LW24 | Don’t Drop Your Sword - Kevin and Katie Williams

Leader Weekend Spring 2024
Don’t Drop Your Sword - Kevin and Katie Williams

In this talk titled "Don't Drop Your Sword," Kevin and Katie Williams share their experiences in leadership and ministry, emphasizing the significance of generational discipleship. The talk focuses on the story of Gideon, highlighting God's ability to use the weak and inadequate for His purposes. It explores the concept of imposter syndrome and encourages listeners to find confidence in God's perception of their potential. 
The talk also discusses Gideon's doubts and insecurities, emphasizing God's willingness to meet us in our weaknesses. Lastly, it emphasizes the importance of relying on God's wisdom and guidance, even when His plans seem irrational to us.

Transcript

Night. Real privilege to get to hear from Kevin and Katie Williams. Kevin and Katie.

See, where do I start with Kevin and Katie? So in the early, in the mid 1990s, before worked, many of you in this room were born. Wow.

Leadership consisted of a small group of guys and a small group of girls. All of you were in Bible studies. Then there was just one Bible study. It was my Bible study of guys with Kevin and Amy's Bible study of girls with Katie and some of their friends. That was it.

Kevin and Katie were some of the original leaders in this area. And in our ministry, we have been preaching and talking in depth about generations and the importance of that and discipleship and are leaning into that. And many of you in this room, if we were to trace back your heritage, you would find that Kevin and or Katie are your spiritual great great grandparents. Kevin and Katie were. Kevin helped me start Boone County High School when we first came down here.

And then Kevin took the ministry from there as I went from there to Connor to start Connor High School. And then Kevin and Katie, while they were at Boone together for a while, and then they heard the Lord's call to start Holmes High School, where they started the ministry there. And I actually remember praying with Kevin and doing like, we would sit out, we would go to the stands and pray. And I remember when it felt like they were like, we're going to do it. And it was exciting, right?

This was before we had. Was. It was exciting. And we knew. And our hope and prayer at that time was.

At that time was that the entire. Not just homes and Newport and Bellevue and Dayton, not that just those schools would have ministry, but at that time, there's no young life ministry happening in any of the Cincinnati public schools. None. Not one Cincinnati public school. Nothing going on.

And I think the most southern ministry at that time would have been not even deer park or reading. Right? I mean, those weren't even going on at those times. So you're talking know, sycamore might have been the most southern ministry at that time. Kevin and Katie took upon themselves this mantle and this calling and through them and through their ministry, all of the ministries that you know today that are happening, young life ministries that are happening in Cincinnati urban schools, came from that beginning of that ministry.

Kevin and Katie were on staff with young life for ten ish years, I don't know, many a long time while they ran that ministry and grew into all those with row and all those schools naked and all those schools on the other side of the river, and God used them mightily in that and think of now, I've talked about almost 20 years of their life and the generations of people that have come from their lives, not just you guys and anyone else who came from Boone or Connor or all those ministries that were going on. I just had a parent just this week, a parent email me whose son was changed, his life was changed by Kevin Williams. John McDermott. That name sound familiar? And his mom Lori was like, I'll never forget what Kevin and Katie, their impact on their son's life.

And this is 25 years ago that this happened. And this mom is still remembering the impact that they had on their life, her son's life. So there are a very small number of ogs when it comes to this ministry. There's not many of them. But God, it was crazy times.

Just so you know, in the first five years, the history of the area, we went from zero to almost as big as we are now. I mean, it was, the first five years was this crazy growth and it made our experience like, I mean, it was really crazy. Crazy times. Just a different world and different time. But God did so many great things as he brought people from.

Just all know Katie was in Texas and she comes home to start leading. And Jeff comes down know Cleveland and Greg's coming from Dayton. And all these people are coming from these different places because God was bringing the workers that he know because God had a time and a place that he wanted to do something. So anyway, Kevin, Katie now live up in Ohio. Three kids doing it for the Lord.

They're part of like committee up there and stuff like that. So we get to hear from Kevin and Katie Williams.

And most importantly to this day, they are still two of our dearest friends. That's exactly what I was standing up. I was going to say he forgot to tell you that they're like our best friend.

Rick also didn't tell you that for those five years. He probably almost fired me twice a year. But I almost told the club talk.

Hey, there's several. I can give you all hope that whatever your worst club talk was, I can top it.

Okay, so what we're going to do is my wife's going to explain this. This is my wife Katie. And I'm Kevin. As Rick talked about, Katie actually helped start Beechwood. Rick didn't mention that.

So you know, Beachwood, she was a part of that. Okay, so first thing we're going to do is we're going to pass you out a little sandwich baggie. It's got chocolate in it and it also has no carbs. So I'm a big fan of doing ministry, and always I feel like a gift opens the ears of the hearer. So in chocolate, I don't know if you're here a couple years ago, it actually does increase your endorphins.

And so hopefully you'll eat the chocolate and you'll be excited to hear. This will wake you up. The other thing are the note cards. I would say when we were in Rick and Amy's area, we had to know so many verses. Do you guys see that?

The TMS? Yeah. And he would whip out these sheets and we had to fill them out. And that was his scripture. Memory was one of the pivotal times in my life.

Anytime scripture is in my soul, my life, I am peaceful. In the midst of hard things. I can still see what the Lord is doing and have hope. And so probably about five, four years ago, I started walking and praying scripture. It was Priscilla Shire.

Do you guys know her at all? She did a study called fervor, and in it, she has you go through every aspect of your life and then find scripture, and then you start praying the scripture over your life. And so I have been lucky. I get to stay home. And so for the past four years, I walk my dog down this long street, actually called Gideon.

Thank you. And I pray the scripture, and it has literally changed my. That there's something about scripture that goes from your mind to your heart when you pray it. And so it's funny, because I'll be sitting in the sands and my kids play basketball sometimes. There are a lot on the bench, and so a lot of times I'm like, if Bruce readable, next break, if morning, we zoom out.

Stuff out. Faithful to bring forth justice. I pray that for Camden, they would lift his head. And so the scripture has started to penetrate my soul. I don't even sometimes have to look at the card.

I don't know. So we are going to give you guys cards, and throughout our talk, we will say on your card, we want you to write this. And then later, and then later, I want you to go back and find a verse and put it with it. It does not take long. I mean, I have, like, 40 that I can whip through in a 40 minutes walk.

And so for you to have five cards, you could whip through it, put your phone down and just do it. So we're going to give those out first. Kevin is going to start. Well, we'll give it to somebody who is eager to help us pass these out. Hey.

All right. Everybody wants to help pat that'd be great. All right, so.

Yes.

Oh, okay. Hey, real quick, real quick. Um, yeah. All this. I need teachers.

Is that what it is? I was, like, filtering through, like, elementary.

