Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "A Heart for God" by Hiram Kemp

Transcript

"A Heart for God" by Hiram Kemp · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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Maybe you think back to a wedding you've attended before, or maybe your own wedding and how
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it feels and what's going on in that moment is two individuals stand before a preacher
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or some law enforcement individual in the court system and they offer up those vows.
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On that day, those vows that are offered up bring those two lives together and one in
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union, but it won't be enough to sustain them throughout their married life.
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The vows say that these individuals bring their lives together and ultimately they're
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one in form, but the vows in and of themselves can't make these two individuals entering
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into this union one in essence.
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If they're going to be one in essence, it'll have to go beyond the vows.
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The vows made on that day bring them into a legally binding relationship with each other.
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The Bible word for this is you enter into a covenant, but it's only after that day as
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life is lived out that you see whether or not individuals are really keeping what they
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ultimately said in the initial phases of I do and I profess my love and loyalty to this
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person.
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When you read the book of Genesis and then you get to the book of Exodus, God has chosen
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Abraham's descendants and in the book of Exodus, he delivers them out of Egyptian bondage
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with a mighty arm and an outstretched hand.
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He performs these signs and these wonders and these miracles.
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Moses goes up on Mount Sinai, he receives the law from God, the people are at the foot
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of the mountain, and it's in that moment that they become a nation, that they enter
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into a covenant relationship with God.
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You could say it's like unto a marriage, Exodus 19, five and six says that there has chosen
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people for a special purpose and they enter into this union, but becoming God's people
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through the signs and through the giving of the law and through God's outstretched hand
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is like unto two individuals making their vows to one another on their wedding day.
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It would take far more than simply receiving the law and God professing to be their God
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and claiming them as his own and their profession back to God, that they're going to be faithful
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to him to ultimately make that relationship work.
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The giving of the law, the ultimate signs that Moses sent on Mount Sinai made them God's
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people by law, but only through their loyalness, their faithfulness and ultimately giving their
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heart to God could they become his by love.
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And that's really what the whole book of Deuteronomy is ultimately about.
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The book of Deuteronomy is written to a group of people whose parents died in the wilderness
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because of their disobedience and their unfaithfulness.
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God tells this new generation who's going into the land, I brought your people out with
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the mighty arm and outstretched hand through the signs and wonders and the plagues that
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you saw in Egypt, but you will die like your parents did in the wilderness unless you remain
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faithful to me.
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Deuteronomy four 34 through 40 he says, I'm giving you all of these blessings and all
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of these great privileges, but the only way that they will ultimately be yours is if you
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reciprocate the love toward me that I've given toward you and love me with the totality of
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your being.
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Deuteronomy four one through 14 God was saying to these people, I want you to give me your
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heart because I've already given you mine.
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There's a common misunderstanding about the old Testament.
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People sort of have in their mind that in the old Testament, God was simply concerned
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with ritual, with form, with ceremonialism and simply going through the motions.
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But when you actually read the old Testament, what becomes apparent is God was after the
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same thing then that he is now.
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And that is the human heart passages like Psalm 119 and verse 10, Jeremiah 29 and verse
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13, Joel two and verse 12.
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Make this point emphatically.
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God is always and is always interested in the human heart and throughout the book of
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Deuteronomy, these 34 chapters, that is the main point.
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God has loved Israel and that's professed on just about every page in every chapter.
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Deuteronomy 11 in verse seven, Deuteronomy 23 in verse five, and the people are to reciprocate
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God's love toward him by loving him back.
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Deuteronomy six, four and five, Deuteronomy 30 in verse 20.
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And the question we're left with as readers is, will they do it?
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And you and I are in a very similar situation to the ancient people of Israel.
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We're in a sense in our own way, journeying toward our own promised land, our own Canaan.
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And maybe we've obeyed the gospel and in baptism, we've offered to God that initial obedience
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that makes us God's people by law.
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And as we've entered into that covenant arrangement, but only through faithful loyalty that we
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live out throughout the entirety of our lives, will we become his by love.
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And maybe if you think about your spiritual life from the standpoint of maybe things feel
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dry or they feel stale to you, the thing that's often lacking in that moment is your love.
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If you say to yourself, I'm going through the motions, but deep down inside, nothing
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spiritual, nothing related to Christianity actually excites me and makes me want to serve
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The thing that may be left behind is your love and your heart for God.
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If you know deep down inside, the most important thing in the world is Christianity.
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But if you're being honest, there are other things in your life that just seem to be more
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pressing and worthy of more attention and worthy of more adoration.
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It's because at the heart of it, you have a heart problem.
