梁 teacher imperfection
Oh
The whole day is always
Oh
Rendition
Alright
Number one don't forget
630
We're going to have our spiritual gift fellowship and the spiritual gift that we're focusing on is faith the spiritual gift of faith not
Saving faith, but if you think you have to speak to faith or you want to know what that is
Yes, then you come Thursday and we'll eat together and we'll also talk about what that gift is
How it's depicted in the Bible song and then also how we have seen it at work in the body and in the world
Okay, so we spend that hour together talking about the spiritual gift of faith. I'm praying God for it
also
My understanding is this evening fancy Paulie. They're drafting in the cafeteria playing games and so on
My guess is it's gonna be a peaceable representation
you can walk up going down and play games and write that and that would be fun and then
Today after service is the membership meeting won't be a lengthy meeting because
Things of things that pertain to the members and I don't know is there anything on you new business as of right now
Yeah, no motions on you that there's some stuff in membership
And then so if you have a motion you need to get that to the line before the meeting begins
She's the moderator and we'll get that taken care of that's how some of the church that's how some of the design the church
That's how someone would make a motion like to take the church and have a certain event
You do certain things for money and you make the motion before the meeting begins. So goes to my that's how that's up
I should pray for Monica Smith this morning
She woke up this morning really in the middle of the night the bad stomach ache
Probably viral and those are going around, you know what? That's like these days
And so pray for her and believe Royce these help with kids like that
And then we have others who have about some who are just out where they are
So pray for them pray that God will bless them where they are and bring them back into here next week
And then we're working together what a great start
1130 saying that song we're already worshiping God with your heart is in the right place today
God is in the definitely in the right place today. He's on the throne
Alright, so we're gonna pray together and then a few songs will be an inspirational moment
Maybe you'll share with us at that time how the Lord's been blessing you or what you see what God maybe has said
Thank you for the word something like that. So be prepared for that coming up just a few songs from now. Let's pray together
Father in heaven we thank you so much for this day in which we live
Even though we see board and there are a lot of things going on people losing their lives
to foolish behavior gun violence
Car accidents and even disease. It's all over the place. Obviously we've lost a lot of folks in the last few years. So
That that puts me in mind that we are supposed to be focused on you
We were supposed to be about the King of Ants and we are supposed to be the church as you've made us
And so we're grateful for all that you've done enough. He protected us not had one member died
I had one member be sick enough to be put in a hospital because of COVID or anything else in a long time
So we're grateful for that word
Because you certainly have done an amazing thing there and we ask you to keep protecting us and we need it
At the same time when we realize that we may have miss spent we may have made errors
We may have made choices that did not honor you let things do a lot of control are off track
And so father we ask your forgiveness and we're grateful that it's available through Jesus
He doesn't pay for it all you know that he's right there right now. It's your right hand make the intercession for us
He is our eternal King and our eternal mediator. He is
God in the flesh and now God in heaven exercise. So we praise you Lord for all that he has done
We praise you for this time together
We ask you to watch over us as you watch over those names already been called and folks that are on our hearts today
We're suffering. We ask you to
The bless those families who are mourning the loss of loved ones for some for some of us
August is an anniversary month for someone who's gone ahead of us to be with you and we miss him dearly and for others
Lord that we know they don't know you they mourn in deep sorrow and struggles
Lord, we know we don't mourn like that. We're looking forward to that day
We can be in your presence and spend eternity with you and we're grateful to know some who've gone on ahead
So we ask the Lord to bless us give us reason to worship you your powerful presence today
You can't you love us because you care for us and we've guided us into this moment in time put it in this place
Right now right here
Father we ask you to bless those who couldn't be here right now
Even though maybe they should have or maybe things got in the way and they were trying to overcome and they just couldn't
So we ask the Lord keep caravan bring them back to their midst and let us honor you now for these praises
Maybe someone who's never sung before seen today. Maybe our hearts have reason today to truly rejoice
I believe it so I'm pray all this in Jesus precious name. Amen
All right, I know most of you set up on the first song would you stand and join us for these two and children
This is your one song warning. You're coming up soon
Stand up and get warmed up
Oh
Yeah
Oh
If I could have some young people that would like to participate come towards the front take an aisle give yourself some room
This is a motion song. Oh, that was me. Come on
Get here
Come on, come on. I'm emotionalized. I'm not emotionalized. No now follow my style is fun
Oh
We will rejoice we will rejoice every time
Oh
All right
So if you are from here over you're gonna follow Malia and from here over you're gonna follow me
You guys are gonna start the words are color-coded. So you guys are red and we are purple
Hey
Oh
All right, we come to that place where we ask ourselves everyone's coming
How have you been looking into the word lately? What have you seen what happened in your life?
What's an event that god said? Hey pay attention to that something like that
I will remind you that as we do that our focus uh right now our six months focus on spiritual discipline
For this my daughter is getting us to do what she kind of draw closer to him and so on is on prayer
And so I hope that you'd be praying I spent some time in prayer for everybody in this room. I'm sorry
I didn't do this. Why didn't they do it?
So I missed you this morning. I prayed in general for a person it might be so I got almost everybody
That's here and some folks that aren't and then I even while I was praying I asked some requests that I got
Text to me at that time and I prayed for them and I was grateful to be able to do that
I think that's a great gift from god and there are many ways that you can pray many methods that you can use
A lot of them are shown in the word will hit some more of those later
But I'm just reminding you that is our emphasis right now next we're practicing the spiritual discipline of prayer
That will be our emphasis through november 22nd is the date and then after that we'll have another
So how has the lord spoken to you this week? What have you seen his work? What happened that made you say hey take
Attention that I have one and it was strongly convicting to me and maybe to some others, but I'll let you all go first
I have videos to share
You know already, but I use music a lot when i'm stressed out when i'm
Feeling upset listening to music certain music
um
Can calm me down
Or at least keep my mouth shut
I'm listening to music and singing maybe I won't say the things that I want to say that I shouldn't say
um, so this song
Came on my youtube music is very random because I listen to a lot of different types of music
um, and it came on in the middle of
What I would consider a storm. I was feeling very stressed very overwhelmed on the break tears
And having trouble pushing forward without wanting to just give up
Um, and this song came in and so the words are up there
I'm gonna listen to it and I hope it helps you to know
Oh, yes
So
My
See
Your love surrounds me
When my balls and dreams are far from me and I'm running out of fame
I see the future
My
I find my peace in jesus name
In the eye of the storm
So
And I just don't know how i'm gonna make it it's me
Me I did my best now i'm scared to death that we might lose everything
And when a sickness takes my child away that there's nothing I can do
My only hope is to trust you
To you I trust you
You caught my soul You're alone on the angel
The sails are torn Your love surrounds me
In the highest storm You remain in control
In the middle of the war You got my soul
You got my soul
I have a song that I'm just really into.
I've been listening to it a lot. I'm sitting here with my heart in my throat.
Music day. I love it.
Fight! Fight!
I've been listening to unfamiliar feelings and unknown sounds.
