A Call for Wholehearted Commitment - Steve Henry

2 (6s): It's good to be in his house. Amen. Scared to praise his name. 0 (15s): Beautiful. You see? I'll walk through the shine. 0 (2m 45s): Oh my every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of 2 (4m 48s): Thank you, Jesus. For your 1 (4m 49s): Presence. 2 (4m 52s): Bring your worship as you take it as an offering. 0 (6m 23s): Hi, . Hi, and praise you again. 0 (7m 37s): Come on, man. Don't you get shy on me. Lift up yours. Cause you got Come on. Don't you get shy on Crazy. 0 (9m 14s): Nothing else. 4 (16m 8s): Well, we declare this morning that you are good and that you do good Lord. Thank you, Lord, that you returned us to the back to the heart of worship. Lord, I thank you for this morning in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. You may take a seat. Well welcome. My name's Jeremy I'm the youth and family pastor. I'm not Curtis who normally gives announcements. It's exciting to be here giving announcements this morning. So welcome if you're joining us for the first time. We're so glad that you're here. And if you want to find out more information, we have an info center right back there. There's some people there that would love to chop talk with, talk with you as well as you can fill out a communication card, if you want to find out more about harvest church. 4 (16m 54s): So we have that great info center. It's a great spot to go, just to find out more. We are having as well offering. If you want to know how to, how to give to harvest church, we have a few spots you can give online to the app. We have a giving spot right there in the info center, as well as a box in the back of the sanctuary. But those are just a few ways to give next week exciting. We're going to be celebrating our grand opening of, of being in this building. So I know we've been in here a few weeks now, but we want to like let the community know that we're having a grand opening service. So that will be next week, July 10th, both services, both nine and 11 o'clock. And we're going to be after that, we're going to be gathering up on the patio up on the west campus and we're going to be having a barbecue there. 4 (17m 42s): So we're going to have hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, and most importantly cake to celebrate the grand opening. So we still need a few volunteers for that as well. So if you want to help us set up during first service or kind of break down after that, that'd be much, much needed as well as we're still need some potato salad. So if that's your specialty sign up in the back of the info center, so it's a great time info centers, a place to go. You can sign up for different things back there. So info center, as well as you might've noticed, we're, we're, we're changing up when we do communion service. So if you didn't grab the elements for communion, this, this as you're on your way in, you can grab those during the meet and greet time. 4 (18m 24s): So as well as fill out a ways to get involved. So thanks for being here. It's a great time to turn around and say hello to someone and bless those around you. And then after that, w youth will be meeting right now, right over here, and we're going to head up to the other campus. So fifth and sixth grade and up youth will be a meeting and heading up. So God bless you guys. 5 (19m 14s): And break a half day and hopefully rise. We speak German. Name lifts our eyes to now harness into new bead where we walk, they be with sane is blazing out she's will glow forever bride feel glories breaking through then not 6 (20m 53s): Alrighty. Welcome back. Come on back. Happy 4th of July. You guys ready for a big celebration tomorrow? No, just gonna it's just another day. I can't believe it's the 4th of July. Again, we always have like a family gathering and do barbecue and fireworks on the back patio and it seems like we just did it and now we're doing it again. It feels like that's just kinda how the years were on just faster and faster and faster. Like we'll be Christmases like next week, right? I mean, it's like, it will be that quick. Hey, welcome. We're going to be taking a break from our James study today and we're going to be in Deuteronomy chapter six, talking about why we do family Sunday and talking about wholehearted commitment to the Lord and that sort of thing. 6 (21m 39s): But before we do, I want to bring up David Salamanca, David, who has give David a round of applause here. David is the third young person that we've sent out on mission in the last, I don't know, month or so. So Jacob and Eva now, David, David's going to Kona, Hawaii to the, get it out of your system. I know 4 (22m 4s): There's a missions aspect as well. 6 (22m 6s): There is a missions aspect as well. So he's going to be joining the Y wham base on Kona, Hawaii, and being trained and will be there for six months to do some ministry and some work there. So we want to bless him and send him out. We've been talking about his work for the last few weeks and we've had flyers on the back info center. And so if you haven't received a flyer yet, make sure you grab one of those. He's halfway to raising the about $10,000 that he needs to raise, right? 4 (22m 32s): Yeah. So the Lord so far has raised about 5,500, $6,000 tend to get there and I believe he's going to do it cause I leave in three days. Yeah, 6 (22m 42s): Yeah, yeah. This week. So, so we're believing God Gyra. Yeah. So we do this with all of the missionaries that we are sending out. If you would like to participate in support financially, besides prayerfully the work that David will be a part of, you can put a mission check in the box and we'll make sure we get that to him before he gets out of town. And so I just wanted to bless you, David. You've been a part of our youth group members talking theology with you as you, when you were a young man and you've been just busy, just seeking the Lord. And so we want to honor your life and thank you for being responsive to what God is asking you to do. 6 (23m 25s): Thank you for being humble as you move forward. And we just believe that God's going to do continue to do great stuff in you and with you and through you. We believe in you. We believe in what God is doing. So let's lay our hands. I wouldn't use just extend your hand. We're gonna bless this young man, this man of God, Lord, we, we pray for David Salamanca. We pray God that you would watch over him. Lord in Jesus name, thank you that you have been watching over him as he's committed to serve you and to follow you all the days of his life. Lord, we pray that as he takes this next step in his journey, Lord, as he goes off to Kona, Hawaii for six months, training at the wild wham base that we pray that you would teach him what he needs to know academically in his mind, but also what he needs to know in his heart. 