Love and Serve God

Welcome everyone who is persevering through winter storm Pandora. I do want to thank the numerous people who did more work than usual on a Sunday so that we can gather as a body and worship. I wouldn't name the musicians, but I'll leave somebody out. So thank you all who came early to facilitate our singing his praise. Everyone who did work on the facility, thank you that we can come. Thank you everybody for doing the extra work it took to get here, to praise our Savior. This morning we're gonna continue, this morning, there's a habit. This afternoon we're going to continue in Deuteronomy 11. And something we're going to see here is choices are always set before us. Choices are always before us. Today, we had to choose to get up. Some of us probably had to shovel around the car or out the driveway. You had to choose to come to worship at an irregular time. There's choices. This past week, you had to make choices. Choices that may not seem that big of a deal, but when somebody cuts you off, how are you gonna respond? When somebody said something about you or wronged you, how did you choose to respond? What kind of words did you choose? Life is made up of these little choices. We oftentimes really focus on the big choices. Where am I going to go to school? What kind of vocation am I going to have? Who will I marry? Will we have children? Where will we live? These are big choices that obviously change things. But these little choices every day change us. These choices every day are significant because every day you're making the most important choice. Every single day we have to make a choice. Will I trust Christ? Will I follow him? That is a choice that's before us every second, every minute, every hour, every day. That's the most important choice we're gonna make our entire lives. Are we going to follow Christ, trusting Him and obeying Him? We take this choice for granted, but this is something we need to be intentional about. Are we going to wake up every morning as we sang earlier? Today is a new day. I want to bless the Lord. I want to recognize His blessing all around me. I want to recognize who He is. You have to see that little choices every day, they matter later. If we start choosing to give little lies, we're going to become liars. We're going to choose to cheat that one time on that one task just because it's possible and it's difficult. We're going to become cheaters. These choices, they change us. Are we going to obey? We're going to follow Christ. This morning, our simple message is this. You can choose to follow Christ and live or reject him and die. You can choose to follow Christ and live or reject him and die. This is the most important choice. Turn with me in Deuteronomy 11. If you're using a Pew Bible, this is found on page 938. 938. I'm sorry, that is not correct. That's somewhere we're going to go later. This is already starting off very interesting. The afternoon is what I'm going to blame it on. 155. 155. Deuteronomy 11, 155, and because some folks are with us who haven't been previous weeks, let me again go through. I expect everyone to know these things, because I keep repeating them every Sunday. Moses is taking the second generation of Israelites after the Exodus. So the first generation, they were slaves in Egypt. God delivered them with a mighty right hand, and the deliverance was not just from slavery in Egypt, it was to be to the promised land. But that first generation, they refused to acknowledge God. They did not choose to obey, and therefore they died. As Moses is preparing the second generation, the first four chapters of Deuteronomy was reminding the second generation of all the things that happened. And then Deuteronomy 5, the beginning of the sermon we're in now, this is the sermon, he gives the law. He puts before them the law of God, obey God and you will enter into that promised land, you will live, you will be blessed. We're gonna see this today in our text. He says before them the clear command, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. He explained to them, You've been chosen to be loved by God, not because you're mighty. You've been chosen and you've been blessed, not because you're righteous. You're going to have great wealth, not because you're mighty. He then turns and gives them expectations. This was last week. Fear the Lord. Cut the idols off that keep your affection from the Lord. Fear the Lord. Love Him. Hold on to Him. It's a call to obedience. Not to be God's people, but because we're God's people. Now, Deuteronomy 11, it continues this message. If we look at chapter 11, the first verse, it really transitions straight from chapter 10. You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. Love and keep. Love and keep. I believe this is what Judah is thinking of when he says, keep yourself in the law of God, by obeying him, by following him. As we look at this passage, I want to go through the structure. Because the structure is not so obvious in the paragraphs that are broken up in my text with the ESV Bible and the pew. So I don't walk through, because if we see the structure of this point, it helps focus in what Moses is calling. First, I want you to see that there's two middle sections. There's two sections that are parallel. That's verses eight through 12, and 22 through 25. Notice eight through 12, Moses says, if you keep the commandment, you're going to have good land. We'll read it later, but I just want you to see this section is all about focus on how good the land's going to be. It's not like Egypt where you had to do irrigation. God brings the rain down on this land. He just makes it fruitful. This is the best land. So 8 through 12, that's a particular section where Moses is saying, if you obey, the land will be good. If you flip over to 22 through 25. When you go in, He's going to drive out the inhabitants. He's going