Bible Materials

LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART

by   12/24/2008   Deuteronomy 6:1~13

Message


There are 100 secrets to live for 100 years. Three of them are laugh loudly, walk long, eat less. Laugh loudly is easy, walk long is so so, eat less is hard. Here laugh is a kind of laugh getting louder and louder. M. Ezra showed one at the Bible Study meeting. (Hearing from M. Ezra) This year may we have many things laughs because of Jesus. Jesus asked Simon Peter “Do you truly love me?” Simon Peter’s relationship with the Lord was broken. And the only thing to reconnect it was the love cord. We do many activities. And we are doing many of them for the Lord. But behind all these we need love toward God. When there is love to God our relationship will never be superficial. Love is like lublicant of the machine. When there is no lublicant in the wheel bearings of the car what happens? It will make noise. And it will move in difficulty. And later it will fall apart from the main body. Without love our life is like a machine without lublicant. But when we love, we will experience happiness because man was made with God`s image which is love. Deauteronomy means ‘repeated lesson’. This was for the second gens of Exodus. They were manna generation(They ate manna since they were baby). They did not see God’s dreadful punishment upon Egyptians. They did not see the great moment of opening the Sea. But they were the ones who grew in faith environment(They did not have slave mentality which their parents had). They will cross the Jordan and establish the holy nation. They were the ones upon whom God put the great hope in the Promised Land. So they needed to learn God`s words again and again. Let’s read verse 1 and 2 together. “These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.” ‘Crossing the Jordan to possess’ was their long waited hope. They waited that for forty years. Now it was the time. But this verse warns that there were two kinds of life lied ahead of them. The first one was to enjoy a blessed life with God. The second one was to forget God and being cut off from God’s blessing and paganized. And God wanted them to have the first one. Look at verse 1 again. These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach… The main commands, cecrees and laws were the Ten Commandsments which was written in chapter five. The purpose of observing these was for their children after children to fear the LORD. Here fearing is more than the meaning of ‘being afraid of’. Fearing God means respecting and honoring God. This is our prayer topic for our physical and spiritual descendants? ``Fear the LORD.`` Today the people are suffering because there is no absolute value. The society is sick because there is no truth. A CSI episode was about a campus club which university students disguised themselves and beat one of the passers-by until death. When they were caught people were shocked because they were good students and even girl students were included. When they were asked they said, “There is nothing to do.” They were looking for fun. And they tried to find fun in beating a person. They did not have a value system regarding what would be the outcome of their deeds. What is Ten Commandments? 1. You shall have no other gods before me. 2. You shall not make for yourself an idol in any form. 3. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD. 4. Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 5. Honor your father and your mother. 6. You shall not murder. 7. You shall not commit adultery. 8. You shall not steal. 9. You shall not give false testimony. 10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. These are like shining diamonds showing them what to do and what they shouldn`t do. Verse 1 promises a long life when they keep Ten Commandments. The oldest woman in the world who was living in England was interviewed. She said, “I just tried to keep the Ten Commandments.” These days, health food stores are prospering.(I saw a new big health food store in Bloor Street) People have more interest in health than any other times. (Because of that Min-Hyung is getting busier. But his boss is getting happier.) But the true secret of healthy and long life was in the word of God. Look at verse 2. “Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.” Generally people don`t like obedience. But God commands us to obey his words. And God promises the blessing out of this obedience. Look at verse 4. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” The focus is turned now from God`s word to God himself. God is the one God. Our God is the real God. Our God is the creaor God. He is the holy and everlasting. He is the savior of all sinners. Our God is the sovereign ruler of all things. In Old Testament Jehovah was used which was all capital word LORD. In New Tastament Adoni was used which was the first capital letter Lord. Jehovah is Almighty creator God and Adoni is the personal and intimeate God. In the movie “The passion of Christ”, Jesus calls the Father, “Adoni”. The first step to love God was to know ``Who God is`and ``What God means to me.` Look at verse 5. “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Read. Recite) Here the word ‘all’ is important. Let’s emphasize the word ‘all’ and recite again. In Revelation 2:4 indicates that God is looking for one thing from the church. It was the first love. There are examples of people who loved God very much in Bible. Isaiah lived without clothes for three years(Oh! Living without clothes for three years…). He knew God’s heart to warn his people for the coming disaster because of their rebellion against God. Without the love to God it was not possible. Hosea brought a prostitute as his bride.