WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.080 We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church. 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:11.599 This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication, redistribution, or any other 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:15.280 use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church. 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:22.620 Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org. 00:00:27.219 --> 00:00:28.460 Good morning, everyone. 00:00:28.460 --> 00:00:32.560 I'm Isaac Lee, and I'm a part of the youth group at Christ Church. 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:40.500 Today's scripture reading is from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 4 through 25, 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:41.960 as printed in the liturgy. 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:48.100 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:55.640 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 00:00:55.640 --> 00:00:59.799 These commandments that I gave you today are to be on your hearts. 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:02.020 Impress them on your children. 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:07.920 Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:08.819 and when you get up. 00:01:10.060 --> 00:01:13.640 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 00:01:14.500 --> 00:01:17.840 Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:25.260 When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:29.859 to give you a land with large, flourishing cities. 00:01:29.859 --> 00:01:37.319 And you did not build houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide. 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:42.900 Wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant. 00:01:43.700 --> 00:01:47.739 Then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, 00:01:48.219 --> 00:01:51.280 who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:54.040 Fear the Lord your God. 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:57.079 Serve him only and take your oaths in his name. 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:01.359 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the people around you. 00:02:01.980 --> 00:02:07.700 For the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God, and his anger will burn against you, 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:09.939 and he will destroy you from the face of the land. 00:02:11.219 --> 00:02:14.460 Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massa. 00:02:14.460 --> 00:02:20.500 Be sure to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. 00:02:21.700 --> 00:02:25.780 Do what is right and good in the Lord's sight, so that it may go well with you, 00:02:26.140 --> 00:02:31.340 and you may go in and take over the good land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, 00:02:32.200 --> 00:02:35.659 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said. 00:02:36.600 --> 00:02:38.900 In the future, when your son asks you, 00:02:38.900 --> 00:02:44.560 What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees, and laws the Lord our God has commended you? 00:02:45.099 --> 00:02:45.599 Tell him, 00:02:46.140 --> 00:02:51.140 We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 00:02:52.460 --> 00:02:56.159 Before our eyes, the Lord sent signs and wonders, great and terrible, 00:02:56.780 --> 00:02:59.020 on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:04.900 But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. 00:03:04.900 --> 00:03:10.240 The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:14.840 so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:20.580 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, 00:03:21.080 --> 00:03:22.159 that will be our righteousness. 00:03:24.180 --> 00:03:26.360 The grass withers and the flowers fade. 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:29.420 The Lord for us stands forever. 00:03:34.900 --> 00:03:50.340 Good morning, Christ Church. 00:03:50.420 --> 00:03:53.680 What a beautiful baptismal service today. 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:56.140 I'm not sure if we even need a sermon, but here we go. 00:03:56.920 --> 00:03:58.280 My name is Pastor Jonathan. 00:03:58.420 --> 00:04:00.300 If you're new with us, we're delighted to have you. 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:04.900 And, you know, human relationships are complicated. 