Children—Mark Gorgas
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Good morning, everyone.
It's time for the Sunday squad. I've been looking forward to singing the kids songs with you guys, you know, and we're up in the front of the hymn sing and playing the guitar and looking out on all the faces. I love to look around and see who's enjoying singing. I, I love to sing and I love to sing about the Lord Jesus and with his people. And I love to look and see your smiling faces and see you guys that you know the words to the songs. So I hope you know the words to the songs this morning because we have one hymn book to share for all of us, but we're going to sing.
Out of this book, and if you guys can remember songs that you'd like to sing, just raise your hand. So does anyone have a song that they'd like to start with?
A number. Sorry I don't know a lot of your names, but what would you like to sing?
#15.
It's brave, Gideon.
Brave Gideon had 300 men.
A great one to start with. Who else has a song that they would like? Yes.
#2.
A little child.
Is anybody here three or four? Raise your hand if you're three or four. Anybody 3.
Four or seven or some something in between. We have. You're seven. Yeah. I like singing that because it reminds us all that no one is too young to come to the Lord Jesus. You're old enough to come to the Lord Jesus.
Tier 3. Yeah. You're old enough to come to the Lord Jesus, and he wants you to come to him. The door is open for everyone. All right. Who else has one?
Yes.
Number 88.
There once.
00:05:00
OK, before we go on, let's pray. Let's look to the Lord for help. Our loving God and our Father, we thank you so much for the Lord Jesus. We thank you that we know that he was your Son and that you sent him to die. Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for allowing your hands to be nailed to that cross and taking our sin upon you. And we look to you for this little time we have for the children set aside.
We've so enjoyed being together as believers.
And we long for each one of these children to know you, Lord Jesus, as their own personal Savior, to have that faith.
And we pray that you would lead them to salvation this morning if they do not know you. We think of this song we have just sung and think of how our wills are so set against you and Lord Jesus. You can make even the vilest, even the one who is set most stubbornly against you. You can change the heart. And so we look to you for this. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. OK, we'll keep singing for a little bit. Who hasn't given one out that would? We haven't gotten any from over here.
Would anyone like one?
Claire, you always have one.
You have one.
#7.
And his name shall be.
How many of you learned the verse this week and would like to say it with or without help? We can help you.
Just a few, OK, maybe when we get there you guys will want to say it's it's easy.
And it means a lot. OK, anyone over here have one?
You have a song you'd like to sing?
#29.
Genesis, Exodus, Levi.
Chronicles.
Of Sun I take care of my take care of my life.
You might find this a little bit funny. I was thinking as we sang that song, you know what song I probably sing the most?
In meeting, I usually sing in my head, but in a lot of meetings someone gives out a reference to a book of the Bible and I have to sing this song. I sing about 3 words usually in my head and it helps me find the passage. Raise your hand. Does anyone else do that? I sing this song a lot, so I'm glad you guys are learning. It's very helpful. All right, who else has another one? Yes.
Close it.
#8.
00:10:04
It's angry words, so let them never. Could someone help me start that please?
Raise your hand if you can tell me what fellowship is.
Is that a hard word? We use it a lot.
Someone try at least Yes. What do you think fellowship is? Hold on, let me get.
I'm going to get you the microphone if you don't mind.
What is fellowship?
To talk about God, Yeah. We enjoy fellowship together. Does anyone else have an answer? And we talk about God and the Lord Jesus, Cassandra.
Being together, being together. We do enjoy fellowship when we're together. What is the fellowship that this song is talking about? Who can help me out?
It said happy fellowship is broken.
By a single angry word. Now we do have fellowship together through the Lord Jesus, and if we say an angry word to each other, we might break that fellowship. But what is this talking about? What do you think, Logan? You had your hand up happiness. No, I think it's talking about the relationship that we enjoy with the Father, through the Son and with the Son and.
I think of that line often.
That a single angry word can break that fellowship. He is always faithful, but we are not, and we let things come into our lives. Sometimes it's an angry word. Sometimes it's just an angry thought. Sometimes it's just a wicked thought.
And fellowship is easily broken, that relationship we have with him.
We're still his children, He still loves us. But our hearts, when we take pleasure in sin, our hearts become cold and we have to deal with those things before fellowship is restored, right?
So we need to keep that in mind as we go about our days. Just very, very little things will make us grow cold and out of fellowship with the Lord. OK, another song. Cassandra 39.
I am so glad.
