World Changers | 1 Timothy 4:12

That man can see. Yeah, that was that was great.

I want to introduce myself a little bit before I introduce

the network. I have a picture, I think of my

family that we're going to show you here real quick.

Can you see that? Because I can't see if you can

see it. Where would I have to look to

see what you see? So I would have to come around

here and look at that. Aren't they awesome?

Yes, I do have a son-in-law who's Nephilim a very large guy.

But the favorite picture that we have of my family taking this

summer is this picture. These are my grandkids and they

are in birth order. Can you tell the oldest child of

my son-in-law who is and, and I point him out because he

actually planted the 39th church in our network.

And the reason that we even started a network is because my

daughter, believe it or not, got a scholarship to play basketball

for the University of Iowa. And playing basketball, the

University of Iowa. We went there and we saw that

there wasn't a church at a Big 10 school that loved college

students. And so we started salt company

in 1987. And then we started a church

that loved college students in 1994.

But we thought people were doing that everywhere.

But when my daughter got a scholarship to play University

of Iowa, we realized there wasn't a church that loved

college students, and we started a salt company there.

And so God prospered and blessed that church.

Ended up falling in love with one of the men's players who now

has planted our 39th church. Just so you know, Saint City

Chapel is the 34th church in our network.

And we now have 4040 churches in the network.

And we have plans for 12 more and 25 and 26, and then also

have planters preparing for 28 and 29.

And the goal is that we would have a church and all the major

university centers in North America, 400 of them in total.

And the reason we go to the majors first is because once we

get the majors, we can do the minors.

Guys. When we started Salt Company, we

never thought there'd be two. When we started Salt Company, we

were just a small Christian ministry on the campus of Iowa

State University, about 50 college students.

And now every single week in the 40 salt companies, there's

17,000 students who attend Salt Company weekly.

And in our 40 churches, over 35,000 people that come every

week. God is doing something

extraordinary This year alone or last year, and now it's 2026, we

saw 2856 people follow Christ in believers baptism.

The vast majority of them are college students.

It is crazy to see what God is doing.

So this morning we want to talk about this a little bit.

When you come here on the weekends, most of the time

Bran's just going to open the Word of God and teach you the

Scripture. And so if I don't root something

in the Word of God, I would be a charlatan, right?

And so the verse for today is first Timothy chapter 4, verse

1 Timothy 4:12

12. And it says this, Don't let

anyone look down on you because you're young.

Only in every way set an example of their believers in speech and

conduct and love and faith and purity.

And I've decided to entitle this message World changers.

But I've never walked into any of our facilities and saw that

on the wall. Did you read that?

It says what begins here changes the world.

That's a false statement of any junior high I've been a part of.

But when you plant a church in the junior high, maybe that

fits. Could you dream with me just a

little bit about what God might do in this place?

Could you dream with me just a little bit about a generation

who emerges that literally changes the world, not with

money or politics or power, but with prayer and faith and

courage and the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Could you imagine with me for a little bit that God would begin

a movement at this giant university and the other

universities that are connected to this valley that would

literally transform and change the world?

Do you know, it's an undeniable fact that you can observe in all

of history that I think that you can predict into the future that

God has a pattern. God uses young people who are

bold in faith and godly in living and willing to step out

into whatever sphere he calls them to, to literally change the

world. If you're young this morning, I

want to let you know that most people in my generation look at

your generation and says you guys are in need of drastic

change. Here's what God would say to you

this morning. No, you're world changers.

You see the way God works if you read your Bible.

Have you ever read about this man Joseph, who at 17 was sold

into slavery, rejected by his own family, but had such a heart

for God that he literally became a world changer, second command

in all of Egypt, saving all of the people of God?

Have you read about Samuel, who is a young boy who had a priest

who led him, who raised terrible sons, but even as a child God

began to speak to him and he said, yes, Lord, your servant is

listening. And Samuel has a child, became a

world changer and a king anointer.

What about David, the youngest of eight brothers whose dad

didn't even see enough worth in him to have him presented to the

prophet to be anointed? And yet God said David the

weakest of all. He is my man who became a world

changer. What about Josiah?

He became the king at 8. Who would ever do that?

But at 16, he began to read the word of God, and it so changed

his life that he shared it with all of the people and he became

a world changer. What about Daniel and he's three

friends. Have you read this story?

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who were brutally emasculated in

order to serve in the King's court.

And yet their faith in God, in spite of their circumstances,

enabled them to win two Pagan kings, to not be eaten by lions,

and to survive the furnace, the fiery furnace.

