Sermons: Campbell Road Church of Christ

The Bible In 8 Verses #2 (Jordan Shouse)

Continuing our series through “The Bible in 8 Verses” we look at the greatest commandment given in Deuteronomy 6. This command helps explain God’s expectations for His people, the major conflict God’s people face through the Bible (and today), and how to carry this command into future generations. Can we help you with your walk with God? We'd love to hear from you! https://www.thebibleway.com/contact/send-a-message

Duration:: 44m
Broadcast on:: 05 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

The best day of the week, great things are going to happen this week because we spent time together today. And so thank you so much for being here and being part of what's taking place today. Gantcha did a wonderful job this morning starting out with a series that Rehe and Ricky and I are going to really preach through the month of September. I think at first he said months, and it may seem like months, but it will only be one month as we just walk through eight lessons together. Here's what's fascinating. I want you to look at the Bible that's in your hands or on your tablet or however you have the Word of God in front of you. There's something really special about that book. It's not an ancient history book, although it does tell us about history. It's not a lifeless law book, although it certainly does contain much of God's law and decrees. It's not an inspirational story book, although we certainly feel something after reading and imparting from its message. These words are the true, living and active words of God, breathed out and given to his people. And when these words are read with open and honest hearts, it changes us, transforms our lives. Very easy when one approaches the Bible to look at this in terms of a big book full of a bunch of books. And they're all disconnected and disjointed. All sorts of different stories and authors and things going on. But pictures like this one. This is a representation, a picture of every cross-reference in the Scripture. It just reminds us that God gave us something beautiful, something miraculous, something powerful and giving us one complete comprehensive message. From beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation, God is stating one clear, timeless message for all people, for all time. Now, the question is, as you look at that, or if you still are looking at your Bible, you can look up. Now, the question is, how do you summarize that message in as simple as possible? Have you ever thought about that? If someone doesn't know the Bible and you were to try and explain it to them, how would you explain the Bible in as simple or precise a way as possible? And that's where Ricky and Janton and I had the idea. What if we try to summarize the Bible, the Bible message in eight verses? Why eight? Because there are eight Sundays we are preaching, or eight messages we're preaching in September. I'm going to get it right. Eight sermons that we'll be preaching in September. That's why eight. So we sat down and we each had our own eight and then we compiled and came up with a comprehensive list of eight. Janton said it very well, it may not be your eight and that's okay. You may think water burger is the best burger place in Texas and you can be wrong. That's fine. You can have your own eight if you want to. In fact, it is a great exercise. If while we're going through this and you think, you know, I think I would use this verse or I would go to this passage, it's a great exercise to do for each one of us. How would you summarize the message of God's Word in a concise and simple way? Well, we're sharing as our eight. Our eight messages in Janton did a marvelous job this morning starting us off in the very beginning. Genesis 3.15, beginning of the world, the beginning of Scripture, the beginning of introducing God in the garden and man and sin and this incredible promise that even though everything seemed bleak, God had a plan from the very beginning of sending the Messiah. Wonderful message. Catch that nine o'clock. Go back and listen to it. It was an excellent lesson. Setting the stage for where we're going now. We are turning our attention to Deuteronomy chapter 6 for our second of eight verses summarizing the message of Scripture. Let's kind of catch up a little bit. What's going on in Deuteronomy chapter 6? The children of Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham, all their descendants ended up enslaved in Egypt. But God, through his great power and mighty hand, came and delivered them through the tin plagues, through the parting of the Red Sea, through providing bread from the sky and water from a rock. He was leading them through the wilderness to take them to Mount Sinai where he would give them his law not so that they would be a people but that they would be his people. They would be a nation. The problem is they didn't want it. They didn't want him. But the manna still in their teeth. They complained and griped and bickered all along the way and the wilderness. They rebelled against God who delivered them from the Egypt and the Hebrew writer says it really well. And Hebrews chapter three, a great summary of this section when he says God destroyed that generation because they were faithless. They simply didn't believe. Now their children, that's a whole other story. They're children. The children of that faithless generation is the audience of the book of Deuteronomy. They would be around 60 years of old and younger at this point because while their parents died off in the 40 years wandering of the wilderness, this generation remained. So if you kind of do your math on that, there were some then who were just kids when God brought the plagues on Egypt, which meant some of them surely would have