Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / August 21, 2016 | Discovery Sunday 2016

Transcript

August 21, 2016 | Discovery Sunday 2016 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, this is gonna be uh this is our Discovery Sunday.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's our discovery day, and so it goes by pretty quickly.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Want to get you out of here in 26 minutes.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: If it's earlier, that's fine with me.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Gotta send you out to the tent and uh got some great snacks out there.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: I actually found like an apple cobbler right in the midst of the donuts.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's gone now, sorry.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyway, uh every once a year in August, we have a Discovery Day.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Mark Buckholz was telling us some first service that went the five years he was children's pastor, it was a favorite day of the year, partly because he always got, you know, his first first time here.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: He got like 50 volunteers when he was feeling panicked.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's a critical day for signups.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we always show you, you know, the leading people to life in Christ.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we're about.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: What are we about?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: What are those six words?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Say them with me.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Leading people to life in Christ.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: You're really enthusiastic about that, I can tell.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: So, and for us, that divides into discovering, discovering Christ, discovering the church.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: It falls also into connecting.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's like small groups, they enrich your life.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: This morning we focus on the third aspect that's serving, that gives your life purpose.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Hello?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he's leaving early to go out to the tent.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: And if you want to do that, feel free, okay?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it gives you a per, by the way, across the street, same goes for you.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: So purpose-driven life.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, last year, uh, so we focus on service.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Last year, my title was, and this is going to be sort of a part two from last year, was why I can't not serve.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: I shared with you my favorite passage on service, which comes from uh 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul explains that he served the Lord.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: He says, I serve the Lord more than any of the other apostles.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I serve to the point of exhaustion, he says.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's the Greek word he uses for work.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: And when you ask the question, why, uh Paul, why did you serve to the point of exhaustion?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: His amazing answer in those three verses is because I am so grateful that on the road to Damascus, God reached down and he snatched me out of the miry clay and brought my feet up.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh, he's just so grateful for God's grace.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: And by God's grace, he says, I am what I am, and his grace toward me wasn't in vain.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so I pointed out last year that uh the reason why we serve, maybe my favorite reason, is out of gratitude for what God's done for us, that he's saved us, right?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're if you're not at that point yet, realize this is all about coming to Christ, that God looked down, he saw us in our sorry state, right?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Are you with me about that?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: That we all were in need, and he reached down in the person of his son, who died in our place for our sin to bring us up, to bring us to heaven forever.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: And out of gratitude we served.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And and but what I want to do is I want to add to that today, because I was sitting in my prayer chair uh early this week and I was thinking, now, why is it practically that I that I serve?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And as I was coming up with like my top ten reasons, I swiveled that chair around.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's when it becomes my TV chair.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and I thought, my goodness, you know, the Olympics are on, and all three of these things are I'm hearing constantly from the competitors down in Rio.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so I want to share with you today three Olympic reasons why I serve, three Olympic reasons to serve, or as I'm putting it here, to go all in.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I I I grabbed that because this weekend, as our women's volleyball team defeated the Netherlands and just were so excited about uh getting the bronze medal, uh the the girl who was interviewed on the team said we went all in.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: We had, and she said, uh those let those words all in are uh as an insignia inside each of our jerseys.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's our motto to go all in.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought that's what the Lord requires of us.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's what service means to God and to the Apostle Paul.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: So here's three, my three Olympic reasons to go all in to serve Jesus Christ and God and Topeka Bible church along the way or something else.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: And number one is I realize I serve because I know I'm serving a great cause.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: I know I'm serving a great cause, greater than any other cause.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever things you do in life, whatever service you give, congratulations.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's a wonderful thing.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: When you volunteer to serve in the community and so forth, that's wonderful.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: But you have to ask yourself eventually, okay, when I compare causes, what's the greatest cause?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: And the answer would be a cause that outlasts my life, a cause that outlasts time itself.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I get to serve in that great of a cause.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now, uh maybe my favorite uh uh moment in the Olympics was was when Simone Manuel won the hundred meter freestyle goal.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: She created history's first African-American woman to ever win a gold in a swimming event.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And and she was shocked.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And NBC was shocked.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: They'd totally blown it ahead of time.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: They spent all their time talking about a couple of sisters from Australia that they expected to win.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but anyway, so she wins, and when she was interviewed, notice how she described her motivation as being connected to a great cause.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: She said, it's amazing representing Team USA, wearing the USA flag, representing something bigger than ourselves.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Representing your country is a blessing.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: I love representing the USA.