They were world changers. What about Jeremiah, a great

prophet of God at 17 who felt the call of God in his life and

he began to prophecy in a dark time and became a world changer?

What about Ruth the Moabites? Who is untimely born and in her

20s was widowed and yet she was committed to her mother-in-law

and to the people of God and became one who is now mentioned

in the lineage of our Savior Jesus Christ.

What about Esther, a young teenage beauty queen who risked

her life to save the people of God And guys, maybe the most

prominent of all the teenagers that God used, Mary, a poor

virgin girl who would become the vessel of the king of the

universe. So when you do something this

morning, if you're 16 to 25, that's random, but would you

stand up 16 to 25? Yeah.

Say, say Chapel. Look at your church.

I want to read this verse over you.

Don't let anyone despise you because you're young, but set an

example for the believers in speech and conduct, in love and

faith and impurity. Here's what I say to you.

God is not waiting for you to grow up.

He's waiting for you to step up. From the beginning of human

history, God is looking for men like you and women like you who

will say, here I am, God, send me.

One way that you can look at this verse is to say, yeah, no

older person is going to look down on me.

I'm going to stand up for my rights.

I'm going to stand up for myself.

I'm going to fight my way to the top.

Here's another way to look at it.

Don't let your youth be an excuse for godless living.

The decisions you're making today are going to affect the

rest of your life, even as an old man like me.

And the godly decisions you make will shape the rest of your

life, even as an old man like me.

Don't let your youth be an excuse for godless behavior.

And if you're not young, you're sitting down.

Some of you barely made it. I can see it guys, if you

despise this generation, who is that on?

And maybe God is calling us to not despise this generation and

maybe we would see this person say, I don't want to be like

that. I want to be a person who

challenges the next generation and uses my resources and my

life to lift them up for the good and glory of God.

Thank you young people for standing.

What a beautiful picture of the church.

You can sit down. Let me tell you why I'm a big

fan of this. Jesus was a big fan of this.

Have you ever thought about this?

I'm going to say something maybe that you have never heard

before, but if you haven't heard, it's because you've not

been taught the word of God. Jesus chose 12 men, most likely

teenagers. He discipled them for three to 3

1/2 years, and then he commissioned them to change the

world. Now, let me say it again.

God chose 12 men, only 11 good ones, most likely teenagers.

And you're going to say where you saw that?

I'm going to show it to you in the Bible.

OK, Train them for 3 1/2 years, still mostly teenagers, and then

gave them the Great Commission and after they were filled with

the Holy Spirit, they became the ones who changed the world.

They're responsible for your faith in Christ.

I was reading randomly in my Bible reading plan, Matthew 17,

and somehow was studying also an Old Testament plan in Exodus 30,

and I came across this verse related to Matthew 17.

Now you've never heard maybe Matthew 1724 to 27 taught

because it's a random passage, but if you've read your Bible,

maybe familiar with it. And if you're not familiar with

it, I'll help you be familiar with it.

So Peter was a fisherman, never caught fish unless Jesus came in

to go fishing. And one day in his journey with

Jesus, Jesus was to convert them with all his disciples.

And they walked into the temple. And the temple taxers said, do

your disciples pay temple tax? And they were a little bit

stunned. They were all there.

And so Jesus said to Peter, why don't you go fishing?

And when you catch a fish, open its mouth and there'll be a coin

in its mouth. And there's enough money in

there to pay the tax for you and for me.

And so that's what Peter did. You know, I don't know if you're

a fisherman, but usually you can't find fish in their mouth.

The best you can find is maybe another fish, right?

But I've looked ever since this verse and there's no money in

fish's mouth. What is that story all about

that God's knows the money on the bottom of the ocean.

He can get fish to pick it up and get it on your hook if

that's what you need that he can provide for.

I've, I, I can't imagine what pastors have said about this

passage. It's because they never read

Exodus 30, because it's a clue for us about the age of the

disciples. Because you see, when did you

have to pay temple tax? You had to pay temple tax when

you were 20 years old or older. If you're under 20, you didn't

have to pay. Who was there and Capernaum, All

of them. Who was the rabbi?

Jesus, Who was he responsible to pay for?

All of them. How many had to pay Peter and

Jesus? You say?

Well, I'm not convinced. Do you know anything about

history? Do you study history?

Here's the ancient Jewish education tradition, and maybe

this will ring a bell for you. At five, children began to study

the Scriptures. At 10, they studied the Mishnah,

which was the authoritative traditional learning.

