Deuteronomy 6:1-15 | Co-Mission of Love

Listen to this week’s sermon, Co-Mission of Love preached by Pastor Kenneth Dyches from Deuteronomy 6:1-15.

Transcript

Welcome And Scripture Reading

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 0:06

Hello everyone, this is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City Orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.

Pastor Jason Dunn 0:22

Join me in this prayer of illumination. God our Father, by your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and our minds to your word and lead us into your truth for the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Please remain standing for our scripture reading from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 1 through 15. Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in the land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart, you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be frontless between your eyes. You shall write them on your doorpost of your house and on your gates. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. When you eat and are full, then take care least you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you. For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God, least the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. This is God's word. Please be seated.

Pastor Kenneth Dyches 2:59

Good morning.

Adoption And The Urge To Earn

Pastor Kenneth Dyches 3:00

Got my water bottle today because you who are parents know that our kids are going back to school, and that means they bring home gifts of disease to us. So had a little congestion that just won't go away. I don't know what to do with it. So the water helps. But this morning, um, I want to tell you about a phenomenon that psychologists label earning behavior or performance-based attachment. It can happen uh when children are adopted. Uh they're chosen by a parent, they're brought into that parent's household, they've signed the paperwork. This child belongs to them, lives and dwells in their house. They're entitled to everything that any beloved child is entitled to. And yet, sometimes they can't help but feel like they have to earn their place at that table. Every uh homework assignment, uh, every chore, uh, every sport becomes an opportunity for the child to fulfill this question in their heart is do I really belong here? Let me make sure that I will keep my father and my mother's love. And those same psychologists will tell you that that's often has nothing to do with the way that they're parented, but something has happened. Uh, and isn't that Satan's way to take even something so beautiful and good as adoption and to move our lie-prone hearts towards a wrong way of understanding the love that we can receive? Adoption is a very common theme in scripture. In Deuteronomy 6 and 7, we see that the Lord has chosen this people, right? He's laid his promises on them, he's delivered them from Israel, he's bringing them home to the promised land, and he's giving them his very self there, right? There they will experience the blessing of God. This is adoption language. In Romans 8:15, Paul says that this is true of us as well in Christ. He says, We have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. And it is from this place of steadfast love, of God's love being laid on us, that our work and witness flow forth, our work and witness being our laboring in the world and our loving those around us. However, the enemy loves to lie to our lie prone hearts about what makes us secure and significant, twisting our work and witness into selfish idolatry or legalistic burdens. So, what does that look like? Well, at work, maybe you pursue that promotion until success becomes the voice telling you that you matter. In parenting, your child's success becomes proof that you're a good parent, and their failure becomes a verdict upon you. In church, maybe you get to serve your heavenly father, but it quietly becomes, I need to make myself useful so God will be pleased with me. Maybe at home you're caring for your family, but it becomes resentment when no one notices because their appreciation has become the measure of your value. Even in evangelism, your neighbor's salvation can become something you need to accomplish rather than faithfully and joyfully entrusting that work to God. And with money, right, your money can begin to become idolatry when your account balance starts saying, now you're safe. Or in spiritual disciplines, prayer and scripture become legalism when missing a few days makes you feel like you have to now earn your way back into God's favor. The result is that our work and witness becomes about our personal significance as an idol, or it becomes a burden, leaving us exhausted, anxious, prone, and unsatisfied. That's not what God wants for us, though. See, God's steadfast words of love are meant to drive our work and witness, his

