The Perfect Design of Deuteronomy 6

I bring you warm greetings from President Shaby and Chairman Martin, as well as Steve and Kathy Meyers. We had an opportunity to spend quite a bit with all of them during the early part of last week, while we were back in home office for the Camp Directors Conference. We returned recently from the Camp Directors Conference, which ultimately brought together all of our Teen Camp Directors, as well as the vast majority of our pre-Teen Camp Directors. Not everyone was able to be there, but the majority of them were for three days worth of conversation, discussion, and ultimately planning on how we can best serve our youth and our parents of our youth. You know, when we look back over the last 27 years of our United Youth Camp Program, it has arguably been one of the most successful, if not the most successful program, that the Church has embarked on in recent history.

You consider about all the endeavors and all the things that we've put together, it has been arguably one of the most successful programs that we've put together in our recent history. For many of you that have been involved in the program, you can think back and you can remember different experiences that you've had, the friends that you've made, the lessons that you've learned during those years. In fact, I was actually kind of curious, really quickly, would you raise your hand if you've been a camper or a staff at either one of our pre-Teen or Teen Camps sometime in the last 27 years?

Look at the room. Look around the room real quick and see how many people have been involved. Go ahead and put your hands in. You don't have to hold them up that long. But the vast majority of individuals in this room have been connected in some way, shape, or form with the program that we put together in our United Youth Camp program, whether pre-Teen or Teen. And a good number of you went through the training that was implicit in that program as campers, and then again as staff, and now some of you have your own youth in the program.

You know, it's kind of a fun aside. We just had the opportunity to bless James Hansen, Luke and Megan Hansen's son, this morning. I was Luke's counselor back at Camp Davidson in probably the mid-2000s at some point. I can't even pinpoint the year.

But he's moved through the program. He served at Northwest Camp as well. Megan served at Northwest Camp as well. And now they're raising future campers. I mean, that's the way this works, right? That's the way this program works. It's generational. My wife has been a counselor for umpteen years. I won't tell you how many years at the different camp programs. And arguably she's probably had most of the young ladies in this room, either in preteen or in teen camp, over the years.

Our camp program builds relationships. It builds connection. And it builds this generational sequence of campers to staff to camper parents. And that's the method by which we ultimately cede the program throughout the remaining years and through the next years. Making sure that the lessons and the training that was bestowed to each and every one of us as we've gone through the program gets passed on to the next generation. The meetings that we had opportunity to participate in while we were there were wonderful.

You know, Mr. Len Martin has taken the mantle up of the National Youth Camp Director. We very much appreciated his leadership as we worked through all of these discussions and collaborated with one another. As we talked about the successes that we've had as a part of our program and have opportunities to frankly discuss some of the issues that we're facing at our teen and our preteen camps as well as this world works overtime to claim our kids.

We just had a message just this last week of Mr. Myers talking about the importance of defending the family and how there are battle lines drawn. That there are battle lines drawn and that this world is doing everything in its power to claim our kids. And we are doing everything in our power to be able to hold that line and stand strong for our children. And our camp programs in many ways do that.

They hold a line that is ever being relentlessly pounded at by the world and by the sea of change that ultimately is taking place. One of the concepts that we kept coming back to this year as we talked about our programs was this phrase that we used to say it a lot actually in the camp program. Years ago, this was a very common phrase that we would hear.

And to be honest, in recent years I don't know that we've really heard it as much. And I think it's just because we kind of stopped saying it. But the concept is very much still in place. We just maybe haven't enumerated it as much. That concept and that phrase was that camp supports parents. Camp supports parents. You know, as we talked about the issues that we're dealing with and the various things in our program and how those programs and our preteen and our teen camps help to support and provide for families, this concept continued coming to bear. It kept coming up as we went through our discussions in the week.

Our camp program is not in the place of parents, though for the short time that our kids are at camp we are. We're legally in loco parentis according to the state, which means that we are in place of parents during that time frame.

But instead, we are there to support parents as they work to raise children in accordance with our common calling. That is the job of our camp programs. We're there to help point children to God. We're there to help align them with His way and ultimately to encourage them to turn to Him. Because the one thing we don't ever want to lose sight of in our camp programs, we don't ever want to lose sight of as parents either, is that ultimately these are God's kids.

These are God's children. We are simply stewards for a period of time. But they are God's kids. It is His camp. We are simply stewards for a time. Let's go to Psalm 127 today to begin. Psalm 127, we're familiar with this particular passage. We've read it before. In fact, I believe we even went here on the Day of the Blessing of Little Shurn. I think Mr. Hanson visited this particular passage in his sermonette.

But Psalm 127 has a really neat analogy. When we talk about this concept and we talk about this whole aspect of what we're talking here today, Psalm 127 really spells it out in a wonderful way. Psalm 127 in verse 1. Psalm 127 and verse 1 says, Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

You know, as we look at this role that God plays in our life, as we look at this role that God plays in our family, the foundation of our house, the foundation of the family. Again, that word in Hebrew, that concept of house, it's interchangeable. It can mean both house in a physical sense and it can mean house in the sense of a family. The foundation of that, of that generational succession, so to speak, as we see in our programs, it has to be God. It cannot be anything else.