00:04:05.040 --> 00:04:06.140 Anyone agree with that? 00:04:06.340 --> 00:04:10.460 It seems like they've become maybe even more complicated over the past two years. 00:04:10.620 --> 00:04:12.300 I don't know if anybody else experiences that. 00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:17.420 But when you think about how people feel about each other, 00:04:17.500 --> 00:04:20.759 there's a wide spectrum of experience. 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:25.840 You know, on the one end, we might so dislike someone that we'd say, 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:28.840 we'd go so far as to say, you know, I actually hate him. 00:04:28.839 --> 00:04:35.500 And then there's others, you know, we'd say, well, I kind of am indifferent about that person. 00:04:35.599 --> 00:04:38.539 I don't really care one way or the other about them. 00:04:39.259 --> 00:04:42.159 And then there are people that we say, you know, I like him. 00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:42.759 I like her. 00:04:42.859 --> 00:04:43.959 They're good people. 00:04:44.060 --> 00:04:48.479 And then there's those in our lives we'd say, you know, I love, like I love my mom. 00:04:48.579 --> 00:04:49.439 And I love my dad. 00:04:49.479 --> 00:04:50.319 I love my siblings. 00:04:50.479 --> 00:04:52.279 I love my kids. 00:04:52.279 --> 00:05:00.299 But then, you know, there are those really special people in our lives where we say, I am in love with them. 00:05:01.019 --> 00:05:02.739 I am in love with her. 00:05:02.819 --> 00:05:04.359 I am in love with him. 00:05:04.359 --> 00:05:07.339 And if you've ever experienced that, I don't need to explain it to you. 00:05:07.359 --> 00:05:08.919 You just know what that means, right? 00:05:09.599 --> 00:05:14.339 Well, the same is true in the way we feel about God. 00:05:14.339 --> 00:05:19.419 You know, some people look at their lives and they say, you know, my life is so messed up. 00:05:19.459 --> 00:05:20.359 It's been so hard. 00:05:20.419 --> 00:05:23.699 My situation, my circumstances, if there is a God, I hate God. 00:05:24.599 --> 00:05:27.539 And other people say, you know, I'm kind of indifferent. 00:05:27.679 --> 00:05:30.779 I don't really care if God's there one way or the other. 00:05:31.239 --> 00:05:32.739 He's not that big of a deal to me. 00:05:33.419 --> 00:05:35.759 And other people say, well, I like God. 00:05:35.799 --> 00:05:37.179 I sometimes say thank you. 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:39.099 You know, sometimes I ask for help. 00:05:39.459 --> 00:05:40.939 And others say, you know, I love God. 00:05:41.039 --> 00:05:42.139 God's my protector. 00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:43.019 He's my provider. 00:05:43.019 --> 00:05:49.099 But then there are those people in the world who say, I'm in love with God. 00:05:50.180 --> 00:05:53.219 I am in love with God. 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:55.839 And, you know, Jesus was one of those people. 00:05:56.259 --> 00:06:00.539 Jesus said, I am in love with God. 00:06:00.599 --> 00:06:07.819 And that's what I want for anybody who's going to come follow me is I want to help you fall in love with God. 00:06:07.819 --> 00:06:16.620 And as we think about Jesus for a minute, I just want to help you imagine three scenes from his life as we open up here. 00:06:16.860 --> 00:06:22.139 I want you to imagine Jesus as a kid in those hidden years of his life. 00:06:23.139 --> 00:06:29.759 You know, what were the first words that when Jesus could talk, what were the first words that he learned to say? 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:39.599 When he was six years old or 10 years old or 14 years old, when he was there with his mother Mary at home helping her make the daily bread, 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:45.439 when he was out on the construction site with his dad Joseph helping build stone houses, 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:52.220 when he was there at the Sabbath in the synagogue helping with worship services, 00:06:52.220 --> 00:06:54.640 what was Jesus thinking? 00:06:55.280 --> 00:06:57.500 What was his foundation and framework? 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:00.140 What centered him and grounded him? 00:07:00.139 --> 00:07:06.019 Well, Jesus, like all first century Jews, was praying the Shema. 00:07:06.379 --> 00:07:08.259 Those are the first words he ever learned. 00:07:08.479 --> 00:07:10.659 Shema is the Hebrew word for hear. 