Before After and After Before: What to do when you learn a new Biblical Command Deuteronomy 26:1-16

You are the everlasting God, the everlasting God.

You do not think you are powerful, weary, nor does it bend as a wing.

You comfort those in need, with a touch of God-given-tie.

For as we were weighing upon the Lord, we were weighing upon the Lord, we were weighing upon the Lord.

You are the everlasting God, the everlasting God.

You are the everlasting God, the everlasting God.

Father, this is your day, not because it is Sunday, not because it is a day where we have freedom.

Not because it is a day where we will look to your word, or even because it is a day where we will hear from you.

While all of those things are good, we recognize that you are the author of all things.

You have that kind of power, that kind of might, that kind of strength, and you have exhibited that kind of grace through your son Jesus Christ.

That he would die on a cross to pay for sins, a mighty atonement that is capable of handling all.

That he would be there now at the right hand of our God, making intercession for us daily.

That he would be our Savior, not just then, not just in that moment when we accepted you as Lord and Savior, but every moment of every day.

And that means this day, all things were made through him, all things were made by him, all things continued to consist.

Because of and in him.

And we are grateful Lord that you have given us this day.

A day to steward, that is to say, a day to use wealth, a day in which to serve, a day in which to love, a day in which to learn.

This is your day.

We are grateful God that we can trust that you will take care of this day.

We submit ourselves into your hands that we might worship well, that we might study well, that we might teach well,

that we might serve well, that we might love well.

Help us Lord, make us able because this is your day.

We glorify you in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen.

Alright, if the young people would like to join me up front this morning, I've got some work for you.

The rest of you please stand up and clear your hands so we can do some clapping.

Come on, hurry, hurry, let's go.

Let's try five more baby bands.

Alright, so we come to that moment in time I kind of warned you a few moments ago that we were going to talk briefly about how the Lord has been working in our lives or speaking to us.

This is that inspirational moment.

Now we call it, I had somebody ask me this week, somebody said, what is an inspirational moment?

And I thought, my goodness, we do this every week.

So, in fact, it might not be a bad time to stop talking for just a second about what an inspirational moment was.

Do you know that the word inspiration, the definition if you will of the word inspiration is God breathed.

That's what it means.

When we say the Bible is inspired, we mean God breathed that word into existence.

And so an inspirational moment is a moment in which you heard something, felt something, saw something, experienced something of God.

When God was doing something, you went, hey, God's doing something.

Now, is God doing something? Yes, he's doing something all the time, all the time.

But not all the time do we pay attention or do we see what it is that God is doing.

So maybe this week you had an opportunity, we had the work too when Arianna and I worked together.

And I went, hey, that's pretty cool.

So maybe you had something, what do you got?

Carla first.

So we've been getting some people on for our senior class recently and on Friday we did this hangout with the seniors.

We had a good time and we had a fire at one of our friends' house.

And we had a senior that came in there and she missed all of her last ever baby.

She's very young to me and she's in the hospital right now.

And she's been in the hospital for a while.

And not all of my friends are like professor Christians or anything.

I was like, before we make sports and everything, we all set her on the fire and we all thank her.

And I was like, well God, in my heart, help me.

Even though she can't be here, I hope she'll just meet a second and just pray for her.

I hope that she gets better and that she'll be able to see.

So we all did that and I'm really happy about it.

Isn't it amazing how prayer is kind of like a bridge?

You would be talking to somebody who doesn't know the Lord and you offer to pray for them.

Unless they're bitter or they have other reasons or whatever.

Usually they're okay.

I used to pray for them.

Once in a while you'll enter and they're like, oh you pray for me?

But generally it's a pretty good bridge and it's a good place to start talking.

So now when God does something in response to that prayer,

what a great stepping stone you have to be able to talk to those people who were there.

That's awesome. Good story.

Alright, who else had a hand up?

Right here.

Sorry, come over here.

So I saw a video the other day and it was a lady interview with this guy.

And she said, if you could stand in front of God and ask Him any question you want, what would you ask?

And he said, I don't need to ask a question, I would just give thanks.

And she goes, no, but you have to ask a question.

He goes, I would just give thanks.

There's nothing that we can ask God.

We shouldn't need to ask Him anything.

We just need to give Him our thanks.

And that really was something else.

Like just hear somebody else say that it doesn't matter if we can ask Him anything.

It wouldn't be important giving you our thanks for everything.

That's a great testimony.

I just bought a movie last night at Big Lots.

Like nobody buys movies anymore, right?

Like I'm one of those weird people that still buys movies.

I bought a movie last night.

It's called Dinner with God.

You get a chance to see it.

Highly recommend it if you want to watch it.

If somebody wants to watch it, they'll watch it at my house or Steve's or others so I can watch it with you.

But yeah, it's pretty good.

They're all loaning my copy.

I was looking for a copy of it.

It might be on the streaming service.

I don't know if I was looking for a copy of it.

But it's about a guy who's down to literally talk with God and the questions He has.

And ultimately, I think that's the place where that's the underlying theme of the whole thing.

We have reason to be thankful.

There are a lot of questions.

And maybe in our sermon today, we're going to look at one of the reasons why we have a lot of those questions.

But we don't really need the answers.

We just need more God, more fellowship with the Lord.

Praise God.

What a great statement.

Arden?

I recently started a New Year's in the Bible plan that takes you through the Bibles in a year.

And as I'm saying, I finally realized that I didn't do it yesterday.

So you're one day behind.

Thank you for this.

But I'm slogging through the genealogies, the early Genesis, which has been inexperienced.

And I'm sitting there reading like the sons of Shem.

And I'm thinking, who cares?

And then it sort of strikes me that that's the point.

It's that God cares.

This is His Word.

And He breathed these people into existence and watched them grow.

And these genealogies are sort of like this diary of His creation.

And it also struck me that as much as He cared about them then and their children and their name and their legacy,

He cares about ours now.

And somewhere in heaven, He's probably got a little book that He writes down the sons of Dan

or the sons of Amalia.

And that was sort of the moment for me.

And then I stopped skipping over the genealogy.

Yeah.

So it's been some years ago now, probably what, about like eight years ago.

It was kind of toward the beginning of when we were in the, I actually remember I was in that room next across the hall when I was preaching it.

But I preached from the book of Chronicles at the beginning, which is genealogy.

And what things have struck me was we have an unfair view.

We have a judgmental view of what those genealogies are.

And you just really explain that well.

Because God, when God sees that name, He knows, like if you would see the name of some guy, right,

He knows who his parents were.

He knows who his brothers and sisters were.

He's contemporary.

So we met in the courts.

We sang with.

We talked with.

We preached with.

We heard from.

He knows all of that.

