They Tore Off A Roof | Get In The Fight | Week 1

All right, church, hey, if you got a Bible, turn with me to Mark chapter two. Mark chapter two is where we're gonna be today. Listen, hey, I'm excited for today. We just got back from taking over 1,100 students to summer camp, and man, let me tell you, it was a powerful, powerful week. We saw students encounter Jesus. We saw students surrender things. We saw students make decisions that I really believe will change the trajectory, the direction of their lives. I'll tell you just one quick story. On the last night of our middle school camp, improv two, eighth grade girl comes up on stage and leads an acapella version of gratitude. And listen, I've done youth ministry a long time. I've never in my life seen this many middle school students with their hand raised being led by their peer in worship. It was amazing, and that's just like a taste of what God is doing in this next generation. Can I be honest with you, can I be honest with you? One of the big frustrations of student ministry and honestly of summer camp is that students can experience a life-changing week with Jesus and then come home to a home that has not changed at all. Listen, it's nobody's fault, right? I wish you could, parents, but you didn't get to see it. You didn't get to be in the room when your kid finally stopped pretending. You didn't get to watch them worship

and actually believe the words that they were singing. You didn't get to see the moment where for the first time or maybe the first time in a long time, man, they realized, hey, Jesus loves me. I don't have to keep living my life in this way. And then they come home, and listen, parents, I get it. I know how this goes. They come home, they get in the car. You go, man, how was camp? It was good. They go, okay, well, like, what did you do? You just did some stuff, you know? It's like, okay, great. I paid how much money for you to just do some stuff? I get it, that's how it goes. But here's what we wanna do this weekend. We not only wanna just celebrate all that God did at camp, but we wanna give you a little bit of a glimpse into what God is doing in this next generation. And already, you've seen some of them, man. Like, you've seen them in worship. You saw the video. You heard Jackson's testimony. And we're going in service today, and you're gonna see a ton of students get baptized. And honestly, maybe a lot of you are gonna get baptized today and say, hey, this is a line in the sand moment. Jesus has saved my life, and this changes everything about everything.

From now on is what we're gonna see a lot of students and a lot of you make decisions for today. But here's, before we get to baptisms, here's the question I want us to wrestle with together as a church. What would it look like for all of us, students, parents, families, this entire church, what would it look like for all of us to carry the next generation to Jesus together? Let me be clear. You cannot save your kid. You cannot force someone to follow Jesus. Only Jesus saves. But here's what you can do. You can grab a corner of a mat that carries them to Jesus. Why? Because when someone matters enough, you will do whatever it takes to get that person to Jesus. And that's exactly what we see in the story we're gonna look at together today in Mark chapter two. Hopefully you're turned there by now. Mark chapter two, here's what we see. There is a man in Capernaum and he's paralyzed. He's been paralyzed for a long time, but then one day his friends, they hear, hey, someone is in town and rumor has it this man does miracles. He does miracles. He makes the blind see, he makes the lame walk. And so these friends, because they care about their friend,

they begin to think, man, if we could just get our friend to this miracle worker, then maybe, just maybe, it could change everything for his story. And so Mark chapter two, verse one, here's what it says. It says, and when he, he being Jesus, returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. He was actually probably at Peter's house. Verse two, and many were gathered together so that there was no room, not even at the door. Now, just some context. In Mark chapter one, Jesus, he heals this demon-possessed man. And so naturally, after Jesus heals a demon-possessed man, he's pretty famous. Everyone wants to hear or see this man who healed the demon-possessed man, which makes sense, right? Think about it. If someone in Boulder was like, hey, I can heal demon possession and I can perform miracles, which, let's be honest, someone in Boulder probably thinks that they can do that. But there's actual physical testimonies of this taking place, right? People are lined up, they're ready. Like, hey, we need healing. If we're hearing about this, hey, church is canceled, right? Like, we're going to Boulder, we're gonna see,

is this man actually who he says that he is? This is the context, right? People are hearing about what Jesus is doing, and so they are lining up at the door. Hey, Jesus, we need a miracle. So picture this, right? The house is packed with people, packed. Everybody wants something from Jesus. He's the miracle man. He can do it. And so people, they're lining up. We need a miracle in our own life. And think about it, man. If you're honest, this is how a lot of us approach Jesus. Jesus, fix my kid, fix my marriage, fix my anxiety, fix my life. Listen, Jesus obviously deeply cares about all those things, but here's what you need to understand about miracles. Whenever Jesus performs a miracle, he doesn't perform miracles to make our lives more comfortable. He performs miracles to point back to the miracle maker, to himself. And so while everyone, man, they're showing up, they're lining, they're packing out this house, saying, Jesus, we need a miracle, heal something. Notice what Jesus does. Goes on, and he was preaching the word to them. So again, Jesus is being flooded with requests for healing, casting out demons.

Yet here's what Jesus does. He makes sure to stop and preach the word of God. Now listen, there are no expiration dates on the miracles of the Bible, right? Like God still heals. God still does miracles. And we should pray boldly that God would do this. But here's what I want you to understand, because we live in this age of like faith healers and like this social media age where you see all these things on social media and you're like, hey, what's going on? Should I believe this? Listen, just because someone calls something a miracle does not necessarily mean God is in it. So ask questions, ask questions. Here's some good questions. Is the Bible being preached? Is the gospel being preached? Is Jesus getting glory or is somebody else getting glory? Listen, Jesus would never use hurting people to put on a show or a spectacle. The miracle always points to the message and the message always points to Jesus. This is why in a room full of people who are begging for healing, Jesus stops and preaches the word to them. Verse three, the story goes on. I love this story. It says, and they came.