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:16.279 Deuteronomy 6.4, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:20.740 And with the setting of the sun and the rising of the sun, the rhythms of the creation, 00:07:21.399 --> 00:07:27.539 all the people of God would start and end their day praying these words. 00:07:27.540 --> 00:07:32.340 And when they did, they would embrace the yoke of the kingdom of God. 00:07:32.420 --> 00:07:38.520 When they prayed these words, they would commit themselves to God's purposes on earth as it is in heaven, 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:40.400 no matter what the cost. 00:07:40.500 --> 00:07:47.920 They were pledging their loyalty to the God of the Exodus who was giving his people their inheritance. 00:07:48.100 --> 00:07:52.379 That's Jesus as a child, as a youth, as a kid, right? 00:07:52.379 --> 00:08:00.219 Now I want you to fast forward and I want you to imagine Jesus as a 30-year-old at the start of his ministry. 00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:05.159 He's just been baptized and now he goes out to the Judean wilderness 00:08:05.159 --> 00:08:11.500 and he's there fasting and praying for 40 days in this barren, howling wasteland. 00:08:12.300 --> 00:08:16.259 And when he's there, he's being tempted by the evil one, 00:08:16.259 --> 00:08:23.199 tempted by this dark power that's trying to question his identity as the beloved son of God, 00:08:23.259 --> 00:08:28.019 trying to get Jesus to move off his course of going to the cross. 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:30.899 And how does Jesus respond to this? 00:08:30.980 --> 00:08:36.379 What is he meditating on in the midst of his trial, in the midst of his temptations? 00:08:36.539 --> 00:08:41.899 What book of the Bible does he quote to drive evil away from him? 00:08:41.899 --> 00:08:47.139 We know that he quoted Deuteronomy 6, 7, and 8. 00:08:47.740 --> 00:08:53.059 In fact, he quoted here one of the scriptures in our text today, verse 16. 00:08:53.939 --> 00:08:54.340 He said, 00:08:54.620 --> 00:08:57.399 Do not put the Lord your God to the test. 00:08:57.799 --> 00:09:04.220 In other words, trust in the Lord, love the Lord, Yahweh our Father, with everything you've got. 00:09:05.419 --> 00:09:08.899 And now I want you to think about Jesus not only as a child 00:09:08.899 --> 00:09:11.620 and not only as a man being tempted in the wilderness, 00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:16.259 but I want you to fast forward about three years to the end of his life. 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:19.480 It's the final week before he goes to the cross. 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:22.860 And Jesus is teaching in the temple courts. 00:09:23.179 --> 00:09:25.539 And somebody comes up to him and they say, 00:09:25.980 --> 00:09:30.879 Rabbi, tell us what is the greatest commandment in the whole Bible? 00:09:31.639 --> 00:09:36.480 And Jesus, without hesitating, without even having to think about it, 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:38.639 he goes, Deuteronomy 6, 5. 00:09:39.100 --> 00:09:45.759 Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:51.639 That is the number one priority of every human being. 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:59.480 Jesus, from his earliest days until his final week before the cross and beyond, 00:09:59.860 --> 00:10:04.379 Jesus was a man who had fallen in love with God. 00:10:04.379 --> 00:10:07.500 He was in love with God. 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:12.080 And he wanted everybody to fall in love with God as well. 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:17.200 He wanted people to fall in love and to stay in love with God. 00:10:17.960 --> 00:10:23.379 And so that's what we're going to be talking about here for the next few minutes from Deuteronomy 6. 00:10:23.379 --> 00:10:31.039 And what I want to say today is that our love supreme is the life-giving Lord. 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:35.639 Our love supreme is the life-giving Lord. 00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:39.139 And I want to think about our love supreme because Jesus quoted it. 00:10:39.220 --> 00:10:40.340 He said in verse 5, 00:10:40.679 --> 00:10:45.759 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:49.639 And kids, I've given you these 10 fingers to kind of remember that before. 00:10:49.639 --> 00:10:58.279 Maybe you remember, love the Lord your God because he loved us first. 00:10:58.779 --> 00:10:58.939 Right? 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:04.779 Let the loyal love that God has for you be mirrored back to him. 00:11:04.779 --> 00:11:06.519 And it says here, 00:11:06.839 --> 00:11:08.959 With all, all, all. 00:11:09.059 --> 00:11:14.519 All your heart, which is the seat of your thought and your will and your intentions. 