(Min-Hyung, what do you think? Unthinkable.) When he got a son he had to name him `Lo-Ammi` which means, “You are not my son”. God presented his love toward the wayward Israelites in this way. Because Hosea loved God, he could perfrom drama like story in his real life. Pastor Son loved lepers as he loved the Lord. He saw the Lord in lepers` eyes. Once a despaired leper threw a heavy stuff to an accompanying nurse hitting her head and she died at the spot. But pastor Son`s love toward such lepers was not changed because his love to Jesus was changed. Look at verse 5 again, ‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ Here ‘heart’ means the root of our thought, emotion, and will. Heart is the centre of our character. ‘Soul’ means life. This includes characteristics, talent and gifts. Loving God with all our soul means loving him with all our lives. Strength means energy which encludes physical & mental and intellectual capacity. This verse indicates that we need struggle and determination to love God. If we love God we feed sheep.(Without struggle how can we feed sheep?) If we love God we work hard and honor God with good grades. Abraham Lee loves God and he takes piano lessons deligently. Through several years of TaeKwonDo practice, his body became tough. Now he knows how to fight. Now he is building a musical mind. We have the annual direction to love God. May God help us to love God with all our heart and all our soul and with all our strength. I picked this key verse because I realized that I did not love God. My goal was to establish a personal and deep relationship with the Lord but I did not have love. So, I decided to struggle to love him this year. May I love God and love my mission with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my strength. Look at verses 6 – 9. “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.” This is about education. Especially it was about the second gen education in a family environment. First thing was to put the words of God in their hearts. When the words of God were alive in their hearts they could teach. Children do exactly what the parents do. They follow good things the parents do.(For example when I pray my second son Paul come and kneel down beside me.) But they follow the bad things also. So the best education was to show and impress them to obey God`s word. Secondly the words of God should be their talking topics. When we talk in the living room or in the car, we need to talk about the word of God. Israelites called this word of God ``Shima`` and tied it on their hands and bind it on their foreheads. As God earnestly commanded them, the word of God was the secret for the best second gen education. When we teach them the words of God, the word of God will rule over their thoughts and actions. The word of God will enable them to discern God’s will and obey him. The word of God will give them life. The word of God will revive their souls. The word of God will help them to defeat sins. The word of God will reveal the meaning and purpose of their lives. Through the word of God they will see God’s hope and vision. And altimately they will grow to be man and women of God. Look at verses 10 – 13. “When the LORD your God bring you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant - then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.” When the Israelite crosses Jordan and enters into the Promised Land, they will have cities they did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells they did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves they did not plant. Our center has a vine tree which gives joy of eating grapes not only to us but also to the birds. Having one vine tree is a good thing. But Israelites will have vineyards and olive groves they did not plant. Digging well was not easy at that time.(Think that you have to 100 m down with shovels) People even died while digging. And it was hard to find the water source(When they dug and found now water, they had to dig again). So the well was considered as the greatest property of the family or even a town. But the Israelites will posses the wells they did not dig. Buying the house is costly. But the filling the house with furniture is another thing. But they will have well furnitured houses.(All free.) The word, “you did not build”, “you did not provide”, “you did not dig”, “you did not plant” indicate that they will obtain all these good things by God’s grace. And they had to remember that God had provided all these good things. Look at verses 12b and 13. “…when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” The worst case was to forget the LORD. The LORD gave them a new life by bringing them out of Egypt. And God freed them from slavery and made them the children of God. And forgeting of the grace of salvation and of God will be a disaster. We have an experience of God’s salvation. God delivered us from darkness to life, from the slaves of sin to the children of God. So based on these grace of salvation we have to remember God. We pray our second gens may be influencial members in this soceity. Also we pray that God may provide us all the good things by his grace. And most of all we pray that we may remember God who gave us life and salvation and serve him only throughout our whole lives.



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