Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] If you are just joining us, we are grateful for this opportunity to open God's word again. And I have a really cool illustration that I can't wait to share with you today as we continue our discussion in the book of Deuteronomy. Now you're probably thinking to yourself, deuteronomy has been kind of an interesting and maybe eye opening book.
[00:00:22] Deuteronomy and Numbers are connected in the Old Testament, both part of the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Deuteronomy and Numbers is an interesting book because numbers gives us the facts, just the facts, ma'. Am. It kind of gives us the stories as they happen to the children of Israel. Deuteronomy gives us more of how Moses feels about those stories and how those events actually went down and how he related to those events. So it's kind of been fun to walk through Deuteronomy and find the encouragements that we find in there because this is now a leader that can't go into the promised land. But he is trying to let his people know that he is with them in spirit, that he is hopeful for their future, that they need to keep the faith that hopefully he has demonstrated even though he has dropped the ball numerous times.
[00:01:18] But he has always come back like that prodigal that we talked about. He's always come back to the Lord. And the Lord has given him new chance after new chance after new chance. And so it's a leader's heart for his people to say, just like a dad or a mom would say to their children, listen, you're going out of the house now, but I need you to remember these things, right? Turn off the stove, don't burn the house down.
[00:01:42] Don't have parties with your friends, don't go out after midnight. Nothing good happens after midnight, right? All of these things that you would say to your children.
[00:01:51] Moses is now doing the same thing in the book of Deuteronomy. And a lot of these things are so encouraging to read.
[00:01:56] And that brings us to Deuteronomy chapter 6 today. So if you using your Bibles or your phones or whatever, you can turn there in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 6, I want to just start at the first verse and this will kind of head us into the right direction. Here's what Moses says to the people of Israel. Now this is a commandment, the statues and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you so that you may do them, Church, so that you may do them. So apparently Moses is under the assumption these are commandments that can actually be done so that you may do them in the land to which you're going to go over in order to possess it.
[00:02:38] So I have a question for you today.
[00:02:40] If God were to stand in front of you like a parent, if God were to stand in front of you, all of us have had parents. So if God were to stand in front of you and say one question. Just give you one question, all right?
[00:02:55] Not 10 questions. Not a list, not a test.
[00:02:58] If he were to just ask you one question, what would it be?
[00:03:05] All right. So if God were to stand in front of you and say, okay, I got one question for you. What would the question be for you?
[00:03:12] Would it be something like, will you obey me? Maybe that's a good one. How about, will you trust me?
[00:03:19] Another good one. How about this? Will you follow me? Another good one.
[00:03:24] So these are good questions. But I wonder what God would say to his people through Moses as they stand on the brink of going into the promised land. What is the one question God has for them before they go over, before they take the promised land, they've been rescued out of Egypt? What is the one question that he has for them before they walk into the promised land? Because he knows their hearts.
[00:03:50] And here's the question. And again, it's as surprising as, remember we did that message a while ago where Moses, last thing he says to his people is, I want to teach you a song. Keep singing a song. This is how you remember a surprising thing for Moses to do.
[00:04:05] Well, the surprising question that God asks through Moses asks his people is not, will you obey me?
[00:04:13] It's not, will you trust me? It's not even, will you follow me?
[00:04:17] His question to his people through Moses is, do you want me?
[00:04:25] Do you want me?
[00:04:28] Obedience is nothing without a heart.
[00:04:33] God says this to Saul. Saul is like doing sacrifices and checking all the boxes.
[00:04:39] But then God through the prophets says to Saul, obedience is better than sacrifice.
[00:04:47] Why?
[00:04:49] Because God wants to know what our heart is like. He wants to know.
[00:04:53] Obedience begins with affection, right? Devotion begins with affection.
[00:04:59] Faithfulness begins with love.
[00:05:03] It's an interesting concept because it deals with who we desire, what we want more.
[00:05:09] And we know this because everything in our lives that vies for our attention asks us the same question. Do you want me more than.
[00:05:19] And this is what God says as well.
[00:05:21] Do you really want me?
[00:05:24] Moses has just said, here are the commandments. They're doable.
[00:05:28] They're in your mouth. They're in your heart. You remember, we talked about all of this before and if you didn't, you can catch up with those. Those are online. You can watch them. Deuteronomy 30:14 says it this way. This is what we talked about last week. The word is very near you. It is in your mouth. It's on the screen, it's in your mouth, and it's in your heart.
[00:05:48] So that what church?
[00:05:50] So you can do it right? God brings his Word close to us. It's in our mouth, it's on our heart so that we can do it. Ability is not the issue.
[00:06:02] The issue is desire.
[00:06:05] So what I want you to do is to think about a house, a big house with two thermostats.
[00:06:12] Let's say there are two thermostats that control one furnace.
[00:06:21] One thermostat, let's say it's an Airbnb. You're staying at an Airbnb. There's two thermostats. There's one furnace.
[00:06:30] One thermostat says heat to 72. All right? So we're going to heat it to 72.
[00:06:37] There we go. Heat to 72. The other thermostat says cool to 65.
[00:06:44] So we're going to turn this one to cool to 65, all right?