I don't do anything. All right, hey, listen up. Hey, I have one vocal cord. One vocal cord, so if you guys can make sure not to yell too loud. I don't want to lose the other vocal cord, because I've only got one, and if you don't know, you only have two.

So I'm down to one. So, hey, here's what I want to do real quick. What's your name? Haley. So, if you see this right here, it's the Colts.

I am not a Colts fan.

Here's what happened. Yeah, I'm sorry. I just broke your heart. So we were on our way up to the children's museum in Indianapolis with our Kids and my mother in law, and it was a chilly day. It was an unusually chilly day, if you know anything about me.

I don't like the cold. I get cold really easily. So I was doing what most guys do when they're uncomfortable. I was whining the entire trip up there, and my beautiful wife said, why don't you just stop somewhere and get a Coke? And I'm like, no, I'm not going to.

Okay. So we stopped at Berlin coat factory. This was on the rack. It was like 1799. I grabbed it.

She told me that wasn't the right price, and I said, but that's what it said. So I got this for 1799. It's the best jack I've ever had. So go cold for that. All right.

Okay, so I'm going to try to talk while our friend Pat is passing stuff out in the. In this. Oh, first, I want to say thank you, young navigators, northern executive navigators, for letting us come and speak. We are excited to be here. And in the spirit of navigators, I would love to do something very similar to what the founder of navigators who was.

Okay, can anybody tell me? Hebrews twelve one through four.

Besides Rick, Amy, and Kate. Hebrews twelve one through four.

Oh, who was that? Okay. Without reading it, obviously. All right, go ahead.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangled, and let us run with perseverance.

The pioneer professor of faith, right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who is there, such obligations of sinners so that you will not feel weary in your heart.

Okay, so that passage, that. Those verses. And then if we keep going. Right. It says, you have not yet done what?

That you have not yet resisted. Thank you. Say it again after that. It says, consider him right. Who endured such opposition from simple men.

Right. You don't grow weary and lose heart. Then it says, okay. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. Here's why, a couple of reasons why I wanted someone to thank you very much.

What was your name? There's a piece of candy for you.

I'm going to step on the phone, Sarah, as we talk tonight, we're going to talk about. Okay? So raise your hand if you've read. Okay, great. This will be wonderful.

So this will be, like, just exploratory, introducing you guys to Gideon. So in judges in the Old Testament, we're going to talk about Gideon tonight. But as the foundation of this, that passage is going to be foundation. What we're going to talk about. And here's what I want you to think about.

Rick just mentioned it a minute ago, talking about the history that all of us in this room, myself included, share. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. Now, what he was saying was, he was saying was like, there's this cloud of witnesses. Who can speak to what?

What can the cloud of witnesses speak to? This is not supposed to be like this. The cloud of witnesses who can speak to God's redistricted. Who can speak to what God has done and change our lives. Right?

Who can speak to salvation? The cloud of witnesses. So, therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses of the history of the mission, of what God has put you on, what does it say? Let us what, therefore, since we're starting to claim, let us what? Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance.

And this is the part I love. Let's fix our eyes on Jesus. Not fix our eyes on navigators, not fix our eyes on young life, not fix our eyes on our own gifts, whatever, but fix our eyes on Jesus. The author and the perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him endured the cross, scorned its shame and did what?

Scorned its shame. Because it's not a shameful thing, right? Everybody's like, oh, the cross. Jesus willingly went to the cross, and he considered him such opposition from sinful men. So that you not grow weary in loose heart, because here's the thing, you will develop opposition.

You will come against these things. So that's going to be the foundation of what we're going to talk about tonight.

So as we talk about Gideon, I'm just going to do a little setup, a little stage, because to me, context. Context matters with everything. So in judges, before the part we get to with Gideon, here's what you need to know. The Israelites were okay. They had been rotten, which is pretty much everything.

Like, that's pretty much the story of the Israelites throughout the entire testament. Right? We love you, God. We love you, God. Okay, we're good now.

We love you, God. We love you, God. And then what happens? God comes down. They go to Egypt.

So now they're in a situation where they stopped seeking, okay, they were rebellious. They were worshiping all of these different gods. They were worshipping Baal. You guys remember ball? Anybody remember the worship of Baal?

Who's the famous prophet that went up against the prophets of. Thank you. Yeah. Fire comes out. Okay, so they were distracted by their surroundings.

So here's what they were choosing evil. So it says in judges 21, so everybody turn to judges. So we're going to turn to judges. We're going to go through judges a lot. We're going to spend a lot of time there.

So judges 21, we're going to be. In verse 25 says this, in those days, there was no king in Israel. All right? So here's what that means. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes, okay?

So there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Let me ask you a question. Does that sound familiar at all? What does that sound like? There was no king in Israel.

So everyone did, right? And no die. What was that? Sounds very similar to what we're experiencing today, right? Think about the mantras.

What I feel, what I want, right? What makes sense to me, right? It's all about who, but about us. Everything is about us, right? Like, everything is about us.

What? A selfie is about what? It's called a selfie for a reason. It's about us. Everything centers around our lives and how much gratification we can get from what, from everything around us.

The same thing happened with the Israelites. So what happened was God did what he did, and they were in a state of oppression. So the Midianites came in and basically were wreaking havoc on the Israelites. And they oppressed them for seven years, okay? They devastated their crops, they slaughtered their animals.

And here's the crazy thing. The Bible describes the Midianites as locusts. They were everywhere. I mean, literally, the Israelites couldn't get around them. It was so bad that the Israelites were hiding in caves.

That's how bad it was. And that's kind of where we're starting from. And they were terrified. They're like basically goats on the cliffs because they were so terrified of the Manianites. And so that's where we're starting from.

So what happens is seven years of doing this, now you think about it, they spent seven years suffering like this. And then after seven years, they decided to do what? Cry out to God. So they finally cry out to God. And what was interesting is that, to me, it's always funny that great heroes in the Bible, they don't usually appear when things are going really well, do they?

They don't appear when culture is, like, at its peak, right? What do they do? They come at the lowest points. And the reason why is why? Because they come when God needs.

To do what? To rescue and resurrect. And so that's where we're starting from right now. So here's what I want you to do. So I want you to take out your first note card.

What was your name? Emma. Emma. So as Emma is the teacher, right? You're in the schools.

Okay. You guys are working with high school students. Correct. Would you say that many of your high school students are in the same place or feel like they're in the same place sometimes as the Israelites, where they're hiding, where they feel scared, where they feel oppressed on all sides? I mean, my mother in law came over.

I don't watch the news. There's a reason why I don't watch news is depressing. My mother in law comes over and she starts talking. I'm getting depressed listening to her. And I'm like, oh, my gosh.

It makes it feel like the world's, like, falling apart. And that's what everybody's going through. I mean, I couldn't spend 5 seconds on social media today because I would be a shell of who I am. I mean, like, looking at what people say about each other, I'm like, it's crazy. This is what the Israelites were.