remembered. They would have remembered seeing Egypt darkened, completely dark from a distance while ocean remained in light. Or they would have remembered what it was like to walk on the parted Red Sea. You just don't forget something like that. They would have remembered what it was like to wake up in the morning and to see the manna scattered on the ground. Or certainly they would have remembered following that pillar of cloud or a fire and the significant glory of the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant among the people. This is a generation who God is going to take into the Promised Land and they will face armies and nations well greater, well larger, well more fortified and armed than they were. And God is going to use them to defeat them all. They will claim victory over 31 kings and it's not because they're good warriors, it's simply because they trusted in God. They despite the example of their parents were faithful to Jehovah God. That's who we find in Deuteronomy chapter 6. We call my grandparents generation the greatest generation, here's a picture of the greatest generation in the Bible, Jordan's definition, but this is a great generation. So in Deuteronomy chapter 6, God through Moses is repeating a law that was given to their parents' generation, a law they needed to have written on their hearts before they step into this Promised Land. We're starting in Deuteronomy chapter 6 beginning verse 1. It says, "Now this is a commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them and the land where you're going over to possess it, so that you and your sons and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I commanded you all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged." Oh Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly just as the Lord the God of your fathers has promised you and the land flowing with milk and honey, you kind of get the message, listen. Hear what I'm saying, fear me, respect me and do the things I'm saying. And the reason God is saying over and over here, I want you to listen and I want you to obey, it's not simply verse 3 that they're going to inherit this promise, it's not simply about getting the land, that's part of it. But the part of it is, as Jansen took us to, and just about a thousand years, God is going to send his son through these people. God is going to send the Messiah into the world to fulfill the promise to Abraham, to fulfill the promise he made back in the very beginning, and so he tells this people you need to listen and follow me, I have a great plan for you. What follows then is the verses we're focusing on, verses 4 and 5, some of the most familiar verses in all scripture, I'm really glad Terry led us in those songs, they certainly prepared us to get them in our minds and to have them for our study, verse 4, here oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, you so love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This has become known in Hebrew the Shema based on the word to hear or to listen, it's repeated all throughout scripture, why, why these verses, why choose these verses, what is so important or why, if we're summarizing the Bible, why stop and make a little pit stop, if you will grab, Deuteronomy 6 verses 4 and 5, here's why, few things I want us to see, I want us to see how this encompasses God's expectation and heart first people of all time, I think one of the things we're going to notice is how these verses summarize a consistent struggle of God's people throughout their history, but I think we'll also see as we begin to walk through this, there is a timeless relevance to what God is saying expected of his people that applies today, let's start with one of the things we see. One of the things these verses begins with is a call to allegiance to the one true God, you notice how it begins when it says here oh Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one, your version may not read that way because the words in Hebrew, it's not really clear how they're supposed to be put, some say the Lord our God the Lord is one, some say the Lord our God our God only, some say the Lord our God and he alone, lots of different ways that you could try and put those words, there's some who try and make a lot out of these and there may be a lot what God is stating through Moses, they could have something to do there that there is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and they are all one, I will give you what I believe to be the simplest way of understanding this which I think fits with everything God is saying here and forward, when he says the Lord our God the Lord is one and what he is saying is you as the people and the nation of Israel have one God and I am him, the Lord our God is one, you will have one God and it is me, you think about how in the Ten Commandments God said that in the very beginning in Exodus 20 verse 2 when it says I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery, you shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth, you shall not worship them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me but showing loving kindness to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments, I am your God you will not worship or serve anything and be one but me, I think, think of all the nations, all of the peoples in Israel's history, all the people they interacted with and were surrounded with who served false gods, goes back to Egypt, worshiping the sun, worshiping the Nile, worshiping Pharaoh, when they get into Canaan all of those different nations served other gods the most prominent of which seems to be the constant thorn in their side is Baal, even when we get to the New Testament that Roman culture where the gospel was trying to be spread was full of all sorts of false gods, you