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And the only way to get this fixed is to give God your heart because that's what he's ultimately
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been after the whole time.
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So Moses in the book of Deuteronomy and really the whole Bible is driving at this point.
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God wants people that have a heart after him.
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And the only way to assess our relationship with him and see if we're in good standing
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with him and if we're loving God like he loves us is to assess whether or not God ultimately
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has our heart and whether we have a heart for him.
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And so turn your Bible to the book of Deuteronomy and we'll start in chapter four.
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And let's just notice some of the things that Moses says are typical of a person that has
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a healthy relationship with God or another way to say it.
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What's typical of a person who ultimately has a heart for God?
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Because in the end, it's only those people that will be pleasing to God and only those
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people that can live for his purpose and to his glory.
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What does a heart for God look like?
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Number one, a heart for God is a heart that receives God's love.
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This is where it starts.
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God says, I'm going to bless Israel with the promised land.
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I'm going to give you the law.
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You'll inherit this land that you don't deserve.
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But first appreciate it's coming to you because of my steadfast love.
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God says that he placed his love on their fathers and on their descendants, and he's
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leading them into this land that they don't deserve with these inhabitants that are mightier
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than they are and stronger than them in Deuteronomy 4, 37 through 38.
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It's not because of Israel's worthiness, but because of God's goodness that they're ultimately
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going to receive and inhabit the land.
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Later on in Deuteronomy 7, 7 through 8, he says, it's not because you're the most numerous
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people or because you're the most prosperous nation that I've set my love on you.
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It's because of promises that I've made to your forefathers long before you and I intend
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to carry out my word and to keep it.
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God says, it's because I love you.
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Deuteronomy 23 and verse 5, God professes there, it's my love for you that allows me
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to turn curses into blessing.
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And at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter 33 and verse 3, Moses just simply
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says it.
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God has set his love on his people.
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He set his love on their fathers, the patriarchs, Deuteronomy 10 and verse 15.
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People that have a heart after God are those individuals that welcome and receive his love.
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You might think this is pretty easy, but it appears from scripture and just from plain
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human experience that the human heart, the tendency is to sort of try to earn God's love,
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to behave ourselves into a way that we accept it or that we should be deserving of it.
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But God will have none of it.
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God says, ultimately, if you and I are going to enter into a relationship and if you're
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going to have a heart after me, the first thing you've got to do is you've got to let
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me love you and fully receive it, even though you're undeserving of it.
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And so 1 John 4 and verse 19, John says, we love him because he's first loved us.
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First John 4 and verse 10, here is love.
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Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the atoning sacrifice
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for our sins.
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God demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.
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Romans 5 and verse 8, when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, his great love with
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which he loved us.
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Ephesians 2 and verse 4, you and I will have a heart after God if first and foremost, we
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learn to receive God's love.
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And this is humbling because it says everything good that's flown into your life is because
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God through his love has empowered you to receive the blessings that you receive.
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He'll tell these people later in Deuteronomy 8, verse 17 and 18, be careful, lest you say
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in your heart, my power and my might has allowed me to acquire this wealth.
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What's given it to Israel?
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It's been the love of God.
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What's given us everything we receive?
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God's love.
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But it's also this idea that it's healthy for us to see ourselves this way.
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Because maybe we think of ourselves as unlovable, unworthy of all that God's going to bestow
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on us and do in us.
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And the love of God, the ability to receive it reminds us that if God loves us, then we
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should have knowledge of that reality and it should cause us to love ourselves in turn.
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Isaiah 43 and verse 4, God says, it's because I've honored you and chosen you and love you
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that I've given people in exchange for you and in return for you.
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And the book of Deuteronomy starts out by saying, you know that you have a heart after
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God or a heart for God when you can first and foremost receive God's love.
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Not reject it, not refuse it, not fight against it.
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Israel, first, you've got to allow yourself to be loved by God.
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The 20th century as highways became more prominent, and you see this in the United States and
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in countries around the world, many of the highway signs, they're in green with this
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white lettering.
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And the reason for that is it's easy to see.
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They're high above where the cars are driving and it's easy to see.
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Green is a color that just sort of signals in our minds after so much time of seeing
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it direction.
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Yellow signals a warning and red signals stop.
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This is done by design to say to travelers that are driving on highways, here's the way
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in which you should be going.
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The signs point you to where you need to be going and it's clear and obvious so that nobody
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can miss it.
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And the love of God throughout scripture and the book of Deuteronomy, it's not in fine
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print.
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It's not whispered, it's shouted and it's held up as a highway sign for all of Israel
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to see so that they don't miss it.