At 13, fathers were responsible to teach their sons the Torah,

which is the first five books of the Bible.

At 15, if they were chosen by a rabbi because of wealth or

academic prowess, they could go into a formal education of

Judaism. Otherwise they would apprentice

with their father in his business.

Jesus was a what? Why?

Joseph was a Carpenter, right? At 18, most married, especially

the men. For women, it was earlier at 20,

they could pursue their own business or trade.

And generally for the very most, you couldn't be a rabbi to where

you're 30. So how old was Jesus when he

began to pick his disciples and he lived in a particular

culture. And who did you pick?

Who was available, who wasn't involved in business yet, who

wasn't doing their own thing yet, who wasn't married yet, who

were being trained as disciples in that culture?

He said everybody has cults. It was teenagers, men who were

15 to 18 years old most likely. You see, I'm not convinced yet.

OK, so Jesus used a term to talk to his disciples.

Here are the 2 terms. They're Greek terms.

I won't just tell you the terms because you wouldn't remember

that anyway. But they meant little children.

Can you imagine a 30 year old walking around with other

bearded 30 year olds and he's calling them kids now.

I call college students kids sometimes because my kids are, I

have a 40 year old now, right? But but they said we're no kids.

And I said I don't like doing that.

But my peers when I was 30, I didn't call them children.

And even at the end of the journey, Matthew or John chapter

John 21 · chapter mention

21, when they're on the beach, he cried out to the little

children. Do you have any fish?

And you know what the response was?

It's the Lord, he said, kids, a new commandment.

I give you the terms that he uses, and I can give you 7 or 10

examples. We just don't have time to do

this. But this is my favorite one.

Have you noticed the behavior of the disciples?

They act like grown men to you. OK, what was their most

prominent argument that they had all of the time?

Answer. Who is the greatest That's a

high schooler if you've ever seen one.

You know any high school athletes, they all think they're

going to go pro, right? They don't even realize they're

not athletes until they go to college.

But some of them go to D2 school, so they still think

they're athletes. The only real athletes and

culture are those who get paid for it and all the parents,

right? They think their kids are going

to go pro or at least make the Olympics.

Guys, they are with the GOAT. Jesus is walking on water.

He's raising the dead. He's casting out demons.

He's making blind people see deaf people talk.

He is taking on guys who break chains and he calms them down

like that. The wind and the waves.

He settles it all. And what do they do after that?

Even after they seem transfigured?

He is glowing. He's a glowing human.

I'm the greatest. And they fought about it a lot

and even got their mom involved. Salome, you know, she came.

Jesus. I don't know.

I know. You see, my kids picked them

pretty great. I can't decide which one of them

is the greatest. I know they've been arguing.

It's one of them. And it's clearly you're better,

but which one's going to sit on your right left.

You choose both my sons one right, one left.

You talk about a bulldozer Mom, have you ever coached a a use

right. You guys know exact people are

people always people. Here's my point.

Jesus told chose 12 men. And if you don't believe me,

just chat it, it'll agree with me.

I promise. Likely teenagers trained them 3

1/2 years, called them change the world.

Sound like college to you? Not only did he call them

disciples, which was learners, but he also called them

apostles, which means sent. And so from the day that he

chose them, he said, I'm going to send you.

And God called Saul as well, not as an old man who had authority,

but as a young man. And the word used there is also

the word that's used for a 15 to a 20 something guy when he

called him an axe when he was watching the coats.

And then Paul repeated that because he chose Timothy and

Titus. But it's not just youth that God

uses, it's godly youth that God uses.

But it's not just godly youth that God uses.

It's godly youth who believe in God and it's experience through

prayer. The first church before the Holy

Spirit came after Jesus ascended into heaven, before Pentecost.

He was there 40 days, and he left him for 10 days.

And what did they do for 10 days?

For 10 days, they had a church prayer meeting.

Imagine a 10 day prayer meeting Pastor Brandon That'd be pretty

cool right And what is Jesus is 1 request of us, his personal

request of us. We have it as our theme verse in

the network. Luke 10 to it says you see the

fields are white and harvest. Therefore pray to the Lord of

the harvest that he would send forth laborers into the harvest

and the word that he uses for pray they there is not just any

word for prayer. It's not the most common word

for prayer. It's not even the second most

common word for prayer. It is the singular least word

used for prayer because it means to beg.

It's most often translated to beg, Cry out to God that he

would send forth laborers. So the reaching the next

generation has been the pattern of God, I believe from biblical

history. But it's not just from biblical

history through the disciples. It is every major movement of

God that we've seen in this country and in the world.

