Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of... Biblical Joy!

speaker-0: Mm.

speaker-1: Faith Baptist Church in Taylor presents This Week in the Word. Welcome back to this week in the word here at Faith, and we are so glad to have Pastor Starr here because we just finished our vacation in Bible school and we really wanted to see Bobby Goldfin behind the mask. And that's what this kid.

speaker-0: You see the random fish, that that may or may not be me.

speaker-1: But there is a reason for even this conversation on the heels of a vacation Bible school with Pastor Starr, and maybe I could introduce it this way. We are first and ⁓ perhaps only nation that holds as self evident truths that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. That's that's our foundation. And Course we just celebrated our 250th birthday and all of the wonderful things that make America America. But to state differently, America's founding principles were that of freedom we have this amazing freedom, and because of that, each American has the right for the pursuit of happiness. That's a wonderful goal. And so we even have the freedom to worship as we please, to study as we please, pursuit please, pursue whatever career we please. Americans have the right to pursue happiness. That's our foundational deal. So how are we doing on our happiness scales?

speaker-0: Depends on who you ask.

speaker-1: I'm gonna ask the United Nations for whatever they're worth. They do a world happiness report every year. The first time I ever looked at this was back in twenty twenty three. I preached a message from Psalm one twenty six and used it as kind of an introductory material. At that point, the US was the eighteenth happiest country in the world, according to this report. And we right before we started this podcast looked up the more recent one. This is the twenty twenty five one, so we're waiting for twenty twenty-six to come out. And ⁓ we are now the twenty fourth happiest nation in the world. By the way, that puts us behind like countries like the United Arab Emirates, who are apparently more happy than we are, or Lithuania, which is apparently more happy than we are. So we're not doing great and on this scale. Americans are told we are born free. For the pursuit of happiness, but are we?

speaker-0: Well, I mean even in two years we dropped several spots as far as happiness is concerned. So I mean obviously we're putting we're putting our stock into something that is not making us happy. Right.

speaker-1: Now we had a lot of fun at VBS though. We did. And there is a value to having fun in a certain degree. But there is that is not the end goal, seemingly, is what we're missing. Right. And ⁓ you even recently wrote a little bit on that, on ⁓ this life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which is an American ideal. And perhaps we've just gotten the forest law missed we missed the forest for the trees. We we're focused on this one thing and missed what the main thing is. Right.

speaker-0: Yeah. You know, Solomon was very wealthy. Solomon had a lot of, you know, fame and fortune, and and if if he could help us out in this area of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, he does in Proverbs twenty two, and he states, By humility in the fear of the Lord are riches, honor, and life. I mean that that pretty much sums up life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Right. But I believe as a nation we're going after those things with the wrong source.

speaker-1: Right. I mean I felt a little bit happier when I drank a sip of Dunkin' Donut's coffee.

speaker-0: I think that's because, you know, the American the pursuit of happiness is all through experience. Yep. You you go do something and all of a sudden it like that was a thrill. That was awesome. But then when it's over, you come crashing back down to reality. Right. And it's all this kind of chart of just happiness crash, happiness crash. It's not in a source that keeps that happiness going, keeps that joy going.

speaker-1: Chasing something. Right. And almost chasing our tails. Yeah. In in so doing. And that really leads to a conversation on the church. Again, for those that are watching or listening to this, we just finished really an exciting, happy, fun week at Vacation Bible School. Our vacation Bible school is if you're watching this and you don't know our V VBS and you're not familiar with what we do, I'm just gonna tell you it is not at all what you think. we We have a family VBS, we have something for everybody. It's totally unique and it is a really fun experience. But it is not the focal point.

speaker-0: Yeah. There's a lot of fun that happens and in and across the board. Like we had ⁓ from kids all the way up through, you know, senior saints that were saying they had a blast. Yeah. And that's intentional. We don't w just want it geared towards the kids. Yeah. ⁓ we want to be able to reach every life that is there ⁓ and have fun for the cause of Christ.

speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, and it was a lot of fun. It was. We had Rand Hummel come for the adults. He was almost the seemingly the perfect speaker. Yeah. ⁓ for that kind of a setting. And we don't want it to crash. And that that's the kind of the reason we want to jump on here today, 'cause it's an easy thing to have a really fun experience and then crash. And like now we're just kind of waiting for the next experience. And if our ministries become experience driven, then we're always trying to outpace ourselves. And it's a really hard to play competition with your past self. And that seems to be the driving force of a lot of things. Yeah. Like we could have another VBS and have another big crowd next week. ⁓ but our goal isn't crowds and experiences. So what is our goal for our kids, for our parents, for ourselves? What is our goal when it comes to this pursuit?

speaker-0: Well, it's obviously found in the Lord. I remind the teens ⁓ quite often that if I remember as a teen myself, ⁓ I I was always driven by the next activity, mm-hmm, you know, for a while. And once one activity was done, I wanted to know what the next one was. And that was almost that was the day that was circled in my mind as I'm going from one fun thing to the next. And it wasn't until God got a hold of my heart in senior year of high school that I realized that you can't be calendar driven. and and experience true joy. Right. It has to be in God. That has to be the focal point. So while we had a lot of fun at VBS, ⁓ the focal point was in the lesson time. And it was kind of funneling these kids from having fun in the opening ceremonies to then going to a lesson time where they were realizing from scripture who God is. Because that that's where the source of true joy is found. And then you have fun along with it. But our goal should never be to have fun. Because then if if that's our goal, we're gonna compete with the world. And if we compete with the world in the area of fun, do you think we're gonna really win that? Right. Right. And they have a lot of things to to offer. Right. But Christ has satisfying joy to offer.

speaker-1: Right. I'm so glad we're having this conversation because even early when ⁓ I mean of course in our church's history, many people know that we had a need for a youth pastor. And our conversation went like this. We realized we have a need first for training and discipling parents and ⁓ families, and that is what led to Pastor Mark Herbster, whose conversation and even in his job description it stated. He's gonna help us look for a youth pastor. And ⁓ that's how we met Pastor Starr, actually at Northland Camp. Yeah. ⁓ and maybe you could speak to that before I get to my train of thought. So you met Pastor Mark you already knew him though. Yeah.

speaker-0: Yeah, we ⁓ I grew up in Kansas, so Pastor Mark and his family were ⁓ at a church in Kansas City, Missouri. So going even fine arts competitions, things like that, we knew of the Herpsters quite well and just our our paths crossed. ⁓ and he went to Marinatha, I think in twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen. And I graduated from there. So, you know, I kept kept up with where he was at and his ministry and his brother at Southland and his brother was at the Wilds at the time and and now in Hong Kong. And so I knew of the Herbsters quite well. Right. So when ⁓ I was asked to come speak junior camp at Northland Camp. I was on the junior side and Mark Herbster was on the teen side. And so throughout that week we had some great conversations, catching up and just talking ministry. And really that's where it started.

speaker-1: Right. And actually the ⁓ group we just had Sunday night, the Rejoice ⁓ re resounding praise, excuse me. ⁓ I didn't know this, but one of the guys told me that he was on the other side of that conversation.

speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, he was there.

speaker-1: He was there the whole time. So then this would have been early summer last summer. So ⁓ this is before we began the conversation. So on your end, you're in Wisconsin at that time, I guess, with and in Nebraska, but then in Wisconsin when you're at that camp, talking to Pastor Mark and ⁓ that guy was there. On our end here internally at Faith, we were having conversations about the need. Mark is now here. We voted on our next budget. In that budget we had a youth pastor salary. And there were conversations about the need for a youth pastor and the request of let's look for what do we want for a next youth pastor. And it was it was striking to me related to our conversation that there were there's blog posts out there, there's podcasts, and there's even people internally that are giving us feedback on this is what a youth pastor should be, and their lists are all basically he's going to be an experience coordinator. You know, fun activities, lots of games, and Nothing that drives down to the root of it. And I that was kind of the ideal. And I'm sure you've seen the same thing in your own ministry over the years. Yeah.