So the friends, they came bringing to Jesus a paralytic carried by four men. Verse four, and when they could not get near him because of the crowd. Now, time out here because this is something we always want to avoid as a church, right? Like we want to be a church, a people that will always create space to reach one more person with the good news of Jesus. This is why, this is why we're making some changes to our student ministry this fall. This is why we're planting new campuses all throughout the Front Range in Colorado. This is why we're putting an end, we're putting a fight to end sex trafficking here in Colorado, why? So that one more person could come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ. And so there was no room. The crowd, it was too packed. And so these friends got creative. It goes on, it says, so they removed the roof above Jesus. And when they made an opening, they let down the bed or a mat on which this paralytic lay. Now, before we talk about what these friends did, let me just ask you a question. Do you have four friends like this? I know, like your life's probably going awesome right now. But let's be honest, I hope this isn't true, but there will come a moment in your life

where you are paralyzed. Could be physically, could be financially, could be spiritually, could be relationally, could be emotionally, there will come a time in life when you need friends, you need your church, you need family to pick you up and carry you into the presence of Jesus. Do you have that? Let me talk to the men real quick because we're the worst at this. Right, like we just settle for buddies. You know, golfing buddies, drinking buddies. Listen, I get it, I got buddies, but here's what you need to understand about buddies. Buddies are fine, but buddies should always, like the goal of this should always be that these buddies turn into a band of brothers. Listen, you need men in your life who actually know what's going on beneath the surface. Do you have somebody you can confess to? Do you have someone you can be honest with and ask for real prayer requests? Not just, hey, I got this unspoken that you would pray for from me. Listen, men, if we are not having spiritually significant conversations often with other men, we might be doing this church thing wrong. Don't settle for buddies. Parents, let me talk to you real quick. If your kids are not having

spiritually significant conversations with someone else other than you, listen, you're irreplaceable. You are, Jim's gonna talk about this in a moment. You are the most significant spiritual voice. in their life, but also, if they are not having spiritually significant conversations with someone else other than you, we might be missing it. I wanna show you this real quick. So, Barna Group, it's an organization that does some studies on the church, and they did this study on young adults who stayed connected to church and their faith in Jesus after high school. And so, the clearest difference, you're gonna see this, the clearest difference is relationships. Okay, so check this out. These are just some numbers for you. 81% of young adults who stayed connected to their faith, connected to the church, 81% of them, they had a trusted adult in their life who knew them, showed up, and cared about what was happening in their world. Parents, this is you. 83% of them had a friend that they could drop the mask with, someone who knew what was really going on in their life. Students, this is you for another. 77% had somebody outside of their family that they could call when life got hard and they needed honest advice.

Men and women of this church, this is what you can be for the next generation. 82% did not just attend a church, they felt like they belonged to a church. Church family, this is on all of us to help make this place a space for the next generation where they feel they belong to this church. Now listen, these are just some numbers, but here's what they should tell us. Parents, your kids need you, right? You're irreplaceable. You are the most significant voice in their life. But also, they need more than you. They need leaders, they need this church, they need friends, they need other adults who know their name, who know their story, who can help carry them to Jesus. Do you have friends like this? But here's the other question. Are you a friend like this? Are you the kind of person who loves the people in your life enough to say, I need to pick up your mat, even at a great expense to me, and carry you to Jesus? Now listen, I get it. Most of us in this room, I've read Mark chapter two a number of times. Every time I read it, it's like, man, I would do that. It's like, I'd carry my friend to Jesus. Okay, will you do it for the teenager in your house? Right, like, will you do it for your best friend at school?

Will you do it for the person sitting in front of you or behind you in church right now? Five years ago, my wife and I, we showed up to our very first ever Flatiron service. We got invited to a Christmas service. And we showed up 15 minutes late. So you know how it goes. We had to park like 20 miles away. And we start walking in, and we're late, and we make our way up to the balcony. We're all the way up there in the balcony, and we actually didn't even find a seat. We're standing, like, in the balcony in the back. And I'll be honest, like, this is how I came in. My arms are crossed. Like, I've just been kind of burnt with church. I've been really more so burnt with pastors. And so I'm in there, arms are crossed. And then Jim gets up on stage, and he begins to cast this vision for this church. He says, hey, we are going to be a church that goes after, that gets in the fight for this next generation. Now, this is right after COVID. So you remember, like, our kids, they're getting crushed at this point. And so Jim says, hey, whatever it takes, money, people, time, space, it's too important. We care too much. We're going to carry the next generation to Jesus. My wife and I, we're standing in the back,

and we're just weeping. Right, like, you've heard Jim say this before. Like, I'm almost making a deal with God. I'm like, I don't want to work in a church again, but, like, I don't know, God. Like, I feel called to maybe be a part of this vision. It's like, I'm going back and forth. We're crying. Flatirons, can I tell you something? Five years later, we have seen this church make an eternal impact for this next generation. We've seen it. Come on. Listen, we've seen hundreds of you, men and women in this church, step up and say, hey, I don't just think, man, I need to fix something in this next generation. We've seen you step up and say, I'm going to disciple this next generation to follow Jesus. Man, we've seen hundreds of students break generational curses for their family. We've seen students baptize a friend who they thought would never come into a relationship with Jesus. We're going to see more of that here in just a moment. We've seen students respond to a call of ministry. I'm telling you, they're going to be the future leaders of this church, of the church in America, the church around the world. But listen, we're not done.

