WEBVTT 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:07.440 Hello everyone. 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:08.960 This is Pastor Benjamin. 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:12.000 You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.439 At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:19.920 For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:26.000 Please stand and pray this prayer with me. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:44.240 Holy Spirit, open our hearts to hear your word, and through your word, create in our hearts a home for your presence, that we might live for the glory of the Father and the kingdom of his beloved Son. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:46.640 Through Jesus Christ we pray. 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:47.600 Amen. 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:51.359 Today's scripture comes from Deuteronomy 6. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:01:19.280 Now, this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be may be long. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:34.719 Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in the land flowing with milk and honey. 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:39.599 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:46.000 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:50.159 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:56.959 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 00:01:56.959 --> 00:02:01.760 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:03.920 This is God's word. 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:06.640 You may be seated. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:13.120 I grew up in the late 1900s in suburban Detroit. 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:16.159 And we had some shows that were family favorites. 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:22.960 One was Home Improvement, one of which was because one of the reasons why we liked it so much is because it was also set in suburban Detroit. 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:26.879 Another reason was my dad was a real-life Tim the Tool man tailor. 00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:32.080 Another show that we liked, maybe our favorite, was a show called Friends. 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:36.319 And Friends is this story about six people who live in Manhattan. 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:48.560 Some of them are related, some of them aren't, but but really I think the underlying theme of the show is these six people are trying to rebuild a sense of community, maybe even a new family out of the wreckage of their families of origin. 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:52.800 Like if you just look through some of the characters, Ross and Monica, their brother and sister. 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:54.080 Ross is the favorite. 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:57.120 Monica never can never really live up to him. 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:04.319 If you go on, you got Chandler's parents who announced their divorce to him on Thanksgiving, so he doesn't celebrate that holiday anymore. 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:08.080 Phoebe grew up without a father and her mom died when she was a teenager. 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:11.680 Only later does she find out that the woman who raised her is not actually her mom. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:24.560 The reason why I share all that is because really all six of these friends they meet in 1994 and they they come into this friendship with one another, carrying the scars and the wounds from their dysfunctional families. 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:32.479 And over the course of 10 seasons, they begin to recreate a new kind of extended family together. 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:44.400 And Friends has this picture of the failure of the nuclear family and a rebuilding of something else that's kind of a cobbled together new extended family, if you will. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:53.120 This show is so resonant with American culture that it fast became one of the most popular shows and actually even had a resurgence recently among Gen Z. 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:59.199 What is it about home improvement or friends or modern family or this is us? 00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:01.680 What is it that all of these shows are wrestling with? 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:06.159 They're wrestling with a question which is what makes a family? 00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:08.479 What is a community? 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:18.959 And the reason why that's a unique problem that we're facing right now is because we live in a society that's been described as defined, characterized by expressive individualism. 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:27.279 And what that does societally is it makes you and me basically a bunch of disconnected BBs in a beanbag, if you will. 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:36.399 There's nothing that really holds us together, no family bonds, no shared values, nothing like the word covenant that's in scripture. 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:46.720 And so if we're a bunch of little babies in a beanbag, then the beanbag actually is probably the state, which is one of the reasons why politics has become a religion in our cultural moment. 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:49.600 What else is going to hold us together? 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:56.480 And so, in light of that, um, I don't think we want to look to the late 1900s America. 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:03.680 I think we want to look to the early 400s Africa to get a better definition of what it means to be a community. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:06.800 I'm thinking of the North African bishop Augustine of Hippo. 