Welcome to Delight in Grace. The teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Deuteronomy six holds one of the most well known commands in the Bible. You shall love the LORD your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. It calls us to keep His words on our hearts.
These commands are far more than a simple duty. To love our God fully is to be connected to the one we were made for. our very source of life and purpose. without him We're nothing. God knows that without him mankind cannot flourish.
And with him. we find our soul's deepest need and highest good. This is part three of a message titled You Shall Love the Lord Your God. It was first preached on May 19, 2024. Do you love God?
with all your heart, soul, and mind.
Now, I can put it in the negative sense: if take this whole compartment of your life, is there any part of your life? where God does not apply. Then that is a confession of idolatry. Because there is no part of your life where God does not apply. All of us entirely devoted to Him.
And everything I do with my time, with my intellect, with my leisure, with my finances, with my work, with my family, all of it aligns with God's goodness and holiness. All of it communicates God's goodness and God's holiness. But he leads us into intentional remembering, and this is where he uses strong imagery. Verse 8, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand. What do you do with your hands?
You're productive with your hands. Your hands do things. Right?
So whatever you're doing. Let it be a mark of your devotion to God. As a sign upon your hands. And then, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. We don't know what that word frontlits between your eyes means, but anyway, on your hands, in every endeavor, in every work, everything you create, between your eyes, here's what it comes down to.
Every fact thought. Captive to the obedience of Christ. How many thoughts? You have the selective power of what occupies your mind. Do it.
in love and obedience to God. That's the whole point of Philippians 4:8. Whatever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, excellent, praiseworthy. Do what? Meditate.
Fix your mind on these things. You have that selective power and it's awesome power.
So, as we said before, be choosy and intentional about what forms and shapes your affections and your attitudes. This is this is all comes down to God's self-disclosure being right here at the front of my mind. Every affection, every attitude right there is shaped and informed by God's self-disclosure. of his love, of his goodness. This holiness.
The doorposts, write them on the doorposts of your house and your gates, your dwelling place. Where is it that you dwell? Let it be defined by God's self-disclosure. Your security, what is your security? Let it be defined by God's self-disclosure.
Now in history, the Jewish people took this very literally. For example, the frontlets. You see a picture of this, the front, let's see, they have this band and these little... I think Eric, you probably wore one of these, didn't you? It had four scriptures in it, right?
Two from Deuteronomy and two from Exodus, I think, right? And so, and then they wear them right there.
Now. Personally, this is me, this is Rich Powell talking here, okay? I don't think that's what God had in mind.
Okay. What God had in mind was that his self-disclosure is at the very front of your mind. all the time. His self-disclosure informs and shapes your affections and your attitudes. The very first place you go in your thoughts.
is in line with God's character and his purpose. Else, what did he mean when he said, These words that I command you today shall be on your what? Heart. How do you do that? His word shapes your affections and your attitudes.
And when I say attitude, by the way, I'm not talking about grumpy, happy, sad. I'm talking about a habit of thought. An attitude is a habit of thought.
So, your affections, why? Because you pursue what you desire. and your habits of thought. When he leads us through this, then he says, This is very practical focus with intentional remembering. He gives us two warnings then.
Two warnings. In verses 10 to 19, Look at this with me, verse 10. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to give you with great and with great and good cities that you did not build. And houses full of good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig. Those are wells, okay?
They're they're not related to brethren. And vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. And when you eat and are full, Read verse 12 with me. Then take care lest you forget the Lord.
Now why would he write something like that? Because it's a very real possibility for us, isn't it? Take care lest you forget the Lord. This is why he writes The Shema. This is why he instructs us.
That our knowledge of God, our love for Him, our love for His Word has a very practical focus, and we need to be very intentional about remembering it. constantly, that we have an undivided devotion to God. Because he says, when you come into the land, do not forget the Lord your God. because you're going to live in houses you didn't build. No.
You're going to Gain from vineyards, pick from vineyards that you didn't plant. You're going to have stuff that you did not purchase. What is he talking about? Instant prosperity. I'm not going to get off on some tangent about prosperity and having things, okay?
The point is not having things. The point is, what do those things become to us? Yeah. Do they become my security and my satisfaction to the point that God becomes marginalized. in my affections and attitudes.
That is a huge pitfall for us in our very affluent culture. And if you don't think you're affluent, You need to go visit Haiti.
Okay. Most Americans live in the very, very top percentages of wealth in the world. Wealth is not the issue. It's not the issue. what you and I make of it.
Yeah. And if it becomes our security and our satisfaction, what happens? God becomes marginalized. Why? Because we are so comfortable.
I can get so comfortable, watch this. I can get so comfortable. I don't need God. I'm okay. And it's a lie.
This is what God was warning his people about. There is an inherent danger Of material prosperity. Again, please let me emphasize: having stuff is not a bad thing. As long as we realize that there is an inherent danger in it, that all of that. All of that comfort and convenience can lead me to a diminished sense of God or a need for God.
And here's where it truly becomes. Idolatrous. When all of this comfort and convenience that you have you develop the delusion That you deserve it. And that's kind of the American way, isn't it? How many commercials do you watch day in and day out that tell you that you deserve?
these things. It's not the things that are a problem. The problem exists here and here. What do we make of them? If those things become a replacement for God, Then it's idolatrous.
We forget God. And what it does, this kind of idolaters, this kind of material prosperity, again, if we do this with material prosperity, ultimately it leads you to worship a false. non-God that you can manipulate. And this is what he warns them about. Take care lest you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
It is the Lord your God you shall fear, and Him you shall serve. Here's the second warning. It begins in verse 16. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
Now, you've heard that before, haven't you? Jesus quoted that. in the Gospels, remember when Satan was tempting him? He says, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And what he's referring to here in this text that follows is what's recorded back in Exodus chapter 17.
And the people were thirsty. and they started to grumble and complain. Right. And here was their basic question. It came down to this, and it's recorded in the text, Acts 17.
Is the Lord among us or not?
Now remember everything that they had come through. They had come through the Exodus. They had come across the Red Sea. Imagine that. And they're in the wilderness, and then they ask the question.
Is the Lord among us or not?
Now here's what that looks like. for us today. We haven't walked across the Red Sea. If you think you have, You need to call Chris. You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.
To hear this message and others, check out www.delightandgrace.com. to discover how to live by grace. Tune in with us on weekdays at 10 a.m.