I say this is the dearest, that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that you are so sweet. Jesus loves me. Jesus spots me.
I am so glad that she felt so deep.
Beautiful. Let's do one more before we go into the verse. We have someone down here. You gave one out already. Anyone that didn't give one out, yes.
46.
In the house and out.
OK, I think Mr. Roach told us that the verse is in John chapter 10, verse 11. Does that match what any of you learned? Raise your hand if you learned that verse. John 1011. Great. OK, I'm going to read it to you.
This is the Lord Jesus speaking. He says I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. John 1011. So hopefully we have a few volunteers to say the verse. Raise your hand if you'd like to say it. OK, we'll start right here. John 1011.
The Good Shepherd The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. John 1011. Very good.
I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd who giveth his life for all the sheep.
On John, John 10. John 1011.
John, 1011.
I'm a Good Shepherd, a Good Shepherd.
Give it, give it his love for the sheep. John 1011. Very good. It's his life that he gives for the sheep.
Like to say it?
John John 1011 and the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd given it.
00:20:04
Very good.
John 1011 I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Pass it right there.
On the good Sabbath, the good supper gives life for the steep. John 1011. Perfect, thank you. You look like you'd like to say it.
John, can I?
10/11/10.
I am.
Johnnie Lynn I am and the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, the shepherd shepherd, the Good Shepherd giveth. The Good Shepherd giveth life. Life for the sheep or sheep very good. And what else must say it?
OK, anyone over here?
Feeling brave?
I am the Good Shepherd. He gives his life for the sheep. John 1011. Thank you.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. John turn 11.
John 1011. I'm the Good Shepherd, The Good Shepherd give us his life for the sheep. John 1011.
Thank you.
Should I say it?
John 1011 I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. John 1011 Very good.
John 1011. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. John, 1011.
John 1011 I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd giveth his life where the sheep. John 1011. John 1011 I am the Good Shepherd that give his life for the shape done. John 1011. OK you guys did great. Is there anyone else that's not in the front row that would like to say it okay?
Would you like to? Are you just being volunteered? OK, we can let the volunteer do it.
Would you like to OK a good sport?
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd give his life for the sheep. John Tenilla.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. John, 1011.
Pass it right, That's OK.
I am the Good Shepherd.
A good ship.
Give him life.
Or the sheep. John 1011. Very good. Anyone else?
Oh, we have a few more. OK.
And then you can pass it right back when you're done with it.
John, 1011.
I am the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd.
Give us his wife for the sheep.
John, 1011.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. John, 1011.
Thank you. Did we miss anyone?
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. John, 1011.
I am.
Good to separate.
Because the bird.
Give him his legs.
For the sea, John.
1011, perfect. Thank you.
OK, anyone else? That was great. I loved hearing you guys say that. I think everyone in here loved hearing you say that. And the Lord Jesus, he's the one who said those words, and he loved hearing you say that.
So we know as the Lord Jesus who said those words, but who is the Good Shepherd?
Who's the Good Shepherd? There are a lot of shepherds in this world.
And a lot of them are good at what they do. But who is the Good Shepherd? Clara, the Lord Jesus, He was the Good Shepherd.
00:25:07
You know, when I think of shepherds, I don't know very many, but I've come to know one pretty well, and he's in the Bible. Can anyone think of a shepherd besides the Lord Jesus in the Bible?
Yes, David, Yeah.
And David loved his sheep and he did a lot for his sheep. He had actual sheep.
In the wilderness that he took care of, and there was a time when a lion came against his sheep, there's a time a bear came against his sheep, and he rose up with his own hands.
In the might of the Lord the power was from the Lord, and he slew that lion and that bear with his own hands.
I was thinking about.
Some of the words that David wrote.
In Psalm 23.
He was a very Good Shepherd, but David also was a bad shepherd at times. Not only did he lead his sheep.
The kind that had wool. But he led his people in the wilderness and he was a Good Shepherd at times.
And you know what one of the things that a shepherd has to do is he has to keep his sheep out of danger.
And sometimes he was a bad shepherd, and he didn't keep his people out of danger.
And he and he didn't stay before the Lord at all times, and he made mistakes. But I was thinking of in Psalm 23 of this shepherd, it says, yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. This was David, he was comforted by the Lord.
When he was in the valley of death, when he was chased.
In the wilderness, when he was in dark places, when he had no friends, he felt the Lord.
Comforting him, and he felt the Lord by him, and he felt the Lord correcting him for the things that he had done wrong.
