The Church Needs You Right Now! | Pastor Dylan Sundeen

Northview Students' Ministry is something that is just amazing in every aspect. I mean, I just love it in general, like everything's just amazing, the leaders, they're just, they're amazing. The leadership here is second to none. We have the best set of student pastors, I mean you go to any campus and you'll find an incredible student pastor. They all just love the Lord and it's personally helped me in my life. Definitely grew my faith a bunch. It just really helped me reconnect, learn a lot more about my faith. Now I'm much more passionate. I think it's really cool that Northview Students has designated nights for us to come and learn about God. It's great to have a place where I can have fellowship with students my age and rally and show that this generation is on fire for God. I've really been able to see over the years like the fire in people and I think when you're surrounded by so many people who are on fire for Jesus that you find yourself wanting to be on fire for Jesus. So you come in and you don't know Jesus, well, you're going to learn about him here and you're going to see other people who are also continuing to learn and grow more in their faith and I think that really just like sets it apart and you can kind of just tell that there's something different about it. Being able to just go and just anticipate every Sunday night and be there with people that want to grow in their faith and want to learn more helped me and it set me on a right path for the future and led me to opportunities in life that I would have never known just because personally Jesus has just spoken to me through that community. My seventh grade year coming to students, like I think it helped me step out of my comforters and like meet new people. I came here not knowing anybody, like everybody's so nice, no one's going to turn you away, everybody's here for you. I started attending when I was a sophomore in high school, super isolated from any sort

of spiritual life and I remember just being embraced when I just walked through the doors. Just a super authentic love that I've never been able to experience before and that all came from just Northview students. It really has changed my life, like if I didn't go to Northview, like I don't know where my life would be now. I've made some of my closest friends from being involved with Northview students and I've just been able to grow in my faith so much more because I've been surrounded by that community of people who are strong in their faith. Every opportunity I have to come back to Northview students to serve, I take it because it's a place that I call my second home and a place where the light of the Lord is just shown all throughout and I want to be a part of that. It's a great place to be. Northview students time! Hey yeah, give it up one more time for what God's doing to the next generation, man isn't this so cool? Man, hearing student testimonies is powerful. Students we believe you are not the church of tomorrow, you are the church of today. That's the heartbeat of getting to put student takeover weekend on full display. Fifth and sixth graders in the room, I want you to know that this is a special Sunday for you too, where you get to be a part of our church, but it's not just a special Sunday. We want this to be every Sunday for you. There might be some sixth graders going into seventh grade here in just a few weeks in the room across all of our campuses and we want you to know that you are the church of today. So this might be your new normal starting after level up weekend where you're gonna get to come in, you're gonna get to be a part of service and partake in the body of Christ. So don't shy away from what God has gifted you with. We want to invite you, fifth, sixth, seventh graders, and even our high schoolers to use the gifts and talents that God has given you to invest in the kingdom. Not someday, right here, right now, today.

That's what today is about. I'm stepping into my 10th year here in just a couple of weeks of student ministry, full-time student ministry. It's crazy that I can even say that. But God has been faithful and parents, I just want to remind you, because I don't think you hear it enough, that your students are awesome. It is a gift and an honor and a privilege to get to be a student pastor, to invest in the next generation, to get to partner with you as parents in what God has called you to, your students, your kiddos, too. So parents, just know, you're doing an awesome job. Your kids are amazing and it's an honor to walk alongside of them. These past few weeks, we've been starting to look at the prophets in Scripture. Mark Kroll and Pastor Steve Poe did a great job of looking at Elijah and Elisha, helping us understand the difference. Sometimes we get those two mixed up, right? But how their story and God's big story can still impact us today, and how we can use what God did in and through them to inspire us to continue to live faith-filled lives even today. And I want to thank Pastor Mark and the executive team specifically. Thank you guys so much for entrusting me with this opportunity. I'm super grateful and just humbled to get to be here with you guys today. And I want to shout out our student pastors and our student directors across all of our campuses. You guys know how incredible. your student pastor and director is. We're blessed with a phenomenal team that gets to run hard and run fast alongside this next generation is truly, truly a gift. And I don't know whose idea it was for a student pastor to follow our senior interim executive pastor

