Live your life well (2)
Notes
Transcript
This evening we are talking about living life well. And 20 year old Joe, had spent a few weekends, at the beach with a boat and a couple of mates dreaming about living life well, with beers and boats and BBQ’s on a beach. We would say, look at us - living the dream! You see we thought we were living life well.
Maybe that’s not you though, maybe you had or have different ideas on what living life well was and so I want to ask you now, are you living life well?
Today, we are going to explore what is possibly my favourite chapter in the bible, from a brilliant book called Deuteronomy. Chapter 6, it is a rich resource for unpacking what is the good life and for our time this morning we are going to understand how this passage is incredibly powerful for guiding us to what the bible describes is the good life.
This sermon will discuss the passage in three parts;
• The Promise of the well life (1-3),
• The Command to live the well life (4-9),
• The Means of living the well life (the gospel),
Seeing this passage in three parts will help us understand its application for our lives as Christians today. We will look to Jesus and his work on the cross; we will turn the light of the Gospel onto the words of this Old Testament passage. For it is in the Gospel we will truly find the good life.
Starting with the promise in verses 1-3 let us follow closely what is being said.
Deuteronomy 6:1 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,
Moses is referring to the entirety of God’s word, including specifically the Ten Commandments. Chapter 5 of Deuteronomy sets that context up for us as it has just informed the reader of the commands again. And for a broader context, God has rescued his people from slavery in Egypt and is about to send them into the promised land. In the book of Deuteronomy Moses is preparing God’s people for living life according to God’s promise, that he gave Abram in Genesis Chapter 12.
And this promise in Genesis that is the foundation of Israel as a people expands as the bibles story unfolds. God builds onto the foundational promise which reads Genesis 12:1–3 “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””
By the time we reach Deuteronomy we have seen this promise grow with more understanding of what God told Abram, importantly the promise doesn’t change, rather God reveals more about it as he make promises to different people at different times.
In our passage this morning, I want to draw your attention to the generational language in verse 2 “you and your son and your son’s son”, a common element of God’s promises is that he specifically refers to the inclusion of the children as part of his blessing.
And secondly God’s promise in this passage has a very important pay off.
And what is this payoff we ask? That all may fear the lord your God as long as you shall live by keeping his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. You may enjoy long life!!
And not only that but in verse three he says That it may go well for you. What a promise indeed; do what I say and you will live the good life that is good for you and your children.
And at this point in our reading we may think quite frankly that’s a bold thing to say.
But here we read that God promises well-being through the obeying of his word. which is the first point of the sermon. Obedience to God’s word brings blessing. But that’s not all,
The second point of today’s passage is found in the section that is known as the Shema, this is the Hebrew word for the beginning of verse 4, Hear, O Israel, Shema simply means to hear. That’s rather academic, so what’s important here is that God is making a stress on the importance of this command. All of God’s word is for the people to listen to, it’s unnecessary to say listen to this because everything God says is worth listening to, so when the bible does say specifically that we are to listen, this is a stressed point, it’s like underlining words or putting them in bold.
Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Now if you were raised as a religious Jewish family you would know these words by heart by the time you were 4 years old. This is a foundational statement of faith for the Jews. The purpose of its recitation is for declaring unity with God and his people. Israelite families would recite this because they belong to this community of God’s people. For context, the nations around Israel had multitudes of gods. You see Israel was different. They have one God. Monotheism is the theological term you would use to say that. God is making it very clear in no uncertain terms that Israel has one God.
The instructions within the Shema are profound indeed; they leave no room for allowing a priority in one’s life that is not God. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut 6:5). These three words; heart, soul and might are deep and profound the more you unpack the meaning of each. God is commanding a commitment that resonates out every fibre of ones being. There is nothing left that one can have or own that one can keep to themselves if they submit to the God of Israel. The implication is that the command to love God is to be written on the heart and bound to the body.
Therefore this is the greatest command... Now I can say that because Jesus said that when a Jewish man wanted to know how to inherit the kingdom of God. (Mt 22:34-40)
You see the all-encompassing nature of this command is beyond just words of a faithful follower of God. To love God with your ‘might’ is the essence of one’s energy output that is the use of resources you own, the economic nature of your work, the social aspect of your life or your physical ability to do stuff. This is to include your family, house, and workplace; everything is to be devoted to God. Thus spoken as a daily prayer, the faithful Israelite is reminded each day to place God above all else in their life.
God goes on to say
Deuteronomy 6:6–9 ESV
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children,
God’s focus on the children here shows a God who cares about keeping his people on task..
I’m a father to a young family and so I’m particularly interested in what scripture has to say on the subject of children. But more so, I’m a member of God’s Church and so all of the kids in church are my children because they are Gods children. So God is commanding that everyone should be intentional in the raising of children.
In verse 7, God commands the people to teach the children, but a word that the NIV chose to use is impress which is much closer to the meaning that is conveyed here. Because Impressing upon someone should be understood as discipleship, and this passage says we are to use all of life as a lesson in this great commandment.
That is the way you love and express joy, the way you celebrate and relax, the way you discipline and vent anger. All features of your life are moments to impress or teach the children what it means to love God.
And God gives an extensive list of how all-encompassing this task is. When you talk and walk, when you wake and lie down. Bind them, be front-lets, write them on doorposts on the house and the gate. That’s really to say, everywhere you are, everything you own, must declare your love to the Lord your God.
Your entire life as a member of God’s church is to be a lesson of love to God for all the children to witness. That is to say Discipleship is foundational to God’s design for a family and community. In no uncertain terms, every day and everywhere church is to reflect a devotion to loving God with all our hearts souls and strength. For this is what it takes to live life well
And you know what... you can’t do it! You will not succeed!
Well at least not in your own strength. We need help.
