The Grove Students Sessions

How do you wait on God when you're impatient? Yellow Means Wait.Waiting on God isn't passive — it's trust with your feet still. In this message, Dr. Gary Alley takes students through 1 Samuel 8–13, Psalm 27:14, and James 5 to show what patience with God looks like: be patient, listen, and don't take matters into your own hands. Impatience costs more than the wait.In this message:- Why do we struggle to wait on God when He says "yellow light"?- What does Saul's impatience in 1 Samuel 8–13 teach us about taking matters into our own hands?- How can you practice patience and trust God's timing this week?Scripture: Psalm 27:14; 1 Samuel 8–13; James 5 (ESV)Speaker: Dr. Gary Alley — The Grove Students Sessions

If seeing was believing, Mary Magdalene had all the proof she needed at the empty tomb. She saw it, and she still didn't believe. This message works through John 20 asking how faith actually starts, why hearing alone leaves people sitting in church for years without believing, and where believing really begins. It lands on a question with no hiding place: the gospel spreads through people speaking — so what happens if we stop talking?In this message:- If seeing isn't believing, why did Mary still not believe at the empty tomb?- Why is hearing the door but not the destination?- Who spoke to you — and who is waiting for you to speak?Scripture: John 20:1-29; Romans 10:17 (ESV)

The choices you make today are writing your future — whether you mean them to or not.

Nobody plans to drift. It happens one small decision at a time — "just this once" — until the once becomes a pattern. This message shows how the little choices compound: the ones that tune your heart to hear God when He calls, and the ones that slowly pull you away. Featuring one man's transformation from prayed-for to difference-maker, and Philip's split-second obedience on a desert road.

In this message:

- Why do the small decisions matter more than the big ones?

- What does it actually take to hear God when He calls?

- What three habits should you start practicing this week?

Scripture: Colossians 3:23; Acts 8:26-39 (ESV)

Love isn't a feeling. It's a debt — and yours is overdue.

Description: Romans 13:8 says to owe no one anything, except to love each other. That makes love a bill — one that's always due and most of us never pay. This message names the debt, shows where it goes unpaid — at home, with your friends, at church — and asks the question Jesus will ask in the end: not only what did you do, but what did you fail to do?

In this message:

• What do you actually owe the people around you — and what happens when you never pay up?
• Where is your absence showing up: at home, with your friends, at church?
• Who's the one person you need to show up for this week — and what's the one thing you'll do about it?

Scripture: Romans 13:8-14 (ESV)

What if the first thing you were told not to picture is already standing in the room? In this message Zack Eason names a pink elephant on Willow Avenue in Cookeville, the one you cannot unsee once someone says it. That is how a master works. It does not wait for permission. Then he opens Romans 6: when you were slaves of sin you were free in regard to righteousness, and the wage of that life is death. Paul does not offer unemployment. He offers a different master. Enslaved to God is also called sons and daughters, Abba Father, because this Master wants what is best for you, and the Spirit even prays when all you can get out is help. You have 120 years at most. You can spend them serving sin, or you can set your mind, take the thought captive, and walk into what God has, which is better than what you would have built for yourself.Scripture References:Romans 6:20-23 — slaves of sin, then the gift of God2 Corinthians 10:5 — take every thought captiveRomans 8:13-15 — put the flesh to death; Abba, FatherRomans 8:26-28 — the Spirit prays when you cannotRomans 8:35-37 — in all these things we overwhelmingly conquerGenesis 6:3 — 120 years, the most you get

This message starts two thousand feet down in a Chilean mine, where thirty-three men sat in the dark with no food and no way up unless help came from above. After weeks, a tube reached them with water, food, and a little light, but that was not the rescue. It only kept them alive until someone could pull them out. Fifty-nine days later every one of them walked into real air, and they had to decide how to live after that. Paul asks the same question in Romans 6, right after he has said that where sin increased, grace increased even more. Should we keep sinning so God will send more grace? Of course not, because we have died with Christ, and we do not go back to the life that killed us. You would not wax a car for a show and then drive it down a dusty road just so you could shine it again. Grace is not a reason to get dirty on purpose. We get ready for eternity, we keep saying no to sin, and we become a slave of Christ instead of a slave of the world. Stay away from sin and move toward Christ. That is where you go from here.

Scripture References:Romans 5:1-2Romans 5:20-21Romans 6:1-14

Imagine growing up on one side of a mountain so big that nobody has ever climbed it or gone around it. Everything you need is right there, until a disease starts spreading and people you know begin to die. You have no way to the other side. Then a helicopter lands, and the pilot says he came to rescue you. The cost is more than the whole village can put together.
That is where this message starts. We are opening a short series in Romans, the letter Paul wrote around AD 57 to a church in Rome he had never even visited. Paul spends the book explaining the gospel and the righteousness of God, because you cannot talk about one without talking about the other.
The helicopter door is open. If God still sees your sin, you will not get on. If He sees that you belong to Christ, you will. Romans 1. If you want to talk about the gospel, find a leader.

