HS Day 3 Night

Good Evening

When I was younger, I had a person in my life that meant everything to me.

I loved them SO much that nothing got in the way of me showing them my love.

I often had lunch with just them in High School, though another guy did show up from time to time.

I spent every waking moment with this person I loved. And I thought I would never feel better love that for this person.

Now if you’ve been paying attention, you know who I’m talking about.

Who is the person I loved more than any other?

Myself. That’s right.

I was the center of my universe.

Sure I loved other people but not as much as me.

And God was in there, but it wasn’t until I was 17 that I really began to learn who he was.

Deuteronomy has Jesus in it so much, but there is something God said to Moses in Deuteronomy that carried perfectly to one of Jesus’ teachings that if there is only one Jesus sighting in Deuteronomy this has to be the one.

Now we hit the fifth and final book that is attributed to Moses himself. It’s called Deuteronomy and it means second law. Now, some people who are reading through the Bible and if you have a study Bible you’ll read that Deuteronomy means second law and you might read a few pages and see a lot of repetition and say that oh I can skip this one.

Well, don’t. Firstly, repetition is good for memory and Deuteronomy is not just a repetition, it has some unique narratives not found in the first 4 books, including two we will go through, namely, the requirements for a king and the death of Moses.

Today however, we at hyper focusing on two verses.

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 ESV

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

This verse says a lot to me about who is the most important.

That’s God. If I am to love someone with every fiber of my being, it’s going to be God.

When I first joined in a relationship with Jesus, I didn’t know what this meant. To love him with all my heart, soul and strength.

It was a foreign concept to me that that there was someone out there more important than me.

Love God. Sure, but what about me.

Well, as I grew in my relationship with Jesus and learned more about who he was I learned that while loving myself was good, it wasn’t what he had for me.

WHat he had for me was to love him.

But how do I love him.

With all my heart. Does that mean there is no room for anyone else? nope.

When I love myself, or another person with all my heart, there’s no room for God.

But when I love God with all my heart he makes room for everyone else.

With all my soul.

Our soul is what makes us us. Our emotions and feelings.

Love God with your expressions, how you deal with the world and yourself.

When you are calm and happy your emotions show that. You smile. You laugh. Your heart beats nice and slow.

When you are angry or upset. your heart races, even when still. You’re grumpy, you hate. It’s not fun.

When you love God with your soul, it is the only way to find peace.

And with all your strength.

This is an outward expression. When we worship this is how. with all our strength, but there is another aspect to it.

There is a do component.

Mark 12:29–31 ESV

29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Jesus was once asked what the most important law was. This was his answer. He took them from Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19.

Broken down, love God and Love people.

And how do you do that. By sharing with them what God has done in your life and what he can do in theirs.

The interesting thing about telling people about Jesus is the Gospel.

Jesus told the people in relationship with him to go and share the Gospel.

This was so important that one of Jesus’ friends Paul went into a town and said this.

1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV

2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

That’s how important Loving God was to Paul.

The Gospel is simple.

We have all sinned and are separate from God.

The payment for sin is death.

But Jesus died on the cross as our payment.

And he rose again to show us death has no power over us anymore.

And Jesus’ friends walked around after Jesus rose from the dead, they shared that gospel a certain way.

Years later, the gospel didn’t change, but the way it was presented did.

When I was in High School. Most everyone knew who God was.

Maybe they didn’t do “that church thing,” but they knew who he was.

Today. I’m guessing, that a lot of people in High School and below couldn’t tell you one thing Jesus said and be accurate.

Paul met with this when he traveled.

Acts 17:22–33 ESV

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst.

In Israel, people knew God created and that they had done wrong.

But up in Athens, they were clueless who God was. They had to be told who God was what sin was, and who could save them.

That’s your generation guys.

If we love God and we love people then we are going to talk to people about God.

How do we do that.

We meet people where they are.

There are a lot of people in this world that want to know love and God. But they look at their parents or grandparents and they don’t relate.

I’ve spoken about Jesus in the Old Testament to my church family and I’ll tell you I did not tell them about the times I got sent to detention, or about my time in High School much.

I talk about ranching. or farming, or retirement. That is the culture of the people at my church.

And that’s great. THat is what God has led me too.

But if I came in here talking about how Jesus relates to your 401K and grandchildren, I’d have lost you on day 1.

Hopefully, I’m getting through though. I mean I was in High school in the 1990’s, that was a really long time ago. But I do hope I’ve related to you a bit.

For those here this week that are in a relationship with Jesus. I really hope you find people in your life to introduce him to. And meet them were they are, within reason.

If you have friends who are into drugs, or other things that harm them, don’t meet them where they are at.

Get them help, and love them. Because leaving a friend in a harmful situation is not being a friend.

But if you have a friend who likes to read, read on of their favorite books and see if you can talk about Jesus and the book in the same conversation. Believe me, if you read what they read, finding ways to bring up God is easy, because we can find Jesus everywhere if we’re looking.

The whole point is to engage the people where they are.

Paul did that by talking about an alter to an unknown God.

The people in athens were so afraid of forgetting a god that they would pray to ones they knew nothing about, just to cover their bases.

Paul met them where they were, told them he knew the unknown God and then told them about Jesus.

I said before I’m an introvert. I’m also fairly shy.

Starting up conversations about Jesus is not easy for me.

But wait til I get going.

It takes loving God with All your mind, soul, and strength and loving your neighbor as you love yourself.

Those are the two most important things in your life.

Love God, Love People.

And if you want to know better how to do that.

God, do in me all that you need to do, so that you can do through me all that you want to do.

I’ve given small invitations to start a relationship with Jesus, but I’m going all out tonight. If you are not in a relationship with Jesus. If you want to acknowledge that he died for your sins and accept that gift of salvation. I’m going to invite you to do that tonight.

Because it is a gift. You’ve done nothing to earn it, but you must accept it.

We are going to close in prayer and I’m going to invite all the campers to bow your heads. and during the prayer, if you want to start a relationship with Jesus, or if you’ve just started one this week, then raise your raise while we pray. Counselors, watch your kids, if one of them raises their and have a chat with them tonight, pray with them, tell them about Jesus. Or if you want a chat with me, I’m availiable.

Let’s pray.