June 10, 2025 • 46 mins
In this 3-part mini-series from Ecclesiastes, Brody challenges and encourages young Christians—whether you're a teen, a college student, or someone just now getting serious about your faith. Each episode unpacks a key step in your walk with Jesus: Start Strong, Run Hard, Finish Well.
In Part 1, we explore what it means to start strong—learning to enjoy the goodness of God, build spiritual habits, develop discipline, and let go of what holds you back.
Brody also shares powerful stories of students coming to faith and offers practical advice on topics like gratitude, godly friendships, submission to authority, and standing firm in your beliefs—even when it’s hard.
This series is packed with truth, encouragement, and real talk for anyone ready to take their faith seriously and live for the glory of Jesus.
- Philippians 1:6
- Luke 9:62
- Ecclesiastes 11
- Summer Camp SWO25
- Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I often talk to young Christians, or, when I say
young Christians, people thatmay not be young in human years,
but they're young in Jesusyears in terms of their faith
and their relationship withChrist.
Maybe somebody's in their 30sor 50s or 70s and they've just
gotten serious about their walkwith the Lord, that person, a
(00:20):
young Christian.
And today I want to share some,some challenges and some words
for um, for for you, some todo's, some things that you can
get active and get after in yourChristian walk, and I'm going
to do this in three episodes.
We're going to look at folksthat are younger in their faith,
(00:42):
but but then also, but thenalso gear this towards young
Christians, christians who areyoung, so believers in their
teen years and their 20s Can wesay it that way?
So I want to encourage you.
If you are in one of these threecategories, you're a teenage
Christian, or even younger.
You're a young adult Christian.
(01:03):
You're in your twenties.
Maybe you're a college student,grad student, or you might be
in the military.
You just went to work right outof high school, um, but you're
in your twenties and you're justreally.
That's the decade where you'restarting life.
You know, um, or you're olderbut you're a Christian that's
really just now getting seriousabout your walk with the Lord
(01:23):
and this episode's for you.
We will follow this with acouple episodes.
We're going to talk to folksabout sort of how to live out
faithfully in your 20s, 30s and40s, and we'll finish up with
one that looks at the 50s and up, and I'm excited about this
little mini series.
This is birthed out of a sermonthat I did recently at Red Oak
Church that you might havelistened to and hopefully it'll
(01:44):
be an encouragement, give yousome motivation.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Welcome to no Sanity Required.
Welcome to no Sanity Requiredfrom the Ministry of Snowbird
Wilderness Outfitters, a podcastabout the Bible, culture and
stories from around the globe.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
All right, before we get into this week's episode, I
did want to read to you someamazing I'm talking about
awesome, awesome text messagesthat I received, and I read some
of those last week and I wantto read some from this past week
.
Here's one from a staff membernamed Justin, which, by the way,
I'd like to ask you to pray forJustin's family.
(02:24):
His mother is dealing with somemedical issues.
Justin has served veryfaithfully here at SWO and his
folks are in a difficult timeand season, so pray for them.
Right now.
While you're listening to this,just pause and pray for
Justin's family, specificallyfor his mom.
I think that would be a hugeblessing to them.
But he texted me this One of myguys pulled me aside last night
(02:47):
and professed faith in Jesus.
I responded dang, son, that'sthe best way to start a weekend.
This was on Friday.
This would have been Fridaynight.
Um, he said for sure, he was 15.
He was eager to learn the wholeweek and came to me the last
night just torn up.
I asked him what's going on andhe was telling me that he knows
he's been living life wrong,doesn't want to do it anymore.
It was a good conversation, man, so praise the Lord for that.
(03:10):
This is from Connor, anotherfaithful brother that's serving
here this summer.
Forgot to let you know, but onWednesday one of my boys got
saved.
I also just had anotherconversation and another guy of
mine gave his life to Jesus.
So, connor, in one week got toexperience two young men
professing faith in Jesus Prettyawesome.
(03:31):
This is another one.
Hey, brody, one of my studentsgot saved, um, tonight.
So that was cool.
That was on Tuesday night.
That was early in the week,which is pretty, pretty cool.
Um, always awesome when ithappens early.
Uh, then on Friday, thursday,I'm sorry, um, my camper gave
his life to Christ tonight.
His name is Jonah, he's fromMount Zion, so that's pretty
(03:54):
cool.
And then I got a text onThursday.
Hey, just wanted to let youknow.
One of our girls from ourchurch got saved tonight.
I said, heck, yeah, that's soamazing.
I'm with student pastors now.
They're going to come your way.
So, anyway, awesome.
Just.
I know y'all love to hear thoseand I love to read them to you.
So some cool stories there ofGod's faithfulness.
(04:16):
All right, let's get into this.
I want to encourage you with alittle bit of scripture.
The scripture tells us inPhilippians 1, chapter 1 and
verse 6, and I'm sure of this,that he who began a good work in
you will bring it to completionat the day of Jesus Christ.
And in Luke, chapter 9, verse62, the scripture tells us and
(04:40):
y'all know this is one of myfavorite verses, it's something
that motivates me every day andthat I try to motivate y'all
with.
And Jesus says this.
Jesus said to him no one whoputs his hand to the plow and
looks back is fit for thekingdom of God.
And so, with those verses, whatI want to do is encourage you
with, uh, with, what the writerof Ecclesiastes said in
(05:00):
Ecclesiastes, chapters 11 and 12, when he said remember your
creator in the days of youryouth, remember your creator in
the days of your youth.
Over these three episodes, Iwant to give you three
applications for young and oldbelievers.
Three applications for youngand old believer.
Here's the three applications,and today we'll be considering
the first one.
I want to give you these threeapplications Start strong.
(05:24):
Number two run hard.
And number three finish well.
Now, for me, the way I think ofthis is also start strong, run
strong and die well, or diestrong, so finish well.
But anyway, today we're goingto get into.
Starting strong, what does thatlook like?
So let's think of the teenyears, the college years, the
(05:45):
20s, but then also you put inthis category those earliest
years of when you first getmarried.
For those of you that are newbelievers, I talked to a fairly
new believer this week who's inhis 50s and I'm like, hey, let's
start this thing out, let's getgoing, let's get after it.
So these would apply, I think,to him.
(06:07):
Okay, so let me give you it'sgoing to be a bullet point list.
We're going to rip through it.
I hope it's meaningful.
Excuse me flipping and turningthe pages of scripture because I
want to read a few differentpassages as we go through this.
So here's the first one Startstrong, starting strong.
Here's the first point.
Learn strong, starting strong.
Here's the first point.
Learn to enjoy the goodness ofthe Lord.
(06:28):
Learn to enjoy the goodness ofthe Lord.
That's so important.
And where does that come from?
It comes from Ecclesiastes,chapter 11, verse 7.
Light is sweet and it ispleasant for the eyes to see the
sun.
What he's referring to in thatverse is being alive, because if
(06:49):
you read that whole chapter,what he's saying is he's using
the darkness as it relates todeath, and he's using the, the
light, to relate to being aliveCause.
In the next verse he says so ifa person lives in many years,
let him rejoice in them all.
So enjoy the goodness of theLord.
Because in the next verse hesays so if a person lives many
years, let him rejoice in themall.
So enjoy the goodness of theLord.
(07:10):
I think a few thoughts that goalong with that is each day,
reflect on the goodness of theLord.
Each day, meditate on God'sword.
Have you meditated on God'sword today?
What does it mean to meditateon God's word?
It means to think on thesethings.
To read it means to consider,it means to think on these
things.
To read means to consider,means to look into and then
reflect, give reflection.
Have you talked to God today,spoke to God, shared your
(07:35):
thoughts, your heart, your, yourfears, your anxieties, your
requests?
The scripture says let yourrequests be made known to God.
And it says to do all that byprayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving.
And so that brings us toappreciating the simplicity.
Appreciate the simplicity Ifit's a sunny day, as simple as
it seems.
(07:55):
Pause and reflect on that andjust appreciate it.
Tell the Lord.
Thank you, but in your heart,have an attitude of appreciation
.
If you enjoyed some food ordrink today, appreciate that
Pause and appreciate it.
I think that's so important,and the Bible teaches us that
(08:16):
appreciation and thanksgivingand rejoicing produces more joy
in us.
You want joy to be.
You want to become a joyfactory.
You want your heart to be afactory that produces joy in us.
You want joy to be.
You want to become a joyfactory.
You want your heart to be afactory that produces joy in you
.
Then be someone who givesthanks and reflects on the
goodness of the Lord and andspeaks of it and and meditates
on it and and thanks the Lordfor it.
(08:38):
Next, here's the next thingLearn what to hold on to and
what to let go of.
Learn what to hold on to andwhat to let go of.
There's things that you've gotto let go of, man.
It could be a harm or a wrongor a pain that somebody caused
you.
It could be a grudge thatyou're holding against that
(08:58):
person.
It could be harm that was doneto you, whether it's
post-traumatic stress from that,or it's the pain associated
with it.
Or it could be combat trauma orlike we've got a guest coming
(09:19):
up, maybe next week, it might bein a couple of weeks, but we've
got a guest coming on that wedid an interview last week.
Week, it might be in a coupleweeks, but we've got a guest
coming on that we we did aninterview last week and this guy
was a firefighter and man.
He he experienced a couple ofthings, some some pretty intense
death and loss that he was, hewas hands-on with and it spun
him out.
I mean, it really destroyed umsort of the.
(09:39):
The frame of mind he was in wasvery destroyed, and so, anyway,
learning to let what to hold onto, what to let go of.
Now it's easier said than doneto let go of abuse that occurred
when you were a child, or theloss of a buddy, um, I recently
was talking to um, a formermember of of dev group, which is
(10:01):
known as seal team six, and wewere talking about the death of
one of his buddies, who I didn'tknow, but I read the book.
It was a guy who was a believer, which I'll just recommend the
book right here.
His name's Adam Brown.
The book was called Fearlessand that book was powerful man,
because you saw the power of thegospel at work in a person's
(10:22):
life.
It wasn't, first and foremost,a book about military service
and combat, although it wasthose things, and powerful at
that.
It was a story of God's graceto change a man's life who was
in the.
Adam Brown was severelyaddicted to drugs and God
brought him out of it.
