English Camp Message Outline: Day…um…5 :)

Thursday: ONE LIFE

How many of you are athletes here? On the count of three in English, yell as loud as you can, your favorite sport to play. 1, 2, 3- _______. Oh. There were some good ones. Great. I heard, a lot of “football/soccer”. Now if it is really important to you to be a great soccer player, if you absolutely love the sport-that changes your life, right. You can be very disciplined, right? Like you wouldn’t eat too much junk food, you would make sure you sleeping enough, and stretching, and exercising a lot and practicing soccer ALL THE TIME. Right? Right. Because when something is really important to you-it is worth disciplining yourself for!

Well today we are going to talk about that very concept, but how it relates to being a believer. Our sentence for today is: To glorify God with our ONE LIFE, we must DISCIPLINE ourselves for GODLINESS.

(learn)

Let’s go over all the phrases:

• The whole Bible agrees, our God is the ONLY GOD and our God is an AWESOME GOD.
• Our ONE PASSION should be the same as GOD’S and that is for his GLORY.
• Out of his great LOVE for us, God mercifully sent JESUS CHRIST to be our ONE SAVIOR.
• The ONE DECISION to be part of God’s FAMILY changes our entire IDENTITY.
• To glorify God with our ONE LIFE, we must DISCIPLINE ourselves for GODLINESS.

Now I didn’t just come up with this idea-it comes straight from the Bible. 1 Timothy 4:7 & 8

So it says discipline (or train) yourself for godliness, and that godliness is important.

Tonight we are going to talk about WHY you should train yourself for godliness through spiritual disciplines like PRAYER and READING THE BIBLE, and then some practical ways HOW to train yourself for Godliness?

• First, why?
  • Why it is important to be spiritually disciplined? I have three points for you today #1-TO BETTER KNOW GOD.
    • (Pretend phone call) [ Barack Obama wants to get to know me and for me to get to know him-he wants to be friends! He is willing to meet WHENVER-he’ll ALWAYS move his ENTIRE schedule around for me!.
    • Gee I’m really busy Mr. President…
      • You’d say: “Betty, you’re an idiot!”
    • He gives WISDOM. He’s a BIG DEAL-he can speak into your life!
      • Think about that with God.
        • You can get to know THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE! AT ANY TIME. TO TALK ABOUT ANYTHING! And we don’t make time? Or we forget to pray or read the Bible?
          • We forget who God really is!
        • Why it is important to be spiritually disciplined/to train yourself for godliness? #2– to become more like God. My mom always said: you become what you hang around. Hang around God-be more godly! God wants us to be like him, “Be Holy for I am Holy”
          • Story about Teenie and I talking like German English now! Or worse…Canadian English!
          • When you hear it all the time, you naturally pick it up!
          • This is why you should practice spiritual disciplines. The more you surround yourself with God-the more you will sound like him!
            • You discipline yourself to do spiritual things so that you look/sound more like God!
              • This will help in relationships; with problems arise if you have been reading your Bible-the Holy Spirit can bring a verse to your memory to help you
              • This can help with anxiety; if you have been praying; you know that you have already told Jesus the problem and HE will solve it!
            • It is easier to float away from being like God
              • The world is like a current and we have to swim upstream!
              • If you do not put forth the effort to get to know God and spend time with him-you WILL FLOAT away from him!
              • So discipline yourself for godliness
            • Why it is important to be spiritually disciplined: to DELIGHT in God.
              • BUT DON’T THINK OF DISCPLINES as “uhhhhgg” I HAVE to read the Bible and pray :/. Remember-God is a PERSON
              • Hard work, but in the end…
                • DELIGHT not duty or drudgery- a relationship with GOD! Not a “checklist”
              • Anniek will come and share about his times of

