Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / August 2, 2015 | Youth Sunday

Transcript

August 2, 2015 | Youth Sunday · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_18: Amen.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_18: I love seeing all those pictures because each and every one of those pictures has some type of story behind it.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_18: Some type of story about fun, some type of story about fellowship with other people, but most importantly, some type of story about God.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_18: And so right now I'm going to call up three of our volunteers.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_18: That's Brandon Bills, my wife Gabby, and also Jeff Maxson.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_18: So we can invite them up and they're going to share a little bit of their involvement in the student ministry and what they've enjoyed and how they've seen God work.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_18: As they're coming up, uh you'll see quite a few of these green shirts like I'm wearing right now.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_18: And they say our head coach on the front, which was our theme for the summer.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_18: So how do we get on God's team?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_18: And when we get on God's team, you know what what do we do with that?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_18: And on the back, the theme verse is Galatians 2.20, which says that it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_18: And the life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave his life for me.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_18: So we just saw a bunch of pictures of different events throughout the summer.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_18: Now you're gonna hear from three of our volunteers about their experience.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_13: Hi, my name is Brandon Bills, and I have been volunteering with the youth ministry for a little over five years now.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_13: I uh initially got involved because I was looking for a way to serve in the church and God the youth ministry on my heart.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_13: And I gotta say, taking that first initial step to get involved was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_13: Uh in when I started, the kids who were just finishing up seventh grade then are now uh about ready to uh start college.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_13: So it's been an amazing journey these last five uh five years uh seeing uh all of them grow and just really uh grow in their faith.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_13: Uh the kids are just amazing.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_13: They are high energy, they can be a little crazy.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_13: As we learned a few weeks ago, given the opportunity, some of our junior hires will eat ice cream until they throw up.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_13: So uh it's just a constant adventure.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_13: But I just feel especially blessed to have gotten to uh be involved in their lives in uh seeing them grow and cry.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_11: It's been wonderful to get to watch Derek and just his passion for youth ministry and just the love that he has for the teens.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_11: Um it's also been great to work alongside him and be a small group leader for the freshmen girls.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_11: Um seeing them on Sunday mornings and just their smiles and the way they laugh and the things that they laugh about is just encouraging to me.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_11: But some of the conversations that we have had and kind of center on just why do we believe what we believe in what does our faith look like?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_11: How can we make that real?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_11: Um so that's just been wonderful just to walk alongside them and just to be able to encourage them in that way.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_11: One of my highlights from the summer is during junior high rampage, we would have Bible studies, and after the Bible studies, we would break up into small groups.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_11: So I got to have three young ladies with me.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_11: And during that time they talked about um just what it looks like to live your faith outside of your parents' faith for um just as a student who have grown up in the church all their life, what that looks like and what it's like to let your faith be more than just going to church on Sunday mornings.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_11: So it was just really encouraging to see them and just see their passion for Christ and how they wanted to know God more and what they were doing to um hit that point.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_11: So it's just been wonderful to be here this summer and to get to watch Derek and work alongside him and watch the interns, and I know that we're all excited for what God has in the store this fall.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_15: My name is Jeff Max, and my uh wife and I have been serving in the youth group for about three years.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_15: This is our third year.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_15: Um both my wife and I really enjoy just watching, as Brandon said, the kids grow in their faith, and uh most of them their faith is amazingly uh strong, and it's just they teach us stuff and we do them.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_15: I mean it's it truly is amazing.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_15: We we both really appreciate and enjoy building our relationships with the kids.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_15: Um and it's not just in the church, it's outside supporting them whether their activities, whether it's boards or choir.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_15: Um it's just building that relationship with them and also building a relationship with the other leaders.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_15: Um it's almost like a small family that you know we all have fun.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_15: Um both my wife and I look forward to the day possibly where some of these uh kids will be our uh our sons leader as well.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_15: Um I mean they are truly strong in their faith, and we'd like to see that in the future.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_18: Thanks, guys.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_18: You can go ahead and have a seat.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_18: Can we give them a big round of applause?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_18: Thank you.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_18: And it's it's so special to have amazing volunteers because they don't get paid for it and they choose to be there.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_18: They don't have to be there, but they decide that they want to invest in the lives of kids.