Youth Sunday

(upbeat music)

- Believe it or not, it is August 1st.

Our midweek gatherings will not begin until August 8th.

Okay, so we will not be meeting this Thursday,

but we will be meeting the following Thursday.

We will be beginning a series on the Galatians

here in the Ministry Center.

Our youth program will be back in swing.

Our kids ministry will be back in junior Bible quiz.

And so we're excited about this.

August 8th, make a plan to be here,

six o'clock on August 8th.

So we'll start back midweek at that point.

Okay, so not this Thursday, but next Thursday.

Well, today is Youth Sunday.

And man, hasn't it been a rich morning already?

It has been incredible.

God has been so gracious.

He's been so gracious to us.

And we just love the Lord.

We've been in a series called His Church.

And our youth are not separate

from being a part of His Church.

They are very much a part of His Church.

And one of the things that I've learned over time

that the Lord has really helped to remind me

when it comes to youth and children

is that sometimes as adults,

we can kind of have an attitude of it's those people,

or that group, go sit at the kid table, the youth table.

But I tend to believe that the kids in youth

are probably the most important people

in the building right now, quite honestly.

Not to say that you're not important

and that we don't love you and God doesn't love you.

He certainly does, but we're raising a generation

of warriors for the kingdom right now,

impressionable hearts back in the back there.

And so they're important.

And it's important for us to have this time.

Sherry and I had the privilege of serving as youth pastors

here at Springhouse for six years.

It was over a period of eight years.

We took two years off when we had our fourth child.

But for six years, we had the privilege of serving

as a youth pastors.

And man, what a joy it was to be in charge of the youth here

at Springhouse.

Some of our youth are sitting over here as young adults now

and some of them leading,

some have gone on to different places or whatnot.

But we had such a privilege and pleasure

of working with the youth.

And probably one of the most remarkable things

is I didn't get fired.

You know, I would bring back teens with no eyebrows.

I had them eat earwax from one another.

It's some crazy things that we did

and I won't go any further than that.

But I wanted to bust up a misconception about that time,

I've kind of carried for a while

that Kevin made these teens do this stuff.

No, Kevin offered them points

and teens do anything for points, okay?

And so they would do the most outrageous things

and they did and they have some memories

that they established during those times.

But one of them,

oh, there it is.

They were gonna make sure to get that slide up there.

Yeah, okay, yeah.

There are some worst pictures than this I could show.

I'm not going to.

You got the next slide or no?

There are three ingredients that I look for

in really establishing any leader in the church,

but especially when I was working with youth

and I looked for youth leaders.

We had a team of about 16, 17

and those were the three things.

Love the Lord, be faithful and show up.

And if there's anything that our next generation need,

it's people who love the Lord, are faithful

and will show up.

And when it came time for us to begin this transition

into this role, I asked the Lord,

Lord, who do you have in the leadership to take my spot?

You see, I wasn't trying to be about,

let me just get out of the youth group

and they'll just figure it out because I love the teens

and I wanted the Lord to supply the people he had chosen.

And he did.

He chose James and Dana Jansen to be our youth pastors.

And James and Dana have done a phenomenal job

with our teens, a phenomenal job with our teens.

They work relentlessly, loving on

and just encouraging and speaking life into our youth group

and have done such a better job than I ever did.

At least everybody comes back with their eyebrows.

But here's what's so great about the transition

between me and them and as we continue to move forward.

The purpose and the foundation hasn't changed.

Go ahead and put the next slide up.

We want our teens to thrive in an authentic relationship

with Jesus Christ.

And guess what?

We want you to thrive in your relationship

with Jesus Christ, authentic relationship with Jesus Christ.

Do you know at one point in time you were a teenager

and now you're an adult.

I pray that you are thriving in your relationship

with Jesus Christ.

So our teens had quite the experience.

A couple of weeks ago at camp,

they went down to Garner Creek and they did a camp

with a bunch of different churches together

and had quite the experience.

And I want to invite Pastor James to come and share

just a little bit with you about that experience.