and our legacy pastor, but church, here we go. Are you with me? You ready? All right, well, I'm gonna tell you a little about myself and then we're gonna pray and dive in. Here's a picture of my family. My name is Dylan Sundeen. I'm the Noblesville student pastor. These are my awesome kiddos. This is my family. This is Sadie Mae, my little princess there. That is DJ Sundeen. After he was born, a lot of people were like, hey, is that Stanford? Is that short for Dylan Jr.? We're like, hmm, no, but it could, it could. So that's DJ and then my lovely, beautiful wife, Katie. Man, these people are my world and we get to run hard after the next generation. What God has called us to do, it's special to do life alongside of them. In this next picture, it's a picture of some, not all of our Noblesville students. This was last year at Ice Camp. The campuses like to get together after the weekend and just kind of take group pictures. Man, so this is just a special moment. Shout out to the Noblesville students. I love you guys. You guys are awesome.

And I can't wait to be with you tonight, 6.30 to 8.30. Students show up across all campuses, right? Well, guys, it's a good day to be in church, amen? Oh, come on, come on, church. All across all campuses, we can do better. It's a good day to be in church, amen? All right, all right, well, would you bow your heads and pray with me and let's dive in. God, thank you so much for this weekend. Thank you for what you've already been doing, what you will continue to do, God, through this weekend. I pray, Holy Spirit, would you speak to our hearts? Would you minister to us this morning, myself included, Lord? I pray that I would decrease and that you would increase, God, that your word would remain known as we look at the prophet of Jeremiah and that we would see what you're calling all of us to, not someday, but right here, right now. So Jesus, be with us. Holy Spirit, teach us. It's in your powerful and holy name that we pray. Everybody said, amen, amen. Well, as I just prayed, we today are gonna look at the prophet of Jeremiah in scripture. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. Can you say weeping with me? Weeping. Now, when the cloud of witnesses, as they're up in heaven,

sometimes I'm thinking like, is Jeremiah looking down thinking like, that's the best nickname you could come up with? Like, the weeping prophet? Like, give me a little bit of tough guy, like, credibility here. Like, the weeping prophet? Now, Jeremiah did cry. He shed a lot of tears. He weeped over the nation of Israel, the nation of Judah. But his tears weren't weakness. They were compassion. Here's what's fascinating. When God first called Jeremiah, he didn't say, Jeremiah, you're gonna be my emotional prophet. Now, look at, in verse 18, chapter one of Jeremiah, how God introduces Jeremiah. He says, today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar. Now, there's a nickname right there, the iron pillar, and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land. That's how God sees Jeremiah. That's how God introduces Jeremiah to us. That's his description, a fortified city, an iron pillar, a bronze wall, not something fragile, not something timid, not defeated, strong, unmovable, and steadfast. Jeremiah wasn't remembered because he was weak enough to cry.

He cried because he was strong enough to love people who, for between 40 and 50 years, rejected him and what he had to say. Jeremiah is also, gets the nickname tagged as the 11th hour prophet. The 11th hour prophet, that's because God gave him the tall task of messaging, being God's spokesperson to the nation, saying and announcing the coming judgment. Now, raise your hand if you want that role. You're like, yeah, I'll go tell everybody that God is upset with her, right? Nobody wants that role. The book of Jeremiah read all the way through. It's a bit of a roller coaster. We've got judgment and hope. We've got destruction and we've got promise. We've got human weakness and divine faithfulness. And Jeremiah is God's chosen prophet for one of the most turbulent periods in Israel's history. The nation of Judah, it was spiraling towards disaster. Political alliances were shifting, moral compromise was rampant, and God's people had turned their back on him and began to worship false idols. But Jeremiah tells us a story of God's heart broken by his people's unfaithfulness, yet promises of restoration pointing to the promises that will be fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Jeremiah was young when he started his ministry.

