Children, this is a dancing type song, so feel free to dance.
I'm trading in my business, I'm trading in my faith, I'm playing in the bountiful joy of the Lord.
And let me tell you, Lord, yes Lord, yes that's fine, yes, Lord, yes Lord, yes that's fine, yes Lord, yes Lord, yes, that's fine is it?
I am blessed with not a crash, executed not abandoned
This hour that I've destroyed, I am blessed with other good
For I'm proud of still enjoying this joy that be my name
Though the sorrow may last for the night, this joy comes with the morning
I'm treating myself, I'm treating my shame
I'm laying them down, the joy of the Lord
I'm treating my sickness, I'm treating my pain
I'm laying them down, the joy of the Lord
Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, yes, Lord
I'm trading my sorrows
That's coming up. And I believe it's on the 31st.
It's Wednesday.
So we'll know that when we get closer.
I'll let that go, and you can take a look at the rest of these.
I've been trying to be pretty faithful by putting them on our upcoming website.
So you can check that at 1-2-2.
And download our app
That's what I got for now.
I got her now.
Does she have any other infections?
Yes.
Tiffany got her accident this morning.
She's currently at six girls.
Oh that's terrible.
Oh she just got her license.
She just got her license like a month ago
and got in a head on accident this morning.
Wow.
Well we're definitely going to pray for her.
Okay, so let's pray together.
And then we'll worship a little bit more.
And then next up after a little more worship
we'll have an opportunity to share
testimony or something that you saw this week.
I'm going to talk briefly at that time
about can't we can.
Alright let's pray.
Father in heaven we are
grateful for what you do for us.
It's hard for me
to look at like a tree
or a cloud or the stars in the sky
and not realize that you are the
awesome God that created all that.
But it's also true
that sometimes I get wrapped up in what's going on
in my own life. I get so busy.
I get kind of tunnel vision. I'm not even
noticing what's going on around me.
Maybe even I get angry or confused
or distracted.
And I do forgive. The Lord I ask you to forgive
me for that.
And I know that that forgiveness was paid for by Jesus your son.
We thank you for the
salvation that you've provided. For the love
that you have for us.
For putting us in this place. Giving us this building.
Giving us the time to be together.
We pray for those who couldn't be here today
for whatever reason. We don't know what
the story of any person's life is.
We pray for Tiffany.
Coming out of a situation like that. Just getting her license
and getting her hold on active.
That could affect her in a lot of ways. We pray Lord
that she's okay. She won't be in
lasting physical harm.
She'll have psychological effects on it.
And that she'll be okay.
We pray Lord that through that terrible event
one or more individuals might be drawn
closer to you.
We pray that you take our worship during this time.
That it is ordained by you.
That we as your people can
worship you. We want to worship you.
We are made to want to worship you.
We're created for this act.
An act of service. An act of love.
And so Lord we just ask you to
use this time to glorify
yourself. We pray all of this in Jesus name.
Amen.
Alright
would you please stand and join us?
Feel free to sway or clap
or dance or whatever you want to do.
I'm going to
be the
proof
of the hope that is you
gonna live what I believe
so watch me
fly
if it costs me everything
stand for what it's worth
so that everyone can see
the truth that is me
gonna live what I believe
I'm going to be the proof
of the hope that is you
gonna live what I believe
so watch me
fly
if it costs me everything
stand for what it's worth
so that everyone can see
the truth that is me
gonna live what I believe
so watch me
fly
if it costs me everything
stand for what it's worth
so that everyone can see
the truth that is me
gonna live what I believe
so watch me
fly
if it costs me everything
stand for what it's worth
so that everyone can see
the truth that is me
gonna live what I believe
there's a passion
deep inside
gonna live what I believe
fall in love
and I feel fine
but let me be
as a witness for you
and to be just
if it costs me everything
I will not be ashamed
to believe but I
believe
and i walk out
lies
everything
so
what does
cost me everything. I stand for what is right. So that everyone can see. If Jesus has any
need. Tell him what I believe. Tell him what I believe. Tell him what I believe.
Alright, it is that time so if we could have you stand on your feet. If I could have some
young people to this nice open space up front. We're going to do a motion song. If you've
been here you're probably going to recognize this one but we've never done motions with
it before. So follow along the best you can. I'm going to mess it up. You can mess it up
too. That's fine. Here we go.
They will lie down at your feet. You're the only one I need. I turn to you and you are
with me. Several times it's you I see. I push you first that's all I need. I have a lonely
hand. I'm all to you. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word
Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You are always always there.
Every now and everywhere. You raise a mouthful deep within me. You will never ever change.
You will never ever change. You will never ever change. One word Jesus. You're the only
one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word
Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that
I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus.
You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can
rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're
the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely
on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on.
One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only
one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word
Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that
I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus.
You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can
rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're
the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely
on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only
one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word
Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that
I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus.
You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can
rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're
the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely
on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only
one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word
Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that
I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus.
You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can
rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're
the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely
on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only
one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word
Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that
I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus.
You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can
any night. But I was gonna sleep between 1 and 2 and get out at 5.15. So by the end of
camp I was gonna get in. Alright, you guys want to share a story, Jason, Curtis, Ryan?
Anybody want to share a story, briefly? They have turned Ryan into a fisherman. Ryan is
awesome, so if he ever has a pole and line and water with fish in it he'll never starve.
You're gonna have to eat it raw which is terrible. But he'd probably do the whole
thing if you talked about how he got it and stuff like that. Go ahead. So one of the things I enjoyed about camp was, for one, it helped me out a lot. It taught me a lot because it showed me the lessons I have in my life.
Being able to have all my kids in my life. At least trying to be a parent for them was the best of my ability. And it taught me that even though I make mistakes, even though I'm not perfect, I have my problems, that I can still do the right thing by God and raising my children.
And the Sunday before camp, it was a really rough day for me. I was having a really hard time. I was struggling mentally really bad. And I was literally about to dial a number and say I'm not going to camp.
And Alicia kept telling me, you need to go, you need this, you need this, you need this, you need to go. And I thank God for why I went because it was an amazing experience. And I didn't have a lot of fun even though it was late night, early morning.
I still had a lot of fun. I got to meet new people. It was really fun. If any gentleman in the room wants to go with a mentor, I highly recommend it. It is an experience that you'll never forget.
There were very, very, very few personality conflicts or issues with those boys even though many of them come from rough neighborhoods, rough backgrounds, whatever. And the boy, I think I may have to go into this story if I did not apologize, but the boy who was demon possessed last year,
when he prayed and he accepted Christ was there this year. He did have some minor problems, but overall he was completely transformed. So praise God he's still in it. He came back again this year and he's been going through it. So praise God. That's the decision that did stick. That's pretty cool.
I think that's a good thing to have a bunch of new people. It was super fun and you can, I like how you can choose your activities. You can do basketball games for people who want to. And at the end of the championship, the mentors listed the champions of the students.
The mentors won. They played basketball and the mentors won. I'm not sure he was the strongest player on the team. The one guy that was playing on your team, in all fairness, was fast. He had it awkward the day he was supposed to sign a contract and he was going to the NBA. But his knees were messed up. But still he was really good.
He was a professional NBA player. He gave out pictures of him stuffing Michael Jordan. No, it was Shaq. I'm sorry, Shaq O'Neal. He dunked on Shaq. He was bragging and then he's like, it's okay, Shaq dunked on me like whole times. He did it once. He dunked on Shaq once, but Shaq dunked on him like virgin 14 times.
He was super good at it too. And there's a bunch of, there's nice people that help you with this stuff. And if you ever need help, please say pray to God or talk to someone.
That's right. That's one of the beauties of it is the whole time they were there, any young man that had a question, they were facing something that was sort of growth where there was somebody to talk to. And we actually, we were well populated actually, leader to student ratio. Last year was rougher because we had about four students per mentor. This year was more like two to one.
So it was good. It was really good. There was always somebody around. And if you were as a mentor, like I say, I was getting a little brain fried by the last day. If I needed to just, I did, I went and played for 18 holes by myself. Nobody played with me. I played with myself. And that gave me a break from what was going on.
