Mark Davis opens with the story of Teddy Roosevelt being shot in the chest before a campaign speech and pressing on anyway, then asks: what does it take to knock you off mission? Using Paul's defense of his ministry in 1 Thessalonians 2, he presents three qualities of a life lived on mission — the right message, the right motivation, and the right manner.

Scripture Texts

1 Thessalonians 2:1-12; Acts 16:19-31; John 10:10

Main Points or Ideas

• Right Message: the gospel - In the midst of beatings and imprisonment at Philippi, Paul went straight to Thessalonica and declared the gospel in the middle of more conflict. The message of his life was the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ — and nothing would get in the way of it. Davis illustrates this with a head-on collision on the way to deer hunting: he was so committed to getting to his stand that he drove on through the wreck. He wishes he were that passionate about the gospel. If the gospel is not central to everyday life and conversation, he argues, a person simply is not on mission.
• Right Motivation: pleasing God, not people - Paul's appeal did not spring from error, impurity, or deception — it was not to please men but to please God who tests the heart. Davis illustrates the failure of people-pleasing and success-chasing with Sean McVay (youngest Super Bowl-winning coach in NFL history, who described buying his second LA home and winning the Super Bowl as the loneliest period of his life) and Tom Brady ("I've done it all — I wish I knew what's greater out there"). If winning is your motivation, your life will be a waste. The love of Christ constraining and an identity resting in him is the only motivation that holds.
• Right Manner: gentle like a mother, exhorting like a father - Paul shared not only the gospel but his own life, weeping and rejoicing with the Thessalonians and working night and day so as not to be a burden. He was gentle as a nursing mother and exhorting as a father — the goal of both being to help others walk in a manner worthy of God. Ministry is people. Living on mission means doing life with them, spending evenings and mornings and weekends with them, on purpose.

Conclusion

Mark Davis closes with the story of Olympic shooter Matt Emmons, who fired a perfect shot at the wrong target and lost the gold medal. Bullseye on the biggest bank account, the most followers, or the most influence — but wrong target. The right target is a life whose message is the gospel, whose motivation is pleasing the Father, and whose manner invests in others for a worthy walk. That life can start today.

Pastor Ken Keltner opens by acknowledging that most believers — even pastors — struggle to declare the gospel, though the church has done well at defining and defending it. Drawing from Acts 1:8, he presents a simple three-word outline and fills each point with personal stories from his own ministry of evangelism.

Scripture Texts

Acts 1:8; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5

Main Points or Ideas

• Evangelism is expected - Acts 1:8 is a command, not a suggestion. Jesus told his disciples they would be witnesses — the question is not whether but where (Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth). Keltner urges students not to wait for a pastoral role or a formal ministry setting to begin: the opportunities are already around them every day. A student who cannot be found sharing the gospel or pouring into anyone's life should not be in ministry — the habit of declaring Christ is formed now, not later.
• Evangelism is exciting - Keltner illustrates this with story after story: a married couple who came to Christ at midnight after a long dinner; a school principal who came to faith through a sweaty-shirted ninth grader whose name he never got; a seven-year-old granddaughter named Rowan who led an eleven-year-old classmate named Stryker to Christ. When someone trusts Christ, heaven breaks out in praise — and the believer who witnessed it carries that joy everywhere.
• Evangelism is explosive - When Dr. Smith — Keltner's surgeon — came to faith, he immediately began bringing his surgical team to church. This is the nature of true conversion: new believers want others to know. Keltner closes with the sobering statistic that ninety-five percent of evangelical believers have never led a single person to Christ, and challenges students to begin praying for divine appointments. God will bring someone — the only question is whether the student will be sensitive enough to recognize the moment and courageous enough to open their mouth.

Conclusion

Pastor Keltner closes by pointing students back to Acts 1:8: the Spirit of God is given specifically to make believers effective witnesses. They do not go alone. The challenge is simply to go — praying for divine appointments, opening their mouths, and trusting the God who promises to go with them.

Directing listeners to Psalm 139, Bob Holmes opens by announcing his subject plainly: the God of love found in the Bible is the God who loves you — not in a general, abstract way, but personally, individually, and specifically. Drawing from Psalm 139, Proverbs 3, and his own ministry experiences, he makes the case that the same God who formed each person in the womb is actively involved in every detail of their life.

