Hallelujah. Praise God. As I was preparing, you know, this week's sermon, Jessica had been watching a really interesting YouTube video and she kinda got me into it as I was watching it as well, kinda of over her shoulder one night. And it was about just a regular guy who goes into the Orthodox Jewish community. And he begins to just explore kinda why they do the things they do and what they believe in. And it was really interesting we know that right around here we have two of the largest populations of Orthodox Jewish communities - one in Brooklyn, and the other you know right around the corner in Lakewood. So I began watching it and I was really amazed because the whole community is all geared toward serving one another. Right? And the whole community their stores and everything in it - after all, there's always a purpose to kinda exalt that community. I just found it so interesting, and as they were going through some of the prayers, some of the rituals some of the holidays that they all follow were so interesting to me. Right? And I got to watching them and, you know, by the end I started to realize something - I started to see God's purpose behind instituting all of these different things. And I started to realize as I was watching the young men and the young women in the community, you know I realized, ‘God, You did all those things You instituted all those things so that they might be passed on to the next generation.’

Right, so everything that they do, I saw them - every time they took a drink of water they had special prayers for every type of food that they would eat or every type of drink. So if they were taking water, before every drink of water they would give a quick prayer that was specific to water. And I thought, ‘Wow, that's so amazing.’ And if we looked at it for us the heart behind instituting those things, could you ever take for granted every water that you drink - every sip of water? Could you ever forget where it came from if you were saying a prayer thanking God for it before every sip? Or imagine scrubbing your homes once a year for yeast, going through in such intricacy and taking out every little crumb. Could you ever forget what sin really does? When you talk to your kids and they’re describing everything that they're doing, and they’re taking out every crumb of yeast and explaining how yeast works through the whole batch and sin will work through your whole home and they’re taking it all out - if you did that once a year could you ever forget the effects of sin?

"We all have an area of influence and God is saying today that we have a responsibility to pass along what we have been given."

Or imagine sleeping underneath the stars every single year for an entire week and going and sleeping outside and saying, ‘Look, God was with us in the desert. God was with us and everything we have - all the provision - God has been with us and He has blessed us.’ You see all of these different holidays, all of the prayers, all of the rituals – some might say that yeah it’s become ritualistic, but I can see the heart behind it to say, ‘God You wanna make Yourself known not only for this generation, but to generation, to generation, to generation.’ And I found that so amazing. You see this mandate is not alone for the Jews; this mandate is for God's church. God's people have been called to pass along what you have been given. We as God's people have a responsibility to be replicating what God has done inside of our lives. We must be purposeful and active and ensuring that what has been implanted inside of you does not just live and one day die inside of you, but goes out to produce a crop in the generations to come. What God has done in your life is meant to reverberate through the generations that God's name might be known.

We all have an area of influence. Some of us it might be our children, our spouses, our co-workers, our friends, our roommates, our family. We all have an area of influence and God is saying today that we have a responsibility to pass along what we have been given, amen.

So if you guys open up your Bibles to Deuteronomy 6. Today I want us to explore exactly what it is that God has called us to pass on.

So the first thing I’m gonna talk about today is that God has called us to pass along relationship, not religion. Relationship not religion. And I start with that very purposeful because we as a people are very good at passing along religion. Right we pass long traditions, motions, things that we do that get passed down from generation to generation. But what does that result in? I look at the population that we have here in the United States of this next generation coming up - many of which have completely abandoned their faith, have somehow come to this understanding that they have moved past the Bible, they have moved past God and come to some other deep false enlightenment that they live by now. Or the people that do identify as Christians - what do you see? They lack the strength of faith, they are swayed by every teaching of this world, and they are unaccustomed to heeding the words of God. How can this be? How can this be that this is the next generation that's coming up? It's because instead of passing down relationship as we have been called to - relationship that would satisfy our children, relationship that would entice the next generation - we have left them with a set of rules and a set of motions to go through.

