1 00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:04,480 So if you travel through parts of Europe, you'll see something 2 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:08,039 striking. There are massive, beautiful 3 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:12,040 church buildings, centuries old places that were once filled 4 00:00:12,040 --> 00:00:15,200 with worship, with singing, with hearing of the word. 5 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:20,200 But if you walk around them today, many of them are empty. 6 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:23,600 Many of them have been turned into museums. 7 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:27,120 Others have been turned into cafes, restaurants, some even 8 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:30,280 apartments. One of them that that came to my 9 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:34,720 mind was Saint Anthony of Padua. Park now is turned into a 10 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:38,200 climbing gym and you get to see the beautiful stained glass 11 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:44,240 windows as you scale the rocks. And it is easy for us to think, 12 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:48,440 man, that could never happen here, not in the USA. 13 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:52,800 But the reality is something similar is already happening. 14 00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:57,560 Thousands of churches every year close their doors. 15 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:02,440 Depending on what statue you look at, anywhere between 4000 16 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:08,280 to 10,000 churches yearly close their doors, whether by just not 17 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:13,560 having enough, whether by unforeseen circumstances or just 18 00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:17,080 the fact that they drifted from their first love. 19 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:22,640 And it, and it has to, to bring up this question in our mind, is 20 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:26,440 what happened? Because Christianity doesn't 21 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:31,240 just disappear overnight and what happens quietly and it 22 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:36,040 happens across generations. You see, one generation follows 23 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,800 after the Lord, the next one just kind of assumes the Lord. 24 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:42,480 And then the next one leaves completely. 25 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:47,520 Not because God failed, not because the truth disappeared, 26 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:52,080 but because our hearts were prone to wander and we failed to 27 00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:55,960 teach the next generation something that was once real, 28 00:01:55,960 --> 00:02:00,720 that was no longer remembered, no longer lives, no longer 29 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:04,240 passed on. And if we're honest, that kind 30 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:06,880 of drift doesn't just happen out there. 31 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:10,039 It happens in here. It happens in your homes, it 32 00:02:10,039 --> 00:02:14,240 happens in our routines. It happens in our own hearts. 33 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:20,080 And that is exactly what Moses is addressing in Deuteronomy 6. 34 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:23,600 Israel is standing at the edge of the promised land. 35 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:25,640 They could, they can see it inside. 36 00:02:25,640 --> 00:02:29,080 They're about to step into a blessing that they did not build 37 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,640 homes, they didn't fill vineyards, they didn't plant. 38 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:37,240 And Moses knows something. He knows that the greatest 39 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:40,920 danger that Israel's going to face is not the enemies outside, 40 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:45,000 but it's what's it within them, the drift within their own 41 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,440 hearts that in the middle of blessing they might forget the 42 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:52,160 Lord. And if they forget the Lord, it 43 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:56,440 won't just affect them, it will affect the next generation. 44 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:01,720 And so the main idea this morning is, is the direction of 45 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:06,960 your heart determines the direction of your life and the 46 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:11,880 faith of the next generation. Read with me in Deuteronomy 6, 47 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:16,840 starting in verse 10. It says then when the Lord your 48 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:20,720 God brings you into the land that he swore to your father's, 49 00:03:20,920 --> 00:03:25,200 to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you with great 50 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:27,080 and good cities that you did not build. 51 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:30,440 And a house is full of all good things that you did not fill, 52 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:33,920 and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive 53 00:03:33,920 --> 00:03:37,680 trees that you did not plant. And when you eat and are full, 54 00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:42,160 then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of 55 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:44,840 the land of Egypt, out of the House of slavery. 56 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:48,440 It is the Lord your God. You shall fear, Him you shall 57 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:50,400 serve, and by his name you shall swear. 58 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:53,920 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples 59 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:56,720 who are around you. For the Lord your God in your 60 00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:00,520 midst is a jealous God. Let's the anger of the Lord your 61 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,360 God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face 62 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:06,840 of the earth. You shall not put the Lord your 63 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,600 God to test as you tested Him at Massa. 64 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:13,320 You shall dig diligently, keep the commandments of the Lord 65 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:17,680 your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has 66 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:21,040 commanded you. And you shall do what is right 67 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:23,280 and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with 68 00:04:23,280 --> 00:04:26,240 you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land 69 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:29,680 that the Lord swore to give to your Father's by thrusting out 70 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:32,120 all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised. 71 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:37,280 When your Son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of 72 00:04:37,280 --> 00:04:40,560 the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our 73 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:44,080 God has commanded you? Then you shall say to your son, 74 00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:48,240 We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us 75 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:51,520 out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and 76 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:54,480 wonders great and grievous against Egypt and against 77 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:56,880 Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes. 78 00:04:57,560 --> 00:05:00,480 And He brought us out from there that He might bring us in and 79 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:03,320 give us the land that He swore to give to our fathers. 80 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:07,480 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the 81 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:11,200 Lord our God and our good always, that He might preserve 82 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:15,960 us alive as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for 83 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:19,960 us if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord 84 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:26,040 our God as He has commanded us. You see, Israel is still 85 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:30,680 wandering in the desert, but the Promised Land is closer than 86 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:34,040 ever. And, and Moses shows us that 87 00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:36,880 there are these two cycles that we can live in. 88 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:42,280 And the first one is this cycle of drift when God is forgotten. 89 00:05:43,840 --> 00:05:46,960 And listen to how Moses sets this up in in in verses 10 90 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:49,000 through 11. And when the Lord your God 91 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,680 brings you into the land that he swore to your father's, to 92 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:55,600 Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give you with great and good 93 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:59,040 cities that you did not build, houses full of all good things 94 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:01,960 that you did not fill and cisterns that you did not dig, 95 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:04,240 and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. 