Elf: Getting Excited About Jesus

Intro with a quick life story/testimony:

Sophomore at Mizzou this fall studying architecture.

Roommates are Jacob Sullivan, Michael Halford, and Cameron Helmuth. Plus one of my best friends, Garrison Harms, lives right across the street. You guys will get to know them because some of you will have them as room leaders.

Pleasant Valley has been a huge part of my life.

I started going to PV in 1995, so actually before some of you guys were born, which makes me feel really old.

I’ve been involved with the youth group here since 7th grade (back before 6th graders were able to come to Unleash). That was back when they called it Solid Rock.

So much of my testimony and spiritual growth has come from God using the great leaders and events this youth group has. Whether it’s been my community groups, mission trips to Haiti and Thailand, or the various retreats I’ve been to, I’ve really matured spiritually.

And with Summerfest coming up I can’t help but reminisce on how much I grown every year I’ve gone to camp.

Summerfest is such an incredible opportunity to grow and make lasting friendships. A lot of my best friends and actually a lot of the college leaders here at PV were my roommates at camp.

So now that you’ve kind of gotten to know me, let’s dive into what I want to talk to you guys about tonight.

Sermon

So much of my testimony and spiritual growth is related to times where I put myself out there and truly showed others how excited I was about Jesus.

When I went to Haiti that looked like me loving on kids who had never felt much of a caring touch. I also helped lead athletic camps for the kids that often times are too worried their next meal to get to relax and play.

In Thailand I was able to show how excited I was about Jesus by performing the freedom drama countless times to help spread the message of the gospel. Also I was able to spend a day play with orphaned kids from the war destructed country of Burma.

Many times, if we’re truly living for Christ and excited for him, people can just see something different about us. They sense that we’re excited about something and they want in on it too. The kids in Haiti and Thailand couldn’t understand a lot of what we said when the translators weren’t around, but they could tell that there was something different about us just in how we interacted with them and the sense of joy we had. Just holding the Haitian and Thai kids was enough to put a big smile on the faces.

Sometimes showing Christ’s love just means putting yourself out there, even if that means being silly. One day in Thailand, we set out to do some slum ministry. The Thai slums are basically beaten down areas of housing where people have no more cover than a makeshift tent or a tarp. There’s dried sewage on the ground that you breathe in when you kick up dust. It’s a sad sight. When we got to the slums we performed the freedom drama, but then we began to play with the kids there. As soon as we started playing, the kids flocked to us. We only got to play with them for an hour, but that was enough to take their