Summer Camp 2009 - Saturday Night

Tom Shrader opens by reviewing the effects of sin from the morning session, including separation from God, inability to understand Him, and the inevitable failure of false gods to satisfy. He then walks students through Romans 5 and 2 Corinthians 5, showing that God moved first — reconciling sinners to Himself through Christ's death — and calling students to respond in repentance and faith. He closes by grounding this in Romans 8, assuring them that nothing can separate a believer from God's love, while being honest that the struggle of the Christian life continues until heaven.

“False gods never fail to fail. But our God is a mighty God, and He is a God who saves.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Summer Camp

Recorded: 2009 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 32 min

Themes: sin, repentance, reconciliation, faith, salvation, grace, assurance, false gods, grew up in church, student, teenager, doubting salvation, feeling spiritually numb, new believer, questioning faith, struggling with assurance

Scripture: Romans 3:10, Romans 5:6, Romans 5:8, Romans 5:10, Romans 8:28, Romans 8:31, Romans 8:35, Romans 8:38-39, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, 2 Corinthians 5:21, John 3:16, Philippians 3:12-14, Philippians 4:6

Theological Themes: hamartiology, original sin, justification, reconciliation, atonement, perseverance of the saints, regeneration, total depravity

Full Transcript

The Story We Share

A little bit different each time. And sometimes you'll hear somebody who's got one of those stories that everybody thinks they need to have — I was this awful person who was engaged in all this stuff. But for a lot of you, it's that other story: I was born in it. I was a church kid. And consequently, I just rounded it all my life. One of the most difficult things — let me talk for a second to those of you who have been around this forever — one of the hardest things for you is to see how sinful you really are.

That's exactly what Whitney said when she was talking about this. I wasn't doing any of the big things. All the sins that we see out there, all the ones that we identify — I'm not out partying, I'm not on the Internet, I'm not doing all that stuff. That does not mean that she isn't a sinner who desperately needs a Savior. That's really the story for all of us, isn't it? That's the thing that we keep coming back to again and again.

What We're Building Toward

When we started last night, we said there were three things we were going to go through: we want to see a transformed heart, an informed mind, and a radical life. It's ironic — she nailed all three of them in her testimony. She used exactly the same words.

The flow of the week is also worth noting. Tomorrow night is the big night, really. It's not that God doesn't work at different times, but something special seems to happen tomorrow night. Tomorrow night is when we take communion together. Tomorrow night is the night that we really call you to respond. But it's changed the pace for me just a bit. We're going to come tomorrow night and tomorrow morning and talk about some serious stuff. But tonight really is a night for you.

Do You Understand?

I said this morning — I'm not asking you, do you agree with any of this? I'm only asking you, do you get it. I'm only asking you, do you understand what I said this morning. We said that the Bible tells us we have in us this thing called sin. We call it all sorts of different things, but the reality is we know something's wrong.

We said that there is an effect of sin, and we listed five of them this morning and put them on the screen. Sin separates me from God. It keeps me from understanding Him. It keeps me from seeking the one true God. It has me turn to other things that will inevitably disappoint me.

Something is going to rule my life. You and I are never described in Scripture as the master — we're always described as the slave. We're going to serve somebody or something. Something's going to be our God. If it's not the one true God of the Bible, it's going to be something else. And whatever that other god is, it will always fail you. False gods never fail to fail.

How We Got This Way

We talked about how we're all messed up and how we got this way — and that's what we covered this morning. We talked about how in the garden, when Adam and Eve sinned, two things happened right away. Right away they hid. And then they said they were afraid.

Now, my suspicion is somebody left something for me — I don't know for certain, but somebody gave it to me in the back and said we found this with my name on it. My guess is somebody clipped it from the paper and left it for me. They had no idea, couldn't have known what I was going to talk about — the fear and the effect that sin has.

Voices from the Class of 2009

What it is, there are probably eight or nine kids who just graduated, the class of 2009, and it was a piece about what did you learn, what about school. Listen to some of these. One said: "I learned that life is definitely not fair. Most importantly, I've learned that nobody's perfect, that some people are ripped from our lives sooner than we'd like, and that there are risks in our life and they will define our life." That's exactly what we said this morning.