6 (24m 12s): Lord God. And I pray that there would be a beautiful marriage of the two, the information, the revelation that the, the, the wisdom that he, that he will glean and that he needs for the life and call upon his life. Lord God. So we just bless him. Lord, we bless him. Pray God that you would provide form abundantly. So richly. So God that he had have everything that he needs in Jesus name, body, soul, and spirit financially and in every way possible. So bless our friend, God, we commit to pray for him as he is gone for these next six months. We bless him. Lord, God. I want to pray for Eva as well. And Jacob who are off doing their own mission stuff currently, Lord, we're so thankful for them, for the ways in which you've called them and the ways in which you are using them, bless them. 6 (25m 2s): We pray. We also want to pray for Shane Shane Koch, who just left to go to Southern California to go to Bible college. Lordy kind of left in our, in a hurry and didn't get a chance to pray him out, but we bless him. Lord God, we pray blessing upon his life as he is pursuing you by training in Bible college for ministry. So Lord, we're so blessed to be able to be wind in the sails of these young people who just want to do what you've called them to do. So bless them, encourage them, keep them all the days of their lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Love you. Yes. You want to say something 4 (25m 39s): Just for a little clarification? So it will be two months of training in Kona, Hawaii, and then two months of training actually on the north island of New Zealand. And then the rest two months, it's going to be focused in the Pacific islands, going from island to island, French Polynesia, Malaysia, potentially Samoa, and these different places going and hiking into these villages to minister, to those people, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. So 6 (26m 5s): That's wonderful. Yeah. Good job. Thanks for that clarification. I appreciate that very much. We're praying for you. All right. Love you, man. Yeah, it's just a great reminder for us to be praying for these young people that we're sending out on these short terms missions, but for all of our missionaries who are around the globe doing the kingdom work that God has called them to do, we have the privilege of supporting missions work around parts of the world. And so we're so thankful that God has given us the opportunity to do that early on. When we planted the church 19 years ago, we prayed that God, we pray that God would give us an opportunity to get behind some world mission stuff and to support some people on the ground, doing the work, the kingdom work that they're called to do around the globe. 6 (26m 46s): And so God has graciously given us the opportunity to do that and to be a part of a wonderful stuff. And so we're so super, super thankful that God blesses us with the opportunity to bless others as they go do what God has called them to do. Amen. So don't forget to pray for our missionary short-term and long-term missionaries, and God will just do a wonderful things as we continue to trust him to do so. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. One more time. Lord, as we get into Deuteronomy chapter six, Lord speaks to us, teach us, Lord, show us what we need to hear and understand and to know, and to live out, Lord, God help us to honor you with our lives, body, soul, and spirit, and every part of who we are, God, that you would build us up and teach us and release us into the kingdom work that we're called to you. 6 (27m 32s): Lord God in our families and our vocations in our communities, Lord, with our hobbies and, and all the stuff that we're involved with. Use us mightily. We pray, we need you. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. So last week was family Sunday. And I said, last week that this week we'll be talking about why we do family Sunday. And so today we're talking about why we do family Sunday. Really family Sunday is part of the core of who we are going back to the beginning. And when we planted the church, we, we were hopefully heating and I believe heating what Jesus said, talked about a Matthew 28. Jesus came and told his disciples in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. 6 (28m 13s): He said, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit, teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And we have this promise in Proverbs 22 6 says direct, direct your children onto the right path. And even when they're older and when they're older, they will not leave it. So what does it mean to direct our children onto the right path while we're going to be looking at the Bible in the old and the new Testament, Deuteronomy chapter six and then Hebrews chapter 10. 6 (28m 58s): I think one of the slides is wrong. It says Hebrews six, but it's actually Hebrews chapter 10 when we get there that you're not confused about that. So Deuteronomy six and then Hebrews chapter 10, give us instruction that if we follow by God's grace, now we know that all people have a freewill young people and old people. So there may be exceptions, but I think if we take serious the call upon our lives to raise up the next generation, we'll talk about what that looks like when we take serious our call to parents and grandparents. Well, the generations that follow, then we will see, we will see young men and young woman's women stay in the church, stay as followers of Lord, Jesus Christ, all the days of their lives and then lead their future generations to do the same thing. 6 (29m 45s): So let's take a look at Deuteronomy chapter six on a title of the message today, a call for whole hearted commitments, a call for wholehearted commitment, because I feel like as a church, this is what we are all about. This is what God's church is meant to be doing all the days of our lives. We're calling people to a whole hearted commitment. And in my Bible under Deuteronomy six, it says a call to wholehearted commitment. So it was a very easy sermon title. Your Bible may say the same thing. So that was the heading on Deuteronomy chapter six. And we decided to make it the title for the message today in Deuteronomy chapter six. And we often use this passage in Deuteronomy chapter six to encourage people when we're dedicating babies to the Lord. 6 (30m 29s): When we do child dedication services, we will actually use parts of Deuteronomy six to encourage, to instruct young people, young parents, how to raise up the next generation. This is what it says, Deuteronomy six one. These are the commands, decrees and regulations that the Lord, your God commanded me to teach you. You must obey them in the land. You are about to enter and occupy. So if we go back to chapter five of Deuteronomy, we see that Moses has given the law and we see that the commandments are given on the tablets of stone. And so now he's saying these are the commands decrease in regulations at the Lord. Your God command me to teach you. 6 (31m 9s): You must obey them in the land. You are about to enter an occupy. So the law has been given to them. And he's saying, as you get ready to enter two into the promised land, these, this is the way you are to live your life. So number one, I call for wholehearted commitment. We must teach our young people that commands decrees and regulations of the Lord. We must teach our young people that commands decrees and regulations of the Lord early on in this ministry. Leaders would ask me when leading or attempting to lead ministries within the church, what is your vision for Sunday school? What is your vision for youth ministry? 