When Work Turns Into An Idol

Pastor Kenneth Dyches 6:50

love overflowing in our work and witness in all that we do. These are my two points today: the Lord's work and witness and our work and witness. Go ahead and look with me at Deuteronomy 6, verse 10. It reads, And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. See, I want you to notice what is not said here. Right? What is not said is, Israel, when you stake your flag in the promised land, right? Like we staked our flag on the moon. If you believe that happened, I don't know where you stand on that. But that he doesn't say that, right? He doesn't say, hey, when you manifest, right, the future that you want, uh, he also doesn't say, when you execute that strategy, right, that you came up with perfectly. No, he doesn't say any of those things. It says, and when the Lord your God brings you, see that word bring in Hebrew can have a sense of bearing, carrying, or guiding. But regardless, this is the Lord Himself bearing, carrying, and guiding Israel, right? His people. He's the one who is drawing them into the land, who's delivered them, who's provided for them, who's revealed what it looks like to worship him and is going to bring them into the promised land. And that land, of course, was promised to Abraham back in Genesis. Uh, God gives to him his covenant of grace. He promises to make a people from him, to give that people a land and to bless them, that they might be a blessing to all the nations. And of course, Abraham receives that by faith. His work is a response in faith, trusting that God's steadfast love will persevere, trusting in the promises of God, that God will accomplish that. See, the Lord laid his love on Abraham and all those who would come from him to draw them, to adopt them into his family. And what makes that land special is nothing innate to the land itself. God owns all things, right? What makes that land special is that that is the place that God has chosen for his chosen people to dwell with him in worship, right? To dwell with him in a flourishing relationship, that they might have all that they need to live in relationship with him. Ephesians 2, 8 says, By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God. By grace, God called Israel and gave to them the promise, and by grace, God calls us into communion with him and brings us to salvation. And so, however, we can know that, and yet still, when we think about the future, right, when we think about five, ten years from now, uh, when we do that, I wonder what fills your heart. Uh, is it anxiety? Because you think about all the things that need to happen uh in order for you to stay secure, to be financially secure, in order for your family to flourish, in order for your children to flourish, in order for you uh to make sure that you do everything you have to do, because who else is going to look out for you? Or is it uh that you're you're so focused on uh your vision board and on what you want to see happen in your life that uh you're willing to give up anything to get there, even attending a church service, even Christ-centered community, even spiritual practices like prayer and worship and scripture. See, both of these things can be ways that our work and witness are influenced not by the grace of God, but about lies that we believe. See, really, we are children of God. We who are children of God, we know that our heavenly Father will bring us home. He has promised as much. See, uh, my children experience this when I go on road trips. We were in North Carolina this past summer, uh, and it was actually strangely hot up there, which was disappointing. But it was a good trip. And uh we spent some time with my uh wife's parents, and on the way home, we decided to leave at 4:30 in the morning. Yeah, I heard the rumblings. That's early. Uh, and my children, though, they slept for several hours in the backseat, which was wonderful for them, wonderful for me. And uh it was an opportunity, though, to reflect on the fact that we had to drive thousands of miles to get back home, navigate through the mountains, through rain, uh, through traffic. And my kids were oblivious to all of it, right? Because they didn't have to navigate. They had trust in their father to drive them home, to bring them back home. They knew what was my responsibility and what was theirs, and they could rest in that. And so this is the Lord's word of promise for our for his work and witness, but we also see the Lord's work of mercy. Look with me at Deuteronomy 6, 10 through 11. With good and great cities you did not build, God gives to them, and houses full of good things you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and when you eat and are full. So notice all of these things that God is working, that God is building, that God is providing for his people, the first of which is good cities, good and great cities that they did not build. Now, Israel, they have been uh they have been sojourners or slaves up to this point. Ever since Abraham, they've either been sojourning in the land in slavery or again sojourning towards the promised land. And so the idea that they would have cities, right, that the Lord would lead them into that they did not build is incredible. Cities, of course, were places of security. They had walls to keep them safe, they had homes, they had marketplaces, societies and families can flourish there. And these are good and great cities. And he goes on to have houses full of good things you did not fill, right? That's food on the table, that's family, that's friends, that's children laughing, right? This is community, this is what you see in uh Hallmark commercials and in commercials around Thanksgiving and Christmas, but those play on things that are deep desires in us, things we were created for. God fills our homes with them. And then cisterns that you did not dig, right? Uh, cisterns for for water, things, all of their basic needs are provided by the Lord, right? Their bank accounts will have enough money, their water will be full, they'll have the food they need to eat, and even more vineyards and olive trees. You did not plant, right? Vineyards and olive trees would be great for commerce, but also just a taste of what is good, right? All of this is a flourishing life that he is offering them. And he's saying, You did not do an inch for it. You cannot claim an inch of it.

