Live Long and Prosper - Bethlehem

Jerry Bridges in his book “Discipline of Grace” quotes an unknown person that said, “A belief is what you hold, but a conviction is what holds you.”

Hang on to that.

I would think that if you were late 20’s or older, September 11, 2001 is probably etched into your memory.

It was one of those, “I can remember exactly where I was” when the Islamic Terrorists crashed four American passenger airliners into four well thought out targets.

We watched the twin towers in New York City fall in real time.

It was the first time an American war began on live television.

We watch the video replay of a flash of a jet as it crashed into the Pentagon.

We’ve all heard the tape of Todd Beamer - a nondescript, no name, any man - as he said, “Let’s Roll,” as the passengers of Flight 93 revolted against the Islamic Terrorists.

They died.

Their plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania in the middle of a field, falling short of its goal of destroying the White House.

Imagine the impact on the world if those terrorists had succeeded.

What if we would have watched real time, the White House, what was perceived as the seat of freedom for the whole world, being blown to smithereens at the hands of two Islamists who started it all with a couple of box cutters.

The Sunday after September 11, 2001, churches were packed.

Everyone who remotely believed in God poured into the churches of every denomination around the country to seek solace, to try to make sense of what they were seeing and to cry out to God to save us.

A lot of people believe in God, but where are they today?

A belief is what you hold, but a conviction is what holds you.

There is another anniversary coming up on September 8th - it is a bit more upbeat.

It will be the 60th- THE 60th anniversary of the release of the Star Trek series.

Star Trek - I don’t have words to explain it - it was Star Trek - it was the beginning of something new.

One of the most memorable scenes of the franchise came in the movie Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan.

The spaceship Enterprise was in danger of being destroyed if it couldn’t move away from the genesis planet quickly enough.

And of course they were having engine trouble.

Spock, the purely logical, Vulcan knew what had to be done.

Without a word to anyone, he went into the radiation filled engine compartment and made the repair.

But he sacrificed himself in the process.

His death scene was gripping.

A radiation proof glass wall separated Captain Kirk from Spock.

In his death speech, Spock said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.”

And see, that’s why everyone needs to read the Bible, because when Spock said that, I heard something else.

I remembered Caiaphas’s words when he chastised those who didn’t want to crucify Jesus.

John 11:50 “Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.””

Spock didn’t believe that was true, he was convinced that was true.

“A belief is what you hold, but a conviction is what holds you.”

Spock’s final gesture was to place his hand on the glass in the Vulcan salute and say the traditional Vulcan saying, “Live Long and Prosper.”

Then he died.

Of course there’s more to the story after that - but you’ll have to get there by yourselves.

Open up your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy.

In the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy, we’re going to hear how Moses died.

Deuteronomy is kind of his parting words from God to the people.

So, I want to ask you to listen closely to what we are reading today to see if you can’t hear him say to God’s people, “Live Long and Prosper.”

Deuteronomy 6:1–9 ESV

“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, that you may fear YAHWEH [the Lord] your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as YAHWEH [the Lord], the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “Hear, O Israel: YAHWEH [The Lord] our God, YAHWEH [the Lord] is one. You shall love YAHWEH [the Lord] your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray - Amen.

Now, I know there are a couple of things that you just heard that might have made you go hmmmmm.

First, I’m reading from the English Standard Version.

I suspect many of you use the King James - It’s a great translation.

I simply want to use something that sounds more like how we talk everyday.

It helps some folks understand.

But second, and the big thing is, where ever the scripture said, “The LORD,” I used the Lord’s name - YAHWEH.

Your Bible might have the word Lord printed in all caps sometimes.

If yours does, that’s the translators telling you that is the proper name of God - YAHWEH.

Now why did I do that?

This might be a little weird for you, but it’s how my mind works.

All of my life I’ve heard the word Lord and that word is kind of nebulous.

It’s a title - you’ve watched English movies where someone refers to someone as “My Lord.”

But YAHWEH is a name.

Think of it like this.

We’ve had a lot of Presidents - 47 so far.

President is a title.

But there is only one Donald.

Donald is a real person and there is only one Donald.

I want us so much to understand that God is a person.

Not a force or a power or an energy source.

God is a person.

His name is YAHWEH and He is one.

Noodle on that for a while.

Now, let’s go back to this - “A belief is what you hold, but a conviction is what holds you.”

In a nutshell, Moses is saying that you don’t need to believe in YAHWEH’s commands, YAHWEH’s commands must be a conviction.

