Skip to content Marching Orders for Greatness Feb 25 · 55 min ...more
Marching Orders for Greatness
February 25, 2025 · 55 min
John Mark emphasizes the need for men to understand their theology, express passion for their faith, and take an active role in teaching both their children and the next generation.
Series "Men's Breakfast" with John Mark Caton February 25, 2025 · 55 min · "Men's Breakfast" with John Mark Caton
John Mark emphasizes the need for men to understand their theology, express passion for their faith, and take an active role in teaching both their children and the next generation. ...more Show the full description Show less John Mark emphasizes the need for men to understand their theology, express passion for their faith, and take an active role in teaching both their children and the next generation.
Series "Men's Breakfast" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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101K followers
John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
101K followers
Understanding the Shema and Its Relevance 0:02 Welcome to Men's Breakfast with John Mark Keaton. Join us as John Mark shares his insights with other men in his ministry rooted in the timeless truths of the gospel. Today's message will encourage you to0:14 inspire, inform, and invest in the lives of others. This is men's breakfast with your host, John Mark Caton.0:23 How are you doing this morning? Good. Oh, come on. How are you doing this morning? There we go. That's getting a little better. Y'all seem a little down, but let's get it up a little bit. I wanna invite you. Turn0:35 back in your bibles. We've been walking through the book of Deuteronomy. We're gonna be in Deuteronomy chapter 6 today. If you wanna turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6, an incredible passage, that we really wanna look0:47 at and dig in, dive into, today that, is actually not only was it significant in the lives of the Jews in, in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament,0:59 but it also is, it's real powerful even in their lives today. And I'll tell you why here in a second. Deuteronomy chapter 6, there is a passage, that we're gonna look at today in Deuteronomy chapter 61:10 verse 4 to 9. It's called the Shema. Some people call it the Shema. It is, really a core passage, in Jewish thought, in Jewish1:22 prayers, and in everything that you see. As a matter of fact, they still pray this every day. How many of you are familiar with Orthodox Jews? You know, you're familiar you've seen the Orthodox Jews. They're the ones1:34 that wear the hat. They have the traditional Jewish garb. They usually have, the locks. The men have the locks. And then we're gonna even look at it today as we read it, that they have the phylacteries that,1:46 the box that they put on their head and the box they put on their arm and the straps on their arm. It is all about this passage, but really you say what's in those boxes? It is a combination of 3 different passages.1:58 This being the primary 1. They have it written out, and they put it in the phylactery on their forehead and on their arm, as well as the strap. And over the years, this became the core Jewish2:10 passage to memorize and to pray in the morning and pray in the evening. But they added 2 more. 1 of them we will hit get to in a couple of weeks in Deuteronomy chapter 11.2:22 And then the other 1 is numbers chapter 15. If you just want to put those down as a note and go read those today, we will hit Deuteronomy chapter 11, in a couple of weeks. But in that, they thought that if2:34 they prayed pretty much these 3 passages, Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 to 9, which is the core 1, and then these other 2 from Deuteronomy chapter 11 and Deuteronomy and Numbers chapter 15, that they would feel2:45 like they have prayed the entirety of the law. Basically not every word of it, not all 6 13 commands that you could find in the Torah the first 5 books of the Bible,2:57 but the essence of the law is found in those and then they said okay not only is the essence of the law found in those, but if you pray those 3 passages each and every day if you have them close to3:09 your mind and on your arm, that you will have definitely covered the entirety of the 10 Commandments. And I think it's interesting if you want to know, today,3:21 there there used to be back back in the 19 thirties or forties, the highest concentration of Orthodox Jews was not actually found in Israel.3:32 It's found in New York City. There were more Orthodox Jews in New York City than anywhere in the world, any other city in the world. Then then the state of Israel was developed and now you have, New York3:44 City is number 2, Israel being