Start Strong, Run Hard, Finish Well | The Starting Line

In this 3-part mini-series from Ecclesiastes, Brody challenges and encourages young Christians—whether you’re a teen, a college student, or someone just now getting serious about your faith. Each episode unpacks a key step in your walk with Jesus: Start Strong, Run Hard, Finish Well.

In Part 1, we explore what it means to start strong—learning to enjoy the goodness of God, build spiritual habits, develop discipline, and let go of what holds you back.

Brody also shares powerful stories of students coming to faith and offers practical advice on topics like gratitude, godly friendships, submission to authority, and standing firm in your beliefs—even when it’s hard.

This series is packed with truth, encouragement, and real talk for anyone ready to take their faith seriously and live for the glory of Jesus.

• Philippians 1:6
• Luke 9:62
• Ecclesiastes 11
• Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown

Transcript: Start Strong

I often talk to young Christians, or when I say young Christians people that may not be young in human years, but they’re young in Jesus years in terms of their faith and their relationship with Christ, maybe somebody’s in their 30s or 50s or 70s and they’ve just gotten serious about their walk with the Lord. I would call that person a young Christian and today I want to share some challenges and some words for you, some to do’s, some things that you can get active and get after in your Christian walk and I’m going to do this in three episodes. We’re going to look at folks that are younger in their faith, but then also gear this towards young Christians, Christians who are young, so believers in their teen years and their 20s. Can we say it that way? So, I want to encourage you, if you are in one of these three categories, you’re a teenage Christian, or even younger, you’re a young adult Christian, you’re in your 20s, maybe you’re a college student, grad student, or you might be in the military, you just went to work right out of high school, but you’re in your 20s and you’re just really, that’s the decade where you’re starting life, or you’re older, but you’re a Christian that’s really just now getting serious about your walk with the Lord and this episode’s for you, we will follow this with a couple episodes. We’re going to talk to folks about sort of, how to live out faithfully in your 20s, 30s and 40s and we’ll finish up with one that looks at the 50s and up and I’m excited about this little miniseries. This is birthed out of a sermon that I did recently at Red Oak church that you might have listened to and hopefully it’ll be an encouragement, give you some motivation. Welcome to No Sanity Required.

Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, a podcast about the bible culture and stories from around the globe.

All right, before we get into this week’s episode, I did want to read to you some amazing, I’m talking about awesome text messages that I received and I read some of those last week and I want to read some from this past week. Here’s one from a staff member named Justin, which, by the way, I’d like to ask you to pray for Justin’s family, his mother is dealing with some medical issues, Justin has served very faithfully here at SWO and his folks are in a difficult time and season. So, pray for them right now, while you listen to this, just pause and pray for Justin’s family, specifically for his mom, it’d be a huge blessing to them, but he texted me this. One of my guys pulled me aside last night and professed faith in Jesus. I responded, dang son, that’s the best way to start a weekend. This was on Friday. This would have been Friday night, he said, for sure, he was 15, he was eager to learn the whole week and came to me the last night, just torn up. I asked him, what’s going on and he was telling me that he knows he’s been living life wrong, doesn’t want to do it anymore, it was a good conversation. So, praise the Lord for that. This is from Connor, another faithful brother that’s serving here this summer, forgot to let you know, but on Wednesday, one of my boys got saved. I also just had another conversation and another guy of mine gave his life to Jesus. So, Connor, in one week, got to experience two young men professing faith in Jesus, pretty awesome. This is another one. Brody, one of my students got saved tonight, that was cool. That was on Tuesday night that was early in the week, which is pretty cool. Always awesome when it happens early then on Thursday. Mike Amber gave his life to Christ tonight, his name is Jonah, he’s from Mount Zion, so that’s pretty cool and I got a text on Thursday, just wanted to let you know one of our girls from our church got saved tonight. I said, heck, yeah, that’s so amazing. I’m with student pastors now they’re going to come your way. So, anyway, awesome, just I know you all love to hear those and I love to read them to you. So, some cool stories there of God’s faithfulness. All right, let’s get into this.