And all we did is just His name.

And so what we did back then was we actually took those names one by one and looked at their life story and tried to bring that together.

That was really cool.

So good object lesson for that.

And so I think I would encourage you not to stick to genealogies then based on that experience.

Anyone else?

So when we were on the announcements page, I saw that 20 kids from out of your question are leaving to go to camp.

And I've only been there twice.

I don't know this.

But yeah, last year it was not 20 kids.

It was me, my two brothers, and a few other kids.

But now there is over 100 kids going to talk with God, to do things in God, and to have other kids around them that want to learn and talk about God.

It was over 100.

And the time I think that I don't think there's been that much.

This camp began just showing that God brings people to His will.

We are like, we're like His little people that He doesn't boss us around.

He's not like super rough to you.

He tells us what to do.

He tells us what to do in a kind hearted way.

And He knows what's best for us.

And the fact that over 100 kids are going to Camp You Can't just means that God is bringing more kids to worship His name.

So he's talking about Camp You Can't, which begins tomorrow.

And our G.I. has the blessing of taking, he's right, 20 kids from the Toledo area all across the city.

And all backgrounds.

And many of them do not come from Christian families.

They probably heard the name of Jesus.

I don't know if we have any who have not.

But they do not profess to be Christians.

And there is a sports theme to the camp.

At the same time, every message is out of the Bible.

There's a message about Jesus.

And it's really about how a man grows up to be a man of integrity.

That's the kind of theme of the camp.

It's going to be a great experience.

I'm super excited, also a little nervous.

Because God has just been doing something awesome through this.

And I get to be part of it.

I just can't wait.

It's going to be great.

It's going to be cool.

So, see you this night.

Are you ready?

Okay.

Let's see our last one.

Hold the song.

Okay.

Hold it up a little.

There's a song that I heard.

I heard it at work.

It came on my radio.

It came on my YouTube music.

And when I was listening to it, I wasn't really paying attention.

But it's a pretty interesting song.

So, on my way home, I played it in the car.

And I don't know anything about the first song.

I happened to hear this song and it stuck out to me.

And I'll just read a couple of it.

It says, you ever get some people so motivated,

but you feel your strength decline.

Always uplifting people's souls.

But you're breaking down internally.

That's what you hide.

But you're the power source for some of their lives.

You give them hope to go alive.

That's why I feel like my life is built on so many lives.

But if I chose to die, I'd be a hypocrite.

And that's just the first little bit of it.

But when I was thinking about that, it struck me that, you know,

if you think about what Jesus did and what Jesus had to go through,

if he would have chose not to do what he had to do,

it would have just been a hypocrite.

And he wouldn't have the Savior that we have.

And sometimes I feel that way with my kids,

my husband, a father, whatever.

I feel like I'm never, like there's times when I'm not doing enough,

that I just need to give up.

But if I do that, what am I showing my kids?

So we have to remember that even though we can be the power source

for someone else, that we can be that uplifting person for someone else,

we also have to remember to take care of ourselves too.

And that, yeah, we all have our struggles, we all have our pain.

But if you look at the people that you're attracting,

that should give you strength to know that, hey,

maybe I really am trying to do good, maybe I am trying to do my best.

And in God's eyes, that's all he asks us to do, is do our best.

Because he knows that we're not perfect.

He knows we're going to make mistakes and we're going to fall.

But in his eyes, all we need to do is try our best and keep moving forward.

And remember that we are the power source for people's lives,

that we can affect people's lives in great ways through him.

All right. So we're going to pray together at this time.

We're going to tie this in the office a couple more songs,

and we're going to release the children, okay?

So I'm going to ask Deacon Tony, our deacon, to lead us in prayer for this time.

Would you please?

Well, Lord, thank you for another beautiful day, a place that we can come together safely and concentrate on.

Often as we pick it up, thank you, Lord, that we can give. Thank you that you want to give.

We can give. If there's someone who can't, we'll just tell them. Be with them, friend.

And I'm going to ask Professor, as she comes forward, to lay her eyes on this.

I want to hear something that you're speaking to us, because you're always seeking us out.

I want to hear something that you're speaking to us, because you're always seeking us out.

I want to hear something that you're speaking to us, because you're always seeking us out.

Over the mountains and the sea, your river ends with love for me.

And I will open up my heart and let the hymns set me free. I'm happy to be true, and I will dearly lift my hands.

For I will always sing of when you're looking down. I can sing of the world forever.

Every secret, every shade, every fear, every pain,

I will live inside the dark, and I will stand who we are, the angel of the day.

There's a place where mercy reigns and paradise reigns.

There's a place where streams of grace flow in our hearts.

Where all the love we've ever loved is like a flood, is like a heart.

At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life, I surrender my life.

There's a place where mercy reigns and paradise reigns.

There's a place where singing and chanting over the mountains,

over the mountains, over the mountains, is like a flood, is like a heart.

There's a place where singing and chanting over the mountains, over the mountains, is like a flood, is like a heart.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wondered when I wrote that title how well it would fit on the screen.

Can you make it out? It says, after before and before after.

What to do when you become aware of the command of God or a command of God, either way.

So we have been working through the book of Deuteronomy, and we are continuing that task today.

I did a little looking ahead this week, and it appears to me that we will be done with the book of Deuteronomy in the next couple of months,

which is an incredible journey to have worked our way through the entire book of Deuteronomy.

I want to break down after before and before after for a second, because it's a little confusing.

So after always comes after before, right? These are prepositions.

So something is after, for example, if I say I did it after dinner, then it means I ate my dinner and then I did it, right?

If I say I did it before dinner, then it means I did it before I ate my dinner, whatever time that might be.

So after and before are not exactly antonyms or opposites, but they are pretty close, they are pretty clear, they are meaning.

Something comes before or after. It's the idea of being able to give a chronological order.

There are other words that are used for this in writing, but after and before are two simple ones.

After is always after before, assuming you are talking about the same two things.

If I say I did it before dinner and I did it after dinner, then the thing that came after dinner clearly came after the thing that came before dinner.

We understand that. Also, if I say before after, before is usually before after, that's where it usually belongs, right?

It just makes sense. If I said I did it before dinner or after dinner, the thing I did before dinner, I did before the thing I did after dinner.

Am I making sense? Very simple, it's not complex. However, what does the phrase after before and before after actually mean?

Well, if I said I did it before dinner or I did it after dinner, then the thing that is before after and after before would be dinner.

That makes sense, right? It is a qualifier in time. We'll come back to explain it a little bit when we get into the points,

and I'll ask for somebody to do a little object lesson when that time comes.

We do usually say amen or hallelujah, give a little hoot or shout as we turn to God's word.

