Summer Camp Lessons

Well, good afternoon again, brethrens. Good to see all of you. It's delightful to be able to get together. I was thinking that since it's been a couple of weeks, it just seems like it's been a long, long period of time since I've been able to be together with you and, of course, with the people up in Fulton.

So, I am grateful to be able to be here, grateful to be able to see all of you here this afternoon. And I do want to welcome our guests today. I know we have at least a few, Jim and Sherry, from way out in the middle part of Kansas. I'm thankful that they are able to be here and hope that you will be able to get acquainted with them a little more after services.

I thought I would primarily give you somewhat of an update regarding the summer camp that I was attending here. Not this past week, but the week before. And, of course, it was a summer camp for teenagers. And, thankfully, we have a number of teenagers who want to be there. It's actually a very exciting week to be able to have a summer camp in a setting in southeast Missouri that is really beautiful. It's very, you know, trees everywhere and a little bit of rolling hills.

And this camp is called Camp Pinecrest, but it's outside the little town called Frederick Town. And we were able to meet with 70 of our young people, and there were about 45 staff. And so we had 115 or so there, which is a pretty good project to be able to feed that many people for over a week, eight days, as we get there.

And as we leave, actually, as it turned out this time, we were able to get there on Friday, and then we were able to...we left on Friday. So, I mean, that's the way the kids came Friday and left Friday. We often do it differently than that, but that's what was available, and so that's what we took, and that's what we were able to use. And I know that we mention these camps to all of you and certainly appreciate your support of the young people in the church.

We have some, as far as younger people here in our congregation, and most of them a little younger than the folks here that we were dealing with today or during this week. But I know that your prayers certainly were answered. I can certainly say that because the camp went very smoothly. Actually, you know, when I looked at the weather forecast for the coming week in Fredericktown, Missouri, for the next seven days, 103, 103, 103, 104, 103, 105.

That didn't look too impressive. And of course it was. It was very hot. It was hot when we got there. It was hot the first day or two. But God was very merciful regarding the weather. We had, the next day, I thought, boy, this is bad. It's almost 100 degrees. But there were these big billowy clouds all around.

And it was really remarkable to see that it felt 5 to 10 degrees cooler if it's in the shade and the sun is being blocked out than if you have just the hot sun. And the next day we had the same type of clouds, and all of a sudden in the mid-afternoon there's this huge rain. And I was looking at it on my phone where I could see, well, what kind of, you know, I didn't think it was going to rain today.

I mean, I knew there was going to be clouds. But then all of a sudden I can see just this little circle right over where we are of rain. And it rained for, I think it rained for 45 minutes. It probably rained an inch. Clearly cut the dust, which was very good. And then it made it much more pleasant for the remainder of camp. The next day or two was cloudy. And the last day or two were pretty hot again. But by that time, everything really had been done.

I know the kids enjoyed being able to come together. It is a wonderful opportunity for young people who are, for the most part, members of the United Church of God. People who are attending services pretty regularly as they're able to. But to be able to get together and, in a sense, develop friendships, be able to develop closeness, and almost, in a sense, somewhat of a support group. Because they all, in a sense, go through some of the same difficulties. They all have a similar challenge as they go back home. And so they were certainly a delight to be able to work with. We always had, whenever we have a camp of this type, of course, it's designed to have activities. The way they're broken up, we had, in our case, this time we had three boys' dorms and then three girls' dorms. And that's the way the camp itself is set up. Physically, it's set up that way so that you could easily align people that way and have supervision and be able to then coordinate the activities from one activity to the next. And we always have every camp, and certainly this one was one that I enjoyed even more, because I felt the focus of what our Christian living classes, which we had each day, and then tried to reinforce throughout the day. And then, in the evening, we had a campfire. Now, with 100 degrees outside, we didn't really need a campfire. We didn't need, you know, they actually have an amphitheater and a fire pit, but we didn't need that. We were in the air-conditioned auditorium, and we put a burning campfire up on the screen.

And that was a good way to have campfire, I can tell you. But it was really, you know, throughout the day, the theme that we were accentuating was calling, honor, and faith. That was kind of the theme, and then what was projected in the lessons that were covered on each day. But I mention these to you for a reason, because I think it's very important that we understand what it is that we as a church and what it is that you as parents, because some of you obviously have younger children who are growing up attending church services and who are becoming aware of God's involvement in your life and then God's involvement in their lives.

