Student Ministry October 1, 2026

Welcome to Celebration Baptist Church Podcast, where we help people connect with God and others.

Each week you'll find biblical teaching, practical encouragement, and conversations designed to help you follow Jesus in everyday life.

To learn more about Celebration Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Florida, visit iCelebration.org.

Now let's get started.

What's up, CBC students?

We are super pumped to be back with you in the podcast studio.

Um, I should not have said it like that, mostly because we were literally just talking about the fact that when we listen back to our podcasts, every time I hear myself talk after Mila, I sound like a man.

Okay.

Anyways.

I'm somewhere in the middle.

Um, anyways.

Okay, well, we mentioned last week that we are gonna start off our podcast with a little intro uh for the next couple of weeks, just talking about our story and how we got involved in student ministry.

Because some of you may not know how we got involved in student ministry.

And I'm super excited for y'all to get to hear Mila's story and how she got started with students um because she's the closest to y'all's age, really.

And so um honestly, the Lord could be stirring in your heart right here, right now.

Maybe I'm want to work with students as a Sunday school teacher when I'm an adult.

Or maybe I want to work in student ministry as my profession.

Um, so, anyways, Mila, tell us about how you got started in student ministry.

Wow, okay.

Well, like Nola said, I'm Mila.

I am a student ministry assistant, so I have a really cool job.

Um, I am 19, so I actually have been working in student ministry for a while now, but initially I was working in children's ministry, and that's where I started.

And um, I just grew my love for ministry and for children, and after a while I was like, you know, I definitely want to do more.

I want to have a bigger part at celebration because I love it here.

And I prayed and God opened the door to after school ministry, and I worked in after school and summer camp, and I loved it.

It was just so much fun.

It really um just brought me to a place where I realized I could work with older students.

So I was working with elementary and middle schoolers, and then that was so fun, and I just enjoyed my time, and I was just like, you know, there's always more to be done.

And so uh shortly after I knew Kennedy was leaving, and I was like, no, and that's all I thought.

I didn't think anything more except for that I love Kennedy and I was sad that she was leaving.

Um, but Nola actually approached me and was like, hey, I just wanted to talk to you about where you are with Christ, and that was like it's a very normal conversation for anyone to have with Nola.

So I was like, cool, let's talk about Jesus, let's go.

Um just talking with her, talking with her, and then um after a few conversations, she was like, Yeah, you know, we have a position to fill, but I'm not just gonna fill it.

I want it to be the right person.

And she was just talking to me about the responsibilities that were to um be held, and you know, the students that I would be working with.

And I just got more and more excited.

And then dad would talk to me about the position also.

And um, I was like, you know, this sounds not only fun, but like a next step, like a good next step.

And so um I continued to pray about it.

I definitely did not feel equipped because I love to talk with my friends, but I was like, I don't know how much I can give to students.

Um, but you know, God's just funny because he can use anything that you have, and I was just willing.

And so he used my willingness.

And um, so I started working in the office and with the students, and then I started being discipled by my sister.

Shout out to my sister.

And then um, as time went on, I was like around 16, 17, 18, I was like, super, I got a super lock-in.

I just was reading my Bible with so much more intention and showing up to Bible studies to understand, to learn, to grow, meeting with students um out of just care for them and love for them.

And now I'm discipling four girls.

I love them so much, and I get to be at celebration pretty much every single day, just working on the next event and Wednesdays and Sundays and all the fun things in between.

So that's kind of how I got into ministry.

It started off uh in children's ministry and it ended up in students.

So yeah.

That's good.

Well, I could say a whole whole lot about Mila Avilace and just how much we love her and are blessed to have her in student ministry.

Um, I was literally just having a conversation with a parent last night, Hack Converge, who said, I told my kids whenever Mila was uh teaching Bible study, you better not mess with Mila because she's just too sweet.

They don't know Mila.

I'm only not sweet during rack.

That's right.

Yeah, that's true.

We don't believe in participation trophies, we don't believe about having a party, about coming in second place.

No, what am I supposed to do with this medal?

It has like the number two or three on it.

I guess I use this for something else, but anyway.

But thanks to that parent, that was nice.

Yeah, or to know Mila is to be a better person because of Mila.

So we're just all really blessed to have Mila in our lives and in our corners.

So um, all right.

Well, I just have a couple questions.

I don't have like a ton.

It was a very straightforward message last night.

Um isn't it nice when you just simply read the word and say this means that?

Okay, let's go have a conversation about it.

Yeah.

I mean, literally, you just I just said that so literally so.

Literally, literally.

You just you read through that passage and it's a sermon, so it kind of just preaches itself, but you did a great job communicating it.