It's a powerful story, butanyway, adam was killed in an
(10:44):
operation where he was shot.
He was shot up pretty bad andso one of his team members uh, I
had the privilege of meetingrecently and and getting to know
a little bit and, um, we'rehaving a conversation about it
and that led to conversationsabout some other operations and
I I I think I mentioned thisbefore but I love the story.
(11:07):
One of the stories I love toread is the story of a guy named
john chapman, known as chappy.
It's the first medal of honorrecipient ever to be where his,
his actions were caught on film,on camera.
(11:43):
It was a c-130, I think,filming, and then an overhead
drone that captured the imagingof Extortion 17, a helicopter in
2011, where everyone on boardwas killed, and it's just you
watch it and you hear thosehelicopter pilots talking about
that and it's like man, thesedudes carry this.
The survivors carry thisbecause they buried their
(12:05):
friends, they worked on them asthey died oftentimes.
And so when I say you got toknow what to let go of, I know
it's not as simple as justsaying, oh well, my buddy died,
I got to let go of it.
I know it's much more complexthan that.
I got a buddy that two reallygood friends, man, they're like
brothers and they listen to NSR.
They live in Virginia.
(12:26):
They're like brothers and theylisten to NSR.
They live in Virginia.
They're combat veterans and oneof them is a man.
We sit around the fire one nightand talked about the struggle
of moving on.
You know, in your heart andyour mind and when you've seen
things and done things andexperienced things in the fog of
war and the heat of conflict,how do you let go of it?
And here's the image or thepicture that for me because I've
(12:49):
not done those things.
But I can tell you that as aChristian, you've done things
that you live with regret andguilt over bad things, bad
things that you would not wantanybody to know and you don't
want to talk about.
I can tell you that.
I can tell you that in my lifethere are things that I am
ashamed.
There's one particular incidentthat I think only one other
(13:09):
person has ever known about,that happened to me before I was
a Christian, that I, that I didthat haunts me, man, and I
wrestle with it and I just giveit to the Lord, and the Lord has
freed me from it and I'mgrateful for that.
But anyway, it was somethingthat occurred when I was gosh, I
don't know, 17 years old maybe,and something I did, and just
(13:30):
in a moment that that could havecaused a lifetime of I don't
know man, the Lord is biggerthan any of your moments and
he's bigger than the sum totalof all your moments, and you got
to learn how to give it to him,and that sounds easy, but you
got to let know what to let goof.
And I told my buddy, sittingaround that fire that night I
shared with with him what I,what I do is.
(13:51):
I imagine you know there's thatpassage that talks about the sea
of forgetfulness, that that theLord separates our sins from
the East as far as East is fromthe West.
That he, that he remembers himno more more.
He casts him in the depths ofthe sea, that it's this picture
of throwing it into the depthsand I imagine a sea that's
bigger than the pacific oceanand deeper than anything on
(14:14):
earth.
You know, the deepest spot onearth is what?
35 000 feet is what the?
I think it's 35 000 is the, thechallenger deep, which is a
section of the Pacific Ocean.
35,000 feet deep, that's MountEverest plus a mile of water on
top of it.
And I imagine an ocean that'sbottomless.
It's deeper than that and thosethings I need to let go of.
(14:39):
I put them on a raft and Ifloat it right out into that
ocean and it begins to sink andit just disappears and it's
somewhere in the ocean of God'sgrace, and he's got it and I'm
not going to try to resuscitateit, revive it and pull it up.
That for me, is an image.
But then also learn what to holdon to.
There's some things you need tohold on to, to remember.
You know you might have pastaddiction and you need freedom
(15:00):
from it, but you need to hold onto it so that you're you
remember what it's like to gothere.
You know what it's like to to,to fall into that and to create
and live in those patterns.
So that's important Knowingwhat, learning what to hold on
to as as much as I learned whatto let go of.
Hold on to the relationshipsthat matter.
Fight for your marriage, yourfriendships, if you're, if
(15:20):
you're um a young, 20 somethingspouse man, the earliest stages
of your marriage can sometimespose the greatest hurdles.
If you're a teenager that'strying to embrace adulthood but
you've come out of an abusivesituation, hold on to Jesus.
Hold on to relationshipsthat'll bring healing.
Hold on to accountability.
Hold on to new affections.
Very important, so important,and I like that picture of
(15:44):
affections because, um that thatbrings me to the next point,
which is um.
The scripture speaks of settingour affections on things above,
and so, for a Christian, we havea new set of affections.
We don't long for the thingsthat the world longs for, or we
don't long for the things welonged for when we were in the
(16:05):
world, and I like to this summer.
I'm using an illustration, I'veused it once so far and I think
I might continue using it, butI think about um.
Changed affections will changeyour activity or your behavior,
and to me, the the goodillustration of this, or a good
example of this, is imagine ateenage boy.
Okay, now, let's say he's 13,14.
(16:29):
You know, you can't.
I young and don't want to takea shower.
His room stinks.
You can't get him to do hislaundry.
You got to remind him every dayto brush his teeth and put on
deodorant.
He smells bad, he looks like atrain wreck, you know, just kind
of messy all the time.
And then all the sudden youknow he's, he's, he's entered
(16:49):
into puberty and so everythingthat comes with that.
You know, body's changing andso there's new odors and and uh,
anyway, you can't.
You're trying to get this dudeto, you know to to clean up a
little bit and just bepresentable.
And you're struggling with it,you know, struggling with it,
and he's not cooperative.
Anyway, all of a sudden yourealize hey, he's, he's brushing
(17:10):
his teeth, he's taking a shower, he's putting on deodorant.
He got a job, he's trying tomake a little money, he's saving
for a car.
He looks different, he's, youknow.
And then you find out, oh, it'sbecause now there's girls and
he's realizing that he'sattracted to them and he's
trying to present himself in away that would make him
(17:31):
appealing.
What has changed is hisaffections.
So a changed affection willchange behavior.
And that leads me to the nextthing, which is to create habits
and patterns within thoseaffections, and those behaviors
Create habits and patterns, andthere needs, and those behaviors
create habits and patterns andthere needs to be discipline,
and discipline would be its ownpoint, but habits and patterns
(17:52):
are connected to discipline.
We got to have discipline to toestablish those habits, habits
and patterns.
You know, um, and so habits andpatterns are important for kind
of keeping us between theditches.
You know, there, there, I don'twant to become legalistic, but
I do want to have sleep patternsand reading patterns and
meditation patterns and theydon't have clean habits of
(18:14):
exercise and conversation withthe Lord and, um, listening to
things that are wholesome andare going to build me up.
That's important and and andthat does lead to discipline,
being disciplined, disciplinedin every facet of life.
I'll I've shared it on here alot of times before the struggle
(18:34):
for me when it comes todiscipline is, uh, is dietary
dad, gum man.
I love ice cream and fried foodand pastries.
Literally, there's this old,there was this.
I don't know if y'all rememberthis Alan Jackson song that was
real popular, um, in like thelate eighties.
It was'all remember this AlanJackson song that was real
popular in like the late 80s.
This was early Alan Jackson,early Alan Jackson career,
because I mean, maybe it wasearly 90s.
(18:56):
I think I'm looking it up rightnow.
I think it was, I don't seewhat, anyway, the song's called.
While I'm looking it up, thesong's called everything I love
is killing me.
Y'all remember that.
Um, and it was.
Uh, it said everything I loveis killing me cigarettes, jack
daniels and caffeine.
(19:17):
Uh, yeah, that's it.
Let's see, everything I love iskilling me cigarettes, jack
daniels and caffeine.
Um, it came out.
Okay, I was wrong.
It came out in 96.
Um, released october 96.
Um, anyway, funny, becausethat's me.
Everything I love is killing medonuts, pastries, pie, cake,
(19:39):
fried foods, fast food, y'all.
I am, I am over the middle-agedhump, I'm approaching AARP age.
I mean, I'm very close to beingable to get a senior coffee at
McDonald's.
It'll happen here in the nextyear or two.
And I love fast food, I lovecheeseburgers, I love pizza,
(20:00):
y'all.
Last week I went to the gasstation and bought two pieces of
Hunt Brothers pizza one daybecause I hadn't eaten lunch and
it was about worship servicetime at SLO and I went and got
it and it was so good.
The next day I did it again Gasstation pizza.
It's delicious, but it's so badfor you.
And so, trust me, I appreciateand understand the struggle with
(20:21):
discipline.
Now I do really good.
I personally do very good whenit comes to exercise.
I exercise pretty much everyday, even on like a Sunday.
I'm gonna get out and dosomething.
I'm gonna go for an extra longwalk Sunday morning while
everybody's in bed.
So I'm always and I liftweights and do strength training
(20:42):
.
A mountain bike you know I row.
I have a rower Like I.
I do go with that, but partlycause I enjoy it.
A lot of people don't enjoy um,uh, exercise, and so that
requires a little morediscipline.
Um, I do pretty good with mysleep.
Uh, I've adjusted my sleephabits.
But I'm not trying to become afitness influencer.
(21:04):
Lord knows, that's the lastthing I can do.
But I'm just saying, asChristians, we don't need the
internet telling us hey, livedisciplined lives, and if you do
, there's a lot of joy andfreedom that comes from that.
And I don't need an author or afitness influencer to tell me
that a YouTuber.
Discipline is good, but now Ialso don't want to become
(21:25):
obsessive.
Compulsive is good, but now Ialso don't want to become
obsessive, compulsive, obsessedand consumed with discipline.
Understand that Paul writes tothe Galatians and says for
freedom, christ has set you free.
And so what I would say on thisone is with discipline, find
balance with freedom.
Discipline needs freedom andfreedom needs discipline.
So there's the point Freedomunhinged would run you off the
(21:48):
cliff.
You'd run headlong out ofcontrol in your life, and you
need discipline to bring thingsinto check.
But then discipline withoutfreedom would turn you into a
fundamentalist or a robot, andthat's not good.
So find that balance.
Next, let's see a value Learnthe value of building true and
(22:10):
lasting and healthy friendships.
Invest in those friendships.
Learn the value of buildingtrue and healthy friendships and
then invest in thosefriendships.
So, in other words, those typesof friendships are going to
require your personal investment.
Friendships are going torequire your personal investment
.
