What's in Your Backpack? -Friends- Youth Lectures 2025

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Phil Robertson talks about  What's In Your Backpack- Friends

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special
podcast.

SPEAKER_01 (00:13):
Good afternoon.
I hope you have the HeavenlyLibrary with you.
Let me invite you to take downthe book of 1 Samuel.
And go to chapter 14, 1 Samuelchapter 14.
It's always an honor to be apart of this lectures and it's
always an honor to come and hangout with this wonderful family
in Christ here at Westside.

(00:34):
Thank you so very much for yourinvitation to be a part of this.
Many of you may know that I lovecamp and I've been a camp
director for about 17 years nowand I just love it and I
encourage every kid to go tocamp and it just so happened
that one One kid that I'd beenafter a long time finally came

(00:55):
to camp.
Now, just give you a littleinsight into this kid.
He was kind of a loner, kind ofkept to himself, a little bit
bashful, a little bit shy.
And let's just say, well, hismother...
She flew a helicopter.
But I finally got him to come tocamp and I was so excited he was
there that first day.

(01:15):
It was actually also his firsttime to be with big kids because
he was now in high school and sothere's a lot of new going on.
And so that first day I was justchecking on him, seemed to be
fine, seemed to be fine, seemedto be fine.
The next day got up, checked onhim in the morning, seemed to be
fine, seemed to be fine.
And then all of a sudden about11 o'clock, that second day of

(01:37):
camp, I get this text.
Hey, Phil, we're looking forthat kid.
And I'm like, what do you mean?
Well, he's not at his activity.
And I'm like, oh, okay.
Well, it's probably his firstday.
So I immediately started goingto other activities.
Maybe he was there.
Maybe he was there.
And I looked and looked.
Didn't find him.
Went into all the other cabins.

(01:58):
Still didn't find him.
Still didn't find him.
Looked at all the ball fields.
Still didn't find him.
And then I put out the allpoints bulletin.
Be on the lookout.
We've lost the camper moment.
Never happened.
Never happened in camp.
And so everybody started lookingfor this guy.
And I'm like, oh, my word.
I've been begging him for yearsto come.
I've been begging his mom.

(02:18):
And now he's gone.
I'm thinking, what am I going tosay?
I've never lost a kid at camp.
All right.
And I just so happened to justgo running through the
cafeteria.
Because that's where the littlekids were.
And they're at a table.
With a bunch of little kids.
was the missing camper.

(02:41):
And he was sitting with a bunchof kids who were a lot like him.
You see, I could tell they wereall gamers.
They didn't have their phone orthey didn't have the handheld
devices with them at camp.
But because they're so used toit and now it's been taken away
from them, even when they standand look at you, their hands
just do like this.

(03:02):
And they were all just sittingthere together talking.
And it just hit me.

UNKNOWN (03:09):
Wow!

SPEAKER_01 (03:11):
No matter who you are, no matter where you are, no
matter what's going on, youalways find your people.
Your people.
I want you to kind of thinkabout that as we go through this
lesson.
Who are your people?
And I want you to think also ofa proverb.

(03:31):
And I know that you've heardthis and you probably have heard
it many times before.
Whoever walks with the wise...
will be wise.
But whoever is with the foolwill suffer harm.
In 1 Samuel chapter 14, we readof a story of a young man who is

(03:53):
breaking away and he's left anentire army.
Why?
They're not his people.
And he's run from them becausethey're hiding.
They're supposed to be an army.
In fact, they're supposed to bethe army of God.
But yet they're hiding in theirholes and the army of the
Philistines is just across aravine.
And while that army of thePhilistines is numbered like the

(04:14):
sand on the seashore, there'sjust so many of them, he's still
in God's army.
He's with the people who crossedthe Red Sea.
He's with the people who marchedaround Jericho and the walls
fell down.
And he is a man of God.
But nobody, nobody, nobody onhis side is willing to fight.
They're hiding.

(04:36):
They're not his people.
So he's going to sneak away.
But he doesn't sneak away alone.
1 Samuel chapter 14 verse 6.
Jonathan said to the young manwho carried his armor, Come.

(04:56):
Let us go over to the And wewill show ourselves to them.