Yeah. Which I'll just in case anybody cares. I went, I was two over par after nine holes and it's 17 over par. No one cares. No, seven. Seven over par. And if you do go heads up, most of the kids don't go to the zoo. Yeah, there was a little trouble. So my boys were good. Like I put the lights out and I told them like three, four times to shut up and they would shut up. And then the door was shut and you could, it literally sounded like a zoo out in the rest of the building.
They had a huge fire going between us and there and I could just hear them like, you hear the leaders like, you've got to go to sleep now. Like I'm looking at my room and all my boys are sleeping. I'm like, ha, praise God. Our dad, one boy, he threatened to smack him, but he didn't smack him. Praise God.
All right. Transitioning. I just want to share a couple of things. So we have in our, in our church, we have a ton of people like industry around the room who work their butts off. And some of them are very kind of like the scenes.
Like they don't get up here on Sunday mornings. We often ask them to pray or things like that. And I want to do this brief, won't take long at all recognition. And so the first person I'm going to recognize and there's no warning.
Nobody's born in his deep zone. So deep Tony has been my defense since we began plant this church. He's your deacon. The job of the deacon essentially is to serve the passion family and then to serve the body.
So deep into only make sure for example, you have a world supper set up. He works as part of the social sanctuary team with Michael and they they basically the building.
He and his family, such as whatever, whoever have taken care of my lawn virtually for the last 15 plus years.
He has gone through spiritual warfare, been under attack a number of times and he's still here. He's gone through physical stuff. He had body parts replaced.
He had pain in his joints and then he was diagnosed with a condition that would not allow him to have medicine to be able to hurt. And then they told me he couldn't have medicine anymore because he had a condition of his heart that it might be affected by the medicine.
So in my mind, he's almost superhuman. And I was thinking about that. I thought about how that's how God sees all of us. He's helping us move above and beyond what we are capable of.
So the next time you do something that is fundamentally just like, oh I did that. I did that. That was cool. God did that through me. And you give God all the glory.
And if you're trying to do something for God and you're in trouble, maybe something's interfering with your schedule or kind of overcomes some burden or whatever, you call me or call the Deacon Tony and we'll help you.
We'll be there for you to do whatever we possibly can. Obviously we are human but we do have supernatural resources. And so I just wanted to recognize Deacon Tony for standing up for me for so long.
And I've recognized you before but I recognize you too. Come up here brother. We're going to briefly say a prayer and I'm going to ask you to pray with me as we bless him and his household.
Before you do the prayer.
I need a lot of help from my family. I've raised my kids to help me out. They're kind of eastbound or seven way. One of them is no longer with us. But the ones that are here help me out immensely.
So I just want to say a prayer to myself. See my crippled wife. I push her to help me. Just do what you can. Do what you cannot do the rest. And that's pretty awesome.
And I do that because if I didn't, you would be putting on a prayer. Not that she doesn't sit on her back doing that but she just stays in the house. It's pretty cool. I appreciate it.
Father in heaven we are grateful for the many gifts that you give us. We recognize that you are literally showering down blessings on us every day.
I was watching a movie just a couple of days ago and I heard you speaking. There was a man in the movie who was frightened, struggling psychologically, hurting.
And he said to the pastor, he said, why is it that God's not speaking? And the pastor said, well you don't think that's true. God in the universe loves us so much that he sends his son as he's speaking.
Maybe you're just not listening. And Lord we are grateful for all that you do and I pray that we will always recognize our gifts.
I'm grateful for Brother Tony. I'm grateful that he's been my deacon. The truth is I've been in other churches but I've never known another deacon. Even deacons who are called deacons by name.
I've never known another deacon. And I know that every person has their burdens and barriers to overcome. And he's been overcoming. He's been standing firm.
And I pray that he'll do that and we'll do it together. We as a church will do it together until Jesus comes again. There will be faith when it's found on the earth.
And I pray that it be found in us. I ask your special blessings upon this man, the father's head, the bottom of his feet. And I pray that Jesus saves you.
You get a chance to see his gift. It is a version of the Bible. It's got Psalm 55.2 on it. And it says, trust your burden on the Lord and he will make your righteous stand.
Okay, I got one more. I got two more but I'm just giving you one right now. Alright, so Brother Tony alluded to this one. So Brother Tony's right hand man is also our soldiers and sanctuary team leader.
And this is Michael Briscoe. So Michael does a lot of things behind the scenes. He mows, he cleans, he works. And he also has his own personal demons overcoming, his own physical issues overcoming.
And he is overcoming. And I think it's a measure and a standard of faithfulness. That's why I wanted to recognize him.
This man is your dad. He is a fat knee-dix. Head's feet. Alright, we're going to pray again. Here we go. Ready?
This is my brother Michael. He is a gift to us. Lord, they hold us up. They are our strong killers. And they also fight the fight. They overcome.
Lord, I pray for my brother from the top of his head and the bottom of his feet that you would cast aside every demon, every evil spirit, every physical ailment, and you would let him continue to serve you.
We pray, Lord, that in us you will be found faithfulness in you. So I'm glad this soldier represents you well. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
And then the last one, she was just here, where's my wife? Jerry! That's what I do at home.
So this last one is my wife. And it feels really awkward. I would have to have someone else do this. So I bought this pillow and she opened it at home. And she said, what do you do with these pillows? And I didn't tell her that I was doing this.
So I didn't lie. So this also shows, so this is a picture I made back when we did a sermon on Psalm 5522, which again is the only 5522 in the Bible that says, trust in the Lord, he will make the righteous stay. He will not let you fall.
And I'm paraphrasing that, of course. Anyway, Sherry, not only is she our preschool team leader, not only is she my wife, which trust me, is the greatest ministry that she does to you. Because she is your shield and protector.
You know you may not know it after the Lord. But anyway, she is my wife. She's our preschool team leader. She works at preschool nursery. And those of you who have preschool nursery kids, you know what that can be like.
And praise God for it. And now on top of that, she is one of our most avid volunteers in the pantry. She has literally served hundreds of families in the last few months in our pantry with emergency food.
And then we have another one also who does not massage you, Tony's wife. And we recognize her, whatever, that she wasn't able to be here today. But you come forward and take this pillow that came from our house.
Alright, we're going to pray together. Ready? Father in heaven, this is my wife. After my salvation, this is the greatest gift I have ever received.
She's blessed me. She stands up for what's right when sometimes there is no one else to do so. She's my great right hand, my strength. She's my hope. Of course, all of that after you and after Jesus.
We are married and truly married because we both recognize that you come first and then she is second to me. And you come first and then I am second to her.
That's what makes us married. That's what makes us unified and we're able to do that. Thank you for what she does at the preschool, the nursery, the dirty diapers, the cleaning up, the encouraging leaders, providing lessons.
She does so much more. And some of us know what she does behind the scenes. They like passing out lessons and encouraging people to make sure they're in the right place.
When there's no one to do something, a lot of times it's either Tony or Mike or my wife. And so I'm grateful for that. I know there's a lot of folks here that serve. I'm grateful for every single one of them.
But of course, beyond it all, I'm grateful for my wife. I pray for her from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. If she has health concerns that she's overcoming, Lord, I'm grateful for what you've done with her neck and her shoulder and her arm in the last few months.
I pray that that last shot that she got will last for years and she'll not have to have another. Many years, maybe the rest of her life until Jesus comes again.
Who knows? Jesus may be coming again sooner than we expect. So I just pray, Lord, great blessings to Wanda that she stands firm and may faithfulness be found in the earth as it is going to be found here in the right culture of Baptist church. Jesus, amen.
Amen.
I do have another pillar just like that to get in this tune. Okay, and so that being said, maybe this week, God said something to you. You came and you think, wow, I'm sure I share that this week. And so let's hear it.
Yeah, anybody come to the guy that shares something happened to me. Something I saw something I heard. That moment we talked about already, but you're with me. We're with you. By the way, one of the things that encouraged me to camp you can't was they that the boys were required to stay awake and sit up in their chairs. The whole kind of talk was gone. And sometimes those guys talk for an hour.
It was pro they got talking and talking and stuff. And then they sat up and they were working. They did a good job except for a few of them falling, sitting in their beds a lot. But other than that, so we're in it. This is our time. We got somebody wants
to come prepared next week. Okay, go.