God Carries And Provides The Promise

Pastor Kenneth Dyches 13:40

It's mine, and I'm giving it to you. In Ephesians 2, 9, Paul says, Our salvation is not a result of works, so that no one may boast. And truly, Israel here, that's true for them. But that's true for us as well. When we often think of salvation, we think of where our souls are going to be, right? In heaven, in the new heavens and new earth. But salvation is much more than that. For Israel, salvation meant that they were set up to flourish in all of life with God. And when God invites us home to him in Jesus Christ, the same is true. He invites us to give our whole lives to him, that we might see flourishing in all parts of our life, which doesn't mean that we won't struggle, right? Things won't be difficult, we won't have labor to do, but that we will do it with him and have all that we need as we seek him first and see him provide. In Hebrews 11:10, we read that Abraham was looking forward to a city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. So Abraham, he was looking forward not just to the promised land, but the city of God, the garden city we will see in the new heavens and new earth. We live here like Israel as tenants of this land, tenants of these bodies, knowing that we are being brought to the new heavens and new earth. We will where we will work and worship and service to our God. And so we see that is the work and mercy of God. And then in Deuteronomy 6.12, we see how that frees our work to be life-giving. Deuteronomy 6.12 says, Then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Now, the word forget uh doesn't just mean a temporary or permanent lapse of memory, but rather it means when we ignore his commandments, when we follow other gods, when we live in fear of things other than God, when we fall out of relationship with the Lord. In Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 6, we have the Shema. It says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. Now in Jewish tradition, they often bound the words of the Shema on their arms or head or around their doorposts, in a very kind of literal understanding of we want the words of the Lord upon us, right? We want it to shape and form everything in our lives. But even understanding that figuratively, right? We understand that the words of the Lord are meant to change our behavior in all of life, in all of our work and witness, in all of our labor and all of our love. So, my question for you is what words are driving your work and witness? When you get up in the morning and you think about all that you need to do, are you filled with anxiety? When you think about the future and where God is taking you, are you wondering where the resources are going to come from? When you when God is inviting you to step out in faith and share the gospel with somebody near you, uh, what is coming to mind? Are you working from the steadfast love of the Lord or from fear and scarcity? To as I reflected on the power of words, uh, I was thinking about my relationship with my kids. I often have opportunities just to love and enjoy and rejoice in them. And I love to do that. Tell them how I love them, uh, tell them and so that they know that their my love is not dependent on their work, right? Uh, that uh and then rejoice in their work, not because they've accomplished something that I was expecting of them, but simply because I rejoice in what God is doing in their lives, how He's created, what He's made them for, and that they're finding fulfillment and living that out. And yet sometimes I can find myself being a little critical of them, wanting to adjust their behavior, um, and saying things that maybe are unhelpful. And in those moments, sometimes I think about my own relationship with my father, and times he did that with me. And it's interesting how you know he never intended uh the evil of these of the words that Satan would try to twist in my heart. But some of those criticisms from him, right, lead to me hearing, don't be a disappointment. And I wonder what words you've heard growing up in your life. They're leading you to strive for a love that's already yours. They're leading you to wonder if God loves you enough to actually provide for what you need. To wonder if he will fulfill his promises for you. In Deuteronomy 7, 628, we see that our God wants us to hear his words of love from him and for us to internalize them and know them. In Deuteronomy 7, 6 to 8, he says, You are a people holy. You're my treasured possession out of all peoples. It says the Lord has set his love on you and chosen you. Not for anything except that the Lord loves you. He said that to Israel. And that word for set your love on is actually a word for a passionate, pursuant love of desire. God is essentially saying, I desire you so much that I will go to such great lengths to lay my promises on you, to deliver you from Egypt, to bring you through the wilderness, to go with you into the promised land, to drive out the peoples before you. I will do whatever it takes to pursue you and win you in love, not because you've earned it. Israel certainly did not earn it, but rather because that's who I am. God's immutability means that he does not change. What that means is that his love never changed. When he has set his love on you, he pursues it until it is fulfilled. And so it is out of God's steadfast love, his work and witness of love in and for us that leads to our work and witness. Look with me at Deuteronomy 6.13. It says, It is the Lord your God, you shall fear. Now, fear is not something we can just do like Nike. We can't just wake up in the morning and will it. Like, I'm just gonna fear the Lord today, um, which is good because I think of people who like wake up and like, I'm just gonna run like several miles this morning, or like get a strong workout in them. Man, I don't have willpower for that. I can barely get up and make my coffee in the morning. You know what I mean? So it's good that this is not based off of our willpower. Rather, the fear of the Lord is developed through a lifestyle of living with piety, reverence, and respect and growth and character. It's covenant friendship with God that leads to our work and witness. And in Deuteronomy 6, 1 through 3, we see there's a pattern that God shows us to have covenant friendship with him. Uh, it's his teaching us who he is, it's our listening to him and obeying his commands that forms us over time into people who flourish in relationship with our God and all of our work and witness. And we see that in Deuteronomy 6, 1. He says, 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 which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and commandments. See, the sphere of the Lord uh is formed as they keep his statutes and commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, that your days may be long, and there's the flourishing, right? And so oftentimes we don't want to do things that feel inauthentic in our culture today. We don't want to just obey the Lord and obey his commands because that's kind of legalistic, right? Uh however, what God is teaching his people is that uh a covenant friendship with God requires work, right? It doesn't require us to will it, but rather it requires us listening and obeying him, being formed by doing life with him. It's like a marriage, right? When you marry somebody, uh over time you begin to realize all The ways that they're a little different from you. But what it would take is listening to them, listening to their heart, listening to their desires, understanding who God has made them, doing things to love them, not because you want to do them, but doing them because you know that they will love and appreciate what you're doing, doing life with them, being formed over time into people who have a flourishing marriage together, right? Because you put in the relational work to love one another. You've made that choice together. And so God's people weren't supposed to just will it, right? They don't immediately turn around and say, okay, we're gonna love God the same way he's loved us. No, God's inviting them to become a people who love the Lord. And they do that in relationship with him. In Matthew 4, 8 through 10, uh, Jesus is first uh baptized

