Winterfest: Messages for the Generations

JC Worley reminds a generation that God is not distant, angry, or withholding. He is a giving God. And everything He offers flows out of His goodness and His love. Starting with the imagery of giving gifts, he brings it down to one simple but powerful truth. God has gifts for you. Not just one, but more than you might realize. The first and most important gift is salvation. This is the foundation....

Javon Ruff reminds a generation that they were never created to live like targets. They were created to live like arrows in the hand of God. Drawing from Psalm 127 and Isaiah 49, he speaks directly to the attack on identity that so many young people are facing and confronts the lie that they are only victims of depression, anxiety, confusion, temptation, and pain. Using the story of a young man wh...

Melissa Graham calls a generation to stop letting culture, comparison, pain, and rejection define who they are and start seeing themselves through the truth of God’s Word. In Genesis 1:27, she reminds students that identity did not begin with social media, life experience, or other people’s opinions. Identity began with the Creator. Through the image of mirrors, she shows how easily a distorted re...

Tim Dilena challenges a generation to offer God a yes that does more than create a moment. It creates a trajectory. Drawing from the story of David asking who would go down with him into Saul’s camp, he contrasts two responses. One man says nothing. The other says yes. That one yes shapes the rest of Abishai’s life. Through personal stories of how simple acts of obedience changed the course of his...

Some faith looks real on the outside, but collapses the moment pressure shows up. In Acts 19, Paul is walking in genuine power, and even ordinary items connected to his ministry become vessels for extraordinary miracles. But then the seven sons of Sceva try to use the name of Jesus like a formula, casting out demons with a borrowed faith. The response from the enemy is terrifying and revealing: “J...

Brian Lindsey walks through the story of King Josiah in 2 Kings 22 to confront a struggle many believers quietly live with. It is not that we reject Jesus. It is that we try to follow Him while holding on to everything else. Josiah was born into a culture where worship of God existed alongside idols. The temple still stood. Sacrifices were still made. But false gods had been given space inside the...

Markus McFolling calls a generation to stop living around Jesus and start reaching for Him. Opening in Luke 8, he highlights a simple but piercing truth: family in the Kingdom is not built on familiarity or Bible knowledge alone, but on hearing God’s Word and doing it. Then he turns to the woman with the issue of blood and reframes the story for everyone in the room. Issues are not always visible,...

Javaris Wright challenges a generation to stop waiting on someone else and become the answer God is raising up in this hour. Anchoring the moment in 2 Kings 23:25, he points to King Josiah and the power of one surrendered life in the middle of a collapsing culture. Judah did not fall overnight. Years of compromise, idols, and spiritual confusion stacked up under Manasseh and Ammon, but God respond...

Eli Bonilla Jr declares that we are living in a God moment and that this generation cannot afford to pretend anymore. In a world filled with confusion, emptiness, and darkness, he calls young people to stop settling for sideline Christianity and step into real Holy Spirit power. Sharing a deeply personal story from his church in San Antonio, he recounts the tragic loss of a young man named Cross w...

Manouchka Charles challenges Northeast Winterfest 2026 to lean into God’s presence with expectation and to carry what happens in the room back into everyday life. She shares her own Winterfest story and reminds the room that encounter moments matter, but what you do after the encounter matters just as much. Walking through Acts 9 and Saul’s encounter with Jesus, she explains how salvation can happ...

Justin Graham challenges a generation to wake up spiritually and stop making peace with sin. Drawing from Romans 13 and Revelation 2, he confronts the idea that someone can stay active in church, serve faithfully, and still tolerate compromise in private. Jezebel becomes a picture of seduction, corruption, and spiritual drift, exposing the lie that hard work for God can cover up hidden sin. With u...

In this message from Acts chapter 3, Brian Lindsey challenges students to think about what life looks like after a powerful encounter with God. Just like the man who was lame from birth and carried every day to the gate called Beautiful, many people learn how to survive but never learn how to walk in freedom. This sermon draws a clear distinction between being helped and being healed. It confronts...

In this powerful message from Isaiah 6 and Acts 2, Brittney Parete calls a generation to move beyond casual Christianity and return to a life marked by holiness, reverence, and the fire of the Holy Spirit. Through the stories of Isaiah, Moses, Saul, and the early Church, this message reveals that God’s fire does not come to entertain or impress, but to purify, transform, and commission. The same f...