It’s one thing when terrorists hijack a plane to say someone should do something.

Everyone believes that.

It’s another thing entirely to be the one who does something.

That’s conviction.

It’s one thing to believe in God.

Just about everybody will tell you they believe in God..

It’s another thing entirely to do what God says.

That’s conviction.

Listen - only conviction matters.

What you believe means nothing.

What you are convicted of means everything.

Did you hear “Live Long and Prosper?” in what we read?

Not in those words right, but look at the end of verse 2, “…and that your days be long.”

Live long - right?

Am I missing something?

Moses is saying, Listen, Moses is saying that YAHWEH wants you to live a long life and then he tells us how to do it.

Look at verse 3.

“…that you may multiply greatly…in a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Prosper right?

Have babies, have lots of babies.

And have them in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Why milk and honey?

Milk is your work.

Cows don’t milk themselves, right?

Anyone ever live on a farm that had a cow or maybe you had a grandparent that had a cow?

Did that cow come mooing to the door each morning with a bucket of fresh milk in it’s mouth?

How do dairy farmers get milk?

They get up at 4 in the morning, heat or cold, rainy or sunny, sick or well.

They trudge to the barn, they set up equipment.

They herd cows, they wash the cows and then they milk the cows.

They make sure the cows get fed.

They make sure the cows get watered.

Dairy farming is hard work.

God is promising that, in this land they are going, their work will be prosperous.

And honey, the land just gives you honey.

Bees don’t need nearly the work cows do.

You simply go to the hive and you collect the honey.

The land itself will make you rich.

I don’t know how many of you had this experience, but I did.

We played in the woods a lot.

And towards late summer, we would find blackberry patches - briar patches really but they grew blackberries, with some of the biggest, juiciest blackberries in the world on them.

We didn’t plant them.

We didn’t fertilize them or water them.

The land just gave them to us.

Same way with muscadines and scuppernongs.

We’d cut vines and swing on them but sometimes in our search for a good vine, we’d find a muscadine vine.

Dad would pull the berries and mom would make jelly out of them.

Have you ever sucked on a honeysuckle bloom?

Or been walking on a trail and out of nowhere there is an apple tree filled with ripe, red apples.

It is a land land flowing with milk and honey.

A belief is what you hold, a conviction is what holds you.

What did Moses say they must do to guarantee that their days would be long and their work would be rewarded?

Verse 2, “fear [YAHWEH] your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life...”

Did you hear it?

He didn’t say believe in God and in the 10 commandments.

He said make the Lord and His commandments your conviction.

Now, this is the only disclaimer I’m going to make here so listen closely so you don’t misunderstand.

If you are trying with all of your heart to do the 10 commandments so you’ll be good enough and be saved, you will die and go to hell.

The law - the 10 commandments are our guardian - our nanny - and their job is to teach us that we can’t do them or anything else to be good enough for God.

The purpose of the law is to drive us into the arms of Jesus - so we can know God, repent and be saved.

However, once we know Jesus, we will do the 10 commandments because we will be following Jesus

And that’s how Jesus acts.

It following Jesus is your conviction.

And this is to be our conviction, look at verse 5, Deuteronomy 6:5

Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV

You shall love YAHWEH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Believing in God like you believe someone should get up and kill the terrorists - that will get you killed.

A belief is something you hold - but a conviction...

When Jesus was asked what is the most important commandment, he quoted verses 4 and 5.

Mark 12:29–30 ESV

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

Jesus is saying don’t believe in God and try to do the commandments, Jesus is saying be so convinced about God that you simply do His commandments.

You are convinced that following Jesus is what right - so you do - without thinking, without pondering, without questioning if it is right or wrong.

Did Jesus do it?

Yes.

Then I will too.

And our conviction gains legs when we teach our children to hold our convictions.

God says to tell you son and your son’s son.

Look at verse 7 - see the word diligently?

Eastern people talk more in pictures than in ideas and this word is a picture word.

It’s the word you use to describe a person carving an inscription into a monument.

You are etching these words into your children’s hearts so they can never be erased.

I’ve gone to cemeteries in Savannah and read headstones that are 300 years old - someone etched words into a stone so they would not be erased.

That’s the image here.

Well Pastor, I believe a child should be allowed to choose his or her own way.

Let me say this about that: first, you child will choose their own path regardless of what you do or say on everything in life, period, so instead of your statement proving some parental or grandparental virtue, it’s really just ridiculous absurdity - so don’t say that. EVER.