Guys, welcome the best youth pastor on the planet.

(congregation applauding)

Yes.

- Hey, hey, hey.

So it's an honor.

First of all, it is an honor to get to serve

as a youth pastor in this house, to serve the Lord.

And have as much fun as we do in the youth group, right?

If you're looking to serve, guys, come on up.

We have a ton of fun.

I'd love to meet with you, hug your neck

and see what the Lord does in it.

Like Pastor Kevin was talking about,

we have been partnered with a group of nine youth groups

around the local area.

A lot of the kids know each other.

They go to the same schools, local high schools.

And we just really have went all in

with what the Lord is doing.

He's been growing us deep.

He gave me a word at the beginning of 2023

and it was just to dive in deep.

And so we were going after him.

We're going after the gospel and learning about Jesus

and being the hands and feet.

We took a group of 50 to Gulf Shores in 2023 at camp

and spread the gospel.

And then we continued in the gospel

and in the book of Acts as we took a look at the early church

and what they were doing

and how they operated as a body of believers.

And we're like, Lord, this is what we want.

We wanna be used by you.

We want, we're here for yours.

And that's what we're teaching is if you wanna be used

by the Lord, it starts with a surrendered life.

It starts with God, I'm all of yours

and I'm just allowing you to use me

in whatever capacity that you want.

And so we've been partnering, we've been branching out

with these other nine youth groups.

And the Lord has done some amazing things

in and throughout our youth group.

We have a bunch of teens that are ready to testify

about his goodness and what he's done.

So I don't wanna take up any more time,

but our scripture verse up in the youth group

is Jeremiah 29, 13.

It says, "You will seek me and find me

"when you seek me with all of your heart."

We believe that and stand on that word every day.

Every day we gotta remind ourselves,

Lord, I'm seeking you with everything I got.

Reckless abandonment, I'm yours, God, use me today.

We have four kind of creeds, if you will,

up in the youth group.

The first one is we want the best for one another

and put others' interests above our own.

Amen. Amen.

We run towards people, not away from them.

We embrace them and show them Jesus.

The third one is we are people who leave

God-sized impressions on those that we meet.

And the fourth one is we love big and we serve well.

Guys, there's opportunities to serve

the body of Christ every day.

And when we belong to a house, when we belong to a body,

it is natural for us to begin to serve,

to begin to lay our lives down and allow God to use us

in whatever capacity that is.

Okay, and so I wanna go ahead and play the video

and then we're gonna testify to his goodness.

Amen?

All right, let's take a look at what God did

over this last couple of weeks.

(upbeat music)

Amen, amen.

30 baptisms.

There are 30 people for the first time

gave their lives to the Lord.

30 people for the first time.

228 of them recommitted their decision,

recommitted their life to the Lord.

168 of them were filled with the Spirit,

were filled with, said, "Yes, I was filled

"with the Holy Spirit this weekend."

And then 45 of them were baptized that way

that same weekend.

And then we also just had another one baptized

with Paxton up there.

It warms my heart so much to see these kids

go all in with Jesus.

And guys, this is what it's meant to be.

It's not for just a small part of where we're at.

This is a bigger picture of community

and this is what the fellowship of believers look like.

It extends past Smyrna, right?

So this is our heart.

We wanna be connected.

We wanna be branched out and be available

for whatever God has in store.

1 Corinthians 12, 13 through 14 says,

"For we were all baptized by one Spirit

"so as to form one body, whether Jews or Gentiles,

"slave or free, and we were all given

"the one Spirit to drink.

"Even so, the body is not made up of one part,

"but of many."

Amen?

So to start us off with some testimonies

of God's goodness, we have none other

than Allyssa Entzminger.

Y'all give it up.

(congregation cheering and applauding)

- Hi.

Today, I think that I should talk about

how I was freed from a ton of bondage

and how through this camp,

a lot of bondage and a lot of shackles

and things that have held me back

from a good relationship with the Lord.

Yeah.

