4th - 6th Grades

Our speaker today is Braxton Brady.

We are wrapping up this month talking about being a Heart Patient. For my birthday, you guys created three different wordless that gave words that describe me and that meant a lot to me. My wife had a bunch of men I have respect for write me letters. I got one from my dad, the football coach at Memphis, and guys that I look up to in my Christian faith. I was reading those on my birthday and I was fine until I got two letters…these aren’t on the nicest paper and the handwriting is ok, but these are two handwritten letters from two University of Memphis football players. These two mean the most to me. One because they are handwritten and two because they are college football players. I got emotional reading these. As I read these, I thought about two things. Both of these letters talk about things about being a Heart Patient (giving our life up for Jesus.)

One is they are both thankful. They are both thankful for me being in their life. I am not saying that to brag but I am saying that because that is how we should be with Jesus. Sometimes in our lives we aren’t really thankful. We are in a really good place and if you forget you are in a good place, we could jog or walk a few minutes and you’d be reminded how good of a place we are in for our lives. Sometimes we forget what Jesus did for us. A Heart Patient is always thankful for who Jesus is and what He has done. What does that look like? We are thankful for the air we breathe, for a ride to school, for our family, for our teachers.

The second thing about these guys writing these letters is that there is no benefit to these guys writing these. I won’t treat them differently. They wrote them because they wanted to write them. I think a lot of times we do things because we think we will get a benefit. We pick up paper because we want to get noticed. We are nice to others because we want to get noticed. The guys I respect the most are guys that do things and don’t expect to be noticed.

All colleges have spring games. After the spring game, the locker room was trashed. Tape was everywhere, trash was everywhere…and I saw one guy in the locker room and he was cleaning up and getting bags people left and taking them to the bus. He is the best guy on the team. He will be in the NFL one day. He wasn’t doing it to be recognized, he was doing it just to do it. There was no benefit to him doing that, he did it because it was the right thing to do. When we give up control to Jesus, we do it because it’s the right thing to do, we do it because God calls us to do it. God did something for us that we didn’t deserve. When you really understand that, you go serve and do things for others with no benefit for you at all. You live your life thankful for who Jesus is and what He has done and you go live your life knowing it’s not about you. You live for God’s glory and not your own.

I will never lose those letters. I love them. Those two letters are a reminder to me that every day I wake up I need to be thankful for Jesus and what He has done. It also reminds me to serve others without expecting anything in return. That is what being a Heart Patient is all about.

1st - 3rd Grade

Our speaker today is Braxton Brady.

Without talking, raise your hand if you ever played a game on your mom or dad’s phone. Most of the time when I am driving in my car, one of my kids has my phone and is playing a game.

As some of you know, I just had a birthday. My wife took me on a little trip. My friend, Mrs. Brock, showed us a game on her phone. Basically, you think about any famous person and the phone starts asking you questions. In about 20 questions, it gets the right answer almost every single time. We started making up people like the Kool-Aid man, Disney person, and this app guessed it every single time. We played the game for about an hour. We laughed every time. It was kind of addicting because we wanted to stump it.

As I think about that, I thought about the Heart Patient and what it means to give up control of our lives. God asks us to think about our lives and asks questions of us so we can figure out how to live for Him.

The title of this passage is The Marks of a True Christian. It could also be called the Marks of a Heart Patient. Romans 12:9-21 says this:

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.


That is like the app on the phone.

God is asking questions about our own life. We have to ask ourselves, “Do we get along with everyone?” The people we don’t get along with, do we try to get along with them? The needy in our city-do we try to help them?

All of these are things that help you give up control of your life to Jesus.

I got a couple of presents for my birthday. One is a Nike Fuel band. It tracks how active or how lazy I am. When I push this button it gives me the time, how active I am, how many calories I have burned, how many steps I have taken…all throughout the day. When I want to know how active or lazy I have been, I click it and it tells me.

God gives us His word, the Bible, and close friends to tell us how to live for Him. The best thing that could happen is you could tell a classmate how to live for God’s glory. You could encourage a classmate having the wrong behavior to live for God’s glory. Encourage each other. That is what I want.