We're going to keep going. We have a call. Listen, in Mark, for us to continue to carry the next generation towards Jesus, it's going to take all of us. We need all of us at each corner of the mat to carry them to Jesus together. So let me get really practical. Then we're going to hear from Jim. He's going to talk some more about how we do this well. So at one corner of the mat, here's what we need. Parents, we need you. We need you. Grab a corner. Now listen, I get it. Parenting is incredibly hard. Some of you are doing everything you know how to do feel like it isn't working at all. and you still. But man, let me tell you, this matters. This season of life right now, where they're under your roof, it matters, man. They're seeing the life that you live. They're learning what you prioritize. They're seeing, here's what our family values. Here's what our family is about. Did you know this? Two out of every three followers of Jesus became a follower of Jesus before they turned 18 years old.

Now, I'm not trying to put pressure on you, maybe a little bit, but this season of life matters for their eternity. When I was 18 years old, I'll never forget this moment. I was 18 years old and I was sitting in my living room and all of a sudden my mom, she comes running out of her room and she's crying. And I tried to get her attention, but she's crying and she runs into the garage. She gets in her car and she leaves. And so I'm confused. And then I see a couple moments later, my dad, he comes walking out of the same room and he's crying. And my dad comes and sits down next to me on the couch and he says, son, I really messed up. Cheated on your mom. I'm gonna do everything. I'm gonna do everything I possibly can to first heal myself, but try to heal this marriage. Now listen, I'm 18 years old, so man, it's like I'm devastated, right? But naturally, I start thinking, okay, dad, whatever. These are words that you're saying, like you just destroyed what this family looks like now. But here's what you gotta understand about my family. My family was like church every weekend. Like my parents would make me skip like Sunday travel tournament championship games because I'd have to go and tell my coach,

hey, listen, coach, my family, we go to church. Like it's every single weekend. But you wanna know what? It was actually my dad's worst moment that became the moment in which I saw, wait a second, they actually believe this stuff. They believe this. We're not going to church every weekend and just put on some show and try to make ourselves feel better about ourselves. We're going because we're broken people and we need a savior. We don't got this on our own. And so here's what I did. I watched, 18 years old, I watched my dad do the work that he had to do to heal. I watched my mom pray on her knees and open up her Bible every day when her world was falling apart. I watched both of them keep running towards Jesus when it would have been way easier for them to give up and run away. And you wanna know what? That showed me way more about what my family believes than a thousand church services ever could have showed me. Now, parents, listen, you're not gonna get this perfect. You probably already messed this up. But you know this, Jim says this all the time. Hey, thank God, you don't need a second chance. What you need is the blood of Jesus and from now on.

And so from now on, this can be a from now on moment for you and your family where you say, man, listen, I'm gonna grab a corner of the mat and I'm gonna carry this next generation towards Jesus. So parents, we need you. We need you on a corner, on another corner of the mat. Students, we need you. We need you to carry your friends to Jesus. Who is it? One person at your school, on your team, at your work who needs somebody to love them enough to bring them to Jesus. And listen, I get it. I've worked with students for a long time. It can feel awkward. What if they say no? What if it gets weird? What if it affects the friendship or the relationship? But listen, these four guys, these four friends in Mark 2 were willing to look ridiculous because their friend mattered more than their reputation. Listen, you say you love your friends, but do you care enough to risk something for them? You say you love your friends, but do you care enough to care where they spend eternity? So make the invite, save the seat, share your story, show up when your friend is hurting and point them, carry them to the one who heals. Listen, you never know how God is going to use something like that.

In fact, let me give you an example. I would not be doing what I'm doing right now if I did not have friends who carried me when I was broken. I'm gonna show you a picture. Here were some of my friends. Look at these dummies. They're wearing leopard skinny jeans. Like, just some context. I was a football player in high school. So it's like, we weren't necessarily like the friendship match made in heaven here, but these guys cared enough about me to drag me into our youth ministry. I went to church every single week, but like, I didn't wanna be a part of the youth ministry. I just like would show up, hang on my phone, and like, that was it. These guys dragged me into the youth. They cared enough about me to say, hey, we see something in your life. We know that Jesus has something for you. We wanna be friends with you as we chase after Jesus together. And I'm telling you, man, it changed the trajectory of my life. And so if God can use the couple dudes in leopard skinny jeans to change the trajectory of my life, stop deciding who God can and can't. cannot use to change the eternity of your friend's lives. It just might be you.

Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. And so parents, we need you. We need you to grab a corner. Students, we need you to grab a corner. Third, we need leaders. We need men and women of this church to grab a corner of the mat. Listen, some of you, you're sitting here and you're thinking, God, what am I called to? What's your purpose for my life? Can I tell you something? If you are a follower of Jesus, you are called to go and make disciples. Listen, you don't need to pray about whether you should obey something Jesus has already commanded you to do. So get in the fight. Just this last week, Tyler, he's our Denver campus pastor, he was telling me a story about how he walked into his son's room and his son had his Bible open and his notebook out and he was taking notes on what he was reading in his Bible and you know, his dad's proud, but he's just like, what's going on in here? So he just asked, hey, buddy, what are you doing? He said, hey, my small group leader told me that I should take notes when I read my Bible.