to fight for you. So the land that's good that we bless with lots of water, lots of fruit, therefore you will live, that land He's going to drive out the inhabitants. He's going to give you this land. He's going to fight for you. So He's giving you the good land. He's going to fight for you. Now notice what's between this. It's very important to focus here. Verses 13 through 21, it reveals that the land is going to be a test. The good land that God's going to give you, it's a test. And if indeed you obey my commandments that I commend you today to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart, with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain, the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give you grass and your fields for your livestock and you shall eat and be full. Notice what he says next. If you obey, that section, if you obey, he will give you rain, you will be full. Verse 16, take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord has given you. This passage is about a choice. Are you going to worship God and keep the commandment and be full? Are you gonna worship other gods and die? These are the two options. Moses is laying before the people. Worship God and live and be full, verses 13 through 15. 16 through 17, forget God. Worship other gods and you will perish. Verses 18 through 21 is an application of this that we'll look at later, but let's turn to 26 or 28 very quickly. Again, pressing in the choice, see that I am setting before you today, this is the culmination, this is the conclusion here that Moses is bringing us to, see I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God. Love God and live. Love other gods and die. These are the two options. This is what God is laying before his people. Love me, which means obeying my commandments. You will be full. You'll be blessed. Reject me. Love other gods. You will die. This is a weighty choice that's being presented. Now let's go back and let's look at the first section of verse, of chapter 11. Here, he's going to go through a number of disciplinary actions to show that God is just. He does not let sin go unpunished. He opens with this. He begins to explain how he, look and see, you've seen these things with your own eyes, how God's body right arm stretched out and performed discipline. That's what he begins with. Then he says, God's gonna give you a good land. That land will be a test. Will you choose to obey or will you reject me and die? That God is gonna give you this land from its inhabitants, your enemies, and choose to enjoy the good land or be cursed. For our sermon this morning, we're going to see five things. First, we need to consider God's discipline. We need to consider God's discipline. Secondly, we need to consider God's blessing. Consider God's blessing. Third, we must choose to obey. This is what Moses is teaching them. Consider the discipline, consider the blessing, choose to obey. He then tells us how to obey. That's that section verses 18 through 21. And then he will declare, today you have this set before you. The simple message for us, choose to follow Christ and live, or reject him and die. Will you pray with me? Almighty God, we thank you that you have given us this very straightforward and clear message. We thank you that you give us this choice. That by your grace, you are putting before us a choice that not only gives us the grace to make the choice, but gives us the grace to know what you expect, how to respond, how to live, how to be blessed. Challenge us, convict us, and correct us now so that we enjoy the fullness of your blessing. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let me read our text in its entirety, so hopefully those sections will help you make sense of the text. You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep His charges, statutes, His rules, and His commandments always. And consider today, since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it, consider the discipline of the Lord your God, His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm, His signs and His deeds that He did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land, what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how He made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you. and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abarim, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, how the Lord opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them in the midst of all Israel. For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did. You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess. and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to give to them and to their offspring a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land that you were entering to take possession of is not like the land of Egypt, for which you have come, where you've sown your seed and irrigated it like a garden of vegetables. But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by rain from heaven, a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil and you will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. Then the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord has given you. You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and you shall be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall teach them to your children, taking talking of them when you are sitting in your house and when you are walking by the way and when you lie down and when you rise, you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them as long as the heavens are above the earth. For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in His ways, and holding fast to Him, then the Lord will drive out all the nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the river, the river Euphrates to the Western Sea. No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread as he promised you. See, I'm setting before you today a blessing and a curse. the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God. But turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today to go after other gods that you have not known. And when the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal, Will they not be on the Jordan west of the road toward the going down of the sun in the land of the Canaanites who live in Arba, opposite Kilgall, beside the Oak of Morah? For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God has given you. And when you possess it and live in it, you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today. Notice the emphasis on today. Every day is today. We must do this today. Moses is giving a clear charge. Let's look at the first point he wants to tell us. He starts out rather harsh. Consider God's discipline. today consider his discipline. Now, the parentheses is interesting because he first says, these are not for your children. Back in Deuteronomy, he says, these promises weren't for your fathers. At one point, these promises were for your fathers, but they rebelled and they lost the blessing. They gained the curse. They didn't get to go in the promised land. The history matters here. He's calling them to make this decision today. This is about you, the second generation. Now, if you didn't hear it, you can go back and you can underline He did. Look back, consider today, consider the discipline of the Lord, His greatness, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm, His signs and His deeds that He did in Egypt. into his land. Verse four, what he did to the army of Egypt. Verse five, what he did to you in the wilderness. Verse six, what he did to these rebellious Israelites. For your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord that he did. There's four things he's pointing out that God has done to demonstrate that he's mighty, that he's awesome in power. First, he stretched his mighty arm out to Egypt and he destroyed Pharaoh and the land. If that wasn't enough, he destroyed the army of Egypt. He swallowed them up in the Red Sea. Notice what happens next. He goes from the enemy to Israel itself. Look and remember, consider what he did in the wilderness. He had you wandering for 40 years so that those who had rebelled against him Fourthly, he brings up something that probably most Israelites didn't want to remember. What he did to the sons of Reuben. How the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them. Now we probably need to go back to Numbers to see what actually happened here. What is he referring to? You can look back to Numbers 16. This is generally known as Korah's rebellion. Moses has gone to show it's Egypt. He destroyed them and their land. He destroyed their armies. It was the wilderness. But now he's given a shorthand reference to this very important event where God disciplined Israel. Look at verse three of chapter 16, number 16. These different 250 chiefs, They gathered, verse three, they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. Two men God had appointed over Israel and said to them, you've gone too far. For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? The first thing we need to see here is this rebellion that Moses refers to. It's rebellion against the leaders that God's appointed. Let's look down to verses 12 to 15. Moses sent to call Dathan and Abram, the sons of Eliab, and they said, we will not come up. There's a small thing that you have brought us up out of the land, flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also make yourself a prince over us. Again, you hear this grumbling Israel. Why did you take us out of Egypt when it was so good? And now beyond taking us out of Egypt, so we die in the wilderness, you're gonna make yourself prince? Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up.' And Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, Do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed one of them." Moses talks to the Lord, and we know that Moses' mediation was effective. Do not accept their sacrifice. Jump down to verse 25. And Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abirim and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spoke to the congregation saying, depart please from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs lest you be swept away with all their sins. So they got away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abram. And Dathan and Abram came out and stood at the door of their tents together with their wives, their sons, and their little ones. And Moses said, hereby you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works that has not been of my own accord. If these men die, as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. Moses is putting up a test. If these men die of natural causes, then I have not been sent by God, Moses says. But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord. Verse 31. And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart, the earth opened its mouth, they were consumed. God had disciplined these men who had led a rebellion of Israel against God. It was against God because it was leading them to question if God had appointed Moses. This rebellious generation, they had to wonder for 40 years. They continue to grumble against God. This very specific example, just a shorthand reference to it, a nation grumbling and complaining against Moses. They were swallowed up. Moses is telling them, consider the discipline of the Lord. Know that He's just, He's mighty. He does not let sin go unpunished. This is important because we know from Israel later, and we know in our own hearts, there's a bizarre pride that comes from being one of the children of God. Assuming we can get away with certain kinds of sin, assuming upon the grace of