00:11:14.740 --> 00:11:20.100 All of your soul, which is your inner self, with all of your desires and affections. 00:11:20.899 --> 00:11:22.220 All of your strength. 00:11:22.339 --> 00:11:23.459 Literally in Hebrew it says, 00:11:23.959 --> 00:11:25.459 With all of your very muchness. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:28.159 Love him to your utmost. 00:11:28.579 --> 00:11:30.779 All you can muster to excess. 00:11:30.919 --> 00:11:33.319 Be over the top with your love. 00:11:33.320 --> 00:11:36.800 Don't waste your time being half-hearted. 00:11:36.940 --> 00:11:39.020 Don't waste your time going through the motions. 00:11:39.520 --> 00:11:40.980 Give it everything you've got. 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:45.140 Go all in and love with God to your whole capacity. 00:11:45.140 --> 00:11:50.720 At the deep roots of your life with the totality of your being. 00:11:51.920 --> 00:11:56.840 Have you noticed that this word love can be such a slippery word? 00:11:57.500 --> 00:12:02.720 It can be so vague and abstract that it becomes kind of meaningless. 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:05.820 And so it's defined for us here. 00:12:05.940 --> 00:12:06.300 It says, 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:09.340 Let your love be deep and let it be wide. 00:12:10.020 --> 00:12:17.200 Let your love for the Lord be deep in every aspect of your individual life. 00:12:17.340 --> 00:12:18.120 Verse 7 says, 00:12:18.940 --> 00:12:26.960 In other words, in your private life and your public life. 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:28.680 The Lord is someone to be loved. 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:31.740 Not just in here with your family and with your church. 00:12:31.800 --> 00:12:35.820 But also out there with your colleagues and with your neighbors. 00:12:35.960 --> 00:12:38.620 Love him at all places and with all people. 00:12:38.740 --> 00:12:39.340 It says. 00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:40.340 It says, 00:12:40.700 --> 00:12:44.960 Talk about the Lord when you lie down and when you get up. 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:46.340 In other words, 00:12:46.420 --> 00:12:50.980 From breakfast to bedtime and all of your waking hours in between. 00:12:50.980 --> 00:12:56.360 The Lord is not someone to love on Sunday and then to do something else Monday to Saturday. 00:12:56.940 --> 00:13:01.779 He's not someone to love in the morning and then the rest of your day is just kind of wide open for whatever. 00:13:02.440 --> 00:13:03.019 It says, 00:13:03.379 --> 00:13:05.680 Love the Lord your God at all times. 00:13:06.340 --> 00:13:07.279 And in all places. 00:13:07.480 --> 00:13:09.080 With all people. 00:13:09.980 --> 00:13:11.279 And then it says in verse 8, 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:13.840 Tie these things about the Lord. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:18.560 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:19.000 In other words, 00:13:19.119 --> 00:13:26.219 Let the love of the Lord guard your thinking and your head and what's on the inside. 00:13:26.979 --> 00:13:32.319 And also let it guide your acting with your hands and what's on the outside. 00:13:32.479 --> 00:13:36.459 And let there be no division between the inner and the outer. 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:41.639 Love the Lord with your whole self, body and soul. 00:13:41.639 --> 00:13:49.500 In every nook and cranny of your thoughts and your mind and your actions with your life. 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:53.659 Let it be affected by your love for the Lord. 00:13:54.659 --> 00:13:58.899 Love the Lord in a deep way in every aspect of your individual life, it says. 00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:05.340 But also love the Lord in a wide way with every aspect of our corporate life together. 00:14:05.340 --> 00:14:07.660 It says, it doesn't say, 00:14:08.580 --> 00:14:09.840 Hear, O Jonathan. 00:14:11.259 --> 00:14:13.160 Though it does include me. 00:14:13.259 --> 00:14:13.639 It says, 00:14:14.019 --> 00:14:15.000 Hear, O Israel. 00:14:15.420 --> 00:14:15.879 Plural. 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:17.980 All the people of God. 00:14:18.040 --> 00:14:19.200 And it says to us, 00:14:20.040 --> 00:14:20.620 Verse 9, 00:14:20.860 --> 00:14:26.480 Write these things about the Lord on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. 