I want you to think about these three words: king, allegiance, and power. 
What’s the first thing you think about when you hear these words?
We’re going to talk about these words in just a minute, I want to give you a second to chew on them. 

So what have you talked about today so far? I wasn’t here, but maybe you talked about how God created everything, even you. God thought the entire Universe into existence! A lot of people question that - they say God isn’t real and that the Universe was caused by a Big Bang. What we need to remember is that our Universe shows design, and everything that was designed was made by a designer. (iPhone). This wonderful little gadget didn’t just pop up in Apple’s HQ and they said, “Hey this thing is pretty cool! Let’s sell it!” No! Someone had to sit down, draw this up, design every little part, program the computer...you get the idea. We didn’t just happen by chance, and God created us because He is the All-Powerful designer of the Universe. 

What about our trust in God? Most of us tend to rely on ourselves or on other people, when we really should cast those cares on God. If God created us, don’t you think that if we gave our lives to Him that He would take care of us?

So, as we get into our lesson tonight, I want you to not only think about those three words - king, allegiance, and power - but think about the things you’ve learned today as well. Focus in. 

I. King
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear this word? Personally, I think of a gleaming crown. One with jewels and made of gold sitting on top of some really old guy’s head. 

See, that’s what some of us think about. We tend to almost certainly go to earthly things instead of heavenly ones. Our minds are set to what we’ve seen on TV shows and movies, not on things from heaven or from the Bible. 

Psalm 10.16 says The Lord is king forever and ever. Revelation 17.14 says ...for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.
What does that mean, king of kings?

We all know who Lebron James is. Who Peyton Manning is. Why? Because they stand out over all the rest. At one time, Peyton was the best in his career. We’ve yet to see what Lebron can do, but people might agree that he could be the best basketball player of all time. Peyton is the quarterback of Quarterbacks. Lebron is the basketball player of basketball players. 

God (and His Son) are the King of Kings. 

If you take every world leader who has ever lived - Ghenghis Khan, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Hilter, even all the presidents of the United States combined - and all their power wouldn’t hold a candle to God’s. He is the King over all kings. He is Lord over all Lords. He created us, and He has the equal power to destroy us. 


II. Allegiance 

What about this word? What does it make you think of?

The first thing that may come to your mind may be The Pledge of Allegiance. I don’t even know if you guys still say it in school, but when I graduated from high school 11 years ago, we still did. (Before you do the math, I’m not that old, ok?) 

That may be the first thing that comes to your mind, but not mine. 

The first thing that comes to my mind also happened 11 years ago. Apparently, joining the military is serious business. Hours before I left for Basic Training, I was standing in a small room with other 18-year-olds, holding up my right hand and swearing “to protect the United States from enemies both foreign and domestic. So help me God.”

You ever have those moments when things become real to you? Like the first time you get a D on a report and it dawns on you, “Man, I’m really in high school.” Or the first time you feel a baby move in a woman’s belly and you say, “Whoa, I’m really going to be a big brother. Or an uncle. Or a new daddy.” Those are the moments that things become real for you. 

Standing in that little room and holding up my right hand made the whole serving in the military thing real to me. Up to that point it had just been an idea of mine. After that it was the real deal. 

Have you had that moment in your allegiance to God? Have you said, “Lord, I pledge my allegiance to you and your Word. I will do everything I can to uphold it and stand by it and everything it says.”

You see, we owe our allegiance to God. It’s our choice to serve Him, you’re right, but it is only God that gives us that opportunity to choose. The world and your friends and even some of your college professors would have you believe that there are many ways to be in a right standing with God and go to heaven, but that’s just not the case. You’re either for God, or your against Him. How does that statement make you feel? 

In Matthew 10.32 our Savior had these words: “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

If our allegiance isn’t to God, His Son, and His Word, then who is it to?


III. Power
What about this word? What does it make you think of? 

I can name a lot of things. Seeing the destruction wrought by tornadoes in my hometown just a couple of months ago...seeing building crumpled like cans and massive trees thrown around like toothpicks - that’s power. I watched the last Space Shuttle launch the other day, and seeing those solid rocket boosters and the massive energy pushing that shuttle to over 20,000 miles per hour - that’s power. 

But I’ll tell you what I think about when I think of real power. 

I was in an aircraft squadron in Iraq in 2003, when we invaded. I was a flight engineer on a KC-130 (big cargo plane), and our mission was to deliver supplies, troops, and transports to Baghdad International Airport (then it was still called Saddam Hussien International). We we flying at about 500 knots towards this airport when I feel this little thud-thud-thudthudthud sound below my feet. And I’m like, “What is that? Are we getting shot at?” And I kept hearing this thud-thud-thud. So I walked up to the flight station and in there there’s these cool lower windows that allow you to see the ground. We were only at about 10,000 feet, but we could feel the Howitzers (huge cannons) in a giant semi-circle, firing in the same direction that we were headed. I could lean down and touch the deckplates and hear the thud-thud-thud from almost 2 miles up in the air from these ginormous cannons. That’s power. 

When we talk about God’s name being all-powerful, we’re not necessarily talking about physical power on this earth. Sure, God has shown his physical power many times in the OT, and we see evidence of His physical power in plenty of things now, but God and God’s name is more about the power to save souls rather than physical power. Anything we can think of - tornadoes, Space Shuttles, even huge Howitzer cannons - don’t even compare to God’s power to save souls and get people to Heaven. 

God has given us the ultimate gift as well, through His power. And that’s His Son, Jesus. Paul describes it like this in Phil 2: Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

To sum up tonight, our God is the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. He’s not some old guy sitting up on a golden throne in a bunch of clouds, He’s involved in every aspect, every thought of our lives. When we hurt, He hurts. When we rejoice, he rejoices. Have you acknowledged God as your King tonight?

We owe our God greater allegiance than we do any other person on this earth. We owe lives of service to repay the debt of Jesus dying for our sins on the cross. A lot of us felt that moment of real-ness when we were baptized, but have we lost that attitude of allegiance? Do you still give your allegiance to God tonight?

Finally, our God’s name is all powerful. In the end, when this world is done (and we have no idea when that might be) every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that God’s Son is the Savior of the world, whether they want to it or not. 

Here, at this Camp, this week, you have an enormous opportunity. The Gospel of Christ is for people who are broken and hurting, not for people who are perfect and wonderful. Don’t wait, don’t let anything come between you and God. Think seriously about naming Christ as your Savior this week, and serving the All-Powerful God that we talked about today as well as tonight.