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_18: They decide that the youth ministry is where God wants them to serve, and they see how important it is to share the gospel with them, and that's the most important thing.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_18: There's a lot of fun, there's a lot of trips, a lot of activities, but at the heart of it all is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_18: And so we just heard from our volunteers' perspectives.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_18: Now we're gonna watch a video and see what the TBC ministry, student ministry has meant to our students and how they've seen God work through that.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: Serving the tech department has kind of like brought me to a new family of people.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, the youth group is a great example of what a family should look like, but the tech department does it just the same.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they're just fun to be around with and it just makes you want to serve God of your heart.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_07: My favorite thing, I'm terrible, I think.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_09: Um my favorite bitch was like a bug.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_09: Um I had so much fun doing that all this ice.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_09: I ate a lot of ice cream, and I had a big chair which happens a lot.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_09: And um I had fun getting away from my brothers.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_09: It was so much fun at Slitab.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: One of my favorite things I did at Sky Ranch was DJed a dance party.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: I've done that on multiple occasions throughout the years, but this last year was the most epic.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's some of the greatest fun I've ever had.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_08: Like message them or like must see them if I see what we split up to pray with one of the Asian girls.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_10: And it was just so great, like being able to just sit down with somebody and pray with them, even though I'm sure she cannot understand anything like that.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_10: It was just like no matter where you are, it's great just to see different people working on it.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody was so connected to each other and so ready to be there in hard times in your life.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's just been one of the greatest things.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_10: This summer, the YouTube took a mission for dominating lifeline.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_10: While I was there, I met one eventually, and he was very, very active, and he loved to run around and play soccer with the older boys, and he would always come up to me and be like, soccer ball, soccer ball, and I would just hand him a tennis ball.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_10: Because I didn't know what the actual soccer balls were.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_10: So I'm pretty sure I didn't think so that a tennis ball was a soccer ball.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_16: So as soon as I went down the city, I knew that I was gonna be the first time.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_16: And the first time I was on there, he came up to me and asked me to do a development for the kids one of the last nights for the other.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_16: And uh immediately I thought absolutely um I ended up talking about trusting God.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_16: And I realized that if I wanted to talk about trusting God, I had to trust God that he was gonna do the right thing.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_16: And this was happening for a reason.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_08: You can see what's in the face.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_08: Like the way the Holy Spirit just flows in me while I'm seeing it's amazing.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_08: Where I just lose myself on stage and see.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_18: Now I'm going to call up all of our interns, and we've had six just hardworking, outstanding interns that have served the youth, served the church over the course of the summer.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_18: And the first, our first intern is Kelsey, and Kelsey's unique in that Kelsey's unique in that she is the only one of our interns who did not grow up near Topeka, didn't grow up in Topeka, and so this is her first summer being in town and being uh associated with TBC.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_18: Next up, we have Zach Kramer, who born and bred TBC.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_18: It's been a joy to work with Zach over the course of this summer.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_18: It's his second summer as an intern for us.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_18: Hannah Gardner coming up next.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_18: This is Hannah's third summer as an intern here at TBC, and it's it'll be really cool in a couple of weeks as she'll have the opportunity to work with our new children's director, Jason, as well as Jeremiah, in an admin role.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_18: So we're definitely excited to have her on board and it showcases the hard work that she's put in as an intern with us.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_18: Connor Krauss coming up next.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_18: I have to admit, I was a little intimidated when I first met Connor because he's huge and swole and jacked and way taller than me.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_18: But it's it's just been a joy to get to work with him, and he hasn't beaten me up yet this summer.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_18: So I I I really enjoyed that about him.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_18: And it it's really cool because Hannah and Connor are both dating.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_18: And the reason I say that is because over the course of the summer, um, they've had the opportunity to show the students what a healthy dating relationship looks like, and to be able to answer those types of questions as they start nearing that age and nearing um dating probably themselves.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_18: So it's really neat to have a godly couple who is dating and for the youth to be able to see that in a ministry setting, in an everyday setting.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_18: Next up, we have Will Wipperman, who you have seen on stage, has a wonderful voice.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_18: This is his second summer as an intern going to K-State.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_18: And the thing that I love about Will is just how relational he is and how loving he is, and he's such a huggy person.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_18: And it just he just breathes energy wherever he goes.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_18: And last but certainly not least is Leah Maynor, who has that's right.