remember in Acts 17 when Paul shows up in Athens and had all those statues to all of all those idols and all those false gods, here's the point he's making and here's what's so significant, God is saying I am to be your one and only God, you are not to share your allegiance, you're not to share your affection with anyone but me, this is the first powerful statement, no other false goddess said this, no other deity claimed to say this, God is calling for a zero tolerance policy, I will not share my allegiance with anyone else, I will not share my devotion to anyone else, I will not share my worship with anyone else, I will not share my affection with anyone else, I'm not satisfied with the leftovers of your affection, I'm not going to be pleased with the crumbs of your time and devotion, I will be your one true God, now if you were to summarize the main issue of God's people throughout history, would it not be this, God's serious statement comes because it was a serious issue for his people, all I have to do is put up Deuteronomy 32 verse 41, they have made me jealous with what is not a God, they have provoked me to anger with their idols, so I will make them jealous with those who are not a people, I will provoke them to anger with the foolish nation, they have made me angry, they are not listening, they are worshiping false gods, Leviticus 19 verse 4, do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods, I am the Lord your God, you hear it, don't make a God, I'm your God, worship me, in the reign of King A has, during the divided kingdom it says that at the time of his distress the same King A has became yet more and faithful to the Lord, for he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him and said because the gods of the kings of A or M helped him, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me, notice the commentary, but they became the downfall of him and all Israel, out of the Egypt, the golden calf at the foot of the mountain, through the wilderness in the promised land, during the time of the judges, in the reign of King Saul, in the reign of King David, in the divided kingdom again and again and again, they worshiped these false gods, they built up idols, they worshiped anything but God himself, and in fact the commentary from Ezekiel said, well it's not the sin of graven images, that was the problem, it wasn't the sin of molten gods, it was the sin of the heart, they have set up these idols in their hearts, the misplaced allegiance, you're loving these things more than me, well I mean that was an Old Testament issue, it was, it was, but even Paul wrote to the Corinthians to flee from idolatry, and John ended his letters saying, keep yourself from idols, because one of the most natural temptations, one of the greatest struggles of man is to worship all sorts of created things, rather than the creator himself, one author defined a God this way, a God is anything or person that claims our primary loyalty, whatever has first placed in our life, anything in which we put our full trust and focus, anything to which we look at as our ultimate source of strength, think about for a moment, think about how the Ten Commandments sought to protect against this, fourth commandment, keep the Sabbath day, it's God who I'm saying, don't make your work your God, don't build your life on busyness, the sixth commandment, thou shall not murder, it's a way of saying, don't make your hate, your anger, your God, don't build your life on the resentment and pain of the past, I mean do we know who have done that, the seventh commandment, do not commit adultery, which is a way of saying, don't allow the physical intimacy between a man and woman to become your God, don't build your life on the pursuit of your passions, the tenth commandment, do not covet, don't make your stuff your God, don't build your life on pursuing things that are not going to last you, do you hear it? Here even in Jeremiah he would say, this says the Lord God, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom and let the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast in his riches, do you hear the natural tendency that we are prone to worship, all sorts of other things but God alone, let him who boast, boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises love and kindness, justice and righteousness on earth. I delight in these things, declare us the Lord, do you hear it? All this begins with God's call, the Lord our God, my God is one, there is one God, what's that look for us today? Well do you remember that little statement that Peter made in 1 Peter 3 verse 15, he says but sanctify Christ, the Set-apart Christ as Lord in our hearts, do you realize how many of our hymns have that language about enthroning Jesus on the throne of our hearts? There's an ancient prayer that said it this way, it said, the dearest idol I have known, what heir that idol be, help me tear it from thy throne and worship only thee. There's one who belongs in the throne of my heart and that really is the question isn't it, who's on my throne, who has my affection? Is it me? Do I feel like I'm smarter than others? No more than others, I don't have to listen, I don't have to listen to you, I know more, I know more than you, I know more than others, is it my strength, is it my accomplishments, is it my family, is it my job, is it my wealth, who's on the throne of my heart? The second thing we see is that true, okay, do you want any of my slides, you can ask it, you don't have to take a picture, I'll get it anytime you need it, it's all good. True allegiance to the one true God is seen through devotion of one's all. How would you know one is faithful, faithfully true to this one God? Well, it's going to be shown in their devotion to him and again that begins in verse 4 when he says, "Hero