I want to give you a welcome to the, well, I guess it's an annual event of sorts, the Youth Service. And so perhaps you'll see a few different faces, you'll hear a few different voices this evening. Perhaps you've already had a different handshake on the door in. And as well, as you can tell, we want to thank Laura Ashley and the praise team for leading us so far this evening. For the rest of tonight, we're gonna see some different faces just behind the instruments, perhaps a little bit more nervous of faces, but really thankful that some of the young ones have stepped up just to play the instruments and help lead us in worship tonight too. So we've got lots on our program tonight, which, yeah, we'll invite the younger musicians to come up now. Lots on the program. I'm gonna try to be just brief as I introduce some of the different pieces, and we're trying to just get as many of the young people involved tonight as possible. And the goal, the heart of the young people tonight is just simply that the Lord would be gracious to be a blessing to you, part of their church family, that God would use them tonight to be a blessing to you. So I'm gonna invite Rebecca up just, Rebecca's gonna come and open in prayer for us, thank you. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for, Lord, how you've been with us this week. Father, we thank you, Father, for bringing us here tonight, Lord, that we can come and worship you. And Father, we thank you, Father, as the song just said, Lord, that you saw us in our helpless state, Lord, and yet you still came, Lord, and died for us so that, Lord, we could be reunited with you one day. And we thank you for that, Lord. And as I was reading today, Lord, Lord, we don't have to beg your spirit to come here tonight, Lord. Your spirit is going to be here if we are, Lord, exalting you and glorifying you, Lord, so that we pray in everything that we do, everything we say, everything we sing tonight, Lord. It would all be done for your glory, Lord. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. And we're gonna continue worshiping God. We're gonna sing, How Great Is Our God. This is a favorite of mine as well. And so we'll stand for this one. We'll remain seated for the offering, but we'll stand together. We'll sing, How Great Is Our God, the splendor of the king clothed in majesty. Thank you, Amy. ♪ Spirit of the free ♪ ♪ Open majesty ♪ ♪ Let all the earth rejoice ♪ ♪ Let all the earth rejoice ♪ ♪ As it shall be ♪ When darkness tries to hide and trembles at His voice, Oh Oh How great is our God! Sing with me, how great is our God! And all will see how great, how great is our God! Oh, what grace! Oh Oh Amen. You can take your seats. What a victorious hymn song that is. I love just singing the praises of how great is our God. If you're a believer, we have eternity to do that, but what a joyous truth to sing as we gather tonight in God's name as well. Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave We are your church, we need your help. We hunger and we thirst, refuse to waste our lives, for you're our joy and prize. To see the captive's hearts release, to hear them sing the full of peace. ♪ We thank the Lord, Lord, for heaven's cause ♪ ♪ We are your church ♪ ♪ We pray with heart, listen ♪ ♪ Build your kingdom here ♪ ♪ Let the darkness fear ♪ Oh, you're fighting hard in our streets and land. Let the troops of fire win this nation back. Change the atmosphere. Build your kingdom here, we pray. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? show you But let's just bow for a moment of prayer. Gracious Father, we do thank you that you are the divine healer, you're the divine savior, you're the divine fixer. Father of the brokenness that sin has wreaked upon our world, upon our planet, upon our relationships, upon our thoughts and our words, and the death, Lord, that it brought to our relationship with you. Yet we thank you, Father, that through Christ, through his sacrifice on the cross, through the redeeming blood of the Lamb, that you have called us out. You have made us into your people. Simply as a response of faith and belief, Lord, you have poured your grace and your mercy upon us. You have given us a delightful inheritance. And Lord, just we pause and we reflect. And Lord, we just let that truth soak into our hearts. And Lord, it stirs our love for you as we meditate on your love for us. It stirs our thanksgiving, Father, that in all situations, Lord, we know that this world is our trial. It is one characterized by suffering. But Father, the world that we are destined for as believers is characterized by your glory. Restored. Father, we do yet pray for those of our fellowship, of our church family, Lord, who are struggling, Lord, with mental health, with physical health, with perhaps just at a low spiritual ebb. We lift ourselves up before you, Father, acknowledging our weakness, acknowledging afresh our great need for you. Acknowledging our need for your touch upon our hearts and our lives. Acknowledging we need your wisdom and your guidance, Father, in the situations that we face. Acknowledging, Lord, that we need to repent too of many moments in each day. that we live in the flesh and don't live in the spirit. But Father, we thank you that your mercy is fresh each day, that, Lord, we can experience, we can live in the peace like a river of our walk with you through Christ. Father, as we continue to worship through offering, we just ask, Father, that we would give with a cheerful heart, and Lord, that you would multiply