Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Camp Recap: The Good Shepherd (Psalm 23)
16 Plays7 days ago
Sunday Message recorded 14 June 2026
by Associate Pastor Josh Shell
First Baptist Church - Columbus, TX, USA
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
Recommended
Transcript
Youth Camp Experience Recap
00:00:06
Speaker
Well, good morning everybody. This morning, I hope it's okay with you guys, but we're going to take this morning and we're going to a recap of what we experienced a couple weeks ago at camp. The first full week of June, we we took a handful of our students up to Jackson, Tennessee to attend summer camp at Union University through a camp called Fuge.
00:00:25
Speaker
um And it was an incredible, incredible time. um Obviously, things started out a little bit with the bank while we got there, but we can talk more about that here in just a second.
Logistics and Volunteer Gratitude
00:00:37
Speaker
But I just want y'all to know that leading up to camp, if y'all don't know me, I have a tendency to get a little bit overwhelmed. to have a tendency to get a little stressed when it comes to logistics. I'm not much of an administrative guy. i'm sure some of y'all know that about me.
00:00:52
Speaker
Someone said yes. Yes. Thanks, Chris. But like, I just, when it comes to planning, like I need the right people around me to make sure things get done. And thankfully in our youth group, we have those leaders. And so I cannot tell y'all how grateful and blessed that I am as a youth pastor to have the volunteer leaders that we have who went to camp with me because it would not have happened without them. So if you went to camp with us as an adult leader, would you stand for just a second as an adult leader?
00:01:19
Speaker
So Brittany, Stephen, Julie, are y'all only three in here? Okay, well these three went to camp with us.
00:01:31
Speaker
they They took off their own time and and and out of their own schedule to come to camp with us, and they did a phenomenal job. I could not have done it without you. We also had Donna Dishman. We also had Jordan Jones, which I believe he's down in the fellowship hall, Mark Vickers, and my buddy Jordan Tins, who I graduated with. They were all there, and it was a phenomenal
Theme and Preparation: The Good Shepherd
00:01:51
Speaker
week.
00:01:51
Speaker
But as we were approaching camp, though I noticed the theme of camp this summer was the Good Shepherd out of Psalm 23. Now, this is a beloved Psalm. Everybody, who all loves Psalm 23 in the room? you did not raise your hand, you're a liar, right?
00:02:07
Speaker
There's so much hope that we find in this Psalm. This is one that we learn, whether it's at a young age in VBS or in Awanas, right? This is one that we turn to whenever we are in a hardship or a hard season, a dark season of life, right? Just because of the hope, the assurance, the the affirmation, the love in which David speaks about in this particular Psalm when it comes to our Heavenly Father being this figure called the Good Shepherd, right?
00:02:34
Speaker
But when like I said, when I heard about the theme, I was like, man, I was kind of reluctant. I was like, I don't know how this is going to go. You know, like we've we've we've heard this psalm many times. Many of us, including our students, have read it.
00:02:47
Speaker
They've studied it. but i So I just didn't know how it would land and how it would speak to us while we' were there at camp that week. And leading up to camp, we actually saw, was like, you know what? To kind of help prime the the trip, if you will, we're going to do a three-week study through Psalm 23 before we go to camp. So we did a three-week study at youth group before. And man...
00:03:08
Speaker
my heart flipped immediately as soon as we started studying through Psalm 23 again, right?
Psalm 23: Theological Reflections
00:03:13
Speaker
Because I don't know how many of you guys, we may have read it you may have memorized it, the whole nine, but how many of you guys have actually done a deep, deep dive into Psalm 23?
00:03:23
Speaker
Because if you haven't, you need to. That is such a theologically rich psalm that David wrote for us to read and to participate in that reminds us of the goodness and the holiness and the righteousness and the faithfulness of our God.
00:03:39
Speaker
So you've you never done a deep dive? I pray that you'll do that. And hopefully today will even help propel you into that. But as, like i said, we we started going through it and then it just, again, primed us for what the Lord was about to do at camp. And when we got there,
00:03:54
Speaker
It was just, we were blown away.
Unexpected Peace and Spiritual Strength
00:03:56
Speaker
Not because Brittany got hit in the face with a nose, or you hit in the face with a nose, got hit in the nose with a football. Okay, so let me just stop and tell that story real quick. Is that okay? Are you sure?