Another student said: "High school means different things to different people. For me, it's about becoming less afraid of what others might think of me and more confident in what I thought of myself." I don't believe that for a second, by the way. It is worth trying to become less driven by what others think — but I can't believe that all of a sudden this person simply turns and becomes okay with themselves.

Another one wrote this — and see if it doesn't sound like Genesis, because my suspicion is this student has no clue about Genesis 3: "Through high school, it feels like we've been playing hide and seek with our identities." Isn't that exactly what we talked about this morning? We're perpetually it. "So now it's time to find ourselves — college, career, a blank horizon awaits us. It's a terrifying prospect. Believe me, I'm there." That is the universal condition.

The Weight of It

What I hope you left with this morning was a heaviness. There's a heaviness in that video. When I get to go over to the tech room and see that our guys put that intro video together — the one right before I spoke — it's amazing. It communicates so much, and there's such a heaviness to it. That's because it's so important, and because every one of us gets it.

When you walked out of here today, when we spent time on this, when we looked at Genesis 3, my hope was that in your heart there was a heaviness. Even if you came as one of those students who doesn't really care about being here, or you came looking for this as much as you had last year, or you're somewhere in between — there was a heaviness. Especially if you don't know Christ. And by that — here's what we mean when Whitney mentions a prayer of salvation — my suspicion is some of you don't even know...

watch that video, some number of people in the world had died. And that's a sobering thing. Because none of those people, and maybe none of us, knew that morning when they woke up that it was going to be their last day. And that's why tonight matters. That's why this conversation matters.

The Problem: Our Separation from God

She came to the conclusion that she was a sinner and what sin had done were those things right there. Sin had made it impossible for her to have a relationship with God. Being separated from God, she couldn't understand Him. She was seeking false gods, seeking comfort and security and her identity and her significance in something other than a relationship with the one true God. And whatever it was, it was disappointing her.

She came to that point of understanding. Some kids do it at five, some do it at fifteen, some people do it at eighty-five. The issue is — and we're going to drive you to this point tonight — I want you to consider tonight being that night for you. That night when you give up. That night when you quit seeking false gods and the one true God opens your eyes to see and to feel and to experience what it means to know Him in an intimate way.

That is the very reason you were born. It is the very thing designed in you — that thing that makes you restless and unhappy and unsatisfied, even as you write these lists of accomplishments. Here's these things I wanted to do: I wanted to make this team, I wanted to be in that play, I wanted to have that date, I wanted to get that scholarship, I wanted to have that vacation, that moment, that thing. And then you get it. And let's be honest, there is a moment — but it's not a very long moment. There's a moment when you're somewhat happy and somewhat satisfied. And then it's gone. Because false gods never fail to fail.

What makes this discussion so easy is that even though I don't know you, I know all about you, because you and I are exactly the same. Every one of us has those same feelings that manifest themselves in different ways. When you left this morning, I hope you had a sense of helplessness, and maybe even a sense of hopelessness. But tonight is the night for hope.

Romans 3: The Bad News

Open your Bibles, please, to the book of Romans. We're in the New Testament, about two thirds of the way through the Bible. If you find the Gospels — Matthew and Mark and Luke and John — keep moving to the right and you'll see the book of Acts, and then you'll see the book of Romans. That's where we camped this morning.

Let me pick up right where we left off. We were in Romans chapter three, verse ten. What Paul had said to us was this: there was none righteous, no, not one. There was none who seeks after God. There is no one who does good. Now, that's the bad news.

Romans 5: The Good News

Turn to Romans chapter five, because there is good news. Romans chapter five, verse six. Paul writes this — and if you're somebody who underlines or marks in your Bible, I'm going to have you do it. Chapter five, verse six: "For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for ungodly people" like you and me.

Verse eight: "God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He ups the ante a bit in verse ten. Do you see it there? "For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God."