I want to encourage you with a little bit of scripture. The scripture tells us, in Philippians 1:6 and I’m sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ and in Luke 9:62 the scripture tells us and you all know this is one of my favorite verses, it’s something that motivates me every day and that I try to motivate you all with and Jesus says this, Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God and so, with those verses, what I want to do is encourage you with what the writer of Ecclesiastes, said in Ecclesiastes 11 and 12, when he said, remember your creator in the days of your youth, over these three episodes, I want to give you three applications for young and old believers. Here’s the three applications and today we’ll be considering the first one, I want to give you these three applications, Start Strong. Number two, run hard and number three, finish well. Now for me, the way I think of this is also start strong, run strong and die well or die strong. So, finish well, but anyway, today we’re going to get into starting strong. What does that look like? So, let’s think of the teen years, the college years, the 20s, but then also, you put in this category those earliest years of when you first get married or for those of you that are new believers, talked to a fairly new believer this week who’s in his 50s and I’m like.

Let’s start this thing out, let’s get going, let’s get after so these would apply, I think, to him. So, let me give you it’s going to be a bullet point list. We’re going to rip through it. I hope it’s meaningful, excuse me, flipping and turning the pages of scripture, because I want to read a few different passages as we go through this. So, here’s the first one. Start Strong. Starting strong. Here’s the first point, learn to enjoy the goodness of the Lord. That’s so important and where does that come from? It comes from Ecclesiastes 11:7, light is sweet and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. What he’s referring to in that verse is being alive because, if you read that whole chapter, what he’s saying is he’s using the darkness as it relates to death and he’s using the light to relate to being alive because, in the next verse, he says, so if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. So, enjoy the goodness of the Lord. I think a few thoughts that go along with that is, each day, reflect on the goodness of the Lord, each day meditate on God’s word. Have you meditated on God’s word today, what does it mean to meditate on God’s word? It means to think on these things, to read, means to consider, means to look into and then, reflect, give reflection. Have you talked to God today? Spoke to God, shared your thoughts.

Your heart, your fears, your anxieties, your requests, the scripture says let your requests be made known to God and it says to do all that by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving and so, that brings us to appreciating the simplicity. Appreciate the simplicity. If it’s a sunny day as simple as it seems, pause and reflect on that and just appreciate it. Tell the Lord, thank you, but in your heart have an attitude of appreciation. If you enjoyed some food or drink today, appreciate that, pause and appreciate it. I think that’s so important and the bible teaches us that appreciation and Thanksgiving and rejoicing produces more joy in us, you want to become a joy factory, you want your heart to be a factory that produces joy in you. Then be someone who gives thanks and reflects on the goodness of the Lord and speaks of it and meditates on it and thanks the Lord for it. Next, here’s the next thing, learn what to hold on to and what to let go of. There’s, things that you got to let go of, it could be a harm or a wrong or a pain that somebody caused you, it could be a grudge that you’re holding against that person, it could be harm that was done to you that whether it’s post-traumatic stress from that, or it’s the pain associated with it, or it could be combat trauma or like, we’ve got a guest coming next coming up, maybe next week.

It might be in a couple of weeks, but we’ve got a guest coming on that we did an interview last week and this guy was a firefighter and he experienced a couple of things, some, some pretty intense death and loss that he was hands on with and it spun him out, it really destroyed sort of, the frame of mind he was in was very destroyed and so, anyway, learning what to hold on to, what to let go of. Now, it’s easier said than done to let go of abuse that occurred when you were a child, or the loss of a buddy. I recently was talking to a former member of Dev group, which is known as SEAL Team Six and we were talking about the death of one of his buddies who I didn’t know, but I read the book, guy was a believer, which I’ll just recommend the book right here, his name’s Adam Brown. The book was called Fearless and that book was powerful because you saw the power of the gospel at work in a person’s life, it wasn’t first and foremost a book about military service and combat although it was those things and powerful at that, it’s a story of God’s grace to change a man’s life Adam Brown was severely addicted to drugs and God brought him out of, it’s powerful story, but anyway Adam was killed in an operation where he was shot up pretty bad and so, one of his team members, I had the privilege of meeting recently and getting to know a little bit We’re having a conversation about it and that led to conversations.