• Recap main points. To train ourselves for godliness will help us to know God more, become like God more, and delight in God more.
• So…HOW do we do that? How do we “train in godliness”?
  • Well, there are things in the Bible-activities given to God to help believers look more and more like God.-these are what I am calling SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES.
  • The two biggest ones (that I will focus on tonight) are reading the Bible and praying.
    • But the Bible also mentions worship, evangelism, serving, stewardship, fasting, meditating on God, journaling, and learning.
      • They are all wonderful to do, practice them all, and feel free do what you love, you’re spending time with your Best friend!
      • It may be different for everyone: Meditating on Scripture in the forest…! For me, I love to study, so looking up words in my concordance and listing them and praying-I LOVE! I
    • Practical Tips
      • Read your Bible: Do it at the same time every day! Make it routine or habit-just like anything else. Brush your teeth, wash your faith, READ YOUR BIBLE
      • You don’t just do ONE thing your whole life and it always works…there are ups and downs! So when one thing isn’t working anymore because your schedule changes, or something-do something new
        • NEVER go to sleep without reading your Bible…even if it was just a few verses
        • No Bible-no breakfast
        • Bible reading “nook” J
        • Have a reading plan!
          • The Bible App on your phone
        • Accountability partner
          • Dating; don’t call/talk at night until you’ve both spent time with God.
        • In reading-“what is God like based off of the passage” also-SOAP: scripture, observations, application, prayer
      • Prayer:
        • Find a friend to pray with you
        • Pray during routine things! Me, whenever I drive somewhere…I pray on the way and leaving. In the mornings.
        • Journal your prayers
        • ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication
        • When I shower-I “shower” God with thanks! I try not to ask for ANYTHING! It’s hard!
        • Prayer paper/journal with requests
      • It is okay to start small! 5 minutes of praying and 5 minutes of reading the Bible-10 minutes a day! You can do that!
        • You ALWAYS have 10 minutes a day! I DO! I could (almost) ALWAYS stay up 10 minutes later!

• Conclusion: Story about being my co-workers “health coach”
  • It is one hundred little decisions that make a healthy person! Same with spiritual health!
  • Camp is a great time…easy to be “spiritually healthy” because we are singing worship, being with other believers, being taught Bible verses
    • But when you go home-you have to keep being disciplined for godliness
    • In what ways are you “spiritually unhealthy” that you need to be more disciplined?
      • What are you going to do to discipline yourself for godliness…NOT because God will love you more or less…but
    • BECAUSE…
      • ) because we have the PRIVELEDGE of getting to know God
      • ) because we will become more like God
      • And 3.) Because getting to know God and becoming more like him will become not just our DUTY, but our DELIGHT.
    • Let’s pray…

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you so much for your great love. You ARE the holy, God of the universe, yet you want to spend time with each of your children. You want to know us and you want us to know you. What a gift. I pray for all of us here tonight. That you will show us areas in our lives that we need to be more disciplined. Show us how we should know you better, and how we should become more like you. Help us to love and seek you!

–Amen

English Camp Message Transcript: Day 4

Actually…it’s more of an outline today…

Wednesday: One Decision

• Intro and review sentences for each day
  • The whole Bible agrees, our God is the ONLY GOD and our God is an AWESOME GOD.
  • Our ONE PASSION should be the same as GOD’S and that is for his GLORY.
  • Out of his great LOVE for us, God mercifully sent JESUS CHRIST to be our ONE SAVIOR.
  • The sentence for today is: The ONE DECISION to be part of God’s FAMILY changes our entire IDENTITY.
• Adoption Story
  • What I was like before-not the prettiest, smartest, most athletic, best at anything. I had a lisp.
    • People suggested: kids like her, don’t turn out good-let the state own them
  • Reasons why Karen and Bob adopted me-not because I’m good, but out of love. They promised not to leave me bc I am bad, or love me more when I am good
  • I was so excited! …:D
  • What I had to do-accept it
  • What changed
    • A WHOLE new family; sister; cousins; grandparents
    • Safety for birth mother can’t steal me; Kathy can do NOTHING without Karen and Bob’s approval-I was their’s now
    • My birth certificate/last name changed-my IDENTIY is in the POMPELLs. I lived with them. Depended on them. They provided for me and loved me

The Bible talks about God’s grace of giving us our ONE SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST being just like being adopted. Let’s read about that Spiritual Adoption in- Ephesians 1:5-6 God destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ; according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

