Ep 84 | Praying for our Summer Camps

No , I'm just kidding Randy Moss . Randy Moss , one of the most famous 84s to play the game , one of the most famous wide receivers ever to play the game , went to Marshall University . We are , yeah , marshall . I love that movie .

He's amazing and super kind of down to earth , or at least now you know . Just , he kind of has a country accent , kind of like super soft smoke smoking , super soft smoking . Anyways , uh , you're not here to hear about randy moss

. Jake , what are we going to talk about ? Or know what ? Brett ? What are we talking about today ? Talking about camp camp ? Are there camps going on ?

But anyway , man , I'm so excited for our camps , for our ministries , but oftentimes we think of this one relegated week in the year , but it's a compilation of all the year of ministry . So question like do our children , do our youth like , take breaks throughout the year ?

I feel like we have a very similar mindset , like I think God has given us a very similar vision , and one of the things is we run very family-oriented ministries and so for Christmas and Thanksgiving we do cancel Wednesdays for that because we want them to spend time with their family and if we're going to preach about it , we want them to do it , and then

homecoming is just fun .

We do ministry , I mean even on Christmas , you know , whether it's we're meeting or

we just have members of our church that are serving . So the week of camp is almost a celebration of the whole year and we'll see young people coming , whether it's our third through sixth grade that'll be going to Pontywoods here in a bit , and then our seventh through twelfth graders that are going to Falls Creek this week .

We see these students come together and many of the students we see throughout the year and we're just excited to be able to share Jesus . So kind of before we jump into camp and I don't care which one of you go first actually , brett go first- yeah , yeah . Like what ? Where are we at , kind of as ministries , you know , compared to last year ?

What are some things you guys are seeing picking up on ? What are some of the spiritual milestones that are going on in the culture of our G-Town kids and the Reach ?

We've seen a lot of kids come forward for baptism and salvation and kids on Wednesday nights coming and they want to have fun and they want to play the games , but they're more excited about doing our Bible trivia not trivia , bible scavenger hunts .

Whenever we pick a specific chapter and we'll ask questions and they have to try to find it in those chapters and look for the verses and stuff . And kids are so excited and they're so proud of themselves whenever they they can say I know how to find that in my Bible and so , um , that has been something that we've seen change over the last year .

Um , kids kind of really jumping on the hey , this is what we're doing bus and really , you know , taking it in .

Yes , we do those things , but it's not who we are , it's not where our identity is . They're coming to honestly just learn and study . And some people are coming that don't know Jesus but who are trying to , you know , seek him right .

And and I think , when we go to camp , uh , I think it's going to be kind of like I think the Wednesday nights and everything we've been doing this past year has been like the lob pass and the camp's going to be the slam dunk , not that camp is more holy , but I think camp is just a more comfortable area with less distractions and just I mean a week

where we're studying the Bible and praying .

So I think it's just going to be a slam dunk where people are going to find him and then , on the other end , like we had so many people get through discipleship , share their testimony and like that's just in our church , outside of our church , I've literally seen Bible studies start and you know , through FCA , just some of our youth teaching the Bible and

things like that . It's just . It's been just such a sweet time of ministry where the culture that God God has just made a place where people want to grow in the Lord mainly , like they want to make it the center of their lives , and it's been awesome in the Lord , mainly Like they want to make it the center of their lives .

I'll be in the cafeteria at the school and they're wanting to tell their friends oh , that's our children's minister . And the moment I'll hear it , I'll hear the other kids say well , what's a children's minister ? And they'll tell them she teaches us about Jesus . And their friends will say well , who's Jesus ?

And in that moment in the school , the kids are able to share Jesus and they want to , they want to do it , they want their friends to know who Jesus is

and so , like last night , they were so excited . We were talking about the ABCs of salvation and you have to admit , believe and confess , and all of the , every one of the kids were so excited to tell me that they knew what that meant and they knew that Jesus died for them to give them a choice to go to heaven , and that it was just awesome .

Our kids , they have a hunger and they have a thirst and a desire , and it's awesome , Really , really awesome .

There's also some hard times and things like that where it's super difficult , but there have been just a lot of wins in our ministries and even through the church , and I know that's not what we're talking about , but I want to talk about , like even through the church we've seen wins just through individual people , of how God has used them and their lives .

And it's just like when we get to go to camp , it's just kind of like uh , accumulation of all that .

