I thank God for the young people at Palm Beach Lakes. They are not perfect and sinless, for they live in an imperfect world, surrounded by sin, but they are sincerely trying to win the war against their souls and are so successful in battle after battle.
One evidence of this is the remarkable Leadership Training Camp conducted this past week with a dozen of our young men and young ladies. The manual each of them received has these words on the cover: “The camp designed to instill the confidence and skills necessary to take an active role in the work of the church.” I sincerely wish you could have seen their diligence and devotion in coming to know the Lord and grow in their ability to serve him.
We live in an age when the faith is under attack. This is true of our young people and especially when they leave for college or move out of their homes into the adult world. We still agonize over those who come to this point in their lives, go to college and return with shattered faith. Because of this, the focus in the camp last week was to emphasize the authority of Jesus and what He taught about salvation and its relation to baptism.
We began the camp on Wednesday morning and looked at every time the words baptism, baptized, baptizing, baptizest, baptizeth and Baptist are found in the Bible. They are found 115 times in 91 verses. We studied every verse and then spent time learning how to use the tools available for deeper Bible study. These dedicated young people spent much of the next two days developing lessons centered around what the Bible, our only authority, teaches about salvation.
It was so rewarding to see the spiritual growth taking place. The end result was a confidence in their hearts that the necessity of baptism for salvation is not some doctrine which has its origin in a man or a movement or a religious tradition, but it is the Creator of the world who decrees salvation depends on one being born of water and the Spirit.
Now, this Friday our teens leave on a mission trip to the Florida panhandle. They will be such a blessing to the churches in that area and there will be additional spiritual growth which comes from just serving the Lord.
We live in an age where there is so much wrong in the world, but there are those places where a beacon of hope shines brightly and illuminates the horizon. Young people at Palm Beach Lakes, we love you, and we thank God for the hope you give to each of us for the future. You are a vital element which makes this congregation so special!