Knowing God and the Family of Faith
Download MP3Good morning, everyone. It's a joy to be with each of you this morning. If, we haven't met, my name is Connor Cosgry, and I have the privilege of serving our students in the youth ministry here at Redeemer. 2 weeks ago, we finished our sermon series in the Lord's, in Ecclesiastes, and, next week we are going to begin, a new series that's gonna carry us through the rest of the summer in the Lord's prayer. But this morning, we're gonna spend our time in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 6 in particular.
Connor Coskery:Deuteronomy is one of my favorite books in the Bible, particularly because it gives you, a big summary of what God has been doing in the lives of his people. And my hope this morning is that as we look at this passage in chapter 6, that it's going to, perhaps refresh some of the things that we, looked at in Ecclesiastes and prepare our hearts for what's ahead in the Lord's Prayer. So if you have a bible, please go ahead and turn with me to Deuteronomy. You can find it sandwiched between the book of Numbers and Joshua. And as you're finding the passage, let me orient you to where, where we're at in God's story when we get to Deuteronomy chapter 6.
Connor Coskery:So up to this point, the Israelites had been wandering for 40 years in the wilderness after being freed from slavery in Egypt. Finally, they're on the cusp of the promised land. But Moses, their great leader who rescued and redeemed them out of Egypt, isn't going to be leading them any further. The due to disobedience, a lack of faith in the face of the grumbling people, Moses is gonna stay behind. Joshua is going to take them into the Promised Land.
Connor Coskery:Moses is only gonna get to glimpse the Promised Land from the top of a mountain. Deuteronomy then is Moses's farewell address. It's a series of sermons and he wants to prepare God's people for what's ahead by reminding them of what God has done and what he promises to do. He wants to remind them that they are God's people, that God has covenanted himself to them and that he's made big promises to them. Moses stresses, as we're gonna see in this passage, that being a part of the covenant family means that our worlds must look vastly different, that our individual lives, our family rhythms, the way that we talk, what we value, what we dedicate our attention to, all of that must look different.
Connor Coskery:So in the passage that we're gonna unpack this morning, in chapter 6, Moses makes a clear and powerful exhortation to the people. He says, as God's people, we are to love God with everything we have and that this love must necessarily overflow and impact the community around us. So let's read together Deuteronomy chapter 6. We're gonna read verses 4 through 9. We're gonna look at other parts of the passage, but we're gonna focus much of our attention on verses 4 through 9.
Connor Coskery:So listen carefully for this is God's word. Deuteronomy 6 verse 4. Hear, oh Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is 1. You shall love the lord your god with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
Connor Coskery:And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, 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 as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. This is the word of the Lord.
Connor Coskery:Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, I thank you for this morning and for gathering your people to worship you. In these moments, would you give us focus, understanding, and joy in the spirit to hear what you have for us? Would you capture our hearts with your love so that our lives and lives around us be changed for your glory?
Connor Coskery:And, lord, I pray as your servant that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart would be pleasing in your sight. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I pray. Amen. Each and every one of us is created with a desire to know about the world around us. We as humans, far more than any other creatures in the world, are capable of reflecting on the world, of remembering and interpreting our experiences.
Connor Coskery:Andy Crouch, in his book The Life That We're Looking For, he writes, and I quote, our desire for knowledge is matched only by the delight that comes when we find that the world does indeed make a kind of beautiful sense. Whether in the rhythm or in rhymes of a great poem or the mathematical elegance of the planet's orbits, we not only seek truth, but from time to time we feel sure that we found it. God has hardwired us to know. He's he's hardwired us to really know things. And one of the ways that we grow in our understanding of the world around us is by asking questions.
Connor Coskery:And one of the first questions that we begin asking, and if you have small children or if you've been around small children, you know exactly where I'm heading, is the question why. Why? There's a lot of amazing things about children, but one of the most amazing things is that we don't have to teach children to be curious. They just start asking why about everything. And it's a beautiful and it's a frustrating question.
Connor Coskery:It's frustrating because, if you're not careful, you could end up in a never ending vortex of succeeding wise. Why? Well, why about that? Why about that? Why about that?