[00:06:49] These two thermostats operate one furnace.
[00:06:54] One says heat to 72.
[00:06:57] The other says cool to 65. So what happens? What happens to the furnace? It doesn't know what to do. The furnace fights itself all day. The system always fights itself.
[00:07:10] You're not breaking anything, but nothing really works, right. The house never feels like it should feel.
[00:07:17] In this case, you don't have one thermostat, but two, operating one single furnace. Furnace.
[00:07:23] This is what happens when the human heart tries to serve God with a divided allegiance.
[00:07:32] Two thermostats.
[00:07:33] Heat 1 to 72. Cool 1 to 65.
[00:07:37] And so you don't really break, but you never really function properly.
[00:07:42] Your heart doesn't fall apart and stop beating, but it doesn't function at full throttle. If both of these were set to the same temperature, the furnace would function just fine. But without that, if these are tied to the same furnace, you always have a conflict of desire, conflict of interest.
[00:08:01] What we're going to talk about today is that the Lord is one. He is undivided.
[00:08:06] He is singular in his essence and singular in his purpose.
[00:08:13] And what God says is, we must be people that are the same way.
[00:08:17] One furnace or one thermostat that operates one furnace, not two. Two different thermostats that compete for the same heart.
[00:08:27] Remember, the issue is not whether you can Obey God.
[00:08:30] God says you can.
[00:08:32] The issue is whether you want to.
[00:08:35] Pretty simple, huh? The issue is whether your heart is set to a singular temperature or two separate temperatures vying for the heart's full throttle power. All right, verse three. We're going to skip down to verse three. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them. This is talking about the commandments that it may go well with you and that you may multiply greatly. Understand? Look at how this defines a heart that functions properly full throttle like a powerful singular heart. Heart going at full temperature. That it may go well with you, that you may multiply greatly as the Lord your God, the fathers, has promised you. In a land flowing with milk and honey, Moses is encouraging the people, do what you need to do in order to prosper. Just like a dad or a mom would say to the kids, please do what you need to do in order to make your life prosper, right? None of us ever, hopefully, maybe this is not you, but no parent in my mind would seem to say, now listen, I want to give you all the bad habits that you can have in your life and hopefully you'll enjoy those bad habits and still have a life that prospers, right? Parents don't do that. And by the way, if you need to teach your kids bad habits, there is something seriously wrong with your family, right? I never had to teach my kids bad habits. They just came naturally to them. My goal is to destroy the bad habits, right? To destroy the bad things so that we can insert the good things. Because I want them to have a heart that is singular minded.
[00:10:12] And if they have a singular mind for God, Moses knows that they're going to prosper. They're going to look forward to who they serve. And God would increase their ability to do great things.
[00:10:26] Moses also knows that if this is going to be the case, these people need to know God better.
[00:10:33] This is also true in the New Testament. In Philippians 3, 9, we are told the same thing as church. Here's what we are told through Paul. Paul says, I want to be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
[00:10:52] That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. Listen. It is incredibly easier to have a desire for God, singular desire for him.
[00:11:12] No competing desires in your heart.
[00:11:15] It is increasingly easier to do that if you know him better.
[00:11:21] Think of it like you're dating somebody or if you're married, think about way back when, when you used to date your spouse.
[00:11:29] Hopefully, the reason you go on dates is because you want to know them better, right?
[00:11:35] Hopefully, as you go on dates and know them better, you love them more. That's the goal, right? Nobody ever goes on a date and thinks, boy, I hope this date wrecks, because I'd like to find reasons not to love this person.
[00:11:48] You go on a date because you want to know them better. You want to know more about them, thinking to yourself, the more you know about them, the more you will love them.
[00:11:58] This is the same way that God works. The more you know him, the more you know who he is and how he operates and how he loves and his faithfulness, his promises to you. The more you know him, the more you will love Him.
[00:12:14] The less you will be divided in your desires, the more your desire will be for him alone.
[00:12:23] Moses knows this. And so he says to the people, one of the most famous verses in all of Scripture, it even has a name.
[00:12:34] And if you know the name, extra gold star for you at the end of the service. All right? Here's the verse.
[00:12:41] Verse 4. Deuteronomy 6, verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. What is this verse called?
[00:12:52] The Shema.
[00:13:03] Everybody gets a gold star. There's no losers here.
[00:13:06] Everyone gets a trophy at the end. I'll tell you what, you can have some food in the back, all right? Free of charge.
[00:13:13] I forgot I put that up there.
[00:13:16] It was late. It was late last night. All right, The Shema. The Shema is actually the first word. It's here. Hero. Israel. Shema. Listen, listen. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. This is what you need to know. Shema is actually a call to a meeting. It's like, it's not just a. Hey, listen, I got something to say. You know when you talk like that? Like, you'd say, you know, let's chat. We're talking about football, or we're talking about, you know, how the week went or any of that. But as you're talking, all of a sudden you look over your shoulder, over the shoulder of the other person whose house you're in, and you see the garage burning down, all right? And so you're talking to them. You're going, yeah, football was great. Oh, by the way, the garage is burning down. And I really enjoyed dinner the other day. And you know you wouldn't do that, right? You see the garage burning down. You're going, yeah. The bears they didn't play like they should have this year, Pat.