We're going to go to Deuteronomy chapter 26. Amen. This is God's word.

Deuteronomy 26 · chapter mention

From here on out, what we read will be what he has to say. My understanding of the best I can give it,

hopefully will be inspired by his Holy Spirit and it can affect and change our lives.

We're reading from Deuteronomy chapter 26, verses 1 and following.

Deuteronomy 26:1

Also, as we're reading this, I would like you to engage your thinking cap. I want you to look for the kind of like the states of being

or the places where the Israelites are in the story. So I'll kind of try to point those out as we go through.

Deuteronomy chapter 26, beginning of verse 1 says,

Deuteronomy 26 · chapter mention

Then it shall be when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance and you possess it and live in it, comma.

So this is a command being given to them now, but it's a command about when they are in the promised land.

So once God has brought them into the land that he would give them, he says, then it shall be.

So you could say that going into the promised land is after this command.

This command is before going into the promised land.

Then it shall be when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance and you possess it and live in it,

that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you shall bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you,

and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish his name.

So basically this is a command about first fruits. So they would take some of the first fruits of the ground,

and this would become an every year thing for them. They would take some of the first fruits of the ground,

and they would take it to the place where the Lord has established his name.

Now in looking back, we understand first the tabernacle, then the temple, Jerusalem.

We understand a little bit of the history of that. We can see it historically.

But they wouldn't have had that because this is before they are taken into the promised land.

But he says after that you've been taken into the promised land and settled,

you'll take some of the first fruits and you will give it at the place where the Lord chooses to establish his name.

Verse 3, and you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him,

I declare this day to the Lord my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.

There's an interesting implied meaning, something you have to understand there.

So he's going to go to the priest taking with him the first fruits,

which he's going to give as an offering to God into the service of the Lord.

And he's going to say to the priest, I now have entered the land.

I want you to think from what we realize that until he goes and takes the first fruits to the priest to be offered,

he's not made the statement, now I have entered the land.

So something has happened, a transitionary moment has happened in which this statement,

now I have entered the land, is being uttered to the priest.

I declare this day to the Lord my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.

Now this is not the sermon for the day, but I submit to you that what's being said here is also that

if you haven't given your first fruits yet, you have not claimed the place that you are in that the Lord has given you.

If you have not said of this that the Lord has given me, I return to him the portion that belongs to him

for his service, for his purpose to be used, to honor him, to bless him, and to make a statement.

If you have not yet done that, then you have not taken the position that the Lord has laid out for you yet,

according to what's implied in this verse that we just read.

Verse 4 then says, Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God,

and you shall answer and say before the Lord your God, My father was a wandering Aramean,

and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number.

But there he became a great, mighty, and populous nation.

Verse 6, And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us and imposed hard labor on us.

Then we cried to the Lord the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction

and our toil and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,

and with great terror and with signs and wonders, and he has brought us to this place and has given us this land,

a land flowing with milk and honey. Okay, we'll stop there for a second, that's where the period is.

That whole big long thing was a recounting of what had happened. It started with their father, they say,

and the story was a wandering Aramean. Now let me explain that just briefly for any non-historians in the room.

To be an Aramean is to be a place called, I'll mess this up, but Paran, does anybody know the exact pronunciation?

Okay, I'm going to mess it up. Anyway, it's in Mesopotamia.

So you know where those two big rivers are, the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, they mark off Mesopotamia.

Some people say that might have been where the Garden of Eden was.

And in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were blessed, they had a great land, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden.

Fast forward much later, Noah, a flood. Now did the river settle back down in the exact same place?

Very possibly, bottom line is that land is a very prosperous land.

And you'll remember the story of Abram, he was called out of that land.

He came from that very region, which would make him an Aramean.

And he was called to leave there that prosperous land and go out to a land which God would show him.

He was a wanderer. So was Jacob. So was Isaac.

They were all wanderers, essentially, and their ancestry could be traced back to Mesopotamia and that region that would make them Arameans.

And so now he's saying, we had a wandering ancestry. Our ancestry had no home, no anchor, no ties, no land to own of their own.

And throughout that process, there comes a moment in time, it was Joseph, you know, the well, the slavery, Potiphar, second man in Egypt.

Now they wind up in Egypt, right? And while they're in Egypt, they are made into a great nation.

They remain there for over 400 years. And as they are called out of there, they are a great nation.

And now we're beginning, who called them out, by the way? What man did it was Moses, right? On behalf of God.

Moses went there and said, OK, we're leaving, let's go. And there was a lot more to it, we know.

Many signs and wonders mentioned here, right? And then we fast forward to the point, we're now at the end of Moses' life.

And he tells them that when they take the land that God will take them into, which we know Moses does not get to go into,

when they take the land, they will take the first fruits of the land, they will go up to the priest and say,

I now declare this day to the Lord my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.

The priest takes it, puts it before the altar, and then they are to say, now remember the priest doesn't really got any talking parts.

In this whole thing so far, the priest doesn't say thank you even, he doesn't really have any speaking parts.

This is all about what you will do when you take your first fruits up, how you will declare that you have entered the land finally.

And then it says, my father was a wandering Aramean. It goes back to, went down to Egypt.

By the way, I don't know what's worse in this story line for them to be a wandering person who has no home,

or to be in Egypt where they had a home and God's prospering them, multiplies them into 400,000 people.

Or whatever the number actually for sure was, right? That's our best understanding.

Bottom line is, neither one of those things is good.

But God through his mighty arm and his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, multiplied them to make them a great people,

brought them out with signs and wonders, and now has brought us to this place and has given us this land.

And this phrase, flowing with milk and honey, means a very prosperous and good land.

I submit to you that they were not comparing it to the lands of Mesopotamia where Abraham originally came from.

They were just saying that God had settled them in a great place.

And it was God probably that made it a great place. Now we're in verse 10.

And now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground, which thou, O Lord, hast given me.

And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God,

and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.

So now we have rejoicing going on because we are finally set on the land and we are giving the first fruits back to God as we're supposed to.

Verse 12. When you have finished paying all the tithe, that word tithe there means a tenth,

and so now we understand that the first fruit was supposed to be a tenth, the first tenth of the increase.

When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing,

then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

So what's not known by most people, most tithers today talk about tithing the first 10% of their income.

And this is not a sermon on tithing, so if you're a non-tither in the room, don't think all of a sudden I'm going to harp on it because I'm not.

I'm just explaining to you. What's not known is that they actually had two and probably a third tithe.

So they gave 23 and a third percent of their income, not 10%. They give 10% every year, they give 10% every year,

and then every third year they would give an additional 10%, which means each year they were actually giving 23 and a third percent.