And the good news is that God provides the help we need in order to live life well
However, we don’t see it all in this passage. We only see a glimpse. We need to shine the light of the gospel onto this passage to help us truly understand our task at hand. You see unfortunately many families and churches have succumbed to the tantalizing formula of raising religious children and being religious people. It’s tempting isn’t to see a formula for living life and think, great, I’ll do that I’ll wear religious stuff and have religious words all over my house and church. I’ll teach the kids religious lessons and then I will have raised Godly children. Life will go well for me.
That’s terribly wrong. Even Jesus says so. Jesus calls that hypocrisy he told a bunch of Pharisees as much. And that should scare us. (Mt 15:7-9)
You see Deuteronomy 6 is about living life well according to God. And to do so he gives two imperatives, first, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might. Second, impress that love of God upon your children.
Be careful then, we are not to train the next generation in religious ways, but rather in a life of loving God. The religious ways described are not the means in of themselves which creates faithful children. Because Religious ways devoid of an appropriate devotion to God only make religious children. That leads to hypocrisy and pride. A common trait of the Pharisees that Jesus addresses in the gospels.
You see the key to this text and how to live life well therefore is found in the life of Jesus. Let’s look to Jesus in the desert being tempted by Satan in
Matthew 4:8–11 ESV
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’ ”
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
In this sequence of events Jesus not only knows this command of scripture, but he lives it out in the strength of God’s Spirit.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and might, Jesus in the face of temptation gives us the model of perfect devotion to God. He didn’t worship Satan or give into his tricks, he made no accommodation for the devils lies instead Jesus turned to the word of God. Jesus spoke the devil down with God’s authoritative scripture.
This is because no love of the world could get in between Jesus and the Father.
That is what God has planned for us. People devoted to God, with no barrier between our love for one another.
Jesus shows us what it means to perfectly live life well
You see this command spoken by Moses in Deuteronomy 6 was for the Israelite’s to follow. However, it’s also prophetic in that it points to the only person able to do it perfectly.
Just like Israel, You and I fail all the time at this. Don't let that surprise you. On a good day we might do this okayish, but in reality we don’t love God with all our heart soul and might as we should. Just like Israel before us.
That is because We can’t do it in our own strength, we need help with loving God, and we need help to live life well.
Sin is what keeps us from following this command, sin is what separates us from the Holy God. Therefore It is forgiveness of our sin in Jesus name that brings us to love God fully. And it is the pouring out of his Spirit that provides us the strength we need to follow his command
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might.
We must say “Jesus I fail at this task each day. Forgive my lack of strength, forgive my doubt.”
God knew that this command would defeat his people. He knew that his people would fail at this task. So God prepared the way, he made a path for sinners to be redeemed, and strengthened for the task
For the New Testament believer, It is faith in Jesus that we must turn to. When I fail to love God, I must look to Jesus; I must repent and be forgiven in Jesus name. I cannot love God perfectly on my own, but with the Spirit I am able to understand my selfishness, my idolatry, my sin that hinders my love for God. And bring my sin to Jesus where I know I am forgiven.
That is to say, through the Holy Spirit we have the power of God to love God, not in our own strength but in his. (Pause)
Now when we think of God’s promise and how he includes the next generation, exhorting us to impress the commands on the children, By all means use religious stuff, God even says to.
But do the first thing first. Love God by the Spirit through faith in Jesus. Devote your life to loving Jesus, obeying his commands, saturated in God’s word, praying, relying on him. Do those first, live a life that loves others as Jesus loves others. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and lay down your life. Don’t worry you have the Spirit to help you, none of this you can do in your own strength and you shouldn't even try.
God’s got you sorted. So do that first, then impress that upon the next generation. Show them a life devoted to Jesus. Bring them to Christ, bring them the gospel. Every day, pray with and for the kids, pray in secret and model prayer in front of your children, read God’s word as one who loves God’s word, work as one who works directly for God, help others. Apologize to people when you get it wrong, forgive quickly. Show everyone what repentance looks like and how reliant you are on the God above to live your life.
You see we are to Show others that we are not perfect but that we look to the perfect savoir Jesus, because this is something we cannot fake. You see God put the instruction for raising the children directly after the greatest command and that’s no co-incident. In our homes, we either love God or we don’t. In our church, we either love God or don’t. The next generation will see right through our lies. Now We know that there’s no hiding anything from God, and my goodness if I wasn’t worried about God watching me, my children are like CCTV, they catch everything!
So all of that to say; look to Jesus in order to live life well,
I can’t stress this enough, the next generation need the hope of Jesus because we need the hope of Jesus. They don’t need simply religion! They need someone in their life who is devoted to God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, as your takeaway this morning, I ask you again, are you living life well?
Let me encourage you as you journey with Jesus to consider at least one aspect of your life that you can use as a way to express the love of God. Maybe you have a younger person in your working environment, or you have grandchildren, or even just a mate across the road. Whoever it is, impress upon them the love of Jesus
Because God has promised that when we do this, with his help, that life will go well for us. Not according to our desires, but according to his. According to God, who loves you and knows you. So trust him, and show that trust of him to others.
Because I want you to finish by asking you, what kind of life are you showing others? A life that says living the dream?
Or a life that is lived well,
The enjoyable long life that is lived forever with Jesus. The life that impresses Gods love to the generations to follow
So let us do the first thing first, love God, and then impress that love onto the next generation in order to live life well.
Let’s pray
Lord, give us strength in Jesus name to love you with all our hearts soul and might. Forgive our doubt, forgive our sin. Lord guide us as we raise the next generation. May they see a church of people who love you above all things. May we have the love of God impressed upon each of us that we will follow your commands that it may go well for us.
Lord, bless the next generation
In Jesus name,
Amen