6 (31m 51s): What is your vision for this group or that group? And my answer would be the same whether for an younger group or an older group, male or female, the answer is always say, let's make disciples. We want to train people, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit, teaching him everything that God has given us to teach them. So our goal with every age has been to instruct with righteousness and with wisdom. And so the Sunday school teaches Thiel, theological truths to our young people. We're instructing them with the truth of God's word so that they understand how to follow Jesus all the days of their lives in our fifth and sixth grade group, our club five, six Connie, actually teaching apologetics to fifth and sixth graders. 6 (32m 44s): So apologetics is the defense. They're learning how to defend the faith. They're learning how to communicate, what they believe, they're understanding what they believe. And then they're there. They're learning how to communicate that truth to their peers, to the people in their lives. Jeremy is teaching like I do on Sunday morning. He just teaches through books of the Bible. Most recently he taught through Genesis and now through revelation, he's teaching the students in junior high and in high school, both how to study the Bible, but also helping them to understand what the Bible says as he teaches them through the books of the Bible. 6 (33m 26s): And then he's got a core group where he gathers young people who are interested in taking extra steps and learning more. And he's taking them through through theologically sound books that have been written by people who understand truth so that they might grow in their understanding of doctrine in theology so that they might grow in their understanding of who they are and what they're called to do and what God is doing in the earth. And God's purpose for creation in all of the above. And so our effort is to disciple the next generation, to help them with information and revelation so that they might know how to follow Jesus. And so family Sunday is go, goes hand in hand with the purposes of harvest church. 6 (34m 10s): Going back to the beginning, we must do what Jesus directed us to do. We must make disciples. Discipleship is a call to wholehearted commitments from an article titled 70% of teens quit church after high school. Here's why the author posted this first in March of 2018. The article appeared originally on mark five soulless.com and the author writes, this is his, his, what he's discovered as he's interviewed young people who are post high school in college and have left the church and the author writes this isn't a negative bead up on the church post. 6 (34m 58s): I love the church and I want to see American evangelicalism returned to the gospel of repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, not just as something in our, what we believe page on our website, but as the core, the core of what we preach from our pulpits to our children, our youth and our adults, the facts, the statistics are jaw droppingly, horrific 70% of youth stop attending church when they graduate from high school, nearly a decade later, only about half return. 6 (35m 38s): So a great number of young people after high school are walking away and then never coming back. And then about half of those, who've walked away, end up coming back to church. Let's I mean, that's a huge number. So as a church, especially in the 21st century, we have a huge responsibility as parents and grandparents in the 21st century, we have a huge, significant responsibility to make sure that we're training our young people, equipping them to live the life that God has called them to live. There's no easy way to say this, but the American evangelical church has lost, is losing and will almost certainly continue to lose our youth. 6 (36m 21s): One of the reasons, one of the reasons they never really attended church to begin with from, and this is continuing to read that article from a Noah's Ark themed nursery to jumbotrons summer campus kids, church, to pizza parties and rock concerts. Most evangelical youth had been coddled in a, not quite church, but not quite world hot house. They've never sat on a pew between a set of new parents with the fussy baby senior citizen, with an oxygen tank. They never experience the church. And so part of our desire is to help them experience the church. 6 (37m 2s): And so when people show up and they say, Hey, can my kids sit in church with me? The answer is always yes, of course your people can. They don't send this was an option, but they can sit in church with you. We want young people involved in the work of the ministry here at harvest church when they don't, they don't see the full life line of the gospel for every season of life. They're not watching older people or people just ahead of them in, in, in seasons of life, kind of working out their faith and figuring out what it means to be a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. If we, if we isolate our kids, they never get a chance to grow up and understand what it means as an adult to follow Jesus. 6 (37m 52s): Instead, we've traditionally dumbed down the message, pumped up the volume and then act surprised when they, when they walk away. Number one, we must teach our young people, the commands, decrees and regulations of the Lord. This is a teaching, both taught and caught. And so I don't think it's one or the other. It's both that we need to teach it. That means we actually need to understand it ourselves and communicate it. We need to speak the truth to our young people so that they begin to understand what it means to be a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 6 (38m 34s): But then they need to also see it represented in our lives. If we simply teach it, but don't live it. The teaching will have no power. In fact, they will just see us as hypocrites and they will walk away from the church forever stating that the church is just full of hypocrites. If they only see that we're trying to model Christ and try to live for Christ, but don't give them the information. Then we're only doing half our job. The thing that God has called us to do is to both teach it and model it. It's both taught and it's caught. They hear the truth, and then they see us living out the truth. 