Operation Success was the title of the sermonette delivered by Cadet Corporal Rashon Griffith during a recent special service for cadets at Whitepark Wesleyan Holiness Church.
The youngster described success as a journey and faith as the gear needed “above everything else”. He said faith was a gear which would be tested and that plans for the journey should be carefully shared only with people one could trust.
He told the congregation at the Whitepark Road, St Michael church that a true friend was compassionate, encouraging, patient, loyal, understanding and loving, and stressed that Jesus fitted that description.
Griffith said while in the Bible, Ruth was a true friend to Naomi and Jonathan to David, Joseph was left in jail because Pharoah’s cupbearer forgot to help after he (the cupbearer) was first released from prison.
“This guy did not show any appreciation to his friend. Then there was Judas who acted like a friend, but put his own self-interests above everything else. You’ve got to know who to tell your plans to,” he told those present.
Griffith stressed that for a successful operation and journey, one must be willing to stock up.
“You have to take some stuff with you for the journey, but you don’t have to worry because if God says it’s for you, God will give you.”
He however said success was also a personal thing. “You will need to work for it and step out of your comfort zone to be successful. John 15:16 says ‘you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last, so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you’.”
He urged his listeners to set goals for Operation Success and not to become too caught up with those things which must be left behind if one must accomplish the task ahead.
Quoting Philippians 3:13-14, he stated: “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
The youth said forgetting what was behind could not be divorced from the strength needed to strain towards what was ahead.
“I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Not the call from anyone, but God in Christ Jesus.”
The cadets played an active role in the service and completed their mission with a march-past and inspection afterwards. (CH)