Leftovers - Family (Deuteronomy 6)

Happy Monday, we're back in. What was that?

I don't know. I'm freaking out already.

I'm. Kind of excited to be here.

Sweet for. No apparent reason, I'm just

really excited about the podcast.

I don't know, man, I'm here. Excited to be a part of it.

I'm here. For it bud, come here.

You're hilarious. I I unintentionally so I

suspect. Pastor Matt here with Pastor

Chris, the ERC Leftovers podcast coming at your ear holes this

Monday, January 12th, 2026, the year of our Lord.

Yeah, Hey, we're we're going, we're talking about the Shema

today, man. We're talking about the old

school law. We're going.

We're going old school, I don't know high church piety a little

bit as we get. We should have worn.

We should have worn robes today. Wow, yeah, I don't even own a

robe. But here's the thing.

Not robes that have anything unnecessary, like fringe for

example. Getting right into You're having

a conversation. The icebreaker, right?

Now I'm just, we're jumping right in because I'm kind of,

maybe that's why I'm all amped up today is because we just got

done talking about something that, you know, just a random

thing that you might despise. Well, the random thing that I

would despise maybe more than any other thing in the entire

fashion history of the world is fringe.

Or you might say tassels or whatever, whatever that looks

like wildly unnecessary on clothing serves no purpose.

And visually for me, it drives me a little insane.

I just, I can't handle it. Do you have anything with

Fringe? No.

Oh good. So that that was my next

question. Who are the do you have people

that you hang out with that wear fringe like, like what's your

fringe exposure right now? Fringe exposure currently is at

a bare minimum as far as I can tell, which is really great.

But I think there's a couple women I know who they may or may

not have like fringe on their purses or their handbags.

And that's something that again, I'm just like, I look at him

like. So I feel like I just don't

encounter enough of it to have a distaste for it.

Like I'm not, I don't, I don't know.

And you, I don't know. Was that more of a you've got 10

years on me, but. Definitely a thing in the 80s.

I mean, big deal in the 80s. Lots of lots of fringe and just

unnecessary fabric flying all over the place in long strings

of just madness. And I'm just like I, I despise

this. So I don't know why it's so

specific. It's weird.

It's weird, but it's me. I don't know.

I'm just wondering where this is like an active daily struggle

for you. Like no.

Certainly. Certainly not.

Daily. No, I mean, but then again, you

know, and I, I recognize that the fashion and clothing and all

that kind of stuff, it has it, it comes back like, so for

example, right now we're seeing kids wearing baggier stuff,

which we did in the 90s and all that kind of stuff.

And so things come back around and I'm always afraid, maybe not

actively so, but I'm definitely afraid that fringe is going to

make its way back into like, popular clothing.

I'm tired and it scares me weirdly.

I'm just really excited because I honestly don't have, I just

haven't been on the lookout I guess.

Like I have no idea if anyone at our church wears fringe semi

regular or or or anything. I'm very excited to see people

come out of the woodwork just to like come up and greet you and

see if your skin crawls. Like I know and and The thing is

like I know I'm setting myself up to just be messed with now

but I'm just being honest. Fringe weirds me out.

I think it could happen. So that's our that's our

question of the day today, our our icebreaker.

What is what is something seemingly mundane that is just

it's widely accepted, but you just don't care for, for for

whatever reason. For me, fashion wise, I know we,

I have, I have a different answer that we already talked

about, but fashion wise, I don't understand sequins really.

And maybe it's just the girl dad life stage that I'm in right

now, but seemingly anything that my girls have that have sequins

on it, like inevitably, how do you first, how do you wash it?

Like I feel like maybe I'm just doing it wrong, but I feel like

no matter what you you can't. And if it only part of it is

sequin, like how do you wash the rest of it when you do wash it?

I feel like some of them start coming off even just from

regular use. I feel like the sequins just are

not on there extremely securely. So now there's these little

plastic glitter things all over my house and their shirt is

missing half of them and it just looks like.

So I just, I don't get the functionality other than on like

a show dress. Like that's the one.

Whatever a, a, a, a show choir, a dance number or something like

that. OK, I whatever, wear that.

I, I see it more as a costume. I don't understand sequins on

like everyday regular wearing for just for like an outfit it.

Feels extra, doesn't it? Yeah, 'cause I think you nailed

it. Like, you know, maybe maybe on a

prom dress or something like that, Like you.

Very specific context, but like. Like on AT shirt.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, 'cause I even like, I have a Christmas

sweater and maybe that seems more specific, but I have a

Christmas sweater. Like there's parts of Santa that

are sequin on there so that they're like glitter.

Did I see that one this year? That's the black one, but you

can't really tell because most of them are missing.

Like they've fallen off. So like it's, that's what I'm

saying. They're not even present.

They're not even present anymore.