Obviously, like Tyler, you know, he's proud, he's a happy dad, but he was telling me, he's like, what's funny is I've been telling him to do that for three years. But this is it, man, like this is what I'm talking, like we need men and women to come alongside our parents and say, hey, we're going to disciple this next generation together. Listen, years from now, they will not remember a sermon preached, but they will remember a leader who kept showing up and carrying them towards Jesus. Men and women of this church, we need you to carry this next generation. And so parents, we need you. Students, we need you. Leaders, we need you. Last, on the corner of the map, we need the whole church, man. Church, it takes all of us, takes all of us. Listen, Flatirons has always existed to bring the awesome life of Christ to people in a lost and broken world, but lost and broken isn't a slogan. Lost and broken people have names. They have stories. They're part of this next generation. And you heard Jackson's story. There are students all over our community carrying anxiety, shame, addiction, confusion,

pain that no teenager was ever meant to carry alone. And they may never walk through those doors unless somebody in this church loves them enough to go get them. This is who Flatirons has always been. We're not a church that stands outside the hole in the roof and criticizes it. We're a church that climbs up on the roof, grabs a shovel, and helps tear it down to bring people to Jesus. And sometimes tearing it down means being willing to change what we've always done. Why? To carry one more person to Jesus. And when we do that, church, when we do that, here's what can happen. Here's how the story ends, verse five. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. Now, if you know this story, Jesus says, son, your sins are forgiven, and then later heals him as well. Now, whose faith? What is Jesus talking about here? He says their faith, the four friends who refused to give up, refused to take no for an answer, refused to let the roof keep their friend from Jesus. They knew, we can't heal him. We can't save him. We can't forgive him.

But you know what we can do? We can pick up a corner of the mat. We can carry him into the presence of the one who can. And church, this has always been our job. We don't save anybody. Only Jesus can do that. And so what do we do? We keep grabbing corners of the mat. We keep tearing open roofs. We keep carrying this next generation towards him because it matters. Like I said, five years ago, Jim stood up on this stage and he challenged our church. Hey, we're going all in. We're gonna tear down some roofs to reach this next generation. And this past week at camp, like our team, a lot of our staff, Jim, we got a front row seat to watch Jesus see and respond to the faith of this next generation. And so Jim's gonna come up, and he's gonna tell us what he saw, what he believes God is doing in the lives of our students, and what could happen if our church, if our families would help carry the next generation to Jesus together. So would you help us welcome up our lead pastor, Jim Bergen? Thank you. Thank you.

Nice to meet you. Hey, a couple things real quick. First of all, our students, our next gen, are in very good hands because men like that right there, Sean, our whole staff and all of our youth, give it up for our youth staff right now. All of our campuses. Next gen, our kids' ministries, the best in the country are, it's just great. The other thing is this, is I know that the Holy Spirit does things that you don't see coming. That's his specialty, really. Meaning, this is about. next gen, and it's about parenting, and it's about things like that. But last night, I saw men and women get baptized. They didn't have a kid at camp. They didn't have any connection to our student ministry, but the spirit was moving in the room. And so I just want you to lean into what I wanna say, whether you have a kid or not. You might hate kids, I get it, all right? So, but just open up your heart to what God might wanna do in your life. So last year, I made a pretty, I don't know, a significant statement that in my 20 years at Flatirons,

the opportunity to go up to Essex Park and teach the last night of camp, I said it's one of my top five best moments of Flatirons. And I wouldn't say of 42 years of ministry, of being a pastor, this past week was no different. I don't know if you ever had a chance to do something like this, but when I drove my truck up onto that YMCA campus before I even stepped out of my truck, I could sense I was like entering sacred space, you know what I mean? Like the kind of space where you wanna take your shoes off because you're standing on holy ground, a place where people come face-to-face with God, like hear his voice. You all know what I'm talking about, right? And how much he loves them, his offering of grace and forgiveness and his ability to restore and all the things that the enemy, the devils try to take away from you. Remember talking about that? To hear from God the same message that a prophet named Jeremiah delivered a message from God to the people of Israel. It went like this. He said, this is God speaking. He says, for I know the plans I have for you. Declares the Lord. Plans for welfare, completeness, wholeness, peaceful, right?

And not for evil, misery, distress, hurtful. Here's God's plan, right? To give you a future and a hope. And this past week, church, our students and parents, your children heard from the same God and he made the declaration of the kind of life that he has planned for them. And I would say, parents, grandparents, whatever, right? Those are the same words that you have prayed for your child. Haven't you prayed, I just want them to have a whole life, like a complete life. I want them to have what they need. I want them to experience peace. Like we didn't have peace, some of us, right? I want my kids to have peace. I want them to be free from needless misery and always stressed out, all those evil wounds that cause longtime hurt and suffering that some of us are still recovering from. Now, you're not gonna believe this, but you're wrong. And here's what I mean by that. As much as you love your children, God loves your child more than you do. And let that sink in, all right? What you want for your children, which is good, God has even better plans than you do, what you want to do for your child. As parents, we do the best we can. But God, we looked at this on Thursday night,

when God gets involved, when God sticks his butt in your business, all right? But God, when he gets involved in your son's life or your daughter's life, things that the best parent, we can't pull them off, but with God, all things become possible with God. If you look back at that Jeremiah passage again, God isn't just, hey, I'm hoping your life turns out good. I'm wishing you experience that kind of life. He's not saying, good luck, hope you don't go to hell, hope you figure it out. He doesn't make a suggestion of how it might happen. It says this, declares the Lord. I know, God says, I know the plans I have for you. Declares the Lord, because the Lord, Jesus, is a king. You read in your Bible, Jesus doesn't ask anybody to do anything. Kings don't ask, they command. They say, come to me, go over there, lay that down, pick up that cross, do what I tell you to do, go where I tell you to go, don't depart from my word, all right, and don't be afraid, I'll be with you, I will give you the victory. Our kids, your children, right, they just spent five days hearing that over and over and over and over and over and over, and you know what? Some of them believed it. And you're gonna see it in baptism, right, in a few minutes, I saw it.