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He delivered you out of Egypt because of his steadfast love and you're going to tumble
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and plummet these nations, Deuteronomy 26, 8 and 9 because of his great power and his
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great love.
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And for Christians, the same reality is true.
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God's love is a highway sign that points us and says right this way through the incarnation
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and the fleshly appearance of Jesus, 1 Timothy 3 and verse 16, through the presence of the
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Holy Spirit in our lives, Acts chapter 5 and verse 32, through the scriptures that he's
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given to us and preserved us, 2 John verse 2, and he's saying, I love you and I want
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you to receive it.
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The question is not whether or not God's love is hiding.
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The question is whether or not we're going to be the kind of people that receive it,
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that don't reject it, that don't fight against it.
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And so if you're not a Christian, the question is, have you received God's love?
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This is where it starts.
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You've got to obey the gospel and become a Christian.
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John says to as many as received him, to him, he gave power to become children of God.
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Those that are born, not of the will of man, nor of the flesh, but by the will of God receiving
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God's love says I want to latch onto it and I do that by submitting and realizing I can't
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save myself.
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That's the person that has a heart after God, but also people that have already done that.
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Do I live as if the fact that God loves me is my chiefest joy and where I find my ultimate
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rest.
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Paul says, I want you to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
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Ephesians 3 and verse 19, you can mark this down.
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Every spiritual problem that Israel would ever have is because they forgot this reality.
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And I believe every spiritual problem that you and I will ever face is because we forget
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this reality, how deeply and richly we're loved by God and all of our sin and all of
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our rebellion.
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Is it merely that the devil is so enticing or that we're so fleshly it's we reject the
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fact that God deeply loves us and we refuse to receive it.
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But a heart for God says, God loves me and I'm going to receive it.
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Here's number two, a heart for God is one that loves God with its all.
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These verses a moment ago, probably the most famous in the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy
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six, four and five.
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This is called the Shema of Israel because of what's said in verse four hero Israel.
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This word means to listen in Hebrew hero Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one and you'll
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love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength
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throughout Jesus's earthly ministry.
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When people say what's the greatest command in the law, there are about 613 commands in
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the old Testament.
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When people ask Jesus, what's the greatest one?
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He always quoted this passage.
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He quotes it in Matthew 22, 37 through 38.
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He quotes it in Mark 10, 29 through 30.
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Jesus says, this is what it's all about.
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Love God with your all.
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He never hesitated.
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And if you're going to have a heart for God, a heart that's for God is one that loves God
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in its totality with his all.
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If you look closely at verse four, it makes sense with what Moses is trying to teach us
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and what God's doing in verse five.
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He starts by saying hero Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.
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That oneness of God is then compared and contrasted to us in verse five, the God who is one in
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verse four wants our whole being to love him in response in verse five, God is one and
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whole and complete.
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And the only way to respond to him is to love him with your whole heart, soul, mind, and
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strength.
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Notice the three alls in verse five, Moses won't let up or turn away from it.
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All your heart, all your soul, all your mind, because partial allegiance, it just won't
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do.
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God says, you'll find me when you seek me with your whole heart, Deuteronomy four in
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verse 29, Jesus says, if you love father or mother more than me, son or daughter, you're
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unworthy of me.
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Matthew 10 in verse 37, if any man will come after me, let him take up his cross and deny
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himself.
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Matthew 16 in verse 24, likewise, whosoever there be of you that doesn't abandon everything
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that he has.
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He can't be my disciple.
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Luke 14 33.
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How do you know that you have a heart for God?
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It boils down to this.
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With your heart.
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Do you love God with literally everything you have?
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Does God have your all?
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Here's one thing, you know, for sure.
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Nobody has any question about whether or not Spike Lee loves the New York Knicks.
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It's really not up for debate.
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He's almost become like their mascot.
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He's been a season ticket holder since 1985.
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Throughout his lifetime, he spent $10 million on season tickets to the Knicks.
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He's been going to games since he was a child with his father in the 1970s at a recent auction
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for New York Knicks memorabilia in 2019.
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He spent over $300,000 and even acquired the net that was used in the game in 1970 in the
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game seven of the NBA finals when he was rehearsing why he bought the net and paid this much money.
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He says, I remember being at the game with my dad just like it was yesterday.
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It was 50 years ago and he still remembers it like it was yesterday.
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He's such a focal point in New York Knicks basketball lore that when ESPN did their 30
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special, they gave a special segment to Spike Lee and the role that he's played in their
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constant drama and back and forth in their rivalry with the Indiana Pacers.
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Nobody has to question whether or not Spike Lee loves the New York Knicks.
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He practically bleeds orange and blue.
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It's not a question.
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The question is, who do you love like that?