About some other operations and I think I mentioned this before, but I love the story. One of the stories I love to read is the story of a guy named John Chapman, known as Chapple, it’s the first Medal of Honor recipient ever to be, where his actions were caught on film, on camera, it was a c1 30, I think, filming and then, an overhead drone that captured the imaging of his conflict that won him the Medal of Honor, but anyway, just looking at those stories and talking to veterans and I ended up looking at the ISR footage of, which I think ISR stands for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, but the ISR footage from an Apache helicopter of the shooting down of extortion one seven, a helicopter in 2011 where everyone on board was killed and it’s just, you watch it and you hear those helicopter pilots talking about that and it’s like, these dudes carry this. The survivors carry this because they buried their friends, they worked on them as they died oftentimes and so, when I say, you got to know what to let go of. I’m not, I know it’s not as simple as just saying, oh well, my buddy died. I got to let go of it. I know it’s much more complex than that. I got a buddy that two really good friends, they’re like brothers, they listen to NSR, they live in Virginia, they’re combat veterans and one of them is…

We sat around a fire one night and talked about the struggle of moving on, in your heart and your mind and when you’ve seen things and done things and experience things and the fog of war and the heat of conflict. How do you let go of it and here’s the image, or the picture that for me, because I’ve not done those things, but I can tell you that, as a Christian, you’ve done things that you live with regret and guilt over bad things, that you would not want anybody to know and you don’t want to talk about? I can tell you that in my life, there are things that I am ashamed. There’s, one particular incident that I think only one other person has ever known about that happened to me before I was a Christian, that I did that haunts me and I wrestle with it and then, I just give it to the Lord and the Lord has freed me from it and I’m grateful for that, but anyway, it was something that occurred when I was, gosh, I don’t know, 17 years old, maybe and something I did and just in a moment that could have caused a lifetime of, I don’t know, the Lord is bigger than any of your moments and he’s bigger than the sum total of all your moments and you got to learn how to give it to him and that sounds easy, but you got to know what to let go of and I told my buddy sitting around that fire that night, I shared with him, what I do is, I imagine.

There’s that passage that talks about the sea of forgetfulness, that the Lord separates our sins, as far as east is from the west that he remembers them no more, he casts them in the depths of the sea, that it’s this picture of throwing it into the depths and I imagine a sea that’s bigger than the Pacific Ocean and deeper than anything on earth, the deepest spot on earth is what 35,000 feet is what the I think it’s 35,000 is the Challenger Deep, which is a section of the Pacific Ocean, 35,000 feet deep, that’s Mount Everest, plus a mile of water on top of it and I imagine an ocean that’s bottomless, it’s deeper than that and that those things I need to let go of. I just I put them on a raft and I float it right out into that ocean and it begins to sink and it just disappears and it’s somewhere in the ocean of God’s grace and he’s got it and I’m not going to try to resuscitate it, revive it and pull it up that that, for me, is an image and, but then also learn what to hold on to. There’s, some things you need to hold on to, to remember, you might have past addiction and you need, freedom from it, but you need to hold on to it so that you’re you remember what it’s like to go there, what it’s like to fall into that and to create and live in those patterns. So, that’s important, learning what to hold on to, as much as I learned what to let go of.

Hold on to, the relationships that matte, fight for your marriage, your friendships, if you’re a young 20 something spouse, the earliest stages of your marriage can sometimes pose the greatest hurdles. If you’re a teenager that’s trying to embrace adulthood, but you’ve come out of an abusive situation, hold on to Jesus, hold on to relationships that’ll bring healing, hold on to accountability, hold on to new affections, very important, so important and I like that picture of affections, because that brings me to the next point, which is the scripture speaks of setting our affections on things above and so, for a Christian, we have a new set of affections, we don’t long for the things that the world longs for or we don’t want, long for the things we longed for when we were in the world and I like to this summer, I’m using an illustration. I’ve used it once so far and I think I might continue using it, but I think about changed affections will change your activity or your behavior and to me, the good illustration of this, or a good example of this, is imagine a teenage boy, now let’s say he’s 13, 14, that young and don’t want to take a shower, his room stinks, you can’t get him to do his laundry, you got to remind him every day to brush his teeth and put on deodorant, he smells bad, he looks like a train wreck, just kind of, messy all the time.

