HT Chapter 5 (Friday Evening)

Game Tug of War:

Say: Who thinks they are super strong?

Okay I need 4 of our strongest guys to volunteer by raising their hand

I need 4 of our strongest girls to volunteer by raising their hands.

Tonight we are going to play tug of war.....

Wow we had some pretty strong people playing tonight!

1. Who is the strongest superhero you can think of?

Describe his or her strength.

2. What are some ways people develop their strength?

Tonight is our final night of camp. Crazy huh? It always goes by so fast.....Tonight we are going to look at the last part of or verse this week.-

Mark 12:30 CSB

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

Tonight we are going to talk about Loving God with all of our Strength.

Now remember this verse is not a list of items that we need to check of instead it’s meant to be lived out as one idea.

So we are to love God by giving him our hearts, our inner beings (mind and emotions) our mind (by not being conformed to the worlds patterns and then lastly with all our strength.

Whether you feel like the strongest person in the room or it has been confirmed that

your strength is still full of potential, we have a challenge for you today as we wrap up

our "All In" series.

We've been looking at a passage from Deuteronomy that was later quoted by Jesus in

Matthew.

Copyright - Ministry To Youth 5

Throughout the last three weeks, our point has been that we are to give all that we have

to God, holding nothing back, to truly be "all in."

Let's look at that quote one more time, this time from a biography of Jesus written by a

doctor named Luke.

In this account, Jesus asks the so-called expert in religious law about the command and

this is his reply:

Read Luke 10:27.

The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,

all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.

We talked last week about how the word mind was added when they translated the

original Hebrew of Moses words into the Greek of their day so that it would make sense

to people listening.

Today we have a new translation issue.

The word strength that was in the original Hebrew and now shows up in the English

translation of the Greek is unusual.

Usually, this word was used as an adverb.

It described the "muchness" of something.

And if they really wanted to make a strong description, the Hebrew authors would use it

twice to emphasize "much muchness."

So, although it is usually translated in English as "strength," the word here would be

most accurate if it was "muchness."

Of course, that may not make it very clear to you.

So what Jesus is saying or what he is quoting Moses as saying, is to love God with

everything you have, devoting every possibility, opportunity and capacity to honor God

and love your neighbor as yourself.

Wow! That's much muchness!

But...that sounds like what we've been saying all along.

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This whole passage is not so much about the individual words as it is about putting

them all together and describing how to love God with everything you have and

everything you are, being "all in."

The problem is that everyone is so weak.

I don’t mean physically.

Obviously, we have seen today how some people are physically stronger than others.

But when it comes to living the kind of life God wants us to live, we're weak and

imperfect versions of what He has in mind.

We'll look today at words from one more of Paul's letters to explain this.

If you remember from one of the last two weeks, Paul was a follower of Jesus who

wrote a bunch of letters to Christians to help them live this "all in" kind of life.

Today, we're looking at a quote from one of several letters he wrote to a church in

Corinth.

Read 2 Corinthians 4:7.

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars

containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not

from ourselves.

Paul is using symbolic language, so let's break it down a bit.

The light he is talking about is the good news of what Jesus has done for us through

His sacrifice on the cross.

It is bright, like the light we would use in an image or video to symbolize hope.

He says we are like fragile clay jars.

Some of you may totally relate to this.

You have never been the strongest person in the room, and you may find yourself being

hard on yourself for that.

However, physically, some people can build up muscle mass easier than others for a

variety of reasons - some out of your control, like the genetics you inherit from your family.

Other people work really hard at it.

We talked about the mind last week and how some people really excel and do well when it comes to tests that involve the mind.

Well, we also have people who do really well at tests that involve the physical body.

You are probably the ones who love gym class and playing any kind of physically competitive activity.

You are probably the ones who shout the loudest and cheer the hardest when we announce we're going to play dodge ball.

Am I right?

Here's the truth.

No matter how strong or weak our physical body is, we all struggle with a weakness

that has to do with the choices we make.

If we were strong that way, we would always do what God wants us to do, always make

the wise choice, and always think, speak, and act just like Jesus.

But neither I nor anyone I know comes close to being perfect like Jesus.

That's still our goal, but we fall short.

So when that is the measurement for strength, you understand why Paul compared us

to fragile jars.

If you were to think about how well you do at being perfect in honoring God, wouldn't

that fit as a description for you, too?

So is Paul saying that God wants us to be weak so He can show off how great and

powerful He is? No!

Paul isn't saying our purpose is to be weak.

He is saying that even though we are weak, that doesn't limit us being "all in" with Jesus.

In fact, God uses that weakness as an opportunity to make sure people know that the most important work and greatest power come from God who saved us and is offering rescue from sin to anyone who wants to accept.

So let's take a moment to do some more personal evaluation today.

(Insert your personal story here or tell this one about a friend of yours.)

Do you think Hudson Taylor felt very strong? From the time that he was a child he was often sick. Then later on in life he got so sick that he had to leave the mission field.

I’m sure he was so sad. I am sure that he felt like was failing God because he just wasn’t strong enough to continue. I’m sure he thought I wish I was like so and so, thier so always so strong. But was God done with Hudson Taylor. No! Absolutely not. When he got home God used him to recruit many more missionaries to china. Now many people would be used just Like Hudson Taylor was used but now thier was many more of them.

So let me ask you this question. When God used Hudson Taylor to recruit many more missionairs did God accomplish more or less through Hudson Taylors weakness. More right.....You See God used Hudson’s strength or lack of it for his eternal purposes.

When we compare ourselves to others, we'll either feel pride because we think we are so much better than those who are weaker than us, or we feel depressed because we are not as strong as others.

Either way it is bad because it is all about us.

If the power in our lives came from ourselves, we'd each be out to be famous, powerful, and rich, focused only on us.

But when we have a healthy perspective, like Paul, that we are not perfect, we can be humble, thankful and excited that God is willing to share His good news and hope with other people through us.

We love God with our "muchness" when we allow the power of God to shine through us so that people can see how much God has and is helping us, and that He can do the same for them.

What does that mean for you this week?

Are you someone who needs to take a step back and humbly thank God for all He hasdone because you have spent too much time thinking that it was all about you?

Or are you someone who needs to get up and thank God for all He has done, realizing that you don't need to compare yourself to others anymore since the only true strength comes from God?

Depending on how the word for strength is translated, the focus could be on power, wealth, or the mind.

Last week we talked about how important it is to have a Bible-reading habit to love God with your mind and to know how to resist the world's attempt to press you into its mold so that you instead can allow God to be constantly transforming you into a new person, more and more like Jesus.

How are you doing at reading the Bible daily?

If we look at the wealth part of "muchness," how much do you give your focus and attention on money vs. God?

Do you want to be famous and successful so you can make lots of money and not have to depend on God?

Where is your treasure?

That's where you'll find your heart.

And if we focus on the power of this "muchness," are you focused on your own strength or weakness because you compare yourself to others?

Or are you humble like Paul and realize that we have a hard time living out the kind of life Jesus modeled for us, but in our imperfections we can show people how God lovesus and offers that same love to them?

Imagine with me if everyone here was "all in" with Jesus with our "muchness."

Imagine if we loved God with everything that we have, devoting every possibility,opportunity, and capacity to honor God and to love our neighbors as ourselves!

How different would we think, speak and act!

Instead of being nervous about not being perfect we would see those as opportunities to point people to the ONLY perfect person: Jesus!

And that would be part of how we are "all in" with God.

But like we've said before, let's not just imagine.

Let's take action and begin to make this happen.