in kingdom terms, Lord, the fruit that will be eternal through this token of our love for you. In Jesus' name, amen. We'll remain seated just while the offering is lifted. We'll sing Be Thou My Vision. And maybe just in the final verse, if there is a chance to stand, we'll do that. But Be Thou My Vision, remaining seated while the offering is lifted. Thanks, Amy. ♪ I need all else to be safe and calm ♪ ♪ Thou art my soul, my day or my night ♪ ♪ Wake me or sleep me ♪ How I wish to know, How I to learn, How I ever be free, How it be done, How I be found, How I to learn, ♪ He fed me and I lived before him ♪ ♪ He loved my family, he sought for the light ♪ ♪ He loved my dignity, loved my delight ♪ Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh Ah! May I reach heaven's throne, O bright heaven's sun. I'll know my own one forever. Oh Hands up, I think I set us off on the wrong pace on that one. Blind leading the blind. Well, actually, no, that's an insult to the ones behind me. I do want to thank you guys for playing tonight. I do really want to acknowledge, as well, just the praise band never really get a break. They're always serving. And so just it's great tonight just to be able to enable you to worship amongst the fellowship tonight, something maybe that we could bless you with more often, too. There's me volunteering these guys to play more often. For the next few moments, Claire is going to come up. And between Claire and I, we are going to try to just share something from our hearts as to the blessing that the youth of the church have been in our own hearts, and maybe just to share something of a little bit of the challenge for the youth of our church to lay upon your hearts. And so we're going to get Claire to come up now as well before Tish will close out with an epilogue tonight. And so Claire will go first, and then I'll follow up. It's a great start, I'm shaking. On behalf of the youth of the church I just want to thank you all for this opportunity tonight and for the prayerful support for us throughout the year. It's such an encouragement to work with this group of young people and to see how they have grown and matured in so many different ways, mainly in their walks with the Lord. This happened last year too. They each have their own personal walk and they have all challenged each other, encouraged each other and shared with one another in many special ways. The Lord is using each one of them to be a blessing. Just on a personal note, you might not have noticed that I'm a bit older than the youth, but I am, just a little bit. But I see them as my friends, as well as my brothers and sisters in Christ. So it's such a real blessing to be a part of this community within the church. to be able to learn from them, pray with them, and for us to share each other's burdens. It's a wonderful thing that has really helped strengthen and encourage me in my own walk with the Lord. The youth really desire for God to stretch them in their spiritual lives and to use them in their schools, unis, and workplaces. Please pray for them in this. It's great to watch them grow in different giftings as well, such as the praise band. stepping out in faith to take on challenges outside of their comfort zones because they know God is leading them, and even just opening up to one another when that doesn't come easily for some of them. It's amazing to see what God can do in each one of our lives. And I have loved seeing everyone not just grow closer to each other, but closer to God throughout this year. So thank you again for this opportunity. And I really ask that you would continue to pray for our youth. as they face exams and other life decisions to come. And please remember that we are praying for you too. I probably should have written something down for this. Claire was like, you better put down bullet points so you'll sit down after and say, oh, I meant to say that. Yeah. Listen to your wives, people. But what I wanted to share just echoes what Claire has shared as well. In close community, in close fellowship with God's people, we find real blessing. We find something that does stretch outside of normal boundaries. We find that normal personalities or hobbies or interests, personality types, we find that actually in Christ, those things become, those differences can become secondary. And actually we find in the body of Christ, in the church of Christ, that when we do, I call it the pain line. When we cross the pain line with someone, perhaps when it's perhaps awkward, perhaps we're nervous to do it, to open ourselves up, perhaps there's a little bit more risk of getting hurt or so, of being just more vulnerable with those around us. Still, when we cross that pain line, as God calls us to with close fellowship, that we find blessing that we can't find in this world, because it's a blessing that is found in Christ. And so with, I guess, some of the challenge and some of the joy that I have as well, then, in just serving amongst the young people of the church, It's just experiencing that community, experiencing that, knowing that you have people who you can talk to, who you can ask questions of, who whenever you're facing difficulties in your life as well, that they'll be praying for you. And so I guess how God has been working tonight isn't about youth fellowship, although youth fellowship is the primary way of the primary arm or vehicle that the church has to disciple the young people of the church. And so I'm not talking about youth fellowship directly, I'm talking about