(05:24):
And if they say to us, waituntil we come to you, then we
will stand still in our placeand we will not go up to them.
But if they say, come up to us,then we will go up.
for the Lord has given them intoour hand, and this shall be a
sign to us.

(05:45):
So both of them showedthemselves to the garrison of
the Philistines, and thePhilistines said, Look, the
Hebrews are coming out of theirholes where they've hidden
themselves.
And the men of the garrisonhailed Jonathan and his
armor-bearer, and they said,Hey, come up to us.
We're going to show you a thing.

(06:06):
Let me just stop right there.
Anybody ever done that to you?
Anybody here have an olderbrother or an older cousin who
said, hey, I want to show yousomething?
That's never, ever a good thingto do, all right?
You know that, right?
This has been around a longtime.
Hey, y'all come up here.
We want to show you something.

(06:30):
And Jonathan said to his armorbearer, come up after me.
For the Lord has given them intothe hand of Israel.
Then Jonathan climbed up on hishands and feet and his armor
bearer after him.
And they fell before Jonathanand his armor bearer.

(06:50):
He killed them after him.
And that first strike whichJonathan and his armor bearer
made killed about 20 men.
Within it was about a half afurlough length of an acre of
land.
And there was a panic in thecamp.
Now, I want you to stop rightthere, because sometimes it's

(07:19):
very important for us to kind ofslow down and kind of get what's
happening.
Did you notice what was saidthere about Jonathan and his
armor bearer?
It says they crawled up on theirhands and their feet.
I want you to notice, if youwere to go back to the very
beginning of the chapter, TheHebrews are on one side of a
ravine hiding.
The Philistines are on the otherside.

(07:39):
But this ravine actually has twonames.
One of the names in the Hebrewsays shiny.
The other is thorny.
So here's what you and I got tokeep in mind.
This was a ravine.
So imagine you're at Texas camp.
All right.
And you're looking across, andit's any field in Texas, and he
goes down the ravine, comes upthe other side.

(08:01):
One side is thorny, so it's allthese thorny bushes.
Can you imagine?
The other side is shiny,probably a lot like rocks and
clear rocks.
But here's the deal.
When Jonathan and his armorbearer went to the other side,
and they said, come up to them,they had to work their way down
through the thorns, and thenthey had to work their way up

(08:22):
the other side, crawling ontheir hands and knees.
I'm not...
I'm not a military guy or atactician who can just stay.
But that's not how you go on theattack, right?
When you're down below, that'sthe kill zone, man.
What does that say?
It says they trusted God.

(08:44):
Because their hands weren't ontheir weapons.
Their hands weren't on theirswords.
They're having to climb throughthe thorns and then up the other
side.
But when they got there, theywent on the attack.
And did you notice, Jonathanwent first, and then the armor
bearer finished them off.

(09:04):
It's as if Jonathan wentrunning, he would make the first
blow, and when the enemy waswounded, the armor bearer came
in right behind him.
They each had each other's six,if you will.
But the story doesn't end there.
No, it got even much better.
Notice, if you would.

(09:25):
Verse 16, And the watchmen ofSaul, they looked, and behold,
the multitude was dispersinghere and there.
And then Saul said to the peoplewho were with him, Come, we need
a count.
Who's not with us?
And when they had counted,behold, Jonathan and his
armor-bearer were not there.
So Saul said to Ahijah, Bringthe ark.

(09:47):
And there was a great confusion.

(10:13):
And now the Hebrews...
Isn't that something?
It's one of those stories thatjust kind of snuck into the

(10:38):
Bible and we don't spend a lotof time on it.
But what you find right here inthis story...
is you find two men whounderstand if God is for us, who
can be against us.
And I love exactly what Jonathansays here.
Jonathan says, the Lord willdeliver them into our hand.
But even more so, here's what Iwant you to see in these two

(11:00):
men.
They didn't go alone.
Why?
Because each of them had eachother.
And with each other, they hadsomething in common.
The first thing they had incommon is a common mission.
You'll notice in verse 1, aswell as when you get down into
verse 6, let us go ahead.
We're warriors.
We don't hide.
We don't stay in our holes.

(11:20):
We go to war.
We have a common mission.
And then notice what the armorbearer said.
Jonathan, you do all that's inyour heart because your heart is
my heart.
We're together heart and soul.
They had a common ambition anddesire that went deep into their
innermost being and then theyhad action.