Connor Coskery:The beauty of the question, however, is that children want to understand their world. They aren't numb or jaded to the beauty and glory and grandeur of the world around us like many of us. They want to know all about it. Many of their questions, in fact, they're prompted by us, from their parents, their grandparents, their babysitters, whoever they're around. They see us focusing on something and they want to know what's up.
Connor Coskery:To the growing mind, what we do and what we pay attention to, that conveys importance. As I mentioned, Deuteronomy is a series of sermons given by Moses to prepare God's people for the promised land. Moses knows that when they enter the promised land, that they're gonna be met with rival nations with a buffet of gods promising to satisfy their desire for pleasure, for joy, for power. And these sermons were essential to prepare God's people. But we need these reminders just as much now because our experience in the world isn't much different.
Connor Coskery:Each day, we wake up to an array of options promising to give us and meet us with our deepest longings of our hearts. Moses knows this and he calls us to pay attention to what is most important. He gives the shema, which is Hebrew for hear. This passage, it became the core confession of Judaism because in these verses, we're not just given a list of facts about God. We're not just given a list of information to believe in God in general, instead Moses gives us everything that we need to truly know God.
Connor Coskery:And we could do an entire sermon series on the first the 6 verses, those verses that we just read. But this morning, I want us to consider 2 primary ways that we can know God as highlighted in this passage. Two ways. So the first is that knowing God means loving him supremely. That's what we're gonna consider first.
Connor Coskery:Knowing God means loving him supremely. 2nd, knowing God means sharing his story. Knowing God means sharing his story. As I spent time studying these verses, I kept coming back to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 where the preacher, he reflects that God has put eternity into man's hearts. We've been hardwired with the desire to know God.
Connor Coskery:And I believe that if we listen to Moses' words, to love God, to share his story, then everything around us is gonna begin to change from the little question askers who keep bringing up the why to everything in between. So let's consider the first point. To know God means loving Him supremely. So let's look at verses 4 through 6. And we're gonna unpack these verse by verse because these words all are packed with meaning.
Connor Coskery:So verse 4. Hear, oh, Israel. The word hear, it means, it has two meanings. It means to listen, but it also means to do. Moses is grabbing Israel's attention right off the bat.
Connor Coskery:He's about to say something important and he it's gonna require them to listen, to interpret, and then put these words into action. Look at the second part. Hear, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is 1. Canaan, the promised land that they're about to enter, was polytheist, meaning that they, their communities, they worshiped many gods. It's estimated that, these communities worshiped upward to 230 4 different gods and they had to appease all of them.
Connor Coskery:They believed that they had to sacrifice their animals, their produce, and sometimes their children in order to make sure that they were in good standing with these gods. And Moses makes clear right from the jump, this is not who you are. God's people are monotheists. God's people have always worshiped one god, not many gods, one god. All the way back in Genesis, we read that in the beginning, god, not gods, God.
Connor Coskery:So from the start, to know God is to direct our devotion to the one Lord who was and is and is to come. And we can't brush past this just because we don't live in a world with 100 of gods. In Birmingham, Alabama, we might not call them gods, but we have a plethora of idols vying for our attention. God calls worship of anything other than him alone as idolatry. And idolatry can be defined as any time we take a thing and we elevate it to an ultimate thing.
Connor Coskery:These aren't always bad things. Oftentimes, they're a good thing that grows and mutates to gain powerful influence in our lives. In our day, they can be particularly dangerous because they can feel hidden and subtle and easily justifiable. Let's consider a few, for example, money. Money is often a powerful and all consuming idol.
Connor Coskery:The reason is you can never have enough and that there's always someone who has more than you. It puts you on that treadmill to keep wanting more, more, more. Reputation is another powerful idol. As it gains its stranglehold in your life, you're obsessed with how people perceive you. Perhaps the most insidious idol of our present age is the self where you are the sole determiner of what is true and real.