God, Should we sin so that grace should abound? Paul answers in Romans 6. We have to remember nothing makes us special except for the fact that God said, I've set my love on you. I've chosen you. I've given you grace. It's bizarre because there's an arrogance about getting God's grace. We need to be warned of this. I believe Moses is warning of this. Do not think that you're out of the area of being disciplined. You haven't grown up so that God can't discipline you. I say it's bizarre because it shows the depth of our depravity. We even sin against the grace of God, assuming it. God is great. We need to realize that He disciplines those He loves. Do not assume upon God's grace. Yes, His grace is great. It overcomes our sin, but His grace disciplines us in our sin. We need to look and see all the Lord has done. He's great and He's mighty. He will not let sin go unpunished. He will discipline those He loves. Now, something that's kind of interesting here is all of these examples end in death. Everybody disciplined dies? The very point of the message, obey and live, disobey and die. We need to see that there is a real, sin is deadly. It's not just destructive, it's deadly. When we're playing around with sin, we're playing with death. When we choose a sin, we're flirting with death. This is clear in the New Testament as well. It's clear that sin leads to death in the New Testament. Let me choose one of a few passages that refer to it. Here's why you want to turn to page 939. 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11. If you look there, verses 23 through 26, Paul is giving instruction for the Lord's Supper. Jesus has said, this is my body. Jesus has said, this is the cup of my new covenant. For as often as you eat and drink of it, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Look at verse 27, follow with me. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. Paul is saying, here, because some have not approached the Lord's Supper properly, one of the two ordinances of Christ, baptism, which is your entrance into the church, and the public declaration, I am a Christian, the Lord's Supper, which is that regular ordinance that we protect together to remind ourselves and one another of the grace that we unite under, the blood of Christ. If you don't come to the Lord's Supper properly, if you come sinfully, it can cause you to be weak and ill and even dead. Sin can lead to death. This is frightening, especially because next week we're taking the Lord's Supper together. It's a helpful reminder. It's something we do that's important. It's something we do together, the unity of the body, discerning the body. It's something we do together. Now Paul says you need to have self-examination. Am I going to participate, am I going to partake of the Lord's Supper in a manner worthy of the call of Christ? Are we going to do it discerning the body? What you need to see here is something else in verse 33. So then my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. This is a glorious prescription because it shows the Lord's Supper is for the church gathered. It's not a casual meal we just have with anybody. The Lord's Supper is when the church gathers, believers gather, it's a reminder to one another of the most essential truths of who we are. Christ died for us. And as we partake of that body, of the cup and the bread that represent his blood in the body, Are we doing it properly? Are we doing it as a united body to worship Christ? Are we grumbling? Are we stirring up controversy? Are we serving and loving others? Are we repenting and forgiving of sin? God can give Christians a merciful death. It's merciful because the whole point in living now If you're a Christian, it's to be part of a body where we're able to build one another up, to be able to grow up to the head of Christ and exalt Him. And if we're not united in building up, we're not glorifying Christ. We have to realize that the Lord's Supper isn't just a simple reminder. There's a real spiritual consequence of not discerning the body and not doing proper self-examination. What we do to gather reflects on Christ. That's why it matters. This is why we take church and church unity and church discipline so seriously. Because the name of Christ is tied to the church. The name of Christ is tied to the church. When people come from other churches or people come who don't know Christ and they see the way we react and the way we relate to one another, we're reflecting Christ or our sin. That's why it matters. The name of Christ is tied to the church. We're not a social club where you pay your dues and you keep your nose clean and where everything's good. No, we're a group of people who have nothing else in common but Christ. We come not for our own well-being, but because we're coming together to serve others and to love others so that Christ is glorified. A church is alive when its members are denying themselves and following Christ. If we want to live and we want to choose to live, we must see that we're alive as a church when we are denying ourselves and following Christ. We must see that we're alive when we're considering one another more important than ourselves. There is a sin that can lead to sickness and even death. It's part of discipline. We must do proper self-examination and to receive the discipline of the Lord. So there's second section, or second point, which has two sections. Consider God's blessing. Verses 8 through 12 and 22 through 25. I'm not going to read them again, but I want you to go back and look. It's all physical blessing. If you obey, you will get the physical blessing. If you obey, you will have the land. No other people will claim it. It's a physical blessing. If you go back to the Garden of Eden, it was all physical blessing. God put them there to enjoy the land that he created for them. God created a garden to be worked, to be