Oh, it's funny because there was this kid that can ask me, he came this year and he won his cousin title. And it really spoke to me that now we can get friends or family come. We can get students.
Just like speaking the gospel is on them.
I would say if you share the gospel with somebody and they embrace the gospel and become a follower of Jesus Christ, they are strangers no more. They're family. And then we can definitely can share our lives with them. That is awesome. Well said.
Would you remind me of something I would share this and then we'll pray and we'll move on. Okay, we were in the car. I just got an echo auto from my car share. I watched everyone on time ago. And I thought, well, we could have on sale. And I know sometimes that cheap.
I'll buy it. But I'll wait. So I waited for like two years and that was on sale. She saw my way back in the car. They were trying to use the Alexa on the on the echo auto to say play this song or play that song or whatever.
And then the songs kept playing. Anyway, and they were in the and they would start yelling Alexa Alexa and when they would yell Alexa, she wouldn't respond. And then they would yell it so then they would yell it louder. Alexa.
And she's still responding. She's not responding because she doesn't hear you. She's responding because you're not speaking clearly.
I've forgotten this when I was saying that the spirit left inside me and reminded me that sometimes that's the way we are with God.
We think that God will respond to us a little bit more or do what we want more because we're louder and louder to get louder and sometimes they get what they want in society.
That's not actually what it works. You talk to God and be truthful. Speak clearly. You can whisper and he'll hear you. You can think and he'll hear you. The demons can't hear your thoughts.
But God can. All you gotta do is be clear with the Lord and he never fails to show up. I'm going to ask God. Brother Tony, would you pray for us then as we transition?
You guys offering a little more worship and then let the kids go to their lessons. Do that. You do. Alright, we're praying along with Tony now.
There's chapter 12 that says that you still will shake the things that are unshakable. Your kingdom is unshakable. So God, truly there is still things that will shake. There are things that even where we think he's going to stand, it's not going to stand. There's growth. There's maturity. There's going to be just times of a good and bad and the ugly.
There's things there, but your kingdom is unshakable. There is nothing today from the past, the future, the present that has caused you to shake, caused you to stop. Only you yourself was caused to go to the cross to die for everyone.
God, give your life so that we may live, so that we may go home, so that anyone can turn to you again and turn back to God. And so what we are so thankful for your faithfulness is where we find faithfulness.
We have always been faithful. Even in Revelation it says he of course has rode on truth and faith. That's the name. It's true and faithful. So God, that's the truth and faith that we have today. God, I thank you for all the amazing things about the gifts that people have.
The gifts that you receive. Lord, once you receive, you can't. God, it's just all your amazing grace. So thankful for whatever you do and how you do it so that we can do this as well. Not just here, but all around the world, God, someone in these different countries, different cities are worshiping just the same.
We thank you for your great faith in the Holy Spirit's Church. Strength and grace to us righteous, to you, day and day and to the worst. And the message of this week, in Jesus' name, Amen.
Thank you.
We are children of the day.
We are the light of the world.
We sing hallelujah.
Brother Ron, by way of encouragement to you, this week I rediscovered Huey Lewis and the news, the heart of rock and roll is the beaten.
And I was thinking about you when I did that.
So I had kind of like a little discussion we were going to have to open this up and the Lord completely changed what I was going to do to open it up.
So let me ask you this question.
Does anybody know what the definition of the word testament is?
We talk about the New Testament and the Old Testament.
What is the New Testament?
And the individuals recounting or their original story?
And it is very similar, the word is very similar, but testimony is what you would say.
And this testament, we might think that's an old English word of testimony, but it's not.
And a lot of people, I think probably in the last 2000 years have said that, but that's not actually true.
The word testament actually means covenant.
And so this Bible that we study is the old covenant and the new covenant.
And today that's going to be really instrumental in what we look at in chapter 6 here.
That being said, I just wanted to do, just real quick, can anybody tell me how many books are in the Old Testament?
Thirty-nine, Tanya was the first one.
Tanya you get the bonus prize for the first one to speak up.
At least she had a clip in her mouth.
You had an unfair advantage.
But the rest of you had the same opportunity to say it as quickly.
Yes, and how many books in the New Testament?
Very good, see there we're nailing it.
And over how many years approximately, because this is an approximation for sure,
was this Bible we have from Genesis to Revelation recorded?
Anybody know?
Do you remember?
Yeah, but it's most likely less than that.
Between 1400 and 1500 years, which is still a really long time.
The United States of America has been around for 200 years.
Columbus gets credit for discovering the Americas and the beginnings of this great land in 1492.
So that is less than 800 years.
So it would be as if the Bible were begun to be written in about AD 600, AD 500,
which there were Bible events taking place at that time and was finished now.
So it was written over 1400 years.
How many authors?
Remember that number?
Approximately 40, maybe a little over 40 authors.
And then here's the good one.
How many themes?
Genesis to Revelation, say it again.
One.
It is the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ from cover to cover.
The theme is the same.
There were dozens, and it's not for sure kept track of whatever,
but there were dozens of different professions.
Most of the authors come from different parts of the world.
Contrary to popular belief, everybody thinks that all the authors came from the promised land.
First of all, let me remind you that to say that someone lived 70 miles away from somebody else
back in that day was really to say something.
It would take you a really long way.
Most of them didn't have horses, and so to go 70 miles was more than almost anybody ever did in their lifetime.
Unless you were in the military, 90 plus percent of people never went more than maybe about 10 miles away from home.
So when somebody wrote 70 miles away from somebody else, that meant they never could possibly know that person.
The only way would be if they served in the military together,
or if it happened to be a port town and they got on a sailing ship,
or if they were a traveling merchant or something like that.
But even then, you know when we talk about nomads?
People talk about nomads, they wandered from place to place, kind of following the water, following the food and like that.
Nomads, as much as they wandered, rarely ever went more than about 50 miles away from home.
That's a long way, okay?
And if you have animals and you walk them a long way, they get thin.
And then when they get thin, you've got to feed them up to get them healthy again before you can kill them to eat them,
because they don't have enough meat on their bones, right?
So they didn't travel real long distances.
But it did happen on occasion, like in the Exodus, it did happen with sailors, merchants, armies, things like that would go.
The promised land, which we talk a lot about, right, is only 70 miles north to south.
70 miles, the whole place, all those tribes, right?
So bear that in mind, is it north, south, east, or west? I might have confused that.
But anyway, it's only 70 miles across in one direction.
Alright, so bear that all in mind. Remember I said it's the old covenant and the new covenant and how it ties in today.
We are going to read today, and we usually hoot or holler or say amen as we go to the Bible.
And we're going to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Amen!
Thank you. Somebody had caffeine for breakfast and I love it.
Alright, here we go. Deuteronomy 6, beginning of verse 1.
We will read the whole chapter, which means, this is going to take a second, and then the points will come fast.
Alright, so here we go.
Chapter 6, verse 1. Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments,
which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it.
Alright, so remember this is Moses. He's recounting the history.
So this is not, he didn't give them the events right now.
He has been retelling the story of when he gave them. This is right before he dies.
Moses is not allowed to go into the promised land.
And so he's giving them the big over teaching all over again so they can take it with them when they go into promised land.
There's three words in there that you might want to pay attention to.
The first one is a commandment. I think we know what a commandment is.
A commandment is when someone tells you to do something.
Drop and give me 20. That's a command. That kind of thing.
Then there's a statute. A statute is kind of like a law or an ordinance.
It's a thing that's ongoing.
For example, we say, well we all will wear clothes to worship.
That would be a rule that we've made and we do pretty much, we have some unwritten rule.
We have that rule so please don't break it.
But that being said, we had that statute. That's a statute.
We all will wear clothing to worship, for example.
And then a judgment is when someone sees something and says, if you break that, this is what will happen.
If you do that, this is what will happen.
Sometimes judgment can be a positive thing.
For example, your paycheck is a form of a judgment.
If you work this many hours, you'll get paid this much money.
That's the judgment. You get that benefit because you did what was right.
If you don't work your hours, your paycheck will be less is also a judgment.
If you only work half as many hours, you have as much money, that's also a judgment.
But God gives judgment in the forms of if you break His commands, then you receive the curse.
You receive the bad things.