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_18: It's been great to get to know her over the course of the summer and see her really connect with a lot of those kids.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_18: She's grown up in TBC, grown up in the student ministry, and I think it's been really cool to watch her grow as a leader in that ministry from planning different things to public speaking.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_18: So each of them are going to share a little bit about how God's impacted their summer.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think I can probably speak for all the interns that this has been a really rich summer of just joy and growth.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um a couple years back, someone told me your friend is the one that you can serve.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I never really understood it very well in my own life until this summer when God just gave me the opportunity to serve.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: And um I just found so much joy in it.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, being in a place where I can put myself lower and serve another person puts me in a place of dependence on Christ for his joy and for his love.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so um it has been so sweet with him to go through that.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: And um coming here, I mean, the community of TBC has just demonstrated to me exactly that, that love and that service.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just so thankful for this whole summer.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's been good.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_04: Good morning, guys.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_04: Uh my name is Zach Kramer.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I'm from Topeka, Kansas.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, it's been a really rich summer for sure.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um I think the biggest thing, or one of the many things I've taken away from this summer, is just the value of relationships and the impact of being a good friend uh can have in the lives of those around you.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um sometimes all it takes is just a listening ear, just a cup of coffee, you know, just a walk or something like that.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um I think the past on the summer, those are kind of the highlights of those kind of moments that have happened throughout the different activities and events that we've done.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_04: There's just been those moments of just you know, just being there.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_12: One of the things that God reminded me of this summer is his sovereignty.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_12: Um one of the nights when we were in Haiti, I was holding one of the little boys.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_12: Um, he was asleep on my lap and he was sick at the time.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_12: Um, so he had the nod and lobber running all down my shirt.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_12: Um and I just started crying um and asking God why.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_12: Um, why he had to be at an orphanage, why he didn't have a mom, um, to wipe his nose, why it was necessary for us to go down there.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_12: Um and really why they were just in that place.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_12: And so God um answered me perhaps unfortunately than he did go, thankfully.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_12: Um I just heard him saying, look at the stars that you've been admiring all night, and I put those there, and I named those, and I have a purpose for them being up in the sky.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_12: How much more do I have a purpose for the little boy in your arms?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_12: Um So I was just reminded that even through our pain and through the things that we don't understand and also our joys, um, God is sovereign and has a plan.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_14: Yeah, so like you've heard, we we had the chance to go to Haiti this summer, and while we were down in Haiti um at night, we were able to pray with uh the Haitian kids, and uh the fact that you get a prayer for somebody and they get to pray for you in a different language is amazing within itself.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_14: But I had the older boys, and so they're like 17 to 18, and they can speak uh conversational, I guess, English.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_14: And so I would ask them at night um if they had had uh what kind of day they had, and every single night that they had had a great day, and I would ask them why, and um I don't know, it was foreign to them that somebody could have a bad day.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_14: And the the reasons they get I asked them every night because I could come back here and tell you because it was so good.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_14: I asked them every night why, and it was because I gotta spend the day with Jesus, because God allowed me to pass a good day, because I asked God for a good day, um, because he allowed me to be here another day.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_14: I mean those their focus and the reasons for why they have a good day are not um they're focused on the eternal things, they're focused on God and Christ.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_14: And I don't know about I can't speak for you, but for me, like a flat tire ruins my day.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_14: And or I don't know, they took my favorite show off Netflix, and I'm really grumpy like that, it ruins my day.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_14: And um, it was a great reminder for me to to kind of come back here and focus on really what matters and how Christ's gift.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_14: I don't know, if we all had that same perspective, I think we'd be a lot happier people.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_17: So, um, this is my second summer, and it um has been so great um to come back and build the relationships with the students even deeper, um, and the relationships with a bunch of these guys um and girls deeper as well.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_17: Um for sure.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_17: But the thing the one thing I think that stood out to me this summer um is God's faithfulness.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_17: Um you know last year we had a different youth pastor, um, Scott DeSanders, and um he was really close to all of us, and we were all pumped, and it was our plan was set in stone.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_17: We're like, we are coming to TBC this upcoming summer to be interns with Scott.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_17: And uh I was so excited.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_17: Um but then God had different plans and moved Scott somewhere else, and uh just rocked my world and rocked all of our worlds, um, honestly, and we were so confused, and we were in um it was just a very confusing, kind of painful time, honestly.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_17: Um but God is faithful in that and he brought Derek.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_17: Um He found Derek and he brought him here and um through a bunch of crazy different circumstances, and Derek's done a fantastic job, and it's been um a joy to get to know him and um just to see him grow and to do well as being a pastor and being a leader.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_17: Um and so that's just one of the many examples.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_17: I think that's the main one that I would I would pick, but um there's just so many examples of God's faithfulness, even when especially when we're not faithful.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_17: Um but uh for sure that's it.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: So this summer, um, God has really changed my perspective on what trusting in him really is.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's not just not worrying or not being nervous um in hard situations, but it's really um giving your life fully to him and laying everything down before him.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess it just um