Like they were supposed to be there, but they've like over the

years they have come off. And so I don't know, maybe I'm

maybe I'm getting cheap. Maybe someone out there can

inform me that maybe there's like high end sequins that don't

fall, that don't fall off or are better engineered.

Or maybe I just need to learn to sew.

I don't. I don't know.

Yeah. But the other, So fashion wise,

that was it for me. The other just like seemingly

mundane thing that is really fine.

Just don't care for wallpaper. I just, I don't get it.

I don't know that I've ever lived in a house that was

wallpapered. I don't have a whole lot of

wallpaper around me really. I just don't get it.

I like I like paint, I guess. And it seems like Wallpapers

more work both ways. Like it seems like it's more

work to put on, definitely more work to take off.

And I don't think I've ever really seen a wallpaper then I'm

like, you know what, that wall looks awesome because there's

wallpaper on it. I just, I don't know.

And maybe that I just no one's feeling judged because of their

wallpaper in their houses, but I don't, I don't know.

I just don't get it. I think some wallpaper in in a

smaller space it can it can kind of look nice.

Like an accent wall thing. Yeah, maybe.

I think it. Can I don't mind Like there's

people that I know people have like picture frames that like

the back of it is like wallpaper and there's some other like

picture on it. Like that doesn't bother me.

I I mean like wallpaper on a wall, sure.

Not as like craft material. Well, I think the other problem

that can happen with wallpaper is, you know, obviously it's

there because it has some kind of repeating design pattern,

whatever. How do you hang anything on that

wall that will work? Because if it has a frame, it

has whatever it it just feels like it's blocking what is

naturally a, you know, repeating pattern.

I don't know. I love how our critiques so far

are, are things in the area of of fashion and interior design

of which we are not like we are not, we are not noted

authorities on either of those things.

And we're just throwing, we're throwing shade at all these

things that we just don't understand.

We don't understand sequins and oh.

I understand fringe. I understand.

I understand that is evil. No, it's not evil.

It's not evil. It's just I'm weird.

Anything else seemingly mundane that you just you just don't

have. You know.

Distasteful for you? OK, so I find yield signs

distasteful. While.

You're driving. OK, so you're telling me maybe

go, maybe don't, I don't know. Just depends on the situation.

Just just decide for yourself. And I'm like, no, you, you need

to commit. Either I don't have to stop at

all or put something there that says no, you, you have to stop

no matter what. Like commit.

So I don't, I don't, I don't appreciate yield signs.

So I don't mind yield signs because I don't like stop signs

now. And I feel like at one point in

time it was just yield signs. And then we have we, we, we

escalated up to the stop signs because of stupid people.

Like we had yield signs, but then there were just more and

more people that were like, no, I can make it like I don't, I

don't, I don't have to yield. I can make it through.

And then we were relying on people to just have like common

sense of when they could go and when they couldn't, but they

didn't know. And there were too many

accidents. And now it was, Nope.

Now we just need you to stop even when, and that's my

frustration with stop signs. And I feel like most of the

time, I would say a majority of the time I come to a stop sign,

it is unnecessary for me to stop the the flow of traffic would

not be impeded by me just continuing to go, right.

So that's my I, I don't know. I don't, I don't mind the yield

time, but but that would require a common sense among people that

isn't necessarily common. So but that's probably why we

have stop signs. So I get I get your middling

feel for the yield sign. This is why I'm I'm a huge

proponent for roundabouts. I love roundabouts.

I love roundabouts and I know there's a lot of you out there

that don't like them. You don't understand them.

You don't. And believe me, I've and, and

believe me, I've been last year we went to refuel conference and

the driver of the other car, like I, there were some other

circumstances happening in, but the dude is just like doing laps

in the roundabout and I just, I'm mischaracterizing the

situation. But yeah, I if you don't like

roundabouts, I just feel like you haven't been properly

informed of how to use them because they are great.

They're wonderful. And I mean, The thing is like I

have one job in a roundabout. It's to look to my left.

Yep. As long as there's no and to go,

really, you shouldn't stop. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that's a great thing. Like I don't ever actually have

to stop. Most of the time.

I think they put in a roundabout.

What is that? Veterans on Davenport, kind of

that northeast. There's a couple of them.

Yeah, and they're great. I love them.

So great. Yeah, they're great.

Yeah. So I could do it.

And and that's, I think that's my greater frustration with stop

signs. It would just be a greater

efficiency if we just had roundabouts like that Would just

that would just be better. I think Europe had that figured

out in general. Like we're kind of late to the

party in America, but I think Europe had that figured out.

Do you think that's why we don't do it?

Maybe we're like rebelling against the we don't need, we

don't need that European idea infiltrating our roadways.

Yeah, it's one of the infiltrate.

What? How do you think it starts?

Man, I'm sorry, we're way off the rails.

Well, but, but maybe maybe you're right, maybe we don't

have more of them because it's like, well, that wasn't our

idea. There are definitely times when

it's like you hesitate to do something that's good because it

wasn't your idea. Sure.