But our verse is not about David. It was our verse about who remembers who's our verse? The Good Shepherd? Who's it about?
The Lord Jesus. Our verse is about the Lord Jesus. He was the Good Shepherd.
David got out of Communion.
And the fellowship was not there at times in his life.
Because of the his own sins.
But God comforted him and drew him back and brought him back into a place of blessing.
You know the Good Shepherd, Where did his life end? Where did Jesus life end? He gave his life for the sheep. Where was it? On the cross of Calvary.
There was something very, very important that happened there.
I saw some of the kids, I think in the Sunday school lesson yesterday. You had a crown of thorns, right? Think back to that crown of thorns placed on His blessed head.
And think of the humiliation of that crown of thorns.
Here's the Good Shepherd.
He cared for his sheep all the way through his life. He showed only love and kindness to the sheep and he walked in truth. He was always obedient to his father. He always did the will of his father.
There came a time.
The whole cross experience and that leading up to it was agonizing, but there came a time on the cross.
When you could say the Lord Jesus, he came.
To the valley of the shadow of death.
David wrote those words, but I think of the time on the cross, there were three hours. What happened those three hours? What happened to the sun?
Who can help me out? What happened to the Sun? Someone else? You all know the answer, yes?
Was it light out or dark? It was dark. The Lord Jesus was on the cross. It was dark.
The shadow of death.
Had come across everything, but across his own mind and across his whole being, came the weight of sin.
And since my sins, and if you've put your trust in the Lord Jesus, you can say your sins too.
But the difference?
00:30:01
Between what happened with David and what happened with the Lord Jesus, David was the one.
Who had failed, and yet he was the one. When he was in the dark valley, he was comforted.
Who do you think comforted the Lord Jesus when He was there on the cross in those dark hours?
Do you think he found someone to take pity?
Do you think someone came and comforted him or brought him a glass of water to quench his thirst?
Or just put a hand on his shoulder. Or.
Just interceded for him.
Stood up for him, Raised up their voice for him.
The answer is no.
The Lord Jesus had sin placed upon him.
And.
He looked for someone to take pity, someone that could sympathize, and he would cry out from the depths of his agony as those waves rolled over him. And there was none to take pity. There was no one. Can you imagine being somewhere where you felt just the weight of everything upon you, and you were separated from your mother and your father, your friends?
And you wanted someone to just understand what you were going through, at the least.
You wanted to be taken out of it, but no one could even look at you and say I understand what you're going through.
The Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary in those hours of darkness, with that crown of thorns on his head.
The weight of my sin upon him there was number one that could understand what he was going through, and when he cried out, no one answered.
Can you imagine in darkness and you cry out? No one answered.
The Lord Jesus was not comforted one bit, and He could not be comforted one bit at the end of it.
He would cry out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why did you leave me all alone? But there's a very, very specific reason. It's because he was bearing the punishment of sin. And so that's why he said, I give my life for the sheep. At the end of that, he gave up his life. His blood was shed when he gave up his own life.
And because of what he did.
On the cross, because of who he is and where he went and what he did. Now he can say I gave my life for you. I've given my life for you.
And it's yours to take. If you're lost in sin, you don't have.
His life. You don't enjoy the things of the Lord. Maybe you enjoy being at a camp like this because.
You're with your friends, but then when we sit down to talk about the Lord Jesus, you turn everything off because you don't have his life. You only have your own, which is wretched. It's no good if you don't have the Lord Jesus's life. You are on the road to darkness.
OK, at the end of life, if you get to the end of your life or the Lord Jesus comes and he calls away his believers before the end of your life.
Then you will experience darkness.
Then you will experience what it feels like to be all alone.
To not see.
To be in terrible pain that doesn't end and you'll experience.
What it feels like to go through the valley of darkness.
All by yourself.
That's what the Lord Jesus did for you so that you wouldn't have to do that.
And all you have to do.
Is you have to realize that you're a Sinner.
You have to realize that you don't want what God has for you and that you cannot do it.
You cannot be good on your own. You have to realize that. You have to realize that you've sinned and then you need to just come to the Lord Jesus. Think back to that time on the cross where He paid for sin, for your sins. Admit that it was for your sins and ask the Lord Jesus with His blood to wash away your sins and then gone forever.
So you won't have to experience what separation from God feels like.