(11:42):
They went to war.
Just the two of them against afull garrison of the
Philistines.
I want you to grasp andunderstand that if you and I are
going to go to battle in anyway, you find your people.

(12:10):
You find your people.
And godly people are going tohave a common mission, a common
heart, and a common action.
Now, let's jump ahead a fewyears.
In fact, let's even jump aheadjust a few chapters in your
Bible and go to 1 Samuel 18.
Just out of curiosity, hasanybody here ever heard the
story of David and Goliath?

(12:33):
I see about three hands.
Who is your preacher?
All right, who's heard thisstory?
I can tell you the whole storyin about 45 minutes and then get
back to my lesson.
Or who's heard the story?
Yeah.
Hey, y'all raise your hands evenif you haven't heard it.
All right.
Well, you know that story.

(12:55):
There's one thing.
There's one thing about thatstory that has always troubled
me just a little bit.
Forgive me.
Where was Jonathan?
Where was Jonathan?

(13:18):
I don't know.
Again, it's the exact samescenario.
Nobody wanted to go fight.
Everybody's hiding again.
It's the Philistines.
This time it's only one dudewho's really to take them on.
He is a big dude.
But here's what I do know.
As soon as David came back,Holding that giant's head.

(13:46):
Jonathan goes, that's my people.
That's my people.
In 1 Samuel chapter 18, whenDavid walks back.
It says, Or maybe he was justfrustrated with his dad.

(14:35):
Come on, dad, you're taller thaneverybody else.
You should be the guy out there.
It's about time you didsomething.
I don't know.
But I do know this.
When David came back, Jonathanwas back.

(14:56):
Because that's my people.
That's my people.
Can I ask you a question?
Who's your people?
Who's your people?
Who are the people that motivateyou, encourage you?
Who are the people that get youup and make you want to run?

(15:17):
Who are the people in your lifethat make you do something like
this?
To go into something thateverybody else would say is
impossible, to go into somethingthat seems like can't be won,
and yet you go.
I want you to grasp andunderstand that the people of

(15:37):
God always have their people ifthey're looking for them.
Go to Psalms chapter 1, if youwould, please.
The very first psalm, isn't itinteresting?
The very first psalm focuses onour friendships.

(15:58):
Blessed is the man who walks notin the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way ofsinners, nor sits in the seat of
scoffers, but his delight is inthe law of the Lord.
And in His law, He meditates dayand night.
He's like a tree planted by thestreams of water.
And He yields its fruit in itsseason, and its leaf does not
wither.
And in all that He does, Heprospers.
Yet the wicked are not so.

(16:18):
But they're like the chaff thatthe wind drives away.
Therefore, the wicked will notstand in judgment, nor sinners
in the congregation of therighteous.
For the Lord knows the way ofthe righteous, but the way of
the wicked will perish.
This has been a continuoustheme, if we're really looking
into Scripture, that we see allthrough Scripture.
Evil companions corrupt goodmorals.

(16:40):
Don't go even near thecongregation of the wicked
because you'll be tempted tostand.
And pretty soon if you standthere, then you're going to sit
there.
And we see it over and over andover again in Scripture.
Just consider a few examples.
Think about Eve.
Let me just say, I'm not one tobe critical.

(17:01):
Especially of animals, and Ilove animals, but if a snake
ever talked to me, I'm out.
And I'm a huge Harry Potter fan,alright?
You got Parseltongue, I'm out!We laugh at that, but the point
is, at that time, there was noreason to be scared of a snake.

(17:25):
But you and I know how thatstory went.
A lot.
Abraham goes, Lot, which placedo you want?
What do you want?
He says, well, I want Sodom.
And Sodom was a beautiful place,well watered, great place for
huge herds.
And he had a lot, a lot, a lotof his herds.

(17:47):
And yet it also said this aboutthat place.
It was a place of greatwickedness.
You probably know I work withcollege students and campers.
It's a great joy.
I had an interestingconversation a few years back
when I was working with somestudents and I was working with

(18:09):
a student and his mom and Isaid, what's the plan?
Well, we're going to go toschool over here.
And I said, okay, that's great.
Go to school over there.
I said, well, or where are yougoing to live?
We're going to live in thedorms.
I said, okay, that's great.
Well, who's your roommate?
Oh, we're going potluck.
I went potluck.
You mean, first of all, you'regoing to go to a place and go to
a school that is verychallenging, it's off the beaten

(18:33):
path, certainly in a spiritualway, in a moral way, and you're
going to go potluck?
I was like, have you ever readthe story of Lot?
I know that may sound a littleheavy, but at what point does
that story apply to us, folks?
You know the rest of that story.