That's how the math works out. Now I read one person, a theologian, who believes that that's not how it actually worked.

They gave 10% every year, they gave an additional 10% every year, and on the third year the second 10% was accordingly given to the widows and so on instead of the priest.

So they only actually gave 20%, but either way they gave 20 or 23 and a third percent was their tithe.

Either way, 20% or 23 and a third percent. So if you're croning against 10%, you might have realized that the standard was once considerably more.

But a tithe is kind of the minimum, and here it is that you have not taken your part in the land, you have not taken the place that God has given in you until you have done that.

And it says here that they would then have compassion on and take care of the widows, the alien, the orphan, and so on in their land by an additional tithe.

14. They would then say of the tithe, they're now speaking about the tithe, let's go to 13,

and you shall say before the Lord your God, I have removed the sacred portion from my house.

So in other words, I have taken out the part that I was supposed to.

And I also have given it to the Levite and to the alien, so I gave that portion too, and the orphan and the widow, that portion too, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me.

I've done everything you told me to do. That's what they're supposed to be able to say to God.

In regards to this, I've done everything that I was supposed to do, but listen to this. He says, I have not transgressed or forgotten any of thy commandments.

So in other words, as he's bringing his tithe, he's saying, I'm following all the commands that you've given me.

Everything about this has been done the way you said. He said, I have not eaten of it while mourning, no matter how hard it got, right?

When I was down and out, lost loved ones sick, job loss, crops failed, whatever, all the bad of life, I have not taken from the tithe.

Nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean. In other words, while I sinned against you and was not useful to your service,

even though there were times where I did bad things, I didn't do what was quite right in other areas of my life, whatever,

I did not, during those times, short the tithe. Nor offered any of it to the dead.

Now this one's a little peculiar actually, isn't it? That's a little weird, that they'd be following God and doing everything that God wanted them to do,

and then take some of the tithe and offer it to the dead. But there was a custom, not a Jewish custom in per se,

but a custom in the land to take some of your wealth or riches or if this could be food or treasure of any kind,

and offer that to the dead to try to maintain a connection with those who've died and gone on before you.

It was a way to, hear me now, because this is really important later, it was a way to handle mourning.

It was a way to handle regret. Oh, I didn't spend enough time with my parents while they're alive,

so I'm going to dedicate some of my income, some of my wealth, whatever.

Oh, I didn't treat my kid right and my kid went off and did this and now my kid's dead before I am.

I feel terrible about that. So they would give to try to make a connection with that dead person

that they didn't make while they were alive and for other reasons as well.

But the bottom line is that they were saying they were not supposed to offer any of that tithe,

that thing they were supposed to offer to God in the way that the world would offer it,

in a way that people didn't know God would offer it to the dead. They didn't do that.

They didn't use it for those worldly purposes. And then he says,

I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.

Almost done with the text.

15. Look down from thy holy habitation from heaven and bless thy people Israel and the ground which thou hast given us,

a land flowing with milk and honey, as thou didst swear to our fathers. And we'll stop there.

In treating God to blessing. Let's back up a moment and let's look at the history.

Is there anyone in the room who would not immediately agree that life has its ups and downs?

Some days it's harder than others. Tragedy strikes.

The prophet says that there is sorrow and sighing on the highway of holiness.

So even as you are living for the Lord, sometimes things go not the way we would like them to go.

Maybe you're in a place in your life right now where you feel like a wandering nothing.

You don't know exactly what it is. You haven't figured out exactly what it is that God would have you to do right now.

You don't know what church you belong in. You don't know what gifts in the kingdom you have.

What your calling is. Maybe you feel like a wandering nothing. You lost someone very dear to you.

Some days you think you'd rather be wherever they are than wherever you are.

Maybe you feel like a wandering nothing. Maybe you look at your house and you're not really satisfied.

You look at your job and you go, not really satisfied.

You look at your relationships and you say, not really satisfied.

Maybe you feel like a wandering nothing. I'd like to tell you that there is an action plan.

That there are steps that you can take to discover what it is that God wants to do with your life.

That there are steps that you can take to discover what the next thing you're supposed to be doing is.

Someone will say to you, you need to read your Bible to figure it out.

Someone else will say to you, you need to pray to figure it out.

Someone will say to you, you need to be found faithful in doing the things that God has told you to do, whatever they are, to figure it out.

I wish it was that easy. You hear me? That doesn't sound easy, does it?

Pray enough to know what God wants. Read the Bible enough to know. Serve and give enough to know.

That actually doesn't sound like a very easy action plan.

Compared to the action plan that God actually gives, it's tremendously more easy.

Because you just can't do it.

The bottom line is, you cannot move yourself from the place of being a wandering nothing,

to being a child of God, serving the Lord and having knowledge of the place where He has put you and what you're supposed to do.

You cannot do that for yourself.

This Abraham understood. Jacob understood. Isaac understood.

They knew that they were not going to...they had animals multiplying by the thousands, the tens of thousands.

In some cases they became so big that they had to split up.

And you go over there and we'll go over here because if we all stay together there will be any grass left. Not at all.

Because God has so blessed us.

Yet in truth, in the midst of all that blessings, they were still wandering nothings.

Because they didn't have land. They didn't have anything to leave to those who came after them.

Their legacy, they knew, was in God.

Their teaching, their history, was in the Lord.

You can leave your house to your kids. You can leave your house to your kids with the command that they leave it to their kids when they die.

And they leave it to their kids when they die.

And guess what happens to houses eventually?

They decay and fall apart. That's right.

You'll leave it to them and they'll leave it to them and they'll leave it to them.

And guess what your great, great, great, great grandkids are going to get from you?

DNA. That's it.

And not even yours. It'll be their parents' DNA. Thus modified by their spouse and modified by their next person's spouse and so on.

It won't even be purely your DNA. You can't even give back to them.

But the Gospel changes everything.

The truth of God changes everything.

The God of the heavens, while they were wandering nothings and going through the hardships of this life,

led them to Egypt and continued to prosper them while they were in Egypt.

They suffered. Kings came and stole lot and all of his stuff.

All of his animals and stuff.

And Abram had to go get him back.

Take them out of his household and get them back.

Thank you. This is Deuteronomy.

Alright. The point is, they learned that it was about God doing what needed to be done.

When they were wandering nothing, God had to do it.

By what logic or what reason were they good enough?

What did it say in the text we just read was the thing that caused God, if there was a thing,

what did it say that there was a thing that caused God to reach with his mighty hand and his outstretched arm to bring them out of Egypt into the land?

If there was something, what was it?

I heard it. Did you hear it?

What did they do in Egypt that caused God to bring them out to the promised land?

They were suffering, it's true, but that wasn't it.