Oh, you don't believe me? Well, let's review it together.

Have you heard of this? the Reformation, maybe Martin

Luther or John Calvin? How old were they when they

started these movements of God that are still going today?

Yeah. Martin Luther was 32.

John Calvin was 25. In the 1500s, God began a

movement with them. In the 1600s and early 1700s,

when universities were established in our country, did

you know this? They were established as

seminaries, yes. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown,

Rutgers, Georgetown, and others. Even University of Florida was

established as a seminary to train pastors for the churches.

Their mottos, their initial mile is Princeton cursed?

Is all learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.

Harvard truth for Christ in his church.

The original motto, Yale truth is given by God.

Light comes from Christ and the scriptures.

Is that what students that are going there getting these days?

In fact, we planted a church in Syracuse, NY on a campus.

Syracuse, University of Syracuse was established by the Methodist

to train missionaries to go overseas.

And they won't even let us be a Christian organization on

campus. But if you're a godless student

organization, you are welcome. Isn't that that's crazy?

I digress. The first great Awakening in

1700s. Maybe you've heard these names.

If you haven't, you should read about them and study them.

George Whitfield at 21. Jonathan Edwards at 19.

John Wesley at 24 Whitfield has severe asthma and he rose every

morning at 4 O clock in the morning and he read his Bible on

his knees. Historians say that he preached

2 to three times daily and often preached more than 40 hours a

week. He preached more than 18,000

sermons in his 34 years of public ministry.

John Wesley who was friends with him started Methodism.

He's father of Methodism. He travelled the equivalent of 6

times around the globe preaching to the colonies on horseback.

These men were beasts and God used them to change the world.

The Pietist movement, which gave birth to small group Bible study

in the mass printing distribution of Bibles in the

modern mission movement, began a 24/7 prayer meeting that began

August 17th. To get this, it began August

17th August of 1727 and encompass every minute of every

hour of every day. For how many years?

Take a wild guess, somebody be bold, 26100 years.

It began with one college student, a professor actually,

Philip Spencer, and a couple of universities and a handful of

committed students. 100 years change the world.

The second great awakening, The 1800s maybe?

I've heard of DL Moody, he was 21.

CT stud. If I could pick a pastor name

that'd be it. Pastor stud.

Charles Spurgeon guys, when he began he was 16.

The Prince of preachers. Studs famous quote.

Is this only one life? It soon will pass.

Only what is done for Christ will last.

My hope is when I die that hell rejoices, that I'm out of the

fight. In 19 O 4, the Welsh revival was

sparked by one student, Evan Roberts.

He had a dream that he preached to 17 students.

He used to pray 4 hours a night. College students, he used to

pray 4 hours a night. I talked to students today and

they go, wow, who can do that? Well, you ever gone to a

football game? We can do that with energy.

I went to good basketball game last night, but you guys got to

get some fans. We did it for two hours.

Oh I, I love this little step. Did you know the average teen

plays 35 hours of video games a week?

4 * 7 is only 28. They can play video games more

than they can pray, right? Call of Duty has been played the

equivalent of over 3,000,000 years, Fortnite over 10 million

years. You think those are benefiting

your life? What if you exchanged video

games for prayer, or watching sports for prayer or or

scrolling the social media for prayer?

Well, this guy, Evan Roberts did it and he preached his first

sermon to 17 people, eventually leading to over 100,000

conversions in Wales alone. And from that rival, from that

revival sparked a movement where over 20 million people came to

Christ. He's done it before, he'll do it

again in our country. Maybe you've heard of the

parachurch movement started in the mid 1900s.

Nineteen 33 a man named Dawson Trotman at 27 started the

Navigators. In 1941, Stacy Wood came over

from Europe. A young Canadian college pastor

started inter varsity in our country. 1951 a man named Bill

Bright at 30 started Campus Crusade for Christ, known as

Crew. And all of those ministries

swept across the country, reaching hundreds of thousands

of students and most campuses extended missions literally and

globally to the ends of the earth.

Today's a new day. All of those things in the past

are dying and declining. In fact, over 85% of churches

are dying and declining. More churches will close their

doors and sell their buildings for coffee shop this year.

Then churches will be planted. The least active hour of the

American People group is Sunday morning.

Guys, I have seen your traffic and I do not like it.

No traffic this morning, but I believe God's doing the fresh

work in this generation. The gospel is alive and well,

and I believe God is using college students and godly young

leaders to bring a new revival to this country.