And there are dimensions to that that we have covered over and over and over again. I think there are dimensions to that that we have not covered well. That's my opinion, and it's something that I felt that was being addressed more, maybe more clearly. And that was certainly what I wanted to do and the opportunities that I had to be able to help our young people understand more about the relationship that they can have with God, even more correctly, the relationship that they need to have with Jesus Christ.

See, every one of us have got to have a foundational relationship with Jesus Christ. And I think in a sense that has not been focused on very much. I understand how we think, oh, well, we came out of something like that in whatever congregation or church we may have been in in the past. And yet, there are some foundational principles there that none of us can ever get away from and that our young people seem to thrive on as I observe this during our camp sessions.

In our, like I said, we had a Christian living in the morning. We had some of that information kind of accentuated throughout the day with whatever activities were going on. And then, in the evening after supper and after some other activities, the closing was this campfire. And usually, it was not based so much on another sermon. They already had one in the morning. But a story or something about that topic. But then also, some of the kids, each of the dorms, were encouraged to come up with skits.

And of course, some of them were just funny skits. Some of them were all different types of programs. Some of them were just a song or some of them were just maybe stand up and yell something as a group. And so, it was, I think, a very positive thing to add. I don't remember that we had. I think we've had something similar, but not exactly like this particular thing was. One of them that kind of stood out to me, one of the boys' dorms, and it seems like the girls' dorms were better at coming up with ideas of things to do.

The boys' dorms, they did well, but I think they were finding it a little harder to come up with good ideas. But one of the ideas that they had, that there were about twelve or so in the dorm, twelve boys who were in the dorm.

Of course, they had a couple of counselors with them. And they all went up and sat on the bench that was in the front. And so, they were going to do a skit that would involve passing information down from one end to the other.

I guess they would call it the gossip game, probably, as far as a description. And yet, that was kind of the scenario. And they started off on one end, and the first kid says, I need the important papers. Or I need an important paper. That's what he started off saying. And of course, they passed this down, and each one kind of yells it as they go down to the line.

And then finally, the guy on the other end, he grabs a paper, gives it to him, they pass it back. He gets there, and says, no! That's the camp schedule! I want an important paper! And so, they go down through here again, and the guy comes up with another paper, sends it back. Gets down to this end, no! That's a letter from my mother! That wasn't the important paper I wanted. And so, he goes back down to the other end.

They think a little while. And then a roll of toilet paper starts coming back. And so, when it gets to this end, no! This is not the important paper! What am I going to do with this? And of course, one of the kids runs out and says, I know!

And so, they're off to head out into the back of the room. And so, finally, the guy says, look! And so, he whispers to the next person, all the way down. I need the important paper. And so, finally, they start passing down the Bible. And when it finally gets to the end. Now, these are the most important papers. I thought that was very good. That was a really... you know, they thought about that one a little bit. And maybe they'd seen some of it before, but... you know, and I was able to encourage them later.

Well, more than just knowing what the most important papers are, you ought to read. You ought to read the most important papers, because that's significant. That, I think, in some ways might stand out to these kids. But in the program, throughout the entirety of the camp session, as I mentioned, we had this theme of calling and honor and faith that we were going to accentuate.

We started off the sermon on the Sabbath. And, of course, this was a little unusual that the Sabbath was this early. Often it's kind of at the end of the time when we're at camp. But as it turned out this time, it was kind of first. And so, we were able to go over the sermon itself, just regarding the kingdom of God. You know, what we'll be doing in the kingdom of God. What young people will be doing in the kingdom of God. What they can look forward to. I think that was really a very good way to begin. But then, in the next five days, in the next five days, you know, we covered these particular topics.

The first one, actually, and each one of these had memory verses. And so, you might think of, well, do I remember or am I very familiar with all of these? Are these memory verses that I have? Actually, the first, I guess, the first Christian living class was titled, God is Love. And of course, that, of course, was an emphasis that was being made on purpose.

