Missed Opportunities (2025) Movie Script
(inmates chattering indistinctly)
Officer?
(tense music)
(Gary speaking in warped speech)
We got the socks.
Ho-ho-ho!
What?
(tense music)
(audience applauding)
The nurse will be in to
see you in a minute, okay?
[Patient] Okay.
(tense music)
Dr. Robertson, the police are here.
For what?
I don't know.
(tense music)
(car humming)
(siren wailing)
(tense music continues)
Let's go. Somebody's post your bail.
You go right this way.
The time is nigh.
Sinners, gamblers, you're going to hell.
Repent of your sins.
You're going to hell.
The time is nigh.
He is coming back.
Repent, repent, repent!
(locker clattering)
I'm not even in the frame. (Chuckling)
See, it's blurry. Do it again, do it again.
(laughing) No, wait,
you're doing it wrong. Wait.
- It's not even on focus.
- You want me to take
that for you?
We're good. Thanks.
- Oh, okay.
- Thanks.
Well, hey, so today after the game,
my youth group is having
like a little pizza party.
And it's called Fifth Quarter,
'cause, you know, it's after the game.
But anyway, they're
having this competition.
Whoever brings the most
of their friends wins
like a car or something.
Just kidding.
But anyway, there's pizza, fun, games.
They're gonna open up the gym.
You should come.
After the game we go
hang out with the players.
Yeah, plus it's gonna be raining
and we already have plans.
Yeah, I have a piano lesson.
(Rachel and Lena laughing)
Okay, well, that's cool.
I just, I thought I'd ask.
She's never gonna stop asking, is she?
- I am not going. No way.
- Me neither.
(bell ringing)
Did the bell ring?
- Ah.
- Let's go.
(man humming)
(neighbors shouting indistinctly)
[Woman] I'm sorry.
(man shouting indistinctly)
(tense music)
(door thudding)
Hello!
(door thudding)
Heather!
Hey Gary.
What are you, what are you doing here?
Like, we heard you got out.
Heather asked me to come by
just to make sure everything's okay.
Okay, what, what are you doing
in my house with my wife?
Heather, what is going on here?
Please, just leave.
Leave? Where am I supposed to go?
She filed a restraining
order against you.
You're not allowed to be here.
Wait, a restraining order.
Why would you do that?
- Where is my daughter?
- She's not here.
She's not here. Just leave.
[Gary] I wanna see my daughter.
[Heather] I already called
- the cops, Gary.
- Keep your hands off me.
Don't you touch me.
It's not me... It's not you?
No, the best thing,
it's between you guys.
Locked inside my house?
The best thing for you
is to go away right now.
Where am I supposed to go?
Get out.
Why are you doing this to me?
Why are you doing this, Heather?
Where am I supposed to go?
I have no credit cards.
(tense music)
Hey, how can I help you?
I'd like to get a room.
Sure, sure. I just need an ID please.
(gentle music)
Perfect, perfect.
Sorry, Mr. Robertson, this is
saying your card has declined.
Do you have another you'd like to use?
(gentle music)
- No, this one.
- Thank you.
(gentle music)
Sorry, this one has also declined.
Can I see a manager?
Sorry. There's not one here right now.
What am I, what am I supposed to do?
Sorry.
(gentle music)
(door whirring)
(piano keys resonating)
Rachel, please stop.
(piano keys continue resonating)
Rachel, stop!
I'm so bored.
The rain ruins everything.
Well, what do you wanna do?
We could watch a movie.
I could teach you that piano
song a lot better than that.
We could play a board game.
What about that church thing?
- Church thing?
- Yeah. What's it called?
Fifth Quarter.
Don't you need a Bible?
(snickers) Yeah, I don't have a Bible.
Me neither.
Yeah.
(gentle music)
You know, it's gotta be better than this.
Is it?
Lena? Lena?
(gentle music)
Christmas, Christmas carols
Christmas time
It's Christmas time
Christmas carols
Christmas time
(Gary sighing)
It's Christmas time
Hey.
You don't like Christmas music?
Not, not particularly, no.
You know who has the
best Christmas music?
The Grand Ole Opry.
You ever been there?
No.
Okay. There's this kid, right?
Greatest truck driver around, right?
He wants to be a singer.
So he goes out, he
starts singing everywhere,
gets very popular.
Guess who that is?
Elvis Presley. Right?
He could have been the best
truck driver who's ever lived.
Eh? Talk about a missed opportunity.
That's, that's funny.
Listen, man, no offense,
but I, I've had a really bad day, so,
just gonna...
(sighs) You've missed
a lot of opportunities,
haven't you, Gary?
Well, there've been a lot
of opportunities that I've taken
that I wish I hadn't, (laughs)
But, so at this point in my life,
I think I don't need any
more opportunities, you know?
So, thank you.
You know, you've
missed a lot of opportunities
and you've taken a lot of opportunities
that you shouldn't have taken.
You know, I know 'cause I was there
for every single one of those.
Yeah. How did you know my name is Gary?
[Franklin] 'Cause I'm an angel.
An angel?
Ah, I am a guardian angel.
- A guardian angel.
- I'm your guardian angel.
- Ooh.
- I know.
That's crazy.
I mean, not like just
your guardian angel.
I actually have like a whole roster
of humans I have to take care of.
And so it's, it's fun.
Okay.
And my job is to make sure
that you stop missing these opportunities.
- Your job?
- That's my job.
I reach the unreachable,
I gospel the ungospelable.
(laughs) Now I know
where I know you from.
You're, you're the street preacher
from out in front of the jail.
- That's me. Nice.
- That's you, man.
That's me. You took notice of me.
That was you.
Do you know how many
times you've heard the gospel?
I, I, I don't know. I don't know.
How many times have I heard the good news?
You've heard the good news 126 times.
Wow, that seems like a lot.
You know, the average
person takes about 75 times
of hearing the gospel
before they actually listen to it.
It's, (sighs).
Gary, well, I'm gonna give
you an opportunity, Gary.
Jesus said, "My sheep
hear me and they follow."
Follow me, Gary.
Wait a minute. Whoa. Wait. Whoa, whoa.
Are, are you saying I'm a sheep?
Because I had a buddy
who was in Afghanistan and...
(gentle music)
(door creaking)
(gentle music continues)
It's been raining all day.
Oh, excuse me.
Hi, how are you?
- Hi.
- Welcome.
Oh, you were at the game, weren't you?
- Yeah.
- Got rained out.
Sorry about that.
But we're glad you're here though,
so you can leave your umbrella here.
Come on in.
Hey guys.
Oh, you know, Madison.
Well, you're in good hands then.
Okay, so it turns out
they got pizza and wings.
So come on. I'll go show you.
(gentle music)
(gentle music continues)
(Gary and angel whooshing)
(gentle music continues)
Wait, that's my parents.
Yeah. Yeah.
Who are you?
Oh, well, that last guy
was just your warmup angel.
I'm moving you up to the next level.
[Gary] What's going on?
Well, that's you.
You were what, like a year old here?
You're getting baptized.
Oh, you're so cute.
(laughs) Yeah.
Oh, well, I, I, I know what this is.
This is kind of one of those things
where you take me back in
time, like a Christmas carol,
like Marley and Scrooge?
Well, sort of, but I'm not a ghost.
Right, right, you're an angel,
which means I'm dreaming.
Okay, no, this is fine. I can do this.
Look, there is he. There
I am getting baptized.
Phew, straight shot to heaven.
I am Heaven bound.
Well, just because you're baptized
doesn't necessarily mean
you're Heaven bound.
I mean, baptism is, well,
it's more like a symbolic act,
a significant sacrament for sure.
I mean, it was from the day forward,
you became a member of the church.
And well, all of your original
sins were washed away.
Wait, wait, wait, original sin?
Well, you know, Adam
and Eve, the fall of man,
that sort of thing.
But being just a baby, it was all grace.
Wait, Grace, that's my daughter's name.
Yes, I know that,
but this is a different kind of grace, hmm?
I was a cute little bugger, wasn't I?
- Yeah.
- Mom, dad, dang,
check your eyes.
- You got mine.
- Come on.
I lost some weight, huh?
(Gary whooshing)
Mm, I just love this place.
What are we doing here?
Oh, well, we're going
to go through your
spiritual journey book, yeah.
The spiritual journey book?
Yeah. Let's see here.
Um, oh, Sunday school by age five.
That's when you really
started thinking about it, huh?
- Yeah.
- Hmm.
By age 12, you've heard the gospel.
Let's see. (Gasps) 110 times? Wow.
Oh, but then you, you just stopped going.
I don't know. We went
to church when I was a kid.
[Angel] Yeah. Hmm. Interesting.
What happened?
Nothing happened.
We just, I don't know,
we just stopped going.
Hmm.
Was it the divorce?
Look, my mom loved going to church,
my dad, not so much.
So I, you know, I spent
most weekends with my dad.
Hmm.
Oh, and it looks like you went
to several Christmas services.
Oh, and eight Easter services.
Does that sound about right?
- No idea.
- Yeah.
Oh, and then you started,
oh, yes, you were listening
to those old time radio
gospel preachers, yeah.
I remember "Unshackled," huh?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
That's good stuff.
But then you were, you know,
watching a bunch of TV preachers, right?
Wait, so you have a
record of what I watched?
[Angel] Oh, we have
a record of everything.
Is my, is my browser
history in there, or?
Mm-hm.
Oh, that seems to,
well, that's about the time.
You know?
What, the addiction stuff.
Yes. Yes. Yeah.
- Hmm.
- Yeah.
So, I mean, you know,
I started staying up late
watching these, you know,
crazy preachers, you know,
I found 'em entertaining.
Well, you know, some
would say you were looking
for something, huh?
Like what?
Oh, wait, wait. Let me guess, God.
- Oh, maybe.
- I was looking
- for God, right?
- Yes.
Or quick get rich scheme. (Laughs)
Let me get, hold on.
But I have to accept Him though, right?
Okay. Okay. Here we go. Here, here.
Hey, God, here I am,
Gary Robertson, lowly pleb.
I accept you, God, into my,
into my heart and into my head
and my arm and my left butt cheek, okay?
[Angel] Sit, sit, sit.
- We're alone.
- Sit down.
[Angel] Are we?
Mm, (chuckles) you got me on that one.
Okay. So, oh, you sent
Grace to camp for winter break?
Yeah. No, no. I don't know.
Hmm, your wife sent Grace
to camp for winter break.
- No.
- Yes, she did.