Israel, I'm going to show my allegiance to the one true God by my willingness to listen to what he has to say." Here's the thing, every parent has lived this and understand it. When you say to a child, "Hey, you're too loud, we're inside, you're inside voice." And they're like, "Okay, I know you are listening when you do what I ask, when you do what I say." Don't you see that in verse 3, listening to the thing in verse 3 when he says, "Oh Israel, you should listen and be careful to do." I show my faithfulness to God and my willingness to listen to him. Do I think I know more than God, I don't need this, this is ancient words, it's a good mental practice, it's a good philosophy study on a Wednesday and Sunday night with a bunch of people we get to talk to. But in terms of letting my life be directed by it or guided by it, will I listen to him? I love the prayer of Brother Aaron said this morning, "May we be sensitive to the direction of God, sensitive to his will, bending his will." And you notice in verse 6, it's not saying, "We're going to take these laws and write them on stone." That was never God's intention. They're writing on stone which has showed their permanency. This is going to stand. But you know it's in verse 6, he says, "I want you to have these words which I'm commanding you. They shall be on your heart, on your heart." Will you listen to God? Will you bend your will? Will you direct your life by him? The other way you see this devotion is not only in their willingness to listen, but in verse 5, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." Here's some ways we try and parcel this out, the heart being our affection, the soul our innermost being, our might being this collection of our intellect, and our power, and our service and our abilities. But all that God is really saying is, "I want you, all of you, to completely love me, to devote all of who you are to me." Might sound the opposite like this. I don't want some of your mind and a portion of your strength. I don't want parts of your allegiance. That may sound silly here as some sort of a silly analogy, but when Elijah the prophet was called in the scene, but a few hundred years later, and he comes to Mount Carmel, the whole point of the showdown on Mount Carmel was not to make a king look foolish. He already did, and it wasn't to prove that Baal wasn't real. That was obvious. The whole point was this. Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you go limping between two different options?" If the Lord is God, follow him, and if Baal then follow him, and the people did not answer him a word. That's the point, is that we try and budget out everything that we have, and I give God some of my time, and some of my affection, and some of my mind, and some of my strength, just like Israel did a long time ago, but I'm also going to give some to the world. So I might be here on the Sunday, but I also do some things that makes me friends and allows me to look a lot like the world around me, and what God is calling to is not just faithfulness to him. I'm your God. I rescued you. You're saying, "I want you to be completely then, totally devoted to me." Can you think about how we see that in the past? Do you remember when they had their harvest, and the grains were plucked, and then they finally grew? God didn't say, "You know, the stuff that doesn't really look really good, the dodgy kind of looking corn, just put that in a basket for me. I want the first fruits who give me the best." When they came with their sacrifices it wasn't, "You know, you can offer me a leg of that lamb. Cut off its ear. He'll be right with the ear." They offered the life, the life. Don't miss what God has done from the very beginning. That's the very thing He did through His Son is what He commanded of His people. I'm not going to give you an angel, and I'm not going to send you my son for a week, or that you'll simply have his teaching. I'm going to put him on a cross for you, which is why he can say, "I want all of it of you, because I'm giving all of what I have for you, for you, for me." So it went all your heart, and all your mind, and all your soul, and all your strength, and I'm going to give all of what I have then for you on the cross, and that really is the question then, is what is the measure of my offering to the Lord? Can I say, "I can't say it for you, but I have to ask it for me." Can I say that I'm honestly striving, and may not be perfect today, and I know I need to grow in this, but am I honestly trying to give God the best of my heart and my mind and my soul and my strength? Am I honestly trying with this beautiful life God has given to me to give it back wholly and completely to Him? It's selfish, it's not about me, and my desires and my wants and my ways, I am trying to completely empty and give it back to Him. The truth also knows in verse 5, it says, "And you shall give the Lord, all your heart and your soul and your mind." We have those. The county doesn't like to be there at the certain party or the child who did something wrong. You need to say, "You're sorry, sorry." The Lord could make us give. He could take what He wants from us. You shall love the Lord your God and all your heart and your mind and soul. I want you to completely willingly. I want you to desire to give God all of who you are. The way we know we do so, the devotion of one's life is what will result in the commitment to the next generation. Don't miss what follows from this because in verse 5 when He says that, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your mind." In verse 6 He says, "These words which I'm commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates." Notice what you're saying here. God given expectation how His truth, how His commitments was to be passed along was from one