You see, relationship when you pass that down, what is that doing? You see you’re bringing other people into your relationship with God. Our relationship - the people of the church, the people, the sons and daughters of God, are supposed to have such a solid relationship with God. So steadfast that you can go and bring somebody else in and bring them into your relationship and grow them and introduce them to your God until one day, they’re ready to take the reins over in their own life and begin to grow their own relationship. That is how you replicate relationship. That's the reason I’m a Christian today - is because somebody did that for me. That is what we are meant to do for our children, not just giving a set of rules - or our coworkers or our friends. It's meant to be that we are bringing them into our relationship, teaching them until they are ready to take the reins over in their own life.

Relationship can’t be faked, right? There's no set of motions you can go through in a relationship. There's no set of rules that you can give. Religion is ineffective and it has no power to break the hold of sin. It has the appearance of godliness, but is powerless against temptation. But you look at what relationship does - relationship institutes in someone's heart the desire to please God. And a desire to know the teachings of God, and a desire to get closer to Him, and a desire to say every time they go to sin, ‘Ah, God, I don’t wanna break that communion with You. I don't wanna break that thing that I’ve worked so hard to cultivate in my life.’ You're not so quick to break a rule when you've invested in a relationship. If it’s just a rule, ‘Aw yeah, I messed up sorry my bad’ there’s nothing hittin’ the heart. But when it’s a relationship, oh, all of a sudden there's more at stake. And people are unwilling to break that because God is more satisfying. Because they have been taught to fear the Lord. Because they trust in the plans for Him - that comes from an environment of lifestyle.

That's what makes those Jewish nations right, those Orthodox Jews stand out so much. It’s because it is an entire lifestyle for them. So what does that grow? Children in the next generation who say, ‘I can’t imagine not thanking God for my water when I go to drink it. I can’t imagine on Saturday night or Friday night not turning off all of my electronics and spending time with my family. I can't imagine not doing that…’ because that lifestyle has been so instituted in their environment. My prayer today is that we would pass on relationship and let go of religion.

Let's look up our verse, I start at verse four. It says, “Hear O, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all [of] your heart [and] with all [of] your soul and with all [of] your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home [and] when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your [homes] and on your gates.”

That first part of the verse right there it’s called the Shema prayer, and Jews all around the world pray this three times a day. It sounds like this but - this is translated obviously from Hebrew into English, ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord is our God and the Lord alone. And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your being, and with all of your might.’

If we could just understand this one verse in our lives, you would see things transformed. If we can – and I know we all know it, I know a lot of us know this verse – but we need to get it from our heads to our hearts, and begin to really change our lifestyle based off of even just this one verse. Whoever you're surrounded with whether it be your children grandchildren, roommates, friends, co-workers, they would see the result of this verse in our lives. It shapes a lifestyle. It shapes your children it shapes the next generation because it becomes a lifestyle and becomes something that is a standard and a bar that you live by. And what does that do now? I look at my son and the generations that are coming up, it’s reverberating. That one verse, taking it to your heart and living by it, is now reverberating through generations. That's what it is meant to do - pass along and reverberate from generation to generation. Amen.

Look I’m gonna say something you're probably not gonna hear from the pulpit a lot: This verse reminds us that God demands love from His people. He demands it! That’s not something you hear in the American church a lot. What do you hear it's like, ‘Well God’s all about love and He’s just gonna, you know, smother you with love and love and love until you can't breathe and one day you just give up and accept it and maybe you like Him back.’ You know like that’s what is taught today in church, but this verse - and I tell you I was reading some of the teachings that some of the rabbi’s teach the Jewish people in the communities - this is what they teach, ‘Guys, sorry. God demands love from His children. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart. Love the Lord your God with all of your strength. Love Him with all of your might.’

This verse reminds us that He is the Most High God. There is no other gods before Him. I don't care what your videogames are, your schools are what everyone else does - God demands love from His children. If we are the sons and daughters of God, we can take it or leave it right, God demands love from His children.

And I know today we need to get that from our heads to our hearts, to stop just doing it as a ritualistic religious thing and start to say, ‘God alright. I hear You. In my heart, I know what I gotta do with my children. I know how I’ve gotta speak. I know what I gotta tell my coworkers and my friends and my family. God You demand love from Your children and my lifestyle must be shaped by this verse and by this teaching.’