The final message of beach camp ties the whole week together — and then asks the question everyone's been thinking: am I enough? Tyler walks through Ephesians 2, where the answer is both harder and better than we want. The camp verse comes full circle, the piece of paper from night one comes back out, and worthless things get left at the altar — for good this time.

SCRIPTURE:
Ephesians 2:1–10 (main text) · Romans 3:23 · Isaiah 64:6 · Psalm 139:13–16 · Colossians 3:23 · John 15 · 2 Corinthians 3:5 · John 14:6 · 1 Samuel 14 (Jonathan and his armor bearer) · Psalm 119:37 (camp verse)

BIG IDEA:
Without Christ, no — you're not enough. But in Christ, you are His masterpiece, created for good works He prepared in advance. The enemy can't have your soul, so he'll settle for your focus.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Better together. Jonathan's armor bearer said "I'm with you, heart and soul" — and they won a battle they had no business winning. When you're back home and isolated, don't fight alone. Call your people.

2. The "am I enough?" question. Not a good enough friend, student, athlete, son, daughter — the voice never stops. Ephesians 2 answers it honestly: without Christ, none of us is enough. Dead in sin, separated from a holy God.

3. But God. Rich in mercy, He made us alive with Christ — by grace you've been saved. Jesus knew exactly what was coming in Gethsemane and walked into it anyway. That's how much He loves you.

4. Masterpiece, not accident. The Greek word for "workmanship" is poiēma — masterpiece. Purpose comes from the Creator, not from anyone else. Psalm 139: you were knitted together, and your days were written before one of them existed.

5. Saved for, not by. You're not saved by your good works — you can't do enough, pray enough, or church enough. But you are saved for good works. Bring purpose to everything you do, starting today.

ession four of Eyes Up opens on a vacation fence with a squirrel on top and a cat on the ground — and the squirrel made the right call. From there it's the key word running through Psalm 119:37 that nobody's talked about yet: recognition. Before anyone turns, they have to recognize three things. That's this session.

SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 119:37 (camp verse) · Psalm 119:11, 119:105 · John 10:10 · Matthew 22:37–40 · Hebrews 12:1

BIG IDEA:
Every big turn in life starts with a recognition. Psalm 119:37 has three of them — and the last one is where most people get stuck.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Recognize the need to turn. "Give me life" is really "revive me" — bring me back from the dead. The psalmist sensed something dying in him, and the cause was staring at worthless things.

2. Recognize the need for something better. Don't turn from one worthless thing to another. John 10:10: Jesus came to give life — and not just some of it. Abundantly. Right now, and after death too.

3. Recognize the source. The verse ends "in your ways." Matthew 22 narrows that to two things: love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor. The question that makes it personal: are you doing that with your attitudes, your behaviors, and your habits?

4. Worthless doesn't always mean sinful. Hebrews 12:1 separates the two: there's sin, and then there's the weights — things that aren't wrong but still slow you down because they have zero value in God's kingdom.

Session three of Eyes Up opens with a plane crash — Eastern Airlines Flight 401 went down in the Everglades because the crew was locked in on a 20-cent light bulb. One question: where should their eyes have been? From there it's into Matthew 14, where Peter walks on water and then doesn't, and the four moves his mind made along the way: remember, obey, focus, trust. We all know what to do. This session is about the how — and the one habit underneath it all that Jesus never skipped.

SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 14:22–33 · Mark 6:51–52 · Hebrews 12:2 · James 1:6–8 · Luke 6:46 · Mark 1:35 · Matthew 26:36–46 · John 3:16 · Psalm 119:37 (camp verse)

BIG IDEA:
Forgetting comes first, then fear. Remember, obey, focus, trust — and the habit underneath all four is the one thing Jesus never skipped.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Remember. The disciples watched a miracle happen in their own hands and were terrified hours later. Forgetting comes first, then fear — and the real danger isn't going back to the junk, it's forgetting why you left it.

2. Obey. The miracle didn't happen in the boat. God's commands aren't rules to cage you — they're guardrails to keep you from getting hurt.

3. Focus. Nothing about the storm changed. The only thing that changed was where Peter's eyes were.

4. Trust. Doubt is being pulled in two directions. A divided heart sinks — but Peter's cry for help was itself faith.

5. The how. Jesus treated time alone with the Father as the most important thing He could do. You can't remember, obey, focus on, or trust someone you don't spend time with.