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_18: Huge round of applause, please.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_18: Thanks.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_18: You guys can have a seat.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_18: It really has been an honor and a privilege to get to know each of them over the course of the summer and to work alongside them this summer.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_18: And now what we're going to do, typically here at TBC and traditionally, we take up an offering for our interns at the end of the summer, just as a small thank you, to say thank you for the time that you spent, you chose to spend here at TBC.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_18: Thank you for the time that you've invested into the kids here at TBC.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_18: So as the ushers go ahead and come forward, if you feel like God is calling you to support them financially, they're all going to different places after this week.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_18: Some of them are going back to school, some of them are leaving for jobs, some of them are going to stay in school and continue that.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_18: So if you feel that God's calling you to that, we just ask that you would follow that today.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_18: And now we're going to watch this short video of our leaders and our interns.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_18: Really quick, can we have all of our student ministry leaders, volunteers, interns, everybody stand up really quick, wherever you're at?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_18: Thank you guys.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_18: You guys can go ahead and have a seat.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_18: We cannot do this.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_18: We couldn't have as great of a student ministry as we have without each and every one of you, and it's a blessing to get to work alongside you and serve alongside you for the kids.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_18: I know for myself, one story that I remember from the summer that was most memorable was during junior high rampage, where we take about 20 to 30 junior hires and go to Linwood, Kansas to a camp that's right around Kansas City.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_18: And it rained most of the time that we were there, which forced us to be inside quite a bit of the time.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_18: But one of the nights we were having a movie night, and Lori came in from the other room and she's like, Derek, I've got something to tell you.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_18: Derek, I got something to tell you.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_18: And I figure it's gonna be some kid acting up, somebody got in a fight, or somebody's picking their nose, or doing something that they shouldn't do.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_18: And she said, No, Madison accepted Christ.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_18: Madison accepted Christ.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_18: And I I kind of had to take a double take because I wasn't, I wasn't sure if I heard what she actually said.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_18: She said, Madison just accepted Christ.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_18: And so immediately we stopped the movie, turned on all the lights, and we announced it to all the kids and all the leaders.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_18: And it was just it was amazing to me to watch everybody cheer and clap and get excited in that moment when they found out that that Madison was now in the family of God on a trip where you would think, at least my assumption is when we take kids on a trip or they're here consistently every Sunday morning or every midweek event, we assume that they're saved most of the time.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_18: And clearly that's not the case.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_18: And that's why it's so important that every event that we have, whether it's Sunday morning, midweek, going to Rampage, Haiti, wherever it is, that we make sure that we share the gospel.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_18: Share the gospel that Jesus came to this earth, that he died for our sins, that he rose again, and we put our faith in him, put our trust in him, that we have salvation through that.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_18: And never to miss that, because if we miss the fact that Jesus did that for us and that's where our salvation comes from, then we miss the point of worshiping together, we miss the point of serving, we miss the point of loving if we don't have Jesus in there.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_18: And so we do need good men and good women to be volunteers for us for this coming year.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_18: We need men and women who can commit to these kids to commit to sharing their life experience.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_18: You don't have to have a PhD in Bible study.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_18: You don't have to have all the biblical answers.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_18: You don't have to know everything that could possibly be known to be known about the Bible.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_18: There's two things that we ask you to do as a volunteer, as a small group leader for us on Sunday mornings and during the midweek.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_18: The first is to be saved, to have that salvation yourself and be able to tell somebody else about that.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_18: And the second thing is to show up.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_18: Seems pretty simple, right?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_18: Just to show up.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_18: And there's three ways that we've talked about showing up over the course of this summer.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_18: The first way is showing up predictably.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_18: That means showing up as a small group leader on Sunday mornings when the kids, age of seventh grade, all the way through twelfth grade, expect you to be there.