I wish you could've saw it, we should've videoed it, but I saw it in students, in tears. Like they rang a bell, or they beat a drum, it symbolizes I'm done, I'm done with that, I'm done with the sin and the lie and the guilt of my past. It will no longer control or define my future, it won't. No more, game over. I saw hundreds of students write down names of their one more, as in God has put a person in my life, put them in my heart. I can't stop thinking about it, praying for them. It might be a friend, maybe a family member. According to some of the students I talked to on Thursday night, a bunch of them wrote down, my one more is just my dad. My mom. When I say my one more, they're praying prayers like this. Jesus, please don't come back yet until my one more knows that Jesus loves them and wants them in my life. in his life, I wish you could have been in that room and felt the movement of God, it was amazing, wasn't it? As these young men and women believed, had faith, I think God really does have a plan for my life, he has a purpose for my life, he has a mission for my life, and in tears, and in laughter, and a lot of humidity and sweat, it was, right? It was like, it was moist, anyway, right, right, right. But in worship, you just watch, they embrace God. But I also ended the week with this, all right?

This life, this destiny, this mission, this one more, listen, God's not just gonna hand that life to you. He's not gonna wave some magic Jesus fairy dust wand, and everything's just gonna happen, all right? It's just not in the Bible, no. Just like God's people entering the promised land, you're gonna have to fight for it. You're gonna have to fight for it, why? Because there's a real enemy out there, it's not flesh and blood, there's an enemy out there, and he's gonna fight back. He's gonna say to you, you can't have that. She's not gonna change, I won't let go of her. Don't even try, get back in your lane. Fear, shame, insecurity. I told y'all, you're gonna, it probably already happened, when you get home, you're gonna run into wall, after wall, after wall, message, after message, after message that says, not gonna happen. Never gonna change. Yeah, and again, whether you're in camp or not, you hear that tape playing in your head all the time, don't ya? You're gonna feel outnumbered, you're gonna feel outgunned, overpowered, and sometimes, you're gonna be feeling, I'm fighting for this life that I know God has given me a vision for, a calling in my life, you're gonna feel all alone, and you're gonna give up and tap out and quit. So over and over and over, we repeated some really simple

phrases, they're really war cries to hang on to. The first one goes like this, I'm not going down without a fight. Okay, you're not gonna win a fight with that, all right? You're just, you're gonna get your butt handed to ya. I'm not going down without a fight. How about this then, I'm not scared. The Lord will go with me. Now you can walk into a battle with that. This is what I told him, I said, God has sent me here, you heard it in the video, God has sent me here, I'm not here to build a youth group, or even a bigger church, that's not. Here's what, here, God has sent me, I'm gonna build an army of holy warriors who are ready to invade hell and take back what belongs to Jesus in church. Listen, I'm pretty sure with that group of students, we're about to make a dent in hell, come on. Amen, amen. So that was Thursday, it was a great celebration. And then, it was time to go home. Down the mountain, and for some of the students, it was like they were walking into a desert of uncertainty and tough conversations. I gotta talk to my friend, I gotta talk to my boyfriend, my girlfriend, I gotta talk to my parents, everything from this, and I've had these conversations in that room, I know God is calling me to be a pastor, a youth pastor, one young lady, I'm gonna be a missionary. I'm gonna take a year off, I'm gonna go to Flatirons College

to figure out what all that looks like. But gentlemen, here's what's gonna happen, I'm gonna go home and tell my parents, they're gonna lose their minds. They're gonna look at me and go, you're crazy, you are taking this Jesus stuff way too seriously. No, you're gonna go to CU, you're gonna go to the mines, or wherever that we plan to do, that's what we're gonna do. All the way, I had this conversation with a, right here, a 10th grade boy. He said, Jim, I wanna go into ministry. He's the only Christian in his family. His dad walked out when he was three, been in and out of his life, he lives with his stepmom, he serves pretty much, 10th grader, as the man of the house, holding everything together. And you know what he was crying, what he was praying for God for, this is what he wanted, I just one time wished my dad would tell me he's proud of me. He just wanted somebody to tell him, I'm proud of you, and I'm a mess, I'm a freaking mess, I'm like, all right, come here, I'll adopt you, all right. I mean, I let him know, not just I was proud of him, Jesus is proud of him. How strong he already is, how God's already using him. And then I said, don't be scared. Don't give up without a fight, God's gonna be with you. So stories like that are why back in 1983, back in the 1900s, it existed, all right. I sat on a curb outside my girlfriend Robin's dorm,

she's so hot, she's so cute. I was walking back to my dorm, and I just had to stop, my brain was like crazy, all right. And I sat down on a curb, and I wrestled with God. It was like, he was calling me into ministry, and I do not, this was not my life plan. I did not wanna be a pastor, it was like anything but that. You know why, Christians are the meanest people I'd ever met in my life. And they sucked the life out of my dad as a pastor. There's just no way I'm gonna do that. And so I argued with God, and back and forth, and back and forth. and back and forth, and then, like Aaron said, I struck a deal with God. It's probably blasphemy, but I did it, all right? So I struck, and I said, okay, God, I'll do this pastor thing in one condition. If I can talk about real stuff in real ways that real people are really going through, then I'll do it. And that's the thing I needed most in high school. Didn't you? I couldn't find it. I needed raw and real before it ever became one of our values or slogans around here. And God said, now, I've never heard the voice of God. I'm on meds. I've heard voices, but anyway. God's never spoken like that.