It says, unless the Lord builds the house, unless God is involved in that process, Solomon says, they labor in vain who build it. They labor in vain who build it. Solomon goes as far as saying, without God, as the center of that house, the center of that family, that the labor that is put in, the goals, the work, the efforts, they are in vain.

And that word, vain, in Hebrew, translates as worthless, futile, or inconsequential. Worthless, futile, or inconsequential. We see the next aspect of it. It says, unless the Lord guards the city, unless that city is protected by God, unless that city is protected by the law of God, unless we wrap it, so to speak, that city in the law of God and in the commandments of God, unless we uphold and ensure that these things are provided for with regularity, Solomon once again writes that the watchman, the protector, the one who is keeping an eye out, stays awake in vain.

That his staying awake at that point is worthless, unless, unless it is founded and it is secured in God. That that person's attempt to call out the danger, it's worthless, it's futile, it's inconsequential. Because his city cannot and will not be protected if its protection is not, first and foremost, in the Lord. Verse 2 of Psalm 127 says, It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he gives his beloved sleep. You know, if you take that passage out of context, I kind of like that. It's worthless or futile to rise up early.

Take that totally out of context. I love that. No point in getting out of bed before 7. God says so. It's right. No, that's not what he means, though, right? I mean, that's not what he's saying. The point he's making here is the point that he makes, it's the same exact point that he makes in the first verse.

He's speaking to the need for the blessing of God in human endeavors, in the efforts that are being put forth. Solomon says, it's worthless or futile to get up early, to stay up late, to eat the bread of sorrow or toil, to eat the bread of sorrow, apart from God. He says God gives his beloved sleep. Some of you might be familiar with the hustle mentality. You guys familiar with that mentality? It's kind of a big concept these days. Wake up, hustle, repeat. That a person should always be out hustling, always be working, 24-7, 365, cranking away on building an empire that will outlive them. Now, I don't want to discount the importance of hard work.

Hard work is critical. God is a believer in the importance of hard work. But the point that Solomon is making is that without God in the picture, our efforts will fail. They will be vain. They will be worthless. They will be inconsequential without God in the picture. And sometimes people lose sight of that. Sometimes people lose sight of that. They can sometimes be so focused on what they've built and what they've done that they lose track of the fact that God was the principal partner in the process. And that much of what came about was a result of his divine blessing.

It says God gives his beloved sleep. He gives his beloved sleep. The blessing of God enables a person to be able to rest, be able to work hard, be able to work hard, but also rest, also balance life.

And that balance is critical because the next few verses talk about one of our most important responsibilities as parents. Psalm 127 in verse 3 says, Psalm 127 says, Solomon writes here, So it is though God pays us as parents in that sense. But then Solomon draws another analogy. It says, That's no offense to any accountants who may be in the room. But the point that Solomon's making is that children are like arrows in the hands of a person who knows what to do with them, who understands how they work, not just pointy end forward, who knows how to handle that bow and that quiver full of arrows.

I don't know about you guys, but I remember shortly after Aiden was born, having a moment of existential crisis, thinking to myself as I held him one night, late at night, I don't know what to do with this. I truly don't. He's freaking out. I can't get him to stop. He's crying. He's screaming. I don't want to wake Shannon up because she's been up all night already. I don't know what to do. But, you know, as we found, as time went on, I mean, in that moment, I felt nothing like a warrior that had arrows in his hands.

I felt like an accountant with a bow and not sure what to do with it. Shannon and I were pleasantly surprised as we went through our early parenting years to find that God has provided mankind with a certain degree of instinct to know how to care for and to how to protect these little ones.

Feeding and changing and all those critical components. Yeah, once you get it figured out, it goes pretty simple. It goes pretty easy. But when it came to the way that we were supposed to then train him up spiritually, in the way that he should go, we found that that actually was relatively simple, too. And I think those of you that are parents, you have as well. Because you've had an example of what that looks like. That's generational. Now, where it can become a challenge is when maybe we haven't had the strongest example of that in our own families. Right? That can be a challenge sometimes. When we haven't had that example, per se, in our own lives, it can be a bit more of a struggle to maybe find the best way to ensure that these precious truths of God are passed on.

That we're able to point our youth to God. You know, we talk about arrows. We think about arrows and the way that they operate. One of the things that we have to consider, and I think one of the reasons Solomon's analogy is so amazing, is that an arrow doesn't have continual contact once it's been released.

Once you release that arrow and it's off to find its target, now it's one of the benefits to archery is its arranged weapon. You know, you don't have to be interacting with it along the flight path of the arrow. The archer draws the arrow back in one location, adjusts their aim, adjusts their trajectory, releases the arrow into the sky, and you can't touch it again.

