Break the Ceiling

Honour Emmitt (gift)

Leadership Summit (week before camp)

Culture

Need stronger communication, please don’t text me like a youth kid would.

Youth Camp

We’re camp 1 Mon-Wed (send me availability asap)

Rego asap (early bird)

Give me your days available

Faith goals in by next Wednesday

Keep contacting your kids

bake sale and fr

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Message

What you walk in expecting is what you walk out receiving.

Sometimes we go to the bread of life just expecting crumbs.

He’s got more for us than that.

The most valuable property in the world is a graveyard.

Buried in every graveyard is every unfulfilled dream, unwritten songs, unreconciled relationships, potential.

Potential has an expiration date.

Don’t let it expire.

Specifically in youth; your tenure in youth has an expiry date, with that is your potential in youth which also has an expiry date… don’t let it expire.

Fulfilment precedes expiration.

Fleas in a jar experiment:

Fleas placed in a jar with a lid will initially jump and hit the ceiling, but after repeated painful collisions, they learn to jump just below the lid height. Even when the lid is removed, they supposedly continue jumping at this lower height and pass this "learned limitation" to their offspring.

The enemy wants us to think that we can never grow higher than the ceiling above us.

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Luke 5:17-20 NIV, “17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralysed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

These men had such a burden for their friend to be healed that they recognised they needed to get him into the presence of Jesus.

But they also recognised they had multiple barriers in their way.

Their limitations:

Impenetrable crowd

Social barrier (disrupting a formal religious gathering was bad news)

They had a house to get on top of

They had a ceiling to break (physically difficult and financially risky)

Their burden exceeded their limitations.

What is your ceiling?

What are your limitations?

Often God doesn’t remove our ceiling/ limitations, rather He allows us to encounter them so we can break through them!

And just because God allows us to have ceilings, doesn’t mean he wants us to be content with our ceilings, but to break through them!

If your laziness is your ceiling, you need to break it.

If the fear of leading people is your ceiling, you need to break it.

If the busyness of uni is your ceiling, you need to break it.

If the struggle of loving yourself or others is your ceiling, you need to break it.

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke 6. Healing a Paralytic (5:17–26)

Jesus’ attention to the faith of the man’s helpers demonstrates the important fact that God responds to the intercession of others regarding a person in need.

Your faith for others matters!

Verses 21-26, “21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralysed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

Imagine the ripple effect of your young person’s breakthrough.

My life was radically changed from an encounter with the Lord at a Youth Alive event.

When you allow limitation in your life, you limit how God reaches people through your life.

WHAT DO WE NEED TO BREAK THROUGH - WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

WHITEBOARD MOMENT?

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How to break the ceiling…

a) Outwork Actionable Faith

Jesus saw the men’s faith expressed through action, not just their belief.

Jesus responded to their faith

Our faith requires resilience.

Resilience to love on people

Resilience to pray for our youth ministry, even during stormy days

Resilience to go the extra mile to get people to youth camp

Alvina’s resilience with Harper.

Harper’s Dreamers Day testimony.

Like Abraham who "against hope believed in hope" (Romans 4:18), breakthrough often requires pressing forward when circumstances seem difficult, unfavourable, or even impossible.

Mark 10:46-52 NIV, “ 46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

Bartimaeus’ ceiling:

He was blind.

He had no name.

“Son of Timaeus” meant he was a nobody - known by his dad’s name.

3. He was a beggar.

The law forbid beggars from calling out for money.

He risked having his mat to collect money taken away.

4. He threw his cloak aside.

Likely his blanket, collection mat or protection from the elements.

He got rid of his safety net.

How many of us are holding onto our safety net?

Bartimaeus didn’t settle for his ceiling.

Rather Bartimaeus BROKE his ceiling.

Just as Jesus asked Bartimaeus, “what do you want me to do for you?” God’s asking the same question to us…

You have an opportunity to respond tonight.

If you’ll allow Him, God will empower you to break your ceiling.

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How to break the ceiling…

b) Pray

I believe we lack sensitivity of God’s presence because we lack a genuine fear of God.

Have you lost your reverence for God?

Since when did work, my career, uni, my friends, my desires become more important than my relationship with God?

Ecclesiastes 12:13 - "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind."

Malachi 3:16 - "Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard."

Hebrews 12:28–29 “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

James 5:13-18 NLT,

“Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. [Are any of you struggling with Uni? You should pray. Are any of you feeling unmotivated? You should pray. Are any of you feeling stuck in life? You should pray.] Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.”

Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray and PRAY!

Part of the wonderful results that prayer produces is a greater burden for what you’re praying for!

1 Timothy 4:12 “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

Being an EXAMPLE should be our main thing for the next generation.

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Prayer time:

Put on worship and get team to spend time with God.

Pray for God to lead leaders back to Him.

Pray God would empower leaders to break their ceiling.

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