Then, all of a sudden, he’s entered into puberty and so, everything that comes with that, bodies changing and so, there’s new odors and anyway, you’re trying to get this dude, to clean up a little bit and just be presentable and you’re struggling with it and he’s not cooperative. Anyway, all of a sudden you realize, he’s brushing his teeth, he’s taking a shower, he’s putting on deodorant, he got a job, he’s trying to make a little money, he’s saving for a car, he looks different, he’s and then, you find out, oh, it’s because now there’s girls and he’s realizing that he’s attracted to him and he’s trying to present himself in a way that would make him appealing, what has changed is his affections. So, a changed affection will change behavior and that leads me to the next thing, which is to create habits and patterns within those affections and those behaviors, create habits and patterns and there needs to be discipline and discipline would be its own point, but habits and patterns are connected to discipline, we got to have discipline to establish those habits and patterns and so, habits and patterns are important for kind of, keeping us between the ditches, I don’t want to become legalistic, but I do want to have sleep patterns and reading patterns and meditation patterns and then, I’ll have clean habits of exercise and conversation with the Lord and listening to things that are wholesome

They’re going to build me up. That’s important and that does lead to discipline, being disciplined in every facet of life. I’ve shared it on here a lot of times before. The struggle for me when it comes to discipline is dietary, dadgum, I love ice cream and fried food and pastries, literally, there was this, I don’t know if you all remember this Alan Jackson song that was really popular in like, the late 80s, this was early Alan Jackson career, because, maybe it was early 90s. I think looking it up right now. I think it was, we’ll see what, anyway, songs called, while I’m looking it up, the song’s called, Everything I Love Is Killing Me, you all remember that and it said, everything I love is killing me, cigarettes, Jack Daniels and caffeine. Yeah, that’s it, let’s see, everything I love is killing me, cigarettes, Jack Daniels and caffeine, it came out at okay, I was wrong, it came out in ‘96 released October ’96, anyway, funny, because that’s me, everything I love is killing me, donuts, pastries, pie, cake, fried foods, fast food, you all, I am over the middle-aged hump. I’m approaching AARP age, I’m very close to being able to get a senior coffee at McDonald’s, it’ll happen here in the next year or two and I love fast food. I love cheeseburgers, I love pizza, you all, last week, I went to the gas station and bought two pieces of hunt brothers pizza one day because I hadn’t eaten lunch and it was about worship service time at SWO.

I went and got it and it was so good the next day I did it again, gas station pizza, it’s delicious, but it’s so bad for you and so, trust me, I appreciate and understand the struggle with discipline. Now I do really good. I personally do very good when it comes to exercise. I exercise pretty much every day, even on like a Sunday I’m going to get out and do something, I’m going to go for extra-long walk Sunday morning while everybody’s in bed. So, I’m always and I lift weights and do strength training a mountain bike, I row. I have a rower like I do go with that, but partly because I enjoy it. A lot of people don’t enjoy exercise and so, that requires a little more discipline. I do pretty good with my sleep, of adjusting my sleep habits, but I’m not trying to become a fitness influencer, Lord knows that’s the last thing I can do, but I’m just saying as Christians, we don’t need the internet telling us, live disciplined lives and if you do, there’s a lot of joy and freedom that comes from that and I don’t need an author or a fitness influencer to tell me that a YouTuber discipline is good, but now I also don’t want to become obsessive compulsive, obsessed and consumed with discipline. Understand that Paul writes to the Galatians and says, for freedom, Christ has set you free and so, what I would say on this one is.

With discipline, find balance with freedom, discipline needs freedom and freedom needs discipline. So, there’s the point freedom unhinged would run you off the cliff, you’d run headlong out of control in your life and you need discipline to bring things into check, but then discipline without freedom would turn you into a fundamentalist or a robot and that’s not good, so find that balance. Next, let’s see value, learn the value of building true and lasting and healthy friendships. Invest in those friendships, learn the value of building true and healthy friendships and then, invest in those friendships. So, in other words, those types of friendships are going to require your personal investment. So, yeah, I think friendships are one of those things that as you grow into, as you grow in your faith, you’re going to realize the importance of developing deep, lasting friendships that are true and healthy. Now, what is characteristic of a healthy friendship and this would be a great other episode here, but I would say we want what’s best for each other. I’m for you, not against you, but I’m willing to confront you in areas that I feel like you’re compromising yourself and so, say hard things, but also, I’m going to rejoice when you rejoice, I’m going to grieve when you grieve and so, cultivate those healthy friendships.