If you don't break His commands, then you receive the good things that come from those commands.
So He's saying, that's what I'm giving you.
And when you get into the land, I want you to be able to do them.
Do what I'm telling you to do.
And He goes on in verse 2.
He says, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God.
You and your son and your grandson.
Now realize that while it is written to men, it wouldn't be a man and his son and his son's son.
That man has a wife and then her son is still his son, so it's expected.
And then his grandson would still be expected.
So male and females are involved here.
So it's sons and daughters.
But He uses the words in the Hebrew are the ben and the benny.
So every time you hear that phrase, the son and the son's son, it's ben and benny.
I love that.
It helped me to remember that easily.
Ben and the benny.
So that you and your sons and your grandson might fear the Lord your God.
And that fear is a word that means revere.
So it's a love component, but you're going to fear in recognizing who He is.
To keep all His statutes, that's that same thing, the rules, if you will, and His commandments,
that's what He tells you to do, which I command you all the days of your life,
and that your days may be prolonged.
Now we talked a lot about that before, so we don't need to dwell on it right now.
If you have questions about it, come back to me and it's okay.
I'll fill you in.
Verse 3, Oh Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it,
that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly just as the Lord,
the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey.
Two different things there that they would multiply greatly,
and they would multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey,
which means a very prosperous land.
Do you know why that's so significant?
Have the Israelites as a people ever lived in a land that was not flowing with milk and honey?
Absolutely. Where?
In the desert.
In the desert, and? Before that? Egypt.
So the history of their nation is not, for over 400 years,
is not to live in a land flowing with milk and honey.
But while they were in Egypt, did they multiply?
They did. A lot.
So much so that Pharaoh became afraid of them and began destroying,
or having destroyed, every male child born,
because they said these people are multiplying so fast that they're going to overcome us.
They're going to get to be too many and we're not going to be able to put them down anymore.
They're going to be the kings and we're going to be the slaves instead of the other way around.
So he was freaked out and he said, kill off all the male children.
They started doing that because they were multiplying in a land that was not flowing with milk and honey.
Which means to say, God's people multiply.
That's what we do.
And then, on top of that, he says, but now I'm going to have you multiplying in a land flowing with milk and honey.
Which means you're going to have a great land instead of those yucky lands that you had before.
We're in verse 4.
Here, oh Israel, listen here, this is important.
The Lord is our God.
The Lord is one.
That phrase right there, the Lord is one, is going to be important by the time we're done.
So kind of remember, it's an easy one.
The Lord is one.
They use that in support of the Trinity.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, but just one God.
That's all true.
But there is a point that God is making here when he says the Lord is one.
Because they didn't really even understand God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
This is before that was understood.
God the Son had not yet come.
Jesus had not yet come.
And while he'd been prophesied, they didn't really understand the prophecy.
This is way before that.
So he's making a point to say the Lord, your God, is one.
And we'll come back on that in the points.
And it says, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
And a lot of people make a lot out of the heart, soul, and mind.
I'm sorry, heart, soul, and might that's in this.
And then in the New Testament it says mind.
But the bottom line is, you don't have to make a lot out of that.
But you do have to make a lot out of loving the Lord your God.
We are supposed to love God.
In fact, the command is that we love God.
Now that's a problem, right?
Because if I went to a woman and I said, you're going to love me.
And if I was dating before I got married and said, you must love me.
How well is that going to go over?
Probably won't get another date.
That's probably about it for that.
You're overbearing, you're yelling at me, whatever.
You can't command people to love.
Except God has commanded us to love him.
But the command to love God is to be kept by who?
I'll leave that question hanging there for a second.
Listen, who is he commanding to love him?
It says, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your might.
And these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart.
And you shall teach them diligently to your sons.
And shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
And so we'll stop there for a second.
There's a little bit more.
Notice that he's giving a kind of like a what do you do with the word?
And it should be on the wall.
We have a dry erase board on the side of the door.
I don't always update it as often as I should,
but there's always a Bible verse written there.
You should have it somewhere, you should see it all over the place.
Everybody that ever talks about memorizing verses,
one thing you can do is you can write it on a note card and put it on the mirror.
That way when you're getting ready in the morning you see it.
You're memorizing it.
And God through Moses was telling them, put the word where you can see it.
Okay?
And then teach it to your sons.
And I talked to a number of times about how in Iwana,
the greatest time I have ever had, even better than Bible college,
the greatest time I have ever had learning the word is when I was teaching it to little kids
and they were repeating it back to me over and over again.
And I was memorizing the verses.
And I went through the Sparky book in like three days because I was working with Sparky's that time.
And they did the whole, all the verses were being said to me hundreds and hundreds of times.
So you need to be teaching it.
And as you're teaching it, you're also receiving it.
That's what he's telling them.
But he said also when you walk by the way, in other words, we're going places.
We're driving in our car, crank up a little bit of music or whatever.
There ought to be music that is edifying to the soul and you can learn something.
So I recommend some kind of Christian music and then listen for the message.
Listen for the word of God.
Pick it out.
Study your Bibles.
Then when you listen to your music go, oh, that's that verse that I saw.
Or at least you did an inspirational moment a couple months back about songs that we sing
and ask people like, you know what verse that comes from and vice versa.
And that's powerful.
When you as you go, the word should be there.
There's so many people want to talk about everything else, but he's saying, no,
you should be talking about the word of God as you go.
And then he says, and when you lie down and when you rise up and you shall bind them,
that's the word of God or writings of the word of God, as a sign on your hand
and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Now, you may be thinking in the back of your mind it's possible if you've read the New Testament a lot.
That in the New Testament it says that we shouldn't do that with the phylacteries,
shouldn't write on there and hang them on our wrists.
But actually it doesn't say that.
We're not going to go to the reader right now.
What it actually says is he's accusing them of hypocrisy because he says you make your phylacteries larger
so that you keep making them larger than everybody else's.
So here's the problem.
Yes, you study the word, but don't get prideful and say, well, I study more than anybody else
or I know better than someone else or whatever.
And that's what they were doing.
They would put that there and they would go to worship and then somebody's phylactery was larger than theirs
and then next week they'd make theirs even larger.
They got to the point where they're carrying the word written on poster board hanging from their arms.
I know the word of God and carrying it around.
And we can't do that.
He said don't be prideful, don't be arrogant.
But that's what Jesus said.
But at the same time he said, yes, you should have them everywhere.
To say that it's a frontal on your forehead would mean it would be in front of your eyes.
So you should be seeing the word of God when you're seeing the world that God made.
If you're not seeing, I'm going to say this as a little aside here.
If you're not seeing the word of God when you see the world that God made,
pretty soon you're going to be worshiping something in the world that God made rather than worshiping God.
You should be seeing every one of the situations in your life, everything that you're facing,
the way you're dealing with your spouse, your kids, your house, your money, everything.
You see that through the word of God.
That's what he's saying.
Verse 10.
Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
to give you great and splendid cities which you did not build.
So God's going to take them in, they're going to get whole cities that they didn't build.
And houses full of all good things which you did not fill.
And hewn cisterns, which are like wells, which you did not dig.
Vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant.
The first year there were crops already growing on the vineyards and olive trees that they captured.
It says, and you shall eat and be satisfied.
In other words, it's going to go good.
It's going to be fine.
Everything's going to be taken care of.
But then he says in verse 12, then watch yourself,
lest you forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery.
In other words, when things start going good for people,
people start kind of like taking it for granted.
And like tomorrow, some of us are going to get up and go to work, right?
And when you get up and go to work, you're going to earn an hourly wage
or maybe a salary if you're in that kind of position.
And when you do that, are you remembering that it's not your work that's yielding those wages?
It's God.
God is the one who created you.
God is the one who made you strong enough.
He's the one who made you smart enough, made you capable.
He put that job in place.
I know we've come a long way, but the bottom line is God still does all of that.
And we cannot forget when we are blessed by whatever blessings we have
that we didn't create those blessings.
I know there's smart people in here.
I know there's strong people in here.
You might go, I'm strong.
I can get this job done.
You're nothing without God.
And that's what he's saying.
He said, God brought you to us.
Now, if you're here in the room and you're,
and I'm going to be a little blunt for a minute,
you're not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You don't know Jesus.
