Clarify The Now - Acts 2:39-41

It helps good morning to all of you would you let me welcome all of our brave campuses who are worshiping with us today So good to have you here As we continue our worship, let's just open our hearts up to hear God's living and active word among us this morning Would you pray with me our Father in heaven? We give you all the glory and honor for who you are Lord We just ask in these moments that we have together Lord that you would do what you promise to do every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed and that is that you would Speak Lord, we believe as a people. That's exactly what you do every time that our heart is, right? We have the ability to hear Jesus Christ speak Directly to our hearts and so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear Jesus speak directly to you Who will believe what he says and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you we agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word a Man, amen. Our culture is so enamored with what's next? No, no matter what happens. We're asking what's next if you play on the sports team and you wins like that's good But what's what's next if you're a young kid and you're in grade school You're thinking about high school and what's next if you're in high school, you're thinking about what's next in college every college You're thinking about what's next when you get married or what's next when you have a family or what's next when you take your first? Job, or what's next and how you should say? I mean we have a tendency to miss out on what's happening now because we're so focused about What's next and this doesn't just happen in our regular ordinary lives it happens in our spiritual lives, too we're aware of the facts of what the Bible teaches and what Jesus has done on the cross to die for our sins and arise from the dead and as we Repent and believe in him. We have life in his name and then we begin to think well Well, what does he expect now like what's next? I know I'm going to heaven So I'll just focus here and what we miss out sometimes is exactly what God wants us to do here I don't know how many Christians I've talked to over time that are always asking Well, how do you do that? And how do you do this? and what do you need to do for that and there's myriads of books written about how to stay in the present and we just Have a difficult time doing that. No, there's nothing wrong about being visionary. There's nothing wrong about thinking ahead There's nothing wrong with good planning

But all that should pale in comparison to making sure that we're doing the right things Now and so as we've been in this series called clarify the call. We've clarified the mission We've clarified the foundation for how to prepare for what the Holy Spirit wants to do We've clarified his presence and last week we clarified the gospel and talked about five truths about the gospel what the gospel is and then how you need to include those when you're Sharing the gospel today. What I want to clarify is the now I want to clarify now Like if you understand who the Holy Spirit is and you understand the gospel and you're in Christ and you're a new creation Then what does God expect for you now? What does God want me to do right now? And that's we're gonna take a look at today. So if you have your Bibles with you I invite you to open up to Acts chapter 2 Acts chapter 2. We're gonna start in verse 39 We're gonna read three verses today 39 40 and 41 and those three verses will be our text for what we're gonna highlight I'll give you three truths about how we clarify the now this morning But just so you know as we're setting up this text Peter had just gotten finished when people were cut to the quick and saying Well, then what do we need to do? And he said repent Meaning turn from your sin and turn to Christ and be a follower of Jesus be baptized Which is what you do Once you get saved you get baptized in water And then what you receive the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is in you from the moment that you repent and believe that Jesus is the Christ and This is where our story picks up because here's what he says next starting in verse 39 for the promises for you and your children and for all who are far and for all who are far off as Many as our Lord our God will call to himself and with many other words He solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them saying be saved from this perverse generation So then those who had received his word were baptized and that day there were added about 3,000 souls very powerful day in the history of the church Peter preaches his first message a Thousand souls come into the kingdom that very day But as we take a closer look at this we begin to realize that not only is he calling people to repentance But he's telling them what happens now as a result and notice what he says in verse 39 He says for the promise is for you and your children. What promise what promise Jesus made a promise to his disciples in John 14

He said I'm going to the father because when I go to the father I will send another the promised one the Holy Spirit who will be with you forever So when Jesus ascended to heaven one of the evidences that he made it all the way to the throne Was that the father sent the Holy Spirit who was present in the lives of all of those? Disciples at that time and as we read in the previous part of this chapter What happened is the Holy Spirit came and took up residence in there? for the first time ever. They begin speaking in other languages, known tongues to other people who are traveling through Jerusalem. Everybody heard the marvels of God in their own language. They said, what's happening? Peter gets up and preaches, stands boldly, uses the scriptures, talks about who Jesus is and all that he's done, talks about his lordship and calls people to repentance. And then he says this, let me tell you about this promise, this Holy Spirit, this one who is willing to indwell any person anywhere at any time. Who's this promise for? Who does he say the promise is for first and foremost? Your children. He says, it's for your children. And then he goes on to say, it's for your children and as many, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord would call himself. I mean, here's the first truth about how you live now. And if I clarify that, the promise calls the next generation now. The promise calls for the next generation now.