number 1. That there's more Orthodox Jews in, in Israel now than there are in New York City. That's probably a good thing. But interestingly enough and this I think3:56 applies to us as well. If you ask, go over to Israel, ask the general population. The general population of Israelis4:08 do not hold Orthodox Jews in high standing. As a matter of fact, a lot of normal Jewish people in Israel hate4:20 the Orthodox Jews. You wanna know what? Yeah. You wanna know what? They don't do anything. They don't do anything. They don't do anything. They don't have to join the4:32 army. Everybody, every every adult male, when you get our adult person, men and women, you have to I think when you hit 18 or 19 you have to go spend time in the Jewish army. Guess who does it?4:44 If you're orthodox Jews, you don't. As a matter of fact right now if you follow, politics in Israel, there is a big push to basically take that right away from the orthodox Jews and say listen,4:56 fight just like the rest of us. You want to know another reason why? They're not liked. The men don't do anything. That's actually kind of a good gig. The wife does all the5:07 work. The wife does all the work. She goes to work. She makes some money. What does the dude do? He goes out and hunt out with dude. It'd be like all of here. Let's say we were Orthodox Jews. Okay.5:19 Here's what you and I would do all day. We would hang out here. We would talk about the Bible. We'd go play sand volleyball. We'd come back in here and pray and we'd pray some prayers and our wives would be working. Now5:30 how many of you think that's kind of a cool gig? Right? She's got to take care of the kids. She's got to work make all the money. She's got to do her job and then what happens is when I get through with all my all my5:41 Orthodox friends all of us get through doing all of our good stuff fun stuff then we go play basketball after lunch and we come back in and study the Bible a little bit more. And then our wives would come home. We'd say,5:52 you got to get ready, get the kids ready, and then we're gonna go out to eat. And so Orthodox Jews are not well liked by other Jews because they6:04 see them as lazy, and they see them all they care about is their own personal memorize memorization of God's word. Now take that and apply that to us.6:16 We don't ever want to be the kind of person that all we do is surround ourselves with other people who are just like us, and we spend all of our time reading the Bible. I'm not you say6:28 that to the pastor. You're saying it's not good to read the Bible. No. I'm saying it is good to read the Bible, but read all of it. The part that you need to go work for your food. That you need to go reach someone else6:38 for Christ. You don't just Orthodox Jews sit down and look down on all the other Jews. They think they're the most spiritual ones. But more importantly, we don't want to be the kind of men that men that we6:50 withdraw from society. Because guess what? Who's going to have the greatest impact on either holding back evil in the society or bringing the light.7:02 It's the dudes that are sitting in this room and if we pull ourselves out of society, if we cloister up and there are a lot of people within Christian circles today. It's really7:14 a big trend is is to say you know the church we're different. Yeah, we are different. Because we come together, we worship, we pray, we confess our sins and there are there are great. But then we go7:26 out and as Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. And so when we come to this passage in the, the Shema,7:37 man, the Jews pray this a combination of these 3 passages, Deuteronomy 6, Deuteronomy 11, numbers 15, in the morning and in the evening. Orthodox Jews7:49 pray it all day, study the Torah all day, talk about the Torah all day, but they don't truly impact society. You're either born into it or you're not. And so8:01 guys, what we want to do is we want to be the kind of men that come in, we study a passage like this for the sole purpose of it in encouraging us and empowering us to be salt and8:13 light as we leave this place. Does that make sense? And so let's just read Deuteronomy chapter 6. Let's read it together. This is called the Shema. Here's what it says. Says, hear o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is8:25 1. He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart. This is Moses talking to the children of Israel before they go into the promised land. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,8:37 with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Verse 7, Impress them upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the8:49 road, when you lie down and when you get up. Then here are the words, these were the phylacteries come in. He says tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the9:01 door frames of your houses and on your gates. The biggest mistake that I see churches, Christians make when they9:13 come to the Shema is found basically as you look up there in verse 7. We have a tendency to ignore the rest of this passage and think this only9:25 applies to us teaching our children. If you go look in an orthodox setting, an orthodox Jewish setting, it's not just about teaching their kids. It is a bunch of9:36 adult men studying God's Word. My guess is, every time you've heard this passage preached in a Christian9:48 church by you, the first thing that they talked about is, now let's talk about how we disciple our kids. How many of you know what I'm talking about? That is not the primary purpose of this passage.10:00 That's not the primary purpose. This is 1 purpose of this passage, but it's not the only purpose of this passage. And I'm gonna give you 5 thoughts that the Jewish mind sees when they see this and see how10:12 they apply to us. So, the next time you come to this passage, maybe if you're in there and you hear someone say, Hey, we're gonna go to the Shema, it is the 1 that teaches us to disciple our kids. You go, Yes, it talks10:23 to us about disciplining our kids, but it says way more to the adult man than it does about our child. Because if we don't do the other 4 things, we will never be able to do the 1 thing that is talked about in10:35 this passage and press them on our kids. Does that make sense? So I'm gonna talk to you, we're gonna walk through this verse by verse and see the 5 things that the Shema talks about to us about,10:46 challenges us for. Just 1 of the 5 things is to impress them on our children. Now, I also want you to know there are probably some men in this room that when we get to10:58 this passage, the verse verse 7, this says impress them on their children. My guess is there's gonna be some discouragement in the room. That that there are some men here11:10 that wish you had a do over with your kids. That you think, well, yeah, that ship has sailed. Anybody in here kind of feel that way. Right? Don't we all?11:22 I can tell you as your pastor, let me just kind of let me just kind of share this with you as your pastor. I wish I had a do over. I wish I had a do over. I wish I could go11:34 back, slow down a little bit, and redisciple my kids, re impress upon my kids. But I also wanna tell you, as we move towards that verse, let the cloud of11:46 guilt and the cloud of discouragement over whether you did a good job or didn't do a good job on your own kids go away. Because in this11:58 passage, when we get to verse 7, I'm gonna tell you how you can still do it today. Alright? And we're gonna see it through God's word because there's no doubt as I as I talk to to men,12:10 so many of them say, man, I just wish I could've I wish I could do it over. Because because a lot of us, in a lot of ways, we we developed an American cultural mindset12:22 of how do we disciple our kids. Well, we turn them over to the professionals. Who are the professionals? Well, they're Dave Marsh. Alright. They're the12:34 church. So I take them to church on Sundays, or I take them to church on Wednesdays. I turn them over to the professionals. The professionals are going to get them all the spiritual growth that they need and guess what?12:45 That's not enough, right? What do we do if your kid's really good at gymnastics or soccer? What do you do? My guess is I look around this room. You probably don't need to teach your daughter12:57 gymnastics. I'm just looking. I'm just it's just a quick I'm just looking. I'm thinking you need to turn them over to the professional. Right? Or maybe it's baseball or it's soccer or whatever it13:09 is. New music. Maybe you turn them over to the professional. But I want you to understand this that when it comes to religious training and religious teaching in God's word. Yes.13:21 You need them to show up as much as possible. But I want you to know 2 hours a week's not gonna cut it. I'll say that again, 2 hours a week is not going13:33 to cut it. If some if some little girl is going to be fantastic in gymnastics, what is the average amount of time they spend at gymnastics every week? Somebody know anybody have a daughter or granddaughter that13:45 is? A long time. It's how many could can they be top quality go to college 2 hours a week? Okay. If you have a son that is a fantastic13:57 baseball player and you'd love for him to play at the next level and yeah, can he get it done in 2 hours a week? No. Volleyball, whatever. Do you understand what I'm saying? Some music. It's hours a14:09 week. It's hours a week. Alright? You look back and you say, man, if I