6 (39m 16s): And none of us will do that perfectly. I'm just let me raise my hand as the first one to say, none of us will do that perfectly, but it's our opportunity to live the faith life in front of them. And when we do fall short, because we will all fall short wills, we need to go to our young people and say, Hey, that wasn't actually a proper response to that scenario. Would you forgive me as your dad? I misled you or I reacted, would you please forgive me? We need to be giving this information and then living it in the real world before our young people, my grandkids who were all in, you know, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 years old, they, they built a Fort and in their Fort, in the backyard, they put a cross on the wall and they wrote under the cross. 6 (40m 6s): Jesus died for my sins, my holy cow, that does a grandad and a pastor a lot. I mean, I just blesses my soul that they understand at a young age that Jesus died for them, that he died because of their sin because they fell short, Jesus died for them. And they're owning that and understanding that, and they're displaying that on the walls of their forts. So this teaching is both taught and caught. W you know, when I was in junior high school and in high school, growing up in the church, there wasn't actually an opportunity for junior high or senior high youth group, nothing against junior high and senior high, easier about Sunday morning. 6 (40m 55s): I think we're doing a really good job with our junior. So you see your hires, but we didn't have that option. So we just showed up to church with the adults and did everything that the adults were doing. My job was to flip the overhead, remember the overhead projectors. And so I'm kind of dating myself, but you would, you would flip the overhead, you know, the transparent slides, some of the younger kids were like, I have no idea what he's talking about, but, but Mo but most of you know what I'm talking about. So my job was to sit on the front row here and flip the slides on the tray, on the overhead projector. And, and, and then, you know, we were teaching Sunday school. We were a part of public ministry and teaching kids, and we were a part, all kinds of stuff. It was, if there was a work day, we were just at the Workday, whatever was going on, we just joined in the work that the adults were doing. 6 (41m 43s): And I tell you, so we got a chance to rub shoulders with those who were doing the, the work of the Lord. And we got invited into it. Remember we, we had a, when we were building a mature, a new church facility, we are meeting in the theaters over at fair or not fair Oaks, but the theaters that tend seated theater over there are 10 screen theater. And we would set up lights and stereo equipment, all this stuff, sound equipment for church in the theater. So we just involved ourselves in the work of the ministry. It was just natural and normal young people need exposure to adults in the faith. They need to know, and to know how to interact with adults in the faith. 6 (42m 27s): They need to know how to sit through an adult sermon. They need to serve alongside other adults. They need to be treated like young adults and not like uncapable children were making a terrible mistake. If we dumb down the message, the message of the gospel, diluting the truth to somehow make it popular or palatable for our young people, listen, they can handle the truth. And when they get into college, past high school and college, rather than dumbing down the message, the agnostics and the atheists will treat our youth as intelligent and challenge them. 6 (43m 10s): They will challenge their intellect. They will challenge their intellect with, with questions and deep thoughts about who they are. They will be challenged on a deep level to think about their lives and what they believe and why they believe what they believe. And so we need, we absolutely must prepare our young people to defend the faith, to understand why they believe what they believe in. So family Sunday is an opportunity to welcome young people into. And I tell this to all of my department heads, to everybody in leadership at harvest church. I said, we don't have to wait for family Sunday to involve young people. 6 (43m 50s): We should be involving young people in the work of harvest church all of the time. And so we have young people on the worship team on the tech team. We have young people doing all kinds of stuff, and the encouragement is, Hey, you are part of us. You are us. You're not in a different category. You're not less than you're actually called to do what God has called you to do. You're not less of a person, less important. In fact, you're probably more honest. They're more important. I, during first service, before first service, I sat with a couple that I've known for decades. And so going back 40 years, we used to go to church together and they hosted a home group in their home here in a row grand day. 6 (44m 39s): And so my mom and my brother and I used to go to their home group and they would teach Bible studies to us when we were in their home group. And so fast forward, 40 years now, they attend this church and they have for a while and I get to shepherd them and pastor them and teach them. But it all began 40 plus years ago. And I'm sitting under their leadership, understanding what it means to serve God, by opening up your home, teaching people, helping them to understand who they are in Christ Jesus. So they might live a life that glorifies him. And so there's this process whereby we have the responsibility as, as adults to usher in our young people, to love our young people in such a way that they, we give away opportunity. 6 (45m 28s): I remember preaching my first sermon. I was 17 or 18 years old, and I got invited to preach my first sermon. Why? Because I had shown interest. I'd been involved in the church for a long time. And so that the pastors and elders said, Hey, let's give them a chance to, to preach. And I did a terrible job. I am sure of that, but that wasn't, that's not the point. The point is that I was given opportunity. And out of that opportunity, things began, the ball began to get rolling. And if the door was always closed to me, who knows what my life would have turned out to be like, maybe I would have never pursued the gospel, but we have an opportunity to open the doors for young people and for people of all ages, but especially young people, we need to be loving them in such a way. 6 (46m 15s): And honoring them in such a way that we give them opportunity. We open up the doors for them. So they might do the work of the ministry. So again, in college, rather than dumbing down the message, the agnostics and atheists treat our youth as intelligent. Why? Because they are intelligent and challenge their intellect with deep thoughts of questions and doubt. Many of these questions and doubts that our young people will be faced with have been answered. They've been answered in great depth over the centuries of our faith. As people that have gone before us have wrestled with the same questions, they've answered those questions. 