So um, I have two questions.

One's kind of silly, and then one's like absolutely completely serious.

Our first question is um, you were talking like a a good chunk of the message was talking about the importance of differentiating between the two.

Uh, well, there's more than one name for God, but the two that were mentioned last night are Lord and Messiah, and the fact that Lord is talking about how he is the boss, he is the master, he is the one who is over it all.

I just hit the podcast mic, my bad.

Uh, because I'm talking with my hands.

Um, and then Messiah being the one who was sent with a mission, right?

And so uh, but the reason this is a funny question is because you also mentioned the difference between like being called Pookie and uh and Jesus Manuel?

Yeah, Avules Jr.

So uh so were you saying, were you just showing that there's an importance in the difference between like Puki and the seriousness of like Jesus Avules?

Or were you saying that like Lord or Messiah could mirror more like the affectionate side of Pookie versus like the serious side of Jesus Avules?

I I think I lean on the for the former.

Okay, which is there's just they're just differences.

Yeah.

I didn't know what else, you know.

I I I just Pookie, I mean I don't no one calls me Pookie, and I didn't want to call any kid out, so I just used my name.

Right.

And so yes, yeah.

So that's uh that's that's that one.

Yeah, just you know, I mean, uh if I seemed excited about that, it's only because really, I mean, you know, I'm I'm a pastor, but you know, everyone learns, right?

And so it was a point where I just thought, you know, grammatically, why would you not continue to just in order to keep the flow and keep uh the literature like fresh, just simply change the names, right?

It would be it would make no sense if every time I wrote something to Nola and I always uh wrote her name out.

It would just be like that.

Sometimes you use she, sometimes you use her, sometimes you just switch a couple different things, you know.

Sometimes I say uh Lady Case and Lady Nola, right?

I switch all those things out, right?

Just so that grammatically and in terms of literature, it just keeps it fresh and keeps it moving.

I thought it was always like that.

I thought all those names meant the same, and it's like, you know, hey man, just keep it going.

And um it got to a point where I realized, okay, everything it meant it means something different.

Not only does it mean something different, thinking of where the Lord places it is trying to tell you something about what you're actually reading at the time.

And uh, you know, I got super excited about it.

More recently than ever before, because when we do Boys' Discipleship and Boys Discipleship, just a little plug, 4 30 to 5 30 on Wednesdays, we're going over the names of God.

And so we just finished going over the name of the Lord last week.

Uh-huh.

And then the name Messiah, that's a couple weeks ahead.

So I I went through that a little bit.

So that's why I was excited because it was just something fresh that I I didn't know a long time ago.

Maybe stumbled upon it, right?

I mean, I I've gotten good teaching in the past, and then I just recently recalled it.

And so, you know, so I just found it exciting, and and that's kind of like where we where we rested on, right?

We we reviewed, you know, chapter two, verses 14, all the way to 40, 41, I believe, and I kind of just landed on verse 36.

That's where that's where I kind of rested.

I thought was the main point of yesterday's message.

But hey, yeah, that's it.

Cool.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it was it wasn't l uh degrees of of um affection.

It's just it actually means something else.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

I was uh yeah, I was leaning towards that, but I was like, maybe I'm maybe I'm missing it.

So, anyways, that that was good.

I appreciated that uh you always have great uh analogies and word pictures and funny, so yeah.

Um, and I was like, you know, I I do know one fun fact about the Obulae's family is that y'all have pet names for each other.

That's very true.

And uh I was like, you know what?

I don't think that anybody calls him Pookie.

I've heard boo-boo.

Yeah, boo-boo and I know you call Monica Queen.

Um but uh I haven't heard Pookie around the Obules household.

So I don't think where that came, but it was more like spontaneous.

I mean, let me just see if I have the word pooky, because I mean I actually have my notes in front of me.

I have the word pooky, and sometimes I'm like, you know, okay, Pookie.

No, I'm I am I if you hear the pages turning, it's because you know what?

We are both podcast and academic environment in here.

Yeah, no, I don't see it.

I might have just it might have just came out of my mouth.

The Holy Spirit took a holy spirit.

Yeah, at least we can't do it.

That's it, that's it.

I love it.

Okay.

Um, yeah, which I I do love that the Lord knows human beings so deeply that, and I'm just now kind of processing through this uh as you were talking, um, but we do just naturally, I think human beings gravitate towards expressing different things through different names, right?

Um so that's an that's a normal thing even in our office.

I was thinking about just like the uh, you know, the affectionate PT that we call Pastor Tommy, right?

Um and it's because there's a level of comfort that we have with PT.

Yeah.

Um and that's the same thing.