They were hiding. And a lot of kids might not be hiding outwardly, but what are they doing? We're hiding inwardly. So here's what you're going to do. I want you to think about the struggles and the distractions of high school kids right now because the Israelites were distracted, they were struggling.

And I want you to think about who is God calling you to specifically by name. Think of a couple of high school students names right now that God is putting on your heart. Take a couple minutes, a couple of seconds. Just pray about them. But I guarantee you that there's kids that have been on your heart for a while.

And then I want you to write their names down on the note card. Do that, and then later go back and just look up a verse. Maybe they're struggling with something, or maybe you have a dream for them and write a verse on the back and then pray that verse over them. I always feel confident when I can pray a verse over somebody, because I know that's the Lord's will. I don't have to guess if I'm praying the right thing.

This is something he wants for me. I know I don't understand.

All right, when you guys are done, I want you to turn to judges 611.

It's still writing. Just raise your hand if you're still writing stuff down. Ready? All right. Okay, judges eleven.

I'm going to read, and I'll stop when I get turned, all right. The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak. I'm going to butcher these names. An Oprah that belonged to Joash the ebizrate, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior.

But, sir, Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian. The Lord turned to him and said, go in the strength you have and save Israel. Out of Midian's hand.

Am I not sending you? But Lord Gideon asked, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manessa, and I am the least in my family. Okay, I have to use a note.

All right, so in verse eleven, I'm just going to sit down. Okay. In verse eleven, it says, the angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Oprah. So who came? The angel of the Lord.

And this isn't just any angel.

In Hebrew, it is referred to as Malach Yahweh, which is the eternal, preexistent Christ. So actually, it's not just any angel. This is Jesus, and he is coming to see Gideon. But if you notice in verse eleven, Gideon does not know that he is there. The angel comes and sits and he sees Gideon, but Gideon doesn't know he's there, which for me is reassuring, because how many times in your life do you feel like God is not like, do you know what's going on?

When one of my kids suffers, I'm like, where's God? What is he doing, Kevin? Where is he? And so for me to realize that sometimes, not sometimes, he is always there, whether I perceive it or not, is a pretty awesome thing from just even the first verse. Okay, the next thing in verse eleven, where is Gideon?

Where did he say? Wine press. He is in a wine press. So this is not something that I knew. But when you're threshing wheat, you're usually out in the open, and what you're trying to do is get the meaty part of the wheat.

You want to save that part, and you blow off the chafe, which is like the light and airy part or whatever. So normally you would do it out in the open. You would have oxen that would pull this heavy weight, and it would crush the wheat, and you would get the meaty stuff. But is he outside on a threshing floor, threshing his wheat? No.

He is literally cowering in a wine press, which is underground, threshing his wheat, because he's terrified. He's absolutely freaking out, because he's lived through seven years of oppression. The Midianites are going to come steal his stuff. And so he is cowering in this wine press. Does that sound like a hero?

No. Which is why I love Gideon, because he's not who you would pick. All right, let me keep going. Sorry.

Okay, verse twelve. I'll just read it again. Sorry. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Okay, so there's a difference between.

First the angel comes and sits under the tree, and he's there, and Gideon doesn't know it. Then the angel does something, Jesus does something to stir in Gideon's heart and makes him lift his eyes so that he sees them, which is my constant prayer for my kids. Like, he's there with them all the time, but will they lift up their eyes and see him? Which is also a prayer for us? How often do we miss that he's there?

Because we're so busy looking at what we're trying to do, that we miss that he's there.

Okay. The other crazy thing, and we kind of just talked about it, is that he calls him a mighty warrior. So we have a kid, Camden. He's one of our twins. We have twins.

That are 14. They were adopted from Ethiopia when they're four and a half years old. And Camden is a David. He's the heart of David.

He's the least of these. We'll get to that. But I would say, like, he kid picked on him last year, and Camden does take Jujitsu, and he knocked him out. He tried not to, and four times he tried to get away, and he finally, they go to Princeton. It's not always an easy school, so he knocked him out.

So he's like my David and Goliath. But what I always struggled with, though, is that David heads off and he defeats Goliath. But before he defeats Goliath, David has already killed a lion. He's already done these crazy, amazing things. And I'm like, that's not.

He's. He just hasn't realized his magnificence yet. He's just so in Relief. Focus. But Gideon gives me hope, because Gideon hadn't done anything yet.

He's a coward, but he's so timid, he doesn't know who he is.

But that is who God chose. And he calls him a warrior before he's ever fought one battle, before he's ever won anything. And I feel like that's what he wants you guys to know, is that no matter how weak you feel, no matter how the faults that you have, no matter what that is, he sees that in you. Like, he calls you a valiant warrior. And I just wonder how many times we actually believe that.

And I think, too, it's not just about us. And I've already talked about my kids. But when I was a leader, I felt all this pressure that I had to make my kids give it, and I had to make sure that they were reading their bibles. And then I had to make sure that they were doing the things they wanted to. And when I let it boon, I remember I would have a bible study every week.

And then I found out, like, a year into the Bible study, half of them are off having sex. And so it just becomes devastating. The problem is, our only job, your only job, is to go and tell them the truth, to speak it over them, to encourage them. And then God does the rest of it. At some point, he will lift their eyes, and they will see that he is right there.

Okay, I'm going to keep going. Verse 13. And this is us. This is me. This is my kids.

So the angel comes. He calls him a mighty warrior. The Gideon's first response isn't like, oh, my gosh, thanks for calling me out. I'm so glad the Lord is with me. No, his first response is he starts interrogating God's character.

He has grown up in an atmosphere that worships ball, and instead of accepting what the angel has said about him, jesus standing there talking to him, he says, well, where's God been? He took us up out of Egypt, and now he's nowhere. And I just think, like, in my life, that's what happens to me. My kids hits the bench, ball games, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, Jesus. I mean, and how stupid is that, that I'm worried about my kids hitting the bench, but it hurts as a parent.

But we worry about stuff that just isn't really. We question God's character or something tiny when he's, like, telling us beautiful things because we're just mad that he's not telling us what we want to hear or we just, well, where were you when this happened? We was there the whole time.

Okay, verse 14. I'm just going to read it really quick. The Lord turned to him and said, go in the strength you have and save Israel. Out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?

So this part, I think, is hysterical. Gideon comes back and is drilling the angel, where was God when this happened? And why are we being oppressed? And the angel just completely ignores him. And he doesn't answer any of his questions because he's already answered his question.

He's already told him the Lord is with him. What else do you need to know? I mean, that's pretty much everything you need to know.

I'm sorry. You guys nervous?

Okay. All right. So the angel ignores his questions and just says, go in the strength you have and save Israel. Okay, so first, number 15 is my favorite part of it all. Okay.