Look, God’s not foolish, right? He knows when things of the world hold a greater sway in our hearts than He does. We’re actually not fooling anyone, right? Anybody can kinda look at our lives and see what is held as the most high in our lives, because our actions speak very loudly what is in our hearts. Look everyone can see if we don't rejoice in a prayer session but every time we’re surfing the Internet we’re laughing and having a good time. It is evident when we can remember every single play from Sunday's game, and can recount it and tell about how in the second quarter, you know, how he messed up that play and it shaped the rest of the game, and we have all these deep insights to what happened on Sunday’s game. But when it comes to the Sunday sermon, no one has an insight. No ones heart was touched. No one can tell their families and friends and coworkers and children about what God was speaking. How can that be? Or our hearts are shown when a song comes over the radio and our heart rate gets up and our kids get excited, but when the worship of God goes through, there is not a movement to be found. You see God is a jealous God. And He will not take second place to anything. We need to teach relationship, not religion.

Here’s the problem with religion: Religion demands everything, but gives nothing in return. I want you to think for the older people in here, maybe some guys that are a little distant - I'm getting there right - a little bit distant and they can’t remember clearly what it's like to be a young guy or girl. Think about from their perspective about religion. Religion means you can't watch the shows you wanna watch on TV. Religion means you can't be like everyone else. You can’t go out and date like everyone else. It means you gotta stand out time and time again. It means you have to separate yourself over and over again it offers nothing in return. We cannot expect this next generation of Christians to be jealous unless the relationship of God in our lives is bearing fruit. Fruit that is attractive. Fruit that you want. Fruit that you look and say, ‘You know, I’m filled with joy because of my relationship with God. Where everyone else is depressed and broken down, the joy of the Lord sustains me.’ Or if we are people - men and women filled with character. Character that can only be refined by a relationship with God. Or if we walk as those free of the burden of sin that cannot be found in this world that comes from only knowing the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ - religion does not do any of that.

"Religion never saves anyone. Relationship will save the next generation and will bring them into the Spirit of God."

You know if you look at someone like me, right, I'm not a multigenerational Christian. Right? I came from someone else's relationship. I came from someone else's ministry. I remember all too clearly when I first came into the church,you know, I knew nothing, right? I had zero faith. I had experienced God probably but I wouldn’t even say I was in a relationship with Him. And I come in and I remember going to lunch with Pastor Janeth, and her sitting down and just startin’ to talk about who God was. You see God became real to me, because He was real to her. For no other reason! Right, she's talking and she's explaining it to me and all of a sudden I’m like, ‘Wow, she's so sure. She's talking like it's her best friend.’ And I said, ‘Wow.’ God became real to me because He was real to her, and it was only a matter of time before I was ready to take those reins over - over my own life - and begin to grow my own relationship with God. And what did that snowball into? That snowballed into, you know, meeting with God I remember on Thursday nights and Luke would be up there with a guitar and Pastor Jeff would be playing the keys. Maybe we’d have a djembe if we were lucky I’d get up there try to hit it I probably sounded horrible, you know. But it was never a burden for me to be in worship. It was always a joy for me to be in the presence of God. I looked forward to Thursday nights. I got a chance to meet with my God. I got a chance to thank Him for all He had done. I got a chance to come and bring petitions before the God of heaven. It was always exciting for me, because I had been brought into relationship, not into religion.

This verse says, “Impress them [upon] your children. Talk about them when you sit at home [and] when you walk along the road, when you lie down [and] when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands [and] bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your [homes] and on your gates.” So I say to you people of God, looking at that verse, let me ask you: When you get together with your roommates your family your friends, is there an environment of relationship like that in your homes? Because that is what God is calling for. Are we talking about the commands of God? Are we talking about the Sunday sermon or what God has been speaking to us about? Is it as evident as if you had tied it to your foreheads or to your arms? What is it that we are cultivating in our homes and in our surroundings? Is it an environment of relationship with God? Are we passing along religion, or are we passing along relationship? Because that is what’s going to save. Religion never saves anyone. Relationship will save the next generation and will bring them into the Spirit of God. Amen.