So we have that air of like American superiority amongst

like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is

just like, like we get it. But you know what?

We're, we're just going to wait a few years till we, till we

have a better idea than that. And then we're going to start

doing like we're going to start doing like equilateral

triangles. Well.

Roundabouts. Try this Pentagon to try.

Really. We've been putting the stop sign

the wrong way. It's a lay down.

The Octagon, the 8 sided intersection.

That's wow. That's going to go really well,

you know. But I, it makes me wonder on the

other side of the coin of this Europe, American kind of thing.

We didn't, I might be wrong, but I think I'm right.

Didn't we, like start driving automobiles first?

Like as like a main mode of transportation?

And we decided, hey, guess what, guys?

We're going to drive on the right side of the road, RIGHT,

Right. Well, yes and two fold meeting

right, right side of the right, left and also like the correct

side of the road. Right.

And then Europe is they kind of get automobiles and that's

becomes a regular form of transportation.

Like, you know what the Americans drive on the right.

I think we're going to drive on the left just because we're not

going to do it the way they do. No way.

Shack up these assembly lines. So that way when Americans come

over, they get in all sorts of accidents and it's very

difficult for them. I don't, I don't know, I wonder

who who started driving first. It looks like, oh man, it looks

like they originated in Europe, was perfected and like

economically implemented best in America.

But it looked like they started. So, I mean, Germany and France,

it looks like we're the first to start.

And unless they started on the right side of the road, yeah, I

think, I think that was probably it started on the right.

And then in America, why, Yeah. Why do we?

Why do I don't know? Why do we drive on the left side

of the road? Like for Europeans?

Or on the right side, we drive on, we drive on the left side of

the car. So yeah, sorry.

Left side of the car, right side of the road which is interesting

too. Driving large teams of oxen

horses best on the left for most right-handed people.

Oh, that's interesting. So in wagons it was easier for

the stronger right-handed side to draw the reins of the ox.

So if you have like 2 oxen in front of you, there's one

further to your right. So it makes sense to have more

strength and that's but that way they would have that same

problem in Europe. So why did why did they why did

they start driving on the right? I don't know.

That's very if you've never joined the Leftovers podcast

before, this is fairly par for the course.

We can wind up anywhere in our discussion before we jump into

the Bible. We always end up in the Bible.

But before we get there and review this weekend's sermon

text on the 1st 15 minutes or so or air game or anything.

Yeah. So let us know anything from

fringe to wallpaper to stop and yield signs.

What are what are the mundane things in your life that just

you don't understand or seem unnecessary?

This is a great start to a Monday.

Yes, really, really solid start. Anyway, we are turning to church

things. We're in the middle of our four

FS series of faith, family, fitness and finances.

You knocked out Week 2 for us yesterday with family in

Deuteronomy chapter 6. You covered 15 verses.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

You, you focused in on a smaller section of that.

We're going to kind of expand the thought and delve into some

deeper details. Some things that, yeah, were

left unsaid yesterday just couldn't fit into 25 minutes of,

of teaching and and sermonizing, which is fine.

That's why we have this podcast to to talk about the leftovers.

So yeah, where would you like to begin?

Well, right out of the gate, you know, I didn't.

I didn't really take the time to talk about commands,

commandments and statutes. And so, you know, you have to,

if if you go back a little bit, you have to wonder like, OK, so

in Deuteronomy, we're not actually laying out what they

are. We're just God is just saying

follow them, do them. And so, you know, primarily, of

course, we're dealing with the law, the the Decalogue, you

might say the 10 commandments. And so you know, when the

Israelites come into the land that God has one for them,

promised them, etcetera. Like this is the lifestyle with

which you are to live amongst your community, right?

And you have to be careful to do them because the Lord knows, as

we talked about before, the the commandments are not there to

pause or stop or withhold your freedom.

They're actually there to help you flourish as a community.

Because if we are all even just the 10 commandments, if we are

all abiding by these things, life is going to be pretty great

for us inside of a community and even inside our individual

homes. So yeah, God is clearly leaning

out like, hey, we set these things in place for your

ultimate good and for your neighbors ultimate good.

So you have to be careful to do them.

Yeah, and I think that's the important part of this and

really commands in the Bible in general.

I found myself saying this to, to my kids more often now that

they can, they're getting old enough to like question things

or, or, or especially they're well, they've always been old

enough to defy rules, but like now they're now they're starting

to like question the reasoning behind rules.

And I find myself more and more often saying I, I'm not telling

you this because I love rules. I'm, I'm not, I'm not telling

you this like just to have rules.

I'm telling you this because I've made, I've made that

mistake. I, I did that thing wrong and

I'm, I'm trying, I set this rule up so that you wouldn't repeat

my mistake. You can learn from my life

experience. And I'm not saying God.

That's not the same way God makes rules.

God didn't make rules because trial and error, he's screwed.

Hey, learn from, learn from my experience.