No, look, lady, if my
wife sent my daughter
to some like Jesus camp,
I would know about it.
Really? Would you?
(gentle music)
(neighbors shouting indistinctly)
Mind your own business.
(neighbors continue shouting indistinctly)
[Preacher] So, for tonight's deposition
Hey, there's my daughter, Grace.
Hey Grace!
Remember no one can see us.
Why?
'Cause, you know, we're
We're?
Let's see what's going on here.
- Come on.
- But tonight's illustration,
we're gonna use a ticket.
The Bible teaches that in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth.
He created us in His image.
But the Bible says,
"By one man, sin entered into the world."
And now we're all born into sin.
And that sin separates us.
But God had a plan.
He sent His son Jesus
to live a perfect life,
one that we could never live.
The Bible teaches us
that He died on the cross
and He was buried.
But three days later, He rose again,
showing He had power over death and sin.
The Bible teaches, "He bought our ticket."
And as a free gift, He offers it to us
so we can spend eternity
in Heaven with Him.
There's nothing we can do to earn it.
There's nothing we can do to win it.
We simply have to accept it.
Bible says in Romans 10:9,
"If we confess the Lord
Jesus with our mouth
and believe in our heart that
God raised Him from the dead,
that we can be saved."
But we have to have a ticket.
We have to accept this gift.
Some of you may have never
asked Jesus in your heart,
and don't have a relationship with Him.
If you would like to do that tonight,
I would like to show you how.
You might pray something like this.
Dear God.
[All] Dear God.
I know I've sinned.
[All] I know I've sinned.
[Preacher] I ask you to forgive me.
[All] I ask you to forgive me.
[Preacher] And I wanna
begin a relationship with you.
[All] And I wanna begin
a relationship with you.
I pray you help me.
[All] I pray that you'll help me.
[Preacher] to follow your word.
[All] To follow your word.
[Preacher] And to obey you.
[All] To obey you.
[Preacher] Thank you for saving me.
[All] Thank you for saving me.
In Jesus name.
[All] In Jesus name.
[Preacher] Amen.
[All] Amen.
If you prayed that prayer tonight
is the biggest decision you'll ever make.
Welcome to the family.
You did it.
I did a thing?
(gentle music)
I wanna talk to you about something
that's very, very important tonight.
I'll be brief I promise.
I know you've got a
basketball tournament to get to.
(students laughing)
I wanna tell you guys how to
have a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ.
Right now it's not about going to church.
It's not about being a
good person, all right?
It's about knowing Him
personally and following Him.
All right, now, first,
it's important for you
to know that God loves you, all right?
It doesn't matter who you
are or where you come from,
or what you've done.
God made you, He knows you.
He loves you.
And He wants to have
a personal relationship
with you, all right?
Now, there's some bad news. We're sinners.
We all sin, every single one of us.
And we make mistakes.
And this sin is what keeps us
from a relationship with God.
But now there's good news.
It's called the Gospel.
Jesus came down from heaven.
He stepped out of eternity,
He stepped out of paradise
to come down here and be
a human being just like us.
For 33 years, He lived a perfect life,
spotless, blameless, not a
single mistake, not a single sin.
And then He gave
Himself up to die on a cross
to pay the price for our sins,
'cause we could never do it for ourselves.
And then three days later,
He rose from the dead.
He conquered death. He ended death forever.
And He gave us a way
that we could be forgiven,
so that we can have eternal life.
So you say, Pastor
Josh, how does this work?
Well, it says in God's word,
"If you profess with your
mouth, Jesus is Lord,
and if you believe in your heart
"that God raised Him from
the dead, you will be saved."
Now, guys, you can do this tonight.
And please, I urge you,
don't leave here tonight
without knowing Jesus,
because none of us is
guaranteed a tomorrow.
None of us.
Okay, let's pray.
Dear gracious, Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your blessings.
We thank you for
everything you've given us,
for everything you've continue to give us.
We thank you for these,
for these great kids.
And I would ask if there's
one person in this room tonight
who doesn't know you
as their personal savior,
that person would come to know you
and would call upon you
as their Lord and Savior.
We ask these things in
the precious name of Jesus.
Amen.
Amen.
Let's go play some basketball. Let's go.
(gentle music)
I hope that wasn't too preachy.
No, it was perfect
perfect.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
You wanna go?
- Yeah.
- Sure.
(Gary panting)
(tense music)
(pills rattling)
(bottle clattering)
(student chattering indistinctly)
Hey guys. Hey, hey.
Hey, Grace.
Mom didn't tell me that
you coming to get me.
No, I know.
I just wanted to take you to lunch.
Let's hit it.
- Okay.
- How was class?
[Grace] How very nice of you.
Yeah, of course, of course.
(gentle music)
So Gracie, you got any
plans for the summer?
Well, Mom is gonna get a
beach house for a week or so.
- What?
- Yeah.
Like, wow.
[Grace] You?
I mean, nothing like that, no.
I just, beach house.
Toby gonna be there?
I don't know, Dad.
I mean, that's you and Mom's thing.
That's true. That's,
you're right. You're right.
That was out of bounds.
(making a whooshing sound) 15.
That was, sorry, I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have...
Did you go to camp?
- A camp?
- Yeah, yeah.
You know, like a, like a Christmas camp.
I mean, I've never been to a camp.
I, I went to that kids' like
dance day camp thing,
but that was at the
studio and I was like eight.
You remember that, right?
Yeah, well, of course. Yeah.
Yeah, 'cause you did
the, you had the, the thing,
and so, no, I just, because of the divorce,
and I didn't know,
now I don't get to see
you as much as I'd like to.
And I didn't know if maybe for Christmas,
you know, Mom had set you away.
Sent me away? She's not the Gestapo.
Gestapo? Nein, nein (chuckling)
That means no in...
Anyway, no, I just, I didn't,
so you didn't go to a, you
know, like a Christian camp
where they have dorms and a fire pit?
- A Christian camp?
- Yeah. Yeah.
Where they preach and stuff.
No, Dad.
- No?
- No.
Do you know any Christian camps?
- Like church camps?
- Yeah.
No. I mean, when was the
last time we even went to church?
Oh, I know.
Yeah. Guilty. Guilty.
Would you ever go to one?
I mean, I might. Yeah.
Do you wanna tell me what's going on?
Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm
just, (sighs) deep breath.
Okay, I just don't want
you to think that I'm crazy.
It's just, I had this, I had a dream, okay?
And it was a camp with
the room in that fire pit.
And you were there, you were sitting,
but then you weren't there.
And then Franklin,
(laughs) I stick to that,
but he called me a sheep,
which was like, not cool.
But then we talked about Elvis,
and then we had the other one who was like,
oh, higher level.
And then she had this hat,
and there were just,
there were some really,
you know, weird people there, Grace.
And I, you know what?
Let's just, let's just enjoy
the rest of our lunch.
How about that?
Let me start, let's start over.
Mom wants to know if
you can take me home.
Home?
Yeah, yeah, I can,
yeah, I can take you home.
Okay.
Is Toby gonna be there?
- Dad.
- I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I know.
I'm so ashamed.
Check, please.
(car humming)
See you again.
Okay.
- Bye, Dad.
- Bye.
Bye.
Eeuw!
Hey! (Pastor yelping)
Huh!
(Pastor Michael chuckles)
You startled me. I, I saw God.
Sorry. That's kind of my new thing.
Oh, I was just cleaning up after mass.
You'd be surprised at
what people bring to mass.
Mass mess, I call it.
Oh, yeah.
It's a little play on.
- That's good.
- Yeah.
Thank you.
Father, can I ask you a question?
Sure.
Do you believe in angels?
I do. Do you?
Yes. No. I don't...
I dreamt about two angels.
- Two.
- But not,
like, not your typical angels.
Like one of them, his belly
was sticking out of his shirt.
- Oh.
- And then the other
had a funny hat.
Huh!
I don't think I've heard
of those kinds of angels.
- Yeah, that's...
- So.
But does your church have a camp?
Camp? You mean like, for young people?
Yeah, um, so like, is
it like a long dining room
and then a fire pit with
bleachers around it?
We don't have a camp,
but a fire, fire pit and
bleachers, it doesn't ring a bell.
Are, are you looking to go to a camp?
No, no, no, no.
I just, I just thought,
I don't know what I thought.
- Have a seat.
- Yes.
Yes. Thank you.
Sure.
So did you go to this
camp when you were a kid?
No. No. My daughter was there.
- Oh!
- No, she wasn't.
- Oh.
- I don't know.
Let me ask, can I ask you another question?
Of course.
Do you believe in dreams?
- Of course I do.
- You do?
[Pastor Michael]
Dreams are very important.
Okay.
My Bible teacher, she taught
me that dreams are the seeds
that God plants on our hearts,
that if we follow Him,
He nurtures those seeds,
helping us find purpose.
- Huh!
- Yeah.
And, and what do you know
about missed opportunities?
Missed opportunities?
Yeah, well, so my whole life,
I've basically just walked
past churches, right?
I've ignored prayers and pushed away anyone
that tried to help me
have a relationship with,
you know, with, yeah, with
Hey, we've all walked past Christ.
Churches, we get distracted.
We doubt, we sin.
Here's the amazing part. (Laughs)
He never stops calling.
Like in a dream?
Yeah, sure.
Okay, do you think you
can be saved in a dream?
Oh, I think God only knows that.
I got saved in a dream.
- You did.
- I did.
[Pastor Michael] That's great.
I got baptized at this church.
- Really?
- Yeah.
Gosh, that would've been before my time.
I'm sorry, I don't remember,
but God surely does.
Well.
So everyone tells me that, you know,
God still loves me and I don't,
'cause I've messed up pretty big,
and I've messed up a lot of stuff.
Here's the thing, he
never stopped loving.
When you got baptized there,
that sealed you as his own.
But see, that's just the beginning.
Salvation is a journey.
We have to grow in faith,
keep receiving the sacrament,
and return to God when we fail.
Have you ever heard of
the tale of the Prodigal Son?
Oh, yes. Yeah.
It's the, the story about
the kid that runs away.
And then he wastes everything
and then comes crawling back to his dad
and his dad, you know,
nestles him to his bosom.
And yeah, no, I never understood all that.
That is because you
see yourself as the son
who wasted everything.
You're missing the heart of the story.
The father never stopped loving.
He runs to him.
He embraced him. He celebrates his return.
I just, I don't, I don't
know how to start over.
Mm.
Why don't you start with those dreams?
God gave them to you and only you.
I like that.
- That's pretty good.
- I think I like that.