It's really interesting because when we think about next gen, here's what we think. That generation that's coming behind us, that group that's behind us that probably doesn't do it as well as our generation did. That's that generation, they're the next generation. And then as you get older, you start to think, can you believe one of those is gonna be the president? Can you believe one of those is gonna be your boss? Can you believe one of those is gonna, we think of next generation as future. Jesus never thought about it that way. Next generation's now. When is the gospel? When is the Holy Spirit for your kids? Now. Not when they get older, not when they grow up. When is the gospel present? Now. When do people need to hear the gospel? Now. When should we be on mission to tell others about Jesus? Now. I mean, if you're wondering like, what should I be doing with my time? Invest in the next generation with the gospel right now. Do you realize throughout history, anybody that's made a significant impact has always targeted young people? I mean, go all the way back to King Nebuchadnezzar,

when they sacked Jerusalem and brought all of Israel, all of them back to Babylon. What did he say? In Daniel chapter one, I think verse four, he talks about, I want the best, I want the brightest, I want the best looking, I wanna teach them all the ways of the Chaldeans so they can be the best people serving in our kingdom. What was he saying? I wanna indoctrinate the youth because if I can indoctrinate the youth, I can change the whole culture going forward. Adolf Hitler thought the same thing. In the 1940s, he formed the Hitler Youth and his whole thing was to create patriotism towards Germany and all the different things and hatred of Jews and all the different things because he said, if I get the young people, I can change the whole future of Germany. Mao did the same thing. Stalin did the same thing. Every, ISIS today, ISIS does the same thing. They target young people because they say if we can indoctrinate them into our philosophy now, we've got them. And we'll take them. Hey, by the way, you say, where does that happen in America? All over everywhere. In your schools, on TikTok, on Instagram, on X,

they are influencing your kids because they say we want your kids because if we have them, we can control the future. I did. But here's what we need to know and this is why this is so important because Jesus did the same thing. Jesus targeted youth. It's really interesting in the gospel of Matthew, you can read this in Matthew chapter 17 in verses 24 to 27, there were people that came and questioned him, why didn't he pay the two drachma tax? Why don't you and your disciples do that? And Jesus said, you know, we really don't have to, but Peter, why don't you do this? Go throw a hook out into the sea and you'll catch a fish that has a shekel. And he says, you pay the two drachma tax for both me and you. How come he didn't have to pay it for the other 11 apostles? Well, if you study your Old Testament, Exodus 30, you find out if you were over 20 years old, you had to pay the two drachma tax. What does that tell you? Jesus and Peter were the only two that were over 20 years old. You know what that makes Jesus? The first youth pastor in church history.

That's who he went after. I mean, you picture these men, like they're men or these guys, they're teenagers. That's why they could go with him everywhere he went, they had nothing else to do. And what they were doing in helping their dads, they weren't very good at anyway because they never caught anything, right? I mean, so who did he target? He targeted teenage boys. Because he said, if I can get them to hear the truth about me and the truth about my father, they will give their very lives to me. And he goes, I'm gonna go after youth. So what did Jesus do? He targeted them. Did Jesus love youth? He loved the kids. He loved children. In the next chapter in Matthew, in Matthew chapter 18, verses one to six, the disciples came and they started asking Jesus, who's the greatest in the kingdom? Well, we need to know. And he called a child. to himself and set him before them and said, truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself as this child,

he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one as such a child in my name receives me." What does he say? He's like, here's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for those to be as humble and as trusting as a little child like this. If you can do that for me and my sake, you'll be greatest in the kingdom. That's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for childlike, humble faith. But he doesn't stop there. You know what he goes on to say? Here's what he says. He says, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. What is he saying? He says, if you cause some little child that would otherwise be a follower of me to stumble in their way or put a roadblock in their way or cause them to sin, it would be better if you took a cement cinder block, tied it to your neck, went out in the middle of a lake and jumped out and drowned yourself. Because I care about kids. Jesus cared about those who were young. I mean, there's even in the very next chapter

in Matthew chapter 19, where all the parents are bringing their kids to have Jesus lay hands on them and bless them that the disciples rebuke them. And in Matthew 19, 14, Jesus said, let the children alone and do not hinder them from coming to me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. What did Jesus care about? Next generation. When did he care about them? Right at that moment. He wasn't telling those young guys, one day when you get older like your fathers and one day when you've studied the Torah more and one day, no, he went right after youth. Why? Even statistics today, if you read them, will show you that people who are gonna come to Christ are way more likely to do it before the age of 18. And some studies creep that number even lower to like 15 or 13 right now. Like if you're gonna come to Christ, that's the time you're gonna come to Christ. That's when you're gonna make decisions. That's when you're gonna decide, am I really gonna follow Jesus? It's not when you get to college. It's not when you get married. And even if you do come to Christ later in life, it's very hard to reorient your whole life

to the centrality of the gospel than it is if you start out when you're young. I came to Christ when I was 18. Because I came to Christ when I was 18, I was able to start thinking about my career with Christ. I was starting to think about my marriage with Christ. Had I come to Christ at 48, still would have known Christ, but it'd be very tough to reorient my life. I would not be doing what I'm doing right now if I hadn't come to Christ when I was young. We wanna target the young. Do you know the studies show that 70% of students that attend church while they're going to high school, 70% of them when they go to college will leave the faith. Can I tell you why? Because they were never part of it to begin with. They were never part of it to begin with. Studies show that if kids are involved in missions while they're in high school and middle school, 90% chance of retention rate. And I'm not talking about going overseas. I'm talking about being about the mission of Jesus, where I'm living out my new identity and I'm telling others about him and I'm praying for others and I'm seeing God use me when? Right now. So what should we care about? The next generation. Well, when should we care about them? Right now.