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:10.560 In his Magnum opus, City of God, he has my favorite definition of a community. 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:11.920 This is what it is. 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:16.160 A people is an assemblage of reasonable beings bound together. 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:17.439 You hear that language? 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:23.519 Bound together by a common agreement as to the objects of their love. 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:29.600 Now, the brilliance of this is Augustine's not just giving us a definition, he's giving us a diagnostic. 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:37.519 He goes on to say that you can discover the character of any people by just looking at, noticing, paying attention to what do they love. 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:41.120 If it's a higher order love, it'll be a superior people. 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:44.480 If it's a lower order love, it'll be an inferior people. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:47.439 So let me just make that plain in our current cultural moment. 00:05:47.439 --> 00:06:04.560 Whether it's the LGBTQ community or the NRA, the Republican or the Democratic Party, or SEC football fans, what all of them have in common is they are bound together by a common agreement as to the objects of their love. 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:06.800 Love holds them together. 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:16.240 Now you decide whether or not it's a higher order love or a lower order love, but some of you in this room right now are beginning to say to me, Well, bring me a higher love. 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:20.160 Where's that higher love that I keep thinking of? 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:23.839 And you, I'm telling you, you are getting to the heart of this sermon. 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:28.800 My aim today is I want new city, the communities and the families in this room. 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:31.680 I want us to be characterized by a higher love. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:36.560 That is the love of God with all of ourselves and the love of our neighbors as ourselves. 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.519 So last week we looked at verse four. 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:44.480 If you have a Bible, a device, the worship of God, get Deuteronomy 6, verse 4 in front of you. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:48.399 It says this Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:53.920 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. 00:06:53.920 --> 00:07:01.759 We really focus on just those two verses, and last week I pointed out that we have been called into a communion of love with God. 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:06.480 And in order to do that, we have four capacities of love our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:10.160 And we have four stages of love that I drew from Bernard of Clairvaux. 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:12.240 You can go back and listen if you missed it. 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:17.199 But this week, I want to talk about how we are formed as a community of love. 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:19.279 Formed as a community of love. 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:22.240 And I've got four reasons and four rituals, okay? 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:22.879 So bear with me. 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:28.639 The four reasons are land, lineage, longevity, and the Lord. 00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:33.439 And so if you have a Bible or device, go ahead and get Deuteronomy 6, verse 1 in front of you. 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:35.439 Let's look at the first reason for love. 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:38.560 The reason I'm starting with why is because Simon Sinek told me to. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:42.720 And we want to see that there's motivation in the text. 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:46.800 Really, what bookends the command to love God with all of yourself is really interesting. 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:48.639 Four reasons and then four rituals. 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:50.800 Let's look at verse one together. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.360 Now, this is the commandment. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:56.720 Notice real quick, that's a singular, the commandment. 00:07:56.720 --> 00:07:58.720 That's to love God with all of yourself. 00:07:58.720 --> 00:07:59.680 That's the commandment. 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:03.839 But then it goes on and says, Now, this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules. 00:08:03.839 --> 00:08:14.639 One way to understand all of the commands in scripture is it's simply a working out into all of life, this double love command of loving God with all of yourself and your neighbor as yourself. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:22.800 So Moses says, Now this is the commandment and the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you. 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:26.480 Now, I'm gonna have you underline the word that whenever it's showing up. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:34.559 So here's the first time that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:43.759 Now look down at verse 3, it says this as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:49.600 Now, flowing with milk and honey is why I drink honey vanilla lattes. 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:52.799 It's not because I'm basic, it's because it's biblical, okay? 00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:55.279 That's the promised land flowing with milk and honey. 00:08:55.279 --> 00:08:58.399 That's I just want a foretaste here and now, a lineage, okay? 