You know we get to see some wins , we get to see Jesus just move in people's lives and and sometimes , like we talk about football , sometimes on this podcast , sometimes One thing that like I remember my coach telling me is like you know what happens for a person to become just a great defensive player , and I remember Coach Bates , he literally goes oh , it just

clicks . It was his birthday last week , it was . It was he literally said it just clicks . You know people can , you can learn the fundamentals of tackling , but when you see the beast like Sean Lee , you know just Ray Lewis , like some of the greatest defensive people like ever , even in the high school , like Cooper French was one .

I remember I heard his name before I met him so much on Friday night . So it was just like tackle by Cooper French , tackle by Cooper French . It just clicks .

And when we go to camp we see that like we've been teaching them about Jesus , we've been doing all these things , and then there's just this moment where you see it just clicks and it's like okay , this is where I want to be and this is who I want to follow .

But what's weird is I remember when this age group were in seventh and eighth grade . So I was in DC over the week and my wife and I had a chance to go to a church and we went to a church that was in a old , old theater that this church rents out the theater , and it was predominantly 20 to 25 year olds .

And can I tell you , what I noticed about the worship service more than anything else was that it wasn't like this sleek , slick , organizational church , and what I mean by that .

There was nothing that I looked at that was like , wow , these people really have it all figured out Like you know , the perfect amount of organization of the service , the pastor and this is a large church , this isn't like some little church the pastor walked out he said hey , guys , we got some announcements , hey , we're going to have worship and hey , let's open

our Bibles . And everyone in that room seems so engaged by that .

But it's funny because I was sitting there thinking I remember when the people this age I was their youth minister and that was the turning point for me as a youth minister , when I quit trying to make everything look so great and just focus on the brass tacks , and I remember our youth ministry starting to take off , while I'm starting to watch these people

become adults now and and I tell y'all that because I'm hoping our listeners understand that , at the end of the day , ministry is about telling people of Jesus Like we want to do all these things and maybe we want to be uh , there's nothing wrong with organization .

There's nothing wrong with trying to put your best foot forward , but what if we put our best foot forward but we forget the main thing ? What if , instead , it was the other way around ?

We do the main thing and then we cover those other parts , if we have time to do them , because you can read your Bibles and see that Jesus' ministry was not an organized ministry the way we would think of in Western society .

So our kids are going to come , they're going to experience a lot of amazing things , but you're hearing from our children and youth minister . Children's minister and youth pastor that we are sharing Jesus with these kids , and that is going to be

more than enough . But with that being said , how can people just be praying this next week and I'm going to go ahead and say it , I don't care who goes first , but I'm going to go ahead and say it we're going to have a lot of young lives on the highways and church , family , please be praying for safety .

We're going to have a lot of young lives out in the heat and , um , I don't know how your kids are , but it's sometimes hard to convince them to drink water . Uh , just simple things like just pray for the physical safety of our kids .

They're ready to go to bed , but we still have one more bible study that we need to get in there's . I mean all different things like that , and I think my biggest , besides safety , would be just the encouragement of our volunteers , praying for our volunteers to be able to be an encouragement to our students , to be loving to our students .

I'm so blessed this year to have which I have every year I've had volunteers that are so amazing and loving and caring and kind to our students that there's parents that will send their kids to kids camp that are so worried that they're going to be homesick .

They're so worried that they're not going to do well , that they're not going to handle being four hours from home . And our volunteers they make it a breeze , they make it so easy because , um , they remind our kids , you know yes , you are far from home , but we're here to learn about Jesus and let's let's get focused back on him .

And when they , when they turn that focus from woe is me to Jesus , the kids just light up and they get so excited . So my prayer would be for our volunteers that they feel rested and encouraged as much as they are encouraging our kids .

The enemy does not like what we're doing at all , like he attacks just as much , if not more , when we're at camp and even at church than when we're out and about . Yes , god is great and perseveres and he overcomes .

But we need to be in prayer that he can do that and that it's on my mind , it's on the volunteers' minds , but it's also on the students' minds that the enemy does want to distract . He does want to take you out of the holy place .

He does want you to get your mind off of what you're learning in the tabernacle and in scripture and he wants to distract you from like , oh , don't go down , you know to receive him or to be more obedient with him . So it's really just that prayer of protection and you know I use the word Mal doesn't love it . But dinguses , that's who I minister to .

I'd minister to a bunch of dinguses . Uh , and like the funny way is like you can just pray that , uh , jesus takes away the dingusness in our lives . We do minister to future Maverick .

Oh well , I just want y'all to know I'm proud of y'all , I'm thankful for your ministries , I'm thankful for your adults that help you and I'm thankful that , um , we're gonna , there's going to be I mean , I don't even know how many people I'm probably over 200 young people and teenagers that are going to be at camp over the next couple of weeks , that they're

going to be in a place where they're not , for a week , anything but a kid , getting to be in the presence of Jesus . Like they're not a baseball player , they're not in band , they're not , you know , in drama . Like there may be some drama at camp , but , but they just get to be in a place where they're a kid and adults .