Why? Because that's what Jesus calls us to do. I remember at a church, it was a youth pastor in Dallas, where we started training kids how to pray for their friends. I used to tell kids all the time, if you wanna really screw up your friend's life, just pray for them. You will see God work. Then we taught them how to build relationships. Then we taught them how to share the gospel clearly and boldly. We taught them how to do that. And we started seeing lots of kids come to Christ. There was one girl in my youth group, her name was Brittany. She was a seventh grader. We taught her all the same things we had taught everybody else. And she took them to heart. She started bringing friends to youth group. Her parents had to buy a minivan because she was bringing so many people. She was bringing like 13 kids to youth group. Every single one of them was meeting Jesus and being transformed. About two years later, her dad became an executive pastor, moved to a different city in Portland.

She went to that youth group. She was up there about a month after she was there. She called me on the phone. She said, Pastor Jeff, what's wrong with these people? And I'm like, I don't know who these people are. What do you mean? She's like, nobody here prays for the lost. Nobody here shares the gospel with anybody. Nobody cares about the gospel of Jesus. We're not seeing anybody get saved. What's wrong? I'm like, well, you're in about 90, the 95th percentile of most youth groups in America where they're all they're gonna do is sit around and try to entertain you. She goes, I hate it. You know why? Because for two years in our youth group, she thought it was normal that you pray for your friends. She thought it was normal that you share the gospel. She thought it was normal to see people come to Christ and be transformed. And she thought it was normal that everybody would wanna do that. And it is for Christians, right? And this is why Jesus targeted teenagers. This is why he went after, because he knew if I get that generation, I get every generation that follows after them. And that's why he.

went and did that. So, when you think about student ministry, I mean, if you just think about, I mean, studies will show, if you have a youth group that's just kind of like okay, like if you have a decent youth group in a church, it's about 10% of whatever your population is in the church. So like, here in Inglewood, that would mean you'd have about 350 students coming if it was just kind of so-so or average. It means in Westminster, you'd have about 120 students coming and if you did, it'd probably be so-so, it'd probably be pretty good, it'd be average. We wanna have way better than that. The churches I've been in have been more like 15 or 20%. And by the way, can I just tell you something? In the churches that I've served in where I was a youth pastor, there always came this point of tension where the pastor was kind of getting mad because our youth group was almost the same size as our church. So in the first church we were at, we were 96 people. When we do a youth event in that church, we'd have 200 and then we'd have 96 people on a Sunday. In our church in Dallas, we had about 400 people. We do a youth event, we'd have 500, 600 people and then we'd have 400 on a Sunday. And that pastor didn't like it that we were growing bigger than they were

and he told me to stop casting vision to the kids. Can I tell you something? If our student ministry exceeds the size of our church, I will praise God for that. Amen. That's who we want to target, that's who we want to reach because that's who Jesus is going after. And the way that it starts, can I tell you how it starts? It starts with prayer. It starts with prayer. I've told you this story before, I'll tell you again. When I first got to my church, I was 24 years old, church of 96 people, got invited by these five old ladies, they were like 40 to 55, and they invited me in to come pray with them. It was old at the time, it ain't old anymore. But these women, they knew how to pray in a way I didn't know how to pray because when they prayed, they were talking to Jesus and expecting him to do what they were praying for. You ever been around somebody like that? Like when they were asking Jesus to do something, they were talking to him as if, I know you're hearing me, I know you're gonna do this and we praise you for that in advance. And so they would ask me, do you have any prayer requests? I said, yeah, I'm praying that we can grow a youth group here. So they started praying for that. What else?

I'm praying that kids get saved. I'm praying that their parents get saved. And they started praying like that was gonna happen. And guess what happened? In this youth group where we had four kids, people started coming. We had 20, then we had 50, then we had 60, then we started growing it and kids started getting saved. And by the way, when kids get saved, not all the parents get happy when their kids get saved. Do you know why? Because they start having a different worldview. They start thinking differently about their careers. They start thinking differently about money. They start thinking differently about who they date. They start thinking differently about the way they participate in different things. And not every parent is happy about that. And I've had several conversations with parents who have called me on the phone, furious with me for the cult that I'm leading, only for me to invite them into my office or into my house and share the gospel with many of them who have knelt down by my couch and prayed to receive Jesus too. Friends, it's a ministry that impacts a whole family. And when you pray and you ask God to bless what he wants to bless, he'll bless what he wants to bless. Can I ask you, does God wanna bless the next generation? Yes, before we moved out here,

one thing Kim and I were always praying for is that the next group of pastors and teachers and evangelists and apostles and prophets, they would come out of our church. Do you know they're already here? So what are we doing to invest in them so that they can make a kingdom impact, not only now, but as they continue to grow in the knowledge and grace of Jesus? Now, sometimes I just gotta tell you this, sometimes when people say, oh, this number, this 10%, who cares about numbers, it doesn't matter. Well, numbers do matter. As a matter of fact, if it didn't, we wouldn't see 3,000 people get saved, it would just say some souls were added that day. Why do we see 3,000? Because every number counts, right? And some people always challenge me and they say stuff like, well, what would you rather have? Would you rather have a youth group of 500 or would you rather have a youth group of 12 where all 12 were on fire for Jesus? And it's a stupid question because I've been in our church when we were 12 people and I've been in our church now that we have 8,000 people. I've been a part of it all. And in every season, whether you have 12 or whether you have 8,000, there's a core in the center that are white hot for Jesus.