96 00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:09,760 And when you eat and are full, he sets up the beginning of this 97 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:11,960 drift cycle. It's this, this reality of 98 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:15,720 there's blessing. And when blessing happens, it 99 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:18,520 can it can lead to forgetting. He says everything that you're 100 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:21,280 about to enjoy. You did not create. 101 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:24,480 You didn't build the cities, you didn't fill the houses, you 102 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,760 didn't plant the vineyards. You just got to enjoy them. 103 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:32,720 They were already there for you. They were spoils of the war. 104 00:06:33,280 --> 00:06:36,320 And over and over and over again, Moses presses the truth. 105 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:40,080 You did not. You did not Why? 106 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:43,600 Because Moses is trying to anchor their hearts and grace. 107 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:45,960 You see, the blessings that they're going to enjoy in the 108 00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:49,920 Promised land are gifts that they receive, not gifts that 109 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:53,120 they earned. And yet here at the height of 110 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:55,600 God's provision comes the warning. 111 00:06:55,600 --> 00:07:01,880 Moses says care, take care, lest you forget the Lord. 112 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:07,320 You see, as Moses is speaking, this should stop the Israelites. 113 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:12,600 One would expect Moses to warn these people of hey, there's 114 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:15,120 going to be enemies that we're going to have to deal with, 115 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:17,480 there's going to be war, there's going to be suffering. 116 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:20,560 But instead he says, no, take care that you would forget, that 117 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:24,680 you would not forget the Lord. Instead, he warns them about 118 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:28,240 this prosperity and the danger that it can bring as they go 119 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:32,040 into the promised land. He warns them about forgetting 120 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:36,560 God in the middle of blessing. One of the most dangerous 121 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:41,480 moments in your life, physical or spiritual, is not when you 122 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:43,240 are empty, but when you are full. 123 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:47,720 You see, as one commentator notes, the danger of the land is 124 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:51,480 not just its idols, it's its abundance. 125 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:58,120 Because abundance can quietly shift your dependence away from 126 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:00,880 God. And Moses is saying you're about 127 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:05,480 to go into a land with houses that are already built, water 128 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:10,960 that you don't have to dig. This repetition was to keep 129 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:14,960 Israel from taking credit for what only God has done. 130 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:17,760 And then he presses it even further. 131 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:21,040 When, when everything is handed to you, when when you step into 132 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:25,160 blessings you did not build, you can lose sight of the God who 133 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:29,120 gave it to you. Because you see, when you're 134 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:32,480 empty, you know you need God. And all of us know that we've 135 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:36,080 had, we have experiences of that in our life of when we are 136 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:40,159 empty, we know we need God and we run to him and we are 137 00:08:40,159 --> 00:08:43,000 desperate. But when you're full, it becomes 138 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:49,200 very easy to live like you don't need God, not intentionally, not 139 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:53,240 not consciously, but subtly. You stop praying the prayers 140 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:57,000 that you used to pray. You stop depending like you used 141 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:00,280 to you. You stopped trusting what you 142 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:03,240 can't see and and trusting what you could. 143 00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:07,480 And this is not a subtle drift that Moses is. 144 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:12,320 This is this is a subtle drift Moses is trying to get apart. 145 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:15,600 He's saying Israel didn't wake up one day and say, you know 146 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:19,880 what, I'm done with God. No, the drift begins much 147 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:24,240 quieter than that. It begins when you start 148 00:09:24,240 --> 00:09:27,400 enjoying the gift instead of remembering the giver. 149 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:31,840 And so blessing leads to forgetting. 150 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:34,400 And Moses is not talking about forgetting God. 151 00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:36,840 He's not saying the Israelites have this memory loss. 152 00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:40,840 What he's saying is it's covenantal language that that we 153 00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:44,320 have looked at all throughout Deuteronomy up to this point of 154 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:47,640 they are forgetting redemption. They're forgetting that they 155 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:50,480 were once slaves in Egypt and God brought them out. 156 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:54,640 And sadly, Moses doesn't just warn them once. 157 00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:58,200 We're going to see in a couple weeks in Deuteronomy 8, he says, 158 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:01,480 take care lest you forget your Lord, lest when you have eaten 159 00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:06,040 in our full, your heart be lifted up and forget the Lord. 160 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:10,560 This is saying you're full, you're satisfied, you're 161 00:10:10,560 --> 00:10:15,320 successful, and then your heart quietly begins to lift away from 162 00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:20,280 God. And just a few verses earlier, 163 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:23,480 we saw that God commanded you shall love the Lord your God 164 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:25,720 with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your 165 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:29,800 strength. And now Moses is warning them 166 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:32,840 here, Hey, pay attention to your heart. 167 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:35,520 Blessings can lead you to forgetting God. 168 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:40,120 And when you forget God, your heart begins to loosen its grip 169 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:44,600 on him. And once your heart loosens its 170 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:46,800 grip on God, it's, it stays empty. 171 00:10:49,080 --> 00:10:53,920 And then it will reach for something, which leads to the 172 00:10:53,920 --> 00:10:57,760 second part of this cycle of, of blessing leads to forgetfulness. 173 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:03,480 Forgetfulness leads to idolatry. Notice what he says immediately 174 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:06,680 in verses 13 through 14. He says it is the Lord your God. 175 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:10,800 You shall fear him, you shall serve, and by his name you shall 176 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:13,440 swear. You shall not go after other 177 00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:16,240 gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you. 178 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:21,080 Moses is going back to that 10 commandment language. 179 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:24,560 He's rephrasing the first two commandments of you shall have 180 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:28,240 no other gods and you shall have serve no idols. 181 00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:31,960 And don't miss what Moses is doing here. 182 00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:35,120 You see, in the Hebrew, God's name is the one that comes 183 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:38,120 first. And So what it's doing is he's 184 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:44,080 literally saying, Yahweh, you shall fear, you shall serve, you 185 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:48,560 shall swear by his name. And so he's front loading this 186 00:11:48,560 --> 00:11:52,240 whole sentence with God himself. And he's saying because this is 187 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:56,800 not about behavior, it goes back to allegiance, goes back to 188 00:11:56,800 --> 00:11:59,680 loyalty. Moses gives 3 words. 189 00:11:59,680 --> 00:12:04,560 Fear, serve, swear. Those are all covenantal 190 00:12:04,560 --> 00:12:08,080 language. To fear him just means you 191 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:09,760 Revere him above everything else. 192 00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:14,000 To serve him means you belong to him and you seek his good. 193 00:12:14,760 --> 00:12:18,920 And to swear by his name means your life is anchored in Him. 194 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:25,240 This is total life allegiance that Moses is telling them. 195 00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:29,400 And here is why that matters. It's because Israel already 196 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:34,040 knows what it means to serve under a master, right? 