Tag: PHAT Camp

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It’s More than Just a Sermon

At New Passion we have been in our Source Code: A Journey through Acts series for a little over a year now. We took a couple of short breaks and picked back up where we left off a couple of months ago.

Today, I preached out of Acts 16, there are several important things that take place in this Chapter, but the best thing about this post is what happened today AFTER I preached this chapter, so keep reading:

  1. Acts 16:6-10 – The Holy Spirit does not permit Paul and Silas to go where THEY want to go. He prevents them from going to the province of Asia and into the north region of what we now know is Turkey. Instead Paul receives a vision from Macedonia and there God would start the church of Philippi through his efforts.
  2. Acts 16:11-35 – God starts to build the church of Philippi with a business woman, Lydia; a (formerly) demon-possessed girl; and a prison guard.
  3. How did God do this? Well, first with Lydia it began by God not giving Paul his way. He closed doors and took away what some would say were opportunities to share the gospel. Paul instead followed the leading of the Spirit, took the time to invest in Lydia, share the gospel and then she believed; Secondly, with the demon-possessed girl, God allowed Paul to be annoyed and frustrated by the demon constantly proclaiming that they were there to preach the message of salvation, through his frustration, Paul casts the demon out of the girl; finally, with the prison guard, God allowed Paul to be arrested for doing God’s work. Through Paul’s example of true, selfless Christianity, the guard believes and is saved. Paul could have looked out for his own neck, but instead he stayed in prison so the guard did not have to lose his.

Here was my point to our people this morning and where my story comes in this afternoon. Who is it that God wants you to stop, take time with and share Jesus with them? That’s your Lydia. Who is it that God is allowing to annoy you? You know that pesky neighbor or co-worker or the aunt you can’t escape from. Maybe he is frustrating you so you’ll share the love of Jesus with them so they might believe. That’s your demon-possessed girl. Finally, and this is where my story comes in today. What situation do you find yourself in where you feel like you are in prison or like your world is falling a part? Who has God surrounded you with in this moment of your life that you can display true Christianity to, so that they might believe and be saved? That’s your prison guard.

Today, I received a tweet from a young man that I have only met once, but got to be with during a week long camp in Jackson, SC, last Summer. I wrote about my experience at the camp in an earlier post, it was amazing! Here’s what his tweet said:

That made my day! I had the privilege of preaching in the service where Noah placed his faith in Jesus for salvation. That in-and-of-itself is awesome, but what makes this story even greater is the fact that I was going through my own “prison experience,” although it was without the orange jump suit and the jail cell.

I was fired (“laid off”) from my job a week before having the opportunity to go speak at this camp. Needless to say, I had a lot on my heart and mind at the time, tons to worry about with a wife, three kids and bills. I didn’t get my way, God closed a door and allowed me to be placed in a very difficult position, but God placed me in that position at that time for his glory and for the salvation of Noah and anyone else who placed their faith in Jesus for salvation during that week of camp.

Sometimes I wonder if Christians think sermons are just a bunch of fancy talk, but can’t really be applied in their own life and in their specific situations. I think some people get excited to hear a different take on Scripture to bring out a point that they’ve never seen, but by the end of the service, the whole point of the message is lost. Today’s sermon was more than “just a sermon” for me, it was real life, it was my life just a year ago. I am privileged to have had the opportunity to lose my job which freed me up to prepare for a camp where a young man, plus others were saved. Noah, is my modern day prison guard. God used my difficult situation to share Jesus with him. Life is not about me, my job or my comfort; it’s about people seeking and feeling their way towards God to find him (Acts 17:26-27). I want to be a part of helping them find him. Thank you, Shane Padgett for allowing me to be used in the middle of a difficult season and thank you for having such a huge vision for students through PHAT Camp.

What situation do you find yourself in right now? Does it feel like Prison, maybe even Hell? Look around you, those are the people watching you to see how you will respond and how you will act. In the middle of living your faith out, you will have the opportunity to share the answer for your hope. Will you take that opportunity? It’s more than just a sermon….

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PHAT Camp 2011 Week 2 Recap

If I die before I wake, my life will be complete.

I finally got to be a part of the world famous PHAT Camp last week. PHAT Camp was founded by Shane Padgett and Joshua Glymph; and I must say, both are tremendous leaders. That is evident both in the execution of their vision and through the leaders who serve beside them.

I have to admit that I was nervous leading up to the camp because Shane was sharing with me the legacy of PHAT and how God has brought so many godly young people and now leaders through the camp. I felt fortunate that I had the entire week before camp to prepare for the 5 messages I would be sharing with the students every night during the worship service. I ended up taking around 7-8 total messages just in case the Holy Spirit led in a different direction.

He did.

I ended up only using one of my pre-prepared messages and that was the one I felt missed the spot, but I didn’t feel at liberty to share anything different, so I trust that the Holy Spirit used what I felt was a fumble for his purposes. The Holy Spirit showed up powerfully on Tuesday night, it is a really long story, but with less than an hour to prepare for that night’s service, I felt he laid around four verses on my heart with no time to prepare any notes or thoughts, just Scripture and the impression that a lot of students are not fully surrendering their hearts and lives to Jesus because they’ve surrendered their hearts to sexual immorality. I’m not sure what the Holy Spirit had me say, I really couldn’t replicate it, but I know around 20 students chose life that night by placing their faith in Jesus and about half the rest of the students sought a leader out to repent and pray for whatever it was they were surrendering their hearts to outside of Jesus. I remember praying with one guy who just buried his head in my chest and wept. What I found just as amazing was to step back into the chapel to find the remaining students heads bowed praying for their fellow students who were seeking Jesus; and they stayed praying for a while.

I’ve seen emotional spiritual highs in youth services/camps/retreats before and from my experience, I don’t think this was emotional for most of the students, I believe the Holy Spirit genuinely spoke to them and drew them to himself. There was nothing I could have said or done that night to work in those students lives, how do you talk about sex and 20ish students get saved? That’s God. Tuesday night once the chapel lights were turned out and everything shifted back down the hill to the camp, I couldn’t help but to feel overwhelmingly unworthy to have even stood on that stage that night. For the rest of the week I truly feared standing in the way of what the Holy Spirit wanted to do in the rest of camp. It is truly a sobering reality to know how powerful the Holy Spirit is and how feeble I (mankind) is, what a huge responsibility it is to stand before God’s people to preach HIS Word with such sinful lips and a wicked heart. Tuesday night brought a whole new perspective to my life when it comes to being accountable to preaching the Gospel.

It was a huge honor to be with not only the students at the camp but the leaders as well. It is a joyful thing to be around so many gospel-centered leaders. I have always been challenged to be more passionate in my relationship with Jesus and to love him more when I am around guys like Will Clark, Drew Hall, Shane Padgett and Hank Murphy. I really love those guys and appreciate their heart’s for Jesus. It was great to meet so many great new people as well, people I can’t wait to stay connected with and watch Jesus use in tremendous ways. It was also a huge honor to serve Jesus beside Hank Murphy and his band. Truly anointed.

I walked away from camp excited about our future as a global Church. God continues to show me that we have a passionate generation of students who are going to transform this world through the transforming message of the gospel. I’ve seen it in other student ministries recently as well, and week 2 of PHAT Camp has continued to persuade me! The students of Grace and Greenbrier are special and God is going to use those who surrender their heart to living their life for the glory of God  for some amazing things.

Will you join me in praying for these students as they settle back into normal, everyday life that they would continue to remember that transformation is a process and to keep pressing forward despite the circumstances in life they will face in the days, months and years to come?