There's some on the fringes that are looking at maybe coming in and there's some on the outside that are just checking it out. There's no way at any given time you have 100% of your people completely sold out and oh, by the way, if you do, there's gonna be others that are gonna join because if you're fired up for Jesus, you can't help but tell other people about Jesus and see people get saved. So it's always going to grow if you're doing the right things. That's just a fact. Now, we wanna grow based upon how Jesus wants growth. We don't wanna grow through entertainment. We don't wanna grow through just fun. We don't wanna be, oh, I like it, it's so cool there. That's not how, we wanna grow because the power of the gospel is so strong and lives are getting so radically changed that people wanna be a part of it, amen? That's what we wanna see. And so I would tell you what Brave's already doing. I mean, we're revamping some of the stuff we're doing at Brave Kids. We don't have babysitting for kids. kids in our church. We have ministry for kids in our church. We believe four-year-olds can come to Christ.

We believe four-year-olds can learn how to pray. We believe five-year-olds, six-year-olds, seven-year-olds can learn how to share the gospel with people. That's what I believe. Like, that's why we do ministry that way. And I've seen it everywhere I go. If you just give students the tools that they need, they do it. And oh, by the way, can I tell you the level of conviction it brings to adults in the church? When you see a 13-year-old girl or a 15-year-old guy or a 14-year-old stand here and start talking about the 10 people that they led to Christ and how they used to be scared and now they're praying and all the transformation that's happened in them and what they don't participate in because of this, and you'll sit there as an adult and you'll think, then what am I doing? That's what kids wanna do. We just don't give them enough tools to go do it and to go live it and to go give glory to God no matter what God's called them to do in their own gifts and talents and abilities that God gives them so they can live for Jesus completely where they're at, amen? And that's what we wanna see. I mean, you see in Deuteronomy 7, 9, you see God keeps covenant to a thousand generations. Psalm 145, four says, one generation shall praise your works to another.

So here's what Jesus says, speaking through Peter for this promise is for who? This promise is for you, the Holy Spirit is for you, the gospel is for you, being in Christ is for you and your children right now, that they can live to the full of who God is and for all those who are far off, as many as the Lord would call to himself. Here's the good news, Jesus is the one that does all the saving. We can't save anybody. All we can do is pray, we can seek the Lord, we can ask God to move, we can build relationships, we can share the gospel and we can trust that God wants to do good things. And here's the reality, you put students in a group where the thing that they're talking about the most is the gospel, their identity in Christ, the joy that they have, the hope that they have, the way that they pray, the way that they read the Bible and what they know, that culture becomes peer pressure everywhere they go. It becomes the norm of everything that they do. It's not like, oh, I gotta go to church, it's a drag. They will lead the church. I mean, one thing I love about our church is First Tuesday. You know, I love First Tuesday. You ever notice at First Tuesday, who's up front? Who's in this area right here?

It's all students. Can I tell you soon, that's gonna be 10X, it's gonna be all here and in Westminster, it's gonna be all here. There's not gonna be enough room if you come to First Tuesday, you'll be on the outside because there's so many young people here. That's what God wants to do. And I'm excited about it because I believe that that's what God wants to do in our next generation and he wants to start now. Let me give you a second truth about this. This promise calls the next generation now, but this promise delivers from worldly perversion now. It says in verse 40, and with many other words, he solemnly testified, which means you're not reading the whole sermon from Peter. There's many other things that he was saying to them about the gospel, but he kept on exhorting them. So the one thing he kept saying over and over and over was this, saying, be saved from this perverse generation. What was he saying? Be saved from this wicked generation. Be saved from this crooked generation. Be saved because the culture that we live in goes antithetical to what God wants. That has always been the case. That will always be the case until Jesus gets here. The culture will indoctrinate the exact opposite way.

That's why there is a wide road and a broad way on your way to hell and many are on it and it's free to get on and everybody's gonna invite you on, but narrow is the gate and small is the road that leads to life and few are on that road. And so if we're gonna do the right things, you have to realize the gospel is more than just fire insurance. The gospel is just more, I prayed a prayer and I know I'm going to heaven, so what now? No, the gospel, if you truly believe the gospel, if you really repented and trusted Jesus, he will deliver you from worldly perversion in your life. His desire is to take you out of it because what does Jesus do when he saves you? He takes you from being a child of wrath, someone God's gonna pour his wrath out on, who is worthy of all the punishment you're gonna get eternally, who is living in darkness, who is steeped in sin, who is rebellious and wants nothing to do with God, and he saves you and brings you in the kingdom of his beloved son. He indwells you with his spirit. He gives you forgiveness and redemption of sin. He travels with you for the rest of your life. All your sin, past, present and future is completely blotted out and he's walking with you so you don't need to walk in the sin that you were once walking in

