Wake Up, Look Up

[Applause]

[Music]

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we are

telling ourselves to let Nike show us

the future now what do I mean by that

well you might have seen this in the

news recently but Nike just hired a new

CEO and what makes the hire so

compelling is that Elliot Hill the new

CEO actually started at Nike in

1988 as a 6mon intern that's right he

began his role as a company as an intern

in fact it's a funny story he thought he

was getting an actual job and didn't

know until he had actually moved to

Tennessee that it was just a six-month

uh internship he worked his entire

career at Nike over 32 years and retired

as a highlevel executive only to then

later be rehired by the company as their

chief executive officer from intern to

CEO and this by the way is not as rare

as you might think companies like

Walmart General Motors and sap all are

currently led by CEO who at one time

began either as an intern or low-level

associate in their company each one of

them is a story a testament to the fact

that a person's hard work can actually

take them from the lowest level of an

organization to the highest level and

let me just say this that I this is one

of the things I love most about America

the idea of our country is that a person

works really hard they should be able to

better themselves these stories are

incredibly rewarding because they're

they show that that is still reality at

least in some pockets of our country

very very encouraging maybe especially

to me as a father of teenagers to to say

to them work hard wherever you find

yourself and who knows what will happen

but these stories are also reminders to

us of something that God takes very

seriously in the church and that is to

see the value of young people uh time

and time again the Bible affirms the

value of young people but the way I love

that it does it most is in the Pastoral

Epistles I mean God writes the New

Testament uh the the manual for how to

think about the church in in the church

age after the resurrection of Jesus and

it's fascinating to me that God

dedicates three of those books first and

2 Timothy and then Titus to Paul

developing young leaders and they're

full of helpful things in a lot of ways

but their macr level contribution is to

show us that God takes very seriously

the work of one generation valuing and

raising up the next so much so that

three of the New Testament books are

dedicated to showing us how to do that

and that's so important because I think

each generation has this kind of

inherent sneering towards the

generations that come after it I I'm I'm

now over 40 and I feel it as I Look

Backwards that the generations behind me

just don't get it they don't work hard

enough they don't they don't think

through things the right way but the

Bible challenges that it calls me to see

the value that they bring and to invest

in them so that whatever shortcomings

they might have now can be developed for

the sake of the church and the gospel

moving forward these stories probably

also resonate with me because as many as

you know I've been in a growing process

I'm I'm being trained for an eventual

job in which an older guy my boss Joe

coffee is speaking into my life and I

have found it so helpful and so

rewarding so with all this in mind I

want to offer three kind of pastoral

challenges to you in thinking about

developing the Next Generation the first

is to check your heart where are you

with young people do you see their

strengths or their weaknesses their

value or do you see them as an obstacle

is your heart for young people reflected

of God's heart if it isn't I just want

to encourage you to seek repentance to

never devalue what God finds valuable

instead ask God what is it you see in

them God what is it you're wanting to do

show me some glimpses of positivity so

that I can get excited in the way that

you are excited second find a way to

contribute to them by the way it doesn't

just have to be in the church find

someone in your company a young person

that you can Inspire m motivate that you

can affirm and find Value in take them

to lunch and pay for it bring them

coffee ask them if they you can be

helpful in any way I think what you'll

find is if you make yourself accessible

to young people they'll often blow you

away with how hungry they are to learn

from you and in so doing will inspire

confidence in you that maybe their

generation isn't so off and then third

find ways to give opportunity to the

generation to come

it's interesting to me passing on

opportunity to Generations after us

always comes at a cost to our own

generation it always means giving up

something that we like doing or giving

up some Authority that we took time to

build but the reality is there's no

training like on the job training find

ways in the Ministries in which you work

in the place in which you work even in

the context of your own family to bring

someone along with you to give them

opportunity even at the expense of

yourself and to live through the

messiness of them learning on the job to

do it the result of that is increasingly

feeling like your company your church

your family is in good hands I hope that

God wants to do something in generations

to come that is even bigger and better

than what he has done and is doing in my

own generation but more than hoping for

that it's God's call on our lives to get

involved in the gener ations to come to

ensure they get there find God's heart

for young people you never know the

person you're getting coffee with might

just be the next CEO of Nike hey thanks

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