00:14:26.500 --> 00:14:27.300 What does that mean? 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:41.859 Well, the door frames of our houses means that the Lord is someone to be loved within the collective whole of our family and our extended family and our friends and all the neighbors that we want to draw into that circle of love. 00:14:42.779 --> 00:14:43.639 And then it says, 00:14:43.899 --> 00:14:45.979 Write these things about the Lord on your city gates. 00:14:46.019 --> 00:14:46.679 What does that mean? 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:51.879 It means that this is the place where people daily pass through. 00:14:52.659 --> 00:14:56.059 And public affairs are being deliberated. 00:14:56.059 --> 00:14:58.799 At the city gates, legal agreements are being made. 00:14:58.899 --> 00:15:01.119 And markets are being set up. 00:15:01.199 --> 00:15:03.179 And justice is being served. 00:15:03.259 --> 00:15:06.759 And this tells us that the Lord is someone to be loved socially. 00:15:07.559 --> 00:15:12.219 He's someone to be loved politically and economically and legally and commercially. 00:15:13.239 --> 00:15:16.000 In the ways that we conduct our businesses. 00:15:16.239 --> 00:15:19.719 In the ways that we engage the daily news cycle. 00:15:19.720 --> 00:15:26.840 In the ways that we interact with people that have different points of view and different lifestyles from us. 00:15:27.240 --> 00:15:33.440 It includes the way that we treat people who are the least and the last in society on the margins. 00:15:34.139 --> 00:15:40.440 It includes the way that we care for the weak and the poor who are sitting at the city gate. 00:15:40.440 --> 00:15:43.720 And this is kind of jumping ahead a couple weeks. 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:50.960 But Deuteronomy chapter 10 says that the Lord defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow. 00:15:51.820 --> 00:15:54.260 And loves the foreigner residing among you. 00:15:54.380 --> 00:15:55.660 Giving them food and clothing. 00:15:56.180 --> 00:15:58.300 And you are to love those who are foreigners. 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:01.320 For you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:10.640 What this says is that we're to let our love for the Lord so spill out and overflow onto this quartet of the vulnerable. 00:16:12.140 --> 00:16:12.780 Orphans. 00:16:13.620 --> 00:16:14.140 Widows. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:15.540 Immigrants. 00:16:16.020 --> 00:16:20.340 And the poor that are sitting at our city gate. 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:25.500 Now where does all this love begin? 00:16:25.500 --> 00:16:32.580 Where is it that we would fall in love with the Lord in the way that's being described here? 00:16:33.139 --> 00:16:36.200 The place where it all begins is in the heart. 00:16:37.100 --> 00:16:38.080 It's in the heart. 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:38.980 It says in verse 6, 00:16:39.080 --> 00:16:43.039 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 00:16:43.960 --> 00:16:50.440 That tells us that this is not about a legalistic conformity to a cold external code. 00:16:50.440 --> 00:16:53.460 But what it's about is an awakening of the heart. 00:16:54.200 --> 00:17:00.380 A warming and a softening and the centering of our hearts. 00:17:00.900 --> 00:17:08.840 If you're single here or if you're recently married or you've in any recent time been on the dating scene, 00:17:10.600 --> 00:17:17.000 you know that you can tell when the person that you're dating, their heart's just not really into it. 00:17:17.140 --> 00:17:17.360 Amen? 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:22.039 I mean you can kind of see if they're just sort of going through the motions. 00:17:22.199 --> 00:17:24.659 They're trying to get through this date as fast as possible. 00:17:24.740 --> 00:17:29.139 There's clearly somewhere else, maybe someone else they'd rather be with. 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:38.079 But when you fall in love with someone, you don't have to, you know, nobody has to tell you to spend time with that person. 00:17:38.179 --> 00:17:39.079 You just do it. 00:17:39.159 --> 00:17:43.299 You spend time with them because you can't imagine doing anything else. 00:17:43.299 --> 00:17:47.480 Your heart has become all about that person. 00:17:47.940 --> 00:17:50.180 You are preoccupied with them. 00:17:50.319 --> 00:17:53.960 Nothing makes you happier than to please that person. 00:17:54.139 --> 00:17:57.700 Nothing fulfills you more than just to be with that person. 