You can't reach out and suddenly change its trajectory. You can't reach out and go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't have that ability. It's off, and it's in the direction in which it's been pointed, based on its velocity, based on the pull of gravity. It will land, frankly, in a spot you can calculate if you know all those things. Those of you that have taken physics, you know you can pinpoint the location of where that arrow will go based on all of those characteristics. Our youth are the same, minus velocity and the pull of gravity. But as parents, we draw the arrow back.

We point that arrow towards God. We hold that arrow as long as we possibly can while making the fine-tuning adjustments necessary. And at some point in time, we release it. At some point in time, we release that arrow. And whether it flies true, in part, is based on what we've done on that front end. The trajectory that we've set them on, the fine-tuning that we've made before our release. We also recognize that their calling is individual.

They have to own that calling. They have to take it and personally own it and respond to it as well. But parents, we have the best opportunity to set them up for the best chance of success with what we do with them early in life.

There's an incredible opportunity and a huge responsibility that God has given us as parents in this life, as stewards of His future children. It'll be His children in His kingdom. If they see what we put as priorities in our life, if they see God as a focus in our life, if they see us putting the things of God as priorities, if they see us praying and studying and gathering together with other believers and learning about God, that becomes important to them, too.

As time goes on, it becomes important to them. Even the youngest in the bunch learns that lesson and sees that thing. We can't underestimate the importance of this because as Solomon points out, if we don't do these things purposefully with intention, maintaining God at the center of our house, wrapping our family and His law and His commandments, the efforts that we make to build that house, to guard that city, they will be in vain. Let's turn over to Deuteronomy 6.

Deuteronomy 6, as we consider the way that God has set this system up, Deuteronomy 6, we see Deuteronomy 5 as we come into Deuteronomy 6. Moses is outlining the commandments of God. He's talking to Israel, kind of re-discussing this with Israel, and telling them, listen, you heard the voice from the mountaintop. This was your response. He tells Israel, you guys said these are the things you're going to do.

And then we segue into Deuteronomy 6, and he starts to reference these commandments again as he discusses the importance of teaching them to their children as they move into the land of Canaan. Now, God knew, in fact, we can see it later on in Deuteronomy 6, God knew entering the land of Canaan ran the risk of making the people complacent. It ran the risk of making them complacent because they would enter into this land, into houses they didn't build, vineyards they didn't plant, wells they didn't dig.

It was all being given to them. And God was concerned that they would eat and become full and forget the one who provided the blessing. And lo and behold, that's exactly what Israel did. Right? We see that as time goes on. It's exactly what Israel did. But he instructed Israel in verse 4 of Deuteronomy 6 to remember their God, that he is one. He says that they should love the Lord their God with all their heart, all their soul, all their strength. That the love that they have for their God should not be half-hearted.

It should not be half of the love for God and half of the love for the world. Or half of the love for God and half of the love for the ways of the Canaanites, because look at these Canaanites. God desired Israel's whole heart. Not half of it. Not part of it. He wanted it all. And the method that he chose to implement to help the people of Israel remember this is perfectly designed by God. Verse 6 of Deuteronomy 6. Verse 6 of Deuteronomy 6. Speaking of the commandments, speaking of the statutes and the judgments of God that were discussed in the first part of Deuteronomy 6 and the portion of Deuteronomy 5, it says in verse 6, And these words which I command you today, they shall be in your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. It says you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Fast forward a little bit. We see that the Jewish people, the Israelites, they took these commandments to heart. You know, they did.

They literally began to bind them on their hands and on their foreheads. You can see this today. If you look around, they call them flakteries. They're a little box, and they contain small writings of the Torah.

It looks like it looks like they were in a headlamp. You know, it's a little box that just kind of straps onto the forehead, and then is either on your right wrist or your left wrist, and they contain little writings from the Torah inside. So they took this instruction very literally, you know, very literally, to ensure that they kept God's Torah in the forefront of their mind, in that box, and near their heart, on their hand.

That's the closest they can get to the heart to strap something on, I guess, in that sense. But as we look at God's plan, and as we look at what God determined to do with mankind, we can see that wasn't what God intended.

God didn't mean this in the physical sense. What God meant was that Israel would take these laws into their hearts, and take them into their minds, that these things would be internalized, that they would become a part of them, as opposed to something exterior, something outside, something physically worn on the forehead and the wrist. But conceptually, spiritually, we see that concept in the passage. The only way for God's way and mind and heart to be in our minds and hearts is to regularly discuss these things, to frequently discuss these things, to teach these things.

And in that vein, what we see is God give parents the instruction contained in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 7, that these things should be taught diligently to our children, that we should talk of them when we sit in our homes and when we walk by the way and when we lie down and when we rise up. Deuteronomy 6 is designed by God to be the perfect system for educating His people in His way. That parents would teach these things to their children, that they would talk of God when they sat in their house, when they walk by the way, when they lie down, when they rise up, see in the evening and in the morning.

