1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,080
Welcome to the Love and Context podcast, engaging in unscripted conversations with your hosts,

2
00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:07,320
Ben and Spencer.

3
00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:11,420
Whether you're tuning in from your car, your office, your home, or anywhere in between,

4
00:00:11,420 --> 00:00:15,140
we are so happy to have you join us today.

5
00:00:15,140 --> 00:00:21,040
Our mission is simple, to explore the Bible through a powerful lens of love.

6
00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:26,200
Together we'll uncover fresh insights and gain deeper understandings of how we can love

7
00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:29,560
God and love the people in our everyday lives.

8
00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:34,840
So buckle up and join us on the spiritual journey as we discover timeless wisdom that

9
00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:39,680
is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.

10
00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,240
Without further ado, let's dive right in.

11
00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:45,920
Welcome to the Love and Context podcast with Ben and Spencer.

12
00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:47,160
Again, I'm not Ben.

13
00:00:47,160 --> 00:00:48,360
I'm not Spencer.

14
00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:49,360
And this is Caleb.

15
00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:50,360
Yeah.

16
00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:51,360
How's it going guys?

17
00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:54,800
Caleb is the chaplain at the jail in town.

18
00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,840
And so he's coming with us to talk about the back half of Deuteronomy.

19
00:00:57,840 --> 00:00:58,840
So we're going to have some fun with that.

20
00:00:58,840 --> 00:00:59,840
Yeah.

21
00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:00,840
It's like good plan.

22
00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:01,840
How are you feeling?

23
00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:02,840
Oh, I'm feeling better.

24
00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:04,320
Have you been on podcast before?

25
00:01:04,320 --> 00:01:05,920
No, this is my first one.

26
00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:08,000
So it feels weird having a mic in your face, right?

27
00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:09,000
It really does.

28
00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:10,800
I'm a drummer in my church.

29
00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:13,440
You know, I don't have these microphones staring at me.

30
00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:15,600
You know, I didn't think about that.

31
00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:16,600
We put two drummers on the couch.

32
00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:18,440
I'm not sure how that's going to work out for us.

33
00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:19,800
That will be fine.

34
00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,040
So just a reminder, we're in the last book of Torah.

35
00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:23,040
We're in Deuteronomy.

36
00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:25,780
We've been in the back half and we had Pastor Sarah Harney on here.

37
00:01:25,780 --> 00:01:26,780
She was great.

38
00:01:26,780 --> 00:01:31,000
So we're coming into the back half of this conversation piece, these big speeches that

39
00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:32,920
Moses is giving the Israelites.

40
00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:36,640
One of the reoccurring themes and things we've talked about in Deuteronomy is Moses has a

41
00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:40,680
very interesting perspective on some of the things that have happened in the past.

42
00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:41,680
Yeah.

43
00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:42,680
Yeah.

44
00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,080
Not unlike us when we think back, we're like, oh yeah, this is what happened.

45
00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:49,640
And then we actually read back in the story, well, not quite what happened, but kind of

46
00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:50,640
what happened.

47
00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,160
So I think we're going to see a little bit more of that today and specifically next week,

48
00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:56,680
which I think you're going to stay with us for next week too, right?

49
00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:57,680
That's the plan.

50
00:01:57,680 --> 00:01:58,680
Yeah.

51
00:01:58,680 --> 00:01:59,680
All right.

52
00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:03,880
If you have not read your Bible, then I'm really curious how you got to this podcast.

53
00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:06,200
Deuteronomy 26 through 30.

54
00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:08,080
Deuteronomy 26 through 30.

55
00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:09,600
And we have this new fangled technology.

56
00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:10,700
It's called a pause button.

57
00:02:10,700 --> 00:02:13,040
You can push it and you can come back.

58
00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:16,200
I would recommend not reading it while you're driving unless you have an audio Bible, which

59
00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:17,600
I do recommend Dwell.

60
00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:18,600
I love Dwell.

61
00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:19,600
It's fantastic.

62
00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:20,600
Yeah.

63
00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:22,720
Though a lot of like Tara really likes the U version of the Bible.

64
00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:24,480
And she said she really likes that version right there.

65
00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:27,400
It's a really funny story about the U version Bible.

66
00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:29,400
My dad listens to the New Living Translation.

67
00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:31,080
He's been on the podcast before.

68
00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:36,000
My mom hates it because she cannot stand the guy's voice in that translation.

69
00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:37,880
So my dad every morning will listen to it.

70
00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:39,000
And my mom just sit there.

71
00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:44,040
She's like, I know this is the Bible and this is great, but this guy's voice is just something

72
00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:45,040
else.

73
00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:47,440
Do they know whose voice that is that speaking in the pot?

74
00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:48,440
No, no.

75
00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:50,000
Is it a low voice?

76
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:52,280
No, not that one.

77
00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:53,280
Okay.

78
00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:57,040
So there has been, you don't know this, but we've actually talked about frequently his

79
00:02:57,040 --> 00:02:59,520
mom will be like, that's not your voice Spencer.

80
00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:03,280
He's yes, mom, I guarantee you I recorded that with that.

81
00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:06,880
And she's hopefully now that she's actually seeing the video version, she believes us.

82
00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:07,880
Yeah.

83
00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:08,880
That would be the hope, right?

84
00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:09,880
Yeah.

85
00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:13,240
I thought one of the things that I wanted to point out right away in June, already 26

86
00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:14,240
chiasms.

87
00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:15,240
We love chiasms.

88
00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:16,240
Yep.

89
00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:17,240
Now you're familiar with chiasms.

90
00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:18,240
Caleb.

91
00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:19,240
Yeah.

92
00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:20,240
Why don't you explain them again to me?

93
00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:21,240
That's a way of saying-

94
00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:22,560
A Western mind.

95
00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:26,720
That is a way of saying no.

96
00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:30,120
He's like, no Ben, but thank you for throwing me out the spot.

97
00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:32,400
Allow me to pretend like I know these things.

98
00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:34,080
Of course.

99
00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:38,120
So chiasms are, they're an Eastern form of writing where there is mirrored text.

100
00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:42,040
Now if we were to take it into like a Western perspective, we would say there's section

101
00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:47,480
A, then there's section B, section C, section D, and then we'd see section C again, B and

102
00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:52,120
A and A would coordinate with A, B would be C with C. And then at the center of the story

103
00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:55,800
is going to be this part that's letter D. And it's what the whole story is about.

104
00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:59,640
Now it's really important that we understand that those exist in the Bible because there's

105
00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:02,440
a lot of them throughout the Bible.

106
00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:07,000
And most of the Jewish writers are going to write that way and ding, ding, ding, if you

107
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,080
guessed, most of the writers of the Bible are Jewish.

108
00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:11,080
And so they're going to use this.

109
00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:15,040
In fact, in first Corinthians, Kenneth Bailey has a great book, Paul through Mediterranean

110
00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:18,960
eyes, where he calls it ring composition theory, but he actually points out that there's a

111
00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:21,960
significant amount of ring composition theory in first Corinthians.

112
00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:26,560
So not just in Torah, not just in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament as well.

113
00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:29,840
A lot of times in the text, when we're talking to people about it, we say, Hey, if you start

114
00:04:29,840 --> 00:04:33,720
hearing things that are repeating and you hear the same thing over and over again, you

115
00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:36,240
should stop because there's probably a chiasm at work.

116
00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:40,300
So in chapter 26, verses one through 11, I'm actually going to point one out for you.

117
00:04:40,300 --> 00:04:43,600
One of the first things we see is God talks about the, Moses talks about the fruit from

118
00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:44,600
the land.

119
00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:45,600
Okay.

120
00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:48,440
He talks about that at the beginning of the, in verse one, and he also talks about that

121
00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:49,440
at the end.

122
00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:51,840
He says that you're actually going to give God your first fruits.

123
00:04:51,840 --> 00:04:54,800
And then it says that the line they're going to the land that God is giving us.

124
00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:56,200
And there's this promise.

125
00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:59,280
And then it says that you're actually going to be on the back end in the land that was

126
00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:01,400
promised to us.

127
00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:03,440
And it says that we went down into Egypt.

128
00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:06,860
God brought us out of Egypt, mirroring text, right?

129
00:05:06,860 --> 00:05:10,520
We were afflicted and he looked on us in our affliction.

130
00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:13,880
And the center of this chiasm in verses one through 11 is this is this verse.

131
00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:20,040
It says, then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors and the Lord heard our

132
00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:22,040
voice.

133
00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:26,040
So when we talk about the act of tithe of giving to God, it's not, it's about remembering

134
00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:29,840
where you come from and also remembering the voice of God that brought you out of Egypt.

135
00:05:29,840 --> 00:05:30,840
Yeah.

136
00:05:30,840 --> 00:05:33,480
It's not like people are like, Oh, well, I'm going to give money because you know, the

137
00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:34,680
church needs my money.

138
00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:36,480
It really doesn't.

