We’re Back From Camp, Now What?

Introduction

We’re back from camp, now what?

For some of you, the camp high has already started to wear off.

For some of you, life is back to what it was like before you left.

For some of you, you are still thriving for Jesus.

Tonight, I want to take a few minutes and talk to you about what comes next after camp.

Whether you made a decision or God is just sharing some things with you, there is going to be something for you tonight.

PRAY

Salvation

First, let me just say, praise the Lord for the work that He did at camp and even before.

I pray that those decisions don’t stay at camp.

What you did there was the most important decision of your life.

That’s not something that we take lightly here.

Because of that, we want to be able to walk with you through what’s next.

So what is next?

Baptism

Baptism is a important step of obedience you are taking to show that you belong to God through Jesus.

Baptism is a symbolic act.

By being immersed in the water, you are publicly expressing your faith in Christ.

It is a visible way to show others the decision that you have made to trust Jesus for salvation and trust Him to be the Lord of your life.

You are making a promise before God and your church family to live faithfully as a follower of Jesus.

Baptism shows Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, which is why a person is put completely under the water for baptism.

It identifies your death to sin, the burial of your old life, and your resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus!

Baptism is a demonstration on the outside of what happened to your spiritually on the inside when your sins were washed away and you chose to follow Jesus for the rest of your life.

A few other things to note about baptism:

It’s not something you prepare for.

If you are confident in your salvation, it’s the next step.

The ONLY reason to wait is if you want certain family members present and they can only be at a specific service.

It’s ok if you didn’t get saved at Falls Creek, you can still get baptized.

If you have never been baptized before and you are sure of your salvation, then let’s have that conversation.

You only need to get baptized once, but on the right side of your salvation.

If you had an experience in your past where you “got saved” and got baptized, but you really truly committed your life to Christ after that, then you need to be baptized again.

Baptized is a public profession of your faith in Jesus Christ.

In order to publicly tell people that you got saved, you must have truly been saved.

Belonging

The next thing that is important is to start developing the routine of coming to church.

At church you will have the opportunity to connect with like-minded believers who can walk alongside you and encourage you on your new journey with Christ.

You will also have the opportunities that you need to grow in your faith and to be equipped to fulfill the plan God has for your life.

For some of you, prioritizing church is easy, you are already doing it.

For some of you, it will require some sacrifice.

But, it’s such an important piece to the puzzle.

What does that look like for you?

Maybe it’s just making the commitment to make every Wednesday night service.

Maybe you are already coming most Wednesdays and you need to find a way to get up and come to church on Sunday morning.

Whatever it is, it’s time for you to take that next step.

Build

It’s also time for you to start building your spiritual disciplines.

That means learning to do a Bible study, pray, serve, etc.

And in the next couple of weeks, we are going to work on that very thing.

Over the next 3 weeks, we are going to talk about how to engage in the spiritual disciplines regularly.

But also, we are going to work on developing a new wave of D-Groups that are going to be a space for you to study with people just like you and be empowered to grow in those areas.

I want to take a moment to pause here and encourage a similar but different group.

What I am saying here applies of course to those of you who got saved at camp and even recently, but maybe you were saved a while ago and you just haven’t ever taken those next steps to grow in your faith.

I am talking to you too.

You also need to take a minute and reflect on how connected you are to church and how strong your spiritual disciplines are.

If you know you are struggling to come to church or prioritize time with God regularly outside of the church services you attend, then you can engage in these same things as well.

Our entire goal here is to:

See people get saved

Teach them all the things we can about Jesus

Equip them to go do the work we’re called to do

Empower them to go do the work.

If you have been saved and you haven’t taken that next step to being taught all the things about Jesus, we it’s time to get on board and get started.

But of course, there were others of you that made different decisions to right?

Recommitment

If you made the decision to recommit your life or refocus your priorities on Jesus praise the Lord.

Let me explain what that decision means.

First, it means that you realized that Jesus wasn’t the number one priority in your life.

That’s GREAT that God showed you that.

It’s even better that you realized it and told someone about it.

GREAT JOB!

Second, it means that you now have to do the work to make Him the priority and keep Him there.

The decision to “recommit” your life to Christ is a decision to rearrange your priorities and make Him #1 again.

But let me be clear about something.

Read Luke 9:23 “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

We are supposed do recommit our lives to Christ each day.

We are supposed to spend that time in His Word and in prayer so that we are consistently being refocused on Him and His priorities.

Even in the 24 hours betwen your quiet times, your sin is going to pull you away at least some.

That’s why it’s so important to be consistent in your personal time with Jesus.

When you miss that time consistently and you stop making coming to church a priority, then your focus quickly goes to anything and everything but God.

So recommitting your life to Christ means to recommit your life to doing the very things that keep you interacting with Him regularly.

Third, take some time and think about what it was that make you lose your focus on God.

What it a relationship you were in?

A hard season you went through with your family?

A new sin?

Did you start a new sport?

Whatever it was, do the work to identify it.

And you might expect me to say that you need to make it disappear from your life, but I don’t believe that’s necessarily always the right choice.

I think you need to start praying and seeking wisdom about how to work through that situation and how to glorify God through it.

If it’s a new sin, OF COURSE, that needs to go away.

But you don’t necessarily have to break up with your bf/gf or stop playing sports because it took you away from God.

You can learn how to keep God as the priority while still doing thing things.

But if God makes it clear that the right answer is for you to drop those things, then you need to be obedient to that.

Once God has revealed it to you, you are not responsible to do something about it.

And if you are truly serious about refocusing on Jesus, then you will.

Calls to Ministry/ Missions

Feeling called to ministry or mission?

Then get started with you.

You don’t have to wait for me or another adult to start telling you what to do, start looking for ways to do ministry or to live on mission.

Ask for space to teach.

Start praying for chances to share the Gospel.

At some point this fall, we will start a Called Cohort.

This means that those who are called to Missions or Ministry will have a group designed just for you guys.

You will be challenged, equipped, and empowered to start growing in your calling and then given more and more chances to get experience in it.

But for now, pray for ways to start working in that direction.

Go Deeper

The last “decision” isn’t really a decision at all.

Maybe you have felt the Lord telling you that it’s time for you to start taking your relationship with Him more serious and you need to/ want to start digging deeper into His Word and your relationship with Him.

There could be several people feeling this that are at all different stages.

So the plan for this one will be dictated by the need.

But if you feel the Lord calling you to go deeper, then share the area(s) where you think He is calling you to go deeper

Conclusion

Tonight is a chance to reflect on and celebrate what the Lord has done and is doing in your lives.

While each of you have a card, this isn’t a way for us to pressure you into to doing something you aren’t ready to do.

I want you to truly reflect on where you are in you walk with Christ and reflect on what He is showing you and select the option He is leading you to.

If He isn’t leading you to one, then don’t pick one.

But I do want to know how we can be praying for you.

So do me a HUGE favor and in a minute, fill out the top part and give me something that I can be praying for you about.

Here in just a minute, I am going to dismiss you to your Life Groups.

Tonight will be an extended period in your Life Groups.

You will have time to process, reflect on, and celebrate what God has done or is doing.

Please be respectful to each person as they share.

Before you leave, your Life Group leader will collect your card and we will start praying over them and contacting you in response to whatever you put down.

PRAY