So, yeah, I think friendshipsare one of those things that, as
(22:30):
you grow into, as you grow inyour faith, you're going to
realize the importance ofdeveloping deep, lasting
friendships that are true andhealthy.
Now, what is the what ischaracteristic of a healthy
friendship?
And this would be a great otherepisode here, but I would say
we want what's best for eachother.
I'm for you, not against you,but I'm willing to confront you
(22:53):
in areas that I feel like you'recompromising yourself and so
say hard things.
But also, I'm going to rejoicewhen you rejoice, I'm going to
grieve when you grieve, and socultivate those healthy
friendships where you can trustsomebody that's very important
and be a good friend.
(23:14):
Next would be submit willinglyand joyfully to godly authority.
Submit willingly and joyfullyto godly authority Very
important Learning to submit tothe authority that God puts in
your life and knowing that thatauthority might not come, um, it
might not be easy for you.
Some of you struggle, some ofus struggle with authority.
(23:34):
Man, I have a hard time withauthority, just to be honest.
Sometimes it's, um, it'sdifficult, it's not easy, and so
I need to.
But submitting to Godlyauthority doesn't mean obey the
authorities of the governmentand make sure you go the speed
limit and do your taxes.
Yeah, that's that's, that's thething, and you do that, but
whatever.
But what we're talking about issubmitting to the authority of
(23:55):
the church, the authority of theword of god, recognizing that
the scripture has authority foryour life.
You're not reading it the wayyou read other literature.
You're reading it to learn whatyou might obey or submit to,
and to establish patterns ofworship and obedience.
So submit willingly andjoyfully to the godly authority.
He's put in your life the HolySpirit, the word of God.
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Next and this is especially true, so important for young people
know what you don't know.
Know what you don't know.
Know what you don't know.
People, when they hit 20 and 22, tend to want to express
everything they know and to becombative and to be
argumentative and um and.
But the reality is, those of usthat are older, you know, and I
(24:41):
know, that when you're, whenyou're in your 20s, you know a
whole lot less than you thinkyou know, and life is gonna.
Life is gonna humble you andteach you and, and you'll be
fine, like you're in your 20s,you know a whole lot less than
you think you know, and life isgoing to humble you and teach
you and you'll be fine, you'regoing to learn some hard lessons
.
But, man, if you can recognizeman, I don't know as much as I
probably think I know, and so Iwant to just listen more than I
talk and learn from the peoplearound me that have lived more
(25:02):
life than me.
That would be super helpful.
Next, be kind.
Now again, we're under thisheading of starting strong.
So starting life strong,starting my Christian walk
strong, learn to be kind.
Just be kind.
That doesn't mean you go out ofyour way to be friendly and
bubbly, and just be kind topeople.
Sometimes kindness is quiet,sometimes it's very gentle,
(25:25):
sometimes it's loud and fun andjoyful and boisterous.
But kindness to celebrate thegoodness of the Lord in other
people, kindness to sympathizeor empathize with those that are
hurting and to extend thatkindness to them through a
caring word or a caring eye orcompassion for what they might
(25:46):
be experiencing.
Don't expect something fornothing.
I heard a 20-something theother day complaining because
the only job offer he has comingout of college will only pay
$35,000, and that's not fairbecause he spent twice that
getting his, or three times thatgetting his education, four
times that, whatever it was, andso that's crazy if they think
(26:07):
he's going to come work for that.
Hey, don't expect something fornothing, including don't expect
to start at the top of thechain.
You know, I talked to a younglady the other day.
I was so impressed by her.
I said what are you doing Usingyour degree?
She recently graduated from alarge, very solid Well, she
graduated from ClemsonUniversity a large, very solid.
Well, she graduated fromClemson University.
(26:27):
So, large, good education,large, well-known name brand,
all that.
What are you doing?
She said well, I'm working.
I'm not going to say what itwas, I don't want to compromise
her.
I didn't ask her if I couldshare this, but she's just
working at a small localbusiness, not making a whole
bunch of money, just beingfaithful with the opportunity in
(26:52):
front of her.
She's not using her degree, butshe said I'm just doing, doing
what I can.
I talked to another guy whatare you doing?
Well, I got this job and it'snot exactly what I was looking
for, but I'm building a resume.
So don't expect something fornothing.
Expect to work hard, startsmall, despise, not a small
beginning, get after it.
Get after it and buildsomething.
Now that's different.
If you're going to, you know,if you're a school teacher, you
work in education.
Come out of school.
There are those careers likelaw enforcement or education or
(27:16):
the medical field, where youhave a very specific degree and
then you're probably going to,going to get a job.
That then you're going to dothat job for 25 or 30 or 40
years, but it's because it'svery specific to the degree.
But if you get a businessdegree or a marketing degree, or
maybe you get a very specificdegree and can't find a job in
that field, just be willing todo what it takes.
(27:36):
You know, and don't expectsomething for nothing.
The, the, the.
Everybody gets a trophymentality needs to be left
behind.
Um, this next one is man.
This is important and I wantyou to hear, listen, hear this
whole thing out.
You are not special, but youare unique.
There's this mindset of well,I'm special, you're special,
(27:58):
everybody's special.
Well, yes and no, we're allcreated in God's image and, as
such, we're image bearers.
But every one of us is unique.
You're unique, I'm unique,everyone has a uniqueness.
We have the imprint and thethumbprint of God on our lives.
We're created in his image.
But just remember that you'reunique and so with that, you
(28:20):
have a unique relationship tothe creator.
All of us have an opportunityfor a relationship with our
creator, but it's a uniquecreator creation relationship
from person to person.
And with that comes the next one, which is you are loved by God
and with that, you have valueand purpose.
So you're loved by God, youhave value, you have purpose.
(28:42):
God has value that he hasplaced on you.
That's why Paul writes to theCorinthians and says you're not
your own, you're bought with aprice.
So glorify Christ Jesus in yourbody, so you're loved by God,
you're valued by God.
He has purpose for you.
But the other reality that comeswith that is the next point,
(29:03):
which is learn and understandthe law of the harvest.
What's the law of the harvest?
It's what James writes when hesays don't be deceived.
Whatever you sow, you're goingto reap.
So whatever you sow, you'regoing to reap.
A person who sows to adulteryis going to reap the
consequences of that adultery.
(29:24):
A person who sows to living inpursuit of what the world offers
is going to face theconsequences of realizing that
the world cannot satisfy what'sdeep inside of you.
We have, there's a song thatwe're singing this summer at
camp and at first it throwspeople off a little bit people
that are really doctrinallyfaithful because there's a
(29:46):
repeated line in it that saysI've wanted you all of my life.
And we know that we haven'twanted God all of our life in
terms of when we're blind to Godand we're in love with the
world.
We don't want God.
But we also know that we reallydo.
Every human being longs for arelationship with God.
That would restore everythingthat's broken, and so the
(30:08):
consequences of my actions canbe brought into a place of
peaceful rest and kind ofbrought into check through my
relationship with God.
I'm loved by God, he loves me,and the law of the harvest says
I'm going to reap what I sow,but thank God that his grace is
(30:29):
sufficient for me.
Think about the man that wrotethat, the Apostle Paul, what he
must have lived with when itcomes to going back to that
earlier point of knowing what tolet go of.
He had to let go of knowing hehad separated families and
killed mamas and daddies andorphaned their children.
You know how hard that musthave been to wake up and be that
dude every day.
Very difficult, so difficult.
(30:51):
Um, next, we've got to wrap itup here.
I've got to move on to my nextthing in my day here at SWO.
But, um, just so, just a couplemore, three or four more.
Um, give and tithe, so tithe.
Give money like, give to thechurch, give to ministry.
Use the resources God's givenyou to bless others.
The, the, the ministry of thechurch, depends on the giving of
(31:13):
God's people, and a lot ofpeople.
When you're young and you don'thave a lot of money, you
convince yourself that you can'tafford to tithe, you can't
afford to talk.
I can't man.
I'm, you know, I don't makeenough money, I'm barely paying
my bills.
I can't man, I don't makeenough money, I'm barely paying
my bills.
How can I give 10% of it to thechurch?
And I'm not going to say apercentage.
There's not a percentage thatwe need to hang on to.
It's the principle of givingand give sacrificially.
(31:34):
The scripture says give and itwill be given unto you.
Press down, shaking together,running over.
God will give to you inabundance and our giving will be
reflected in the blessing wereceive.
And that's not prosperitygospel, that's biblical
principle.
I don't give just so I can get,but when I give, I can trust
that God's going to take care ofme.
You cannot be faithful inworshiping the Lord in your life
(31:58):
if you're not giving of yourpersonal resources time, talent,
treasure.
Give of your time, give of yourtalent, give of your treasures.
So give money.
And then what are you doingwith your time?
Do you use all your free timeand your day off to go to the
lake or to enjoy working aroundyour place.
Do you use some time each week?
One of the things I love is allthe people that serve in our
(32:18):
pinwheel tutoring programvolunteer and serve in that
thing for free to administer,using their time and their
talents.
And so learn to give, learn totie.
That's critical.
Next, do hard things.
This kind of ties back intodiscipline, and I'm going to do
an episode on discipline anddoing hard things.
(32:38):
That's a future episode thatwe're going to be doing, so I'll
elaborate on that later.
But do hard things.
Challenge yourself relationally, challenge yourself
academically, intellectually.
Challenge yourself physically,challenge yourself spiritually.
Do hard things, you'll growthrough that.
Learn to not just chase comfort.
Uh, three more temporary thingscan often seem like ultimate
(33:03):
things.
So you know, especially forteenagers, sports and hobbies
Let me tell you something youwon your 3A high school
conference championship.
Nobody cares.
You care and the folks in yourinner circle care.
Nobody else really cares, andso recognize it as a gift from
the Lord.
What an incredible experience Iremember as a high school
(33:24):
senior.
Sports were everything to me,and they go away, you know.
You leave them behind.
So recognize that, okay.
So kind of tagging on orpiggybacking on that idea of
don't make temporary things theultimate things.
And again, I use the sportsanalogy.
(33:46):
This is because I was an athlete, but you could use anything,
you know, it could be your work,like I remember dudes that I
went to school with and see thiseven now, guys that are
consumed with hunting, like I'vegot a buddy Love him, awesome,
brother.