He just knows best, right? It's, it's the same in that line

of thinking. I just know it will go well with

you if you follow this way, if you follow my way, right?

Is is kind of the spirit of setting these rules out not to

not to rule with an iron fist, even, not even an exchange, sort

of legalism. So it like prove to me that you

can be right and righteous. It's just the best thing for us

that this is the way you should organize and and live out your

life, right? Well, and it's and it brings

about again, why do a four week sermon series on on these

topics? Because these topics, they're

not built just because we like them or because we want to talk

about them. These topics are built around

God's word and how he has designed us to live best, right?

So whether that's my individual faith, whether that's how I'm to

give that away to my family, whether that's, you know, my

body, a temple and all those things are, are my finances,

what I'm how I'm stewarding, all these things are all the things

that we're going to talk about and have talked about are things

that God has prescribed as this is best for you.

This is the best methodology possible.

And sure, you can try other ways, but it will not end well

for you, or at least not as well as it could have.

Sure. Yeah.

And that's not to say it. Well, it does kind of always.

It does end in death, right? If we, if we aren't covered by

the blood of Jesus in our in our misdeeds or in our rebellion.

It does end in death to not follow these things.

Jesus's blood of course, covers those things.

But again, if it's the hypothetical, if we could and

you and you hinted at it earlier, it it does kind of the

collective in it matters. If there's if there's a portion

of us following all these things and a portion of us not, we're

still going to feel the the brokenness and destruction of

the portion that isn't. But in this, that's just about.

Oh no. I was just about to say

spiritual communism and I don't know, like I'm just I'm just

like, if we could collectively all do good and follow the 10

commandments perfectly, right, all of us, everyone on earth, we

would like it would be heavenly in a sense, right, Like the

world, the world would be perfect.

Wild hypothetical. Obviously we're so far from

that, but that's that's only to reiterate.

The point of this is how God designed perfect life to be

right. If we could if, if, if we could

follow through on it perfectly as only Jesus did.

That's our example. Yeah, I mean, just a few quick

thoughts, you know, or ideas that along those lines from the

10 Commandments, man, What would marriages look like if nobody

ever lusted after somebody that wasn't their spouse?

What would, what would our relationships be like if nobody

ever told a lie or gossiped? What would what would it look

like if when my neighbor pulled up in a new car, I wasn't

jealous, but I was excited for them.

You know, I'm so happy that like, you have a job that has

provided this really cool thing for you.

Like, I'm so excited for you, you know, instead of being

jealous and kind of bitter about it.

Like just those couple of examples.

The world would be wildly different, and it would be

infinitely better. Oh, yeah, Yep.

So that's where we're at in, in the commands of Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, because it's it starts off, this is the

commandment, the statutes and rules that the Lord your God

commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land to

which you're going over to possess it.

That you may fear the Lord your God, you and your Son, and your

son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments,

which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days

may be long. Yeah, there's a promise

attached. There is.

And I, and I love that because it's not, again, it's not just

God trying to restrict your freedom.

It's that, hey, if you can strive to live the way that I've

prescribed for you, life is going to go so well for you.

And and I'm promising you a longer and a better life if you

will adhere to the methodology with which I prescribed.

Yeah, because you got the promise.

Even goes on in verse 3 of chapter 6.

We're in Deuteronomy here, therefore, O Israel, and be

careful to do them the commandments that it may go well

with you and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord the

God of your father's has promised you in a land flowing

with milk and honey that it may go well with you.

You can you can choose to live your life separate from these in

defiance of these gonna go less well, right I've I've I've found

myself coming back to this in the in the past couple weeks.

I'm not saying we have a perfectly figured out here at

church, you and I, even in in the ministry something gosh, as

far as church experience, elder, elder experience, staff

experience, close to 40 years between the two of us, which

sounds a little crazy to say, but that's, that's what it is.

And so we're still all that is we're still learning.

We're we don't have this figured out, but we've been doing it a

while too. As far as like the next steps

or, or, or finding community, doing community as a church

being being getting baptized and, and joining a life group

and and then finding a spot to serve using the gifts that God

has given you to, to contribute to the community, to the church,

to the family here. I, I can't think of, I have an

experience, at least in my, in my time here at, at ERC almost 8

years. I can't think of someone who

has, who has dove deep and done those things, who has connected

in baptism, in in Bible study and in small groups and life

groups and who has also actively served who at some point later

on has been like, no, this, this ain't it.

No, that this, this is not, this is not the life of Christian

living that I've that I've come to understand in the Bible.

So I'm not saying we have it perfectly figured out, but I, I,

I am, I am seeing a bit of a formulaic sort of equation in in

our actions here too of this is a life fulfilled.

This is a life in an in encouragement with God's people

in in submission to his word and his command and how to how to

know Jesus and make him known. That to me seems to result in

that it may go well with you. Right.

