In anticipation of the new year, thousands of mostly young and Gen Z people gathered in Dallas, Texas, to focus on Jesus Christ through prayer, worship, and inspirational messages for three days. Tasked with preaching the final sermon on New Year's Eve, Brian Barcelona offered a sacrifice of praise after spending the previous day with his father, who had been diagnosed with cancerous brain tumors.
The leader of student and young-adult ministries, Barcelona, left his father in a California hospital after they talked about the Lord while hugging, weeping, and repenting for their sins against God and each other.
"I know people are going to give their lives to Christ tonight. That's not my concern; my concern is, will your family know Him? I see people come year after year, yet your mom and dad don't even recognize Christ in us," Barcelona told an estimated 7,000 people during the UPPERROOM End of Year Conference (EOY25).
As a former atheist, Barcelona came to faith in Jesus at age 16 and, in the years since then, he's witnessed the gospel transform lives, including at a Dallas gathering of Gen Z For Jesus in 2022.
On New Year's Eve – following three days of worship, prayer, and preaching by other uplifting speakers – Barcelona focused on seven Hebrew words for praise. He said praise has been central to the salvation experiences of three family members over a seven-year period.
Explaining the different Hebrew words, Barcelona then led the crowd in shouts of praise and thanksgiving to God on behalf of people who had not given their lives to the Lord.
"You've observed for three days and can't figure out why people are so happy. You know what it's like to be bound; do you know what it's like to be free?" asked Barcelona, the founder of One Voice Student Ministries, which reaches youth with the Gospel worldwide.
Barcelona then told everyone in the convention center to join hands. "Even tonight, you might have vapes, cigarettes, condoms, or weapons. If you want to surrender tonight, then squeeze the hand of the person next to you," he encouraged.
"If somebody squeezed your hand, I want you to make your way up to the front. This is a moment of holy surrender," Barcelona said before hundreds of people walked together hand-in-hand together to pray.
The annual end-of-year gathering is hosted by UPPERROOM. Called a prayer room, UPPERROOM in Dallas looks in some ways like a church with two locations in Texas and one in Denver, Colorado.
UPPERROOM Dallas is led by Pastors Michael and Lorissa Miller and other leaders who share preaching and ministry responsibilities. Lorissa Miller told the EOY25 gathering, "The only person and the one thing that is going to satisfy what your soul is truly longing for is Jesus."
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Another speaker at EOY25, Hayley Braun, said fear of man is a thief to every generation. "God didn't give us a spirit of fear but of power and love. Our obedience isn't to many; it's to God. Anything sourced outside of Him doesn't last. He is our rock," Braun said.
On New Year's Day, UPPERROOM posted words of thanksgiving, praise and honor to God for all He had done at EOY25: "We believe lives were transformed and generations shifted by the wonder-working power of His name. Jesus, no other name."
"So we say thank You, Jesus, for Your blood that speaks a better word—over this year and over every single life. May this moment mark us forever, and may Jesus be glorified in and through each of you in the days ahead."
It was at UPPERROOM Dallas that Barcelona's family experienced a dramatic spiritual turnaround a couple of years ago. Near and dear to his heart, the testimony focuses on praise. Barcelona shared the miraculous story of deliverance at EOY25, as he has at other ministry events.
Pacing in the Dallas prayer room in 2023, Barcelona received a text message from his sister. He had led her to Jesus and away from drugs, alcohol, and lesbianism a few years before. This time, she needed help and rehabilitation from sex-trafficking, fentanyl addiction, and physical abuse.
Barcelona arranged to fly his sister to Dallas for a new beginning. "In those next five days, I would learn what praise – Psalm 23 and 91 – looked like as she detoxed from fentanyl in the hospital."
"She walked out into the hallway with makeup on her face and a smile. Her perpetrator had put a tattoo on her forehead. She looked beautiful again. On the fifth day, my beautiful sister would say yes to God and rehab," Barcelona said.
Another powerful story involving praise in the lives of Barcelona's family members includes a grandfather who, until recently, was unsaved. "Four months ago, my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer and kidney failure at 84 years old," said Barcelona.
He was with them when his grandfather turned to his wife, Barcelona's grandmother, and asked her about heaven.
"Tears streaming down his face, my grandfather tells his Hispanic wife, 'I want to walk down those streets of gold you talk about,'" Barcelona told EOY25.
The hundreds of people who fully surrendered to Jesus at the event, Barcelona said, will also know the beauty of heaven as a result of their decisions.
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