had it to do over again, I would do it differently. So understand, man, you need to make if you have a child or a grandchild and that's part of the14:20 blessing that's gonna come along, that you need to make sure that your kids are at least in God's house being taught God's word at least 2 hours a week. But what happens14:32 a lot of times, we see churches optional, but we want our kids to turn out to be good. And so we show up. What is the average? You know, you always track this. What's the average church attendance that they consider a14:44 regular attendance these days? 1.71 0.7 times a month. The average the the, the attendance of the regular14:56 attender, it's the 1 they the person says, I'm a church going person, is 1.7 times a month. Now, what does that mean? That we15:08 take Sundays off a lot, don't we? So we can go hunting or we can go to sports or we can travel or a lot of times now, it's so we can go see our kid get better at15:19 baseball or volleyball or soccer. Now before you say, pastor, are you bagging on sports? How many of you were here when I was15:31 raising my kids? I am passionate about sports. And I will tell you, if my son's on a team or my daughters were on a team, we kept score. Do you understand?15:44 I guarantee when my daughters and sons were 4, they may not have kept score, but I knew who won and so did my kids. No. They didn't keep score on that, but y'all won that game. Alright? And so we need to understand,15:56 hey, we need to take and apply the same mindset if we're gonna make our child or grandchild or something like that good at gymnastics, baseball, soccer, volleyball, music, whatever16:08 it is, poetry. We need to take the same mindset that 2 hours a week isn't gonna get it. We also definitely need to take the mindset that16:19 1.7 times a month isn't going to get it. It isn't going to get it. So let's begin to walk through. Let me give you 5 thoughts from the Shema and let you understand this is16:31 not just about discipling your kids. It's way more. Here's thought number 1 and I'm gonna show you where your 4 is found in is here's what it says, verse verse 4 tells us, thought number 1 from16:43 the Shema. You and I have to know our theology. We have to know our theology. Look at what it says in verse 4. He says here O Israel the Lord our16:55 God the Lord is 1. Hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is 1. It starts by knowing your theology. As a matter of fact, if you fast forward17:06 to the New Testament, remember when Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment? And he responded, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself. How many remember that?17:16 Just mark this down in your notes. A lot of people skip over the words. Go read it in Mark chapter 12. Most people skip over the fact that Jesus started the response with,17:28 Here, O Israel. He started by reminding them of the Shema. See they were saying which is the greatest commandment? So the 613 laws that are found in the Torah, which is17:40 the greatest commandment? And he started with the first word of the Shema. That by the way, the first word Shema, the Shema in Hebrew. Anybody know what it means? It simply means here.17:52 The the Shema means here. That's what the word means. And so Jesus started in Mark chapter 12 the response to what is the greatest commandment by saying, Here, O Israel, you are to love the Lord your God with all your18:04 heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. He started by reminding the Jews of the Shema, and he says, and here. And he says, the first thing you better know is you better know18:13 your theology. You better know who God is. So here are some things. Here are some thoughts. What does every man in this room need to know? Okay. Let me just put in the core basics. You just might wanna write this18:25 down. Alright? You need to know who God is. You need to know who God is. That starts right here in verse 1. There is 1 God. He is the18:37 creator of the universe. He is the 1 that put all the stars in the skies. There is in the sky there is 1 God all the universes that have ever been created. In the beginning, God created the heavens and18:49 the earth. There's 1 God. Alright? Now as you look through the old testament Isaiah says, God and Isaiah says, listen. I am God and there is no other. The God we serve is not 1 of many.19:01 See, because Moses was telling them you're about to go into the promised land. And we have this 1 God, the creator God, the 1 who spoke the world into existence. You're going to be surrounded by other pagans who have all19:12 these little gods that they think are angry at them, they sacrifice their kids to. We don't serve that God. So know your theology. Now as you develop that