Because it's not simply a matter that you attend church services and you're a part of the church of God. But that God really is concerned about you. And God does love you. And of course, that's emphasized here in John 3, verse 16. You know, all of us are familiar with what John 3, verse 16 is.

What it says. It says, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish would have everlasting life. And then verse 17 follows that up by saying, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. But in order that the world through him might be saved.

See, that emphasis, I thought, was very significant. Because the young people could think about, well, we know that we're on the right path. We've been set on the right path. Or we've been on the path that my parents at least believe is right. And yet, we want them to understand that God is so concerned about each one of us. He happens to be dealing with us now. He's going to ultimately deal with everyone.

He's going to ultimately deal with everyone out of love. He didn't send Christ to the earth to condemn the world. But he did send him to the earth to save the earth. So that was the beginning. That actually was the start of the Christian living sections. The next one was regarding our calling. And of course, there are many verses that you might think of. And actually, the section that was covered by the minister on that day was regarding the fact that God does call people. And of course, John 644 is one of the verses that all of us would be familiar with, that no man can come to me.

And Jesus, of course, is the one who is saying this. No man can come to me unless the Father draw him to me, and then I will raise him up on the last day. That's the foundational Scripture that all of us have come to embrace and understand and realize that God does know us.

He is concerned about us. But what we also find when we look into other aspects of the Bible are that God does deal through families. You can see that in the Old Testament. Clearly, it is true through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, through the entirety of the nation of Israel. You also find him specifically mentioning that he provides a calling that's extended to our children.

When you read Acts 2, 38 and 39, that tells us to be baptized. But it tells us that the promise of the Holy Spirit is extended to those that the Father calls and to their children. It points that out. And so it is. It's a blessing to be able to understand that. Another one of the memory verses was 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26 and 27, of course, where it says God is not called. Some of our friends that Mr.

Parks was mentioning, he's not yet called. Bill Gates, he's not yet called the oracle of Omaha. He's not called the president of the United States at this point. He's not called most of the world leaders. But he's called the weak of the world. He's called those of us who are not noble nor not mighty. But he's called us for a reason. He's called us for a purpose. And he is able to work in us.

He is able to work through us. If we learn to depend on Him. If we learn to grow in our relationship with God the Father and with Jesus Christ. See, that's very important for our young people to understand. It's very important for us to understand and for us to benefit from. The next day, the lesson was regarding honor. And of course, honor is what we not only should give to God, but to our parents, to our families, to each other. There are many different aspects of showing honor. 2 Samuel 2, verse 30, says God will honor those who honor Him. Now, that again was a good emphasis to be able to provide.

It's an emphasis that all of us have to understand. And of course, we respond in respect toward God. The one following that was regarding faith. And actually, I think what was covered there was pretty extensive as far as trying to describe what faith is about, trying to discuss that. But we did hit on Hebrews 11, verse 1, which is a definition of faith. But also, Hebrews 11, verse 6, it says, and this is again one of the memory verses, Hebrews 11, verse 6, that it's impossible to please God without faith.

All of us want to please God. Our young people should come to see a need to please God, to honor God with their life. But to do that is going to require a certain amount of faith. And so, what we had gone through was an understanding that God does love us. He sent His Son to this earth in order to provide salvation for us. He is calling us. We are to respond with respect and honor. We are to live with faith. And the final one that was covered was simply entitled, You Can Succeed.

You can succeed because you have the help available to you. And that help, the memory verses for that were Philippians 1, verse 6. Maybe we can turn over to that because that's not only applicable to our young people, but it also is applicable to each and every one of us.

Here in Philippians 1, verse 6, it says, Paul is stating, I'm confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it, will bring it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ returns to the earth. See, that is a direction that we receive from the Father. It's a direction that we see from what Paul said, that He who has begun a good work in you, He who has started the process of calling and nurturing your heart, nurturing your response to God, He's going to continue to work with you.

He can be depended upon. He can be relied upon. And of course, that's what we find as we read really the entirety of the information that we have in the Old and in the New Testament, that God can be trusted. God can be depended on. And then the second memory verse we had on that day was Philippians 4, verse 13. See, that again should be one that we're very familiar with, because it simply says that I can do all things. I have the power and the access to Jesus Christ.