This education that was taking place would help that youth to learn God's ways, to learn His commandments, His statutes and His judgments. And parents, speaking as a parent myself, that responsibility falls squarely on our shoulders. That is squarely on our shoulders. Now, our camp program supports that process, but it was never intended to take the place of it. It was never intended to take the place of it. Camp supports parents. And together, parents, camp program, we hold the line against the pushing and the pulling of society for our youth.

We draw those battle lines, and we're willing to hold that line. One of the most amazing things about directing a camp is having the opportunity to read through our camper and parent survey results. Often, when you're serving at camp just in a regular aspect of things, you don't ever have a chance to see that behind-the-scenes info. But to get the camper survey results and the parent survey results is incredible.

You get a chance to read on those kids' surveys just how much that week of time made a difference in their life, how excited they are and how on fire they are for God to go home and take it home with them, and to live differently and to do differently and frequently, I'm so excited to go home and I want to study my Bible and I want to get with my friends and I want to do all these things.

I'm just on fire. And the parents say, who is this kid that came home? It's a different kid. It's a totally different kid. Not literally. We didn't actually send the wrong kid home with somebody. But the idea being that this is a child now that is interested in serving other people. They don't have the inward focus. They're focused on serving others. They're focused on reading their Bible and praying and helping out around the house. Maybe they're not as snide or short with their siblings or maybe their parents. And parents, every single year, this is the response we see. And part of, I think, why that takes place is because of the processes that we use in our program and, of course, the power of positive peer pressure.

The power of positive peer pressure. Similar to the concept of Deuteronomy 6, where God intended for His way to be taught when you rise up, when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down. All of our daily themes, everything that we do for camp, it's all set up by the council shortly after those kids open their eyes in the morning.

They open their eyes in the morning and you're talking about the theme of the day. You're getting this theme set. Everybody's ready to go. They go to breakfast. They get it again. They go to Christian living. They get it again. They go to their activities. They get it again and again and again and again and again. They come in. They go to dinner. They come back. They get it one more time in their dorm and then dorm parents.

It's like that is just hammered all day long. They get it from morning to evening. Every moment that their eyes are open, every moment that their eyes are closed. Every moment until their eyes are closed. Let's put it that way. The counselors may be reading it at night while they're sleeping too. I don't honestly know. No, they're not. But the effect and the result is incredible. As that focus and those discussions take place during the day and our youth are completely immersed in the way of God with others of like mind, that transformation within the time frame of camp is incredible!

It's incredible. And those of you that have seen it, you know what I'm talking about. We talk about how it takes a couple days for people to cough the smog out of their lungs, so to speak, when they come to camp. Because they're coming out of a very different scenario.

They're in the world. They're coming out of these different things. But by about Monday, Tuesday, things kind of take a turn and things begin to just really be beautiful. Now, I want to be like abundantly clear, okay? I want to be abundantly clear and transparent. We say this and we look at this. We, my family, we're not there outside of camp.

I'll be perfectly frank and perfectly honest. In our house, we have three kids to get out the door in the morning to school. Those alarms go off. There's kids up and down and around and routines are going, chores are going, things are getting done.

They're crying out the door at different times. Breakfast is on the stove. Thankfully, coffee's been made. Shannon and I are both trying to figure out what we're going to do for the day and how we're going to get situated. I would love to tell you that I gather all my little chicks together before they leave for school and do a family prayer.

I don't. I should. I really should. I don't. Okay, so please understand. I'm not pointing fingers here, okay? Absolutely not pointing fingers here. What I'm saying is that as parents, this is our responsibility. This is our job. The protection and the spiritual education of our children is on our shoulders, not on anyone else's. That's what I'm saying. And that there is always room for improvement, regardless of where you may be in the instruction and the teaching of your children.

What we learned about in Psalm 127, if God is not the center of that process, if He is not the focus, if He is not the priority, any effort we make will be in vain. Cannot stress that enough. So wherever we are in this process, wherever we are in our own families, again, there's always room to improve. There's always room to shore this up. There's always room to go through this process and determine things that we can shift, things that we can change.

Deuteronomy 6 gives us the system that God has ordained to pass these things on from generation to generation, from parent to child, kind of down through time. With the time that we have left today, what I'd like to do is just briefly take a look at three concepts that we can find in Deuteronomy 6 that help us focus on the education and the training of our kids and the way that we can do this as parents.

Those three things are contained right in the passage. It says, God's law and His ways, they shall be in our heart, number one. We shall teach them diligently, number two. And we should talk about them regularly, number three. So let's talk a little bit about these things. Let's talk about in our hearts. You know, as Christ conducted His earthly ministry, He focused on the importance of the way of God becoming internalized, entering one's heart. Not just knowing about it, not just hearing about it, not just thinking it's a good idea, but actually internalizing His law, His way, His mind into our hearts.