00:04:06
Speaker
Okay, so we get there. We're not even registered. okay? We get off the bus. Bellevue picked us up. We we arrived at camp. We're not even, our bags are still on the bus, right?
00:04:17
Speaker
And I'm walking through registration, getting all the keys to the dorm. I get back to where they hold the students called the holding tank. They're all playing like gaga ball or nine square in the air, throwing the football apparently. um And then next thing I know, Tanner, Brittany's son walks up. He's like, dude, Josh, did you what happened to my mom? i was like,
00:04:35
Speaker
No, I've been over here. What's going on? He's like, she just got hit in the face of the football. There's blood everywhere. And I was like,
00:04:44
Speaker
gotta be kidding me. So I walk up and sure enough, Brittany's sitting around the table like this with the with the t-shirt over her nose. Steven's recording a video laughing the whole time, like Steven, her dad. And I was like, we haven't even unpacked the van of the bus yet. We're not even in our dorms.
00:05:00
Speaker
And we already have our, we broke a record, by the way, of the fastest injury at camp. The camp record. Okay, see we're just breaking records left and right people, it's great. Come to one our youth group, it's fun.
00:05:12
Speaker
oh But so that's just how it started off, right? But let me tell you something. Even in the midst of that situation, if this was about two years ago, three years ago, four years ago, i would have been a total basket case. These leaders can attest to it. For those who've gone to camp with me before, i would have been freaking out, right? Like, you gotta kidding me. We're not even registered. and But for some reason, there was a piece that was just over me, and I saw it over the leaders, and even over Brittany, ironically, that we could not explain.
00:05:42
Speaker
And that only just set the tone for what the Lord was about to
Faith Transformations at Camp
00:05:45
Speaker
do. And we were, Stephen and i were actually talking about before, and the reality is, is we we were we were so excited about what God was going to do that we we firmly believe that this was a attack from Satan to try to derail the whole week because he we he already knew what was going to happen.
00:06:02
Speaker
We already knew what was going to happen. Guys, day after day, session after session, worship after worship, the Lord moved in such a way that I'm getting my goosebumps just thinking about it.
00:06:14
Speaker
Because he met us there in that campus. Our students got to experience God in a way that they would have never gotten to experience him here in Columbus. like So when we when people ask me, why do you take them so far away to go to camp?
00:06:26
Speaker
Well, one, to get them out of Texas to show them that there's a world outside of Texas. um But two, it's because when you get them away, you allow them to experience a world and a new perspective.
00:06:39
Speaker
Not just the world, but they experience God in a new perspective. They meet other students who are able to meet them where they're at. They're outside their own community here. There was over 900 students on that campus this week, or that particular week.
00:06:52
Speaker
It was absolutely incredible. And so, All have to say, though, is that the Lord met us there and he dwelled with us there and he met with our students. And I'm so excited to say that I can think of at least eight students that made decisions while we were there at camp.
00:07:08
Speaker
yeah we We took 28 students. That's a lot of students who made decisions out of our group. We took 20 guys and eight girls and eight students made decisions, whether it was surrendering to Christ, rededicating life to Christ. I even had one student reach out to me this past week with a call to ministry that he feels because of it.
00:07:28
Speaker
And so when um when when we go to camp, when y'all pray over us, this isn't just empty like prayers that you're that you're praying for us. This is life change that you're that you're praying for over our students.
00:07:41
Speaker
and it was And the Lord demonstrated his glory, his power, his goodness in a mighty way. And you know what? It doesn't stop just as huge. It's also for all the Pine Cove staff in the room. We to be praying for them because the same thing is happening out there at Pine Cove.
00:07:54
Speaker
Every week, lives are being transformed for the goodness of the gospel. And more people were coming into the kingdom of God because of it. And so you got to remember, we as people, as Christians, we're not called to just join the team and sit on the sideline.
00:08:09
Speaker
I believe it was a quote, i'm I'm jumping ahead of my notes here, but i believe it was a quote that Steve had actually shared with me from the the camp pastor. His name is John Harper. He was like, it's interesting how we rely on the the prince of peace for salvation, but we don't rely on the prince of peace for anything else in our lives.
Lessons from King David and Psalm 23
00:08:25
Speaker
Amen.