His ministry, scholars and theologians say he's somewhere in the late teens or early 20s. His ministry spanned a stretch of 40 or 50 years. He wasn't a political leader. He didn't have any impressive credentials or natural charisma. But by our standards of success, his ministry was kind of a failure. There's in the pages of Scripture, not a recorded name that turned away and repented and said, yes, Jeremiah, thank you. Thank you for being God's mouthpiece and saying what is to come so that we can get our lives together, repent from our wicked ways and turn back to the one true King. We don't have any of that recorded. So in Jeremiah's ministry, our standards of success, not great, nobody listened to the guy. But despite his lack of success, Jeremiah would become one of the most significant prophets in all of Scripture. So today, if you have your Bibles, crack them open to Jeremiah. We're gonna be in chapter one. Follow along with me starting in verse two. It says, the word of the Lord came to him. Now say it with me, came to him. One more time, came to him. In the 13th year of the reign of Josiah,

son of Ammon, King of Judah. Now, why did I have us repeat that together this morning? Notice who makes the first move. Jeremiah doesn't climb a mountain and seek a radical encounter with God and ask Him to call him into something great or something difficult. No, God initiates Jeremiah's call. The word of the Lord came to him. Isn't that the gospel, friends? That God initiates, God calls, and God comes to us. He cares so much about you that he would lay down his son's life to save you. God comes to us. He always initiates. That's how God operates. Now, verse four, we see Jeremiah's take on, his calling on his life. The word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. So if you highlight or underline in your Bible, I want you to highlight or underline these three things. He knew him, he set him apart, and he appointed him. Those are huge. God is speaking to Jeremiah's identity when he says, I know you. I formed you. I get to decide where your identity lies.

I get to decide where your worth comes from. And that's what he says when I set you apart. He says, Jeremiah, you are valuable. See, when my four-year-old son finds something valuable, he finds this little spot above his bed right now where there's a couple of shelves, and he places things that are valuable to him up there because he knows where he can find them. He sets them aside, and he's like, it's gonna be there when I wanna play with it. And he's intentional about cleaning those special things up, but nothing else, right? You parents in the room, you know what I'm talking about. Right now, the thing fighting for that spot on the shelf is a slinky. Any slinky fans in the house? Anybody? Okay, slinkies are fun, man. Find a staircase and a slinky, you're gonna have a good time. But when God spoke to Jeremiah and said, I set you apart, he's saying, Jeremiah, like, you're valuable. You matter to me. And then he goes on to say, I appointed you, which leads into Jeremiah's purpose, that Jeremiah has great purpose, and God has great plans for him. They might not be plans that Jeremiah wants to take on. As we see here in a second, Jeremiah has some hesitations. But Jeremiah mattered because God said he mattered.

Jeremiah had purpose because God gave him purpose. And friends, if God is constant, if he's the same yesterday, today, and forever, isn't that truth the same for you and I here today? That God knows you, that he speaks identity into you. He gets to define who you are. He says you are valuable. He cares about you, and he's given you, catch this, a specific plan and purpose for your life. Every single one of us. So as God says this to Jeremiah, it's not just Jeremiah that needs to step into this. It is every single one of us. In verse six, we see Jeremiah's response to this calling. He says, I, sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak. I am too young. Now, students in the room across all of our campuses, say this with me on the count of three. I am too young. One, two, three. I am too young. One more time. I am too young. Don't ever say that again, okay? Don't ever say that again because that's a lie. That's a lie straight from the enemy. You're not too young to be used by God. And I've believed that lie. If you're not a student in the room, I'm sure if you're honest with yourself,

you've believed that lie. Once upon a time, you felt unqualified. You felt like you didn't have what it took, like you were too young. And maybe someday, but definitely not today. That's a lie straight from Satan. See, students, let me talk to you for a second. There are no JV Christians. There are no junior varsity on God's team. You are a child of God and he calls his children, period. You have gifts and talents that the church needs today. First Timothy 4.12 says, don't let anyone look down on you because you're young. But it says, set an example to all of the believers in the way that you live your life and how you conduct yourself. You are not too young. Set an example for the church, for those around you today. Be the hope that the world needs today in the hallways of your school, on your sports teams, in your locker rooms. Be the light of Christ. When you worship, when you pray for others, when you teach the next generation, students, I'm still talking to you. When you worship, it is amazing to see your passion, that you would worship undignified, giving God all the glory and all the honor that he deserves, not caring what other people around you might think of. I mean, why is this, why are they lifting their hands?