They suffered for 400 years. God kept them there because the sins of the people in Palestine had not yet reached full measure.

What was it?

They cried out to God.

They recognized that they could not bring themselves out.

See, Pharaoh was afraid that the Israelites would become so numerous that eventually they would side with an enemy in the land or become an enemy in the land and take over Egypt.

But they knew that was never going to happen.

That was not God's plan.

And so they cried out to God in the midst of suffering and God, through grace, chose them again as his people.

It says they remembered the promises made to their fathers and brought them out of Egypt into the promised land by his mighty hand and his outstretched arm.

God did it. It's called grace.

There is nothing you can do to get called, you're already called.

There is nothing you can do to get loved, you're already loved.

There is nothing you can do to make yourself a child of God.

If there was an action plan, it would be this.

Call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved.

Wandering nothing?

Maybe you're in a place in your life where you go, I'm not a wandering nothing.

I know I'm called by God.

But sometimes I feel like I'm captive.

Know what I mean, Jace?

You know what I mean?

Maybe sometimes I feel like I'm captive.

Like I've got to do something?

Compelled, required, or compelled or required not to do something?

I'm stuck?

I got a great book on my bookshelf, it's called Stuck!

It's a Christian counseling book, I use it to do during Christian counseling.

Sometimes people begin to feel, were the people, God's people, the Israelites in Egypt God's people?

Were they there by the grace of God?

They were! They were God's people called by God.

They were called the Israelites because Jacob was renamed Israel.

They were descendants of Jacob and God said, this will be my people!

Called by my name!

And then they went into suffering.

They were captive.

So you've got the forefathers who were wandering nothings even though God was prospering them and they were wandering nothingness.

I get that, but listen, you've got all the sheep in the world that ain't going to fulfill.

And then here are the Israelites as captives in Egypt.

And maybe sometimes you feel like a captive.

As a called child of God, you feel like a captive.

I wish I could give you an action plan by which you could go, I'll no longer be captive.

I'll read my Bible more, I'll pray more, etc.

But I think we've covered this.

There is only one way!

And that is if the Lord God by His mighty hand and His outstretched arms removed you from captivity and puts you in a place of freedom.

Puts you in a place where you belong.

And they cried out to God and He heard and He did.

God multiplied them during their captivity.

You know some people, I'll just be honest and frank with you for a minute if I may.

Some people are pretty content with being multiplied.

You know what I'm saying?

As long as I'm getting me some more money.

As long as I can dream about a bigger house, a better car, a better promotion, whatever.

As long as I'm being multiplied, I'm doing pretty good.

In fact, if they're captive, they'll start crying at the point at which they think they're ceasing to be multiplied.

But as long as they're being multiplied, they're okay with being captive.

That is not the vision that God has for your life.

Which is why when the young rich man come up to Jesus and he said, what must I do?

And Jesus said, do these things.

And he gave them the commands and he said back to Jesus, I've done all those things since I was a kid.

And Jesus said, then here's one more thing you've got to do.

Go give all your wealth and come follow me.

And he went away sad.

The reason he went away sad was he was content to be captive while he was being multiplied.

How about you?

Did when I said, maybe you feel captive, did you go, oh no, that's not me.

I'm doing all right.

Are you preaching and teaching and serving and giving and loving others the way the word calls you to?

Something holding you back, something taking up your time, something consuming your effort?

Then you ought to be feeling captive because you are.

The great trick of the enemy is to make you think that you're doing okay.

Now, a lot of folks say the enemy will prosper you, the world will prosper you,

and you will do well in order to not get you to call out to God.

Right?

I submit to you, that's not a tactic that will actually work.

If you love God, then as soon as you begin to get prospered, you need to realize you need to call out to God.

Because there is a captivity that is available by being prospered, that is in money, that is in finances,

that is in wealth, that is in savings, that is in need of various material objects.

There is a captivity that is located there that is a much more dire captivity than there is in poverty.

A poor man is concerned about where his next meal is going to come from,

and he's going to go find that because he needs that.

A rich man won't even think about that.

He'll think about how does he get a $25 stake, or how does he get a better car than he already has.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, it warns, money will never satisfy.

You'll always be pursuing more, always be...

So if you're getting it, watch out because it has that trait.

Back on task for a moment, God multiplied them in captivity.

I even say to you that as they were wandering in the wilderness desert after having come out of that captivity,

that's why they even said, oh, we should have just gone back to Egypt.

Because at least there, we were prospering in captivity.

Out here, we're in the captivity of the desert, limited to what we can do.

They thought they were in the captivity of the desert, when in reality, they were in the freedom of the Lord.

It's very easy to get confused with prosperity, making you... if you start feeling poor, you'll start thinking I'm not free.

But freedom is found in the Lord, just the same as salvation is found in the Lord.

God then called them out of Egypt to be apart.

I submit to you, there was an event, there was an activity, there was a thing that happened.

It could be happening to you right now.

God could be calling you out to be something different from the world, from the darkness, from the comfort that you have known.

God could be calling you out, asking you to loosen your grip on the things that He has given you.

Asking you to loosen your grip on the people that He has put in your life.

He could be calling you out to the freedom that He intends.

They were called out.

And then, intersected by God's almighty hand and His outstretched arm, they were taken to a place of milk and honey.

And it would be nice if the story just ended there.

But there is something after the before.

Everything that I have just described to you is the before.

And now there is something after it.

And the something that comes after the before is this set of commands.

You see, they have come into the promised land.

God called them out of Egypt.

They screwed all that up and it took an extra 40 plus years.

And then they finally come into the promised land.

Now, finally, this guy, let's call him John Doe.

He has this land and he goes there and he has crops that he didn't plant in a house that he didn't build.

And he goes and he takes up residence.

And those of you who were captained and have now been set free know exactly the emotions he was having.

Those of you who were wandering nothing and have now been stabilized know exactly the emotions he was having.

And God said, when you get to that moment, which will be after this moment, after all that I have done and all the history leading up to it,

it will be after that when you get to this moment, here is a command for you.

Take up the first fruit and go and set it in front of the priest.

We take up the first fruit and go and set it in front of the priest and say, likewise, now I have taken up residence.

And you ever notice how young Christians as a pastor, I've had the blessing far too few times of leading somebody to the Lord.

And after leading somebody to the Lord, if I have done so in any kind of modest way, for example,

if you say to somebody just to accept the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ,

if you just believe and receive that Jesus Christ is Savior, died on the cross for your sins, then you can be saved.

And that's what I want. I want that. I realize I'm not saved. I want that. And you pray with them and they're saved.

Sometime after that point, you or some other believer is going to have to teach them about tithing.