197 00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:38,200 They they were just in Egypt serving under Pharaoh being his 198 00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:39,840 slaves. They knew what it was like to 199 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:44,160 wake up every day and to belong to someone who demanded 200 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:47,120 everything and gave nothing back. 201 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:52,560 And now God brings them out, and he says, you are not free to 202 00:12:52,560 --> 00:12:57,560 belong to no one. I brought you out so that I can 203 00:12:57,560 --> 00:13:00,880 bring you in. You are now mine. 204 00:13:02,680 --> 00:13:07,160 But here's the difference. Pharaoh enslaved them, God 205 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:11,960 redeemed them. Pharaoh took from them, and God 206 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:14,800 gave to them a land that they did not build. 207 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:20,000 Pharaoh ruled through oppression and God rules through covenantal 208 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:23,400 love. So when Moses is saying, hey, 209 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:26,880 fear God, serve God, swear by his name. 210 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,360 He's saying don't drift back to the thing that was taking life 211 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:36,200 from you because the reality is you will all serve someone or 212 00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:39,200 something. We are created beings to 213 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:43,240 worship. And when our heart loosens its 214 00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:46,800 grip on God, there is going to be something that is going to 215 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:51,760 fill that spot. And if you don't intentionally 216 00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:55,160 worship God, you will replace Him with something or someone 217 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:58,720 else. And here's the hard part. 218 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:00,840 Most of the time it's not something that's evil. 219 00:14:02,560 --> 00:14:04,240 It normally is something that looks normal. 220 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:14,880 Career, comfort, reputation, sports, entertainment, friends, 221 00:14:15,680 --> 00:14:22,400 your spouse, your kids. We replace God with something 222 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:25,200 else and say that this is now my idol. 223 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:29,840 And these are things that are not bad in themselves, but they 224 00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:34,520 become ultimate in our heart. As John Calvin said, the human 225 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:40,560 heart is a perpetual factory of idols in Israel. 226 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:45,320 Moses is saying is you are not immune to this, but I can't help 227 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:49,560 but think that Moses is is sharing this warning with all 228 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:52,000 these things in his mind that he's watched the Israelites 229 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:55,920 struggle in and we could be here all morning talking about how 230 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,880 Israel drifted from the Lord in the stories of it. 231 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:06,800 But remember Exodus 32, Moses had gone up to the mountain to 232 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:10,680 hear the Lord and the Israelites got bored and they were like, 233 00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:12,720 man, I don't think Moses is coming back. 234 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:16,720 So what do the Israelites do? They go to Aaron and say, hey, 235 00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:21,000 Aaron, will you? Will you build us a, a God so 236 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:24,000 that we can worship him and we can dance around him because we 237 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:25,520 don't know if Moses is coming back. 238 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:29,520 You know, these are the same people that saw the Red Sea part 239 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:34,160 and that was not long ago. They had seen God deliver. 240 00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:37,880 They had seen the pillar of smoke and the pillar of fire 241 00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:41,400 leading them. Yet now they're over here saying 242 00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:49,160 let's dance around this golden calf they forgot and they were 243 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:55,560 placed and Moses warns them to not go after other gods. 244 00:15:56,840 --> 00:15:59,760 You see, this is more than just bowing down to statues. 245 00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:05,520 This, this language of go after is the direction of your heart. 246 00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:09,200 It's saying, what? What are you moving towards? 247 00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:12,560 What are you chasing? What are you building your life 248 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:16,040 around? It looks like trusting yourself 249 00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:18,720 more than God. It looks like building your life 250 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:22,680 around comfort instead of obedience looks like longing for 251 00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:25,160 what God has already called you out of. 252 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:30,520 So let me ask you what what do you run to when life gets hard? 253 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:34,320 What do you rely on when you feel uncertain? 254 00:16:34,320 --> 00:16:36,760 What? What do you fear losing the 255 00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:39,600 most? Because the answer to that, 256 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:43,920 those questions, that's what your heart's going after. 257 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:49,280 And Moses adds something that should have sobered Israel and 258 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:53,880 should sober us. He says, for the Lord your God 259 00:16:53,880 --> 00:16:59,520 in your midst is a jealous God, lest the anger of the Lord your 260 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:03,760 God be kindled against you and he destroy you from off the face 261 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:09,760 of the earth. Hear me, This is not petty 262 00:17:09,760 --> 00:17:15,560 jealousy. This is not a jealousy of a weak 263 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:20,280 king. This is the jealousy from the 264 00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:23,240 righteous king who brought you out. 265 00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:26,480 He's telling you so. This is the the rightful king 266 00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:30,800 who brought you out of Egypt. And what he is saying is I will 267 00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:37,200 not share you with anyone. He's not introducing a new idea. 268 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:43,040 He's taking them back to Mount Sinai in Exodus 20, three 269 00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:45,480 through 5, where he says, you shall have no other gods before 270 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:47,480 me. Don't make any carved images, 271 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:50,680 nothing on my likeness. You shall not bow down to them. 272 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:54,440 For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. 273 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:04,240 He will not share you. In other words, this has always 274 00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:08,640 been about exclusive devotion. This is the jealousy that a 275 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:15,320 husband has for his bride, that he will not share you with 276 00:18:15,360 --> 00:18:18,480 anything or anyone because he alone is God. 277 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:22,720 He alone saved you, he alone brought you out of bondage and 278 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:24,600 he alone is worthy to be praised. 279 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:32,400 To go after other gods is not just a a bad day, it's a 280 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:38,760 betrayal of the rightful king who demands your allegiance. 281 00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:43,840 And so when God is forgotten, he is replaced. 282 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:48,280 And when you don't trust him, you start demanding that he 283 00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:53,320 prove himself to you. Notice the third part of the 284 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:57,600 cycle. Idolatry leads to testing. 285 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,760 Idolatry leads to testing. And as, as the heart goes after 286 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:05,440 other things, it leads to this, this moment of, of questioning 287 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:11,320 God and not in a rightful way. But Moses brings up a, a not 288 00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:16,040 great story of Israel. He brings them back to Exodus 289 00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:20,480 17, back to NASA, where these the Israelites are thirsty and 290 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:23,240 they say and they, they complain like man is, is the Lord really 291 00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:26,600 among us? Like, is he really for us? 292 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:30,600 But don't miss what's happening here. 293 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:33,080 When I, when I've read this in the past, I was like, man, 294 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:34,880 that's it. That's an honest question. 