Why are they singing so loud? Don't they know they can't sing, right? But some of you have amazing voices and you're leading us in worship. And it is such a gift. Don't stop. People, if you've not been in a room where you have an opportunity to hear students pray, I wanna challenge you, find a time, find a space where you can get in a room where you can just observe students praying over one another. It is special. When students pray, they don't care what other people think. They're authentic, they're genuine. They want to see a move of God and they pray like it. It is special. And so many of our students lead out in kids ministry and fifth and sixth grade students all across our campuses. And you need to continue doing that because you're gifted. But I know there's a lot of students here and across all of our campuses that aren't yet serving because you're believing this lie that you're too young. Maybe when you graduate high school, then you'll get involved. Then you'll find where God has made you to fit in in the church. And students, that is not okay. You have a gift and talent

that God has given you to use today. Maybe it's welcoming people. Maybe it's helping set up and tear down. It's the simple things, the little things where we can find community. It's serving coffee and parking cars. Or if you're at Noblesville, you can even drive the shuttle. Just kidding. You can't drive the shuttle at Noblesville. Listen, there's no JV Christians, but there are JV drivers. I've seen some of you guys, okay? Listen, parents, you know what I'm talking about, right? Back to Jeremiah chapter one, verse six. He says, sovereign Lord, I am too young. I'm too young. We do the same. We have this reaction. We think, wow, I'm unqualified. I'm not good enough. My shortcomings, God can't overcome that. And that's just a lie. If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. It's kind of where we're gonna land today. And I just want you to sit in it with me. It says, God's kingdom doesn't need the next generation someday. It needs every generation today, right here, right now. God's kingdom is not waiting for the next generation

to take over once the previous generations have passed on. No, no, no, no, no. We need all of us right here, right now to accomplish what God has set before us. Jeremiah didn't understand this right away. And sometimes we don't either. Now, I wanna talk to everyone over the age of 18, in this room, across all of our campuses, all of our adults. God's kingdom doesn't need the next generation someday. It needs every generation today. That includes you. We cannot reach our potential as a church if you are not an active part of it. J.C. Ryle, a 19th century English pastor once put it this way. Satan's strategy doesn't change. It's the same lie, year after year, century after century. He says, when you're too young, or when you're young, he whispers, it's too soon to serve God. And when you're old, he whispers, it's too late. Sounds about right. That sounds like our enemy. It sounds like the lie he's hurled at us year after year, generation after generation. And I just gotta tell you today, that is not true. What does God's word say? God's word in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 says this, if the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?

If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. Paul is saying here, we all have a role to play. Every single one of us, there are no junior varsity Christians. We have to step in and get in the game, every single one of us. Imagine with me for a second, put on your imagination caps, okay? If everyone in our church was 100 years old, some of you are like, what is the student pastor about to say here right now, right? But we'd have incredible wisdom. If everybody was 100, we'd have decades of faithfulness. We'd have decades of stories of how God has been faithful. But who would we pass those stories on to? Now imagine with me if everybody was 12. Some of you are chuckling that have 12 year olds right now. You're like, oh boy, right? We'd have so much energy, right? We'd have more energy than probably any other church that's ever existed. We'd have bold faith, we'd have excitement. But who would lead us? Who would guide us when we start drifting off the path that God had placed in front of us?

Who would model what it looks like to live a faithful life for Jesus over the long haul? You see what I'm trying to illustrate here today? We need each other. It takes all of us to be the body of Christ, to do what God has called us to do. God's kingdom doesn't need the next generation someday. It needs every generation right here, right now, today. We cannot reach our potential church if you are not a part of it. If you've heard me say that already before, it's because I want to repeat it. It needs to be said that we need you. Yes, you, the person who feels unqualified. Yes, you, the person who feels too old. Yes, you, the person that feels like you're too busy or that you're too broken. We need you. Verse six, as we've been landing on, Jeremiah doesn't just say, I'm too young. He also says something else here. He says, I don't know how to speak. Now, he's not saying like, I don't know how to form words and get sentences out of my mouth. What he's saying is, I feel unqualified. I don't feel equipped to do what you're asking me to do, God. Listen, again, back to the truth. The only way to defeat that lie, to defeat that feeling when it pops up in our life as well is recognizing that God knows us,