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: What's the common word there?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Representing, yeah.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: And and it's uh the idea that you could represent your country is just amazing, which is why so many of our medal winners cried when they were on the victory side.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, what what I love is the fact that Simone Manuel realizes there is a greater cause, even than the United States.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: The United States will last for two, three hundred years, whatever, and then we'll be gone.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so the first thing she did after seeing that she had won the gold as she pointed up to God, and the first words that came out of her mouth in the interview after she had won that gold, as she sobbed, was all I can say is, all glory to God.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And she has that exactly right, doesn't she?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: That the greatest cause that you and I can be involved in is a cause that brings glory and pleasure to God Almighty, who has saved us and who has designed this universe with a purpose and a plan.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I noticed the Huffington Post yesterday posted like 23 pictures of Olympic athletes praying or giving glory to God.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: From uh, I don't know if you anybody watched the our women's water polo team, which huddled around for prayer after winning the gold, or that Jamaican athlete who prayed, or or for instance, uh our uh the rugby team uh let's see, that would be from Fiji, I think, on the bottom right, which is no surprise.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: Fiji's probably the only country in the world that has over 80% Christians.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and bottom left would be uh, I forget, some some other some other team that uh that's uh huddled around for prayer.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: So well, you're laughing at me.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Aren't they praying?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: What team is that?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um so uh so and and when I think of why uh I serve, choose this day, said Josh or General Joshua, whom you will serve.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: As for me in my house, we'll serve the Lord.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And the point is that there that you've got to serve somebody, and we all serve somebody, and he says, you know, why not serve in the greatest cause of all?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Why not serve the Lord?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: And when I serve, and when you serve, when you sign up and you do something so simple as just to sit in a nursery, do you realize at that moment you are to use Simone Manuel's verb, you are representing the God of the universe.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm representing Christ my Savior, and I'm representing as a citizen of heaven, I'm representing heaven itself.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: My first Olympic reason to serve, to go all in, is because it's a great cause.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Secondly, it's great camaraderie, the relationships.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: I I noticed how many uh uh guys and girls on our USA team down there were constantly talking about how they loved competing because they were part of a team and they're so excited about that.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: For instance, uh our swimming girls, uh girl named Maya, put it this way: the team is incredibly close, tight bonds.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: We've really come together.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: We genuinely cheer for one another.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: No other team down here has that kind of support.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Our camaraderie is unmatched.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, if you watched uh our gymnastics girls, the love between Allie and Simone Biles and the affection among the members of our gymnastic team reminds you of the kind of camaraderie that happens when you serve together, when you serve the Lord together and you exhaust yourself together.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of one of his most doctrinal epistles, the book of Colossians, Paul takes 15% to 20% of his entire letter to mention seven guys that he had camaraderie with.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because why?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because they served together.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Tychicus, my beloved brother, my faithful helper who serves with me in the Lord's work.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Onesimus, my faithful and beloved brother, or Starchus Justice, working with me here, Epaphrus, Luke, Demas, and so forth.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what you find when you're done walking out of Iana, for example.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: You look around and you know, wow, we just had 325 kids tonight, and we heard all these Bible verses and so forth.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: But but it's great camaraderie because you're serving together.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And the third reason, uh the third Olympic reason for going all in, for serving God, is of course, uh, what I was struck with is it's it's for a great reward.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, that's true in the Olympics.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody wants to get on the podium, and and so, and and by the way, here are pictures of three of the most famous athletes at the Olympics.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: And from what I can tell, the testimonies I have read, I'm looking forward to seeing all three of them in heaven one day.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And talking here about uh Hussein Bolt and Michael Phelps and Simone Biles, and all of them so excited, right, to get that medal.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that's just you know, the Apostle Paul, he lived during the Olympics, you know that, that that the Olympics have been going on for uh for almost a thousand years, you know, uh by the time Paul had reached Athens, they did and the Olympic peninsula, he they'd been going on regularly.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so he has these sort of Olympic metaphors in his New Testament writings.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: For example, don't you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Run so as to get the prize.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's a prize, and today we find that in uh in in the West at least, people are seem to be more spiritual than God Himself.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so they say, Well, I I would not serve to get a reward.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: So C.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: S.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Lewis says, listen, God finds our desires for reward not too strong, but too weak.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: He's designed us to want to get the gold medal, and so run so as to get the prize.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Jim Elliott put it this way: he's no fool, gives what he can't keep to gain a reward that he cannot lose.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I could turn to Corinthians, those famous passages.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: I've preached a number of messages about rewards in my tenure here, but uh, I'll point to a new verse I've never preached from on this, and that's Hebrews 6.10.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: God's not unjust, he won't forget your work and the love you showed for his name when you served the saints.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: God holds out rewards for us.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the three Olympic reasons for going all in and for serving are number one that we're serving a great cause.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: That was really outstanding.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Let's and and the second, and the second reason, and the second real motivation for serving is that there's such great camaraderie.