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What do you love like that?
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Listen, I'm not telling you that we should love God like our favorite sports teams.
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I'm saying something far deeper and higher and greater than that because he's worth so
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much more.
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I'm saying what God wants us to see in Deuteronomy 6, 4, and 5 is you and I have a heart for
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God when we love him with our all and it's not up for question.
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What people like Spike Lee show us is this.
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It's not impossible for people to do this.
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Human beings do it all the time.
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It's not a question of whether or not you can love someone or something with all of
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your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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The question is, will God be the object of that love?
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And so he says to Peter as they're walking on the beach in John 21 and verse 15, a question
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that really echoes down the hallways of time to every one of us, Simon Peter, do you love
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me more than these?
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See, he's saying to the people of Israel in the book of Deuteronomy, if you're going
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to have a heart after me, I want all of your heart.
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What does that mean?
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That means all of your passion, all of your zeal, all of your emotion.
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Zeal for your house will consume me, Psalm 69 and verse 9.
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All of your soul.
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That means all of your person.
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Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.
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Bless his holy name, Psalm 103 and verse 1.
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All your strength.
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That's what's said about Josiah in 2 Kings 23 and verse 25.
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There was never another king like him who loved God with all of his heart, soul, mind,
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and strength, and served God.
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And then Jesus would later add, with all of your mind.
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That's with all of your intellect.
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That means meditating in his law day and night, Psalm 1 and verse 2.
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People that have a heart for God, it's just that.
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It's God's heart.
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He possesses ownership.
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And people that can be described that way, it's because everything they do,
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everything they're engaged in, every breath they breathe screams out,
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this is not my life.
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It ultimately belongs to God.
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I've been bought with a price, and he deserves everything that I have,
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1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20.
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And Moses is standing on Mount Nebo, not going into the promised land,
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and he's saying to ancient Israel what God's saying to every one of us.
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I've given you my whole heart, my whole being.
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I want you to give me yours back in return.
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How do you know you have a heart for God?
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Do you love God with your all?
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It's interesting.
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Deuteronomy 30 and verse 16, he says,
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I'm going to circumcise your heart so that you can love me
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with all of your heart and with all of your soul.
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If you go back to Genesis 17 in the Old Testament,
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God tells Abraham, from this point forward,
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you and your descendants, every male descendant in your house
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is to be circumcised on the eighth day.
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But throughout the Old Testament,
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God harkens back to this ceremonial idea of circumcision.
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And he says, it's really not about the fleshly cutting.
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He says, I want to circumcise your heart,
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Jeremiah 4 and verse 4, Deuteronomy 30 and verse 16.
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It's the cutting away of every distraction,
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of everything that would obstruct your view
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of the thing or the being that matters most, and that's God.
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And he says, if you're going to have a heart after me,
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I've got to have all of it.
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Here's number three.
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Heart after God obeys God's commands.
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Maybe when you think about having a heart for God,
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you think of a warm and fuzzy feeling.
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Maybe you think about something emotional.
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But throughout the book of Deuteronomy,
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love for God is equated with obedience.
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It starts this way in Deuteronomy 10, 12 and 13.
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He says, I've given you these commands this day,
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to love the Lord your God, to walk in all of his ways,
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to keep his charge, his statutes and his commandments,
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which he commands you this day for your good.
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In Deuteronomy chapter 11 and verse 1, he doubles down.
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He says, you love God if you keep all of his statutes,
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his commandments, his rules and his ordinances.
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In Deuteronomy 19 and verse 9,
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love for God is equated with walking in God's way.
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And when you get to the end of the book,
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in Deuteronomy chapter 30 in verse 16 and in verse 20,
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Moses tells these people,
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you're going to live a long time in the land of Canaan
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and have a prosperous existence if you love God.
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But that has to be tied to
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whether or not you ultimately obey him.
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People that have a heart for God
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are those that want to obey his commands.
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People that their very being, everything they do,
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they want to diligently, carefully, scrupulously
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do exactly what God says.
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People like that, God absolutely loves and adores them.
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He looks throughout the whole world.
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And when he finds people like that,
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people that take him seriously,
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God says the way he describes his relationship with them is,
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I love them.
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Isaiah 66 and verse 2, the prophet says,
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speaking on behalf of God,
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this is the one to whom I will look,
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to those that are of a humble and contrite spirit
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and who tremble at my word.
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Jesus says you are my friends
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if you do whatever I command you, John 15 and verse 14.
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If you love me, keep my commandments, John 14 and verse 15.
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A heart after God is one that is willing
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and ready to obey his commands.