It's I feel like it's the same sentiment that the Lord has for us when he gives us so many different names to uh paint a bigger picture of who what his character is and who he is as our God, you know.

Um so it is important for us to know he is Lord, he is over it all.

Um, but he's also Messiah, you know, he is somebody who was sent with a purpose, with an end in mind, and that end was his death for our for our righteousness, you know?

And so, um, anyways, it's funny because I could go through literally everybody, at least in our little corner of the office, that's just like a normal thing.

I never even thought about it, but it is a very deeply human thing to kind of have different nicknames for people that communicate different things.

Yeah.

And the Lord knew that, right?

So He He's known that from the foundations of the world, and this is something that helps us to understand who God is, just the same way as we and so and so you're a disciple now, right?

So now you need to speak the language within the profession that you're in right now, right?

So, you know, I mean you you come across that and you don't know anything about the Bible, you just run right through it, and you think, like I originally thought, it's just another thing to describe Jesus Himself, right?

But then now that you are a disciple, now that you realize, you know, every word was actually put there on purpose.

And so now you gotta you gotta do some digging.

So anyway, that helps.

So my second question It's the serious one.

This is a serious one.

Okay, let me put on my helmet.

Um I'll ask a question first and then I'll read kind of the scripture that's that the question is tied to.

Okay.

Um it says, what about the word being taught draws a crowd of 3,000?

And how should this encourage parents and students?

So um I'll just read the scripture just for reference.

Um He was in Acts 2, 14 and got all the way down to 41.

Um, but this is this question is tied to 40 and 41.

It says, and with many other words, this is Peter, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

So those who received his word were baptized and were added that day about 3,000 souls.

Like Wow.

That's crazy.

That's like crazy if you park on that for a second.

And like literally all uh 30 something of these verses, it's it's a sermon, right?

Like Peter didn't bring donuts to the function, you know what I'm saying?

So so I'll ask the question again, just because it's been a minute since I've asked the question.

No, sure, sure.

What about the word being taught draws a crowd of 3,000?

And how should this encourage parents and students?

Yeah, yeah.

So I mean, uh so let me start off with uh context, right?

So Peter, without a doubt, did not um uh remain in Jerusalem with the intent to deliver a sermon, right?

He was given instructions wait there, I'm gonna send you the helper.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, and all of a sudden, the guy who is running away from kids and from random people saying, I don't know who this guy is.

Yes, I literally just thought about that before we were gonna do the podcast again.

Yeah, yeah.

All of a sudden, this dude is a different Peter.

This is what the spirit does, right?

And so all of a sudden, it's funny because it says there with many other words.

And it's funny, you know, if you if you went back, if you if you you were listening to the live stream, you know, this particular slide, which was the last two verses, I think I might have spent 15 seconds on.

Right?

I mean, I kind of just read it and just said, hey, listen, I want you to focus on that word urged, right?

So there's a sense of urgency there.

But it's very interesting how we bring it back.

And it's and and when you think of, okay, if he said many other things, let's look at what was actually documented, which means that's probably the most important of the, you know, let's just say he he wrote a 5,000-word essay, but we're giving, you know, in front of us 500 words.

Well, somebody decided that those are the 500 words we have to listen to.

And so when we listened to, it made very clear, right, the the concept of Lord and Messiah, what was chosen to be communicated of all the words that he choose, he chose for that message, what was chosen to be communicated to us was everything tied to connecting Old Testament to Jesus to confirm he is Lord and He is Christ.

Right?

And so, yeah, so yeah, I mean if you if we go back to the Mark series, uh the Mark series, right?

One of the Mark sermons, um, you know, we kind of charted the narrative and it was Jesus in the mountain, he's praying.

Right?

Great.

People tend to focus on, hey, Jesus prayed.

Yes, he did pray.

But if you look at that particular narrative, Jesus is praying, and his homies, his people are looking for him.

They find him on top of the mountain and says, Hey man, where have you been?

He says, There's tons of people down there waiting for you.

Now Jesus knows what they're waiting on.

They're waiting on this miracle and that miracle, this healing, that healing.

And Jesus has a decision to make, right?

This is the climax of the story, right?

We have we have a we have the setting Jesus is praying, people are looking for him.

We introduce in terms of that narrative, okay, now we have the little conflict, we have the little rub in there.

Hey, people are looking for you.

Now we have the climax.

There's gonna be a decision to be made that's gonna turn the rest of the narrative either one way or the other.

Does Jesus go back downstairs and continue to do, or go back down the mountain and do what he has to do?

Or does he move forward?

At that moment, Jesus is like, I gotta preach.

I came here to preach the word, and so I'm gonna move forward.