Where you can trust somebody, that’s very important and be a good friend. Next would be submit willingly and joyfully to godly authority, very important, learning to submit to the authority that God puts in your life and knowing that authority, it might not be easy for you. Some of us struggle with authority, I have a hard time with authority, just to be honest, sometimes it’s difficult, it’s not easy and so, I need to, but submitting to godly authority doesn’t mean obey the authorities of the government and make sure you go the speed limit and do your taxes. Yeah, that’s the thing you need to do that, but whatever, but what we’re talking about is submitting to the authority of the Church, the authority of the word of God, recognizing that the scripture has authority for your life, you’re not reading it the way you read other literature, you’re reading it to learn what you might obey or submit to and to establish patterns of worship and obedience. So, submit willingly and joyfully to the godly authority he’s put in your life, the Holy Spirit, the word of God. Next and this is especially true. So, important for young people, know what you don’t know, people, when they hit 20 and 22 tend to want to express everything they know and to be combative and to be argumentative and, but the reality is, those of us that are older and I know that.

When you’re in your 20s, you know a whole lot less than you think you know and life is going to humble you and teach you and you’ll be fine, like you’re going to learn some hard lessons, but if you can recognize, I don’t know as much as I probably think I know and so, I want to just listen more than I talk and learn from the people around me that have lived more life than me, it’d be super helpful. Next, be kind. Now, again, we’re under this heading of starting strong. So, starting life strong, starting my Christian walk strong, learn to be kind, just be kind. That doesn’t mean you go out of your way to be friendly and bubbly and just be kind to people. Sometimes kindness is quiet, sometimes it’s very gentle. Sometimes it’s loud and fun and joyful and boisterous, but kindness to celebrate the goodness of the Lord in other people. Kindness to sympathize or empathize with those that are hurting and to extend that kindness to them through a caring word or a caring eye or compassion for what they might be experiencing. Don’t expect something for nothing, heard a 20 something the other day complaining because the only job offer he has coming out of college will only pay $35,000 and that’s not fair, because, he spent twice that, getting his or three times that, getting his education, four times that, whatever it was.

So, that’s crazy if they think he’s going to come work for that, don’t expect something for nothing, including don’t expect us to start at the top of the chain, I talked to a young lady the other day. I was so impressed by her, I said, what are you doing, using your degree, she recently graduated from a large, very solid, well she graduated from Clemson University. So, large, good education, large, well-known name brand, all that, what you doing? She said, well, I’m working, I’m not going to say what it was. I don’t want to compromise her. I didn’t ask her if I could share this, but she’s just working at a small local business, not making a whole bunch of money, just being faithful with the opportunity in front of her, she’s not using her degree, but she said, I’m just doing what I can. I talked to another guy. What are you doing? Well, I got this job and it’s not exactly what I was looking for, but I’m building a resume. So, don’t expect something for nothing, expect to work hard. Start small, despise not a small beginning, get after it and build something. Now that’s different if you’re a school teacher, you work in education, come out of school, there are those careers like law enforcement or education or the medical field, where you have a very specific degree and then, you’re probably going to get a job that then you’re going to do that job for 25 or 30 or 40 years, but it’s because it’s very specific to the degree.

But, if you get a business degree or a marketing degree, or maybe you get a very specific degree and can’t find a job in that field, just be willing to do what it takes and don’t expect something for nothing, everybody gets a trophy mentality needs to be left behind. This next one is, this is important and I want you to hear, this whole thing out, you are not special, but you are unique. There’s, this mindset of, I’m special, everybody’s special. Well, yes and no, we’re all created in God’s image and as such, we’re image bearers, but every one of us is unique, you’re unique. I’m unique, everyone has a uniqueness, we have the imprint and the thumbprint of God on our lives. We’re created in his image, but just remember that you’re unique and so, with that, you have a unique relationship to the creator. All of us have an opportunity for a relationship with our creator, but it’s a unique, creator, creation, relationship from person to person and with that comes the next one, which is you are loved by God and with that, you have value and purpose. So, you’re loved by God, you have value, you have purpose. God has value that he has placed on you. It’s why Paul writes to the Corinthians and says, you’re not your own, you’re bought with a price. So, glorify Christ, Jesus in your body. So, you’re loved by God, you’re valued by God,