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the third, there it is right in front of you, is it's for a great reward.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, you guys are getting better by the moment.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, so anyway, those are reasons that I'm motivated to serve, and I'll never stop serving, no matter you know matter what what your job change is or whatever.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: You just, this is what life is about.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a privilege.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: So now what I want to do is is uh, as I always do on Discovery Day, I want to call up a couple of uh leaders and and and ask them what kind of volunteers they could use.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: And as Jeremiah is coming up, let me encourage you at any time you can find out needs that we have by going to our new and improved website, discovertbc.com.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: I downloaded this morning what it looks like today.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's constantly changing.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: On the front page, it says Welcome Home, has a list of our services.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: You can punch on recent sermon right below it.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: It says leading people to life in Christ, and invites you to click on a so that you can hear that the testimony of the clerks, which is absolutely motivating.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have banners which keep changing at the bottom from night of worship and the family T-bones trip and intentional moms and grief share and things like that.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: So one of those, by the way, Jeremiah, was tonight's night of worship, and we'll get to that in a second.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: But would you tell us who we're looking at here in this picture?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, on the left is myself and my wife, Amanda.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: On the right is uh in the blue shirt, Paisley, and the pink shirt, Presley.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: These uh and they're identical twins.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, I can't tell them apart.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: But this picture was taken.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's why, yeah.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Purple and always you keep them, yeah, cloth, you know, wear different things.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Stop it.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um and this is just a picture from yesterday, right?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Just yesterday we took the dance picture.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: You have a great family.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but but you've got uh you you you're juggling a lot of balls here.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you got worship and you got all kinds of things.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: So talk to me.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't had you up here.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, it's been years since on Discovery Day I've had, you know, worship team up here.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you're also representing tech team because that's underneath you.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Would you share some of the needs and some of the jobs and some of the tasks and some of the things that go on in your ministry?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: So everybody knows, if you're awake on Sunday mornings, that we have a full band uh on the Mulvane stage.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_03: And if you don't know, in the College Avenue building across the street, we have a full band live every Sunday, and Pastor Jim is on video of the video.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: All right, or if you're watching this across the street, it's just the reverse.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: There's a band there at College.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's a band there.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's one here for those of you who don't know.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: Got it, yeah.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_03: And Pastor Jim's in Mulvaine.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway, um so we have a full band, we have a full tech team supporting uh each band.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: So these guys back in the booth are really thankful for what they do each Sunday.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you guys.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_03: And over in in College Avenue as well, yeah.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: These guys are here at 6 30, sometimes earlier in the morning, and they're the last they're the first ones in, they're the last ones out.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: So we really appreciate what they do.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: But uh those are just the positions that you can see.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: We actually have 14 technical positions on our campus that we need to fill uh each Sunday that includes camera operators, uh graphics so that you can see the lyrics as we sing, um, lighting designers and operators, sound engineers, um, video directors.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: We have a we have a studio on the second floor in the college building next to the auditorium there.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: All of the content from Jim's computer goes over there, it's all processed.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: We have a video director and a switcher, and and they're doing all of this, and that's how we get um our content online for others to see as well.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_03: So there's just a lot behind the scenes that you don't see.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're interested in uh computers, if you can run an iPhone, we can probably train you.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Sam can probably train you to help out with the tech team.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um musicians, we're always looking for worship leaders, um, people who are comfortable singing and leading in in the TVC blended style, or if you play an instrument and you're holding out on me, I'll find you.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I need you to be all in.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I love it.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then, but you're also involved in like a delight show, you run that, so you look for volunteers for that.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: And for Christmas, you had like a Christmas program involving about a hundred, or maybe it was Easter, about a hundred.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: Last Christmas, 120 people on this stage with full choir and orchestra.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: If you want to sing in the choir, let us know.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: We're doing another one of these great um uh night of worship for Christmas.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, with if you play a string instrument, a brass instrument, let us know.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a booth out there.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_03: We have a booth.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: Please sign up.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me about the tech team.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: What sort of jobs would be, you know, do you have to be a professional on the tech team?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_03: Or you don't have to be a professional at all.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um in fact, if you know, if you're in high school and you want to serve on the tech team, we can we can get you plugged in.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: Just just let us know that you have an interest, that that uh you're passionate about serving and you want to support the ministries here at TBC, and we can probably find a place for you.