00:17:57.859 --> 00:18:04.079 What you want when you've fallen in love is you just want to hear your beloved's voice. 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:07.419 You just want to know what are you thinking? 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:08.839 What are you feeling? 00:18:08.919 --> 00:18:13.579 You want to share with them your deepest thoughts and your deepest concerns. 00:18:14.699 --> 00:18:16.619 That's what it means to be in love. 00:18:16.619 --> 00:18:22.000 And that's the way in which Jesus was in love with God. 00:18:22.039 --> 00:18:25.899 And that's what he's inviting all of his disciples to be. 00:18:26.259 --> 00:18:32.759 To be people who've fallen in love with God as their love supreme. 00:18:33.539 --> 00:18:35.000 In a love that's deep. 00:18:35.439 --> 00:18:36.879 In a love that's wide. 00:18:37.419 --> 00:18:39.719 In every aspect of our individual life. 00:18:40.239 --> 00:18:42.119 In our corporate life. 00:18:43.479 --> 00:18:44.079 Wow. 00:18:44.579 --> 00:18:45.579 Well, how do we do that? 00:18:45.579 --> 00:18:47.259 How do we do that? 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:49.279 Well, our love supreme. 00:18:52.099 --> 00:18:58.259 That develops to the degree that we've experienced our life-giving Lord. 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:05.359 Our love supreme develops in us to the degree that we've encountered the life-giving Lord. 00:19:05.439 --> 00:19:06.919 And that's why it says in verse 4. 00:19:07.099 --> 00:19:10.599 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 00:19:10.599 --> 00:19:15.699 And Moses is not giving us an abstract statement of monotheism. 00:19:15.699 --> 00:19:19.199 An abstract statement of the simplicity of God. 00:19:20.059 --> 00:19:24.139 Rather, Moses is talking to the Israelites on the edge of the promised land. 00:19:24.139 --> 00:19:28.000 And he's reminding them of what God has done for them. 00:19:28.059 --> 00:19:33.659 It is so very easy for God to do something in your life and then to forget about it. 00:19:33.699 --> 00:19:34.799 Has that ever happened to you? 00:19:34.799 --> 00:19:37.960 It happens to me all the time. 00:19:38.039 --> 00:19:43.720 And so Moses is reminding the people of God that he called Abraham. 00:19:44.259 --> 00:19:49.159 And he called Israel to be his special people in the world. 00:19:49.160 --> 00:19:58.920 And he didn't choose them because they were better people or because they were more clever or they had deeper insights or they were more committed. 00:19:59.100 --> 00:20:02.519 God just chose his people because he's merciful. 00:20:03.620 --> 00:20:08.779 And out of that mercy, he's just incredibly patient with his people. 00:20:08.900 --> 00:20:11.720 He's exceedingly kind to his people. 00:20:11.720 --> 00:20:13.140 And Moses tells the story. 00:20:13.220 --> 00:20:15.579 He says, remember how we ended up in Egypt. 00:20:16.220 --> 00:20:21.720 And for 400 years there, we experienced the tyranny of a pagan empire. 00:20:22.700 --> 00:20:24.900 We were, we as a people were crushed. 00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:28.180 We were crushed every day. 00:20:28.360 --> 00:20:30.579 And we could do nothing about it. 00:20:30.660 --> 00:20:33.839 We could not get out of that place on our own. 00:20:34.220 --> 00:20:38.660 God came and he rescued you, Moses says. 00:20:38.660 --> 00:20:42.320 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 00:20:42.360 --> 00:20:50.420 And he says in verse 12, be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 00:20:50.600 --> 00:20:53.660 God is not an abstract principle. 00:20:54.300 --> 00:20:56.560 He's not an impersonal being. 00:20:57.040 --> 00:21:01.240 He is the Lord of history who took on the gods of Egypt. 00:21:01.240 --> 00:21:04.460 He's the one who took on Pharaoh himself. 00:21:04.660 --> 00:21:07.300 And he said, let my people go. 00:21:07.299 --> 00:21:13.180 And he's the one who came and decisively dismantled the power of an entire empire. 00:21:13.180 --> 00:21:19.879 And he set free a people upon whom an oppressive slavery had been inflicted. 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:26.799 And having allowed his people to escape, they ran to a body of water. 00:21:26.899 --> 00:21:27.619 You remember the story. 00:21:27.700 --> 00:21:28.359 They got out there. 00:21:28.440 --> 00:21:30.059 They were being chased by an army. 00:21:30.680 --> 00:21:33.000 And they had nowhere to go. 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:34.500 And so they cried out to God. 00:21:34.539 --> 00:21:37.500 And again, God delivered his people. 