You're not following Jesus.
You've not accepted him as Lord because he tells you what to do and you do it.
And Savior means he paid the price for your sins.
Then yeah, you're doing everything essentially on your own.
But even while you're doing that, God's still blessing you
because he makes the rain to fall on the good and the bad alike
and the sun to shine on the good and the bad alike.
He still gave you everything that you have.
You're just not recognizing it.
You're not accepting that.
And so you're facing the curse.
You're facing the problems because you're not in the kingdom.
But now if you're in the kingdom, realize you were a slave to sin.
You were lost.
And now God made you new.
God made you reborn.
So everything that you have now, you should be counting as a blessing from the Lord.
And he says, watch yourself lest you forget who brought you from the land of Egypt
out of the house of slavery.
And I submit to you, we weren't in Egypt, but we were in the house of slavery.
Thirteen, you shall fear only the Lord your God,
and you shall worship him and swear by his name.
Now you may be remembering a verse from the New Testament where Jesus says,
don't swear by the name of the altar or by gold or by God even.
Don't swear. Just let your yes be yes and your no be no.
Tell the truth and say, I'm going to do it and then do what you said you're going to do and so on.
So maybe remembering that.
But here is Moses commanding them to swear.
You say, well, that's because this is the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Well, before we're done, we're going to come back and I'm going to break this down for you in the points.
So bear that. Remember that phrase.
Swear by his name.
Verse 14, you shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you.
There are always going to be other ways of religion and worshiping and thing and they're not good.
And you shouldn't have anything to do with it.
For the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God.
Someone I read recently said that every time God is described as a jealous God,
it's always in the context of idolatry of worshiping or thinking something else is important other than God.
And nothing else is important other than God.
Everything else is like a million times lower.
Now, if God says, take care of your spouse, you get married, God says, take care of your spouse.
Now you have to do that. Right?
Like I told you, Sherry and I, we believe that we're married for this one primary reason.
As we both recognize, the other person has to put God first.
And then after that comes me. I'm a distant second to God in my wife's life.
And if she ever starts to put me over God, I hope I'll stop her.
And vice versa. That's what it means to be married.
Your spouse really has to have God first.
Otherwise, the miracles that are required to make you one, it's not going to happen.
15. For the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God.
Otherwise, the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you and he will wipe you off the face of the earth.
Whoo! That's scary.
Just leave that one hanging there for a minute.
16. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massa.
Or that also could be Meribah.
They tested him in the wilderness and they were punished for it.
17. You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes which he has commanded you.
And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you,
and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to give you, give your fathers.
We talked about that last week.
By driving out all of your enemies from before you as the Lord has spoken.
When your son asks you in time to come, saying, this is really important here,
what do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?
So this is what they're going to do.
Their sons and their grandsons are going to come to them and they're going to ask them.
Those things that Moses gave us, the testaments, the commandments, what do they mean?
Then you shall say to your son, we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.
And I submit as Christians we can say, we were slaves to sin in this life.
We can put that right there. It would mean the same thing for us as it did for them.
We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and the Lord brought us up from Egypt with a mighty hand.
He did it.
Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt,
Pharaoh and all his household, and he brought us out from there in order to bring us in,
to give us the land which he had sworn to our fathers.
In other words, God did all that.
That's what those commands and precepts and all that's about.
24 says, so the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God,
for our good always and for our survival as it is today.
And the last verse, and it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment
before the Lord our God just as he commanded us.
Look at that. It will be righteousness for us.
Or you could translate that rightness.
Alright, so here we go.
Three things I want you to see in there and they break down pretty neatly.
In fact, I think the text may be tough, hard to swallow,
but the bottom line is it's so simple a child can understand it.
Alright, so the first thing I want you to see in there is that loving God is commanded.
God says, love me with all of your heart and your soul and your might and later the mind.
All that you are, everything that you are is supposed to be pitted to this one task, loving God.
Now I understand first of all that a lost person who doesn't know Jesus doesn't necessarily understand what love is.
Love is a choice. It affects you. It costs you.
Its outcomes are based on your commitment to it.
Are you willing to do it? Are you willing to really hang yourself out there, put yourself all in?
When a man and a woman stand up and get married, as Erin and Caitlin did two weekends ago,
they commit all that they are and everything that they will go through,
everything that they're going to do into caring for that other person.
They now take all that God is pouring into them and say they're going to turn around and pour it out
as God would have them to do for their spouse and then through their spouse,
together the unified couple is going to affect and change the world.
Love. Loving God is commanded.
It's a problem because before we got saved, before we became a Christian and didn't really know what love was,
we weren't very good at it.
I had all kinds of relationships. I had family relationships. I had parents. I had a brother.
I had friends at school. I had girlfriends that I dated.
And I don't remember as an unsaved person really knowing how to love them well.
Now, I knew what acts of romance looked like.
I'm training Ariana. She's eight. She's young to be dating. Thank God.
I'm not really looking forward to that day.
But I'm training her on the difference between romance and love.
Now, this is a problem because a lot of people want to romance God, but they don't want to love God.
Remember, I said love is commitment. It's sacrifice. You're putting everything on the line.
You're putting yourself out there. You're willing to risk everything.
You're spending your strength, your blood, your sweat, your tears, nothing held back.
You're all in. That's what love actually is.
Now, it may play itself out in small acts of service and kindness that cost you something.
You may buy somebody a gift. You may show up for them when they need you.
You may encourage them when they're down. Those are all acts of love.
But love is the total cumulative of your total sacrifice to a commitment to someone or,
and this gets really scary, something. And there are people who do that.
They love things. They love hobbies. They love things that they do, whatever.
And it's very scary because that love is for who? It's for God.
So people want to romance God. So yeah, I want to do a little something for God.
I'm going to give a little something. I'm giving God a little lip service.
I'll say something positive about God. I'll try to witness for God.
I'll pray to God now and then when I'm in trouble.
People want to romance God, but they don't want to love God.
In fact, I submit to you, in the world, people who are capable of romance
and not so capable of love, which is why we have 52% divorce rate,
because they can romance. They can show that they love people by actions and stuff.
And then they get married and it all sort of dwindles and falls away.
And when the romance dies off, they're like, why do we even do this again?
But when you make that choice to make a commitment, you put yourself all on the line
and you do it the way God showed us how to do it.
And the man loves his wife as Christ loves the church.
And the woman submits to your husband as the church submits to Christ.
And they become one. Now there's no going back.
Some people do go back after that or go back after a partial commitment like that.
And it's extremely painful. It will rip you apart.
Just ask somebody who's been going through a divorce and pray for anybody who's in that situation
because it is an extremely painful situation.
The Lord God has commanded us to love him.
Loving is tiring. Loving is costly.
Loving will cost you your life eventually.
You realize that if Jesus doesn't come again, we're all going to die.
Hopefully, I hope faithfully serving the Lord until Jesus comes again.
We're all going to die. You're going to die for Jesus Christ,
either of old age or of some traumatic incident or disease or sickness or something.
If Jesus doesn't come again, and if you're a follower of the Lord,
then you're going to die for Jesus. That's a fact.
God is not slow as some men count slowness.
Rather, he is patient with us that all men might come to repentance.
So in other words, we're supposed to be working our butts off, living out this love for God.
And we'll do that right up until we die and our heart stops beating and our brain stops waving
and we go to heaven instantly after that.
That's the equation. That's what he's asked of us.
And I submit to you to a degree that's what you committed to if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
And we'll come back to that in a second.
Notice in this text, he gives us the process of how to prolong love.
Remember I said it's hard, it's tiring, it's exhausting, it'll kill you in the end.
It's difficult because that's not who we were before we got saved.
He gives us the process of how to prolong love because they were going to face some challenges.
And they are essentially warriors. He says this, he says, number one, know the Word of God.
Are you tired? Study the Word of God.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God.
And you know what comes by faith? Grace.
You say, no, no, no, that's not right.
Actually, it's not by, it's through.
But in the Greek, the word is dia. It means by, on account of, or through, regardless of how you want to say it.
Ephesians 2 says, we are saved by the grace of God, we're saved by grace through faith.
You want the grace of God to cover your sins, then you respond to Him in faith.