00:08:26
Speaker
It's like we receive salvation. It's like, all right, I'm good. And going to sit down right here and just let the world move on. That's not what being a Christian is about. Being a follower of Christ is exactly that. you'rerere You're dedicating your life. You're committing your life, to surrendering your life to the one true God of the universe who came down, took on flesh for us so that way he could be our intermediary, our our our our intercessor, if you will, for our sins. He paid the price for our sins so that way we could follow him, so we could imitate him, so we could acknowledge him before men here on earth so that way more people could come to know the Lord.
00:09:04
Speaker
That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus. So I encourage if you're in this room today and you profess to be a believer and you're sitting on the sideline, this is like a coach coming to you Get off the sideline, get the game. Because there are many souls out there who are still desiring to know the truth of the of the gospel.
00:09:23
Speaker
And there's only one truth out there. For all those out there who think that there's multiple truths, there's only one truth. That God is the God of the universe. That he sent his only son to die the cross for our sins so that when we can have a way back to him.
00:09:36
Speaker
We in ourselves cannot save ourselves. and this is And this is why Psalm 23 is so good. Because that's exactly what David is declaring in this psalm.
00:09:47
Speaker
All throughout. Even in the opening verses. If y'all want to go ahead go to the the next slide, to the to the passage, I'm going to read this psalm to you.
00:10:00
Speaker
Even though we can all probably quote it, i'm going to read it. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake, for his namesake.
00:10:21
Speaker
And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.
00:10:39
Speaker
Surely goodness and mercy follow which shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So again, when we go back to thinking what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus, it's what David is echoing even in this psalm.
00:10:57
Speaker
The Lord is my shepherd. Even in that short little verse, does it say anything about you other than the fact that you are surrendered to the to the good shepherd? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
00:11:10
Speaker
Why? Because he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. Nothing in these verses refer back to anything that you can do for yourself.
00:11:22
Speaker
Everything in these verses refer back to what God has done from the very beginning of time when he set the whole world into motion. It goes back to his divine salvific plan for all of us and how it's only through his one and only son whom he would send to die on the cross for our sins that we can find these things.
00:11:40
Speaker
Peace and rest and restoration for our souls. But to get into it a little bit more, there's four things that we looked at this week when it came to the Bible study topics that I wanted us to look at just briefly before I allow some students to come up.
00:11:55
Speaker
and share from their own perspective. But within Psalm 23, the first day that we looked at was the good peace. The good peace. You see, we as Christians can can walk confidently in Christ, and we can have hope because of the peace in which Christ breaks to us.
00:12:12
Speaker
And this is, going to say this statement. I told this to the students and y'all can tell me if I'm wrong for this. But when you read through this psalm, when you look at the life of David, I know he's in the Old Testament. The new covenant has not been established at this point. It's still under the Old Testament covenant and he's still abiding by the sacrificial system and things like that.
00:12:29
Speaker
But when you look at the life of David, he is living one of the most New Testament lifestyles in the Old Testament that we could ever see. He understands that it's not in and of himself that salvation can be brought.
00:12:42
Speaker
He is fully relying on God. That's why when even in the midst of his own sin, God looks down at David and he's able to call him a man after his own heart. Because he is surrendering everything to the good shepherd.
00:12:57
Speaker
The one who is able to meet him where he's at, to bring him out of the dark places, to lead and guide him along the path onto these paths of righteousness. that's why god was called or That's why David was called a man after God's own heart.
00:13:12
Speaker
Because he wasn't following his own pride. He wasn't following his own heart, his own understanding. But rather, he was abiding in the one true God who was leading them and guiding him He remembered what God did for his people the entire way through from the promise of Abraham to where David was.
00:13:28
Speaker
With how he brought him out of the nation of egypt or out of the country of Egypt, or the nation of Egypt, right? And brought him into the promised land. This is key for us to understand. If y'all want peace, if y'all want ah rest, if y'all want nourishment for your soul and restoration, we have to understand that the only place that we can actually sit to find it is in the presence of the Good Shepherd.
00:13:55
Speaker
Jesus himself, God in the flesh. So the good piece, this particular day they looked at Psalm 23 verse 2, but I'm going to read verse 1 with it, right? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures and he leads me beside still waters.
00:14:12
Speaker
This is a very significant picture here that we're seeing here, especially when when it comes to the context of the nature or the ancient Near East, like the Middle East where they're from, because we have a tendency of thinking of green pastures and still waters like what we see up there on the screen.