the young people of the church who aren't the church of tomorrow, they're part of the church of today. That as we sit beside each other in these pews and as we worship the Lord and as we get fed by him and as we seek to be equipped to go into our schools and into our workplaces, into our families, that actually in this place we truly know the meaning of family. There is going to be just a couple of changes to let you know of as well, whereas for Youth Fellowship, for that side of things, for the last couple of years we have been split into two age groups, just there is a bit of a gap with age, and so for the better, appropriate, age-appropriate kind of discipleship, in a sense. We've had two age groups. Coming September, there will be a reversion back to one age group, and some of the older ones will be moving on. But what I wanted to announce to the church tonight as well is, Lord willing, come September, that there would be something new starting up just in the church, which isn't a Young Adults Fellowship. an all-age fellowship, because we've really seen, I guess, especially in the last couple of years, and especially as people come to faith, perhaps people without really any church background, and as God saves them and brings them in to our church family here, that we really, we need close fellowship with each other. We need to be past a first name kind of basis and actually be able to open up to each other, to trust one another, to look for opportunities to love and to build up one another. And so come September, we will hopefully then, if the Lord opens up the right doors for this, maybe a couple of times a month, be having a evening during the week where anyone who's an adult can come along for fellowship. Whether that be an informal kind of just over a cup of tea, just continuing to get to know each other, be it singing praise songs together, being at just open up the Bible together and just talking about what God is teaching us through his word. I believe it's really something quite exciting and something that I've really, I know the benefits of personally from really driving into closer community, closer fellowship with each other. I wanted to leave you as well with one challenge for the future, especially for the youth of the church. Many of them will be involved in SPARK, which is our local churches, local Christ-following evangelical churches. Many of our young people, and I would encourage you as well, it is not just an outreach between churches for young people, it is for older ones too. But what I would love to see happen this summer, that especially as young ones perhaps sign up to serve the Lord, maybe as a leader at camp, maybe through Spark, be it in whatever avenue, that Someone a little bit further down the road, and a little bit more mature, not just in years, but in their walk with the Lord, maybe would agree to partner with that young person. Agree to be their prayer partner for the week that they're serving. Maybe if they're in Spark, and they're doing the kids club, or if they're doing a wee mini fun day in the street trying to get involved speaking to parents, then maybe you could commit to even kind of call in one day, help them in their evangelism. Serve alongside each other. Partner in the gospel together. and that you can maybe just use a bit of your life experience to maybe calm their nerves beforehand, to maybe encourage them in the week of. And so I'm gonna put this out to you tonight, that if you would feel God just stirring you, that it's not, you don't have to come in and teach or do this or that, just simply partner with a young person as they step out for the Lord this summer. Would you come to me at some point tonight, in the next week or so, and say, yes, I'm willing to do this? Would you connect me to a young person that we could encourage each other in the Lord and build up those bonds within the body? So if you would come and do that to me, this is my challenge for you. Because this is really how I believe the body of Christ in this place will be built up. Through all generations, through all ages, loving one another, serving one another. So just to leave you with that challenge, please do come to me and give me your name for that. We are gonna just invite, as we've had many different kind of sharings tonight, we're gonna invite Letitia, who is finishing up her first year as the youth intern in the church. I don't know where the year has flown by to, but we're gonna invite Letitia just to come up and just to share some encouragement from God's word for us. Thank you. Hi, I just want to say, oh hey, hi Brian. I am so happy for this opportunity and just want to say thank you so much to the church for giving me this opportunity. I'm actually so glad I'm here because I was driving down from Banbridge, I was going past Dremore and my window wiper flew off. Don't know how that happened. And so it started to rain and I couldn't see anything. And I was like, I was trying to ring my dad. I was trying to ring my cousin, Adam. And I was thinking, Lord, I actually have to get here tonight, but I'm here safely and God's good. So happy days. So if we could just turn to Esther chapter nine, and we're going to take the reading from verse 18 to 32. Yeah, so Esther chapter 9 verse 18 to 32. But the Jews who were at the Shushan assembled together on the 13th day as well as on the 14th and on the 15th of the month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore, the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwield town celebrated