He's so obsessed with huntingand fishing that it is
compromised friendships andrelationships.
So anything can can do this.
(34:08):
It could be money, it could be.
It could be, you know, as youeven enter into your career path
.
It could be something that isnot bad in and of itself, like
money's not bad, but you canbecome consumed or obsessed with
the, with something that's notintended to be ultimate, it's
temporary.
So those temporary things, theway I would clarify, that is to
(34:28):
say, use temporary things tobring glory to God and make
eternal or kingdom impact andinvestment.
That's what I would say, whichbrings me to the next thing,
which is don't seek praise.
Don't seek praise.
Paul says am I now trying towin the approval of men or of
God?
If I'm trying to win theapproval of men, then I'm not a
bond servant of Christ.
(34:49):
So don't seek praise in that,um, you don't need the approval
of people.
We simply want to be faithfulto the Lord and win his approval
, and and so I think all of ushave the tendency and there's
it's, it's a normal desire towant to be approved and seen for
(35:10):
what you've done oraccomplished or what the Lord's
done through you, but also forthe things that you've worked
hard to accomplish in and ofyourself.
So don't seek, don't seek.
Praise.
Live for the glory and honor ofthe Lord and honor the Lord.
And then then the last one, andthen I'm going to end with sort
of a um, a thought that's notreally on the list, but it's
(35:35):
kind of a bigger overarching,all encompassing thought.
Um, the last one is don'tcomplain, don't be a whiner, and
I would, just I would.
What I would support that withis we talk a lot about um, don't
have a victim mentality, don'thave a sense of entitlement,
those two things.
If you come to Snowbird, if youwork here or if you attend
something here, you're going tohear those two things.
Don't have a victim mentality,don't have a sense of
entitlement, victim mentality.
(35:56):
Yeah, you might have beenvictimized, yeah, you might have
been harmed, hurt, abused,something terrible might have
happened to you, but don't havethat mentality of a defeatist.
And again, that's one of thosethings it's easy to say sitting
here and harder to do if youwere terribly damaged and
traumatized as a child or ayoung girl, young boy or combat
(36:20):
veteran.
But you're not a victim.
You're not a victim.
You have to get that in yourmindset, that God has given you
everything as it pertains tolife and godliness.
Greater is he that is in youthan he that is in the world and
through Christ.
Romans 8 says we are more thanconquerors.
So don't be an entitled, whiny,complaining victim of
(36:43):
circumstance.
You're a conqueror.
And the whining thing is it goes.
It goes into more shallowwaters.
It would seem like, okay,having a victim mentality,
that's one thing, but whiningthat's not as serious.
But in some ways I think it'smore serious, because you look
at, like, when the children ofisrael are in the wilderness and
(37:03):
they begin to murmur againstthe Lord, god gets so mad at
them.
He gets so mad, he's so angryand there's judgment that comes
because it's a rejection of hisgoodness that drives that
whininess.
So don't complain, don't whine,don't be a baby, don't be a
victim.
Okay, now I said I want to wrapall this up with one big
(37:25):
overarching thought and it'sthis Be okay to be weird or
rejected or not approved bypeople like to be ostracized or
made fun of or pushed to thefringe, like the world around
you is not going to accept you,the way that you live your life.
(37:47):
If you live your life for Jesus, it's just not.
The world around you is goingto look at you and go man,
something's wrong with that guy,something's off with that dude,
something she's.
She's man, she's weird.
She's weird.
She loves she, she's verythey'll say, she's very
religious.
Or my, my kids the reason I putthis one in there is because I
had already prepared thisoutline or this bullet point
(38:09):
list and I was talking to acouple of my kids and little.
I was talking to actually oneof my daughters and to my wife
and they had overheard a coupleof people, a couple of teenage
well, one's a teenager, one's acollege age kid talking and they
had made the comment thesepeople are very close to
Snowbird, like they're veryclose, I would even say kind of
(38:29):
connected to Snowbird, and theyhad said man, snowbird, people
are just weird.
Well, I know that these twopeople are neither one really
pursuing the Lord, they'repursuing the world, and so it
makes sense that someonepursuing the world would lash
out at somebody that's pursuingJesus, you know it makes sense
and especially immature people.
(38:50):
Now I have learned that thelonger you faithfully and
consistently pursue Jesus, themore opportunities you're going
to have um to, to, to buildcredibility and equity with
people and to have an impact.
But then also, the longer youwalk with Jesus, the more you
might have a.
There may come a time whereyou're on the wrong side of a
not the wrong side, but you're.
You're in a conflict where youcannot get to a point where you
(39:13):
win someone over and they hateyou and they project that hatred
on Christ, and that is not yourfault.
I'll tell you an example Youngcouple in our church she was one
of our own Um, he startedcoming because he was, he was,
he liked her, uh, he's.
They were teenagers years ago.
They're teenagers Um, he thenwas very manipulative, very
(39:35):
controlling, but he did it in away.
He, he, he fooled and smoochedthe mama.
The girl's mama thought he wasgreat Cause he was cute and
funny and articulate and bubblyand had a great personality.
And it was.
It's just easy to do, man.
You know, it's like it's.
He fooled her.
She's a sweet lady, loves thelord, she's a discerning lady,
but the dude was, you know.
(39:55):
So we all get fooled.
Sometimes everybody's had thathappen, I've had it happen,
you've had it happen where youthink one thing and you find out
, man, that person really pulledthe wool over my eyes.
So this boy pulls the wool overthe eyes on this, on this
family and long story.
This kid by then had gotten realplugged in at our church and he
was, um, you know, they, they,they had transitioned from
childhood to adulthood.
(40:16):
I mean, they went out of highschool into the early adulthood
and they're dating or whatever.
And man he was, he wascontrolling that relationship,
he was posing a threat, he wasbeing very sexually controlling
of this girl.
And we found out some thingswere happening and going on and
we're going to address it, youknow.
So we address it.
And initially we address it ina Matthew 18 kind of manner hey,
man, you're going to knock itoff.
(40:36):
Y'all need to, y'all need toquit dating, take a break, get
some accountability, let's tryto help, you know, get you going
forward, get her going forward,and then if the Lord brings
y'all back together, then great,but it'll be done the right way
.
And so we did that.
But then he was sneaking, he was, she was living out of town,
going to college a couple hoursaway, he's, you know they were,
they're sneaking and doing theirthing.
(40:57):
It was just a bad situation andand when it was said and done,
we, we confronted that boy andand uh, and dealt with it and to
this day he hates us.
He's, I see him from time totime and he hates us and I have
no regret over the way wehandled that Cause that that
girl was one of ours and he camein as a wolf among sheep.
That's, that's the way I feelabout it.
(41:18):
And so there's going to betimes where, and as a result, by
the way of that, several of myclose friendships in this
community ended because he spunthings against us, and I don't
even want to say he spun things,it's just, it is what it is.
We told him how you can't bearound her, you can't come
around her, and we kind ofclosed and, you know, put up the
(41:40):
, we latched the door and puther on the inside and had her
family just get around her andand her family and a few people
that really cared about her workto bring her back and restore
her to just a place where shecould find healing and she went
on and married and as a mama nowand is serving the lord and is
doing great and has an awesomegodly husband and that's another
principle met a godly dude thatdidn't care where she'd been or
(42:03):
what she'd done or what she'dbeen through.
He's like no man.
I'm going to marry you becauseJesus loves you and has given me
a love for you.
And they're doing great.
And but that other dude is notdoing great because he rejected
discipline and rejected conconfrontation and struck out and
tried to do things on his ownand, as a result, man, his life
is not in a good place.
And do I feel bad about it?
(42:23):
Yes, would I do it anydifferently?
Probably not, because he poseda threat and there's only one
way to deal with that kind ofthreat and that's to go at it.
And so you, you learn an earlyprinciple, which is there are
times where people are not.
They're going to think you'recrazy for your views and the way
you think about the gospel, andyou got to learn to be okay
(42:45):
with that, especially,especially true for our
teenagers or for our collegestudents that are in this age
bracket.
Get to school and you take astand and people are going to
you know they're going to comeafter you because of your, your
biblical ethic on sexuality orbecause you choose to live your
life in a different manner.
You might lose a relationshipbecause there's a young lady in
our church who I love so muchand love her dad and her mom
(43:06):
they're so just sweet, dearpeople and she's dating a boy
recently and broke it offbecause he said if you're not
going to have sex with me, thenwhy are we dating?
And she said, oh okay, wellthen we're not dating.
That's easy.
Got to have the stamina and thespiritual backbone to make those
hard kinds of you knowdecisions and anyway, um, that's
(43:29):
that's what I got for today.
So start strong, start.
He who began a good work willbe faithful to complete it.
Start strong.
And next part two we're goingto get into run hard, get after
it.
Live man.
You're in into your twenties andthen through your thirties and
forties.
That's a season of life whereyou better be getting absolutely
after it.
And and you know there'soverlap, like in your fifties
(43:51):
for some people, your fifties, Ithink, for me I.
I hope that I'm in that stagethat run hard, not in the finish
well stage.
I hope I got a lot of yearsleft, but you never know, and
you gotta be ready to finishwell at any time, because you
don't know when God's going tocall you home.
So that's that.
That's what we got for thisweek.
Hope you're encouraged by thatchallenge and those words,
(44:13):
regardless of where you are,even if you've been a Christian
following Jesus for 20 years.
There's principles in therethat we need to be reminded of.
For me, a lot that I wasreminded of and putting that
together, so hopefully you'll beencouraged by it as well.
Pray for us this week.
Students have rolled in there.
They arrived this afternoonthis Monday, june 9th.
They arrived and yeah, so praythat God moves in a powerful way
(44:38):
this week and we'll give himpraise and thanks for it,
whatever he does.
The last thing that I wanted tomention is that it was 18 years
ago today, june 9th 2007, thatan automobile accident claimed
the lives of four Snowbird staffmembers.
Their families impacted forever, our family impacted forever.
(44:58):
Snowbird community went throughits hardest season in its
history and two survivors ofthat automobile accident, dawson
and Kara, who we pray for oftenand would ask that you pray for
them today as they navigatethis difficult day in their
lives, and so, anyway, just wantto say that our prayers are
(45:21):
with those families as theyremember this day 18 years ago.