(18:55):
The Israelites.
What was it that Moses would sayto the Israelites?
Catch this.
Don't follow the crowd.
You thought your mom came upwith that phrase.
It was Moses.
Don't follow the crowd.
Think of Samson.
Do you remember Samson waschoosing a wife?
He said, hey, I saw this chick.

(19:17):
It's probably not the correctHebrew way of saying it, but I
saw this woman.
All right.
She looks great.
Mom and dad, get her for me.
And his parents go, what are youdoing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
Oh, she's great.

(19:38):
You know anything about hercharacter?
No, she's just smoking hot.
What else do you need?
Right?
I was doing a teen weekend once.
Oh, this was...
You have these moments in yourlife where you think you're
brilliant, but then you quicklyfind out how you're not even

(19:58):
close to that.
I came up with this idea.
I said, all right, here's what Iwant you to do.
And I said, I put the girls onthis side of the room, but the
guys on this side of the room.
I said, here's what I want youto do.
I want you to go, you define inall the words you can, the
perfect spouse.
And man, the girls took off.
And they had a whiteboard onthis side of the room, and the
guys were on this side of theroom.
About ten minutes later, I mean,the girls' whiteboard was

(20:21):
filled.
And so I started with the girls.
Tell me who has the perfectspouse.
Okay, here's number one, Mr.
Phil.
A godly man who loves the Lord,who teaches class, loves his
children, loves his wife, evendoes things around the house,
and is one body who loves theLord even more than he loves me.
That's one.
And then they went number two.
I was like, man, I'm thegreatest teacher in the world.

(20:42):
This is awesome.
All right, guys, what do yougot?
And I got to their whiteboardand it was a little spacious.
I was like, what you got, guys?
And they said, well, we didn'treally feel like we needed to
write it all down.
Okay, well, what you got?
What you got?
I said, what's number one?
They said, she's smoking hot.

(21:05):
I was like, okay.
What's number two?
And they just looked at me.
I said, you got a number two?
Anything?
Anything?
This one little kid, he was inmiddle school.
He goes, she can cook biscuits?
All right, smoking hot can cookbiscuits.

(21:29):
I'm the worst teacher in theworld.
But that's Samson.
We laugh at that, but that'sInstagram.
That's social media.
That's a lot of people I know.

(21:56):
How'd that end for you, Samson?
Oh, you thought I was talkingabout Delilah.
That was the woman at Timnah.
And then Delilah happened againlater.
How about Solomon?
How'd he do?
David.
I've often wondered, would Davidhave done what he did with

(22:18):
Bathsheba if Jonathan was stillaround?
He was all alone.
Even the apostle Peter will denythe Lord three times.
You know what, everybody,everybody, don't miss this.

(22:39):
Every person who has left theLord has this one thing in
common.
Every single one of them.
Bad friends.
Everyone.
Oh, there may be differenttrials.
There may be different issues.
There may be finances.

(23:00):
There may be a lot of otherthings that you know.
But every single one of themhave that in common.
And you see that in Scripture.
But in the same way, what youalso see is that all those who
strive to serve the Lord andserve the Lord with vigor and
look for someone who has thatcommon mission, that common

(23:21):
heart, and that common action,they all have something in
common as well.
They have surrounded themselveswith godly people.
Alright, just real quick beforeI get into this list.
Is anybody here an annoyingperson?
And you can point at them.
Yes.
All right.
If you are annoying, you know,you have a verse that's just for

(23:42):
you.
Did you know that?
You'll love this.
In Hebrews chapter 10 and inverse 23, we always go to verse
25.
Don't forsake the assembly.
And we talk about how you needto be at church.
And I get that.
That's certainly something thatcould be applied to that
passage.
But you know what it says?
Why you go to church?
Because you and I need to bearound annoying people.