and that you can continue to grow in holiness, not perfectly, but increasingly. And who's that for? Everybody, everybody. See, if you tell people the truth and you hold the bar high and people love Jesus, they will get to that bar. If you tell students something low, like, hey, just pray this prayer and just do that, I know you can't be moral, just make sure you're using a condom, I know you can't do. Just make sure you're doing the right things. You know, nobody's gonna stay a virgin until they're married. Just try to be safe about garbage, perversion, worldliness, right? But if you can tell kids the truth, listen, it may seem hard now, but if you keep yourself moral and you keep yourself pure, and if you haven't, there's forgiveness, and from this moment on, you can. And if you live that way, God will bless that, give you greater hope and a greater future. He'll bless your marriage, he'll bless your kids, he'll bless your future. He'll give you a more satisfying life. Here's the bar, live up to it. Kids will do it. I mean, think about it. Our kids will sacrifice their entire summer

to play on a sports team. Our kids will sacrifice an entire fall to be in a play at the school. They'll sacrifice anything, because we hold the bar so high. And then they come to church and we say, oh, I'm just so glad you're here. What else? Nothing, thanks for coming, we know it's boring. I mean, are you kidding me right now? Like, the gospel is so much more than you get to go to heaven someday. The gospel is Christ in you now, the hope of glory. No matter what you do, both inside and outside the church, God goes with you, right? I mean, if you study statistics, and I've looked at them, and it's not worth putting them up on a screen. I mean, you look at kids that call themselves Christians and kids that don't, and you start looking at morality and choices they make, and they're very similar. There's not much difference. I'm telling you, in a student ministry where people are born again, where the standard is held high, you'll see a massive difference of kids that are walking with Jesus. And that's what we wanna see, amen? I mean, the Bible tells us in Romans 12, do not be conformed anymore to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Like the world says, this is normal. God says, it's so not normal. What's normal is following me. 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16, be holy as he is holy. Or how about 1 Corinthians chapter six, 1 Corinthians chapter six, where he's talking about immorality, and here's what he tells us. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commences outside his body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or did you not know? Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God with your body. If you are born again, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in you. You are his temple. In the Old Testament, God dwelled in the tabernacle. Then he was in the temple, and the holy of holies. Where does he dwell now? In us. You're his temple. I mean, I've listened to older people like me, and parents talk to me, don't do that, don't chew gum, we're in church. Don't run, we're in church. Don't jump off the stage, we're in church. Everywhere you go, you're his temple.

On every date you're on, on every sports team you're on, on every activity you're doing, every class you're in, you are a temple of the Lord. How is God getting his work done through you? Are you a holy vessel for what Jesus wants? And that's where we hold the bar high. And if we don't hold the bar high, we're not going to see God do what he wants to do. And we don't really have to hold the bar high, we just have to hold the word of God high. God will hold the bar high enough just on his own, amen? And he's gonna grow us into what he wants us to be. I mean, Jesus even said this, he goes, you are not of this world, but I chose you out of the world. James 4.4 says, do you not realize that friendship with the world is what? Hatred towards God. I mean, one of the reasons that we started Brave Academy, a school, is because secular education is not neutral. It's not neutral. I'm telling you, it's not neutral. I mean, you think about the things that are being taught in the secular schools right now, whether we're talking public high school or secular colleges, there's gender ideology and fluidity where you can't decide what gender you are, sexual ethics and identity, normalizing same-sex relationships, pornography, sexual experimentation outside of God's covenant, critical theory and oppressive narratives

that redefine truth around power structures, leading people to be victims and resenting everybody else, naturalism and evolution presenting life as a product of just random chance, or moral relativism and secular humanism teaching that truth, morality, and meaning are completely subjective. And friends, in the public school, that's their curriculum. And I don't apologize, and I praise God, because I talked to one of you yesterday that teach in the public schools to be a light for Jesus, and praise God you are, but the majority of people in the public schools are leading this way, right? This is what your kids are getting eight hours a day. It is not just what's coming out of their mouth, it is the culture from which they are teaching. That's why we started Brave Academy. Do you know why? Because we wanna make sure that every student that goes to Brave Academy graduates knowing that Jesus Christ is Lord, and they're gonna be a champion for Christ, and be able to serve him all the days of their life. Amen? Amen. Amen. Amen. You hear the term classical Christian school. Our administrators and I, we've talked, we're just like, we should call ourselves

a Christian classical school because we're first and foremost Christian. And I'll just say this, because if you don't know our educators, they're all getting back from their summer break. They're incredible. I get to spend tomorrow morning with them. They're great people. They love your kids. If you're in a situation and you would say, I'm not sure where my student's gonna go to school this fall or you've tried one and it's not working, would you please just check out Brave Academy? It's not the end all be all, but I can promise you this, they're gonna be indoctrinated with the same things you're hearing here on Sunday morning, every day, all day long. And it makes a massive difference in their life when you're pouring the gospel into them. So check it out. Well, it costs money. Friends, anything worth anything in life is an investment. And there's no greater return on investment than what you invest in your kids, amen? And by the way, I'll just say this, if the Lord wants you to be there, he always has a way of trying to figure out how to provide and make it happen. At least just explore it.

At least just go that way, right? And so here's what he's saying. It delivers us from worldly perversion. God wants to invest in the next generation. He wants to deliver from worldly perversion now. Let me give you the third truth. This promise positions us in Christ's kingdom right now. This promise positions us in Christ's kingdom right now. When you come to Christ, you change kingdoms immediately. It's not kind of one of these things where you gradually grow. You've just changed citizenship. Your citizenship is now in heaven. Notice what happens. So then those who had received his word, those are the ones who have repented and believe that Jesus is the Christ. They say, we want Jesus. We want him to be our Lord. We're not living our own lives anymore. They've received his word. They were baptized. And that day there were added what? About 3,000 souls. Now this is really interesting. If you study the Bible, a lot of times in the New Testament, Old Testament, when they count people, they'd counted the men. So at the feeding of the 5,000, there were 5,000 men. So we know that women and children weren't counted.

