17 ”Regular Reminders for Straying Sinners” Numbers 15:1-41 | Thursday, January 8, 2025

Numbers 15 and we'll um cover the entire

chapter tonight. You can stand as we

read God's word together. We'll not read

the entire 41 verses right now. Uh but

just want to make a few comments and

then we'll um read primarily the final

section of this chapter. Um, we're going

to notice this in the flow of numbers

that there's instruction, there's

journey, there's failure, there's

instruction, there's journey, there's

failure, there's instruction. And that's

how it goes. And so, we're in one of

those instruction chapters here. And the

way that it ties in is because Israel

has failed.

They God has told them to go spy out the

land and to go take the promised land.

and they come back saying, "We can't do

it. We can't do it. The walls are too

big. The giants are too tall. The armies

are too fierce. We're not able. Let's

make a captain and go back to Egypt."

And so, they've rebelled against God.

God has told them that that entire

generation 20 years old and upward will

uh die in the wilderness. And their

children that they said would be a prey

for their enemies are the ones that God

is going to bring in. And the first

thing that we'll notice in in this

instruction is that God is giving them

assurance that they are going to go into

the land. If you look at verse one, it

says, "And the Lord spake unto Moses,

saying, speak unto the children of

Israel and say unto them, when ye be

come into the land of your habitations,

which I give unto you." Habitations

there means dwelling places, permanent

dwelling places. You're not going to

live out in the wilderness in tents

forever. you're going to get to the

promised land and when you do, you're

going to offer offerings to me still.

And what he does here in this chapter is

he expands a little bit on some of the

sacrifices that we already covered in

Leviticus. And so we're not going to

take a lot of detail uh time for detail

in the sacrifices only to say that what

he's adding here is a meat offering or

grain offering and a drink offering to

every sacrifice they offer. That's

what's new. And it's because they're

going to be living off the produce of

the land. And so that's what his

instruction is uh going through verse

number 16. And then in verse 17,

he tells them that they're to give the

first of their dough. The first cake

that they make of the wheat and the

dough of the land is to be offered as a

heave offering to the Lord. So you have

this grain offering, drink offering, and

heave offering that God is unfolding and

expanding on in this chapter. And then

you'll notice in verse 22, if you have

ered and not observed all these

commandments which the Lord hath spoken

unto Moses, even all that the Lord hath

commanded you by the hand of Moses from

the day the Lord commanded Moses and

henceforth among your generations, then

it shall be if ought be committed by

ignorance without the knowledge of the

congregation. It tells them to offer a

particular offering with the meat

offering and the drink offering. And so

it talks about the sins of ignorance

again. And then in verse 30, it

introduces something new, and that is

what's called presumptuous sins. The

original translation, you might even see

this in your margin. It says the Hebrew

means with a high hand. The high hand,

that's a high-handed sin almost as if

you're shaking your fist at God. And so,

he gives instruction here that that soul

is to be cut off. In verse 32, uh he

gives an example of what that looks like

in a Sabbath breaker. and that man is

stoned to death. And so you can see what

God's doing. He's giving them further

instructions for how they are to live in

obedience to him in the land. Now, in

the last several verses here, beginning

in verse 37, God also gives Israel a new

tradition that is going to be a part of

their people throughout their

generations. And so, let's read about

that. I think this really gets to the

heartbeat of this chapter. Verse 37. And

the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

"Speak unto the children of Israel, and

bid them that they make them fringes, or

tassels in the borders of their garments

throughout their generations, and that

they put upon the fringe of the borders

a ribbon of blue. And it shall be unto

you for a fringe, that you may look upon

it, and remember all the commandments of

the Lord, and do them, and that you seek

not after your own heart and your own

eyes, after which ye use to go a

whoring, that you may remember and do

all my commandments, and be holy unto

your God. I am the Lord your God which

brought you out of the land of Egypt to

be your God. I am the Lord your God. So

what you can see here is God recognizes

the fallen nature of man that their

tendency is going to be to sin and to

break his commandments. And God gives

them this ordinance of ribbons on the

end of their garments to remind them to

obey God. After Israel's failure, God in

grace is once again doing everything he

can to get them back on track. And so,

the title of our message tonight is

regular reminders for straying sinners.