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_18: Be there as their leader, be there as that godly figure other than their parents.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_18: The second way to show up is to show up predictably and to show up randomly.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_18: So showing up randomly means that, yes, be there when they expect you to show up on Sunday mornings, but as Jeff was alluding to earlier, showing up at their sporting event, showing up at their choir rehearsal, sending them a quick text and say, hey, I've been praying for you, or asking them how you can pray for them.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_18: That's showing up randomly.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_18: And the third way is to show up mentally.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_18: So on Sunday mornings or during our midweek, it's not enough to be there, to be a warm body filling a space.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_18: It's not enough to be there and just think that, you know, we're we're crowd control and we're making sure that nothing bad happens to any of the kids.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_18: It's showing up mentally, showing up and being ready to be invested into their lives.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_18: To ask them, hey, how was your math test this week?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_18: How did your wrestling match go?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_18: Hey, what can I pray for you?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_18: How are things going in your family?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_18: And being able to ask those questions and being prepared to listen to them.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_18: And so with those three ways of showing up, you can be a small group leader.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_18: You can be there to invest in the lives of kids.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_18: You can be there to experience things that you've seen on the videos and experience what our other volunteers and interns and myself have experienced over the course of this summer and over the course of this year.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_18: So I'd ask you, if you are looking for a place to serve, or there's something in you, God's tugging on your heart, saying, Man, I really feel like I need to serve somewhere, I should serve somewhere, but I don't know where.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_18: I would challenge you to pray about the student ministry because the students, the seventh through twelfth graders, they are the next generation.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_18: They're coming up, they're going to be the people who are leading on a regular basis, being our greeters, taking the offerings, being up here on stage in the band, our tech department.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_18: Those are the people who are going to be learning those things and start to do those things.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_18: Because as a collective, we are the church.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_18: And I'll just ask you, prayerfully consider being a small group leader and investing in the lives of our students.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_18: Because I know for me, it's one of the huge joys in my life that I get the privilege and the honor to serve them and to serve the church in that way.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_18: So I'll go ahead and pray for us, and then we'll be dismissed.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_18: Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for sending your son Jesus to die on the cross for us.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_18: Thank you that he rose again, and thank you that we have salvation through Jesus.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_18: Loris, thank you for all of the students, thank you for all the volunteers, thank you for all of our interns, God, and thank you for choosing us to be your hands and feet for the next generation.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_18: And Lord, I pray that you just work on hearts in this room right now, that if there's people who are looking to serve, that that you would guide them toward the student ministry, and Lord, that they would feel free to come talk to me at some point this week and just let them know that I would meet them anywhere they're at, at the church or at work or wherever it may be.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_18: But you know how important it is to have a leader outside of their parents for them, and so do we, God.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_18: So I thank you for the students, thank you for all these leaders, thank you for our church, and most importantly, thank you for Jesus.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_18: In Jesus' name.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_18: Amen.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_18: Check, check.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_04: One moment, amen.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_04: Amen.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_18: Whoa.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_04: What'd you say?
• 31:39
  unknown: Happy birthday, Derek!
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_04: That is great.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_04: Derek, how old are you today?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_18: Uh 20.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_18: How long are you?
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_18: 24.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_18: That is right.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_18: 24 years.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_04: Can you believe it?
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_04: Well, before we left on this beautiful Sunday afternoon, today, we just wanted to thank you again for all that you've done this summer.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_04: It's Derek's again, his first summer here.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_04: He got thrown into perhaps the most chaotic season of the youth ministry.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_04: Hit the ground running with a group of new interns or you know, new group of interns.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_04: And so we just want to say thank you.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_04: Happy birthday.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_04: And we thought we could sing him happy birthday on this youth Sunday before we go home.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, let's hear it for Derek.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_04: Seriously, let's hear it for Derek.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_04: Let's do it.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_18: Thank you all.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_18: Thank you.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_18: Thank you, Zach.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_18: Thank you all for allowing Gabby and I to serve with the church.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_18: Thank you for the birthday song.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_18: Now you're dismissed.