(24:04):
That's right.
That's right.
Stir up one another to love ingood works.
The word stir in the Greekactually means to annoy.
But it's not the annoying thatjust gets on the nerves.
It's the annoying who actuallymotivates you, encourages you,
moves you.
They're the kind of person thatyou get around and you realize,

(24:26):
I got to go.
I can't sit here and do nothing.
I don't want to just sit here infront of them because they're
the kind of person that makes mewant to run through a brick
wall.
And I tell you what, there's alot of people like that in this
room.
And God bless you for being astirrer.

(24:52):
Because we need people in ourlives who make us move.
Noah.
Noah wasn't alone.
He had his wife and three sons.
And you know what's amazingabout that story?
He had three daughters-in-law.
Those are some amazing women.

(25:13):
Think about it.
Moses.
He had Joshua, Jethro, andAaron.
Elijah had Elisha.
Daniel.
And tip of the hat, please, toBrother Tyler for calling them
by their real names.
Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael.

(25:35):
Cornelius, the first Gentileprophet.
To follow Christ.
Immediately had all of hisrelatives and his close friends.
Paul has Barnabas, Silas, andTimothy.
And even Jesus himself had hisapostles.
So here's what you and I need toput in our backpack.

(25:56):
This is your take home.
You and I need to put in ourbackpack.
A Rolodex.
I showed my age there on thatone.
There's only about 10 of us whoknow what a Rolodex is.
If y'all go to the Smithsonianand you go to the real old
section back there, you know,with Paul Revere and Abraham
Lincoln's hat and all thatstuff, you're going to see a

(26:18):
little file thing that's on alittle roller thing.
It has all these cards in it.
It was called a Rolodex.
Now you can call it your contactlist.
I'll call it your board ofdirectors.
Because every single one of us,no matter our age, need a godly

(26:43):
board of directors.
You and I need people in ourlife who stir us and motivate
us.
You and I need people in ourlife who have that common
mission, that common heart, thatcommon action.
We need people in our lives.
Because as the proverb says,whoever walks with the wise will

(27:03):
be wise.
So who do you have in your lifethat's actually on your board of
directors?
Now, I know that may sound likean odd way to say it, but here's
the way it works.
And this is something I'veencouraged my kids to do and all
the kids at camp and all thekids that come and worship with
us at Valrico and all the kidsat Florida College that hang
around with me.
You've got to have people inyour life who in every area of

(27:25):
your life help you succeed, butnot just succeed.
monetarily or with your career,but help you exceed in that
portion of your life in a strongspiritual way.
For example, the very firstboard person you need at that
table with you is somebody who'sgoing to be there because
they've been in that same careerpath that you've chosen is about

(27:47):
20, 22 years ago.
When I was trying to decide,okay, do I want to go into
full-time preaching or do I stayin the job that I was doing and
preaching part-time?
And I called a friend of mine.
You probably have heard of him.
His name is Dee Bowman.
Because I felt D can understand.

(28:08):
He and I both had this same kindof career path.
And so I called D and I wasexpecting D to give me this
long, wise, really thought out,here's what you need to do and
think about, Phil, kind of anexplanation.
And when I told D, I said, D,here's what I'm thinking.
I'm thinking about quitting thisprofession and I'm really
thinking about really focusingon preaching.

(28:29):
How would you go about that?
What would you do?
How long would you take?
And this, that, and the other.
And when I finally shut up, Dgoes, well, Phil, It seems to me
you've had your fun.
It's time for you to get towork.
Is that it?
Yeah, you need to startpreaching.

(28:50):
He may not be with us physicallyanymore.
But he still sits on my board ofdirectors.
Because I know what he wouldsay.
You need somebody in your lifeto guide you in relationships.

(29:11):
Caleb kind of hinted at this theother night with his lesson.
I thought it was perfect becausethis is something we see every
year at camp.
It's so much fun.
There comes a point in everyguy's life where girls become
beautiful.
They're no longer...
And it's fun to watch thattransition because it usually

(29:34):
happens when they're about 13,maybe 14.
Maybe they're a late bloomer,it's 15 or whatever.
But you can see it at campbecause you'll see them walking
along and a girl will pass themand this girl goes,

SPEAKER_00 (29:45):
hello.