Scripture Texts

Psalm 139:1-2, 13-14, 17-18; Proverbs 3:5-8; 1 Peter 5:7

Main Points or Ideas

• You are not an accident - Psalm 139 overflows with personal pronouns — God has searched me, known me, understood my thoughts, and covered me in my mother's womb. Holmes argues that before anyone else saw you, God was carefully weaving you together, thread by thread, piece by piece. You were planned, prepared, and purposed — and the God who formed you for nine months has a plan for all the years that follow.
• God has thought about you more than the sand - Psalm 139:17-18 declares that God's thoughts toward each person outnumber the grains of sand. Holmes takes this literally: a God who thinks about billions of individual people more than the total grains of sand on the earth is a God who is astonishingly, specifically, personally attentive. There has never been a moment when God has not been thinking about you.
• God can be trusted with the rest of your life - Proverbs 3:5-8 calls believers to trust God with all their heart and promises health to those who fear him. Using a live illustration involving a student, Holmes makes the point: if God formed you for nine months in the womb, he can be trusted with your twenties, your calling, your trials, and your future. The navel through which nourishment came in the womb is the picture — the same God who sustained you then is sustaining you now.
• God is there before you get there - Holmes closes with a series of personal stories — an $83,000 answer to prayer, three cameras materializing at a school assembly, a back injury healed three times in one day — to illustrate that God goes before his sheep and is already present in every situation before they arrive. Not one of these circumstances surprised him. Tomorrow has not yet introduced itself to God — he already knows it.

Conclusion

Bob Holmes closes by urging students to go through life saying "that is my God" — the God of Noah, Daniel, David, and Shadrach is the same God who thinks about them more than the sand and who will never put a "Do Not Disturb" sign on his throne. Cast every care on him, because he cares for you.

Pastor Dennis St. Lawrence opens with Proverbs 20:6 — "Many will tell you they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly trustworthy?" — and shifts the focus from a broken world's untrustworthiness to the personal question every believer should ask: am I trustworthy?

Drawing from a secular book on trust, he presents eight qualities that build trust in every area of life.

Scripture Texts

Proverbs 20:6; Proverbs 28:13; Ecclesiastes 9:10; 1 Corinthians 13; Ephesians 4:15

Main Points or Ideas

• Character - Doing what is right when no one is looking; being dependable regardless of the cost.
• Competency - Character without skill is incomplete. A mechanic with great integrity who cannot fix the car, or a skilled mechanic who cheats customers, both fall short. Believers must pursue excellence in whatever God has called them to do — the inward man can keep growing and improving until the day of death.
• Consistency - Anybody can perform well briefly, but lasting trust is built by day-in, day-out faithfulness in character and excellence. Being a "steady Eddie" — someone others know exactly what to expect from — is a powerful testimony.
• Conviction and Commitment - Ecclesiastes 9:10 calls believers to do whatever their hand finds with all their strength. Half-heartedness does not build trust. Passion, wholehearted commitment, and a clear sense that "this is what God wants me to do, and I am all in" are visible to everyone around us.
• Compassion - 1 Corinthians 13 says that oratory, knowledge, and faith without love amount to nothing — a clanging cymbal. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Truth without genuine love fails to land.
• Communication - Ephesians 4:15 commands speaking the truth in love. Four rules of trustworthy communication: be honest, keep current, attack the problem not the person, and act rather than react. Evasion, dishonesty, or emotional reactivity erode trust quickly.
• Courage - Paul stood alone when no one else would. There will be times when doing what is right draws criticism and isolation. Trusting God more than the approval of others — while remaining open to genuine correction — and maintaining a right spirit through it is what builds lasting trust.
• Confession - Proverbs 28:13 promises mercy to those who confess and forsake sin. Failure does not destroy trust; how a person responds to failure does. Owning mistakes without blame or excuses, seeking forgiveness, and making things right are marks of a person others can trust.

Conclusion

Pastor St. Lawrence closes by pointing to God as the perfect embodiment of all eight qualities — except confession, since God never sins. Because God is trustworthy, believers can trust him. And because they trust God, they should live in such a way that others can trust them.

Dr. Jim Tillotson opens the first of a three-part dating series by grounding the topic in biblical priorities and framing marriage as the ultimate purpose of dating — while also affirming that not everyone is called to marry. He covers the foundations of friendship, God's design for marriage, and the importance of a healthy self-image before any dating relationship begins.