• Through believing in Jesus Christ you are adopted into God’s family! This is what God wanted to do and it brings him GREAT JOY.
• So what does that mean for YOU? Just like it my adoption changed so much…
  • Your identity is in CHRIST- God did not chose you to be his child because you are the best looking, or the smartest, or anything! JUST OUT OF LOVE. Says in Scripture!
    • That TRUTH should free you from struggling how to love youself-GOD LOVES YOU. Struggling with your self-worth: GOD THINKS YOU ARE WORTHY. Struggling, “what if God leaves me because I am bad!” No! He didn’t choose you because you were good in the first place-he made you his child out of LOVE.
  • A new family!
  • Nothing can happen to you outside of the Father’s will
• THAT ONE DECISION OF BEING ADOPTED CHANGED MY LIFE…what if I didn’t act like it?
  • It wasn’t just “oh thanks for the inheritance money when you die” that’d be AWFUL
  • It was just “oh thanks for not making me not stay in the slums with Kathy”
  • IT is MY WHOLE LIFE.
• Same with those of you who decided to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved-
  • It would be HEARTBREAKING to Him who adopted you, if all you cared about was the “inheritance” you’ll receive of eternal life in heaven one day
  • It would be heartbreaking if all you cared about that you are escaping hell.
  • Those are GREAT THINGS: but MAN. You are missing out on so much more!
  • Making the decision for Jesus changes your WHOLE LIFE.
    • Being adopted by God gives you hope, faith, love, wisdom, and guidance.

 

• HOW can you tell you are living like an adopted child?
  • Bible says before God is your father, your family is the devil. So when, instead of obeying God, you obey your old father-the devil-you are NOT acting like an adopted child.
  • If you are not spending time with the family (CHURCH) or pretending they don’t exist/are ashamed-you are NOT acting like an adopted child
  • Your spiritual adoption is a MUCH BIGGER deal than my earthly adoption. You’re spiritual adoption is like you were a thief and a pauper living on the streets, and the richest King in all the land adopted you.
    • If you were in the market, years after being adopted by the King, buying bread that you use to have to STEAL, and you heard someone say bad things about the King, “He is so selfish or evil, I hate that King!” or even worst, “I’ve never even SEEN the King, he isn’t real! Anyone who believes in the King is an idiot”
      • What would you do? You’ve met the king! More than that, he took you in, and cleaned you up and made you his son!
      • An adoptive child has 3 options, 1.) you can pretend you don’t hear them, and quietly pay for your bread and rush home to the king, just hoping he doesn’t ask about your day in town. 2.) you can begin to doubt, to think, “Wait…am I crazy?” Maybe my Father isn’t good…maybe he didn’t really rescue me. Or 3.) you can defend your king and Father. He is good! And he IS REAL. You WERE ADOPTED! He changed your life. You can tell them in absolute confidence that he is real and he is good-you have met him! And them, not believing in him, does NOT make him LESS real.
        • I beg you guys! Don’t run away from it, and don’t doubt your adoption. Know that your God is real and defend his honor, because you know and love him!
      • So…obeying God, spending time with Him and the family, telling others about how good He is-that is how you really act like an adopted son or daughter of Christ.
    • Romans 8:14-16 –For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.

Let’s review our sentence for today: The ONE DECISION to be part of God’s FAMILY changes our entire IDENTITY.

If you made the ONE DECISION for Christ already, are you really living like you are his adopted son or daughter?  If not, I want you to talk in your small groups tonight about WHAT you should change and HOW.

If you have not made the ONE DECISION to believe in Christ for salvation, I want to invite you to please do tonight! God wants to adopt you. He wants to rescue you from an empty life of purposelessness. He wants to be your FATHER!

If you want to want to make that DECISION for Christ tonight, if you want to be adopted by our good Heavenly father, and be his child would you come up front here? I want you to come up here and I want everyone who is already a believer to stand. Okay, so new deciders come up here and I want to pray with and for you, and all of you who already in the family-stand. If you have already, maybe years ago even, made a decision for Jesus, and you are his son or daughter, I want you stand up-staff and students. Because you are their brother and you are their sister. The whole family, I want to talk to you.

Those of you who are coming up front to make the ONE DECISION for Jesus and “be adopted into the family of God”, and want you to turn around and see everyone standing. You are not alone in this faith journey. When you accept Christ as your savior, and God as your Father-you join a whole family of believers, here and all around the world. We are ONE.