speaker-0: And it's if if that's what the the focal point of the ministry is going to be, then that's what we're training the next adult to be in the church. And ⁓ we we want our teens to be grounded in Christ. We realize that in the world there it's not gonna be all fun and games. There are gonna be some difficult things that that these teens will experience in life. And when you're faced with those difficult things, experience is not gonna help you through it. And that's why we want our teens to be rooted and grounded in Christ, in God's word. And so that that is the focal point. That is the reason why you know, youth group is not a biblical thing, right? It's not this is this is why you need a youth group right from Paul's epistle. It's just it's not there. Right. But we do realize that the principles are there to help train the next generation in the things of the Lord and to help them to be be the next adults that are gonna be serving in the church. This is the next generation. So we want to help them to find their true joy and satisfaction in Christ.

speaker-1: So there's like a balance. You know, we want fun. Yeah. And if you weren't here at Family VBS and you have no idea why my introduction talked about something called Bobby Gold. It's infamous at this point. but there's also the balance of what I I I think sometimes you ever seen the Babble and Bee? That's why there's like they have these ⁓ alarming way of get cutting through the noise with some humorous things. This is a Babble and Bee article. Here's the heading.

speaker-0: You just have to go watch one of our live streams.

speaker-1: Youth group kids leaving the faith at alarming rates in spite of unlimited pizza and mountain dew. I don't know who writes these, but it says a concerning new study. By the way, if you don't know Babylon B is a parody

speaker-0: So don't take it too seriously.

speaker-1: A concerning news study has revealed that kids raised in church youth groups are leaving the Christian faith at alarming rates regardless of how much free Mountain Dew and pizza the church youth feeds them in high school. I don't know what else to do, said youth pastor Calen Zedwink, known affectionately as Z Man by his youth group. I've I've consumed nothing but pizza and Mountain Dew for twelve months. My cholesterol is approaching lethal levels. My body is covered in welts from constantly being shot at with paintballs and I spent twelve hundred dollars per month on looking like cool in these cool youth group clothes and study the Bible for hours and hours and try to translate it into something the kids can understand and laugh with me about. And then they go to college and drop from Christianity like a hot potato. Somebody help me. Somehow it cuts through the noise. Yeah. Yeah. And that has been their goal for a youth group. First I don't know, ever, seem seemingly. But our goal is a little differently. Do we have a lot of fun? ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. But what's the goal when you have the teens? What's the goal?

speaker-0: Well, it's all centered around God's word. We want we want an atmosphere that cultivates a Christ like love, right? We want our teens to feel loved in Christ. ⁓ that is fun. But the central focus is the word of God. So that the word of God, even in activities, is gonna be central focused. That does not take away the fun from the activities. I love kind of reinventing the wheel and coming up with new activities that are fun, that are ⁓ enticing to come play, but the focal point of that time is gonna be God and his word. And if if that's our focus, we're training the next generation to have that mindset in life. That there are fun things that come up in life, but life is still life. And it's gonna be hard sometimes. Right. And it's Christ that keeps our joy level at a at a ⁓ staggering pace that is that is that helps us through difficult things.

speaker-1: Don't mistake the bridge for the end result. Yeah. Like the we the bridge is there. We can speak to the bridge. But the goal is something different. ⁓ for those that are watching and recording, this is kind of a fun conversation even for Pastor Starr today, because where we sit today, you're about to leave to go preach at camp. Yeah. So you'll be at the Wild Junior Boot Camp next week. And ⁓ that is a really worthwhile bridge, but is not the end goal. Right. What is the end goal for those kids you're speaking to?

speaker-0: Well, I don't have them but for a week. Right. And ⁓ we're gonna open up God's word, we're gonna have fun and ⁓ we're gonna learn a lot. Right. But then these kids are gonna go home and they're gonna be handed off to their parents and they're gonna be dropped back off at their churches. And so now then it's it's the parents like we partner with the parents and ⁓ now it's the parents' job to kind of pick that mantle back up and to help instill in these truths into these little lives that that are growing up. You've got kids, I've got kids, and they're at that junior camper level. And ⁓ I'm realizing even more with urgency that I want my children to realize where true joy and satisfaction comes from. My kids love having a good time and and we have a lot of fun. But I want them to realize that a relationship with Jesus is the most important thing in life. And if they can grasp that, then that that will change their life. And so that that's the goal is that even at camp, you you you open up God's word and you you're you're sharing with them the truths of God's word, but then they're going back home. And now the mantle's being picked back up with the people that are with them the most, their parents and and their teachers and their pastors.