Connor Coskery:Whatever you feel, that is reality. That is what's true. Idols, they're like weeds in a garden. They just wanna keep growing, and as they exert their will, they choke out the beauty of what is happening, of what's going on there. And so if we're going to know God, we must start by forsaking those idols and we must weed out all of the seductive idols that are vying for our attention, vying for our love, vying for our hearts.
Connor Coskery:God demands that we worship him and him alone. This is the direction that our love must travel. Our love is designed for God. He hasn't designed us to give portions of ourselves. We must love him with everything.
Connor Coskery:We must love him supremely. So let's let's continue working through this verse. So here, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is 1. Verse 5. You shall love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Connor Coskery:And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. Anything less than wholehearted devotion and allegiance to God would lead to a shared allegiance, which is impossible. God will not share His glory. The Hebrew word used here for love has a deeper meaning than, just agreeance or dutiful obedience or romantic passion. Throughout the old testament, this verb is used to express the Lord's relationship with his people, often using strong metaphors about the family life and marriage.
Connor Coskery:And, with that, perhaps the close example that we have today to this type of love is the bride and the groom on their wedding day. At the altar, the man and woman, they make extravagant promises to love and stay with the other person through all of life's circumstances. Good, bad, rich, poor, sickness, health. And these promises aren't dependent on romantic passion. They're part of a bigger story than what is happening even in that moment.
Connor Coskery:The vows recited are rooted in a covenant that seeks the flourishing of the other person even, perhaps especially when sacrifice is necessary. And God does this with his people. God has covenanted himself to a people by his super superabundant and free grace. In the same way a bride and a groom promise to stay together through whatever life throws, God promises to never leave nor forsake his people. He doesn't simply tolerate us, but He delights in us as He holds us fast.
Connor Coskery:That's our God, and how, if that is our God and that is how he relates to us, that's how he loves us, how do we not respond by loving him with all of us? And isn't it incredible, as you look at this, that we're not just commanded to love God, but he's actually designed us to love him. He's created us to love him. We're created to express our love and devotion to God in a myriad of ways, spiritually, physically, emotionally, intellectually. But verse 5, it describes 3 ways in particular that God has designed us to love him.
Connor Coskery:Let's look at each word individually. Hearts. In Hebrew, the heart was regarded as the seat of the mind and will. It was the command center for all of our vital emotions. God created us to be driven and to be drawn by desire and emotion.
Connor Coskery:We pursue things that are beautiful, but we can also be moved to compassion by things that are vulnerable. To be human is to have a heart. You can't not love. The question isn't whether you will love something as ultimate. The question is what you will love as ultimate.
Connor Coskery:Created with souls. We have a depth of self that is uniquely ours. Once in a while, if we're lucky, we might even find someone that feels like our soul mate, someone who seems to instinctively understand the depths of us without us even having to say anything. Strength, might. The Hebrew word here is maod.
Connor Coskery:Say it with me. Maod. That was great. Okay. You're you're gonna see why this is one of my favorites.
Connor Coskery:But while this includes physical strength, it's not limited to that. It's perhaps translated as muchness. Our bodies, they're they're amazing. A person who trains their body diligently can acquire the gross motor skills to go out and, run an Ironman, complete a triathlon, but can also hone in fine motor skills to, to sew a sweater and to play the guitar or the violin. But if you really want to understand maod, muchness, then go downstairs and volunteer in the infant classroom or, the toddler classroom.
Connor Coskery:Babies, little ones, they have very little command over their bodies and very little, physical strength compared to full grown human beings. But babies, they excel in muchness. Everything that they do, they do physically, fully, and often exuberantly. When our hearts and souls and strengths, along with our mind, as Jesus would later say in Matthew 22, when all of those are engaged and in sync, we are experiencing what it truly means to be human. It's all of these working together that makes us a person.
Connor Coskery:When we read the Shema, it isn't meant to guilt trip you into doing more or trying harder. Like Caleb said, it's not meant to bootstrap us. It's not meant to say, okay, let's let's start getting to work. In a real way, Moses is simply calling us to return to the allness of how God created us. Author, counselor Paul David Tripp, he reflects on this call to wholeness by saying, and I quote, God created you with this capacity so that you would have what you need to live in a deeply loving, heart controlling, motivation producing, worship initiating, joy stimulating relationship with Him.