generation to the next. That was by God's design. It's not that He wrote a letter. It's not that He put it down and said, "They're just going to read it and figure it out." The God given way to hand truth from one generation to the next was simply that. The teaching of an older generation to a younger. Here's one thing. I understand it. I feel like I've been teaching on this point a lot recently. I came up in the Bible class, I keep up with the sermon. Some of that is incidental. Just happens because of the message, but I would tell you there's no apology about repeating certain truths from the pulpit, because if there's something we can't lose, and I don't mean we in terms of brotherhood, brother, I'm talking about this family here, if there's something we can't lose this, we can't, it's this. The transmitting of truth from one generation to the next requires two components, the first of which is an older generation that is willing to teach. I want you to notice the flow from verse 5 to verse 7, or verse 6. Verse 5 says that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and might. Verse 7 says you shall teach them diligently. Notice the connection. Those who are wholly devoted to the Lord will teach the next generation diligently. Do you see that link? Can we take that away? If I am not wholly devoted to the Lord, it will not be my concern to pass this truth along to the next generation. Those who are wholly devoted know they are wholly devoted because they are concerned and actively involved in helping this truth go on to those who are coming on behind them. They're diligent. And the whole picture here is you're weaving this into their lives. Every part of where you go throughout your day in your house and on your life and on your bodies, you're helping to infuse this truth so that they simply cannot live without it. It becomes a part of who they are. I'm just going to walk through this. We don't have to do the whole exegesis here, but I want you to see a few things. There's a few things specifically, he says, that you are to teach the next generation. One of which is that temporality and greed will kill a thankful devotion to God, and verses 10 to 12. If they're going to arrive into the land and he says you're going to get houses and lands, you didn't build those houses, you didn't plant those lands, and if you're not careful, you're going to completely forget that I gave those to you. Can you think of a message needed for our times today? Everything you have came from God. Every good thing I have came from God. I didn't build these houses, I didn't plant these fields, and if I have something good in my life, it's because God gave it. And if I'm not careful, I'm going to be so fixated on houses and on plants and on vineyards, I'm going to forget that there's a greater purpose in this life than simply what's taking place right now. He says, you are to teach that God doesn't settle for double-minded service down in verse 14. You shall not follow other gods or any of the gods of the people who surround you. For the Lord your God is in the midst of you, he is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you and he will wipe you off the face of the earth. What's he saying? You cannot be friends with the world and friends with God. Rather than can't we get this in the minds of our young people? You can't be friends with the world and friends with God. You can't be married to God and date the world and everyone who is married completely understands verse 15 because there's some things we promise each other. We promise each other soul devotion and affection. We promise each other to love one another and care for one another until death do we part and the reality is if she were to give any of that to anyone else, even an inch of it, I would be extremely jealous, I'd come swinging, that belongs to me. You promised that only to me. You swore to God that was only for me, why are you giving it to anyone else? Yet when we say, you know, I just want our kids to be able to experience what it's like to be a teenager, rest certain ways to go to certain parties, to go to certain dances, to go to certain experiences, careful, careful. Our God is a jealous God. He will not share his affection, not with false gods, not with the world. There's a high price of walking with our God following his laws and we need to teach our children. God demands allegiance and affection. That demands a sacrifice and a change from the way of the world. He says, you are to teach them that where we are, we are by God's mercy and by his deliverance. Down in verse 20 and 21, he says, when your son asks you in time to come, what do the testimonies and the statues and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you? You shall say to your son, we were slaves in Egypt and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Can you see that hard message of verse 13 to 15 of the cost of holy living to our righteous God? Can you see how that changes parents when we don't neglect verses 20 and 21? Have you told your children your story? I was lost, I was lost and I was sinful and selfish, but I heard the gospel and he saved me. I am only where I am today because of the grace and the mercy of God and I will only be where I will be because of this amazing grace and this mercy. You have to tell your story to them, why does this mean something to you? Why does this matter? Why are we here? Why are you here? Why are we together? Then he ends by saying something I think we forget to teach often and that is that those who follow the law of God, it yields the best life. So the Lord come in in verse 24 to observe all these statues to fear the Lord our God for our good always and for our survival as it is today, that the best life possible comes from following these laws. God is not trying to