And if what you said was all you got to do is believe and receive that Jesus is Savior, that He died on the cross for you, just believe and you'll be saved,

I submit to you that if you're the one who did that, when you go to teach them about tithing, you're going to go, oh boy.

Now, how am I going to say to them after I said all they have to do is receive this free gift, that they have to give the first 10 percent?

How am I going to do that? The problem is what I said and everybody was going, yeah, yeah, that's how you do it.

That's a flawed gospel because you don't just recognize Jesus as your Savior. You also take Him as your Lord.

So after the before, after living in sin, after living in darkness, after hurting people, being hurt by people,

after devouring your family members physically, psychologically, and emotionally, somebody said physically I ate my family members.

Listen, you're tearing up their stress levels high. You're tearing up their heart. You're messing with their head.

You're blowing their health with your stuff. And that's probably true even after you get saved because humans still got stuff even after we're saved.

So we're devouring our family members emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually after all of that.

After being called out of all of that to be saved by the grace of God which we could not do ourselves.

If you've got a problem giving the first fruits to God, it's probably because you have not taken up residence in the kingdom of God which the Lord made available to you.

Which may well be because someone described to you a flawed gospel.

They forgot to teach you that it also includes Lordship.

This is how people wind up wandering nothing and stick there for life.

This is how people wind up a captive though they profess the name of Jesus Christ and they wind up stuck there for life.

You see? Because the flawed gospel led them to that place.

And the truth is you don't need much to get saved. You just call upon the name of the Lord, believe that God sent him.

Believe that he died on the cross for sins and he now is Lord. Call on him.

Say, Jesus, save me. Jesus, save me. Foxhole conversions.

I had a man that I ministered to for many years who was in Vietnam in a foxhole and gave his life to the Lord.

He promised God he would live for him forever. So I'll live for you. If you let me survive this, I will live for you forever.

Whatever you want from me. But he got out of the foxhole. He survived the foxhole.

And then he took that foxhole conversion and he put it away.

However, the Lord didn't let him off so easily because while he was over there, the Lord saved his wife.

And he got back home and then a great old matriarch of the church came to him and she said to him, you don't believe in God, huh?

And he said, yeah, I do actually.

And she said, then why am I picking your wife up for church every week? You do it. You bring her.

And so he started bringing his wife to church and then pretty soon he started staying and pretty soon he was preaching and teaching the Word of God.

It only takes a foxhole conversion. Just cry out to God and he is ready.

But realize that he's ready for people to follow him, to reside with him, to take up residence.

And there's got to be a moment in time at which you say, here I place my anchor.

Here I stand firm. Here is my God. Here is my kingdom of God.

This is where I live and I will take stewardship of whatever God sends my way and dedicate it back into his service.

Any other gospel can leave you trapped or wandering.

So in the moment that is after before and before after is this command.

And so in this text we learn what to do when you are becoming aware of a command of God.

The first and foremost thing is to remember. You must remember what went before.

Listen, when I got saved, before I actually came forward in the church, I looked Sherri in the eyes.

We were driving down to Bowling Green and I said, I'm driving down the roads. I only looked at her for a second and I spoke a little longer than that.

I was at the first bend on the road that runs along the Portage River and I said, I think I want to give my life to the Lord.

And she said to me, well, what does that even mean? We weren't saved. We believed in God. But we weren't saved and we knew it.

And she said, what does that even mean? And I said, well, I don't know, but I know it's going to change everything. Just like that.

You need to remember what went before. You were a lion thief or you hurt people.

You couldn't control your anger or your passions or you consume substances that you shouldn't have or too much of substances that anybody can.

But they're bad for you if you take too much of them. You lack discipline.

You were wandering and in captivity and a mighty God with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm lifted you up out of the cesspool that is lost humanity and place you into the kingdom of light and glory.

How dare we forget what God has done. He did nothing less than resurrect us.

And when we discover a command of God, we ought to respond to that command of God first and foremost with remembering that there is a before.

And then, of course, we become a people who will remember the command.

This is the problem. Sometimes we get a command from God. Yeah, I'm going to do that. Yeah, that's the right thing to do. I'm going to do that.

But a few weeks later, a few months later, a few years later, it becomes a vague memory and the command itself is forgotten.

But also, and maybe most importantly, and herein lies the greatest ability for us to continue in the command that God has given us outside that miraculous intervention of the Lord is to say,

couched in this command, implied by the fact that God would tell you to do something. You following me?

Jason, when your dad tells you to clean your room, once you understand that it's not about him saying clean your room, what he's saying is, son, I love you.

Son, I want you to be healthy. Son, you have a future. In that future, I foresee for you a healthy, strong, clean existence.

And when God says to us, do X, whatever that command you have most recently discovered of the Lord, what he is saying is, I have a plan for you.

The command includes the plan. This is a mistake that everybody's making and this is going to get deep here for a second. Keep your thinking caps on. Don't get tired on me. Stay strong.

Here we go. I am not saying to you that the command includes the promise. You understand that Jesus said, honor and obey your parents.

It's one of the first commandments with a promise. Some commands have a promise, but every command is about and based in and based on and testifies to the plan.

God would not tell you to give the first 10% as a tithe unless, wait for it, he was going to give you something to give. Don't you get it?

He wouldn't tell you to steward and manage all the cattle, all the things that you're given, whatever it is, in a godly way.

He wouldn't tell you to love your neighbor as yourself unless, wait for it, he was going to give you a neighbor.

You see, in the commands are the plan. This is the beauty of it. If you can get all the commands right, and you cannot.

But if you can get all the commands right, you could paint a picture, a perfect, unflogged picture of the plan that God has for you in the future.

The command is the plan. And the problem is, we see the command as the plan for what has already happened.

You see? Oh, but I've got this much money and I've got to give 10% of it and we know what the 10% amount is.

The best thing you could ever do would be to set up a given plan for yourself where you have no idea what percent of money you're given, but you know it's way more than 10%.

It's the best thing you could ever do. Don't let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. That's another scripture that talks about the same thing.

It talks about Psalms primarily given to the poor, but it covers the same topic. That's the best thing you could ever do.

Because if you know how much has to be taken out of your finances, then you know how much you're paying to be obedient.

Except that's all wrong. That's all wrong. Because you ain't paying nothing. You're getting paid. You're getting paid.

Every time you give a penny, you're getting paid. Every time you give a dollar, you're getting paid.

Get off the topic of money. Every time you go out of your way to serve somebody, bend over backwards, break a limb, sweat, blood, tears, doesn't matter.

You're not getting hurt for the cost of helping somebody else. You're getting paid.

You're like, but I don't want to suffer. I don't want to suffer. I really don't want to suffer.

I'm thinking of the prayer in Gethsemane. Jesus praying that there is another way.