Connor Coskery:Your capacity to love was created for Him. Your desire to love was meant to draw you to Him. Your heart was designed to long for love, and that longing was meant to find its final and complete fulfillment in him, end quote. This is how we are created. You are created for relationship with him.
Connor Coskery:We should regularly take time to examine ourselves, to give ourselves a hard examination, to see where this isn't happening, to see where we're giving off portions of ourselves instead of worshiping God with the allness that he created us for. As I mentioned, the question isn't if, but what will you love as ultimate? If you're unsure of what that is, consider these questions. These questions to give yourself, a hard examination to see where you're at. What are you elevating to ultimate in your life?
Connor Coskery:It's a big question. It could be hard. It could take some time. What demands your respect above god? You look at your life, what is it that says, that's what I respect?
Connor Coskery:What competes for your joy? If you don't have that, everything comes crumbling. And similarly related, what are you afraid of that if you don't have that or if this happens, then everything is lost? If we want to know God, we must begin with loving him above all things. It's how we've been fearfully and wonderfully made, as the psalmist said.
Connor Coskery:And unlike the 10 commandments that were written on stone tablets, this command is meant to be etched on our hearts. It's meant to change us, but not only us. This love is meant to then overflow to those around us. One of the chief ways that we demonstrate our love for God is by sharing his story. So that takes us to our next point.
Connor Coskery:So knowing God means sharing his story. 1st, knowing God means loving him supremely. 2nd, knowing God means sharing his story. So we're gonna be looking at verses 7 onward through the rest of the passage. And throughout this the rest of this passage, Moses describes what it means to pass on this love, to help others to know God.
Connor Coskery:And I want you to notice that as we look at these verses and as you scan this passage that sharing God's story doesn't require an advanced degree. It's about the ordinary rhythms of everyday life, where we simply share what's most important to us, to those around us. So look at verses 7 through 9. This is where Moses provides us the starting point. So verse 7.
Connor Coskery:You shall teach them diligently to your children. You 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. Shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Now we live in a hyper individualistic society, So it's easy for us to read these words and immediately think about family devotions in our home with our kids or in, or even imagining your home growing up about, the times where you would have family worship.
Connor Coskery:And though important, that's not exactly what's going on here. Israel was a collectivist culture. This means that the goals of the community, they they trump the desires of the individual. Important tasks were meant to be group projects. So throughout these verses, all of the yous that you see, they're plural.
Connor Coskery:Meaning they could be translated as you all incorporating all of Israel. Imagine they're sitting in a room like this and all of them are then being incorporated into the conversation. Moses isn't abdicating the responsibility of the parents. He's not saying, hey, parents, you're off the you're off the hook now. Parents know their children in ways that, that the the community won't ever know, but what Moses is doing is he's broadening the vision for passing on the faith.
Connor Coskery:He's extending it out. It's not only up to the parents. The entire community is called to help raise children who worship and love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and strength. This is the way God's people are intended to function, and unfortunately, this ideal doesn't happen. Israel's story is littered with them not living into this mission, failing over and over again.
Connor Coskery:And we aren't much better off. Even in good churches. It's not uncommon for, youth or kids ministry to take place in the church building but be entirely disconnected from the life of the church family. And, that's problematic because it, it can be dangerous for children not to get a picture of what it looks like to participate in the covenant family. They're totally isolated.
Connor Coskery:And that's not to mention that the the members in the family are all fractured by the curse of sin. Even the healthiest families are broken. Where, at best, the priorities might just be misplaced and, participating in the in the life of the church is an afterthought or at worst it can become unnecessary. There's a plethora of choices. There's many, many different ways that parents and children can enjoy life away from the church.
Connor Coskery:But this way of living isn't the vision of the Shema. Remember, the Shema is calling us into allness. The Shema calls you and me regardless of life stage to fully participate in the family of God. Families need the community. The community needs families.