• 18:34
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: We've we've uh I think we've hired before somebody who just volunteered at their tech team at their church and then grew up learning how to do it.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: And and so anyway, thanks a lot.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate it, buddy.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Jason, uh and uh, we rolled Jason out to you last year.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was like your second week of being here, or maybe third last year.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, this uh this uh Sunday uh marks the one year and one week anniversary of my family and I've been here at Timeko Bible Church.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, and yeah.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_04: Tell us who we're looking at here.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_04: All right, real quick, uh left to right on the very front row, Athen, uh son Athen.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_04: Angie's my wife, Enoch is right there in front of me, Henley over there on to the picture to my left, and of course I'm there in the middle, the tallest one.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you are so busy.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm kinda you're there early, you're working constantly.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: You have two of the largest programs at church.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: One's children's are children's ministry, Sunday morning like Sunday school.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us about that?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Sunday school is is great, it's a great program.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_04: If you guys have grown up in Sunday school, I grew up in Sunday school.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_04: It really lays out the foundational truths that God loves you, that God died for you, or he sent his son to die for you, that he wants to be your friend.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_04: Those kind of the basic truths are taught every single Sunday as a good foundation uh for the all the Sunday schoolers from the age two-year-old through sixth grade for the on the from my side on the old school.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_04: So then you have teachers and then you have volunteer helpers, and then you have we actually have um about eighty-four positions every Sunday that we have uh for people to help and work with children from age two through sixth grade.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: But you're getting close to the turnover for that, aren't you?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, don't you have a the way that we work that is that every September the we have a promotion Sunday, so the first week of September, everyone that will promote to their grade that they are currently in, going into, and uh then we asked all the teachers and leaders uh to give a one-year commitment to those students and to that class, uh, and then at the end of September they can choose whether or not to re-up that commitment or not.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_04: And a lot of a lot of people have said they're going to re-up the commitment, which is great, but we also have a few that we need to fill, absolutely.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_04: So if you are interested in that, go out to the tent.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: But you also are in charge of Iwana, and this is a critical Sunday to sign up volunteers for Iwana.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_04: We need we need anywhere between 135 and 150 volunteers for our WANA program here at Topeka Bible Church.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_04: 150 is not overly staffed by any means.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_04: And uh yeah, we have about we had last year we had over 400 kids registered.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_04: We have averaged close to 300 a night, and it's a it's a great program.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_04: They learn God's word intensely.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_04: Uh then, but we need a lot of volunteers to help from helping with crafts with the younger children to listening to verses and deleting small groups for the older kids and really explaining the passage of scriptures.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: So Sunday morning is freer for you, that's children's Sunday school.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: If Wednesday night is better for you than I wana.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as if you're not busy enough.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Jason comes to us, you know, this last month or two, he goes, I've got an idea.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: I really think that we ought to consider a new outreach.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Would you tell us about this exciting new idea?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, over the last year, I'll say probably about January, God really started putting a burden on my heart for the community here around the church.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_04: And I just started praying about.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: What is a good way that we could invest into the community and hopefully with the school right across the street, Loman Hill Elementary School?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_04: Well, um, a guy named Chris Stewart, who runs a ministry in town called The Bridge, uh, came over after they would have been praying about it, and he actually came to Tobeka Bible Church and asked if we would want to adopt Lowman Hill for a program that he runs, which Kristen The Bridge has a burden to put uh to pair up a church with every single elementary school in the 501 district.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_04: So he's looking for churches to adopt uh schools in their area and to do this program called Lunch Buddies.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_04: So I could tell you all about it, but it'd probably be easier to see a video if that's okay.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: I know we're probably running low on time.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: When I heard about lunch buddies, I thought that's a great that's a great opportunity.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm glad they're filling that need.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: Glad I'm not a part of it.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: Children scare me, and I did not want to get involved.