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:00.159 Now, this is what I'm saying. 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:02.480 The Lord promises a land. 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:02.960 Why? 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:07.519 Because the people who are lovers of Yahweh with all of themselves, they need a place. 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:09.600 They need a place to dwell. 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:19.759 But listen, whenever you read the Old Testament, it's really important that every promise, every prophecy, you recognize that they often have a threefold fulfillment. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:25.919 What I mean by that is there's an immediate fulfillment, an intermediate fulfillment, and then an ultimate fulfillment. 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:28.799 This is really important for reading the Bible well. 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:38.080 So the key to understanding that is that all of those fulfillments are pointing towards and bound up in Jesus Christ. 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:42.159 If you read the Bible, apart from Jesus, you will misinterpret the Bible. 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:52.639 I get this from all over the place, but 2 Corinthians verse 1, verse 20 says this for all the promises of God, nothing excluded, including the promised land. 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:57.440 All the promises of God find their yes in Jesus. 00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:06.399 So if that's true, we will misinterpret the promised land that we're talking about here in the text if we don't read it in Christ. 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:07.919 What do I mean by that? 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:08.720 Let me make it plain. 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:21.279 The immediate fulfillment of the promised land here and now for the people of Israel, on the brink of entering into the land of Canaan, is that God is giving them a real land with actual boundaries, geography for them to dwell in. 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:30.000 But even in the Hebrew Bible, in the Old Testament, it's interesting, the boundaries for that promised land are given about five times. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:45.519 And if if you study those boundaries, they're actually different, a little bit different every time, which I think is a little bit of a hint that the promised land is more flexible than a simple geographical boundary on a map. 00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:51.279 Because not only is the immediate fulfillment in mind, but the intermediate fulfillment is in mind as well. 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:57.360 And I believe the intermediate fulfillment is that we are to be found in Christ. 00:10:57.360 --> 00:11:00.480 Jesus Christ Himself is the promised land. 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:06.320 That's why the Bible regularly is saying to find ourselves in Christ as if we could be located in him. 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:07.200 We can. 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:08.639 We must. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:16.720 Jesus is talked about in Ephesians 1, it says, In Jesus we have obtained an inheritance. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:21.440 Throughout the storyline of Scripture, that inheritance is the promised land. 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:28.399 But not only is there an immediate and intermediate, but there's an ultimate fulfillment of the promised land. 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:31.039 And we hear of it from the very lips of Jesus himself. 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:37.519 He says this in Matthew 5: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:39.840 This is a big deal. 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:43.600 It's a big deal to understand the scope of the promised land. 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:48.320 And to make that really plain, even Father Abraham knew this. 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:56.960 He knew what a lot of modern American evangelicals miss, and that is that the promised land is not merely a strip of land on the eastern Mediterranean. 00:11:56.960 --> 00:11:58.480 It's far more than that. 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:00.720 It's way grander than that. 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:08.000 In fact, in Hebrews 11, verse 9, it says this by faith Abraham went to live in the land of promise. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:11.360 For he was looking forward to the city. 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:17.679 Some might call it a new city, looking forward to a city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:20.320 What does that mean for us? 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:34.879 It means for us that all of our attempts, all of our attempts here and now, all of the ache that we find within us for to live among a community that is characterized by love will be ultimately fulfilled. 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:40.240 Said differently, heaven, the new heavens and new earth is a world of love. 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:47.600 Which means our attempts here and now to live in love as a community of love are not in vain. 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:57.200 We're living out a dress rehearsal here and now for what is to come there and then when we live in a world, a land characterized by love. 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:01.120 But it's not only the land, it's also a lineage. 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:03.039 Look with me at verse 2. 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:09.279 Verse 2 says this that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's sons. 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:10.480 Look at verse 3. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:15.039 And that, underline it again, and that you may multiply greatly. 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:23.200 If you look at the last verse on your scripture reading there, uh if you have the worship God, it ends with this phrase, to a thousand generations. 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:32.480 You see, since Genesis 12, God's rescue plan for the world was to call a father, to call a man and make him a father. 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:39.039 His name's Abram, becomes Abraham, because he has a rescue plan for the world, and it is through a family. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:44.240 But interesting, this is a place of conflict with our modern cultural moment. 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:48.399 Our current culture doesn't believe that there's rescue through a family. 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:51.919 In fact, it probably believes we need to be rescued from the family. 00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:59.039 David Brooks, writing, kind of summarizing the changes in family structure over the past century, said it like this. 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:05.039 We've made life freer for individuals and more unstable for families. 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:09.120 We've made life better for adults but worse for children. 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:16.240 We've moved from big, interconnected and extended families, which helps protect the most vulnerable people in society. 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:27.039 We move from that to smaller, detached nuclear families, a married couple and their children, which give the most privileged people in society room to maximize their talents and expand their options. 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:42.879 What I'm getting at here is because of the sexual revolution in the 1960s and the feminist movement before that, and the LGBTQ plus movement after that, all of them have been kind of conspiring together, if you will, to deconstruct the family. 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:46.240 And listen, before we challenge that, let's just start here. 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:50.720 Who among us has emerged from our family of origin unscathed? 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:55.039 Who in this room has not been wounded in family? 00:14:55.039 --> 00:15:01.120 And so we get a sense of why people might want to say this this is actually a broken concept. 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:18.240 One family therapist named Terry Real says it like this Family dysfunction rolls down from generation to generation like a fire in the woods, taking down everything in its path until one person in one generation has the courage to turn and face the flames. 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:22.960 That person brings peace to their ancestors and spares the children that follow. 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:32.240 Breaking this cycle requires courage, the courage to confront the flames, to face the dysfunctions, and to say, This ends with me. 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:41.120 Christians should be the most bold in their unwillingness to perpetuate family dysfunction across the generations. 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:41.759 Why? 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:44.240 Because God has given us a promise. 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:50.080 The text says right here, a promise for great intergenerational families. 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:56.799 It says that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, so on and so forth. 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:04.159 This is why one pastor said, No family of origin is healthy enough to transform us into the kind of love we see in Jesus. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:11.440 And no family is dysfunctional enough to keep us from becoming the kind of people of love we find in Jesus. 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:14.480 Listen, the nuclear family is not enough. 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:15.600 It never was. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:22.480 We need the extended family of Jesus, what the New Testament calls the household of God. 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:24.639 That's the hope of the world. 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:34.720 That's God's rescue plan, not the nuclear family, the extended family, all the brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ who call God their Father who are filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:37.360 That's God's rescue plan for the world. 00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:41.440 And so we have not only lineage, we also have longevity. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:42.399 This is the third one. 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:43.679 Look at verse 2. 00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:47.200 It says this, all the days of your life. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:51.200 And here's the word again, and that your days may be long. 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:52.240 Look at verse 3. 00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:57.840 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them that it may go well with you. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:05.599 Listen, whoever you are, however you find yourself here in the room this morning, every single one of us wants it to go well with us. 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:07.519 We've got a deep desire for that. 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:15.920 That's that's showing up in the influencers you f you follow, the supplements you buy, the podcasts you listen to, all of those are a way that we're seeking. 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:18.000 I just want it to go well with me. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:27.839 But the last place we often look is obedience to commandments, statutes, and rules for it to go well with us. 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:30.480 Obey is a four-letter word for a reason. 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:44.079 Now, when we get to the text here, what it's implying is you are no more free outside the boundaries of God's good commands than a fish is if it thinks it's liberated from leaping out of the lake onto a dock. 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:55.759 Said differently, uh a flower that's uprooted from its soil is not liberated, it's not free, it's traumatized and will die if it's not repotted in healthy soil. 00:17:55.759 --> 00:18:04.880 The healthy boundaries, the flourishing soil of God's good commands are the only place, the only place where it will go well with you. 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:07.200 And God wants that for us. 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:14.240 That's why He's promising this sense of well-being and longevity here in the text. 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:20.640 But it's not just lineage, it's not just longevity, it's also the fourth and final reason, which is the Lord Himself. 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:23.200 Look again at verse 1, it says this. 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:33.680 Now, this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you. 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:38.000 The your ness of the Lord your God is a big deal. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:41.920 This is a confession of a deeply felt reality. 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:49.359 It's a conviction that that was born in experience of Yahweh's living and active presence in their midst. 00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:51.680 There's a commentator named O. 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:52.720 Palmer Robertson. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:54.799 He says, he calls this the Emmanuel principle. 00:18:54.799 --> 00:18:57.440 It's it's the defining theme that runs through the whole Bible. 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:01.519 It goes like this I will be your God and you will be my people. 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:06.000 Everything in scripture is up unto that, from Genesis to Revelation. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:12.880 And so, if that's true, then this phrase, I will be your God and you shall be my people, it's not a religious philosophy. 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:17.279 It's not a sociopolitical analysis on Israel's nation state. 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:19.599 It's not a cold, abstract concept. 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:25.359 In fact, it's alive with an experience and a knowledge of the living God. 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:34.559 The reason why this matters is Herman Bobbing says God was a living personal force, a reality infinitely more real than the world around them. 00:19:34.559 --> 00:19:41.200 They reckoned with him in their lives, they walked as if he was always before them, and they worshiped him in his sanctuary. 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:51.039 In light of those four reasons land, lineage, longevity, and the Lord, here are four rituals that will cultivate us into a community of love. 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:53.200 Look with me at verse seven. 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:58.240 You shall teach them and shall talk of them. 00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:01.920 Verse eight, you shall bind them, verse nine, you shall write them. 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:04.400 Teach talk. 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:06.240 Bind write. 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:12.240 Now, my definition of a ritual is a ritual is a repeated practice that shapes what we love. 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:19.759 And just like a diet, a financial plan, a sleep schedule, and exercise habits, we all have rituals. 00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:26.160 The question is, are your rituals forming or deforming your loves? 00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:27.519 That's the question. 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:33.200 Now, if you're in the room and you're getting a little nervous because the word ritual just doesn't, it's kind of hard to swallow. 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:33.839 I get it. 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:36.799 In fact, Jesus, the scriptures get it too. 00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:42.720 Because there's few things more deadly to vital faith than ritualism. 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:46.240 And and even God knows the danger of ritualism. 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:47.359 That's why he starts with the heart. 00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:48.799 Look at verse 6. 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:54.319 It says this, and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 00:20:54.319 --> 00:20:58.960 Notice how that comes prior to these rituals that he gives in a moment. 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:00.799 Starts with the heart. 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:07.200 Because when there are external demands without an inward reality, our lives just become a show. 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:12.000 We become what Jesus frequently calls hypocrites. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:14.400 And he's got some really vivid illustrations. 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:23.759 He's like, you're you're like a you're like you dishwashing and you just clean the outside of the cup, but then inside the cup, there's a bunch of food that's just caked and hardened on the inside of the bowl. 00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:24.720 You're gonna eat out of that? 