But Lord Gideon asked, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manessa, and I am the least in my family. Okay, so of all the tribes, I guess Manessa was the least, and he was the least in his family. And so to me, what I think is beautiful is that God loves to choose the weak of the world, to shame the wise. He loves to take the foolish and shame the strong.

And so I think that this is. I know this in my family, Kevin is, if you were to look at our family, it is literally the week of the world. And so I'm so thankful that that is what God does. Kevin was born to a teenage mom out of I. And I don't say this like, oh, please tell me I'm great.

Like, I really don't have anything awesome about me except that I love. Like, I'm not a good athlete, I'm not spectacular at anything, but I do love Jesus. We have twins that are adopted from orphans, that are adopted from Ethiopia, that struggle, and then our biological kid has more special needs than you could ever imagine. And so there were definitely times in my life where I was like, well, this kind of sucks because I kind of want to be like, I want to have some worth in the eyes of men. And God was like, no, you can have the least of these, Katie.

And I think I'm just so grateful because I've seen what the Lord does with the week and I've seen that he loves to do the impossible when we let him in. Okay, so on your next note card.

Oh, yeah, wait. Okay. Kevin's going to go and then he's going to have to. On your next note card. Wait, so she's talking about this.

And as we're talking, here's what I want you to think about. I know everyone in this room. I assume everyone in this room struggles with the same affliction that I have and Katie had, and I had when I was a young life leader or a young guy trying to do ministry. And I remember pulling up to the high school. How many of you are freshmen in college?

Okay. Two or three years ago, you were the most intimidating person to someone like me. Seriously, who's been a leader for a while. Yeah. Okay.

When you drive up to the high school to this day, who still gets intimidated? Okay, you all just need to raise your hands because you're lying. I remember being a 19 year old kid who I thought, yeah, I got this. I pulled up to the high school the first day at Boone County High School. Now, mind you, I went to Boone.

Rick didn't say his part because nobody else wanted me. All the other leaders were like, no, we're not taking him. My gosh, serious. I pulled up to Boone and I'm never like, I got there a little early and I can't do this. I pulled out the parking lot.

I started going back home, and I felt like God was like, turn around. I'm like, crap. So I turned around, I pulled back into high school. School starts getting out, right? I'm sitting in the parking lot, school's getting out, and I'm now like.

I'm the weird guy sitting here staring at everybody as they're getting out because I chose to park in a place and I didn't realize this, where everybody comes walking out. So I get out of the car. Then I'm like, holy crap, what am I going to do now? So I see this kid and Casey Flake, and I'm like, hey. And the kid looks at me, he's like, who are you?

And I'm like, someone who's going to go cry in their car in like, ten minutes. But you know what I struggled with then and I didn't have to work for? It was imposter syndrome. Who else struggles with imposter syndrome? No, I mean, come on, you're going to put them up or are you going to leave them?

We're all like, yeah, maybe me a little bit.

And here's why we're talking about this, is because I want to encourage you guys. You guys are moving on to an amazing journey. You are getting to do something that generations before you haven't yet got to do. And we can speak to this because I'm telling you, when Rick said, hey, you want to go to northern Kentucky and do this ministry thing? I'm like, sure, why not?

If I had known what I was getting into, selfish me would have been like, dude, no, I can't do that. Thank goodness God knew better. But here's what I want to encourage you with. You are embarking on this next phase of your journey. It's going to be beautiful, and here's why.

So we have our youngest, Callan, who we told you about. So Callan has a mutation on one of his chromosomes, so that means that Callan has some special needs. Okay. Callan is not the most athletic kid in the world. And by most athletic, I mean not at all.

And I would say this, he still asks for help putting on his underwear or his pants or his socks or whatever. He's ten, so that gives you a little bit of perspective. He's a ten year old. And so I grew up doing athletics, like our older kids who were four and a half months when we got them, not four and a half years, who weren't the most athletic either. But, like, Callan is on a whole nother level.

You met Callan, you'd look at him and be like, okay, seems like. And then you'd watch him do stuff, and you're like, oh, okay. Like, you can't really throw a. Like, yeah, there's a lot going on there. Processing wise.

He's a little quirky. Katie likes to say he's wonderfully okay. He can be loud. He's got ADHD, he's got anxiety, he's got processing stuff. He's got all this stuff by the world standards.

Callan is one of those kids that would just kind of be like, he's going to get bullied. He's going to get made fun of. He's one of those kids that we were terrified of him going to school and getting older. Like, middle school feels terrifying for a kid like him to go into that. But here's the beautiful thing about my son Callan.

God says, yeah, you think so? Let me show you what I did, because we're like, God, why would you do this? So Callan does taekwondo. Is Callan the best taekwondo kid in the world? Not even close.

Callan has to do private taekwondo lessons when everybody else is doing a group lesson because he can't focus and number one. And so he can't do half the stuff he does. But here's the beautiful thing about it. He just had his test. He's a green belt.

Explain how he got this. So I know that's pretty impressive. He's a green belt. So Callan just had his test this past weekend. 200 people.

So everybody else test in a group. So, like, if you guys were testing for your white belt, you would all be together. Testing. Callan has to test by himself because he has a one on one instructor. So Callan stands in front of 200 people and does his test.

Now, let me just tell you, it did not look good. My whole time, I'm watching him, like, oh, and I've been working with him. I work with him every day. I'm like, oh, my gosh. But here's the.

He gave it everything he had. And here's what I love about this is he got done. And the guy who runs the place, and he's never said this before. It used to be about, like, we got to get it right. Whatever.

He stood up in front of the whole group and said, this is why we do this. Here's the beautiful thing about us. We're walking around and, like, kids in the back are talking, and there's kid. We found out later, kids are like, shut up. Talent's testing.

I have never seen somebody who's not good at crying at all, who's quirky, who's loud, who will literally flail on the ground when he gets tired and doesn't want to do what he's got to do, and his butt crack is showing. I mean, it's literally, like, as a parent, you're, like, watching, and you're like, yeah, this is how it is. But I have watched my son transform people's lives at that crown studio. We had some random guy. I've never met this guy in my life.

He walked up, he's like, callan, that was amazing. Great job. And I'm like, who is this guy? We were at the mall the other day. Again, Callum's like, we met Callan.

He might say hi to you. Hi. And, like, Runway. Like, he's wonderfully different. Here's the people about Callan is, we're at the mall the other day, and out of nowhere, this kid's like.

He's yelling, callan. Callan. And he runs up and he goes, is that Callan? And I'm like, yeah. He's like, hi, callan.

And this is Callan. Hi. And I'm like, callan, say hi to him. He goes, I did. I'm like, here's what I love about Callan.

By the world standards, he is different. He is weird. He has all these things that people would say about him. But here's what I love about my son, is that by God's standards, he is a lightning rod for Jesus. He is a light in this world.

I literally took Katie and said, he's the most popular kid in school, and he shouldn't be. Like, he shouldn't be. By the world standards, he shouldn't be. But here's what I love. God said, I'm going to take the useless.

