A devote life to Gods’ Word
Notes
Transcript
Nazirite Ministry
Deuteronomy 6:1-12
A devote life to Gods’ Word
07/02/2021
Good evening everybody. It is really good to be back here again tonight. Tonight, we are going to look at how we should be devoted to the Word of God. We so easily quote His word and we read from it but need to go so much deeper into our lives as just that.
Last week we looked at how God said he is personal, almighty and that he chose us first. We looked at how we should live a full live with where He placed us at the moment. We need to make sure that those who teach us are not teaching their own thoughts and ideas but the truth of God. We saw that God has a plan for our lives and lastly, we looked at the fact that we need to seek Him with all in us.
Tonight, I want to build on that. To have that full life for God by living by the Word of God.
These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Israel as a nation have been wondering through the wilderness for 40 year, a whole generation have died out and now God is talking with the new generation and giving them His commandments to follow. In chapter 5 we find the 10 commandments, and now we have read that they need to keep all the command He gave them.
1. Obey the commands God gave us.
1. Obey the commands God gave us.
In verse one Moses’ comes to the Israelite's and tell them that these are the commands, decrees and laws God gave him to teach to them to observe in the promise land. There are two key points in this verse I want to look at tonight. 1. Teach and 2. Observe
1.1 Teach.
We see that God not just tell them but that he instructed Moses to teach it to them. What is the best way to teach someone? First you tell them and you repeat it over and over to make sure that everybody understands, and secondly you live it out. We can see it in the life of Moses that he lived by the commands of God even if it was very hard. If we jump forward a few thousand years we see that Jesus did exactly the same.
He taught His disciples, but He also lived it out. When we read the sermon on the mount we see that He taught His disciples in Matthew 5.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Among the disciple He was teaching at that moment was Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus. The one who sold Jesus out for some silver coins, and as we read through the gospels we see that even though Jesus knew that Jesus will betray Him, he treated him the same, loved him the same even if he will end up working against Him and bring persecution onto Him. But that taught the disciple after the resurrection of Jesus that they need to do the same.
1.2 Observe
This means they need to take note and register that these commands that’s been given to them are significant. They are not just beautiful word or something that they can follow if they want to. No, they are something very important and they need to live by them. It is something to take serious in their lives. So what are the command we need to follow? There are three of them, can you name them?
He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Great, we see that we first need to love God. That is the most important thing we need to do with our lives. Remember that we spoke about that last week that we need to seek God with everything in us. That should be number 1 in our daily lives. Then we need to love the people who God has placed around us. This might be at school, university, work, home, family, friends and loved one. It might be the people living next to us. We see that Jesus gave His disciple another command to live by. To love one another, and by this they the world will see that they belong to Him. This is very important. We need to learn how to love one another in the church, accept one another in the church, bear with each other and other mistakes in church. Help each other and grow together. IF we can accept people in here with their mistakes and love them for who they are not trying to change them into who we want them to be, the world will see the ,love of God and that will flow through to other.
2. Live by the Word of God
2. Live by the Word of God
We read that god gave them very clear instruction by how Israel as a nation should live by His Word. 9 things they need to do with the command God gave them. 1 It needs to be on their hearts. 2. They need to impress them on their children. 3 talk about it when they sit. 4. when they walk. 5 when they lie down. 6. when they get up. 7. They need to tie it around their hand. 8. Their foreheads and 9. they need to write it on their door frames and gates of their houses. We can put them into a few categories. 1. Its need to be personal to them. 2 It needs to be a lifestyle for them.
2.1 It needs to be personal
It needs to be on their hearts and they need to tie it around their foreheads. God want our hearts to totally love Him and that Gods’ word will be truly and effectively written on our hearts as well. We need to store His word in our hearts, let our hearts overflow with His love, and the desire to get closer to Him needs to come from our hearts as well. If you give your heart to someone, it means you give them all you have, and that is why, if someone gives you their heart, we need to cherries it with everything we have. The same with God, He ask us to give our hearts to Him and let Him fill it with His love and His word.