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As you start reading through the Old Testament
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and you get to the historical section,
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especially in the book of Judges,
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one of the things you find is
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God's people just start doing whatever they want.
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In fact, the summary statement
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that's found twice in the book of Judges,
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in Judges 17, six, and in Judges 21, 25 is,
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in those days, there was no king in Israel.
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Every man did what was right in his own eyes.
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People just did whatever they wanted.
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And that's why the wickedness and sinfulness
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of that time period is at Israel's zenith.
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It's at the height of their rebellion
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and at their debauchery.
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They did whatever they wanted,
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but a heart for God says,
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God, I'll do whatever you want.
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Think about your own life,
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specific events in your own life.
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How many times does love for God
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literally stop you in your tracks?
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How many times do you say to yourself,
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you know what, I wanna say that,
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but I'm not gonna say that because I love God.
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I wanna go there, but nope, can't go, love God.
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I wanna do this, can't do it because I love God.
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Does obedience to God ever stop you in your tracks
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where if it was all up to you,
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you just do something else,
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but because of your submission to God,
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you're willing to change.
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Jesus says, not everyone that says to me,
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Lord, Lord, we're into the kingdom of heaven,
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but those that do the will of my father who is in heaven,
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Matthew 7 and verse 21,
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it's really gonna boil down to,
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do I love God enough to do his will?
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And when you start finding yourself
20:34
in your Christian walk,
20:35
questioning his worthiness to be obeyed
20:37
and saying maybe the Bible's untrustworthy
20:39
or maybe I don't need to fully submit,
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it's in that moment that you know your heart's slipping.
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Israel had gone through the process.
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They've done the ceremonial walkthrough.
20:47
They're God's people by law,
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but the only thing that would make them God's people by love
20:51
is a full commitment to obedience.
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If you're a Christian,
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do you remember when you were baptized?
20:58
Maybe on the ground or before you got in the baptistery
21:00
or maybe while standing in the baptistery,
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somebody asked you this question.
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Do you believe Jesus is the son of God?
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You wouldn't have been immersed if you confessed otherwise.
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And you said, yes, I believe Romans 10, 9 and 10.
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You were lowered in water and raised up.
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What that confession was saying is
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Jesus was raised from the dead, he's Lord,
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but more than that, he's my Lord
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and I'm gonna fully submit to everything he says.
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And the question is,
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the vows we made on our spiritual wedding day,
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have we held fast and have we kept them?
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John says, hereby we know we know him
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if we keep his commandments.
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He that says I know him and keeps not his commands is a liar.
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Whoever keeps his commands in him,
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truly the love of God has met its completion.
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1 John 2, 3 through 5.
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You have a heart for God if you obey his commands.
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Here's number four.
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A heart for God is somebody who loves what God loves.
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Israel had a responsibility in the Old Testament
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and their responsibility was
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you be a light to all of the surrounding nations.
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Isaiah 49 and verse six,
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be a light to the nation so everybody could see
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what God's people were ultimately all about.
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We're told the same thing.
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Matthew 5, 16.
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Let your light so shine before men,
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they'll see your good works
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and glorify your father which is in heaven.
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Israel was supposed to show the rest of the world,
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here's what it looks like when God starts running your life.
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Think about a place that you frequent
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and maybe you think the service isn't that great.
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If all of a sudden you saw a sign out front that said,
22:16
under new management, what would that signify to you?
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Somebody else is in charge.
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And if you patronized and went there again and visited,
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you would first and foremost be looking for
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one thing and one thing only.
22:26
You would be wondering this one question, what's different?
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They say they're under new management, what's different?
22:32
They've got this sign out front,
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maybe they sell the same products,
22:35
maybe the store hours are the same,
22:37
but under new management says,
22:39
everything about this place is completely different.
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And when you give your life to Jesus Christ,
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there's essentially a sign hung outside your heart
22:46
that says under new management.
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Jesus says, you've received a new birth,
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John three and verse five.
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And everybody in the world has the right
22:53
to look in on our hearts and lives
22:54
and ask the same question, what's different?
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See a heart for God has changed,
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it's under new management and you love what God loves.
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If you look at Deuteronomy 10, turn your Bible there,
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Deuteronomy 10, 18 and 19,
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it's not just about warm and fuzzy feelings toward God,
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it's about starting to care about the things God cares about
23:10
and the people that God care about.
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And so Deuteronomy 10, 18 through 19, he says,
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I want you to execute justice for the fatherless
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and the widows, to love the sojourner,
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to clothe him and to feed him.
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And then in verse 19, he says,
23:23
love the sojourner because you were a stranger in Egypt.
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Listen, this isn't a political statement,
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it's a biblical one,
23:28
it's what God expects Christians to do.