We are children of God. God lives in us. He loves us. He is our good heavenly Father. I implore you, let’s live like it. Let’s honor our father, and try to remember that we are his children! We are united in Christ. We are strong. Maybe some staff come up here with the new adopted children of God, just come around them. Campers too, if you want to especially encourage one of your new brothers or sisters, come up here.

Maxi lead new believers in salvation prayer?

Afterwards I’ll (?) give a prayer of thanks, and for the whole family, and for all who are not ready to accept this gift.

English Camp Message Transcript: Day Three

Tuesday: One Savior

Small talk intro…something about the day…Mention that they can (and are highly encouraged to!) write in their journal during my message!

[PRAY] Dear Heavenly Father, Clarity. Translator: Fabi. Holy Spirit! And all God’s people said…AMEN!

Okay, first, let’s do like we always do and review!  so Day One we talked about the important truth about our ONE GOD. And that’s that “the WHOLE Bible agrees: Our God is the ONLY GOD. And our God is an AWESOME GOD.

And then we learned that this ONE GOD, and He revealed himself in the Bible that His NUMBER ONE PASSION is His Glory. And our sentence for Day 2’s theme was “Our ONE PASSION should be the same as GOD’S and that is His GLORY!” Great job! 😀 And tonight we are going to learn about the pinnacle of that passion and glory-our ONE SAVIOR Jesus Christ.

Like, someone said last night that we Americans think that Germans drive very fast, because of the autobahn; and you are correct! In fact, I must have been thinking about being in Germany while Christina and I were driving to airport a couple days ago because I was driving about 15 mph over the speed limit. It was 65 MPH, and I was going almost 80 MPH. Sure enough, I zoomed by a police car sitting on the side of the road. He came around to the window and talked to Christina and I. He told us how much we were speeding and asked where we were headed in such a hurry. I told him “the airport-we are going to Germany to teach at an English Camp” and he said, “are you late for your flight?” Christina shook her head no, because we were on time, but I said “I think that we might be!” I was stressed! We took my insurance card and registration back to his car, and I sat there KNOWING THAT I BROKE THE LAW AND THAT I DESERVED A TICKET. 100%. There was no way out of it-I deserved points on my records and a probably couple hundred dollar fine. But, you know what? The officer decided to show me MERCY. He did NOT give me a ticket. He did NOT give me what I deserved to get-he showed me mercy. When Christina and I were driving again, we started talking about all the different times we were pulled over, and she was pulled over once (for running a red light) and she thinks she SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED MERCY. But she did NOT get it. That’s not fair! That’s not just! How come I get out of a ticket, absolutely free, but she even went to court and fought her ticket, and still didn’t get shown mercy? What’s up with that, right? How many of you think I should have gotten a ticket, by show of hands? How many of you think Christina should’ve been shown mercy?

We think, in a perfect world, everyone gets the same amount of mercy, and everyone should get the same amount of justice, right? But that’s impossible! How would humans ever get the balance correct?

We want justice! Right? Like watch TV and see a crime committed on the news- you WANT that “bad guy” to be caught, right? Or if you watch a movie, and there is an evil villain-you WANT the hero to catch him and make sure he pays for his crimes, right? We LOVE when justice is served!

And it’s a good thing we love justice so much, because the God of the Bible is PERFECTLY JUST:

At the end of Deuteronomy, the day before he dies, Moses wrote a song all about God and shared it with the Israelites. In 32:3-4 he says “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.”

That’s awesome. God is perfect! Everything He does is just! Just means doing with is morally right and fair. That’s great news. …Umm…Great news unless you are NOT always morally good, and sometimes you deserve a punishment, but want mercy… God being perfectly just puts us in a bad spot. Because, frankly, if this were a movie, God would be the superhero, and you and I would be the evil villain. And everyone watching would see how awful, and selfish, and sinful we are-and they would want justice to be served to you and to me.