And that's just the thing like as you talk about that you're

100% spot on to and it's in it. It goes so far beyond even just

like, man, this was not what I thought Christianity was.

It goes further into I've never met somebody who's doing all

those things who's like my life just doesn't feel fulfilled.

It doesn't feel happy. It doesn't feel connected.

It doesn't like no, every single person you meet who is doing

those things, who their faith, their life really it, it

revolves around their faith and, and, and how that plays itself

out. I've never met anybody who's

like, yeah, well, I'm just, I'm just not happy really.

Like and I understand we all have struggles and stress and

all those things that come with living in a broken world, but

like through and through at like 100% clip those people who are

involved in in living life that way man, there's a level of

peace and fulfillment that comes that you just don't see in other

people who are doing Christian ish.

Right. And don't, don't hear what we're

not saying. I don't, I don't think I'm not,

I'm not saying that this is this is the solution to all your

problems and you will have a perfect oppressed free life.

No, there's, there's still going to be struggle.

There's there's still going to be problems.

But within this, I think we've, we've found a better way to live

in encouragement through it. It's what it's what we started

talking about or I started talking about a little bit

yesterday with the the bearing the burden sort of thing that

the Bible doesn't promise us that bring them to God and just

poof, they they vanish. No promises that he walks along

and bears it with you leaning on his strength.

And I think that's that's sort of the same thing here when

we're leaning on God's commands for direction.

Of course we have to, we have to lean on his strength to even try

to endeavor to keep them right to, to, to keep them well.

And certainly I think we again, not in an earning way, but we

should certainly strive to keep them though, though we know we,

we fail, of course we have to rely on his strength to even

even try to keep them correctly. So I I think, yeah, I think

that's in there. But there's just there's a

fuller picture of a life fulfilled, a life that it may go

well with you. When we have, we have this

blueprint, this layout, this outline really from God of this

is what it looks like and it can be that simple.

And I kind of, I, I maybe briefly talked about it

yesterday, but you know, it's not inherently bad to have a

very full life. So for example, there are few

days that happen in the course of a year where I'm not doing 20

different things in the same day.

But all those things are, I mean, the vast, vast majority of

those things are incredibly life giving and they're fulfilling

and they bring a lot of peace and a lot of joy to in

otherwise, you know, perhaps mundane, rudimentary kind of

existence where you're just punching the clock and you're

doing A to B to C and it's, you know, you're, you're checking

the boxes, but it's not bringing you a lot of joy.

It's not bringing you new peace, you know, but so I mean, like,

yeah, the fullness of a life lived in and through the way

that God prescribes it. It's, it's not perfect, but

it's, it's, it's a lot of fun and it's incredibly enjoyable

from from my point of view. Yeah.

Then we come to verse 5 and chapter 6 and this is this is

the answer to a question that Jesus answered right?

What it what is the greatest commandment?

You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, all

your soul and all your might, right?

That's that's the answer he's he's alluding back to we, we

talk about how God's faithful and constant and his word

doesn't change. Well, Jesus is saying the same

thing few thousand years later that Moses is saying, Hey, this

is this is the commandment. This is the thing and at this

passage even is kind of the backbone of this whole series as

far as orienting our priorities correctly.

How do we love the Lord your God with all with all our heart,

soul, mind and strength or might heart, soul and might well align

these that your personal relationship, your personal

faith in God ordered correctly. That's the first thing.

Do you do that as an individual? So you can therefore do that in

your family again, either blood relatives or as, as you Jesus

teaches in the New Testament, anyone who knows the Lord and

anyone who calls him Christ as Savior is your mother and

brother and sister, right. And in in that way.

So that's family. We're speaking in the in the

broader sense. And then of course, your how,

how you order your, your fitness.

And then that's, that's physical, emotional and, and,

and mental really just our how, how we ordered those things.

Well, are are we a worker it for the the Kingdom of God?

Are we aligning those things in obedience to to how God's

created us? That's how we do our our fitness

correctly and in those ways and that of course, finances

earthly, earthly resources. That all starts, though, from

this one thing. Love the Lord your God with all

your heart, soul and mind. We actually talked about it in

my life Group A little bit last night.

Just the idea of would I be a better husband if I I could

wholeheartedly love the Lord with all my heart, with all my

soul and all my might. I would be an infinitely better

husband if I if and when I pursue that with excellence.

Yeah, I, I love my kids better when I do that.

I love my wife better when I do that.

I'm better for a bigger community when I'm seeking God

at every turn because it it reorients my heart.

It reorients my priorities. It reorients my attitude towards

other people. Because all of a sudden if, if

I'm seeking God with, with my whole being, all of a sudden I'm

not seeing another individual who maybe is causing some drama

or some problems, whether it's in my life or somebody else's.

I'm not, excuse me, I'm not seeing them as a bother.

I'm seeing that person as an image bearer of God who is going

through some stuff that I may or may not be able to help them

navigate. And so all of a sudden it's not

just another like, oh gosh, now I got to deal with this person.