[Pastor Michael] I have my moments.
Yeah. Wow. Okay.
Thank you, Father.
But, but, but no camps?
No.
Yes. Yes. I do know
of a camp with a fire pit.
I mean, it did, it, um,
Camp Faith, yes.
Lord, it's in the middle of nowhere.
It's way out Route 30.
I don't even think they're open anymore.
The guy who ran it passed away.
But it's got a fire pit.
It did.
Thank you, Father.
Yeah.
Hey, you don't want to
help me pick up the rest of
[Gary] No, you got your own mass mess.
(laughing) Okay.
[Teacher] Okay. Are you ready?
- Yes.
- Si.
- Okay. One.
- One.
- Uno.
- Uno.
Louder please.
- Two.
- Two.
- Dos.
- Dos.
- Three.
- Three.
- Tres.
- Tres.
I'm afraid I have some sad news.
This morning on her way here to school,
Madison Medrick was in a car accident.
When the paramedics arrived,
sorry, when the paramedics
arrived, she was already gone.
Now, we're gonna suspend
classes for the rest of the day.
We brought in several grief counselors
and even a few local
pastors to help you all,
to help us all deal with our grief.
Madison was a great student
and a role model to many of you.
She'll be greatly missed.
I'm so sorry.
(gentle music)
- Hey.
- Oh.
- Hi.
- Oh, hi.
Can I help you?
Yes. I mean, I hope so. I don't know.
I, hello.
Yeah, I, I, I had a dream last night
and I was here.
Here?
Well, no, not exactly right here.
We were actually standing
over there, the two of us,
and I'm pretty sure we were invisible.
So, yeah, that sounds a little crazy.
So, (imitating a buzzer)
let me rewind a little bit.
Okay, so, like I said, I
had a dream last night.
I was here. I got saved by Christ, okay.
And then my daughter
was sitting like right there,
but she wasn't really here, so
she doesn't really remember.
But then the preacher was
talking about going to the movies,
and I love the movies.
It's like one of my favorite things.
And he said, "You had your ticket,"
And I was like, "Whoa, whoa, preacher man,
you know, hands up over here.
What about my ticket?"
And then all of a sudden, bam,
I get a ticket and I am
standing in this exact spot.
Okay.
Yeah. That's great.
So we went to the movies?
No, no, we just talked
about going to the movies.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
What did you say your name was again?
Oh, I'm sorry. It's,
it's, it's Gary Robertson.
- Jordan.
- Jordan. Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
So this is it, huh?
This is what?
This is the camp.
Oh, well, yeah.
My, my father started this
place about 20 years ago,
but yeah, he recently passed away.
I'm sorry. Yeah, I heard.
[Jordan] Oh.
It's... Thank you.
Yeah. So no camp?
No camp.
Now the bank's making me,
forcing me to sell the place.
Well, what about the
missed opportunities?
- Missed opportunities?
- Yeah.
People are gonna miss
out on the opportunity
to have a relationship with Christ.
Like, like I said, I, I had this dream.
It was last night, right?
I was here and there were a bunch of kids,
and they all got saved.
Yeah, I mean, that
does happen here a lot.
And you got saved here too, yeah?
Yeah. Yeah, I did.
That's it. That's it.
(laughing) Oh, that's
why they brought me here.
That's why they brought me here.
Oh, I'm sorry.
There was a dude, his name's
Franklin, and he was cool.
He called me a sheep.
And I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, I'm not a sheep,
whatever you say."
But then we started talking
about Elvis, which was cool.
And I like Elvis.
His little tummy was
peeking out of his T-shirt.
And I was like, "Dude,
you need to hit the gym."
I didn't say that to him.
But then the other one, the girl,
she was like, "I'm next level."
She had a, don't say anything,
but she had like a funny hat.
And, yeah, they were angels.
Angels?
Yeah.
(gentle music)
I'm gonna buy it.
You're gonna buy what?
The camp.
You wanna buy this camp?
I'm gonna buy the camp,
but you have to run it.
Mr. Robertson, was it?
Oh, well, just call me Gary.
Gary. Yeah, I don't do camp.
This was my dad's thing.
I'm really just here
to clean up a little bit.
So what? You just wanna close it?
No, I don't want to, but I
Let me ask you a question.
And this can be an estimate.
So how many kids per
summer come through the camp?
Last year maybe 400.
400.400.
Okay, so of the 400, how many get saved?
A lot.
Wow. Wow.
You guys were given the opportunity
for the kids to have an opportunity.
This is my purpose.
Wait, so you wanna buy the
camp, but keep it as a camp?
Yes.
Oh, no, no, no, no. You don't understand.
This camp doesn't actually fund itself.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
It's okay. It's okay.
I'm a doctor. I mean, I was a doctor.
I mean, I just sold my practice.
I was like (imitating gulping) taking pills
and (imitating glugging) drinking a lot of,
I mean, it wasn't very pretty.
But I'm feeling a lot
better now. I'm much better.
And, and yeah, this is what I gotta do.
So what do you need to do exactly?
I need to buy this camp.
If we move the women's
conference to the morning,
then we can hold the
men's event in the evening.
How does that sound?
Okay. Well, that sounds like a plan.
Will that work for everyone?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Okay, great.
Okay, great. Anything else?
Fantastic meeting. Thank you all.
- Okay.
- Okay.
Um, yes, Eugene?
I was wondering if we could have a word.
Sure.
I didn't wanna say anything,
but the others wanted me to.
Then why aren't they all here?
Well, your sermon the other day,
it was a bit harsh.
Harsh? Oh.
Well, I'm sorry. I didn't
mean to upset anyone.
When you said that if
you don't accept Christ
as your savior, you go to hell.
Oh, the Bible says that.
- I mean, does it really?
- Yeah, it does.
Okay, well, as you know, the pendulum
for determining salvation
swings pretty broadly.
I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Over here you have
the sacraments, baptism,
church involvement, and helping the needy.
Those are all very important.
Yeah, as you said,
they preach to the pathway to salvation.
I just think you need to
preach more of the path.
Oh.
Just for context,
what does the other side
of the pendulum look like?
I'm glad you asked
because that's the problem,
'cause over here you have
nothing but fire and brimstone
and eternal damnation.
These are all negative words.
Negative. You don't believe in hell?
I do, but I don't believe the people
of this church are gonna go to hell.
Look, all I'm asking is that
you tone down the rhetoric
of your message.
Make it a little more, I
don't know, palatable.
Palatable?
Yeah. Pray about it.
Will you promise me you'll pray about it?
I promise you.
Okay. Thank you, Father. I appreciate it.
And I'm glad we could clear this up.
Me too.
Palatable.
Well, I know what my next
message is going to be.
(phone buzzing)
Yeah. Hello?
Yes, this is he.
(somber music)
I'm sorry, can you say that again?
(somber music continues)
How do you...
Are you sure it's her?
(somber music continues)
(somber music continues)
(keyboard clicking)
(notification tone chiming)
Hi from Tey.
I'll be, I guess Gary found his camp.
(upbeat music)
[Man] Come on, come on!
- Shut up.
- You're hurting me.
(neighbors arguing indistinctly)
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music continues)
(upbeat music continues)
Hey, thank you so
much for all of your help.
It's been really great having you here.
Yeah, it's, it's been really fun.
Good.
Your dad's quite the
character, huh? (Laughs)
Yeah, he's full of surprises.
So I was wondering if your dad
can actually get some campers here,
would you be interested
in staying on to help out?
Well, I mean, there's
a lot going on right now
with my dad and this
No, I understand. It's okay.
(fire crackling)
You know, when I was
younger, I used to sit right here
and listen to my dad preach.
Man, could he give a sermon!
He was just so...
I really miss him.
And one night we were here
and it seemed like any other night,
but I don't know, something
just changed, you know?
The, the message just
really resonated with me.
And I decided right then and there
that I would accept Jesus
as my Lord and Savior.
Actually I was about your age.
Biggest decision of my life.
I don't, I don't really
know what that means.
Oh, okay.
I guess for me, it just
means that the creator
of the world steps out of Heaven
and enters your heart to
walk the Earth with you.
(fire crackling)
Is that what happened with my dad?
Yeah. Yeah. I think so.
I want that to happen for me too.
(Gary howling)
Girls. (Laughs) Woo. Guess what?
- What?
- Come on.
Guess, guess, guess.
Can guess? Can you guess?
Suspense is killing me.
I got the phone call. We got campers.
(all cheering)
- We got, your serious?
- Oh yeah, yeah.
- Multiple campers.
- Not just like one camper.
We got campers.
We did it.
- We did it.
- We have campers.
We did it.
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Throw another log on the bobby. (Laughs)
Let's celebrate.
(gentle music)
No question is more
central to our time than this,
what is the gospel?
Translated, it means the good news.
Folks, God has put this heavy upon my heart
that we must reaffirm the
gospel as our central message.
And we should not debate this
for it is so simple that
little children can believe it,
yet it is so profound
that the greatest scholars
have been pondering it
for 2000 years.
Yet the message is the same: God loves you.
God sent His son to die for you.
And those that believe this message
will be saved from an eternal hell.
The gospel, like it or not,
is the difference between life and death.
This is the power of the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
Nothing compares to it.
For it is in the gospel
that we find Jesus Christ.
So let's be that gospel in our daily lives,
to our friends, our
family, and our neighbors.
It's good to see you again.
(Eugene clearing throat)
Oh, Eugene.
I see you didn't take my advice.
I did.
Well, you preached the exact opposite
of what I asked you to do.
Did you even pray about it?
I did.
I prayed to God. I told Him what you said.
I said, "God, this is
heavy on Eugene's heart,"
and God said, "Eugene who?"
(door thudding)
[Man] Man, what do you want now?
I, I want you to leave.
I want you to stop hurting
people in this house.
And if you don't
[Man] And if I don't,
what's you gonna do about it?
I'll call the police.
I'll tell them everything I know.
I hear your little drug
deal phone calls outside.
I have 'em all documented.
Are you really gonna
get the cops involved?
I know about the store
that you sell out of on Elm.
The dealer in Miami you owe money to.
He's looking for you, isn't he? Roberto?
Don't do it. I'll call him.
(tense music)
- They're not coming.
- They're coming.
They said they were
gonna be here at noon.
(Jordan speaking indistinctly)
No, no, no, this is just my,
and I'm serious.
[Jordan] They'll be here soon.
Wait. Whoa, whoa. (Laughs and cheers )
Come here.
Hello, hello.
I'm sorry for late.