You can be seated. We'll get into God's

word.

I want you to think for a moment.

What is the most important thing you

ever forgot?

The most important thing you ever

forgot. You might say, "I have forgotten

the question already." Or, "I've

forgotten a lot of things in my life."

Well, maybe some of these will bring it

to mind. It may be a big interview or a

meeting with your boss that you forgot

about. Maybe it was your anniversary.

That's a no no. Or maybe it was a

birthday. Or it might be that you forgot

that you were teaching kids class until

Sunday morning. You woke up, you were

about to leave, you saw the bag at your

door and you said, "Oh no, forgot about

it." Uh it could be that you were

scheduled to sing at church at one time

and you forgot until that morning as

well.

Or it might be that before you or that

after you left for a long trip, you

remembered you forgot to shut the garage

door. That's a problem. I could say that

I've probably done one of almost each of

those at one time in my life or another.

And so because we're so prone to forget,

we need reminders. And that's why clever

people invented things like the sticky

note that you plaster across your

monitor at work or at home. or maybe

those carbon copy message pads that

those can be helpful as well. We've got

calendars on our walls, reminders on our

phones. We've even got personal

assistants and Gemini and Siri and Alexa

to help us remember things. It's nice

just be able to tell them, "Remind me to

do this." And that notification comes on

your phone. That's a blessing. See,

we're just so prone to forget. We need

something to remind us less we forget

the most important things. It might seem

odd, but it's even possible for us to

forget about God.

You get so caught up in work or in your

education or in your ministry even that

you can forget about your relationship

with God.

That perhaps God becomes a second

priority.

Church attendance can become less

important. the daily reading of your

Bible or daily time in personal prayer.

We don't always deliberately walk away

from the Lord. In fact, most often it's

a slow drift because we forget those

things which keep us properly oriented

to God.

The world with all its glitz and

glamour, its money, its news and its

politics, its sports, its recreation,

its leisure, they're all constantly

drawing our attention away from our

redeemer. And so, we need to be reminded

who we belong to and what he expects of

us. We need to be reminded to obey God

just like Israel does in Numbers 15.

When God said, "Go take the land,"

Israel rebelled. They wanted to go back

to Egypt. And God told them that their

generation will die in the wilderness

and their children will inherit the

promised land. And to help get Israel

back on track, God's God provides the

assurance that they are going to go into

the land. They are going to offer him uh

offerings. And following some new

instructions here, he gives them that

new tradition to put tassels on the

edges of their garments and on those

tassels to tie a little blue ribbon for

this purpose to remind them of all of

the Lord's commandments and to do them.

The question is why? Why do they need

something to help them remember?

Why do we need reminders?

What we find in this text is that each

section of scripture provides us with a

reason why we need to obey God. Number

one is this. Obedience reorients our

lives to God. Obedience reorients our

lives to God. See, God's instructions

here are designed to keep Israel

properly oriented to him. These are

expansions from the laws of Leviticus

that can't apply in the wilderness, but

will apply in the land of promise. Why?

Because in the wilderness, they're

relying upon the mana that God provides

for them and the water that God provides

for them out of rocks and streams. And

so, it's not a permanent solution for

them. But the day is going to come when

they're going to enter the promised land

and they're going to live off of the

wheat and the oil and the wine of

Canaan.

>> This instruction details what's called

the grain and the drink offering that

they're to offer with each sacrifice.

And so what we find is that they are uh

commanded to offer a portion of flour,

of oil, and then of wine as a drink

offering to the Lord. And if if you to

look if you look at verse four, it says,

"Then shall he that offerth his offering

unto the Lord bring a meat offering of a

tenth deal of flour mingled with the

fourth part of a hinn of oil, and the

fourth part of a hinn of wine for a

drink offering shalt thou prepare with

the burnt offering or sacrifice for one

lamb." And so what it's going to do is

it's going to break this up into the

type of animal that is. So for the lamb,

whether it's a burnt offering or if it's

a sacrifice of whether it's the communal

sacrifices, the peace offerings, or if

it's the sin offerings, whatever it

might be, that they are to uh offer a

tenth of an epha of flour mixed with a

quarter of a hinn of oil. And then they

are to offer this quarter of a hint of

wine and pour it out at the foot of the

altar as what called a drink offering.