No, it's how can I help you better navigate this too?

Because as an image bearer of God, as a brother and sister in

Christ, whatever that looks like now, you've gained my sympathy,

you've gained my empathy and, and I just want to help.

Yeah, that's so good. These first couple of verses,

verses four and five are kind of the intro, the beginning of the

Shema that I think you want to talk about.

We really didn't dive into that in the message too much

yesterday. The Shema is a, one of one of

two prayers specifically commanded in the Torah, right?

And there's actually, so it's, it's a fixed daily prayer in, in

Judaism. That's said, there's a few

different parts to it derived from different passages in

Deuteronomy. But this is Part 1 right here,

verses 4 through 9 in chapter 6. There's, there's a middle part

that actually repeats some similar phrases in Deuteronomy

11/13 through 21. And then it closes out in a

passage in in Numbers #1537 through 41 again.

But do you want to get us into this, this kind of first part of

the Shema here, Deuteronomy 6, four through 9?

Yeah, so I mean, I, I think it's, it's such a beautiful

reminder. And maybe maybe in a similar

fashion in the New Testament, you know, we have the disciples

saying Jesus teach us how to pray.

Other, other rabbis teach their, you know, their students, their

people, you know how to pray. This is maybe the original

thing, right? And, and think about it.

If I woke up any given morning and I and I started my day with

the Lord our God, the Lord is 1. And then, you know, and, and,

and I kind of lead my day off with that.

And then as I and I'm and I'm appreciative.

And so now my heart is put back in the position, you know,

through these verses to say, OK, I know what my priorities are.

I know where my heart's at. I know what the things are that

I want to put out into my immediate family and I want to

put out into the world. These are the things that I want

to teach and and speak about and talk about no matter where I'm

going. And then as I end my day with

those same thoughts, the Lord our God is 1 amazing to look

back at the day or even look forward into the next day going

Yep, I know God is present. I know he's here.

I know he has a plan and I know that those plans are good for

me. Like his commandments are built

for my flourishing. And so to start and end my day

that way. Incredibly powerful.

And so the the fact that Jewish people across the centuries have

been faithful to this and and we too can be faithful to a prayer

of this sort. And think about this prayer too.

What does it tell you? It tells you about the character

and the nature of God. So the focus is very not me

necessarily. And Jesus does the same thing as

he teaches the disciples how to pray.

The very first, you know, thoughts in that prayer, they're

not about us. It's about the gravity and the

certainty and the beauty of God. And so in all of these different

ways like it reorients our heart to be where it ought to be.

Yeah, and you actually have. So even if we think about this

prayer, the Shema and, and the Lord's Prayer, I was looking

forward to March 8th earlier and that's one of the notes you have

in there for the sermon on the 8th is that the Lord's Prayer

only only a 6th of that prayer is about us, right?

It's, it's about, it's about God's ways and what and what

God's doing. And if you even run through the

1st the the the verses of this passage here, Deuteronomy 6 four

through 9 love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and

might and then teach them diligently to your children.

Talk of them when you sit in the house, when you walk by the way,

when you lie down, bind them as a sign on your hand.

They shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

Write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates

beautiful. I know some of this is older

language frontlets, A frontlet. We'll talk about that in a

minute. But the the the apparentness of

God is what comes out in all this imagery, right?

Like how readily are the ways of God shining through your life?

Are they are are they the welcoming entrance to your home?

Are they fixed on your face? Really is what is what that

frontlets between your eyes are like?

Is it is it that readily apparent?

Do you, do your kids know what's on your mind and heart?

Is it, is it the things they do? And I'll ask that question

somewhat rhetorically, they do, but what is that?

What, what do they think is on your mind and heart?

Is it the things of God to do those that make up your

household? Do they know that it's, it's the

things of God that are on your heart and mind that you're

considering that you're talking about?

That's really, again the right ordering of things in in our

lives. That is, you know, as you were

talking through that, I'm just kind of beside myself.

I'm not, I'm just kind of thinking like what a beautiful

life lived with and with your family and your household and

beyond where we are so tuned into God's heart that we are

just reflecting that all the time.

What a what a fantastic and beautiful way to live.

What a peace giving way to live. What a joy filled way to live.

And again, were we able to exercise this all the time?

Oh my gosh. The world would be a place that

you would never want to leave. It would be a place that, I

mean, it's just, it's an amazing thing.

And I'm just trying to kind of, I got kind of goosebumps.

I'm trying to wrap my head around what that could actually

be like. And The thing is, God, as he

prescribes this, he knows that these people are imperfect.

He knows that they're going to fail, but he also knows that

he's got grace and mercy that abounds.

It's new every morning and he wants to reset our hearts on a

daily or even moment by moment basis to rewind us right back to

to what He knows his best. And as we have the strength to

do that man, our families will thrive.