So I said we need to pass along relationship not religion. Secondly, we need to pass along the law of God. Let’s continue reading in verse 10. It says, “When the Lord your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities [that] you did not build, houses filled with all [kinds] of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, [and] vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—[then] when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, [out of] the land of slavery.”

This verse always has hit my heart. Right, cause what is God saying? ‘Hey, when I give you everything you’ve ever wanted…When you have a family when you didn't deserve ‘em when you are heading to hell and everything was in destruction but I took you out of the land of slavery, and set you apart, and gave you everything you could ever want…When you have food inside of your cabinets, when your kids are at home, when you're safe, when you have a whole roof of your head, when you have a car to drive, when you have everything you could possibly want, please don't forget about Me.’

Isn’t that a crazy warning that God has to give? But isn't it true that this is exactly what has happened time and time again? People become comfortable in what they have and the comfortability of their lofty positions, and because of that they forget all about the laws of God and all about His Word.

Today we see the same thing, right? We have a country, and if you look at the history of our country, it's unbelievable what people went through to get us where we are today. The blood that was shed, and everything that had happened and everything God has done to bring us to this point. People become so comfortable in the American way of life that they have forgotten all about God and His laws. The amount of money that we have has become an excuse to be comfortable without God instead of remembering that on that very money is printed the words “In God We Trust.”

It reminds me so much of the time of Ezra and Nehemiah which I'm not gonna go into the verse but if you guys are home if you want to read it’s Nehemiah 8. But God's people had been so separate from Him that they ended up in captivity in Babylon. For 70 years they had been separate. For 70 years they had been in slavery. And now finally they’re being released. Now 70 years might sound like a long time, but it's not really that long to lose your entire culture. But these people had spent so long separate from God, that they go into captivity for 70 years, they come out, and none of them know the laws of God. None of them have even heard the words of God. So Ezra, who in the Bible is described as a man who is determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel - Ezra is this guy who wants who loves the law. The law’s inside of his heart, and he obeys it and he wants to pass it along to the next generation. So he gathers all the people of Israel, and they’re all sitting kinda like, ‘Alright what’s this guy gonna say?’ And he opens up the Bible, and all of a sudden everybody stands up. And he begins to read. And from the time that the sun rose to it was at the highest point, he reads the first five books of the Bible. You know in that moment, something happened as he's reading, some people fell down and started to cry. Some people started to jump up and down and worship. Some people started to yell. Some people started to worship. Some people were crying. There was all sorts of stuff going on but you know what? Every single person there, there was a response to the law of God. There was a response for every single person.

We God's people have been called to be those Ezra’s - to pass along the law of God. Not a burdensome law, not a set of rules, but law with relationship. I talked about relationship first you see law without relationship is religion. Law without relationship is religion, and religion is dead. Yet God, when He institutes a relationship inside of your heart, you see the laws of God are no longer burdensome. I look at my life and I tell you today: The law of God has been life to me. It has been life to me. I'm not saying it hasn't hurt at times. I'm not saying it hasn't been difficult and it didn’t cut at times. But what I can tell you is every single time, it passed along life inside of me.

It is written in the Great Commission, we have a responsibility to pass along the law of God. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father…[and] teaching them to [obey.]” Teaching them to obey. Obey what? The commands of God. They are not burdensome.

Look at a house. Right? We have a house - any house, anybody’s house in here - there’s a set of rules. There's a set of schedules that have to be kept. There's duties that everybody has. And why do people fulfill them? They fulfill them because of relationship. They’re not burdensome. They do ‘em out of love and respect for the entire household and out of a desire to see that household flourish. That's why people follow the rules, because that's what relationship does. Rules no longer become burdensome when you are in a relationship with God.

