Our service yesterday was a little different from usual. Tim who leads our youth team shared some stories from Newday 2022 and then shared some of the wonderful teaching we heard at Newday this year. He encouraged us to know that God is our shepherd and that we are welcomed home.
He also shared some testimonies and some more stories from the week.
Watch
Listen
Watch the full service
Edited Transcript
Thank you everyone. Can you hear me alright? Man, these sound guys do an amazing job. Well done. Well done. Adam you need to work on your fill game a little bit! There was a moment where a couple of days ago, so Sandeep who's here was leading a game for a number of, I don’t know let's say, like half of the site, so may be 3,000 young people in 12 to 14s. So he was leading them in a game where youth leaders have to do some messy things and there was a moment where, there was some fill time needed and so one of the guys got up and got all the youth leaders to stand up and say oh young people thank your youth leaders and then he got the youth leaders to basically just dance for two minutes, three minutes and I’m thinking “what, when is he going to stop us dancing?” The reason they had to do that was that they had had 200 litres of vegetable oil, fish guts, pig's ears and chicken's feet, just fall on like the first four rows of young people! It was very nearly the best thing I've ever seen in my life and unfortunately James Green had to clear up all of it. So, big up James Green! Thank you!
I know that a lot of us are talking about Newday today and you're probably thinking, oh what is it? What is it like? Listen, let me just say the most important thing from this week of taking our youth group RootID away to join with thousands and thousands of other young people at the Norfolk Showground was that Jesus is King! Amen!
So please don't hear today that Newday is the king, alright it's just it's a bit of fun, yeah, it's a bit of fun where we can gather and actually it's a moment where for days and days and days on end young people are able to just constantly meet their Father God, through Jesus Christ their Lord and He is the king!
So let me be very clear that from the outset, just in case you think that this is Newday hype, yeah, right it is a little bit yeah, okay! There's a bit of Newday hype, right? But actually, but actually, the King here is Jesus and He is good and He is the one that brings healing and He is the one that saves our hearts. Amen? Amen. Amen.
Okay. Well, I would love you to be able to hear a little bit of what went on as well, but just before I do that Naomi and James have very kindly made a little montage video of just our experience onsite. So, if we can see that!
I mean so every year we've been, like literally every single year of Newday, there has been this great big blue big top, you know a huge tent that we’d all meet in and what, may be two weeks before Newday, the company, well maybe a week before, the company pulled out and said that we can't do it. Actually you got there, it just seemed to be some prophetic stuff around that as well so, if you were praying for our weather thank you for praying for our weather because God was so good, God is so good.
We know that we were sent by our church family, we know that we were provided for during the week, so thank you for the food, thank you for sending us with meals! Thank you for your investment as a church in this generation of young people! They are so special and such a joy to be with and very much part of our church family!
Now some of you might have seen the final shots on the little review video said, “thank you for your booking for Newday 2023”, which is open already! So young people if you're wanting to head there, start talking to your parents about it now! 31st July – 4th August 2023, we're already signed up as a church so we're going, there's space for you so come along!
Start talking to your parents about it now and I mean this that actually if you think that you would struggle to afford to go as a family, then please come and talk to me about it because we'd love to be able to help you in that as well okay!
I just want to talk to you a little bit about some of the things we heard. Is that okay?
If you’ve got a Bible with you, why don't you open it or scroll to. Do you know, I think if I scroll on my phone at the moment, it's going to end up, I've got a Ukrainian version of the Bible on my phone at the moment because, it's so good to have Mark and Rostic with us today! They were with us at Newday this year and they had only arrived literally days before Newday started and came along, and wholeheartedly jumped in on the Newday experience! We love you two! Thanks so much for being with us.
Yeah, so if you open your Bible to the book of Psalms, the Book of Psalms weirdly begins with the letter P. Starts with the sounds that starts with a P, so if you can find Psalms in your Bible that means songs and there are songs written by people to God often. Sometimes they weren't just to God. They were sometimes telling about his glory and we're going to have a look at Psalms number 23. So, if you were in your Bible and you can see some numbers in your Bible, the big numbers are what we want. So, Psalms, big number chapter twenty-three and we're going to read the whole thing.
I’ve just asked Jen if she’d come and read, but she’s got no voice, so does anyone else want to come and read Psalm 23 for me? NIV or ESV I'm happy either.