That's for you to do. I can't do it. The person next to you can't do it. Your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister, they can't do it for you. You have to ask the Lord Jesus to wash away those sins.
00:35:07
Now I did have on my heart another little message.
Concerning the other shepherd that we spoke about, you can turn to First Samuel.
We have.
Do we have 10 minutes left, Tim? OK.
We have a little bit of time left. I've been thinking about how we're coming to the end of this camp. Conferences, camps, time together with believers. They're always refreshing.
And what I have to say is for you children and older ones too, who know the Lord Jesus.
Think of the life of David.
A shepherd boy raised.
Knowing how to take care of sheep and not only knowing how to take care of them, but caring for them. He had a heart that was tender and he had a heart that went after God and after God's things and he feared the Lord and he had confidence in him. We heard about some of the things that David did when he was taking care of his sheep, and everyone knows the story in first Samuel chapter 17, when David was called up from taking care of the sheep and he came out to where?
There was a battle that was going on, and there was a champion who stood up above everyone, and he defied them and defied the army of the living God. And David came out and he was appalled that no one would stand up to this giant. And he had confidence in the Lord. He stood up to the giant and he went, and he took that stone and he slang it into the head of Goliath, and he fell down and cut off his head with his own sword.
David was a champion before that happened. David was anointed.
To be king, he was going to be king someday in Israel.
And the Lord had chosen him. The Lord wanted David to be king, and he was going to make sure that that happened. But the people, they had chosen, someone else we heard about, they had chosen Saul. And that man did not have faith as we know it.
And he was not after God's own heart, but he was there was something that he was very stubbornly after.
What was Saul very stubbornly after he wouldn't give up on, You know, Logan, What did Saul wanted to do?
Paul, he wanted to kill David. He wanted to destroy David. And so every chance he got he would try to take his spear and he wanted to just throw it right through David. He wanted to end his life. He hated him.
And so David spent a lot of time running from SAW.
Was David capable of taking Saul's life? He was.
But he was a man who waited on the Lord, and so he was waiting for the right time, not to take Saul's life, but for the right time to be king. And he knew that the Lord would allow that. We read in Proverbs that even the King's heart is in God's hand.
And every breath that we have is in his hand and he allows everything.
Of everything allows it all. So he knew that one day he would be king, and as he ran away from Saul, there are at least two times we had a chance. He could have taken Saul's life very easily and quietly from him. That he did not very honorably did not, and waited patiently.
In chapter 26 of First Samuel, we read about one of those times, and I'm not going to read through the details because we just have a few minutes remaining. David spared Saul's life again. And the reason I have this next chapter on my heart is because right now, maybe everyone's experiencing a little bit of a high point in their spiritual life. You've come apart from whatever.
Weights you might have had back at home.
Maybe even sin and you're apart from it and you're enjoying being with the Lord's people. You're enjoying.
The things in His Word, because you are a Christian and you delight in those things. But now?
In a couple hours, many of us will leave, and by tomorrow we'll all be gone.
From this place and we'll be back home.
And we're going to go back to our lives.
I've seen this in my own life, that you can go from the highest point to the lowest point faster than you can imagine.
And we doubt that to be true sometimes, and we lose our sense of dependence on the Lord.
00:40:02
So I want to speak to everyone that's here now. When we go home tomorrow, we go back to our routines.
Be dependent on the Lord this man David chapter 27 of first Samuel verse one, it says David said in his heart, I shall now perish. I'm going to die by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines and Saul shall despair of me to seek me anymore in any coast of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand. If we had time, we turn to some of the Psalms and see that.
He knew where his confidence should be, and he had placed his confidence in the Lord, and he knew where refuge and safety were. They were in the Lord. He knew those things very, very intimately. He knew them very much to be true. It wasn't that he was faking it. And yet somehow he loses sight of that and he says this man Saul, who I've spared his life many times, his heart is in the Lord's hand. He then says, Saul's going to take my life and I have nowhere better to go than to the Philistines.
Has anyone in this room ever been in that position?
You're a Christian and maybe you're in school, work, wherever it might be, and suddenly you've lost sight of the Lord and you think that there's nowhere better for me to go than to go and hide in the world. I've done that.
It's very easy to do.
And it makes a fool of ourselves and brings shame to the Lord.
And it brings hurt and disaster in our lives.
You know Saul found out that David went to Gath.
Where Goliath was from. Think about that. And that's where he was hiding.
And we read that Saul gave up chasing David. You know what the enemy of your soul wants you to do.