(cheering) Let's go. Lets go.
- Hi, Jordan.
- Oh my gosh.
Come on in.
Come on in.
What? Whatevs! Whatevs!
- Gimme some, gimme some.
- Welcome.
- Gimme some.
- Welcome! Welcome.
Gimme some.
Boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom.
Yes. Let's go. Let's go.
All the way
- to the back, guys.
- You got your bag, buddy?
You got it? All right.
Are you good? Here we go.
Come on in. Gimme five.
- Okay.
- Here we go.
[Jordan] Oh boy.
All right, there we go. There we go.
High five. High five. High five.
Thank you.
Amazing.
Welcome.
I knew this was gonna work out.
(gentle music)
(gentle music continues)
(children clamoring)
(gentle music continues)
(door thudding)
(gentle music continues)
And so, you know, like Jesus was like,
"That's not cool," you know?
And like, His beard, He
had a beard, you know,
which is cool 'cause I
can't really grow mine out,
but Jesus could, man.
That was cool.
Singing in the chapel, Lord, Kumbaya
And in the Bible, huh?
Yeah, the Bible says in, in Genesis,
which was a great band, by the way,
yeah, a guy by,
Phil Collins, the great drummer.
Anyway, in Genesis it says,
Singing in the chapel, Lord, Kumbaya
Thank you. Thank you.
Is it okay, is it
Yeah. Thanks.
Okay. Hi.
- Thanks.
- Thanks.
(children applauding) Thanks, Jesus. Jesus.
What I wanna know is,
who's telling the scary
story tonight at the pit fire?
- Me!
- Yeah, scary story.
Scary story?
Father!
Hey, hey, hey, there you are.
[Pastor Michael] Hey man, you did it.
What are you doing here?
(laughs) Well, I was
working on the devotion,
and I get this text from someone named Tey,
and there's a poster and
your gorgeous smiling faces on,
and I thought to myself,
I never met a celebrity in person before.
So here I am.
Great. It's great to see you.
This is my daughter, Grace.
And these are, you know,
my, my my, these are
- Campers?
- Yes.
Hi campers. I'm Father Michael.
- It's such a pleasure.
- Nice to meet you.
He's a cool dude.
It looks like you're well fed, huh?
I have one question.
Are there gonna be s'mores later?
'Cause I'll stay.
Well, maybe, maybe s'mores.
Maybe he's good enough for me.
He came into my church recently.
Boy, did he startle me.
And you should have heard him.
He was talking about angels and demons.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
No, no, I heard all about it.
Oh, okay.
(both laughing)
It's funny how God works, isn't it?
Um, God and me.
Oh, hey. Hey. Where are you going?
I'm, I'm, I'm going into,
Hey guys, I'm going,
- I'm coming in for some...
- Yeah, I know.
Maybe, maybe take a break tonight.
But you saw my
I know, I know,
and I hate for the
kids to miss out on that.
But Father Michael is here tonight.
I was thinking maybe
he could fill in for you.
Oh, oh, I, no, I don't
wanna take your, this.
No, you do it for the kids, right?
God, I'm trying to,
I'm tired of being head honcho around here.
Yeah.
Okay, sure. If you don't mind.
Hey guys, Father Michael, right here.
Let's go.
(everyone applauding and cheering)
Thank you, children.
Thank you all so much.
I am Father Michael.
I'm a Catholic priest,
a couple of towns over.
And gosh, I feel so
blessed to meet all of you
and to be here tonight.
Thank you to Jordan, the owner,
and to my new friend Gary,
for letting me speak tonight.
I hear he is a great orator and,
woo, and singer/songwriter too.
Man of many talents. I was not aware.
So thank you, Gary, for
letting me say a few words.
So when I met my new friend recently,
we talked about many interesting things.
Among them, missed opportunities.
So I've actually been working
on a talk about missed opportunities.
I'd love to share that with you tonight.
First of all, one question:
Who's heard the phrase,
actions speak louder than words?
Oh goodness, that's great. All of you.
Well, I have something deeper for you.
You may be the only glimpse of the gospel
or the Bible that someone sees.
People out there such as
friends from school, neighbors,
even family members may
never walk into a church.
They will watch how you live,
how you treat others,
how you handle problems.
If I might, 2 Corinthians,
"You are our letters.
Letters written upon our
heart for everyone to read."
Now this means you are the letter from God.
What if someone watched
your life for one week,
just one week of your
life, what would they see?
Would they see kindness?
Would they see honesty?
Would they see forgiveness?
Goodness, this fire makes me
want those marshmallows so bad.
But isn't it beautiful?
It shines bright in the middle
of this amazing camp
surrounded by the woods.
But if you went all the way
across to the end of this camp
and look back, you would
still see this fire burning bright.
Jesus said, "You are
the light of the world.
A city on a hill cannot be hidden."
If I may, a challenge for you
before the end of this camp,
think about what others will see
when they watch the letter of your life,
how the light shines in you.
Now, I don't know about you,
I like my marshmallows
crusty on the outside,
gooey on the inside.
That takes precision heating in the fire.
Happy to show anyone how
to do that if you wanna try it.
But before we do, one last question,
is there anyone who has a story
about how someone's
actions showed you Jesus?
Anyone?
Yes, please, would you share with us?
We, we knew this girl.
Some of you all know her too.
Her name was Madison.
She would always invite us
to church and stuff like that.
Yeah, we weren't exactly church people.
No. But we finally did go.
Yeah.
And you know what I remember,
I remember that she never left our side.
Yeah, she had her own friends too.
It, (sighs).
Yeah, but she knew we were alone.
And a little freaked out.
(chuckles) Definitely.
But we had fun.
We did. We met a lot of you guys.
- Mm-hm.
- Yeah.
We always knew Madison was different too.
Not in a weird way.
Yeah, no, just different.
She was always there for people.
She didn't care what the
popular kids thought of her.
She wasn't ever mean.
She just wasn't like that.
Yeah. She never stopped
being our friend either.
And the hard part is that
we were not nice to her at all.
No.
But she was always so kind.
Yeah.
Some of you guys already know this,
but Madison died a few weeks ago.
I don't know why she had to die,
but I know that if we hadn't
met her, we wouldn't be here.
And I'm so grateful that we
got the chance to meet her.
She, she showed us Jesus.
She was Jesus to us.
Yeah, but we wanna meet the real Jesus.
Thank you so much.
If there's any comfort in
your losses that Madison
is with Jesus, and He
is so proud of the light,
the beacon that she's shown with her life.
She sounds like an amazing soul.
If you wanna learn more
about your own light,
if you wanna build the light
that is your life and shine it,
I hope you will consider
accepting Jesus as your savior
before the end of this camp.
Please consider that.
And please feel free to speak to me
about any of this you like.
I'm here for the evening,
but I'll be over by the marshmallows
and the Graham crackers.
(everyone laughing)
Thank you so much.
(everyone applauding and cheering)
(gentle music)
Good evening, everyone.
Please have a seat. Have a seat.
I hope you like the punch.
I had to learn to make it
myself off of the, the tick,
the ticking tock, the,
anyway, I saw a place to do that.
So I hope I did it well.
Good evening.
I wanna start the evening
out by inviting a friend of mine
to come up and say a few words.
And I'm gonna ask him to start first
because he might just chicken out. (Laughs)
But no, seriously what he is going through
and how he's doing it,
I think could be really
helpful to everyone.
So Gary.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Hi. Hi guys.
- Hi.
- Hello.
I mean, I'm nervous as heck.
So firstly, I wanna, I wanna thank Michael
for asking me to come in
here and speak to you guys.
I mean, this isn't really my thing,
but, you know, what I've learned here
is that you don't turn down an AA request
and you suit up and you show up.
So that's what I'm doing.
I've been clean
Oh, just one second, Gary.
Hello. A new member.
Hi, I am Father Michael.
- Hello, Father.
- Welcome. Welcome.
- Thank you.
- What's your name, sir?
- Toby.
- Toby, everyone.
- Hello, Toby.
- Have a seat please.
We'll, we'll continue.
- Thank you.
- Okay, great.
Gary?
(gentle music)
(clears throat) As I was saying,
I've got four months clean and sober.
I'm a, I'm a doctor.
I guess, I'll tell you how I got here.
I started a medical
practice with my best friend
and it became very stressful.
I started taking pills and then,
and then I started taking
alcohol on top of the pills.
And it got me, it got me,
and it became habitual.
And I started losing the
things in my life that I loved,
mostly my family.
And I, I just didn't wanna miss out
on any more opportunities.
You know, the opportunities
to spend time with my daughter,
the opportunities to spend
time with my wife, my friends,
and most importantly,
the opportunity to have
a relationship with Christ.
You guys waiting on your parents?
Yeah, our dad's here.
Do you go to church here?
No, our dad just likes bringing us here.
He thinks it'll rub off on us.
(gentle music)
What do you think they do in here?
Well, they have meetings.
[Grace] Yeah.
They pray, I guess.
Look, I get what you're
saying, I, I, I really do.
I've had lots of opportunities in my life.
I mean, I've been to church my whole life.
I guess I just missed it.
I don't wanna miss it.
Well
Excuse me. I'm sorry.
Gary, can I talk to you for
a second outside please?
(gentle music)
Yeah, yeah.
[Toby] Thank you. Excuse me.
(gentle music)
Just don't miss out on any opportunities.
Okay.
You know, I didn't really
know what they did in here,
but I think I do now.
It's a place that gives you an opportunity.
Opportunity?
Opportunity to know Jesus.
This is His house.
Are you serious?
Think of it this way.
We're gonna grow up and
we may never get the chance
to learn about Jesus or know that He's real
or know how much He loves us.
We might never get to hear that.
But in here, that's what
this place is all about.
Would you guys like to know about Jesus?
(gentle music)
(gentle music)
Could I believe in what
my eyes cannot see
Or has the antidote to
brokenness evading me
Could I believe in what
my ears have not heard
A wheel of suffering that surrounds me
Have the final word
Even all the darkest
nights I know the sun will rise
I'll trust the promise I
cannot see with my eyes
Even when the clouds surround
I know the sun still shines
But when will it break through
Jesus, I need you
(singers vocalizing)
Could I believe in what
my hands have not touched
Could the murmur of the
stars contain my fragile hopes
Even though the darkest nights
I know sun will rise
I will trust the promise
I cannot see with my eyes
Even when the clouds surround
I know the sun still shines
But when will it break through
Jesus, I need you
When will it break through
Jesus, I need you
When will it break through
Jesus, I need you
When will it break through
Jesus, I need you
Officer?