So when I came back, I decided I wanna rewatch

one of my favorite TV shows, The Chosen.

And when I was rewatching it,

there was one thing that stuck out to me.

It's when Mary Magdalene was talking to Nicodemus

after she had been freed from her demons.

And she said, because she didn't know Jesus's name yet,

and she didn't know exactly who he was,

she said, "But here is what I do know.

"I know that I was one way,

"but now I am completely different.

"And what happened in between was him."

And that is what I feel happened to me.

And those chains have been shattered.

And as the devil tries to go,

"Hey, you should focus on these things."

I'm trying to think, no, I shouldn't

because that was my past.

And God doesn't wanna define us by our past

because our past is our past.

And God wants to define us by our is,

but the world wants to define us by our was.

But our is is our is and our was is our was.

(congregation applauding)

- That's awesome, that's awesome.

We serve a God who delivers, amen?

Amen, and I just wanna say, Pursue Camp is great, guys.

It is an opportunity for us to get together.

But the one who's in charge

and the one who gets the glory is Jesus, amen?

Amen, all right, next up we have Mr. DJ Jones.

DJ wrote it down.

And so I'm gonna hold the microphone for him.

Is that cool?

All right.

- Hello, my name is DJ Jones

and this was my first time ever going to youth camp.

My favorite part about camp was worship.

Everyone was all in, I wanna share my testimony about it.

During Wednesday night service,

the pastor was talking about fear

and how it doesn't have to control you.

The Holy Spirit was speaking to me about the fear I have.

My legs were shaking so bad.

So I went to my dad for prayer.

He prayed with me and then Pastor Kevin came up to me

and prayed with me also.

I was bawling my eyes out.

And I felt the Lord was telling me to read my Bible more.

Pastor Kevin shared a verse with me

that has changed my mindset.

Second Timothy 1, seven says,

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear,

"but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

This verse is now my life verse.

I'm thankful I went to pursuit camp and it changed my life.

(congregation cheering)

- Amen, amen.

Praise God, praise God.

DJ is a young one in youth and DJ is not just

a young one in youth, he's a leader in youth, amen?

Amen.

All right, next up we have Mr. Sebastian Geertz.

Give it up.

(congregation cheering)

- Hello guys, I'm Sebastian Geertz as James said.

Know what you're thinking,

probably not a team with all this spatial hair, but I am.

I went to pursuit camp this past week

and I'm not a very big camp guy and all.

I wasn't really expecting much coming from it.

I went to camp a few years ago, I thought I was all right,

but James and Dana convinced me to come this year.

So I went and I wasn't expecting much,

but the first night of service, the preacher was talking.

And I just heard this voice in my head again,

I've heard for six years about overlust

and how I've been really bad about it the past six years.

It's been really big in my life, it's really bad,

but I just heard this voice again that in the past,

I thought it was just my own voice saying like,

you'll be okay, you can keep doing it,

no one's gonna know really,

it's not hurting anyone right now or anything.

But I just heard it again when he was talking,

I was like, it can't be myself just talking,

it's gotta be God or it's just something else

other than me saying, this is not okay.

So the preacher said, if you need to go pray

with somebody you can.

So I went to Cole to pray

and he prayed a powerful prayer over me, man.

And ever since then, it's just been so much easier,

felt like this weight was lifted off me over lust

and that I just don't have to worry about it

that much anymore.

I mean, I still pray about it obviously,

so I don't fall into that trap again,

but it's just so much easier now after that.

And I feel like this weight slipped off my shoulder

and everything's so much easier after that.

Thank you.

- Yeah, amen, give it up for the Lord.

Our God is a God of freedom, amen.

Amen.

All right, next up we have my niece

and your very own Lilly Mack.

- I also wrote mine down, so bear with me.

But God definitely moved in a mighty way at camp.

And if you're there, you know what I'm talking about.

I watched as many teams got set free from bondage

and filled with the Holy Spirit

as well as experience it for myself.

We were taught what it means to be a citizen of heaven

and how we're supposed to act in response to that calling.