Our prayers are with the staffthat lived through that 2007
summer and for all of you thatgot around us and encouraged and
supported us.
We're grateful.
So y'all, pray for us.
It is a difficult day, so prayfor us today as we reflect on
(45:42):
that and most difficult time.
We lost Ashley, lost ashley,michael, daniel and suzanne, and
and dawson and carol weredeeply impacted.
So pray for those families andthose survivors and for the
extended snowbird family today.
We would appreciate it.
Pray, god moves.
This week awesome week ofministry.
(46:03):
We're expecting great things,groups coming from Denver,
colorado and all over theSoutheast and all points in
between, expecting God to dogreat things.
So we'll see you next week.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
Thanks for listening to.
No Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at SWOutfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources, and we'll see younext week on no sanity required.
I often talk to young Christians, or, when I say
young Christians, people thatmay not be young in human years,
but they're young in Jesusyears in terms of their faith
and their relationship withChrist.
Maybe somebody's in their 30sor 50s or 70s and they've just
gotten serious about their walkwith the Lord, that person, a
(00:20):
young Christian.
And today I want to share some,some challenges and some words
for um, for for you, some todo's, some things that you can
get active and get after in yourChristian walk, and I'm going
to do this in three episodes.
We're going to look at folksthat are younger in their faith,
(00:42):
but but then also, but thenalso gear this towards young
Christians, christians who areyoung, so believers in their
teen years and their 20s Can wesay it that way?
So I want to encourage you.
If you are in one of these threecategories, you're a teenage
Christian, or even younger.
You're a young adult Christian.
(01:03):
You're in your twenties.
Maybe you're a college student,grad student, or you might be
in the military.
You just went to work right outof high school, um, but you're
in your twenties and you're justreally.
That's the decade where you'restarting life.
You know, um, or you're olderbut you're a Christian that's
really just now getting seriousabout your walk with the Lord
(01:23):
and this episode's for you.
We will follow this with acouple episodes.
We're going to talk to folksabout sort of how to live out
faithfully in your 20s, 30s and40s, and we'll finish up with
one that looks at the 50s and up, and I'm excited about this
little mini series.
This is birthed out of a sermonthat I did recently at Red Oak
Church that you might havelistened to and hopefully it'll
(01:44):
be an encouragement, give yousome motivation.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Welcome to no Sanity Required.
Welcome to no Sanity Requiredfrom the Ministry of Snowbird
Wilderness Outfitters, a podcastabout the Bible, culture and
stories from around the globe.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
All right, before we get into this week's episode, I
did want to read to you someamazing I'm talking about
awesome, awesome text messagesthat I received, and I read some
of those last week and I wantto read some from this past week
.
Here's one from a staff membernamed Justin, which, by the way,
I'd like to ask you to pray forJustin's family.
(02:24):
His mother is dealing with somemedical issues.
Justin has served veryfaithfully here at SWO and his
folks are in a difficult timeand season, so pray for them.
Right now.
While you're listening to this,just pause and pray for
Justin's family, specificallyfor his mom.
I think that would be a hugeblessing to them.
But he texted me this One of myguys pulled me aside last night
(02:47):
and professed faith in Jesus.
I responded dang, son, that'sthe best way to start a weekend.
This was on Friday.
This would have been Fridaynight.
Um, he said for sure, he was 15.
He was eager to learn the wholeweek and came to me the last
night just torn up.
I asked him what's going on andhe was telling me that he knows
he's been living life wrong,doesn't want to do it anymore.
It was a good conversation, man, so praise the Lord for that.
(03:10):
This is from Connor, anotherfaithful brother that's serving
here this summer.
Forgot to let you know, but onWednesday one of my boys got
saved.
I also just had anotherconversation and another guy of
mine gave his life to Jesus.
So, connor, in one week got toexperience two young men
professing faith in Jesus Prettyawesome.
(03:31):
This is another one.
Hey, brody, one of my studentsgot saved, um, tonight.
So that was cool.
That was on Tuesday night.
That was early in the week,which is pretty, pretty cool.
Um, always awesome when ithappens early.
Uh, then on Friday, thursday,I'm sorry, um, my camper gave
his life to Christ tonight.
His name is Jonah, he's fromMount Zion, so that's pretty
(03:54):
cool.
And then I got a text onThursday.
Hey, just wanted to let youknow.
One of our girls from ourchurch got saved tonight.
I said, heck, yeah, that's soamazing.
I'm with student pastors now.
They're going to come your way.
So, anyway, awesome.
Just.
I know y'all love to hear thoseand I love to read them to you.
So some cool stories there ofGod's faithfulness.
(04:16):
All right, let's get into this.
I want to encourage you with alittle bit of scripture.
The scripture tells us inPhilippians 1, chapter 1 and
verse 6, and I'm sure of this,that he who began a good work in
you will bring it to completionat the day of Jesus Christ.
And in Luke, chapter 9, verse62, the scripture tells us and
(04:40):
y'all know this is one of myfavorite verses, it's something
that motivates me every day andthat I try to motivate y'all
with.
And Jesus says this.
Jesus said to him no one whoputs his hand to the plow and
looks back is fit for thekingdom of God.
And so, with those verses, whatI want to do is encourage you
with, uh, with, what the writerof Ecclesiastes said in
(05:00):
Ecclesiastes, chapters 11 and 12, when he said remember your
creator in the days of youryouth, remember your creator in
the days of your youth.
Over these three episodes, Iwant to give you three
applications for young and oldbelievers.
Three applications for youngand old believer.
Here's the three applications,and today we'll be considering
the first one.
I want to give you these threeapplications Start strong.
(05:24):
Number two run hard.
And number three finish well.
Now, for me, the way I think ofthis is also start strong, run
strong and die well, or diestrong, so finish well.
But anyway, today we're goingto get into.
Starting strong, what does thatlook like?
So let's think of the teenyears, the college years, the
(05:45):
20s, but then also you put inthis category those earliest
years of when you first getmarried.
For those of you that are newbelievers, I talked to a fairly
new believer this week who's inhis 50s and I'm like, hey, let's
start this thing out, let's getgoing, let's get after it.
So these would apply, I think,to him.
(06:07):
Okay, so let me give you it'sgoing to be a bullet point list.
We're going to rip through it.
I hope it's meaningful.
Excuse me flipping and turningthe pages of scripture because I
want to read a few differentpassages as we go through this.
So here's the first one Startstrong, starting strong.
Here's the first point.
Learn strong, starting strong.
Here's the first point.
Learn to enjoy the goodness ofthe Lord.
(06:28):
Learn to enjoy the goodness ofthe Lord.
That's so important.
And where does that come from?
It comes from Ecclesiastes,chapter 11, verse 7.
Light is sweet and it ispleasant for the eyes to see the
sun.
What he's referring to in thatverse is being alive, because if
(06:49):
you read that whole chapter,what he's saying is he's using
the darkness as it relates todeath, and he's using the, the
light, to relate to being aliveCause.
In the next verse he says so ifa person lives in many years,
let him rejoice in them all.
So enjoy the goodness of theLord.
Because in the next verse hesays so if a person lives many
years, let him rejoice in themall.
So enjoy the goodness of theLord.
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I think a few thoughts that goalong with that is each day,
reflect on the goodness of theLord.
Each day, meditate on God'sword.
Have you meditated on God'sword today?
What does it mean to meditateon God's word?
It means to think on thesethings.
To read it means to consider,it means to think on these
things.
To read means to consider,means to look into and then
reflect, give reflection.
Have you talked to God today,spoke to God, shared your
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thoughts, your heart, your, yourfears, your anxieties, your
requests?
The scripture says let yourrequests be made known to God.
And it says to do all that byprayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving.
And so that brings us toappreciating the simplicity.
Appreciate the simplicity Ifit's a sunny day, as simple as
it seems.
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Pause and reflect on that andjust appreciate it.
Tell the Lord.
Thank you, but in your heart,have an attitude of appreciation
.
If you enjoyed some food ordrink today, appreciate that
Pause and appreciate it.
I think that's so important,and the Bible teaches us that
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appreciation and thanksgivingand rejoicing produces more joy
in us.
You want joy to be.
You want to become a joyfactory.
You want your heart to be afactory that produces joy in us.
You want joy to be.
You want to become a joyfactory.
You want your heart to be afactory that produces joy in you
.
Then be someone who givesthanks and reflects on the
goodness of the Lord and andspeaks of it and and meditates
on it and and thanks the Lordfor it.
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Next, here's the next thingLearn what to hold on to and
what to let go of.
Learn what to hold on to andwhat to let go of.
There's things that you've gotto let go of, man.
It could be a harm or a wrongor a pain that somebody caused
you.
It could be a grudge thatyou're holding against that
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person.
It could be harm that was doneto you, whether it's
post-traumatic stress from that,or it's the pain associated
with it.
Or it could be combat trauma orlike we've got a guest coming
(09:19):
up, maybe next week, it might bein a couple of weeks, but we've
got a guest coming on that wedid an interview last week.
Week, it might be in a coupleweeks, but we've got a guest
coming on that we we did aninterview last week and this guy
was a firefighter and man.
He he experienced a couple ofthings, some some pretty intense
death and loss that he was, hewas hands-on with and it spun
him out.
I mean, it really destroyed umsort of the.
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The frame of mind he was in wasvery destroyed, and so, anyway,
learning to let what to hold onto, what to let go of.
Now it's easier said than doneto let go of abuse that occurred
when you were a child, or theloss of a buddy, um, I recently
was talking to um, a formermember of of dev group, which is
(10:01):
known as seal team six, and wewere talking about the death of
one of his buddies, who I didn'tknow, but I read the book.
It was a guy who was a believer, which I'll just recommend the
book right here.
His name's Adam Brown.
The book was called Fearlessand that book was powerful man,
because you saw the power of thegospel at work in a person's
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life.
It wasn't, first and foremost,a book about military service
and combat, although it wasthose things, and powerful at
that.
It was a story of God's graceto change a man's life who was
in the.
Adam Brown was severelyaddicted to drugs and God
brought him out of it.
It's a powerful story, butanyway, adam was killed in an
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operation where he was shot.