(tense music)
(Gary speaking in warped speech)
We got the socks.
Ho-ho-ho!
What?
(tense music)
(audience applauding)
The nurse will be in to
see you in a minute, okay?
[Patient] Okay.
(tense music)
Dr. Robertson, the police are here.
For what?
I don't know.
(tense music)
(car humming)
(siren wailing)
(tense music continues)
Let's go. Somebody's post your bail.
You go right this way.
The time is nigh.
Sinners, gamblers, you're going to hell.
Repent of your sins.
You're going to hell.
The time is nigh.
He is coming back.
Repent, repent, repent!
(locker clattering)
I'm not even in the frame. (Chuckling)
See, it's blurry. Do it again, do it again.
(laughing) No, wait,
you're doing it wrong. Wait.
- It's not even on focus.
- You want me to take
that for you?
We're good. Thanks.
- Oh, okay.
- Thanks.
Well, hey, so today after the game,
my youth group is having
like a little pizza party.
And it's called Fifth Quarter,
'cause, you know, it's after the game.
But anyway, they're
having this competition.
Whoever brings the most
of their friends wins
like a car or something.
Just kidding.
But anyway, there's pizza, fun, games.
They're gonna open up the gym.
You should come.
After the game we go
hang out with the players.
Yeah, plus it's gonna be raining
and we already have plans.
Yeah, I have a piano lesson.
(Rachel and Lena laughing)
Okay, well, that's cool.
I just, I thought I'd ask.
She's never gonna stop asking, is she?
- I am not going. No way.
- Me neither.
(bell ringing)
Did the bell ring?
- Ah.
- Let's go.
(man humming)
(neighbors shouting indistinctly)
[Woman] I'm sorry.
(man shouting indistinctly)
(tense music)
(door thudding)
Hello!
(door thudding)
Heather!
Hey Gary.
What are you, what are you doing here?
Like, we heard you got out.
Heather asked me to come by
just to make sure everything's okay.
Okay, what, what are you doing
in my house with my wife?
Heather, what is going on here?
Please, just leave.
Leave? Where am I supposed to go?
She filed a restraining
order against you.
You're not allowed to be here.
Wait, a restraining order.
Why would you do that?
- Where is my daughter?
- She's not here.
She's not here. Just leave.
[Gary] I wanna see my daughter.
[Heather] I already called
- the cops, Gary.
- Keep your hands off me.
Don't you touch me.
It's not me... It's not you?
No, the best thing,
it's between you guys.
Locked inside my house?
The best thing for you
is to go away right now.
Where am I supposed to go?
Get out.
Why are you doing this to me?
Why are you doing this, Heather?
Where am I supposed to go?
I have no credit cards.
(tense music)
Hey, how can I help you?
I'd like to get a room.
Sure, sure. I just need an ID please.
(gentle music)
Perfect, perfect.
Sorry, Mr. Robertson, this is
saying your card has declined.
Do you have another you'd like to use?
(gentle music)
- No, this one.
- Thank you.
(gentle music)
Sorry, this one has also declined.
Can I see a manager?
Sorry. There's not one here right now.
What am I, what am I supposed to do?
Sorry.
(gentle music)
(door whirring)
(piano keys resonating)
Rachel, please stop.
(piano keys continue resonating)
Rachel, stop!
I'm so bored.
The rain ruins everything.
Well, what do you wanna do?
We could watch a movie.
I could teach you that piano
song a lot better than that.
We could play a board game.
What about that church thing?
- Church thing?
- Yeah. What's it called?
Fifth Quarter.
Don't you need a Bible?
(snickers) Yeah, I don't have a Bible.
Me neither.
Yeah.
(gentle music)
You know, it's gotta be better than this.
Is it?
Lena? Lena?
(gentle music)
Christmas, Christmas carols
Christmas time
It's Christmas time
Christmas carols
Christmas time
(Gary sighing)
It's Christmas time
Hey.
You don't like Christmas music?
Not, not particularly, no.
You know who has the
best Christmas music?
The Grand Ole Opry.
You ever been there?
No.
Okay. There's this kid, right?
Greatest truck driver around, right?
He wants to be a singer.
So he goes out, he
starts singing everywhere,
gets very popular.
Guess who that is?
Elvis Presley. Right?
He could have been the best
truck driver who's ever lived.
Eh? Talk about a missed opportunity.
That's, that's funny.
Listen, man, no offense,
but I, I've had a really bad day, so,
just gonna...
(sighs) You've missed
a lot of opportunities,
haven't you, Gary?
Well, there've been a lot
of opportunities that I've taken
that I wish I hadn't, (laughs)
But, so at this point in my life,
I think I don't need any
more opportunities, you know?
So, thank you.
You know, you've
missed a lot of opportunities
and you've taken a lot of opportunities
that you shouldn't have taken.
You know, I know 'cause I was there
for every single one of those.
Yeah. How did you know my name is Gary?
[Franklin] 'Cause I'm an angel.
An angel?
Ah, I am a guardian angel.
- A guardian angel.
- I'm your guardian angel.
- Ooh.
- I know.
That's crazy.
I mean, not like just
your guardian angel.
I actually have like a whole roster
of humans I have to take care of.
And so it's, it's fun.
Okay.
And my job is to make sure
that you stop missing these opportunities.
- Your job?
- That's my job.
I reach the unreachable,
I gospel the ungospelable.
(laughs) Now I know
where I know you from.
You're, you're the street preacher
from out in front of the jail.
- That's me. Nice.
- That's you, man.
That's me. You took notice of me.
That was you.
Do you know how many
times you've heard the gospel?
I, I, I don't know. I don't know.
How many times have I heard the good news?
You've heard the good news 126 times.
Wow, that seems like a lot.
You know, the average
person takes about 75 times
of hearing the gospel
before they actually listen to it.
It's, (sighs).
Gary, well, I'm gonna give
you an opportunity, Gary.
Jesus said, "My sheep
hear me and they follow."
Follow me, Gary.
Wait a minute. Whoa. Wait. Whoa, whoa.
Are, are you saying I'm a sheep?
Because I had a buddy
who was in Afghanistan and...
(gentle music)
(door creaking)
(gentle music continues)
It's been raining all day.
Oh, excuse me.
Hi, how are you?
- Hi.
- Welcome.
Oh, you were at the game, weren't you?
- Yeah.
- Got rained out.
Sorry about that.
But we're glad you're here though,
so you can leave your umbrella here.
Come on in.
Hey guys.
Oh, you know, Madison.
Well, you're in good hands then.
Okay, so it turns out
they got pizza and wings.
So come on. I'll go show you.
(gentle music)
(gentle music continues)
(Gary and angel whooshing)
(gentle music continues)
Wait, that's my parents.
Yeah. Yeah.
Who are you?
Oh, well, that last guy
was just your warmup angel.
I'm moving you up to the next level.
[Gary] What's going on?
Well, that's you.
You were what, like a year old here?
You're getting baptized.
Oh, you're so cute.
(laughs) Yeah.
Oh, well, I, I, I know what this is.
This is kind of one of those things
where you take me back in
time, like a Christmas carol,
like Marley and Scrooge?
Well, sort of, but I'm not a ghost.
Right, right, you're an angel,
which means I'm dreaming.
Okay, no, this is fine. I can do this.
Look, there is he. There
I am getting baptized.
Phew, straight shot to heaven.
I am Heaven bound.
Well, just because you're baptized
doesn't necessarily mean
you're Heaven bound.
I mean, baptism is, well,
it's more like a symbolic act,
a significant sacrament for sure.
I mean, it was from the day forward,
you became a member of the church.
And well, all of your original
sins were washed away.
Wait, wait, wait, original sin?
Well, you know, Adam
and Eve, the fall of man,
that sort of thing.
But being just a baby, it was all grace.
Wait, Grace, that's my daughter's name.
Yes, I know that,
but this is a different kind of grace, hmm?
I was a cute little bugger, wasn't I?
- Yeah.
- Mom, dad, dang,
check your eyes.
- You got mine.
- Come on.
I lost some weight, huh?
(Gary whooshing)
Mm, I just love this place.
What are we doing here?
Oh, well, we're going
to go through your
spiritual journey book, yeah.
The spiritual journey book?
Yeah. Let's see here.
Um, oh, Sunday school by age five.
That's when you really
started thinking about it, huh?
- Yeah.
- Hmm.
By age 12, you've heard the gospel.
Let's see. (Gasps) 110 times? Wow.
Oh, but then you, you just stopped going.
I don't know. We went
to church when I was a kid.
[Angel] Yeah. Hmm. Interesting.
What happened?
Nothing happened.
We just, I don't know,
we just stopped going.
Hmm.
Was it the divorce?
Look, my mom loved going to church,
my dad, not so much.
So I, you know, I spent
most weekends with my dad.
Hmm.
Oh, and it looks like you went
to several Christmas services.
Oh, and eight Easter services.
Does that sound about right?
- No idea.
- Yeah.
Oh, and then you started,
oh, yes, you were listening
to those old time radio
gospel preachers, yeah.
I remember "Unshackled," huh?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
That's good stuff.
But then you were, you know,
watching a bunch of TV preachers, right?
Wait, so you have a
record of what I watched?
[Angel] Oh, we have
a record of everything.
Is my, is my browser
history in there, or?
Mm-hm.
Oh, that seems to,
well, that's about the time.
You know?
What, the addiction stuff.
Yes. Yes. Yeah.
- Hmm.
- Yeah.
So, I mean, you know,
I started staying up late
watching these, you know,
crazy preachers, you know,
I found 'em entertaining.
Well, you know, some
would say you were looking
for something, huh?
Like what?
Oh, wait, wait. Let me guess, God.
- Oh, maybe.
- I was looking
- for God, right?
- Yes.
Or quick get rich scheme. (Laughs)
Let me get, hold on.
But I have to accept Him though, right?
Okay. Okay. Here we go. Here, here.
Hey, God, here I am,
Gary Robertson, lowly pleb.
I accept you, God, into my,
into my heart and into my head
and my arm and my left butt cheek, okay?
[Angel] Sit, sit, sit.
- We're alone.
- Sit down.
[Angel] Are we?
Mm, (chuckles) you got me on that one.
Okay. So, oh, you sent
Grace to camp for winter break?
Yeah. No, no. I don't know.
Hmm, your wife sent Grace
to camp for winter break.
- No.
- Yes, she did.
No, look, lady, if my
wife sent my daughter
to some like Jesus camp,
I would know about it.
