Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning, 945.
[00:00:07] Good morning. If I have not had the chance to meet you, my name is Michael Fueling and I'm the lead pastor here. And this morning, I'm so excited to open up God's Word with you. Deuteronomy, chapter 31. If you have a Bible, if you would open it up there.
[00:00:23] So one of just my favorite things about being a pastor is, is just helping people understand the Bible.
[00:00:31] Whether you have been walking with the Lord and studying the Bible for 90 years or whether you're walking in this room and you've never actually opened it up at all, it is just one of my greatest joys to help people understand it. So all of our pastors and Bible teachers, we just work really hard to make it as accessible as possible.
[00:00:50] If I could boil down the single, like, greatest misunderstanding that we encounter, if I could boil it down to a question, it would come down to this.
[00:01:03] Pastor Michael how do I know if I'm truly going to heaven? Okay, so people don't always ask it this way, so it comes out in different kind of questions. Sometimes they say, how can I get saved? How can I be forgiven? How do I become a Christian?
[00:01:20] I don't want to go to hell when I die. I want to know that I'm going to be with God. How can I go, like, know that I'm gonna go to heaven when I die? Now, just pause for a moment.
[00:01:28] If you're here and you know the answer, you have in your tool belt one of the most powerful tools on the planet. Because I, I wanna just, like, forewarn you. I don't know if you've realized this. The vast majority of Americans can't answer this question.
[00:01:45] They can't answer it simply, they can't answer it clearly. So, like, if you can simply and clearly answer this question, you have in your tool belt a resource that every single person that you're in orbit with needs. And when they get to this kind of crisis moment, like, are God and I. Okay, if you can answer this question right, you are a rarity, by the way. If you can answer it clearly, simply and helpfully. I wanna just take a moment here on the front end. And what I wanna do is I wanna bring just kind of awareness and clarity to the top five misunderstandings, Top five wrong answers to this question. Guys. Ready? Okay. Contrary to popular belief, a true relationship with God is not, number one, inherited.
[00:02:32] Your parents might have been incredible followers of Jesus. Your grandparents, your grandma might have just prayed for you faithfully, your salvation, your Relationship with God cannot, under any circumstances be inherited by those who went before you. Your standing with God is not made right because someone else had a relationship with God, especially if they are your parents or grandparents.
[00:02:58] A true relationship with God, number two, is not earned.
[00:03:03] It is not earned by good works.
[00:03:06] The vast majority of people in America, if you ask them this question, how do you go to heaven?
[00:03:11] They will say, you have to be good enough. And if you kind of double click on the question and you ask them, how, how good do you need to be? They're gonna think about it for a moment. But the vast majority of people are gonna give you some kind of answer that goes like this.
[00:03:24] Well, my good works need to outweigh my bad works, guys. That is a stressful answer. Like, I don't wanna live my life wondering, like, how the scales are tipping.
[00:03:36] And John writes this. He writes, I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life. It is not supposed to be a question. It is designed by God to be a certainty. But a true relationship with God is not earned by good works. Number three, a true relationship with God is not contagious. You do not get this by association.
[00:03:55] You might have some really, really awesome friends who love Jesus. And that does not mean like the cold or a flu. It's gonna rub off on you. You might go to church a couple times a year and you're like, I was around these really great people. I live next door to a pastor or a missionary. Like, you can't get a true relationship with God by proximity to other people who have a true relationship with God. A true relationship with God is not assumed by culture. Like, this is a real thing. People believe they're going to heaven because they're an American, because they grew up in a quote unquote, Christian culture.
[00:04:30] And for them, they're like, yeah, I generally believe in Jesus. Yeah, sure, I'm a Christian. I grew up here.
[00:04:36] You don't get a true relationship with God by living in the right culture or the right country. That's just not how it works. And finally, number five, a true relationship with God, it is not conferred by sacrament.
[00:04:50] Sprinkling water over a baby's head or dunking them in water has no bearing whatsoever on their relationship with, with God. Infant baptism or any other sacrament for that matter, cannot make right what your sin has made wrong.
[00:05:10] So if you're here and you're like, I actually did believe one of these things, I can go to heaven because of my parents faith, good works, the people I hang out with the nation I was born into. A sacrament done to me.
[00:05:22] I love you so much.