It says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. See, that's not something I just want to live by and that you should live by as adults. Our young people need to realize that, well, if I'm relying on Jesus Christ, if I'm growing in a relationship and a dependence on Jesus Christ, and I understand He does love me, He is concerned about me, He wants to help me.

Well, then no matter what type of challenge or difficulty or struggle I might face throughout the year, then I can depend on the help. I can depend on the ability to succeed that He has and that He is going to help me with. And so I thought that the focus of what we were teaching, which was not simply just going through activities, but having a well-defined thought about what we wanted the kids at the end of camp to have cultivated, was about pointing us to the power that's available to all of us in our relationship with God and in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

I thought another very good thing, at least it was good for me, because they also had each of the ministers who were there attending the summer camp throughout that week, they had each of us go to one of the dorms at night as we were concluding and be able to cover anything that we would like to cover, be able to answer questions or talk to the kids, and then finally conclude with a prayer.

I know that there were six different nights when I went over to Dorm 2B and was just able to learn a little more about them, be able to become familiar with them, know at least their names, and be able to relate to them something that I think is important to them.

And so there were different ministers going to different of the six different dorms that we had every evening, and I think we found that to be quite productive, and I found, in just getting acquainted with these twelve campers and with the two staff, actually the staff, the counselors for these programs, which are younger people generally, I mean, early twenties or maybe even some of them still older teenage, they were phenomenal.

They actually, you could not have the camp without them. They were carrying a huge load dealing with a group of campers that they were responsible for leading and helping 24-7. They were there, I guess trade-off occasionally, but they were there responsible for working with the campers and helping them be able to get through the day with the different activities and be prepared for whatever's coming up. And the counselors, I think Eric ended up being a counselor of one of the pre-team camps last year, and I don't know that he knew exactly what he was getting into.

I think they assigned him to a boys group, which he knows everything about boys, obviously, since he has three girls. But I know that the camps like we have just simply couldn't function without really, really effective people being able to nurture and help the campers and be able to be with them much of the time, be able to help them through the activities, but also continue to give an example of Christ living in me. That's ultimately all we can do. We can't just project what we think, what we want, but what God wants, what Christ is able to do in adults, as we are extending them love to young people who need them.

They need to be nurtured in that way. That, of course, is what I think we find was a successful conclusion to the summer camps that we've been able to have, and particularly this one that I'm giving you a little report of.

I know, as I went to six different evenings here, I thought that it would be important, from the theme that we are going to emphasize, which, of course, was yet to occur as we were early in camp, that it would be important to focus on helping their young people see different aspects of the way that they could relate to Jesus Christ.

Now, the first section that I pointed out to them, it actually came from one of the questions that the kids asked. We had a question and answer session early on the Sabbath. We had Sabbath services in the afternoon, but in the morning we had enough time to have a question and answer. One of the questions that they asked was, what does this mean that the church is built upon a rock? How do you understand that? What's the right understanding for that? I thought that was a great question. There were a number of questions that we answered throughout an hour there, but that particular question, what does it mean that the church is founded on a rock?

Of course, it's here in Matthew 16, is where this is. Again, I think most of us are familiar with this statement because, again, Jesus is talking to his disciples, he's talking to Peter. And he says, in verse 17, and yet, to be able to just talk about that, the fact that, yes, the head of the church is Jesus Christ.

But each and every one of us, having been brought into the church, we are founded on a rock-solid foundation. And that foundation is Jesus Christ. And that's what we were able to cover there in 1 Corinthians 10.

We'll go there because this is the basis for the remainder of what I want to say here today. I think you might find it interesting to see the outlook that our young people have. And it was kind of surprising to me, but it was something that I think we should certainly think about.

Here in 1 Corinthians 10, this, of course, is talking about Israel and their history. And it says in verse 1, I don't want you to be unaware, brethren, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, they all passed through the sea, were baptized into Moses, and the cloud and the sea, and all drank of the same spirit, or ate of the same spiritual food, and drank of the same spiritual drink. They all drank of the spiritual rock that followed Him, and that rock was Jesus Christ. So in many ways you find the Bible interpreting itself and pointing out how it was that Jesus Christ was the one who was leading the Israelites.