Scripture Texts

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Proverbs 18:22; Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 13:4; Mark 10:2-9; Psalm 139:13-14

Main Points or Ideas

• Start with friendship - Ecclesiastes 4 establishes that God did not design people to be alone — whether or not they marry, every believer needs a genuine friend. Tillotson urges students to spend the early weeks of the semester building broad friendships with people of both sexes before pairing off, warning that moving too quickly into dating narrows the field prematurely and puts unfair pressure on early interactions.
• God's design for marriage - Genesis 2 establishes that marriage was God's idea before sin entered the world. Woman was created as a suitable completer for man — not above him or below him, but alongside him. Marriage is permanent (Mark 10), and Hebrews 13:4 declares that sex within marriage is honorable and undefiled. Tillotson argues that the world inverts God's order (physical first, then emotional and spiritual), while God's design works from spiritual and emotional connection outward — and that following God's order produces the best result.
• A healthy self-image is the prerequisite for dating - Students who try to find their identity and worth through a dating relationship will put unfair expectations on the other person and set themselves up for disappointment. Four handles for building a God-honoring self-image: realize your importance to God (made in his image); value inner character over outer appearance (God looks at the heart); accept how God made you (Psalm 139 — your physical traits are not accidents); and improve what you can (hygiene, communication, dress, and social skills are all improvable).

Conclusion

Dr. Jim closes by encouraging students to carry the booklet for all three sessions, accept who they are while working on what they can improve, and build the kind of genuine friendships that form the only solid foundation for any future dating relationship. Parts two and three — covering who to date and how to date — will follow in subsequent sessions.

Dr. Doug Brown opens by acknowledging that alcohol is a controversial topic across evangelicalism, with many Baptist churches now removing abstinence clauses from their covenants. He was asked by the administration to address the topic, and he does so by working through the context of Ephesians 5:18 and its surrounding verses, arguing that the passage calls believers to a walk of wisdom — and that abstinence is the wisest choice.

Scripture Texts

Ephesians 5:15-21; Luke 15:13; 1 Peter 4:3-4

Main Points or Ideas

• Walk in wisdom (Ephesians 5:15-17) - The surrounding paragraph in Ephesians 5 calls believers to walk worthy of the gospel — in love and in light. Verse fifteen commands wise walking rather than unwise, making the most of the time because the days are evil. Verse seventeen commands understanding the will of God — not mystically discerning decisions about career or marriage, but taking the revealed Word of God and applying it in everyday situations. Wisdom is about conduct and thinking, not just intention.
• Don't get drunk (Ephesians 5:18a) - The word for debauchery in verse eighteen carries the idea of a wasted life — the same root word used in the prodigal son's "reckless living" and in 1 Peter 4:3's "flood of debauchery." Paul may have been addressing the Ephesian context of Dionysus worship, where pagan worshipers got drunk to become conduits for the spiritual realm, but the warning applies broadly: alcohol impairs judgment, opens the door to sexual immorality, and leads to devastation in families and churches. Brown notes that seventy percent of the audience raised their hand when asked if their family or a friend's family has been impacted by alcohol abuse — and that over ninety percent of sexual assaults on college campuses are linked to alcohol use. His personal conclusion, and his counsel, is that abstinence is the wisest choice.
• Be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18b) - In direct contrast to the influence of alcohol, Paul commands being filled with the Spirit — a supernatural influence that moves believers to do what they would not naturally do. As Ephesians frames the church as the new temple of God, the Holy Spirit is the Shekinah presence that dwells within each believer. The results of being Spirit-filled (vv. 19-21) are thanksgiving, mutual submission, and praise — the marks of a life transformed from the inside out, not one that must be altered from the outside in by a substance.

Conclusion

Dr. Doug closes by urging students to walk wisely, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Alcohol may not be categorically forbidden in Scripture, but drunkenness is — and the risk of crossing that line, combined with the devastation he has witnessed over a lifetime of pastoral ministry, leads him to commend total abstinence as the wisest path for believers in ministry.

Bob Roberts continues his walk through John's Gospel by surveying the seven signs before focusing on the sixth — the healing of the man born blind — and arguing that the greatest miracle in the chapter is not the physical healing but the moment the blind man said "Lord, I believe" and worshiped. That miracle of regeneration, he argues, is still going on today.