[00:05:24] Just to tell you the simple, delightful truth, none of these things have any bearing in your relationship with God, which is great news. It's really good news.
[00:05:36] Because one has a true relationship with God. They are forgiven of their sins, they're saved, whatever word you want to use. Your relationship with God can be made right not by being good and not by somebody else's faith, but by simply coming to God and confessing your sin to him and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. Like that is actually really great news. And so every single person comes to faith, comes to a real, true relationship with God in the same way, first, you have to acknowledge, my sin has broken my relationship with God.
[00:06:08] And number two, you have to come to him and say, I don't just believe that you're God. I actually am transferring my allegiance from whatever I was worshiping. And for most people, it's themselves, I'm transferring my allegiance to you. You're my God, Jesus. I believe you died for my sins and you were raised from the dead. Like, every single person who ever has a true relationship anywhere in the world, it all happen the same way. Now, if you've been here a while, like, we say this a lot, don't we? We say this a lot because every single week, people walk through our doors and they have never heard this message before in their entire life. People watch online, they've never heard this in their entire life. And so we need to make this crystal clear, because it is the number one piece of information about the Bible that every person needs.
[00:06:49] You have, by the way, in your tool belt, the gospel. The good news.
[00:06:53] Salvation is for those who tell God they're sorry.
[00:06:56] Give Jesus their allegiance as their God, and believe in his life, death, and resurrection. Now, I want to set us up for Deuteronomy 31.
[00:07:05] And I kind of just want to. I want to put this out there for you, for you to have in your mind. Every single person from every generation needs to personally own their faith in Jesus.
[00:07:18] Your parents can't own it for you. Your pastor can't own it for you. Your friends can't own it for you.
[00:07:24] Every single person from every generation needs to personally own their faith in Jesus Christ. Now, Deuteronomy chapter 31, we're gonna watch what happens when entire. When an entire generation of God's people willingly walk away from their God.
[00:07:42] Because at the core, their faith was not real, genuine faith in Deuteronomy chapter 31. Moses is days or weeks away from his death, and God has a final assignment with him for him. So if you were here last week, remember that God sat down Moses and Joshua, and he gave them some really, really heavy and weighty information.
[00:08:03] In summary, it went like this. God foretells Moses and Joshua a 100% unchangeable, certain future.
[00:08:12] The generation after Joshua will willingly turn away from God and will willingly worship false demon gods called the Baals.
[00:08:28] This was not a prophecy. That was just sort of like, maybe it'll happen. This was a certain prophecy. 100%.
[00:08:35] There was nothing Moses nor Joshua could do to change this data point. When God in his omniscience, looks down the corridors of history.
[00:08:44] No leader, there is no logic. There is no rationale that is going to change them from turning willingly away from Yahweh and worshiping these false gods. There's nothing. These people had rebellion in their hearts, and they were set on it. Like, have you ever seen somebody, like maybe one of your children in a place of rebellion? And you're just like, there's nothing you can say. There is no logic. They're just literally going to do this thing no matter what. And that's what the nation of Israel are like. So God commanded Moses and Joshua to do something, I think, kind of genius and a little bit unexpected.
[00:09:14] What he commanded Moses to do was to write a song.
[00:09:19] And it was a prophetic song. It's Deuteronomy 32 is the entirety of the song. And the song would detail exactly what would happen and how the generation after Joshua would turn away from God, turn to demon gods, forsake Yahweh, break their covenant. And it's actually remarkably detailed so that one day when these kids learn this song, and one day when they're older, they will realize, holy smokes, God actually already told me exactly what was going to happen in this season of life. Now the song would be seared into their national conscience.
[00:10:03] Okay, you ready?
[00:10:06] Nationwide is deep cut here, DuckTales.
[00:10:17] Some of you are like, what is that? You're missing out of the single greatest cartoon in human history.
[00:10:23] 8, 6, 7, 5.
[00:10:29] I have told you I'm the worst singer in all of human history. So sweet Caroline.
[00:10:36] All right, I got more. The best part of waking up.
[00:10:46] Never, ever underestimate the power of a song to sear messages into the heart of a generation. Thankfully, most of the messages are about promoting stuff that. I should get paid for that, honestly, like, really. Like, we should get some kind of. Anyways, Deuteronomy, chapter 31, verse 19.