He was the one who was directing Moses, He was the one who was guiding him, He was the one actually who was providing water out of the rock at times, He was the one who provided manna, He was the one who sent the pillar and was leading, or the cloud by day. This all came through Jesus Christ. But when you back up to 1 Corinthians 3, today we want to understand where our personal foundation is.

And I surely hope all of us know that personal foundation, because our personal foundation within the framework of the church that God allows us to be a part of is described here in chapter 3, starting in verse 10. It says, according to the grace of God given to me, as Paul was saying, according to the grace of God that He has given me like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation. And everyone else is building on it. Each building, each builder should choose how carefully they are building on that foundation.

And so, of course, Paul is talking about the structure of the church. He's talking about the foundation that every individual Christian is to have. And of course, he goes ahead in verse 11 to say, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that's been laid, and that foundation is Jesus Christ. That foundation for you and me as members of the church, as baptized members of the church, has got to be Jesus Christ.

And yet the foundation that each and every one of our young people need is an understanding that they can have a relationship with the foundation, with the rock that our lives need to be built on. And that should not be overlooked. It should not be misunderstood, or ignored, or sidelined in any way. Jesus is the rock. And I pointed this out to my dorm the first night, and pointed out that each one of us, I told them, every one of us here need to have a personal foundation.

And two or three of them said, what do you mean? I don't understand what you're even talking about. And of course, that was good that they were at least willing to bring that up.

You know, that doesn't make sense. I don't know what you're saying. And then after we discussed it, after we talked about the fact that, well, every individual that God is dealing with and choosing to work with, ultimately has a personal foundation, and that foundation is Jesus Christ. He's described as a rock. And He is rock solid. That, of course, is what we're told. If we're going to build a house, you need to build it not on the sand, but on the rock.

You need to build it on a sound foundation. And so if our spiritual lives are going to be developed, we're going to have to have the foundation of Jesus Christ. And I was encouraged that throughout the week, because we talked about it, because we'd always go back and go, well, what did we say yesterday? And people would try to remember, the kids would try to remember, well, what we talked about was. And then we would discuss that.

But I emphasize this with the fact that, and of course this was very early in our being there at camp and kind of moving around the different buildings. They had a dining hall, they had a staff lodge where we were, more like a hotel or motel where they have rooms where we could stay.

And then dorm rooms for the girls, dorm rooms for the guys that were scattered in different places, a pretty good size gymnasium, and then other activity fields and areas that we would need to go to. But, amazingly, this being a, it's called Camp Pinecrest, it is a church-related, it's a Nazarene-related church camp, I guess they would call it. And yet, interestingly, some of the sculpture work that they have around are very meaningful.

Whether they are impressed with it or not, it's very meaningful to me, because right in the front entrance, and I walked out there numerous days, right in the front entrance they had a nice looking little spring thing that was coming out through some rocks and sounded great, and it was very, very peaceful, very calming, they had a bench or two that you could sit out there if you wanted to. And then they had the sculpture of two tablets and the Ten Commandments.

And, of course, remember the Sabbath day was on there. It was on there. It was, I mean, it was significant to me. Now, this is the basis for what we want, you know, the base our life on. I mean, those are the rules and the laws that God gives us.

But, ultimately, we also want to know that it is our relationship with Jesus Christ and with the power that He can enable us to have, with the strength that He can give us, that we can endure all things. He said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and that was one of the emphasis that we wanted to have with our memory verses.

But I mention this about the Ten Commandments, of course, being somewhat foundational right at the beginning of the camp, but right in the middle where, you know, the dining hall is here, another building is here, and there's kind of a two-lane road with some stuff in the middle. And yet, right in the middle of this, where everybody has to walk by it every day. If you're going to go to Chapp, if you're going to go to the dining hall, which they, of course, are all going to do three times a day at least, they were going to walk by this particular sitting area that was right there in the middle.

It had two benches, and I think they had worked on it last year or the year before, so it was relatively new. But what it was, was it was a, again, a sculptor type of decoration, I guess you would call it. But it had a bunch of little rocks around it, and then right in the middle, it had this pretty good-sized rock, big, solid rock that extended up, oh, a foot or so. And then right out of the middle of that rock, they had drilled a hole down through the middle of the rock, and right out of the middle of the rock, and then flowing down to each of the sides, was water.