In fact, let's turn over to Matthew 5, and we'll go ahead and begin there with this. We see a portion of the Sermon on the Mount. And, you know, one of the things that Christ was incredible at doing was being able to take analogies and other things and make them teaching moments. You know, this is one of those types of moments. Knowing who He had in His audience, knowing the individuals who were present in that area at that time, those multitudes that He'd gathered.

We see this Sermon on the Mount and what He is speaking and preaching to these that are gathered. And what we see is that the multitude that is gathered here, given where He is, these would be devout Jews. These would be individuals who had the Torah memorized as children. These would be individuals who went through the system, so to speak, at that time and memorized the first five books.

Some of these folks might even have gone along further and become disciples to a rabbi. And they were curious, who's this new guy and what's he talking about? So these individuals knew these things that He was talking about. And so, you know, they understood the statutes, they understood the judgments, likely varying degrees of success in keeping them.

But what He does is He makes a connection that I think is really important for us to consider. Matthew 5 and verse 17. Christ says, Or in the case, you'll notice that's in italics.

So Christ makes the point to those that are gathered here, He's not come to do away with the law and the prophets, and we recognize that. He didn't come to destroy in that sense. He came to fulfill. He came to complete to, as we've sometimes said, amplify. To kind of provide additional understanding of what's really going on with these particular rules and standards and things that we see. He goes on to say that unless their righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, that they will by no means enter the kingdom of God, or as Matthew's Gospel references it, the kingdom of heaven.

Their righteousness, it says, had to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Now put yourself in their shoes for a minute, those listening to the Sermon on the Mount. Here are the Pharisees, the scribes. Well, they're the most righteous of them all. Got these huge hems on the robes. They've got the flakteries on their heads. They sit in the choice seats in the synagogues.

They have all these things. So the average Joe sitting and listening to Christ's Sermon on the Mount might be asking themselves, how, how, can my righteousness exceed the obvious righteousness of Pharisee, McPharisee, and over here?

But what we see Christ talking about, and what we see Christ speaking about, is the differentiation between heart and head. Between heart and head. In other places in Scripture, Christ talks to the issues of the Pharisees, how they made a show of things, how everything was superficial, everything was exterior. Looked good on the outside, but inside was a different story, right? We see that in multiple places throughout the Gospel accounts. Christ's point to those that were gathered and listening here was that He came to fulfill, to complete the Law, to amplify the Law.

He was adding, so to speak, additional spiritual components to what was known as the letter of the Law at that time, providing us with the fundamental mindset or spirit behind the letter of that Law. Verse 21, He goes on and says, He goes on and says, What Christ brought to those who were gathered is that it wasn't enough to not murder someone in the physical sense. It wasn't enough to not take someone's life in the physical sense. Now mind you, He didn't relax that requirement. He said, that's important.

That's important. But He added a more stringent component to that Law. If you harbor hatred or animosity in your heart, then you have sinned and are in violation of the Law. Christ said, period. End of sentence. Verse 27, it says, Well, I didn't sleep with her! Christ says it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. If you've looked at a woman to lust after her in that sense, you've already committed adultery in your heart. You've violated the Seventh Commandment before the physical act has taken place. And so Christ's amplification of these Ten Commandments that we recognize, providing the spirit behind the physical letter of the Law, helps us to understand the difference between head and heart.

Between head and heart. And the importance for us as parents helping our youth understand this lesson is critical. And there's a reason why. Because if we're operating with the head only, if we're only talking here, when we consider the Law of God, when we talk about head knowledge, when we talk about physical letter of the Law, then there is a clear line of delineation between what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

There's a line. When is it murder? When you pull the trigger. Ta-da! That's murder. That line has been crossed. Sin has taken place in the letter of the Law. When is it adultery? When that person commits fornication. That's sin. At that moment, they have sinned. The line is there and the line is crossed.

The problem with lines is that our human nature wants to pull right up next to the line with a toe almost on it and sit right there without crossing it. We want to pull right up to it and say, I'm not over the line.

Mind you, I'm right next to it, but I'm not over it. And the reality is, in that scenario, we're operating with our head and we're not operating with our heart. We're approaching the Law of God with a concept of how much exactly can I get away with without crossing the line. When we're operating from the heart, when we're operating from the heart, Christ talks about in Matthew 5, we realize there are gradations.

There are gradations. And the only way to prevent ourselves or someone else from crossing that line is to start to draw that line a whole lot further back from where the line physically is. To prevent the murder of a person according to the letter of the law means that we can't harbor hate for another person in our heart that could then get out of control to the point of taking their life. We've got to stop it back here before we cross it up here. When it comes to adultery, we have to stop those thoughts, those provocations before they develop any further before we cross it here.

I've been teaching Aiden to drive, which has been kind of fun, honestly. It's been kind of enjoyable. Maybe not for him. I'm loving it. We need to get out a lot more frequently at this point. He's got to get like 100 hours or something like that. We keep going the rate we're going. He's not going to drive until he's 35. So we've got to get out a little bit more. But we're in a process, right? We're like learning this process of driving.