speaker-1: Now you have a really unique way of taking really important bridges, fun bridges, and then transitioning to what your goal is. And you do this every Wednesday. And I've found in talking to others that unless you know really talk through it, it can be hard for a like a new youth pastor or some new youth leader to take that bridge. So you'll play a game or something and then you'll then you'll preach. Yeah. Maybe you can talk through that that transition. How do you do that? 'Cause that's not easily done right away. It's something that you've learned over time. How do you take that bridge and get it to the goal? Yeah.

speaker-0: Yeah, it's I I realized several years ago that y if you just come in on a Wednesday night and do your game and then open up God's word, it kind of get it gets monotonous. It just you get stuck in a rut. And ⁓ especially with teens, they're they've got an energy level that adults just don't have. And so you have to tap into that. And so on Wednesday nights we ⁓ there's there's a method behind it and there's a th there's a a schedule that we follow. But every Wednesday night of the month there's something different for our teens. It's all still centered on God's word. And so we'll have you know, one night might be prayer share night where we're learning about what prayer is. through God's word and then they'll break up into small groups. They'll pray for each other. That will also highlight one of the missionaries that we support in our ministry and pray for them. And not only learn to pray, but then pray in these small groups. And the teens actually really like that one because it takes them out of the larger group, puts them in with some of their peers that are more their age level and they they enjoy having that time to pray with one of the youth sponsors. Other nights that we have ⁓ include split sessions and so we'll have ⁓ my wife takes the ladies, I take the guys and and ⁓ we'll we'll go through a study right now. ⁓ we're going through a study through with the guys on battling temptation ⁓ and and the realities of sin and and and how to how to overcome. And so that's what we're going through. And then our game actually is guys versus girls. You know, we kind of keep that theme that night. and then other nights that we have, we have reason night. So we wanna add tools to the tool belt of why we believe what we believe. And it's really an apologetics night and we've We've ramped this one up. It's pretty fun. We've got a popcorn machine that will pop popcorn and ⁓ they'll have that during the lesson time. And so that that's fun. We ⁓ have adding kind of a topping bar. So they've got different things they could add to their popcorn. And that's that's some of the I call them enhancing flavors. They're not they're not the main ingredient, but they're they're fun things. Sure. And ⁓ so we also have Proverbs night. So we'll study ⁓ through Proverbs practical ways in which we can live godly. ⁓ and then ⁓ we have attribute night, which I really like. We take an attribute of God and we study it out. Right. And so those are the different things that we do throughout a month and then we'll start back over the next month. So there's a method to it. Right. It just it always seems like it's just it's a good flow and it kinda changes up enough for the teens to keep it, you know, something fresh and new.

speaker-1: I'm hopeful hopeful there may be some people that may not even be connected to our administrator at all that heard what you just said and will ta ⁓ latch on to that. Because that that is a really powerful medium that you've just created. 'Cause you've you've identified the goal and then you've said, Well, here's here's some bridges to get us there. And there's an intentionality to it. You're not just going through the motions, which is so easy to do. Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of the trap. I I think sometimes because our churches become so monotonous and routine driven that people crave that experience that, you know, Well, I there was more fun there. Well, yeah, it was 'cause you've been doing the same order of service every Sunday morning since before, you know, Jonah was on this earth, right? Like it's nice to have some variety. Yeah. And you've had that variety, but the goal is still a scriptural. Yeah. Yeah. And I I I I hope there may be some that do it. But we can have levity. Yeah. There there can be joy. We want we want adults and kids to know do you enjoy serving the Lord? I enjoy serving the Lord. Yeah. Are there hard times? Sure. But it is I'd much rather serve the Lord. ⁓ yeah. You know, than do anything else with my life.