That just tells you about the power of the word to save.

That is what attracted these people too, right?

So, you know, um Jesus himself said, hey, because you know, with the concept of so Messiah is Hebrew, same word as Christ, right?

Bless you.

Thank you.

Messiah is Hebrew, Christ is Greek, right?

Speaking to a Jewish audience, which is why we're seeing the word Messiah, right?

So just in case.

So all of a sudden, the Messiah we had, you know, has three offices at that particular lake, the prophet, priest, and king.

So as the prophet, he is the primary person responsible to bring the word of God to the people.

And he he he centered that.

Jesus knew that and he emphasized that above all things, right?

And so Peter goes and he re he realizes that that is my main focus.

That is what I have to do.

You know?

It could have been, you know, uh the Holy Spirit empowered them to shoot sprinkles out of their hands, right?

Or float.

It could have been all that kind of stuff, but it wasn't.

It was the power of the word that actually did anything here.

So, you know, that was super cool.

Yeah, yeah, that's good.

Um, yeah, I I also was just uh I love that you mentioned the whole, you know, Peter, the one giving this sermon, was also just a couple, like rewind just a couple chapters before, right?

Like this was I mean, Acts 1 was 40 days after Jesus was crucified.

Yep.

And so uh this couldn't have been that much longer after we're not talking like three years of discipleship and just like, you know, he he went from being rejecting Jesus and doubting him to then giving a sermon that draws 3,000, right?

So um I just think there's so many applications to our parents and our students in terms of um, you know, parents encouraging your students, you absolutely can share the word with your friends on your baseball team, you know, at your school.

You are capable of really tremendously eternally impactful things.

Yeah.

Um and then the other takeaway is that students, you don't have to bring a whole lot to the table.

Yeah, it's actually probably better that you don't.

You know, um, when you keep the word at the center, which is something that Jesus and I have conversations about often, um is that the word just absolutely has to be central.

Absolutely.

If we want to see things like this happen.

And so um we we start to get freaked out about like, you know, do we have enough frills?

And it's like that is I'm not seeing a whole lot of frills.

Like the frill is the Lord is the Lord.

Yes, right.

He is Messiah, you know.

And uh, and I know that's what I was drawn in with.

I've experienced that, right?

Like things that have totally transformed my life are were the word of God, right?

And so, anyways, uh, so I just say that as an encouragement to our students, you know, you don't have to bring a whole, you don't have to bring a personality.

I I joke all the time.

Like I work with middle schoolers because I'm at heart, I'm an awkward middle schooler.

And so like I can I can do that.

No.

And so uh, anyways, you don't have to have a certain level of popularity.

You don't have a have to have a certain level of education.

You don't have to have uh, you know, a tremendously engaging personality or you know, have to have Jays on stage to preach the word of God and yet see a tremendous impact on eternity.

3,000 people is not a small amount of people, and so no, no.

Anyway, I just beautiful.

I was that was the thing that I was kind of stuck on after last night, and I know that wasn't the main point, but that was my that was my very serious question.

But you know, but you know, I mean, uh kids should be encouraged.

Let's just say they jump into First Corinthians, right?

No, listen, uh, you know, I not that I I don't have the whole Bible memorized.

I happen to have given um the message to the college students last Thursday, right?

So I went into First Corinthians chapter four, skipped that.

We're gonna go into chapter three.

In chapter three is where we really talk about hey, listen, the Lord chooses the foolish things in this world, right?

And so all of a sudden, Paul begins to describe himself, right?

Because in chapters one, one, two, three, and four kind of go together.

There's one particular issue that they're addressing, that's a division in the church and stuff like that.

But but in it, Paul makes it very clear that hey, I I didn't come to you with like eloquence and skill set.

Remember, this is a place that values like wisdom and uh rhetoric and all these skill sets that kind of just allow people to either attain celebrity status or just like be like scrubs.

Paul steps into the equation and says, You can't do that with your church leadership.

You can't.

Make one a celebrity and the other one a scrub.

How do I know that?

The Lord didn't do it.

So then he begins to describe himself, like, yo, I didn't I didn't come to you with eloquence.

You know, I mean, if if you kind of like dig into some of Paul's history, now Paul wrote like two-thirds of the New Testament.

You know, physically he wasn't imposing, he didn't command presence uh articulation-wise, you know, you may read some stuff and some of that stuff may say like he wasn't the most poetic dude on the planet.

And then he says, Amen to that.

Because that that positions me to not boast.

Right?

And so all of a sudden, if you recognize it's the word that's gonna change the person in front of you, immediately you cannot pat yourself on the back.

So for all of those listening to the podcast, believing they're disqualified, qualification number one check.