6 (47m 1s): They found the truth, and we get to help our young people with that information. However, if we're not careful, if we're not careful, we will send our young people into the world. Ill-equipped to live as believers in Jesus Christ, ill equipped without information, without, without understanding, without a solid foundation of revelation of the word of God and understanding of the truth of God's word will, we will send them out totally ill-equipped to do what God has called us to do. And let's be honest. Most of our churches are sending youth into the world, embarrassing embarrassingly, ignorant of our faith. I mean, how could we, not most churches are not teaching young people what we believe and why we believe what we believe. 6 (47m 46s): Just not happening. Mostly as one writer put it, we've jettison, catechesis, sold them on deeds, not creeds and encouraged them to start the quest to find God's plan for their life. And so our faith in this culture becomes all about us. What does God want to do to bless me to take care of me, to use me becomes very inward and self centered. We lose sight of the great commission, the great commandment and historical truth of the gospel that we've been. That's been handed down to us. 6 (48m 27s): He goes on, yes. I know your church has a what we believe page, but is that actually being taught and reinforced from the pulpit? He said, I've met evangelical church leaders, pastors who didn't know the difference between justification and sanctification leaders in the church. You don't know the difference between justification and sanctification. He said, I met mega church board members who didn't understand the atonement. It's a sad commentary on the church today. But when we choose leaders based upon their ability to draw and lead, rather than to accurately teach the faith, well, then we w we don't teach the faith surprise. 6 (49m 13s): And instead of the Orthodox Storic faith, we give our young people, hand me downs. We give them, I don't know about you, but when I received hammy down, I'm like, eh, not great, right? Not great. We've tried our best. We tried our best to pass along the internal subjective faith that we feel. And we really, really, really want them to feel it too. But you can't hand down this type of subjective faith with nothing solid to hang their faith upon and with no historic creed, to tie them to centuries of history, without the physical elements of the bread, wine, and water, their faith is in their subjective feelings. 6 (50m 4s): And when faced with other ways to feel uplifted in college, the church loses out to things with much greater appeal to our human nature, and they find it. Our kids are finding it all kinds of sinful. Debauchery is the result. So this is part of the reason that 70% of our young people leave the church after high school and most never return. We've not given them the instruction found in Deuteronomy six and in the rest of the pages of scripture. So we're going to be looking at Deuteronomy six old Testament, Hebrews 10 new Testament. We're going to see that the message is consistent from the old to the new Testament, that God has a plan for his people. 6 (50m 48s): He's got a purpose for his people, and we need to understand what that is in order to properly live it out. And so in Deuteronomy six two, it says this and you and your children and your grandchildren must fear the Lord, your God. As long as you live, if you obey all his decrees in combat and command, you will enjoy a long life. And so we're being instructed by God, through Moses, we're being instructed and you and your children and grandchildren must fear the Lord. There's a dearth of fear within the church. We don't have a fear of the Lord, a proper fear of the Lord. For the most part, we, we are flippant about God and we pick and choose what we will believe about God as we read the scripture and we will move forward hearted in our walk with God. 6 (51m 34s): If we are not intentional, listen closely. Verse three says, Israel, be careful to obey. Then all will go well with you. And you will have many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors promised you. So this is when it's timeless and transferable truth that God spoke to Moses and to the people of Israel, it's timeless in transferable truth. That God is speaking to us, communicating to us so that we might know what it means to follow him. Verse four, listen, oh, Israel. The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. So there's a declaration that we serve. 6 (52m 15s): One, God, we're not going to be impacted by the gods of the nations around us. We're not going to be drawn away by other things, because it is the Lord who is our God and the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. So that the picture is, Hey, we're we're to love God with every part of us, every bit of us, body, soul, and spirit. Every part of us, we are to love the Lord. This is the call that God has placed upon our lives. That we might love him. Whole heartedly, then all will go well with you. And you will have many children. 6 (52m 55s): You all, many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors promised you that there is a truth that is being communicated. There's blessing that is available to us. If we will obey what God is asking us to do, verse four, again, listen to is your, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to commands that I'm giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. So the, the statement means that we must constantly communicate this truth to our young people. 6 (53m 37s): It's not one and done. It's not, Hey, I've given them truth. And so I've done my job. We are to continually reinforce communicating truth to them, repeating it to them again and again. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road and when you're going to bed. And when you're getting up, like all of the time, make this a part of your conversation with your kids, tie them to your hands and wear them on your foreheads. As reminders, write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Then verse 10, the Lord, your God will soon bring you into the land. He swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 (54m 17s): So now we're seeing this storage will evidence that this is not just this generation or going back a few years or even a hundred. This is going back thousands of years, speaking about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our forefathers, the fathers of the faith who heard the message and by faith moved it forward to us in Jesus name, verse 10 again, then the Lord, your God will, will soon bring you into the land. He swore to give you when he made a vowel to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it is the land with large prosperous cities that you did not build. We live in a culture where Christians want God's blessings without the hassle and the work of obedience, discipline and sanctification. 6 (55m 8s): Listen, hear me. God definitely wants to bless his people. It's in his heart to bless his people. You can see in the scripture that God desires to bless his people, but it's contingent upon obedience, faithfulness, righteousness. It's contingent upon some things that God is calling us to. God definitely wants to bless his children. We see in verse 11, the houses, speaking of this, this new land that he's taking them into the land of Canaan, the houses will be richly stocked with goods. You did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns. You did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and all of trees. You did not plant. 6 (55m 49s): When you have eaten your fill in this land. Again, God wants to bless his children. He's a good father, but he's not a, he's not a flimsy God. Sometimes we think he's just kind of flimsy and easygoing. He's not a flimsy God winking at sin and lowering his standard of holiness. He is the righteous and perfect God who has called us to live our lives above reproach. And we do that by his grace and in his power. I say this all of the time that everything that God has called us to do in scripture, and he's calling us to do a lot in the scripture. We are called to do it, and we're able to do it by his grace and in his power. 6 (56m 31s): As we yield to the power of God, allow ourselves be filled with the holy spirit of God, allowing the word to direct our steps. We will be able to do what God has called us to do. So it sounds overwhelming as we look through all of these expectations in scripture. But as I was praying a few days ago, I was had a lot on my mind. And I'm just thinking about all this stuff that needs to get done. And I felt like the Lord said, just do three things. Number one, keep your eyes on me. Ah, I can do that. Alright. I can do that. What does that mean? I think it means just to like keep my eyes on Jesus. I think that's what it means, because what we tend to do is we tend to get our eyes on all of the problems. 6 (57m 11s): Like all of the challenges, all of the issues in life, whether we're sick, we're going through hard times, relationally or whatever it may be. We're looking at all of these things. And God just said, he just look at me like I'm your source and your resource. Number one, keep your eyes on me. Number two, don't be fearful. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. And often we're compromising or making bad choices and bad judgment because we're fearful. We're fearful of all kinds of things in the world. The world is a fearful place right now. And so he said, just don't be fearful. And then he said, don't worry about tomorrow. 6 (57m 53s): Today's worries are enough for the day. We can be all kinds of fearful about tomorrow, about what's coming tomorrow. Like, I don't know how to handle what's happening tomorrow. Listen, none of us know how to handle what's happening tomorrow because none of us know what's happening tomorrow. And so we just worry about today. Today's worries are enough of the day. So we keep our eyes on Jesus. We don't allow ourselves to get fearful. We just take the day and trust God. So as you get up in the morning, say, God, there's a lot that I want to see happen with my family. There's a lot that I want to see happen with my kids and my grandkids and the future generations. There's a lot that I know that you want to do with me. And in me and through me, you can say like me, it's just overwhelming Lord to think about all of those things. 6 (58m 40s): But I know is that I keep my eyes on you as I look to you and not to all of the challenges in life. And as I refuse to be filled with fear, but instead be filled with faith and confidence in ULA God, then, then I can take today's worries. I can take those on because you're going to meet the grace to do so. And I'm not going to worry about tomorrow. When I wake up in the morning, we'll start the process all over again. So the scripture is full of challenging things for us to be doing. God promises that he will give us the grace to do it. As we just keep our eyes on him, refuse the fear that so easily wants to well up us. 6 (59m 22s): And then just take it a day at a time by his power. And because of his grace, we will be able to do what Deuteronomy six says back to Deuteronomy six verse 12. It says, be careful not to forget the Lord who rescued you from the slavery, from slavery in the land of Egypt. You must fear the Lord, your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name. You must not worship any of the God of the gods of the neighboring nations. And so there's a temptation around us all the time to be drawn away by the world, the temptations of the world, the distractions of the world. There are pseudo gods, fake gods all around us. 6 (1h 0m 4s): And God's saying, Hey, keep your eyes on me, serve me. And only me for the Lord, your God who lives among you is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you and he will wipe you from the face of the earth. So you read through the Kings and Chronicles. You read the stories about the Kings of Israel and the Kings of Judah. Most of the Kings were evil. Some were good. And you see the destruction of the people of Israel down throughout history. 6 (1h 0m 45s): Because most of the time their leadership was bad and they fell into exactly what the scriptures tell us not to fall into God's heart is to bless his people. But if we fall into sin depravity and, and become worldly, like the rest of the people around us, then we will not receive the blessings that God has for us. Number one, we must teach our young people, the commands, decrees, and regulations of the Lord. And number two, our young people must understand the full character of God. Our young people must understand the full character of God. God is love. We can all agree. Part of God's character is that he is love God. 6 (1h 1m 25s): So loved the world for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So God is love. God is good. And God is merciful. All of us are here because God is good and merciful, but God is also holy. And we needed Jesus to die on the cross because we are unholy born in sin centers by birth and by choice, we are separated. But because of our unrighteousness, we are separated from the most righteous of all the Lord, Jesus Christ. He is holy and got us to be worshiped. And God is to be feared. In fact, in Hebrews 10, that says it's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living. 