And we may think, “Gee God, can’t you just allow the bad people into heaven, with you?” or “what if they are only a little bit bad?” Well, remember what we read: the Bible says He is perfectly JUST. He is NEVER MORE wrathful or punishes HARDER than what a crime deserves-he is PERFECT in his justice. And according to the Bible the justice that we ALL deserve because of all our sins against a perfect God is eternal separation from God in a real place called hell.

Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”…and then later in Romans 6:23, that “the wages of sin is death”. So that first verse said that everyone sins, and the second verse says that everyone who sins pays for it by sort of “spiritual death” meaning an eternal separation from God.

That is really bad news. We all have sinned. We all deserve to go to hell. But don’t worry, there is really good news too. Let’s if you look at Romans 6:23 again, you’d realized, we stopped before the verse finishes. It actually says:“ for the wages of sin is death…BUT the FREE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD”.

Do you understand what that means?

Remember, we talked about how AMAZING God is, and how he wants people to see him for what he truly is- the spectacular, holy God of the universe! Because HE KNOWS that when people see Him for who he TRULY is-they are most fulfilled and he wants that for us! He LOVES us! He WANTS us to have the JOY of knowing Him! He doesn’t want us to go to hell! Even though it is the JUST thing to have happen.

So, He decided, even though EVERY SINGLE human being could live and die, and go to hell and that would be 100% JUST-because he is so perfect; and we are so not, he wanted to do something about it. He wanted to make a way EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US TO BE SHOWN MERCY-He chose to also be 100% merciful. And so that we could experience his mercy, He would bring a savior—actually, he wouldn’t just BRING a savior, he Himself would BECOME the Savior.

God, in his GREAT love for mankind decided that the only way for us to be saved from his righteous JUSTICE, would be if He himself took the punishment that WE DESERVED and took it all.

Guys. This is the most beautiful truth in all the world.

Try to image what God, seated in a throne in glory looks like. He is being worshipped perfectly, being completely joyful, everything around him is perfectly beautiful. Then he decided to put himself into human form. He went from the throne to the stable, born of the virgin Mary, and lived a poor life in an unimpressive town, in an unimpressive time. He was fully God and fully man and he lived a semi-normal life, with hardworking parents, and siblings that probably picked on him, and teachers who didn’t understand him. He NEVER sinned-because he IS God-but he struggled through life—because He made himself man. He lived a perfect life, and then around the age of 30 he started explaining to people his true identity. It was mind blowing then-it still is now. The idea that the GOD CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH TO BE A DIRTY, LOWLIFE HUMAN? NO WAY. Yes. Why on EARTH would God do that?  He is the Holy, Infinite GOD of the universe! WHY would a GOD humble himself to that lowness? Why would he take ALL OUR SIN ON HIMSELF? Why die and tortuous, gruesome death? What’s the point? What did it DO?

HE CAME TO BE OUR SAVIOR!

HE CAME TO TAKE OUR SINS AWAY!

HE CAME BECAUSE HE LOVES US!

HE CAME BECAUSE HE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO PAY THE WAGES OF YOUR SIN SO HE PAID THE WAGES FOR YOU.

Read with me Ephesians 2:4-5

So yes, the punishment for you being a sinner is hell, BUT GOD is offering you this free gift. Out of his great love and mercy. Through our ONE SAVIOR Jesus Christ.

So our sentence for today is this:

Out of his great LOVE for us, God mercifully sent JESUS CHRIST to be our ONE SAVIOR.
(repeat and fill in the blank)

PLAY CLIP (You, Sin and the Christ Simple Illustration)

God himself, Jesus Christ, has taken the punishment that we deserve for us, and now we are forgiven. If you believe that Jesus Christ was a real man, who was really also GOD, who lived and died and rose again, and you TRUST that His death on the cross GIVES YOU forgiveness FROM God-YOU ARE SAVED FROM GOD’S WRATH in hell. We are seen as 100% righteous in God’s eyes. He sees NOTHING in you to condemn you to hell, or even to punish you here on earth-NO. He sees that ALL OF YOUR SINS-past, present, and future, have been PAID for in Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross. And you can spend eternity instead, with God. That eternity will be amazing.  AND you can have a relationship with God here on earth! J. He is SO GOOD! He loves us THAT MUCH! He wants you to LOOK AT THE SAVIOR AND SEE HOW ENORMOUSLY HE LOVES YOU!