Scripture Text

John 9:1-38

Main Points or Ideas

• Heaven flexes in weakness - When the disciples ask who sinned to cause this man's blindness, Jesus reorients their whole framework: neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God should be displayed in him. Roberts argues that heaven consistently chooses to demonstrate its power and quality not through strength but through redeemed tragedy — Bobby McCoy, a quadriplegic pastor who says he would not trade his wheelchair; Phan Thi Kim, the Vietnam War napalm girl who came to Christ through her scars; Fanny Crosby, who wrote eight thousand hymns and said she would not trade her blindness because it kept her from distraction and set her face toward Christ. Real Christianity, Roberts argues, is not natural — it is supernatural.
• Mercy over man-made fences - Jesus makes the mud on the Sabbath, deliberately breaking three man-made derivative rules (not God's rules). The Pharisees' verdict: this man is not of God. Jesus's verdict: you reject God's commandment to keep your own tradition. Roberts sees this as a recurring pattern in the Gospels — Jesus always prioritizing mercy over religious fencing, grace over judgment, the cosmic conquest of love over checklist religion.
• The greater miracle: the blind man's faith - The physical healing is remarkable, but Roberts identifies the climax of the chapter as verse 38: "Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him." That is the miracle that is still happening. Jesus quickens dead hearts and turns rebel enemies into worshiping sons and daughters. Roberts closes by applying this directly to a group of about a thousand teenagers coming to campus for Faith Fest the next day, urging students to pray that God would do that same miracle — creating more worshipers through the gospel.
• Suffering as participation in Christ - Roberts draws on Colossians 1:24 and his own stage-four cancer diagnosis to address the theology of suffering. Christ left no unfinished atonement, but he left an unfinished allotment of affliction for his body. Every generation takes its portion. Roberts testifies that when he finally accepted the invitation to board the "stage four train," he found Christ present in it every moment — and that he would not trade the suffering for anything, because it has brought him to know Jesus better.

Conclusion

Bob Roberts closes with John 9:38 as the summary of the whole message: a man who had been blind from birth, sent through mud and water, came back seeing — and then bowed and believed. The miracle of salvation, the creation of new worshipers, is the greatest sign in the Gospel of John, and it is still happening. May God, in his mercy, do it again.

Matt Galvan opens by situating the church of Ephesus historically — a forty-five-year-old, well-established congregation with sound doctrine, active service, endurance under pressure, and zero tolerance for false teaching. He then asks: what could Jesus possibly rebuke a church like that for? The answer to that question drives the entire message.

Scripture Text

Revelation 2:1-7; Philippians 3:10

Main Points or Ideas

• Christ's characteristic - Jesus introduces himself to the Ephesian church as the one who holds the seven stars and walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks — that is, he is actively present among his churches and sees everything. He comes not as a detached observer but as one who walks through and inspects, missing nothing.
• Christ's compliment - Jesus commends the church at Ephesus for four things: hard work and labor, patient endurance under pressure, intolerance of blatant sin, and sound doctrinal discernment in rejecting false apostles. Galvan applies this to the student body — serving God, not quitting when things get hard, pursuing right doctrine — and affirms that Jesus sees and commends it.
• Christ's rebuke - With one word — "nevertheless" — everything changes. Jesus says, "I have this against you: you have left your first love." First love is honeymoon love: fervent, personal, uninhibited, and openly displayed. Using the marriage analogy, Galvan argues that the Ephesians had let life — not sinful things, but busy, good things — crowd out "us time" with Jesus. They were theologically straight but had lost the personal intimacy that makes doctrine living. Jesus says: I miss when you used to pray about everything, read the Word desperate to hear from me, and needed me for every situation. That intimacy had been replaced by routine.
• Christ's command - Jesus gives three imperatives: remember, repent, and repeat the first works. Remember how devoted you once were. Repent — not with excuses but with genuine sorrow and willingness to change. Repeat the practices of early love: personal Bible reading, prayer, desperate dependence on God. The warning is sobering: the church at Ephesus eventually disintegrated — not for lack of programs, but because they never returned to us time.

Conclusion

Matt Galvan closes with three diagnostic questions: What three things most quickly distract you from time with God? What does Jesus want to do with you during that time? And what entertainments or pleasures never get skipped on days when devotions do? Jesus's appeal to Ephesus is the same appeal to every student: come back to us time — before it's too late.

Bob Roberts opens with three pieces of classic artwork depicting Moses at the burning bush before turning to Exodus 3 and a focused meditation on God's personal covenant name — Yahweh — and what it reveals about who God is and how he relates to us. His goal is to send students into the weekend as worshipers who know their God more deeply.