theology, go through God's word. Not only is there 119:23 God, there's 3 in 1. This 1 God is made up of of of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We need to know that. Alright? We have to know our theology.19:35 You say, oh my goodness. How can I defend the Trinity when the word Trinity is not in the Bible? How many were here a couple of weeks ago when I preached on the rapture? And a lot of19:47 people said, Well, I don't believe in a rapture because it's not in the Bible. Why is it not in the Bible? Because you have the wrong Bible. Because none of you are reading out of the Latin Vulgate. The word rapture was19:58 the ecclesiastical language of the Western church for a long time, and that's where the word rapture came from. The word Trinity is in20:10 that same Latin Vulgate. It means that God is a tri unity. Does that make sense? There is 3 in 1. We need to understand that and someone says show me that in the Bible. Well,20:22 you can go all the way back to the creation story. It says not only did God create the world, but you just continue to read about the creation. It says in the spirit of the God hovered over the earth. Oh, so we've got a20:33 God that is definitely God the creator, but we also have a spirit of God. Fast forward to the New Testament. You have Jesus being baptized, right? Jesus being baptized. The Father said what? This is my son in whom I'm20:45 well pleased. Jesus is the Son. And it says the Holy Spirit descent. Right there you have 3 in 1. We have a great commission. A great commission go make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father,20:57 the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Guys, you need to know your theology. Who is God? Secondly, you need to know who Jesus is. But what did Paul say in Colossians? He says, all the fullness21:09 of deity, the Godhead, dwelt in him in bodily form. You need to know who Jesus is. So once they say, boy, Jesus was a great teacher. He was just a good man. Or that21:21 Jesus became a man when He was so good and maybe at the baptism of Jesus, He became God. You go no no no no because21:33 John 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then verse 14 of John chapter 1 says, And that Word who was with God, who was God, became what?21:46 Flesh and dwelt among us. Did Jesus become God at the baptism? No. Was Jesus marked out and affirmed at21:58 his baptism by the trinity? Absolutely. God the father said, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. Go back to the old test. Jesus born of a virgin. Alright? His father was the heavenly father.22:11 Mary was the earthly mother. Does that make sense? We need to know our theology. You know who is God? Defend the trinity. Who is Jesus? Fully God, fully man. Who's the Holy Spirit? We need to know that. You need to know22:21 that. Go to John chapter 14, John chapter 16, several other places. Ephesians chapter 1. The Holy Spirit is the 1 when Jesus was comforting his disciples. In John chapter 14,22:33 Jesus is the 1 that said, listen, I'm gonna go to the father, and they were discouraged. And he looked at him and he said, it's better that I go so I can send another 1, the22:45 comforter to you. Why? Because as long as Jesus let me let's just ask this. Let's say Jesus has stayed in the flesh.22:57 Alright? Jesus would be 1 with 1 group of men today. Why? Because his flesh only allowed that. But right now, since Jesus has gone to the Father and he has sent the Holy Spirit, and23:09 by the way, the word another when he says, I will send you another 1. There are 2 Greek words for the word another. 1 another is another of a different kind. 1 another is the very same essence.23:21 Jesus said, Go to the Father. I will send you another 1. He used the another that means of the very same kind as me. So that's why we can sit here and read God's word and there could be 50 other men's group meeting today23:33 and guess what? Jesus is with all of those men through the Holy Spirit. Does that make sense? And not only that, the Holy Spirit seals every believer until the day of redemption.23:45 So, you need to know who God is. You need to know who Jesus is. You need to know who the Holy Spirit is. But, I'll give you another 1. You need to know what salvation is. The theology of salvation23:58 is by grace, the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, not as a result of works. You need to know that. And you need to defend that. So when24:10 someone begins to start talking about man, you know, they're living such a life, they're gonna lose their salvation, or they're probably not gonna have their salvation. Man, you can sit here and go, no no no no no.24:19 Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. If they have faith in Jesus