He was shot up pretty bad andso one of his team members uh, I
had the privilege of meetingrecently and and getting to know
a little bit and, um, we'rehaving a conversation about it
and that led to conversationsabout some other operations and
I I I think I mentioned thisbefore but I love the story.
(11:07):
One of the stories I love toread is the story of a guy named
john chapman, known as chappy.
It's the first medal of honorrecipient ever to be where his,
his actions were caught on film,on camera.
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It was a c-130, I think,filming, and then an overhead
drone that captured the imagingof Extortion 17, a helicopter in
2011, where everyone on boardwas killed, and it's just you
watch it and you hear thosehelicopter pilots talking about
that and it's like man, thesedudes carry this.
The survivors carry thisbecause they buried their
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friends, they worked on them asthey died oftentimes.
And so when I say you got toknow what to let go of, I know
it's not as simple as justsaying, oh well, my buddy died,
I got to let go of it.
I know it's much more complexthan that.
I got a buddy that two reallygood friends, man, they're like
brothers and they listen to NSR.
They live in Virginia.
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They're like brothers and theylisten to NSR.
They live in Virginia.
They're combat veterans and oneof them is a man.
We sit around the fire one nightand talked about the struggle
of moving on.
You know, in your heart andyour mind and when you've seen
things and done things andexperienced things in the fog of
war and the heat of conflict,how do you let go of it?
And here's the image or thepicture that for me because I've
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not done those things.
But I can tell you that as aChristian, you've done things
that you live with regret andguilt over bad things, bad
things that you would not wantanybody to know and you don't
want to talk about.
I can tell you that.
I can tell you that in my lifethere are things that I am
ashamed.
There's one particular incidentthat I think only one other
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person has ever known about,that happened to me before I was
a Christian, that I, that I didthat haunts me, man, and I
wrestle with it and I just giveit to the Lord, and the Lord has
freed me from it and I'mgrateful for that.
But anyway, it was somethingthat occurred when I was gosh, I
don't know, 17 years old maybe,and something I did, and just
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in a moment that that could havecaused a lifetime of I don't
know man, the Lord is biggerthan any of your moments and
he's bigger than the sum totalof all your moments, and you got
to learn how to give it to him,and that sounds easy, but you
got to let know what to let goof.
And I told my buddy, sittingaround that fire that night I
shared with with him what I,what I do is.
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I imagine you know there's thatpassage that talks about the sea
of forgetfulness, that that theLord separates our sins from
the East as far as East is fromthe West.
That he, that he remembers himno more more.
He casts him in the depths ofthe sea, that it's this picture
of throwing it into the depthsand I imagine a sea that's
bigger than the pacific oceanand deeper than anything on
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earth.
You know, the deepest spot onearth is what?
35 000 feet is what the?
I think it's 35 000 is the, thechallenger deep, which is a
section of the Pacific Ocean.
35,000 feet deep, that's MountEverest plus a mile of water on
top of it.
And I imagine an ocean that'sbottomless.
It's deeper than that and thosethings I need to let go of.
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I put them on a raft and Ifloat it right out into that
ocean and it begins to sink andit just disappears and it's
somewhere in the ocean of God'sgrace, and he's got it and I'm
not going to try to resuscitateit, revive it and pull it up.
That for me, is an image.
But then also learn what to holdon to.
There's some things you need tohold on to, to remember.
You know you might have pastaddiction and you need freedom
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from it, but you need to hold onto it so that you're you
remember what it's like to gothere.
You know what it's like to to,to fall into that and to create
and live in those patterns.
So that's important Knowingwhat, learning what to hold on
to as as much as I learned whatto let go of.
Hold on to the relationshipsthat matter.
Fight for your marriage, yourfriendships, if you're, if
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you're um a young, 20 somethingspouse man, the earliest stages
of your marriage can sometimespose the greatest hurdles.
If you're a teenager that'strying to embrace adulthood but
you've come out of an abusivesituation, hold on to Jesus.
Hold on to relationshipsthat'll bring healing.
Hold on to accountability.
Hold on to new affections.
Very important, so important,and I like that picture of
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affections because, um that thatbrings me to the next point,
which is um.
The scripture speaks of settingour affections on things above,
and so, for a Christian, we havea new set of affections.
We don't long for the thingsthat the world longs for, or we
don't long for the things welonged for when we were in the
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world, and I like to this summer.
I'm using an illustration, I'veused it once so far and I think
I might continue using it, butI think about um.
Changed affections will changeyour activity or your behavior,
and to me, the the goodillustration of this, or a good
example of this, is imagine ateenage boy.
Okay, now, let's say he's 13,14.
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You know, you can't.
I young and don't want to takea shower.
His room stinks.
You can't get him to do hislaundry.
You got to remind him every dayto brush his teeth and put on
deodorant.
He smells bad, he looks like atrain wreck, you know, just kind
of messy all the time.
And then all the sudden youknow he's, he's, he's entered
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into puberty and so everythingthat comes with that.
You know, body's changing andso there's new odors and and uh,
anyway, you can't.
You're trying to get this dudeto, you know to to clean up a
little bit and just bepresentable.
And you're struggling with it,you know, struggling with it,
and he's not cooperative.
Anyway, all of a sudden yourealize hey, he's, he's brushing
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his teeth, he's taking a shower, he's putting on deodorant.
He got a job, he's trying tomake a little money, he's saving
for a car.
He looks different, he's, youknow.
And then you find out, oh, it'sbecause now there's girls and
he's realizing that he'sattracted to them and he's
trying to present himself in away that would make him
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appealing.
What has changed is hisaffections.
So a changed affection willchange behavior.
And that leads me to the nextthing, which is to create habits
and patterns within thoseaffections, and those behaviors
Create habits and patterns, andthere needs, and those behaviors
create habits and patterns andthere needs to be discipline,
and discipline would be its ownpoint, but habits and patterns
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are connected to discipline.
We got to have discipline to toestablish those habits, habits
and patterns.
You know, um, and so habits andpatterns are important for kind
of keeping us between theditches.
You know, there, there, I don'twant to become legalistic, but
I do want to have sleep patternsand reading patterns and
meditation patterns and theydon't have clean habits of
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exercise and conversation withthe Lord and, um, listening to
things that are wholesome andare going to build me up.
That's important and and andthat does lead to discipline,
being disciplined, disciplinedin every facet of life.
I'll I've shared it on here alot of times before the struggle
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for me when it comes todiscipline is, uh, is dietary
dad, gum man.
I love ice cream and fried foodand pastries.
Literally, there's this old,there was this.
I don't know if y'all rememberthis Alan Jackson song that was
real popular, um, in like thelate eighties.
It was'all remember this AlanJackson song that was real
popular in like the late 80s.
This was early Alan Jackson,early Alan Jackson career,
because I mean, maybe it wasearly 90s.
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I think I'm looking it up rightnow.
I think it was, I don't seewhat, anyway, the song's called.
While I'm looking it up, thesong's called everything I love
is killing me.
Y'all remember that.
Um, and it was.
Uh, it said everything I loveis killing me cigarettes, jack
daniels and caffeine.
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Uh, yeah, that's it.
Let's see, everything I love iskilling me cigarettes, jack
daniels and caffeine.
Um, it came out.
Okay, I was wrong.
It came out in 96.
Um, released october 96.
Um, anyway, funny, becausethat's me.
Everything I love is killing medonuts, pastries, pie, cake,
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fried foods, fast food, y'all.
I am, I am over the middle-agedhump, I'm approaching AARP age.
I mean, I'm very close to beingable to get a senior coffee at
McDonald's.
It'll happen here in the nextyear or two.
And I love fast food, I lovecheeseburgers, I love pizza,
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y'all.
Last week I went to the gasstation and bought two pieces of
Hunt Brothers pizza one daybecause I hadn't eaten lunch and
it was about worship servicetime at SLO and I went and got
it and it was so good.
The next day I did it again Gasstation pizza.
It's delicious, but it's so badfor you.
And so, trust me, I appreciateand understand the struggle with
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discipline.
Now I do really good.
I personally do very good whenit comes to exercise.
I exercise pretty much everyday, even on like a Sunday.
I'm gonna get out and dosomething.
I'm gonna go for an extra longwalk Sunday morning while
everybody's in bed.
So I'm always and I liftweights and do strength training
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.
A mountain bike you know I row.
I have a rower Like I.
I do go with that, but partlycause I enjoy it.
A lot of people don't enjoy um,uh, exercise, and so that
requires a little morediscipline.
Um, I do pretty good with mysleep.
Uh, I've adjusted my sleephabits.
But I'm not trying to become afitness influencer.
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Lord knows, that's the lastthing I can do.
But I'm just saying, asChristians, we don't need the
internet telling us hey, livedisciplined lives, and if you do
, there's a lot of joy andfreedom that comes from that.
And I don't need an author or afitness influencer to tell me
that a YouTuber.
Discipline is good, but now Ialso don't want to become
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obsessive.
Compulsive is good, but now Ialso don't want to become
obsessive, compulsive, obsessedand consumed with discipline.
Understand that Paul writes tothe Galatians and says for
freedom, christ has set you free.
And so what I would say on thisone is with discipline, find
balance with freedom.
Discipline needs freedom andfreedom needs discipline.
So there's the point Freedomunhinged would run you off the
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cliff.
You'd run headlong out ofcontrol in your life, and you
need discipline to bring thingsinto check.
But then discipline withoutfreedom would turn you into a
fundamentalist or a robot, andthat's not good.
So find that balance.
Next, let's see a value Learnthe value of building true and
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lasting and healthy friendships.
Invest in those friendships.
Learn the value of buildingtrue and healthy friendships and
then invest in thosefriendships.
So, in other words, those typesof friendships are going to
require your personal investment.
Friendships are going torequire your personal investment
.
So, yeah, I think friendshipsare one of those things that, as
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you grow into, as you grow inyour faith, you're going to
realize the importance ofdeveloping deep, lasting
friendships that are true andhealthy.
Now, what is the what ischaracteristic of a healthy
friendship?
And this would be a great otherepisode here, but I would say
we want what's best for eachother.
I'm for you, not against you,but I'm willing to confront you
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in areas that I feel like you'recompromising yourself and so
say hard things.
