going to be happy when you are trying to change yourself every week to fit the new trends. Your never going to find love when your trying to be someone your not. Your never going to be confident when you don’t know who you really are. If you can’t find those things yourself you are never going to be able to go and help other people find them.

God also tells us in Matthew 5:10-12 You are blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into Gods kingdom. Not only that- but count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens – give a cheer even – for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble. God knows that people are going to put you down because of your commitment to God. He says give a cheer. Because when people are putting you down its because they are uncomfortable. When they are uncomfortable it means something you have done has made them think. God says they don’t like it but He does. He tells us all heaven is applauding. Think about it. ALL heaven applauds. How many angles do you think are up there? There are MANY and ALL heaven applauds. God tells us we will be faced with these kind of people because His witnesses have always been faced with it, but you have to remember to keep on fighting because ALL heaven applauds.

James 2:28 says, Faith without works is dead. It doesn’t get any plainer than that. We have to Go and share our faith because faith without works is dead. It’s like if you had the cure to cancer. You wouldn’t just keep it all to yourself. You would go out and share it with everyone. We have the cure for something far worse than cancer. We have the cure to an eternity in hell. So, why are we not jumping up and down to share that?

Today as you go through your day, remember the words to the song. Make them your prayer. A prayer that tells God you are willing to GO for Him, where ever He sends you. Pray that you can find the people that need to hear about Him. And remember God told us that if we go out and work for Him we are never alone because He is with us until the end of the ages, day after day after day.