I sensed God say, Jim, I wouldn't want you to do anything else. So it turns out the only people that actually are willing to be raw and real are students. So that launched 22 years of Robin and I in my life pastoring students. By the way, if you're new around here, Flatirons is just a youth ministry for old people. That's all we are. I'm doing stuff the same exact way. Ask Jesse, I baptized him in ninth grade, my executive pastor. I baptized him in the ocean on spring break, all right? Here's what we do around here. We meet people where they are, come as you are, right? We tell them these amazing stories about Jesus. They bump into Jesus, and then he changes them. Nothing's changed, and nothing's gonna change on my watch, all right? Now, here's why I tell you all that. The other day, Robin and I, because of camp and everything, we're kinda reflecting on all those years of youth ministry and remembering all those retreats and camps that we gotta see it, like we said, front row. We gotta see students clearly hear from God. He wants to use me. He has a plan for my life. He has a mission, a purpose for my life. And here's what we would see, and Aaron kinda referred to it. We would get back to the church parking lot.

The kids, like, ugh, here we go, right? He gets off the bus, and he gets in the car, and before he gets home, that dream, that vision that I think God's gonna use my life gets squashed, not by the devil, not by peer pressure, but by parents who have never considered that kind of life, this kind of future for their child. Probably from the, with the intention, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, of protecting your child from another one of their wild, crazy ideas. So just pour water on it. Before you listen to the story, before you take what they've told you and pray and ask God for wisdom or direction, it's just no, no, it's crazy. Parents, how about, if your kid would have gotten off the bus and gotten in your car and said, hey, hey, I heard from God, I'm gonna break up with my crazy girlfriend, you would have gone, praise the Lord, amen, amen. We don't ever wanna see that, right? We were praying for that, right? If your kid get in the car after you picked him up from camp, they said, you know, I got some stuff going on in my life, I think I need to go to counseling. I need to tell you, I've got this drug thing going on, I've got this porn thing going on, I've got these secrets and I need help. Here's what you'd say, honey, hey, listen, babe,

we knew something was off, we were praying all week long that God would tell you what to do. This is great, how can we help, right, right, right? They get in your car and go, I think I wanna be a youth pastor, and here's your response. This is an emotional response to an emotional week, settle down, not gonna happen. Hey, parents, right, be careful. If your kid actually heard from God and you start running interference that's based on you and your plans, rather than what they heard from God or what you've heard from God, everybody loses. See, I was a youth pastor for 22 years and led Flatirons for the past 20 years where student ministry next gen has always been emphasized, especially over these last five years that Aaron pointed to, but here's a pretty big, so I'm not throwing stones at anybody except myself. Here's what I'll explain, all right. I had a, a couple years ago I had an aha moment around this whole youth ministry thing. You know, you know what, and you can prove me wrong if you want to, you know what I can't find in this Bible, like in the book of Acts where Jesus launches his church, you know what one thing I can't find in there? Youth ministry. Or kids ministry. Or women's ministry, or men's ministry. Or young adults ministry, back then they just called them adults, but you know, anyway, so you can look,

prove me wrong, you can't find it. Back then, youth ministry was just called parenting. See, here's the biblical definition of next gen ministry. Ephesians chapter six, fathers, and we'll get through this, all right, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. Leave, leave that up there, okay. Provoke your children, take a breath, does not mean, all right, that don't ever make your kids mad. Well, I've already failed twice today, okay. No, it doesn't mean that. Don't do anything that might make your children angry at you or upset with you, or mad at you. It actually means more of the opposite. It literally translates. Paul writes this, he goes, fathers, and time out, he could have said mothers, because mothers, you can be exasperating too, but that's a different sermon. But I think what Paul is actually pointing to is that unique role and influence that a father's spiritual leadership and influence has on their son or daughter. That's not more important, it's just unique. Right, for better or worse. It translates this way, hey, fathers, parents, as you raise your children, don't do or neglect

to do anything in your child's life now that sets them up for a no-win life of frustration later, even if it makes them angry. See, parents, you know this. We're playing a long game here, a spiritual long game, and the alternative to them ending up with a no-win, frustrating, angry life later, the opposite of the life you've been praying for them is to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Parents, you are to teach and lead and demonstrate to them this is what it looks like. This is what the Lord says leads to a future life that's prosper and it isn't evil, Jeremiah 29. So because of that, this is what our family's gonna do. I don't care what the families down the street or at school do, this is how our family's gonna live. Every day, day after day after day after day after day. That's called the discipline of the Lord. Here's our goal, parents, so that when they leave, when they're out on their own, making their own decisions, and we have very limited influence over their life, they have embedded in their hearts and minds. This is our job. This is what the Lord says is right and good. Thanks, Mom and Dad, I got it from here. Now, listen closely. The primary spiritual instruction in leading a life of godly discipline in your child's life was never meant to be Flatirons Church or any church.