that he set us apart and that he has appointed us. He has a specific plan and a purpose for all of us. And it all looks different. And when we all step in and say yes to what God has put in front of us, it all works together. And it is a beautiful picture of the family of God moving on mission to make Jesus famous. So I wanna talk to stay-at-home moms for a second because you're in a busy season. Your life is full. It's wild. You're constantly doing things around the house. But don't let this season waste by. You have something you can teach the church right here, right now in this season, maybe even as you're learning it, that you have a lot to teach us about patience. You have a lot to teach us about compassion and living selflessly. Business leaders in the room, across all of our campuses, don't wait until it feels like, I don't have a busy, I'm not in a busy season anymore, so now I can serve, now I can get involved, now I can say yes to what I feel like God has put on my heart. Don't wait until that season is over because it's not coming. You have a lot to teach us right here, right now, today about making courageous decisions, about what it looks like to steward our finances well,

about what it looks like to handle conflict and walk through conflict resolution well. Retired folks, you have a lot to teach us. Don't think you're too old that your best is past. Know that your best days are ahead. You have gifts that you need to, that the church needs, that you need to pour into the body. Lessons about life and wisdom and discernment. We need you. And students, you have a lot to teach us. Like I said, about worshiping God. About what it looks like to live just on fire for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need you to step into that, to live in that now, so that it will inspire us to get on board and get in the game as well. We saw this number at Carmel here during the host moment, but in case you missed it, over all of our campuses, through seventh through 12th grade, last school year alone, we saw 493 first-time guests that come through our doors. That number is amazing. That's 493 students that said yes to an invitation, that said yes to coming and being a part of what God is doing in and through Northview students. And because of that, you saw this. You saw 134 students say yes to Jesus. 134 students. Eternities are forever changed because students invited their peers. Because they didn't care if they got rejected a few times

before they finally had a yes and someone came to church for the first time. Because they loved their peers enough to say you need this. You're missing Jesus and you need it. And then 193 of those students made a decision to get baptized last year. Amazing, amazing, amazing. When I grow up, man, students, I wanna have childlike faith like you. Don't stop what you're doing. You know, I know there's a lot of people across all of our campuses who God has been preparing for kingdom work for a long time. Maybe you've been faithful in attendance, showing up week after week. Maybe you're in a life group. Maybe you're even involved in giving, stewarding your finances and allowing God to move in and through that. But maybe, just maybe for you, it's not doing something else like that. It's not just learning more. It's actually leading somebody, discipling somebody, pulling someone under your wing saying, you know what, I've been there. I've been in that season of life. I know what you're walking through to a degree. Let me walk alongside of you and be the person in your life that I wish I would've had in my life at that stage

to help point me on the right path, what Jesus has called us to do. I can tell you right now that every single campus across central Indiana is in need of kids in student ministry volunteers to invest in the next generation, to walk alongside of them, to shepherd them through super fun moments in life, but also very hard and difficult moments in our lives. There is a need for you to use what God has given you to be the church today. Listen, the time is now. The time is right now to say yes to the mission of God. The time is right now, church, to say yes, to stepping in and doing your part in making Jesus known. So please don't leave church today without connecting with a staff member or a team member, maybe even signing up for a test drive to come check this out. What does it look like to volunteer with the next generation? I don't want you to hear me just plug a serving opportunity. Don't, please don't miss my heart in this. It's not just about that we need you to accomplish what God is doing in and through the next generation, but it's also what we want for you. There's only something that we can tap into when we get outside of ourselves and when we serve, when we become the church. There's something that God does in us