He has purpose for you, but the other reality that comes with that is the next point, which is, learn and understand the law of the harvest. What’s the law of the harvest? It’s what James writes when he says, don’t be deceived, whatever you sow, you’re going to reap. So, whatever you sow, you’re going to reap. A person who sows to adultery is going to reap the consequences of that adultery, a person who sows to living in pursuit of what the world offers is going to face the consequences of realizing that the world cannot satisfy what’s deep inside of you. There’s, a song that we’re singing this summer at camp and at first, it throws people off a little bit, people that are really doctrinally faithful, because there’s a repeated line in it that says, I’ve wanted you all of my life and we know that we haven’t wanted God all of our life, in terms of when we’re blind to God and we’re in love with the world, we don’t want God, but we also know that we really do, every human being longs for a relationship with God that would restore everything that’s broken and so, the consequences of my actions can be brought into a place of peaceful rest and kind of, brought into check through my relationship with God. I’m loved by God, he loves me and the law of the harvest says I’m going to reap what I sow, but thank God that his grace is sufficient for me. Think about the man that wrote that, the apostle Paul, what he must have lived with.

When it comes to going back to that earlier point of knowing what to let go of, he had to let go of knowing he had separated families, killed mamas and daddies and orphaned their children, you know how hard that must have been to wake up and be that dude every day, very difficult. So, difficult. Next, we got to wrap it up here. I got to move on to my next thing in my day here at SWO but, just a couple more, three or four more, give and tithe. So, tithe, give money like give to the church, give to ministry. Use the resources God’s given you to bless others. The ministry of the church depends on the giving of God’s people and a lot of people. When you’re young and you don’t have a lot of money, you convince yourself that you can’t afford to tithe. I can’t, I don’t make enough money. I’m barely paying my bills; how can I give 10% of it to the church and I’m not going to say a percentage. There’s, not a percentage that we need to hang on to, it’s the principle of giving and give sacrificially. The scripture says give and it will be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together, running over. God will give to you in abundance and our giving will be reflected in in the blessing we receive and that’s not prosperity gospel. That’s biblical principle. I don’t give just so I can get, but when I give I can trust that God’s going to take care of me.

You cannot be faithful in worshiping the Lord in your life if you’re not giving of your personal resources, time, talent, treasure, give up your time, give of your talent, give of your treasures. So, give money and then, what are you doing with your time? Do you use all your free time and your day off to go to the lake or to enjoy working around your place or do you use some time each week? One of the things I love is all the people that serve in our pinwheel tutoring program volunteer and serve in that thing for free, to minister, using their time and their talents and so, learn to give, learn to tithe. That’s critical. Next, do hard things. This kind of, ties back into discipline and I’m going to do an episode on discipline and doing hard things. That’s a future episode that we’re going to be doing, so I’ll elaborate on that later, but do hard things, challenge yourself relationally, challenge yourself academically, intellectually, challenge yourself, physically, challenge yourself spiritually. Do hard things, you’ll grow through that, learn to not just chase comfort. Three more temporary things can often seem like ultimate things. So, especially for teenagers, sports and hobbies, let me tell you something, you won your three A high school conference championship. Nobody cares, you care and the folks in your inner circle care, but, nobody else really cares and so, recognize it as a gift from the Lord.

What an incredible experience. I remember as a high school senior, sports were everything to me and they go away, you leave them behind so, recognize that. So, kind of, tagging on or piggybacking on that idea of, don’t make temporary things the ultimate things and again, I use the sports analogy this is because I was an athlete, but you could use anything, it could be your work, like I remember dudes that I went to school with and see this even now, guys that are consumed with hunting, I’ve got a buddy, love him, awesome brother, he’s so obsessed with hunting and fishing that it has compromised friendships and relationships. So, anything can do this, it could be money, it could be, as you even enter into your career path, it could be something that is not bad in and of itself, like money is not bad, but you can become consumed or obsessed with something that’s not intended to be ultimate, it’s temporary. So, those temporary things, the way I would clarify that, is to say, use temporary things to bring glory to God and make eternal or Kingdom impact and investment that’s what I would say, which brings me to the next thing, which is, don’t seek praise, Paul says am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? If I’m trying to win the approval of men, then I’m not a bondservant of Christ.