Unknown sounds, unknown sounds Slipping through my fingertips
Lingering Shooter woulda, gooda woulda, put the plan down
Make a list of all my further attempts Running out of space again
I let all the things I wish I never said stop
If handling makes you stronger I'm the weakest
That would mean that I would have to separate from my beliefs
I'm a puzzle, got a lot of missing pieces underneath
A strong persona I put on to keep it screaming
All these parties so deceiving They look different though
That's how they seem to me
Cause we just drifting, drifting, drifting
Till we see something that we define as peaceful
Grab the needle, shoot reminders in my veins
And people leave you while I'm drifting
Watching the world go round, world go, yeah, world go round
Listening to unfamiliar feelings and unknown sounds
Unknown sounds, unknown sounds
Satsuga surviving watching you
While you're talking to yourself is rude Drifting, I'm in the same boat as you
Sinking, dreaming, screaming for some truth in my mind
Escalators, look, I'll take the stairs I guess Climbing till I'm out of breath
Watching you by every step, oh my
Training artists, meeting me to different tracks
Positive that where I'm at is now where I should stay and ask why
Don't you look into the mirror and say I love you
Convince yourself they know and they know we're whatever we're to
Passing by the people that are in it and support you from the get
No disrespect for what you get so I get stressful when I'm drifting
I see you in the distance asking me why I'm so distant
I'm convicted, I'm committed, I predicted all my wishes
All my wishes won't be hurt cause I'm committed to the light
If feeling safe is unrealistic when I'm drifting
Watching the world go round, world go, yeah, world go round
Listening
I love it
Is this the last chorus, the last one?
It's supposed to have to be the last chorus, it's pretty good
Alright, we'll wait for that, we'll just stop it
I have a thing like, oh okay
So can you go back to like a minute and 40 seconds or so
Just to get the weird stuff on the screen
Maybe it doesn't go on my screen
Just put it on the screen
Yes, that's fine
So this song sort of came to me recently
I was in a place where I found a lot of value in myself
Sort of trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my life
Don't really have a solid plan as to what my career is going to be, things like that
And it sort of just, it reminded me that God gave us a purpose
And He gave us a directive and it's when we're not following God's plan that He laid out for us
And not following His commands that He gave us that we find ourselves drifting
We'll find ourselves just watching as the world goes on around us
And we're talking about here how we really, we can fight a long battle
And not get anywhere fighting against God's plans
And it's important to remember that
And that really touched me this morning
Good work, thanks
Alright, and Caleb
There's a show I've been watching on Netflix called Junior Baking Show
And there's these kids that are trying their best to make desserts
They've been cooking for a really long time
And someone like Brenda, the person was trying to get the log
But she said that she won't give up on cooking
She will try her hardest
And everybody was just happy and they've been trying their hardest
And when they get to home it's just everybody keeps saying it's hard
The judge is eating, oh, I'm disappointed that someone has to go
So there are people who leave, don't give up, and they bake for the family every day
So I was really inspired
Just because if something gets hard doesn't mean you can't
It doesn't mean you give up, try again, keep trying, you do your best
Good work, stay firm
Good stuff, alright, anybody else?
Alright, Deacon Tony, would you pray for us then as we're getting ready to transition
So we'll have tithes and offerings coming up in a moment
And then we'll have a little bit more worship
And the kids will be going to their lessons
And this is the Lord's house, the Lord's day
And we are grateful to be able to do this, alright
So praise God, Deacon Tony, for your work
I'd like to thank you for what you do today
This place is a big must for you
You are the giver of tickets
You give us music that cuts through the hearts
Music that lifts us up, music that makes us think
And you show us throughout our day and our daily lives
This minute we just focus on just trusting you
When we get too much on our mind
We just trust in you and go forward
You'll see us through
So we thank you for what we've done so far
This is actually the best surprise and opportunity
We take them up and give them
And ask the Lord to use them
We give you the labor to give
The Lord gives you every week you've got
We really give you every week you've got food
We ask you to watch over the souls, the passage, the breathing, the blessing, the children, the blessing
Whatever we ask of the Lord, we ask of the Spirit
We do so in your favor
Amen
You know me well
More power
More love, more power
More you in my life
More love, more power
More you in my life
More love, more power
More you in my life
More faith, more passion
More you in my life
And I will worship you with all my heart
And I will worship you with all my might
And I will worship you with all my strength
For you are my Lord
Before the day, before the light
Before the world revolved around your side
God on high, sent down into time
Wrote the story of his love forevermore
He has filled our hearts with wonder
So that we'll always remember
You and I will wait to worship
You and I will fall in love
You and I will be more than our dreams
You and I are blessed to render
You and I should sleep with you
I will sing a river of exulting praise
And all we have, all we have
Is all again from God that we receive
And when we come to life, we open up our eyes
And sing the majesty and glory of the King
He has filled our hearts with wonder
So that we'll always remember
You and I will wait to worship
You and I will fall in love
You and I are blessed to render
You and I just know
You and I will sing a river of exulting praise
And the earth's light up
And the dream and the vision
And the sound of his loving hand
Let him come to us, let him be found now
He is worthy of all our praise
You and I will wait to worship
You and I are fall in love
You and I will forgive and free
You and I will wait to render
You and I just know
You and I will sing a river of exulting praise
And the earth's light up
And the dream and the vision
And the earth's light up
And the dream and the vision
And the sound of his loving hand
Let him come to us, let him be found now
He is worthy of all our praise
You and I just know
You and I will wait to worship
Now he will be a battle to our feet
And a ride unto our heaven
Now he will be a battle to our feet
And a ride unto our heaven
And when I feel afraid
I think of my way
Soon you are there, right beside me
Now think where I'm dear
As far as you are near
Please be near me unto heaven
Now he will be a battle to our feet
And a ride unto our heaven
Now he will be a battle to our feet
And a ride unto our heaven
Now I forget your love for me
And yet my heart's whole air is mine
Please be my guide
And hold me to your spell
Please I will now go unto the end
And I will wait for my feet
And a ride unto our heaven
And I will wait for my feet
And a ride unto our heaven
As we have been working through the book of Deuteronomy this week, I discovered a change in my attitude.
I think I've seen a similar change in some other folks, but I won't own it for you, but I'll own it for me.
And that is, as we've been working through the book of Deuteronomy and seeing that God is truly God the Father, God the Lord, He is in charge of all things,
and how He had chosen for Himself a peculiar people and put them in a powerful and peculiar position,
He was nonetheless describing to them how there were some very dangerous ramifications for certain choices that they might make.
You'll notice that the sermon title is quite long today. I'll read it to you.
It says, what can be done about side effects, seemingly lasting outcomes, and serious ramifications, and I'll stop there for a second.
In other words, God was saying, there are, in living in the promised land, living what you're going to go through, there are serious side effects.
As you encounter something, there are ripple down effects.
And even the laws of God would have ripple down effects, and some of them not so positive.
Even though it was meant to be an all positive thing, the heart of man twists and turns things, and it isn't always good.
As we saw, for example, with Jesus in the New Testament correcting them then and saying, you know the law says this, but now I tell you this,
and making it a tighter knit set of commands from the Lord.
There are side effects. There are seemingly lasting outcomes.
Remember that when people went into war in the promised land, there were those who died on the side of the Israelites.
Every Israelite soldier, statistically, was worth 20 to 30 enemy soldiers, which is an amazing ratio.
But there were more than 20 to 30 enemy soldiers, which means there were people on the Israelite side that died.
And that is not only a serious side effect, but it is a seemingly lasting outcome.
Death is always a seemingly lasting outcome.
I submit to you that for some folks who do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior, it will indeed be a lasting outcome.
That moment, that painful moment of death, whatever that's like for them, and we've heard, I've seen lost people who passed away, were crying out in agony.
They were spitting venom, hating the people in their life, or hating God for what they were going through and so on.
And then I've seen saved people who peacefully transitioned from this world.
And so whatever they're going through in that moment, if they do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior,
will then be amplified and stretched on for eternity as they spend time separated from God.
So for some, it is a lasting outcome.