295 00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:37,000 They're walking around the wilderness. 296 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:38,920 They're thirsty. They're like, OK, what are we 297 00:19:38,920 --> 00:19:41,760 doing? But this is not an honest cry 298 00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:45,880 from the Israelites. No, God has already delivered 299 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:48,760 them from Egypt. They've already seen the Red Sea 300 00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:50,760 split. He's already provided for them 301 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:57,080 again and again. And yet the Israelites demand 302 00:19:57,080 --> 00:19:59,960 proof. Why? 303 00:19:59,960 --> 00:20:03,160 Because once your heart has shifted to something else. 304 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:05,680 God is no longer the one you trust. 305 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:10,000 And when you don't trust him, you start putting him to the 306 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:15,560 test and you start putting him on trial and and to to test God 307 00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:20,840 is not just asking questions. It's OK to to ask questions from 308 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:25,240 the Lord. This word to test is to demand 309 00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:30,720 that God prove himself according to your expectations. 310 00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:35,960 It's to demand him to do something contrary to his nature 311 00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,360 and character. To test God is really saying, 312 00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:42,200 hey, if you are really good, then do this. 313 00:20:43,360 --> 00:20:46,800 If you are really with me, then then show up like this. 314 00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:51,880 And if we're honest, we do this more often than we think. 315 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:55,360 This is not just an Israel problem. 316 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:58,320 This is an US problem. This is a me problem. 317 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:03,240 This is a you problem, you see, when life doesn't go the way you 318 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:07,480 expected, what do you do? When prayers don't get answered 319 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:12,200 the way that you hoped, when circumstances feel uncertain, 320 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:15,280 you begin to question God. Are you? 321 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:19,800 Are you really good? Are you really for me? 322 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:28,280 Are you really there? And once you get there, once you 323 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:30,800 get to the part of can I really trust you? 324 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:36,200 Once God is no longer trusted, drift is not far behind. 325 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:39,280 You see, the Israelites had forgotten God. 326 00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:42,640 They had made themselves their their idol and now they are 327 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,240 demanding God to do something for them. 328 00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:50,480 When God has forgotten, you no longer trust Him and therefore 329 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:53,360 you test Him. And this is reinforced in the 330 00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:57,160 New Testament when Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4, Satan 331 00:21:57,160 --> 00:22:00,040 comes to him and tempts him with this very thing. 332 00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:04,120 He says, hey, if you are the Son of God, just just throw yourself 333 00:22:04,120 --> 00:22:06,680 down because surely God will save you. 334 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:12,240 In other words, Satan says force God to prove himself. 335 00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:17,280 It's the same temptation Israel faced at Massa. 336 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:23,800 Is the Lord really with me? Will he really come through? 337 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:29,200 And Jesus answers by quoting Deuteronomy 6. 338 00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:32,840 You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. 339 00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:37,840 You see, where Israel failed, Jesus remained faithful. 340 00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:42,680 Like think about that. Israel has seen the Red Sea and 341 00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:45,360 still tested God. Jesus was alone in the 342 00:22:45,360 --> 00:22:49,440 wilderness, hungry, thirsty, alone under pressure. 343 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:52,680 And yet he trusted his Father completely. 344 00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:56,960 Because Jesus didn't come just to teach you what to do. 345 00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:03,520 He came to show us what to do. Where you question, he trusted. 346 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:08,600 Where you demanded he submitted and where you drift, he stood 347 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:13,000 firm. And that's why this matters so 348 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:17,120 much, because the cycle Moses is warning about is the exact place 349 00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:19,320 where your hearts are prone to fail. 350 00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:23,320 Like we just sang. And we are prone to wander, 351 00:23:24,120 --> 00:23:25,880 prone to leave the God that we love. 352 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:30,120 And and so it leads us to the final aspect of this drift, 353 00:23:30,120 --> 00:23:38,000 which is disobedience. This is not necessarily dramatic 354 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:42,720 rebellion, but it's slow, it's quiet, and externally everything 355 00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:46,400 may look fine. Why? 356 00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:49,120 Because Israel's still going to be in the land, he says. 357 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:52,600 I'm going to give you the land. That's I guarantee that. 358 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:55,760 I promise that to your father. So you will live in the land. 359 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:03,200 But how depressing would it be to live in the land and not have 360 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:07,880 the heart to live in the land, to still have their heart back 361 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:11,040 in Egypt, back to the things that God had redeemed them from. 362 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:13,560 He's saying yes, you will be in the land because I promise that. 363 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:18,440 But you'd only be in the land externally. 364 00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:21,720 Internally, your hearts would have been moved. 365 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:24,680 It's like 1 commentary said their bodies were in the 366 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:26,760 wilderness, but their hearts were still in Egypt. 367 00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:31,800 They had moved physically, but their hearts kept drifting 368 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:35,480 backwards. And Jesus gives us one of the 369 00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:39,400 most sobering pictures of this cycle in Luke 1732. 370 00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:44,440 It's just three words. Remember Lot's wife? 371 00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,040 What happened to her? Well, God was rescuing her. 372 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:53,000 He was pulling them out of judgement and leading them to 373 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,280 safety. And she looked back. 374 00:24:57,760 --> 00:24:59,240 It was turned into a pillar of salt. 375 00:25:02,120 --> 00:25:04,600 You see, she didn't run back to Sodom. 376 00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:08,520 She didn't openly reject God and just run back to what she 377 00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:12,680 wanted. No, she looked because her heart 378 00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:16,160 was still there. Her body was leaving, but her 379 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:21,560 heart was still in Sodom. That is the drift that Moses is 380 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:26,320 warning the Israelites about. A heart that is still attached 381 00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:28,040 to what God has called you out of. 382 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,120 He's saying don't let your heart drift. 383 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,320 And church hear me, this is the danger for you. 384 00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:39,280 You can still show up. You can sit in the Pew week in 385 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:41,440 week out. You can sing the songs, you can 386 00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:46,600 listen to the sermons. You can serve and look fine 387 00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:50,800 externally. Yet internally your heart has 388 00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:55,560 moved away from God. So where is your heart looking 389 00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:57,440 back? Where were you tempted to 390 00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:00,080 return? Not physically, but in your 391 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:02,280 desires. Back to old patterns, back to 392 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:06,320 old sins, back to old comforts, back to your old identities. 