J-High Camp Message - "Chosen Race"

Introduction

Whats up J-high! So glad you’ve decided to spend the next week with us here at camp. My name is Matt Velasco, and normally my job is hanging out with our high schoolers but tonight I get to be with you! I’m stoked to be here, and I hope you are too!

I want to introduce myself a little bit since we don’t know each other very well. I am probably the biggest Chicago Bears fan you will EVER meet and I FIRMLY believe we have the best QB in the conference if Aaron Rodgers leaves GreenBay. Can I get an Amen?! Y’all are a bunch of haters!

I have a handsome 12 week old Bernedoodle puppy named Kirby. My wife and I named him after Kirby Puckett AND Kirby Dach, my favorite Chicago Blackhawks player! Yes I am a Chicago sports fan, get over it! Here is a picture of my wife Jae & my doggo Kirby.

I love golfing, playing video games, reading fantasy books, and yes, watching anime (Lets chat more about that if you do too!).

I wonder, if I were to ask you: who are you? What might you say? In fact, why don’t you guys shout at me a couple of things that make you, you.

This week, like Danny said, we’re talking about identity. And, for all of you who just yelled something at me, we got a little taste on what it is we find our identity in. But I wonder, what does the Bible tell us about identity? I think there is no better group of people to go and investigate in scripture than Israel when it comes to how people in the Bible viewed their identity.

If you have your Bibles why don’t you open them up to Deuteronomy chapter 7 , starting in verse 6.

Deuteronomy 7:6–11 ESV

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

Content

Tonight I want you to walk out of this room understanding this one thing, that God chose you not because you’re special, or valuable, or beautiful, but because He loves you and He keeps His promises. Your identity can be in the fact that you are chosen by God.

If you look back at verse 1, we see that the cause for God’s special concern with Israel was not their numerical size, but the size of God’s love for them and the promise He had made to their fathers;

Deuteronomy 7:7–8 ESV

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

This is so opposite of our culture! Think about it. We give people worth and wealth based off of how many followers they have, all the time. They don’t even have to be famous for anything, in fact, most of them are just famous for being famous! (Cough, Kardashians, cough). This is not how God operates, but its usually how we do. God didn’t choose Israel based off of how big they were…but He didn’t choose them based off of how good they were either.

In fact, later in this book the author, Moses, the same dude who God used to set Israel free from slavery in Egypt and whose staff struck & the red sea splitting it down the middle, would say that it wasn’t because of Israel’s righteousness either! He says this,

Deuteronomy 9:6 ESV

“Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.

One dude who is a lot smarter than me says that the first five books of the Bible does not say much about why Israel of all nations was chosen. Its focus is on God’s love rather than anything that humans do. And so you might be asking the question, “why me?!” or honestly, “why them?!” Why did God choose you, or why did God choose them?! The truth is, friends, the answer is simple: Because of His great love and because of His great promise.

I want to talk about 3 implications that I want you to be thinking of over the course of camp. 3 implications that come from Deuteronomy 7:6-11, and 3 implications that, if you take them seriously, will change your life.

You are loved.

We talk about this all the time in the Church, and you’ve certainly been told this probably hundreds of times even in the past year. BUT! I don’t want its significance to lose its power, nor do I want any of you to go another moment without fully realizing just how amazing this is. And, there are probably plenty of you in this room who have never heard this before. You’re thinking, “i’m loved? By who? My mom? My dad?” Yes, thats true, I hope. But thats not who I’m talking about. I’m talking about God, the perfect almighty creator of all things, who looked upon you in His sovereignty, that just means in his knowledge of the past, present, and future, and said “I want them.” And in His power He orchestrated the most beautiful love story of all times that begins in Genesis 1 and has yet to end because Jesus some day will return. And the pinnacle moment of that story involves God’s own son dying on a cross and 3 days later being risen to new life after having born the wrath of His own Father that we deserve so that we might, by the power of God’s Spirit, receive new life and live with God all of our days. THIS IS GOOD NEWS! This is the Gospel! This is the proof that you are indeed loved! No matter what you do, have done, will do, might do, haven’t done, won’t do, and on and on and on no matter what you. are. loved. But, something is required of you. Faith.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says,

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

If you want to know this love of God you must believe in Him through faith. So I ask, on this first night of camp…do you believe? If you want to know more about what that means. What it means to believe. Talk to your cabin leader. They’d love to help you.

2. God’s love is faithful

Yes, you are loved, but that love is not a fleeting and failing love like most of the love of this world is. Instead, it is unfailing and perfect, its faithful. It is there when you wake up, and there when you go to bed. God has covenanted with all those who believe in Him. He says,

Deuteronomy 7:9 ESV

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

God is committed and faithful to those who love Him.

3. We must respond to God’s love by carefully obeying His words.

God is clear to us in Deuteronomy 7:6-11, He loves us and His love is faithful. But He also warns us,

Deuteronomy 7:10–11 ESV

and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

While God is committed to those who love Him, He also punishes those who hate Him. So Moses says to us, “be careful to do the commandment and the statues and the rules that I command you today”

Now I want to make something clear, God is not saying “do one thing wrong and I will punish you!” instead, He is inviting us into a response of His love. If what I said earlier is true, if we are truly loved by a perfect and good God, why would we disobey anything He has for us? If we truly believe He has chosen us and saved us, wouldn’t it make sense that that same God wants to protect us and keep us safe?

Conclusion

Have you guys ever seen those videos of people walking across a tight rope connected to two sky scrapers in New York? Or maybe a tight rope that spans the distance between to edges in the Grand Canyon? I get sweaty palms just thinking about it. Watch this video.

But, I think many of us read Moses’ words here and think thats what God is saying. That obeying Him is like walking across a tight rope, one wrong move and you could be sent plummeting to the earth below towards sure death. I don’t think thats the right picture…Obeying God’s commands is more like a drowning swimmer being thrown a rope. When we obey God’s commands we are grabbing ahold of the lifeline and He is pulling us closer and closer towards Him into safety. Every time we disobey God’s commands we are letting go of the rope and sealing our own fate.

So tonight, I want you to consider how these 3 implications might change your life here at camp, but also at home. And how they might change the way you see your identity, that God chose you not because you’re special, or valuable, or beautiful, but because He loves you and He keeps His promises.

You are loved

God’s love is faithful

We must respond to God’s love by carefully obeying His words.

Love you guys! Have a good time with your cabin.