What NOW?

When you ask the question “What Now?”, it is usually because the event before this question had a moment of impact, whether good or bad.

When this question is asked, we are looking at the present circumstances, surroundings, and elements of the situation we are in and determining what our next move is.

Many of you have came home from camp asking this question.

If you didn’t go to camp this year, I believe some of you are also asking this question.

Some of you spoke before camp saying, “I want to figure out how to keep what we get at camp going.”

To answer this question tonight, I believe we need to go back down to the foundation of Generations Youth that God established when Pastor Sam and I became the youth pastors.

Exodus 27:20–21 ““Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. The lampstand will stand in the Tabernacle, in front of the inner curtain that shields the Ark of the Covenant. Aaron and his sons must keep the lamps burning in the Lord’s presence all night. This is a permanent law for the people of Israel, and it must be observed from generation to generation.”

These verses are our focus.

They call us to bring a pure, surrendered heart to the Lord, and THAT is what keeps the lamps burning (the fire, the passion, the expectation, the excitement going)

We are called to this responsibility as priests to pursue the Lord in full surrender and keep the fire He lit in us burning.

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are not like that (those who are disobedient, stubborn), for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”

This is the heart of Generations Youth

So now that we remember who God has called us to be, we can begin to take steps toward maintaining this fire God lit in us.

Numbers 25:1–2 “While the Israelites were camped at Acacia Grove, some of the men defiled themselves by having sexual relations with local Moabite women. These women invited them to attend sacrifices to their gods, so the Israelites feasted with them and worshiped the gods of Moab.”

Here is the problem: The Israelites remained somewhere that they were only meant to pass through

The land of Moab in Acacia Grove was not their inheritance, but they got comfortable amongst the people and in the land

Some of you came back from camp and as you were going about life, encountered another temptation (similar to those you had encountered before) and instead of moving forward, you settled there. You got back into what was comfortable.

See, the children of Israel had faced false gods and idols and evil practices before. They would make the mistake, repent, God would relent from destroying them, and the cycle would continue.

SO WHAT NOW?

DON’T REMAIN IN THE PLACE OF COMPROMISE

Where they remained gained their participation

Numbers 25:2–3 “These women invited them to attend sacrifices to their gods, so the Israelites feasted with them and worshiped the gods of Moab. In this way, Israel joined in the worship of Baal of Peor, causing the Lord’s anger to blaze against his people.”

Joined: to tighten, harness, to be involved, yoked to

They became one with the sin they entertained

Camp always provides the opportunity to break away from life for a bit (the addictions, toxic people, mundane life routines) and allows you to be in a place that is geared toward encountering God.

However, when you leave that atmosphere and go back to life, that is where we really get to see if we experienced change or just hype/emotion.

You can leave camp and automatically go back to the exact same sin, toxicity, and brokenness you left behind for a week. Even those of you who had a powerful encounter with the Lord can do this.

However, the question to determine if what you experienced was legit is this: DO YOU BURN FOR THINGS TO BE DIFFERENT IN YOUR LIFE?

Camp can produce conviction. A sermon I preach or Pastor Aaron or Pastor Micah preaches can call you out. You can cry and mope and say your sorry, but the reality of the encounter is this: DID YOU SURRENDER TO THE LORD AND ASK HIM TO TEACH YOU HOW TO FOLLOW HIM? Because you can’t do it without connection to Him.

The difference between conviction and emotion is the fruit. Conviction bears fruit to life-change because it impacts the root of sin. Emotion bears no fruit because it is surface-level. It weeps about the fruit it has without the power to change it.

Conviction can include emotion, but it is not solely emotion.

You may have come back to camp and ended up right back where you don’t want to be. You may be battling some secret sin nobody knows about, thinking you won the battle, only to end up right back where you don’t want to be. I know you feel hopeless, powerless, and ashamed. BUT there is HOPE!

2. BE FILLED WITH A HOLY ZEAL

The people of Israel weren’t ashamed at the compromise. V6 tells us that they brought those they were compromising with right into their camp before Moses and everyone else.

Numbers 25:7–9 “When Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up and left the assembly. He took a spear and rushed after the man into his tent. Phinehas thrust the spear all the way through the man’s body and into the woman’s stomach. So the plague against the Israelites was stopped, but not before 24,000 people had died.”

Phinehas did not waste a moment and allow compromise to happen any longer. He went straight to the root (the man and the woman he was compromising with) and killed them.

If you don’t deal with the root of compromise, you will never be free.

To free the people from the wrath of God, Phinehas had to kill the root of the problem.

Numbers 25:10–13 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest has turned my anger away from the Israelites by being as zealous among them as I was. So I stopped destroying all Israel as I had intended to do in my zealous anger. Now tell him that I am making my special covenant of peace with him. In this covenant, I give him and his descendants a permanent right to the priesthood, for in his zeal for me, his God, he purified the people of Israel, making them right with me.””

Qn (Kaw-Naw): jealous, get heated, envy

This type of zeal is only found in His presence because God tells us He feels this way about us.

Exodus 34:14 “You must worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you.”

God says that the zeal that filled Phinehas not only impacted his life and those still alive in Israel after the plague, but his generational line behind him.

The compromise you don’t cut ties with is the compromise that will lead to your demise.

To defeat compromise, to defeat the sin that wants to tangle you up, you have to ask God to fill you with His holy zeal.

This type of zeal causes you to feel strongly against anything that would separate you and God. It will cause you to burn with the passion and strength from His Holy Spirit to kill anything that stands between you and Him. You begin to have a heart like His.