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Cory O'Hara teaches from 1 Corinthians 4:1–2 about serving Christ and faithfully stewarding the gospel in everyday life.
Bellevue Baptist Church College Ministry
Thank you, worship team. Also, thank you to Brayden. Brayden and Kayla are getting married this weekend. You guys excited? Yeah. Bump for it. It's fun. All right, so today, if you're with us, we're gonna be jumping in. If you're with us and are opening your journal with us, taking notes, we're gonna be in 1 Corinthians 4, verses one and two. I wanna begin by asking, remember growing up, people would say all the time, not to worry about what people think. You've heard that phrase before, right? In middle school, Cory did, basically everything I did was built by what other people think, okay? It's the reason I made my mom drive an hour from Tipton County all the way to the Wolfchase Mall to go to Journey's to buy me the real Clark's Wallabies. Y'all seen this before? Let's put this picture on the screen for us real fast. Yeah, you ever seen these? Okay, these were real cool back in the day. I think they're doing well now. I think they'll come back. What do y'all think? Cam, quit laughing. I saw some wearing these. They're pretty cool, all right? They're rocking. Here's the deal. I had friends who had the fake Wallabies and I knew that if someone saw me in my fake Wallabies in middle school that it would destroy my entire reputation at the school, you know? So I made my mother drive me to Journey's to get the real Clark's Wallabies. And if you want some of these for $119 today, you can go to Journey's right down the street today, all right, you can make it happen. Yeah, or you can go to Payless and get the fake ones like I should have done in middle school, okay? But here's the deal. There is a truth in this. Like you shouldn't care what other people think when it comes to your shoe game or about what car you drive or what job you work out or like the degree path you're choosing. You shouldn't worry about what everybody thinks about these things. But in the text tonight, we are gonna be challenged to think about what other people would say about us. And this is what Paul talks about. He talks about how we should care about what others think when it comes down to thinking about what is it like to be on the receiving end of Corey O'Hara? What is it like to be on the receiving end of an Abe Smith? What is it like? What's it like to be on the other side of that? And what do people think about you? Not about your style or your work or your degree, but they think about your character, who you are. And so look at this, if you got your Bibles with us, turn to 1 Corinthians 4, one and two. He says, a person should think of us in this way. A person should think of us in this way. This is Paul, once again, addressing the Corinthian church. We talked about this last week, I won't rehash the whole thing. But Paul is addressing a church that's dealing with a lot of issues. And he's saying, this is how people should think of you in your community, in your work, at your church, in your family, amongst your friends. This is what they should say and think about you. If you take a note today, the title of this message is servants and stewards. Servants and stewards. And it comes directly out of the text tonight, 1 Corinthians 4, verses one and two. Let's read this one together, I'll walk through it. It says, a person should think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and managers of the mysteries of God. In this regard is required that managers be faithful. First big idea is this, is that you are a servant of Christ. Paul has given them two different roles. The first one he says here, is that your role as a believers, you are a servant of Christ. Now, this may sound like a no brainer for Christians. Like obviously, if you're a follower of Jesus, like you're called to be a servant. Yes, it's a no brainer. But for the church of Corinth, this was really tackling a major issue in the church. Because many of the believers in Corinth were full of arrogance and pride. If you don't believe me, just read through the letter to the Corinthians. Even in the very first chapter, we learned that there was all kind of rivalry going on in the church of Corinth. There was tons of disagreements and disunity and divisions. And all of it was rooted in the seed of arrogance and pride. They were dealing with prideful hearts, arrogant posture and disagreements and divisions as a result of it. And so Paul is addressing this. The people in the church had begun to be puffed up in their attitude amongst other believers. And they thought that their association or their proximity to the leaders in the church was a status move or prestige or some kind of influence. And Paul's like, you are tripping fam, no chance. And listen to what he says right here in the first Corinthians chapter one. He says, some of the people in the group would say, I belong to Paul. And then others would be like, well, I belong to Apollos. And then the next would be like, well, I belong to Peter. And Paul sarcastically just addressed them. He's like, oh, my bad. I didn't know that Christ was divided. My bad. Oh, I didn't know you were baptized in the name of Paul. My bad, you know? He's like, what are y'all thinking? How arrogant to place man high or to place yourself high because you're associated with some leader in the church. He's like, no. He's pointing back to the idea that if you've been called to follow Jesus, you're a servant of Christ, not of Paul or Peter or a pastor. Like, no, you have been called under the lordship of Jesus. He's