Those of you that drive, you know, when you pull up to a stop line, there's a line or a stop sign. There's a line right there. There's a white painted line on the ground that is the stop line. That's the place where your car has to be behind legally stopped. You cannot stop in the middle of that white line. People do it all the time.

But you're not supposed to. You could be ticketed because you haven't stopped in time. One of the things that you don't want to do is you don't want to drive right to the line and then jam on the brakes because then your momentum is going to carry you over the line. And you cross the line and now you legally have not stopped. And then the boop, boop, boop, and they pull you over. The reality is you have to tap the brakes further back to make sure that you stop in time to be able to stop at that white line so that you're able to remain safe.

You're able to be protected. Because again, if you're not at that stop line, the cars turning across can be hitting you. You could be in the intersection and getting hit. I mean, there's all kinds of issues that then come into play here. What God is focused on is our hearts. God is focused on right here. He wants us to have His law in here, not up here.

I mean, it's important to have it here too, but not just here. Christ came to complete. He came to fulfill. He came to bring an additional aspect to God's law that was originally intended by God but was missed by the Israelites throughout time. As parents, it's our job to help our youth learn this lesson, to understand the difference.

And it's not as simple as asking where's the line, because if we're asking that question to be honest, we've already lost. If we're asking the question where's the line, we've already lost. Because we're so concerned about how close we can get to it at that point, if that makes sense. What we really need to be asking ourselves in every scenario is what is God's intent here relating to this instruction? Why did God provide it? Why did He give this instruction? Why is He asking us to do these things?

What's the standard He's holding His people to and why and what's the lesson that He wants us to learn in the process? Why is it important not just for me, but for my brother and my sister? And, brethren, until we frame the question in that manner, we're missing the mark.

That sort of instruction, that sort of thing, we can't have that come through, have hazard instruction. It has to be diligent. It has to be intentional. It has to be purposeful. And so the second thing we see in Deuteronomy 6 is to teach them diligently, to teach these things diligently to our children and to our youth. Quick show of hands, anybody ever sharpen a knife with a whetstone? Anybody ever go through the process? Okay, a few. I don't like sharpening with a whetstone because it takes forever. If you're going to do it right, it takes a really long time. I love electric sharpeners. Meow! Done. Love it. Absolutely love it. But those of you that have done this with a whetstone before, you know the process. You start out with a little bit coarser stone, and you run a bunch of strokes along the blade with that coarser stone until you've knocked some of the rough parts down, and then you move to a finer grit stone, and then you knock that down a little bit, and move to a finer grit stone. You might add some water, and then if you really want it surgically sharp, you run it on leather strap. Right? I mean, that gets it, like, really super, like you could shave with it sharp. I don't know. I haven't shaved in a long time. But you could. You could.

The word that's used in Deuteronomy 6 here for diligently is the Hebrew word sanaan. And what I want to stick in your head from this point is this. That comes from a root that is used to describe sharpening. The word sanaan, you shall diligently teach these things. Teach diligently is the word shanaan. Shanaanana. Sanaan is the Hebrew word. And what it means, it comes from a root that describes sharpening. It comes from a root that describes the repetitive strokes on a stone that sharpen a blade. It's that repetition. It's that consistency. It's that constant motion. Stroke after stroke after stroke after stroke of God's way that sharpens our youth. That sharpens our children. We need to make sure we keep that in mind as we think about when we're raising our kids and how we're sharpening our youth. Through that repetition that takes place, the blade becomes ever sharper. So one way, if you don't remember anything else.

We have to sharpen our children. We have to sharpen our children. As parents, we have to maintain the spiritual edge of our kids through repeated sharpening with love and with care. The reality is it can be done wrong. It can absolutely be done wrong. It can be done through browbeating and drilling and all kinds of things. That does not end well. It can be done wrong. But with love and care, repeatedly sharpening our kids. Some of you bow hunt. I know we've talked about hunting before and some of you do bow hunt. One thing interesting about bow hunters, you may or may not know this if you're not a bow hunter, bow hunters make sure that the broad heads that they use for hunting are razor sharp. I mean razor sharp. In fact, most of the guys that buy them, I know a couple of guys that do a lot of bow hunting, and they will repurchase new broad heads for every season. Because they don't think that by sharpening them, they can get them sharp enough. They want the factory edge on them when they go out. And there's a reason for this, and I'll try to keep it as PG as humanly possible without losing my point. Pun intended. But in bow hunting, the animal you're hunting dies as a result of blood loss that leads to shock and death. That's the goal. To get the animal to lose over one third of its blood volume is the goal. Because it has to hit one third for it to go into shock and die. One of the things that's interesting, if you've ever hit your hand with a hammer, or ever hit your thumb with a hammer and managed to open it up, you'll note it doesn't necessarily bleed as much as something as simple as a paper cut. Paper cuts will just bleed and bleed and bleed, and you're just like, how? Why? What is happening? There's a physiological reason why. Blunt force trauma releases a clotting factor known as thromboplastyin. And what it does is because of the blunt force trauma, the thromboplastyin is released and the blood clots. Sharp edges don't release thromboplastyin. So when that arrow punches through both sides of that deer or that elk, they just continue to bleed and bleed and bleed and bleed and bleed until one third of that blood volume is gone and the animal goes down. Again, I tried to keep it as PG as I could, but...