What the world says is useless, what the world says is weak, and I'm going to shame the wise. And that's what we're talking about tonight. So I don't care how inadequate you feel. That's why God has called you to do this ministry, because of your inadequacies, because of your weakness. So what we want you to do is on your card, we want you to think about where do you feel weak and how does God want to use your weakness to show his strength?

And please be honest with yourself. I'm not going to look at these cards. Where do you feel weak?

Where do you feel inadequate? Where do you feel like that thing, that man, God, you can't use this. Or this is why I can't be a x. I'll give you an example. I struggle really hard to discipline my kids.

He is truth and I am mercy. And so I literally had to write out the verse about no. Discipline is pleasant at the time, but painful. But it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace later on. And so I have to tell myself that constantly with the boys, like, okay, I can do this.

I can God take my weakness of being scared to discipline them and make it turn it into your strength just to take a couple of seconds. Right. Thank.

Once you've written something down, just go ahead and turn to judges 636. Just keep. Keep your writing. Write down just. Judges 636 is where we'll go next.

John, when we get there, would you read that for us? Not yet.

36 through 40.

Johnny. Go ahead.

Gideon said to God, you will save Israel by my hand, as you promised. Look, I will place a wool fleece on the freshest floor. There is dew only on the fleets, and all the ground is dry. Then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said. And that is what happened.

Gideon rose early the next day. He squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece.

But this time, make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with deep. That night, God did so. Only the fleece was dry. All the ground was covered with deer.

Thank you. So who's heard the story of the fleece? Laid out the fleece. Right. We've heard that story.

So I want to take a little bit of different turn on that, because I think a lot of times we look at that and we talk about it in a lot of different ways, and we talk about, like, oh, we should be throwing out things to, like. Or people think the other side. They're like, well, Gideon was testing God, and that's a bad thing. Bad Gideon. But what's funny is, if you actually look at the scripture, right?

Does God chastise him at all for doing this? No. What does God do? He does it. He actually does it.

And then Gideon comes back the second time. He's like, okay, God, look, I mean, one more thing. Maybe one more. That seems easy. Can you do this?

And what does God do, Gideon? He does it. You. He does it again, here's the beauty of this to me, and this is why I love his passages.

It shows us a couple of things. What does it show us about Gideon? What is the first word he used in that passage? Somebody say, what does it?

What is it? If. What does if usually denote teachers in the room? Is that confidence?

If I said to you, hey, if you could do I feel confident to do that thing? No, probably not, right? It shows his doubt. Gideon was doubtful. Hey, God, if you're going to save us, if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have promised, because God, remember who I am.

Guy hiding in the cave, not this big warrior. So what is he trying to do? He was scared. He was unsure. He had no clue what to do.

So what did he want to do? He wanted to find out, is this really God? And in his fear, right, he asked God to prove himself. But here's what I love about this, and I'm not telling you to go do this and lay out fleeces to God, but here's what I love about this, is that though he did that, we saw what God did, is that God kneels down to Gideon's weakness in God's mightiness, and he says, okay, man, I'll do this for you. And then Gideon comes back and we don't see God chastise him.

We see God kneel down again to Gideon's weakness and say, gideon. Okay. And then from there, right? What do we see happen? Which we'll find out in a minute.

But this is the beautiful thing about what does this sentence for a second is how many times are you, throughout your weeks, throughout your day, as you're doing ministry? Because, look, if you haven't figured this out yet, ministry is hard. It's not easy, like going to tell people about Jesus. It should be easy. It's about the God of yours.

We're telling about life. But there's this other being that doesn't want us to do that, right? And has enmity towards us, right? Because we're God's children, comes after us. So it's hard.

People are focused on themselves. And I'll be honest with you, what all of you are dealing with nowadays, I'll sound like the old man in the room. I don't know how you do it. I mean, you're in a world that is consumed with individualism, that is consumed with me. Me.

And when you talk about this God of the universe that loves you, but what you have to do is you have to give up yourself, right? People are like, are you crazy? Jeez. But here's what I love about why God has called each of you in this room is because you probably have doubts. You probably have no clue what you're doing half the time.

Anybody ever done a club talk or campaigners talk, and you're like, I have no idea what the crap I'm talking about all the time. I felt like half the time I'm doing club talks. And obviously I screwed up. I mean, somehow people understood what I was talking about. I don't know.

But it's because when you're in that state, right, just like Gideon, you get to a point. And I love this. And I'm going to read verse 39 again. Says, gideon said to God, do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request.

Right? And then in 40 says, in that night, God did so. So here's what I want to encourage you with about this. Part of it is that if you think about. I think about another story where I saw this exact same situation happen.

I see twelve dudes, right, who are sitting in a room. One of them is about to betray this guy, Jesus, if you heard him. And Jesus is about to die, okay? And they're all like, at all different stages of whatever. And then we look later in the scriptures, and what are these guys all doing after that?

After that supper? What do they end up doing? Eventually scattering, right? And fear, whatever. But what does Jesus do?

And I think this is purposeful, because I want you guys to think about this for yourselves. Is Jesus knew that they were going to be scattered all over the place. Jesus knew that Peter was going to betray. He knew about Judas. He knew the weakness in their heart.

That's why he chose them honestly. That's why he chose Gideon. That's why he chose you. He didn't choose you because you're beautiful or because you're skilled or because you have strengths. He chose you because you're weak.

We're going to talk about that more in a little bit. But here's what I love, is Jesus put a towel around his waist, and then what did he do? He kneeled down and he washed their feet. The God of the universe, kneeling down in his mindiness, right? To wash their feet.

So I want you to think about that when you're scared, when you're like, can I do this? We just left young life. I say it weird. I know. All those old people say it weird.

That's the first time I've ever realized I say it really weird. Somebody else say it. What is it called? Gosh. I say it really weird.

I won't say it ever again. Why? When you leave young life, it's scary. Let's be honest. Is that the elephant in the room or.

No, I mean, they know. Oh, you guys know it's scary, right? Like, young life has camps and they're awesome. Young life is. All of you came from young life, right?

It's scary. You're leaving this thing that has been the staple of this ministry for 20 plus almost 30 years. That's scary. Navigators has never done high school ministry. Sorry.

If you just figured that out, you all are pioneering something that has never been done in a ministry. That's never gone after that population of kids. Everyone's like, crap, what did I get into now? But here's the beautiful thing of it. That's why God has you here, because it's never been done.

And he says, you know what? Great. I'm going to take all of you. Not because you're great or amazing, but the opposite of that. Oh, I'm still up.

Okay, so I'm going to go to verse seven. One so early in the morning, Jerobal, that is, Gideon and all his men camped at the spring of Herod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moray. The Lord said to Gideon, you have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. Now, remember, Midians were what?

They were like locusts. They were huge. So this is what God does. He says, you have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands in order that Israel may not boast against me, that her own strength has saved her. Announce now to the people, anyone who trembles of fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.