00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:46.480 And then you remember for 40 years, they wandered in the wilderness with no strength in themselves to survive. 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:48.500 And what did God do? 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:49.839 God provided for them. 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:52.079 And then he provided for them again. 00:21:52.599 --> 00:21:54.039 And he provided for them again. 00:21:54.039 --> 00:22:00.299 He gave them water and manna and quail and shade and all the things that they needed to live. 00:22:00.379 --> 00:22:05.039 He did for them what they were helpless to do for themselves. 00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:08.480 Has anybody here ever felt helpless before? 00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:14.440 Ever felt like you just were robbed of absolutely all your strength? 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:22.640 What this is telling us is that Christianity is not a can-do religion. 00:22:23.460 --> 00:22:25.940 It's not a faith where we say, you know what? 00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:28.620 I think I've got this on my own. 00:22:29.120 --> 00:22:35.279 What this tells us is that the reality is you are helpless to help yourself. 00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:38.519 I am helpless to help myself. 00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:50.119 And what I really need and what you really need is for God to act for us, to come through for us, to show up on our behalf. 00:22:51.160 --> 00:23:00.599 And I think we could probably admit this just even in the natural realm, that in this very moment, God is the one giving you life. 00:23:01.639 --> 00:23:01.920 Right? 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:05.400 We sang earlier, it's your breath in our lungs. 00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:08.160 Every breath we take, that's not automatic. 00:23:09.180 --> 00:23:10.640 That's not accidental. 00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:12.600 It's God giving us breath. 00:23:12.680 --> 00:23:18.259 Every beat of my heart right now is happening because God is giving me life. 00:23:18.360 --> 00:23:23.640 Every neuron that's firing on my brain, which some of which are firing, some of which are not. 00:23:24.519 --> 00:23:27.120 Some of you, your neurons are even slower than mine. 00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:35.239 God is the one who's giving us life and we are totally helpless without God giving us life. 00:23:35.299 --> 00:23:45.000 But more than that, we are totally helpless without God mercifully acting on our behalf to save us like he saved Israel. 00:23:46.059 --> 00:23:47.259 Look at verse 13. 00:23:47.399 --> 00:23:47.839 God says, 00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:52.719 Fear the Lord your God, serve him only, and take your oaths in his name. 00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:58.000 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you. 00:23:58.039 --> 00:24:02.519 Moses says, look, everybody's going to be bowing down to counterfeit gods. 00:24:03.180 --> 00:24:10.500 People are going to worship various beings and things and ideas that they consider ultimate and absolute. 00:24:10.759 --> 00:24:17.420 Everybody around you is going to give their allegiance to power and to the state and to their tribe or their race or their class. 00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:18.160 Don't do that. 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:23.100 Everybody's going to give their allegiance to money and to the markets. 00:24:23.220 --> 00:24:23.920 Don't do that. 00:24:24.860 --> 00:24:28.900 Everybody around you is going to bow down to sex and romance and relationships. 00:24:29.100 --> 00:24:38.019 People are going to look to their work and to their achievements and to human approval as if that is the highest good in a human life. 00:24:38.019 --> 00:24:42.220 And God says, there is only one Lord. 00:24:43.039 --> 00:24:46.639 And he alone is to be our God. 00:24:46.779 --> 00:24:48.519 We did not invent him. 00:24:49.059 --> 00:24:50.619 We did not construct him. 00:24:50.839 --> 00:24:52.139 He constructed us. 00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:57.279 And we depend totally on the one Lord. 00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:01.619 I want to just point your attention to verse 20. 00:25:01.720 --> 00:25:08.059 I love this because it assumes that kids and youth are in our midst asking questions. 