Really? Would you?
(gentle music)
(neighbors shouting indistinctly)
Mind your own business.
(neighbors continue shouting indistinctly)
[Preacher] So, for tonight's deposition
Hey, there's my daughter, Grace.
Hey Grace!
Remember no one can see us.
Why?
'Cause, you know, we're
We're?
Let's see what's going on here.
- Come on.
- But tonight's illustration,
we're gonna use a ticket.
The Bible teaches that in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth.
He created us in His image.
But the Bible says,
"By one man, sin entered into the world."
And now we're all born into sin.
And that sin separates us.
But God had a plan.
He sent His son Jesus
to live a perfect life,
one that we could never live.
The Bible teaches us
that He died on the cross
and He was buried.
But three days later, He rose again,
showing He had power over death and sin.
The Bible teaches, "He bought our ticket."
And as a free gift, He offers it to us
so we can spend eternity
in Heaven with Him.
There's nothing we can do to earn it.
There's nothing we can do to win it.
We simply have to accept it.
Bible says in Romans 10:9,
"If we confess the Lord
Jesus with our mouth
and believe in our heart that
God raised Him from the dead,
that we can be saved."
But we have to have a ticket.
We have to accept this gift.
Some of you may have never
asked Jesus in your heart,
and don't have a relationship with Him.
If you would like to do that tonight,
I would like to show you how.
You might pray something like this.
Dear God.
[All] Dear God.
I know I've sinned.
[All] I know I've sinned.
[Preacher] I ask you to forgive me.
[All] I ask you to forgive me.
[Preacher] And I wanna
begin a relationship with you.
[All] And I wanna begin
a relationship with you.
I pray you help me.
[All] I pray that you'll help me.
[Preacher] to follow your word.
[All] To follow your word.
[Preacher] And to obey you.
[All] To obey you.
[Preacher] Thank you for saving me.
[All] Thank you for saving me.
In Jesus name.
[All] In Jesus name.
[Preacher] Amen.
[All] Amen.
If you prayed that prayer tonight
is the biggest decision you'll ever make.
Welcome to the family.
You did it.
I did a thing?
(gentle music)
I wanna talk to you about something
that's very, very important tonight.
I'll be brief I promise.
I know you've got a
basketball tournament to get to.
(students laughing)
I wanna tell you guys how to
have a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ.
Right now it's not about going to church.
It's not about being a
good person, all right?
It's about knowing Him
personally and following Him.
All right, now, first,
it's important for you
to know that God loves you, all right?
It doesn't matter who you
are or where you come from,
or what you've done.
God made you, He knows you.
He loves you.
And He wants to have
a personal relationship
with you, all right?
Now, there's some bad news. We're sinners.
We all sin, every single one of us.
And we make mistakes.
And this sin is what keeps us
from a relationship with God.
But now there's good news.
It's called the Gospel.
Jesus came down from heaven.
He stepped out of eternity,
He stepped out of paradise
to come down here and be
a human being just like us.
For 33 years, He lived a perfect life,
spotless, blameless, not a
single mistake, not a single sin.
And then He gave
Himself up to die on a cross
to pay the price for our sins,
'cause we could never do it for ourselves.
And then three days later,
He rose from the dead.
He conquered death. He ended death forever.
And He gave us a way
that we could be forgiven,
so that we can have eternal life.
So you say, Pastor
Josh, how does this work?
Well, it says in God's word,
"If you profess with your
mouth, Jesus is Lord,
and if you believe in your heart
"that God raised Him from
the dead, you will be saved."
Now, guys, you can do this tonight.
And please, I urge you,
don't leave here tonight
without knowing Jesus,
because none of us is
guaranteed a tomorrow.
None of us.
Okay, let's pray.
Dear gracious, Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your blessings.
We thank you for
everything you've given us,
for everything you've continue to give us.
We thank you for these,
for these great kids.
And I would ask if there's
one person in this room tonight
who doesn't know you
as their personal savior,
that person would come to know you
and would call upon you
as their Lord and Savior.
We ask these things in
the precious name of Jesus.
Amen.
Amen.
Let's go play some basketball. Let's go.
(gentle music)
I hope that wasn't too preachy.
No, it was perfect
perfect.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
You wanna go?
- Yeah.
- Sure.
(Gary panting)
(tense music)
(pills rattling)
(bottle clattering)
(student chattering indistinctly)
Hey guys. Hey, hey.
Hey, Grace.
Mom didn't tell me that
you coming to get me.
No, I know.
I just wanted to take you to lunch.
Let's hit it.
- Okay.
- How was class?
[Grace] How very nice of you.
Yeah, of course, of course.
(gentle music)
So Gracie, you got any
plans for the summer?
Well, Mom is gonna get a
beach house for a week or so.
- What?
- Yeah.
Like, wow.
[Grace] You?
I mean, nothing like that, no.
I just, beach house.
Toby gonna be there?
I don't know, Dad.
I mean, that's you and Mom's thing.
That's true. That's,
you're right. You're right.
That was out of bounds.
(making a whooshing sound) 15.
That was, sorry, I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have...
Did you go to camp?
- A camp?
- Yeah, yeah.
You know, like a, like a Christmas camp.
I mean, I've never been to a camp.
I, I went to that kids' like
dance day camp thing,
but that was at the
studio and I was like eight.
You remember that, right?
Yeah, well, of course. Yeah.
Yeah, 'cause you did
the, you had the, the thing,
and so, no, I just, because of the divorce,
and I didn't know,
now I don't get to see
you as much as I'd like to.
And I didn't know if maybe for Christmas,
you know, Mom had set you away.
Sent me away? She's not the Gestapo.
Gestapo? Nein, nein (chuckling)
That means no in...
Anyway, no, I just, I didn't,
so you didn't go to a, you
know, like a Christian camp
where they have dorms and a fire pit?
- A Christian camp?
- Yeah. Yeah.
Where they preach and stuff.
No, Dad.
- No?
- No.
Do you know any Christian camps?
- Like church camps?
- Yeah.
No. I mean, when was the
last time we even went to church?
Oh, I know.
Yeah. Guilty. Guilty.
Would you ever go to one?
I mean, I might. Yeah.
Do you wanna tell me what's going on?
Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm
just, (sighs) deep breath.
Okay, I just don't want
you to think that I'm crazy.
It's just, I had this, I had a dream, okay?
And it was a camp with
the room in that fire pit.
And you were there, you were sitting,
but then you weren't there.
And then Franklin,
(laughs) I stick to that,
but he called me a sheep,
which was like, not cool.
But then we talked about Elvis,
and then we had the other one who was like,
oh, higher level.
And then she had this hat,
and there were just,
there were some really,
you know, weird people there, Grace.
And I, you know what?
Let's just, let's just enjoy
the rest of our lunch.
How about that?
Let me start, let's start over.
Mom wants to know if
you can take me home.
Home?
Yeah, yeah, I can,
yeah, I can take you home.
Okay.
Is Toby gonna be there?
- Dad.
- I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I know.
I'm so ashamed.
Check, please.
(car humming)
See you again.
Okay.
- Bye, Dad.
- Bye.
Bye.
Eeuw!
Hey! (Pastor yelping)
Huh!
(Pastor Michael chuckles)
You startled me. I, I saw God.
Sorry. That's kind of my new thing.
Oh, I was just cleaning up after mass.
You'd be surprised at
what people bring to mass.
Mass mess, I call it.
Oh, yeah.
It's a little play on.
- That's good.
- Yeah.
Thank you.
Father, can I ask you a question?
Sure.
Do you believe in angels?
I do. Do you?
Yes. No. I don't...
I dreamt about two angels.
- Two.
- But not,
like, not your typical angels.
Like one of them, his belly
was sticking out of his shirt.
- Oh.
- And then the other
had a funny hat.
Huh!
I don't think I've heard
of those kinds of angels.
- Yeah, that's...
- So.
But does your church have a camp?
Camp? You mean like, for young people?
Yeah, um, so like, is
it like a long dining room
and then a fire pit with
bleachers around it?
We don't have a camp,
but a fire, fire pit and
bleachers, it doesn't ring a bell.
Are, are you looking to go to a camp?
No, no, no, no.
I just, I just thought,
I don't know what I thought.
- Have a seat.
- Yes.
Yes. Thank you.
Sure.
So did you go to this
camp when you were a kid?
No. No. My daughter was there.
- Oh!
- No, she wasn't.
- Oh.
- I don't know.
Let me ask, can I ask you another question?
Of course.
Do you believe in dreams?
- Of course I do.
- You do?
[Pastor Michael]
Dreams are very important.
Okay.
My Bible teacher, she taught
me that dreams are the seeds
that God plants on our hearts,
that if we follow Him,
He nurtures those seeds,
helping us find purpose.
- Huh!
- Yeah.
And, and what do you know
about missed opportunities?
Missed opportunities?
Yeah, well, so my whole life,
I've basically just walked
past churches, right?
I've ignored prayers and pushed away anyone
that tried to help me
have a relationship with,
you know, with, yeah, with
Hey, we've all walked past Christ.
Churches, we get distracted.
We doubt, we sin.
Here's the amazing part. (Laughs)
He never stops calling.
Like in a dream?
Yeah, sure.
Okay, do you think you
can be saved in a dream?
Oh, I think God only knows that.
I got saved in a dream.
- You did.
- I did.
[Pastor Michael] That's great.
I got baptized at this church.
- Really?
- Yeah.
Gosh, that would've been before my time.
I'm sorry, I don't remember,
but God surely does.
Well.
So everyone tells me that, you know,
God still loves me and I don't,
'cause I've messed up pretty big,
and I've messed up a lot of stuff.
Here's the thing, he
never stopped loving.
When you got baptized there,
that sealed you as his own.
But see, that's just the beginning.
Salvation is a journey.
We have to grow in faith,
keep receiving the sacrament,
and return to God when we fail.
Have you ever heard of
the tale of the Prodigal Son?
Oh, yes. Yeah.
It's the, the story about
the kid that runs away.
And then he wastes everything
and then comes crawling back to his dad
and his dad, you know,
nestles him to his bosom.
And yeah, no, I never understood all that.
That is because you
see yourself as the son
who wasted everything.
You're missing the heart of the story.
The father never stopped loving.
He runs to him.
He embraced him. He celebrates his return.
I just, I don't, I don't
know how to start over.
Mm.
Why don't you start with those dreams?
God gave them to you and only you.
I like that.
- That's pretty good.
- I think I like that.
[Pastor Michael] I have my moments.