So it was probably about 20,000 people that were fed that day. It doesn't say men. It doesn't say people. What does it say? 3,000 what? Souls. You know who was saved that day? Men, women. Guess who else was saved? Boys and girls. And they all were going public immediately saying, we've left our life of religion and we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ now, no matter what. And let me just say this for those of you that like, I also don't like the big church. I don't like mega churches. Well, you would have hated the first church because the first church had 3,000 people on day one and it just kept expanding and it kept getting bigger. And now listen, we're gonna talk about cadres next week and community. And I understand the need for deep relationships with a few and we're gonna develop that and I'm gonna show you how. But at the end of the day, like we wanna see more and more people in our city know Jesus. You can't pray for revival in Denver when there's 2 million lost people in our city

and then say, but I don't wanna grow. It's gonna get too big. No, it would be awesome if we didn't have space or we had to do 12 services or whatever. Wouldn't that be great? I mean, there can't be too many people meet Jesus on this side of heaven as far as I'm concerned. Amen. So notice this, they received what he had said. Well, when they received what he had said, let me tell you some things that happened to them. There was new birth because they were born again. And when you're born again, then you're alive in Christ. It's not just that you had a natural birth, you had a spiritual rebirth. You were born again into the kingdom of God. So you have a new birth. Now you've been given a new identity. I mean, Colossians 1.27, it says, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. One of the ways that you know you were saved is the Holy Spirit is taking up residence. And Romans 8.9 says, if you don't have the spirit of Christ, you are not of Christ. So the spirit of God comes and he takes up residence in you. Then you've been given a new name too. I mean, all throughout the New Testament, what are you called?

Saints. To all the saints in Ephesus, to all the saints in Corinth. And when you read Corinthians, you're like, they don't sound like saints. They were saints. Why? Because of their identity and their position in Christ. And then they were given a new purpose, just like you and I have been. What is our new purpose? We're his witnesses. To do what? To go into all the world and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. To see people obey everything that Jesus commanded until we see him face to face. What you're seeing here is faithfulness to God's word and intentionality with the gospel. And when you see that, you begin to see God do great things. And this is why I'm so excited in our church, because I think we have some of the greatest people in the city of Denver that attend Brave Church, but I also think that student ministry is an area that we can bolster, that next gen is something we can bolster. And before I go a little further, just ask yourself, if you're sitting there saying to yourself,

I don't think this has anything to do with me. This wasn't the message I wanted. Ask yourself this. Hey, Jesus, are you the one telling me I shouldn't get involved in the next generation? Just pray that. find out that's not me talking to you, that's you talking to yourself. God wants every single person investing in the next generation. So here's my question. Who are you investing in right now in the next generation? What young kids are you investing in that are gonna grow in the gospel? Who are you sharing the gospel with? How are you growing them up? Who are the young marrieds that you're spending time with that really needs your wisdom? Who are the young moms that you're spending time with telling them what it's like to be a young mom? Who are the young dads that are having a hard time figuring out how to afford different things and take care of wife and raise kids? Who are you spending your time with in the next generation now? And the answer for many of us is nobody. And so here's the reality. God wants you to get involved. He wants us to pass the baton. I mean, here's the reality of things.

If we don't change what we're doing, here's what's gonna happen. I consult a lot of churches and churches that are older than us, they'll ask questions like this. You know, the pastor's probably 65, 70 years old and they ask questions like this. How do you get all those young people in your church? How do you get more young people in? What kind of programs do we need to develop to get young people? It's not a program, it's intentionality with the gospel. And if we continue to coast and do what we do and don't pour into the next gen, we won't have in 15 to 20 years any young families and young people. Right now we do. And we wanna have even more. And if you set a trajectory for young people, it will continue on their entire life. Because they'll say, well, this is normal. It's normal for me to listen to Jesus. It's normal for me to trust his word. It's normal for me to follow Jesus. It's normal for me to do what Jesus wants to do. Can I tell you why you don't get involved with next gen? Can I tell you what my experience is as to why you don't get involved with next gen? Because you have to be too authentic to do it. Because you know what they're gonna ask you, men?

They're gonna ask you questions like this. Is being married really as good as you say it is? Do you really love your wife? Does she know that you love her? I mean, I talk to a lot of people that say marriage is like terrible. Is that you or do you really enjoy it? Should I get married? If you can't speak honestly to that, which most men can't, that's why they don't invest in anybody else. See, a better thing to do is get those things right so you can invest. And by the way, if you wait until you get everything right, you'll never ever invest in the next generation. It's only been through when I was a youth pastor and doing different things where all those students are asking me deeply personal questions about me that I didn't wanna answer that God used that to shape me. Because it was either you let me fix this or you're gonna be a liar to them for the rest of your life, right? So pour into young people. They'll ask you questions. They wanna genuinely know, is all this stuff I'm reading about in the Bible true? How have you trusted God in the last week? What are you praying for? What do you believe in God for, right? That's called making disciples. That's called growing in grace.