Our communities will thrive. It is not, it is not an

impossibility that we would actually live this out as best

as we can to, to create, yeah, to create better families and

communities. And I just think that it's not a

pipe dream. It's possible, but it has to

start in our house with us. Yeah, you're so right.

This frontlets language, this is a weird word.

Traditionally it it would have been this small box that had a

scroll that that would usually either have the law of Moses,

the law, the law of God on it rolled up in there.

And you close the box and it's kind of, if you can picture a

headband or or a headlamp really is, is what it would look like

more. GoPro, right?

Kind of yeah, except you have you have a box strapped to your

forehead instead of the, instead of the light, but just the the

imagery of that in in the in the words of Deuteronomy here, the

law of God quite quite literally being on your mind, right.

Like strapped there, but also readily apparent to those that

you would encounter the the Hebrew word for this means means

prayer case. So, so not only is it because

sometimes there were, there were things in there too that were

again, things that they would pray about, things that would be

on your mind, but it's also this prayer, the idea that these

words are a prayer and things that we want to meditate on and

be spiritually forward about, I guess.

So that's the idea of a front lit traditionally.

What is that? Let it, but let's say, let it be

as front. So like, how do we go about this

in real time? I think I think an interesting

thing that has been watered down that might be a modern day

equivalent. OK, So what about if you're

wearing a cross necklace outside of your clothing?

Now, again, it's in some really strange way it's turned into

kind of just a general fashion thing for a number of people.

They have a cross on the a ring or a necklace or something like

that. But if we.

So much so that you don't know for sure.

It's attached to anything spiritual, you know.

And that's, that's kind of the sad portion of that.

But I mean, what if I took that really seriously?

If I was going to wear jewelry like that?

What if I took that really seriously?

And what if the people around me took that really seriously too?

So let's say I'm wearing a cross and somebody could look at me

and go, wow, they understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.

They get that they are a Sinner saved by grace alone, and so

they're a safe person I can talk to.

There's somebody who I could have a spiritual conversation

with because they understand the grace of Jesus Christ in their

life. And it's not just a jewelry

piece. It's not just something to look

at. It's actually, this is where

this person's heart is AT. And so to the same extent, you

know, whether it be the frontlets on the forehead or or

the things wrapped around the hand.

And in both cases like that would have been or should have

been a person that you could approach and have a meaningful

conversation with. Yeah.

So that's and again, not in a not in a legalistic way, but I

think it is real for us to consider how does how does our

dress, how does our attitude, how does our just general

approach. You talked about the headphones

in yesterday. Are are are are we living eyes

up and ears open aware to the world around us that needs of

the world around us or even just how we can simply engage with

it? We had, we had life group at our

house last night and I, I told you and Kristen this already,

but like, yeah, everyone got there and I had, you had emailed

out life group questions. And a lot of the time I'll, I'll

read my, I have physical Bibles in the house too, but a lot of

the time I'll read on the Bible app and everyone got there and I

could not find my phone. I had no idea where it was.

I pinged it on my Apple Watch. I couldn't hear the ping.

And in that moment, like I was kind of drawn back to your

sermon a little bit of, of that being present.

I I didn't need even even to be on the I just describe the Bible

quick off the shelf. Like in that moment, it was.

I didn't wrestle over it or anything.

I was like, I'll find it later. There's no part of this that

enhances. There's no part of my phone that

enhances this time with these these people in my house right

now, going to leave that be. Yeah, what?

And what an amazing thing. And, and I hope, man, one of

them, one of my goals coming out of yesterday was that I hope it

was like a moment of challenge, but also a moment of reset, an

opportunity for us to maybe think a little bit more deeply

about what are the things that are so distracting that are

taking away from our limited time, especially those

transitional mundane times like a car ride somewhere.

Are we using that time well or are we just kind of, I don't

know, blindly going about our day without any thought as to

the importance of any given individual moment with our

family, our kids, our spouse or whatever.

And, and again, that I believe me, I feel that because in in my

house, and I didn't bring it up yesterday, but in my house, if

we've got a no phone rule at the table, so we'll read the verse

of the day, we'll pray phones are gone.

They're supposed to be gone. If there's anybody at my house

who breaks that rule the most, it's me and I'm and I and God

bless my wife. She's so good about calling me

out on that. But like, man, I gosh, how much

time do I have with my wife and my son on any given day?

It might only be that 20 minutes around the table.

And how dare I waste that by, you know, responding to

meaningless text messages or whatever.

Like it's not necessary. Put that junk away and be

present. And let's actually, even if

we're not specifically talking about the things of the Lord per

SE, can I just know my wife's heart?

Can I just know my son's heart just by spending that time with

him? I probably can if I'm willing to

engage in a meaningful way. And this is this is not in the

text directly. I might be getting a little too

metaphorical here. You can be my guardrails

theology man, but but so as as you were talking about that and

then the next sort of few verses here.