You know in my job I deal a lot with foster kids, right? And I just dealt with - it made me think of it as I was getting ready for this. Just two days ago. Foster kids, they have a really hard time obeying the laws of the home. Why? Because there’s no relationship, right? They haven't built up that relationship yet, so they have a hard time obeying the rules. That’s what we have in the church. The church is filled with a bunch of foster Christians who have yet to cultivate a relationship, but we are passing on religion and laws, yet there’s no respect and no love and nothing that is binding them to say, ‘These laws are not burdensome, they are life-giving, and I follow them because I have love and respect for the entire household.’ We as Christians have to build up the next generation in relationship - that the laws of God would not be burdensome, but they would be following them out of love, and respect, and because they are life giving. The law is life giving. The law is life giving.

We need to stop teaching the rules and start teaching the blueprint of how to have a fulfilled and successful life. I can stand here today - I'm not telling you I wasn’t hardheaded sometimes, but every single time the law produced life inside of my home. It has been the blueprint to a successful and fulfilled life, and that is what we need to be teaching our children to say, ‘Listen you want to have a successfully filled life, you wanna have a blessed marriage, you want kids that are going to love you and to be in the a home together and respect you, this is the blueprint to how to do it - this is the laws of God. Come into the relationship and follow the laws of God and you will see God move in your life in ways you have never thought possible.’ That is not religion. That is not religion.

And I pray right now each one of you here ‘cause I know each one of you guys really, the law has produced something - I want you to remember what that law has done in your life. I want you to remember where you were. I want you to remember what God has done. What it meant when somebody said, ‘Look, this is the way you're living and it’s wrong but come into the law of God and you will see Him do miraculous things,’ and remember what it has done in your life. We are called to pass along the laws of God not because they’re rules, not because they're burdensome, but because we are living in thanksgiving of what they have done in our lives, amen.

Too often in the American church I hear this thing that says, ‘We no longer live by the law.’ Right? ‘If you're living by the law you’re in the Old Testament.’ Or you know, ‘Your legalistic.’ And they use Romans 6:14, “...you are not under the law, but under grace.” And I'm not saying that that's not true because it’s in the Word of God it is, but it is so often misapplied to excuse sin. People say, ‘You know you just have to follow your heart.’ And what does that result in? It results in a whole generation of Christians that don't wanna be told what to do, that don't wanna be told how their living is wrong, and say, ‘Hey, what you're saying? My heart is saying something different.’

You see, it’s true that we are not under law we are under grace when it comes to acceptance to Christ. We are not under the law but under grace when it comes to being accepted by the Lord Jesus Christ ‘cause if we were still under the law, we would never be accepted. We could never meet that bar, and we would always fall short. So the grace of God that went to the cross and died for us is to say that God's grace covers us so that we can be accepted to Him. But when it comes to Godly living? When it comes to living a Godly life? We are absolutely still under the law.

"Our job today is to go out, baptize, and teach people to obey, and that has to start in our own homes, and in our own hearts…"

Romans 2:15 says that, “They show that the requirements of the law are written [upon] their hearts…” A man or woman who lives a Godly life is not managed by their feelings, but is managed by the laws of God. And what does the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit empowers us it speaks to us. What? It speaks to us and tells us when we are not following the laws of God, it does not help us understand which laws to follow. And that’s what people say, ‘Well the Holy Spirit helps me understand which laws to follow.’ No, that’s not what it’s saying. The Holy Spirit, it speaks to our hearts and shows us we are falling short and it empowers us to what? To ask forgiveness to come into the grace of God, to be transformed, and to fulfill the law. That is why Jesus said “‘Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.’”

Our freedom today is directly tied to God empowering us to be obedient to the law. The law has been life in my life, and I know the law has been life in so many of yours. I pray today that relationship would be thriving in your homes, and that you would be passing along the life-giving laws of God.

It should be our relationship evidenced by our knowledge and obedience to God's law. Our job today is to go out, baptize, and teach people to obey, and that has to start in our own homes, and in our own hearts, that way we can bring someone else into that relationship, and they can receive the same blessings that so many of us have in our homes.