Christ, even when they sin, they don't lose their salvation. And you say, well, so you're telling me they can do anything they can't they24:30 wanna do? I'm telling you that the spirit of God would convict them and not let them do that if they were truly a Christian. See a lot of times the debate is not whether they lose their salvation. Did they ever have it?24:41 Does that make sense? That's where we need to look at. Think of think of 1 of the most vivid illustrations in all of God's Word about a person who ran the wrong way. How many remember the story of the24:52 prodigal son? Remember? He ran away. He lived a crazy life. He spent all of his money. He had the wrong friends. He had all the sin in his life, and then all of a sudden he came back.25:04 See, if you think he lost his salvation out there, I'm gonna tell you no. Was he ever even in his worst moment as far away from the father as he possibly could have been,25:16 was there ever a time when the prodigal son was not the father's son? He was not in fellowship with the father, does that make sense? He was not in good standing with25:28 the father, but guess what? He was still the father's son. So once you are saved you can drift off into doing sin and living in sin. Now, if you25:40 never come back that's the debate. Did you ever have salvation? Now, we don't want to be the kind of people to walk around try to judge people. Well, I think he's probably in. Well, I think she's probably out. I think25:52 he's in. I think he's out. That that's not who we want to live out. What do we want? If someone claims that they're a Christian, come act like it. And if they never act like it, they probably say26:04 they leave. What did John say in the end of the Bible? He says, you know they went out from us to demonstrate they were not ever of us. You read that passage? See they didn't lose their salvation.26:16 They just, by their ongoing lifestyle of sin and separation from God's Word and God's people, proved that they didn't lose their salvation. They proved they never had it. Alright? So that's what we I mean, those are just26:28 some core elements. Man, if you just want to know, man, what do I need to know? I would I would dig in on the Trinity. Who is God? Who is Jesus? Who is the Holy Spirit? And how does26:40 salvation happen? If you can nail those 4 core elements, then I would add God's word. Man, give me the theology of God's word. What how do I support the fact that God's word is an inspired God God's word? So,26:51 the Shema first and foremost tells the children of Israel, know your theology. Know your God, and know how your God differentiates27:03 from gods of other pagan religions. Know how our God is different than the Muslim God. Know how our God is different than the Hindu God. Know how our God is different than the other pagan gods. Why? Because it's27:15 important if we're gonna stay faithful and true to him that we know our theology. Number 2 just in the next verse. Have some dadgum passion about your faith. Alright? Have some passion27:27 about your faith. You say where do you see this? Look at the verse 5. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your strength. Man, we need to be all in.27:39 We are we are so passionate about so many things. I just want to encourage you, have some passion about your dadgum faith. May God look down at you27:51 and shockingly, he even looked down at me and said, he's not gonna turn out to be much, but I love him with an everlasting love so much so that I'm gonna send my son to die on28:03 the cross for his sins. And so, that's why in that verse, it says, love the Lord your God with all your mind, all your soul, and with all your strength. That's it. I was googling just what are28:15 men passionate about? Last night I was just googling what are the top 10 things men are passionate about? What are the top 10 things men are passionate about? And I was getting all these lists and I was just kind of28:26 combining them together. Just y'all start telling me, other than your faith, that's what we're all gonna leave here passionate about our faith. Or I'm gonna kick you in the spiritual behind, but what do you think men are28:38 passionate about? Just start throwing out some words. Somebody. Football. Sports. Sports was on the list. Football. Politics. Politics. On the list. Work. Cars. Someone say28:49 cars. Cars, automobiles, motorcycles, something that we can go fast in or we can be nostalgic about. We're passionate about that. Somebody give me something else.29:02 Women. I didn't Google that. I was afraid of what the images might show me. But I'm sure there are plenty of them. Yes. Yes. Lusting, passion29:14 about there's something else. What? Hunting. Hunting was on the list. Killing something. And