When the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore

to your father's to give you with great and good cities that

you did not build houses full of good things you did not fill

cisterns you did not dig, lest you take care of that, you

forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of

the House of slavery. I wonder if we don't have, I'm

going to use this phrase. I wonder if we don't have these

promised land moments that you're kind of talking about

around around the dinner table. Yes, maybe it's only maybe it's

only 20 minutes a day, but what are the things in our lives that

we don't maybe fully appreciate that we haven't even necessarily

built or placed or even always stewarded perfectly?

Like in in thinking about whatever, just whatever failures

we've had in in parenting, in in marriage, whatever.

Like hasn't been perfect where where you've gotten to to this

point with your wife. And I'm I'm talking to you, but

I'm talking generally about us too.

Like we haven't been the perfect husband.

We haven't been the perfect father, but we have that

promised land moment potentially every day at dinner.

And that should not be squandered right there.

There are good things there that we haven't even always built in

that cherished time. So we shouldn't squander it face

down on the screen, right? Or or even neglecting the time

altogether, right. So I don't know if I don't know

if that tracks, but that's that's what the the Promised

land moments is, is what I'm getting out of this text right

now. Yeah.

And as you, as you talk about that, you know, it, it both it,

gosh, if I'm being really transparent, it brings me some

level of grief of missed opportunities, but it also

brings me a lot of hope of we're not done yet.

We still have possibilities. We still have time.

While we have time, we still have time.

So just because we've made mistakes in the past doesn't

mean that we can't start to grab hold of those things, grab hold

of those moments. Yeah.

OK, so here's an illustration. What's the if you if you run off

the course, what's the fastest way to get back on course?

It's a straight line. It's a straight line back to the

correct path. It's not well, I'm going to veer

off here for a little while and come back and maybe this other

Rd. will eventually bring me back to the right one.

No, it's a straight line back. This is what we call repentance,

right? It's a straight, it's a 180.

It's a turning the opposite direction and running.

So I mean, man, if if I can be of an encouragement of anyway,

please, if you, if you're off the path with your family, run

the straight line back and don't apologize for it.

Don't apologize for being weird. Don't apologize for bringing in

new things that maybe the first couple times it feels awkward or

forced. Don't apologize for those things

because we need to run a straight line back to get our

families back into into run us in the race that God says this

is what's going to grow you. This is what's going to be best

for all of you. Yeah, and I, if I can build on

that as we close out this passage in verse 15, be jealous

for your family in the way that God is jealous for you.

Like, like and and be obnoxious about it in, in a way that they

know you want their hearts in the in the way that God wants

your heart. Again, this, this, this verse

for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God.

Verse 15. It's not because you're so

great, sorry, but like it's none of us are.

It's it's not because we're so great.

It's because he cares about you, his his created image bearer so

much that he's jealous for your heart.

He's, he's jealous for those promised land moments with you

that, that you realize you're running back to him.

That's what he's longing for. In the same way, that's how I

think we should be engaging with, with our families.

Let them know that you are jealous for them.

The things that we take time to set aside.

I even felt a little twinge of guilt.

It was, it was with my wife and it was fine.

But like we, it was a bit of an endeavour to go to the football

game in Chicago on Saturday. And I felt a little guilty and

my, when, when was the last time I took that amount of

intentionality towards my kids? Like to, to, to let the, I was

jealous for my wife and jealous for her time.

And I wanted to do that with it. But like, when had I taken a

momentous yeah, action towards towards my kids?

I guess in that way, like I'm, I'm jealous for your time in

this. I'm for doing this thing where

we're spending this time. I think that's how we're

supposed to rightly engage with family.

Nothing wrong with little bit of forced family fun.

You know, nothing wrong with that at all.

And and maybe one more thing I'll say before we close out and

I didn't, gosh, I feel kind of bad now, but I didn't think

about it until this moment in verse 15.

For the Lord your God is in your midst.

He's here, He's here, He's right here.

And so, I mean, we don't have to act like this is a distant

father who is detached or not not present.

He is here in our midst. And so man, what what greater

thing as the Lord is in our midst, as we still have this

time left to honor that, to be excited about that, to be joyful

about that, and to know that even when the hard things come

up, we're not doing that alone. He's always with us.

Love it. That's where we're going to

leave it for today. Good, good closing thought.

We hope there's been an encouragement to you in

continuing the conversation about how we're knowing Jesus

and making him known well through our family, rightly

structured in the way that God has designed it.

We've got a couple more weeks in the the four FS series as we

focus on reaching the one more here at a Maus Rd. church.

So thanks for tuning in. Let us know in the comments

below the Facebook feed or or on the On the Show comments section

what are those seemingly mundane things that just annoy you or

are distasteful or you just don't?

You don't understand. We talked earlier about fringe

and wallpaper and yield and stop signs and things and just, oh,

we are silly. We are children.

That's fine. But thanks for hanging for a bit

deeper conversation with us today.

Love you Church, have a blessed week.