Yeah. Come on come on Lucy. Come on Lucy. Let's go.
Lucy – “I'm reading NIV if that makes a difference for anyone. The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, 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. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house Lord forever. Amen.”
Thank you so much Lucy. That's the word of the Lord. You probably, you've probably heard that Psalm a few times before, maybe. Maybe it's the first time you've heard it. Lord, I pray that we would hear your word afresh today. Would you help me as I talk about it for a little while just to, to hear your words not mine, would you speak to our hearts we ask, in Jesus name, amen. Amen.
So, Psalm 23 starts off with this.
The Lord is my shepherd. What does that make you? He yeah it makes you sheep okay. Alright so if we were going to have an intelligence test for animals, okay, if we were going to have you know when you're eight and you go “oh what's your favourite animal?” “My favourite animal is a cheetah because it runs really, really fast or like it's the blue whale because it's the biggest or it's the Peregrine Falcon because it can fly the fastest.
Anyway, anyway the point is you choose, you choose one of the headliners don't you? Yeah? Have you ever heard anyone go my favourite animal is a sheep? Ever? No? No! No one says that. Why? Because they're a bit dumb. They're a bit dumb aren't they? They're a bit silly. But maybe because they're boring, maybe like, I'm sorry sheep but look they're just not the best are they? They're a bit silly. They get themselves into trouble. You're more like, you know, “the reason we have fences in the countryside is to stop them wandering and getting caught in bushes and wandering out into the roads” and the Bible here speaking the truth in love, is going you lot (and me) are like sheep, you get yourself into trouble all the time. You need fences around you. You go wandering off into bushes. You get caught up in stuff. You don't know where to go. You're just a bit silly, yeah and that's what the Bible is implying here.
If the Lord is our shepherd, we are sheep and sheep are bit silly! So, there's more, there's more to it. There's good news here because alright we're not sheep! Actually, the Bible says we are made in the image of God. Okay so sheep aren't, people are! So, so if we are made in the image of God, we're like Him and yet the prophet Isaiah says, we all like sheep have gone astray. We’ve each gone in our own direction. So therefore, if you've got sheep going off everywhere in their own direction, what do you need? You need a shepherd, you need a shepherd who's going to come and bring the flock back together, they're going to herd the sheep together and take them on to what's next.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. Why do you need green pastures? Well, if you're a sheep it’s so that you can eat! He gives us the food, the food of His word and gives us nourishment and sustains us because we are sheep and we need food and the Lord is our shepherd. We often talk; can you think of any other Bible stories where there are shepherds, can anyone think of any other stories in the Bible? The Lost Sheep, so this is where the shepherd has to leave ninety-nine and go after the one silly sheep that has gone and got themselves lost okay. The shepherd has said, this lot are okay, they're in safe pasture and the shepherd needs to go and get this other sheep and carry the it back. Yeah! Tough shepherd.
Any other places in the Bible we hear about David, this Psalm actually is written by David. But David was a shepherd as a young man, as a boy he was a shepherd and looked after his father's flocks and do you remember he was, he was all set up for taking down Goliath the giant king, so the boy David was ready to take down this huge giant Goliath and what had prepared him? Because he was used to taking down bears and lions who were coming at the sheep, so he was already ready to protect the flock. David was a real-life shepherd.
Actually, we need someone who can guide us, lead us to food, protect us and the Bible says that we need protecting because in the food chain if you think about sheep again. Like the only person that has to worry about, well the only thing that has to worry about, “am I going to get got by a sheep” is the grass. Okay? Yeah so, the sheep aren't going to eat anything else, but you can think of all kinds of animals that are going to come and try and prey on sheep and eat them. Yeah, they need protecting!
In fact, I spoke earlier didn't I, when I was talking about Cain and Abel and the Lord says to Cain. Um sorry. I get sometimes I get these two guys mixed up in my mind. The Lord said to Cain why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? Why are you wallowing and upset? Why are you staying in this frame of mind? Because if you do what is right will you not be accepted? But if you don't do what is right sin is crouching at your door ready, it desires to have you like an animal, just like ready for its sheep, ready to come and get you but you must master it, you must master this! There's this sense that actually we need protecting because sin is right there; we need guiding because we could get into trouble and sin is right there waiting for us.