00:14:26
Speaker
that background where it's like this extremely lush green pasture that is so peaceful and calm. And then, you know, you have this really quaint body of water that you can lay beside, right?
00:14:38
Speaker
But yeah if y'all know anything about the ancient Near East, that's not how it was. the The region in which they were from was actually predominantly rocky soil. it was It was rocky terrain. It was dusty. It was dry, right?
00:14:53
Speaker
However, if you go through these regions and you go and you happen to go through different paths between these mountains, you would find these hidden places where there was lush green grass and there was cool cool, calm, clean water. And it's only the shepherds who were in those regions who knew about these places because that's where they were.
00:15:13
Speaker
They were walking around. They were leading and guiding their sheep to find these things. So don't know anything about sheep. They're not very smart, right? they're they're not They're not very bright.
00:15:25
Speaker
They have what we call a herd mentality. So if one sheep goes off, guess what's gonna happen? They're all gonna follow, right? A few years back, i actually shared ah an illustration about this we ah overseas in Europe somewhere, there was an account where these these shepherds were out the middle of the field and the sheep were over by a cliff. One sheep decided to go off the cliff.
00:15:47
Speaker
guess what happened? All 1,500 of the sheep went off the cliff, right? I mean, that's how sheep are. But because of the shepherds, when they're there, they're able to guide them. They're able to lead them. They're able to bring them into peaceful, quiet places.
00:16:05
Speaker
And so, again, when we think about this verse where it says that the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. We have to remember that the only way that we can find these places is by truly abiding and trusting in him as our good shepherd.
00:16:24
Speaker
Amen. So that's you today you're trying to find peace and rest, maybe you need to surrender these these idols in your life or these things in your life that you're choosing to cling to rather than trusting in the good shepherd.
00:16:39
Speaker
The second thing that we saw, though, was on day two was the good restoration. And this was um out of verse three where it says, he restores my soul. He leads me paths of righteousness for his namesake.
00:16:52
Speaker
And so the focus story of this particular day was on David after he sinned with Bathsheba and Uriah, right? So this story where David is out on his rooftop, he happens to look over, see a beautiful woman. He calls her, he does something he's not supposed to do with her.
00:17:07
Speaker
And then as a result of his sin, this woman becomes pregnant and David tries to cover up his sin. Y'all remember how he tries to do that? He calls the husband Uriah, which by the way, was one of his mighty men,
00:17:21
Speaker
One of his closest bodyguards, right? He calls him in. like, hey, dude, I need you to go back to your house. I need you to just spend some time with your wife, if you know what I'm putting down here, right? And so he sends him on. Uriah refuses to do what David says. He sleeps on the outside. He refuses to go in with his wife.
00:17:38
Speaker
And David eventually has ah finds himself in situation where he tells his commander, he says, hey, I need you to take Uriah, take him out to the battlefield, put him on the front line. And when i at one point, I need you to back off to where he dies. Right?
00:17:50
Speaker
And so he murders Uriah to cover up his sin. This is a, if that happened today, there'd be no grace, no mercy for anybody, right?
00:18:01
Speaker
But yet in this moment, we see that there is restoration that happens for David because of another man in David's life named Nathan. y'all remember this account? Where Nathan, he comes to David and he calls him out for his sin. And he tells this really powerful story about this this poor guy with the lamb and this rich guy who had everything. And the rich guy took a poor man's lamb. I'm really i'm really doing a brief overview on that story. But all have to say is this he he's telling the story to David. what How does David respond?
00:18:31
Speaker
He gets furious. He's like, you've got to kidding me. That rich man needs to be punished. he Something needs to happen to him. And Nathan looks at him and like, guess what, dude You're the rich man.
00:18:43
Speaker
ah David, you just see him just break. Because everything kind of comes to fruition for or it comes to clarity for him. He realizes that he is the broken man who needs to repent of his sin, come before the Lord and confess it to return and to turn from his sin to seek restoration. That's what Psalm 51 is all about if you haven't read it.
00:19:04
Speaker
And how does God respond to David when he comes broken to him? Does he reject him? No, he restores him. He restores him. In the same way, when the sheep goes away, does the shepherd just leave his sheep and follow the 99?
00:19:19
Speaker
What happens? if We know the story. No, the shepherd leaves the 99, goes and finds the one sheep, and what does he do? Does he just say, ah found you. You're good. Just keep playing.