00:25:08.139 --> 00:25:15.779 It says in verse 20, in the future, when your children ask you, what is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees, and laws? 00:25:15.879 --> 00:25:18.680 The Lord, our God, has commanded you. 00:25:18.680 --> 00:25:22.759 In other words, mom and dad, okay, I see that you take this seriously. 00:25:23.660 --> 00:25:26.140 I see the way that you're living your life. 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:27.380 And I know what you believe. 00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:32.720 I know that you're trusting God unconditionally and that you're loving him wholeheartedly. 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:36.279 And you're worshiping him and you're obeying these 10 commandments. 00:25:36.700 --> 00:25:37.600 But why? 00:25:39.019 --> 00:25:40.500 What's the meaning of it all? 00:25:41.340 --> 00:25:44.180 Where's your motivation coming from? 00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:47.380 And what follows is simply the gospel. 00:25:47.380 --> 00:25:53.900 It's simply that God broke into history to save us by his grace. 00:25:53.960 --> 00:25:54.800 Look at verse 21. 00:25:55.040 --> 00:26:00.320 Tell them, when your kids ask you these questions at the dinner table, on the commute to work, 00:26:00.660 --> 00:26:03.820 when they're going to bed, when they ask you this question, tell them, 00:26:04.360 --> 00:26:09.840 we were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 00:26:10.280 --> 00:26:17.160 Before our eyes, the Lord sent signs and wonders great and terrible on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. 00:26:17.380 --> 00:26:24.620 But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 00:26:25.900 --> 00:26:33.300 That is the best and the most advanced version of the gospel that was available at that time. 00:26:33.299 --> 00:26:41.099 Tell your kids that the God of the Exodus broke into history with 10 plagues, 00:26:41.099 --> 00:26:46.519 which were terrible acts of judgment on human sin and oppression. 00:26:46.519 --> 00:26:56.619 But we Israelites who were also sinners, we got out from under that terrible plague of death by the blood of the lamb. 00:26:57.379 --> 00:27:03.740 On the night of that Passover, when all the people were dying because the judgment of God was coming down, 00:27:03.859 --> 00:27:11.279 we hid ourselves under the blood of that slaughtered lamb and we were saved by God's grace. 00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:14.720 And friends, that's our story too. 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:19.660 John the Baptist points to Jesus and he says, 00:27:19.799 --> 00:27:26.480 behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:27:27.220 --> 00:27:31.700 And when he says that, he's saying that the Passover lamb has always been a signpost. 00:27:31.700 --> 00:27:41.720 That one day, the Lord himself, the one and only Lord who's giving you breath in your lungs, 00:27:41.840 --> 00:27:45.200 the one and only Lord to whom you're to bow down, 00:27:45.299 --> 00:27:50.680 one day he is going to come among us himself, among us slaves to sin, 00:27:51.059 --> 00:27:55.900 and he is going to take our judgment upon himself. 00:27:55.900 --> 00:28:04.660 He is going to absorb our death into himself because he's come to set us free. 00:28:05.540 --> 00:28:08.019 He's come to set us free from our sin and death. 00:28:08.080 --> 00:28:10.660 He's come to give us eternal life. 00:28:10.780 --> 00:28:19.140 He's come to stretch out his mighty hands on his cross and to become the lamb of God, 00:28:19.480 --> 00:28:23.259 to take away the sins of the world. 00:28:23.259 --> 00:28:31.339 When our kids ask us, why is God your love supreme? 00:28:31.619 --> 00:28:33.819 Why are you so crazy? 00:28:34.680 --> 00:28:36.960 Why have you fallen head over heels? 00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:43.579 Not just liking God, not just loving God, but like Jesus, fallen in love with God. 00:28:43.579 --> 00:28:52.000 What we're to tell our children is that we have been saved by the blood of the lamb, 00:28:52.419 --> 00:28:57.559 and that is why we are in love with the Lord. 00:28:58.919 --> 00:29:06.279 Our love supreme, Christ Church, will grow deeper and wider to the degree 00:29:06.279 --> 00:29:12.200 that we ourselves are experiencing the Lord as our life-giving Lord. 00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:15.700 And that's what we're going to come to do now at this table. 00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:18.440 In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:29:19.119 --> 00:29:19.379 Amen.