Yeah. Wow. Okay.
Thank you, Father.
But, but, but no camps?
No.
Yes. Yes. I do know
of a camp with a fire pit.
I mean, it did, it, um,
Camp Faith, yes.
Lord, it's in the middle of nowhere.
It's way out Route 30.
I don't even think they're open anymore.
The guy who ran it passed away.
But it's got a fire pit.
It did.
Thank you, Father.
Yeah.
Hey, you don't want to
help me pick up the rest of
[Gary] No, you got your own mass mess.
(laughing) Okay.
[Teacher] Okay. Are you ready?
- Yes.
- Si.
- Okay. One.
- One.
- Uno.
- Uno.
Louder please.
- Two.
- Two.
- Dos.
- Dos.
- Three.
- Three.
- Tres.
- Tres.
I'm afraid I have some sad news.
This morning on her way here to school,
Madison Medrick was in a car accident.
When the paramedics arrived,
sorry, when the paramedics
arrived, she was already gone.
Now, we're gonna suspend
classes for the rest of the day.
We brought in several grief counselors
and even a few local
pastors to help you all,
to help us all deal with our grief.
Madison was a great student
and a role model to many of you.
She'll be greatly missed.
I'm so sorry.
(gentle music)
- Hey.
- Oh.
- Hi.
- Oh, hi.
Can I help you?
Yes. I mean, I hope so. I don't know.
I, hello.
Yeah, I, I, I had a dream last night
and I was here.
Here?
Well, no, not exactly right here.
We were actually standing
over there, the two of us,
and I'm pretty sure we were invisible.
So, yeah, that sounds a little crazy.
So, (imitating a buzzer)
let me rewind a little bit.
Okay, so, like I said, I
had a dream last night.
I was here. I got saved by Christ, okay.
And then my daughter
was sitting like right there,
but she wasn't really here, so
she doesn't really remember.
But then the preacher was
talking about going to the movies,
and I love the movies.
It's like one of my favorite things.
And he said, "You had your ticket,"
And I was like, "Whoa, whoa, preacher man,
you know, hands up over here.
What about my ticket?"
And then all of a sudden, bam,
I get a ticket and I am
standing in this exact spot.
Okay.
Yeah. That's great.
So we went to the movies?
No, no, we just talked
about going to the movies.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
What did you say your name was again?
Oh, I'm sorry. It's,
it's, it's Gary Robertson.
- Jordan.
- Jordan. Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
So this is it, huh?
This is what?
This is the camp.
Oh, well, yeah.
My, my father started this
place about 20 years ago,
but yeah, he recently passed away.
I'm sorry. Yeah, I heard.
[Jordan] Oh.
It's... Thank you.
Yeah. So no camp?
No camp.
Now the bank's making me,
forcing me to sell the place.
Well, what about the
missed opportunities?
- Missed opportunities?
- Yeah.
People are gonna miss
out on the opportunity
to have a relationship with Christ.
Like, like I said, I, I had this dream.
It was last night, right?
I was here and there were a bunch of kids,
and they all got saved.
Yeah, I mean, that
does happen here a lot.
And you got saved here too, yeah?
Yeah. Yeah, I did.
That's it. That's it.
(laughing) Oh, that's
why they brought me here.
That's why they brought me here.
Oh, I'm sorry.
There was a dude, his name's
Franklin, and he was cool.
He called me a sheep.
And I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, I'm not a sheep,
whatever you say."
But then we started talking
about Elvis, which was cool.
And I like Elvis.
His little tummy was
peeking out of his T-shirt.
And I was like, "Dude,
you need to hit the gym."
I didn't say that to him.
But then the other one, the girl,
she was like, "I'm next level."
She had a, don't say anything,
but she had like a funny hat.
And, yeah, they were angels.
Angels?
Yeah.
(gentle music)
I'm gonna buy it.
You're gonna buy what?
The camp.
You wanna buy this camp?
I'm gonna buy the camp,
but you have to run it.
Mr. Robertson, was it?
Oh, well, just call me Gary.
Gary. Yeah, I don't do camp.
This was my dad's thing.
I'm really just here
to clean up a little bit.
So what? You just wanna close it?
No, I don't want to, but I
Let me ask you a question.
And this can be an estimate.
So how many kids per
summer come through the camp?
Last year maybe 400.
400.400.
Okay, so of the 400, how many get saved?
A lot.
Wow. Wow.
You guys were given the opportunity
for the kids to have an opportunity.
This is my purpose.
Wait, so you wanna buy the
camp, but keep it as a camp?
Yes.
Oh, no, no, no, no. You don't understand.
This camp doesn't actually fund itself.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
It's okay. It's okay.
I'm a doctor. I mean, I was a doctor.
I mean, I just sold my practice.
I was like (imitating gulping) taking pills
and (imitating glugging) drinking a lot of,
I mean, it wasn't very pretty.
But I'm feeling a lot
better now. I'm much better.
And, and yeah, this is what I gotta do.
So what do you need to do exactly?
I need to buy this camp.
If we move the women's
conference to the morning,
then we can hold the
men's event in the evening.
How does that sound?
Okay. Well, that sounds like a plan.
Will that work for everyone?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Okay, great.
Okay, great. Anything else?
Fantastic meeting. Thank you all.
- Okay.
- Okay.
Um, yes, Eugene?
I was wondering if we could have a word.
Sure.
I didn't wanna say anything,
but the others wanted me to.
Then why aren't they all here?
Well, your sermon the other day,
it was a bit harsh.
Harsh? Oh.
Well, I'm sorry. I didn't
mean to upset anyone.
When you said that if
you don't accept Christ
as your savior, you go to hell.
Oh, the Bible says that.
- I mean, does it really?
- Yeah, it does.
Okay, well, as you know, the pendulum
for determining salvation
swings pretty broadly.
I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Over here you have
the sacraments, baptism,
church involvement, and helping the needy.
Those are all very important.
Yeah, as you said,
they preach to the pathway to salvation.
I just think you need to
preach more of the path.
Oh.
Just for context,
what does the other side
of the pendulum look like?
I'm glad you asked
because that's the problem,
'cause over here you have
nothing but fire and brimstone
and eternal damnation.
These are all negative words.
Negative. You don't believe in hell?
I do, but I don't believe the people
of this church are gonna go to hell.
Look, all I'm asking is that
you tone down the rhetoric
of your message.
Make it a little more, I
don't know, palatable.
Palatable?
Yeah. Pray about it.
Will you promise me you'll pray about it?
I promise you.
Okay. Thank you, Father. I appreciate it.
And I'm glad we could clear this up.
Me too.
Palatable.
Well, I know what my next
message is going to be.
(phone buzzing)
Yeah. Hello?
Yes, this is he.
(somber music)
I'm sorry, can you say that again?
(somber music continues)
How do you...
Are you sure it's her?
(somber music continues)
(somber music continues)
(keyboard clicking)
(notification tone chiming)
Hi from Tey.
I'll be, I guess Gary found his camp.
(upbeat music)
[Man] Come on, come on!
- Shut up.
- You're hurting me.
(neighbors arguing indistinctly)
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music continues)
(upbeat music continues)
Hey, thank you so
much for all of your help.
It's been really great having you here.
Yeah, it's, it's been really fun.
Good.
Your dad's quite the
character, huh? (Laughs)
Yeah, he's full of surprises.
So I was wondering if your dad
can actually get some campers here,
would you be interested
in staying on to help out?
Well, I mean, there's
a lot going on right now
with my dad and this
No, I understand. It's okay.
(fire crackling)
You know, when I was
younger, I used to sit right here
and listen to my dad preach.
Man, could he give a sermon!
He was just so...
I really miss him.
And one night we were here
and it seemed like any other night,
but I don't know, something
just changed, you know?
The, the message just
really resonated with me.
And I decided right then and there
that I would accept Jesus
as my Lord and Savior.
Actually I was about your age.
Biggest decision of my life.
I don't, I don't really
know what that means.
Oh, okay.
I guess for me, it just
means that the creator
of the world steps out of Heaven
and enters your heart to
walk the Earth with you.
(fire crackling)
Is that what happened with my dad?
Yeah. Yeah. I think so.
I want that to happen for me too.
(Gary howling)
Girls. (Laughs) Woo. Guess what?
- What?
- Come on.
Guess, guess, guess.
Can guess? Can you guess?
Suspense is killing me.
I got the phone call. We got campers.
(all cheering)
- We got, your serious?
- Oh yeah, yeah.
- Multiple campers.
- Not just like one camper.
We got campers.
We did it.
- We did it.
- We have campers.
We did it.
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Throw another log on the bobby. (Laughs)
Let's celebrate.
(gentle music)
No question is more
central to our time than this,
what is the gospel?
Translated, it means the good news.
Folks, God has put this heavy upon my heart
that we must reaffirm the
gospel as our central message.
And we should not debate this
for it is so simple that
little children can believe it,
yet it is so profound
that the greatest scholars
have been pondering it
for 2000 years.
Yet the message is the same: God loves you.
God sent His son to die for you.
And those that believe this message
will be saved from an eternal hell.
The gospel, like it or not,
is the difference between life and death.
This is the power of the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
Nothing compares to it.
For it is in the gospel
that we find Jesus Christ.
So let's be that gospel in our daily lives,
to our friends, our
family, and our neighbors.
It's good to see you again.
(Eugene clearing throat)
Oh, Eugene.
I see you didn't take my advice.
I did.
Well, you preached the exact opposite
of what I asked you to do.
Did you even pray about it?
I did.
I prayed to God. I told Him what you said.
I said, "God, this is
heavy on Eugene's heart,"
and God said, "Eugene who?"
(door thudding)
[Man] Man, what do you want now?
I, I want you to leave.
I want you to stop hurting
people in this house.
And if you don't
[Man] And if I don't,
what's you gonna do about it?
I'll call the police.
I'll tell them everything I know.
I hear your little drug
deal phone calls outside.
I have 'em all documented.
Are you really gonna
get the cops involved?
I know about the store
that you sell out of on Elm.
The dealer in Miami you owe money to.
He's looking for you, isn't he? Roberto?
Don't do it. I'll call him.
(tense music)
- They're not coming.
- They're coming.
They said they were
gonna be here at noon.
(Jordan speaking indistinctly)
No, no, no, this is just my,
and I'm serious.
[Jordan] They'll be here soon.
Wait. Whoa, whoa. (Laughs and cheers )
Come here.
Hello, hello.
I'm sorry for late.
(cheering) Let's go. Lets go.