139
00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:37,480
God really doesn't.

140
00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:40,380
I mean, how silly is it to think that God needs your money when the guy can literally

141
00:05:40,380 --> 00:05:42,400
speak the universe into existence?

142
00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:44,760
Very true.

143
00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:48,720
This act of tithe where, where Moses is actually talking about, you're going to set aside your

144
00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:51,960
fellowship offering and your tithe for the foreigners and everybody else.

145
00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:58,720
It actually is a, it is a expression of Thanksgiving to what God has actually done in your life.

146
00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:03,880
How different would it be if that's how we approach tithe in general?

147
00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:07,400
An attitude of, of expression of Thanksgiving.

148
00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:08,400
You're chuckling over there.

149
00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:10,780
I know you've got something.

150
00:06:10,780 --> 00:06:15,680
We were actually talking about that in jail, that how having an attitude of Thanksgiving,

151
00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:20,760
all it has a powerful impact on how it brings out the testimony of what, what the Lord has

152
00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:24,360
done and when we begin to declare the wonderful works of the Lord.

153
00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:28,580
So one thing leads to the other through an attitude of thankfulness.

154
00:06:28,580 --> 00:06:32,080
That's what I think we've been studying and then jail over this last week for this new

155
00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:33,080
member.

156
00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:34,080
Yeah, that's so good.

157
00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:37,080
I mean, especially when you think about in jail, often you're there because you made

158
00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:38,080
some poor decisions.

159
00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:39,080
Yeah.

160
00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:41,680
And one of the ways to not end up back there is to make better decisions.

161
00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:42,800
Yeah, absolutely.

162
00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:46,160
And so developing this attitude of Thanksgiving is really crucial.

163
00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:49,280
One of the things I think about often with, with jail in general is bad decisions that

164
00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:50,280
is up there.

165
00:06:50,280 --> 00:06:53,560
It's like, it's not like any of us are unfamiliar with bad decisions that end us in bad places.

166
00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:54,560
Yeah.

167
00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:58,800
I mean, that's basically what I call the speak for yourself.

168
00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:01,320
I believe we call that the Christian existence, right?

169
00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:05,960
On the back end of 26, it continues to talk about the tithe, but I want to, it's a little

170
00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:07,840
bit different of a, of a chiasm.

171
00:07:07,840 --> 00:07:11,560
First it talks about God's tithe and it says that God gets a tithe and you're supposed

172
00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:12,920
to give it to the Levite.

173
00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:15,600
You're supposed to give it to the widow, the orphan, the outsider.

174
00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:19,000
And then it says there's a sacred portion and you're supposed to give it to the Levite,

175
00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:21,000
the widow, the orphan, the outsider.

176
00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:22,000
Hmm.

177
00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:23,000
Crazy.

178
00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:26,580
Then it says that the commands that God has given you, that you've not transgressed the

179
00:07:26,580 --> 00:07:28,720
law or forgotten the law.

180
00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:32,160
And then in the center, it says not eating the sacred portion while in mourning and not

181
00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:33,740
went on clean or of the dead.

182
00:07:33,740 --> 00:07:38,320
And then on the back end of that, it says, I listened to the word of God and I have obeyed

183
00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:39,440
everything you commanded me.

184
00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:41,340
So it's another little mini chiasm in here.

185
00:07:41,340 --> 00:07:45,080
And the reason I think this one particularly is really cool is you have this idea of the

186
00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:48,360
first thing that you do is God's tithe goes to other people.

187
00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:49,360
Wow.

188
00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:50,680
How you love other people.

189
00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:56,160
The sacred portion goes to other people to take care of those people on the outside.

190
00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:59,680
Reminder that when you go to eat the fellowship offering, you need to actually remember who

191
00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:01,520
you're having it with, with God.

192
00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:05,000
And so you don't have it when you're in mourning and you don't have it when you're unclean,

193
00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:09,640
you come to God with the right heart, ready to actually have a, have a time with him.

194
00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:13,520
It's almost like he's talking about loving God and loving other people.

195
00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:15,200
Well, yeah, yeah.

196
00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:17,800
There's actually, there's actually two chasms in here.

197
00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:18,800
Yeah.

198
00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:19,800
Did you catch that?

199
00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:24,560
I was curious, which are you talking about in 26 or in 12th and 19th?

200
00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:30,720
In 26 and it, well, there's actually two and one through 19 because you actually have,

201
00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:35,300
you have a Miriam chasm that goes ABC ABC and one through 19 as well.

202
00:08:35,300 --> 00:08:39,620
And then you also have the two different chasms that you're talking about.

203
00:08:39,620 --> 00:08:41,120
So three different chasms total.

204
00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:42,120
Yeah.

205
00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:45,920
So you're talking about, there's a, there's a big chasm to many chasms.

206
00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:49,420
And it's, it, you know, the interesting thing is when you say that, you know what that puts

207
00:08:49,420 --> 00:08:51,960
at the center?

208
00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:54,520
Take giving God's tithe to the other people.

209
00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:56,280
Taking care of those on the outside.

210
00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:00,680
So like the one thing we have is you need to learn to hear the voice of God and you

211
00:09:00,680 --> 00:09:04,020
need to take care of the people around you and you need to meet with God correctly.

212
00:09:04,020 --> 00:09:08,880
But then at the center of that entire idea and all of 26 is actually this idea of make

213
00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:10,800
sure you're taking care of those that are on the outside.

214
00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:11,800
Yeah.

215
00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:12,800
Those that can't take care of themselves.

216
00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:13,800
Yeah.

217
00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:14,800
That's powerful.

218
00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:15,800
Yeah.

219
00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:17,880
Cause you got this Miriam chasm that goes on in one and two, where it's talking actually

220
00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:21,880
about putting aside the first fruits for the Lord and then giving it to the priest in

221
00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:23,560
verse two and three.

222
00:09:23,560 --> 00:09:27,980
And then you jump down to 12 and then it talks about the same thing in the context of giving

223
00:09:27,980 --> 00:09:29,680
to the people.

224
00:09:29,680 --> 00:09:34,440
You have this thing where when you give to the church, it's supposed to be for the people,

225
00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:37,080
for the needy in the community around you.

226
00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:38,080
Right.

227
00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:41,280
Now, I think a lot of times why people are hesitant with tithes is because a lot of times

228
00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:42,280
that doesn't happen.

229
00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:43,880
I'm not saying every church.

230
00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:51,240
There are churches who take care of the poor very well, but there are also churches who,

231
00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:55,000
let's just be frank, like when they get their tithe, like very little that goes out to the

232
00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:56,300
needy and their community.

233
00:09:56,300 --> 00:09:58,400
And not even just their community, but the community at large.

234
00:09:58,400 --> 00:09:59,400
Yeah.

235
00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:01,520
And I think that's why I think there are a number of churches that have like thriving

236
00:10:01,520 --> 00:10:02,520
missions programs.

237
00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:03,520
Yeah.

238
00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:04,680
And I completely understand that hesitancy.

239
00:10:04,680 --> 00:10:07,760
And actually one of the things I remember, I was invited to give the tithing message

240
00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:12,680
one Sunday and Pastor Nick chuckled because I said, I said, listen, if you're not going

241
00:10:12,680 --> 00:10:15,320
to give with a cheerful heart, don't give your money here.

242
00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:16,320
Yes.

243
00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:19,680
In fact, I was like, you should go and if you don't believe that your money is being

244
00:10:19,680 --> 00:10:22,680
served while here, like you shouldn't give your money here.

245
00:10:22,680 --> 00:10:25,400
That's when the pastors ran up and kicked him off the stage.

246
00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:26,960
That's exactly.

247
00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:31,320
No, actually one of the interesting things is the church, our church, I actually want

248
00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:34,720
to brag on them is, is they're, they're very conscious of the money they have.

249
00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:37,960
They're very generous, but at the same time, one of the things that I'm starting to notice

250
00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:40,600
is they don't really have many money issues.

251
00:10:40,600 --> 00:10:41,600
No.

252
00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:43,040
Like we always have enough.

253
00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:44,080
Yeah.

254
00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:47,600
And I think that's a, that's a sign of people who trust in the desert.

255
00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:48,600
Yeah.

256
00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:49,600
Is that there's always enough.

257
00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:50,600
Yeah.

258
00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:52,920
There is one last little kind of mini chiasm in here.

259
00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:56,160
It says that Moses says that God has commanded you to obey and do it with all your heart

260
00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:59,760
and soul coming back to the Shema Lord, Lord your God with all your heart, with all your

261
00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:01,240
soul, with all your might in the center.

262
00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:05,840
It says you have declared you're going to follow God keeping his decrees commands and

263
00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:08,240
laws that you will listen.

264
00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:09,720
This is what's happening in the center.

265
00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:13,480
God clear that you are his people, his treasured possession, and you will keep his command.