00:19:31
Speaker
No, he picks him up. He brings him back, puts him back in the fold with the rest of the sheep. He restores the sheep. And many of you, and or some, I say many of you, some of you in the room, that's where you're at. You need to come a before the Lord and you need to seek restoration today.
00:19:49
Speaker
You've been hiding a sin in your life. You've been hiding something in your own life. And, and, and I'll, you know, I'll even confess be my own life right now. Last time when I'm holding Libya at three o'clock in the morning, I got real frustrated because she wouldn't sleep.
00:20:01
Speaker
I had to confess to that this morning. It's like, Lord, this is such a precious gift that you've given me, but yet I'm getting angry at a four month old who doesn't know anything. It sounds silly, right? But the reality is that we need to confess these things in order to find restoration, to bring peace into our soul.
00:20:19
Speaker
And this is what what the students were learning about. On the third day, though, we not only learned about God's peace, God's restoration, but we we learned about his good presence.
00:20:31
Speaker
And how even though, verse 4, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
00:20:42
Speaker
i don't know how many you guys in this room this verse resonates with. Many of us, if not all of us, have walked through dark valleys in our lives. And if you haven't walked through a dark valley yet, just hang on.
00:20:54
Speaker
Because it's coming. We're all going to walk through We have these mountain peak highs and we have these really dark valley lows.
God's Guidance in Dark Valleys
00:21:02
Speaker
But the reality is is that we have a God. We have a good shepherd. Again, when we go back to how the how the good shepherd finds the the green pastures and the still waters to lead the sheep into, we have a good shepherd who has gone before us, who knows the layout of the land.
00:21:18
Speaker
He knows what dark valleys you're about to walk through. He knows what you're going to experience. You want to know why he knows? it because he came down and he experienced it himself by taking on the flesh of a man and living life and being betrayed, being rejected, being denied by the people whom he loves and he came to die for.
00:21:38
Speaker
Even his own inner circle rejected him at one point.
00:21:43
Speaker
So he knows exactly what you're going through. Don't feel like you're the only one in this world who's in your particular situation and there's no escape from it. Because reality is that the good shepherd has already gone before you.
00:21:56
Speaker
And he has prepared a way for you to come out of that valley. It all comes down to you choosing to surrender your pride and to trust in him as the good shepherd to bring you out of it into a place of peace, in a place of rest.
00:22:10
Speaker
Two things I really love about this particular verse though is the the imagery that David talks about with the rod and the staff. The rod the staff. The rod signifying correction, inspection, or protection Right? This is a tool that shepherds would use to to correct their sheep, to guide their sheep, and even to protect them from other predators.
00:22:31
Speaker
Then you have the staff. The staff signifying guidance and direction, connection and comfort, and even a tool to draw sheep close. So when the sheep are acting a fool, right, when they're not wanting to listen, not wanting to obey, when they're going their own way, it's a tool for them to draw the sheep back to himself, to comfort them, to to guide them, to direct them.
00:22:57
Speaker
How often does the Lord do that with us? Sometimes it's uncomfortable. But when you actually get drawn back in you actually go and you and you recognize your you repent and confess of it, and he brings you back.
00:23:10
Speaker
man, there's a great peace that comes into your heart. Right? I really hope so. I hope that if you are a believer in Jesus today and you have you repented and confessed of your sins, that you have felt a peace that surpasses all understanding in your heart and your mind, as Paul talks about later in Philippians.
00:23:28
Speaker
If you have it, come down. Let's have a conversation about it because I would love to to tell you more about how you can find good peace from the good shepherd.
00:23:38
Speaker
But all this is because of his presence. Being in the shepherd's presence brings peace. It brings assurance. It brings comfort. So the two questions, though, that they asked the students during this week on this particular day was, where do you need correction and protection?
00:23:56
Speaker
Where do you need correction protection? And where do you need direction? Or what steps can you take to draw closer to the Lord? These are two really good questions for us to answer this morning.
00:24:10
Speaker
The last thing, though, before I invite the students up is this, is the day for the good life. So when you when you experience the good peace, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
00:24:21
Speaker
He makes me, the he leads me into green pastures, or he guides me inside still waters, he restores my soul, right? Then you got the good restoration. And then you got the good, the good presence, right?