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And when you get to the New Testament,
23:32
God is not walking this back, he actually doubles down.
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He says, pure and undefiled religion
23:38
is to visit the fatherless and the widows,
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James one and verse 27.
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Do good to all people,
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especially those that are the household of faith,
23:45
Galatians six and verse 10.
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I want you to love people like God has loved you,
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the downtrodden, the people that are struggling.
23:52
A heart for God says, you know what?
23:54
I love what God loves, I love who God loves,
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and I'm gonna evidence this in the world.
23:58
The Canaanites and the surrounding nations
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in the Old Testament had this privilege.
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Israel's moving in,
24:03
they're getting rid of all the wicked people,
24:04
but everybody that stayed in the land
24:06
was supposed to have this idea
24:08
when it was all said and done.
24:09
These Israelites and our neighbors,
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they're governed by a different law,
24:12
they live a different way.
24:13
Ah, this is what it's like
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when God's your next door neighbor.
24:17
And people that live around us
24:18
should be saying the same thing,
24:19
whether they ever read the Bible or not.
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This is what it's like
24:22
if God's your next door neighbor.
24:23
This is what it's like
24:24
if God's your employee or works alongside you.
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We're supposed to love what God loves,
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and it's gonna be evidenced
24:30
by the way that we live and the way we behave.
24:33
Sometimes social media will offer up
24:35
what's called suggested friends.
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They'll just do this for you.
24:38
They'll say, listen,
24:39
you all have this many mutual friends in common.
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It seems like your lives should overlap.
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You might wanna friend this person
24:45
because I think you all might run in the same circles.
24:47
Here's the question.
24:48
Would God be a suggested friend for us?
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Would heaven look down and say,
24:52
hey, you kinda love some of the same people God does,
24:55
and God loves this group of people,
24:56
and I think for some reason
24:57
you all should definitely be connected.
24:59
Your lives should be overlapping
25:01
because you're swimming in the same ponds,
25:03
fishing in the same pools.
25:04
You individuals should be together
25:06
because you're on the same page.
25:08
The book of Deuteronomy,
25:09
God says when you get into the land of Canaan,
25:12
you'll have a heart for me if you love what I love,
25:14
if you're after the same things I'm after,
25:16
and if that's evidenced by treating people
25:18
in the same way that I've taught you to treat them.
25:20
This is the heart of the parable of the Good Samaritan
25:22
in Luke 10, 25 through 37.
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Loving God with everything we have
25:26
involves loving the people God loves.
25:27
Here's number five.
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It means you remain loyal when you're tested.
25:31
You got a heart for God?
25:32
What about when you're tested?
25:33
Deuteronomy 13, God says,
25:36
one day if there comes into your company
25:37
a prophet or a dreamer of dreams,
25:39
and he performs a sign and the sign comes to pass,
25:42
but then he tells you up, let's follow other gods,
25:44
don't follow that prophet.
25:46
In verse three, he says,
25:47
no, this is actually a test to see whether or not
25:50
you love the Lord your God with all your heart
25:52
and with all your soul.
25:53
A heart for God remains loyal to God
25:55
even when it's tested.
25:57
It's interesting.
25:57
When Jesus was tempted in Matthew 4, 1 through 11,
26:00
the book he quoted from extensively and only, exclusively,
26:03
was the book of Deuteronomy.
26:05
Because a love that can't be tested can't be trusted.
26:08
Jesus is a person that says,
26:10
here's what it looks like to be loyal and faithful
26:12
even under dire circumstances and dire straits,
26:15
and you'll know that you have a heart for God
26:17
if you can be tested.
26:18
And when God tests you,
26:20
you come out of the other side unscathed.
26:22
Hosea 13 in verse six,
26:23
near the end of the Old Testament,
26:24
God says to his people,
26:26
oh, you grazed and you were filled,
26:28
and when you were lifted up, you forgot me.
26:30
But this passage, if you're honest with yourself,
26:33
this kind of thing, this idea of my love for God,
26:35
it's one thing to be loyal in what we say,
26:37
it's an entirely different thing to be loyal to God
26:39
in what we display,
26:40
especially when our love for God
26:42
and our allegiance to him, when it's tested.
26:46
Some people, they have a heart for God
26:48
right up until travel ball season.
26:51
Oh, they love God, everything's great,
26:53
but all of a sudden, once travel ball comes,
26:55
Matthew 6, 33, seek first the kingdom,
26:57
we've got no time for that.
26:58
Why don't we just reverse it?
27:00
We sometimes say to ourselves, you know what?
27:02
God's just gonna have to understand.
27:03
What if we reversed it?