Paul talks about in his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul says that look, I'm trying to do good stuff and every time I try and do good stuff, I find this law at work, the evil is right there with me. This is real stuff! Have you ever found that you, ever had that sense that your heart is directed to God and yet “oh I just I can't seem to stop doing this. I can't seem to stop thinking about this. I can't seem to stop letting my mind dwell on what is difficult and bad. I can't seem to stop thinking about that injustice. I can't lift my head high” and in all these things sin is right there ready for us. This is real stuff!
We need a shepherd who is going to lead us. He's going to lead us to green pastures. He's going to lead us beside quiet waters and restore our soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness. Taking the wrong stuff that I want to do and put upon Him and giving me all the good things that Jesus has ever done they’re given to me and then He says “go in that direction, go that way, keep going, this is what to do, follow my example. This is what I'm like”. Lead me in your paths of righteousness.
The Psalm then goes on and it talks about the shepherds rod and a staff, again probably to guide us, probably to protect us from the predators and then comes out into this wonderful, expansive bit in the song. Look at this v5, “you prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies” Okay? So, I'm in the middle of my enemies and actually I've got a banqueting table out here ready for me. I've had a feast laid out, even in the midst of hard times and things that enemies trying to get me, sin that would be trying to get me. “Lord, you've prepared me a feast. You anoint my head with oil so that my cup it overflows”. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Very clearly, we had these two quite big themes being talked about at Newday, where okay we're sheep, we need a shepherd, we need someone who is going to protect us from sin, from evil lurking, ready to master us if we let it but then surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the, in the what? In the house of the Lord forever!
So, we had these ideas of needing Jesus, Him being the good shepherd but also about Him being the cornerstone. So, buildings have moved on a little bit since, you know in the last 2000 years or so but the idea is still the same. You have one true foundation stone, a cornerstone that you can build the rest of the house on, okay? That actually, if that is true then you can align it and the rest of it (the building) gets aligned together. We hear about that in 1 Peter 2 and this is in I think v4 or v5 “as you come to him the living stone rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him (talking about Jesus here as a stone), you also like living stones are being into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”. In scripture it says “see I lay a stone in Zion a chosen and precious cornerstone on which we can build everything around and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame”. The one who trusts in Jesus will never be put to shame. This whole house, this family that we're building right here in Jubilee, this church that we are part of across Derby, across the UK, across the world, is a house of the Lord, that is built on a cornerstone of Jesus and we are being built into it as living stones. We are we are a household of the Lord!
Ephesians 2 talks about it, talks about dead things becoming alive but it also talks about how we are no longer Sons of Wrath. We are now members of God's household. Imagine that, imagine, we are now part of a royal household. Imagine having a place in a palace to go and not just to go as a servant but to go because you are a son or a daughter of that family, that royal household, that palace! Jesus said, “I'm going to prepare a place for you and in that house there are many rooms” and that's not somewhere where we are just going, to but it's somewhere that he's called us to now as well and as members of that household. So often we come into the household, we come into the house and we go, right, wow, this is nice house and we kind of just like we get to go as far as maybe the tourists would go, you know like you go and see a palace or something and it's like oh you get to go into the great hall and you still got your backpack on and it's like wow this place is amazing and you stay there all day and you don't take your bag off, you don't open up your bag, you don't settle in because, you got a room upstairs that you could go and chill in. You could go and unpack your things and put it in the room. You could come downstairs, you could put your feet up on the table, you could watch a telly, you could you could go and get yourself something from the fridge and yet we're just hanging out in the hallway going, it's pretty cool. Sort of keeping our bag on because maybe I want to actually, I might leave again in a bit.
No, He's saying, you've come home! You have come home! I don't want you going again in a bit. I want you to take your back off, I want you to be at home! Put your feet up, relax! You're welcome here as part of this family. You don't need to go anywhere else and I wonder as we come to a close, listen, is there young people, RootID, leaders coming off this high of Newday and we’ve still got our bands on here, it's not actually about, it's not about your bands be being on, this is nothing about Newday per se what we've heard from the Lord, He is saying, I want you to stay longer than a band, a wristband that will let you in, this wristband we’re wearing expired yesterday. You know there's no expiration date on your membership in the house of the Lord. I don't want you going away again.