So, don’t seek praise in that you don’t need the approval of people, we simply want to be faithful to the Lord and win his approval and so, I think all of us have the tendency and it’s a normal desire to want to be approved and seen for what you’ve done or accomplished, or what the Lord’s done through you, but also for the things that you’ve worked hard to accomplish in and of yourself. So, don’t seek, praise, live for the glory and honor the Lord and then, the last one and then, I’m going to end with sort of, a thought it’s not really on the list, but it’s kind of, a bigger, overarching, all-encompassing thought. The last one is, don’t complain. Don’t be a whiner and what I would support that with is we talk a lot about don’t have a victim mentality, don’t have a sense of entitlement. Those two things. If you come to Snowboard, if you work here, or if you attend something here, you’re going to hear those two things. Don’t have a victim mentality. Don’t have a sense of entitlement. A victim mentality, yeah, you might have been victimized. Yeah, you might have been harmed, hurt, abused, something terrible might have happened to you, but don’t have that mentality of a defeatist or and that, again, that’s one of those things it’s easy to say sitting here and harder to do if you were terribly damaged and traumatized.

As a child or a young girl, young boy, or combat veteran, but you’re not a victim, you have to get that in your mindset that God has given you everything as it pertains to life and godliness. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world and through Christ, Romans 8 says we are more than conquerors. So, don’t be an entitled, whiny, complaining victim of circumstance, you’re a conqueror and then, the whining thing is, it goes into more shallow waters, it would seem like, having a victim mentality, that’s one thing, but whining that’s not as serious, but in some ways, I think it’s more serious because you look at like when the children of Israel are in the wilderness and they begin to murmur against the Lord, God gets so mad at them, he gets so mad, he’s so angry and there’s judgment that comes, because it’s a rejection of his goodness that drives that whininess. So, don’t complain, don’t whine. Don’t be a baby. Don’t be a victim. Now I said I want to wrap all this up with one big overarching thought and it’s this, be okay to be weird or rejected or not approved by people like to be ostracized or made fun of or pushed to the fringe, like the world around you is not going to accept you the way that you live your life if you live your life for Jesus, it’s just not the world around you is going to look at you and go,

Something’s wrong with that guy, something’s off of that dude, she’s weird, they’ll say she’s very religious or my kids, reason I put this one in there is because I had already prepared this outline or this bullet point list and I was talking to a couple of my kids and Little I was talking to, actually, one of my daughters and to my wife and they had overheard a couple of people, a couple of teenage, well, one’s a teenager, one’s college age, kid talking and they had made the kind these people very close to Snowbird, like they’re very close, I would even say, kind of, connected to Snowbird and they had said, Snowboard people are just weird. Well, I know that these two people are neither one really pursuing the Lord, they’re pursuing the world and so, it makes sense that someone pursuing the world would lash out at somebody that’s pursuing Jesus, it makes sense and especially immature people. Now I have learned that the longer you faithfully and consistently pursue Jesus, the more opportunities you’re going to have to build credibility and equity with people and to have an impact, but then also, the longer you walk with Jesus, the more there may come a time where you’re on the wrong side of a not the wrong side, but you’re in a conflict where you cannot get to a point where you win someone over and they hate you.

They project that hatred on Christ and that is not your fault. I’ll tell you an example, young couple in our church, she was one of our own, he started coming because he liked her, they were teenagers years ago, they’re teenagers, he then was very manipulative, very controlling, but he did it in a way, he fooled and schmooze the mama. The girl’s mama thought he was great because he was cute and funny and articulate and bubbly and had a great personality and it’s just easy to do, it’s like, he fooled her, she’s a sweet lady, loves the Lord, she’s a discerning lady, but the dude was, so we all get fooled sometimes, everybody’s had that happen. I’ve had it happen, you’ve had it. Happened where you think one thing and you find out, that person really pulled the wool over my eyes. So, this boy pulls the wool over the eyes on this family and long story that this kid, by then, had gotten real plugged in at our church and they had transitioned from childhood to adulthood, they went out of high school into the early adulthood, they’re dating or whatever and he was controlling that relationship, he was posing a threat, he was being very sexually controlling of this girl and we found out some things were happening and going on and we’re going to address it. So, we address it and initially we address it in a Matthew 18 kind of, manner, you going to knock it off, you all need to, you all need to quit dating. Take a break.