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:25.920 That's gross. 00:21:25.920 --> 00:21:35.200 Or you're like a tomb that on the surface is like white and clean, it's got like etched in the names and the dates, and it's it looks great, but inside are dead people. 00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:43.279 Or Jesus, quoting the prophet Isaiah, says it like this: These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:48.079 God can't stand any of that. 00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:51.039 Ritualism is a deep danger. 00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:56.640 It's a deep danger in our relationship with God, but also in passing on the faith to the next generation. 00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:59.759 In fact, Michael Goheen, a mystiologist. 00:21:59.759 --> 00:22:04.400 Says that in the book of Deuteronomy, there are two threats, two primary threats. 00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:07.359 The first one, I think you'll guess, which is idolatry. 00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:08.880 The second one might be surprising. 00:22:08.880 --> 00:22:15.359 The second thing that we must do to be the people of God in the book of Deuteronomy is to pass on the faith to the next generation. 00:22:15.359 --> 00:22:22.319 Listen, almost nothing's more threatening to passing on the faith to the next generation than hypocrisy. 00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:26.640 Children might be easy to convince, but they are hard to fool. 00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:35.519 If your life is coated with Christian wallpaper, but the architecture of your life is just like anybody else, your kids will see through it. 00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:43.759 Said differently, if they, if you say that you're following Jesus, but they know that your life is just keeping up with the Joneses, they will know. 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:45.279 They will know. 00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:48.960 So listen, if God doesn't have your heart, your love is heartless. 00:22:48.960 --> 00:22:53.759 But if that love doesn't get worked out into all of life, your love is useless. 00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:59.440 And in order to have that happen, Christianity must start with the heart, but it cannot stay there. 00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:02.720 It's meant to go to the ends of the earth in all of life. 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:05.119 And so in order to do that, we need rituals. 00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:07.119 So let's look at these rituals in turn. 00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:08.480 The first one is to teach. 00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:09.920 Look at verse 7. 00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:15.200 You shall teach them diligently to your children. 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:16.960 That first word is important. 00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:17.599 You. 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:20.960 You, mom and dad. 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:27.359 Not the church, not the government, not the school, public, private, homeschool, co-op, whatever. 00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:29.359 Not your youth pastor. 00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:33.039 You shall teach them diligently to their children. 00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:35.519 You see, it starts here. 00:23:35.519 --> 00:23:37.039 It starts with us. 00:23:37.039 --> 00:23:42.160 But while mom and dad are necessary, they are actually insufficient. 00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:52.720 They're insufficient to pass on the faith because for that we need the communion of saints, the household of God, bigger than the family, bigger than the nuclear family. 00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:58.559 That's why whenever we baptize babies up here, which is wonderful, we have the members of New City stand and take this vow. 00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:05.440 Do you, as a congregation, undertake the responsibility of assisting the parents in the Christian nurture of this child? 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:07.119 Assisting, coming alongside. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:09.680 If anybody's got a city kid shirt on today, say thank you. 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:16.559 Thank you so much for assisting the parents of New City in the nurture and instruction and discipleship of the children here. 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:20.240 The next generations matter to the thousands generation. 00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:22.720 Look at verse 7 again. 00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:27.039 It says this you shall teach them diligently to your children. 00:24:27.039 --> 00:24:32.319 That verb, teach them diligently, is translated in Deuteronomy 32, 41, like this. 00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:34.240 Sharpen my sword. 00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:37.680 What kind of a word picture is that? 00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:49.039 I think what's in mind here is that teaching the command to love God to our children is it's less like a lecture and it's more like sharpening a blade through repeated strokes. 00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:50.079 Why? 00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:56.960 So that the love of God might pierce into their hearts and they might know the love of God. 00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:02.160 Maybe my favorite book on this topic is Justin Early's book, Habits of the Household. 00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:03.359 He says it like this. 00:25:03.359 --> 00:25:09.200 The most Christian way to think about our household is that they are little schools of love. 