In this message from John 5, Kevin McGlamery teaches from the story of the man who had been lying by the pool of Bethesda for 38 years, waiting for someone else to help him into the water. When Jesus approaches him, He asks a life-changing question: Do you want to be made well? This sermon challenges students and leaders to stop living from excuses, comfort, and limitations, and to stop waiting on...

In this powerful message from Luke 15, JC Worley walks through the story of the prodigal son and reminds us of a life-changing truth: sin never ends well, grace is always available, and you can always come home. With honesty and urgency, this sermon exposes how sin promises more than it can ever deliver, how it slowly distances us from our purpose, our relationships, and our identity in Christ, an...

In the closing message of Premier Winterfest 2025, Pastor Joel Reyes gives one final challenge: Don’t let this weekend just be a memory—make it a movement. Preaching from Psalm 77:11–12, Joel calls this generation to remember who God is and remember who you are. He warns that the same struggles, temptations, and battles we left behind will still be waiting when we return home, but if we anchor our...

Pastor Josh Carter challenges this generation to move from casual faith to total commitment—to go overboard for Jesus. Preaching from John 21, Josh warns against drifting back to old ways, settling into comfort, or living on borrowed faith. He exposes the “ships” the enemy uses—relationships, friendships, and influences—to take us further from God than we ever intended to go. With boldness, he cal...

Pastor Aubrey Roach preaches from Mark 5:21–34 about the woman with the issue of blood—reminding us that our identity is not our struggle, our label, or our past. With boldness, humor, and compassion, Aubrey calls listeners to reject the lies of the enemy, reclaim their God-given name, and push past fear, shame, and opposition to touch Jesus. She challenges us to stop settling for temporary fixes...

Pastor Bo Madden challenges this generation with a simple but life-changing question from Jesus: “Who do YOU say that I am?” Drawing from the life of Jacob, Bo speaks directly to students who’ve grown up hearing about God but haven’t truly encountered Him. This is more than just another youth service—it’s a call to step out of religion, out of routine, and into real relationship with Jesus.

Brian reminds students that culture, peers, even religious spaces can push them to perform—to be liked, accepted, or praised—while never delivering on the promises they make. But Jesus doesn’t ask for a performance. He offers life. In a world full of pressure and confusion, you decide who sits in the seat of your identity. You decide who you follow.

With passion, humor, and powerful vulnerability, Quantel Lindsey delivers a deeply moving sermon titled “Rescued, Restored, Released.” Preaching from personal testimony and scripture, he declares that God is still in the business of rescuing the lost, restoring the broken, and releasing them for His glory. Quantel recounts his own journey—from gang life and incarceration to preaching in the White...

Daniel Maples passionately declares to students: you are that generation. Preaching from Acts 2 and drawing from the history of the Church of God, Pastor Daniel challenges students to become a Spirit-filled, set-apart, Holy Ghost-empowered generation that doesn’t settle for compromise, confusion, or complacency. This message calls for a return to the upper room, where the Spirit moves freely and s...

Christy Sawyer issues a clear and urgent call for a generation of truth tellers . Preaching from 2 Timothy 4, she challenges students not to conform to the deception of culture—or even the shallowness sometimes found in the church—but to preach the Word, speak the truth, and walk in real surrender . With the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes as a metaphor, Christy exposes the pressure to “go alon...

JC Worley calls a generation to step into the anointing God has already placed on their lives. Preaching from the story of David’s anointing in 1 Samuel 16, JC reminds students that God’s hand is on them—even when no one else sees it. You may be overlooked by people, but you’re chosen by God. This is your moment to take your place, walk in obedience, and trust that God qualifies the called.

At Northeast Winterfest 2025, Pastor Brittney Parete brings a powerful, Spirit-filled message calling this generation to deeper surrender and holiness. She speaks passionately on the urgency of making room for the Holy Spirit, drawing from Acts 19, Genesis 1 & 8, and Acts 2 — reminding us the Holy Spirit is hovering, searching for a place to land. Brittney challenges young people not to be con...