And how do you get faith? Through the Word of God.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing, but it's the Word of God.
Billy Graham says, I was struggling in my faith.
I was going through a difficult time and I was praying, so I was praying every day.
Every day I was begging God, God, give me more faith. God, give me more faith.
And he said, and I really should have known this already.
He said, so one day God said to me, you want more faith?
And he asked me, how do you get more faith?
And Billy Graham's like, well, that's what I'm asking you, God.
How do you get more faith? And God says, well, you already know.
And the Bible verse pops into his head. It says, you get faith by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God.
So you get faith from the Word of God.
And then you can trust God to do what needs to be done.
And when you can trust God to do what needs to be done, the natural outflow of that is,
you're going to love it. You're going to put it out.
If I spend myself on this and die, right?
If I spend myself on this and die, then I'm done.
I can't do that. I can't take that risk.
I can't risk that this is all the money I'll ever have, or this is all the strength I'll ever have,
or that this, if I put my best effort in here, I'm going to look like an idiot.
I can't risk that, right? Yes, I can. Yes, I can.
The problem, when I think I can't risk that, is a lack of faith.
You need the Word of God so you can believe that God has got you,
so that God is the one orchestrating your life.
And when you have that faith, suddenly God shows up and acts.
Just immediately. As soon as you believe.
It's not when you actually undertake the action.
I've told a couple of stories a couple of different times,
so I'm going to tell them real short here, and if you need more details later, ask me later.
But when Sharon and I first decided to tithe, we realized we were only tithing on the net,
and our money never worked out.
The night, it was a Friday night, and the first night we decided to tithe at like 11 p.m.
We said, okay, we're just going to do it.
It's going to put us $311 behind in our budget every week, or every year.
Every month, there we go, I got it. Every month we'd be $311 behind.
And we said, but we're going to do it.
Tomorrow, we're writing the check. We didn't write the check.
Tomorrow, we write the check. We're going to tithe.
And now we tithe on the gross. We're going to do it.
The next morning, the loan officer called me, and he said,
you've got to refinance your house, if we're trying to save our house from foreclosure.
We're going to refinance your house, and we're going to have to put your car loan in there.
When we do that, it's going to reduce your payment by,
you're going to eliminate your car payment by $311, and that will get it done.
So before we ever wrote a check, before we ever did it, we tithed on the,
we just committed to it, the very next day, God did it, balanced the budget.
For the first time, we were married for almost 10 years,
our budget had never balanced, for the first time it balanced just like that.
All we did was commit to it. That's just an example.
Judy Bolton did the same thing.
I was, there was a night when I was talking to a woman, I said,
I was listening, and a spirit was speaking through me, I said,
God is going to decide between us who is right or wrong within three months.
That person, I believed in God, that person wound up with cancer less than three months later.
When I was at East Littledo Baptist Church, there was a man who accused me of being,
like, that which ruins the next generation, because I gave two little girls a cup of water,
because they were puffing, their face was red and they were sweating,
I gave them a cup of water, and he said, you're what's ruining the next generation.
And I was attacked, I was hurt, and I said, Lord, if I'm wrong here,
help me repent and change my heart.
But if he's wrong, then show him.
Within three weeks, a man was diagnosed with cancer in his throat and couldn't speak.
Then the Lord convicted me to pray for him, for healing.
I prayed for him for healing, and he was miraculously healed and could speak again.
I'm not making that stuff up. I couldn't make that stuff up if I wanted to.
You believe, God shows up and he does it.
God has called on us to love him, to put yourself out there, to spend yourself, to sacrifice yourself.
You're going to have to give up. The world wants to watch a lot of TV.
The world wants to do a lot of social media. The world wants to be wrapped up in sports
and recreational activities and hobbies and all these things that we do.
The world wants to do a lot of that.
When we got saved, we began to realize that that stuff, the wants that we have,
listen, I'm going to burst your bubble.
You just can't do what you really want to do,
unless what you want to do is what the Lord wants for you.
I realized it was a form of abuse that my parents told me when I was growing up,
they told me all the time, they said, you can be anything you want to be,
you can be anything you want to be, and they always put that little tag on the end there and say,
if you would only apply yourself.
And I began to realize I felt terrible, like I was worthless, like I wasn't doing a good job,
I was getting all A's and B's in school, but that wasn't good enough, nothing was good enough.
So you can be anything you want to do, if only you would just apply yourself.
But in Christ, this is what I found out.
I can be anything I want, as long as what I want is what God wants for me.
Lift up prayers to the Lord and he will answer.
Ask and ye shall receive.
The problem is, you've got to believe and know who he is in the first place.
And that starts with loving him back the way he has loved us.
Did Jesus hold anything back from you in his love?
Did he hold anything back?
He literally was present at the creation of the world.
Nothing was created except that which was created through him.
John 1.
And then came to earth as a man, lived a sinless life, and died a sinner's death.
Beaten, mocked, scorned, thorned, beaten about the head.
We were doing Bible trivia camp.
I said, after they put the crown of thorns on Jesus' head, what did they beat him with?
Does anybody know?
Nobody there knew.
They beat him with a rod.
They put a crown of thorns on his head, and then they beat him about the head with a rod,
driving the thorns into his head.
Did Jesus hold back anything from you in his love for you?
Then what can you righteously hold back from God?
We are required to love God, and by this process that he gave them was just know the word,
know what it says, and then share it with others.
Jesus came that all might be saved.
Not some.
He came to save everybody.
But then we get people who are saved, and then they start doing, okay, listen, I was a hot mess.
My marriage would not have lasted.
I was ruining my eldest daughter.
I was $30,000 in debt on top of a house loan, even though I didn't have a car loan.
I did have a car loan.
I had a car loan.
That was it.
I had a car loan, house loan, $30,000 worth of debt.
I was ruining my life.
It was terrible to my wife.
She was on the verge of divorcing me multiple times, walking out at least.
There were times where I walked out thinking that I had been somehow wounded.
You know, the night she was going to go to party, I was feeling all jealous,
and I left thinking I wasn't going to come back because,
how dare she go to party without me because she was invited, and I wasn't.
That night, I was ruining my life.
And God came in and turned it all around, turned it all around.
And I became born again, and all old things got old real fast, gone.
And all things became new.
And now I'm going to get wrapped up in my prosperity.
I'm going to hold a little too tight to a dollar bill.
Or when I start to get sore or tired, I'm going to say, God, that's enough?
What are you going to hold back from God, the God who held nothing back from you?
Loving God is commanded, knowing the Word, and then we ought to be sharing that with other people.
We've got to go outside our comfort zone.
The problem is, you know why a lot of Christians aren't sharing God with other people?
This will hurt you. It'll hurt me.
You know why a lot of Christians aren't sharing God with other people through Christ?
Because they don't believe in God.
You say, that doesn't make any sense.
How can that be?
Jesus said to the disciples, oh, ye of little faith, how long will I have to put up with you?
And they walked with him, and they saw him heal the blind man, and the leper, and the cripple.
They saw him cast out evil spirits over and over and over again.
And he said, oh, ye of little faith, how long will I have to put up with you?
I submit to you, if you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to trust Him.
And to trust Him, you need to know His Word and share it with others.
As you're sharing it with others, by the way, it will become a frontlet to your eyes.
It will be hanging around your house.
It will be everywhere you look, and you'll constantly be going, oh, yeah.
By the way, earlier I paraphrased Psalm 55 22.
What does it say?
Yes, yeah, because he will not allow the righteous to fall.
There's a second part of it. Good.
But why don't we all know that?
It's the only 55 22 in the Bible.
What does John 3 16 say?
Now, why do we all know John 3 16?
Because it largely encapsulates the Bible.
It encapsulates the entire theme of the Bible.
It's a verse that covers almost everything,
and that's why leaders are constantly teaching it to kids.
But the verses that you learn from your kid as a kid or when you used to teach, it's not enough.
You need the strength to walk with God every day.
You need to be constantly filled.
You're an empty cup unless there's something in you.
And by this faith, we open a channel to God, and he delivers his grace.
God does not have to do squat for you.
He does not owe you anything.
He doesn't have to do squat for you. He doesn't have to provide for you.
He does it all because he loves you.