So 20,000 men left, while 10,000 remained. I'm going to come back to that in a second. Okay. Verse four. But the Lord said to Gideon, there are still too many men.

Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say this one shall go with you, he shall go. But if I say this one shall not go with you, he shall not go. So verse five. So Gideon took the men down to the water.

And there the Lord told them, separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink. 300 men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. Verse seven. The Lord said to Gideon, with the 300 men that lapped, I will save you and give the many knights into your hands.

Let all the other men go, each to his own place. So Gideon sent the rest of Israelites to their tents, but kept the 300 who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. Now the camp of Midian lay below them in the valley. Here's what I want you to understand, and this is one of these things about, this is the most ridiculous, most absurd plan you could come up with to attack an army of locusts, like an army of people that were like locusts. So I'm going to give you a little history in deuteronomy.

20 things like verse eight around there. They're talking about, like, there was provisions for war so you could get out of war and said, hey, do you have a home that you're about to buy or you're about to build? Yeah. Okay, you know what? Go.

Because you know what? We want to make sure that someone's there to build a home. Okay, great. Who's getting engaged? Okay, good.

We want to make sure you're there for your spouse so you can go home. Okay, who's afraid? Literally, this is legit. You can go home. So I love the first thing that God says is, if any of you is afraid, go.

Why? 20,000 people went. 10,000 were left. Like, God, we kind of might need those 23,000 people. That might be important.

Here's what I love about this. Why would God do that? Why would God say, if you're afraid, go.

Anybody? You talk when she asks a question. When I ask a question, you go silent. Why would God say, if you're afraid, go. What does fear do?

Even in a small sense, when it's introduced, it distracts, it spreads. Right? See, the reason why the Israelites had this in place for war was very simple. If you and I go to war together and you're afraid, guess what's going to happen probably to me that's going going to bleed over into me, because now I'm going to be like, yeah, okay, he's afraid. I should be afraid, too.

So God sent him home and said, hey, look, go. And then God, a little bit down to 300. But here's what I want you to talk about. Everybody talks about the 300, okay? 300.

Gideon's army, Gideon's mighty warriors. Let me just clue you into something. Everything else we've been reading about from Gideon is about what picking the who, the weak. If you've seen the movie 300, these weren't the guys from the movie 300. These aren't King Leonidas Spartans who are trained warriors who are going to fight everybody else.

I hate when people look at that, when they say, like, he got them down to 300 and says, they're lapping, like, choose the ones that, oh, because the ones who knelt down the lap and do this, they were looking around. That is not what the scripture says. God says, I will tell you which ones to pick. Here's what I believe. I believe you.

Look at that. God said, I'm going to pick the ones that you would never expect. And that's what God has done. And I hate to inform you of this. This is what I love about this group.

Is this is who God has weaned it down to, to take over this entire area and beyond. There was a lot of other people involved in young life. Thousands of kids who were a part of the ministry. Right. Who could have been leaders.

This is who God chose. It's not 300. It's 100 and something. Right? How many thousands of kids are in northern Kentucky?

Total? Yeah. Like 15,000 high school students. Okay, so I want you to think about this. It's like locusts.

Kids are like locusts everywhere. You're telling me that God's going to take 100? How old are you? 1919 year olds. And how are you?

23. 23. How do you. Okay. You're like the old person.

That's crazy. I'm going to take a bunch of 19 to 27 year olds and we're going to go attack 15,000 high school kids? That's stupid. No, seriously, that's stupid. That's not like.

That's like all from different backgrounds, different ages. Any of you like professional athletes?

Yeah.

No offense.

You thought I meant something else. Do you know, here's my point with this.

Anybody here playing a college sport right now? It's, all right. Move on, people. Move on. Anybody playing college sport right now?

Anybody in the room? No. Here's the thing. I want you to understand, and don't take this the wrong way, because this was me. God chose you because you aren't.

Can I say that? Well, what? Because you aren't. What? Who said it?

I thought I heard. Because you aren't overly special. I know, it sucks, doesn't it? But here's the thing about it is I don't say that in a bad way. I'm not overly special.

None of us are, because it's not about us. God chose the 300 on purpose because at the end of the day, it wasn't about Gideon, it wasn't about the Israelites. Who was it about? It's about God. Because here's the reality of the situation.

God calls those with the honor to serve him. Those he calls with the honor to serve him, those are the ones that are willing to give God the honor of the success. At the end of the day, we get the honor to serve God and be called up into the 300. Not because we are amazing warriors or strong. It's the opposite of that.

It's because at the end, when it's all said and done, we look at each other and we go, how in the did that happen? Oh, my gosh. That's insane. It's not possible. I'll be honest with you.

It is insane to me that we're sitting here 25, 30 years later. I was an idiot. I don't even know if I was following Jesus at 19.

I'm kidding. I was kind of bumpy. But the fact that God used me to continue the ministry that's going on today, that he used Rick, he used Amy, used Katie, that has nothing to do with us. That has everything to do with God. And so I want you guys to understand that navigators young life, it doesn't matter, because it's not about a ministry.

It's about God taking people like us and saying, the success is mine. You just get to be along with me on it.

Yeah. All right, moving on. This is my favorite part right here. I'll speak this up. Okay.

This is my favorite part. All right, so we're judges 715 to 22. I'll read it and then I'm just going to come back. We're almost done. Hang on.

I was going to speak from my heart. Reclamation. We're almost done. Okay.

When Gideon heard the dream. So what happens is Gideon didn't only just ask about the two police. So that happens. And then God says, gideon, man, if you're still doubting me, I want you to take your friend, I want you to sneak into the midianite camp, and I want you to go down Gideon. So this is so sweet of God.

Because this time Gideon's not even asking. God is like, look, man, I know you're still nervous, so this is what I'm going to do for you. So Gideon and his friend go down to the midianite camp and they overhear two midianites talking. And they're like, oh, my gosh. God is with Gideon and his guys and we're all going to die tomorrow.

And Gideon's like, all right, this is awesome. So he goes back up to his camp, and that's where we're starting, right here. It says, when Gideon heard the dream, that's what it is. The two guys are talking, and one had a dream that they would. This is called a used Bible.

That was my Bible, like 20 years. All right, okay, sorry. So when Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshipped God. So this is the first thing I want to think about. So when Gideon figures out that these midianites have had this dream, the first thing he does is what?

He falls on his face. And he worships the God of the universe. So I think, like, anytime we face a battle, the very first thing we need to do is fall on our face and worship God. This summer, it was June, Kevin lost his job. And then two weeks later, I found out my dad's cancer was back.

And so it was one of those moments where I was like, I'm going to make the hard choice, and I'm going to choose to worship you. Knowing, and my dad was not a believer that you will work in the midst of this. And I'm glad to tell you, my dad came to know Jesus two weeks before he died. But I think that there is something to be said if you can worship before the victory is yours, when God has promised it to you. It is a blessing to the Lord, and it's a sacrifice of praise.