Everyone experienced camp in their own way,

but these lessons really stuck out to me.

As a citizen of heaven, we are supposed to know

and believe God's truth.

How are you supposed to know, let alone believe His truth,

if you never take the time to sit down and study His word?

Now, I knew what God said about me,

but it was so easy for me to believe the lies of the enemy

that said that I wasn't enough or that I was unforgivable.

Camp taught us to run back to the Bible

whenever the enemy would come and try to steal our peace.

God's word is the greatest weapon that we have.

I know that I'm enough because God says

that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

And I know that I am forgiven because He says

if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just

to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

We have to be careful with what we choose to believe

and make sure that it lines up with God's word

before we choose to believe it as truth.

Your identity can be found in the Bible.

The next takeaway from camp was the power

that the Holy Spirit has and how it can not only help you,

but help others through you.

In Acts 1a, it says, "You shall receive power

whenever the Holy Spirit comes upon you."

This power can be used in a multitude of different ways.

But at camp, the Holy Spirit gave me the power of faith

to believe that God will get me through any battle that I face,

as long as I submit to His will.

And I also received the gift of intercession for others.

And I now have the urge, like no other,

to go and pray for as many people as I can,

even though it can be really intimidating.

Because I've seen the way that God answers prayers.

And He also calls us to humility.

And I'm just so blessed that I got to experience

God's power and authority at the Pursuit Camp 2024.

And I'm excited to see the effects that

is last on the kingdom.

Amen.

Amen.

Awesome job.

The Spirit and the Word work together.

The scripture compares it to like a battle bowl of Ephraim.

Pulls, he draws back his bow, and the arrow, the word of God,

is sent out.

OK, they work together.

And when we believe that with all of our heart,

that our foundation is in the Word,

and the Spirit is the power that works through us,

then God's unstoppable.

I mean, regardless, in and throughout our lives.

Amen.

Good word, Lilly.

Next up, Mr. Luke MacLeod.

He shared with us his first service.

I'm excited to hear what God's put on his heart for a second.

Take it easy.

[APPLAUSE]

Hi.

I did not write anything down, so we're

going to see how this goes.

Before I start, I want to say that camp

was such an incredible life change for me.

I really just experienced God on a level

that I never had before.

But to follow that, I was not looking forward

to camp this year.

I had heard that there would be like 500 plus kids there.

And I was just curious to how there

was going to be like a real and good connection

with the Holy Spirit there.

And I just kind of started out with a bad mindset.

So we get there, and it was just kind of all right.

I was just going through it, and I

got put in like a middle school cabin, which I was not

happy about, but which turned out

to be like such a big thing for me

to mentor those younger people later on in the week.

And I really believe that God just moved through that.

But I was still not happy until we

got to worship on the first night.

And everybody just rushes the front,

and they're in the altar, and everybody is just worshipping.

And I feel like God touched me, and He made me feel and know

that He was real.

And that was like such a big word for me, this camp.

That was just real.

Like He is so present no matter what you're going through.

And something I was thinking about this service

is just like you don't have to be a camp to experience

the Holy Spirit.

Like everybody who went, what about this worship?

Like God was in this room.

Like the Holy Spirit of the Lord was like here.

So one thing that I want to say just to everybody that

was at camp and everyone in here,

the way to keep a connection with God is to be in His word.

You need to be reading the Bible diligently

to be able to still know what He wants.

And that's literally what He told people

to write down for us.

God, He's just--

I don't know, it's insane to me like everything that

was happening at this camp.

Like there were so many people who gave their lives to God,

and they're experiencing what I did.

And I'm just so grateful for that.

Camp this year was awesome.

Yeah, that's all I got.

Yeah, give it up.

That's awesome.

We serve a God that is not far from us.

He is right next to us.

He's as real as the air that we breathe,

and we have access to Him.

Amen?

Amen.

Next up, it's my pleasure to introduce Ms. Ximena Lindsey.

Ximena has been helping out in youth for some time now.

