Last night I preached a message to the teens of our church at their Verge Homecoming service. I think it will encourage you. It’s encouraging me even in this very moment.

There are three main components to a High School Homecoming: The Pep Rally, The Game, and the Dance

So I got to thinking – What’s the point of a pep rally? To get you thinking about winning, believing you will win, and seeing yourself winning the game! There are cheers about winning and the band plays and the crowd goes wild about defeating the enemy. Guess what? We need to have a pep rally every morning and get in faith about our day! Hebrews 11 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen. As I preached to a room NOT filled with teenagers but only a few, I was tempted to become discouraged myself even as I preached. That room used to have fifty and at one time had over one hundred teens in there but tonight there were only a few. But I preached as if it were packed by faith as if I were preaching to hundreds. And you hide and watch! There will be. I declare that by faith!

The second part of HOMECOMING is The Big Game!!! In the game sometimes you find yourself down by two touchdowns and getting sacked, knocked down, bruised, tackled, and discouraged. When this happens, players have to remember the plays, listen to their coach and do what he says in order to get back in the game and go on to victory! And that’s just like how we find ourselves in situations where it feels like we are losing or “down by two touchdowns”!! We have to remember what the Word says and renew our minds with the Word, listen to what our “Coach” God says and do that for the Victory!!!

The last part of Homecoming is The Dance!!! The dance is all about celebrating the WIN, right! We always picked a team we knew we could beat for Homecoming to ensure the dance would be tons of fun. This makes me think of how it’s so important for us to celebrate and focus on our wins in life and be thankful, rejoicing and praising God for all we do have and all the wins we have had! When we are grateful it just makes Him want to continue to bless us and cause us to triumph in everything! 1 Cor. 15:57 “But thanks be to God. He gives us the victory!”

So you see even as I preached that message, I remembered when we youth pastored at our church in the early 90s where we now pastor and there were 150 teens crammed in that room. I had to fight discouragement with only a few there tonight after all we have been through this year, I was preaching to myself from Paul saying we are knocked down but not out! We are persecuted but not forsaken. We are a hard pressed on every side but not destroyed!!! I pray every teen that was there last night will take the Word that was preached and it will change their lives like it has mine. I sat in services as a teen myself with just a few teens in the eighties but those times in His presence made me who I am today. I pray that the Word penetrated even if only in one girl or guy’s heart last night like it did mine all those years ago and will bear much fruit.

I personally choose joy which is strengthening me even right now as I wrote this blog wishing our youth group was what it once was and knowing that even though it has weathered some pretty huge storms that we had no control over with the pandemic and transition in leadership all at the same time, I’m so so so thankful for each one who I got to spend the evening with and I’m thankful for all the lives through the decades that have been touched. I think of missionaries now who went to this youth group and amazing moms and dads now who grew up in this youth group. I am thankful for people in ministry across the country from our youth group and for college students serving God because of this youth group. I am thankful for leadership who has a heart for Verge and that are pouring their hearts into it and have pure hearts toward God and for the teens of our church. I am thankful that last night’s event was beautiful and done with excellence and was really a lot of fun! It was a win! And I celebrate it. And I thank God by faith for all who He is calling into this youth group to be discipled and raised up like others have been in the past to go and do great things for God!!! If you can tell, this very blog came out of a time when I had to do what I just preached and you can do that with whatever you are going through. We can get bitter and blame those who we may want to blame for the reason things are the way they are in our lives or we can get better by trusting God, seeing the victory, renewing our minds with the Word, and being thankful to Him for all the good!

This is the difference of me being tempted to be depressed, mad, bitter, and disappointed over what could be and getting into faith, love, and renewing my mind and being excited for a very bright future for the amazing teens of our church as we rebuild Verge after the pandemic!!!

I just walked you through a very real and raw process and I’m here to tell you it isn’t all rosy. Maybe someone let you down. Did you wrong. Left you a mess to clean up. Or betrayed you. Maybe they hurt your business. I get it! I so get it. But we have a choice to get glad in the same pants we got mad in and to get better instead of bitter toward whoever messed up our whatever and to walk in love and joy! Laugh at the devil. He loses. All we do is WIN, WIN, WIN!

Youth ministry means the world to us and make no mistake, Verge is on the come back!!!! And the devil is going to be soooooo sorry he ever messed with our youth ministry in this pandemic!!!! Teenagers are about to take over and kick some devil butt! I just know it!!!! Calling all teens! We have work to do for Jesus!!!! We need you and you need us. Moms and Dads, get your teens in church! It’s the best thing you can do for their future.

Happy Monday!