Forgetfulness And The Words Driving You

Pastor Kenneth Dyches 22:50

just before this. He hears the Father say, This is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. And then he goes out into the wilderness. Uh and as he goes out into the wilderness, the devil takes him to a very high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he says to him, All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone you shall serve. See, he's quoting our very passage. And Satan actually, it's it's he's it's a little on the head when you read it right here, but Satan's a devio, right? He's giving Jesus what it seems to be good, right? Jesus is going to be king of the world. Wouldn't it be nice if Jesus could just skip the crucifixion, right? If he could just skip the death, he could skip being rejected by his own people, and instead he could just rule over the world. How then does Jesus do this? Now, Jesus is fully God and fully man, and yet in his humanity, he is intentional to form his fear of the Lord. Right? We see him continually go away in prayer throughout the gospel account. We also see him continually say, I only do what I see the Father doing. See, Jesus was formed, he was the new Adam, right? He was the more perfect Israel. He was the one who listened to the teachings of God, was formed in listening and obedience, uh, and ultimately in flourishing in righteousness and obedience to the Lord. And so I wonder what temptations does Satan put in your path? What ways is he speaking into your life, seeking you to take shortcuts to form you away from formation with the Lord? One way that he does that in my life sometimes is Instagram. Now, I frequently download and then undownload and then re-download Instagram because I find I get a little addicted to it, and yet I still want to come back to it. And so um the other day I was putting my son Corbin down to sleep, and he's two years old, so he takes a while to go to sleep, right? And I was like, well, I just want to watch some like funny parenting videos because Instagram's algorithms, they know me, right? They know what I find funny, they know when I need to be empathized with. So I did. I found some funny videos, and it was a good time. And uh then I showed my wife those videos and she laughed and woke up the next morning, and I did a good job of not going straight to my phone, but reading scripture and praying. Uh, but then uh over breakfast, you know, I get bored just sitting there chewing my food. So I decided I wanted to scroll on Instagram while I was there. So I did, and I looked at things about the new Marvel movies coming out, and it was interesting. But then I hopped in the car, went to work, and I prayed on the way to work. Uh, and before I knew it, I had stopped praying and started thinking about all the Marvel and comic book content. I was looking at it on Instagram, and I was taken aback. I didn't, I had I had no memory of when my mind switched over from prayer to you know the new Spider-Man movie. And uh I in reflecting on that, I realized that the things that we think are neutral, that we give our attention to, are really not, right? Instagram, its algorithms are made to find out the things that I love the most in the flesh through all of my clicks, give them to me constantly, and keep me hooked as long as possible. And I think when I click off my phone and put it in my pocket, that I can switch my mind to something else. But in reality, my mind, my attention is still focused on what I was looking at. Right? And that's an example of the things that we have in our life that form us away from the Lord. And whether or not you think that's demonic, I'm sure that Satan is quite happy when uh things that are forming my mind away from the Lord keep me from things like prayer, keep me from growing in the fear of the Lord. And that leads me to Deuteronomy 6.13, which says, Him alone you shall serve. Now, serve can mean compel one to labor, but in scripture, when service is offered to God, it's not bondage, but rather a joyous and liberating experience. It means work, worship, or cultivation. It's relational. Israel was repeatedly called the servants of the Lord, right? Their identity was wrapped up in God's work in them and their work as servants of God. And unless you think work is just a result of the fall, right? Work was actually given to Adam and Eve in the garden. They were called to work and to cultivate the garden, but they did that with the blessing of God. They did that with God Himself present with them, right? They had power to see God's uh image go out into the world to glorify God uh through subduing the world and bringing God's blessing to the world around them. In Ephesians 2.10, Paul tells us that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. So even here now in Christ, we are created for good works, right? God first works in us, he creates us, he gives us the gift of faith, he draws us to himself, he sets his love on us, and then he sends us out to do the good work he has called us to do. Right? He invites us to participate in that with him. And some of us, we think about how we want to work to retire. Whatever we do, it doesn't really matter. We're we're moving towards is retirement, right? Get to go uh hit on the golf course, get to eat the food you want, get to travel to around the world. It feels like everyone goes to North Carolina, to North Carolina. And um and some of us think, well, you know, post-COVID with all the wars in the world, I don't even know if I'm gonna make it that long. I need passive income now, right? We want to live the right life we want to have here and now. And then other of us uh have a positive view of artificial intelligence. We think maybe we're gonna get to that point where we none of us have to work anymore. We just get to sit back, you know, enjoy life. Um, it's probably like Jin Z, you know, that hasn't watched The Matrix, you know. Regardless, uh what God calls us to, and what all of those things are missing is that we were made to be co-workers with God, to cultivate the earth, to glorify him by being his image-bearers to one another and all creation, to worship him in all that we do, to steward all that he's given us, to co-create with him the mission that he is accomplishing uh that will be fulfilled in the new heavens and new earth. The question is here and now, whom do you serve? I have a good friend uh who, or rather, someone I met recently, uh, who's becoming a good friend, but he uh is in construction and he only does construction for very high-end clients, uh, which is good for him. But one of the things that he got to do recently is create a fireplace for someone in the same way that it was created in his childhood home. And so what he did was he looked at the fireplace, he saw the veining, he found out that it was from a quarry in Italy. So he went over there, realized the quarry was underwater. And so, like any normal person, he found a company that could drain the whole quarry of water, and then another one to mine out what he needed, ship it overseas, and build the exact fireplace that this guy wanted, right? That's incredible. It would be incredible to have unlimited resources to do the work that God created us to do. And that is what God promises us. He doesn't