speaker-0: The reality is this, and and some people have the excuse that, well, you know, I tried serving the Lord, but life was just hard. The reality is this, with or without the Lord, you face hard things in life. Yep. That's the reality of a broken world. Right. I would much rather go through a broken world and hard things with a God that cares for me and loves me and and fills my joy tank. Right. I I just would love to have that peace that passes all understanding. Right. Without Christ. you still face a hard life but without peace and without joy.

speaker-1: It was actually Spurgeon who said when you reflect on the fact that it is God who does great things for us, it becomes easy to smile and hard to frown. ⁓ I don't know if this is true, but Google says it is, so it must be true. It's gotta be true, right? You know, I you know, Google said that Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying that all things ⁓ all about sixty five percent of things that you read on the internet are true. That's according to Abraham Lincoln. Yeah.

speaker-0: So

speaker-1: That makes total sense. But here's what I don't know if Spurgeon said this or not. It's attributed to him. says Spurgeon was once cr criticized for putting too much laughter into his sermons. He said they were frivolous, lacking gravity. His reply to one woman who tried to buttonhole him was this. My good lady, if you only knew how much I had to restrain myself.

speaker-0: There's more where that came from.

speaker-1: But it is encouraging to remember that God does celebrate the fact that He has changed who we are. He has put a new song in our hearts, even praise to our God. ⁓ Psalm sixteen eleven, thou shalt show me the path of life, in thy pres in your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm one twenty six verse three The Lord has done great things for us whereof we are glad.

speaker-0: Yeah. It seems like there's a lot of joy in Christ as you read those those verses. And I'm also one of the messages that we're gonna look at this week ⁓ with junior campers is the fact that more to be desired are they than gold. Yea, much fine gold. It's just it's there's ⁓ the the world is chasing after this life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They're just going about it in the wrong sources. And there are some fun things in this life, but they're not sustaining. There there are some ⁓ cool things in life, but the coolness will wear off. The the presence in his presence is fullness of joy.

speaker-1: And if it was just experience driven and just fun driven and that was the end goal, the bridge becomes the goal, then the most successful church in the world would be Six Flags, maybe? Yeah. I don't know. a lot of those places in Orlando with those v they they they did to maybe take it. Maybe we're just competing between Florida and California. That's I guess. You which amusement park's the best?

speaker-0: So the interesting thing about that though, can you imagine if you had church at Six Flags? Yeah. That like every teen out there was just like, ⁓ man, that would be amazing. Right. For a month. Right. Then eventually get tired of it. That's that's the whole thing that we're trying to to point out is that the world offers fun. Right. But even that wears off. Right. Like I I would love to go to Six Flags or Worlds of Fun or th something like that, but not every day for the rest of my life.

speaker-1: I don't even know if I could do it all day. ⁓

speaker-0: I could your your legs get tired and you start complaining and the cotton candy's not as good anymore, it's melting, you know, all that stuff. It just it wears off. Right. In your mind you think that's gotta be the pinnacle of happiness until you're there. Right. And then it wears off.

speaker-1: It's so funny because funny, there was my pun. Okay. Thank you. The the the that is how we were as children, you know, everyone probably has this experience. You're a re you're a little kid and it's either birthday or Christmas and you really, really, really wanted this one particular toy. Yeah. And then your parents who love you give you that toy and you play with it for a week. Yeah. You know, maybe a month. And ⁓ you you either it breaks or you grow out of it and now you're on to the next.

speaker-0: I actually had one Christmas that I remember this specifically. I wanted this one thing. Right. I didn't remember what it was, but I remember the end result. My parents got it for me and it broke that day. Same day. I mean, I was ⁓ man. I went from talk about the experience roller coaster. Right. I was super happy to super depressed. And that's what the world offers. Happiness at its pinnacle. And then when it's over, you drop. Right.

speaker-1: Same day. Yeah, and we've seemingly not grown grown out of this at the same time. So it went from ⁓ object to a whatever you wanna attach yourself to. ⁓ it's so funny. We we had we we we do you you do ⁓ v you know, how many activities a month? One, two?