Flatirons wants to partner with you in the raising of your children to follow Jesus, but that doesn't mean you can outsource the spiritual development of your child to anybody else other than you. Partner, yeah, replace, no. And here's why I tell you that. Looking back at my 22 years of ministry, my biggest regret, that I'm willing to tell you about anyway, legally, but looking back at my decades of, if I could do it differently, it would be this. The problem is, as a youth pastor, I spent all of my time pouring into students. Well, yeah, yeah. When what I should have done is spent most of my time pouring into and partnering with parents. Because I had those students a couple hours a week, sprinkled in with a retreat or a camp or two a year. Hey, parents, you got them 24-7. You got them from birth to their 20s or 30s if they won't leave, right, right, right? You have them. You have them when they do nothing but cry and poop. Remember junior high? Remember that, right? Sorry. You have them when they call. You've had this. When they call you names and they slam doors in your face. When they throw tantrums.

When they tell you, you're the worst human being in the world and I hate you. You're the one who feels the pressure to come up with all that money to fund their latest hobby and interest, which will change next month. You're the most important person in their life even though they roll their eyes and make you feel like you're the least important one. And just wait till they become adult children and they throw a whole other level of everything wrong in my life is your fault. That's another sermon I'm still in counseling about. But anyway, so you are the biggest influence in their life for better or worse. You have the most pressure on you and you get the least amount of grace. Remember when you were 16, you stomped your foot and you go, I will never be like my mom or my dad. That's because you never had a 16-year-old. Hormonal, depraved, bent towards sin, rebellious teenager, and now you got one and you're doing the best you can. Luckily, and I don't like that word, in God's providence and provision, you're sitting in the middle of a church that wants to come alongside you. Not just your children, your whole family. So that you as a family, which is the most important community group on the planet,

the most important group on the planet is your family. It preexisted the church. Your family is more important than church. But you're in a church that says, I wanna partner with you, I don't wanna replace you. And I've been talking to our NextGen leaders, Aaron and I talked about three hours the other day, in this next season, we're gonna step up our game towards parents because parents, you're the most important youth pastor in your child's life. And they need your voice and they need you to listen to them and they need your prayers and they need your wisdom, even if that wisdom is, I made a lot of mistakes in my past and here's what I've learned. Now we're gonna pack that more over the coming months, but here's why I tell you all that. This past week of camp was life-changing for so many. of our students, but let's think bigger. What if camp actually became the catalyst, not just that it affects your child, but God uses this past week of camp to bring about a change in your whole family? What if the conversations you're having with your son or your daughter, as they try to make sense out of it, I think I heard from God and it's heavy and it's crazy and I don't know what to make of it, what if that becomes the doorway for you to actually have spiritual conversations

with your whole family, where you actually have something very specific we're gonna pray about as a family, more than God bless our family and keep us safe today, in Jesus' name, amen. That's a good prayer. But come on, how about, God, what do you wanna do in our family? God, as we sit here at the dinner table, what needs to change in me or in us? What is the plan, the purpose, the destiny that God has in mind for our family so that our family prospers and experiences good and not just more evil and pain and frustration of the past? What if God wants to change your whole family through your kid? I'm gonna tell you, I'm almost, I'll be done as soon as I'm done, okay? I'm gonna tell you one last story and then we're gonna move into baptisms. The story, I'm gonna tell you, it's very close to my heart. It's very private, it's very intimate, it's very emotional and it's very true. I wanna tell you a story about a son and a father and I'm gonna tell it with both of their permissions. I sat down with them this past week. I said, it's a lot. And they both looked at me and said,

if God can use our story to help another family, you gotta tell it. I said, okay, buckle up. There's a liability with being my friend, by the way, so you're a sermon fodder. Tim, Tim Wagner. I would say Tim's one of my closest, most trusted friends. Friendship started a few years ago in a goose pit hunting and now, I would say Tim's one of my map carriers. Tim's son, Isaac, recently graduated from School of Mines and now serves in our IT department here at Flatirons. So I'm gonna tell you a story and all stories are in progress, but right now, they're in a pretty good place, okay? But if you were to push rewind, there was a day when it wasn't looking good. It looked impossible, unfixable, no way back from this. The enemy looked undefeatable. So I'm gonna tell you that story, with their permission. So Isaac started wrestling, he told me, I started wrestling when I was three, but then I quit when I was five. I don't think that counts as quitting. You're five, all right? So anyway, he got back into wrestling in elementary school. You know why? Because his dad, Tim, made him do it. So through elementary and middle school, Isaac wrestles. Sometimes, he would go to three different

wrestling practice in one day. That's six hours of wrestling practice a day on top of school and then go to matches. And when Isaac won his match, there was peace in the house. And when Isaac lost a match, the whole family paid for it, especially Isaac. Verbal, emotional, physical abuse, just whatever that is in your head, probably more. I asked him, I said, hey, Tim, why is wrestling, why is this so important to you? Tim says, because my dad told me I was a loser and a piece of crap every day of my life and my son will not be a loser. Tim now sees, all right, that was about him, about his repressed, unresolved, unanswered pain and abuse from his dad. But back then, that hadn't clicked yet and he was just destroying everyone and everything in his past, taking it out on his wife and his daughters and Isaac because winning and losing was about Tim, not Isaac. And I asked Isaac, he was sitting in my office the other day, I said, why did you do it? And this is a lot for a kid, right? I wrestled to protect my family. If I won, there would be peace. If I lost, life would be hell. That's a lot of pressure on an elementary-age kid. After several concussions and being knocked unconscious on the mat at least twice, at the end of his eighth grade