[00:14:09] No, they did really great this year. And you're talking about stuff that really matters, and all of a sudden you see the garage burning down. You go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Listen, listen, listen. You know your garage is burning down. That's what Shema is.
[00:14:20] Stop what you're doing. Listen. Something to say.
[00:14:24] Another thing I love about this verse is the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. It uses God's name three times in this verse.
[00:14:37] The Lord our God, the Lord is one. I love that. It's a reflection, I think of the Trinity there.
[00:14:45] Call to attention. This is intentional.
[00:14:48] The Lord, the first Lord is used. Here is the word Yahweh. This is the unique name of God, his covenant name. By the way, Jesus uses the same word. If you have listened to people that say Jesus never claimed to be God, you are listening to somebody that is not educated. Okay, if I can say that nicely.
[00:15:08] Because when Jesus in the New Testament does his stuff and people go, who are you to do this? He calls himself Yahweh.
[00:15:19] I am.
[00:15:20] And no one has the name of God, but Jesus takes the name and he says, yeah, if you've seen God, you've seen. If you've seen me, you've seen God. This is the covenant of name of God first given to to us to hear it at the burning bush. Moses is the first one to hear it. Who shall I say sent me into Egypt. And God says, you tell them Yahweh sent you. Yahweh literally means I am.
[00:15:48] By the way, if you were to use the word Jehovah, anybody heard that name before? That is nowhere in the Bible. I know, it's shocking. I know Jehovah is simply a German way to say Yahweh. Did you know that? Jehu wah Yahweh. And so if you want to use the word Jehovah, you can. But Jehovah is simply Yahweh. That's what the word is, the I am.
[00:16:13] God calls himself the I am the one who is self existent.
[00:16:17] He doesn't need anything to complete him, to make him better than he already is. He doesn't need us. He doesn't need any of this. He is complete in and of himself. He is the I am.
[00:16:28] A lot of theology there, but the Shema includes the name of God, which is his uniqueness.
[00:16:36] And then he says here, listen, O Israel, the Lord Yahweh, our God.
[00:16:43] Interesting as he Calls himself our God. This deals with relationship.
[00:16:51] Chris did this verse for us in the back as we were getting ready to come up here. Completely in Hebrew. It was amazing.
[00:16:56] But Eli, and this is the idea that God is our God.
[00:17:01] It's an idea of relationship. He's bound himself to his people. Israel belongs to him.
[00:17:08] It's the idea of relationship and identity and allegiance. God doesn't have time for anybody else but his people. They are his and he is theirs.
[00:17:19] And finally, the Lord is one. This deals with exclusivity. One in purpose, one in character, one in agency.
[00:17:26] It talks about his identity, in other words, like he is one God. He's not like the polytheistic gods of Egypt, nor the polytheistic gods in Canaan. There's not all kinds of gods to choose from. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. There are not two or more. There is one God.
[00:17:45] And it also deals with his allegiance. He is one in his faithfulness, he's one in his promises, he's one. In his loyalty, he is undivided. He is all in. He is an all sufficient God. It's not him and hundreds of his minor Pseudo all sufficient friends.
[00:18:04] It is God who is all sufficient, who needs nothing. He is our God.
[00:18:11] The bottom line is he needs nothing to be complete.
[00:18:16] But we need him to be complete, to complete us.
[00:18:22] And then he goes to verse five.
[00:18:25] Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, which is called the Shema. Very good.
[00:18:30] The next verse says you all right, so it talks about God. And then the next verse talks about you. That's us. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. What sticks out to you in this verse?
[00:18:48] All.
[00:18:49] That's the point. That's why it is redundant.
[00:18:53] God says, listen, God is one.
[00:18:57] He is not like two or three or millions. He is one. There are no other gods. He is the I am.
[00:19:05] He's not two to choose from. He's one.
[00:19:09] And since he is one, he needs you to be one in your affection to Him. Don't have other gods, don't divide your loyalties.
[00:19:21] He is yours, you be his.
[00:19:25] This is the first commandment, extrapolated. The first commandment of the Ten Commandments is no other gods before you. There can be nothing else that draws your attention like God draws your attention.
[00:19:38] When you're depressed, you go to God. When you are in need, you go to God. When you are hurting, you go to God. When you are joyful, you go to God. When you need Something you go to God. He is your go to.
[00:19:54] He is the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. There are no other gods before him.
[00:19:59] If I'm worried about my future, I don't go to my bank account.
[00:20:03] If I'm worried about my job, I don't go to my boss. I mean, you can do all those things, there's nothing wrong with it. But your loyalty first and foremost is to God. He controls your boss, he controls your bank account, he controls your future. And you know that.
[00:20:19] So you are singular in your devotion to God.
[00:20:24] An undivided God up on the screen needs an undivided people.
[00:20:28] Does that make sense?
[00:20:31] This is why Jesus says this is the greatest commandment. He literally says the greatest commandment, which was not, by the way, a commandment in the Ten Commandments. He pulls on this verse and says, this is the greatest commandment out of all.