But also, I'm going to rejoicewhen you rejoice, I'm going to
grieve when you grieve, and socultivate those healthy
friendships where you can trustsomebody that's very important
and be a good friend.
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Next would be submit willinglyand joyfully to godly authority.
Submit willingly and joyfullyto godly authority Very
important Learning to submit tothe authority that God puts in
your life and knowing that thatauthority might not come, um, it
might not be easy for you.
Some of you struggle, some ofus struggle with authority.
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Man, I have a hard time withauthority, just to be honest.
Sometimes it's, um, it'sdifficult, it's not easy, and so
I need to.
But submitting to Godlyauthority doesn't mean obey the
authorities of the governmentand make sure you go the speed
limit and do your taxes.
Yeah, that's that's, that's thething, and you do that, but
whatever.
But what we're talking about issubmitting to the authority of
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the church, the authority of theword of god, recognizing that
the scripture has authority foryour life.
You're not reading it the wayyou read other literature.
You're reading it to learn whatyou might obey or submit to,
and to establish patterns ofworship and obedience.
So submit willingly andjoyfully to the godly authority.
He's put in your life the HolySpirit, the word of God.
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Next and this is especially true, so important for young people
know what you don't know.
Know what you don't know.
Know what you don't know.
People, when they hit 20 and 22, tend to want to express
everything they know and to becombative and to be
argumentative and um and.
But the reality is, those of usthat are older, you know, and I
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know, that when you're, whenyou're in your 20s, you know a
whole lot less than you thinkyou know, and life is gonna.
Life is gonna humble you andteach you and, and you'll be
fine, like you're in your 20s,you know a whole lot less than
you think you know, and life isgoing to humble you and teach
you and you'll be fine, you'regoing to learn some hard lessons
.
But, man, if you can recognizeman, I don't know as much as I
probably think I know, and so Iwant to just listen more than I
talk and learn from the peoplearound me that have lived more
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life than me.
That would be super helpful.
Next, be kind.
Now again, we're under thisheading of starting strong.
So starting life strong,starting my Christian walk
strong, learn to be kind.
Just be kind.
That doesn't mean you go out ofyour way to be friendly and
bubbly, and just be kind topeople.
Sometimes kindness is quiet,sometimes it's very gentle,
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sometimes it's loud and fun andjoyful and boisterous.
But kindness to celebrate thegoodness of the Lord in other
people, kindness to sympathizeor empathize with those that are
hurting and to extend thatkindness to them through a
caring word or a caring eye orcompassion for what they might
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be experiencing.
Don't expect something fornothing.
I heard a 20-something theother day complaining because
the only job offer he has comingout of college will only pay
$35,000, and that's not fairbecause he spent twice that
getting his, or three times thatgetting his education, four
times that, whatever it was, andso that's crazy if they think
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he's going to come work for that.
Hey, don't expect something fornothing, including don't expect
to start at the top of thechain.
You know, I talked to a younglady the other day.
I was so impressed by her.
I said what are you doing Usingyour degree?
She recently graduated from alarge, very solid Well, she
graduated from ClemsonUniversity a large, very solid.
Well, she graduated fromClemson University.
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So, large, good education,large, well-known name brand,
all that.
What are you doing?
She said well, I'm working.
I'm not going to say what itwas, I don't want to compromise
her.
I didn't ask her if I couldshare this, but she's just
working at a small localbusiness, not making a whole
bunch of money, just beingfaithful with the opportunity in
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front of her.
She's not using her degree, butshe said I'm just doing, doing
what I can.
I talked to another guy whatare you doing?
Well, I got this job and it'snot exactly what I was looking
for, but I'm building a resume.
So don't expect something fornothing.
Expect to work hard, startsmall, despise, not a small
beginning, get after it.
Get after it and buildsomething.
Now that's different.
If you're going to, you know,if you're a school teacher, you
work in education.
Come out of school.
There are those careers likelaw enforcement or education or
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the medical field, where youhave a very specific degree and
then you're probably going to,going to get a job.
That then you're going to dothat job for 25 or 30 or 40
years, but it's because it'svery specific to the degree.
But if you get a businessdegree or a marketing degree, or
maybe you get a very specificdegree and can't find a job in
that field, just be willing todo what it takes.
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You know, and don't expectsomething for nothing.
The, the, the.
Everybody gets a trophymentality needs to be left
behind.
Um, this next one is man.
This is important and I wantyou to hear, listen, hear this
whole thing out.
You are not special, but youare unique.
There's this mindset of well,I'm special, you're special,
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everybody's special.
Well, yes and no, we're allcreated in God's image and, as
such, we're image bearers.
But every one of us is unique.
You're unique, I'm unique,everyone has a uniqueness.
We have the imprint and thethumbprint of God on our lives.
We're created in his image.
But just remember that you'reunique and so with that, you
(28:20):
have a unique relationship tothe creator.
All of us have an opportunityfor a relationship with our
creator, but it's a uniquecreator creation relationship
from person to person.
And with that comes the next one, which is you are loved by God
and with that, you have valueand purpose.
So you're loved by God, youhave value, you have purpose.
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God has value that he hasplaced on you.
That's why Paul writes to theCorinthians and says you're not
your own, you're bought with aprice.
So glorify Christ Jesus in yourbody, so you're loved by God,
you're valued by God.
He has purpose for you.
But the other reality that comeswith that is the next point,
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which is learn and understandthe law of the harvest.
What's the law of the harvest?
It's what James writes when hesays don't be deceived.
Whatever you sow, you're goingto reap.
So whatever you sow, you'regoing to reap.
A person who sows to adulteryis going to reap the
consequences of that adultery.
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A person who sows to living inpursuit of what the world offers
is going to face theconsequences of realizing that
the world cannot satisfy what'sdeep inside of you.
We have, there's a song thatwe're singing this summer at
camp and at first it throwspeople off a little bit people
that are really doctrinallyfaithful because there's a
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repeated line in it that saysI've wanted you all of my life.
And we know that we haven'twanted God all of our life in
terms of when we're blind to Godand we're in love with the
world.
We don't want God.
But we also know that we reallydo.
Every human being longs for arelationship with God.
That would restore everythingthat's broken, and so the
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consequences of my actions canbe brought into a place of
peaceful rest and kind ofbrought into check through my
relationship with God.
I'm loved by God, he loves me,and the law of the harvest says
I'm going to reap what I sow,but thank God that his grace is
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sufficient for me.
Think about the man that wrotethat, the Apostle Paul, what he
must have lived with when itcomes to going back to that
earlier point of knowing what tolet go of.
He had to let go of knowing hehad separated families and
killed mamas and daddies andorphaned their children.
You know how hard that musthave been to wake up and be that
dude every day.
Very difficult, so difficult.
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Um, next, we've got to wrap itup here.
I've got to move on to my nextthing in my day here at SWO.
But, um, just so, just a couplemore, three or four more.
Um, give and tithe, so tithe.
Give money like, give to thechurch, give to ministry.
Use the resources God's givenyou to bless others.
The, the, the ministry of thechurch, depends on the giving of
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God's people, and a lot ofpeople.
When you're young and you don'thave a lot of money, you
convince yourself that you can'tafford to tithe, you can't
afford to talk.
I can't man.
I'm, you know, I don't makeenough money, I'm barely paying
my bills.
I can't man, I don't makeenough money, I'm barely paying
my bills.
How can I give 10% of it to thechurch?
And I'm not going to say apercentage.
There's not a percentage thatwe need to hang on to.
It's the principle of givingand give sacrificially.
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The scripture says give and itwill be given unto you.
Press down, shaking together,running over.
God will give to you inabundance and our giving will be
reflected in the blessing wereceive.
And that's not prosperitygospel, that's biblical
principle.
I don't give just so I can get,but when I give, I can trust
that God's going to take care ofme.
You cannot be faithful inworshiping the Lord in your life
(31:58):
if you're not giving of yourpersonal resources time, talent,
treasure.
Give of your time, give of yourtalent, give of your treasures.
So give money.
And then what are you doingwith your time?
Do you use all your free timeand your day off to go to the
lake or to enjoy working aroundyour place.
Do you use some time each week?
One of the things I love is allthe people that serve in our
(32:18):
pinwheel tutoring programvolunteer and serve in that
thing for free to administer,using their time and their
talents.
And so learn to give, learn totie.
That's critical.
Next, do hard things.
This kind of ties back intodiscipline, and I'm going to do
an episode on discipline anddoing hard things.
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That's a future episode thatwe're going to be doing, so I'll
elaborate on that later.
But do hard things.
Challenge yourself relationally, challenge yourself
academically, intellectually.
Challenge yourself physically,challenge yourself spiritually.
Do hard things, you'll growthrough that.
Learn to not just chase comfort.
Uh, three more temporary thingscan often seem like ultimate
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things.
So you know, especially forteenagers, sports and hobbies
Let me tell you something youwon your 3A high school
conference championship.
Nobody cares.
You care and the folks in yourinner circle care.
Nobody else really cares, andso recognize it as a gift from
the Lord.
What an incredible experience Iremember as a high school
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senior.
Sports were everything to me,and they go away, you know.
You leave them behind.
So recognize that, okay.
So kind of tagging on orpiggybacking on that idea of
don't make temporary things theultimate things.
And again, I use the sportsanalogy.
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This is because I was an athlete, but you could use anything,
you know, it could be your work,like I remember dudes that I
went to school with and see thiseven now, guys that are
consumed with hunting, like I'vegot a buddy Love him, awesome,
brother.
He's so obsessed with huntingand fishing that it is
compromised friendships andrelationships.
So anything can can do this.
(34:08):
It could be money, it could be.
It could be, you know, as youeven enter into your career path
.
It could be something that isnot bad in and of itself, like
money's not bad, but you canbecome consumed or obsessed with
the, with something that's notintended to be ultimate, it's
temporary.
So those temporary things, theway I would clarify, that is to
(34:28):
say, use temporary things tobring glory to God and make
eternal or kingdom impact andinvestment.
That's what I would say, whichbrings me to the next thing,
which is don't seek praise.
Don't seek praise.
Paul says am I now trying towin the approval of men or of
God?
If I'm trying to win theapproval of men, then I'm not a
bond servant of Christ.