Give up on doing things like this. He wants you to give up on following the Lord.
And you might feel a sense of ease, if you're willing to do that, from his attacks, if he gets you where he wants you. You may feel a little different sense of security, but it's a false sense of security. And you start to go to sleep. We read that David was there for 16 months.
He was even given his own city for his family to hide out in.
We know some of the very, very low places that David made it to in his life, and maybe we Passover this one. Sometimes David think about it. And his hundreds of men, they left those places in the wilderness where the Lord was keeping them in safety in a cave. And he came and hid in a city given to him by a Philistine king, and he brought his family there and his mighty men, and he placed them there.
And this was actually the second visit that David had made there the first time.
When he came, they didn't even believe him. They knew who David was. This was the one who they had sung in the streets that he had killed 10s of thousands. They knew who this man was and they didn't trust him. If you're a believer, you've you've.
Put up a flag in this world that you're a believer and if you want to retreat from the Lorde things now and you want to go back into the world, you may seek a place there, but you don't have a place there. And so David, he has to, he acts like he's insane when he goes back there. Just he wants to prove to them that he's not who he is and it's not believed. And the things we sometimes go to as believers in the world.
Are far worse than what people in the world might do because we we know the life that we have and then we have to despise it. And we go to extremes that are awful. And in this case here, David hears that the Philistines are going out to battle. You know who they're going out to battle with?
Does anyone know Paul?
With the Israelites and David, you know what he did, this mighty man of God, he gets in line right behind the Philistines, and he says, I'm going to go out to battle against the Israelites. And they don't even trust him to go. And the king wants him to go. And the other men wisely say, do you know who this David is?
And they insist that he not go.
Here a man of God.
Used so strongly and mightily for the Lord, a man who had a heart to go after God.
Standing behind the Philistines to go to battle with them against the Lord's people.
Now don't put yourself too far from that.
00:45:03
Because when we get away from the Lord, we're willing to go against his people.
The Lord intervened. He does that in our lives sometimes when we're his. He works with us. He doesn't give up. And so David is not allowed to go into battle against the Israelites. The Lord spares him from that awfulness. He had been sparing Saul's life all those years and it was going to be taken. And he allows David not to be part in any of that.
David goes back to a city, Ziklag, where his.
Family was and where the families of all his men were. And you know what they find there? This city where he had taken refuge had been burned, and they find it empty.
And desolate. And all his loved ones gone. You know, if you continue in sin.
As a believer, if you get away from the Lord and you continue in that path, you're going to find the Lord is going to wake you up to what you're doing. At some point you're going to find sorrow and David.
Had was so discouraged, You know what? The men who had followed him faithfully in the wilderness, what they wanted to do with David at that point. They wanted to kill him. They wanted to stone him.
And we read there that David at that low point in his life, in spite of his failure.
He didn't continue to run away from the Lord. It says that David encouraged himself in the Lord. I want to encourage each of you. You know the Lord Jesus and you know how precious he is, and you may have wandered from him. You may be far off. You may have gone somewhere where you're with the enemy right now, but.
The Lord is never content to leave us there, and we need to go back all the way to the beginning.
And you may find their heartache and sorrow, and you may find things that bring you to tears and to your knees.
But there, encourage yourself and the Lord. The things you know of Him now, go back to them. You may not even enjoy them at first, but go back to them. Encourage yourself and the Lord. We're out of time, but we find that David, he goes and he recovers. All that had been taken away.
All the things that and all the people that were taken out of that city, the Lord gives back to him, and I won't hesitate to think that.
There were results from that sin that he had to deal with, you know, a family that's been kidnapped. I think there's long lasting effects. But he didn't recover all. We read that David too, he made sure that when he had recovered all that he shared the spoils with all the people.
If you're away from the Lord, don't. Don't be tricked by Satan to think that there's no way back. It starts sometimes when we're just very young. A little child of three or four or seven can come to the Lord Jesus, but a little child of three or four or seven can start on a path away from the Lord Jesus, too. Don't go down that path. If you have go back to the Lord Jesus. Go back to the Good Shepherd.
Consider that He gave his life for you, and when you've recovered, what the Lord gives back to you.
Be willing to share it with others. I'll just look to the Lord.
Father, we thank you so much for your faithfulness. We think of our weakness and being able to share what is in our heart, but we do trust and commit things into Thy care. We just pray that there would be blessing from your word. We ask in Jesus name, Amen.