393 00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:11,000 What has God called you out of that your heart still longs for? 394 00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:15,000 Drift begins when your heart starts looking somewhere else. 395 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,360 And here is the cycle. Moses warning Israel blessing 396 00:26:20,360 --> 00:26:24,920 leads to forgetting God, then to idolatry, then detesting, and 397 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:30,280 then drift from God and left to our own selves. 398 00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:34,240 This is the natural direction of the human heart. 399 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:40,120 We will naturally be on this cycle, a cycle of drift, a cycle 400 00:26:40,120 --> 00:26:43,600 of finding something else to replace our love for the Lord. 401 00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:47,680 And this is true of Israel and this is true for you. 402 00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:52,680 There is no middle ground. You are either drifting from God 403 00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:58,080 or you are standing firm in Him. And if that is where Moses would 404 00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,720 have stopped, this would just be a warning to your life. 405 00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:04,880 But he doesn't stop there because this doesn't just affect 406 00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:07,240 you, it shapes what comes after you. 407 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,400 And He shows us something even more weightier. 408 00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:15,000 The cycle of drift doesn't just affect the Israelites hearing 409 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,760 the instruction. It doesn't stay contained to 410 00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:21,240 their life. It shapes their future. 411 00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:24,440 The hinge verse in this whole section is verse 20. 412 00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:31,440 When it says when your son asks you in time to come, not one 413 00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:35,360 sentence changes everything. It means the condition of your 414 00:27:35,360 --> 00:27:40,240 heart today becomes the starting point of someone else's faith 415 00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:45,120 tomorrow. Moses is about to show them that 416 00:27:45,120 --> 00:27:47,320 they are not just living for themselves. 417 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:52,560 They are setting a trajectory for the future generation, which 418 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:57,440 leads us to the second point this morning, is that your 419 00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:00,520 worship shapes the next generation. 420 00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:03,880 This is the hinge of the whole passage. 421 00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:08,960 It ties it together. And as I look at verse 20, when 422 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:12,920 your son asked you in time to come, I'll be honest with you. 423 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:16,640 This part of the passage hits me differently now than it used to 424 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,320 before I had kids. I've always known this was true. 425 00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:27,240 I was serving the youth. I was unstaffed, so I knew that 426 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:29,880 this was a responsibility to teach the next generation. 427 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:34,120 But the moment Judah entered our life, the moment Silas came 428 00:28:34,120 --> 00:28:39,520 after this part in Deuteronomy no longer became just like, oh, 429 00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:42,600 yeah, that's part of my job or I know that's a responsibility. 430 00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:48,280 But now I have little eyes watching my life and there are 431 00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,280 questions coming in and and Judah is getting to an age where 432 00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:55,840 he's asking these questions. Why do we do this? 433 00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:58,920 Why can't we just go to play space on Sunday? 434 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,920 Why do we even come here? Why does this matter? 435 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:06,040 Is this real? And I am realizing more than 436 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:08,880 ever, they are not going to be shaped by what I say. 437 00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:12,640 What they're going to be shaped by is what do I love? 438 00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:18,240 What do I prioritize? What do I live like my faith is 439 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,320 real. What do they just hear Dad at 440 00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:27,960 night reading the Bible stories going through the motions and 441 00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,640 that's not just true for me. Parents, you feel the weight. 442 00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:34,760 You don't get to press pause on that responsibility. 443 00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:38,600 And even if you're not a parent, your life is still shaping 444 00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:42,120 someone some little eye is looking up to you going. 445 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:49,000 I want to model my life around them because this is what the 446 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,440 people of God do. Faith is always meant to be 447 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:57,760 passed on and lived out. That's why Moses says when your 448 00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:01,680 son asks, it's not if, but he says when. 449 00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:06,560 Because Moses is not just concerned with the heart of 450 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:11,080 Israel's people today, He's concerned with the future. 451 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,000 He's concerned not whether this this next generation is going to 452 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:17,560 inherit the land, because they will. 453 00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:20,880 He's concerned with whether the next generation will know the 454 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:25,800 Lord that gave them the land. And all throughout this chapter, 455 00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:28,040 he's been pressing this. There was one God. 456 00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:31,400 He alone is worthy, and he alone is to be praised. 457 00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,400 And so the word he says, it must be on your heart. 458 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:37,800 It must shape your life. It must fill your home, right? 459 00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:40,560 You shall teach them diligently to your children when you sit, 460 00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:43,480 when you walk, when you lie, when you rise. 461 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,600 This is not occasional instruction. 462 00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:51,920 This is a life where God is constantly brought into view to 463 00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:55,320 the next generation. A word of God is meant to 464 00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:58,640 saturate their home. And so when we get to verse 20, 465 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:03,640 this is this is not a new idea. This is the expected outcome of 466 00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:07,880 a life lived out for the word. And now Moses says when that 467 00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:12,320 kind of life is being lived, when your son asks not if, but 468 00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:16,520 when your son asks Chevy parent in this room. 469 00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:19,720 A little side note, this is not a new development in parenting. 470 00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,160 Kids have been asking why since the beginning of time. 471 00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:27,520 And many of us laugh because we know it. 472 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:30,840 Remember serving at summer camp and they're like, there is no 473 00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:33,120 dumb question. I was like, that is not true 474 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:38,160 because I have two little ones that asked why questions over 475 00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:43,920 and over again. Some of you probably said that 476 00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:45,240 today as we were going to church. 477 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,560 You were like, I don't want to answer this. 478 00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:53,240 And there might be this temptation in that moment. 479 00:31:54,920 --> 00:32:00,120 Us parents, we love to say, because I said so now that might 480 00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:02,400 get you through the moment, but it doesn't address the heart. 481 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:08,200 It doesn't fix the situation and Moses is going to hit on this 482 00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:11,040 because he said, hey, when your son comes and asks this question 483 00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:13,800 of what are these statues? Why do we follow the Lord? 484 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:19,440 Most commentators said the natural flow of thought would 485 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:21,320 have just jumped straight to verse 24. 