Psalm 127 likens our children to arrows in the hands of a warrior. A warrior cannot go to war with dull arrows, a dull sword, or a dull spear. Sharpening those arrows and teaching these things repetitively to our children hones a certain spiritual edge that makes them spiritually effective. It enables them to perform the task that they have been designed to perform, which is to become a child of God. That is the purpose for all of us. That's why we have kids. That's what God is doing in our lives. What it does is it provides them with the fundamental characteristics needed to give them the greatest chance of success as they fulfill this role that they were called to, and as we as parents release that arrow to the target. But sharpening kids like that takes intentionality, it takes focus, it takes a recognition and an acceptance of the part that we play in the process. Because, folks, if we don't sharpen them, no one else will.

As parents, if we don't sharpen them, no one else will. The only thing the world is going to do is dull them, bit by bit, consistently. Take that edge that we have honed off every opportunity that it gets. It's like taking a razor edge of a knife and just scraping on a rock over and over and over again.

It takes more than a few strokes on a whetstone to make a blade usable. It's a long process. It's repetitive, it's consistent, and that reflects the diligence with which we have to be teaching these things of God. We have to be focused on these things. This is only through repetition and regularity that we can even reach a point where these things are truly internalized. If it's occasional, it doesn't get there. But not only that, it's age appropriate. Think about this from a whetstone standpoint. You don't start with the fine tuning. You start with the coarse, the big stuff. Just make sure they understand the big stuff when they're little. As they get a little older, you take it to the next level of fine tuning. After that, you take it to the real small grit. After that, maybe the leather strap. As they get sharpened more fully, as they are young adults now and moving out into their own lives.

So what does that look like? How does that process entail? Well, it looks like us talking about it regularly, constantly, every opportunity that we have. Do Army 6, actually, if you want to go ahead and flip back there. It doesn't seem to provide too many times, actually, in our lives when we're not talking about God. It says the times when we should be talking about these things are when we sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up. That's most of our lives, most of what we're doing during the day. So not only that, it gives us location, it gives us places, and it gives us timing. It tells us at night, in the evening, in the morning, when we sit by the house, when we sit in the house, we walk by the way. And then throughout the day as well, as we have opportunities and lessons and opportunities present themselves. Now the reality of modern life, unfortunately, frequently means that our children aren't always with us. Maybe they're in school, or maybe we're at work. You know, whatever that looks like. The reality of our lives are very different than that of ancient Israel, when the families would get up and go work together in the fields, you know, and go take care of their farms, and whatever else they might do, or apprentice with dad for, you know, to become this leather worker, or this thing, or that thing, or whatever. Our lives don't always allow for that at this time. But what that means is that we have to be intentional with the time that we do have. It means we have to be intentional with the time that we do have. Teaching God of his, you know, teaching our kids of God in his ways, can't be something that we fit in when we have time. It has to be something we schedule. It has to be something that we make certain happens. And that instruction is going to take different forms, and it's going to be different based on ages. But what we have to keep in mind is, regardless of age, regardless of whether they're really little kids, or whether they're young adults and on their way out the door, you know, to live their own lives, the primary lesson that we are getting across, aside from the specifics of God's law, his commandments, and all of that, aside from those things, is the establishment of God as a priority in the life of our family. Our focus of this family is pleasing God, of learning his way of life. That is our family focus, right? The methods that we utilize will vary. It will be dependent on age, but honestly, if our youth and our kids see us as adults putting God as a priority in our life, if they see us submitting ourselves to his way, to his calling, they will learn and identify that as a priority in their life, too. Because it will be a natural progression from what they've known since the beginning. Matthew 6 and verse 33 tells us we have to seek first the kingdom of God, but notice it goes on and says, and his righteousness, not just the kingdom, but his righteousness as well. And if God's not the first priority amongst all of our other priorities, then we cannot and we will not be instilling him as a priority in the lives of our children. The consequences of that are serious and potentially eternal.

It's important to keep in mind when we're focused on this, it's not just the kingdom that we're looking for, it's not just the end result. We're seeking his righteousness. We're seeking God's uprightness. We're seeking doing what is right, ensuring that in everything that we do and in everything that we're focused on, that we are doing what is right.

And that's an everyday focus in our lives. You know, every day that we seek his righteousness, we seek his kingdom. William Law, who is a 17th century priest in the Church of England, wrote, If you have not chosen the kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you've chosen instead. I thought that was pretty apropos. A.W. Tozer said, as God is exalted to the right place in our lives, a thousand problems are solved all at once. With God in the right place and in the right perspective in our families, a thousand problems are solved all at once.