27:05
What if we just say, you know what?
27:06
I've gotta do this God stuff over here,
27:08
and these folks over here,
27:09
they're just gonna have to understand.
27:12
Some people have a heart for God
27:14
right up until they start
27:15
making a little bit more money.
27:16
Listen, wealth in and of itself
27:18
is not sinful, it's not evil,
27:19
but every one of us should be asking ourselves,
27:21
can God trust me with it?
27:23
If God blesses me with more,
27:25
will I allow it to turn me against him
27:27
and make it my God in its place,
27:28
even though 1 Timothy 6, 6 through 10 says,
27:31
you've come into this world with nothing,
27:32
you'll leave out of it with nothing.
27:34
Those that love money
27:35
fall into many temptations and a snare,
27:37
and we all know people that were faithful to God
27:39
just up until the point
27:40
that they moved into a different tax bracket
27:42
and got a raise,
27:43
and all of a sudden,
27:44
this heart for God is sort of vanished.
27:46
Some people have a heart for God
27:48
until they marry him or marry her,
27:50
and I mean, they were faithful,
27:51
they were going full speed,
27:52
but all of a sudden now,
27:54
I don't know about God.
27:54
Well, they don't wanna go to church,
27:56
I don't know if I wanna go.
27:57
A heart for God is faithful
27:58
above every other human relationship.
28:00
For some people,
28:02
it's right until they go to college,
28:04
and some professor convinces them
28:05
that he's smarter than God.
28:07
Colossians 2, 8 says,
28:08
don't be deceived through philosophy,
28:11
through vain deceit.
28:12
After the traditions of man
28:14
and after the rudiments of this world
28:15
and not after Christ.
28:16
See, some people's faithfulness is regional.
28:19
When they lived in this area,
28:20
they were faithful,
28:21
but they moved out there
28:22
and the church isn't quite like home,
28:24
and as a result of that,
28:25
they're really not up on God's
28:26
everywhere throughout the world,
28:27
but not for them.
28:29
Some people have a heart for God
28:30
right up until difficulty.
28:33
They've got a fair weather God,
28:34
and in the sunshine,
28:35
their God's great,
28:36
but if it ever starts raining
28:37
or if a thunderstorm comes into their life,
28:39
all of a sudden,
28:40
but the book of Deuteronomy is saying,
28:42
you know,
28:43
you know you've got a heart for God
28:45
if you can remain loyal,
28:46
even when tested.
28:47
You might say,
28:48
especially when tested,
28:49
and it's coming into every one of our lives,
28:51
and we've got to be saying to ourselves,
28:53
I've got a heart for God,
28:54
come what may,
28:55
no matter what happens,
28:56
I'm going to be faithful to him.
28:57
Moses says,
28:58
these false prophets might actually
28:59
be a test of your loyalty.
29:02
You've seen these performance-based shows before
29:04
where the judges are sitting up front
29:06
and a person comes in and sings
29:07
or does some sort of a performance,
29:08
and sometimes they have to vote on a person
29:10
to continue to the next round.
29:12
Sometimes they have to,
29:13
for lack of better words,
29:14
purchase a person's talent
29:15
and they ascribe their allegiance to them
29:17
and you're going to be on my team
29:18
and they say,
29:18
hey, you're my person,
29:19
you're special,
29:20
until the next special performer comes out
29:22
and then all of a sudden,
29:23
they'll switch their allegiance.
29:26
And I want you to see us
29:27
and our hearts as sitting in the sea
29:29
and God comes out
29:30
and he comes out first
29:32
and our hearts are smitten
29:33
in full devotion to him
29:34
and we profess and we say,
29:35
God, you've got my everything.
29:36
I'm giving you my best.
29:38
Nobody else is taking your spot
29:39
and just about the time he exits the stage,
29:41
the world starts to land blast us
29:43
with various options,
29:44
various temptations,
29:46
and they stay there,
29:46
they sing longer,
29:47
they dance louder,
29:48
and we might be tempted to say when tested,
29:51
I know what I said
29:52
to the first candidate that came through.
29:54
I know what I profess to God.
29:56
Look at how bright and how shiny,
29:57
look at how attractive this is
29:59
and we might be tempted to succumb.
30:02
And Moses says,
30:02
you know you have a heart for God
30:04
if even when tested,
30:05
you hold fast and you remain faithful.
30:08
Here's the last one,
30:09
number six,
30:09
a heart for God,
30:10
clings to him until the end.
30:13
Throughout the book of Deuteronomy,
30:15
there's this idea to love God
30:16
with all your heart,
30:17
with all your soul,
30:18
but then Deuteronomy 30 in verse 20,
30:19
he says,
30:20
I want you to cling to the Lord.