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: A little intimidated.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, just I don't know, sometimes uh the little kids can can intimidate you just because they're brutally honest.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: A little bit later I started thinking more about it, and I felt like I needed to be a lunch buddy.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: What attracted me to lunch buddies was working with kids and um just seeing if if I could make a positive uh influence on someone's life.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I was paired up with Kayla.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: Kayla is a beautiful little girl.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: She was in second grade at the time, and I have just come to love her.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Once I met Romello and had a few lunches, um, it's it was great.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Taking my beatings in Uno, checkers, uh, Connect 4.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: We toss the football around, and uh it's been nice to uh see him open up to me a little bit more as time has gone on.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: When I first met Kayla, she hid her personality, but now I get to see her talk about her class and talk about her teachers and her friends and her family and learn just a little bit about um how much of an adult she's had to be because of her life circumstances.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: And for 30 minutes a week, she gets to be a kid when I when we eat together.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: She gets to laugh and tell me silly stories, um, she gets to make silly jokes and she gets to play games, and it's been so exciting to see her be a kid, especially when she tells me really adult things.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: Some kids don't have very much.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: But since this day out of life, I already have some one to talk to and be friends.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: So, why should you, sitting in this room today, be a lunch buddy?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: At Meadows Elementary, there are 600 students.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: But each one of us has the opportunity to affect one life.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: I can affect Kayla's life, and you can affect the life of Billy or Joe or Susie or Anna or any of the thousands of kids in the 501 district who just need a friend, who just need someone to love them, to listen, to show up, and just eat lunch with them.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: And you can do that.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're so uh TBC is really committed to our neighborhood, and I'm so excited uh Jason that you're that you're pushing this.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: My family's involved in lunch buddies programs, and so uh you do have a sign-up place up there.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_04: So I think it just is a is it goes without saying it's a great opportunity for us to go into the school, not just invite them to a wanna, not just invite them for trunk or treat, or but to go into the school.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_04: And we have a sign up, and actually, Chris Stewart, the director of the bridge, is actually here today uh at the by the children's ministry table.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_04: There's a sign up just for more information about the Lunch Buddies program.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_04: It really is just 30 minutes being a buddy to a kid and hopefully to help invest in them and change their lives.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I love it.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, man.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks a lot.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's time.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we finished 10 minutes early, and as I kick you out, I don't want to share.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I th I will close in prayer, but I'll share with you one other thing.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: This last week we got a yes.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: We have hired now Joe and Becca Delfonso, uh young adult pastor.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: He's got 10 years of experience, and he's graduated from seminary coming from Phoenix.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: They have a one-year-old child.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: This is a new program, uh a new pastor for this program.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be uh for 20s and young 30s, couples and singles.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: And we also, uh by the way, I have a sign up out there because he wants to uh he wants to have a list of people that he can meet with the moment he comes.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: He'll be here in 10 weeks, November the 1st.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he wants to meet with and and find out what especially uh you 20s and young 30s would like.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: But he has, of course, having had all that experience, he's got some strong ideas himself.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: So let's uh close in prayer.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray for Joe and Becca, and let me pray for you.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, we thank you, thank you for your son Jesus Christ, for the fact that you give us the opportunity to partner with you in this incredible cause of advancing your glory throughout the universe.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you that it's a cause that will never, ever end, but simply get brighter and brighter and brighter until uh heaven dawns, until your son returns.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we thank you as well for the friendship and the camaraderie and the relationships that we develop in doing so and the rewards that you generously promise to give us.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now we pray for Joe and Becca as they prepare to make this major move to come to Topeka, Kansas.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I especially pray for the programs that we've mentioned this morning.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Ask, ask Heavenly Father that you would move in people's hearts by your Holy Spirit to become volunteers and be a part of this great cause.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for coming.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: All the food's in the tent.