And so they're to do this with every

sacrifice, the burnt offering and the

meat offering and the uh the sacrifice

of peace offerings, the sin offerings,

the trespass offerings, the Passover, it

even says at all of their feasts,

they're to do this. And so e every time

they offer a sacrifice, they are now

going to give this extra portion of of

oil and and flour and the extra portion

of wine as well. Now for a ram, it's

going to increase to 2/10 of an epha of

flour with 1/3 of a hint of oil and 1/3

of a hint of wine. And then for a bull,

it increases to 3/10en of an epha, a

half a hint of oil and a half a hint of

wine. And so you see this uh increasing

for the size uh of the animal. These

measurements first of all speak to what

God will provide for them in the land

that they he is going to provide wheat

and oil and grapes in abundance for

Israel to enjoy. That's part of his

blessing and his provision is what God's

going to give them in the land. But al

notice also that the measurements

themselves speak to the abundance of

what God is going to provide. When you

do the modern equivalents of what these

measurements are, with every sacrifice,

they're going to offer between 10 and 30

cups of flour with every sacrifice of

the oil and of the wine. It's going to

be 32 to 64 ounces each. Can you

imagine? You know, go to the the the

Circle K and get a 44 ounce Polar Pop

and fill that completely up with the

grape juice or the wine. And I mean

that's a huge amount that they're going

to offer with every single sacrifice.

They did burnt offerings and they did

peace offerings. I mean probably on a

weekly basis if not even more. Every

time they sinned, every time they were

defiled and unclean, every single time

they bring a sacrifice, they're going to

be giving this flour and this oil and

this wine. And it speaks to the fact

that there's going to be plenty. There's

going to be plenty.

This law he says in verses 13- 16

applies to everyone who lives in the

land. Every single po person who

receives the blessing from God of the

land of Canaan are to give God back a

portion of it. He continues this thought

into verse 17. And it says, "And the

Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak

unto the children of Israel, and say

unto them, when you come into the land,

whether I bring you, then it shall be

when you eat of the bread of the land,

you shall offer up an heave offering

unto the Lord. Ye shall offer up a cake

of the first of your dough for an heave

offering. As you do the heave offering

of the threshing floor, so shall ye

heave it. Of the first of your dough, ye

shall give unto the Lord an heave

offering in your generations." And so

he's he's tying this in to the first

fruits. Remember, at the first of their

wheat harvest, they are to take the

first sheath of wheat and they are to

bring it to the Lord. And it's to be

heaved up before the Lord and waved back

and forth like a wave offering and it's

presented to the Lord and then it's

utilized by the priests probably for the

the uh table of show the showbread

there. And so that's what they are

supposed to do with the the wheat

itself. after they have threshed it,

they bring a portion of it to the Lord.

Now, God is expanding on that. And he's

saying, it's not just at the first

fruits, but every single time you take

that wheat that I've provided you and

you knead it together into cakes and

loaves of bread, that the first loaf

that you make is to go to the Lord. is

to be brought to the priest and then the

priest is going to heave it up before

the Lord at the altar and present it to

God and then the priest and his sons are

going to be able to eat it and

participate in the sacrifice that way.

And so what God is signifying here by

the grain offering and the drink

offering and the heave offering is that

they serve a very particular purpose

that when Israel offers every offers

them every single sacrifice and every

single time they make bread and they

bring it to the tabernacle to the

priest, it's going to remind them every

single time that everything I have in my

hands came from the Lord.

that it belongs to him, that he's given

it to me and therefore I should worship

him and I should serve him with it. And

so what these offerings do is they

reorient their lives to God. It reminds

them that what they have did not come

from their own labor and their own

hands, but is the bestowal of God's

gracious blessing on an undeserving

people. It helps keep them oriented to

God.