[00:11:06] God says to Moses, Joshua's present, now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. So when the day comes and the song that these kids sang as a youth, it comes to their mind and they see they're in this state of rebellion and their entire lives are falling apart. The song will stand as a witness. Israel, you were warned. You weren't just warned of what would happen, you were warned that it was going to happen. You were warned personally, like this was for you. You have no excuse.
[00:11:48] Now, before we get to the song, verse 20 answers a really important question.
[00:11:53] So how could a faithful generation like Joshua's generation raise such a faithless generation?
[00:12:00] And really there are two reasons, but they come out of verse 20.
[00:12:05] It says, for when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them and despise me, and they will break my covenant. Two big failures of Joshua's generation resulted in this lazy, fat entitled generation. And the first we saw last week, number one, they compromised in their own personal obedience. Joshua's generation were told publicly and specifically what they were supposed to do when they went into the promised land.
[00:12:47] They were commanded to destroy all the idols and to kill all the people.
[00:12:52] And they went into the promised land and they thought to themselves, we know better. And then they publicly and willingly disobeyed God and disregarded God's commandment. And they allowed the most evil people on the planet to live with the most evil gods in the world. And they tolerated it. And then their children watched them do this.
[00:13:16] And of course, if you are going to willingly and publicly and belligerently disobey God, would you expect that your children are going to watch this and then they are going to obey God no matter what? Of course not. I want to remind you again from last week. The idols you don't destroy will tempt your children and your grandchildren. But the second big failure of Joshua's generation was that they created an easy life for the their children.
[00:13:43] Verse 20 says that they ate and they grew fat.
[00:13:48] So there is an understandable impulse in all of us parents.
[00:13:54] We want to make the world and our kids lives better than the world we grew up in.
[00:14:00] And if some of you had some pretty evil circumstances that you grew up with, and rightly so, you don't want your kids to ever have to experience any of that.
[00:14:09] Unfortunately, kind of. In suburban America, there's like a pendulum swing. And we say things pretty bluntly here. So I'd like to just kind of say this bluntly.
[00:14:18] In too many homes, we emasculate our future men when we make everything safe and unearned.
[00:14:27] Joshua's generation, they are a living example of what happens when you raise a generation of boys to be lazy, entitled, without hard work, and without responsibility over things that matter.
[00:14:39] Right now, I've got eight sermons on there. I'm just gonna let the Holy Spirit do his work in your heart on that. And I'm gonna move on because. Strong opinions. Verse 21. Back to the song. God says, and when many evils and troubles have come upon them because of the lawnmower parents and the helicopter parents, you ever heard of those, this song shall confront them as a witness, for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring like a good neighbor.
[00:15:11] This is there. You don't even need. You don't even need help with that. And this is the power of a song. Verse 22.
[00:15:18] So Moses wrote this song the same day, and he taught it to the people of Israel.
[00:15:25] So the song describes a scene, and the scene takes place in God's cosmic courtroom. And the song tells the story of Israel, guilty before a holy God, being charged with evil crimes against God's eternal law. And this trial song, it has five like sections or movements. And I kind of want to walk you through them. And we're not going to look at all the verses, going to highlight one or two from each. And I think it'll give you everything you need to kind of go back over Deuteronomy 32 and just spend some time in it. Section number one is calling the court to order. In verse one, heaven and earth are sworn in as witnesses.
[00:16:06] It says, give ear, O heavens, and I will speak. And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
[00:16:12] God is summoned as the judge. You're going to see a theme of God as the rock all throughout Deuteronomy 32 and verse three, he says, for I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Ascribe greatness to our God, the Rock.
[00:16:25] His work is perfect, for all his ways are justice a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, Just and upright is he. And so whenever we see God's judgment, discipline and sentencing, here's what we know. It is always perfect.
[00:16:45] It is always just.
[00:16:46] It is always faithful. There are no Ulterior motives. In this, the judgment is always upright. And so whatever God is about to do, the context has been set. He is going to do the right righteous thing. Section two tells us the charges against Israel. Very simply, the charges are covenant unfaithfulness. Look at verse five.
[00:17:10] It says, they have dealt corruptly with him.
[00:17:13] They are no longer his children because they are blemished. They are a crooked and twisted generation.
[00:17:20] Earlier in chapter 31, it talked about how they broke the covenant with God.