Look at what happens. There was nothing you could do. You have this debt that you owe — a debt beyond anything you can pay. Paul tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that the wage of sin is death. That death is separation from God. Death has made it impossible for us to reach out to Him. But here is the good news: you couldn't fix it, but God did. God is the one who moved.

Grace: What Makes Christianity Unique

There is a word that is unique to the Christian faith. There is no other religion in the whole world that speaks of it. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, Mormonism, or any other religion — every one of those religions has you doing something. Every religion understands that something is wrong. Something is wrong with us, and it has separated our relationship with God. Everybody gets that. Nobody is struggling to figure it out.

Biblical Christianity — what the Bible teaches, what East Valley Bible Church believes — here is what is different. It is one word. It is called grace.

Jesus is speaking in John chapter three, verse sixteen, and He says, "For God so loved the world." It is the message you see all through those scriptures. You saw it in those three passages in Romans chapter five: while we were yet sinners, while we were helpless, while we were enemies of God — God loved us. God loved us in a way that He understood the situation we were in. He understood there was nothing we could do to fix it.

And you know what He did? He didn't just say, "I love you — good luck." He said, "I love you," and He sent Jesus to die. He sent Jesus to do what you and I couldn't do for ourselves — to die on the cross so that we would have eternal life.

The Urgency of Tonight

I mentioned it in that intro video — there are those different pictures in there, and I'll try to have Josh stop it at some point to show that still. It's different pictures of kids: one is a kid who gets shot in a drive-by shooting, one is a Chandler kid who is in an accident, another who dies in another way. We all understand that at some point, for most of us, it is going to be way down the line. But that video had an interesting statistic in it. It said that in the time it took us to watch that video, some number of people in the world had died. And that is a sobering thing. Because none of those people — and maybe none of us — knew that morning when they woke up that it was going to be their last day. And that is why tonight matters. That is why this conversation matters.

The Reality of Eternity

While watching that video, 178 people in the world died, and 29 of them were under the age of 20. What happens when we die? The Bible tells us that death is not the end. That is the beginning of a thing called eternity. There is a place called heaven and a place called hell. The idea is not to scare you with this, though the Bible is very clear that hell is not a place you want to spend eternity in. But we can have eternal life — an eternal life that begins today.

The Weight of Guilt and the Search for Forgiveness

God moves and He reaches down. Remember those questions we raised? What about that persistent guilt? What about that feeling that nags and nags — something in you that says it is wrong, and you just know it. Where do you go to find forgiveness? Where do you go to be cleansed? Where do you go to get rid of this guilt?

Because you have tried. Some of you have already played that game. You said, I will go to Wednesday night, I will go to a small group, I will get in the discipleship group, I will start reading my Bible. And then after about a week or two or three, that fades away and that sense is right back again, because something is wrong. And Jesus died on the cross — He died for you, for me, for people like us. He died for our sin.

A Personal Story of False Freedom

I want to take you to one passage of Scripture. We are going to stay there for a few minutes, and that will be our night. You are in the book of Romans. Go to the right to First Corinthians, then Second Corinthians, and the fifth chapter — Second Corinthians, chapter five.

I remember when I read these words for the very first time. I was a little older — I was 30 years old — and I was born and raised in a church. If the doors were open, if there was a church service, we were there. I used to go to mass almost every day. I attended Catholic grade school, Catholic high school, Catholic college. The minute I got away from my family, that was it for me.

The minute I discovered what the world calls freedom, I lived exactly that way. You sang about freedom tonight. Tim did a great job focusing on it. When Whitney spoke, she talked about freedom. Here is the lie the world tells: freedom is doing whatever you want to do — just go ahead and do it. So whether it was smoking a little of this, snorting a little of this, drinking a little of this, sleeping over here, going over there, getting a job, making money, buying things — it did not matter. All those things the world said would make me free had, after 30 years, made me so enslaved to them that I had no freedom at all.

Everything other than Christ does not give you freedom — it makes you more dependent upon it. It provides no joy. But Jesus comes and gives real freedom and calls you into total dependence upon Him.