SPEAKER_01 (29:48):
And all of a sudden, this kid who has hated girls his
whole life, when she goes,hello, he goes, hello.
He goes, hi, my name's Sally.
What's your name?
I mean, his heart is thumping sohard you could see it coming out
of his chest.
He can't even think or reason.

(30:09):
It's an awesome moment.
Girls, you have more power thanyou could ever imagine.
Trust me.
But you also have to be verywise sometimes.
Because the heart can beexceedingly deceitful, i.e.

(30:33):
Samson, i.e.
Solomon, David.
Please don't think less of me.
But when I was in a preachertraining program and I got up
and preached one Sunday, And asyou normally do after you

(30:56):
preach, you go out into thefoyer and everybody comes by and
they're really nice and whateverelse.
A dear friend of mine, very dearfriend of mine, who I love to
hang out with and was just somuch fun to be around, but a lot
older than me, he came out and Isaw him coming toward me and I

(31:16):
was ready just to say, thankyou, God.
But when he got to me, he didthis number and then he poked
his finger literally into mychest.
And in the middle of the foyerwith everybody around, he goes,
you're an idiot.

(31:38):
I'm like, Brother Moss, say itlouder so the church down the
road can hear us.
What?
He goes, you're an idiot.
I'm like, what?
He said, you see that girl overthere?
And he pointed toward the backof the auditorium to this girl

(32:00):
who had moved to thatcongregation about the same time
that I did and had started hercareer and was always teaching
Bible class, always visitingwith the ladies, always
involved, always extremelymodest.

(32:24):
Do you see her?
He said.
If that's not beautiful to you,you're an idiot.
I've seen what's been catchingyour eye.
You need to wake up.
So I married her.

(32:45):
I'm no idiot.
And to this day, I'm so verythankful.
I'm so very thankful.
Now, let me just say, that's notthe way to normally handle it,
folks.
You got to really know somebody.

(33:08):
But you need people on yourboard of directors to give you
counsel so that you're notacting foolishly.
And you're looking for the trueworthy woman.
Because if that woman inProverbs chapter 31 is not
beautiful to you, you gotproblems, fellas.

(33:31):
And girls, can I just give you alittle piece of advice?
Don't let the world change inyour mind or your heart what
true beauty is.
It is not Instagram, girl.

(33:51):
Those are not the likes.
That you're looking for.
You need somebody in your lifeto give you an idea of marriage.
Let me show you how this works.
This is great.
All right.
Anybody here ever told by yourparents you're not allowed to
look around in church?
Everybody else getting introuble for that?
They see you looking around?
I used to.
My parents could say, this iswhat my parents told me.
You can sit anywhere you want inchurch.
You just have to sit in front ofus.

(34:12):
And my parents sit on the secondrow.
That's true.
And you were not allowed to lookaround in church.
If you started looking around,boom, you would wake up at
evening service time.
That's the way it worked.
All right.
I want you to look around.
This is your time to look aroundbecause you got to see this.
All right.
Everybody here, everybody herewho is married, raise your hand.

(34:35):
If you are married, raise yourhand.
All right.
Keep them up.
Y'all got to see this.
This is awesome.
If you've been married fiveyears, keep them up.
If you're five, ten.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Twenty.
Twenty-five.
Thirty.
Thirty-five! Yeah, just thispast week.

(35:01):
Forty.
Forty-five.
Fifty.
Get those hands up.
You're proud of me.
Be proud of her, BrotherRoberts.
Be proud of her.
Forty-five.
Fifty.
Fifty.
Fifty-five.
Sixty.

(35:22):
Sixty-one.
Sixty-two.
Sixty-three.
Sixty-four.
How many?
Sixty-eight?
Sixty-eight today! All right!Woo! That's worth celebrating,

(35:44):
people! Okay, so here's what Iwant you to do.
The next time you go to themovies where everybody gets all
their marital advice, watchingthose wonderful, wonderful
romantic comedies, or watchingthe Hallmark Channel, you never
know how it's going to end.
I was so surprised she fell forhim.
All right, next time you're atthe movies, just for a little
fun while the previews are goingon, just get up in front of

(36:05):
everybody at the movie and go,Hey, who's been married ten
years?
Okay, who's been married nine?
Five?
Okay, who's been married atleast a week and has made it
last?
Do you see the point?