Think about what that felt like for us when we got to just be a kid . We got to have a normal summer activity . But deeper than that , what are we going to pray that's going to happen for these young people ? These are our future pastors , these are our future teachers , our future coaches , our future mothers , fathers , parents . Like this is a pivotal week .

Like the future is changed by what happens in the present and presently . We can see the future change if the Holy Spirit will speak deeply to these young people . So be praying for them . This is my Bible verse that I want to pray just over our young people and our college this summer as they go off to camp as well . But it's just Psalm 27 , four .

And you know David is praying for safety from all that's happening to him . But smack dab in the middle of that chapter he says one thing I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple .

And that's my prayer for our young people that they would simply just understand the beauty of being in the presence with the Father and that eventually their whole mind and heart will change to . That's all I want in life . I just want to be close to God . And um , that can happen if the spiritual forces at work will speak . So that's my prayer .

And um , you know just , we normally end kind of on a silly notion . But I'd like to just pray a prayer over our camps . And , um , if you're driving , don't close your eyes . Uh , just , uh , just , uh , keep them open . But join us , take the wheel . There you go . Very good , let's pray on heavenly father .

I pray over Maverick and Brett and our adults over the next couple of weeks , and I pray over our students . God , I do pray for safety upon them . I pray that you just keep them all safe , wherever they are , whatever they're doing .

But , lord , um , even more , we pray that you would just put them in your presence and , uh , and allow them to know when your spirit is speaking to them . Allow them to know that when your word is being presented to them , and , father , that they would come back not the same person because of their experience with you .

So , lord , we pray that you bless this week , but , as we talk about often as a church , we pray that you would just bless us every day as we minister to people . So , lord , I pray for these students and I thank you so much for our children's ministry and youth pastor . In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord , amen , amen .

, guys , soon .

Take care the best student you can possibly be , but also being present , knowing that God is there with you at your work , god is there with you with your family , God is there with you at your school , and being present and active , knowing that he wants to use you and that he wants to use you to minister to other people , like how cool is that the creator

of the universe wants to not just have a relationship with you , but to other people Like how cool is that the creator of the universe wants , wants to not just have a relationship with you , but to work alongside you .

But the truth is is you don't really know , because if you are being the opposite of slothful , that means that you are being useful and you're being used by God as an instrument to be able to accomplish his kingdom work . And , my friends , when we allow ourselves to be used by God in any form , for me , I'm not passionate about laundry .

There's never been one day of my life there's not been one day of my life I've ever put a shirt on a hanger and thought man , I'm glad I'm doing this , but it is one way I can love my wife well , because I know how much she hates it .

There's just all these opportunities in front of us where , when we are the opposite of slothful , then we get to be a part of God's mission and even down to small things like laundry , god gets glory out of that and that's the powerful message .

Because when I am slothful and that's the powerful message because when I'm , when I am slothful , I am unable to hear from the Holy Spirit . Very well , it takes like a two by four to the head type of message from the Holy Spirit for me to hear him whenever , whenever I'm being slothful .

But when I'm not , whenever I'm , when I'm engaged with the Father , when I'm , when I'm listening , I can hear the Holy Spirit in so many different ways . I can see what he's doing in so many different ways . So why be lazy when we can be able to be in a position where we can be a part of what God's doing ?

And , man , I'm so glad that we're getting to have this conversation , but I know you probably feel this way , but I desire , like people to come hang out with me and ask because , listen , I'm not the picture of of hard work all the time , but but , man , I'm out hashing it to be like let's sit down , let's talk about this , let's work together Like let's

disciple one another to to be useful for the kingdom , and we've got people that could just help you . We want to help each other .

That's why sin is sometimes hard to talk about , Because , like you said , we struggle with it and maybe it gets a little awkward because it's like oh , what you're talking about , I've done exactly that .

Do I need to go spend time with some other people to help me with this ? We've got people in our church that are working through this so much and I can tell you the opposite of slothfulness is not exhaustion , it's no , it's not it's rest , it's more exhausting to be slothful .

Um , and it also just I mean , and again I mean , the book of Proverbs talks about this so much , but I mean literally . The book of Proverbs is saying slothfulness will kill us , kills us . So this is why we're having this conversation .

No , but I am going to hold him accountable . And it's not because I'm trying to make a summer missile , because I love the kid and I don't want him to grow up to be lazy . I want him to move out someday .