That's called grace, because you don't deserve that love, and I don't deserve that love.
We don't deserve it.
But by believing in him and trusting in him, knowing his word and sharing his word,
that as things come against us and surround us that will distract us, et cetera, we'll be ready.
Also notice there was one third point that they put in there, and that they were forewarned about prosperity.
Again, I told you what my life was like before I got saved.
I was messing it all up.
And then after I got saved, miraculously, God was fixing it all.
Since then, there have been time and time again.
The story that I tell you about when I was driving to Michigan and we were in a snowstorm
and everybody else was sleeping and I sat back like this driving, and I couldn't see the gas gauge.
I look up and the wheels below empty and I've been driving for like 50 miles since the light came on,
or however long it was.
Didn't know how far, still had 30 miles to get home, and we prayed, and God essentially put gas in the tank.
The needle literally went up like that to three-eighths of a tank.
We drove all the way home and unloaded and everything, and I drove the next morning, got gas,
got more gas than I possibly could in the tank.
Well, that's a great story about God and trusting God and asking God and receiving from God.
Whose fault was it that there was no gas in the tank?
Whose fault was it that I didn't know the light came on?
Right? That's where we're living.
And in the midst of prosperity, it's really easy to go, oh, God's not giving me enough.
I'm going to be blunt here and I apologize if I step on anybody's toes, but this is what I've heard.
I've heard, for example, sometimes about tithing.
I say, I don't have enough money to tithe.
Tithing is 10% of your income. I can kind of get that.
I had a sister tell me I don't have enough money to buy gas to go to church.
You know how much money it costs to buy gas to go to church?
About 25 bucks a month if you live kind of far away.
If you live here in East Toledo, it costs about five.
Five dollars a month. You don't have enough gas to get to church?
And I'm not trying to convict anybody any more than necessary, but that's in the notes.
It was there since I wrote it Friday.
I don't have time to read my Bible.
Do you know how much time it takes to read your Bible five minutes a day?
Five minutes? You don't have five minutes?
Cut your stinking sleep short.
Like, oh, I can't do that. If I cut my sleep five minutes short, I'll be tired in the morning.
Really? FYI, you're going to be tired in the morning anyway.
People are tired in the morning.
Get up five minutes early. Oh, I couldn't do that. I couldn't get up five.
If you actually get up five minutes before you need to get up to get where you're getting,
when it comes time to get up to get where you're getting,
you'll already be up and you'll actually get there on time.
Amazing, isn't it?
With the possible exception of if you plan five minutes in the Word and wind up spending ten,
then you might be late.
And if you were, it'd be actually for a good reason for the first time ever.
You have the time. You have the money. You have the resource.
You have the people because God put them in your life because God did it by His grace.
We are to love Him back.
The process is this. Know His Word. Share it with others.
Live it out. Make it like your guide, your most important thing in your life.
I'm not saying worship it. God is the one we worship.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. That's all of it.
But what He's saying is you must love Me.
Now He's saying that because we've become His children.
In the Old Testament, there were a number of prophecies about how they weren't following God.
They didn't get it right. Ultimately, they did wrong.
They were suffering the curse. They were carried off to captivity.
All that kind of stuff was going on.
And there were prophecies about how God would then write the commandments on the hearts of a people.
And that that people, that God would be their God.
He would be our God.
And we would be His people.
What do you think that's talking about?
It's talking about the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit God would send.
After His own Son came and gave His life, then Jesus went back to heaven.
He said, if I go to prepare a place for you, it's really good.
I'm going to send somebody back, a new comforter, to be with you.
And you'll be taken care of.
And the Holy Spirit comes in us.
And He convicts us when we're not doing it right.
But a lot of times, we don't hear the Holy Spirit because we're not walking in the Word in the first place.
The Holy Spirit says, remember that verse you read 17 years ago that said?
And you're like, no, I don't remember that verse. Why?
Because you read it 17 years ago.
Remember what it says here?
It gives you a little phrase that you're supposed to remember from the Word of God.
And you don't remember it because you haven't been doing it.
There's nothing about the Word of God in you or in your life.
And here it was saying, do that.
It's an act of love toward God.
Put this in there. Live it. Share it.
And be forearmed.
Because when prosperity comes, it's going to be tough.
Remember when I said that we would talk briefly about the swear on the Lord?
And there seems to be a conflict between that and the command of the New Testament.
So the word in Hebrew for swear is, I'll try to do it.
I'm not a Hebrew scholar.
I'm a little bit of a Greek scholar, but not so much Hebrew.
But I did look it up. It's sheba.
Does anybody know what that word means?
In English you say it means swear, right?
But it has a literal meaning in the Hebrew.
It means to seven yourself.
What the heck does that mean? Seven myself?
Well, okay, so somebody tell me what in the Bible, what seven is.
What's the first seven in the Bible?
Seven days of creation, right?
God created what in seven days?
Everything.
But actually he only created for six days.
What did he do on the seventh day?
He rested and he made a covenant.
Covenant to remember that seventh day and all that God had created, right?
You were nothing. I brought you out of nothing.
Don't forget I made you something.
That's what happened on the seventh day.
That's where we all started at.
You were nothing. I made you something.
Don't forget I brought you out of nothing and made you something.
That's the covenant that God made on the seventh day.
To seven yourself is to remember that you were nothing and God made you something.
And now he brought you out of nothing and made you something.
Don't forget it.
It's not a promise.
It's not like swearing on God's name like a curse.
It's a covenant.
You were nothing. I made you something out of nothing.
Now let's go forward together.
That's what he did.
And God is a covenant God.
He covenanted all throughout the...
He covenanted with Abraham.
He covenanted with David.
He covenanted with Noah.
He covenanted with Samuel.
God is a covenant God.
And when God makes a promise and God makes a covenant with somebody,
he always keeps his side.
When we are living in the Lord and following the Lord and doing what we're supposed to be doing
and we commit ourselves to something, your yay must be yay, your nay must be yay,
because you are a child of God.
God is your God.
The only God.
There are no others.
There may be some demons that masquerade as God.
Satan may try to masquerade as God.
Money may try to become a God in your life.
Sex may try to become a God in your life.
Relationships, social media, games.
Whatever, any of it might try to become a God in your life.
But there are no other gods.
Only God.
And when he said your God is one, that's what he's talking about.
There is only one God.
There is one God and he sevened himself with you.
From the beginning, he said, you are nothing.
I made you something so that we can be together.
And then mankind, the form of Adam and Eve, and we were all in there,
broke that covenant.
But God didn't break his part of it.
He ultimately promised he would send his own son, and he did,
and his son sacrificed himself.
Now, last text of the day, and we're about done.
Go with me, if you will, to Revelation chapter 21.
So we're going all the way to the back of the Bible.
Almost to the end.
Revelation 21.
It will be the end, essentially, or nearly the end,
of the story of all that God has been doing in all creation, all time.
Revelation 21, beginning of verse 1, says this.
And this is John speaking.
And he says, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth passed away,
and there is no longer any sea.
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men.
He shall dwell among them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be among them.
And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and there shall no longer be any death.
There shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain.
The first things have passed away.
And he who sits on the throne said,
Behold, I am making all things new.
And he said, Right, for these words are faithful and true.
And he said to me, It is done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of water, of life, without cost.
He who overcomes shall inherit these things,
and I will be his God, and he will be my son.
That's what we think we're claiming as a Christian, isn't it?
That's the end that we're foreseeing, isn't it?
The living water in us, us in the new heaven and new earth,
with all this crap that's down here, passed away, finally gone.
That's the end that we're foreseeing.
But I want you to notice the phrase in the middle.
It says, For the one who overcomes.
He says, I will do it.
And then he says, For the one who overcomes,
he who overcomes shall inherit these things.
Love the Lord your God that you are commanded.
Be prepared to overcome.
Prolong that love and be prepared to overcome the things of this life
that you also are commanded in the way that has been given to you.
Know his word and share it, and be careful of the prosperity that you experience
that it does not distract you or tempt you from your loving of God.
Whatever you get, as much as you may have,
be ready to put it on the line as an act of love with God.
And if you will not, then I submit to you, you need to stop claiming that promise
because you ain't got it.