when we lower ourselves and we walk humbly into something that might be unknown territory, might be fearful at times. We might not feel equipped. We might feel too old or too young, or like we don't have it all together. But listen, church, please hear my heart this weekend. Step into that uncomfortable spot if that's you. Step in, say yes to the opportunity God has put in front of you, not just so you can impact someone else's life, but because of what it will do and because of how God will use that in your life. And that's a big part of my story and why I'm even standing here today. See, full-time ministry was not my plan A for my life. I grew up in Colorado and I wanted to play for the Denver Broncos. I grew up playing football. I loved it. I was always like a bigger guy. So like football was great for me. And when I was in my, I don't know, early high school career, I had my first shoulder surgery. And God placed a huge gift in my life through three men. Chris, Kyle, and Kyle. Yes, two Kyles. So if your name's Kyle, you have an anointing on your life, okay?

Just kidding, maybe not. These three men, man, they impacted my life when I was going through it, when I didn't know where else to turn. We stayed up late playing board games and eating too much food and laughing until we cried. And we just did life together. They invited me to go to Home Depot with them and just run errands and do life with them. And I spent time in their homes, around their families, and I just got to watch them as they lived life, as they said yes to what God had placed in front of them, follow Jesus, not perfectly, but passionately. And God used these men in a big way. And fast forward a couple of years, I have another shoulder surgery, playing football in college. And my dream of becoming a long snapper for the Denver Broncos is shattered, right? Why a long snapper? Some people ask, they're like, well, you know what? They get to snap a ball between their legs one to two times a game, and then they get to watch the game for free. So it sounded like a pretty good deal to me. But when God ripped that away, and I'm so glad he did, yet again, I believe somebody, God used somebody named Zach, Pastor Zach Green, serving at James River Church at the time in Springfield, Missouri.

God used him to cry with me, to mold me into what God was calling me into, to teach me, to give me opportunities when I didn't feel qualified to handle the opportunities that he had given me. But he did life with me. He said yes to what God had placed in front of him, and it changed my life forever. And fast forward a few more years, I felt called into full-time ministry, recognizing that, man, serving the next generation was actually God's plan A for my life, being a part of the local church in this capacity. And then 10 years later, a few weeks ago, when Pastor Mark Kroll called me and said, hey, Dylan, how you doing? Good, how are you? I mean, we're actually, we just got done being stranded on the side of the road. We're taking students, high school students up to camp, and one of our shuttles broke down, but we're all at Chick-fil-A now. It's okay, like we're back on holy ground, okay? So we're like, we're doing okay. We're doing all right, thanks for the call. Like, what, like, you don't usually call me, Pastor Mark. Like, so did I do something wrong? Like, what's going on here? He's like, no, no, no, I'm glad you guys are doing good. You're leading great.

Hey, we're having a student takeover weekend, July 25th and 26th, and I was like, oh, sweet. Like, do you need some ideas? Or like, I'm happy to talk through that. Like, we've done that a couple times at Noblesville. It's been so fun. And he's like, no, like, we want you to teach that weekend. And I blacked out for the rest of the conversation because I was like, what? Like, I had my Jeremiah moment. In that moment, I was like, I'm too young. Like, I'm unqualified to do what you're asking me to do, Pastor Mark. I'm unqualified to do what you're asking me to do, God. And through the preparation of leading up to this weekend, church, I gotta tell you, like, God's reminded me of his faithfulness. Because in that moment, although I had my Jeremiah moment, and my first reaction was, I'm too young. Like, I'm not ready for this. God was so faithful to remind me time after time after time that he's been faithful. That when I don't feel like enough, he is. That when I feel like I'm too young or I'm inadequate, he reminds me of his power and his strength. And friends, if God can do that in Jeremiah's life, if God can do that in my life, I know that I know that I know that he can do that in your life too. So it's time for us to get off the sideline, church,

and get in the game. You're not too young to play. You're not too old to play. You're not too busy to play. You're not too broken to play. Look what God tells Jeremiah in verses seven through nine. He says, the Lord said to me, do not say I am too young. He says, you must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you, and I will rescue you, declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand, touched my mouth, and he said to me, I have put my words in your mouth. in your mouth. Now what is God doing for Jeremiah here? He's reminding him of the value that he has. He's saying, Jeremiah, don't say you're too young. Don't hold those limitations over you. Those are earthly, worldly standards. I don't care about age. I care about faithfulness. Don't say those things. And he says, you must go. That doesn't sound like an option to me. He says, you must go. Why, because Jeremiah can figure it out and pull himself up by the bootstraps and he can do this? No, no, because God has a mission and he's asked Jeremiah,