fruitful. When man sinned, he rejected that garden and God made his work unfruitful. What I want to focus on here is this, and it's very clear. God is seeking to restore what we lost in the garden. He wants to make us fruitful again. He wants to put his people into a place where they will be fruitful. And the simple point is this, if you obey, you'll be fruitful. If you disobey, you'll be cursed. This is a clear teaching in scripture. If you obey, you secure a blessing. If you obey, you secure a blessing. If you are obedient, you will be blessed. But here's the key issue. Who is obedient? Who's obedient? If you obey, you will be greatly blessed. A clear promise that God will be faithful to in all of Scripture, if you obey, you will be blessed. Who is obedient? As we read last week, there's no one righteous. We are all guilty. There is no one who's obedient. However, let me ask another question. Who's blessed? Who's blessed? I am. I couldn't raise my hand for obedient, but I'm certainly blessed. So how can this be? If I'm disobedient, I should be cursed. If I'm obedient, I should be blessed. Why am I, why am I blessed when I'm so disobedient? I see my life against the law and it's so crooked. We're blessed. because Christ was obedient. That's the clear teaching in scripture. It's not the way it's supposed to be. We should be judged for our sin. We should be still under the curse because of our sin. Because we're so disobedient, we should not be blessed. But we see it all over the New Testament. Every blessing in the heavenly places is ours in Christ. Because He was obedient, when I cannot be obedient, I am greatly blessed. Because Christ is obedient, where we cannot be obedient, we receive the blessing of God. Greater than what Israel could have ever dreamed of with rain and fruit. Greater than Adam could have ever dreamed of. We're now children of God. In Christ, every promise is yes and amen. Here's the gospel truth. We're disobedient. So when God sees us, his judgment should be upon us. Christ came. He was perfectly obedient, but yet he was judged for sins that we committed so that we could be forgiven, so that we could be washed clean by the blood of Christ. And his righteousness is now counted towards us. And that is why God blesses us. That's why we boast in Christ. Let's look at the next section. Choose to obey. Again, here we're focusing on the main point of Moses' message. There's two points. There's two mirroring points. There's the positive point in verse 13 through 15. If you are careful to obey, to love God and to serve God, you will have rain, you'll have fruit, you'll have plenty to eat, you will be full. If you're not careful, You'll serve other gods. You will not have rain. You will not have fruit. You will die. We see here two choices. You see the difference? Obey, live, rain, fruitful, full. Disobey, anger of God, no rain, no fruit, death. This is the choice set before us. Will we believe in Christ who obeyed and therefore receive the blessing? Or we continue to resist God, to reject His grace? Will we obey Christ? This is the call. Will we follow Him and obey Him? I want to focus on one particular phrase here, verse 16. It's the phrase that changes it. If you'll obey, you'll receive these things. But then here's the warning. Take care. Take care, be aware, be focused, be intentional. Our religion cannot be casual. We cannot approach God with laziness. It must be thoughtful, it must be intentional. The reason why is we're so easily, we so easily stray away. Our hearts are so easily turned to other gods. This is why God is warning them. Our problem is that we usually choose to rebel rather than revere God. We're prone to idolatry. We're prone to worship anything and everything other than God. So we must be careful. We must keep ourselves directed from His instructions. We must keep ourselves seeking correction from His Word. Notice the warning, do not be deceived. We need the one truth that's going to keep us focused. We need the one truth that's going to keep us following God. One of the things I want you to know here is following God doesn't require novelty or inventiveness. It takes faithfulness. That's it. It's not about being creative. It's about being faithful. It's about the simple obedience that the world will not see in any way as great. It's not novel. It's not profound to the world. But it's glorious to God to be simple in the faithfulness of following Christ. Worshipping God means we focus on His truth, that we sink our minds into it. We let it transform the way we think. So therefore, it transforms what we desire. Therefore, we love God. There's two real helpful corrections here. To those of us who like to be overly creative, I love new ideas. I love folks who talk about scriptures in weird ways that make me think I've never thought of that. But it's unhelpful, oftentimes, because it's the simple, clear teaching of scripture we need. We don't need the creativity. We need to dive deep into the clarity of God's word. Second is the anti-doctrine. It takes right doctrine to properly praise God. We have to have doctrine to have doxology. We have to think about Him properly in order to praise Him properly. Let's go to the how. The how. Look at verse 18. You shall therefore, you have these two choices, obey and be blessed, worship other gods and die. You shall therefore lay up these words, treasure these words. And I want you to notice something. If you were here back in Deuteronomy 6, this is almost exactly what he said in Deuteronomy 6. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. And then these instructions follow. He's reminding them again. This is what we need to constantly remember. We need to have the Word in our heart, we need to have the Word all around us. Why? Because we're forgetful. Because there's so many other people and so many other messages penetrating our minds and our hearts. We need these things all around us. We need to surround our life with the Word of God, with like-minded believers who will speak the truth in love. We need to be reminded of these things because we're so prone to sin. So here's a simple application. If you have a friend who corrects you and says hard words to you, keep that friend close. If you happen to have a friend who will say the difficult truths to you, keep that friend close. The one who will say, you've got mustard on your face. The one who will say, you shouldn't have said that. Those were sinful, hurtful words. Not the ones that you find yourself grumbling with. That can kinda be hard to discern between the two. If you find yourself grumbling with them, those are not the good friends you want. You want the friends who are gonna be willing to tell you the difficult things that you do not like to hear, but are for your edification. There's a glorious truth here. God doesn't intend for us to live alone. If you look to this list, you shall teach them to your children, take talking of them when you are sitting in your house and when you're walking by the way and when you lie down and when you rise, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them as long as the heavens are above the earth. It isn't just about one home and one family. The nation of Israel is supposed to be a community that shared these same truths constantly with one another. There's no such thing as an isolated individual follower of God. We need one another. We're designed to have one another. This is a glorious truth. Now, we're not a nation like Israel. We're supposed to be a church where each other, where there's the one another's, there's the mutual building up, there's the care for one another. There's taking responsibility for one another so that we're always reminding each other of the words of Christ. Can't be isolated. This is about a people coming together to be a community for the glory of God. Last section, see I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. You shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I'm setting before you today. Today is a very important day. Just like every other day, are you going to obey Christ or are you going to reject him? Are you going to seek the blessing that you can enjoy in Christ or are you going to have to be disciplined because you continue to resist him? Let me just walk through a couple different kinds of folks. Youth, if you're a youth, do not believe the lie that worship somehow starts when you're an adult. Worship starts when you're converted to Christ. If you believe in Christ, you are supposed to be a worshiper. If you believe in Jesus, Focus to worship on him that means you become a fully participating member a fully participant the brothers and sisters and what Christ is doing Not playing games not drawing Listening to hear from God because if you're professing Christ and not listening you're going to never listen and What you do now is focusing on, is setting the trajectory of your life. If you're learning to sit there quietly, but not listening and focusing to hear from God who's speaking, you're never going to listen. Take up that opportunity now. Learn to listen to God today. Pray. Pray that you hear God. Read the passage beforehand so that you can say, God, what are you going to tell me today? Come expecting something, not from me, from God. Come every time your parents open the Bible, every time you come to church and a Sunday school teacher does it, every time I do it, every time we sing a song, come expecting God's going to say something today. I could hear God today. college students. Same goes for you. This is a very formative time in your life. Are you properly prioritizing the things of God? Are you making the kinds of choices and commitments right now that you want to reflect 20 years from now? You are becoming who you will be. Who you are today is determining who you will be. Are you diligent? and the things of Christ, and the things of God. This is a unique season where you have a lot of free time. Are you using it to build up a godly character? Adults, it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Hard to break habits that are hard and settled. If you're like me, as I was speaking to the youth and as I was thinking and praying about this for the youth and for the consciousness, I go back and I think, man, I wish I'd have gotten that then. Because changing the way I am now, I'm set apart from the grace of God. We have sin patterns. We have sat in our sin patterns. We can become lazy. We can become content with our walk with Christ. You should be content in Christ, but not in your walk with Christ. So easy to go through the motions, to sit there not expecting. Break out of the pattern, trusting the fullness of God's grace to change us so that we can enjoy the blessing of Christ's obedience. Be content in Christ. Do not be content with your walk because we're not obedient. We desire the blessing, so we should desire to be more obedient. Will you pray with me? Oh great God, we praise you again because you've laid before us a choice. For those who do not know you, those who are still questioning if they're going to believe in Jesus who died for their sins and rose again, give them the grace to see the Deadliness of their sin. Help them to see that they are dead in their sin, facing a wrath from you, a just God, unless they believe in the Savior who died for them. Change a heart. Change hearts this morning, Almighty God. Lord, for our young people, help them. Help us to teach them to be diligently following you and seeking you now. So the faithful worshipers of you for their entire lives, help us, the adult members, Lord, to model humility, repentance. Change us, oh mighty God. So maybe a more pure and unified church that glorifies you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.