6 (1h 2m 6s): God, it's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living. God. Now let's read the context of what the writer is talking about in Hebrews chapter 10, as we get into Hebrews chapter 10 verses 26 through 31, it says, dear friends, if we continue sending after we've received knowledge of the truth, there there's no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. And I unpack that verse when we taught through Hebrews 10. So you can go back and re look at the archives of that message and find out what that actually means. There's only the terrible expectation of God's judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies for anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 6 (1h 2m 50s): Just think, just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy as if it were common and unholy and have insulted and disdained. The holy spirit who brings God's mercy to us for, we know the one who said, I will take revenge. I will pay them back. He also said the Lord will judge his own people. And then we read in verse 31. It's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living. God. So we need to understand all of God's character, the wonderful stuff. 6 (1h 3m 31s): That's easy for us to hear, but also the difficult stuff that challenges us to live our lives, to deliver our lives above reproach, to be holy, even as Christ is holy to live in such a way that we're honoring God all the days of our lives. How do we do that? Well, we just simply get up every morning and say, God, this is my desire. I'm going to keep my eyes on you. I'm not going to be fearful. I'm just going to take the challenges of th of the day, trust you with them and move forward. As a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, Deuteronomy six 16. You must not test the Lord. Your God, as you did, when you complained at Massah, you must diligently obey the commands of the Lord, your God, all the laws and decrees he has given you do what is right and good in the Lord's sight. 6 (1h 4m 20s): So all will go well with you. Did you hear that? Do what is right and good in the Lord's sight so that all will go well with you. Then you will ensure an occupy, the good land that the Lord swore to give your ancestors. You will drive out all the enemies, living in the land, just as the Lord said, you would in the future, your children will ask what is the meaning of these laws and decrees and regulations that the Lord, our God has commanded us to obey? What does it mean? All of this stuff? Number one, we must teach our young people to commands decrees and regulations of the Lord. Number two to our young people must understand the full character of God. 6 (1h 5m 0s): Number three, our young people must know the backstory and the blessings about our faith. Our young people must know the backstory and the blessings of our faith verse 21. Then you will, then you must tell them we were slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand. And so you have the opportunity to share your story with your children so that they don't think mom and dad have always been Christians, but they see that there's a backstory where once they were lost and now they are found. So when it's age appropriate for your young people, you can begin to tell them your backstory. 6 (1h 5m 45s): I waited for a years before sharing my whole backstory with my young people, because it wasn't age appropriate. They, they couldn't process what life used to be like before Christ. They just couldn't understand it. But as they've gotten older, now they can, they've lived some life. And so now they can process the information. So when it's age appropriate, they begin to see the depth of our lives. We haven't always been followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, but God brought us through a process where once we were lost and now we were found. And so in this story, we can look at Egypt as a picture of the world. What has God done to deliver us out of Egypt? Verse 22, the Lord did miraculous signs and wonders before our eyes dealing terrifying, blows against Egypt and Pharaoh and all these people. 6 (1h 6m 31s): So imagine you're a young Jewish boy or girl, and you're hearing your parents recite the story that God delivered them out of the slavery and the bondage that they endured in Egypt. And they get to see the power of God that delivered them and set them free. He brought us out of Egypt so he could give us this land. So he bled, he brought us out of slavery so he can bless us with abundance. He brought us out of Egypt, so he could give us this land. He had sworn to give our ancestors in the Lord. Our God commanded us to a bay, all these decrees, and to hear him so he can continue to bless us and preserve our lives as he has done to this day. And so we get to tell them stories about how God has been faithful to preserve us and to take care of us and to bless us every step of the way for we will be counted as righteous. 6 (1h 7m 21s): When we obey all the commands, the Lord, our God has given us. So if we're not intentional about these things, we will fall into the cultural norms. The cultural norms are not a good thing to fall into the evangelical church. Isn't catechizing or teaching our kids. The fundamentals, the fundamentals of the faith were simply encouraging him to be nice and love Jesus. We're not giving them really anything to live their lives by be nice and love Jesus. That's the depth of it. It was, we jettisoned abandoned the gospel. Our students are never hit with the full impact of the law, their sin before God and their desperate need for the atoning work of Christ. 6 (1h 8m 4s): And so we've traded a historic objective faithful gospel based on God's graciousness toward us for a modern, subjective, pragmatic gospel based on based and focused upon achieving our goal by following life strategy. So rather than being faithful to the foolish simplicity of the gospel of the cross, we've set our goal on being successful, ending growing crowds, our kids have become well. They become lost in the world. They're confused about who they are confused about what they believe and when challenged by others, they don't have answers. 