That's really what all of God's

commandments do in our lives. They keep

us with him in the proper perspective.

God's commands uh God commands us to

give back to him faithfully and

generously and cheerfully. That's why we

give a tenth of what he gives to us.

That's why we give to missions to fund

his work around the world. It's it's a

form of worship that keeps us properly

oriented to God. It reminds us that

everything that we have has been given

to us by our redeemer. That's why we

give. That's why we read our Bibles.

It's why we memorize scripture. It's why

we encourage you to spend time every

single day in prayer because those are

all commands of scripture that remind us

of who our redeemer is and what he

expects from our lives. You can reorient

to God every single day by simply

reading his word and spending time in

prayer. It's why we have church services

because we come and we read scripture

and we sing songs of praise and we kneel

in worship and we study God's word

together and we have a time of response

at the end where we can seek God's grace

and commit our lives to live out his

word. That's why worship is so

important. That's why it's important to

gather together when the church is

meeting on Sundays and meeting on

Thursdays. It's because that's a time as

you go through the busyiness of your

life and the frustrations of life and

the hardships of life. And as you're out

there working yourself to death, trying

to make as much money you can so you can

buy as much as you can. You come back on

Sunday just to remember, I belong to

God.

He deserves my worship. He deserves my

offering. It helps us reorient our lives

to him. That's why we need to obey. It's

why we need to remember to obey first of

all because every command God gives us

in his word is intended to keep us

properly oriented to him. But in the

next set of instructions,

we find a second reason that we need to

be reminded to obey and that is this.

Disobedience

has a deadly cost. Disobedience has a

deadly cost. What we find in verses 22

through36 is that disobedience

results in death. First of all, ignorant

sins require atoning blood. That an

animal must die for the sins even out of

ignorance of the people. So it says in

verse 22, "And if ye have ered and not

observed all these commandments which

the Lord hath spoken unto Moses," pause

for a second. The word means to swerve.

It means to go aside. It means to wander

astray. And so even if you have strayed

away from God's word and you've not kept

all of the commandments from the time

that he gave them throughout their

generations, it says in verse 24, then

it shall be if ought be committed by

ignorance without the knowledge of the

congregation that all the congregation

shall offer one young bullock for a

burnt offering, for a sweet savor unto

the Lord with his meat offering and his

drink offering according to the manner,

and one kid of the goats for a sin

offering. And so what he's getting at is

this these sins of ignorance which the

idea is unintentional

that they they were not actively seeking

to disobey God. That it might be that

they they mixed uh their offering wrong.

Maybe they did a third of a hint of oil

instead of a quarter of a hint of oil

and they messed up in the offering

itself. Or it might be they accidentally

came in contact with a dead body or an

unclean animal. It wasn't something that

was out of rebellion. It was something

that was an accident. And the whole

congregation realizes that they've got

to bring this burnt offering and they've

got to bring a kid of the goats for a

sin offering along with the drink

offering and the meat offering. And so

what we find here is that the whole

congregation sins even out of ignorance.

It requires the death of a bull and the

death of a kid of the goats.

The same rule applies for an individual

in verse 27.

If any soul sin through ignorance, then

he shall bring a shegoat of the first

year for a sin offering. And here's what

they do with those. The priest shall

make an atonement for the soul that

sinnth ignorantly when he sinnth by

ignorance before the Lord to make an

atonement for him, and it shall be

forgiven him. Thank God for forgiveness.

Thank God that atonement has been made,

and that we can be forgiven of our sins.

But this is what is supposed to show us

that even the sins we do not intend to

commit must be atoned for that God is

that holy that he cannot just overlook

the ignorant sins of men that they must

be judged and they will either be judged

on you or they will be judged on a

substitute and thankfully God provided

them with a substitute.

So ignorant sins require atoning blood.

But then what we find beginning verse 30

is that presumptuous sins require deadly

punishment.