But for anyone else, those who are the chosen people of God, those who are saved, it is not a lasting outcome.
It is only a seemingly lasting outcome.
And then there are serious ramifications.
God said basically in His Word, if you'll follow these commands, then I will bless you and I'll do these various things.
We're going to see a little bit more of that today as we go to the Word.
But He also said, if you will not follow My Word, then you will see these outcomes and it will not be pleasant.
In fact, He even owned the fact that eventually there would come a generation that would not follow God the way they were supposed to,
and they were carried off into captivity.
Those are serious ramifications.
The people who were living in the promised land were faced with side effects, seemingly lasting outcomes and serious ramifications,
even though they did not know God.
For over 400 years ago, they were descended from a people.
Everybody is descended from the people who came out of the ark.
Everybody is descended from Noah and his family.
So they were descended from a people who were holy.
Many of them are descendants of Esau, literally born to the same family as the child of promise, Jacob,
and lost birthright, yes, and blessing, yes.
But the bottom line is they were descended from the same people.
And yet now God is saying, no more.
This is it. You're done.
Because of your molech worship and your false god worship and your idol worship,
and all the times I have appealed to you to do it right, I am done with you.
I have had enough.
And God sends His own people come out of Egypt, not the greatest people,
not in number capable of doing what God was sending them to do.
But He sends them to wipe out the people or chase out in some cases the people of the promised land.
What can be done about these side effects, seemingly lasting outcomes,
and serious ramifications for those who are in the world?
I submit to you, nothing.
They're real.
They're not seeming in the world.
They are everything that people hate.
When things don't work, things don't go right, they don't do what's right,
and they pay a dear price for it, it's a terrible, terrible thing that they face in life.
But then there is a people, a primary people, a God that has chosen for Himself,
a people of purposeful provision that God has said, I am going to do this for you.
That's who they were coming into the promised land.
God has said, I am going to put you there.
I'm going to give you cities that you didn't build.
I'm going to give you crops that you didn't seed, all that.
There is a people of purposeful provision, purposely placed,
that is to say, God put them exactly where they would be, in a powerful position.
What can be done about those side effects, seemingly lasting outcomes,
and serious ramifications for that people, that primary people of God,
that God purposefully has provided for and purposefully placed in a powerful position?
Well, that's what we're going to find out today in Deuteronomy chapter 8.
So grab your Bibles if you would, maybe give me an amen or hoot or holler,
and go with me to Deuteronomy chapter 8.
What? This is God's Word.
If you don't get excited about God changing your life,
you may have a little bit of a heart condition, you might want to scrape that off and put it away,
because God is going to work here today.
He's already worked on me, He's changed my life in the last seven days,
just since I stood before you last.
And I know for a fact that what's in here will accost you, if you allow it.
Alright, here we go.
Deuteronomy chapter 8, I will read the entire chapter,
I will break it down a little bit as we go,
and then I'll come back and kind of boil it down into a few points for you, okay?
So, all, big all, all the commandments that I am commanding you today,
you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply and go in
and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers.
And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these four years,
that He might humble you, testing you, to know what is in your heart,
whether you would keep His commandments or not.
I'm going to stop there for a second.
You see a sort of a mathematical equation involved in here, basically says,
God's going to bring you in, that's settled now, God's going to bring you in.
Now, follow the commandments, do the things that God has told you to do,
and it ought to be kind of easy for you to do that, or at least easier than some other people,
because look at what God has done.
Took you through the wilderness, took you out of, brought your people out of Egypt, all of that.
All of that it says so that He might humble you.
Listen, when I got saved, when I gave my life over to the Lord,
I really felt like I had two choices.
I could continue to be me the way I was being me.
I could continue to live my life the way I was living my life,
and I could see that I was ruining my marriage, ruining my then child, only child, Alicia.
I was ruining my life, ruining my job, ruining my relationships.
I had only superficial, thin relationships with people.
I didn't have any deep, meaningful relationships, not even with my family.
And I realized I could go on like that without God, which I became a believer
that that would send me to a place where I would not be with God.
I don't know that I understood the concept of hell, but I knew that I would end that road
where that road was going, which was a distant place from God.
Or, alternatively, I could respond to the appeal of God to come and be His child,
be His born-again Son of God.
Not like Jesus, I understand, but a child of God.
And then I felt like that would literally change everything.
And so I was looking at my life, looking at my wife, looking at my home,
looking at my loans, looking at my situation on my job, looking at my relationships.
I thought, you know, is there really much there that I wouldn't want to see changed?
And so, for me, it made logical sense.
And yet, there was a part of it that I just couldn't do it.
I could not pull out of that darkness. I could not break free.
And so that led me to, as it says, humble myself and say, Lord, I need You to do this.
Well, that's what He's done with the Israelites.
At this moment in time, they are much like us.
They are a people purposefully provisioned, purposefully placed,
and purposefully in a powerful position like Christians are, like the church of our day is.
They have that same thing going on.
And just as God brought me out of my darkness when I could not do it,
just as God brought me to Himself when I could not come of my own volition,
which felt a lot like teleportation, I've got to tell you,
like disappearing one place and appearing another.
The moment I consented, I was there.
Okay?
Just like God did that for me, He had essentially promised to do it for them.
He had tested me to see whether there was any good thing in me,
and I'm going to be frank, there was not.
There was not any good thing in me.
Even the things that the world would call good or I thought was good about myself,
I now realize looking back and having been taught by the Word that they were as filthy rags.
They were useless to me.
He tested me to see if there was any good thing in there.
He humbled me for me to be able to repent and turn to Him and say,
okay, God, you're going to have to do this.
And it says, testing you to know what was in your heart.
He looked at what was in my heart, whether you would keep my commandments or not.
I submit to you that if I was truly saved the day that I gave my life over to the Lord Jesus,
I would have been inherited and even it was born in me, knew a desire to follow the Lord in faith.
To follow Him and do what it is that He would have me to do.
And I have felt that over and over and over again,
especially at times when I've screwed up, wandered off,
and I feel that conviction of drawing me back to what I'm supposed to do.
And it says in verse 3, it says, and He humbled you.
He helped you to realize that you really do need, listen, they could not walk.
I'm going to get ahead of myself. Let's just read the verse.
And He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna.
They could not sustain themselves in the desert, which you did not know.
They didn't know how to make manna come down or even what to do with it until they found it and figured it out.
You know what the word manna means? It's a Hebrew word. What is it?
You know it? Anybody? What is it?
What is it? What is that? Right? It means what is it?
Well, that's what it means now.
But the Hebrew word manna literally means, what is it? That's what it means.
They went out and they found it and they said, what is this?
And that's what they named it. Manna.
They knew they could not feed themselves. They could not have made that manna fall from heaven.
They couldn't even have begged God to do it or gave sacrifices or nothing.
They said, this doesn't make any sense. They could have named it, this doesn't make any sense.
But they didn't. God humbled them to realize that He was the one who was doing it from there.
But it's not just there. Nor did your fathers know that He might make you understand.
He did all of that. He kept them in the dark, if you will.
He kept them from fully understanding His power, His might and all that.
They were struggling so they would be humbled in His presence.
That He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone,
but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
Now who does that sound a little bit like?
That's one of the verses that Jesus quotes at the temptation. Right?
When He says, turn these stones into bread and eat so that you'll be okay.
And Jesus says, and He doesn't say this, but He said, well I could do that.
But He doesn't say that part. But then He says, no.