And she has been a prayer warrior on the front lines

and also helping to really instill the word of God

deeply into each one of these teams.

She serves on Sunday morning upstairs at 9 o'clock

and is committed and dedicated to this house, to these teams.

And I'm just so thankful to have you along, Ximena.

Thank you for sharing today.

Absolutely.

Thank you, James.

I know you've been hearing a lot about camp this year,

and it is everything that all of these teams said and then some.

But I also want to bring up the fact

that we do have a program here at Springhouse that

goes year round.

And our youth leaders are a team who

are committed to being faithfully present

in the lives of the teens here.

And I would just like to take a second, if I could,

to recognize our team members.

If you serve on the youth leadership team,

could I ask you to please stand for just a moment, Sandy

and Taylor, Kaylin, Cole, Hannah.

[APPLAUSE]

There are so many.

Thank you so much.

They pour into the lives of my own sons.

My husband and I have three sons.

And this year, my husband Ronnie also

joined our youth leadership team.

He's actually up at the soundboard in the back.

So you can't see him right now, but he has also been a big part.

And it's been kind of fun being a family in the youth program

here.

But I did want to at least share a little bit

about what's been going on throughout our year.

We did begin a youth Bible study almost two years ago now.

And that has been such a blessing

to be able to dig deeper into the Word.

And as you heard from so many of the kids,

camp was just a reinforcement that we need to keep digging.

We need to keep learning more and more about Jesus.

And the best way to do that is through His Word

and by digging into the Bible.

And that is one of my passions as one of the youth leaders

here.

We studied about prayer and its significance.

We did a study on grace and what that means.

Grace is a concept that I think that so many people

in the Christian church might not

have a full understanding about.

And really, honestly, there are so many things about the Lord

that blow the mind.

But I think it also encourages us to dig deeper and learn more.

And so when we studied grace, we actually

worked a lot from the definition that Wayne Barry used

in his book, Ponderings.

And I'm going to read that for you.

It's, "Grace is the unmerited favor

of God's empowering presence, enabling

me to be who He created me to be in order to do

what He has called me to do."

So we worked from that this year in youth group.

We also studied the Book of Acts.

And we made it through the beginning of the book.

And then we took it a little bit deeper the second half

of the school year.

That was also really inspiring.

But let me tell you, once we got to camp,

that has been just a real bedrock foundation

for our kids.

And it's been such a blessing, not just to them,

but I'll admit to me as a leader,

whenever I got back from camp, people would say, how was it?

How was it?

Aside from being exhausted, as you can imagine.

But I learned so much.

And I was so encouraged and so inspired

by the younger generation who poured themselves into me

as well.

And that's been such a blessing.

I do have to admit that my husband got back.

He's been dragging all week.

And I do have to say there's a special place in heaven

for young men who stay in the junior high boys' dorm.

So he and Doug Jones, they deserve extra accolades

for that.

[APPLAUSE]

But seriously, we do this because we're called.

And we do it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And as we close today's service, or this portion of it anyway,

I do want to share this verse.

And I've always told the kids that if you ever

have a question for our leadership team,

I'm always going to do two things.

I'm going to encourage you to pray.

And I'm going to point you back to the Word of God.

And I'm going to point you back to the Word of God.

And so this is what I pray that as we come back from camp

and as we have this rich deposit that we're pouring out,

I want to encourage you to do this.

This is Luke chapter 11, starting with verse 9.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

"And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you.

Seek, and you will find.

Knock, and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds.

And to the one who knocks, it will be opened."

Let me encourage you.

Seek God.

Seek Jesus.

Look into His wonderful face.

Thank you, Ximena.

So it's great to hear their experiences.

Here's the Word of the Lord to you all today.

Our is is our is and our was was our was.

He has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love,

and a sound mind.

He can set you free.

Your identity is found in the Word of God.

God is real, and dig deeper in the Word,

and seek Jesus' face.

Amen, church?

Can we receive that today?

Fabulous job, guys.

Thank you so much.

