Series: New Year New Me

Attendance: 167

Mixer/Game: Sumo Wrestling

Extra fun things: Redneck Christmas Recap Video, Pedicure Outtakes

Worship Set: Our God Is Love (Hillsong), Run (Hillsong United), Forever Reign (Hillsong), None But Jesus (Hillsong United)

Bumper Video: New Year New Toes

Scripture: Matthew 7:21-27, Hosea 6:3, Matthew 7:13-14

Thoughts: One of the cool things about nights when I don’t teach at FUEL is that I get to see everything. I may host the game we play or give the announcements, but for the most part, I’m in the tech booth overseeing everything. From my spot back there nothing goes unnoticed. It’s a fun place to be.

The down side to seeing everything that goes on is that I see everything that goes on. I notice every single mess up or flaw that only me and the person messing up notices. Last night, as to be expected, we had a few mess-ups. Some were our fault (I let the sumo game go on a little too long) and others are completely out of our hands. The most frustrating ones are definitely the latter.

Unfortunately, last night had one of those.

During band practice, our bass player plugged in and started playing and we heard a rattle. We looked around, tried to find it, and chalked it up to something being loose on the wall and it vibrating. We tweaked some settings and kept practicing and didn’t hear it anymore. Then, when Forever Reign started up, we heard it again. This is when me and the sound guy looked at each other with that, “Oh crap” face. We both realized that a speaker was going out. We worked through it and kept going and it didn’t act up again until our last song of the worship set but it was pretty noticeable then. Once again, 90% of the room didn’t notice, but we did.

And there was nothing we could do about it.

Something like that happening would have completely ruined my night on any other night. I would’ve come home frustrated and annoyed. Actually, to be honest, I was a little frustrated and annoyed when I got home, but that all changed very quickly.

I love getting on Facebook after FUEL. There’s always a stream of kids saying that they had a great time or sharing a memory or inside joke from the night. As I scrolled through and saw, “FUEL WAS AWESOME TONIGHT!” and “FUEL was amazing!” on my news feed I started remembering that even when the night doesn’t go perfect, it can still be effective.

Then I saw the one thing that completely made my night:

“Tonight, I accepted Jesus.”

Whoa. Right there on Facebook for all 1196 of her friends to see, this student took a stand and announced to everyone that her life changed and that she wasn’t afraid to admit it. On the night of January 19th, she made the most important decision she could ever make.

I could’ve stopped right there and been good. My night had gone from frustrating to completely satisfied. My prayer during the Gospel invitation was, “Just one God. Just bring one home. One kid. That’s all.” All I wanted was for one student to come to know Jesus.

Apparently God had other plans.

When I saw this Facebook status, it had ten comments on it. I started reading them and saw a lot of encouraging messages. One person said, “That’s awesome!!!!” Another said, “Totally Awesome!” Then, right there in the middle of them was this one:

“Hey, me too!!!!”

I asked for one and God gave us more than that. He gave us the chance to be a part of two people (at least) making a decision to follow him.

And really, that’s what it’s all about.

I can get annoyed at tech problems that no one other than me, Chris, and maybe our worship guy notice. I can get frustrated when I let a game go a little too long. I can let all of these things bother me but at the end of the day, one thing stays the same:

These things don’t matter.

It’s all about Jesus. It’s all about kids encountering Jesus and getting to know him. It’s not about me. It’s not about our lights. It’s not about our graphics.

It’s about high school students meeting Jesus.

Last night two of them did just that for the first time.

And that’s why I went to bed smiling.

Videos:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epGaFUfpneo&fs=1&hl=en_US] [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZEr0ZjNSBU&fs=1&hl=en_US] [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1wRpCMBMPI&fs=1&hl=en_US]