It says in verse 30, but the soul that

doeth ought presumptuously or

highhandedly whether he be born in the

land or a stranger the same reproacheth

the Lord. That by rebelling against God,

that's the idea of the high-handed sin.

is you know full well what God says but

you just don't care. It could be like

worshiping idols. I think that's pretty

clear. You're not supposed to do that.

Or it could be blaspheming God's name.

You're not supposed to do that. Or it

could be breaking the Sabbath, the sign

of the covenant or refusing to

circumcise your child at 8 days old. And

so those are all seals and signs of the

covenant and their relationship with

God. And so if somebody breaks one of

those, that is blatant high-handed

rebellion against God.

It says you reproach the Lord. You

slander his name. You declare that he's

not worthy of your worship. What happens

to him? It says that soul shall be cut

off from among his people. This doesn't

just mean put out of the congregation.

It means that his life is cut off. It

says why? Because verse 31, he hath

despised the word of the Lord and hath

broken his commandment. That soul shall

be utterly cut off. his iniquity shall

be upon him. High-handed sins have a

deadly cost. He gives an example in

verse 32.

And while the children of Israel were in

the wilderness, they found a man that

gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day.

And they that found him gathering the

sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron

unto all the congregation. and they put

him in ward because it was not declared

what should be done to him. What's the

big deal about gathering sticks?

That sounds like one of those

phariseaical laws about the Sabbath day.

There's there's something specific being

communicated here. Back in Exodus 35,

God told them that they are to keep the

Sabbath day and nobody is to do any work

on the Sabbath day. And he says this

specifically, "They shall not kindle a

fire upon the Sabbath day."

Why is this man out gathering sticks

to kindle a fire?

What it shows is this man has left the

camp on the Sabbath day. He has gone out

to gather sticks with full intention to

return and kindle a fire which is direct

disobedience against the Sabbath day.

This is a high-handed sin. The only

problem is it wasn't declared what's

supposed to be done to a man that

kindles a fire on the Sabbath day. Well,

it says in verse number uh 35,

the Lord said unto Moses, "The man shall

be surely put to death. All the

congregation shall stone him with stones

without the camp. And all the

congregation brought him without the

camp and stoned him with stones and he

died as the Lord commanded Moses.

See wi whether you sinned by accident

or with a high hand, it came at a deadly

cost. Either you died like that man did

unrepentant in your sin, your

high-handed sin, or a substitute dies in

your place. And so, we need to remember

to obey God because our disobedience has

a deadly cost.

You see, every violation of God's word,

even out of ignorance, requires

atonement. And Jesus shed his blood on

the cross to atone for your sin. He his

blood must be applied to satisfy God's

holy wrath even against your sins of

ignorance. They must all be atoned for.

God takes sin seriously. And so should

we. It costs the precious blood of his

son.

But what it also tells us is that

high-handed sins have serious

consequences.

When you're caught committing adultery,

it ruins your marriage, destroys your

family, removes your kids respect, who

knows the lingering consequences

that they might have in their lives.

Yet again this week, a a well-renowned

Christian author

was discovered to have been in an 8-year

long affair with a married woman against

his wife of 55 years.

It happens and he resigned from his

ministry and his wife is devastated and

his kids are are hurt by it. It just

leaves a path of ruin. It has it has

terrible and serious consequences. Theft

can cost you your job and land you in

jail. Drunkenness can put you behind the

wheel and end someone's life or perhaps

even yours. It can put you behind bars

for years to come. Anger can lead a man

to be verbally or even physically

abusive of his wife or his kids. And

that can have serious legal

repercussions.

But let me say that even straying from

God's word can lead you to places you

never imagined.

Simple things like not reading your

Bible, not praying, not going to church

can cause your heart to drift away from

God. And it can lead you to sins that

cost Jesus his blood and create fallout

in your life. Sin is a big deal.

We we need to be reminded to obey God so

that it will properly orient our lives

to him because disobedience has a deadly

cost.

But what we find in this final section

is the ultimate reason why we need to

remember to obey God. And that is this.

Obedience

keeps us from going astray.

It keeps us from going astray.