year, he was on his way to state, but he got knocked out. But right after that, Tim was making plans for next season and Isaac said, hey, Dad, I'm done. I'm not wrestling anymore. And Tim's all of, went after him. Eighth grade, Isaac said, hey, Dad, if you make me wrestle, I'll just lay down on the, I'll just go out there and lay down on the mat and I'll lose every match. Tim plowed into him in every way you can imagine. And the next year was nothing short of horrible. One day, this is a new story to me, right? One day, Tim and Isaac were out on an ATV out on their farm and Tim spotted a trespasser and he pulled up, he got out of the ATV and he was on his way to give this guy a beating of his life. And he turned to Isaac and he says, come on, you gotta have my back. I back on this one and Isaac, ninth grade Isaac, now said, no, not my fight. Tim gets back in the vehicle, ready to give Isaac the weapon and Isaac says, hey dad, hey dad, something's missing in your life and I know it's Jesus. You can hit me but I love you and Jesus loves you but you need Jesus. See, what Tim didn't know is that every night Amy, Isaac's mom, Tim's wife and Isaac prayed for Tim every night for years and I asked Isaac, why didn't you just run? Like most boys with this type of violence,

that kind of life, they just would have gotten out of there and here's what Isaac says, he goes, cause I love my dad and I knew if my dad knew Jesus, Jesus would be the only one who could help him. I just need him to know Jesus. Things didn't change overnight, ups and downs and to this day, with a lot of support and some mistakes along the way, I can point at my friend Tim, he is, I'll quote his wife Amy, he's become the husband I always knew was in there and the father that Tim's children, Dakota, all of you, I knew he was in there. We can't give up on him because a 14-year-old boy who should have been filled with hurt and hate and resentment looked his dad in the face and said, hey listen, I love you but something's missing and I think it's Jesus. Tim and Amy sit on the second row every week, there they are, most of the family's here and Tim usually is right there beside Isaac and Isaac's sitting beside Hannah who's pregnant with their first child and that's called the breaking of generational curse, right there. And it wasn't led. And it wasn't led. And it wasn't led. And it wasn't led. And it wasn't led. And it wasn't led.

And it wasn't led. And it wasn't led. And it wasn't led. Now listen, all right, all four mat corners, right? It wasn't led by Tim, the spiritual leader of his home, which he is now. It was led by a 14-year-old boy who loved his dad and said, dad, you need Jesus. Now Tim and Amy are about to be grandparents twice, double grandparents in February and those two babies will be born into a family that is totally centered on Jesus. Let's celebrate that, can we, church? See, we're not talking about youth ministry anymore, are we? We're just talking about life. Again, I don't know who I'm talking to right now. I don't know who needed to hear this at any of our campuses or next year online when you find this on YouTube or something like that, but God put this message on my heart for somebody today. And if you're sitting here listening to me and you're going, that's nice. I'm sure that works for a lot of people. That's not possible for my house, for my marriage, for my parenting, with my past. If you're sitting there and the kind of idea's going, that would never happen for me, then let me tell you this. This message, this whole day was probably just for you, especially for you.

So we're gonna move into a time of celebration. Baptism is the public demonstration of a new life being born, not a second chance, a whole new life from above. It's also a statement, because the gates of hell, they know about us, all right, and they are not happy. But when we get baptized, it's a declaration you lose. Ring a bell, hit a drum, get baptized, all right? I'm done with you. I belong to Jesus. And a bunch of students are about to be baptized, which is wonderful, but what if this is the moment? I'm gonna make some of you just wanna vomit right now. What if this is the moment where your son or daughter comes up out of the water and you, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, whatever, they're like, hey, hold on, stay right there, right? Look them in the eye and go, thank you. You led the way, and I know things need to change, and they need to change in me, so now it's my turn. And then you step into that water beside them and fill that void missing in your life. Let me just say it. Hey, mom, hey, dad, grandma, grandpa, something's missing in your life. I think it's Jesus. Hey, listen, if you wanna demonstrate, like this is what humble yourself looks like. This is what crucifixion of pride looks like. This is the demonstration of,

I gotta rethink everything in my life. That's called repentance. How about this? The greatest step of leadership your family may ever witness is you coming and being baptized. It's time to get in the fight. It's time to fight for the right things. We've been fighting one another. Let's fight for our family. Let's fight for the right life. Let's fight to take hold of the destiny that God has for you and for your family. So I'm gonna leave you with this. All our campuses, let's stand up, and I'm gonna pray. I wanna leave you with this, ready? Don't go down without a fight. Don't be scared. Lord's gonna go with you. Believe that, amen? 14 of us believe that. You believe that? Amen? Amen. There you go. God, I praise you and give you glory, not just for what you've done. It's easy to look back and see how good you've been, how faithful you've been. I mean, it's easy to be in that room, just feel your presence and see hearts open up to you

and give you thanks for that. I'm gonna give you thanks for what you're about to do. In this room and in all of our campuses and around the world, because your spirit's moving right now. I thank you in advance for families that are gonna step into hard conversations that result in healing. I give you gratitude and just thankfulness for that man's heart over there and that woman's soul over there who's gonna get put back together and take that first step back because he or she is sitting here right now going, something's missing in my life. And the spirit says, I think it's Jesus. You're gonna surrender, they're gonna surrender their lives to you and they're gonna get a whole new life from above, which means a whole new walk, a whole new future. Because again, we don't need a second chance. All we need is the blood of Jesus and from now on, which starts today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.