I want you to know, it's okay to29:26 kill something in Jesus name. Alright? So I'm not anti killing things. Alright? I'm not anti shooting guns. Alright? Let me just kind of give you the list and basically everybody had a little bit different list. There29:36 were 21 things being men. 1 had hundred and 73 things men are passionate about. I will tell you that's bull. We're not smart enough to have that many hobbies. I can tell you that. Let me give you the 10 as29:48 you just kind of merge them together. Sports, cars, motorcycles, working out, physical fitness, men are passionate about that. Technology and gadgets. Alright? A lot of men. They just30:00 got gadgets. How many of you are a gadget dude? You're a gadget dude. Music. What's interesting as I read music, Christian music wasn't on the list that men were passionate about.30:12 Eighties rock and country music. Those are the 2 things we get all passionate about. Our career, our power, our prestige. Alright? Politics, hunting, money.30:24 Money drives a lot of men. And number 10, some dudes apparently, if you look in the list, I was shocked. Food. We are passionate about our food. How many of you in here you you you30:36 love to cook on a grill? You love to slow smoke? You you ever walked in to, like, a Christmas party? This happens every year when Gina and I visit about 42 Christmas parties that that I'll come in and say, man, that's30:47 good. And they'll say, hey, Billy Bob over there. He's the 1 that smoked that brisket. You go over and talk to Billy Bob about the brisket. Guess what? About the time it took him to cook the brisket is about time he30:58 finishes telling you how he cooked it. Right? Right? You ever anybody ever been around that? And I'm looking at my ADD minds going, Yeah, that's why I can't cook brisket. I'd lose interest after about 30 minutes.31:10 Right? Does that mean Guys, be passionate about your faith. Man, show up to God each and every day and say, God, I'm with you. Remember what I finished with last week?31:21 Where Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 4 said, don't ever forget the Lord is near. Man, if he's right here with you, be passionate about your faith. Man, we we oftentimes can lose our31:33 passion. Think about your marriage. You say, when do I get when do I lose my passion? It's when I get satisfied. When I get enough money that I'm satisfied31:45 or get enough fame that I'm satisfied, or I get enough of this. Don't we see this from time to time in sports figures? That they are so good until what? They31:57 get the big contract. Anybody ever seen that happen? And then all of a sudden, it's like, I don't want to get hurt. I've got all of this money. I don't want to get hurt. Man, and what happens? They get satisfied.32:09 What happens in our marriages a lot of times is we will pursue our wife, we'll date our wife, we don't need to sleep, we don't need to eat, we don't need to do anything. I'm all about bringing flowers, I'm all about32:20 this. Then what happens, I land the girl, I get her married, and then I get satisfied. Satisfaction will kill us guys. My prayer is that you are not32:31 satisfied where you are spiritually. Man, I want you to have some passion about saying listen, I'm ready to take the next step with God. I'm gonna take the next step in serving God and being faithful to God. Why?32:43 We are to love the Lord our God with all. Don't raise your hand. But I will tell you me, John Mark, do you love God with all your heart?32:56 No, I don't. Do I love God with more of my heart today than I did yesterday? Hopefully. What about 10 years ago? Way more33:07 than I love God 10 years ago or 20 years ago or 30 years ago. But do I love God with all my heart? If you say yes,33:21 your Because it's always a journey. Do you love him with all your strength? Probable. Do you love God? He33:33 says man love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all of your strength. Don't get satisfied. Jump down in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 10. Let me show33:45 you the satisfaction problem. Here it is. Look at it in verse 10. This is Moses. He he starts with the Shema on top and you can just read the rest of Deuteronomy chapter 6 and it's an explanation of what he said in the33:56 first few verses. Pick it up verse 10. He says when the Lord your God brings you into land. He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you the land, a land with large flourishing cities34:08 that you did not build. Houses filled with all kinds of goods that you did not provide. Wells you did not dig. And vineyards and olive groves you did not plant. And then when34:20 you eat and are satisfied. Be careful. Did you get that? What are the children of Israel wanted forever? I