There is only one way, my friends. One way to God. One way out of hell. ONE SAVIOR. That is Jesus Christ.  The Bible says all you have to do to accept this gift of salvation from hell is to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved”.

Out of his great LOVE for us, God mercifully sent JESUS CHRIST to be our ONE SAVIOR. Believe and be saved.

Let’s pray.

Dear God,

In your grace and mercy, please open up the eyes and hearts of campers and staff tonight. Show them how important and how incredible our ONE SAVIOR truly is. Show them truth-that they do deserve your justice. Show them your mercy and love-that you have poured out your justice on Christ-and they need only to believe in you-and then they can be your children. Show them that believing in Christ, and becoming your son or daughter is the most important decision they will ever make. Thank you for your love. Amen.

Testimony from Michael

“All I Have is Christ”

Every single salvation story is amazing. Every single one of who believes in Jesus Christ for your salvation has an AMAZING story. Because NONE of us did ANYTHING to earn God’s mercy. No matter how good or bad you are or were, we ALL are NOT perfect, and equally deserve God’s justice.

If you understand that, and you believe that God sent JESUS CHRIST as the ONE SAVIOR, so that instead of JUSTICE we get MERCY from the God who loves us…tonight is a wonderful night to join the family of God.  It is the best decision you will ever make, and I just want to encourage you to talk to some of the staff standing in the back now, or during your small group time.

Camp Update: Thankful, Prayerful, & Learning

Wow! I never would have guessed that God was going to be SO GRACIOUS in TEACHING ME so much during this week at camp. With me being the speaker, I thought God’s primary desire was for me to be the vessel for him to speak to OTHERS (the campers and the staff). Though, I know He deeply wants that, and is accomplishing that through this unlikely and very imperfect vessel, it has been encouraging to see all the refining work he is doing inside of me as well.

I am learning so much about communication, teaching, and prayerful preparation. I am learning about trusting the Holy Spirit, the importance of pleasing God primarily, and how to fight the fear of man.

Yesterdays message on the day’s theme: ONE PASSION was a difficult truth for me to explain.I walked away from the stage asking God, “Did I let you down? Did I explain your character to the campers in a way that was accurate? Were you pleased with my words? Did I confuse them? Did I make you too complex?” Etc. etc. etc.

And in the hours that followed-God was SO gracious to use various circumstances to remind me of truths that I knew, but needed to hear out loud, nonetheless! He used a conversation with my translator about fear to speak truth. He used the next morning’s devotion and a conversation that followed, to deeply encourage me to the point of tears with words like “so clear” and “orthodox”.  Words that I begged God would allow my message to be! God used His word, and his children to dispel the doubt that was creeping into my heart. Thanks be to God!

Also, God has deeply gifted and equipped my ministry partner, Christina, for the work He has planned for her here. She is developing amazing relationships with the camp staff, both Canadian and German. They turn to her for advice and wisdom, and the Lord continues to give it to her. She has had difficult conversations that left her nearly begging the other parties to trust God’s word, and to not throw it out. And she has been able to delightfully co-teach an English class for beginners with absolute excellence.

I wish you all could interact with the campers and staff here at Neues Leben! It truly is a joy! God is working in so many hearts, in so many different ways. Here are some specific ways, and how you can pray:

• I talked to one staff who is trying to faithfully serve and seek God, but has been deeply struggling with Him for the past 3 months. We hope to talk more later this week-please pray for her faith to grow!
• During their small group time, a camper asked, “Do you think God is racist? Since He wiped out all the Egyptian first borns, but not the Israelites?” To which another camper responded, “No! God gave them 10 days of warnings, and signs, and opportunities to repent!” Pray for these students and their Cabin Leaders to know how to respond to so many great questions and answers!
• I met a french student who does not church, whose parents are humanitarians, who started coming to this camp 8 years ago because her art teacher in an international school was a Christian and told her about it. So she comes every year, and it is the only time she hears about God all year. This is the last year she’ll be young enough to attend this camp. Please pray for her salvation (if she isn’t yet a believer) and for her desire to grow in faith to propel her to find a good church in France to disciple her.