30:21
The new King James has this,
30:23
cling to the Lord.
30:24
ESV says,
30:25
hold fast to the Lord.
30:26
The NLT,
30:27
fully commit yourself to God,
30:29
be fully,
30:29
and it's this idea of
30:30
literally being glued to God,
30:32
sticking to him no matter what.
30:34
And the way Moses ends this in verse 20,
30:36
he says,
30:36
because in him is life
30:38
and length of days.
30:39
And if you hold fast
30:40
and if you cling to God
30:42
till the very end,
30:43
that's evidence
30:44
that you've got a heart for God.
30:46
This same word for clinging
30:48
and holding fast,
30:49
it's interesting.
30:49
The first time we find it in the Bible,
30:51
it's in a marriage context,
30:52
which brings us full circle.
30:54
In Genesis 2 in verse 24,
30:56
it says,
30:56
a man will hold fast
30:57
or cleave to his wife
30:58
and the two will be one flesh
31:00
and God saying,
31:00
that's what I want you to do with me.
31:02
If you have a heart for me,
31:03
I don't want us just to begin together,
31:04
I want us to go all the way.
31:06
And if you do,
31:07
there's this duration of life.
31:09
And for us,
31:10
it's everlasting life.
31:12
Jesus says in John 6, 37,
31:13
those that come to God,
31:15
he'll never cast out.
31:16
The father is greater than all
31:17
and nobody can take you
31:18
out of the father's hand.
31:19
John 10 in verse 29.
31:21
If you put your faith in him,
31:22
you've passed from death to life.
31:24
John 5 in verse 24.
31:25
The question is not
31:26
whether God will hold us fast.
31:28
The question scripture
31:29
is repeatedly asking us is,
31:31
will we hold him fast?
31:33
And a heart for God says,
31:34
I'm going to cling to God
31:36
no matter what else happens,
31:37
no matter what the gods
31:38
of the land do,
31:39
no matter what else happens,
31:40
I'm going to hold fast to God
31:41
because God has been
31:42
holding fast to me.
31:45
Deuteronomy 34 has Moses
31:46
walking up on Mount Nebo
31:47
and then Moses dies
31:48
and he's buried in a place
31:49
that only God knows.
31:51
And he's left with us,
31:52
the book of Deuteronomy,
31:53
these four sermons
31:54
squeezed into one book
31:55
and history tells us
31:56
what Israel did
31:58
and whether they kept their vows
31:59
and whether they lived
32:00
into the fullness
32:01
of that love for God.
32:02
But our story isn't through
32:04
being written yet.
32:05
And the question for us is,
32:06
can we receive God's love?
32:08
Will we let him love us
32:09
or will we claim
32:10
that we're too sinful,
32:11
we're too bad
32:11
and we've got to behave ourselves
32:12
into earning it?
32:13
Will we just allow him to do it?
32:15
Will we love him
32:16
with all of our heart,
32:17
soul, mind and strength?
32:18
Are we the kind of people
32:19
that say, yes,
32:20
that's true about me
32:22
and as a result,
32:22
I'm going to obey him.
32:23
And even if I'm tested,
32:25
I promise to cling to him
32:26
and I won't let him go
32:28
because I'm assured
32:29
through what he's done
32:29
on the cross through Jesus
32:31
that he won't let me go.
32:33
It's amazing and great
32:34
to know how much God loves you,
32:35
but it ultimately means nothing.
32:37
They're empty vows
32:38
if you don't receive it
32:39
and if you don't embrace it
32:40
and enjoy it.
32:41
And maybe you need
32:42
to obey the gospel
32:43
and embrace and receive God's love.
32:44
We'd be happy to assist you
32:45
in doing that.
32:46
If you believe Jesus
32:47
is the son of God,
32:49
if you're ready to repent
32:50
of your sins
32:50
and confess him as Lord,
32:52
we'd love to immerse you in water
32:53
for the forgiveness of your sins.
32:55
Your sins will be forgiven.
32:56
You'll rise to walk
32:57
in newness of life.
32:58
And that's where it really begins
32:59
to live out the vows,
33:00
to be faithful
33:01
and to have a heart for God.
33:02
If you've done that in the past,
33:04
but you've wavered
33:05
on your commitments
33:05
and your vows in such a way
33:07
that you stand in need
33:08
of the public prayers
33:08
of the church,
33:09
we'd be happy to assist you.
33:11
Kaysen's going to lead us
33:11
in a song to encourage us.
33:13
If you need to respond,
33:14
come now as together,
33:15
we stand in sync.