266
00:11:13,480 --> 00:11:17,360
So we have your declaration that you're going to follow God and keep his laws and God declares

267
00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:19,740
that you're going to be his people and his treasured possession.

268
00:11:19,740 --> 00:11:21,360
If you follow these things.

269
00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:24,540
And then it says that he will set you above and praise and honor above other nations and

270
00:11:24,540 --> 00:11:28,440
make you holy to God.

271
00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:32,560
Your job is to obey with all your heart, mind and soul, the Shema.

272
00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:33,560
Now I thought this was interesting.

273
00:11:33,560 --> 00:11:34,700
I thought you guys might have fun.

274
00:11:34,700 --> 00:11:38,280
So we've talked a number of times about in Hebrew, there's not as many words in Hebrew

275
00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:42,840
and yet sometimes we just translate words into English.

276
00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:45,960
And because the words mean similar things in English, we just ignore them.

277
00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:50,660
In this, in this verse, it talks about three different kinds of laws.

278
00:11:50,660 --> 00:11:55,360
It says there are commands, there are statutes and there are ordinances.

279
00:11:55,360 --> 00:12:00,960
Now if I say those to an American, they're all pretty much the same thing, right?

280
00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:03,280
In Hebrew, they are not.

281
00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:05,040
They're actually very different things.

282
00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:06,960
Command is Sava.

283
00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:07,960
It's a S-A-V-A.

284
00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:12,480
It's a verb and it means to command, give charge or to commission.

285
00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:15,800
I'm really glad you said Sava because I saw the T in front of the Sava.

286
00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:17,840
I was like to Sava.

287
00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:19,120
So no for people who are listening.

288
00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:25,000
I put the pronunciation, the phonetic in there and so he read the note that I put in there

289
00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:26,960
and yeah, I don't blame you.

290
00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:30,480
It looks like T-Sava.

291
00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:31,480
There is somebody who's listening.

292
00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:32,760
Any Jewish listeners, I'm sorry.

293
00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:35,560
Yeah, anybody who's really good at Hebrews listening and they're like, what is wrong

294
00:12:35,560 --> 00:12:36,980
with these guys?

295
00:12:36,980 --> 00:12:39,440
So it's a verb, so it's an action.

296
00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:40,720
So the command is an action.

297
00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:44,240
So it is implying that you should do something.

298
00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:48,080
Now the first mention shows up in Genesis 2.16 where it says the Lord God commanded

299
00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:49,640
the man.

300
00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:51,120
This is your action.

301
00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:54,540
You are free to eat from any tree of the garden.

302
00:12:54,540 --> 00:12:58,320
So the expectation is that the man is going to go and eat from the garden.

303
00:12:58,320 --> 00:12:59,780
It is an action verb.

304
00:12:59,780 --> 00:13:04,280
You might think about Matthew 28, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me,

305
00:13:04,280 --> 00:13:05,280
therefore go.

306
00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:06,900
Okay, it doesn't mean therefore go.

307
00:13:06,900 --> 00:13:10,120
It's as you are going.

308
00:13:10,120 --> 00:13:13,420
He's commissioning them to go.

309
00:13:13,420 --> 00:13:17,200
This law is given with the expectation that action follows it.

310
00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:21,480
Okay, so then we have statutes because we're going to talk about these and it is pronounced

311
00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:22,480
to hoke.

312
00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:28,200
Now it is a masculine noun, which means that it is a person, place, thing or idea, right?

313
00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:31,400
It means that it is describing something that exists.

314
00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:35,520
It comes from the root of pock and it comes from a masculine noun.

315
00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:42,240
Now the root of it means to cut out, means to decree, to engrave or inscribe.

316
00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:47,160
So the noun is actually describing something that's physically carved, something prescribed.

317
00:13:47,160 --> 00:13:48,640
It is a task.

318
00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:49,640
It's a portion.

319
00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:50,640
It's an action.

320
00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:54,920
Like these are the things that are like fundamental, fundamental.

321
00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:56,400
Like that is what a statue is.

322
00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:58,800
These are the things that you're going to do day in and day out.

323
00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:01,560
It is describing your regular activity.

324
00:14:01,560 --> 00:14:05,520
And then there's a word that is ordinances, which is mishpat.

325
00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:06,520
It is a masculine noun.

326
00:14:06,520 --> 00:14:13,760
It comes from the verb shafat, which also means to judge, govern or vindicate.

327
00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:20,000
So ordinances is actually about mishpat, which is actually about judgment, vindication, and

328
00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:26,160
it is judgment or justice such as act of deciding a case, making right decisions, the rights,

329
00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:29,960
the privileges, the proper fitting measure.

330
00:14:29,960 --> 00:14:33,960
Ordinances is actually about things going back to the way that they're supposed to be.

331
00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:34,960
Okay.

332
00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:38,020
Now those are, those are very different things.

333
00:14:38,020 --> 00:14:42,980
One is a command to do something, to go, to actually be a part of something.

334
00:14:42,980 --> 00:14:47,840
One is a list of prescribed activities or something that is going to be like a stable

335
00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:49,960
truth in your life.

336
00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:53,400
And then one is about restoring justice.

337
00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:56,880
All laws do not mean the same thing in Hebrew.

338
00:14:56,880 --> 00:15:01,880
So this is a little bit of Spencer's thought experiment, but you could out of this get,

339
00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:06,240
go and cut out the evil in your life and govern yourself according to the Lord.

340
00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:07,240
Sure.

341
00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:08,240
Yeah.

342
00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:10,880
I think you absolutely could.

343
00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:15,440
And more of my point is that with in general, like these laws, a new command I give to you.

344
00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:16,440
Yeah.

345
00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:17,440
Okay.

346
00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:18,440
A new command implies action.

347
00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:19,440
Yeah.

348
00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:20,640
These are statutes for you.

349
00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:22,560
These are things that I expect you to do all the time.

350
00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:23,560
Yeah.

351
00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:26,660
These are things that are going to be engraved on your, on your walls or maybe engraved on

352
00:15:26,660 --> 00:15:27,660
tablets.

353
00:15:27,660 --> 00:15:29,480
Coming back to the 10 words.

354
00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:30,560
These are ordinances.

355
00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:34,680
These are how you're going to administer justice inside of your nation and to the nations around

356
00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:35,680
you.

357
00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:36,680
Yeah.

358
00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:38,400
And it's really important that we point those out because I think a lot of times when we

359
00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:42,760
read through the old Testament, we're like, oh, law, commandment, statute, all the same

360
00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:43,760
thing.

361
00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:45,960
It means if we break these, we are bad people.

362
00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:49,260
That's not really what they're driving at.

363
00:15:49,260 --> 00:15:53,380
God is giving us different things to try to, to prompt inside of us to be a different kind

364
00:15:53,380 --> 00:15:54,380
of people.

365
00:15:54,380 --> 00:15:57,920
A holy people, a set apart people.

366
00:15:57,920 --> 00:15:58,920
Yeah.

367
00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:03,360
So Spencer, one of the ways that I thought to maybe look at this and see, see what you

368
00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:07,680
think God's commission is to go and do things that make you different and set you apart,

369
00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:10,520
set you apart as holy and to administer justice to the world.

370
00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:11,520
As you do that.

371
00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:12,520
Yeah.

372
00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:14,240
We're setting things right wherever we go.

373
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:15,240
Yeah.

374
00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:18,760
Now people don't always like that, but that's part of the work of judging.

375
00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:19,760
Yeah.

376
00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:23,600
And this is where operating and truth and love comes into play.

377
00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:24,600
Yeah.

378
00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:30,080
Cause even ancient Israel, even though they were set apart, they still operated in a way

379
00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:31,960
that welcomed foreigners in.

380
00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:32,960
Right.

381
00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:35,120
That, so it wasn't just, well, we're right.

382
00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:36,120
You're wrong.

383
00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:41,000
We're right in our way, which is a lot of times what we can see today in, in the Christian

384
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:42,000
faith.

385
00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:45,960
And that's not from a lot of the conquest literature, which we pointed out, even when

386
00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:48,320
they say, Hey, we're going to go and wipe everybody out.

387
00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:51,840
Like they said, when the foreigners are with you, like literally they're still there.

388
00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:52,840
Yeah.

389
00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:53,840
Yeah.

390
00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:58,840
You look at this and this is coming from a perspective of how do we include the foreigners

391
00:16:58,840 --> 00:16:59,840
in this?

392
00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:06,800
It's not coming from a perspective of shift everything to my way of thinking or die.

393
00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:07,800
So good.

394
00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:08,800
I love it.

395
00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:11,840
So this, that takes us to chapter 27.

396
00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:12,840
Perfect.

397
00:17:12,840 --> 00:17:17,720
There's actually another chiasm in here, but I did not pull it out because I thought it

398
00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:19,680
would be more fun for people to find it themselves.

399
00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:20,680
Yeah.

400
00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:23,800
If anybody finds that, send us an email, levincontacts.gmail.com.