(34:49):
So don't seek praise in that,um, you don't need the approval
of people.
We simply want to be faithfulto the Lord and win his approval
, and and so I think all of ushave the tendency and there's
it's, it's a normal desire towant to be approved and seen for
(35:10):
what you've done oraccomplished or what the Lord's
done through you, but also forthe things that you've worked
hard to accomplish in and ofyourself.
So don't seek, don't seek.
Praise.
Live for the glory and honor ofthe Lord and honor the Lord.
And then then the last one, andthen I'm going to end with sort
of a um, a thought that's notreally on the list, but it's
(35:35):
kind of a bigger overarching,all encompassing thought.
Um, the last one is don'tcomplain, don't be a whiner, and
I would, just I would.
What I would support that withis we talk a lot about um, don't
have a victim mentality, don'thave a sense of entitlement,
those two things.
If you come to Snowbird, if youwork here or if you attend
something here, you're going tohear those two things.
Don't have a victim mentality,don't have a sense of
entitlement, victim mentality.
(35:56):
Yeah, you might have beenvictimized, yeah, you might have
been harmed, hurt, abused,something terrible might have
happened to you, but don't havethat mentality of a defeatist.
And again, that's one of thosethings it's easy to say sitting
here and harder to do if youwere terribly damaged and
traumatized as a child or ayoung girl, young boy or combat
(36:20):
veteran.
But you're not a victim.
You're not a victim.
You have to get that in yourmindset, that God has given you
everything as it pertains tolife and godliness.
Greater is he that is in youthan he that is in the world and
through Christ.
Romans 8 says we are more thanconquerors.
So don't be an entitled, whiny,complaining victim of
(36:43):
circumstance.
You're a conqueror.
And the whining thing is it goes.
It goes into more shallowwaters.
It would seem like, okay,having a victim mentality,
that's one thing, but whiningthat's not as serious.
But in some ways I think it'smore serious, because you look
at, like, when the children ofisrael are in the wilderness and
(37:03):
they begin to murmur againstthe Lord, god gets so mad at
them.
He gets so mad, he's so angryand there's judgment that comes
because it's a rejection of hisgoodness that drives that
whininess.
So don't complain, don't whine,don't be a baby, don't be a
victim.
Okay, now I said I want to wrapall this up with one big
(37:25):
overarching thought and it'sthis Be okay to be weird or
rejected or not approved bypeople like to be ostracized or
made fun of or pushed to thefringe, like the world around
you is not going to accept you,the way that you live your life.
(37:47):
If you live your life for Jesus, it's just not.
The world around you is goingto look at you and go man,
something's wrong with that guy,something's off with that dude,
something she's.
She's man, she's weird.
She's weird.
She loves she, she's verythey'll say, she's very
religious.
Or my, my kids the reason I putthis one in there is because I
had already prepared thisoutline or this bullet point
(38:09):
list and I was talking to acouple of my kids and little.
I was talking to actually oneof my daughters and to my wife
and they had overheard a coupleof people, a couple of teenage
well, one's a teenager, one's acollege age kid talking and they
had made the comment thesepeople are very close to
Snowbird, like they're veryclose, I would even say kind of
(38:29):
connected to Snowbird, and theyhad said man, snowbird, people
are just weird.
Well, I know that these twopeople are neither one really
pursuing the Lord, they'repursuing the world, and so it
makes sense that someonepursuing the world would lash
out at somebody that's pursuingJesus, you know it makes sense
and especially immature people.
(38:50):
Now I have learned that thelonger you faithfully and
consistently pursue Jesus, themore opportunities you're going
to have um to, to, to buildcredibility and equity with
people and to have an impact.
But then also, the longer youwalk with Jesus, the more you
might have a.
There may come a time whereyou're on the wrong side of a
not the wrong side, but you're.
You're in a conflict where youcannot get to a point where you
(39:13):
win someone over and they hateyou and they project that hatred
on Christ, and that is not yourfault.
I'll tell you an example Youngcouple in our church she was one
of our own Um, he startedcoming because he was, he was,
he liked her, uh, he's.
They were teenagers years ago.
They're teenagers Um, he thenwas very manipulative, very
(39:35):
controlling, but he did it in away.
He, he, he fooled and smoochedthe mama.
The girl's mama thought he wasgreat Cause he was cute and
funny and articulate and bubblyand had a great personality.
And it was.
It's just easy to do, man.
You know, it's like it's.
He fooled her.
She's a sweet lady, loves thelord, she's a discerning lady,
but the dude was, you know.
(39:55):
So we all get fooled.
Sometimes everybody's had thathappen, I've had it happen,
you've had it happen where youthink one thing and you find out
, man, that person really pulledthe wool over my eyes.
So this boy pulls the wool overthe eyes on this, on this
family and long story.
This kid by then had gotten realplugged in at our church and he
was, um, you know, they, they,they had transitioned from
childhood to adulthood.
(40:16):
I mean, they went out of highschool into the early adulthood
and they're dating or whatever.
And man he was, he wascontrolling that relationship,
he was posing a threat, he wasbeing very sexually controlling
of this girl.
And we found out some thingswere happening and going on and
we're going to address it, youknow.
So we address it.
And initially we address it ina Matthew 18 kind of manner hey,
man, you're going to knock itoff.
(40:36):
Y'all need to, y'all need toquit dating, take a break, get
some accountability, let's tryto help, you know, get you going
forward, get her going forward,and then if the Lord brings
y'all back together, then great,but it'll be done the right way
.
And so we did that.
But then he was sneaking, he was, she was living out of town,
going to college a couple hoursaway, he's, you know they were,
they're sneaking and doing theirthing.
(40:57):
It was just a bad situation andand when it was said and done,
we, we confronted that boy andand uh, and dealt with it and to
this day he hates us.
He's, I see him from time totime and he hates us and I have
no regret over the way wehandled that Cause that that
girl was one of ours and he camein as a wolf among sheep.
That's, that's the way I feelabout it.
(41:18):
And so there's going to betimes where, and as a result, by
the way of that, several of myclose friendships in this
community ended because he spunthings against us, and I don't
even want to say he spun things,it's just, it is what it is.
We told him how you can't bearound her, you can't come
around her, and we kind ofclosed and, you know, put up the
(41:40):
, we latched the door and puther on the inside and had her
family just get around her andand her family and a few people
that really cared about her workto bring her back and restore
her to just a place where shecould find healing and she went
on and married and as a mama nowand is serving the lord and is
doing great and has an awesomegodly husband and that's another
principle met a godly dude thatdidn't care where she'd been or
(42:03):
what she'd done or what she'dbeen through.
He's like no man.
I'm going to marry you becauseJesus loves you and has given me
a love for you.
And they're doing great.
And but that other dude is notdoing great because he rejected
discipline and rejected conconfrontation and struck out and
tried to do things on his ownand, as a result, man, his life
is not in a good place.
And do I feel bad about it?
(42:23):
Yes, would I do it anydifferently?
Probably not, because he poseda threat and there's only one
way to deal with that kind ofthreat and that's to go at it.
And so you, you learn an earlyprinciple, which is there are
times where people are not.
They're going to think you'recrazy for your views and the way
you think about the gospel, andyou got to learn to be okay
(42:45):
with that, especially,especially true for our
teenagers or for our collegestudents that are in this age
bracket.
Get to school and you take astand and people are going to
you know they're going to comeafter you because of your, your
biblical ethic on sexuality orbecause you choose to live your
life in a different manner.
You might lose a relationshipbecause there's a young lady in
our church who I love so muchand love her dad and her mom
(43:06):
they're so just sweet, dearpeople and she's dating a boy
recently and broke it offbecause he said if you're not
going to have sex with me, thenwhy are we dating?
And she said, oh okay, wellthen we're not dating.
That's easy.
Got to have the stamina and thespiritual backbone to make those
hard kinds of you knowdecisions and anyway, um, that's
(43:29):
that's what I got for today.
So start strong, start.
He who began a good work willbe faithful to complete it.
Start strong.
And next part two we're goingto get into run hard, get after
it.
Live man.
You're in into your twenties andthen through your thirties and
forties.
That's a season of life whereyou better be getting absolutely
after it.
And and you know there'soverlap, like in your fifties
(43:51):
for some people, your fifties, Ithink, for me I.
I hope that I'm in that stagethat run hard, not in the finish
well stage.
I hope I got a lot of yearsleft, but you never know, and
you gotta be ready to finishwell at any time, because you
don't know when God's going tocall you home.
So that's that.
That's what we got for thisweek.
Hope you're encouraged by thatchallenge and those words,
(44:13):
regardless of where you are,even if you've been a Christian
following Jesus for 20 years.
There's principles in therethat we need to be reminded of.
For me, a lot that I wasreminded of and putting that
together, so hopefully you'll beencouraged by it as well.
Pray for us this week.
Students have rolled in there.
They arrived this afternoonthis Monday, june 9th.
They arrived and yeah, so praythat God moves in a powerful way
(44:38):
this week and we'll give himpraise and thanks for it,
whatever he does.
The last thing that I wanted tomention is that it was 18 years
ago today, june 9th 2007, thatan automobile accident claimed
the lives of four Snowbird staffmembers.
Their families impacted forever, our family impacted forever.
(44:58):
Snowbird community went throughits hardest season in its
history and two survivors ofthat automobile accident, dawson
and Kara, who we pray for oftenand would ask that you pray for
them today as they navigatethis difficult day in their
lives, and so, anyway, just wantto say that our prayers are
(45:21):
with those families as theyremember this day 18 years ago.
Our prayers are with the staffthat lived through that 2007
summer and for all of you thatgot around us and encouraged and
supported us.
We're grateful.
So y'all, pray for us.
It is a difficult day, so prayfor us today as we reflect on
(45:42):
that and most difficult time.
We lost Ashley, lost ashley,michael, daniel and suzanne, and
and dawson and carol weredeeply impacted.
So pray for those families andthose survivors and for the
extended snowbird family today.
We would appreciate it.
Pray, god moves.
This week awesome week ofministry.
(46:03):
We're expecting great things,groups coming from Denver,
colorado and all over theSoutheast and all points in
between, expecting God to dogreat things.
So we'll see you next week.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
Thanks for listening to.
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