the 14th day of the month of Adar with gladness and feasting as a holiday, for sending presents to one another. And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews, near and far, who were in all the provinces, and King Exurius, to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar. As these days in which the Jews have rest from their enemies, as the month which turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday, that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of sending presents to one another and gifts to the poor. So the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun as Mordecai had written to them, because Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them and had cast pure, that is, the lot, to consume them and destroy them. But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that this wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Jews should return on his own head and that he and his son should be hanged on the gallows. So they called these days Purim, after the name Pur. Therefore, because of all the words of this letter, what they have seen concerning this matter and what they had remembered to them, the Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would join them that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time. That these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province and every city that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants. Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abigail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Axurias with words of peace and truth to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had prescribed for them and as this as they had decreed for themselves and their descendants concerning matters of their fasting and lamenting so the degree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim and it was written in the book. Amen. Thank you for listening to that such long passage and maybe you're not so sure about the book of Esther, maybe you're not sure what's going on so I'm going to give you a quick whirlwind tour of what's happening in the book. So the story of Esther is set in Susa which is the capital of the Persian emperor And verse one speaks of how the king at the time, the king of Xerxes, in some translations, or Axurius, had reigned over 127 provinces, seemingly making it the most powerful empire in the world. And it continues in the book then to talk about how the king would show off his riches. And in verse four, we can see how he commanded his queen at the time, Vestae, to come wearing her royal crown in order to show and beauty to the people. Now, we're not so sure what this means. Some commentators maybe think that they were asking her to come wearing only the crown. Some think that it means not to have a veil on. But either way, this would have been very demeaning for her. And she actually decided not to come to show herself to the king. And this made him really angry and also the people around him. So then they decided to gather together and get a new queen. And as you do, gather all the women of the land together for a beauty competition. So yeah, that's what they did. We can read in chapter two that women from all over the provinces were gathered so the king could choose. And just to cut the story short, really, the king loved Esther more than all the other women and chose her to be a queen. But there was a man called Haman, and he was above all the princes. And he was with the king and all the king's servants who were in the king's gates. All of these people had to pay homage to Haman. But there was one man who didn't want to do this, and this was Mordecai. And Mordecai was Esther's cousin. And this really, really angered Haman, because he just did not understand why would Mordecai not pay homage to him. So this was how Haman responded. We can read it in chapter 3 and verse 6 to 9. And it says, but he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Axarius, the people of Mordecai. So actually, Haman wanted to destroy all of the Jews, not just Mordecai. And then in chapter seven, verses three to seven, we can see just how God used Esther in this situation. And it says, then Queen Esther answered and said, if I find favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request." And you know God was just so powerful and in doing so he used Esther and used Mordecai to save the Jews out of their destruction. And we can see then from the passage that we were reading in chapter 9 that this was a feast of celebration. And that's kind of like my first point, a face of celebration, not complaining. You know, so often in life that maybe God has taken us through something, but when we turn back and go, but this happened and this happened and this happened, we're not giving God the glory in that situation. And it's so important the way that we do use our words. It says in Philippians, do all things without murmurings and disputings that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world. And another verse in Proverbs says, a cheerful heart is good medicine. You know, God never let the Jews down, but at the time they were maybe really stressing because they knew that and Haman and his people wanted to destroy them. But you know, God didn't forget about them. It was God's perfect timing and he never left them nor forsake them and delivered them from this terrible situation. But you know, words are so powerful. Your actions and reactions are so powerful. And we can see then in the verses