Second Corinthians 5: A New Creature

I remember when I read Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 17 for the first time. I said, that is what I want to be. Look at this — do you want this?

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature."

He is a new creature, and all the old things have passed away. What are those old things? All that guilt. All that shame. All that inability to find forgiveness. All that isolation and loneliness. All that sense that everything is not right and something is wrong — all those old things have passed away, and you are a new creature.

Why? Look at verse 18. All these things are from God — meaning that Christ came, lived, and died. Count the word in verses 18 through 20 and you will find a form of the word *reconciled* five times. God reconciled us to Himself. He gave us a ministry of reconciliation. God is, in verse 19, reconciling us. There is the word of reconciliation. We are to be reconciled. Remember what we said — the effect of sin is that I am separated from God, at war with Him. But Christ moved. Christ came. And now God and sinner are reconciled.

God Made Him to Be Sin

Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21 is so rich. Here is what it says:

"God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Christ came for a reason. When Mary discovered she was pregnant and Joseph was about to separate himself from her, an angel appeared to Joseph and said, do not do that. Mary is going to have a boy, and you will name Him Jesus, because He comes to save His people from their sin. That is why Jesus came. Jesus did not come merely to be a great teacher, though He is one. He did not come merely to be a great role model, though He was that too. He came for that moment on the cross.

The Cross

That moment is something I cannot fully explain — it is absolute mystery. That is why you have to ask God to open your eyes, your mind, and your heart so that He would teach you this and let you see it.

Over the years we have talked about the physical aspects of what they did to Jesus on that day. They beat Him. It was not a simple whipping as we might picture it. The instrument used on Jesus was a stick, probably about 18 inches long, with long pieces of leather attached, and fastened to the leather were pieces of glass and bone. When they whipped Him, they were experts at it. They did not simply strike — they drove the glass and bone in and then pulled downward, laying His back open. Oftentimes men would die from the scourging alone. Then Jesus carried the crossbar through the city. Then they took Him to the cross and nailed Him.

The Agony of the Cross

Him on the cross — you know this. This is after He had been so filled with anxiety about what was about to take place that He had actually sweat drops of blood. They nail Him to the cross and they ridicule Him. But the agony was not that. The agony is this: in that moment, God treated Jesus as though He was guilty of your sin, and He punished Him with the punishment you deserve. That is the agony of the cross.

What moves you? What touches your heart? A beautiful sunset, some event — nothing moves you like love. But every love you have ever experienced is a love that is inadequate and incomplete compared to that love. Two thousand years ago, Jesus died so that you could have eternal life.

Weariness and the True Christian Life

Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary." You know what that weariness is? It is a weariness of trying to please God on your own. It is a weariness of trying to live up to an expectation that you cannot possibly live up to.

Remember when we asked the question last night: is it possible to live the Christian life? Here is the answer: no. The only person who could ever live what we identify as the true Christian life was Christ Himself. He lived it and died so that you could have eternal life.

Now here is the question. How are you going to respond to that? Have you come to that point in your life where you understand that you are a sinner and your sin has separated you from God, and there is nothing you can do about it?

The Love That Controls Us

Right before this section, Paul says — it is verse 14 — that the love of Christ controls us, that His love for us is what drives us and moves us. There is something else here that is really important, and there is nothing that will undo this.

Moving back to the book of Romans, chapter eight, Paul has been talking about all of these magnificent truths: that Christ died for us while we were sinners, while we were enemies, that Christ moved, that He is the one who responded and acted. Look at what he says in Romans chapter eight, verse 28: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him and to those who are called according to his purpose."

Then he starts to anticipate questions. Verse 31: "What do we say of these things? If God is truly for us, who is against us?" Verse 35: "What can separate us from the love that Christ has for us? Will trials or tribulations or distress or persecution?" And verse 38: "I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depth, nor any other created thing is able to separate us from the love that God has for you, the love He shows in Christ Jesus."

What This Means for You

Let me tell you what this means. It means that if you come to Him in repentance and faith, you are back in right relationship with God. It means that you can know Him in a personal way. It means that you will have forgiveness, and a peace that right now you do not have, though you are looking all over for it. It means that you will have not necessarily happiness, but you will have joy. It means that your life will be transformed.