[00:20:46] His prayer for us is that we would be one in our devotion to him as he and the Father are one. John 17:11.
[00:20:56] He says, I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world. This is Jesus praying for us.
[00:21:02] He's going to the Father Ascending after his resurrection. He would ascend. And he is saying, I'm no longer in the world, but they are in the world. I am coming to you, Holy Father. Keep them in your name, which you have given to me, that they may be one even as we are one. We need to be one minded, single minded in our hearts that God is the only thing we need.
[00:21:25] This is the greatest commandment. So Jesus was out one day and he's walking around and he is approached by somebody who had a question for him.
[00:21:35] And the question was, what is the greatest commandment?
[00:21:41] Now if you had somebody that you love come to you and say, what is the one thing you want me to remember? Out of all of the things that we've ever talked about, what is the one thing you want me to remember? I go through this every time I do a funeral. I think to myself, all right, what is the one thing that this person would want everybody to remember about them? What is the essence of their life?
[00:22:02] So if somebody were to come to you and they said, what is the one thing you want me to remember? This happened to Jesus. What is the greatest commandment?
[00:22:11] What is the most important? And you would think Jesus would say, well, what's my favorite commandment of all time?
[00:22:18] What do I like?
[00:22:21] Or Jesus might say, you idiot. They're all important.
[00:22:25] That's funny.
[00:22:27] I got to see my little Niece. She's four. And every time I would say something questionable, like using a term like idiot, she would look at me and say, uncle Craig, that is a red choice.
[00:22:40] So you heard me say that word. And I heard her say, uncle Craig, that's a red choice. And if you're watching today, you're right, Lily. That is a red choice. All right, so somebody comes to Jesus and they say to him, what is the most important commandment? And he would probably look at them and maybe he might say, well, they're all important.
[00:22:56] Don't ask me which one's more important. They're all important.
[00:22:59] Who are you to try and give them a list of importance? But he doesn't. He doesn't.
[00:23:03] Instead, what he says is in Matthew 22, verse 35, one of them. A lawyer.
[00:23:08] Glad, glad Brent's not with us.
[00:23:11] A lawyer asked him a question to test him. Because that's what lawyers do. All right, teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?
[00:23:21] And he said to him, Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Does that sound familiar?
[00:23:32] Yes, because we just read it, but it's not a commandment.
[00:23:36] It's not one of the top 10.
[00:23:39] It follows the Shema.
[00:23:41] And this is a commandment according to Jesus. In fact, verse 38 says, Jesus says, this is the great and first commandment.
[00:23:51] That's interesting too.
[00:23:53] And the second is like it. Jesus said, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend on all the law and the prophets. Now that is interesting.
[00:24:06] And you know how many laws there are in the Old Testament? How many prophets?
[00:24:10] How many of them gave us God's law?
[00:24:14] And yet Jesus says the most important is, love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:24:23] All the rest of the law hangs on the neighborhood that all the rest of the law hangs on that.
[00:24:33] Love the Lord your God, so that there's no room in you to love anything else more.
[00:24:39] Not your job, not your ira, not your car, not your spouse, not even your children.
[00:24:51] Your love for God should be so much that it consumes all of you.
[00:24:57] Your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength, everything.
[00:25:01] So that you are not divided in any way, but you are devoted to him alone.
[00:25:08] According to Jesus, this is the first and the great command.
[00:25:14] The principle of single mindedness is so true that Jesus didn't pick one law, but he picked the underlying principle for all the Laws.
[00:25:22] And the principle is this on the screen. You cannot love God and love anything else like you love God.
[00:25:32] That's good.
[00:25:36] By the way, this section bridges the Ten Commandments.
[00:25:40] All the legality of the Ten Commandments would be bridged on this.
[00:25:44] If you get this wrong, you're going to get the law wrong.
[00:25:48] You'll always see the law as a rule, a list of rules, but your heart is never going to be in it. You ever ask your kids to clean their room?
[00:25:57] So they go and clean their room, right?
[00:26:00] And then you go up and you go, what did you do?
[00:26:07] I threw eight pop cans away.
[00:26:12] Super. Okay, that's a start.
[00:26:15] But what about the pile of clothes over here that's gathering dust, you know, because it's been there forever. And what about these other things, you know? And you tell your kids to clean your room and they'll go up and they'll do the bare minimum to check the box, right? But have you ever had your kids come to you and say, I have had it with my room, I have got to clean it up. And they do it on their own. Is there a difference between the two?
[00:26:38] Oh yeah, I know, I know. Well, my kids have done that once.
[00:26:43] There's a difference between the two. And the difference is their heart is in one of them, but it's not in the other.
[00:26:50] They do the bare minimum of what that law demands, but it's clear they are not in it to win it.
[00:26:57] To this end, the order of the Ten Commandments is key.
[00:27:01] Do you know the first commandment?
[00:27:03] The order of the Ten Commandments is this.
[00:27:06] You shall have no other gods before you.
[00:27:10] What does that deal with? It deals with.