But man does not live by bread alone, but every word comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Listen to me. You're going to think some point in time in your life, saved or unsaved,
and if you're unsaved, surely, but saved you probably will still think at times,
that your bills are paid by the work that you did and the wages that you got and it just isn't so.
We are all still alive today by the grace of God alone, lost and saved.
The world continues to this point, consisting completely in Jesus Christ.
If it were not for the sacrifice of Jesus and the potential that people would get saved,
the world would be gone. God would flick His fingers or drop a bomb on the world
and all of that fire and judgment pours out, everything is gone,
then the new heaven and earth comes and those who are invited in will come into it.
Probably the martyrs first if you believe it that way, but the bottom line is you'll come in
and eternity in the new heaven and earth. Right?
But because of Jesus, because of the sacrifice, because of the potential yet to come,
we all get to say, you will work another day, you will get another paycheck, eat another meal,
only because God wills it. And if you cannot humble yourself to accept that fact,
then the probability is that you are not saved because salvation requires and includes it.
In fact, it is an arrogance to think that you can do anything in yourself outside Christ.
Jesus said clearly, you can do nothing except that which you do through Me.
In fact, at the beginning of time when God the Father created all,
or you could say the Trinity created all, nothing was created except that which was created through Him, Jesus.
Jesus would be Lord of all creation.
You continue in Christ today because God puts you through what He puts you through to see,
and you humbled yourself and you came to Him and you said,
okay Lord, I'm for you all that I am and you were born again and made new,
and you ought to understand that you now live by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord
and by that means alone.
4 says, your clothing did not wear out on you.
What a great testimony that is. They walked in the desert for 40 years and never could they have, by the way,
because you can't make manna into clothing. That doesn't actually work.
Or quail. They got quail once. You can't make quail into clothing.
It's not big enough. It would be really a pain in the butt.
You could make almost anything into clothing today with certain adhesives and stuff,
but back then they just couldn't do it. There's no way to take what is it and make it into clothing.
You can make it into bread. You can make it into soup.
It's not very good soup, but you can make it into soup.
You can make it into clothing, but he made it so that their clothing did not wear out.
Nor did your foot swell these 40 years.
They walked in the desert for 40 years and yet their feet didn't swell up.
Now, if you're over about 35 years old or if you have health conditions,
you totally get what that's about, what that statement is right there, right?
Because you've had your feet swell at some point in time and you're like, oh man,
and you took something for it or you've had pain or whatever.
You've probably experienced it. They never had that happen to them.
So he was taking them through this process to humble them and show them who he was
and that they needed to follow him. And in that process he was providing for them all along.
That's that purposeful provision. Verse 5.
Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you
just as a man disciplines his son.
Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in his way and to fear him.
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land.
He is, present tense, bringing you, he's doing the work, into a good land.
A land of brooks, of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills.
A land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates.
A land of olive oil and honey. A land where you shall eat food without scarcity,
in which you shall not lack anything.
A land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.
We'll stop there for one second.
Realize that as good as that sounds to them, they're coming out of the desert after 40 years, right?
As good as that sounds to them, if you go to Revelation and read the picture of heaven, still better.
As good as that sounds like heaven to them.
You know that when people settled the United States of America before it was the United States,
when people settled North America, there were people in religious circles,
I'm going to submit to you probably that didn't know Christ or they were led into heresy or whatever,
that believed that North America in all of its plenty was prophesied by these same prophecies
and that they were literally coming into essentially heaven in North America.
Unprospected, unlumbered, cut down, that hadn't happened yet, built a tall skyscraper, not polluted, right?
And basically unpopulated comparatively.
It's not going to be.
The best that you will ever see on this earth will never compare with the worst that you would ever see in heaven.
As a people given a powerful position, we got to know something better is coming.
And that's what he was showing them all the while, something, even though this is so good, it's so good what he's giving you.
Verse 10 says, When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given.
I submit to you, when I get to heaven, I'll be blessing God.
Now, I submit to you that in our powerful position that we are currently in today, we should be blessing him too.
We're already in a way better place.
You know that you're so much better off with the Holy Spirit and you know that you're so much better off if you're saved.
If you're not saved and you don't understand what I'm talking about, then start searching your soul right now and listen to the Lord
because he can save you and he can make it like that.
He can make it like that here on this earth.
But it's purposeful. You're going to a better place.
Now, verse 11 says, Beware, lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his ordinances and his statutes,
which I am commanding you today.
Lest when you have eaten and are satisfied and have built good houses and lived in them,
and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and gold multiply and all that you have multiplies,
then your heart becomes proud and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Again, like we talked about this week, this is a warning about prosperity.
When things start to go well, how dangerous and how easy is it for us to start thinking we're something that we're not or something better than we are.
A man who thinks he's better than he is, is in about the worst place a man could ever be.
Verse 15, He led you through the great and terrible wilderness.
God did that with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water.
He brought water for you out of the rock of flint.
In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know.
And He might humble you, that He might test you and do good for you in the land.
So he's kind of like almost repeating himself, right?
Otherwise, you may say in your heart, My power and the strength of My hand made me this wealth.
But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth,
that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers as it is this day and it shall come about.
If you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them,
I testify against you today that you shall surely perish like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you.
You shall perish because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.
You hear that? That's the mathematical equation.
You've heard all the side effects. You've heard all the seemingly lasting outcomes and serious ramifications
for a primary people of purpose, provision, purposely placed in a powerful position.
Now go back to chapter 7. Flip your page back to the left.
When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it
and shall clear away many nations before you, and there they are, verse 2,
and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you and shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them.
You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.
Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them.
You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters to your sons.
I said that backwards. You have daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters to your sons.
There we go. For they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods.
Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will quickly destroy you.
But thus you shall do to them. You shall tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars,
and hew down their ashrim and burn their graven images with fire.
For you are a holy people to the Lord your God.
The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the people.
For you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers,
the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery,
from the hand of the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
Know therefore the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps his covenant and his loving kindness
to a thousand generations with those who love him and keeps his commandments.
But repay those who hate him to their faces to destroy them.
Boy, those two phrases right there really cut me to the quick.
Those who hate God, he repays them to their faces to destroy them.
He will not delay with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face.
Therefore you shall keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I command you to this day.
Then it shall come about. And he goes on with blessings.
And verse 13 says, and he will love.
And verse 14 says, you shall be blessed.
And verse 15 says, and the Lord will remove from you all sickness.
And verse 16 says, and you shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will deliver to you.
Verse 17 says, if you should say in your heart these nations are greater than I,
know that how can I dispose them?
You shall not be afraid of them. You shall well remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt,
the great trials which your eyes saw and signs and wonders.
Verse 20, moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet against them.
Verse 21, you shall not dread them.
Verse 22, and the Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little.
And you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.
Notice that the reason they didn't wipe out all those people all at one shot,
because that will leave a lot of carcasses laying.
And the next thing you know, all the wild beasts of the land are prospering.
And the land starts to get out of control.
That was what it says right there, why he didn't do it, boom, just like that.
Verse 23, but the Lord your God shall deliver them before you and will throw them into a great confusion.
And 24, and he will deliver their kings into your hand.
And verse 25, the graven images of their God you are to burn with fire and shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them.
Verse 26, and you shall not bring an abomination into your house and like it come under the ban.
You shall utterly detest it and shall utterly abhor it for it is something banned.
In other words, the stuff that they had on them, the silver and gold and whatever that the pagan religions,
the false worshipers of false gods had on them, they weren't supposed to take that stuff.
Because it was under the ban. It belonged to a false religion.
They were supposed to get rid of it.