Thanks so much for your prayers. I really believe that God is doing some amazing things here at Camp in Germany. And Christina and I are SO THANKFUL for your support that made it possible for us to experience this and serve the Lord here.

Praise God from whom ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!

(P.S. Sorry if my English “sounds” strange! At English Camp we are immersed in semi-broken German-English all day every day, so sometimes it is hard to speak/type normally! It’ll take a few days back in the states, and it’ll all come back-but for now…Christina, Liz, and I’s English is less than perfect :))

English Camp Message Transcript: Day Two

Monday: One Passion

Small talk intro…something about the day…

[PRAY]

Yesterday we learned or were reminded of a very simple yet foundational truth.  about our ONE GOD-and I want you guys to fill in the blank. “the WHOLE Bible agrees: Our God is the _______ _____. And our God is an ________ ______. Great job!

God is revealed to us in the Bible and from reading it we can know who He is. Throughout all of Scripture, just like I explained to you yesterday, there is continuity. A thread woven throughout every book about God’s number one passion.  Before we talk about that–lets talk about stereotypes.

You guys know what stereotypes are, right? It’s like the generalization of a group of people, and you assume there are all like that. Now, in America—we stereotype Germans, just like Germans stereotype Americans. So if someone were to ask what a German is like…guess what we would say…(hear from audience)

That’s good-haha, yes we would say some good things like Germans are very efficient and hardworking, but we also say they are “stoic, harsh, blunt” etc. I didn’t know you guys had a sense of humor until I came here-you always seem SO SERIOUS in movies and in history books!

Americans have lots of stereotypes too, I know-some good and some bad! What are some stereotypes that you guys have about Americans…. It’s okay…really….(hear from audience) They are obese, dramatic, rich, friendly and loud ;).

Now, I try fall into all of those categories, but I definitely fall into one of them…I am VERY DRAMATIC. You guys can tell, in the way I talk I am very expressive and I get pretty easily excited about things! Another, (Better) way of saying this is that I am a pretty passionate person. Like I get really, really excited about a lot of different things. I am passionate about JOURNALING (explain) about running (explain) about the USA (explain). I bet you have a few things that you are really passionate about too!

Our God-the ONE true God…he is VERY passionate. He is passionate about the local church, and about social justices, and about sexuality. He is passionate about widows and orphans, he is passionate about forgiveness and he is passionate about creation. How do we narrow it down to the ONE thing he is MOST passionate about?

You must understand a few things about God before you understand his # 1 passion. We believe that God is holy and righteous. Holiness does not just mean that he is “morally good” though that is true-Go  is morally perfectly. Holiness means that He is “utterly unique” and totally separate than anything that ever was or ever will be. Holiness means that he is the creative force behind absolutely EVERYTHING and He is INFINITELY valuable!

I want you to remember tonight that God is a not a “little being”. He isn’t pocket sized that you can understand Him perfectly and do everything He can do. God’s holiness means that He is the most amazing, glorious, worthy being that existed before time and has no end.

When God’s holiness (meaning his infinite value) is displayed and seen by man: that is God being GLORIFIED. That’s the definition of God’s glory: when the radiance, the AWESOMENESS of his holiness is seen.

We are going to look at two passages in the book of Isaiah tonight that talk about this very subject-so I want to give you some context. The prophet Isaiah wrote this Historical and prophetic book approximately 700 B.C. He points out the rebellious sins of both the North and South kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and declares both condemnation for their actions against God, encouragement to turn back to their faithful God. He also proclaims great hope of the coming Messiah. In fact, this book contains some of the most incredible prophecies of any book. There are very detailed, specific prophecies about the coming Messiah-that Jesus fulfills perfectly later in the New Testament.

So if you have your Bibles with you, please turn to Isaiah chapter 6. We are going to read verses 1 through 8. The first 6 chapters talk all about the people’s wicked rebellion against God, and all of that leads up to God calling Isaiah to speak for Him. Let’s read.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Did you catch what the seraphim said? Holy, holy, holy…the whole earth is full of his ____-you’d expect them to say “holiness”, but that’s what I was telling you…when God’s HOLINESS is on DISPLAY, as it is throughout the whole earth-he is GLORIFIED. That’s what glory is: God’s holiness on display.