486 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:25,760 Hey, dad, why? Why do we follow God? 487 00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:30,960 Because the Lord said so. You see that the sons, they're 488 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:33,760 noticing something in the life of their parent that is 489 00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:39,480 different than the culture. You see a faith that is visible 490 00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:44,000 will be questioned. A faith that is visible will be 491 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:47,680 questioned. No obedience equals no 492 00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:49,960 questions. Because he's saying, hey, the 493 00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:53,400 next generation is watching. They are listening. 494 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:56,400 They are forming their understanding of God by what 495 00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:59,240 they see in you. So they ask, hey, what is the 496 00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:01,360 meaning? They're not wanting the rules. 497 00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:04,240 They're asking, hey, why do we live this way? 498 00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:07,000 Why does this matter? Why? 499 00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:11,320 Why don't we go to play space on Sunday instead of church? 500 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:16,320 And here is the weight of it. If they don't physical doesn't 501 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:18,640 answer this question, something else will. 502 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:23,480 Moses knows that they are about to enter a land filled with 503 00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:25,880 other gods, other values, other stories. 504 00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:29,440 And if the people of God are not intentional to teach the next 505 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:33,080 generation why we follow after the Lord, He knows that someone 506 00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:35,480 else will. They will be shaped by 507 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:38,880 everything around them. And so this is not teaching 508 00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:41,560 information. Moses is addressing forming a 509 00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:45,200 worldview in your in the next generation that knows the God 510 00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:52,040 who saved them from Egypt. If they only inherit the 511 00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:55,240 commands without the understanding, they will 512 00:33:55,240 --> 00:34:00,200 eventually abandoned both. And this is not unique to 513 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:02,160 Deuteronomy. This is the pattern of 514 00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:05,040 Scripture. God's works are meant to be 515 00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:07,320 declared from one generation to another. 516 00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:10,480 Psalm 145 six. They shall speak of the might of 517 00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,120 your awesome deeds. Psalm 78 four. 518 00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:16,639 We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming 519 00:34:16,639 --> 00:34:18,440 generation the glorious deeds of the Lord. 520 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:22,000 Psalm 78 seven. So that they should set their 521 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,280 hoping God and not forget the works of God. 522 00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:28,880 Because what you worship will shape what they inherit. 523 00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:33,520 If the cycle of drift continues, if God is forgotten in your 524 00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:35,199 life, then what gets passed down? 525 00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:39,480 Not intentional rebellion, but silence. 526 00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:44,760 Parents stop talking about God, Homes grow spiritually quiet and 527 00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:49,320 kids grow up without context of the God who saves. 528 00:34:51,159 --> 00:34:53,719 They may know the rules but they don't have the reason why and 529 00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:58,640 eventually they don't know God. That's Israel's history. 530 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:03,720 Judges 210. It's one of the saddest verses 531 00:35:03,720 --> 00:35:06,080 in all of Scripture, in my opinion. 532 00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:10,240 It says in all that generation also were gathered to their 533 00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:15,840 fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did 534 00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:19,200 not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. 535 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:24,600 Joshua had just died, and now we have a generation that raises up 536 00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:27,720 that does not know God. And if you're familiar with the 537 00:35:27,720 --> 00:35:29,800 story of Judges, it gets really bad. 538 00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:35,040 Not because God failed, not because the truth disappeared, 539 00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:38,800 but because the story was no longer told, explained, and 540 00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:42,080 understood. So Moses presses into them 541 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:46,720 before they even enter the land. Do not just obey, teach, do not 542 00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:49,920 follow, explain. Do not just carry the commands. 543 00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:52,880 Pass on the meaning on why we do it. 544 00:35:56,480 --> 00:36:00,920 While we are not entering the land of Canaan, we are living in 545 00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:05,080 a world filled with competing voices, competing truths, 546 00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:09,080 competing identities, competing gods, and they are all coming 547 00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:12,560 after the next generation. Look around at the kids in this 548 00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:15,560 room. The world is coming after them 549 00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:19,000 and telling them lies. And if we do not teach them, 550 00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,360 Moses says we will have a generation that does not know 551 00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:27,440 God. We are one generation away of if 552 00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:33,120 if we just assume that they'll know the command has not 553 00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:35,880 changed. The New Testament picks up this 554 00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:39,280 same responsibility. Ephesians 6 forefathers bring 555 00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:41,760 them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, and 556 00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:44,600 even it goes beyond the home. What you have heard from me 557 00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:48,160 entrust the faithful men. Second Timothy 22. 558 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,640 The pattern is the same. Truth received, truth lived, 559 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:59,840 truth passed on, and Moses is making something clear to Israel 560 00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:03,240 and to us today. The responsibility is not 561 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:05,720 optional. So it's not a thing. 562 00:37:05,720 --> 00:37:07,920 We sign a waiver and say, yeah, I'm going to opt out on that 563 00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:13,080 class. Parents, this is primarily 564 00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:16,520 yours. You are the frontline disciple 565 00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:19,080 errs. You are the ones that answer the 566 00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:21,720 why. You connect obedience to who God 567 00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:24,600 is and what he has done and you do not outsource that. 568 00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:29,200 As Wright points out in his commentary, God is forming a 569 00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:35,960 nation by forming households, parents. 570 00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:38,520 What that means is you are ordained to be the primary 571 00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:43,880 teacher of your kids and as someone that feels the weight of 572 00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:49,400 that, you can go in confidence knowing that God gave the kids 573 00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:54,600 to you, nobody else. He said you are to teach them. 574 00:37:55,720 --> 00:37:58,920 But it doesn't stop there. The people of God also share the 575 00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:01,760 responsibility. Notice he didn't just pull in 576 00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:03,600 all the people that have that have kids. 577 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:07,800 He's he's teaching the whole Israelite community. 578 00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:11,600 And So what that means for us is the people of God are the ones 579 00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:14,520 that preserve the truth. They model faithfulness. 580 00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:18,520 They guard against idolatry because every generation is 581 00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:21,320 either passing down truth or losing it. 582 00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:26,120 God's design is multi generational faithfulness 583 00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:30,280 through both family discipleship and community reinforcement. 