Connor Coskery:And when I'm saying families, don't if you're if you're single in the room, don't, think that, I'm not mentioning you. I'm talking about all of us together in this room regardless of, married, single, whatever. We're all called to participate. So what does this relationship look like? What Moses is trying to get at here where both the parents, the family, and the community are leaning into their shared responsibility to pass on the faith?
Connor Coskery:Well first, for parents, perhaps grandparents or caregivers, it looks like this, and these are gonna be dramatically simple. It means teaching God's word to your kids. It means talking about your faith with kids and how it expresses itself in everyday life. It means modeling repentance, grace and forgiveness within your marriage and within your friendships and your other relationships. It means praying for your kids.
Connor Coskery:It means praying with your kids. Sometimes this happens in scheduled times, but most of what is being described in these verses is about infusing a love for God in the ordinary moments of life. It's about living life in such a way that when kids look back on their life, they can't help but notice that God was just always there. You know, that's that's something that, you'll often hear from me as a youth minister. I tell our kids, I, my desire for your kids, I tell their families and them, my desire for you is that when you get older and you're asked to share your testimony that you pause for a moment and you say, well, I've just never really known a day without Jesus.
Connor Coskery:That is a beautiful testimony. The nuclear family, the the the traditional family structure, that that that plays an essential role in helping pass along the faith. But we can't simplify these verses to only emphasize family devotions and family worship times, even though those are important. We can't do that because that's not everyone's reality. In the United States alone, the poverty rate for children is nearly 17%.
Connor Coskery:In our neighboring state of Mississippi, that rate is up to 27%. Kids living in poverty. Not to mention that the percentage of children growing up in a traditional family structure is in an all time low according to Pew Research. If all the responsibility falls on the nuclear family, then there's a lot of children who might never hear about the Lord. And that is where God's people step up and step in.
Connor Coskery:So the community, just like the parents and the grandparents' caregivers, the community supports the family by inviting children into your home for meals, for play. Simple things. It's modeling a grace filled environment that's safe and loving. That does incredible things for preparing the soil for seeds of faith. It means teaching in the children's ministry or mentoring a group of a small group of teenagers in the youth ministry.
Connor Coskery:It means, parents in the youth ministry seeing each other as partners instead of competitors. Maybe it looks like serving at Monday night ministry, seeking ways to care for children without a stable home. That might look like, participating in a mentoring program like Aspire or taking classes to become foster parents. One of my, one of the favorite books in our family's home, is it's called Meg is Not Alone. It's by Megan Hill and it tell tells a true story of when she was a little girl.
Connor Coskery:And it's a picture book and it tells, the story when Meg's parents accidentally left her at church. And, that makes her feel scared. But the story is how Meg is not alone. The story's about various people in the church who stay with her until her dad returns and these church friends, they care for her by giving her things like tissues and cookies and storybooks. And by the end of the story, she has actually gone from being a scared little girl to becoming a church friend to others in the church.
Connor Coskery:Another example that came to mind, was from a few weeks ago, Redeemer finished up VBS. And if you're if you're unfamiliar with how VBS works, lots of energy, lots of kids. The kids come in. They're they're divvied up into small groups and they're guys and girls, and each group has a leader called a crew leader. And based on the needs, one of our girls groups was short a leader.
Connor Coskery:And so, David Foster, he stepped up and instead of leading a group of little boys, he led the pink pogo sticks, and it was incredible. If you know David, David is, full of life, very boisterous, and he brought the energy every day and he helped these little girls grow to to love Jesus more and more and more. And he and I were talking about this and he he even reflected back on his own VBS experience, and he's like, look, I didn't I didn't become a Christian until I was in high school, but I went to VBS every year when I was, small. And he's like, I look back and I see how those prayers and how those crew leaders, how they invested me in me when I was a little boy, how that prepared the way for me to come to know Jesus later in life. These are beautiful, simple examples about the community of faith rising up to our calling.
Connor Coskery:Whether it's handing out snacks, changing diapers, teaching the bible, or leading the pink pogo sticks, every person here, you have a part to play. We all have a part to play to helping one another, the little ones below us. We all have a part to to play to help us grow to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, and strength. A church must be a diverse, intergenerational, supportive, and hope filled community that shares God's story in life together. Now jump with me to verse 20.
