Youth Meeting (9/4/24)

Mission Statement

517 exists to develop a community of compassionate, life-long followers of Jesus.

Values

We believe that God’s Word is the the authority and guide for our lives.

We belong to Jesus and strive to live like Him.

We extend kindness to every person becuase they have value.

We encourage each other with our words and actions.

We server one another joyfully.

We extend grace and forgiveness to each other beaucause God does so to us.

House Rules

Don’t go into the side room.

Close the garage door after entering and exiting. (A door may be added at some point.)

Clean up after yourself.

Don’t hurl the carpetballs—finesse over brute strength.

The swings are seats and not playground equipment—no height goals.

Stay out of the stuff on the shelves.

Thank Pastor Joel when you see him because this space looks so nice because of his hard work.

What do we call you?

Mallory asked me what I wanted to be called which got me thinking about it.

I want to be called Pastor Jacob but we aren’t going to do that right now because technically I’m not a pastor in our denomination.

My ordination to pastor lies within the SBC—I’m in the process of being ordained in the PCA—but I’m not yet.

Humbling down story—martial arts.

So for the time being you can call me Mr. Jacob and when I get ordained we can celebrate that accomplishment by switching it up to Pastor Jacob.

Transition: Thanks for you attention—now I want to ask for a little more because I want to share my salvation story with you.

Mr. Jacob’s Salvation Story

My Background

I didn’t grow up in the church—but my Dad always told us there was a God.

He just didn’t tell us who God was—because he wasn’t sure himself.

Both my parents both came from really broken families and that brokenness followed them into their marriage. Alcohol was a life-long struggle for both my parents.

They got married becasue my mom became pregnant with me at 18.

My mom and dad both loved me and my brothers a lot but family life was hard and so my parents divorced when I was 8 years old and my two younger brothers and I went to live with my Dad.

We lived in poor conditions—our house was rich in love and poor in everything else.

Before Jesus

Before I met Jesus and He saved me I was sad…longing for identity & purpose…angry…I was tired...and was dissapointed in my life. (I felt in my heart that I was destined for greatness but that somehow it was passing me by)

These feeling ruled me. Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

All people are created to know God but before Jesus---in the hole of my life—I tried to fill it with drinking, pot, destruction, and recklessness. I didn’t make good decisions. I either tried to numb my feelings with substances or I chased adrenaline to forget.

My life was characterized by Ephesians 2:1–3 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

How did I meet Jesus

The short answer is summed up in Ephesians 2:4–5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”

God’s mercy and grace came to me and I met Jesus.

How? Two main ways:

Christian friends who really loved Jesus—do not doubt the power of your life lived well for Jesus.

A Church that preached the gospel.

I heard the gospel again

And I believed. I beleived that I was a sinner—that was easy. I believed that God is real. I believed that He is good which also meant He is just.

I believed that because He is just I—a sinner would have to give an account for all my sin.

I believed that if I had to do that the right judgment for my sin would mean spiritual death for me forever.

And most importantly I believed that Jesus died in my place, for my sin, and that because of that the penalty for my sin was given to Christ.

And I believed that Jesus was offering me acceptance and forgiveness and a place in the family of God as a cherished son.

I believe all of that because it is true.

After Jesus saved me

My emotions no longer rule me.

Sadness is tempered with the joy I have in knowing God.

I am happy knowing my identity and purpose. I’m a child of the living God, I belong to Him, and He has called me to know and love Him and expand His kingdom.

I’m no longer weary. My soul is no longer heavy.

And my longing for greatness is satisfied—before I Jesus I thought the greatness I was called to—that I felt drawn to—was about me. Like a celebrity.

My life is full of great purpose—but the focus of that greatness is rightly on Jesus. He is truly great.

God saved me. I was lost and He found me. And my life has never been the same and it’ll never be the same for all of eternity.

That’s the story of how Jesus saved me.

If you don’t know Jesus tonight is a great night to come to Him to be saved.

Does anyone want to know Jesus like I’ve talked about tonight?

Pray