God's Work In My Life

Introduction

God is sovereign over my future plans.

God is able and willing to use me for far more than I can even imagine.

Decisions game

What was the easiest decision?

God is preparing me today for the work that he has for me tomorrow.

What was the hardest decision?

Testimony:

Testimony:

Grew up at MBBC

Prayed and confessed Jesus as my Lord when I was only 6 years old

Prayed the prayer to receive Christ when I was 6 years old

Attended all of the summer camps, all of the church events, and each Sunday night I sat right where you’re sitting right now at Overflow.

Continued in church going to AWANAS, summer camps, winter camps, student gatherings, and anything I could go to

My faith was put to the test in high school when I realized that the choices that glorify God didn’t always match up with the choices I wanted to make for myself.

Hard decision in high school

I had to decide between (1) living according to my own desires, fitting in with the friends around me that I found worldly value in or (2) living according to God’s desires in my life and leading a countercultural life that would lead me to surrendering my own desires and even some of my relationships.

Between [genuinely living for Christ // continue living for my own worldly desires]

Living for Christ meant giving up friendships and changing the way I presented myself at school.

I chose Christ over myself and began to understand more of what it meant to follow him as my Lord. Today, looking back on that hard decision to surrender my own rights and my fleshly desires, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I had a mentor that helped me through that decision to begin genuinely living for Christ, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I grew closer to God through the rest of high school and into college.

Decision in going to college and into ministry

The summer after my sophomore year of high school, I went on my first mission trip to Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Between [pursuing my dream of being a music teacher // something else…?]

After high school, I pursued my dream of being a music teacher and went to study Music Education at UNT.

In the first year of college, God began to clarify what that ‘something else’ was.

With in the first year of college, God showed me that my dreams for my life didn’t line up with his dreams for my life.

My first of three summers in Alaska, God put a deep burden on my heart for surrendering my life to full time ministry.

Through college ministries and a summer in Alaska, God showed me how I enjoyed serving him in ministry.

So the decision became [pursuing my dream of being a music teacher // serving him in full time ministry]

I didn’t know exactly what this looked like, but I knew that it wasn’t in line with what I that he had planned for my life (my own dreams).

Over the next 3 years, I wrestled with surrendering my life to God.

… but it was more complicated, like [pursue my dream of being a music teacher // serve him in ministry full-time which means possibly giving up this skills I had worked towards in ministry and maybe even changing my area of study and definitely changing my track in life. . . and a lot of other stuff]

I would allow him to have areas of my life, but I still wanted to pursue my dreams above his.

So, I prayed… for 3 years, I prayed.

[pursue my dream of being a music teacher // serve him in ministry full-time which means possibly giving up this skills I had worked towards in ministry and maybe even changing my area of study and definitely changing my track in life. . . and a lot of other stuff]

It wasn’t until my last year of college that I fully realized that his plan for my life was far better than my own plan.

I tried ministry out in a lot of different ways and talked to a lot of people about it.

But, my reservation was that I wouldn’t be successful if I committed to going into ministry. So, God showed me .

English Standard Version Chapter 3

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Decision in what to do in ministry

Right after college, I decided to go to seminary and this season brought a ton of decisions and questions...

[worry about tomorrow // seek the kingdom today]

When you choose to seek the Kingdom daily you begin to hear God’s voice more clearly.

[worry about tomorrow

[stay // go]

Decision to go to Germany

God was clearly telling me to go, I knew that much.

But where to?

[stay // go somewhere else in DFW… Texas… US… the world]

Go to Germany, but why Germany???

Western Europe is quickly loosing its Christian influence.

60% of the people in Berlin don’t believe in a God.

There are millions of refugees moving to Germany who desperately need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, I began to pray.

Two months later, I was accepted onto a missions board.

One month after that, I was in Pennsylvania at a new missionary orientation.

Two months after that, I was in Germany for my first time.

And God will, I will be moving to Germany to serve God in this coming May.

Decisions that you will face

You are going to face all sorts of decisions in the next 5 or 10 years of your lives. Some bigger, some smaller.

Some bigger, some smaller.

But what is key in every decision that you face is that you seek the kingdom first

Pray, read, fellowship, do it all!

You will begin to clearly hear the voice of God in your life.

God is calling every single one of us to go.

What does that look like for you?