That's my prayer. That's what I've given my life

for. And if God would give me two

lifetimes, I double down again. What begins here changes the

world. Do you believe that?

Why not you? Why not here?

Why not now? You think your campus needs

Christ? You think your city needs

Christ? You think anything this world

offers is going to change their lives and change their forever

other than Christ. Deal Moody was inspired.

He was selling shoes, actually. And he was inspired by a pastor

who said the world is yet to see what God would do with one man

or one woman who was fully devoted to him.

The world has yet to see what God would do with one man or one

woman fully devoted him. And he heard that and he felt

the conviction of God. And you can read it, he said.

He said to God, I want to be that man.

Deal Moody became a world changer, not because of Deal

Moody, but because of God. A lot of the names I mentioned

to Gay you'd you've never heard of and that's OK who cares?

We're not going to sing songs to Deal Moody or CT stud George

Whitfield or John Wesley. They're just men and they were

broken and fallen men. But there is a Savior.

He is the man who is God, Jesus Christ, and he lived the perfect

life and he died a sinner's death and he resurrected.

He conquered death. Why?

So that he could empower us to literally be world changers

through him. I love St.

City Chapel. I like the name summer churches.

They don't pick the best name. You know some of my kids didn't

pick the best kids grandkids names either, right?

They don't tell me what they're going to name their kids because

they're afraid that I will disdain the name.

And they are right. So I need single symbols,

syllables, and I need them to not rhyme.

I was struggling, you know, with all the deluge kids because

they're all BS and I didn't know which order they were in.

You know, Blair and Brooks and Billy and Braylon.

No Blakely. See, I have a Braylon.

I have a Braylon. Braxton Dachshund.

I can't remember all of them anyway, so our churches, they

pick their names and some of them are good, some are not so

great. Way above average.

St. City Chapel.

OK, just in my opinion. In my opinion.

But there's a church that's called the Commons and it's in

Michigan State. And here's why it's named the

Commons. One of my favorite verses in all

the Bible. Acts 413 When they observed the

boldness of Peter and John and they realized that they were

uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized

that they had been with Jesus. The two Greek words uneducated

and untrained are literally idiotase right and unschooled.

OK, so we get the Greek word. What do you think is the English

word we get from the Greek word idiotase?

So this verse says these were uneducated idiots and yet

everybody knew they'd been with Jesus.

Wow. Show me a college student who

spends my time with Jesus and I'll show you a world changer.

Because their life is different, their business is different, and

God's anointing is on their life.

And our dream is that God would use a bunch of idiots.

We're all educated because most of us are going to college,

right? To see a church that loves

college students planted at every major university in this

nation and literally around the globe.

We're praying for a fresh movement of God where 100 years

from now somebody will be standing up talking about God,

going after young people who believe him with all of their

hearts and give their lives for God.

And mention someday in 2025 there was something that

happened in Tempe, AZ that the only explanation that the world

has is God did it. See Paul writes about this in

Ephesians 3 verse 20 says now to him who's able to do

Ephesians 3:20

immeasurably more than we think, dream or imagine, to him be the

glory forever and ever in the church now forever more.

Here's the thing about the apostle Paul.

He wasn't talking about something out there.

He was sitting in the church with Jews and Gentiles and slave

and free and barbarian and Scythian and male and female,

and he was actually praying a doxology because he was going

wow to him is able to do wow. God's got a bigger wow.

We've seen the movement of God that would have blown the

Apostle Paul away. And when we started Salt Company

in 1987 and Iowa State University, we never thought

there'd be two. And I'm already in the wow of

the doxology. But I'm telling you, we have 330

staff in salt Company around this country who believe that we

don't plant all 400, we will have failed.

And if that happens, and I believe it will, we'll have a

move of God in our lifetime that's been unprecedented in any

of our lives. And we need that now more than

ever. God help us.

Jesus, thank you for the world changers in this room.

Help us as the older generation to never despise the younger

generation and help the younger generation to fully be devoted

to you for all of their lives that they would live with no

regrets. God, thank you for the leaders

that are here, the men and women who have said yes to you.

And I pray that two years from now, five years from now, 10

years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, they

look back on this moment and they say, wow, look what God has

done. And Lord, we pray that you would

continue to bless us, but not just us, every single man or

woman who claims your name and proclaims your word.

Because now we're not winning this battle for souls.

God, the harvest is still plentiful.

The laborers are few. We cry out to you more, more,

please, please God, more spark a fire in this flame that in this

place that would never go out, that would burn until you return

for your good and for your glory.

We pray in Jesus name, Amen.