[00:17:25] Their. Their corrupt behavior destroyed the covenant they had with God. So some behaviors end covenants.
[00:17:36] In marriage. Adultery is a covenant violation. It ends a covenant. Now can it be renewed? For sure.
[00:17:43] But it is broken by the very act that inaugurated it.
[00:17:48] In Israel's relationship with God, they committed spiritual adultery by worshiping false gods. Verse 5 says, the result is that they are no longer his children. Their spiritual adultery ended their covenant relationship with God.
[00:18:03] Section three is the evidence of their covenant unfaithfulness. Here's the evidence. Idolatry, antagonization and arrogance.
[00:18:11] Verse 15 says this. But Jeshurun grew fat. And if you're reading that, you're like, who's Jeshurun? It's a nickname. It's sort of like a name you give your child. And it means literally upright. It was a reminder of who Israel was called and created to be. And it says, but Jeshurun, the upright one, grew fat and kicked you. He says, grew fat, stout and sleek. Then he forsook God who made him, and scoffed at the rock of his salvation.
[00:18:41] They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations. They provoked him to anger.
[00:18:50] Verse 15. It's actually, I think it's written in kind of a funny way. So the image here, this is the best I could probably come up with, is like, Israel would become like a fat, obstinate, entitled d. Demanding, rich son of a billionaire, and who is always given what he wants, whenever he wants, and when he doesn't get it, throws a fit. You guys have the image in your brain. If you have like a character in like a movie or TV show, come tell me afterwards. Cause I can't think of it. Not Richie Rich. I feel like he was just a little bit too nice.
[00:19:23] And here's what happened. Verse 16 tells us the four verbs that this obstinate kid did forsook, scoffed, stirred and provoked. Yahweh. In other words, they knew exactly what they were doing and they did it willingly and they did it on purpose.
[00:19:47] And they did all of this publicly with the intention of Humiliating Yahweh. And then they, with full knowledge, transferred their loyalty and allegiance from Yahweh to the demon God Bales. The gods that God Yahweh hated more than any other set of gods.
[00:20:12] They weren't duped, they weren't tricked. They were. They knew full well exactly what they were doing. So in modern times, when, when people change religions, like for example, if I was a Hindu, I wasn't. But if I was a Hindu and then I became a Christian, typically when people change religions, what they are admitting is that I no longer believe to be true that old religion. So if I was a Hindu and I became a Christian, I'd be saying I no longer believe that Hinduism is true or real. I now believe Christianity is true in the ancient near east in Moses time. That is not how.
[00:20:47] That is not what happened when you transferred religions. So when you transferred religions, you didn't stop believing in the reality of your old religion. So, so like, when they moved their allegiance from Yahweh to the Baals, they still believed Yahweh existed.
[00:21:01] They just decided, we no longer want to be under your leadership.
[00:21:06] And so here's an analogy. I want you to imagine a dude breaks up with his girlfriend, right, and then starts dating another girl. Does he not believe that the other girl exists any longer?
[00:21:16] No, she clearly exists. He's just transferring his allegiance from one girl to another. And effectively what's happening here is, is that they are willingly, knowingly looking at Yahweh, his character, his strength, his attributes, all of it, everything he's ever done and saying, we're done with you. Our allegiance is now transferred over to the bales, which perfectly sets up verse 17. They didn't just forsake, scoff at, stir, provoke Yahweh, verse 17. They sacrificed to demons that were not God.
[00:21:49] The Bible is just crystal clear false religions. All they are when you pull back the veneer, they are just demons masquerading as gods to trick humanity to get them away from God. That is all they are.
[00:22:04] Now, these demons, before they were demons, what were they called?
[00:22:10] Angels.
[00:22:12] These demons were once in relationship and communion with God.
[00:22:16] These demons rebelled against God, betrayed God.
[00:22:21] They are now creating false religions. And why do they do this?
[00:22:25] They do this with the intent to lure God's people, humanity away from God.
[00:22:32] And they know exactly what they're doing. They know the weaknesses of humanity. And so in Canaan, they built this entire, like, religion of Canaanite gods called the Baals that were perfectly lured in the Israelite generation And so God even warns them way before this happens, when they're children, he puts the song in their mouth. By the way, you're going to go do this, but just to be clear, I want you to know exactly what you're doing. They may masquerade as the bales and offer you all of these things. All they are is demons in rebellion against God who are trying to lure you away, to trap you with pleasure that will ultimately destroy you.