6 (1h 8m 46s): Our job is to make sure that they have answers. One of our pastors, one of our associate pastors was interviewing this young lady who at 21 years of age, she had lived her whole life in church, not here at harvest, but other evangelical churches in the world, in the community. And so he said, Hey, tell me your story. What's your faith journey been like? What, what do you believe about God? And she just kind of rambled on with miscellaneous information about God saying, well, God loves me. And I'm basically good person. So I'm okay. 6 (1h 9m 27s): 21 years in the church. And she's giving random thoughts about God concerning her faith. As someone who spent 21 years in the faith. There's, there's no foundation of understanding. There's no understanding of who she is and what God has done to make salvation available to her. I know that God loves me and I'm basically a good person, was her answer to her faith journey. After 21 years, we know that we are saved by grace through faith. We know that we are all sinners by birth and by choice. 6 (1h 10m 11s): And so we're actually not welcomed to the, into the kingdom of God because of our goodness. We know that all have sinned and fall short of the glorious standard of God and that by God's grace and his grace alone, that we are entered into that we were able to enter into the plans and purposes that God has for us. We, we got to do better, I guess is the point. We gotta do better to prepare our young people, to know God and to know why they believe what they believe. This happens in community is young people rub shoulders with the whole cross section of the body of Christ. Young people need to be served this way. And young people also need to learn to serve this way. 6 (1h 10m 51s): And so if they're growing up in this and they're understanding through their experience, both being taught and caught what it means to be a disciple, a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ will be easy to replicate that as they grow up, they will be able to do what has been done with them. This is essentially what Jesus did with the 12. He discipled them so that they could disciple others. And that's, what's been going on for 2000 years. Jesus called his 12, the 12 disciples, the others, and it's just blown up. And for 2000 years, people have been following Jesus man called the Jesus. 6 (1h 11m 32s): You're here today because someone called you to serve Jesus. Someone gave you the opportunity to hear the gospel message and you made a decision to follow Jesus. Jesus made a call to whole hearted commitments. He said, come follow me. And I will make you fishers of men. Bible says in John three, three, that unless we're born again, we won't see the kingdom of heaven. We must be born again. We were given a new life called into new life as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We're going to commemorates what made all of this possible as we take communion here in just a moment. 6 (1h 12m 12s): So I'd like to invite the worship team up just as quick review a call for wholehearted commitment. Number one, we must teach our young people, the commands, decrees and regulations of the Lord. Number two, our young people must understand the full character of God. And number three, our young people must know the backstory and the blessings of our faith. And so, as we are seated here, my hope is that everybody has communion elements. If you do not have communion elements go and raise your hand and we'll make sure we get you some communion elements. I actually need some. So use it for service. Thank you so much. You're amazing. 6 (1h 12m 54s): So we have a song. It's a communion song that we're actually going to meditate on as we get ready to take communion. And then afterwards, Hey Kathy. Right up here. She likes it. When I call her Kathy, it's actually my mom. So mom, right up here, here we go. All right. So Lauren, as we get ready to take communion, as we think about this song, as we ponder this truth, Lord God, I pray that we would have a fresh understanding of what we're about to do, worshiping you as we remember what you did to accomplish our salvation and to adopt us into your family and to usher us into kingdom, the kingdom of God. 6 (1h 13m 34s): So thank you Lord, for who you are. As we sing this song, be glorified. We ask. Amen. 6 (1h 18m 54s): Thank you, Lord. That on days like today and every day that we choose to Lord, we are able to be refreshed in the truth of this act of worship called communion. We read from first Corinthians 1123, and Paul said for, I pass on to you, what I received from the Lord himself on the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you do this to remember me. So before we take the bread, Lord, we just, we remember you and we thank you for the sacrifice that was offered on the cross some 2000 years ago. 6 (1h 19m 42s): And before we take the elements. God, we want to take it properly Lord. So we, we want to make sure that we've confessed our sin, that we've decided to again, today to follow you, to recognize your Lordship in your leadership in our lives. So if you're here today and you're not ready to do, just let this opportunity pass, use this as an opportunity for people who remember and recognize the significance and the power of the cross. And so we take communion to honor the Lord. And so with that, let's take the bread. 6 (1h 20m 39s): In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people in agreement confirmed with my blood, do this to remember me, as often as you drink. And for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. So anyone who eats this bread or drinks, this cup of the Lord is an unworthy is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. This is why you should examine yourselves before eating the bread and drinking the cup. So Lord having examined ourselves, we've taken the bread and now we take the juice remembering what you did for us. 6 (1h 21m 24s): Thank you, Lauren. Thank you Lord. For the opportunity to worship you, to remember you, to take the opportunity to examine our lives before you, God, we dedicate our lives to you to follow you, to serve you all the days of our lives Lord. So day by day, as we look to you, as we refuse to be fearful. And as we take one day at a time, knowing that today's worries are enough for the day, we need not worry about tomorrow because you are God of tomorrow. 6 (1h 22m 4s): And so Lord, we trust you. We worship you. We thank you for this time. Let's go ahead and stand up. We're going to sing some more as we head out and as we wrap up the service. So Lord, thank you for this time. 0 (1h 22m 18s): How can he, the, there is a table for all who would come for all who sees now and see there is a table for all who wait for all, who would say 7 (1h 24m 43s): Raising or you see Ronan Nevin trailer that you'd be seated on the throne of our lives. Thank you for the privilege that we have and the freedom we have to gather as a family, worship you as a family of believers, take that for granted, go with us. As we celebrate the fourth tomorrow with our friends and families, fill us with your spirit. Lord. We love you. He's a state.