Connor Coskery:So we're gonna go from, from from verse 9, we're gonna jump all the way down to verse 20. Verse 20 says, when your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the lord lord our god has commanded you? Back to the questions. Moses knows that the questions are forthcoming. He anticipates that the kids are gonna be curious about why their community loves the Lord in a certain way, why they look radically different than the world around them.
Connor Coskery:And notice what Moses doesn't say. He doesn't say because God says so. Instead, he uses this question as an opportunity to invite them into their story. They were once slaves in Egypt, but God rescued them through signs and wonders in the blood of a spotless lamb. The lord, he protected, he preserved, he redeemed his people taking them from the domain of death and to the land of the living.
Connor Coskery:There's still this tension in this passage. This should be a no brainer, but Moses knows that it's not going to be easy. This whole middle portion, verses 10 through 19, Moses is pleading with Israel. He's just given them these commands to love the lord your god with all your heart, soul, and strength and to teach them diligently to your children, and then he pleads with Israel to remember all that the lord has done. And there's this haunting phrase that is repeated over and over again, that you did not.
Connor Coskery:You're about to enter the land, Moses says, and inhabit cities that you did not build. Live in houses that you did not fill. Drink from cisterns that you did not dig. Enjoy vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. He knows what's gonna happen.
Connor Coskery:They're gonna get to the promised land, become enamored with everything that's around them, and they're gonna forget. And here's the tragedy. Sin causes all of us in some way, to forget our story and turn our backs on the love of God. Our disposition is to give supreme devotion to someone or something else. We seek to have our hearts filled with something other than God.
Connor Coskery:We love the creature over the creator. We love other people more than we love God. We love ourselves so much that we have little energy to love the one who is love. We live our lives running from thing to thing hoping that our hearts will be content only to be left empty. Israel's story is our story.
Connor Coskery:Slaves under the tyranny of sin and in need of rescue. And from the moment sin entered the world in Genesis 3, the Bible has been an unfolding drama that looks like it's going to end in tragedy, but then Jesus came. You are designed to know God and God makes himself knowable to us in Jesus. Jesus is the better lamb who takes away the sins of the world. The one who is love enters our world to take our judgment, to absorb our death.
Connor Coskery:Jesus overwhelms our weak and feeble love with his great love. We don't earn it. We can't achieve it. And our lives are filled with an endless amounts of we did not, but God did. This love, it can't be mustered apart from the work of the holy spirit inside us.
Connor Coskery:If we're ever going to love God with all of our hearts, souls, and strength, we need the holy spirit to take our divided hearts and to give us new hearts that long to love and know the Lord. The work of the spirit, the commands of the lord, they are fully and finally etched on our hearts. Jesus, he rewrites our tragic story and he infuses it with joy and redemption, giving it an even better ending than we could ever imagine where God gives us all of himself and he wants us to have all of him. If you believe that this morning, that is your story. And you need your your heart needs to regularly revisit it and to be told that story.
Connor Coskery:And if you don't believe that this morning, that can be your story. And even still, the story is still being written. Because we're gonna continue to walk imperfectly and stumbling, but as we do that, we are walking ever closer to the destinations our hearts most long for. The new heavens and the new earth where God's people will finally and fully be with their God. And the great glorious mystery of the gospel will be pronounced over all of us.
Connor Coskery:Hear these words. I'm gonna finish with these. Hear these words from Moses in just the next chapter. Everything that we've just read, what we're gonna read, if you look over to chapter 7 verses, 6 through 8. This is who you are.
Connor Coskery:For you are a people holy to the lord your God. The lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession. Out of all the peoples who were on the face of the earth, it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you are the fewest of all peoples, But it's because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery. Treasured possession. That's our story.
Connor Coskery:That's your story. Let's pray. Lord, give us faith to know you, to love you, and to pass on this story to all who need to hear, perhaps most chiefly, our own hearts. We love you, Jesus. We pray this in your name.
Connor Coskery:Amen.