401
00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:24,800
I'm going to give you a hint.

402
00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:26,320
It centers on verse three.

403
00:17:26,320 --> 00:17:27,380
Yeah.

404
00:17:27,380 --> 00:17:32,160
But in chapter 27, so Moses instructs the people to remember the laws when you cross

405
00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:33,640
into the Jordan, set up an altar.

406
00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:34,640
Okay.

407
00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:36,640
So once you cross into the land, set up an altar.

408
00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:37,640
Why?

409
00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:41,440
Because remember how many times has Moses said, remember in Deuteronomy, like a thousand.

410
00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:42,440
Yeah.

411
00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:43,440
Remember.

412
00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:44,880
And then he says, he's got, you're going to build these really large stones.

413
00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:48,160
You're going to cover them with plaster and you're actually going to write the words of

414
00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:50,160
the law on the stones.

415
00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:51,160
Yeah.

416
00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:52,420
Why?

417
00:17:52,420 --> 00:17:53,420
So you don't forget.

418
00:17:53,420 --> 00:17:58,760
And you fall into the exact same routine that humanity keeps falling into.

419
00:17:58,760 --> 00:17:59,760
Yeah.

420
00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:03,760
That we just forget the blessings of God over and over and over again.

421
00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:06,360
So I can be a fairly forgetful person at times.

422
00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:07,840
I've never had that cake.

423
00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:09,200
No, that's laughing.

424
00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:10,600
That's laughing.

425
00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:15,120
But I have a friend who he takes the cake on this one where he has his-

426
00:18:15,120 --> 00:18:16,120
I love cake.

427
00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:19,840
He has his kids' names and birthdays tattooed on his arm.

428
00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:20,840
That's fantastic.

429
00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:22,840
So he doesn't forget.

430
00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:23,840
It's actually really smart.

431
00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:25,880
When I first met him, I was like, oh, how many kids you got?

432
00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:29,160
He's like, I got three, like looks down at his arm.

433
00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:31,400
And I was like, oh, how old are they?

434
00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:32,400
Looks back at his arm again.

435
00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:33,400
He's like, oh, there, here's the ages.

436
00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:36,120
And I was like, oh, okay.

437
00:18:36,120 --> 00:18:37,120
Remembering is very important.

438
00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:40,320
This is kind of a silly example, but remembering is important because if we don't remember

439
00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:46,280
where we come from, we're not going to actually be able to lead other people from their story

440
00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:48,240
of sin to their story of redemption.

441
00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:52,000
We all have different stories in our lives, but if we forget where we come from, how are

442
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:53,720
we expected to lead others?

443
00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:59,040
Well, and I think there's two things that happen when you forget your past.

444
00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:04,560
One is that you lack empathy for the people who are coming from that past.

445
00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:06,720
Their present is your past.

446
00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:09,120
I see that a lot of times in the church, right?

447
00:19:09,120 --> 00:19:12,880
Somebody comes in and they say yes to Jesus and they're like, all right, here's the list

448
00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:14,840
of 150 things you need to do today.

449
00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:15,840
What happened to me?

450
00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:16,840
I'm like, yeah.

451
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:17,840
Yeah.

452
00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:21,920
Whereas we talked about a few weeks ago when Moses tells them, he says, hey, God's taking

453
00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:25,160
you into this land, but he's not going to let you have it all at once.

454
00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:27,020
It's going to be piece by piece.

455
00:19:27,020 --> 00:19:32,680
Not because it's going to benefit God, but because if you take it too fast, you're going

456
00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:36,320
to fall prey to deception.

457
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:39,360
It's actually for your benefit that it goes piece by piece.

458
00:19:39,360 --> 00:19:42,480
You had a great drop in where you said we do that with people all the time and yet we

459
00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:45,440
expect them to change automatically, but God's actually trying to do it piece by piece so

460
00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:51,880
that over time the entire land is conquered and we don't fall to deception.

461
00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:53,120
So there's empathy.

462
00:19:53,120 --> 00:20:00,240
We lack empathy or we start to have these rose tinted glasses, what life used to be

463
00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:01,240
like.

464
00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:02,240
Yeah.

465
00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:03,240
We've talked about this.

466
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:08,480
I remember with Pastor Nick and Caleb, how long have you been married now?

467
00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:09,720
Just a little over five years.

468
00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:11,200
How slowly you answered that.

469
00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:13,120
You might need a tattoo that way.

470
00:20:13,120 --> 00:20:14,840
I had to think about it for a second.

471
00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:17,040
No, 2024 will be six years.

472
00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:18,040
Fantastic.

473
00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:19,680
Do you remember living by yourself?

474
00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:20,680
Oh yeah.

475
00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:21,680
Oh yeah.

476
00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:22,680
Did you have a house clean?

477
00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:23,680
No.

478
00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:24,680
I'll let you know.

479
00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:29,120
For all the bachelors out there, okay, so I own my own place.

480
00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:30,120
Yeah.

481
00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:31,120
Okay.

482
00:20:31,120 --> 00:20:32,560
So what I would do is I would stuff blankets under the bed.

483
00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:35,960
That way when I went to bed at night, I would just pull the blankets out, put them over

484
00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:36,960
me on the bed.

485
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:38,640
Then when I wake up the door, I'd stuff them back under the bed.

486
00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:40,240
I never had to make my bed.

487
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:41,240
It was best.

488
00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:45,080
And paper plates, that worked really good.

489
00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:49,040
But of course, when my wife, after I got married, when she moved into the house, she wanted

490
00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:51,920
to know what all these blankets were going to do under the bed.

491
00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:53,080
I said, no, I never sleep in the bed.

492
00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:55,000
I always slept on top of the bed with all this.

493
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:57,280
Well, she told me I had to stop.

494
00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:00,520
Well, I used to think that I was clean.

495
00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:01,960
And then I got married.

496
00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:04,200
And then my wife started being like, oh no, this isn't clean.

497
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:05,480
You have to fix that.

498
00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:09,440
And then I went and visited a bachelor in their house and I walked in.

499
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:11,960
I'm like, why is everything filthy?

500
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:15,520
Because I've been married for 13 years now.

501
00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:18,660
And I've grown accustomed to a certain standard of living.

502
00:21:18,660 --> 00:21:21,600
But in your rose-colored glasses, how many people are like, you'll talk to them and they'll

503
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:26,560
be like, oh man, you know when you used to live by yourself, you could stay out late,

504
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:28,920
you could play video games all night.

505
00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:30,720
I got to work in the morning.

506
00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:31,720
Are you kidding me?

507
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:33,200
I'm not playing video games all night.

508
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:38,200
I saw Instagram where it was like, where as an adult being like, I can't wait to be, when

509
00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:42,320
I was a kid, I couldn't wait to be an adult because I could stay up past nine o'clock

510
00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:43,320
and do whatever I want.

511
00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:46,640
Now that I'm an adult, I'm like, nine o'clock, I'm going to bed.

512
00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:47,640
There's no shame in that.

513
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:48,640
No.

514
00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:52,360
I was just laughing because I was like, yeah, that's 100% correct.

515
00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:54,480
And one more thing to alienate our Gen Z listeners.

516
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:58,720
I saw one of the TikToks and they were talking about one of the TikToks.

517
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:02,800
By the way, they're going to be like, oh man, we can't listen to this guy.

518
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:04,840
Where he's like, oh yeah, you ready to go out?

519
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:05,840
You want to go out to dinner?

520
00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:06,840
He's like, sure.

521
00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:07,840
What time are you going to go?

522
00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:08,840
He's like, I figure we should probably get there about 8.30.

523
00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:09,840
PM?

524
00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:10,840
Yeah.

525
00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:11,840
Yeah.

526
00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:14,000
And he's like, oh yeah, you're right.

527
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:15,000
That's probably too early.

528
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:16,000
Probably get there by 9, 9.30.

529
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,000
PM?

530
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,000
Yeah.

531
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:21,000
But here's the thing.

532
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:22,000
Okay.

533
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:26,160
But you get these rose colored glasses on things that you were really not great.

534
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:28,840
I had somebody tell me the other day, they're like, oh man, I really wish I was in my 20s.

535
00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:30,480
And I was like, I don't wish I was in my 20s.

536
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:32,080
You know what was the worst about my 20s?

537
00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:33,080
I had no money.

538
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:34,080
Yeah.

539
00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:35,080
It was terrible.

540
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:36,960
I was in a job I didn't really particularly care for.

541
00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:39,280
I have enjoyed being married to my wife for a decade.

542
00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:43,320
There is a different level of intimacy that we have after 13 years that we didn't have

543
00:22:43,320 --> 00:22:44,320
at five.

544
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:48,920
People have this idea, these rose tinted glasses of these things that they want.

545
00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:51,120
And we actually see that happening in the life of Israel.

546
00:22:51,120 --> 00:22:54,600
They're like, well, we want kings like other people have.