Ninja illustration
Having a band around my head doesn’t make me a ninja. Posting all the beautiful verses on Facebook and all around our home doesn’t make us Christian. If we do share it we need to live it as well. In our thought we need to show how much we love God and other people around me. It where our true identity comes out. Yes we can put a mask on to hide who we truly are, but in our thoughts God sees what’s really happening in our lives and to be honest with you, I believe that is where we sin the most as well, because we can hid it from everybody else. Jesus tells us that we need to love Him with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind. The mind is where we make the choices and that will sometimes determent what is also happening in our hearts just as the heart sometimes determent what is happening in our minds. They are closely link together and God ask that both of them will be focused and in sync with His.
The biggest problem today is that our hearts are focused on our own desires, needs and hatred and that drives us.
2.2 It needs to be a lifestyle
God tells Israel as a nation that His commandments should be a lifestyle for them. If they can live out daily the Ten Commandments in their lives not because they have to, but because they want to for God it would have impacted the nation and the nations around them. Part of that lifestyle God tells them that they need to train their kids as well, they need to see it in their parents lives and they need to be taught to keep them as well because they love God. God is telling the parents that it is their responsibilities to teach their kids these values. and second that they live out these values in their daily lives. When they walk, sit, talk, lie down or even work. God’s commandments should guide their daily lives.
God is telling them that there should be no separation between their work and their relationship with Him. Their relationship with Him need to overflow into what ever they do. The love they have for God need to overflow into their daily lives and people around them should experience it.
Israel as a nation then and now takes this command literately. When they pray the bind things around their hands and forehead. To them its all about the religious activities they need to perform and not the relationship with Jesus that matters.
3. When life is going will, remember God.
3. When life is going will, remember God.
When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
When our lives are in a turmoil and it feels like its falling apart, we so easily run to God and ask for help and guidance. we so easily make time to spend with Him in prayer and studying His word so that He can help us or rescue us. But the sad part is that we so easily forget about Him when life is going great. we feel we are okay and that we can handle everything and that He doesn’t need to be part of our lives anymore.
we have seen it so many time in the church when families migrate to NZ and they have nothing and are in desperate need. They share all the beautiful stories of how God guided them to this point and they come to church and become part of a small group, and when they have settle in and their life have some new normality we see that they disappear and enjoy all the great things NZ has to offer. now there is nothing wrong with enjoying what God gave us, but don’t let it draw you away from God. Sometimes we felt used by them and some did come with the intentions of using the church.
We on the other hand need to make sure that is not who we are. That we don’t just call on God when life is hard and we are struggling, but that in the great time we will keep on praising Him and thank Him for the great times we can enjoy, because they will not last forever here on this earth.
4. Never forget what God has done for you.
4. Never forget what God has done for you.
God reminds Israel as a nation, that where they are at the moment wasn’t because they did it, it was because he rescues them from slavery and gave them their freedom and a new land they can now call home.
We should never forget who we were without Christ Jesus in our live. That we were lost and broken and without hope. we were slave to the devil and he was busy destroying our lives.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Were we are in life at the moment, we need to be great full that we are not still prisoner and under the control of the devil. Jesus paid the ultimate price for us to be free and to belong to Him. We have to be thankful towards Him for that and keep our focus on Him so that we do not slowly return back to our old ways and our old habits of life. He is the one that brings transformation and hope and a future with Him. Never take for granted the grace God has bestowed upon each one of us.
Conclusion
If we want to impact the world for God we to fill our hearts and mind with the command God gave us and that is to love Him with all we have and to share that love in and outside of the church. Being a devoted follower of God is not just a Sunday thing but its a lifestyle. when life is going great don’t forget about God and we should never forget where we come from and from what Jesus has saved us from.
Amen