Elevating God’s Word

An Infinite Appetite for Distraction

We live in a world filled with distractions.

We hear over 10,000 different messages a day.

Our social media accounts are programmed to analyze us and give us the news that fits our wants and our political views.

Everything that you are consuming has an agenda.

Your favorite news channel has a political agenda, ads on facebook have a marketing agenda. And they feed us what they know we want to get us to buy or believe what they want.

News media and marketing know that division sells, drama sells, anxiety sells, conspiracy sells, sex sells, etc… And it only cares about what it can get out of you.

God on the other hand gives us the truth of His Word. He doesn’t need our worship to survive or have more of something He doesn’t already have.

Your worship or lack of it doesn’t make God any more or any less glorious.

God graciously pours out His truth and His love on us knowing that we have no ability to come close to reciprocating what He has done.

The world wants us to conform for its own good, God wants to transform us for our good.

Last week we looked at the importance of engaging God’s Word. Living God’s Word, not just learning it.

Deuteronomy 6:1-12 Reference Slide

This backs us up a little bit before our text last week. Last week, we looked at God’s words to Joshua as he was about to lead Israel into the promised land.

This week, we back up a little bit to Moses’s words to the people. Deuteronomy has a lot in common with Leviticus and parts of Exodus. Its name literally means the second giving of the Law.

Moses is going over the law one more time for all of the people.

Deuteronomy 6:1–12 ESV

1 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God (There are natural consequences for ignoring God’s Word. There should be an innate fear of the discipline that God will bring into your life if you disobey Him. This isn’t as much a fear of God sending you to hell as more importantly it is a fear of you damaging or hindering your relationship with God.), you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments (Fear isn’t just an attitude or a posture, it is revealed in how we live. If you have a fear of something, it is going to show up in an action in your life. I am afraid of all snakes, which is why I will scream like a little girl if one catches me off guard while I am walking around outside. Which is also why I am not a fan of turkey hunting. Too many snake stories for me.), which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. (There is no other God. Everything else that you live for is a fleeting pleasure. It will not last. Love for people or things will not last because they cannot be enough to fill your desire to worship something. Worship your job or your money and it will crush you when they fail. Worship your spouse, children, your parents and you will not only be crushed when they fail, but you will crush them under the weight of your worship. Nothing else can handle the weight of glory that comes with worship. Only God is worthy of worship. He alone is the One True God—there is no other.) 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. (If there is no other God, then we should love God well above everything else in our life. We should love God completely. We must be willing to give up everything to follow and obey Him. Every fiber of our being should be consumed with living for God.)

Love God and you will love His Word.

If you love God, His Word will be on your heart.

Psalm 119:11 “11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

The Psalmist doesn’t want to sin against God because He loves God and He loves God’s Word.

He trusts God. And this discipline of elevating God’s Word above all other words or messages in this world requires that we love God first above all others.

If you’ve ever received a love letter, you can understand what reading God’s Word should feel like. This book is a love letter to you. And if you love God, you will be looking for ways to show your love for the One Who wrote it.

“What is something that God really wants? What can I do to really show my love for Him? To show that I respect and honor Him?”

The answer is not fun or cute or overwhelmingly creative, it’s simply to trust God and obey Him.

If you love God, you will love His Word. And if you love His Word, you will do what His Word says.

Making God’s Word a priority in our lives…

Deuteronomy 6:1–12 ESV

7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. (Following Jesus and loving and obeying His Word don’t just affect you, but it affects your family too.) 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Put God’s Word everywhere. Keep God’s Word in front of you. I really like Billy Graham’s example of keeping the Bible open somewhere wherever you are. It will keep you mindful that God is always waiting to speak to you.)

We need to move God’s Word from our heart into our home.

Once God’s Word is stored up and held in your heart, then you can share it with your home because it is yours to share. So many times we’ve got God’s Word all over our home, but it ain’t in our hearts. It’s got to start there and then the reminders on the wall reinforce what’s in our hearts.

What’s at stake if you don’t take God’s Word seriously? What’s at stake if you don’t devote yourself to spending time with God in His Word?

Deuteronomy 6:1–12 ESV

10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

The world wants us to conform for its own good, God wants to transform us for our good.

Part of that conform involves forgetting. To conform to the world is to forget the goodness of God. To conform to the world is to reject who God made you to be. And ultimately the world wants us to conform for its good for its comfort for its validation.

God wants to transform us for our good. Everything up to this point in Israel’s history has been God pouring out His goodness, His grace, His power, His provision all over them. The plagues in Egypt, the passover lamb to protect them from the 10th plague. The pillar of cloud by day and fire by night to lead them, the tabernacle and sacrifices to atone for sin, parting the Red Sea, feeding them and providing water for them.

God is about to give them the promised land, but Moses wants the people to keep their focus on God and His Word, otherwise they will forget Him and His goodness when they are enjoying the stuff that He has given them.

Judges 2:6–10 “6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. 7 And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. 8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. 9 And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.”

It took about 20 years best guess for this to happen. That’s how quick a generation can forget about God.

That is why you need to realize that your personal devotion to engage and elevate God’s Word isn’t just something that will affect you. It will affect those who look to you.

Are you elevating the Word of God in your heart and then in your home?

This is a habit we all need in our lives. Teens you can elevate God’s Word in your heart and then in your home. Let your desire to follow Jesus influence those in your home and those in our youth group and those in your school.

Parents set the example for your kids by starting with yourself. You can’t call them to something that you are not doing yourself.

I don’t want to stand before God and give account for my children or my grandchildren because I did not devote myself to Him and to His Word.

Souls are at stake, yours and those who look to you.

But know this, when you do surrender to God and you ask God to help you devote yourself to His Word, He will be with you.

This is not something that you have to do alone.