Scripture Texts

Exodus 3:1-14; John 8:56-58; John 20:26-28; Philippians 2:9-11; Acts 4:12

Main Points or Ideas

• God's name invites us to know him - When Moses asks God for his name, God reveals the Tetragrammaton — YHWH — translated in English Bibles as LORD in all caps. The name derives from the Hebrew verb "to be," meaning I AM THAT I AM. It is a state-of-being verb with no expiration date, communicating that God exists eternally, self-sufficiently, and without need. This name was so sacred that Jewish scribes would not write or speak it, substituting Adonai or Hashem instead. Roberts argues that the name itself is an open door to exploration — a standing invitation to ask, What are you, God? — and that the pursuit of that question is enough to captivate a human heart for eternity.
• God's name tells us he is everything — to the max - Whatever God is, he is that always and completely. He is loving, faithful, all-knowing, merciful, all-powerful, immutable, and righteous — not some of the time or partially, but to the max, twenty-four hours a day, with no expiration date. Humans share some of these qualities in partial, inconsistent measure; God possesses all of them infinitely. Roberts illustrates this through the audience: students call out attributes, and he repeats each one — faithful to the max, merciful to the max — to drive the point home.
• God's name points ahead to Jesus - The pictographic roots of the Hebrew letters in YHWH (yod-hey-vav-hey) correspond to hand, behold, nail, and behold — an evocative foreshadowing of Christ crucified, though Roberts is careful to note this is not on the same level as direct Scripture. More exegetically, when the Septuagint translators rendered I AM THAT I AM into Greek, they used ego eimi. John uses the exact same words in seven I AM statements of Jesus, and most explicitly in John 8:58 — "Before Abraham was, I am" — a direct claim to the divine name that the crowd immediately understood as blasphemy. The name Jesus (Yeshua) itself means Yahweh saves — a state-of-being God whose action verb is salvation. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, and there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.

Conclusion

Bob Roberts calls students to go into the weekend as secret worshipers — letting the truth of God's name take root in their hearts, pointing all faith and hope like a laser beam at the resurrected Christ, and letting that intimacy with God be seen on their faces and heard in their words throughout the week.

Bob Roberts opens his second visit to campus by introducing a Scripture memory challenge — recite a full chapter of the Sermon on the Mount before Christmas in exchange for a silver dollar from his collection — and then uses the coin to transition into Matthew 5 and his own salvation testimony. The common thread throughout is the first Beatitude: blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Scripture Text

Matthew 5:3, 20-22, 43-44; Matthew 22:19-21

Main Points or Ideas

• The Sermon on the Mount goes straight for the heart - Roberts walks through three of Jesus's six antitheses in Matthew 5 to show that the law's standard was always about the heart, not mere external compliance. Anger at a brother puts a person in danger of judgment — just as murder does. Lust is adultery of the heart. And the command to love enemies is so impossible that it proves the point: keeping Christ's standard is humanly unachievable. Each antithesis is a scalpel that cuts away at self-righteousness and exposes the need for grace.
• Blessed are the poor in spirit - The beating heart of the Sermon is its first verse — blessed are those who are spiritually bankrupt, having nothing to offer and needing everything. Roberts argues that every other part of the sermon is designed to drive people back to this verse. The person who sees their failure against Jesus's standard and comes to him with empty hands is precisely the kind of person who receives the kingdom of heaven.
• Roberts's testimony - Roberts grew up attending church after his parents were saved when he was five, but made a non-converting childhood decision and later collected two more false assurances: a prayer at camp and a star that twinkled. Through Christian high school, college, and a summer internship, he learned to coat his spiritual uncertainty with performance, service, and busyness. At age twenty-one, while leading a camper named Michael to Christ, the Holy Spirit convicted him that he didn't have what he was giving away. After fighting conviction for nearly a day, he told a friend the truth — "I don't think I'm a Christian" — and on June 30, 1995, cried out to God in utter humility and was saved. He returned thirty-one years later to the exact spot. His final challenge to students: the object of your faith is everything — is your trust in a prayer, a memory, a twinkling star, or in the risen Lamb of God?

Conclusion

Bob Roberts closes by urging any student who identifies with his story to stop fighting and simply come to Christ having nothing and needing everything. That is where Christianity begins — blessed are the poor in spirit.