speaker-0: Try at least one big one a month. Yeah.

speaker-1: And ⁓ and sometimes you have more than that, right? And then let's say you miss one month and you don't have an activity and we've had parents say, ⁓ you cancelled youth group. Wait, wait, we had two l last month. We got t another one's got to next month. We just needed a break. Right. Yep, you cancelled youth group. Which is to say the experience was what youth group was for. Sure. Which is really a tragic misunderstanding.

speaker-0: Think about it. Think about the big picture. And this is I like to look ahead. I if what we're doing is offering experience driven youth group and our teens and our parents are looking for a youth group that offers that. Would you not deal with a parent later on or an adult later on that is now church hopping? Because, well, this one didn't offer what I was looking for. Right. Do we not see that in the world today? ⁓ and it goes back to really the focal point cannot be the experience. It has to be the source of true joy, which is God.

speaker-1: ⁓ we see that with kids and teens now. It's like, well, mom and dad will go to church on Sunday here, but then on Wednesday I'll go there because that's the youth group that I like. And mom and dad are seemingly okay with that. That's just not okay. And that breeds and fosters this kind of environment that shouldn't be.

speaker-0: Buffet you know, ministry. I want this and I want that. And if I don't get that, then I'll go somewhere else and get it.

speaker-1: Yeah. Right. And sometimes we need our greens, I guess. Although Andrew doesn't need to be told that. He eats it all the time. Don't eat the lettuce though, by the way. So what I sow, I'm going to reap with joy. So what do I sow to reap with jo what do I sow on earth to reap joy? Psalm one twenty six. Ready for this? They that sow in tears will reap in joy.

speaker-0: Yeah, bad time to eat that.

speaker-1: He that goeth forth weeping bears precious sea bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheep's sheaves with him. What in the world? That seems upside down from all of what we think in this world is teaching us.

speaker-0: Yeah. The end result really is the verse also that that we're reminded that I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth. Right. But to get to that point, there's gonna be some tears. There is. To get to that point, there's gonna be some hard work. Right. There's gonna be some evenings where you don't feel like having family devotions. There's gonna be some days where you don't feel like getting up and taking your your your family to church. There's gonna be times in which you don't feel like addressing ⁓ the sin that just happened in the room. Mm-hmm. But the hard work, the sweat, the tears that goes into it is training your children to grow up to walk in truth. And as a parent, do you want true joy? True joy is found also in children that go on to walk in truth.

speaker-1: It's much more th fulfilling in a s in the good sense. We should want that. ⁓ y you think that Psalm one twenty six that I just referenced, they sow in tears reap in joy. That's to Israel as they're coming into the promised land after sowing in tears. Well what happened? Well, they were carried off to Babylon, they sowed tears for seventy years, they endured exile in a foreign land, but those who sow in tears will reap songs of joy. That's what the psalmist is saying. Psalm Or Isaiah fifty one, verse eleven puts it this way. Therefore the redeemed Lord shall return, this is speaking of them returning after the seven years, and coming come singing unto Zion, an everlasting joy will be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and joy. Sometimes ⁓ I've heard some preachers really kind of differentiate between happiness and joy. You know, happiness is what the world offers, and joy is what God gives. And then you look at Psalm Isaiah fifty one, verse eleven. Well, actually it kind of both right. And sorrow and mourning is ends by saying, Well flee away. So is it appropriate to say to adults, kids alike, we do th it is important to sow in tears. It's important it's important that we embrace the reality of the sorrows of life. We talk through it with our kids. We embrace hard work. We go to doing hard things. We we want that because this is Psalm thirty verse five. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Yeah.

speaker-0: And I think it's important for us to have Those conversations with our kids. Sometimes we want to put them in a box and shelter them from the hard things of life. But here's the reality. Eventually they face life head on. Right. So as a parent, I would much rather share with them, hey, you know, within reason. This is what's going on. This is a difficult thing. This has been hard to walk through. But God is so good. Because when you sh when you share with them the hard things in life, it gives you the opportunity to share with them the joy that God brings in the in the next day. Right. And and all of a sudden their their view of God is not my mom and dad's God. They they are seeing it firsthand. Yeah. And they're grasping it firsthand. Not when they're in college.