[00:27:14] Deals with the heart.
[00:27:16] The first commandment is what all the others are built on. No other gods. In other words, you need to be single minded in your desire for God. He needs to operate your heart.
[00:27:29] If you can do that, then all of the others are much easier to do.
[00:27:34] It's not a list of checklists. It's not like, oh, if I do enough good things, God will be impressed with me. Get more good check marks than bad ones, right? It's nothing like that. It hinges on the first principle. Does God have your heart?
[00:27:50] No other gods before you.
[00:27:52] Single mindedness. He's single minded toward us. We need to be single minded toward him. Now listen, I'm going to break these down for you and you're going to be amazed.
[00:28:02] Because if you have no other gods, what gets easier to do?
[00:28:06] If we love God, we're not going to make images of Him.
[00:28:10] We're not going to abuse his name. We're not going to abuse his day. Why? Because we love Him. Our desire is for Him. So he says, no images. No images of me, no taking my name in vain, and no destruction of the Lord's day. It's my day.
[00:28:26] It becomes a lot easier to do the next three if we get the first one right.
[00:28:30] Right.
[00:28:31] We treat his name, his image, with reverence. We treat his name with reverence, and we treat his day with reverence.
[00:28:38] And then the last six, skip over five.
[00:28:41] But the last, you know, we'll do the last six is how we treat his image bearer.
[00:28:50] If we desire him and him alone, it's much easier to treat his image bearers with reverence as well, because we see them made in the image of God.
[00:29:02] So the last six are a diagnostic tool to see if you get the first four.
[00:29:10] If you revere those who bear his image, you don't steal their stuff, you don't steal their spouse, you don't steal their reputation, and you don't steal their lives.
[00:29:20] You get it?
[00:29:22] No stealing.
[00:29:24] No stealing their spouse, no stealing their reputation, don't abuse their name, don't steal a reputation, and don't steal their lives.
[00:29:36] It all starts with the first one. If you love God, you will love his image bearers. Does that sound like what Jesus said?
[00:29:45] Jesus said the most important commandment is love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, strength. First four, and if you do that, the second greatest commandment is love your neighbor as yourself. That's the last six, and it hinges on five. Five.
[00:29:59] What is number five?
[00:30:01] Obey your parents. Do you know why that's essential? Because if you don't get this in your home, you will not take it outside of the home. And what you're seeing on the news today is a whole lot of people that didn't get number five.
[00:30:18] They have abused their parents, they have not obeyed their parents, and they're taking it to the streets.
[00:30:25] That's what you're seeing on the news today.
[00:30:27] Our goal as those who follow God is to teach our children well. And the way we teach them well is not growing them up to be precious, it's growing them up to be followers of Jesus.
[00:30:44] Number five is where they learn the rules in the home.
[00:30:48] So we grow our children up to fear Christ, to fear God.
[00:30:53] This is why Jesus said the second commandment follows it, because the first four are how you love God and the last six are how you love God's image.
[00:31:06] So, amazing study. I love The Ten Commandments, back to Deuteronomy.
[00:31:12] These words, I command you today shall be on your heart. And this is the key.
[00:31:16] If it's not on your heart, you're not going to be able to do it. If it's a list of rules, you'll always drop the ball. If your way of getting to heaven is to fill a checklist, you are not going to make it. I guarantee you. It is really a depressing way to live.
[00:31:30] But if your goal in getting to heaven is to love God more tomorrow than you do today.
[00:31:37] Cake.
[00:31:40] If it's not on your heart, your relationship with God will just become a list of rules that you end up not being able to do and feel guilty that you don't. Do you know how many people have given up on faith because they see it as a list of rules?
[00:31:56] They're in my life too.
[00:31:58] People who have grown up and who have diluted God down to a list of do's and don'ts. And if you dilute God down to do's and don'ts, you'll always be depressed, you'll always be losing. You'll never have a fulfilling life because people abandon the faith. Because a faith that's rooted in do's and don'ts is not a real faith.
[00:32:20] God is asking us for more than just following the rules. He's asking us, do you desire me?
[00:32:27] Do you want me?
[00:32:29] This is the question that God asks to us today as well.
[00:32:33] And by the way, we have a huge advantage. Those in the Old Testament did not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but when Jesus left. That's why Jesus left. By the way, a little bit of theology. The reason why Jesus left is so the Holy Spirit could come.
[00:32:48] And when the Holy Spirit came, He fills his people so that we have Jesus in us, we have God living through us.
[00:32:56] And he gives us the ability to not just follow the rules, but to love him more. So that we want to follow his rules, so that we want to live righteous lives.
[00:33:08] 2nd Corinthians 3. 3 says it this way and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered to us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God. Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the hearts. The only way to become righteous in our heart is to have the new heart that God gives to us. This is prophesied way back in Ezekiel 36:26.
[00:33:31] God says to us, I will give you a new heart. I will give a new spirit that I will put within you, and I will Remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. In other words, God gives us the desire to desire him more.
[00:33:47] You don't even have to try and do this on your own.
[00:33:51] The point is an undivided God deserves your undivided love.