make our life miserable, he is trying to help us live it to the best. The abundant life is what Jesus would say. That's why following these laws matters so much. Now go back to one more section with me, I want you to notice something, moms and dads. In fact this is for moms and dads, this is for grandparents, this is for every older member and this congregation. We have some here who have never married. We have some here who don't have any children and yet this message, this passage applies to you. There's an expectation of an older generation to impart something to the younger. Don't miss why verse 4 is so important here. Verse 4 begins, "Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." And then he says in verse 6, "You saw teach these diligently, you saw teach them diligently to your sons and talk of them when you walk by your house and when you walk by the way." Here's the problem and here's what we really have to avoid and be so careful about. Our children can memorize scripture and they can know all these passages, it's possible to know the law but to not know the law giver. It's possible that they can quote all these passages, they can have the book memorized and still be marching on their way away from God. I need to teach them why, I need to teach them who God is, I need to teach them about His love and this mercy, why it is we trust in Him, why His words are so faithful and true. Yes, the truth matters and yes, it's a wonderful thing to memorize scripture but we need to know the law giver not just the law, it's not just that I want my children to have a lot of old words written on their heart, words that they can quote in the moment, that's why Benjamin. Benjamin can memorize something after he sees it once, it's an amazing gift that sometimes frustrates his father, it's great. One of those we'll be driving, he says you're going the wrong way. If I want to go the wrong way, I'll go the wrong way. Now I'll turn around, not just that, they talk to God, they talk about God, they think about God, do they realize Him as a person and not just the person, the person. We won't know God apart from these words, I'm not saying the words don't matter, of course they matter, but if we're not careful, we're going to have a generation that has a lot of information but something important was missed along the way. Yes, they need the law but that law becomes written on our hearts when we love the law giver when we know the one who gave it. I can't say this with enough emphasis and I say it not as one who's up here pointing the finger because I guarantee I'm pointing it back at me, all the more with more emphasis and strongly. When he says in verse 6, teach them diligently. We only have one opportunity. We have one precious opportunity before their minds are made up, their worldview is set and their direction is chosen. Can they change? Yes, absolutely, the gospel is effective and God's word is powerful and people even late in their life has changed but a lot can happen between then and then and it will never get killed, Ricky will affirm the very same thing that when we go and we travel places to hear the gospel, to preach the gospel, I cannot tell you the number of people who have come up weeping because they didn't take it seriously when they were younger but then they got older and they realized mortality and life and so they started getting more serious about their faith the older they got but by then it was too late for their children. They wasted that precious time and their kids saw the hypocrisy and uninteresting and their parents and what happened was that was passed off to their kids who wanted nothing to do with the Lord in this church. This doesn't guarantee anything and I know that some of you here are fighting that battle and our prayer is for you and we weep with you and pray with you and we will work side by side with you but if we're going to give the next generation the best chance possible, we have to listen to the Lord and we have to be a generation that teaches. Every single one of you and here's the other side of this. The other component is a generation that's younger that's willing to listen and I think that is probably the equally great struggle in all of this. In every younger generation, there's a temptation to say I know more than they, I don't have to listen to them, I already know the truth and to dismiss and to pull apart from the generation that's older than them. I realize just because a generation that's older doesn't make them faithful because the people here, those on the plains of Moab knew that better than most. Their parents were all dead and buried in the wilderness. However, by and large, a general truth, when a generation is older who has been walking with the Lord, God expects those who are younger to listen but that is our struggle. Again, not the brotherhood struggle, that's our struggle, Campbell Road, that's our struggle. A temptation we have to avoid and that is to place barriers of distance between generations, those who are older and those who are younger. I shared this earlier in the year, but I wasn't able to have it on the screen so live, we're going to have it on the screen so we can read it together. In the 1950s and 60s, some of the divisions that took place among the Christians and churches there, one historian writes that many in the younger generation that were educated, driven by the social agenda of that period, found the traditional concerns of the 20th century churches of Christ inadequate and irrelevant to the world in which they lived. As a result, they seriously questioned almost every aspect of their tradition. One of the forces that worked in the churches of Christ in the 60s as an American society in general was a generational crisis, notice that it's phrased in yellow, that isolated