Formation Over Shortcuts And Distractions

Pastor Kenneth Dyches 30:40

promise us the fulfillment of our desires in the flesh. He doesn't promise that we're always going to love our jobs, but he does promise that the work of glorifying him, of worshiping him, of co-creating with him, uh, all that we need to find joy in this life is available to us at the throne of grace in Jesus Christ. And we know again, we are tenants in this life, and we will have that in full in the new heavens and new earth. Which leads me to the next thing that he invites us into, which is full allegiance to himself. Deuteronomy 6, verses 13 to 15 says, And by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you. For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God, lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you and he destroy you off the face of the earth. See, swear uh in scripture is not what we're used to uh with my kids. Uh, don't tell them this, but we told them uh last year we might get them guinea pigs when they started school this year. And my wife has told me in no uncertain terms that that's not going to happen immediately. And so, you know, that song plays in my head, promises, promises, you knew you'd never keep. Right? I feel like that happens more often than I would like. But in scripture, swearing is an unbreakable word. It's a solemn oath, it's confirming a covenant before God. And what they're being invited to here is not to swear that they will accomplish this, right? Uh it's it's they're swearing before God, trusting in his truthfulness, in his faithfulness, in his person and promises. Right? God is saying, I want you to give your full self to me and surrender so that I can do my work in you and produce the fruit of faith, produce the fruit of faithfulness, produce the fruit of the fear of the Lord. It's an invitation into relationship. It's a binding oneself to God, who is the one who accomplishes his task. This also comes out of God's exclusivity, right? He alone is to all of their worship. Now, Satan uh likes to make us believe that we can we can choose what we want to give to God. Right? In the West, right, we can go to the church that we want to or the religious service, we can choose not to go, we can go when we want to, we can live where we want to, we can practice our faith the way we want to, we can listen to the preachers we want to. There's an unlimited buffet of ways we can choose to live out our faith, whatever that might be. But God reveals here in Scripture that there is only one God, and he alone is due all of our worship. Jesus brings this out in his response to Satan, right? They're in quoting this verse. One way I think we can see this is through none other than our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Now, don't worry, no spoilers on the new movie, although it's great, you should see it. Uh, but Spider-Man, uh, in whatever iteration, he is bitten by a spider. Uh, Peter Parker. Now, if you didn't know Peter Parker was Spider-Man, that's on you. Um, you gotta, you know, crack open a comic book. But Spider-Man receives extraordinary abilities, right? And in the beginning, he struggles with what to do with these abilities. Do I use it to get the girl that I want? Do I use it for fame or fortune? Uh, and that's when you hear Uncle Ben's words with great power comes great responsibility. Now the question isn't whether his gifts are good or bad, it's who are they for? For Spider-Man, that was New York, saving the people of New York, keeping them safe. And Jesus tells us, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve, because what you serve reveals what you worship. See, Satan's offer is this is the same as it was to Jesus. Let the promotion tell you you're successful, let the 401k make you secure, let your children show you that you're a good parent, let your work, home, or sport become your identity. But Jesus entered the wilderness already carrying the Father's words that were also meant for us. This is my beloved son. He worshiped God alone, he stood where we fall, and at the cross, he took the verdict we spend our lives trying to outrun. You're not enough. Your work isn't enough. You'll never make it home. And Jesus was victorious. So now we don't work to become loved. We work because in Christ we already are. Uncle Ben said, with great power comes great responsibility, but the gospel gives us something better. With every God-given gift, there is responsibility to serve and worship the Lord, but that's undergirded by a promise that no matter what in Christ, you are already loved. And the beloved are finally free to serve. In John 6, 27 through 29, Jesus says, Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.