(36:25):
Everywhere I go, that's what Isee.
God bless y'all.
That's where you go for maritaladvice.
You put those people on yourboard of directors.
And you know what they're goingto tell you?
It wasn't always easy.

UNKNOWN (36:46):
I know.

SPEAKER_01 (36:50):
It wasn't always simple.
But it was always filled withlove.
You need somebody on your boardof directors who can help you
manage money.
One of the best things that Iget to do in my new job at
Florida College is I get tospend a lot of time with people
who've been very successful.
But they're not successfulbecause they have money.
They are successful because ofthe way they use their money.

(37:11):
And I also tell all the youngpeople at Florida College that I
get to work with, there's threethings.
There are three things that youhave no excuse not to excel in.
Number one, by the time you're60, you should be able to get
along with any family member.
I don't care how weird UncleEddie is.
You should be able to get alongwith them.
You should be a person of peace,and you should be able to make

(37:33):
it happen.
Number two, you should be abiblical scholar.
By the time you're, you've got40 years.
By the time you're 60, youshould know the Bible.
No, you may not have a doctorateor a degree, but you've had 40
years to get in the book.
You should be a person of thebook.
And number three, you should bea millionaire.
And I don't appeal to your greedwhen I say that to you.

(37:53):
It's called compoundinginterest.
Do you realize if you just setaside 50 bucks a week, do
something that nobody else inthe world does.
You set aside 50 bucks a week,starting at the age of 20.
When you're 62, you will have$1.2 million.

(38:15):
And here's the best part of it.
Over$900,000 of that was throughcompounding interest.
It didn't even come out of yourpocket.
Again, I don't say that toappeal to your greed.
I say that to appeal to yourself-control.
That you surround yourself withpeople who know how to use

(38:36):
money.
That they know how to take whatGod has given them and use it as
a blessing to others.
And they are forthwith in allthat they do with their money
because they don't hoard it.
They want to share it.
They've been responsible.
You need people like that inyour life.
You need people who are goodwhen it comes to attitude.
Two months ago, God blessed mewith being able to sit at the

(39:10):
bedside of my mom as she wenthome.
For ten years, she suffered withbone cancer, stage four.
And every single time I wouldcall her, I'd say, Mom, how are

(39:34):
you doing?
And she would say, I'm great.
I'm thinking to myself, no,you're not.
And she would say, I'm just soglad that it's me and not one of
you kids or my preciousgrandchildren.

(39:58):
And just maybe through all thesetrials and tests, They'll find a
cure and I'll get to be part ofthe reason why.
Right before she stoppedspeaking, I said, Mom, I love

(40:22):
you.
And she goes, I love you more.
And she goes...
I'm great.

(40:44):
When her eyes didn't flickeranymore, I couldn't help but
think, she's great now.
But I'll have that in my heartfor the rest of my life.

(41:08):
People of faith know how tohandle challenges.
Doesn't mean they handle itperfectly.
But you need people like MarilynRobertson on your board.
You need people who handleadversity.
They've gone through the trialsand the struggles of life and

(41:31):
they've made it to the otherside by the grace of God and
they give God all the praise andall the glory.
I'd love to introduce you to aman by the name of Mark Denton,
who he is now about five yearsold, but since the age of five
he's been paralyzed from thechest down.

(41:54):
He was in a car accident withhis mother at the age of five
that took her life and left himparalyzed.
And although he spends...
All of his life dealing with thechallenges of paralysis in a
wheelchair.
He worked every day of his life.

(42:19):
And when you are around MarkDenton, you are literally around
the happiest person in theworld.
Who says, I had Jesus.
I had my family.
I have my brethren.
What else could I possibly need?
He's on my board.

(42:43):
And I think of him often whenI'm thinking this is hard.
You need people on your boardwho are good parents.
They bring their children up inthe Nurture and the admonition
of the Lord.
And if you will, they're thekind of people who understand

(43:06):
that life is indeed more thanjust sports.
It's even more sometimes thaneven great jobs.
It's about walking with theLord.
And parenting's not easy.
And let me just say to any ofthe parents here this morning
who are pulling your hair outand thinking, how am I going to
do this?
Then you're doing it right.

(43:29):
Because that's what it is.
We love y'all, but you know,sometimes.
Because there's nothing morepeaceful than knowing your
children are walking with theLord.

