Bible Recap Week 12

In this week’s episode, Pastor Eric dives into spiritual formation in the book of Deuteronomy, asking: what do we do with our faith, and how do we pass it on to future generations?

At the center is a simple but powerful truth—if you love God, obedience follows. Loving the right things shapes how we live, and what we love today becomes the legacy we leave behind.

Transcript

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Hey everyone, and welcome to the Water's Edge Bible Recap Podcast. This is Pastor Eric, and I'm really glad you're listening. This podcast is one of the tools that we're using this year as we read through the Bible together. It's a chance for us to think about last week's reading. What's standing out to you, what's confusing, what might God be saying to us along the way? One of the things that we are focused on in the reading is what does our reading say about God? We call them God shots. How is it helping you trust God? I believe relationships move at the speed of trust. So the more you build a relationship with God, the more you know God and the more you trust Him. My hope is that along with this podcast and other tools that you're using, you're gonna grow in confidence. God is a missionary God, which means He sends us out to live and to love like Jesus. So see this time as a workout, a workout that builds muscle so you can live like Jesus. Love like Jesus. I love spending time in the Word with you like this. So let's get started. Reading this week has definitely taken on a different direction, huh? The thing that impressed upon me this week was the subject of spiritual formation. Both of the uh big ideas that I want to share with you this week really sit at the heart of what do we do with our faith and how do we pass it to the next generation? Here's the first um big idea that that came to me. Following Christ is about love, not just doing the right thing and trying to be good and keeping the law. Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. That that passage of scripture is often read differently by um by people. Sometimes people will read it that if you if you really love me, then you'll keep my commandments. But I I I tend to read that scripture a little differently. I tend to read it as in, if you love me, you will naturally keep my commandments. So so instead of trying to keep the commandments, just love Jesus, and you will keep the commandments naturally. That line only really makes sense if we understand what's been building um all the way back in the beginning of Deuteronomy. Because when Moses is speaking to Israel, he's not just handing them rules, he's refrain framing what obedience actually looks like. What does it mean to follow God? What does it mean to be God's people? In Deuteronomy 26, he calls for wholehearted obedience, not half-hearted, nor external obedience, but from the core of who you are. A lot of churches use this phrase, being fully devoted to him. Then in Deuteronomy 30, he says something even more striking, and that is the Lord will circumcise your heart so that you may love him. That's a shift. Obedience isn't ultimately about compliance. Following God isn't just about being born into the family, so learn to keep the laws. Following God is about a transformed heart that actually has a passion to know God. In other words, living for God is not about having right theology or making sure you know every law or you know what every answer to every question in the Bible is. The issue is not knowing stuff. Um, it's it it's uh it's about loving God. The issue is that we love God so much that we don't drift from his vision or his purpose um living out through us. The real issue is um what do we want? Because as you move through Deuteronomy 31 and chapter 32, it becomes more clear that Israel's future failure won't come from ignorance, it will come from a slow drift, a slow misalignment of the heart. I have seen very few people go from passionate living for Jesus to total denial. It it usually happens in a slow drift, not a consistent thing. So here's the here's the core insight to this. Knowing the right thing is not the same as loving the right thing. And that's where this hits us. You can know scripture and still not know God. You can know scripture and still resist God. You can understand truth and still not obey it. Because most of our spiritual struggles are not informational struggles, they're affectional struggle struggles. Spiritual struggle struggles are never about how much you know. It's about how we love, it's about who has your heart. And this is why obedience becomes exhausting when it's driven by guilt or pressure or shame. Following Christ, following Jesus is only sustainable, um, and frankly, almost natural when love is the driver. So instead of constantly asking, what am I supposed to be doing? What do I need to do so that you know God won't punish me, or that God is pleased with me, or or what, you know, how could I how can I make God more happy? What should I do? A better question, I think, is what do I actually want right now? And why do I want it? That that exposes