It was not easy for me to praise God when we have no idea how we're going to have income. And then my dad is dying and he doesn't know Jesus. But it actually gave me joy. Does anybody like Lauren Daigle? Somebody out here said, okay, I love Lauren Daigle.

On one of the inside of her, when we still had cds, the CDK said that worry and fear can actually not coexist in your brain at the same time. And then I looked it up, I'm like, that can't be true. It's true. It is a scientific fact that worry and praise cannot coexist in your brain. That's worry.

Sorry. Worry leads to fear, I think. So worry and praise can't exist. So anytime you are worried, if you start to praise, your brain literally cannot even. I just think that's amazing.

Like, God hardwired us. That's why he says praise the Lord all the time. He wasn't doing it because he's like, I need your praise. He's doing it because it saves us. I just think that's amazing.

All right, so, number one, praise God that you know when you enter your high school that he is going to do something amazing for you, that he is going to save the kids, that you love, that he is going to disciple them. I think that he loves faith. He loves it when we believe him. Okay, that's verse. That was all just in one small verse.

So then he goes up. He divides the 300 men into three companies, and he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them with torches inside. So here's the thing. They're getting ready to go out to battle. He now separates them again.

He separates them into 100, 101, hundred. And they're going out in the middle of the night. I forget what watch it is, but it's literally the middle of the night. And he separates them. And then from there they're separated even farther.

There's a hundred of you. So if a hundred of you are separated, Gideon separates you off. And then you have to stretch out far enough where you don't see the other person. So you're just standing there. But you have.

This is part of what I'm thinking too. You have to go where God tells you to go. And you have to go with who he tells you. And you have to stand your watch. Even if it's totally black and you can't see what's going on.

And you have to go.

I'm getting off track. But I'm so incredibly thankful for you guys. I cannot wait till my kids get to high school. We are in the 8th grade and we are praying our way to 9th grade. I just feel like we had one of our.

We were talking one of our old young life kids. So he is now a dad. His 14 year old was shot and killed in Covington last week. I am so glad you guys are there. My ten year old brought.

He has a friend, Lydia, who's nine. And I know her mom. And she was telling me Lydia is nine and she wants to kill herself. She's nine. I'm so thankful for just as a parent, we just cannot tell you what you do is so important.

But anyway. Sorry. So they're going out. And does he give them a bow and arrow or a shield or sword? What does God tell them to take?

A trumpet and a pitcher and a torch? Does that sound like what you want to take to war? Not me. So I just think it's crazy. And here's we're going to get to the full part.

But the parallel is when you go hang out with high school kids, do you try to bring your coolness, your prettiness, your strength? What is it that you bring when you go? Or do you bring the weapons that God has given you? Do you bring the word? Have you prayed for them?

Are you praising him as you're scared out of your mind? Do you use the weapons that God has given you? And I will tell you, I'm probably 30 years older than most of you. We could be your parents. Yeah, we could definitely be your parents.

So what I have found and see, look, this is an old person. I forget.

This happens all the time. Ruby.

I know. I mean literally, you guys. This is what it's like to be a mom of three boys.

No, I really don't.

They're going out. I don't know what it was. They compare. They've praised scripture. Okay, we're just going to keep going.

This literally happens to me all the time. I'm 47. It is not fun.

Okay. But anyway, so the things that he gives them, it's so purposeful, you guys, it's so beautiful. Okay, so he gives them a picture, right?

They have these water pitchers and they put the torch inside of it. And the torch is inside of it so that it hides the light, right? Because what they're doing is they're going to go and they're going to get in their little place, they're going to spread out, and then what they do is they hit the pitcher and the pitcher falls apart and the torches show up everywhere. And so it looks like the midianites are surrounded. But the beautiful part to me is the picture.

The picture is not important in and of itself. The pitcher is important because what's inside of the pitcher, the torch, the light. But what is important about the pitcher is that it is weak. What if I couldn't hit the pitcher and it didn't fall apart? What happens to the torch?

There's no light, right? It's too strong. So the pitcher is purposely made weak so that when you hit it, the torch shines. That is us. And God even says that later.

Well, Paul says it. And I guarantee Paul was thinking of this when he says it in two corinthians four, six to seven. He says, for God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. All right, wait for it. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.

The whole point is the weaknesses that you hate, that you despise, that you try to hide from high school kids, that you try to hide from each other. Those are actually a gift. And this is where I get super excited. The weakness that Callan has has been a gift. Callan is the reason when my dad met the Lord, because he is just so full of life and he loves Jesus.

I think of Camden. I hope in a year or two from now, I'll be able to tell you that his weakness, God transformed his timidity into some serious power. And so I feel like he takes our weakness and it's there for a reason. The weaker you are, the more his light shines out. And so it's funny, because I was sitting with our Princeton leader, angel, and I was telling her about Camden, and she was like, I sat the bench all through high school, Katie.

But the cool thing was, like, it pushed me towards Jesus. And I got to share Jesus with this other girl. And so her weakness was actually beautiful because in the end, his light shone out of it. And so I just want to encourage you guys, no matter how weak you think you are, I can't do this. I'm not as cool.

I remember we had another leader, Kim, and she was, like, the cool leader. Like, she was fun, she was bubbly, and I was just, like, the shy one who sneeze a lot in scripture. And so I just always felt very intimidated. But God doesn't care. I just think it's awesome.

Your weakness, this is what it is. Your weakness is purposeful. Whatever weakness he has given you, it is not a mistake. Weakness is as much of a gift as what you think your biggest strength is. So on another note card, if you will write out, or just think, where are you relying on yourself?

Like, what are you trying to use as a weapon rather than using God's weapon?

Anything.

Oh. And where might you be fighting a physical battle instead of battling the spiritual group?

Okay. Where are you relying on yourself and not using God's weapons? And where are you fighting a physical battle instead of battling the spiritual roots?

It.

Okay, so turn to judges. Oh, you're on judges. So we're going to start in. Wait, did you already.

You didn't read 22, did you? No. Where did you stop?

So here we are. So we're in the story where they're sitting around, right? They're around the edges, as Katie said. Okay. They cracked the set of throne, verse 19.

Gideon and the hundred men with them reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch. Just after they had changed the guard to the mini eyes. Just after the mini eyes had changed the guard, they blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars, grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpet they were to blow, and they shouted, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. Remember, they didn't have a sword.

While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran crying out as they fled. When the 300 trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to bethshit, toward Zerarah, as far as the border of Abel Mohala, whatever, near Tibet. Okay, so here's basically what happened. So they do all that.

They blow the trumpets very similar to another story where some dudes surrounded this city called Jericho. It's a minor story in the scriptures. And they scream, right? Sword for the Lord and sword for Gideon. They didn't have swords.