Here is what it does not mean. It does not mean that the struggle is over.

The Five Effects of Sin Reversed

That is why when we started, I wanted to talk about those ideas of a transformed heart, an informed mind, and a radical life. If we go back to those five questions we began with — those five effects of sin — here is what sin has done to you and me: it separated us from God, we cannot possibly understand Him, we are not seeking after Him at all, we turn to other gods, and ultimately we are not afraid of the one true God.

When I come to Christ in repentance and faith, all of that changes. That is what we identified last night. There is the problem, there is the effect, and there is what changes as a follower of Christ. I am now united with Him. I can understand Him. Do you remember Steven this morning? He said, "I read the Bible and it made no sense, but when my heart changed, all of a sudden I understood Him." All of a sudden I am seeking after Him. There is something in you that is yearning to know Him more and more. And though the false gods are there and competing, there is the one true God who at the end of the day satisfies. Now my reverence is for Him. The effects of sin in your life are gone because of relationship with Christ.

The Battle Is Not Over

What I do not want is for you to think the battle is now over. Here is what Paul writes in Philippians chapter three — just listen:

"I don't mean to say that I've already achieved all these things or that I've already reached perfection. But I keep working toward the day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. Brothers and sisters, I'm still not all I should be, but I'm focusing my energy on one thing. Forgetting what lies behind and looking forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ, has called me upward to heaven."

Then when he gets to Philippians chapter four, he writes: "Don't worry about anything." I love that — it is a recognition that even though I have been saved and delivered, even though there is this moment where I have come to Christ in repentance and faith, my worries and my struggle are still real.

The Anxiety We All Feel

The anxiety is not over, is it? The only time that happens is when I get to heaven. Here is the whole point of these first two times together: you and I sense there is something wrong. It is sin, and the solution is Jesus Christ. The words the Bible uses are that we might be delivered, rescued, or saved — we have been saved from the consequence of sin in our life. I no longer am of my father, the devil. I have the one true God, and I have relationship with Him.

Here is the question — do not answer it out loud. Have you come to that point yet? Have you come to that recognition yet? Because I will tell you this: the rest of your life is a giant struggle. It is not going to get any easier. It is not going to get any better if you are running from Him. You will never, ever, ever find a breath of satisfaction or happiness in this world.

Our God Is Mighty to Save

But our God — the one true God, the one singular God — is mighty to save. He is the one who saves. He is the one who delivers. Whatever that thing is that you want most, think about it. What is that thing you want most in your mind? If I just had that person, that place, that thing, I would be okay — whatever it is. If it is anything other than Christ, it cannot produce what you are trusting it to do. Every false god never fails to fail. But our God is a mighty God, and He is a God who saves.

Do you believe that? Some of you do. My prayer is that, even tonight, however big that number is, it is bigger at the end of the night as God works in your life.

What Comes Next

Here is what we are going to do with the rest of our time together. We are going to talk about an informed mind. I want to talk tomorrow morning about sin and temptation — where your brain goes. And then I want to talk about a radical life. But tonight, right now, I want us to focus on the mighty power that saves.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank You for these amazing, wonderful, awesome truths. You indeed are a mighty God. You are a God who redeems, who spares Your people, who rescues us. God, it does not matter if I am a junior high kid or a senior citizen — I know the world is a mess. I know things are not as they should be. What I do not know is where to look. But nobody can say that after tonight. You have given us the solution and the answer. God, You deliver us, You rescue us, You redeem us — from what? From ourselves, from our sin.

God, I pray for the students right now who are struggling with that truth. There are some who have known this, and these are sweet words — not new, but great reminders. There are others, even some perhaps just today, who for the very first time have understood that You are a mighty God who saves. God, I pray that You would move in students' hearts — to give up, to surrender, to quit trying to save themselves, to quit being their own gods and trying to find false gods, but to come to You, the one true God. Father, thank You that You are the one true God and that You are mighty to save. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.