547
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:57,960
We want to eat pork like other people eat pork.

548
00:22:57,960 --> 00:22:59,560
I mean, I don't blame them.

549
00:22:59,560 --> 00:23:00,560
Pork is delicious.

550
00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:04,420
But at that time, but at that point, you were very likely to get trigonosis because they're

551
00:23:04,420 --> 00:23:05,420
not cooking.

552
00:23:05,420 --> 00:23:06,580
We want to look like everybody else.

553
00:23:06,580 --> 00:23:09,400
We want the blessings of random gods too.

554
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:13,000
And they forget where they come from.

555
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:14,400
Finding where you come from is a big deal.

556
00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:18,280
I know that Deuteronomy, we've basically been saying remember, remember the 5th of November.

557
00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:20,840
That's a different, that's something else.

558
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:24,720
But we've been remember, remember everything over and over again.

559
00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:31,520
And the crazy thing is, is as many times as Moses says, remember, they forget.

560
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:33,240
Not that that would be a problem in the modern church.

561
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:34,240
Of course not.

562
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:37,480
You ever, Caleb, have a conversation with somebody on Wednesday and they're and you're

563
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:39,800
like, hey, remember on Sunday when they were saying blah, blah, blah.

564
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:42,280
And they're like, was I there?

565
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:43,280
Yep.

566
00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:45,680
And you know, I've been guilty of that myself.

567
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:49,640
So I've been, I've been blessed to have God do some crazy things in my life.

568
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:50,640
Yeah.

569
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:54,480
Miraculous things, things that people say don't happen, but God did them in my life.

570
00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:58,680
You know, the crazy thing is that the further I get from it, the more my brain tries to

571
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:01,180
tell me it never happened.

572
00:24:01,180 --> 00:24:05,040
That's why I wrote in the time I wrote exactly what happened and reminded myself because

573
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:06,440
over time I forget.

574
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:11,920
And I think sometimes even we fail to remember how amazing the grace of Jesus has been in

575
00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:12,920
our life.

576
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:13,920
Yeah, absolutely.

577
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,600
No, I have this old Bible.

578
00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:21,480
I actually wrote my testimony down at the front of it on the inside just so that I would

579
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:26,960
always have that for whoever would read it when I'm not around right there because it's

580
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:32,480
grown up, growing up in a harsh life and a very starch religious background that was

581
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:36,960
a borderline cult at the age of 17, growing up in church.

582
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:42,680
It wasn't until I was 17 when I just gave it up and I just said, Lord, just take it

583
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:44,400
all, take it all.

584
00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:51,640
And you know, it was very painful back then when I was, you know, from zero to 17, it

585
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:53,200
was very rough.

586
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:57,240
And you know, there's a part of me that fights those memories, but at the same time I've

587
00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:02,640
come to terms with it and I have to realize I remember that so I could be the opposite

588
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:03,760
of that.

589
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:08,120
I remember that so I could look about how far the Lord has brought me from.

590
00:25:08,120 --> 00:25:12,440
So copying it and referencing to it is actually a gift.

591
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:16,960
You know, there's things that maybe we can't be grateful for in life, but we can remember

592
00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:20,240
what got us out of there that could keep us from going back.

593
00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,680
Well, and to your point, you're not actually remembering with shame.

594
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:25,520
You're remembering it because of God's grace.

595
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:26,520
Oh, absolutely.

596
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:28,320
It's a victory.

597
00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:30,800
Which actually plays really well into what we're going to be talking about next because

598
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:33,320
Moses does a kind of strange thing.

599
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:37,820
He has the tribes go stand on different mountains and they're going to yell back and forth at

600
00:25:37,820 --> 00:25:39,160
each other.

601
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:40,160
Blessings and curses.

602
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:43,920
What do you think about one Sunday we just like line up chairs, have people stand on

603
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:47,480
them and we'll yell blessings and curses at each other?

604
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:50,520
Our church actually probably wouldn't find that super weird.

605
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:55,560
Yeah, but well, I know that the church of God probably definitely would not.

606
00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:58,840
Well, it might get a little too poignant.

607
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:02,620
Well, I'm just going to say there's people that testify things that shouldn't be said

608
00:26:02,620 --> 00:26:04,080
out loud toward other people.

609
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:06,280
You know, they don't mention their names.

610
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:08,120
We've had to cut the live stream a few times.

611
00:26:08,120 --> 00:26:13,000
So all you pastors be careful with testimonies and prayer request time.

612
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:17,680
Speaking of live stream, this is an aside, but I promise all of you that it's worth it.

613
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:21,960
I remember a story from your guys' live stream during COVID.

614
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,400
It was like during the COVID times.

615
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:29,400
And it involved communion.

616
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:30,400
So great.

617
00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:31,520
So I wasn't there.

618
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:36,080
I went through a period of time where I worked Sundays for two years.

619
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:39,640
So during COVID, we had to change the way we did communion.

620
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:43,440
So we ordered in, you know, those premixed little like juice, juice, like, you know,

621
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:44,440
little plastic shots.

622
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:47,520
Yeah, they've got the juice and they got the cracker thing.

623
00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:48,520
Yeah.

624
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:51,040
So the bread that tastes like edible styrofoam.

625
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:52,520
Yeah, the styrofoam.

626
00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:53,520
It's I don't.

627
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,920
All I'm telling you is that when you eat that you are not tasting that the Lord is good.

628
00:26:56,920 --> 00:26:58,020
Oh, I know.

629
00:26:58,020 --> 00:27:03,600
So I'm at work and I get off work, then my phone rings and it was the pastor's son and

630
00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:05,340
the pastor's son, Caleb, sit down.

631
00:27:05,340 --> 00:27:07,000
You wouldn't believe what just happened.

632
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:08,000
Okay.

633
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,040
He's like, get on the live stream.

634
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:14,680
They hand these cups out to everybody and they had a beautiful ceremony, great message.

635
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:19,680
And we all took took the bread and you know, then we start talking about the blood of Jesus

636
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:23,680
and everybody took a sip and the look on everybody's face.

637
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:25,920
Well, my pastor didn't inspect it.

638
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:28,680
And so he served the congregation the real stuff.

639
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:30,940
And so, yes.

640
00:27:30,940 --> 00:27:36,440
So Amazon sent us some spiked some real wine, you know, we served the congregation the real

641
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:38,160
stuff and I was not there.

642
00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:41,960
But but I have the live stream and I have the video as proof.

643
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:44,680
And if you thought you'd church scene and all, we've done it.

644
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:45,680
Yeah.

645
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:48,920
So when I was watching that I saw Kyle Quinn, he's because he's doing the music and I saw

646
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:54,580
him take the shot and immediately turn his back to the entire congregation.

647
00:27:54,580 --> 00:27:58,400
And he was convulsing with laughter because he couldn't hold it.

648
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:04,960
My favorite is that your pastor, he took a swig, he looks at it and he's.

649
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:05,960
Well that was different.

650
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:09,040
It was very, it was very interesting.

651
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:10,160
Sometimes weird things happen.

652
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:12,680
So that's definitely like one of the craziest moments you've had in church.

653
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:13,680
Oh yeah.

654
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:16,000
So Moses, on the other hand, he says, hey, I want you to tribes.

655
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:17,480
I want you to go line up on different mountains.

656
00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:19,520
We're going to shout some curses at each other.

657
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:21,360
Some sounds and blessings and curses.

658
00:28:21,360 --> 00:28:22,360
We're not going to spend a ton of time on this.

659
00:28:22,360 --> 00:28:25,720
To set yourself up on opposing mountains and each of you curses and blessings.

660
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:27,520
And it's an interesting picture for sure.

661
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:28,520
Right?

662
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:29,520
We've spent a lot of time on curses.

663
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,640
So I don't really want to sit on these for a really long time because I think as a church

664
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,400
historically we've focused too much on curses.

665
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:36,400
Yeah.

666
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:39,960
And we need to talk about what is God actually wanting us to do.

667
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:41,600
I want people to actually live for God.

668
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:44,320
I don't want to let them fill them in fear of the curses.

669
00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:45,420
You know what I mean?

670
00:28:45,420 --> 00:28:50,880
So in taking a look into chapter 28, Moses goes through and he says, if you follow God

671
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:54,360
and you obey him, these are going to be your blessings.

672
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:56,960
You're going to be blessed in the city and in the country.

673
00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,960
You're going to have the fruit of your womb, the land, the herds are going to be blessed.

674
00:28:59,960 --> 00:29:01,960
Your basket and your needing trough are going to be blessed.

675
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:04,480
You're going to be blessed when you come in and when you go.

676
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:05,480
God is going to grant you victory.

677
00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:09,680
He's going to scatter your attackers blessings on your barn and on all of your put your hand

678
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,640
to blessings on the land that he is giving you.

679
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:18,560
By the way, that's a reversal of Genesis three because curses and land because of you.

680
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:22,840
Now if you obey the land is going to be blessed because of you.