00:24:36
Speaker
And then ultimately leads up to this one, the good life. Verses 5 and 6 is Psalm 23, right? You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
00:24:48
Speaker
You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. What a picture that is of a God who is loving, who is ready to come down, and who is ready to prepare a place for you.
00:25:01
Speaker
He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Y'all get this picture? doesn't matter what's going on around you. doesn't matter what Satan's throwing at you or his demons are throwing at you. doesn't matter what circumstances you're facing.
00:25:12
Speaker
The Lord is going to prepare a good table for you to rest at. He's going provide for your every need. And he's going to anoint your head with oil. He's going to bring healing. He's going bring rest. He's going bring position. bring honor to you for those of us who remain faithful to him.
00:25:28
Speaker
So he's going to anoint our head with oil and our cup is going to overflow. And in verse 6, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. What hope and assurance of the future hope that David is talking about here. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. You see, we have a tendency of thinking, or a lot of people have tendency of thinking, that God is this vengeful, evil God who's sitting up front, who's absent, and that he's allowing evil things and bad things to happen to good people here on earth. That's not who our God is.
00:25:58
Speaker
Our God is one who goes before us. He brings mercy. He brings goodness. and And it will follow us all the days of our life if we choose to accept him as our king and as our Lord and as our God, as our good shepherd.
00:26:12
Speaker
You have to allow him to lead you and guide you. And these things will come to you naturally. Because that's who God is. That's his character. God is love. And what I mean by that is that God is love, but yet he's also righteous. He's also holy. He's also just. He's also vengeful. He's also the avenger, right? But yet he's also one who brings mercy and grace and peace to those who choose to confide in him.
00:26:37
Speaker
What hope, right? It says there in the last of it, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
00:26:49
Speaker
This is talking about the future kingdom. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And the good news is this. For anyone in this room today who has believed in their heart confessed to their mouth that Jesus is Lord and that God raised them from the dead, this is our anthem.
00:27:06
Speaker
This is our song. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. As soon as you choose to receive Jesus into your heart, heaven comes down to earth right here, right now. We are part of God's kingdom now. Not in distant future.
00:27:23
Speaker
Now. We get to experience it right here, right now if we choose to follow him and abide in him and allow his presence to be with us. And some of you in this room, some of y'all may need to do that today. Some of y'all need to make that decision today.
00:27:37
Speaker
Y'all been desiring it and you just didn't know how. Today, let today be that day. Find hope. Find peace. Find assurance. Because we had students at camp this past week who did do that.
00:27:50
Speaker
They experienced the goodness and the faithfulness of God and his peace and his rest. And they surrendered their life to him. And now, guess what? They're singing this anthem. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I get to dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever and ever. Amen. Amen.
00:28:07
Speaker
If that doesn't get you pumped up, I don't know what will.
00:28:13
Speaker
I'm just saying. Maybe y'all need to come to our youth group. I mean, i don't know.
00:28:18
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. I don't think y'all understand. That's the goodness of our God. And god guys, you gotta remember, this is Psalm 23. This isn't the Old Testament covenant.
00:28:30
Speaker
Jesus hadn't even come yet, but yet David is recognizing the fullness of who God is in his glory and his grandeur and his and his holiness. And we are on this side of the cross. We get to see the works of Christ.
00:28:42
Speaker
But yet we don't get as excited as David does. What's wrong with us? I mean, I'm not trying to blame anybody, but i you you see what I'm saying? Like, we are on this side of the cross where we have the presence of the Holy Spirit residing in us day in a day out.
00:28:59
Speaker
But yet we walk around like sticks in the mud. We forget the goodness of God.
00:29:05
Speaker
When we need to allow him to come in and take over and dwell with us and lead us and guide us in these places of peace and places of rest.
Invitation to Faith and Personal Testimonies
00:29:12
Speaker
As Mia alluded it's not just at a specific location.
00:29:16
Speaker
You don't have to go away to find it. you don't have You don't even have to come to church to find it. You can be in the comfort of your home of your own home and find it. Now, I encourage you to be in places like this for fellowship as the body of Christ.
00:29:28
Speaker
But God is he you can he is ready to meet you wherever you're at. You know, i was telling them, like, and I'm sure for all the Pine Cove staffers in the you may have heard this phrase before, too, of the Pine Cove bubble, right?