God has to be the priority. He has to be. Let's go to Jeremiah. Jeremiah's got an interesting chapter in it. You know, people of Israel, we know at this point when Jeremiah is given his burden from God to go and prophesy, they were largely living a life that was apart from God. And God uses Jeremiah, essentially, to make his case against them. I mean, that's Jeremiah's role here in many ways. He kind of talks about the different things that he had against them. He talked about the first love that they had, the kindness of their youth and their betrothal, and how times had changed.

You know, they used to be they sought after him. He was a priority in their lives. But now, not so much. In fact, verse 32, if you want to look at Jeremiah 2, verse 32, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in 31 for context. This is how much it's changed. God makes the point to them. This is how much has changed.

Verse 31, and I'm going to read this in the New Living Translation. It helps give a little color to the passage. It says, Oh, my people, listen to the words of the Lord. It says, Have I been like a desert to Israel? Have I been to them a land of darkness?

He says, Why then do my people say, At last we are free from God? We don't need him anymore. Okay, of course, talking about Israel here. But this is the point. I love the way that God puts this forth to Israel. He says, Does a young woman forget her jewelry? Or a bride her wedding dress? Yet for years on end, God says, My people have forgotten me. God asks Israel through the prophet Jeremiah, Would a young woman forget her jewelry?

Of course not. It's a priority. It's something she's thinking about. It's something that's on her mind. Would a bride show up to her own wedding without her wedding dress? No way! That thing's been picked for a year and a half prior. You know, it's been sitting on a thing, and she's been going, hmm... No, they haven't... don't do that.

Point being, it's a priority. It's important. It's something that is huge in their mind. It's on the absolute forefront of their mind. It's a thing that they remember. And God says, point blank in verse 32, Yet for years on end, my people have forgotten me. I have not been a priority in the mind of my people. Yet, you wouldn't forget your wedding dress. You wouldn't forget your jewelry. But here we are. You know, when I travel, I make absolutely certain that somewhere in my bag, the last thing I check before I walk out that door is that I have my passport. Because I ain't getting on the plane without it. That is an absolute priority. If I forget that passport, the trip is shot.

There is no way I'm going anywhere that will not let me board without it. That is a priority. I make absolutely certain it is the last thing I check before I walk out the door, I have my passport. I can leave. It is the priority. It is the thing that if I don't have it, I can't go forward. God tells Israel for years on end, he hasn't been a priority. That the young woman wouldn't forget the jewelry, the bride wouldn't forget the wedding dress, but Israel had forgotten God. We don't want to be in that spot.

We don't want to be in that place as we are talking with our children and as we are working in our homes, as families, and considering all the different things that we do as a part of our collective calling. We have to be talking about God when we rise up, when we walk by the way, when we lie down. All these times in our life illustrating that God is a priority, that our focus and our desire is for Him, that we are talking about His wonders, that we are talking about His creation and all He has done for man, the miracles that He has performed, all these different things.

Talking about the amazing aspects of His way, our shared calling, talking about the joy of the Kingdom of God, what's coming, and how it is going to be so much better than what we see today. Giving our children that blessing of having that in their heads with regularity. Only then can we sharpen our youth repetitively and hone that spiritual edge that causes them to become the most effective arrows in our collective quiver.

And it's only through that regular sharpening and that regular repetition that these things can be ingrained in the heart of our youth. So that we realize and we understand the intention behind God's commandments, so that we understand why He asks us to maintain standards of sanctification and holiness. Why He asks us to be set apart from the world, to remain unblemished and unspotted from this world as we see throughout Scripture.

God instilled Deuteronomy 6 to ensure that His way is transferred from generation to generation. It's as valid today as it was when Moses gave it to Israel from God, perhaps even more so as we think about the conditions that we face today. Unfortunately, as you all know all too well, and this was a conversation we had at the camp directors conference, we live in a time in which the winds and waves of society are crashing against the foundation of the house that we've built. Matthew 7, verses 24 to 29, these wind and waves, they are going to test the foundation that we've built. They're going to determine whether or not we've built on rock or whether we've built on sand.

And our youth are exposed to these wind and waves in so many different channels. They see it via rapidly changing social standards. They see it through the media and its reflection of those changing social standards. They see it through social media. They see it through peer pressure. And the intensity and the pressure of these winds and these waves on our youth are ever, ever increasing. Brethren, camp supports parents. Our job and our task in the UIC program is to come alongside you as parents and to support you with what you're doing in your families to train up your child in the way that they should go.

We are there alongside you to hold that line together for our youth. We are very much looking forward to our program this year. We are very excited. We are very excited to go forward with what we're doing at Northwest. We've set our dates. I'm going to let you know what those dates are, July 23rd to July 30th, and we look forward to seeing all of our teens at Northwest Camp this year.

Thank you.