Says in verse 37, "The Lord spake unto

Moses, saying, speak unto the children

of Israel, and bid them that they make

fringes or tassels in the borders of

their garments throughout their

generations, and that they put upon the

fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue.

and it shall be to you for a fringe that

ye may look upon it and remember all the

commandments of the Lord and do them. Do

you get the picture of what God's doing

here?

So that when they wake up in the morning

and they see those blue cords

and they walk around throughout their

day and every time they look down at

their robes, they see those blue cords

and every time they go to bed at night

and they see those blue cords, it

reminds them from sun up to sun down of

who the Lord is and all that he's done

for them and that they need to obey his

laws and his commandments. Well, how

could a little blue cord remind them of

God?

The color blue is woven throughout the

fabric of the tabernacle.

It's on the curtains. It's on the

coverings. It's on the priest's

garments. It holds the priest's plate on

his head. And it's the color of his his

turban. And it's the color that holds

together the breastplate that he wears.

And and it's the the coverings for the

the ark of the covenant as they are

journeying and the table of showbread.

and the candlestick and all the holy

furnishings. The royal color of those

blue ribbons would remind them of their

redeemer, their king, and their lord.

Why does God see it as vitally important

for Israel to obey all his commandments

that he wants to give them this reminder

that they have all day everywhere they

go? Why is that? He says in verse 39,

"And that ye seek not after your own

heart

and your own eyes."

The word seek means to follow after.

See, contrary to this world's opinion,

God says, "Don't follow your heart.

Don't follow your eyes. Don't follow

your natural inclinations.

You need to follow me. You need to obey

my commands and obey my laws. Don't

follow your heart. Don't follow your

eyes. Why? It says at the end of verse

39, after which ye use to go a whoring.

Whoring means to commit adultery.

What it's talking about is their

unfaithfulness to God. that when they

follow their hearts and they follow

their eyes, they follow them right away

from God into idolatry and into

whoredoms and into sin.

What was it that led them to make the

golden calf? It was the fact that their

eyes had not seen Moses in 40 days. It

was the fact that, as Steven says in his

sermon in Acts chapter 7, that in their

Acts 7 · chapter mention

hearts they went back to Egypt. And

that's a theme for this generation.

They're always looking to go back to

Egypt. What was it that led them to this

rebellion in Numbers chapter 14? They

Numbers 14 · chapter mention

saw the giants. They saw the walls. They

saw the armies and they said, "No, it's

just too much." And their hearts still

long to go back to Egypt. Let's make us

a captain and let's go back to Egypt.

God is saying every single time you

follow your heart and every single time

you follow your eyes, it leads you into

faithlessness.

So I want you to have these little blue

cords to follow you everywhere you go.

That all day long you'll remember my

commands and do them. Why? So they can

experience the blessing of their

redeemer.

So they would remember, it says in verse

40, and do all my commandments and be

holy unto your God. I am the Lord your

God which brought you out of the land of

Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your

God. That it's only right that Israel

would be faithful to the one who

redeemed them out of Egypt.

And he says, "Your heart and your eyes

will always lead you away

from me."

And so the truth that we find in this

text is simply this. God gave Israel

reminders to obey because their hearts

were prone to go astray.

And we find in ourselves the same

tendencies that Israel had.

The Bible says the heart is deceitful

above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? God knows the heart.

And God knows your heart will lead you

astray. And God knows your eyes will

lead you to wander away from him. And

God knows that your inclinations will be

to turn away from him. And so God says,

"You need to remember to obey me." I

mean, think about it. We want sin. We

love sin. We crave after sin. And the

world, I it pulls at us with all its

money and its politics and its power.

And it shoves illicit material in front

of you on every social media outlet. It

brings husbands away from their wives

and wives away from their husbands. The

love of money and sports and recreation.

It's constantly pulling you away from

your Bible and away from prayer and away

from church.

As James said, when your lust

that's in your heart

meets the temptation of the world, it

conceives sin.

And sin, when it's finished, brings

forth death.

Obedience reorients

our lives to God. Disobedience comes at

a deadly cost.