Get some accountability, let’s try to help, get you going forward, get her going forward and then, if the Lord brings you all back together, then great, but it’ll be done the right way and so, we did that, but then he was sneaking, she was living out of town, going to college couple hours away, they’re sneaking and doing their thing, it was just a bad situation and when it was said and done, we confronted that boy and dealt with it and to this day, he hates us, I see him from time to time and he hates us and I have no regret over the way we handled that, because that girl was one of ours and he came in as a wolf among sheep. That’s the way I feel about it and so, there’s going to be times where and as a result, by the way, of that, several of my close friendships in this community are ended because he spun things against us and I don’t even want to say spun things, it’s just, it is what it is, we told him how you can’t be around her, you can’t come around her and we kind of, closed and put up the, we latched the door, put her on the inside and had her family just get around her and her family and a few people that really cared about her work to bring her back and restore her to just a place where she could find healing and she went on and married and as a mama now and is serving the Lord and is doing great and has an awesome, godly husband that’s another principle. Met a godly dude that didn’t care where she’d been.

What she’d done or what she’d been through, he’s like, no I’m going to marry you because Jesus loves you and has given me a love for you and they’re doing great, but that other dude is not doing great because he rejected discipline and rejected con confrontation and struck out and tried to do things on his own and as a result, his life is not in a good place and do I feel bad about it? Yes, would I do it any differently? Probably not, because he posed a threat and there’s only one way to deal with that kind of, threat and that’s to go at it and so, you learn an early principle, which is, there are times where people they’re going to think you’re crazy for your views and the way you think about the gospel and you got to learn to be okay with that especially true for our teenagers or for our college students that are in this age bracket. Get to school when you take a stand people going to, they’re going to come after you because of your biblical, ethic on sexuality, or because you choose to live your life in a different manner, you might lose a relationship, because there’s a young lady in our church who I love so much and love her dad and her mom, they’re so just sweet, dear people and she’s dating a boy recently and broke it off because he said, if you’re not going to have sex with me, then why are we dating.

She said, oh, well, then we’re not dating. That’s easy. Got to have the stamina and the spiritual backbone to make those hard kinds of, decisions and anyway, that’s what I got for today. So, start strong, he who began a good work will be faithful to complete it. Start Strong and next part two, we’re going to get into run hard, get after it, live, you’re in into your 20s and then, through your 30s and 40s, that’s a season of life where you better be getting absolutely after it and there’s overlap, like in your 50s, for some people, your 50s, I think, for me, I hope that I’m in that stage that run hard, not in the finish well stage. I hope I got a lot of years left, but you never know and you got to be ready to be ready to finish well at any time, because you don’t know when God’s going to call you home. So, that’s that. That’s what we got for this week. Hope you’re encouraged by that challenge and those words, regardless of where you are, even if you’ve been a Christian, following Jesus for 20 years, there’s principles in there that we need to be reminded of, for me a lot, that I was reminded of and putting that together and so, hopefully you’ll be encouraged by it as well, pray for us this week, students have rolled in, they arrived this afternoon, this Monday, June 9, they arrived and yeah, so pray that God moves in a powerful way this week.

We’ll give him praise and thanks for it, whatever he does. The last thing that I wanted to mention is that it was 18 years ago today, June 9, 2007 that an automobile accident claimed the lives of four Snowbird staff members. Their families impacted forever. Our family impacted forever. Snowbird community went through its hardest season in its history and two survivors of that automobile accident, Dawson and Cara, who we pray for often and would ask that you pray for them today as they navigate this difficult day in their lives and so, anyway, just want to say that our prayers are with those families as they remember this day 18 years ago. Our prayers are with the staff that lived through that 2007 summer and for all of you that got around us and encouraged and supported us, we’re grateful and so, you all pray for us, it is a difficult day, so pray for us today, as we reflect on that and most difficult time we, we lost Ashley Michael, Daniel and Suzanne and Dawson and Cara were deeply impacted. So, pray for those families and those survivors and for the extended Snowbird family today, we would appreciate it, pray God moves this week, awesome week of ministry. We’re expecting great things, groups coming from Denver, Colorado and all over the southeast and all points in between, expecting God to do great things. So, we’ll see you next week.