My favorite present was a video of Kevin (the boy from Honduras) telling me happy birthday. Somehow my amazing wife was able to get someone to video him for me. As I sat there and listened to him and saw him smile at me, it made me think there are people in your class, in our city, in our world, that need you to smile at them today. Somebody in your class needs you to encourage them today. Someone at your house needs you to encourage them today. God gives us His Word so we can check ourselves. He gives us friends to encourage us and keep us accountable.

When we are more concerned with others than ourselves, that is what God wants us to do with our lives.

4th - 6th Grades

Our speaker today is Braxton Brady.

It’s called Sky Hanging. What is it? These young guys decide they will hang on high buildings or bridges and they hang only by their hands and someone takes a picture of them. They go higher and higher and are several hundred or thousand feet in the air and are hanging by their hands or even more dangerous, their feet. It shows really how crazy they are. As I saw the pictures, it freaked me out a little because they are really just hanging on by their fingers and their toes. As I was thinking of these guys trying to outdo one another, I thought about being a Heart Patient. The line for Heart Patient is “Give up control.” A Heart Patient gives up control of his life. It has a lot to do with sky hanging because guys willing to give up control of their life look crazy. The fact that you would give up control of your life and live for God’s glory and not your own is crazy. The decision you have to make is, what are you really going to live for? I was talking to a guy Thursday night that needed my help. He is one of the best athletes I have seen come through the University of Memphis. He is fast. This guy has some problems. His essential problem is he wants to control his life. We talked about it late Thursday night. He wasn’t willing to give up control of his life. It was crazy to him for me to suggest that he give up control and live for God’s glory and not his own. As crazy as the sky hangers are, it is even crazier for guys your age to say you will live differently because of what Jesus did for me. It’s crazy to say you won’t talk about someone or pick on them because it’s not nice. Here’s the deal…that is the exact kind of life God wants you to live because that is the life Jesus lived for us. He died for us. He spent time with people that no one wanted to be around. He did it because God was calling him to do that. Your mission in life needs to be that you are no longer in control and live for God’s glory because of what Jesus did for you. What I want to see all around this school is a crazy school…guys behaving in such a way and living in such a way that God is being glorified so that when visitors and parents and teachers walk around, they can’t believe it. I had someone tell me last night about 4-6 grades at PDS and she said that she has heard that there is hardly any trouble with bullying in 4-6 grade. I told her that was right and we finally had a group of boys that are realizing it is never ok to pick on anyone. That is a compliment to you that you are on the right path to what a Heart Patient should do. I want to take it a step further. Fill the hallways with encouraging and loving comments. Stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. Make a decision to live for God’s glory and not your own.

When you think about those crazy fools hanging upside down high in the air, think about if you will live for God’s glory and not your own.

Think about one thing: Am I going to live my life differently today? After I pray, I want you to walk to your room on silence thinking about that…am I going to life my life differently today?

1st - 6th Grades

Our speaker today is Chris Brock. He is Caleb Brock’s dad and Cindy Brock’s husband. He works at Hilton and works with the youth at Heartsong Church. He also went on the Father/Son trip to Honduras.

To start off, I want to say there is my boy, Caleb. Be nice to Caleb because I’m his dad and I’m kinda weird and a little crazy and you all know his mom, Mrs. Brock, and she is more weird and crazy that I am.

I am honored to be here with you. I teach youth a lot and this is my first time with kids. I normally like to share about sports and funny stories, but today we are talking about Heart Patient, so I think God wanted me to get a little more personal with you guys. A couple of months ago, I was having some pain and I went to the emergency room. We thought I had a kidney stone but they ran tests and they found out I have a 5 cm tumor in my kidney and the doctor told me it was cancer from the way it looks. When we heard that, Mrs. Brock and my mom were a little freaked out, but I was kind of calm. The next morning, we went to see a doctor. It was rainy, foggy, and dreary. It was a long drive and we were not talking a lot in the car. The radio was on but I couldn’t tell you what song was on…I was kind of zoned out. Things were happening around me but I was just looking out the window thinking to myself and stuff was running through my mind. It was a lot of fear. I was thinking about my family and me and how this was going to affect me. I was scared and nervous.  God is so cool because all of a sudden, I heard this line from the song that was playing.

“Settle down, it will all be clear….don’t pay no mind to the demons they fill you with fear. The trouble it might drag you down, if you get lost, you can always be found…just know you’re not alone, I’m gonna make this place your home.”