Allegiance To God And A Clear Invitation

Pastor Kenneth Dyches 36:05

And they asked, Well, what work does God want from us? And Jesus answered, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. So I wonder this morning, what is the work God is inviting you into? Maybe you've uh are not yet a believer in Jesus Christ, and God is inviting you this morning to ask for a gift of faith. Ask the Lord if this is true, to lay his love on you and surrender your life to the Lord. Maybe the Lord is asking you to surrender your work, your relationships, your family, to trust that he is the one who has given those things to you and he will bring to accomplishment his purposes for your life. Or maybe it's church planting. As you hear us talk about church planting, I wonder what are the thoughts that go through your own mind. Is it, I just need steadiness in my life right now? I'm not ready for something like that. Um burnt out right now. I don't know what I'm gonna be able to do in a church plant. Whatever the case may be, whether God's calling you into a church plant, calling you to surrender, calling you to know him, calling you to know and love your neighbors. The invitation is the same to surrender what you have to the Lord, to trust in his love upon your heart and to follow him wherever he would lead you. So for some of you, I invite you to come to the Planting Garden City meeting tonight. Maybe you weren't planning to come, but we'll have Huey McGoose, we'll have free child care. So, parents, you're more than welcome to come and just have fun. Uh, but we'll also have an opportunity to talk about what it looks like uh to be part of a church plan and then just to reach our neighbors uh in work and witness with the gospel. Uh it's an opportunity to choose to follow the Lord, to give him an opportunity to speak into your life about what he may be doing in the places you live, work, and play. And finally, I want you to know and remember what God has done for you. The Lord has laid his promises on you before you were born. The Lord has pursued you in passionate, desirous love. The Lord has revealed himself to you, the Lord's brought you here this morning. He's given his own son, becoming so vulnerable in his pursuit of us that he incarnated in Jesus Christ, not only opening himself up to be denied by us, but crucified on a cross for our sins, rejected as utterly as he could be, and yet still providing a path for those who place their faith in Jesus. Let their sins be upon his life, that he would die for their sins, raise to new life, and offer us salvation in him. To know that he is bringing us home, to know that he has made his home in us, to know that his steadfast love is on us forever. So you are loved, you are free to follow him, free to work, free to witness, free to go. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you. We thank you that you've called us here this morning. We thank you that you have set your love on us. We thank you that regardless of how we come in this morning, whether or not we're feeling confident in our formation in the fear of the Lord, whether or not we have surrendered our work and our families and our witness to you, however, we come in this morning, you invite us to know and love you. You invite us to receive your love laid upon us. You invite us to come and lay it all at your feet, to be known and loved, and to be empowered and to work and witness. We praise in Jesus' name.