that we read that the Jews were celebrating and they were thanking God and they wanted to mark this occasion that God had delivered them. And my next point, though, is God is so good, he didn't abandon his people, he delivered them from destruction. But I wonder, has he delivered you? Because you see, just like these Jews were heading for destruction, Haman was going to destroy them. Likewise, we're born in sin, and you know, the truth is we're all born with that sin, and the wages of sin is death. So if you're not a Christian, we're actually heading for destruction, too. And it sounds really, like, It's so harsh, but it's the truth. But you know, God sent Jesus to deliver them, just like Haman and Esther, or just like, not Haman, just like Mordecai and Esther, God used. God sent Jesus, his son, to die on the tree just to save you. And I wonder, will you accept that? Will you accept that Jesus did that for you? And, you know, it's just truly an amazing thing to think that God would do that for us. And then, well, my third point I kind of wanted to make is, If we were to mark today, the 20th of May, 2018, for our descendants to celebrate something, what would they be celebrating? Because it says in verse 27 and 28, and this really stood out to me, the Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would join them that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time. If our family and generation to come could just pause and look at this day in years to come, what would your life say to them? You know, why not live your life for God? Because God used Esther, an orphan girl. She had no parents. It was Mordecai, her cousin, who looked after her. God also wants to use you. So just, I know I've been very short, but just quickly to go over my three points was, this was a feast of celebration, not complaining. How do you use your words? How are you acting and reacting to situations? Maybe you are in that time of destruction, and you can't seem to see where's the light at the end of this tunnel, or where is God? But God's in control, and it's God's time, and we don't know when maybe this will end, and do you know, in heaven, You'll find out, but you know, let's just trust God because he's in control and he's creator of this whole world. And yes, has he delivered you? You know, God sent Jesus, his son, to rescue you and he wants to do that for you. So why not let him if you haven't done so? And then could we be a people that were for God? Or could we be a people that were remembered that God delivered us? Could our family look back and say, do you know what? My great-great-granny or my great-great-granddad did something so amazing for God and this is what they did. What will you be remembered for? So I just wanna close off there. So thank you so much. Thanks, Letitia. Yeah, I'll ask the musicians just to come back up as we close. I wonder what God is speaking to your heart tonight through. Isn't it great that God does speak? Isn't it great that God does deliver? Isn't it great that God does build up? I'll not try to put words in your head as to what God is saying to you, but just as we sing a closing hymn, as we sing Cornerstone, as we stand for it, don't just sing. Continue in the presence of God to listen to him speaking directly into your heart too. We'll stand together, we'll sing, my hope is built on nothing less, just as we close. Thanks, Amy. Oh Oh He shall come, the trumpet sound. O may I lay in Him be found. Rest in His righteousness alone. For righteousness shall be mine. Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave Father in heaven, we do thank you for today. We thank you, Father, for the encouragement, Lord, of all that went into this morning, celebrating, Father, all of the young boys and girls of our church family. Father, we thank you for this evening as well, Lord. Regardless of age, you have a plan and a purpose for us. Regardless of how weak or new we are in our faith, Christ is our strength. He is our life. Father, thank you for the joy found in this building tonight, in a building that is filled with the church. And Father, we do think just of the challenge as well, Lord, that has been heard this morning and this evening, Lord, for those who have never accepted that Christ died for them, never accepted that they're helpless and in need of the one and only Saviour in Jesus. Father, we just pray, may the seeds planted today, may they find good soil. Father, for your people in this place tonight, Lord, as we head into this week, Lord, be it exams, Lord, perhaps many of the young ones facing just the pressure and the stress of exams at the minute, we pray as a church family, we lift them up. Father, help them just to do their best. But Father, help them to, Lord, not find identity in anything other than Christ. Help them to find that in him they are perfect. They're accepted and they're loved. Father, for each one of us tonight, would you part us, Lord, with just the word that we need, just with the touch that we need, with the direction or rebuke that we need. Father, that you would continue to build your church in this place as we surrender to you, as we worship you, as we praise you. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we ask. Amen. Amen. Do remember, folks, just for anyone helping at Trailblazers, just it'll be short 10 or 15 minutes information here at the front. But maybe if there's some of the young folk who you don't know, why not introduce yourself tonight to them as well just before you leave as well? Thank you.