speaker-1: I remember my the funniest person I've ever met was my brother Chad who's now in heaven. And I remember after the bus accident the tears around the whole table, just really crying out to God, why God would you let this happen. And it was I don't remember when exactly, like a week or a month later, but when everybody started to share Chad's humorous side stories and the l the the just the real laughter that the joy that that we can share in that moment. It was real in a special and unique way 'cause we'd sorrowed together. And I think some families I shouldn't say I think, I know some families just can't laugh together because they've really never cried together. And there's some teens that I look and say, there's just no joy there. They they're they're just kind of somber. They just kind of trapped in their own little little bubble. And I can't help but wonder, I wonder if

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: What's going on in that heart? They there has anybody just cried with that teen, you know, reached out to that teen, understood what's in their heart. They they they can't even cry. Of course they can't laugh. They're just kind of ambivalent to life. At least that's the facade they're putting on. And it's a facade, it's not real. But there there has to be a recognition that there can be sorrow and joy are not they're not opposed to one another. They're mixed right now.

speaker-0: Yeah. You know, the I can't imagine going through life as the world without Christ, even that verse that reminds us we sorrow, but not like the yeah, not like those without hope. Right. We have a hope. So yeah, there there are gonna be tears. Yeah, there are gonna be hard times. But with Christ, there's a hope that is brought with that. Right. That's why I said early on, I d you know, you could walk away from the Lord and say, I don't want anything to do with them because life is just so hard. Yeah. Well news flash You walked away from the one person that could help you in that difficult time and you still are going through a difficult time.

speaker-1: Jesus, we read of him weeping three times in the New Testament. ⁓ Jesus wept over Lazarus' grave, the shortest verse in the English Bible. ⁓ Jesus wept, John eleven, thirty-five. He wept over Jerusalem. Remember, he comes up to the city, and he behold the city, and it was rejected him, and he wept over the city, Luke nineteen, verse forty-one. And finally Jesus wept over the burden of sin of the world in Luke twenty-two, verse thirty-nine. And each time we read of Jesus crying, the circle widens. So as we follow Christ's pattern, his burden for his friend, Lazarus, is enlarged to a burden for Jerusalem, which is enlarged to a burden for the sins of the world. Which brings me to kind of our concluding conversation. One of the fun things, fun really truly, and joyful was this week in VBS was unlike we've done VBS now with this, our third, fourth year doing it. This was a totally different experience for our church than any other family VBS we've done. And I know it's your first one, so I can speak to this personally. And it really came down to our church has wept together, we've cried together, we've had hard times together, and now there's a unified pursuit. And it was true of the volunteers behind the scenes in a unique and special way, like I have an experience since it come to this church. And that bled itself into Rand Hummel's sessions and then by the time Bobby Goldfin came out, you could have said boo and everybody laughed. It was just it was just a a ⁓ levity that we were missing. And I'm I'm speaking here because I I I there are no doubt some pastors that are maybe listening to this and some church members and other parts unrelated to Faith and Taylors. And it's been a long time since your church has just left. But it may also be because it's been a long time since he just honestly just cried. And and there just needs to be an honesty that we we can sorrow over sin, we can sorrow over the consequences of sin. And that that the levity that God can bring through that, Psalm one twenty six, if you need a passage, speaks directly to that. That is such a I it's hard to quantify. I don't even know how to quantify it. Yeah.

speaker-0: No, we the you're right, the spirit I d I haven't been here for other years, but the spirit working directly with the volunteers and tell you each night I made my rounds just to kind of peek in, see how things were going and and across the board I didn't have one person come complain. Right. They were having fun, they were ⁓ serving the Lord, they were ⁓ excited to see what was going on in the auditorium with the adult sessions, they were excited to teach the kids. I the teachers that we had set up. It's one of those things where you wonder, you know, that's that's a big job. It's a lot of study. You gotta you gotta really exert energy in that to keep the kids in attention. How are they gonna do? But by the end of the week, they were all just energized. And I could say without without, you know, I I think most people would agree that by the end of the week, like I would have taken a couple more days. I think it would have been fun to have

speaker-1: I would I was exhausted. Yeah, exactly. I wanted to find out if Bobby Goldman had another joke in his repertoire. ⁓ Or what how else could we embarrass the interns? Yeah.