But what did it cause? It caused all the Midianites to freak out. And the crazy part is they panicked and they started slashing each other with their swords and then they took off. Here's where I think, as we kind of close this out, beating this dead horse over and over again. But the thing that I think I would hope you guys would take away from it is this is the thing I love, is that when God first met Gideon, if you remember, what did God say to Gideon?

What did he call it? What was it? A mighty warrior. Here's what I love about that. I love God's foreshadowing.

God instilled in Gideon a dream of what he could be before he ever was. And this is why, to me, God takes those who don't take themselves too seriously and uses them. Because if I believe I'm amazing, and I believe I have all the skills I need to do everything, then I don't need anyone. Because you know what? I'm the dream as it is right now.

But that's the beauty of what God has done right now, is that God has given Amy and Rick and all of you, and each of you individually, he has cast a vision, a dream of what could be, of the impact that this hundred can have in northern Kentucky and beyond. Because I'm going to be honest with you, I'm going to cast a vision right now. This isn't from the Lord. This is from Kevin. So don't get that confused.

Well, you know what I would love to see? I would love to see after you continue to move towards 15,000 kids, that you guys move south into Lowell and Lexington and you move north back into Cincinnati. Yeah, I know there's a thing called young life or whatever, but God doesn't care because there's so many kids. He needs more people like you to go after them. And then I want you to move east, and I want you to move west.

And I want 20 years from now, 30 years from now, when I'm dead, gone, maybe still alive, I want you guys to be coming back to a room like this, but much bigger. And to see the impact that God started today when he put a dream in front of you and said, go. And the beautiful thing for me is that you only need three things really simple. I'm going to need, like those three, these three things for 1999. This is all you need.

And it's what Gideon had. It's what the Israelites had 300 had with him. It's what Rick and Amy have had for 30 years of knowing them. It's what my wife embodies every single day. Can you guess what they are?

Because Gideon figured it out pretty early on. You need God's word.

You need to pray. And then the last one is, you need to praise God when he moves. It is not rocket science. Following Jesus and sharing Christ, we can come up with all kinds of things, but here's my challenge. You guys are moving into a ministry, navigators, that is founded on scripture.

One of my favorite stories of Dawson Tropic is talking about his four year old daughter schooling some old dude, some college kid in scripture, read his book. It's hilarious. It's a great story of, like, talking about scripture and his little four year old daughter's like, and got the phone. You are going into a ministry that's founded on scripture and prayer and praise.

The other thing I would say is that we want you to don't just take these cards and get rid of them. Right. The spirit of what we're having you do is the stuff that we did early on. You might not have been on a note card of ours, but someone that's connected to you was.

I can't tell you how many kids I prayed for. I literally can't. I can't tell how many kids I cried over. I can't tell you how many scripture I memorized. It's a lot.

I can't tell you times I praised God when God did the impossible.

But here's what I would say. You guys have an awesome opportunity for you, and I get it. You're in a world of Instagram and snap. I don't even know all this stuff that you guys are going on here where literally, you're inundated with yourself. Yourself.

So here's what I'm asking you to do. Actually, I'm not asking you anything. It's what God's asking you to do is God's asking you to put down the sword of your skill and your intelligence, your humor.

Put down a sword of, oh, I'm really technologically sound. I'm hip with what the kids are into.

That doesn't matter. None of that matters. I don't know a lick of music today. I couldn't tell you. My kid laughed at me the other day because the song came on and I said, is that Sean Mendez?

And he's like, I'm shocked. I knew who Sean Mendez was. And he's like, Ed Sheeran, dad. I'm like, sound the same to me. I don't know.

I had no clue. But you know what? It doesn't matter. Why it doesn't matter is because Jesus could care less about Ed Sheeran or Shamindez. High school kids could, too.

What they care about is that you're willing to come to where they are and you're willing to share Jesus with them. So is there one more note card? Okay, get it back out. We're not done. Yeah, it's long.

I talked long. Rick knows this. You're with Rick? Rick talks for 15 hours. Sorry.

I just want it a little bit. Here's what I want you to do with this card.

I want you to write in this card something that you have to do right now, but I want you to write in this card. So I'm going to give you a little story. When we were at Boone County High School, we were taking kids to, was it weekend camp? We're taking a weekend camp. Okay.

How many kids have we taken up at that point? Ten. Yeah, we're taking the weekend camp the week before or the year before that. She came to me and she said, I've been praying, seeing the Lord. God told me, we're going to take 60 kids.

I was like, go back and keep praying. Not happening. We just took ten kids. I don't even know if we know 60 kids. We're not taking 60 kids.

She kept praying, we're taking 60 kids. And I'm hoping she's like, I wrote it down. God told me, we're taking 60 kids. God told me that. And I'm like, okay, great.

We show up at the bus. How many kids were at the bus? 60 kids showed up at the bus. Literally, I remember, like 58 kids were there. And I'm like, come on.

Literally, 60 on the dot showed up in camp. But that didn't just happen because we were cool. It happened because we asked God what he wanted to do, and he told us to trust him and believe, just like, idiot. So I want you to write down on this card, what is the dream that God has given you that you struggle to believe?

What is the dream about this ministry that God has given you that you struggle to believe? It could be a kid. It could be a number of people doing whatever. I don't know what it is for you, but what is so, like, oh, my gosh, that's not going to happen. Because to me it seems silly, but CG kids weekend camp was not like that wasn't possible.

And I want you to write it down, and then I want you to pray. And if you don't have something now, I want you to ask God to give you something. Because here's the key thing I've learned in my life, is if God is asking me to do something that's beyond me, that's exactly where he wants me to be, because then I have to rely on him. So I want you to think about what is the impossible God is asking you to do so that you can pray, read scripture, and then you can praise him right when he shows up. So remember last thing I said last thing, like eight times.

This is for the last thing. You have the honor of serving God, so make sure he has the honor of whatever happens at the end of this. All right? And then I'm going to pray.

Lord, you know each of us, God, in this room, every air, every piece of us, every doubt, every fear, every weakness, everything that we've ever thought, you know, God. Yet in the midst of our weakness, God, in the midst of our struggles, in the midst of everything, God, you continually, like with Gideon, God stood down to wrap your arms around us in your mightiness, God, you choose to be with us. God, I pray for these friends, for these missionaries, God, for these warriors, for you, God, that you would continue to give them the passion, the yearning, the desire to see lives changed, God, to see kids go from death to life. Lord. Lord, I pray that whatever comes out of this, God, it is what you want them to take.

God, this isn't about me. It's not about them, yet, it's about you. So, God, we ask right now that you would draw us back to your word, that you would draw us to our knees to pray. And God, ultimately you would draw us to praise you and fall on our face in thankfulness and gratitude. And God, we give you the success and we thank you for allow allowing us to be in service to you.

We pray this your name. Amen.