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:16.720 Places where we have one vocation, one calling, and that is to form all who live here into lovers of God and neighbor. 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:24.079 So let me just ask you: who or what is teaching your children diligently? 00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:27.440 And what are they learning to love as a result? 00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:31.440 The second ritual here is to talk. 00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:32.240 To talk. 00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:33.599 Look at verse 7. 00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:38.559 And shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way. 00:25:38.559 --> 00:25:41.039 To sit in your house, that's private life. 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:43.759 To walk by the way, that's public life. 00:25:43.759 --> 00:25:53.920 The book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 6, the whole book, the whole Bible wants to tear down a dividing wall between public and private when it comes to your love of God. 00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:57.039 Let me just share a quick story with you. 00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:10.000 On Monday, so after last Sunday, where I preached about Bernard of Clairvaux's four stages of love, I got a picture from somebody who works for a construction company, and it was a whiteboard and it had the four stages of love written on it. 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:17.519 And they said, My boss began our staff meeting this morning like this, basically, thanks to you, Ben. 00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:19.680 And I loved it. 00:26:19.680 --> 00:26:22.319 I was so, I mean, that brought so much joy to my little heart. 00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:23.279 I was so pleased. 00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:27.279 But some of you in here are like, does that belong in the secular workforce? 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:31.039 That's a question that would be foreign to the Bible, by the way. 00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:36.720 Instead, the the scriptures, Deuteronomy 6's worldview, if you will, would probably ask it like this. 00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:40.240 Well, you gotta love somebody in your workplace. 00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:41.279 Who's it gonna be? 00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:44.400 It's either gonna be the Almighty God or the Almighty Dollar. 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:46.880 Who's gonna rule at your workplace? 00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:50.960 Especially if you have the kind of authority and influence like being the boss. 00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:53.279 There's no neutrality here. 00:26:53.279 --> 00:27:02.160 That's why it's saying whether you are in your house or walking by the way, your public life, your private life, but also it goes on and it says, when you lie down and when you rise. 00:27:02.160 --> 00:27:08.880 In biblical literature, this is called a marism, which is when the bookends stand for the whole. 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:13.279 In the biblical view of the day, the day ends when you lie down and it begins when you rise. 00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:15.680 There's this, there's the beginning and ending like that. 00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:23.440 So everything in between, all of life, is to be permeated with the word of God, according to the love of God. 00:27:23.440 --> 00:27:28.000 Now, this is one of the reasons we need communities and circles here at New City. 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:33.440 We need an environment where people are asking and answering alongside us the questions, Lord, what are you saying and doing? 00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:36.000 And given who I am, how will I respond? 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:39.039 What does it look like to love God in all of life? 00:27:39.039 --> 00:27:44.160 So a question I would just ask simply is what kind of talk fills your life? 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:46.640 What kind of talk fills your life? 00:27:46.640 --> 00:27:49.920 The third ritual here is to bind it. 00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:51.119 Look at verse 8. 00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:57.920 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:03.599 Your hands in Scripture are what you do, your actions, your effects in the world. 00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:08.640 Your eyes stand for how you see, your vision and imagination. 00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:16.079 And this is relevant because your attention will follow your interests, and wherever attention goes, awareness grows. 00:28:16.079 --> 00:28:18.240 Let me just give you some illustrations. 00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:22.160 When I was a skater, everywhere was a skate spot. 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:25.839 When I was a boxer, everyone I'd be sizing up. 00:28:25.839 --> 00:28:28.960 When I became a counselor, I psychoanalyzed everyone. 00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:30.079 You can't help it. 00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:34.720 Whatever your interests are going to shape your attention, what do you attend to in those moments? 00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:40.000 This is why one rabbi said it like this we do not see things as they are, we see things as we are. 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:42.319 And you are what you love. 00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:50.319 So if your vision is captivated by the love of God in all of life, you will see things differently. 