the master and you are the servant. I say all this to say that the call to follow Jesus is the call to be a servant. And Paul is telling them that his role as an apostle is a great reminder that it is not one of prestige or status or comforts or one of pride and arrogance. He says, just like them, his role is the role of a servant. And I wanna show you in chapter four how Paul illustrates this to the Corinthians. I wanna put this passage on the screen. It's a pretty lengthy one, but it is good. It's a good one. Here it goes. For I think God has displayed us, the apostles, in last place. That's kind of a crazy statement. He says, me, I'm the apostle. The guy that y'all look up to is like the top of the pyramid. He's like, flip it upside down. I'm in last place. Like men condemned to die. My goodness, Paul. We have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished, but we are dishonored. Up to the present hour, up to this moment right now, as he's writing the letter, he says, we are both hungry and thirsty, poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless. We labor, working with our own hands. What's up, Chase? Amen to that, okay. When we are reviled, we what? Say it with me. When we are reviled, we what? Bless. When we are persecuted, we what? Endure it. When we are slandered, we what? Respond graciously. And then listen to this last sentence. Even now, we are like the scum of the earth, like everyone's garbage. Somebody needs to do a wellness check on Paul. You know what I'm saying? I mean, this is a toughie. He is letting them know. He's like, listen, Corinth, do you think that hitching your wagon to me is like a life of pride and power and comforts? He's like, this is the life of the apostle. He's like, you've been called just like me to be a servant of Christ. Paul is telling them that he has died to himself. Do you think Paul's concerned about his rights? No. Do you think Paul's concerned about the fairness around him? No. Is he concerned about his comforts? No. Is he throwing his hands up on a bad day? No. Paul has a posture of absolute service and submission to the Lord no matter what comes his way. And the question is, how does he have that posture? How does he live in a way where he's so submitted to whatever comes his way, trusting the Lord's in it, that he's gonna follow the Lord no matter what, no matter the comfort, sacrifice, or challenges? How does he have that posture? It's because he determined in his mind that he is merely a servant of Christ. How many times has Paul opened his letter? He's like, Paul, a bondservant of Christ. To the Galatians, you know? To the Ephesians, Paul, a bondservant of Christ. I mean, that's all the time. See, Paul had made up in his mind, like, I am last place. I'm the lowest of the bunch. Paul had died to his rights, his comforts, his desires. He denied himself, he took up his cross, and he followed Jesus, the same Jesus that would come to this earth and say, I came not to be served, but to serve. That's the Jesus that he is following. When I think about people in our church who live with this kind of posture of, I'm just here to serve. I'm a servant of Christ, no matter what the task, challenge, or opportunity is. I'm just here to serve. There's a lot of people in our church that I think fit that mold, a lot, praise God. But if I had to pick a starting five of people.
who are on that list of they live as servants of Christ, a couple that I would put at the top of the list would be Jason and Stephanie Borden. I'm gonna put their picture on the screen real quick. They're amazing. Jason is, I asked him for a picture. He's like, I'll get one that looks good of my wife, not of me. And I was like, that's the right move, okay? I don't want you to get in trouble, all right? But Jason and Stephanie Borden, about six years ago, they went to camp with us, middle school camp, when I was the middle school pastor. And they put up with sweaty students in their cabins. They slept on those plywood beds, you know. They dealt with clogged toilets in their cabin. They had to convince kids that bears were not gonna attack them in the mountains, you know, all the things. So they were doing the Lord's work. But they also, that week, they saw me running around, putting out fires and all the things. They're like, dude, there's gotta be a better way for us to support our key staff on those trips. And so they came to us at the end of that week, and they said, hey, we want to serve alongside your team at camp. And they said, we wanna do all the things that nobody wants to do. We wanna go fill up water, jugs, ice, back and forth, hauling them all over the place. We wanna take care of the trash. We wanna unplug the toilets. We wanna call the parents when someone's sick. We wanna do all the things that sidetrack you during your week so that you can just shepherd and love on the students. We'll take off all of the servant things so you can be out front with everyone else. And they've been doing it for the last five years, and it has been a game changer. They've been incredible. Jason is a partner at an accounting firm, operates like a CEO with his team, leads the big whole crew. But then he shows up at my camp, and he's like got a plunger in his hand. Like, how do you live that way? But it's because he lives like a servant, not for five days at camp. He lives like that 365 days during the year. You know what I mean? He's living that kind of mindset mentality left and right. And they just approached us about two months ago, and they said, hey, we actually are ready to step out of middle school, and we wanna come serve the VUE students. They're like, we wanna