You guys are dismissed.

He is such a great-- he's such a great God,

and he is a comforter as well.

Dana, would you join us on stage for just a moment here?

I'm going to let Pastor James share just a smidge bit more

as we close out this morning.

Now, the scripture verse that we worked off of during camp

is out of Philippians 1, verse 27.

Philippians 1:27

It says, "Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven,

conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news

about Christ.

Then whether I come and see you again or only hear about you,

I will know that you are standing together

with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith,

which is the good news."

Friends, I'm here to tell you this morning

that he is the good news.

He has made the way, and he lives and breathes

and works on our behalf.

Amen?

Now, it was everything that I could do to just come up here

and stand before you this morning.

Dana and I had found out that on July 4th of this year

that we are expecting another baby.

So we go in.

We go into camp with this just mountaintop, high experience,

like, "Can't get no better than this, Lord.

God does these amazing, incredible feats

and moves in lives like we've never seen, guys.

It's been incredible."

But we have an adversary,

and the enemy seeks to steal, kill, and destroy.

So we go the day that we get back from camp on Monday.

We have an ultrasound plan, and it's our first one.

And so we go to the doctor, and the words that we hear are,

"We can't find a heartbeat."

And I'm just praying, "Lord, this is your promise.

God, this is what you have brought.

How can it be?"

And, guys, this week has been so tough for us.

Our emotions have been up and down.

We've been believing and trusting in God

that he is gonna move

and that when we go back on Tuesday for our next ultrasound,

that there will be a heartbeat,

that there will be a live baby in there.

And then if there's not,

then we have to be okay with trusting God,

with saying that, "God, we're gonna still follow you

and still believe you no matter what comes our way."

And so this is real.

This is -- I wanted full transparency this morning,

and I know that we have a church family

who believes wholeheartedly and prays on our behalf.

And so you know now -- you know now,

and we're just believing by faith

that the Lord is gonna do something miraculous.

Either way. Either way.

Amen?

Amen.

Scripture says that in our weakness, he is made strong.

And you guys are watching a living testimony of that

this morning as James came and proclaimly --

boldly proclaimed the gospel in front of you,

having walked through this week

and what they're walking through.

The Word says also that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted.

He's close to the brokenhearted.

As we draw near to him, he draws near to us.

And we also believe that if the answer is no,

he is still sovereign, and he is still good.

He's still sovereign, and he's still good.

We're gonna pray for James and Dana,

and then we're gonna go into another time of worship.

Now, immediately following this gathering,

there is a meeting for those who have kids

moving into youth group upstairs.

James and Dana, remember I said,

love the Lord, faithful, and show up.

They wanna serve with excellence.

So I know that because many of you can empathize

with where they are right now,

you want to hug their neck, you wanna encourage them,

that's appropriate.

I'm gonna ask you to hold that.

If I talk to James, hold that for right now.

Pray, sow into prayer.

Let's believe alongside with them, okay?

And as the Lord leads you this week,

you can reach out, call, encourage, all of those things.

They wanna be ready to receive you guys

for this meeting up here that they're gonna have, okay?

And it's not gonna be helpful at this moment

if everybody tries to hug their neck.

They know you love them.

They know that really, really well.

So guys, stand and stretch your hands this morning.

We're gonna pray for my brother,

my best friend and his family.

Father, right now I just ask that you would cover James

and Dana, Father, and this baby.

And Lord, we just ask, Lord, right now

for a miraculous touch because we know you can do it.

And Father, but above all of that,

our hearts cry is that your will be done.

And in the midst of that, Lord,

that you would bring a comfort and a peace

that passes all understanding.

We believe, Lord, in you.

We trust you.

You're sovereign and you are good today and forevermore.

In Jesus' name.

And the church agrees and says amen, amen, amen.

We're gonna worship together, guys.

So let's lean in.

Didn't the teens do a good job today?

Let's hear it for the teens.

(congregation applauding)

Let's worship.

Come on, Cole.

(gentle music)

[music fades out]