681
00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:28,520
There's a lot of reversal of that chapter in this section.

682
00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:30,160
He's going to make you a holy people.

683
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:31,320
People will see the greatness of God.

684
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:33,920
There's going to be abundance in your family and your herds and your crops.

685
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:37,720
God's going to open up the heavens, then bless all of the works of your hands and you will

686
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:42,060
lend to many and you will borrow from none.

687
00:29:42,060 --> 00:29:44,600
So you're still going to be generous.

688
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:47,040
You will be the head, not the tail.

689
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:49,360
Everybody's on top, not on bottom.

690
00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,320
That's a good list of blessings.

691
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:55,760
And all these blessings, you know, they're not made to be contained from within.

692
00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:59,840
They're made to influence the outside world around us, not just to stay in one place.

693
00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:00,840
Correct.

694
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:05,880
That's going back to Genesis 12, which is you are blessed so that all nations would

695
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:06,880
be blessed.

696
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:07,880
Yep.

697
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:08,880
Yep.

698
00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:09,880
That's exactly.

699
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:14,400
And I think the problem is, is that when you tend to bring these blessings for yourself,

700
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:19,040
you actually betray the very thing that is actually required to receive these blessings.

701
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:20,040
Yep.

702
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:24,440
Which is that you're listening to the voice of God and you're acting within his character.

703
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:27,700
Now if you don't follow God and you don't listen to his decrees and you don't follow

704
00:30:27,700 --> 00:30:32,380
his ordinances and you don't administer justice, which is something that Israel runs into difficulty

705
00:30:32,380 --> 00:30:36,540
again and again, you're going to invite the opposite.

706
00:30:36,540 --> 00:30:38,520
And there are a lot of them and you can go and read them.

707
00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:40,480
I'm not going to read them for you today.

708
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:46,320
There's a lot of them and a lot of them are really, really quite graphic at times.

709
00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:51,520
Now and the question I had, are they receiving curses because God is bringing them on him

710
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:53,360
or because he's removing his protection?

711
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:58,680
Well, in this text, this chapter in particular doesn't directly say the Lord's bringing curses

712
00:30:58,680 --> 00:30:59,680
upon them.

713
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:00,720
Correct.

714
00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:04,480
And I think the implication would be that the presence of God brings blessing.

715
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:05,680
Yeah.

716
00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:12,440
So I would say it's more of what are you invested in, brings upon natural consequences.

717
00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:16,240
I mean, I think curses is the language they used at the time.

718
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:18,240
Knowing where you're invested.

719
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:21,800
Because where you're invested is what's going to produce fruit in your life.

720
00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:24,720
Well, and if you invest in selfishness, you're going to reap...

721
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:25,720
Selfishness.

722
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:26,720
Yeah.

723
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,520
If you invest in righteousness, you're going to reap righteousness.

724
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:30,520
Yeah.

725
00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:35,480
So knowing where you're invested produces different fruit in your life.

726
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:40,320
I'm not just talking like, are you invested in the Lord or are you not?

727
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:46,560
Because there are things that you can be invested in that could look good on the outside, but

728
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:49,680
could still benefit your selfish desires.

729
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:50,680
Right.

730
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:55,160
And ultimately we want to be invested in Christ and what he has for us.

731
00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:58,640
And that's going to produce the best fruit in our life.

732
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:03,520
But if we're invested in selfish endeavors, we might succeed in those selfish endeavors,

733
00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,920
but we might burn a lot of bridges along the way.

734
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:12,200
And so there are going to be natural consequences for the choices we make and where we invest

735
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:13,200
our time and our energy.

736
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:18,080
Well, and I think sin tends to lead to sin, which leads to sin.

737
00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:19,800
So you work in the jail.

738
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:24,000
How many people who land in for an offense such as stealing the car, that was the first

739
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,880
thing that they did that stepped out of the law?

740
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:27,880
No.

741
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:28,880
There was a pattern.

742
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:29,880
Yeah.

743
00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:36,040
And unfortunately, I think that we computes safety with what we call legalism.

744
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:39,960
And I've heard that a lot growing up in a very legalistic background.

745
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:41,760
I totally get it.

746
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:47,720
And the difference between legalism and grace, I think one of the top things is that legalism

747
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:51,240
is when you make up sins along the way.

748
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:56,520
Now grace is the empowered that keeps you from, there's certain doors that we shouldn't

749
00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:57,520
open.

750
00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:00,200
In fact, I actually was watching this.

751
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:03,480
It was the testimony of Ted Bundy, you know, of all people.

752
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:07,080
They go into the horrors of what he did.

753
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:13,480
It all started with, you know, like looking, number one, rejection, number two, just that

754
00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:17,200
little bit of pornography that wasn't even considered really pornographic.

755
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:23,000
It was just like, we saw this image attracted, but then they started to pursue it.

756
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,080
Then they pursue it and it got heavier, dutier.

757
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:29,640
Well, they got to fill that, so they went on to the next thing and it kind of grew from

758
00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:30,640
there.

759
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:34,400
So they get in this pattern of something that happened, some of them as young as five years

760
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:35,400
old.

761
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:37,560
It just takes one trip over that line.

762
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:42,400
And to your point is you rarely, it's the, what actually lands you in jail is the offense,

763
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:43,400
a hundred percent.

764
00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:46,440
Like you stole a car, you land in jail because you stole a car.

765
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:52,280
The reason you stole the car happened decades before.

766
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:53,520
It's not something that happened overnight.

767
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:55,880
I'm not saying it can't, but rarely is that actually the case.

768
00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:57,040
There's usually something that happened.

769
00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:01,160
I was actually just reading the story of an evangelist and I forget what the name is.

770
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:02,440
He was talking about his experience.

771
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:06,720
He grew up, was in the army, got discharged and he went on a, like a thief spree across

772
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:09,360
the U S and ended up in jail, found Christ in jail.

773
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:13,440
But he was talking about when he was a kid and he was trying to read and he was recounting

774
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:20,120
this story, his dad, he said, I'm going to waterboard you if you don't say these words.

775
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:22,680
Oh, five years old.

776
00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:26,800
Five years old.

777
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:29,600
What kind of damage are you causing to your kids?

778
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:32,760
And until you actually uncover that, I mean, like you're, you're going to have a lot of

779
00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:34,560
this behavior that keeps cropping up over and over again.

780
00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:38,560
It's one of the things that psychologists have been trying to deal with for a long time.

781
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:41,880
God absolutely will change everything about your circumstance, but you also got to do

782
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:43,520
the work to dig up your past.

783
00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:44,520
Yeah.

784
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:48,520
Uproot your past because it's been there for a long time and he's going to fix every hurt,

785
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:50,320
but he's not going to be what all it wants.

786
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:55,240
He's piece by piece, otherwise it's going to overwhelm you and you're going to be deceived.

787
00:34:55,240 --> 00:34:59,400
We're really good at cutting down the tree, but it's getting to the root that where we

788
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:02,600
have struggled with in the section on curses.

789
00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:03,600
There's actually another little mini-chaos.

790
00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:07,320
I'm not going to do the whole thing here, but there's a chaos in the back half and it

791
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:09,280
talks about how bad it's going to be.

792
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:12,160
And it culminates with verses 53 through 57.

793
00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:15,880
If you want to see some really difficult verses, go read those ones.

794
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:22,760
But it talks about a family literally devouring itself, literally, not figuratively.

795
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:27,880
The idea of the chiasm is that your enemies will conquer, the foreigner will become greater,

796
00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:31,480
the land will be devoured and destroyed, the crops will be devoured and destroyed, the

797
00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:35,960
animals will be devoured and destroyed, all down to the family itself being devoured and

798
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:36,960
destroyed.

799
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:39,860
And you see this, it's not one piece, it's one piece and then another piece and then

800
00:35:39,860 --> 00:35:45,380
another piece and then another piece to where there's total depravity, this total destruction.

801
00:35:45,380 --> 00:35:50,120
And it's not a pretty picture and it sounds, it's a heinous and it's not how it's supposed

802
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:51,120
to be.

803
00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:53,880
But that is what sin is.

804
00:35:53,880 --> 00:35:57,720
And we have to have grace with people because they get caught up in that.

805
00:35:57,720 --> 00:36:01,280
Because in chapter 29, guess what happens?

806
00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:04,120
There's the renewal of the covenant.

807
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:07,900
Blessing and cursive language sets up this renewal of God's covenant with the people.

808
00:36:07,900 --> 00:36:11,240
There's this new generation of renewal of the vows and Moses forewarns them that if

809
00:36:11,240 --> 00:36:15,220
they don't trust God and follow after God, but instead they chase all these gods that

810
00:36:15,220 --> 00:36:19,160
are around him, they're likely going to end up in the exact same place where they're having

811
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:20,760
trouble trusting God again.