do whatever we can. Yeah, you're like, what's up? They got a pool? Yeah, they got a pool, all right. They're like, we wanna serve the VUE students. They were talking to me today. They're like, we wanna feed some students free food. How do we do that? When do we do that? I was like, you just talk to them. They'll let you know, all right? They'll find a way. But they literally were like, we just wanna serve the VUE community however we can. They just joined Rick and Ben's life group. They're like, we don't really wanna teach much, but we wanna be here to love on your people. What do we do? And so I just, I'm telling you to say, there are real everyday people who are modeling this mindset of, I wanna have a posture and mindset of being a servant of Christ. It's not just something you read about in the Bible, about Paul. He's not just challenging someone with this ethos kind of thinking. It gets real tangible boots in the ground, serving of Christ. That is something you can practice as well. You've been called to be a servant of Christ. Here's why this is so convicting. Because in my job, I ask, as I read through this text, do my coworkers think I'm a servant? Do they think I'm a servant? Or do they think I'm just the guy with the microphone? When I go home to my wife, does she think of me as servant? Or am I the guy that's like, hey, what's for dinner tonight? Parent, does my son come to me knowing that I'm willing to do whatever I can to serve him? This is convicting for Corey. And I ask the same of you. What do people say about you and your circles of influence? Do they look at you and say, you are a servant of Christ, undoubtedly. I'm gonna put this up on the screen for you right here. There's a question mark with a line that says, puffed up Corinthian or lowly servant of Christ. And I think every one of us has to ask the question, where do I land today? If people were to look at my life and do an audit, am I here? Am I here? Or do people look at me and say, no, he truly is a lowly servant of Christ and just seeks to be the Jason Bordens and Stephanie Bordens of the world. I think every person in the room with us today has got to ask the question, when others think of you, do they see you as a servant of Christ? If you're in a spot where you're like, I can't answer yes to that, then tonight when we get in our small groups a little bit, I want you to ask the question with your friends of how can you this week take a practical next step to serve the people around you, at your work, in your family, in your apartment. And this could be so practical. It could be as simple as just doing your dishes that you haven't done in a long time. It could be as simple as saying this week, I'm gonna show up to work and I'm gonna bring coffee for the person who works next to me that yaps all day long and distracts from my work. Some way you can find a way to serve the people around you. Yeah, some of y'all give me a head nod. Y'all know about that person, yeah. All right, second thing. Here's the second thing here. It's not just you've been called to be a servant of Christ, but number two, you've also been called to be a steward of the gospel. You have been called to be a steward of the gospel. This comes out of the same verse we just looked at. First Corinthians four, verse one. We're gonna look at verse two as well. Let's pull this up on the screen together. A person should think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and managers of the mysteries of God. I think that's a funny way to say that. Managers of the mysteries of God. Don't you feel like you should have a name tag when you show up to church? My name is Preston Lipkowitz, manager of the mystery of God. Thank you very much, yeah. Amen, praise God, yeah. In this regard, it is required that managers be found faithful. We wanna unpack this together real quick. And so this is what it means here. Paul refers to this idea of stewardship through the word manager. It's a creative way, not only to explain stewardship, but also illustrate to the audience in Corinth of what it looks like to practically live it out. When you hear the word manager in the original text that it was written in, you would immediately think of a slave that's been entrusted by their master to manage a household. That's what they would have thought of when they heard this term in the New Testament. Someone who's been entrusted to manage the master's household. That means there's a high level of trust and accountability. It means the master's giving you authority, not just to manage what he's got going on, but also to steward it well with wisdom and faithfulness. My wife, when we first had our baby, Oliver, can I put his picture on the screen real quick? This is him right there. It looks like he's joined an MMA boxing club. He's about to come out in the boxing arena. He does look mafia-ish, yeah, unfortunately. Oliver was not a great sleeper at the beginning. And so my wife was on maternity leave. She was doing all the things. And one night she was like, I'm going to little girl's night. I was like, go have fun, whatever. I'll do the nightly routine for the first time ever by myself, I got that. So she went off, did her thing. I don't know, they were playing Mahjong or something. And so that night, I'd been fighting Oliver for like an hour for bedtime. It was horrible, okay? He's like crying, inconsolable, all the things. It's like nine o'clock. He was supposed to go to bed like 7.30, okay? And my wife calls me and she's like, hey, how's it going? And I was like, why did you leave me? All right, you should be here. All right, you should, you're never leaving again. All