Let’s read on…now turn in Isaiah to chapter 48 verses 9 through 11. So chapters 1-39 talk about how evil the nations have become, and how they truly deserve a severe punishment.  Then chapters 40-55, which we are right in the middle of now, talk about the restoration that the Lord is going to bring. He is going to rescue them from exile in Babylon, and he is going to bring to them a Messiah. Let’s read WHY he is going to do that…Isaiah 48: 9-11…

This is the Word of the Lord.

Did you catch that friends? For his name’s sake. For his praise. For his glory. THAT is the number one passion of God according to the Bible. His glory!

It is ALL OVER SCRIPTURE. Woven through ever book and story-God wants us to think, feel, and act in such a manner that makes him look as INCREDIBLE as he truly is! We want people to look at our lives and say, “Wow. God is GLORIOUS!”

Now you might be thinking, “That doesn’t seem quite right… God is most passionate about Himself as being seen as great? Isn’t that a little self-centered. Well it would be if WE thought that way about ourselves. But God is GOD, remember? He is HOLY. He is infinitely VALUABLE. He is INCREDIBLE. So him wanting people to see that truth as truth, is not selfish-but perfectly God like.

God’s NUMBER ONE passionate is about Him being seen and understood as amazing and magnificent as He really is. He is GOD. He wants all of mankind to recognize how glorious and gracious and ENOURMOUS He is. He wants us to love him and praise him and worship him.  And that is the most wonderful, most kind #1 passion he can have, because since He is perfectly, joyfully passionate about that –we can be too.  You might think, “I thought God’s number one passion is for me?” Well actually-His glory being his #1 passion does not OPPOSE God’s love and passion for MANKIND…it is the FOUNDATION OF IT.

Think about it! It’s BRILLIANT! God’s concern for His glory is what led him to sending our Savior, Jesus Christ-whom we will talk more about tomorrow.  It’s God’s passion for his glory that leads him to SHOWER love and grace and mercy on undeserving sinners like you and me!

Don’t just believe me because I say it, I challenge you look for it in Scripture. Take note every time you see “for His Name’s Sake” of “for His Glory” and realize that HIS GLORY is also YOUR GOOD. Because it’s HIS GLORY that brings you SALVATION. It is HIS GLORY that brings you JOY and PEACE and SATISFACTION in Christ.

God’s number one passion is for his wonderfulness to be seen. This is a great kindness. He is passionate about YOU seeing and understanding Him for who he truly is. And when that happens you will be truly, joyfully, satisfied. Our take away sentence yesterday was: “The whole Bible agrees, our God is the ONLY GOD and our God is an AWESOME GOD. Good! And as we think about God’s passion for his glory- we realize that we should be JUST LIKE him and have that SAME PASSION. So our take away sentence today is this: “Whatever our other passions, Our ONE PASSION should be the same as God’s: and that is for his glory.” Our passion should be the same as Gods!

That’s right. I want you to see God’s glory, and his passion for his glory, and be moved to serve Him like Isaiah was.

As we wrap up tonight, I want you to think about some of the things you are passionate about. The book of Genesis says that you are made in the image of God, and so just like He has MANY passions-but one MAIN passion, so you too also probably have MANY passions-but should have ONE MAIN passion.

You may be passionate about soccer, or education, or people, or animals and that is wonderful! God wants you to be passionate about all the amazing things he put on this earth. He MADE you to be passionate about that thing. But he wants your NUMBER ONE PASSION to be for his glory.

If you have your journals with you, I want you to take them out and find space to write about the passions that God has given you. What are you most excited about in life? Those are passions and giftings that God placed inside of you, and He put them there for a reason. And the reason is that He wants to use those passions to fulfill his number one passion: HIS GLORY. And when you glorify God with your passions, that is when you will be most fulfilled in life. Passions, hobbies, and interests are their own will NEVER fulfill you. BUT if you GLORIFY God with your passions-GOD will fulfill you! That’s the way he made us!

So the worship team is going to come up and play a little background music while you journal or pray about God’s passion and your passion and how they can become one!