Alright, so I submit to you that chapter 8 is outlined in chapter 7 and I'm going to show you what I mean.
The first thing I want you to see is that there is a posture predicted.
There is a posture in these verses that is the solution.
What is the answer? What can be done about side effects, seemingly lasting outcomes, and serious ramifications for a primary people,
a purposeful provision, purposely placed in a powerful position?
Number one, a purposeful posture. A posture.
What does God say? You must intend. Why did he test them in the desert?
Because he wanted to see whether their heart was going to be to follow God.
Once he did for them what he wants, will your heart then be to follow God?
A purposeful posture.
I've heard it said that those who take their eyes off Jesus, when the sheep take their eyes off Jesus, they often have them on the other sheep.
Our eyes are supposed to be on Jesus.
As we consider him and essentially use Jesus as a mirror, what you will find is that Jesus is so much better than you,
and you humbly come to God, that Jesus might become your model, your example, that you might become a little bit more like him.
That's what the New Testament says. We become a little more like him each day, transformed a little bit more each day like Jesus.
Yes, you're not Jesus. Yes, you'll never be like Jesus.
Not in this lifetime. But you're going to be a little bit more, a little bit more.
At camp there was a speaker who said, Christians are not sinless, but as they grow, they mature and sin less.
And that's exactly what he's saying. It's a posture. It's a posture.
Now, if it's a posture, then when your seat is not matching your posture, you know enough to get up.
I went over to Cleveland area with Arianna and Arden was there, and I took a little video I was going to show it to you,
but I didn't, but it's out there on Facebook. I put it on there. It's a little reel. It's like eight seconds long.
And I sat in this chair. It's a really cool chair. It looked kind of like, I was shaped like an hourglass.
It was wide on the bottom. Wide where you sit. You sit in it like a funnel on top. You sit in it.
When you sit in the chair with very little movement either way, you spin around in a circle.
You wouldn't fall over. It's heavy on the bottom. The weevil wobbles. Wobble, but they don't fall down. Remember that?
Well, you sit in it and you would spin around in a circle. So I took a picture of myself spinning around in a circle.
Now, I tell you what, I love that chair. It's a really neat chair. Right?
I could sit in there and I could spin. In just a few seconds I would get a picture of the whole ball around me.
It's in the middle of the ball. The whole ball around me. I could see it. And I'm like, oh, it's really cool.
And it supported my lower back. So my back wasn't sore. So it seemed like my posture was pretty good.
But then it occurred to me, like, you know, when do I normally sit in a chair? Well, I sit in a chair when I read a book.
That's hard for you to read a book while I'm spinning in a circle. I sit in a chair when I want to watch TV.
It's hard for me to watch TV because at 280 degrees of that I'm not even going to be able to see the TV.
I'm going to be looking at the world. What if I want to sit in a chair and look out a window?
If I sit in a chair and look out a window, as soon as the chair spins, right?
And it was easy enough for me to sit in a chair. My back wasn't hurting.
My back wasn't easy. What's for me to not spin any little movement right or left?
I would start to spin. Now, if I wanted to not spin, I basically had two choices.
I could bail out, fall out of the chair, or I could strain really hard to go back against the chair.
I throw my weight, my core. And I don't have much of a core. I kind of like a bulging one pack.
But anyway, I spit it back as hard as I could to try to stay. And then guess what happened?
At best, it would go the other way. But most of the time, it just didn't stop.
And I would go like halfway around. And then guess what? Now I'm halfway around.
I can't see anything that I'm looking at. I'm completely facing the other way.
I submit to you that for some reason, in our day, people who say they claim the name of the Lord Jesus as Lord are living this way.
They are sitting where sitting is not comfortable. They are sitting where sitting leads to drifting.
Leads to looking away from what you're supposed to be looking at.
They are putting themselves in positions, maybe it's because they have jobs, or they're home in a certain condition,
or they manage their finances a certain way, or whatever.
They're putting themselves in a position as if they have dismissed the posture that God has called them to,
which is a posture of focus on Jesus Christ.
You're reading books. The greatest book of all time is the Bible, Genesis through Revelation.
Read that one. You're watching TV. Get on Right Now Media and watch Bible studies, etc.
I like movies. I like popular fiction. I like a variety of things. But this is what has convicted me.
Those things do not inherently put you in the posture to follow God.
Now if you're already in a posture to follow God and you watch a movie, then in the movie you're going to be thinking of that movie.
Listen, here's the truth. If you can watch a two hour movie and not think about God during that two hour movie,
then you shouldn't have watched it. That's the reality. Because that thing is a spinny chair.
It's making you think about money. It's thinking about fighting. It's thinking about fun. It's thinking about humor.
It's funny. It lifts me up. I'm laughing. Whatever. All these things.
But what am I not doing? I'm not doing the single thing that I am called to do.
The single thing that is the answer to side effects, seemingly lasting outcomes, and serious ramifications.
I am not doing the one thing that I must do, which is maintain a posture of faithfulness, of following, of knowing the Lord.
As we talked about last week, of studying His Word, intaking it, and putting it back out again.
How are you going to do that when you indulge yourself in a multi-hour pastime that has nothing to do with God?
On the other hand, if you are in a posture, then every pastime you come to, if you're focused on Jesus,
then every pastime you come to should be able to be made about God.
I said Mitch, you probably can't make rated R movies about God. You probably can't do it.
Because there is gruesome violence, there is horrifying summoning of evil spirits, there is sex and nudity,
seeing people that are not your spouse, etc. You probably can't do it.
But if you can somehow manage to do that, more power to you.
But I submit to you, it's a nudge to spin the chair. That's what it is. At best, it's a nudge to spin the chair.
So what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to be legalistic?
Am I supposed to make all these rules about how do I maintain the posture?
I submit to you that if you have to make rules to maintain the posture,
if you have to see the Bible as rules to help you maintain the posture, then you already do not have the posture.
Do you love God or not?
The posture is the solution for side effects. What were they told to do?
They were told that the worship of the idols, they couldn't have anything to do with that.
They were told that they couldn't give their children into the hands of idol worshipers
and marry them off to people who don't follow God, don't have that same position.
They were told that they were to be focused on the Lord and to remember that all good things that they received,
every paycheck, and they didn't have paychecks, but every lamb that was born, every grape that came off the vine,
all of it came from the Lord. Humbly accept that all that you have and all that you are, that's the posture.
It's the posture of a people, a primary people, a purposeful provision, purposely placed in a powerful position.
But here's what actually happens. What actually happens is God has brought me through to this point,
but now, like a deist, I start thinking, well, now I'm kind of on my own.
Now I've got to make the right decisions. I've got to choose not to lie, or I've got to choose it.
And that's why none of that really matters. We are now not under the law, but under grace.
If you get the right posture and you're focused on God, you will find yourself, without even noticing,
without even realizing, without even steering yourself, listen, you will find yourself every time you take a step
and you will be dancing in the direction of Jesus. But if your posture is not that,
then every time you take a step, you will automatically be moving the wrong way.
Now, if Jesus is this way and I move this way, have I moved closer to Jesus? Yes, but fractionally.
Way less than if Jesus is this way and I'm stepping this way.
But ultimately, if Jesus is this way and I'm facing this way, after enough steps, what will begin to happen?
I will be moving away from Jesus. I will be on a course that takes me away from Him rather than toward Him.
Set your posture. Another word that I could have used here, but I like the posture word because of the P.
Another word that I could have used here is velocity. You know what velocity is? It's speed, right?
What? And direction. Velocity is speed and direction.