right, you're staying, you know. She was like, you're fine. I was like, I'm not fine. So anyways, that night I told her, I said, hey, you trusted me with bedtime. You made a huge mistake, all right? We're done, I'm tap out. I'm donezo, yeah, rocking. Sometimes I think in life, when we think about how the Lord has entrusted us with the gospel, we have times where like, Lord, what are you doing? Like, I need help. Like, you can't leave me in charge of just picking out my college degree and my future college path for the rest of my life and just good luck, you know? I leave the home and after I graduate, I'm just supposed to be an adult now and I'm supposed to pay my taxes and all the things. You're like, really? This is the, I'm supposed to be entrusted to be an adult adult now? And some of y'all are like, no, I'm still rocking my parents' insurance, all the things. I'm good. Okay, it's coming though, all right? I just want you to know, it's coming. You will hit a moment where you're like, what am I supposed to do as a young man or a young woman now who's trying to figure out the things in life? It's not just putting a baby to bed. I mean, that's the simple things. It's the big things like who you're gonna marry and how you're gonna do college or how you're gonna pay for things or how you're gonna pick out your career and how you know which internship's the right one to pick. It's all the things. But you've been called to be a good steward of these big moments in life and all of it is rooted in what he says in this text right here. You've been a steward of the mysteries of God, a manager of the mysteries of God, which is tied to the good news of the gospel and the impact it has on your life. When you see the mystery of God, it can feel like such a Bible phrase. Here's the deal. It's real simple. All it's pointing to is the good news of Jesus and what he did at the cross 2000 years ago. It's the good news of the gospel. When you see the mystery referenced in the New Testament, almost 90% of the time is referring to the good news of the gospel. And it is a mystery, let me just say. Charles Spurgeon calls it the grand secret.
The fact that we, the fact that Corey, who was dead in sin, following the ways of the world, following the ways of the enemy, following my own ways of my flesh, dead in my sin, separate from God, declared an enemy of God, that I can now stand before you as a son of the Most High King is a mystery. Like that my sin, can we just get the resume out of all my mistakes, that all that's been washed away? That I stand totally forgiven and redeemed and reconciled? How? Did I have to work to earn it? No, I could do nothing. And Jesus is like, all you gotta do is by grace, through faith, done, you're made alive. That's a mystery. Now we can try to explain it away and we can share the good news of the gospel, all those things are true, but the fact of the matter is, this is a mystery that we've been entrusted with. It's the same lingo that Paul uses in 2 Corinthians, chapter five, verse 17 through 21. He literally tells them, he says, if you're in Christ, you're a new creation. And if you're a new creation, you've been entrusted with the message of reconciliation. He basically said, you've been entrusted with the gospel. It's yours. You're a steward of that now. And that has huge implications on your life. The way you live, the way you talk, the calling on your life, how you spend your few years, all those things are radically determined by the good news of the gospel in your life. I say this to say, because at the end of verse one, he goes into verse two and he says, that you have also been called to be faithful in what he's entrusted you with. And the problem is, is that the Corinthians were found to be unfaithful as servants of God and as stewards of the mysteries of God. Does that make sense? He's like, listen guys, when other people think of you, they ought to say these things about you because that's who you are in Christ. But you guys are being unfaithful in the job that the Lord has given you to be a servant and a steward. When I think about stewarding, I think about a book I read last year. It's called Lincoln on Leadership. Anybody read this book? All right, just me, great, perfect. Yeah, well, it's great, okay, I want you to know, it's great. I read it on the beach last November, it was phenomenal. It goes through the biography of basically Lincoln's life, but it also tackles leadership topics that he might address today through his lens and maybe the back of the head, it's really good. But I say this to say that what I grew in this book to love is that I grew to learn a lot about US history, but also grew to have a great love for Lincoln and his battle against slavery. And we obviously know of the big climax of it where he helps make the proclamation and slavery is on track to be abolished there, we know that, but it really began 20 years prior. And I wanna put this on the screen for you. These are some dates real fast. January 10th, 1849, Lincoln proposed legislation as a US congressman to end slavery in Washington, DC. Did not pass, okay? 1854, Lincoln spoke out against the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It was against slavery there. June 26th, 1857, Lincoln spoke out against the Dred Scott decision. August, October, 1858, Lincoln raised slavery to national dialogue and Senate campaign debates with Stephen A. Douglas. January 16th, 1861, Lincoln rejected the Crittenden Compromise as president-elect. This is a slavery compromise here as well. April 16th, 1862, Compensated Emancipation Act ending slavery in Washington, DC, hallelujah. September 22nd, 