So a big rock, with flowing water, coming out of it. And I told them, if you want to continue to remember, the foundation for your life has got to be Jesus Christ. And He says, He is the rock on which your life needs to be built.

And so you could be reminded of that. Every time you go by the water or the rock, and of course the water could have some significance as well, if you study other things about what He says He has to give. He has living water to give. So there could be a lot of lessons learned as they went through. We covered that the first time, the next day, as I met with them. We talked about Jesus being the bread of life.

In John 6, verse 35. He clearly is the bread of life. He says He is the bread of life. Of course, what's interesting about that passage, in John 6, verse 35, and down in verse 48 and 51, this is something we've gone over here recently, or in the last year or so. How important it is that we understand Jesus is the bread of life. What He had just been doing before He gave this very important discourse was He was feeding thousands of people.

He was providing for thousands of people. And that, of course, was of more interest to the kids. Free food. That's great. That's wonderful. You can remember that, and yet it says, and He follows this up, Jesus directly does follow this up with the statement that I'm the bread of life.

I'm the one that you need to seek. I'm the one you need to have a relationship with. The next day we went through John 15, verse 5, where Jesus says, I am the vine, and you're the branches. And those who abide in Me and I abide in them are going to bear much fruit.

But apart from Me, you're not going to do anything. See, that's an important concept for all of us as Christians, and yet that's an important concept for our young people to realize that, well, to really thrive in a relationship with God and with an appreciation for what God has made available to us, I need to understand how it is that Jesus even describes Himself.

He says, I am the one who can provide the strength, the energy, the power to be able to get you through the promise and the difficulties that you are undoubtedly going to face. And I think all the kids had to acknowledge, yeah, well, I'm running into trouble at times. I have trouble at school, this and that, whatever type of, many of them may even have trouble at home.

That's a reality of what we may run into at times at a summer camp. But I'm the vine, and you can abide in Me. The next day we covered John 10, that I'm the Good Shepherd. John 10 says in verse 11, I'm the Good Shepherd. And the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. See, again, these are all examples or illustrations that Jesus gave to His disciples and that He gives to us and that He gives to our kids.

But in connection with this, and we discussed being a Good Shepherd a little bit, not in detail, because that's really an extensive topic. And so I didn't really focus on that a whole lot, but I did focus on what it says in verse 7. Jesus said to them very truly, I tell you, I'm the gate, or I'm the door for the sheep. And down in verse 9, it says, I am the door. Whoever enters by Me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. See, here you find, not only in this example, that He's the Good Shepherd, but He also describes Himself as the door.

Now, all of us realize that God the Father has to draw us to Jesus Christ. But to be in the sheepfold, to be in the protection of the Good Shepherd, we've got to go through the door. We've got to appreciate the door. We've got to be grateful for the door. And so that was another one of the lessons that we mentioned. The next night we talked about how that God was the Creator, or that Jesus was the Creator. He was the Lord of the Old Testament.

He was the one who set in motion what the Father had said. We should create this and that, the next things. But we want to be appreciative of the fact that He's the Creator. And of course, when you're in an outdoor setting, a rural setting, you can look up. Actually, at that time, the moon was shining a full moon throughout several of the days. And as Dan was describing, being able to see the rising sun and a couple of planets, the immencement of what God has planned, and of course, we can only see a tiny part of that. And we know that, well, that's nothing.

That's just a grain of sand on a seashore of creation out there beyond us. But God is focused, for whatever reason, on this earth. He's focused on human beings. He's focused on the Spirit in man. He's focused on uniting with us the Spirit of God. He's focused on His divine family. And yet, all of that comes to us through the Creator. It comes to us through Jesus Christ. And the last one that I mentioned to the kids, and of course, we were going over each of these each evening, and they were probably wondering, what is He going to bring up next?