584 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:35,160 That's just design for the body of believers is that the parents 585 00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:39,400 are teaching it. And then us, me, Amy, all the 586 00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:42,360 teachers in, in Sunday school, all the adult teachers, all 587 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,160 we're doing is reinforcing what parents are to be doing. 588 00:38:47,240 --> 00:38:49,520 We are one generation away from forgetting God. 589 00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:56,280 And so because Moses doesn't just assume the question, he 590 00:38:56,280 --> 00:39:01,640 gives the answer, If this is the cycle of drift, how do we break 591 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:05,720 this? And Moses doesn't point to tell 592 00:39:05,720 --> 00:39:08,480 Israel, hey, try harder. What he does is he points them 593 00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:15,240 to remember which point #3 is the cycle of remembering when 594 00:39:15,240 --> 00:39:21,520 God is rehearsed and passed on. See, Moses gives the answer to 595 00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:25,960 the son's question, and for me it was, it was a striking 1. 596 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:27,680 Moses doesn't answer with a rule. 597 00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:31,640 He doesn't say because God said so. 598 00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:38,880 He doesn't say because this is what we do, because really, in 599 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:43,600 my understanding and my thought was moral obligation to an 600 00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:47,480 imperative God should be enough to elicit obedience. 601 00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:51,920 But all of us have kids in the room. 602 00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:53,680 We understand that that is not true. 603 00:39:55,720 --> 00:39:59,280 In other words, we think, hey, yeah, just since God said so, do 604 00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:03,840 it. And in the language of a parent, 605 00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:10,440 hey, because I said so. But this is not what Moses does. 606 00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:18,640 Instead, Moses answers the question with a story that yes, 607 00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:20,920 the commandments and the statutes and all that is wrapped 608 00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:25,680 into it, but he he answers the sun with a story, and it's the 609 00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:33,480 story of redemption he begins. As one commentary has said, this 610 00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:37,400 is the most concise but comprehensive summary of the 611 00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:41,360 Exodus. It is the Gospel of the Old 612 00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:47,120 Testament in a nutshell. And so he begins by saying, we 613 00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:50,720 were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. We were once in bondage. 614 00:40:50,720 --> 00:40:54,040 We were once helpless, bound. There was no way out. 615 00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:58,240 We could not fix ourselves. But then God stepped in and he 616 00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:00,200 rescued us. He brought us out. 617 00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:05,480 God acted, God intervened, God delivered us from Egypt. 618 00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:09,240 And then he continues and says, he shows signs and wonders to 619 00:41:09,240 --> 00:41:14,320 Egypt, and God exercised his judgement on Egypt, and then he 620 00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:16,960 brought them out to bring them in. 621 00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:19,920 God didn't just save them from something. 622 00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:22,480 He says, Son, he brought us out of Egypt so that we could be 623 00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:26,640 brought into the promised land, from slavery to promise, from 624 00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:31,680 bondage to belonging. And then the Lord commanded us 625 00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:35,840 to keep these statutes, keep these rules, keep all the 626 00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:39,680 commandments. After deliverance came the 627 00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:42,440 commandments, and that order matters. 628 00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:46,320 God did not save Israel because they were good. 629 00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:51,000 He saved them and then gave them the commandments. 630 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:55,880 Redemption, then obedience, grace, then response. 631 00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:03,520 And then he says the fruit of that will be righteousness, not 632 00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:07,160 because they earned it, but but as the fruit of trusting God in 633 00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:10,240 walking in his ways, Right? Do you see the pattern? 634 00:42:10,240 --> 00:42:12,920 This is the opposite of the cycle of drift. 635 00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:16,960 That was forgetting God, idolatry, testing, and then 636 00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:19,400 drifting. Now what we see is it starts 637 00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:22,400 with remembering. They've got to remember that 638 00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:26,880 they were once slaves. Then they worship the Lord has 639 00:42:26,880 --> 00:42:31,640 brought us out. They trust the Lord has brought 640 00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:37,240 us in to something and then they obey the Lord has commanded keep 641 00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:40,880 these statutes and then they pass it on. 642 00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:45,720 Then you shall say to your son, we were Pharaoh's slaves. 643 00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:50,520 Do you see this? This is how Israel is to break 644 00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:55,680 the cycle of drift. And sadly, they don't many, many 645 00:42:56,360 --> 00:42:59,080 moments in their life that we, if you read the Bible, you will 646 00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:03,040 see Israel fails to do this. And when they fail to remember, 647 00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:05,600 when they fail to worship, when they fail to trust, when they 648 00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:09,360 fail to obey, when they fail to pass it on, it leads them into a 649 00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:11,320 cycle of drift like we saw at the beginning. 650 00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:17,120 But the beauty of this is this is not just Israel's story. 651 00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:24,520 This is the gospel. We were once slaves to our sin, 652 00:43:25,480 --> 00:43:28,480 in bondage with no way out, no way to get us out. 653 00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:32,000 Ephesians tells us that we are dead in our sins and trespasses, 654 00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:38,040 that we were once that way. But then God stepped in. 655 00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:43,480 God intervened. God put on flesh and live the 656 00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:44,440 life that we were supposed to do. 657 00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:46,240 He didn't come with plagues and signs. 658 00:43:46,240 --> 00:43:50,160 He didn't come with all these commandments. 659 00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:54,840 He came with his Son, God, put on flesh, dwelt among us, live 660 00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:56,320 that perfect life that we were supposed to. 661 00:43:56,320 --> 00:44:00,120 He was obedient when Israel failed, He when we forget, He 662 00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:03,240 remembered. When we drift, He stood firm. 663 00:44:03,240 --> 00:44:05,240 And then the beauty of it all is he. 664 00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:09,720 He took the exodus and like magnified it and He went to the 665 00:44:09,720 --> 00:44:14,400 cross and He bore the sins that and He bore the death that we 666 00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:18,200 deserved, and the wrath of God was poured out. 667 00:44:18,200 --> 00:44:20,720 The thing that was meant for us, the cup that was meant for you 668 00:44:20,720 --> 00:44:30,520 and me, God took it on himself and He died so that through Him 669 00:44:30,800 --> 00:44:33,560 you could be brought out, and not just brought out, but 670 00:44:33,560 --> 00:44:37,800 brought in. He does not leave you alone and 671 00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:39,960 you're wandering. He says, I have brought you out 672 00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:46,680 of bondage into my family, brought into forgiveness, 673 00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:49,480 brought into life, brought into relationship with God. 674 00:44:49,480 --> 00:44:54,760 And so when Moses says you were once slaves, that is the shadow 675 00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:56,480 in the gospel is the fulfillment. 676 00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:01,440 So when your kids ask, when the next generation comes up to you 677 00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:03,600 and asks, hey, why do you follow? 678 00:45:03,720 --> 00:45:07,120 You don't start with rules. You start with the gospel. 