00:28:50.319 --> 00:28:52.240 The Puritans had a name for this. 00:28:52.240 --> 00:29:03.119 They called it occasional meditation, and it was this practice of wherever they would go, they would just be paying attention to how their imaginations were baptized in a world that was just filled with the glory of God. 00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:05.519 In my own practice, it's looked like this. 00:29:05.519 --> 00:29:13.839 I'll go for a run in Orlando in August, and I'll run under a tree, and I'll feel the shade and the coolness, and I'll think of Psalm 121. 00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:16.720 The Lord is my keeper, he's the shade on my right hand. 00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:25.920 Or when it's pouring down rain like it is about now, uh, I will I will talk to my kids about how the plants are thirsty and God's just giving them drink. 00:29:25.920 --> 00:29:27.599 That comes from Psalm 104. 00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:36.720 Or when one of my kids hears a huge thunderstorm and the boom shakes the house, they look at me, it's adorable, they go, Jesus thunder. 00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:42.400 Because I've taught them from a little, little, little age, I've taught them, don't be afraid of the thunder. 00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:43.440 Jesus' thunder. 00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:47.519 Psalm 29 says that the voice of the Lord thunders. 00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:55.519 You see, this is a whole of life that's lived charged with an imagination that sees the grandeur of God everywhere. 00:29:55.519 --> 00:29:59.519 Now, some of you, honestly, you might be going, isn't that a little childish? 00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:02.079 If it is, I don't want to grow up. 00:30:02.079 --> 00:30:03.920 I don't want to grow up. 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:09.200 I want to always see the life, all of life, haunted with the presence of God. 00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:14.079 In the Chronicles of Narnia, there's a character named Eustace Scrub. 00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:22.799 He represents the modern, secular, self-absorbed skeptic who relies on cold intellect and pessimism and scientism to make sense of the world. 00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:30.079 And he was raised by progressive parents, and they scorn imagination and faith, and he always thinks of himself as being right. 00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:35.039 And there's this moment in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader where he meets a retired star. 00:30:35.039 --> 00:30:41.759 And Eustace says, In our world, a star is a huge ball of flaming gas. 00:30:41.759 --> 00:30:43.839 How sophisticated. 00:30:43.839 --> 00:30:51.440 To which the star replied, Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is, but only what it is made of. 00:30:51.440 --> 00:30:58.960 Psalm 19 says, The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies above, proclaim his handiwork. 00:30:58.960 --> 00:30:59.599 What does that mean? 00:30:59.599 --> 00:31:05.920 It means the sun is more likely an ancient preacher that just can't help but tell you about who God is. 00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:10.559 Life-giving and warming and brilliant. 00:31:10.559 --> 00:31:12.240 That's what a star does. 00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:13.839 That's what a star is. 00:31:13.839 --> 00:31:17.839 And so listen, it's called a worldview for a reason. 00:31:17.839 --> 00:31:20.640 Our imagination shapes how we see the world. 00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:25.440 And our worldview is to love God with all of ourselves and our neighbors as ourselves. 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:28.240 And so what shapes your imagination? 00:31:28.240 --> 00:31:32.319 The last one here is that we are called to write it. 00:31:32.319 --> 00:31:33.440 Look at verse 9. 00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:38.000 It says, You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:44.000 I wish I had time to unpack this more, but just in summary, your doorposts represent your home. 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:46.960 The gates are the gates of the city. 00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:53.759 It means that it is insufficient if the love kind of stays in heart and home. 00:31:53.759 --> 00:32:02.079 Love of God with all of ourselves has to extend to all of life, where you live, where you learn, where you work, where you play. 00:32:02.079 --> 00:32:08.400 We are captivated by a vision that the love of the true and living God would permeate our world. 00:32:08.400 --> 00:32:13.599 And so I'm gonna end where I began, which is from this quote from St. 00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:14.559 Augustine. 00:32:14.559 --> 00:32:21.119 He said, A people is an assemblage of reasonable beings bound together by a common agreement as to the objects of their love. 00:32:21.119 --> 00:32:22.480 That's true. 00:32:22.480 --> 00:32:41.519 But this people, this community, the people of God, is unlike any other people on planet Earth today or through all of history, because only this people is actually bound together, not primarily by God as our object of love, but by being the objects of God's love. 00:32:41.519 --> 00:32:44.319 Look with me at Deuteronomy 7. 00:32:44.319 --> 00:32:49.759 Deuteronomy 7, verse 6 says this for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. 00:32:49.759 --> 00:32:56.799 The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 00:32:56.799 --> 00:33:03.680 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you. 00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:10.720 The Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fused of all the peoples. 00:33:10.720 --> 00:33:24.240 But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the fair the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 00:33:24.240 --> 00:33:34.720 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. 00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:40.480 According to this text, why does the Lord love Israel? 00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:44.799 Was it because of their population demographics? 00:33:44.799 --> 00:33:48.079 No, they were the fewest of the peoples. 00:33:48.079 --> 00:33:50.559