So listen we’re going to finish here but for some of us we've still got our bags on, for some of us we're ready to just go actually, we’re saying “I'm not sure I want God to see everything that's inside my bag”, some of us we're saying, “I'm not sure I deserve to be in that room”. For some of us it’s “you know I'm in so much pain I can't walk up the stairs to get to the room prepared for me”, what I mean is physical pain.
Listen if there are things that you know in your heart that you would love to pray about, that you would love to respond to the Lord on and say Jesus actually I do want to stay. Jesus, I do want to be here! Thank you for preparing this room for me, Lord, I don't want to be in pain, in this room anymore. If that’s you we will pray for you! So please don't go home today thinking “oh man I missed it. I missed the opportunity”. There are a whole bunch of people here today who have seen the power of God in healing and would love to pray for you! There’s also a bunch of people here today who've seen the power of God in salvation and would love to pray for you! A bunch of leaders who’ve seen that and would love to talk, to pray that through and talk that through with you, if you've got any questions about it, but He is our God!
Should we stand? We'll just finish in prayer.
Lord Jesus you've prepared a house for us. It's got many rooms. You're guiding us to it and Lord I want to ask for anyone here today any of my brothers and sisters. Anyone who's just looking in who says “I want to stay, I want to stay in this house, I want to stay in in the royal house that you have made for me”. “Lord, I want you to guide me in your everlasting paths and that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever”. Lord let me ask for my brothers and sisters, can we can we unpack our bags in our rooms now?
As you just as we keep our eyes closed for a minute, I'm just aware that we're going to finish soon and we're all going to go and it's going to get noisy. So just while we're quiet and we've got our eyes closed. I’d just love us, if you would like to be prayed for today. Would you just lift your hand? If there's something that you're feeling there's a sickness, a pain that you'd like us to pray for. We'd love to pray for you. Would you just put your hand up?
If there's something that if you're going, “actually I'm fed up with just going to the house and away, to and from and actually you'd like us to pray for that. Would you just put your hand up as well?
Thank you, while we got our eyes closed and it's quiet okay, so if you put your hand up you can put them down now that's grand and we'll come and pray for you. Come and see us at the front in just a moment. If you didn't put your hand up you still want prayer that's absolutely fine. You can open your eyes.
So how good it is to be with you today! This is the first time ever we've been able to do it this way, to share immediately what's happened at Newday, like literally the day after, but there is one final story I want to send you out with.
So, many of you will have met Poli who's not here today but she's from Ukraine. Her mom's here today. Hello, hello, Alina. You know, it was an open top event right? There was no top, sky top and there was this big military plane went over at one point and you can imagine with what's going on in Ukraine, that sort of thing sort of gets you on edge a little bit and then we're relatively close to an airport and there was overnight sort of 2am there were lots of planes going over and Poli was getting quite sort of nervous like having a panic attack kind of thing, yeah quite understandable!
Anyway, I didn't know anything about this until the next morning, Poli and Ella were sharing a tent with another girl, Lisa in there as well and in the morning they're all asking, there was someone in our tent last night! Did, did you come? Or someone else, we heard a man's voice in our tent last night and I think (by the way this isn't, this isn't a bad story okay), it's not going anywhere right! There were no boys in girls tents or anything okay, nothing, nothing like that happened okay! So much so, that they came to the male leaders asking “did you come, did you come into our tent last night?” because Poli was having this panic attack and she heard someone speak to her in Ukrainian saying “Poli it’s going to be okay. Something like this” and Ella said, “yeah, well, actually I didn't hear it in Ukrainian but I heard it in English” and like literally, all of us were like, “well, like no”. We were, we were busy trying to stop the boys from playing cards in their tent but that was a but “no, none of us came anywhere near”. The only explanation that we have is that it was someone from heaven, maybe an angel. I've never known anything like that before but everywhere we looked this week, there was just like, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, everywhere we look today, Lord, open our eyes to this. To see, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
When we leave from here, everywhere we look, he's put eternity in our hearts, remember? Jesus, lead me to them. Jesus, lead me from that. Jesus, lead me home. Isn't He good Jubilee? Yeah? Isn't He good?
You can watch and listen to other series and talks by visiting our media page: jubilee.org.uk/media
Disclaimer: All talks on this website are the speakers own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the position of Jubilee Church, ChristCentral or Newfrontiers.