- Hi, Jordan.
- Oh my gosh.
Come on in.
Come on in.
What? Whatevs! Whatevs!
- Gimme some, gimme some.
- Welcome.
- Gimme some.
- Welcome! Welcome.
Gimme some.
Boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom.
Yes. Let's go. Let's go.
All the way
- to the back, guys.
- You got your bag, buddy?
You got it? All right.
Are you good? Here we go.
Come on in. Gimme five.
- Okay.
- Here we go.
[Jordan] Oh boy.
All right, there we go. There we go.
High five. High five. High five.
Thank you.
Amazing.
Welcome.
I knew this was gonna work out.
(gentle music)
(gentle music continues)
(children clamoring)
(gentle music continues)
(door thudding)
(gentle music continues)
And so, you know, like Jesus was like,
"That's not cool," you know?
And like, His beard, He
had a beard, you know,
which is cool 'cause I
can't really grow mine out,
but Jesus could, man.
That was cool.
Singing in the chapel, Lord, Kumbaya
And in the Bible, huh?
Yeah, the Bible says in, in Genesis,
which was a great band, by the way,
yeah, a guy by,
Phil Collins, the great drummer.
Anyway, in Genesis it says,
Singing in the chapel, Lord, Kumbaya
Thank you. Thank you.
Is it okay, is it
Yeah. Thanks.
Okay. Hi.
- Thanks.
- Thanks.
(children applauding) Thanks, Jesus. Jesus.
What I wanna know is,
who's telling the scary
story tonight at the pit fire?
- Me!
- Yeah, scary story.
Scary story?
Father!
Hey, hey, hey, there you are.
[Pastor Michael] Hey man, you did it.
What are you doing here?
(laughs) Well, I was
working on the devotion,
and I get this text from someone named Tey,
and there's a poster and
your gorgeous smiling faces on,
and I thought to myself,
I never met a celebrity in person before.
So here I am.
Great. It's great to see you.
This is my daughter, Grace.
And these are, you know,
my, my my, these are
- Campers?
- Yes.
Hi campers. I'm Father Michael.
- It's such a pleasure.
- Nice to meet you.
He's a cool dude.
It looks like you're well fed, huh?
I have one question.
Are there gonna be s'mores later?
'Cause I'll stay.
Well, maybe, maybe s'mores.
Maybe he's good enough for me.
He came into my church recently.
Boy, did he startle me.
And you should have heard him.
He was talking about angels and demons.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
No, no, I heard all about it.
Oh, okay.
(both laughing)
It's funny how God works, isn't it?
Um, God and me.
Oh, hey. Hey. Where are you going?
I'm, I'm, I'm going into,
Hey guys, I'm going,
- I'm coming in for some...
- Yeah, I know.
Maybe, maybe take a break tonight.
But you saw my
I know, I know,
and I hate for the
kids to miss out on that.
But Father Michael is here tonight.
I was thinking maybe
he could fill in for you.
Oh, oh, I, no, I don't
wanna take your, this.
No, you do it for the kids, right?
God, I'm trying to,
I'm tired of being head honcho around here.
Yeah.
Okay, sure. If you don't mind.
Hey guys, Father Michael, right here.
Let's go.
(everyone applauding and cheering)
Thank you, children.
Thank you all so much.
I am Father Michael.
I'm a Catholic priest,
a couple of towns over.
And gosh, I feel so
blessed to meet all of you
and to be here tonight.
Thank you to Jordan, the owner,
and to my new friend Gary,
for letting me speak tonight.
I hear he is a great orator and,
woo, and singer/songwriter too.
Man of many talents. I was not aware.
So thank you, Gary, for
letting me say a few words.
So when I met my new friend recently,
we talked about many interesting things.
Among them, missed opportunities.
So I've actually been working
on a talk about missed opportunities.
I'd love to share that with you tonight.
First of all, one question:
Who's heard the phrase,
actions speak louder than words?
Oh goodness, that's great. All of you.
Well, I have something deeper for you.
You may be the only glimpse of the gospel
or the Bible that someone sees.
People out there such as
friends from school, neighbors,
even family members may
never walk into a church.
They will watch how you live,
how you treat others,
how you handle problems.
If I might, 2 Corinthians,
"You are our letters.
Letters written upon our
heart for everyone to read."
Now this means you are the letter from God.
What if someone watched
your life for one week,
just one week of your
life, what would they see?
Would they see kindness?
Would they see honesty?
Would they see forgiveness?
Goodness, this fire makes me
want those marshmallows so bad.
But isn't it beautiful?
It shines bright in the middle
of this amazing camp
surrounded by the woods.
But if you went all the way
across to the end of this camp
and look back, you would
still see this fire burning bright.
Jesus said, "You are
the light of the world.
A city on a hill cannot be hidden."
If I may, a challenge for you
before the end of this camp,
think about what others will see
when they watch the letter of your life,
how the light shines in you.
Now, I don't know about you,
I like my marshmallows
crusty on the outside,
gooey on the inside.
That takes precision heating in the fire.
Happy to show anyone how
to do that if you wanna try it.
But before we do, one last question,
is there anyone who has a story
about how someone's
actions showed you Jesus?
Anyone?
Yes, please, would you share with us?
We, we knew this girl.
Some of you all know her too.
Her name was Madison.
She would always invite us
to church and stuff like that.
Yeah, we weren't exactly church people.
No. But we finally did go.
Yeah.
And you know what I remember,
I remember that she never left our side.
Yeah, she had her own friends too.
It, (sighs).
Yeah, but she knew we were alone.
And a little freaked out.
(chuckles) Definitely.
But we had fun.
We did. We met a lot of you guys.
- Mm-hm.
- Yeah.
We always knew Madison was different too.
Not in a weird way.
Yeah, no, just different.
She was always there for people.
She didn't care what the
popular kids thought of her.
She wasn't ever mean.
She just wasn't like that.
Yeah. She never stopped
being our friend either.
And the hard part is that
we were not nice to her at all.
No.
But she was always so kind.
Yeah.
Some of you guys already know this,
but Madison died a few weeks ago.
I don't know why she had to die,
but I know that if we hadn't
met her, we wouldn't be here.
And I'm so grateful that we
got the chance to meet her.
She, she showed us Jesus.
She was Jesus to us.
Yeah, but we wanna meet the real Jesus.
Thank you so much.
If there's any comfort in
your losses that Madison
is with Jesus, and He
is so proud of the light,
the beacon that she's shown with her life.
She sounds like an amazing soul.
If you wanna learn more
about your own light,
if you wanna build the light
that is your life and shine it,
I hope you will consider
accepting Jesus as your savior
before the end of this camp.
Please consider that.
And please feel free to speak to me
about any of this you like.
I'm here for the evening,
but I'll be over by the marshmallows
and the Graham crackers.
(everyone laughing)
Thank you so much.
(everyone applauding and cheering)
(gentle music)
Good evening, everyone.
Please have a seat. Have a seat.
I hope you like the punch.
I had to learn to make it
myself off of the, the tick,
the ticking tock, the,
anyway, I saw a place to do that.
So I hope I did it well.
Good evening.
I wanna start the evening
out by inviting a friend of mine
to come up and say a few words.
And I'm gonna ask him to start first
because he might just chicken out. (Laughs)
But no, seriously what he is going through
and how he's doing it,
I think could be really
helpful to everyone.
So Gary.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Hi. Hi guys.
- Hi.
- Hello.
I mean, I'm nervous as heck.
So firstly, I wanna, I wanna thank Michael
for asking me to come in
here and speak to you guys.
I mean, this isn't really my thing,
but, you know, what I've learned here
is that you don't turn down an AA request
and you suit up and you show up.
So that's what I'm doing.
I've been clean
Oh, just one second, Gary.
Hello. A new member.
Hi, I am Father Michael.
- Hello, Father.
- Welcome. Welcome.
- Thank you.
- What's your name, sir?
- Toby.
- Toby, everyone.
- Hello, Toby.
- Have a seat please.
We'll, we'll continue.
- Thank you.
- Okay, great.
Gary?
(gentle music)
(clears throat) As I was saying,
I've got four months clean and sober.
I'm a, I'm a doctor.
I guess, I'll tell you how I got here.
I started a medical
practice with my best friend
and it became very stressful.
I started taking pills and then,
and then I started taking
alcohol on top of the pills.
And it got me, it got me,
and it became habitual.
And I started losing the
things in my life that I loved,
mostly my family.
And I, I just didn't wanna miss out
on any more opportunities.
You know, the opportunities
to spend time with my daughter,
the opportunities to spend
time with my wife, my friends,
and most importantly,
the opportunity to have
a relationship with Christ.
You guys waiting on your parents?
Yeah, our dad's here.
Do you go to church here?
No, our dad just likes bringing us here.
He thinks it'll rub off on us.
(gentle music)
What do you think they do in here?
Well, they have meetings.
[Grace] Yeah.
They pray, I guess.
Look, I get what you're
saying, I, I, I really do.
I've had lots of opportunities in my life.
I mean, I've been to church my whole life.
I guess I just missed it.
I don't wanna miss it.
Well
Excuse me. I'm sorry.
Gary, can I talk to you for
a second outside please?
(gentle music)
Yeah, yeah.
[Toby] Thank you. Excuse me.
(gentle music)
Just don't miss out on any opportunities.
Okay.
You know, I didn't really
know what they did in here,
but I think I do now.
It's a place that gives you an opportunity.
Opportunity?
Opportunity to know Jesus.
This is His house.
Are you serious?
Think of it this way.
We're gonna grow up and
we may never get the chance
to learn about Jesus or know that He's real
or know how much He loves us.
We might never get to hear that.
But in here, that's what
this place is all about.
Would you guys like to know about Jesus?
(gentle music)
(gentle music)
Could I believe in what
my eyes cannot see
Or has the antidote to
brokenness evading me
Could I believe in what
my ears have not heard
A wheel of suffering that surrounds me
Have the final word
Even all the darkest
nights I know the sun will rise
I'll trust the promise I
cannot see with my eyes
Even when the clouds surround
I know the sun still shines
But when will it break through
Jesus, I need you
(singers vocalizing)
Could I believe in what
my hands have not touched
Could the murmur of the
stars contain my fragile hopes
Even though the darkest nights
I know sun will rise
I will trust the promise
I cannot see with my eyes
Even when the clouds surround
I know the sun still shines
But when will it break through
Jesus, I need you
When will it break through
Jesus, I need you
When will it break through
Jesus, I need you
When will it break through
Jesus, I need you