(43:56):
Spirituality.
health and fitness, make yourown list.
But the fact of the matter iswhen God brings us together as
his family, he surrounds us withpeople to motivate us, inspire
us, invigorate us, encourage us,to lift us, to stir us.

(44:20):
And that can only happen when welisten to what he's saying and
we put these people first.
At our table.
In Romans chapter 16, theApostle Paul, I believe, lists
his own board of directors.
And I won't read this entirelist, but I do want you to

(44:43):
notice something.
They all had something incommon.
You'll notice in verse 1 ofRomans 16, he speaks of Phoebe.
Who is Phoebe?
She is a servant of the church.
In verse 2, she's become apatron of many.
In verse 3, there's Priscillaand Aquila.

(45:03):
Who are they?
They are his fellow workers.
How else are they described inverse 4?
They are those who risked theirown life.
A little bit later in verse 7...
They are fellow prisoners.
A little bit later in verse 7,they are those who are in Christ
even before Him.
In verse 9, they are those whoare fellow workers.
In verse 10, approved by Christ.

(45:24):
In verse 12, they are workers inthe Lord.
And then you'll notice in verse12, those are those who have
worked hard in the Lord.
Because Paul says, these are mypeople.
They're not the people who justcome and sit in a pew.
They're not the people who justcome and check a box.
They're the people who get towork.

(45:48):
And I just want you to know thatsome of the people who sit on my
board are in this room today.
And they're not always thepeople that are older than me.
Cheryl and I had the amazingprivilege of taking some

(46:09):
students to the Philippinestwice this past year.
And we had been over there acouple of days on the first trip
where we both looked at eachother and we both almost at the
same time went, they're old.

(46:33):
They were camp friends.
They were leaders on campus.
They were society leaders, sewerclub leaders.
They were teaching class attheir local congregations.
They were people with a commonmission, a common heart, and a
common action.

(46:55):
They're my kind of people.
And I can't wait to get backnext month.
Because they've already reachedout to Cheryl and said, hey, we
got to get together.
And I'm like, yes, we do.

(47:18):
As much as I'm impressed withJonathan, I'm impressed even
more with the armor bearer,aren't you?
One of those great unnamedheroes in Scripture.
And just so you know, when itcomes to being on the board of
directors, it doesn't meanthat's a paid position.

(47:40):
If you want to pay them, have atit, please.
If you want to have a gatheringevery few years, have at it.
But some of them may not evenknow that they're on your board.
Some of them may be people thatyou talk to often and need to.
Some of them may actually evenbe Bible characters.

(48:03):
And some of them may be justthose amazing people who've gone
on before us.
Who had the courage to say toyou.
You've had your fun.
Time to get to work.
But they're the people thatremind you.
Of who you are.

(48:31):
What you're to be about.
And more importantly, whereyou're going.
Let me leave you just one morethought before we stand and sing
this song.
Talking about good friends.
When Jesus was surrounded by hisdisciples, that night before he

(48:54):
went to the cross, he said thisto them.
Greater love has no one thanthis than for someone to lay
down his life for his friends.
You are my friends.
You are my friends.

(49:18):
If you do what I command you.
Two ways to think about that.
First and foremost, there's nogreater friend than Jesus,
right?
And truly, he is a friend.
No greater friend.
Because he gave his life for usso that we could have salvation.

(49:40):
King Jesus died for us.

UNKNOWN (49:44):
Wow.

SPEAKER_01 (49:48):
But then he took it a step further.
Not only am I your friend,you're my friend.
Think about that.
If you'll do what I command you.

(50:08):
Can I encourage you to surroundyourself with godly people?
And that the person sitting atthe head of your board of
directors is the best friendyou'll ever have.

(50:29):
King Jesus.
And you will be his friend ifyou'll trust him and obey.
If there's anything that we cando to help you trust and obey
your Lord Jesus and walk closerto him, we invite you to come
while we stand and sing.

SPEAKER_00 (50:57):
Thanks for listening to the West Side Church of
Christ podcast.
For more information aboutWestside, you can connect with
us through our website,justchristians.com, and our
Facebook page.
Our music is from upbeat.io.
That's upbeat with two Ps,U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creators

(51:19):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again.