1862, Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. January 1st, 1863, Emancipation Proclamation. June 7th, 1864, insisted that a Republican National Union Party platform include a resolution to support a Constitution amendment abolishing slavery. Throughout the 20-year span, Lincoln is every time getting up to the platform, anytime he has a chance to lean into this topic, he is trying to help move the country away from slavery. He's trying to steward his influence, his season, his stage and age well to the people around him to push them that direction. And listen to this quote. This is from the book real quick. I'm gonna pull this up on the screen. Lincoln understood that in order to dismantle something like slavery and economic institutions so ingrained in everyday culture across the country, a leader must think long term and try to change it gradually, removing the key pieces of the foundation as public sentiment allows. What he's meaning is he's just chipping away at this pillar of slavery in our country. Slowly but surely, a man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. He says, let him attempt to force the process and he may spoil both the fruit and the tree, but let him patiently wait and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap. Let's go to the next slide real quick. By mid 1864, in Lincoln's mind, there was only one thing left to do in regard to slavery. If circumstances permitted, he would seize the opportunity to push a constitutional amendment through Congress and send it to the states for ratification. But timing was everything. He was going to have to do it before the Civil War formally ended so that the states in rebellion could not vote against the amendment. Lincoln sensed his opportunity had arrived. In November, after being elected a second term, he had solidified his power nationally by winning a commanding mandate. The military situation was going the Union's way and the people were optimistic that the war would soon be over. In short, public opinion for the first time was now on his side in regards to slavery. He says, the pear was ready to fall. Here's what I want you to see is Lincoln had planted a pear tree and had been watering it year after year. And people were trying to rush it. We rushed this through here. He said, I'm just gonna keep watering it. I'm gonna keep speaking to it. I'm gonna keep advocating there. And eventually that pear was ripe and it fell right in his lap with no strength needed. But it's because years of him being faithful to what he had been called to do, to seek to be able to abolish slavery. I say this to say, it's a great, it's a great, I love this quote so much. For you, you've been called with a huge task. It doesn't happen overnight. You don't magically one day become, I'm just the best steward of the good news of the gospel in your life. It's a daily battle. It's a daily choice in all your seasons. But I'm telling you, if you will choose to be faithful as a steward of the goodness of the gospel, to water that tree, then you're gonna see the fruit of that fall into your lap day after day. But if you fail to be faithful as a servant and steward, you're gonna find yourself working hard to pull the fruit out of a faithful Christian life. I'm just challenging you to be unlike the Corinthians who needed to be spurred on, but to be someone who's a lowly servant and a trusted steward that would choose today to be faithful to God and trust you with. Does that make sense? Here's what I wanna do. Instead of doing, what time is it right now? Oh man. I wanna do one thing. Ben, can we, worship team, can we hold off for a second real quick? I wanna do one thing. I wanna put these topics on the screen real quick. How do you steward the gospel and its influence in these areas in your life? Here's what I wanna ask. If you're a VUE student today, you may be thinking, okay, how do I steward this season of life well? And I just wanna pick maybe two or three of the topics on the board and try to answer that with this room right here. So I need y'all to pick, what is a topic on the board that you think through, how do you steward well one of these seasons or these aspects of your life right now, things you think might help with the whole room? What's something you wanna pick to talk about? How do you steward these things well in this season? I love finances. Finances, anybody a fan of finances? Yeah, I'll be brief. I'll go quick on this, finances. Here's what I would say. I wish someone would have told me when I was your age to start really getting active on saving. I'm telling you, houses are expensive. Babies are expensive. Marriage is sort of expensive, okay? These things are big. I would just challenge you in this season right here to start saving. Like I know you wanna get those new golf clubs or I know you wanna get that new pickleball paddle and I know you wanna get that new dress for all the bridesmaids you gotta be part of your wedding dress. Oh, I get it, I get it, okay? And that coffee is so good, but trust me, we're gonna get an espresso machine set up here soon that's big and bougie. It's coming. You ain't gotta pay for it before you get here, okay? Here's what I'll say. You need to start thinking about saving big times. I just cannot tell you enough of how that's a big deal. I would also say this. If you're going into school right now and you're taking on a whole bunch of debt, but the career you're choosing does not really cover that debt well in the first five years, I would abort. That's what I would say, all right? I would, that was a harsh word. I would change plans. I would not accrue $100,000 in debt if you're.
