This set of sermon notes covers the main points of the sermon, Power to Renew Your Youth, preached by Pastor Prince on Sunday, 26 February 2023. We encourage you to listen to the full sermon to find out more, and receive God’s Word in season for yourself!
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Pastor starts by reminding us about the importance of the rhema word, or a word in season, and how he believes that part of what the Lord wants to do this year is to renew us—our strength, our health, our minds. Pastor Prince also references the first message he preached this year about how God wants to renew our minds.
God wants to renew our bodies and give us His divine strength and vigor this year. In Leviticus 27, it shows us a principle of how under the law, a person’s strength was valued.
“The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate a person to the Lord by giving the equivalent value, set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel; for a female, set her value at thirty shekels; for a person between the ages of five and twenty, set the value of a male at twenty shekels and of a female at ten shekels; for a person between one month and five years, set the value of a male at five shekels of silver and that of a female at three shekels of silver; for a person sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekels and of a female at ten shekels. If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay the specified amount, the person being dedicated is to be presented to the priest, who will set the value according to what the one making the vow can afford.”
—Leviticus 27:1–8 NKJV
This passage explains God’s commandments for anyone who wanted to consecrate or who wanted to consecrate persons to the Lord. This typifies man’s vow toward the Lord. (The law or man’s ability towards God)
In this passage, God outlines the worth and value of the different persons by their age and gender:
Notice how a person’s worth is at its highest at their prime and when you’re past a certain age, it decreases? Isn’t this the way we assess strength in the natural, even today?
However, if the person is unable to pay the valuation, he will present himself before the priest, and the priest shall set a value for him. (This is a picture of God’s grace toward man). The Lord Jesus is first and foremost our great High Priest, but He has also made us a royal priesthood (1 Pe. 2:9). This means that how we value and see ourselves matters.
Do you see yourself as elderly, “getting slower with age”, being more forgetful, or getting scatterbrained? Do you see that you have less strength than before? Do you say things like “I’m getting old, I can’t do that anymore?”
God wants you to start seeing yourself the way He sees you!
“And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly.”
—Genesis 18:7
Abraham did not have a special body, nor did he have superpowers. He was an ordinary human being like us. In Genesis 17, we learn that Abraham was 99 years old. Genesis 18:11 calls Abraham and Sarah “old, advanced in years” and Romans 4:19 refers to Abraham’s body as “his own body now dead.” It is clear that Abraham though in old age was not weak physically. What are some lessons that we can learn from his story?
1. He considered not his own body
“And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.”
—Romans 4:19–21 KJV
Faith doesn’t deny natural facts. Faith recognizes it and supersedes it by choosing to be conscious of God’s promises despite the natural circumstance.
Abraham did not give weight to his natural circumstances, but in spite of them, believed in God’s promise.
2. God changed his name (the way he saw himself).
“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.”
—Genesis 17:4–5 NKJV
Faith is about seeing as God sees. Stop seeing yourself in the natural, weak or limited, but according to God’s word, and start speaking out what God says about you.
The turning point for Abraham happened when God changed his name. God changed his name from ‘Abram’ to ‘Abraham’ which means ‘father of many nations.’ When God made His promise to Abram that he shall bear an offspring, God spoke using the present tense—“I have made”. This means that when Abram was without a child, God already saw Abram as a father!
God wanted Abram to start seeing himself the way He saw him. By changing his name to Abraham, it was to change the way Abram saw himself.
3. God calls those things that are not as though they are
“(as it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;”
—Romans 4:17 NKJV
God calls those things that they are not as though they are. Faith is seeing what God sees in the supernatural and speaking out what He sees, even though it may not look like it exists in the natural! This can be seen in God calling Abraham “a father of many nations” even when Abraham didn’t even have a child—yet.
Some other examples of this can be found in Jesus’ miracles in the gospels. He told:
While we can acknowledge a health challenge, negative circumstance, or troubling situation, instead of complaining or ranting about the issue, let’s begin to start calling out what God’s Word says about the situation. Let’s start declaring what He sees in faith, and we’ll begin to experience the reality of His Word instead of the reality of our situation.