[00:23:09] And by the way, when you do it, when you forsake your allegiance, when you transfer your allegiance from Yahweh to the Baals, this is called spiritual adultery, and you are severing the covenant.
[00:23:20] Section four is the sentencing. And their sentencing for their sin would be enslavement and exile. Verse 23. I think this is a good kind of summary verse of it says, I will heap disasters upon them. I will spend my arrows on them. They shall be wasted with hunger and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence. I will send the teeth of beasts against them with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.
[00:23:45] Was God vague by chance, like, he's so blunt. He's just so clear.
[00:23:51] I want to bring you back to a point that we made last week.
[00:23:54] If you turn away from Jesus, you are inviting divine judgment on your life and your soul.
[00:24:01] And one of the reasons we say these things so directly and so bluntly is because we want to model how we speak to the people of God and warn as the way God did, which is clearly in the presence of Jesus, is life and flourishing. And if you abandon that presence and you go to any other God, all they are are demons masquerading as something else designed to offer you pleasure that will only destroy you in the end.
[00:24:27] Lastly, section five of this song is called the Way out and the Way Out.
[00:24:33] All throughout history, anybody who ever finds themselves under the judgment or discipline of God, it is always through repentance.
[00:24:44] At first glance, this song, it appears to be just a damning prophecy.
[00:24:51] I think upon closer inspection, it's actually one of the greatest kindnesses of God to a generation that will hurt him so deeply.
[00:25:02] Here's what I mean by that.
[00:25:05] When they hit rock bottom, which they 100% will, this song will tell them how to get out of it and who to turn to.
[00:25:17] The last thing that you and I want to hear when we're rebellious is the truth.
[00:25:25] I get it. The spirit of rebellion hates truth.
[00:25:29] But sometimes that hard truth you were told in your rebellious days, that offended you, that angered you so much that Hard truth will be the very thing you need, the very message you need to get out of the discipline that you will one day find yourself in.
[00:25:49] And when God's people find their self under God's judgment and this song from old comes to mind, they know every single word. They know the melody. It's been seared on their conscience, on their heart. It will also tell them the way out.
[00:26:03] I mean, I don't know about y', all, but, like, if I were God, I wouldn't be tempted to give them a way out.
[00:26:08] But our God is always full of mercy and grace. And honestly, like, the amount of stories in this room of we who were rebels, who were deep in the mire of our sin, who rebelled against God. And the entire time God's hand was extended to us to offer mercy. And not just mercy, but upon grace, upon grace.
[00:26:30] And so at first blossom, you look at this and you're like, wow, God's harsh. But built into this song is a reminder that there is compassion and there is healing and there is life. Look at verse 36. It speaks to this hope for the Lord will have compassion on his servants. Verse 39.
[00:26:49] See, now that I, even I, I am he, and there is no God beside me. I kill. And they're like, yeah, you do. And I make alive.
[00:26:56] I wound. They're like, we know the wounding part. And then he says, and I heal.
[00:27:02] Compassion and healing and forgiveness for those who are experiencing the judgment of God is available as long as you are alive. And it's available to those who repent.
[00:27:15] Verse 46. Moses sings them the song I don't know the melody. I would love to hear it. And he warns them to be careful to do all the words of this law.
[00:27:26] Verse 47 is one of my favorites here. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life. And by his word, you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.
[00:27:43] I want to share with you 3. So what's from Deuteronomy 31 and 32? Number one, remember that God is always just in his judgments and in his sentencing.
[00:27:57] If you ever have to witness or experience God's judgment on a person or a family or a church or a nation, I want to just give you fair warning. Do not buy the two most common lies.
[00:28:10] Here's lie number one.
[00:28:11] This judgment isn't fair because God had not previously warned them.
[00:28:18] Just because you don't see all of the warnings before the judgment doesn't mean it didn't happen.
[00:28:27] And almost every Single person under divine judgment knew deep down inside that God was not pleased with what they were doing.
[00:28:39] They just didn't believe that God would do anything about it.