want to get to the promised land.34:32 They've been in slavery. They want to get to the promised land. Then what did God say? Immediately he says, through Moses, he says, listen. Be careful when you get into the promised land because you're gonna have houses34:42 you did not build, filled with things that you not did not buy. And he goes, You're gonna have vineyards that you did not plant. Be careful. Very careful. Why? He says, You34:54 might be satisfied. So, I think that's just, that's the counterintuitive argument of the Shema, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul. When you35:06 get to a place in your spiritual journey, where you've got a nice little spiritual house, don't get satisfied. When you get to your place in a spiritual journey, when you've got all the stuff in your house that you want,35:17 you feel like God has blessed you with enough, don't get satisfied. Man, when you have all the blessings of the olive fields and the fig trees that you did not plant, don't get satisfied. He says, but be careful that35:28 you do not forget the Lord your God. Listen, we surround ourselves with everything we want, we have a tendency to forget what God wants. How many of us understand that? When we35:40 get to a place and we surround ourselves with everything we've always wanted, we have a tendency to forget what God wants from us. What does God35:52 want from us? For us to love Him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our strength. And so Moses warns them right there. Listen, when we get into the land, be careful.36:05 Be careful. Stay passionate. Know your theology. Here's number 3. Let's just pick it up. 3. Don't ever forget God's commands. Don't ever forget God's commands.36:17 And don't ever negate God's commands with God's grace. Lot of talk. I'm a big fan of grace. I want you to know. Don't say don't don't walk out here saying the pastor doesn't like grace. I love grace. But36:29 we live in a culture that wants to reject the commands and focus only on God's grace. But notice what Moses tells him in verse 6. He says, these commandments I give you today36:41 are to be on your hearts. Don't ever negate God's commands with God's grace. We pray for36:52 God's grace and forgiveness when we break his commands, but the calling is what? To not break the commands. You say, what commands were we talking about? As a matter of fact, even37:04 an Orthodox Judaistic setting of the day, that the Orthodox Jews think those 3 passages, Deuteronomy 6, Deuteronomy 11, Numbers 15, they are the culmination of the37:16 10 Commandments. Not the 6 13 commandments. By the time, Jesus showed up, the Pharisees had all memorized the 6 13 commandments. They had built37:28 fences between the people and God's grace. Does that make sense? But we don't ever want to be the people that, that negate God's commands with God's grace. God's grace was there to forgive37:40 us when we break his commands. We're not to ignore those commands. You said, what are those commands? Just just think of the 10. How how many of you is there any how many of you right now that that if I ask you to stand37:51 up, this is where you got to be honest because you're in God's house because this is 1 of the commands. You could stand up and tell me all 10 of the 10 commandments in order right now. Who thinks they38:03 could do it in order not not could you all just kind of hodgepodge them together? But you could tell them to me in order right now somebody raise your hand anybody You can tell them to me. Not a hand in the room.38:14 Alright. I'm gonna have to stop preaching here in a second, but if you will stick around for 5 minutes. I will give you the key so you can memorize all 10 of them in order. That38:26 you are to love the Lord your God, the 1 and only God. There is only 1 God. Make no graven images. Do not take the Lord's name in vain. Alright? Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Honor38:38 your father and your mother. Alright? That's what it is. Number 6, thou shalt not kill. Number 7, thou shalt not commit adultery. Number 8, thou shalt not steal. Number 9, thou shalt not bear false witness. Number38:50 10, thou shalt not comfort covet. I'll teach you in 5 minutes after this is over how you can memorize those in order. You're gonna have to work on a little bit in your car, but I'm gonna show it to you if you39:02 stick around 5 minutes. Alright? So let's move on. Alright. So do not ever negate God's commands with God's grace. Alright. You see that. Now here's number 4. Ready? Go back to we're back in the Shema again.Show more In this video 0:00 Understanding the Shema and Its RelevanceComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
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