I thought Cindy had turned up the radio, but she didn’t.

I was not focused on God at that point, I was focused on me and my family and fear. The first line says “settle down” and when anyone in my family gets upset, I always say settle down. God was telling me to settle down. He was telling me it will be fine, I am in control of this situation. The next line about don’t pay no mind to the demons and that is what I was doing…I was letting fear control me.

I started tearing up and crying a little bit. Anyone that tells you that it’s not cool to cry, obviously they have never seen Rudy. It’s ok to cry sometimes. It’s ok to get emotional. I wasn’t crying then because I was afraid or because I have cancer or because I might lose half or all my kidney. The reason I was emotional is because there is a God that I love that I follow that loves me so much that He sent his son to die on a cross for me. In Ephesians 2:8, he gives grace and forgiveness that we can’t earn. He loves us so much that He will never leave us or forsake us.

When we go through good times or bad times, always know that God is always there. Sometimes we try to control things ourselves…but God wants us to give that to Him.

It could be that you are having a tough time in school, your parents are getting divorce, or someone close to you died, but understand that there is a God that loves you so much that He is just waiting for us to come to Him.

I love the Chris Tomlin song about God of Angels’ Armies…just think, the same God who is over angels’ armies is the same God who is always beside us in good times and bad. He is waiting for us to trust in Him. He will give you peace.

I have surgery coming up and I haven’t been worried at all. I couldn’t get to this point unless God is there with me.

1st - 3rd Grade

Our speaker today is Braxton Brady.

Hope you all had a great Spring Break, guys.

We are talking about being a Bold Adventurer and I want to tell you a story I heard this weekend. Everyone knows over Christmas we had a young man from Honduras named Kevin stay with us. The people who run the orphanage where he lives told us this story. At the orphanage, every boy and girl have to wash their own clothes. They are all about your age, some older and some younger.  We found out that after Kevin got back from living with us in December, he never wanted to wash his own clothes because my wife washed his clothes.

When we talk about being a bold adventurer for Jesus there are things we may have to do that we don’t want to do. Like if someone drops a piece of trash and it isn’t your fault, the right thing to do is pick it up and throw it away without saying a word. We want to tell our friend to pick it up or ignore it.

Jesus didn’t have to come to the earth and live a perfect life and die a bad death on the cross, but He did because He loves us so much.

Because of that, we should want to do things for others.

The boys’ orphanage has a new young man named Daniel who is 7. He was left in the streets by his mom when he was 20 days old. He is very small and malnourished. Daniel lives in the house home. Kevin is 6, but he is a big dude and is well fed and he likes to eat. Kevin has now decided that he is going to get Daniel to do his laundry for him. He told Daniel that if he didn’t do it, he would tell the people in charge to get Daniel in trouble. Daniel started doing Kevin’s laundry. One of the house home parents learned what happened. Daniel told them Kevin was making him do his laundry.

That is one thing I never want to happen at PDS. Bold Adventurers for Jesus never pick on somebody else and force them to do something we want them to do. We should love, encourage, and serve others. Jesus says love your neighbor as yourself.

I don’t want to be picked on, so I don’t want to pick on someone else.

Include people at lunch or recess because that is what Jesus would do.

Kevin didn’t want to do his laundry, then he got someone else to do his laundry, and finally, the last part of the story was that his laundry is gone. Kevin would stick his dirty underwear and socks in his pillowcase and sleep on it. He didn’t want to do it, he forced someone else to do it, then he was just hiding it. Why do I tell you that? I tell you that because of this…Bold Adventurers for Jesus are honest even if that means you have to get in trouble, or even if it makes your life a little more difficult.

We all have sin in our lives and do bad things. Jesus wants us to be honest. When you understand that you and I mess up every day, it makes Jesus that much more incredible because Jesus died for our mess ups. When we don’t treat our parents right, when we aren’t nice to our friends, and other times we mess up...Jesus died for that.

1.     We do the right thing even when it’s tough because that is what Jesus did.

2.     We treat others with love and respect because Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves.

3.     We realize that we all mess up but that makes us love Jesus that much more because He died for our sins.

We need to live for Jesus every single day.

When I get to Honduras in May, we are going to have a little talk so I can straighten out the laundry thing.  Please remember the three points and live for Jesus every day!