[00:28:43] Line number two, the right thing for God to do is simply forgive and forget and act like nothing happened. What's the big deal? Just let it go. You're God. Okay, first of all, if you wouldn't do this in your home, then why would you expect God to do this in his home?
[00:28:58] Second, if your children were this rebellious in your home and had no heart of sorrow for their sin confession whatsoever, and they betrayed your family on levels like this, would you just forgive and forget and walk away? No big deal.
[00:29:16] And so here's what we understand. What God wants is not just to forgive and forget. What God wants is real reconciled relationship. That's what he wants.
[00:29:25] And so if you or I or a nation or a church or a family or whatever community finds themselves under some kind of disciplinary judgment from God, the answer is always the same. God doesn't just look it over and say, ah, no big deal. God wants repentance and reconciliation. That's what he wants with us. He wants us to take ownership of our sin so that we don't repeat it. God wants us to be at peace with him and living for Him. So what? Number two, just like your faith, your children's faith must be tested.
[00:30:05] Okay, so the Lord would not just test Joshua's generation, but he would also test the generation after Joshua. So how did the Lord test them? And I'm so grateful that actually the Bible tells us, I want to show this to you way back in Exodus, chapter 23, here's what God said.
[00:30:21] God said, I will not drive them out from before you in one year. And essentially they were like, let's get this done quick. We're going to go in, we're going to take everybody over. They're all going to die, and we're going to take over the land. We're going to live happily ever after.
[00:30:33] And so that is not the way it happened. And God said, little by little, I will drive them out. Deuteronomy, chapter 7, verse 22. The Lord your God will clear away these nations, but he's not going to do it all at once. He's going to do it little by little. Why doesn't God just come in and eradicate everybody, take away all the temptation?
[00:30:53] The book of Judges actually tells us. Judges 2, 21. God says, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did or not. Or Judges 3:1. Now these are the nations that the Lord left, and why did he leave them to test Israel by them. In verse 4, they were for the testing of Israel to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord.
[00:31:28] Like Israel, our children will be tested by God to evaluate two really important things.
[00:31:36] Number one, the legitimacy of their faith.
[00:31:40] There is nothing like difficulty for the genuineness and legitimacy of someone's faith to be proven.
[00:31:49] If you can go through challenges and come out the other side more confident in God, this is great evidence of a real, true faith. Moms and dads, you cannot protect your children from every difficulty in life. Do you guys know the helicopter parent analogy? There's also the lawnmower mom who, like, basically mows down every single thing in front of their children so they have no obstacles to try, to have to get over it, right?
[00:32:16] You can try it, but your children, actually, difficulty is not the worst thing that happens for them. And when your child, when your son or your daughter is going through a difficulty and they have this moment where they say, like, I'm just wrestling through why God would do this. Who is he? These are great questions, because do you know when most kids own their faith personally?
[00:32:42] When they go through difficulty, when they go through hard times, when kind of just the nature and the sin of this world kind of gets in their orbit and they realize, like, I gotta wrestle through, Do I really believe and have confidence not just that God is real, but that he's my God. And we want to insulate our kids from all of these difficulties and we freak out if they ask these questions. It is a good thing when a young person or an old person is tested through difficulty and they work through it and on the other side say, no, I will worship my God. My God. This is my faith. I now have personally experienced his goodness and difficulty. Difficulty is one of the greatest ways to test the genuineness of a faith and for a young person to make their faith their own.
[00:33:29] Second, our children will be tested to evaluate not just the legitimacy, the genuineness of their faith, but also the quality of their faith. 2nd Chronicles 16, 9.
[00:33:39] I have, obviously you've heard me quote this multiple times this year. It's just been on my heart for the next generation. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.
[00:33:58] God is looking for people who are faithful, who will obey him even when it's difficult?
[00:34:05] Well, how will God know other than by testing and difficulty?
[00:34:10] And so testing and difficulty will come for you. Your faith has been tested. You know this, but also your children.
[00:34:16] And what we are teaching our children to do is to personally own their faith. But not just to personally own their faith, but to commit to obeying God no matter what they feel or what is going on, so that when they're tested, God can look at them and say, I know that I can trust you. God is looking for old people and young people alike to take on great kingdom responsibility. But he doesn't give kingdom responsibility until we are tested. And so when you watch your children and grandchildren being tested, when you watch kind of the foundations of their faith being challenged, this is not the end of the world. This might actually be a divine moment where God is moving them from a place of inheriting their faith to owning their faith.