young people from the thinking of their elders. They missed it, they're fighting these battles that don't matter and so we're going to pull away, we're going to pursue what we think is right and best, a discussion with a preacher not long ago and we were in conflict over something of a spiritual matter. His response to me was, "Why don't you go and ask the 30s and 40s in your congregation what they think?" My response was, "Why not the 70s and the 80s?" Why would I ask a younger generation, why wouldn't I ask the older who have lived it, who understand more? I saw a post not long ago, I know some of you saw this about why millennials and generation Z are leaving the church and what we can do to keep them from leaving. And on the list was things such as our truth is not relevant, we're not worshiping with compassion, which first of all imply that the older generation is missing it, that you're not worshiping in passion, that the message you're teaching is not relevant, that you're not as faithful as this you ought to be and you're keeping the younger generation from being faithful, but the other implication is this, and I'm saying this as someone who's still young, I'm balding but I'm still young, that in order to keep us not only committed to the Lord but committed to a group of people that we place membership with, you have to cater to me. If you want to keep me here, then you have to lead the songs that I like, you have to choose the teachers that I like, you have to condition this place around me, shame on us, not about me. And the Lord said hero is real, there's a generation to teach and a generation to listen. One day, Joshua's will become Moses's and they will teach, but they don't get there without walking through the journey of learning from Moses. That's why we have passages like Hebrews 13 verse 7, remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct imitate their faith. I know what this passage looks like, it looks a lot like this. I think everyone who's in their 40s and younger need to print this out, put this on your iPhone. Because if you were 40 and younger, if you're thinking he's just talking to the teenagers this morning, no I'm talking to those in your 20s, I'm talking to those of you in your 30s, I'm talking to us who in our 30s and 40s, we didn't get there by ourselves. Someone taught us, someone helped us, someone was really patient with us, there's a whole host of a generation that has helped us to arrive where we are, and we'll only continue on together if we learn to listen to one another and to help one another the way God designed. Do you know why this matters? Because just one generation later, there was a group who chose, who it says in Judges 2, verse 10, to not know the Lord, or the work which he had done for Israel. Let me ask you the question, the commentary isn't given. Is this because the older generation didn't teach? Or is it because the younger generation didn't listen? One generation, when older generation says they're not going to listen to me, why try? For a generation that says they're so stuck in their traditions and their ways, we're going to find and chart our own path. A breathe for a moment, a breathe. One of the things I love most about this congregation, not just that we have parents with children, but that we have parents and children and grandparents sitting in the same puke, precious thing, a rare thing. We have a culture here of having a multi-generational faith. I think we do well listening to one another and helping one another. If we're not careful, we'll lose it. We're in your fifties or older, we need you, we need your instruction, we need your guidance, we need your wisdom, we need you to take a society and teach, we're patient with us, we're not headed at times, we're impatient and rash, we're patient. But for all who are in your forties and younger, listen, listen. We won't be seated at a table of influence if we don't use this season to learn and to grow. We won't be able to be useful to the Lord if we don't listen to a generation who's trying to help us to grow and to learn until the day comes. The question that we need to ask is, what role am I going to play in this? What role will I play in handing the Word of God along? Is everyone has a role in part to play? The reefs in Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5 is so significant that when Jesus was on the earth, he quoted this passage in a question of which commandment was the greatest, the greatest of all the commandments. Jesus' way of saying that the greatest way of honoring God and the greatest life possible is unlocked as a chief when one truly listens and follows this law. Think of it brethren, I will love my family the best. I will love my mate the best that I possibly can. I will be the best co-worker. I will love my brethren the best. I will love and serve and care in this community the best when I love God the most. That's what this is teaching is that the greatest commandment when followed produces the greatest life, the greatest life. It produces thriving marriages. It produces healthy congregations. It produces nations that bend and knee and follow the will of the Lord. That's where it all begins and that's why this precious commandment on the plains of Moab still matters for us today. The question is here, O Israel, do we have ears to hear, will we listen? Thank you for connecting with us this morning, we're so thankful that you were able to do that. If you have questions we'd love to have the opportunity to talk to you, you can contact us at www the Bibleway.com or questions at the Bibleway.com. Questions at the Bibleway.com. We'd love to have you in person come if you can but thank you for connecting with us. Thank you. for joining us. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next week.