We want to go astray.

And so to keep you from going astray,

what you need are reminders to obey.

Reminders to obey. You need something

like those ribbons to remind you all day

long from sun up to sun down that God is

your redeemer, that God is your king,

that he is your Lord, that he's given

you commandments and expects you to

obey. Why? So your heart doesn't lead

you astray. We need something to remind

us that we have been redeemed by his

blood. That Christ is woven into the

fabric of our lives. That you've been

sanctified by his spirit. That that

you've been given these commandments to

obey. And so we need reminders of the

Lord's commandments. We need reminders

to obey him. But what might that look

like? It could come in the form of

memorizing scripture. And maybe God

speaks to you through a verse that you

read or a sermon that you heard uh

preached. And it could be that you write

it down on a 3x5 card and you you you

set it as your the wallpaper on your

phone or the screen saver on your

computer, but something that you're

going to be able to look at frequently

and readily throughout your day to

remind you to memorize that verse so you

can put it into practice in your life so

you can remember to obey God's word. It

could be a verse that you hang up at

your house like the famous one in Joshua

Joshua 24:15

24:15. As for me, in my house, we will

serve the Lord. I'm just going to

declare it right here for everyone in my

home and everyone enters who enters my

home that this family belongs to God. He

alone is who we serve. It may be that

you go down to Hobby Lobby and find some

good reminders to hang on your walls or

to put on your shelves. Uh so that as

you're it could be magnets on the

refrigerator so that you as your family

and you walk around the house, you're

constantly reminded of God's word so

that you can follow it and obey it. It

could be family worship or regular

personal devotions

where you read the Bible, you sing, or

you you spend time in prayer. See, a

consistent devotional life. You know

what that'll do every single day? It'll

give you an opportunity to reorient your

life to God to get things back on the

right track to remind yourself every

day, I belong to God. He is my Lord. I

follow him. I serve him. I obey him. My

boss is not my lord, though he is my

boss. My my school principal is not my

lord, though he is my boss. Sports is

not my God. God is my God, and I'm going

to serve and worship him.

But perhaps the greatest emblem or

reminder to obey is the cross.

It could be a necklace or a cross on

your wall or a bumper sticker on your

car.

The world questions why Christians

celebrate such a cruel instrument of

death.

But what we realize is that the shame

and the torture and the agony that Jesus

experienced on the cross was the

atonement for our sin. The blood he shed

was so we could be forgiven. It was so

that we could have redemption. so we

could have eternal hope. And what took

place on that cross became the most

lifealtering emblem in your life. And

recalling the cross to mind can remind

you that you have been bought with a

price.

Therefore, you should glorify him in

your body and in your spirit. Why? They

are gods. They are gods.

You've been redeemed at an infinite cost

and therefore your life, your family,

and your all should be given in faithful

obedience to him. We need reminders to

obey because our hearts are prone to

stray.

Obedience

will reorient our lives to God.

Disobedience

always comes at a deadly and serious

cost.

But ultimately, obedience can keep us

from going astray. So, let me encourage

you believer, don't go through life

simply following your own heart, your

own eyes, or your own natural

inclinations.

Rather,

you need to give fill your home, fill

your family, and fill your life with

reminders that you belong to your

redeemer. He paid an infinite price to

redeem your life out of sin. So

therefore, commit your life to obeying

him. Our father, we come to you tonight

as our God and our redeemer,

thankful for the truth of your word and

the reminder that it gives us tonight

that there are very practical steps we

can take just as you gave to Israel with

those little blue ribbons.

There are practical steps we can take

to reorient our lives to you

so that we wouldn't disobey

and go astray.

I pray you'd help each of us to just

really ponder tonight

what we can do

to be reminded to follow you.

I pray that you would help us to ground

this truth in the reality that we are

redeemed.

That you brought us out of sin, freed us

from its bondage and gave us an eternal

inheritance with you through the atoning

blood of Jesus.

And for that we should ever be grateful

and commit our lives to remembering and

obeying your word.

I pray in Jesus name.