You can say, I'm going to heaven one day, and there will be no more tears,
no more sorrow, no more sighing, no more pain, etc.
But unless you overcome, you will not have the promise to inherit these things.
That's what God said.
It's the one on the throne.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the being the end.
I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of water of life
without cost.
That's what he has done through his son, Jesus Christ,
and we are being saved if we are accepting.
And then he says, he who overcomes shall inherit these things,
and I will be his God, and he will be my son.
You know what? He actually doesn't stop there.
I stop there, but he doesn't stop there.
He goes on to say this.
He says, but for the cowardly...
Hang on, because before I got saved, I was a coward.
I was afraid of what people thought of me.
I was afraid of fights. I ran most of the time.
I got in a lot of fights, but I ran when I could.
Right?
A coward would be somebody who says, I love God,
but I'm not willing to put my all on the line.
You got a little money you're holding back just in case the God don't show up?
You're a coward.
Got a little time you're holding back to spend it on yourself
because you don't want to use it for what God wants you to do?
Coward.
You know why?
Because you're not trusting God if I spend this time.
This is God's economy.
He says, you give, and I give back.
I give back more than you ever gave or ever could give
because I gave you all of what you have in the first place.
If I give you more than that, when you give, I'll give back.
But we don't.
Sometimes.
And when we don't, we've got to be real.
We're being cowardly.
If you won't give of yourself, your time, your talent, your blood, sweat, tears, money, etc.
You're coward.
Because you're not trusting God that God will do what he said he would do.
And this is what he says.
He said, but for the cowardly and the unbelieving, also you're lacking in faith.
You say, well, I can't trust God to do it for me, so I'm lacking in faith.
He says, the cowardly and the unbelieving and the abominable,
that means the things that God gets sick of.
And the murderers, an immoral person, and sorcerers,
that means people that try to force God's hand or force things in the spiritual realm
to do what they want by certain means other than being found faithful.
Sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, he says,
their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death.
It's very simple, isn't it?
You have one choice to make.
God says, love me the way I love you and we'll be together for an eternity.
It's like a marriage.
Love me who I love you and we'll be together for our entire life,
and our entire life is an eternity because I'm God and you're recreated as my son.
That's what he says.
But if you will not love God that way, if you're going to lie about it,
if you're going to be cowardly about it, you're not going to trust him,
not going to follow him in faith after he's already presented himself in your life
and begun to give you stuff, make things better.
If you're not going to do that, there is still a place for you reserved
in the lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death.
I'm not making this stuff up.
I couldn't if I wanted to because it hurts too much.
It's time we were no longer cowardly.
It's time we were people of faith, that we receive the Word of God,
we study it, we learn it, and say, I don't read that good.
Okay, well then you've got two choices.
Number one, anybody that doesn't read that well knows they have to work harder
than anybody else who can read better than they are.
And by the way, when you do that, what will that be?
That will be you given to God, and what will that be?
That will be rewarded by God.
So guess what?
If you're somebody in this room who doesn't read all that well,
you've got the higher road.
You've got it easier than anybody else.
You can get blessed easier than anybody else.
You can be faithful easier than anybody else.
Somebody who can read a lot better than you, you go and read the same amount
that they read, and you'll get twice the blessing.
Because you'll have done more work to get where they're trying to get to.
And God will bless you back because of it.
So you've got to read it.
But there's also in our great day, listening to it.
Get the Bible app on your phone.
You can listen to the Bible anytime.
From now on when you get the car, at least think about for one split second,
think about putting the Bible on instead of music.
And then you'll be doing it as you go, which is what we're commanded.
When you get up in the morning, I want you to think about putting the armor of God on
before you put your clothes on.
Delve into the truth and say, no, I want to get my clothes on before I study.
Then that's fine.
But I want you to think about the Word of God first before clothes.
Because the best clothes on the earth will not get you into heaven.
The best of anything on the earth will not get you into heaven.
But your faithfulness in the Lord, trusting God and loving Him with all that He has,
believing in Him, being filled up by His Word, sharing His Word with others,
and being forewarned to overcome the prosperity that you will experience,
you have entered into a covenant with God.
God has been working for us from the beginning, before we were ever born.
And He's asking you to do nothing less than to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord.
That means He tells you what to do and you do it.
And your Savior, that means He paid the price for your sins.
He sacrificed Himself for you and held literally nothing back.
And yet, Christians all over the world, while they may be doing more than non-Christians are doing,
or more than some other Christians are doing, we're still holding back.
And it must stop.
You cannot behave as a coward in the Kingdom of God.
You cannot do abominable things, things that make God sick to His stomach in the Kingdom of God.
You cannot try to play the game of manipulating God,
or manipulating the spiritual realm just to get what you want.
You cannot.
You must trust God with all that you are, everything you have, and put it all on the table.
As if you could hold it all in your hands and say,
Here you go, God, I give it to you.
Trust the Lord God with all your burdens,
or He will make it so that the righteous will stand.
They would go into the Promised Land and experience great prosperity,
and sometimes great difficulty, they would be tempted by the gods around them.
They were forewarned not to have anything to do with those false gods,
not to let their prosperity distract them, and yet they will fall away.
But we must not be like those who fell.
We must be like those who endured to the end.
And that's what I'm asking of you today.
I'm asking you to repent of your own weakness.
That means turn to God and turn away from your own weakness.
I'm asking you to repent of your own cowardliness.
That means turn to God and turn away from your own cowardliness.
I'm asking you to love the Lord with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might.
And that's going to mean putting the Word of God in you,
and delivering the Word of God out to anybody who will listen,
and being aware of that prosperity and that idolatry that we so easily slip into when we're doing well.
Stay firm.
God gives you a million dollars, give Him a million in one.
Because by the time you get done giving Him a million, He'll give you another, give Him that.
God gives you 24 hours in a day, give Him 24 hours of the day.
And He'll keep giving, because that's the kind of God He is.
And if you love Him, you'll enter into that covenant with Him,
because you were nothing, and He made you something, so that you can be with Him.
I ask the praise team to come forward at this time, and lead us in our closing hymn.
This is both our last hymn of our service, the last song of our service,
and also a decision.
If you're here today and you've not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks.
Don't worry about anybody else in the room on that decision.
If you know you haven't, if you're willing to today, then you just find, come here and say,
look, I want to live for Jesus the way He wants me to live for Him.
If you're here today and you say, I've been holding back, I've got stuff that I keep back from,
I don't give God my money, I don't give God my time, I don't give God my worship, whatever.
If you've been holding back, and you want to repent of that today,
put it all on the table and give it to God, then you just find and come forward and share that
with me and we pray together.
Say, I need a new church home, or I need to be baptized, or I need to go forward with this thing
God is calling me to do, whatever that might be, and you want to make that commitment today,
publicly so people can help you, so people can pray for you, then you do that.
Whatever it might be that God is laying on your heart, this is your chance to respond publicly
and everybody can see it, everybody can hold you up.
Love God.
Don't sit there and go, well, I'm afraid of what people think.
If you care what people think, you are a coward.
When it comes to your relationship with Jesus Christ, with the God of heaven,
if you care what people think, well, I've been saying I've been a Christian for a long time now,
and if I give my life over to the Lord in earnest now, people are going to think I was a liar.
You were a liar. Let's be honest.
Now you're just a coward, you don't want to be telling the truth.
Or if you say, well, I follow the Lord Jesus Christ, but I've not been putting it all in line,
I've been giving it over to God, and you're worried about what that's going to look like.
Nobody cares about what that's going to look like.
All we care about is getting where God's taking us.
Commit yourself to the Lord.
Don't sit there and go, but, but, but, excuses are just that, they're just excuses.
Really, they're only useful for cowards.
You say, but no, there are real reasons.
The reason is the reason that excuses and excuses are different.
If God closes the door, then He has always made another way.
There's always something else that you can do to glorify Him.
But if you close the door and say, I'm not going to do it, make an excuse, that's powerless.
So as we sing this song, I ask you to stand with me.
Come on, you got it in you. Stand up here.
And you respond, the Lord is giving you your heart.
As we sing.
Just as I have with the one thing
But the earth I've won, worship for me
And that Thou best me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come.
As we sing this next verse, God is speaking to you.