the heart, and that leads to a different kind of prayer. Um, it's a it's a prayer of alignment, um, it's a prayer of God help me to want what you want. God, reshape my desires. Because God isn't ultimately after better behavior, he's after a heart that really wants him. The second idea um builds, I think, right on top of that, and that is um you you are always one generation away from losing your family's values. Moses is deeply aware that he's not going to be there forever. And so in Deuteronomy 29, he says, What God has revealed belongs not just to us, but to our children. And then just two chapters later, in chapter 31, he commands that the law should be read publicly so the next generation can hear it and can learn it and will fear the Lord. And then one chapter later, the song of Moses, he basically predicts what's coming. And he says, His fear is that there is a generational drift away from serving God. And a generational drift occurs when people start forgetting, people slowly turn to other things, put place their heart in other places, and people lose what they really didn't intentionally pass on. In Deuteronomy 34, we see Moses uh dies and then Joshua steps in. And really that transition says everything because faith was never meant to stop with one person, it has to be transferred to the next generation. So the reality of what we're talking about is that faith that isn't passed on to others will not last. I will I will never understand a parent who thinks they're being good parents when they feel that they should let their kids choose their own faith. Um children and grandchildren are a gift to us. Our families are a gift to us, and we are we are supposed to steward that gift, leaving those gifts to figure out, leaving the those gifts, the children, to figure out the most important issue in their own life on their own, it it just doesn't make sense to me. Um, I I I think you would agree with me. Um, I want my family in heaven, don't you? I mean, I want to spend eternity with my kids and their spouses and my grandkids and my nieces and my nephews and my brother and sisters. And should the Lord not return before that time, I want to meet my great-great great great grandchildren in heaven. And that will only happen if the generations that follow me remember the faith of that I pass on or that Lisa pass on to us. Um we have to be intentional about loving Jesus with our whole body, our whole mind, and our strength. Silence, silence doesn't preserve faith. Keeping it quiet doesn't pass it on to the next generation. It actually, silence doesn't preserve faith, it actually passes on confusion. And and leaving the next generation, letting the next generation just kind of figure out what it means to follow Jesus and good luck. Um, even communicating that unintentionally, you know, figure out how to do it and you do it, it just doesn't make sense. And let me say this again a drift doesn't happen because people reject truth. It happens because people assume the next generation will figure it out instead of being taught, instead of seeing living for Christ being modeled, instead of uh watching parents or grandparents um live a life that is passionate towards Jesus. Um it the next generation will not just figure faith out. So this gets very practical. Um, if if you're a parent, what rhythms are actually shaping your children's faith? Not just what do you tell them, but what do they see you live out? If you're a leader of other people, I might ask, who who's your Joshua? Um, who are you, who are you leaving um the faith to? Who are you intentionally investing in so that what God has done in you doesn't end with you? And and frankly, if you don't see yourself as a leader, uh, I would just say you are influencing others, whether it's a child or whether it's a neighbor or a friend or people you work with. Um, so the question is who are you investing in relationally? Because here's here's the bottom line: what you don't intentionally pass on, you unintentionally lose. And when you bring these two ideas together, it becomes really clear. A faith that is rooted in love is the only kind of faith that actually lasts long enough to pass it on. Because information alone, this is what Moses is saying in our reading, information alone will not sustain you. And it definitely will not sustain the next generation. But a heart that loves God, now that's different. A heart that loves God is contagious. A heart that loves God, a life that is surrendered to God, that's durable. Um, someone that just loves Christ with all their heart, that's transferable. So the question's question isn't just, man, I sure hope I know the right things. Do I know the right things? The question is really, do I love the right things? And am I helping someone else learn to love them too? Thanks so much for listening to the Water's Edge Bible Recap. I look forward every week to walking in the Word with you. You can find more information about Water's Edge Church at www.watersedge.faith. And you can listen to our weekly message on any platform under the Water's Edge website or by downloading the Water's Edge app.