Let's just step into it, use the word, and if you see any movement, you should say, Wow, God's great.

Now, if you're on the other end, like, hey man, I could, I could, I can sing this, I can I can put this to poetry, and you begin to pat yourself on the back and you deliver this word, and all of a sudden you begin to like applaud yourself for what you've done apparently in this particular person's life, you need to put a pause on that.

You put a pause on that because you go back to again, I go back to that first Corinthian set, and it talks about hey, listen, uh, he's talking about himself, Apollos, and all these guys.

Hey, we're master builders, we lay the foundation.

But you need to be careful about what you build on this foundation.

He says at the end, everything will burn.

Everything will be tested by fire.

You will survive, you're gonna be saved, but not everything you built will stand because it all depends on your heart at the moment, at the time, right?

And so I need everybody to listen to this podcast.

I need you to build wisely.

Build, not on your own strength, don't boast, build your walls.

Myself, Mila, Nola, all the folks that are serving either in Sunday student ministry or Wednesday student ministry are looking to equip you so that you not only build properly, but you help others to build property.

And if you got problems with that, come to hit us, let us know.

Nola and I know, you know, the people that want to raise their hand and lead first, those are the people that are probably gonna receive the most amount of questions.

Those that want to shy away and go quiet and feel themselves disqualified, ah, we want to see you.

We want you to come to us, we'll spot you probably ahead of time.

And and don't be don't be um don't be confused or shook if we approach you to think about leading, to think about leadership.

Because, you know, um the Lord's big.

So we'll leave it at that.

Yeah, yeah.

Yep.

That's really that's all I got.

Anyone else have anything?

Milo, you got anything you want to say?

I mean, I mean, yeah, I just think about like if I had continued to believe like that I was disqualified, that I didn't know enough, then I would have just stopped myself from doing a lot of things.

So I think that you guys are right.

You have to be willing to let the Lord lead because the more that I thought I knew, right, the more that I was like, I can do this, I can do that, the less I was actually doing for the kingdom.

And it was when I was like, God, I literally don't know, but I have this opportunity and I really, really want to do my best, yeah, that I was able to then take it and not be here.

So yeah, so just don't believe those lies.

And don't believe the height.

Yeah.

Don't believe the hype.

So for those of you that don't know that song, that is that is that is the line that goes with that.

That is the line that goes with that.

On that note.

Uh we do have a couple of announcements.

So come join us for guys' Bible study.

Uh Ace plugged that in somewhere in the middle of the podcast episode.

So come hang out with us for that if you are a guy and you want to study the Bible.

Um, we also have Girls Bible study from six to eight on Tuesdays at my apartment.

So hit me up if you uh need my address and are interested in joining.

We have a wonderful time, except for when Mila is not with us.

That's that's when we struggle.

Um, and then the last thing that I have to announce is the girls retreat.

If you're not registered, we have 10 spots left.

So um, if you are registered, invite your friends.

Yeah.

This would be a great opportunity for them to come have a beach weekend and uh and hear the gospel through something fun like that.

Or if you're just one of our regulars, we need you to register.

So get registered November 6th to the 8th.

It's gonna be a really great weekend.

Super.

Anything else we need to say?

No.

Who would like to close us in prayer?

I can do that.

I think uh it's my turn.

I'll do that.

Let's do it.

Let's do it.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord, thank you for um first and foremost who you are.

Uh thank you that you are above everything that we know.

You are Lord, you are holding everything together, you're sovereign, you are the king of kings.

Um, God, thank you that you are Messiah, that you um were sent with a mission.

And uh, Lord, you were under no obligation to uh carry that mission through, but you did, Lord, you even prayed, Lord, if there be any way that this cup passes from me, let it be so.

Um and yet you died on the cross for our sins, you rose three days later, and because of that, we can have eternal life um in the future, and we can also have abundant life in the here and now.

Um, God, I just pray that you would help our students to remember that, Lord, um, we don't bring anything to the table when it comes to doing good gospel work.

What we can bring to the table is your word, and it is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and that is what matters.

Um, so I just pray that through this podcast, through the teaching of your word, through fellowship, Lord, that you would just help them to be more and more deeply convicted that Lord, your word is sufficient for everything that we need for life and godliness.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you for who you are, and it's in your name I pray.

Amen.

Amen.

See you next week, party people.

Bye-bye.

Deuces.

Thanks for joining us on the Celebration Baptist Church podcast.

We hope today's conversation helped you take another step in your faith journey.

For more resources, upcoming events, and to join us live, visit iCelebration.org.

Until next time, keep connecting with God, connecting with others, and living on mission.