And if you study not only the evil in our cultures that have pervaded where they've always targeted youth, if you study every major revival, you'll realize God always targeted youth. John Wesley in the Methodist revival focused heavily on discipling young people through small groups and hymn singing and spiritual formation and holding people accountable. William Booth who founded the Salvation Army mobilized teenagers and young adults to preach on the streets and serve the poor in London. The student volunteer movement of the 19th and 20th century raised up thousands of young missionaries who carried the gospel to the nations. Every time God's done something great, he's always targeted young people. So why would we wanna be any different? I can tell you this, I did student ministry from the time I started when I was 24 until I was 40. And when I was 24 and God had called me to ministry, that was a big hurdle for me to get over to admit, okay, God, I hear you loud and clear. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll go wherever you want me to go. But when I got to that place and I was centered on that, then I was excited to get the call. Like, where am I going? I was 24, single, young, doors were open in Russia. I'm like, I'll go to Russia.

I'll go anywhere in the world. I just wanna be part of something big and all this stuff. And it came back to me as I was praying through and meeting different people, you're gonna be a youth director in a church. And I was like, no, I'm not doing that. Because two things about that I didn't wanna do. One, I didn't wanna be in the church. And number two, I didn't wanna be a youth director because I didn't even like going to youth when I was a youth. I went one time a year at my Methodist church. You know when I went? Christmas, we'd have a dance. They play cool music like Journey. And you could slow dance with the girls. So I went once a year, cause that was cool. But every other time, I thought it was the biggest waste of time. And personally, to this day, I think it is. Because it was all it was trying to do is like an egg relay and just laugh around. And there was no intentionality with the word. There was no intentionality with the gospel. There was no intentionality for growth. There was no intentionality with identity. And it was an absolute waste of time. And so many student ministries are built by building it on the wrong things. So I've been the pastor of this church for 15 years

and over the last year, I've been a pastor for 15 years and over the last six months, I've been praying hard because God has put something on my heart. He put it on my heart so strong about six months ago. I was staying at a hotel in California and I took a video of myself. I'm not gonna show it to you. I did it for me so I could see me say it. But just about students. and what we're gonna do and how we're gonna invest in students and what we need to do. And it just kept burdening me and burdening me and burdening me. I've talked with a few people about it. I'm like, I just can't shake it. And I begin to think like, you know, I love doing men's ministry and we're still gonna do the Warrior Summit. There's other men's stuff we're gonna do. And I've been to some other men's ministries. I'm like, I love teaching the men. I mean, it's my passion. I love doing it. But I'm like, I can't really do both. I can't do men's and students and God, what are you calling me to do? And so for those of you who know my wife, you may not know her. She's like the kindest, sweetest person.

She doesn't like to argue. She doesn't even like it if I raise my voice a little bit. I mean, she's just, that's just who she is. So we're naturally not a good fit. And so we went out to breakfast and I was telling her, I'm like, hey, you've been processing this with me for a while now. And you hear the Lord. And so I'm like, here's what I wanna do. I want you to argue that I should do men's or help with students. And then whatever you say, no matter what, I'm gonna argue the other, not because I'm arguing with you, but I just gotta hear myself say it. Because if I can hear myself say it, then I'll know what it is that God wants me to do. She's like, okay. I said, so you start and you tell me based on six months of hearing me pray and process what I should do. She says, well, she goes, well, I think you should do students, no question, because you did it for about 20 some years and you're really, really good at it. And it's your passion and kids are at her house all the time that wanna spend time with you and ask you questions. And you've led a lot of kids to Christ. And if you do student ministry, you'll get all the men to go help

pour into the next generation anyway. So you'll be doing both. And so I said, okay. And I was like, yeah, I can't argue with that. And so I'm getting involved with students. So I'm getting involved with students. So you'll hear more about our brave rhythm that's coming, but it's Sundays, Tuesdays, Cadres. As you know, first Tuesday is gonna stay first Tuesday. It's prayer for our entire church. But every subsequent Tuesday, second, third, fourth, and even if there's a fifth Tuesday, we're doing students on both campuses. We're gonna pipe in the teaching to both. Sometimes I'll be there. Sometimes I'll be here. I'm gonna do the lion's share of that as we get started. I wanna tell everybody here, if you're a seventh grader, eighth grader, ninth grader, 10th grader, 11th grader, 12th grader, even if you think student ministry stinks, at least give it a try. And when you give it a try, come tell me why you think it stinks. Because chances are, that's why I think it stinks too. Because our passion is to see you grow in Jesus. We wanna have a place for you to bring all your friends that you're not embarrassed about. We wanna have a place where they can hear the gospel. We wanna have a place where you can grow in sharing it.