And yet not my will, but your will be done. Every time you suffer for doing what is right, fear not, Paul says.

The Lord God in heaven will reward you for your suffering.

We must remember what went before. The great and powerful act of the Lord that brought us out of captivity,

brought us out of being a wandering nothing into an existence in the kingdom of God, made us great when we were dead, not even alive.

We must remember the command, the way He spoke it to us, the things we're supposed to do based on the command.

And we must remember after Almighty God weighs in, there is a plan and the command contains the plan.

Secondly, and this is the last point of the sermon. I'm breaking the three point rule today.

And then we have the conclusion.

Secondly, we have to realize that worldly regret or worry are worse than valueless.

How much can a man add to his future by worrying about it? Well, nothing, right?

You really can't do anything by worrying. How much of the past can you change by regret?

Now, wait for it. How much of the present can you ruin by worry and regret?

All of it. Worldly worry and regret are worse than valueless.

And if you look at a command of God and go, OK, well, God wants me to do this and it's going to be hard.

I'm going to pay a high price. You've already ruined the present.

I submit to you that you're well on the road to ruining the future because of how you're responding to the command of God.

Worldly worry and regret are worse than valueless. They will literally destroy your present.

They can trap you. They can turn you back into a wandering nothing.

But godly concern, godly regret for what you've done, can turn you into something valuable for the Lord.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 7.

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

I'm paraphrasing because I'm not going to go there and read it right this second. If you want to look it up, I'll give you the references.

7, 8 to 10. Basically he says, you know, I'm not sorry that I troubled you before because it brought about you in a regret.

It helped you realize how you'd screwed up. And in realizing that, that brought you to godly repentance.

A godly sorrow brought you to godly repentance.

See, you know you lied. I know I lied.

But there's two ways to handle not regretting that now. One is we can forget it, cover it up, maybe sell some more lies about it, let people think it never happened, try to think we never did it.

That's one way to handle it.

And the other way is to deal with it in a godly way. To say, yep, that was me. I did that. But that was the old me.

I'm new now. And I'm not going to do that anymore. And if I do do it, then I'm not going to do that anymore.

And each time I stumble or make a bad decision based on whatever temptation, I will recommit myself.

First John 1, 9 says, I will confess to him and he will be faithful and just to forgive me and he will cleanse me of all unrighteousness.

Worldly regret and worry are worse than valueless. But why do we do it then?

Why do we regret what went before in a worldly way?

It's because God gave us the ability to know the past, the history.

You can blank it out if you want. If you do, you're doomed to repeat it.

You can blank out the future, stop planning, dreaming, hoping, searching. You can do that if you want.

But if you do that, you're not going to reach and achieve the plan that God wants for you because the plan is in the command.

You follow? We are created to dream. We are created to hope.

We are created to be a people that exist past, present, and future.

We are eternal beings. When you die physically on this life, you go to be with God or not for eternity.

We weren't made to exist only in this moment. And so if you forget what went before,

forget that God has an almighty plan for your future,

if you spend time in worldly regret of what went before or worry about where things are going to go,

then you're missing the point of what God is doing right now.

God is giving you the land you're standing on. He's giving you the chair you're sitting in.

He's giving you the air that you're breathing. He's giving you the resources that you have right now.

And He's commanding you to do what it is that He would have you to do with those resources.

So remember, remember before. Remember the command.

Remember the almighty plan that God has for your future.

Let go of your worldly regrets. Don't beat yourself up over the things you did in the past,

but rather regret them in a godly way. Turn from them, to repent, to turn from them, to turn to God.

To have a change of mind. Don't worry about the future.

Certainly not in a worldly way. You want to be concerned about the future, put it in God's hands,

because there it's safe. I know in whom I have trusted and that He is able to keep unto that day

that which I have entrusted to Him.

And that brings us to our conclusion. We're going to have just a quick object lesson.

Can I get one volunteer to come up here and do a little object lesson with me?

Going once. I'll pick somebody. Going twice. All right, come on.

It's interesting that considering your passion for language, that you volunteered and were chosen.

So I have these two items here. I have a bottle of water and I have a cup of pen.

I'm going to put them down here on this counter.

And from this side, I would like you to put them in chronological order from this side, going that way.

Put them in chronological order.

Do you know what chronological means, right? In order of time or events or occurrences.

Okay, pause for a moment.

Okay, so now tell us what is going through your mind.

Stop trying to put them in order. Just tell me what's in your head.

I'm trying to find a logical connection between the two items in reference to time.

Okay, so you said he's trying to find a logical connection between the two items in reference to time.

And that's what it would take to put them in chronological order, right?

Okay, got one? Okay, anybody got one? Tommy, want to give a shot?

It's got to be some very creative way because I can't think of one.

Let's see what he's got. Sure.

Okay, now tell us why.

Okay, all right, have a seat, if you would.

I'm not saying that's the answer, I'm going to talk about it. Thank you.

Very good answer.

All right, so he said, he interpreted it, right?

He said he put this one first before this one because this one was probably made before this one.

So he put them in chronological order.

But what was necessary in order for them to be put in chronological order?

What had to happen?

Say it again?

Now you had to move, that's true.

What did he need? What did he need that Arden didn't come up with?

A connection, logic, right?

Listen to me, the command that you encounter, that is the connection.

You follow?

So in other words, if I come up here and I say, put these in order of which one was created first,

we can debate it a little bit, but probably this is the right order, right?

I didn't say put them in order of what was created first.

I said put them in order chronologically.

And he said, well, he means what was created first.

You see, in the attempt to follow the command of God, in the effort that you will put in, something will happen.

Your before has already happened.

Your after is known by God.

You don't know it, but God knows it.

But as the command happens, a filter is created, a connection between the before and the after.

So this is as simple as this.

If I say to you, God says, praise him, and you don't, then what you've done is you've ruled out the connection

between what God already did in you and what God is going to do in the future.

The only exception to that would be if you just don't believe God said it.

So somebody come to you and said, God said drive naked.

And you're like, no, he didn't. I'm not going to do that.

That's just ridiculous, right?

Then that's fine.

What you actually did there was you qualified, you decided for sure, can it possibly be from the Lord?

It is not.

But if God said to you, praise him, and you're able to sit quietly during praise and not praise him,

and your heart is not leaping out your chest wanting to praise him in some way,

then you've created a disconnect between the before and the after.

After before and before after comes the command.

After before, they were in Egypt, they were called out, they were brought in,

they take over the land, they begin to live for the Lord, this is where we are,

this is what we've got all given to us from God, here's the command.

Now after the command comes after the command.

Right?

He doesn't forget where he came from.

He knows where he came from.