00:29:41
Speaker
I told them, like, this, and when we're at Fuge, this Fuge bubble, it was catered to them. It was created for them to experience God in a way they'd never experienced Him before. That's what summer camp is about. It's created for them to experience God in a way that they never experienced, right?
00:29:57
Speaker
But the reality is is, a lot of times when we leave places like that, we get sad because we're afraid of what we're going to go back to. right We're going to afraid that we're going back to the real world. I once heard it said by a wise man one time out of Pineco. His name's Jeff Lay. Many you guys may know who Jeff Lay is.
00:30:14
Speaker
But he was telling us as Pinecoast app, he said this. He said, what you experience here this is the way the world was intended to be. Take it home. And bring the world, the real world, the way it's supposed to be back to where you are now.
00:30:30
Speaker
Transform the world that you're part of now. Don't be intimidated by Don't be afraid of Because as Mia said, the God who is there meeting with you at camp or at Pineco Fuge here at the church is the same God who's outside these walls.
00:30:41
Speaker
And he's ready to use you. He's ready to to to to use you ways you never imagined to be used. You just got to confide and abide in him. Allow to lead you into these places of rest.
00:30:53
Speaker
So that's you today, if you've never truly surrendered your life to Christ in a way to where you can experience his goodness, his faithfulness, his peace, his rest, I pray that here in just a few moments, that as we go into this time of invitation, that you need to come talk to me. Pastor Victor's right here. You can talk to Pastor Victor. You can talk to one of his students, because I'm sure that they would love to tell you more about Jesus now, too. You can talk to one of our leaders. Talk to whoever.
00:31:21
Speaker
i don't I mean, it just it doesn't matter who you talk to, as long as you actually just desire to seek to know Jesus and to surrender your life to him. Because the reality is that there's no greater joy, there's no greater peace that you'll ever experience on this side of heaven than knowing Christ Jesus as Lord.
00:31:39
Speaker
He is our great provider. He is our great peace. And the world and everything in it is not going to be able to provide the things that he can't. So again, I extend that offer to you to come talk to me, come talk to somebody during this time of invitation. But for the rest of you in the room, I do pray and I encourage you to pray as Mia requested, pray over these students.
00:32:00
Speaker
You know, it's so easy to look out and feel like that God is not moving among this generation. Well, I this much. We got college students in this room who are serving the Lord faithfully day in and day out.
00:32:12
Speaker
You've students in this room who just went to camp with our youth group who surrendered their life to Christ and who are now on fire for the Lord. God is moving. He's never been dead. He's never been silent.
00:32:24
Speaker
We've just got to be the louder voice now. So pray over them. Pray over the fire that is being rekindled in their hearts and allowed them to go out to be the the image and the light that they need to be. Let me pray over us.
00:32:38
Speaker
Father God, we thank you so much for this morning. We thank you just for the time of that we got to experience at camp with our youth group. Lord, we got to take 28 students up to Jackson, Tennessee.
00:32:49
Speaker
We flew. Everything worked out well. And Lord, you blessed us beyond anything that we could ever imagine. It truly was a phenomenal week. And you moved in ways that would that I never thought you would move, I'm being honest.
00:33:03
Speaker
And shame on me for not believing that. Because God, you're a God who moves and a God who works and a God who is alive and God who is present. You are a good shepherd. And I pray, Father, there's anyone in this room who has never experienced you the way that they would that you desire for them to experience you, the way that these students got to experience you, the way that I got to experience you, Father.
00:33:23
Speaker
ah pray, Father, that this morning will be the time that they will come down and that they will surrender their life to you completely and totally and experience the freedom and the newness of life in Christ today. and Whether it's this morning or even as they leave, I pray, Father, that they'll do business with you.
00:33:38
Speaker
um But God, we again just thank you for the way you love us. You never leave us nor forsake us.
Conclusion and Prayer
00:33:43
Speaker
you You sent your son Jesus to come and die on the cross for for our sins that when we could have this good shepherd.
00:33:49
Speaker
As he talks about later in John 10 where he talks about how he is the shepherd and the sheep know his voice. I pray, Father, for those of us who know him that we will follow him and that we will abide in him and allow him to lead us and guide us.
00:34:00
Speaker
But Lord, just have your way among us. Be this time of invitation. do with us as we leave this place today. May we truly be the hands and feet which you've called us to be in this dark and dying world. And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
00:34:20
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.