And oh, by the way, parents, I need your help. Because who's the best youth pastors in the church? Parents. Please don't drop your kids off thinking it's the church's job to make disciples of your kids. It's not, it's your job. Our job, our job is to support you doing your job. That's our job. And I just have a vision for this, like I did kind of when we planned our church, like I can see thousands of people coming to our student ministry, I just can. Not just coming, but living it, impacting all the high schools, all the middle schools in our area, being a force for the gospel of Jesus Christ, changing our city because of what happens, having people that are giving testimony on this platform, talking to you about what Jesus is doing in their life, talking about how the word of God is so real to them, talking about how prayer has become so real to them, telling them how easy it is to share the gospel with their friends, telling you about the transformation they've seen in their lives, and that's what God's gonna do. So starting in September, we're moving all of our September evenings, starting in September, instead of 6.30,

we're gonna start them all at seven o'clock. The reason is it's almost impossible to get to hear Westminster at 6.30 at night. And most people that come here at 6.30, come at 6.55 anyway, so we're gonna start at seven, okay? So we'll go seven to 8.30, that'll be the latest. You say, well, that's a school night. It's a school night whether we do it on Sundays, it's a school night whether we do it on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Here's the thing. Why Tuesdays? Because it's just what we're gonna do. When I was in Dallas, we did it on Thursday night. When I was in Chicago, we did it on Saturday night. If it's a thing, it doesn't matter what night it is, people will come. If it's not a thing, it doesn't matter what night it is, nobody's gonna come. We're gonna make it a thing. And it's gonna be a really, really good thing. I already have some youth pastors on each campus, they're gonna be helping, you're gonna get to know them, you're gonna get to see them. But parents, I need your involvement. Young people, I need your involvement. College age and young marrieds, I need your involvement. And empty nesters, like what do you do with your time? I need your involvement, right? Like you're free.

You got so much time. And the reality is, most people over the age of 30 say, what am I ever gonna share with somebody that's in high school? The reality is, if you're 70, you have things that they need. You've spent your whole. whole life, you're a wealth of information and a wealth of wisdom, amen? And so I'm inviting all of you to participate in that. So you'll see on the back of your chair and up on the screen, there's a QR code that's here. I'd encourage you, if you're interested in the school or you're interested in helping us with students, just click on that QR code, help us get your name. Me or one of our team will get in touch with you so that you can help and participate with this on both campuses. We're gonna do some joint stuff too. Just so you know, in November, we're gonna partner with Greg Steer and Dare to Share Ministries and take the gospel out in the streets. We're gonna do that. And last year, last year we had a winter retreat. We took about 150 kids and it was a great, great time. This year, we're gonna take three or 400 or more. It's gonna be the third week in January, Martin Luther King weekend. So you get Mondays off because we're gonna have

so much fun over the weekend. Your kids are gonna wanna sleep an extra day, I promise. We're gonna plan mission trips. We're gonna plan all sorts of things. So when you hear me talk about the next gen, I'm talking to everybody in this room that you can participate in it. You can be a part of it. And if you're still saying, it's not me, then you need to seek the Lord. Cause it may not be. Like this may be a season where that's not my thing, but here's what I would say. Even if it's not your thing right now, would you do this? Could you pray for it? Do you care enough to pray that God would touch a bunch of teens in our church who would be radically set on fire for Jesus? See, here's the reality. When Jesus says, you're my witnesses. When Jesus said, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore go. You know what he was saying? There's no sideline in the kingdom. I played on a lot of teams in my life. In high school, I was the starter. In high school, went to two state championships. In college, I was a bench warmer. For five years, I'd never played. I never got to start.

I played 10 plays in college football, right? I can tell you from experience, it's better to be on the field than on the sideline watching. And in the kingdom, there is no sideline. You're in whether you're wanting to participate or not. God's calling you to participate. You say, well, I can't be there every Tuesday night. You don't have to be. What can you do? What does it look like? Hey, I don't know if I can be a table leader. You may not be able to be. We're gonna have the highest and best table leaders we can find. But if you can come pray, or you can come serve food, or you can come help out, or you can bring a carload of kids, because people are asking me after first service, can we bring other people? Can we bring other kids? What do you think the answer is? Yes, bring as many as you want, right? And we're gonna see God do some amazing, amazing, amazing things. So I just wanna encourage you today as you hear this to see what is God's stirring in your heart? What is the asking of you? Because there's always that voice of the enemy. It's like, you don't need to get involved in that.

That's not that big of a deal. There's way more important things in your life. Friends, there's nothing more important now than you passing the baton to the next generation. If you wanna grow in Christ, get involved in the next generation. If you wanna see God flourish your life, get involved in the next generation. You wanna share the gospel, get involved in the next generation. You wanna learn how to pray, get involved in the next generation. You wanna learn how to disciple people and counsel people, get involved in the next generation. You do that, God will show you things about you you didn't even know you were capable of. He'll show you sin patterns that are deep that he's gonna heal you from. He'll do incredible things. Not looking for perfect people here, by the way, or we couldn't take anybody. We're looking for people who are willing to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is so many of you that are here. So I would just encourage you, continue to pray, continue to ask the Lord, and let's just trust him for a great fall this September as the Lord builds something really, really special here. Amen, amen. Would you stand with me?

Our Father in heaven, we give you glory, honor, and praise for who you are. And Lord, we ask you to build our next generation of students. Lord, from our kids, K through six. Lord, our next gen from seventh grade to 12. Lord, we pray you would do immeasurably abundant, mighty things for your glory. Lord, I pray for each and every person here to hear you talking to them about how you want them to be involved. And Lord, we believe you, we trust you, and we look forward to seeing you do a great work. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Could we give God praise for his word today? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.