And if you do, help me understand, why do you want to make it easy for your child or grandchild to end up in hell?

Well, I don’t want to drive them away, I want to keep the door open.

That may sound all 21st century pop-psychology, but that’s hogwash.

It’s not even close to the truth.

Let me tell you a story.

If you are a podcast person I recommend the “Just Thinking” podcast.

The hosts are two black guys Darrell Harrison and Virgil Walker.

I point out that they are black because that’s one of the reasons I listen to them - they have a different perspective on life that I can’t have.

I’ve never been black and your skin tone does affect your experience.

So I listen to these two guys do theology - oh, and their podcasts aren’t for the faint of heart - they run anywhere from a 1 1/2 to 3 hours or more, and they are deep.

But I’ve learned so much.

So I believe it was Virgil Walker who told this story in their podcast entitled, “Why Are You Afraid?”

Virgil was part of a team that was doing street evangelism - walking up to complete strangers, striking up a conversation, passing out tracts and pamphlets.

He said he was not in his normal area and he felt out of sorts - sometimes bold, sometimes wimpish.

After every session, the team would debrief.

His mentor asked him how it went and Virgil said, “Man, I got to admit, something in me, man, I was nervous, a little antsy, sometimes a little fearful and afraid.”

“What were you afraid of?”

“Just the fear of man, you know, what they might say about me and stuff like that.”

That’s when his mentor said, “Bro, that’s not the fear of man, that the love of self.

“You love yourself so much that you don’t want to be made to look a fool for the sake of the gospel.

Now listen to this, “When you shed your love of self, you’ll realize you have no fear of man.”

“We need to live our lives so that our enemies desire to die like we do.”

“A belief is what you hold, but a conviction is what holds you.”

Our children need to know the 10 commandments - they can’t know the conviction of sin if they don’t know them.

Paul said in Romans 7:7, “For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.””

Our children need to know that we are convinced of God and we are convinced that His commands are the right things for us to do.

Coming to church proves somewhat that we believe in God.

But doing what Deuteronomy 6 says is to be convinced.

To talk about God and His commands when you are resting and when you are working.

It’s the last thing you think about when you go to bed and the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning.

When you work with your hands, you remember the commands.

Everything you see is filtered through the lens of God’s commands.

People who come to your house know your house is inhabited by someone who is convinced of God.

And listen to Deuteronomy 6:9

Deuteronomy 6:9 ESV

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

That’s not your fence gate - that your city’s gates.

Moses isn’t talking to one person, he’s talking to everyone.

This is who we are.

This is the one we stand for - and we aren’t shy about it.

We are convinced.

What if...

What if you were so convinced of God, what if you were so convinced that for your children and grandchildren and for your country to live long and prosper, what if you were convinced, as this text says, that all of that depends on the Lord.

And what if you were so convinced of God and you loved your children so much that you’d do everything you possibly could to protect them from hell and to see that they live long and prosper.

What if, just a thought, what if for them to play in a ball game, they have to have memorized one of the 10 commandments?

Are we convinced enough of God, that if they are about to get out of the car, and you ask them, “recite for me the verse for the week.”

And they say, “I didn’t have time to get it - I’ll get it tomorrow.”

What if you said to them, “Let’s go to the coach and tell him you can’t play tonight.”

I suspect you’d only have to do that once.

Yeah, I know, that’s crazy talk.

And you’re right, nobody does that.

I didn’t do that.

And I’m a little ashamed.

Brothers and sisters,

“We need to live our lives so that our enemies desire to die like we do.”

Forget the experts - hear the scripture.

I love an alternate translation of Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, it will not depart from him.”

Your child or grandchild or you, might refuse salvation but if they do, at least at the day of their death they will know the truth and maybe, at the last minute, be saved.

They may not like you - but I’m sure if you are reconciled in heaven, that would be ok, don’t you think?

I don’t believe I am overstating this at all - all of our problems in this country, in our schools and in our homes hinge around this statement.

“A belief is what you hold, but a conviction is what holds you.”

This is a revival so I’ve got to ask you, do you believe, or are you convinced?

Are. You. Convinced?

If you are straddling the fence, man it’s time to fall on one side or the other.

We can sit around and mope and gripe and complain and whine that someone needs to do something.

Or, if we are convinced, we can live our lives so our enemies desire to die like we do.

That’s a big deal.

That’s a real big deal.

Come on Church, are you convinced?