There are a lot of Christians in the world that are moving very rapidly, but their direction is not set by their posture.
It's not set by facing Jesus. You're moving.
All you do if you move very rapidly without making Jesus the center of your life is to get to the point at which you will move away from Him that much quicker.
That's all you do. You see these young Christians come on board, they're all fired up about Jesus,
and now they go out and they start preaching to their friends that they have to stop lying and stop stealing, preaching the Word to their friends,
and thinking they're doing a good thing. We study the Word, we take the Word, we put it out again.
First, you've got to learn that all of that was about being drawn to Jesus.
And if you come to Jesus, then don't go preach the Ten Commandments to your friends, but go ask them to come to Jesus.
And when they say to you, well, why would you? Why would anybody ever come to Jesus? Why do I need that?
I get a paycheck, I have a house, yes, I have a mortgage, yes, I have some struggles, but everybody has struggles, right?
Everybody has suffering, right? And you can explain to them that the path through this life literally is Jesus.
I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
The path through this life is being focused on Jesus, and you will arrive at the throne of judgment,
prejudged as innocent if he is your way, and prejudged as guilty if he is not.
That's what we need to be explaining to people who don't know Jesus.
Yes, abortion is wrong, but is that our message? No.
Yes, murder is wrong, lying is wrong, stealing is wrong, it's all wrong, but is that our message? No.
If you ask a lost person to stop doing what's wrong, at best they're going to switch to another sin.
But ask them to come to Jesus, and let him work in their heart, let him be the judge.
You say, but I can't even talk to them because they're so spiteful, so hateful, or mean.
Great commission doesn't allow that statement.
It says you go and talk to them, and then if they get mad at me, then you'll be persecuted,
and in persecution you'll be rewarded.
Posture. Posture is the primary solution to dealing with these side effects, seemingly lasting outcomes,
and serious ramifications, and then it comes down to faithfulness.
It comes down to faithfulness. Will you continue?
I submit to you that there is one, and we read it last week when we read from Revelation 21,
there is exactly one, one, one criteria by which people will be judged on the judgment day.
It is faithfulness.
Now you might translate faithfulness as steadfast love.
Scripture does that a little bit.
In other words, will you do what you're supposed to do?
Will you be who God made you to be now that you've been saved?
Will you remain faithful?
Jesus said, but will the Son of Man find faithfulness on the earth when he comes again?
Be found faithful.
So it's posture and then faithfulness to your posture.
When I was in third grade, my teacher told me, she said,
you know, if you don't sit up, if you don't sit up, you slouch your whole life,
then when you get older, you're going to have a hard time sitting up.
And I didn't listen to her, and I continued to slouch,
and to this day, I have a hard time sitting up.
Not being able to sit up, but remaining sitting up for hours at a time is not really in my skill set.
If you watch me, if I'm not actively involved in something that's going on, I'll be slouching,
because I didn't listen to her, I didn't take a good posture then, and now I'm not really able.
Faithfulness works like that.
Right now, you're in the church, in the church building.
Right now, you're in the church with a gathered people of believers.
Right now, you're strong.
Right now, you're getting it from the Word.
If right now, you cannot focus on Jesus, if right now, you cannot make this moment about Jesus
and learning and growing and changing who you are, accepting your heart be changed by the Lord,
not by me, not even by this Word, but by Jesus himself, if right now, you can't do it,
I submit to you that you're not going to do it out there either.
You're not going to do it on a day that's hard to get up, or a day that's falling short on money,
or a day that's relation difficult.
If you cannot make your focus about God and completely about God and put out everything else,
every other thought, every other question, every other distraction, during these times,
later, you will not have the strength to do it.
Because you'll go, well, I've got to do something about this right now.
And then you'll do it.
Stepping off the highway of holiness, stepping off the path that literally is Jesus,
stepping off the posture that you were given at the moment you were reborn.
Faithfulness.
If they would not be found faithful, they would be subject to the punishments of the Lord.
And I submit to you that there are Christians all over the world today,
some of us probably in this room, who have been subject to the punishments of the Lord
because we would not be found faithful after discovering that we were a primary people
of purposeful provision, purposely placed in a powerful position,
we nonetheless could not be found faithful.
Ouch.
That hurts.
Words more true have never been spoken about the church in our day.
It is time now that we repent and turn to the Lord
and be found walking in the faithfulness that he provides.
Steadfast love.
Remember last week the marriage between us and God,
and even as it talked about the covenant between them and God in chapter 8 that I read to you,
he says, at the end of chapter 8, he said,
And it shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God,
and go after other gods, and serve them, and worship them.
I testify against you today that you shall surely perish,
like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you,
so shall you perish, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.
God called you out of the darkness when you couldn't see.
Now you can see you're going to walk away from the light.
God called you out of pain and suffering when you couldn't identify as something worthwhile,
and now you're going to walk away from that?
Repent and turn to God. Put your focus where it belongs.
Set your posture correctly.
And practice a steadfast love.
That's the solution for the side effects, the seemingly lasting outcomes, and serious ramifications.
It is a posture focused on, in our case, Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
And that posture must continue in a steadfast love or faithfulness, and it must not die or wane.
There will come a moment in time in your life, even if it's your death,
there will come a moment in time in your life where you're going to have to choose that posture over everything else.
At the beginning when you became saved, and if you've never done it, then you've never been saved.
At the beginning when you became saved, you had to say, Jesus over everything else.
That's what it means to get saved.
I accept that he is Lord and Savior, and that God raised him from the dead.
I humbly come before the God of heaven to say, okay, Lord, I see I have sin, I see that sin would distance me from you forever,
and I accept Jesus as Lord. That means he tells me what to do, and Savior, that means he paid the price for my sins,
and I will now be born again. All old things pass away, everything become new.
What does it mean when everything become new?
It means that everything you now see, you see in the posture of focusing on Jesus.
Steadfast love, that you pledge nothing less.
And there will yet come a time in your life where you have to choose.
It might happen daily, where you choose over what you're watching, listening to, who you're spending time with, etc.
And you may have to choose Jesus over everything that the world holds dear.
If Jesus comes again, before we die, that moment, you'll have to give up seeing younger members of your family
graduate from high school, you'll have to give up holding grandchildren, or nieces and nephews,
you'll have to give up what might be the best game you'll ever play, or drink you'll ever have, or food you'll ever eat,
you'll be giving all of that up.
You say, well, I know I'll do it, because it'll mean going to heaven, where it'll all be better.
I submit to you, if in the moment Jesus calls you to come, you come, because it'll be better in heaven, you won't go.
I submit to you that if you come, if in the moment Jesus calls you, you come, because it hadn't been that great here on earth, you won't go.
You have to go in that moment out of a steadfast love for Jesus Christ, which means Jesus may come in a duck suit,
He may come at the same time as a thunder strike, He may come at the same time as your favorite football game,
He may come when your grandson, your child, your friend, or whatever, is literally making the run of their life,
and you're the one manning the camcorder, He may come at the moment at which you've just won a free car,
$50,000 free car, $100,000 free car, and all you have to do is go there and claim it.
I know for a fact, this is true, I'm winning this car, $100,000, and I'm on the way to claim it, and Jesus comes again,
and you're going to have to say, but my free car, and the moment you say, but my free car, the moment you say, but my memory,
the moment you say, but my cash, the moment you say, but my friends, the moment you say, but my experiences, whatever it is,
if you in that moment and say, okay Jesus, I'll come, I'll do it, reluctantly, I'll turn my back on all of this, you won't go.