[00:34:58] Now, if you're listening to this message and maybe you are becoming aware that you and God are not reconciled, like, there is not peace between you. Like you've heard me talk about, you need to come before God and tell him you're sorry. And maybe you're realizing in this moment, I have never done that. I have never come before God. I just kind of assumed we're good because I'm great. I'm me, American. I'm born in this family. I go to this church.
[00:35:24] This last. So what is for you, if you are not at peace with God?
[00:35:29] Sincerely ask him for forgiveness.
[00:35:34] There. There are three primary reasons we ask anyone for forgiveness. Number one is just to get someone off our back. I'm sorry. Gosh, leave me alone. You guys ever do that? No. Just your kids. That's right.
[00:35:47] Sometimes we ask forgiveness to avoid a consequence. We just. We don't want to have to deal with the fallout. So, like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I won't do it again.
[00:35:56] When you have broken a relationship with someone because of your sin, these first two reasons are not going to bring about real reconciliation because they're not sincere.
[00:36:09] Sometimes we ask for forgiveness. Number three. Because we truly, we regret what we did. We are sorry.
[00:36:16] And when you come before God, this is what he's looking for. A heart that is truly sorry. A heart that wants a relationship with him.
[00:36:28] A heart that understands that this is your creator, who made you the one and only true God.
[00:36:36] A heart that is going to say, I'm going to take the allegiance that I gave to myself or to some other Religion. And I'm gonna transfer my allegiance to you.
[00:36:45] God, I am sorry.
[00:36:47] I wanna be in a relationship with you.
[00:36:50] You are my God. I believe Jesus, you died for my sins and were raised from the dead. And what I just love is that when God sees someone who is sincerely and genuinely repentant, sorrowful over their sin, who would move their allegiance from whatever they're worshiping to, to him, he is thrilled.
[00:37:09] And what I just so love is that he is not just willing, but delighted to offer you once and for all and forever forgiveness if you come to him sincerely and ask him. And so just great news. Do you know when the best time to actually do that is?
[00:37:24] Right now.
[00:37:26] And you might be like, not ready now. Well, in an hour or five, or a week or a month or a year from now. Do you know when the best time to do it is? Right then?
[00:37:35] What I love is until the day you're dead. God's hand is always extended and he is offering you real, true forgiveness.
[00:37:44] Are you sorry you have broken your relationship with your holy God who made you, designed you, loved you? Every breath you have is because he gave it to you, implements it. He is keeping you alive. He is offering you forgiveness.
[00:38:01] Will you come back to him and own it? Will you transfer your allegiance? And if that is a decision that you are excited about, willing, desiring to make, make that decision today. And then here's just my encouragement. You hear me say this all the time. Tell someone so that they can help you take a next step as you figure out. What does it mean now to be loyal to my God, Jesus Christ, and to live for Him. We'd love to come alongside of you and help you in that. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for Moses's transparency.
[00:38:32] Thank you for what you. The message, the song that you gave to him. It's striking because it's sort of our story.
[00:38:42] We rebelled. We may not have served the demon gods, the bales, but we worshiped ourselves and some of us other false religions.
[00:38:50] It's tempting to look at Israel and think to ourselves, how dumb could they be? But God, every one of our stories is the story of our own willful sin where we.
[00:38:59] We broke our relationship with you, our holy God, and, and Lord, like we're guilty, period.
[00:39:05] And so, God, thank you for how good and kind you have been. And some of us here had to hit rock bottom. For some of us you intervened in different ways. But God, every single one of us, we had to get to this place where we owned our sin before you and transferred our allegiance to Jesus. And we believed.
[00:39:21] And so, God, I pray for anyone here who has not yet done that, Lord, that you would give them just that clarity and the courage to trust in you, maybe even for the very first time. And, Lord, for those of us who are here, Lord, we've trusted in you. We've believed in you. I want to just say thank you from the bottom of our heart, because we deserved hell. But you have given us not just mercy, but grace upon grace upon grace. So as we celebrate even communion right now, God, thank you for everything you did for us. You paid the price for our sa sins because we could never do it for ourselves. And so we love you, and we thank you, and we worship you, and we do all of this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