[00:33:56] So how do we do this? Maybe you've been following a list of rules your whole life. Maybe you're only used to diluting God down to a list of rules. You haven't really tried this new way of desiring God.
[00:34:09] So what do we do in order to learn these new things? To learn to desire God? I love this about God. He gives us practicality. And here it is in the next few verses. Deuteronomy 6, starting verse 7. Here's how you walk the talk.
[00:34:24] You shall teach them diligently to your children. Practicality.
[00:34:28] If you want to make God your desire, here's the ways that you do it. Teach them diligently to your children.
[00:34:34] Talk of God's things when you sit in your house and when you walk. By the way.
[00:34:39] When you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. If you want to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength, get it in front of you all the time.
[00:35:00] A new habit that you develop in order to love God more. I love that God's word is practical. He does like going to counseling. When you go to counseling, you're like, just tell me what to do and I'll do it. I just need this to stop, right?
[00:35:12] God tells you exactly what you need to do. Look at this. Teach them diligently to your children. You know what that says? Be more intentional about the messages you send.
[00:35:23] You don't even have to have children to do this one.
[00:35:26] Your heart is uniquely formed by what you teach.
[00:35:30] So when you teach, when you stop, and when you take a moment, and when you tell somebody else about what makes you tick, speak about God in His word.
[00:35:42] Your spouse, your friends, your co workers, anyone who learns from you. Truth becomes personal when it passes through your mouth.
[00:35:51] Truth becomes personal when it passes through your mouth.
[00:35:54] Internalize what you explain.
[00:35:59] Teaching increases accountability because the more you teach, the more you talk about God, the more you feel obligated to love him more.
[00:36:08] All right, verse seven, second one. And you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk. By the way, this one says, let God's word shape. Your on time and your off time. Talk of them when you sit in your house. When you sit in your house, what are you doing?
[00:36:28] If I call you and you're sitting in your house, what will you. Hey, what are you doing? You'll probably say nothing. Watching the Bears game. Watching the Bears game. Whatever. Yeah. Good luck. Yeah. When you sit in your house and when you walk, by the way. When you're walking, by the way, you're on, you're moving. It's your everyday kind of thing. In other words, what this says is, let scripture interrupt every moment of your day, whether you're on or whether you're off.
[00:36:57] This speaks of what you do when you sit and what you do when you walk. What captures your attention in the run of your day. Meditate on God's word, whether you're on, whether you're off. Listen to worship music. Listen to podcasts, theology podcasts. Meditate on God's word. Memorize God's word. Our guys, if you want to get in on this, guys, we've got a group that is reading through the book of Mark. Right? Mark. Right, yeah, Mark. And you can jump on that. And they text each other and say, how's your reading going? What'd you learn today? Put it in front of you whether you sit or whether you walk, whether you're off or whether you're on.
[00:37:36] Keep it in front of you.
[00:37:38] You ever think about life? What binds you to your friends? It's what you talk about, right? You know who to talk about certain things to, because it's what you have in common. So intentionally make a choice to use your time to dwell on God's word. And the next one is also in verse seven, when you lie down and when you rise.
[00:37:55] What this says is, let God's truth guide your first and last thoughts. In the day. What do you do first in the day?
[00:38:02] I am sad to say that when I wake up, you know the first thing that I do?
[00:38:08] Check my phone. Is that what you do, too?
[00:38:11] No. Good for you. I need to learn from you. This is the worst habit ever.
[00:38:16] I used to think it'd be great to be like Michael Knight. I could talk to my watch, you know, tell my car to pick me up. And if I had a phone that did everything for me, my life would be easier.
[00:38:26] I am this. This is my master, and I am its slave. Too many times.
[00:38:31] So when I read this, it says, when you lie down and when you rise, let not this or whatever it is occupies your time. Let God be The last thing you think about at night and. And the first thing you think about in the morning.
[00:38:45] Not hard to do. Not really. You just need to develop a new habit.
[00:38:52] What occupies my thoughts at the end of the day? Usually what stresses me out is that, like you, I lay down in bed and I think all the things that are stressing me out. So I look for ways to. Some of us have like physical activities we do in bed that kind of release that because we. With our spouse, because. And that's natural because we just. We're stressed when we. When we lay down. Listen. Insert God's word first thing when you wake up and the last thing you do when you lay down.
[00:39:25] I want to give you one verse on this because I know this is probably speaking to a lot of you as it has. I told you this was a convicting message for me this week. Philippians 4:6. Don't be anxious about what? Church.
[00:39:36] Ay, ay, yi yi yi.
[00:39:39] I should ask a question. How many of you are anxious about something today? Don't raise your hand. Don't raise your hand. Don't raise your hand.
[00:39:45] It literally says, don't be anxious about this. So hard.
[00:39:51] Don't be anxious about anything. But I love this. God's word is practical, but in everything.
[00:39:56] How, how, how? Prayer, supplication with thanksgiving. Don't forget to give God thanks.