812
00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:25,640
And it centers on this verse of hope in verse 13, which says this, confirm you this day

813
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:30,100
as his people, he confirms you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he

814
00:36:30,100 --> 00:36:34,840
promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

815
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:37,280
Because God wants to bring this about in your life.

816
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:39,720
He wants to partner with you with your story.

817
00:36:39,720 --> 00:36:45,480
Sin is waiting at your door, waiting to devour you.

818
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:47,480
But you got to conquer it.

819
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:51,520
So one thing that's never mentioned in scripture, and this is actually kind of fun little side

820
00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:56,680
note is because I've heard this in church a lot growing up is, oh, forgive and forget.

821
00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,280
It's like the forget parts actually never mentioned.

822
00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:00,440
Correct.

823
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:01,960
Don't hold it against them.

824
00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:02,960
Absolutely.

825
00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:07,120
Like if you forgive somebody, don't hold that sin you've forgiven against that person because

826
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:08,360
then you haven't forgiven them.

827
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:16,480
But you need to remember, you need to remember where you came from, where they came from.

828
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:18,080
That's going to allow you to have grace with them too.

829
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:19,080
Yeah.

830
00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:22,720
And you don't have to put yourself in that same situation again for whatever happened.

831
00:37:22,720 --> 00:37:26,280
Well, I think I think where people get it is they come from the Psalm where it says

832
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:31,000
as far as the east is from the west, God far has got removed it from your sin.

833
00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:35,000
And then there's a there's a verse that talks about it slipping into the sea of his forgetfulness.

834
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:37,360
Once again, that's not what they're really talking about.

835
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:39,960
No, it's that the God's not holding it against you.

836
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:40,960
Yeah.

837
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:45,720
My thing that I love about chapter 29 and into 30 is that even in your failure, your

838
00:37:45,720 --> 00:37:53,360
sin and your darkness, because verses 53 through 57 are pretty dark.

839
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:57,500
There is hope and it shows up in chapter 30.

840
00:37:57,500 --> 00:38:03,640
God says that you're always welcome back.

841
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:06,280
You're always welcome back.

842
00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:08,360
And thank God that is the case.

843
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:09,360
Yeah.

844
00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:10,360
All right.

845
00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:13,800
So I want to point out a few since we had some fun with these earlier, point out a few

846
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:16,080
mini chiasms here in chapter 30.

847
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:17,280
Let's just take a look here.

848
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:21,920
So in verse one, it says, if you take to heart these laws, wherever you are dispersed, and

849
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:25,640
then take a look at verse three, it says from the nations you've been scattered to.

850
00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:28,120
Then in verse two, you have and you return to God.

851
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:31,080
And verse three, it says, God will restore and bring you back.

852
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:35,360
And the right in the center, it says, with all your heart and soul, the Shema.

853
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:40,520
Once again, now in this larger version, take a look at verses one through three is when

854
00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:43,760
you remember and follow with your heart and your soul.

855
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:46,960
Verses verse 10, it says, if you listen to the voice of God and follow with all your

856
00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:48,960
heart and your soul.

857
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:51,680
Verses three through five, God will turn it around and bring you back.

858
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:53,360
Now obviously this is not a literal quote.

859
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:56,120
This is me summarizing these sections guys.

860
00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:59,820
Seven through nine says, curses will go away and you will be brought home.

861
00:38:59,820 --> 00:39:04,040
And it centers on verse six where it says this, the Lord your God will circumcise your

862
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:08,880
hearts and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all your heart

863
00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:10,880
and with all your soul.

864
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:16,160
You know, it's really interesting how it says that the circumcision of the heart, you know,

865
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:19,200
the very first martyr, Stephen, when he gave Google that.

866
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:21,320
No, don't do that.

867
00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:23,880
That's a callback to a few episodes ago.

868
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:26,840
I may or may not have accidentally told people to Google it.

869
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:27,840
Okay.

870
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:32,120
You know, it's really interesting that, you know, the very first martyr for Christianity,

871
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:37,000
you know, Stephen, he gives this dynamic speech and he takes them to the beginning, coming

872
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:41,240
out of Egypt when they rebelled against God and all these different things happened about

873
00:39:41,240 --> 00:39:46,320
one thing they did to the God's messengers, the prophets, but they did no harm came to

874
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:49,420
him after he gave this speech.

875
00:39:49,420 --> 00:39:53,760
But right before they took them out and stone them, which means throwing rocks at somebody

876
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:55,920
till they die, everybody, not the other thing.

877
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:58,600
I mean, it means the other thing too, but in this context.

878
00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:04,000
Yeah, but it's amazing that before they took him out and stone him to death, it says, and

879
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:08,640
they were pricked within their hearts when they felt that that's when they went crazy

880
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:10,560
and they took him outside.

881
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:15,440
So the Holy Spirit was doing a work, but the resisted the work that the Holy Spirit was

882
00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:16,440
doing.

883
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:18,000
They were circumcised in flesh.

884
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:24,840
Yes, but it added up to a heart issue of this of a spirit supernatural effect that only

885
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:27,000
God could bring about if we will let them.

886
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:32,200
So they carried the physical sign of the covenant, but they didn't carry it in their heart.

887
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:35,480
Remember obeying coming back to God is always available.

888
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:38,360
There's no place that you can go that's too far and no curse too great.

889
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:41,680
It can't be lifted.

890
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:45,720
I'm also reminded with this whole idea of you're in love with our heart.

891
00:40:45,720 --> 00:40:47,720
And you said that they were pricked in their hearts.

892
00:40:47,720 --> 00:40:51,200
Jesus makes a statement when they're like, well, by whose authority are you making this

893
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:52,200
to claim?

894
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:59,400
You look in the scriptures for God and I'm standing right in front of you.

895
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:03,360
If you knew the father, you would know me.

896
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:04,440
He's very clear with them.

897
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:10,320
He says, if you understood what Torah was about, you would recognize the guy standing

898
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:14,560
in front of you, which is why a lot of Jews did recognize who Jesus was.

899
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,320
They just didn't recognize him as a son of God because I mean, I'm just gonna be real

900
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:20,440
honest with you know, it really understood what that meant until Jesus came back to life.

901
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:21,440
Oh yeah.

902
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:25,320
Like they didn't understand what that meant, but they did recognize him as the Messiah

903
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:29,040
that God has been planning for the entire time.

904
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:30,040
Another call back to the New Testament.

905
00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:32,120
I love this in verses 11 through 14.

906
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:33,120
He makes a comment.

907
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:35,040
He says, the commands aren't hard to reach.

908
00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:36,920
And the back half, it says they're reachable by you.

909
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:41,000
Another mini chiasm says they aren't in heaven nor are they across the sea.

910
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:42,320
The word is very near to you.

911
00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:45,760
It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you may obey it.

912
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:50,160
It reminds me of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which I love to, you know, I'm a little bit

913
00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:51,160
of a rabble rouser.

914
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:53,760
I mean, hopefully at this point you guys have kind of figured that out.

915
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:56,600
I'm a little bit of a rabble rouser, but I had somebody tell me they're like, we just

916
00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:57,600
need to preach the gospel.

917
00:41:57,600 --> 00:42:01,280
I was like, yeah, the one Jesus preached.

918
00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:06,600
Just so you know, if I ever jump on that quickly, I'm probably setting you up.

919
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:08,800
And they said, they said, yeah, the gospel Jesus preached.

920
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:09,800
I was like, what was that?

921
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:13,000
And then they said that God came to save sinners.

922
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:17,040
I was like, have you read the gospels?

923
00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:18,720
Because he never says that.

924
00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:19,720
That's not what he's talking about.

925
00:42:19,720 --> 00:42:24,440
In fact, the gospel, the eugenic on the good news that Jesus preached was that the kingdom

926
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:28,640
of heaven is here and it's time to come back.

927
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:33,660
And then through his life, death, burial and resurrection and empowerment by the Holy Spirit,

928
00:42:33,660 --> 00:42:36,920
we are changed and able to live into that kingdom.

929
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,800
That's the gospel of Jesus Christ.

930
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:43,400
And to go back to the forgiveness of sinners piece.

931
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:46,400
That's the doorway.

932
00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:48,360
That's there's an that's the entrance right there.

933
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:54,040
Yeah, that's supposed to lead you into restoration and to redemption, into a restored relationship

934
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:57,960
with God where he is over time changing your character.

935
00:42:57,960 --> 00:42:58,960
Yeah.

936
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:01,560
And oftentimes we just stop at the forgiveness of sinners.

937
00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:02,560
This is what it's about.

938
00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:03,560
It's about forgiveness of sins.

939
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:04,560
Yep.

940
00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:05,560
That's part of it.

941
00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:06,560
A very important, very important part.

942
00:43:06,560 --> 00:43:07,560
Don't get me wrong.

943
00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:09,360
Don't don't mishear me listeners.

944
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:11,200
It's very important.

945
00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:14,080
But the kingdom of heaven is near.