degree path leads you to make $65,000 a year, okay? That's not fruitful, that's not smart. So I would just encourage you, if you're in that spot, let's talk, I wanna help you work through what the Lord might be leading you to, but I wanna be smart with your stewarding and finance. What's another one? Pick another one on the list, what you got? Single, hey, what up? Anybody feel like a single? Anybody wanna fix that? Nobody wants to raise their hand, but y'all know y'all feel it, all right? Yeah. Hey, I want you to know, I didn't get married till I was 30, okay? So I know about the singleness chapter of life, okay? A lot, all right? Here's what I would say. I got a lot to say on singleness, actually. I'm gonna go rapid fire, different things, shotgun spread, here we go. Number one, singleness is a really good season that I did not value in its right time. I didn't value it like I should have. You've got more flexibility and time than you'll ever have in your entire life in your single season. I'm just telling you. And I know what you're thinking, I just wanna be married. I know, I know, marriage is great, but I'm telling you, singleness is also really great. And maybe it's not forever, but for this season, I would just not rush it. Like, enjoy being able to hang out with the boys or the girls, and enjoy being able to say, I'm gonna go to the zoo and hang out with people on the engineering side, you know? And connect. And enjoy saying, I'm gonna go on mission for two months in the summer, like Alexis did, you know? Sorry, I didn't put you on the spot. But like, think about it like that. Like, you have so much freedom and flexibility to do all the things, don't rush it. Don't miss out on the season God has on you because you're so looking forward to the next one. That's what I would say, number one. Number two, my wife would say, date, have fun. I'm for that too, but I would also say this. Like, really be cautious on who you date though. I dated a great girl in college. She was great. She ran track for the U of M. She was so fun. We started dating, we got engaged. We were three months out from our wedding day and I called off the engagement. It was really hard. It was a wound that took years to heal. But it was because of this. I had compromised on my calling for just a person that I really liked. And I just don't want you to compromise God's calling in your life because you think someone's really fun. I would just encourage you to be so mindful and thoughtful of who you're dating. You're not gonna know all the right answers. You're not gonna have it all solved. You're not gonna have a crystal ball. Is this the right person? That's not it. But you do have the Lord in your corner helping direct you and you should have a couple mentors in your life that you can say, help me evaluate. Do you think I'm on the right track with dating this person? Is this a good person? What question would you wanna know? That's my encouragement to you on the dating side when it comes to the singleness and who you're thinking about dating. Amen, there you go. Let's pick one more. What's the other one? Career. Okay, that's a good one. Career, anybody career? Okay, all right. All right, okay. Thank you. Yeah, Al DaSilva. Yeah, all right. I should just let you come talk about it, yeah. Career, here's what I would say about career. I've really only been in ministry. So my experience with a career is fragmented from someone who's working outside lawn care all week. You know, I mean, it's different for me, you know. Here's what I would say about career. If you don't love what you do, long-term, it's probably not gonna be the job for you. I would say this. Biblically though, there's something that, in Proverbs, talking about just working hard, building good work ethic. And I think, to be honest with you, I think there's a part of the younger generation, I'm not saying it's all Gen Z, I think millennial and Gen Z, that they so want their dream job in their 20s that they miss out on getting the experience they need to get it in their 30s. That they wanna rush, easy bake, the dream job. Because they see their buddies who are streaming on Twitch and making boo-goos of money, they think, that's the job I'm gonna get. But they miss out on the 15 years before where they put in the work and sweat equity. So I think for you, if you're looking at your career, a good stewardship of you is taking whatever door opens in front of you and trying to master it and figure out what's ever in front of you in your 20s. And then by your 30s, start solidifying with the Lord. Where's my calling? Where's my purpose? Where's my next step you wanna really land me for the long run? But use your 20s to explore and get creative with refining the whole tool belt. Don't be a one trick pony that shows up in the office. Like, learn it all in this season right here so that in the future, you're a marketable, great hire for what's coming next. Anything you would add to that? Our CEOs in the back over here, anything you would say to that? Is that accurate? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Is that help answer that? Is that, I know it's not everything. Was that, does that give a good starter? Okay. I wanna go one more. I'm so sorry. I'm having fun talking through hot topics like this. It's fun. What did you got? One more, pick one more. College. Okay. All right. Here's what I would say. How many of y'all have just two years of college ahead of you? Anybody? Anybody just have three years of college? Four years of college. Okay. All right, that's a good spread. Here's what I would say. I didn't really take advantage of my college years as much as I wish I did until late sophomore year, junior year and senior year. I felt like my freshman year, I was kind of waffling. I didn't really know what I was gonna do. I would encourage you if you're a freshman to go all in your freshman year. Get to know so many folks, get connected on campus, join clubs. I don't care if you're good at chess, join the chess club. Figure it out. Get plugged in, get well-rounded, get connected. You are going to make friends in your college days that are so fun there. Number two. I think as you go throughout the years, you need to pick the spots you want to most invest in. If it's Greek life, like I was, I think Abby Connell is a part of, I think KD. Like I would tell Abby in the room. Yeah, y'all know Abby, yeah. What is it? Did I say it wrong? Oh, Alpha Gam. So sorry, sorry, sorry Kappa Delta. All right, my bad. Alpha Gam. Alpha Gam. And so like I would tell her, I was like, you've got four years maybe total that you're rocking with your sorority. Like leverage influences in that space and don't try to camouflage your faith. Like so often in college, like we don't want to let people know that we're a Christian until like the ninth mile in the marathon. You're like, oh, hold up, let's talk about it. Let's be open about our faith. If you camouflage it for the first half of the relationship, then it's real awkward when you introduce it at the 60% mark. It's weird, you know? So let them know in the front end, like who you are as a believer, living out your faith there. And the last thing I would say in your college years, you ought to go on mission more than anyone else in the church. You have the most flexibility to live on mission. Like to go spend a spring break, a fall break, a summer break, sharing the gospel in different cities. When you leave college, you will not have that opportunity ever again. Because you're gonna have a job or a family or all the things and you're gonna get 10 days vacation and five of them are gonna go to your holidays and the other five are gonna go to your family vacation and you're done so. You don't get to go on mission anymore. You know what I'm saying? You all with me? So like, I'm just telling you, if you want to go travel and see the nation, see the world and live on mission, these are your four years to do it. And if you miss it here, the odds are you will not get those years back in the future. So I would say to try to live on mission those four years. So. All right. Oh, one more thing with college. In your college years, do not neglect your family. I don't know why, but something happens when you leave the nest, you're graduating senior, going out into college stuff. All of a sudden you're like, I am a grown man now and I don't need mom and dad as much, you know? And I think that's, you know, I get the sentiment of like, hey, I'm carving my own path. I'm just telling you though, your parents are your greatest asset in this season. Call them and ask them their opinion. Now they may be like, you know what? Hey, I want to get a tattoo. What do you think? Like, no, you're like, well, I'm still getting it. That's fine. But include them in the decision process. Talk with them, chop it up with them. Lean on your parents. I really think that that call to honor your parents well is not just a biblical mandate for when you're a kid. Like it's a true, yeah, there's a beep and then going on, they're taken care of. That's a true mandate for us for the rest of our life. I'm 33 years old and I call my dad all the time and ask his opinion on all kinds of things. I'm trying to honor my mom and dad well. So just do that well, okay? All right, Owen, no worship tonight. We're done on the wrap up. Is that okay? And I'm also going to say this. I've gone a long time too. I think we're going to skip out on small groups tonight.
and if that's okay, all right? Do y'all want small groups or we skip? They want small groups, we're doing small groups. All right, we'll do 15 minutes of small groups and then we'll wrap it up, okay? Father, we thank you for today, we thank you for your word, and I thank you for your grace. I am such a kid still in so many ways, and so to stand up here and give advice and wisdom on some of these topics, I feel so inadequate. But I also, Lord, just wanna point this generation to so many different ways of the way they can be good stewards, where they can not make the same mistakes that I made, that they can also be better than myself and others. And so I just pray that this room right here, every man and woman represented this week would make it a priority in their life to think through, all right, Lord, where am I being a servant and where am I being a steward? Where am I missing it and where can we grow? So I pray in the conversation tonight that they'd be able to help have good, healthy conversation around that. And we pray this in your name, amen. All right, small group leaders, stand up for us. You'll see them around the room and y'all can find a spot, thanks. Keep it.