I've had people tell me, I don't tell people about Jesus because that's just not who God made me.

Hold on now.

That's a lot of crap.

Because Jesus said, go ye therefore.

Jesus said, my power will come upon you, you shall be my witnesses.

Jesus said, tell people about him.

Now I understand you may tell people about him in a different way than somebody else might

because God also allows for personhood, for you to be who he has made you.

Your particular before, what's going on right now as you get these commands,

your particular before is different than anybody else's before.

Right?

So yes, what comes after your before is going to be different.

Even in the preaching, I'm preaching the word, you're getting something completely different

other than the person sitting next to you even if they're your blood.

Right?

Because your before, this is after your before is different.

And it's also before your after.

You've got to walk out of this room when we're done.

You've got to go live for Jesus when we're done.

What do you do when you're sitting at home tomorrow night and you read your Bible

and you find something in there that you're not currently doing and it's a command from God.

You go, oh, what do I do about that?

Well, number one, I don't forget.

I remember what God has already done.

I remember the command and I'll always remember.

If you've got to write it down, write it a thousand times like the little boy said,

I will not throw the eraser at the teacher.

Write it a thousand times.

Don't forget the command that God gave you because God took the,

God the universe put you on his schedule to give you a command.

Don't forget the command.

And then don't forget that the almighty plans that God has for you,

which will come after this particular before, are tied up in the command.

Now, am I saying that your faithfulness and your obedience is exactly required or for God to bless you?

No, you can go be captive if you choose to and God will prosper you.

You'll do great.

And if you truly are saved, you will arrive someday in heaven.

However, I submit to you that if you truly are saved,

then you will recognize the character of God and the plan of God displayed in the command

that he has given you and you will begin to do what it is he's called you to.

Somebody is thinking about lost people right now and how this is really unfair to them

because they can't get the benefit of God's plan.

They got to start with Jesus' Lord and they haven't even gotten there yet.

And they're trapped like you're a dispensationalist or something.

And you think, well, they can only be saved if God calls them

because the word says they must be called in order to come to the Lord.

Well, it does say that.

Paul writes in Romans chapter 2, when the Gentiles sinning against the law

Romans 2 · chapter mention

and are convicted in their own hearts.

I will read this one because the wording is that important.

There's a key phrase in here.

So if you're following along in your Bible, go to Romans 2.

We're almost through Romans chapter 2, right after the book of Acts,

Romans 2 · chapter mention

right after the Bibles and the New Testament, Romans 2.

Now I'll begin reading in verse 2, verse 14.

For when Gentiles, those are non-Jews, right, who didn't know the Lord,

weren't close to the Lord already through their calling, etc.

For when Gentiles do not have the law, do instinctively the things of the law,

these not having the law are a law to themselves, listen now,

in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts.

Their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing

or else defending them on the day when, according to my Gospel,

God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

If you are breathing, check, everyone breathing?

You breathing, Jace?

If you are breathing God's law, God's rules, God's commands,

which you will later discover for you that you don't even know right now,

or later he'll convict you through,

that you'll realize I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing,

if you are breathing, God's law is written on your heart.

And so, when his command comes, we must remember the before,

remember the command, always remember the Almighty plans

that God has for our future, and that willfully regret and worry

are worse than valueless.

And I'll sum it up for you this way.

Instead of thinking I learned something new today,

that I need to learn from God, or instead of thinking,

oh no, now I have to do that too, or instead of thinking,

okay, I've got to make some plans and be diligent,

how can I make sure this happens in my life?

Not that making plans is a bad thing, but saying, oh no,

now I've got to make plans would be the problem.

Regretting or worrying, instead of any of that,

welcome these commands like an old friend.

I'll close with this illustration.

Anybody remember pictures?

I don't mean like reels or Facebook memes, I mean pictures.

Do you take pictures?

Anybody got a bunch of pictures on their phone?

Some do, some don't.

Anybody got paper pictures at home in their closet?

I want you to think for a moment.

Think about the pictures that are on your phone.

Could you, for those of you who do have a bunch of pictures on your phone,

could you right now look through the pictures on your phone

and go, oh yeah, I remember that,

because you don't right now remember it.

But when you see that picture, you'd go, I remember when we went there,

I remember when that happened, I remember how fun that day was.

They call it kind of reminiscing.

Can you remember something new and different

because a picture is given to you on your phone?

Or, I don't know, we could do this all day, right?

We love to do this, we don't do it often enough.

Go get our backs of pictures out of the closet and go through

when the kids were young, when the grandkids were born,

and your mind hearkens back to that moment in time

at which you go, oh yeah, I remember that, I'd almost forgotten.

Well, isn't that why we take a picture?

I mean, you don't take a picture to post on Facebook to get likes.

I know it's a rude surprise to everybody, right?

But that's not why we take a picture, to remember.

Because that's cool, to see, to see what's there because it's beautiful.

The new commands of God that you're going to get,

I want you to receive them as if you were reminiscing.

I want you to receive them and go, oh wow,

I didn't know I was supposed to do that.

And now I see I screwed up.

I mean, I guess I did know, but it wasn't in my mind,

it wasn't in my heart, I wasn't doing the right thing.

Now I know, whew, I feel good.

I'm so glad to know now what was written on my heart.

Wouldn't you like to know your own heart?

And every command that comes lets you know your own heart a little better.

It should be like receiving an old friend, like reminiscing and thankful,

because it came before.

Do you know when?

At birth, when you were born.

That's why Psalm 8 says,

well our people were given the ability to make the destroyer cease.

Look it up.

Because God's commands are already written on your heart.

You ever get a command from God?

This is a proof by the way,

ever get a command from God and intentionally go, I'm not going to do that?

I have.

So maybe I'm the only one in the room.

And so I can testify to what it feels like.

Bad.

Bad.

It goes wrong.

It feels bad.

And a year down the road, months, years down the road,

you'll go, yeah, I remember.

I remember when I got that.

And I didn't remember.

I forgot about God's almighty hand.

And I didn't keep the command.

Keeping includes remembering.

And now I see that I wasted a year, I wasted three,

because God told me what to do.

And he revealed some part of his great plan for me, and I didn't do it.

So what is this sermon about?

It's about what you do the next time.

And it could have been today maybe, even while we're here.

God reveals one of his commands to you.

You welcome that command as an old friend.

Cherish that command as an exposed part of your own heart,

knowing what you're supposed to do,

knowing what was written there before you were born.

Remember what God has done.

Remember that God has an all-powerful, all-mighty, awesome future for you,

in which you stand free, not captive, not wandering in a wasteland, but free.

And that is something you can give indirectly to your great-great-grandchild.

You can't own it, but you can give it.