[00:40:02] Let your requests be made known to God. Let him be the first thing in your day and the last thing at the end of the day. And what happens is the peace of God. How many would you like the peace of God? Now you can put your hands up. All right. How many of you would love to have the peace of God? First thing of the day, Last thing of the day, which surpasses all understanding. Because you can be in the weirdest of circumstances or the worst of circumstances, but you can have a peace surpasses understanding will. Guard your. What is a guard? Church. And there you have it. Your hearts and your love, the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul and your strength. Your mind and your strength. Everything.
[00:40:42] Bookend your day with God's truth. I should have wrote that up there because that's brilliant. All right. Bookend your day with God's truth. Number eight.
[00:40:51] You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. What does that mean?
[00:40:55] Let God be the first thing you consult before you commit.
[00:41:00] Let God be the first thing you consult before you commit.
[00:41:04] Whatever decisions you have in your life, they should be decisions you make God first, not last.
[00:41:12] Make it a habit.
[00:41:14] What actions do you have in place to keep God's word in front of you? Bind them. Is the idea of. Attach them to everything you. You choose to do or every decision you choose to make in life. Put them in front of your eyes. So let me ask you a question. What if God's word was more intentional in your life?
[00:41:33] How would that look?
[00:41:35] And number nine, you shall write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. What does that mean? I think in a practical way, I think that we need to let our life publicize God's word for everyone to see.
[00:41:48] Our hearts are uniquely formed by what we publicize. You don't believe me? Look at the way Facebook operates.
[00:41:58] Our hearts are uniquely formed by what we publicize.
[00:42:04] So what do you post?
[00:42:07] What do you publicize? What do you stick in front of your eyes? And what do you give through your mouth or through your fingers?
[00:42:16] What you post reveals your heart. Church. What you post reveals your heart.
[00:42:24] Some posts are not worth replying to.
[00:42:29] Can I just give you permission that if you get into a post or struggle online, sometimes the best thing is to just take your fingers off the camera keys because the more you do this, the more this becomes divided.
[00:42:54] I got a text from Tim and Melissa.
[00:42:58] They just accepted the Lord. Friends of our church baptized them a couple of months ago right here.
[00:43:05] I'll keep this text forever. I'll never delete it.
[00:43:09] Because on this text, I got a little video that Tim sent me.
[00:43:14] And the video was after he and Melissa gave their lives to Jesus.
[00:43:18] Melissa was a devout atheist. I'm not telling you anything she wouldn't want me to tell you. She gave this in her own personal testimony.
[00:43:26] And God moved in their lives, and they both became followers of Jesus. Allegiance. Their allegiance now belongs to him.
[00:43:33] They have two little boys.
[00:43:35] I got a text where it was one of the little boys was playing with their Legos or something like that, and there's worship music in the background. And one of their boys, as they were playing, forget which one it was, as they were playing with the Legos, was singing to the worship song, just unaware that he's singing. He's playing with his toys and he's singing worship songs to Jesus Christ.
[00:44:07] This is the way that we create new habits in ourselves and in others.
[00:44:12] Because as our hearts become more devoted singularly to God, the ripple effect is unbelievable.
[00:44:20] And for Tim and Melissa, now their children are singing along with music that they had never heard in their lives. But now it's sunk into their hearts.
[00:44:31] That's good parenting. Tim and Melissa. Good parenting.
[00:44:34] The hearts of the parents belong to God, and now it's pouring out into their home. And Deuteronomy 36 says this, and the Lord God will circumcise your heart. We talked about this last week. And the heart of your offspring. I love that.
[00:44:48] So that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and strength. All your soul. So that you may live. God will do the work so that you are able to love God singularly. And that will not only be a promise to you, but also to your children. Isn't that great?
[00:45:07] So what, Quick. So what's.
[00:45:09] How do we move from rule keeping to wholehearted love? Number one, if God is undivided, my heart cannot be divided.
[00:45:17] Deuteronomy 6 doesn't tell us about a list of rules, although it does. The Ten Commandments are in there, but it starts by saying, what do you desire first?
[00:45:27] Because if you desire God first.
[00:45:30] Following a list of rules isn't about following a list of rules. It's about doing what pleases that person you desire.
[00:45:37] How many of you do special things for your spouse just because they wrote it down and told you if you didn't do it, you're not going to get dinner tonight or you're not going to get their friendship at the end of the day, that's not how a healthy relationship works, I don't think. Anyway, you do something special for your spouse because you love them.
[00:45:58] And this is why we do what pleases God. Not because we have to, or not because he's going to chase us with a bat, but because we love Him.
[00:46:08] So the question is, church. What is pulling your heart to a two thermostat kind of life?
[00:46:16] You can name the other thermostat.
[00:46:20] Whatever it is, it's pulling your heart from God.
[00:46:25] The goal is not to live a two thermostat life, but a one thermostat devotion to Jesus Christ.
[00:46:32] So what, am I trying to serve God and still also serve? Here's how you kill it. Because if I'm nothing, I'm not practical. Here's how you kill it.
[00:46:42] Name the competitor. All right.
[00:46:45] Name your competitor. The Bible calls it the sin that easily besets you. Did you know that there is a name for it?
[00:46:52] Whatever this idol is over here. Name it. Don't be scared. Name it. This is what's drawing my heart from God. Name it. Remove it.