And yet, every day, we would discuss what we'd already talked about. And the last one I brought up was in John 1.29, which is simply John's attestation that Jesus was the Lamb of God. He came to offer Himself as a sacrifice for us. He came to redeem us from our sins. He came to give us hope. He came to provide us the benefits that we all want and need, ultimately eternal life, but help here and now. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

And I thought, well, I think I've provided some information that is of benefit to these young people. And I was thinking about this as I thought through these five or six, seven, eight things that we had talked about, about how Jesus Christ describes Himself in a number of ways that are very straightforward, they're very plain, and they should be understandable, even to our young children, even to our little ones. And He said, you know, suffer the little children to come to Me. I want them to know Me. I want them to know what I'm like. But I was really surprised because, as I would each night ask, you know, well, what do we remember? What do you think the... I wouldn't be the only one. It would be somewhat of a primary one. It was one that I did not really think that they would maybe focus on or say. What do you think seemed to be most impressive to them out of these ones that we have mentioned?

Now, actually, one particular boy would tend to bring up this same thing every time. He said, well, it's important for me to know that Jesus Christ is the door. It's important for me to know that He is the door through which we become a part of the sheepfold, through which we are able to be enmeshed in the flock. And so I thought that was pretty profound, that out of all of the others that are really probably more common, this one is not very common. This one is not maybe even understood by some people at all. But it's a very important one. I'm the door for the sheep. And if God is drawing us to Jesus, which He is doing and calling us, then appreciating the door, going through the door, acknowledging the door, acknowledging the way of life that He wants me to live, acknowledging that He gave His life for me. And that, of course, is what the Good Shepherd had done. But that He is the door. And, of course, we could always go back to John 6 and talk a little more about this. Of course, this particular item about I'm the door for the sheep. And they seem to identify with that or to realize that, well, I'm called. I'm a part of the Church. I'm being instructed in God's way of life. I know about the world tomorrow. I go to the feast all my life. I'm aware that the kingdom of God is coming. But ultimately, I need to know that my relationship with God is connected to Jesus Christ as the door. And so, as it says here in John 6, verse 44, or as we could go on over in verse 65, John 6, verse 65, He said, For this reason I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.

This is the Father drawing us to Jesus Christ. But the note that we find in chapter 10 and in verse 7, or maybe verse 9, John chapter 10, verse 9, is once that God has drawn us to the personal foundation of Jesus Christ, well, then we want to be one of the sheep that are described here in chapter 10, where it says in verse 9, I am the gate or the door, whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. He says that's confidence producing. That is reassuring. That is important. Because that's the basis for all of our lives, that we are a part of the sheep hole because we go through the door, we rely on the door, we appreciate what the Good Shepherd is doing for us. And again, what our lesson to the kids was to be was that, well, all of these things are accurate. We're reading you things out of the Bible. We're explaining to you how it is that God puts a plan together and how He is drawing you into that plan. But what you want to understand is that you can grow. You can grow in your relationship with God and with Jesus Christ. Those individuals go together. They're in unison. They're in harmony. The family of God is united. It is in agreement about how they're working with people. It's in agreement about who they call. It's in agreement about the power they're going to make available, not only to us as adults, but to all of our children as well, if we recognize the significance of what Jesus Christ provides. And so, as we were, I think, properly emphasizing to our young people, Philippians 4, verse 13, I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me. That was something that, again, it was interesting to see that whenever we would discuss this in some of our more open meetings, they seemed to understand that statement quite well. They seemed to realize, well, that's something that I really need to emphasize in my life, that I need to appreciate the fact that Jesus came to the earth. He came to the earth in order to provide forgiveness, but also in order to provide strength, to provide strength and power, to be able to deal with any kind of difficulties or turmoil we might go through. And so, I thought that the emphasis that we placed on the Christian living sections of camp were just delightful. It was encouraging to me to be able to see the kids and be able to be with them for a week. I wish I hadn't gone out with such a bang. That was not what I was anticipating. But as I told some of the kids who seemed very concerned, having to put me on the golf cart and haul me out of there, haul me to the nurse, they seemed quite concerned. I said, don't worry about that. I'm injured. But God is with us. You can pray about this, and you can ask God for help, and ask for help from me if you want. But God is with us when things are going well. God is with us when things are not so well. We just want to appreciate the fact that He is always available. He is always able to help us. He's always able to strengthen us, like Philippians 4, verse 13 says. And I think it's good, certainly for all of us, to be reminded of that.