commanded Jeremiah to play a part in it. God's always been on mission to bring his people back to him. And he's equipped you. He's equipped me with gifts and talents varying in their kinds so that we can play a part in God's mission. Church, don't miss an opportunity to be used by God. Don't miss an opportunity to say yes to what he has put in front of you. Now he says all this, the last thing he says, do not be afraid. Don't be afraid for I am with you. Church, there it is. I am with you. God never asked his people to accomplish his mission on their own strength. We would mess it up time after time after time after time. The gospel isn't the story of qualified people earning God's approval. The gospel is a story of a holy God pursuing broken people. So if you're here today across any of our locations and you feel like you're not qualified, like you don't deserve to be used by God, good news, none of us do. That's the gospel. Romans 5, eight says, but God, while we were still sinners, Christ Jesus died for us. While we were still sinners, while we were broken,

while we were a mess, God sent his one and only son to pay the ultimate price, to sacrifice, to lay down his life in place of ours. A payment we could never reach, God did it for us. So that one day you might be sitting here, a believer, or maybe not yet a believer, trying to figure out what this whole faith thing is like. And maybe just maybe for the first time recognize, God has a plan for my life. And instead of playing on the sidelines and waiting to see how that plan unfolds, I'm gonna finally take a step of faith to get in the game, to be a part of what God is doing all around us. So church, as we close, I have a question for you. I want all of us to answer this question honestly in our hearts. If Jesus didn't wait until you were good enough to save you, why would he wait until you feel good enough for him to use you? The answer is up to you. We believe that he knows you, that he has placed immense value over you and immense value over your life, no matter your age, no matter the season of life that you're in, and that he has set you apart. He has given you a specific plan and a specific purpose to be used not someday, but today, right here,

right now, where God has placed you. Church, the kingdom of God doesn't need the next generation someday. It needs every generation today. So let's get in the game. Let's say yes to what God has put in front of us. God has never been looking for the most qualified people. He's simply looking for the people willing to say yes. Church, as we close. As we close today, I want you to think about your answer to that question. Will you get in the game? What do you believe about God wanting to use you? Do you believe it's true? I hope you say yes to what he's calling you to, to what he's put in front of you. We're gonna close a little bit differently today. Student takeover weekend, so we're actually gonna invite somebody to come out and read a benediction prayer over you across all of our campuses. So church, here at Carmel, across all of our locations, will you please stand to your feet? And as you do, we're gonna read this benediction prayer over you in just a moment. I would invite you to receive it, however you feel led. Maybe it's a posture of just holding your hands out, maybe you just want to bow your head, close your eyes, and listen to the words that are about to be prayed over you but as you do, I want you to know that I'm praying for you, I'm praying with you, that you would boldly say yes

to what God has placed in front of you. So I'm gonna pass it back to campuses at this time. And here at Carmel, we get student Lorelei. She's gonna go ahead and come on out. Lorelei, go ahead and come on out. And everybody, give her a round of applause as she joins us out here. Proud of you, friend. Let's go. So Lorelei is going to read this benediction prayer over you and again, church, receive it as you will. Thank you for being with us today, we're grateful for you. When Lorelei's done, you guys will be dismissed. Lorelei? Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Father, thank you for believing, thank you for being the God who calls. Forgive us for believing the excuses that keeps us on the sidelines, whether we've said I'm too young, I'm too old, or I'm not good enough. Help us trust your voice over our fears. As you promised Jeremiah, remind us that when you call us, you also go with us. Give us courage to go where you send us, confidence to trust you, and faith to believe that you will provide everything we need.

Jesus, thank you that while we were sinners, you died for us. The same grace that saved us is the grace that sends us. So today, our answer is simply yes, Lord. Send us out to love people so faithfully and make you known, wherever you place us. We go not in our own strength, but in yours. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.