[00:47:01] Reset the thermostat.
[00:47:03] Okay? That's how you do it number two, what do I teach about, talk about, and touch?
[00:47:12] Because that shapes my heart. You cannot walk in two worlds. Jesus himself said, you cannot serve two masters. Either you'll hate the one and love the other, or you'll love the one and hate the other.
[00:47:27] Deuteronomy says the same thing.
[00:47:30] God forms our heart, and the way that he does it, he forms an undivided heart. This way. It's what we teach about, it's what we talk about. That's what we reflect on. It's what ties us into our day, our routines. It's what we write about, it's what we post about. It's our public declarations.
[00:47:48] I've got that on the screen as well.
[00:47:50] These four things.
[00:47:52] This is a summary of what we talked about today. So if you want a summary, you can take a picture of that. What you teach about, what's in your mouth, what you talk about, what you reflect on, what ties your day, your routines, and what you write and you post about, because those are your public declarations.
[00:48:07] Spiritual formation is rarely dramatic, but it's always habitual.
[00:48:14] So start developing new habits.
[00:48:17] All right? If you want a mature, different heart, create different habits. So I want to encourage you, what habit do you need to start doing this week from what we talked about today? Right? Maybe it's something for me, it's something as simple as, I am going to try and hold this less in the morning and the evening and hold God's Word more in the morning and evening. For me. That's what I'm going to try and do.
[00:48:40] So maybe that's for you as well. But I would encourage you develop a different habit. And number three, the last one is, God promises what he commands.
[00:48:51] He says, love me with all your heart. And that is, we might look at them, we say, oh, that's so hard.
[00:48:56] But I want to just remind you that God will help you do this. Listen to these verses. Ezekiel 36, 26. God says, I will give you a new heart.
[00:49:06] Deuteronomy 36, the one that we just read, chapter 30, verse 6. It says, I will circumcise your heart and your children's heart so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength. God does the work.
[00:49:19] And Second Corinthians 3 says, I will write my words. We read this not on stone, but on hearts of flesh.
[00:49:27] God will never ask you for something he can't empower you to do. And you know, the disciples got this when Jesus kept telling them, oh, you of little Faith. Oh, you of little faith. Oh, you. You know, it had to get on their nerves after a while, right? Come on. It's this same old speech. Oh, you of little faith.
[00:49:43] He was doing these mighty miracles. And they kept saying, whoa, that's amazing. I never saw that coming, right? And then he would go, oh, you have little faith. Like, what do you think I can't do?
[00:49:55] Until finally they got it. And you know what they said to him after one of the last times he said that in the Gospels. Oh, you have a little faith. They looked at him and they said, okay, fine. Please. Our prayer now is, increase our faith.
[00:50:10] If you need help with this, make it a prayer every day.
[00:50:13] God. Increase my faith. Increase my desire for you. Increase.
[00:50:18] Following Jesus is not a list of do's and don'ts. It's not that kind of an issue. It is first a heart issue.
[00:50:27] God is not hiding anything, not tricking us. His commands are not too hard, not confusing, and not too distant.
[00:50:35] It is very near to us. It's in our mouth and in our heart so that you can do it. I love what Jesus says about this.
[00:50:42] Jesus talks this way as well. And with this I want to finish because I love this verse. Matthew 11:28. Jesus says it this way.
[00:50:51] Come to me, all you who labor. You work.
[00:50:55] You're trying to make it and it's not happening.
[00:50:58] Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. You've got the world on your shoulders, it's crushing you down.
[00:51:06] Come to me, all you who labor. Trying to keep the ten Commandments, trying to keep all the commandments. You can't.
[00:51:13] Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.
[00:51:19] And I will give you rest.
[00:51:21] Don't you love that?
[00:51:23] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and church. You need to say this. You will find rest for your souls.
[00:51:36] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Israel's problem and ours is not ability.
[00:51:42] We can do amazing things.
[00:51:44] Our problem and their problem was desire.
[00:51:50] Come to Jesus, learn of him, and find the rest your soul desperately needs.
[00:51:58] Can you sign on to that?
[00:52:01] I hope so.
[00:52:03] Let's pray. Father, our desires for you alone, so many things compete for our time, compete for our hearts, compete for our attention.
[00:52:13] Satan throws all kinds of stuff at us to try and get our minds off of you. The very thing that gives us the ability to succeed in life, to find peace, that passes understanding to.
[00:52:29] To see the promises in our lives and in our children's life.
[00:52:36] But he gets our minds off you so easily we're distracted by squirrels.
[00:52:44] Help us, Father, to be single minded like you are single minded.
[00:52:49] Help us to be undivided like you are undivided. Help us to be one with you.
[00:52:57] As Jesus prayed in his high priestly prayer that we may be one even as you and the Trinity are one.
[00:53:06] And as we learn more about you, as we dwell on you more, as we put the phone down more and spend more time in your word and learn more of you, may you give us a greater desire for you.
[00:53:23] Help us to be a kind of church that loves you first and foremost. With all our hearts, all our soul and all our strength, I pray in Jesus name, amen.