You have to learn to live a life of steadfast love, facing Jesus and Jesus alone, even so much so,
that it's Jesus over your wife, or Jesus over your husband, or Jesus over your parents, or Jesus over your children,
or Jesus over your finances, and until that posture is set, there's a substantial possibility at any given moment,
if He came, that you would make the wrong choice, and if there is a substantial possibility that any moment you came,
I submit to you, He tested you, He humbled you to know whether in that moment you would make the right choice,
and if there is a substantial possibility remaining that you will make the right choice, then I submit to you.
You may not be saved, and 99.9% saved would still be 100% lost, but there is clearly a third thing here in the text that we read.
There's clearly a third thing that they must do, because they're not only responsible for their posture,
and their steadfast love and faithfulness, but see to it in these verses that they are responsible,
it's mostly in 7, that they are responsible for the steadfast love and faithfulness of the next generation.
They're like, oh, whoa, what?
Now you can't marry your children to the idol-worshipping women or men.
You can't allow the idol-worshippers to continue in your midst.
You have to rear up, you have to become a pillar of truth, or in their case, they had to burn them down.
They had to break them down. They had to kill them off.
Now, we are not a people who kills human beings for differences in beliefs.
We are not a people that goes down to Perrysburg and tears down the mosque, right?
It's nothing like that anymore.
But understand that the same conflict, the same struggle remains, and so we must not relinquish our children.
We must not.
You should not submit your child into the care of a football coach who will make them a star, but isn't a follower of the Lord.
Because if they become a professional football player and go to hell, that's on you.
In fact, it's on you so much that God Himself says, you will not have remained steadfast and faithful if you do so.
You cannot turn your child over into the care of the public school system and allow them to be required to behave a certain way that is ungodly.
You must stand up for what is right.
You must pull your child back, put your child in Sunday school, have your child serve in the church, have your child.
So I have now had Alicia, Amalia, and Aaron, and Arden is a senior now, and they're all going to graduate from high school.
Arden's already got all of his credits. He's guaranteed to graduate, guaranteed.
So I have effectively graduated four children from high school.
And I have had dozens, probably close to a hundred conversations with coaches and teachers and parent sponsors and whatever,
about how my child, we do parent-teacher conferences every year, and I go to every parent-teacher conference if I possibly can.
And if I don't, I make sure my wife has an agenda of what to speak about.
And we have told every teacher that we are missionaries for the Lord Jesus, that we first and foremost serve God, that we first and foremost,
we will not, when Amalia was a cheerleader, they wanted her to come to practices every Tuesday night.
And we went to the coach and said, she can't do that. We have church every Tuesday night.
To the point that the last year she was a cheerleader, she had to take demerit after demerit from her coach, right?
Because she could only come to certain Tuesday night practices.
Very limited, just enough, just enough to be honoring her commitment to the squad.
But so many were missed because she had to honor her commitment to Jesus first.
Did you understand, Amalia, when we did that, that we were setting a posture about following God, that that's what that was about?
It was not about being a rebel. It was not about wanting to break the rules.
It was not about us wanting to be in control over our kids.
It was about us setting a posture for the next generation.
And as Amalia came up, she became a Tyler before she got to be 18.
When they got married, Ricky carried her into the trailer that they moved in together for the first time.
Did you carry her in, Ricky? You owe her one.
Did you have one over the way?
Yep, he owes you one. And he's been working out, so he's ready.
The point is this, okay?
Oh, it fell. There was nothing there.
You're the one that renovated the trailer. If there was no way to carry her in, that's still your fault.
Oh.
Anyway, the point is this, alright?
You set that standard for your children of what's godly.
When your child does something that's not godly, that is the first and foremost reason to discipline them.
Look at your house. What condition is it?
Is it in a condition where your child can grow up there in a godly way?
Be careful about submitting them to a coach or a mentor or someone else who will lead them.
Listen, there is a lot of self-help language in the world, and a lot of it helps self.
You hear me? There is a lot of self-help language in the world, and a lot of it helps self.
When we came up, they came up into junior high, and they all went into the gifted class.
Praise God. Not me, but praise God.
Okay? They went into the gifted class, and we met with the gifted teacher and said,
Yes, they're gifted, but more importantly, they're saved. They belong to Jesus.
So if you have a problem with that, or there's going to be a problem with the teaching in here,
you're going to teach them how to be good without Jesus, then it's done.
We're not going there. We'll teach them how to be gifted.
I met with the principal of the high school after a band concert in the area in front of the auditorium.
What do they call that? Like the lobby, I guess, out front, right?
And he said, You know, we're going through some changes in the school district, and blah, blah, blah.
And he said, I know this is going to really affect your kids.
And I was walking away. He said, I know this is really going to affect your kids.
And I turned right around, and I walked back up to him, and I said,
What do you mean it's really going to affect my kids?
He said, Well, you might feel like it's going to be harder for your kids to be educated,
or harder for your kids to succeed in school.
I said, I'm going to stop you right there.
Whatever school my kids go to, whatever teachers my kids have, this much I know, they will succeed.
You know how I know that? Because you don't own my kids, and the teachers don't own my kids,
and the school systems don't own my kids, and I don't even own my kids.
Jesus owns my kids. They're going to be fine.
Now that being said, if I think that the direction that your school system is going is ungodly,
I will home school my kids, or I will charter school my kids, or I will take them out of the school system,
and I will make sure they are educated in a godly way, because that is my responsibility as a parent.
Now I didn't say it to him, like I just said it to you, but I said almost the exact same words.
I'm speaking louder because I don't have a microphone, and in that day I didn't need it,
because him and I were like three feet apart.
And he looked at me and he goes, You know what, and how are your kids doing in school?
Which I thought was hilarious, because it's the principal of three of my students.
And he goes, How are your kids doing in school?
And I thought that was kind of funny that he didn't know, right, how my kids were doing.
And I said, Oh, they're all getting straight A's and occasional B.
And he goes, Okay, they probably will be okay then.
To which I said, The grades don't mean they're going to be okay, it's to whom they belong.
These people were being told that the solution to side effects, seemingly lasting outcomes,
and serious ramifications for a primary people of purposeful provision,
purposely placed in a powerful position, is to own the next generation and then to turn them over to God.
That's what's not been happening in our country.
We cancelled our subscription to a primary streaming service,
and we promised ourselves that we'll never go to their amusement parks again,
because their agenda is clearly LGBTQ positive anti-Christian.
And if you won't do that, if you won't own that, if you won't take those steps to cut out of your lives
the things that are going to adversely affect the next generation,
then how can you claim to have steadfast love for the one who claims your posture
and will literally be a light unto your feet and a lamp, got it backwards,
a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path from here into heaven?
To whom do you belong?
And therefore, if it's within your power, to whom must the next generation belong?
And if you are not exercising the power that God has given you to guarantee that the next generation will belong,
if you have relinquished the control of your children into the hands of somebody else,
without putting up a fight, then you have lost not only yourself, not only them, but yourself as well.
Now what's interesting is this story, and I'm in my conclusion now, this story actually plays itself out,
this exact story plays itself out, before Moses could talk, before he could walk,
most likely before he could crawl.
When Moses was born to an Israelite woman living in Egypt,
they were living in a time when they were required to throw their male-born children into the Nile River.
See, Pharaoh had looked at the Israelites who was living in his midst and he had said,
well here's the problem, if these people are allowed to persist, soon there will be more Israelites
and in, I will say, much better physical condition because they were doing physical labor all the time,
there will be more Israelites than there will be Egyptians.