The Bible records many others that had their strength renewed physically, not just spiritually:
Beloved, God’s heart is for you to be strong and healthy, just like Abraham, Moses, Sarah, and Caleb, no matter your age!
“Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who (1) forgives all your iniquities,
Who (2) heals all your diseases,
Who (3) redeems your life from destruction,
Who (4) crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who (5) satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
—Psalm 103:2–5 NKJV
This psalm tells us God’s heart for you today—that renewal of your youth is important to Him. God wants you to remember all His benefits so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The eagle is known for being a bird that renews its physical self as part of its molting process. This speaks of God’s heart for us to be physically strong no matter your age.
Whether you are young or old, don’t put your confidence in your own natural body. The Bible says that even those who are young and full of strength can grow weary and fall!
“He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,”
—Isaiah 40:29–30 NKJV
Instead, be like Abraham, put your trust on a stable foundation! Look at God’s promise to us when we look to Him for strength:
“But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
—Isaiah 40:31 NKJV
There is a common misconception that “renew their strength” simply means re-energizing or gaining back your youthful strength. But when we look at the verse in Hebrew, ‘renew’ refers to an ‘exchange’. This means that as we wait on God, we are exchanging our natural strength for His supernatural strength. No matter our physical conditions, God can supply us with the strength that will cause us to rise up like eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint!
“And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,”
—2 Corinthians 4:13 NKJV
After God renamed Abraham and Sarah, they were calling each other “father of many nations” and “princess.” Imagine the kind of reactions they might have received from their neighbors! Sometimes, seeing things the way God sees them may seem illogical to people who do not understand His promises to us. But this is how you remain strong in faith—through confessing His promises over yourself despite what you see or feel.
Once again, we are not denying natural facts but calling things out in faith just as our heavenly Father sees them! For example, maybe you are struggling with forgetfulness. Instead of calling yourself forgetful, take a tip from Abraham and Sarah, and confess what God sees about you. For example, you can quote what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:16: “. . . But we have the mind of Christ.”
“ . . . “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
—Romans 10:8-10 NKJV
Faith is not just what you believe in your heart, but also in what you speak. In 1 Peter 2:9, God calls us a royal priesthood. And just like how the priest in Leviticus had the power to determine the worth of man, what you say and confess about yourself has power too. Even the greatest gift of salvation is received by speaking it out!
Even when you don’t feel it, don’t stop confessing the truth of His promises in His Word. The more you speak it, the more it will drop into your heart and you will begin to believe it.
As we go through life and experience challenges or difficult circumstances, our natural tendency can be to complain. While that might be the “natural” thing to do, God wants us as His children to be different and set apart from the world. Instead of complaining, let’s learn to praise the Lord for His grace even in the midst of difficulties. Let’s be thankful for the good things we can see and have in our lives already! Our faith (what we believe and what we say) has the power to affect our circumstances.
As we go through life and experience challenges or difficult circumstances, it can be easy for us to complain about it. But did you know that what you say can affect or alter the outcome of your situations and in fact, set the direction of your life?
The Bible tells us clearly that with your tongue, you can speak life or death into your body and your situation (Proverbs 18:21)! While complaining about it might be the “natural” thing to do, God wants us as His children to be different and set apart from the world.
“(as it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;”
—Romans 4:17 NKJV
God’s way is to call things out not as they are but how He sees them to be. When Abraham was still childless, He called him a ‘father of many nations.’ What are you speaking about your situation today?
When things get difficult, God has given us the power to rise above it and bring life into our situation by choosing what we say about it. Stop seeing yourself in the natural, as weak or limited, but according to God’s Word, and start speaking out what God says about you!
More than just the renewal of youth, there are so many promises that God has given us in the Bible for every area of our lives. When we start declaring what He sees in faith, even when we don’t see it in the natural, we will begin to experience the reality of His Word instead of the reality of our situation!
We hope these sermon notes blessed you! If they did, we encourage you to get the sermon and allow the Lord to speak to you personally as you watch or listen to it.
© Copyright JosephPrince.com 2023
These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.
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