679 00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:12,360 You start with Jesus of this is who I was, this is who I was in 680 00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:18,280 bondage. But then God stepped in and he 681 00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:22,280 redeemed me and he saved me. And This is why I follow him, 682 00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:26,400 because obedience is not the basis of righteousness, it's the 683 00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:32,280 expression of devotion. We obey not because we get 684 00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:34,880 something from it, but it's because it's the only logical 685 00:45:34,880 --> 00:45:38,120 response to the sovereign Lord who paid for our sins. 686 00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:43,800 Why would we not obey? And so Moses has shown us 2 687 00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:50,080 paths, 2 cycles, 1 begins when you forget God, the other begins 688 00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:54,560 when you remember him, when you obey, when you trust, when you 689 00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:59,800 worship. And some of you in this room, 690 00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:04,560 you, you hear these words of slavery, bondage, redemption, 691 00:46:04,560 --> 00:46:09,120 deliverance, and, and maybe you just always thought that was for 692 00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:13,720 someone else. But the reality is apart from 693 00:46:13,720 --> 00:46:19,120 Christ, that is all of us, we are not as free as we think we 694 00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:21,880 are. We are bound in sin. 695 00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:24,320 We are under its weight. We cannot fix ourselves. 696 00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:28,120 We cannot free ourselves. And the bad news is you deserve 697 00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:30,280 death. But the good news of the gospel 698 00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:35,320 is that there is life in Jesus. The good news is that God does 699 00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,800 not leave his people there. He steps in. 700 00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,960 And if you have never trusted him, this is where your response 701 00:46:42,200 --> 00:46:45,680 begins. Not with trying harder, not with 702 00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:49,560 cleaning yourself up, but with surrender, with faith, with 703 00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:54,000 saying God, I need to be rescued because I cannot do it myself. 704 00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:58,280 And for those of you who do know him, this passage should press 705 00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:02,040 you in a different way because the question is not have you 706 00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:04,880 been brought out, but what are you passing on? 707 00:47:06,240 --> 00:47:07,800 Because your life is not neutral. 708 00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,880 It is shaping someone. It is forming someone, it is 709 00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:14,640 teaching someone. And so parents, you feel that. 710 00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:20,480 So let me ask you a question that has been on my heart this 711 00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:25,880 week is, are your children learning from your words, from 712 00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:29,920 your example, from your experiences, your expectations? 713 00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:33,960 Are they learning that you care about nothing more than this, 714 00:47:35,120 --> 00:47:39,240 that their lives would be fully spent for the Lord Jesus Christ? 715 00:47:41,600 --> 00:47:44,680 Do they know clearly, consistently, unmistakably that 716 00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:47,800 that your greatest desire for them is not success? 717 00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:51,800 It's not comfort, it's not reputation, it's not a good job, 718 00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:54,800 it's not marrying the right person, it's not even about 719 00:47:54,800 --> 00:47:59,000 making you proud, but your greatest desire for them is that 720 00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:03,160 they would belong fully to the Redeemer and live for His glory. 721 00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:08,280 The Lord has been wrecking my heart this week with this. 722 00:48:09,040 --> 00:48:11,440 That is, that is something that we pray with Judah and Silas 723 00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:14,800 every night. It's not that, oh man, they'd be 724 00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:19,880 amazing, man, which we want that, but we pray that God, you 725 00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:24,480 would bring them out of their bondage, that they would follow 726 00:48:24,480 --> 00:48:26,960 after you. That is our greatest desire 727 00:48:30,200 --> 00:48:32,800 because they are asking and any of the even if they don't say it 728 00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:36,360 out loud, they're asking you what will you give them? 729 00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:40,720 What will you give them rules or will you give them a reason? 730 00:48:42,240 --> 00:48:45,480 Will you give them expectations or will you give them the story 731 00:48:45,720 --> 00:48:51,760 of their Savior and church? This is not just on parents. 732 00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:54,600 We are a people. We are called to preserve the 733 00:48:54,600 --> 00:48:57,560 truth, to model faithfulness, and to pass it on to the next 734 00:48:57,560 --> 00:49:00,040 generation. Everyone of you in this room is 735 00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:03,120 shaping someone. So what does your life make 736 00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:06,520 clear about him? If someone watched your life 737 00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:09,600 closely, what would you say? What would they say you worship? 738 00:49:10,160 --> 00:49:13,120 What would they say matters most in your life? 739 00:49:14,240 --> 00:49:17,200 Because whatever that is, that is what you are passing on. 740 00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:25,600 So maybe for you the response is simple. 741 00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:29,680 You need to remember again, you've been drifting, your heart 742 00:49:29,680 --> 00:49:31,840 has been pulled in other directions and today the moment 743 00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:35,800 is to come back. Maybe for you the response is 744 00:49:35,800 --> 00:49:38,040 repentance. The there are things you've been 745 00:49:38,040 --> 00:49:41,360 going after. There have been parts of your 746 00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:45,280 heart that you have given to something else that you need to 747 00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:49,120 go back and trust God. Maybe today is the moment to 748 00:49:49,120 --> 00:49:50,600 turn. And maybe for you the response 749 00:49:51,080 --> 00:49:55,280 is responsibility to stop assuming faith will just carry 750 00:49:55,280 --> 00:49:58,760 over and start intentionally passing it on in your home and 751 00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:02,680 your conversations in your life. And maybe for some of you, this 752 00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:05,120 is the moment you trust Christ for the first time. 753 00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:10,680 So as we respond now, as Jeff comes and leads us in a time of 754 00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:13,880 response, don't just think about what you've heard. 755 00:50:15,480 --> 00:50:19,360 Think about what your life is becoming, because the question 756 00:50:19,360 --> 00:50:22,680 is not what do I believe? The question is, what will the 757 00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:27,120 next generation inherit from me? Let's pray. 758 00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:32,400 Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. 759 00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:35,160 God, I thank you for this warning that Moses gave the 760 00:50:35,160 --> 00:50:38,920 Israelites years and years ago, but it's still true for us 761 00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:43,560 today. Now, God, our hearts are still 762 00:50:43,560 --> 00:50:46,840 prone to wander. We are still guilty of, of, of 763 00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:50,720 falling away from our first love and putting other things in, in 764 00:50:50,720 --> 00:50:56,360 your place. And God, I am thank, I am so 765 00:50:56,360 --> 00:51:00,160 grateful that that the story did not end for Israel in Egypt, but 766 00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:03,240 that you brought them out. So that means that you came and 767 00:51:03,240 --> 00:51:09,040 you stepped in because God, we know that that the Scripture 768 00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:11,600 tells us that all of us have sinned and we've fallen short of 769 00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:14,560 the glory of God and that the punishment of that is death. 770 00:51:15,680 --> 00:51:17,920 And the beauty of the gospel is that you paid it, God. 771 00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:22,320 So I pray for the hearts in this room that don't know that that 772 00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:25,920 they are still living in bondage to whatever sin has a hold of 773 00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:27,960 them. I pray that your spirit would 774 00:51:27,960 --> 00:51:31,240 break those chains and deliver them. 775 00:51:32,360 --> 00:51:34,960 And God, I pray for the one that's drifting, the one that's 776 00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:39,120 forgotten you, the one that's that's bought into the lies of 777 00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:40,800 the world. I pray that you would use this 778 00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:44,200 morning in your word to bring them back to you. 779 00:51:47,120 --> 00:51:50,280 God, man, we go live out what we know is true. 780 00:51:52,200 --> 00:51:57,040 See you name we pray, Amen. Thanks for listening. 781 00:51:57,160 --> 00:51:59,720 To learn more about Heritage Church or if you'd like to 782 00:51:59,720 --> 00:52:02,160 respond to this sermon, visit our website at 783 00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:05,760 www.heritageshawnee.org.