And he got worried about that and he said, so what we're going to do is whenever a male child is born,
they're going to be thrown into the Nile and destroyed.
That will definitely stop because, you know, if they get to have a lot of women, that's just a lot more women, right?
But if they get to have a lot of men, now those are warrior types, not that the women couldn't fight,
but that was the day they were living in.
So Moses' mother was supposed to throw him into the Nile.
And I submit to you, there were a lot of Israelite women that threw their babies into the Nile.
And not only that, there were a couple of midwives that were defying Pharaoh.
They would go and they would help the babies be born and if they were baby boys,
if the woman wanted to, if they wanted to take the risk, they would help hide them.
And then Pharaoh said to the midwives, what the heck are you doing?
How are they not having all their babies thrown into the Nile?
Some of them are escaping or whatever, at least for a while until the guards found them, that kind of thing.
And the midwives said, well, you know, the Israelite women are very hardy and they have their babies before we get there.
And that was a lie. They lied to Pharaoh because they were actually helping deliver the babies
and then letting them survive at least briefly.
But Moses' mother had a child and she looked at her child.
She was a Levite, by the way. That means she could have been a priest of God
or at least a descendant of a priest, because the priests were all male.
But her husband also was a Levite and it says this, it says in Exodus chapter 2,
Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi and the woman conceived and bore a son.
And when she saw that he was beautiful, and I submit to you all babies are beautiful,
but something more is implied there. She could see purpose in him.
She could see something significant in him.
In any case, when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.
But when she could hide him no longer, okay, so here comes a moment in time at which this baby,
he's three months old. Now it ought to be a lot older than that, I submit to you.
It ought to be adulthood. It ought to be beyond adulthood.
It probably ought to be after they have their own children or way down the road, right?
But in his case, it was three months and his mother could protect him no more.
She couldn't hide him from the wrath of Pharaoh, from the guards finding out that he was a boy,
that he had been born, that kind of thing, any longer.
It says, and I'll go back to beginning of verse 3,
But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket
and she covered it over with tar and pitch.
And then she put the child into it and she set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.
And his sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.
Now probably, you know what the likely outcome is, right?
Probably he gets eaten by a crocodile.
Now that's not the kind of thing I want to see, but this is her little brother.
She's broken probably over what's happening.
She may have had tears in her face, whatever.
She's lurking nearby hoping maybe for a better outcome.
In some cases, there is no better outcome.
But in this case, in this man's case, a man with a purposeful provision,
a man purposely placed in a powerful position,
there was an alternative to the side effects, an alternative to the seemingly lasting outcomes,
an alternative to the serious ramifications.
The alternative was his mother put him in a wicker basket
and she coated it with tar and pitch so that it would float for quite a long time.
Then she put the child in it and she set it out among the reeds.
In other words, she trusted that child to God's care.
She said, well, I could just throw it, just drown, right?
And then at least when it's eaten by the crocodiles, it won't feel nothing.
Drowning is a horrible way to go, but it's not as bad as being bitten apart by a crocodile.
She could have done that.
Instead, she built a basket.
She covered it with pitch and tar.
She set it afloat.
And then did she send her daughter or did her daughter just go because her mother had taught her what to do?
In any case, the daughter goes and she watches to see what will happen.
And as she stood at a distance and watched, she saw Pharaoh's daughter come down to bathe at the Nile
with her maidens walking alongside the Nile.
And she saw the basket among the reeds.
So Pharaoh's daughter saw the basket and sent her maid.
And she brought the basket to her.
When she opened it, she saw the child and behold, the boy was crying.
And she had pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children.
So she knew.
And then it says, then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?
And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go ahead.
So the girl went and called the child's mother.
And so Moses was raised by Moses' mother.
Moses sucked from the breast of Moses' mother.
Here's one thing I'll tell you.
You're supposed to own the next generation.
You're supposed to prepare them and don't submit them into the teachings of the world unless there's nothing left that you can do.
And when the time comes that there's nothing left that you can do,
then you seal them up the best you can.
You set them free into God's loving care.
And you say, Lord, I'm trusting you.
And you do whatever you possibly can.
And then the God of heaven, who is big enough to handle side effects, seemingly lasting outcomes and serious ramifications, will show up.
And he'll make them a primary people, a purposeful provision, purposely placed in a powerful position just like you.
But if you won't be steadfastly faithful, then don't expect the next generation to do it either.
You will be relinquishing them into the hands of the enemy, nothing less.
If you will not be steadfastly faithful to God, you are consigning the next generation to hell forever.
Now, Jesus may take back your consignment.
He may overcome it.
He may say, no, here is someone that I think will come to me.
I call them to me.
He will call them out of their humility.
He will test them to see whether they will follow his commands.
He will see who they are.
And then he will make them born again.
And only you will go to hell and they will go to heaven.
There are three steps in these scriptures that are given to us to deal with the fact that there are side effects and seemingly lasting outcomes and serious ramifications for our people like us.
And they are this.
Posture yourself to follow Jesus and Jesus alone.
Remain steadfastly faithful to the Lord no matter what happens.
And then do everything in your power to ensure that the next generation is protected from drifting into the clutches of a very well prepared enemy.
Ultimately, you can't do it for them.
And when that time comes, you're going to have to let them go.
They're going to have to make their own choice.
There are no grandchildren of God, only children of God.
But if you don't prepare them to make that choice, if you don't prepare them for God's provision, if you don't take the steps,
then both they and you will be consigned to distance from God for an eternity.
Because don't claim to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then say to your children, well, they can follow whoever they want.
Now you can't brainwash them. Ultimately, you will have to turn them over to God.
But as for me and my house, if it's up to me anyway, we will follow the Lord.
And that's what we're called to.
And that's how you'll deal with the side effects.
And that's how you'll deal with the seemingly lasting outcomes.
And that's how you'll deal with the serious ramifications.
At least if you know what's good for you.
We're going to have the praise team come forward at this time and lead us in a closing hymn.
It's a hymn of decision.
And I would ask you today, if the Lord has convicted you, if you realize that you have not behaved and said that good thing before Him,
if you have not set a posture, put your heart on Jesus, focus on Jesus, not following in Him alone.
And then repent right now and say, okay, God, make me good, make me able.
And say, well, I know I'm saved, but I've not been doing it anywhere.
He's still able.
So if you're here today and you say, I know I have not done my part to guide the next generation of believers,
the next generation of my household, the next generation of my family, your uncle or cousin or brother or sister,
if you have not done your part, you need to repent because you're responsible.
And call on Him.
And turn to the Lord.
And He will forgive and set that path anew straight again.
If the Lord has convicted you of something else, maybe you have some sin, you know you've been delving into the real.
You've been set back way too long. Or maybe you've been called to do something.
You know what it is you've been called to do, and you've not been doing it.
Well, that's not set back way from the sit down period of time.
You repent today and say, okay, Lord, I'll do what is called to do.
Maybe you need to do church home.
Maybe you need to do backpolls, because the Lord Jesus was commanded and demonstrated to us.
Maybe there's something that I am not able to listen to, the Lord has given me the heart.
And as you sing this song, you respond.
If you're online joining us today and you're responding, please play something in the comments.
Or reach out to me, my number is on our website.
If you're listening by podcast, a little later, sing that.
Let your heart be addressed in this moment.
You're the one who really can set your path for eternity.
Would you stand with me then and sing this song?
We will praise Him nonetheless.
And the Lord has given me your time, however easy it may be.
All to Jesus I surrender all.
To Him I pray.
I will have the world and trust in Him.
His presence to me more.
I surrender all.