speaker-0: That was that was fun. They were g such good sports though. It's a plug, you know, we've got a great intern program. So if you're if you're interested in internship, ⁓ we do that every every summer.

speaker-1: Right here. Here would be our plug. If you have ever dreamed of key lime pie in the face, this is the place. Why not? Yeah. Why not? I got some in my hair. It did. No, it in all s seriousness, it's a serious conversation about joy. Yeah. And I I can't

speaker-0: I went everywhere.

speaker-1: Th there are probably I I'm sure of this fact that there are people listening or watching this, you have not cried with someone or yourself for a long time. You just haven't been honest about sin and its consequences in your life. And as a result, you haven't even been able to laugh genuinely about anything. And so the world has sought to plug that hole and we haven't even talked about how the world has humor that's gross and obviously wicked and it's just a false humor. Yeah. And ⁓ there's a falsity to experience. We've certainly covered that. But we certainly want you to know if you're watching or listening to this and you need to talk to someone, we want to be available to you. ⁓ Pastor Starr's our youth pastor, you got a team listening, ⁓ we'd love to hear from you. I you know he would and we would and ⁓ to help you in any way that we can. But we're so thankful for Pastor Starr joining our staff and for what God did this week at Vacation Bible School.

speaker-0: It's lot of fun. I'm I was reminded as you were saying that my wife just sent me a video on ⁓ you know, a pastor that had that had kids and was talking about how do you connect right, you know, with your kids. Well, you you you tell them about your faith, but then you live your faith. Right. And he was saying there were times in which he remembered looking over at his dad and who was a pastor of the church during a song and tears just kind of coming out of the side of his his eyes, singing, not leading the worship but being part of it. And that to him was real. Right. And it wasn't a just change modes and go up and lead. It was seeing a dad that was willing to let the tears flow when God moved him.

speaker-1: It's it's interesting. I know we were about to end, so pardon us for going a little longer here today, but ⁓ when you brought that up, I there was a pastor in our services t this ⁓ past Sunday. This this is Monday. We're recording this on Monday, so this would have been yesterday. We just started a new series in First Corinthians. And there's a pastor in the Midwest, he was in our morning service and then I saw him, I didn't get to meet him, I met him in the evening. And he made a beeline to come talk to me. And he said he and ⁓ our Sunday morning service, he himself was crying. And here's why. The invitation was given and he was in the second row and he looked up during the invitation and there's a lot of people that did go forward on Sunday. And what he saw on Sunday was almost the entire pastoral staff that he knew were on our pastoral staff on their knees at the aisle. And that's what caused him to to cry. Because he's like the pastors of this church, the pastors of this church are are responding to God work in their life. And he's like he's a Midwest pastor, he's on his own right now. And he's like, I just I just couldn't help but be overwhelmed that this is a team of people and Pastor Starr, you're part of that. But we're so thankful for a team that's serious about what God's word is trying to do in our lives. Yeah. And that's really where joy is found, friend. That you're not gonna find it apart from God's work in your life, right? You might live in a country like we do. ⁓ apparently we're recording this in America, by the way. Who can get Dunkin' Donuts which is now melting? But we're four on the list. But we're twenty four on the list. And ⁓ there's a reason for that, I think, and that is we're just we've missed the boat on where true joy is. It's only to be found in God's Word. Yeah.

speaker-0: Twenty four on the list.

speaker-1: Well, thank you for listening. I hope that if you were listening ⁓ to a little bit of even Pastor Starr's conversation about what he does on Wednesday nights, you'll join us on a Wednesday night for the youth group. We've got other things on Sunday, of course, but we just spoke to that as well. Thank you for listening again to our videoslash podcast for this week in a word. Thank you again. Thank you for joining us today.org.