946
00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:18,760
Jesus came to restore a broken world to him.

947
00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:20,240
Forgiveness is part of that.

948
00:43:20,240 --> 00:43:21,960
But the restoration takes time.

949
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:22,960
All right.

950
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:26,440
Well, and how often are we like we want to talk about the door, Jesus being the door

951
00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:27,600
for forgiveness.

952
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:29,120
And then we're like, let's hang out at the door.

953
00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:30,120
Well, like, here's the thing.

954
00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:31,120
My front door is really cool.

955
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:32,120
Uh huh.

956
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:33,120
You know, it's way cooler.

957
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:34,680
My kitchen where I make my food.

958
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:35,680
Uh huh.

959
00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:39,080
Like there's there's a whole life that a lot of Christians never walk into because they're

960
00:43:39,080 --> 00:43:41,880
they're at the door and the door is so important because it's how you get in and out.

961
00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:42,880
All right.

962
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:43,880
Well, we we live in Alaska, right?

963
00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:49,920
So if if if I invited a bunch of people over to my house and said, hey, come stand out

964
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:51,800
side at the front door.

965
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:53,520
We're recording this in November.

966
00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:59,580
They probably be like, no, no, we're not going to do that unless we're welcome into your

967
00:43:59,580 --> 00:44:00,580
home at some point.

968
00:44:00,580 --> 00:44:01,920
Yeah, I will walk through that.

969
00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:02,920
Yeah.

970
00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:04,840
And I will engage with the life inside.

971
00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:05,840
Yeah.

972
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:06,840
That's so good.

973
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:07,840
That's so good.

974
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:13,800
I think sometimes we forget that we're being invited to a lifestyle and not just a forgiveness.

975
00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:14,800
Yeah.

976
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:16,720
Like forgiveness is part of that.

977
00:44:16,720 --> 00:44:17,720
Mm hmm.

978
00:44:17,720 --> 00:44:20,920
Jesus is my savior.

979
00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:26,080
But he's also my lord, which means that I'm going to follow him and follow his commands

980
00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:28,040
and follow his leading wherever I go.

981
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:29,040
Yeah.

982
00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:30,040
And it's not just about being saved.

983
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:32,280
It's actually about service to my savior.

984
00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:33,280
Yeah.

985
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:36,640
About living a life that's actually meant to bring God's lost kids home.

986
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:37,880
Yeah.

987
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:42,360
Jesus told us time and time again, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

988
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:46,640
You know, when you love somebody, you'll do what they want to get close to them.

989
00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:51,600
Well, and so one of the best imageries I've heard of sin and some of you are going to

990
00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:53,080
need, Ben's heard this one before.

991
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:54,080
Oh, no.

992
00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:58,920
I don't know if you've heard this one, but I was at a youth conference one time and the

993
00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:03,320
speaker said, yeah, living with sin is every time is like every time you have to take a

994
00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:09,520
dump, you just take a crap in the middle of your living room and leave it there.

995
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:11,120
And then over time that piles up.

996
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:12,120
Oh.

997
00:45:12,120 --> 00:45:13,120
Piles up.

998
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:14,120
Piles up.

999
00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:15,120
House stinks.

1000
00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:18,560
And then someone comes knocks on the door being Jesus and is like, Hey, let's, I'm going

1001
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:20,040
to help you take care of that.

1002
00:45:20,040 --> 00:45:21,040
Yeah.

1003
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:24,840
And what the, what the speaker said is he's like, it doesn't mean that Jesus is going

1004
00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:27,280
to come and it's all going to be gone instantly.

1005
00:45:27,280 --> 00:45:28,280
Yeah.

1006
00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:32,000
But he's going to be there and he's going to help you clean that up.

1007
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:33,000
Yeah.

1008
00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:34,000
Clean that up.

1009
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:37,600
And then once that gets cleaned up and you realize this is what life was supposed to

1010
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:39,480
be like in my house, in my home.

1011
00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:40,480
Wow.

1012
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:45,720
It was not supposed to be the filthy, rotty, stinky mess that it was.

1013
00:45:45,720 --> 00:45:46,720
Right.

1014
00:45:46,720 --> 00:45:47,720
It's so good.

1015
00:45:47,720 --> 00:45:48,800
Yeah, that is good.

1016
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:53,000
So to finish up what Moses is saying in chapter three, he comes before them and he says, Hey,

1017
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:54,840
listen, you got two options.

1018
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:56,360
You can obey God and you can follow him.

1019
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:59,800
And he's going to accomplish all of this things to all these things through you, or you can

1020
00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:00,800
go with Adam.

1021
00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:03,200
Remember you're the weakest by far.

1022
00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:04,820
He's told them this so far.

1023
00:46:04,820 --> 00:46:09,160
There's nothing particularly special about you except the fact that God loves you.

1024
00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:10,220
And he doesn't walk with you.

1025
00:46:10,220 --> 00:46:14,540
So if you go without him, you're probably going to get crushed.

1026
00:46:14,540 --> 00:46:20,720
But there is no sin too deep, no transgression too far that God won't bring you back.

1027
00:46:20,720 --> 00:46:24,400
But you've got to want to come back because he's not going to force you.

1028
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:28,400
You might say that he stands at the door and he knocks.

1029
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:29,400
Yeah.

1030
00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:33,960
And, and he invites you into, into a different kind of life.

1031
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:34,960
That's powerful.

1032
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:35,960
That's powerful.

1033
00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:36,960
All right.

1034
00:46:36,960 --> 00:46:38,840
So we're going to wrap up our episode right there.

1035
00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:42,760
If you are watching us on YouTube, I apologize.

1036
00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:44,160
We were like, Hey, you know what?

1037
00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:49,720
Let's add 50% more man face on this podcast.

1038
00:46:49,720 --> 00:46:54,000
I'm sure that your wife loves you and my wife loves me, but not everybody who's looking

1039
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:56,160
at me is like, Oh, that's a handsome man.

1040
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:59,240
Oh, you know, the camera hasn't broken yet.

1041
00:46:59,240 --> 00:47:00,240
Oh, not yet.

1042
00:47:00,240 --> 00:47:01,240
Not yet.

1043
00:47:01,240 --> 00:47:04,880
If you, if you want to interact with us more, you can email us at love and context at gmail.com.

1044
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:06,620
We have our Q and a coming up.

1045
00:47:06,620 --> 00:47:08,880
So if we've talked about something, you're like, Hey, I wish you'd talk a little more

1046
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:09,880
about that.

1047
00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:14,200
Send us a note and we'll talk about that in our Q and a that is coming up actually in

1048
00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:15,200
two episodes.

1049
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:16,600
It's actually the one after you.

1050
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:18,960
If you want to interact with us, we're on Facebook.

1051
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:20,320
We're on the tickety talk.

1052
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:21,320
We're on Instagram.

1053
00:47:21,320 --> 00:47:24,000
We are on the YouTube.

1054
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:28,760
You can also listen on Apple, Spotify, Amazon music, and a lot more.

1055
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:30,480
And I'm not going to try to remember who all they are.

1056
00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:32,560
Not Google, not Google, not Google.

1057
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:33,560
Yes.

1058
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:34,560
Yeah.

1059
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:35,560
Don't Google that.

1060
00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:37,000
All right.

1061
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:38,000
Thanks guys.

1062
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:39,000
Have a good one.

1063
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:41,180
That's a wrap for today's episode.

1064
00:47:41,180 --> 00:47:46,320
We want to extend a heartfelt thank you for tuning in and spending your valuable time

1065
00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:47,320
with us.

1066
00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:53,000
We hope that you found today's conversation insightful and that you take something meaningful

1067
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:54,000
from it.

1068
00:47:54,000 --> 00:48:01,320
If you have questions or comments, we would love to hear from you reach out to us at loveandcontextatgmail.com

1069
00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:04,400
and we will be sure to get back to you.

1070
00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:09,800
Remember you can always engage with our content on all your favorite listening platforms,

1071
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:13,080
including Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, and one.

1072
00:48:13,080 --> 00:48:18,600
Don't forget to follow us on social media at love and context on Instagram and Facebook

1073
00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:23,000
for updates.

1074
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:27,160
That's always the thing that I like to, by the way, one of the bloopers that I left off

1075
00:48:27,160 --> 00:48:31,880
last episode was you going, like right at the beginning of the episode.

1076
00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:32,880
Say hi, Caleb.

1077
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:33,880
Hey guys, how's it going?

1078
00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:34,880
Say hi closer to your mic.

1079
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:35,880
Hey guys, how's it going?

1080
00:48:35,880 --> 00:48:36,880
I will say that correctly.

1081
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:43,320
And then it says of the got or you have an interpretation for those tongues.

1082
00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:44,320
Ben, I do not.

1083
00:48:44,320 --> 00:48:45,320
I do.

1084
00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:46,320
It's called gibberish.

1085
00:48:46,320 --> 00:49:06,000
Okay, go on then.