So I started with saying that we need to pass on relationship not religion. Secondly we need to pass along the law of God. Lastly, we need to pass along the works of God. Verse 20, “In the future when your [sons ask] you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws [that] the Lord your God has commanded you?’” I wanna stop right there for one second, because we know we all get asked this question. Right? When you get asked, ‘Why do you follow why do you do the things that you do? Why are you always in church why do you teach your kids to be like that? Why can't you just be like everyone else?’ This is how we should be answering - verse 21, “tell him: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, [but] the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders - great and terrible - on Egypt and Pharaoh and [in] his whole household.’” So this is saying, ‘I was bound up, I was in slavery, I was broken, I was going down the tubes my family was falling apart. Everything that I saw - I was heading to death and destruction.’ Verse 23, “‘But He brought us out from there to bring us in and give us [the] land He promised [on] oath to our ancestors. The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as [is] the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.’”

You see our answer should be, ‘I was broken, I was in slavery. I was down, but yet God came in by a mighty hand His power is great and terrible. His power is great and terrible yet He chose in that moment to reach down, and He grabbed my hand, and pulled me out of the grave and He has given me every good thing that I can possibly imagine. And He has set me above my enemies, and today - what does He say to me today? He says after all of that, He says, “Be careful, after you have been given everything that you have been given, to not forget the Lord. To love the Lord your God, to obey His commands that you might,”’ what? ‘“Prosper and be kept alive as in the case today.”’ Does that sound burdensome people of God? Does that sound like it's a heavy burden that I have to follow the laws of God?

You see, I see that. That is how we should be speaking. ‘God where have You bought me from? What have You done?’ This is why the Jews repeat it over, and over, and over again because it reminds us where we have come and what we have received. And that is where we need to be people of God. To say, ‘Let my speech tell you about what God has done. Let me tell you about the works of God that I have seen in my life and how He has delivered me.’

I think about my own life. Look, I've been in Christ you know, I don't know, like, 15 years? I don't know. Like that may not sound like a lot of time but in that time I've seen crazy things. I've seen things that are unbelievable. I think back and I cannot believe some of the stuff that I’ve seen as I have been living in Christ. I've seen sick people healed. I’ve felt God's glory come in ways that I never thought possible. I’ve seen addicts become healed. I’ve seen angels surrounding us as we are worshiping. I have seen demons. I have seen lives transformed. I have seen grown men break down in tears when confronted with the beauty of God. How can I think - how can I go my whole life, my entire life, with all of that experience, all of that testimony - all of those things just up and hoarded inside of my heart, and yet go my whole life and one day I die and they die with me? How can that happen? You see all of those things that I have done, all of those things that I have seen, they need to be spread. Why? So that people know that God is the I Am. Your testimony, your works of God, the relationship that you have cultivated, where you have come from, what God has done in your homes - those things need to go out. They need to be spread. They need to go out to the next generation because they speak of the character of God.

What works have you seen in your life that can make God known? Let me ask you today: Have you been healed from some deep sickness? Has God done something in your home that you have been healed? Then how is it that our kids are not jumping up and down praising God when we tell them, ‘Without God you would not be here. Without God your mom and dad would not be here because God has healed me.’ How can our kids not be jumping? Look, you wanna know if you’re passing on religion or relationship? When you’re worshiping next week, look to your left and your right. If your kids are not jumping if they're not moving as you with your hands raised, we have to really start to look at our lives and say, ‘What am I passing along?’ Because I know so many of us have been healed and transformed. How is it that our kids cannot be moving in worship to God, and not be praising Him, and thanking Him, when without Him, where would we be?

Have you been healed from an addiction? If so people in the world need to know why you worship God, and why there is a bar in your life that it is unacceptable to go below. Have you been taken out of the grave and given a new life? Then I tell you people of God let us pass along His works because they were not just for us. They were made so that God's name might be known.

I think of some of the struggles that people come into, so much so when they come to know Christ – there’s such like a, for lack of a better word, like a Godsmack. Like all of a sudden they’re like ‘Woah, who is this guy?’ Because why - all people talk about is the love of God. Right? The love love love ‘God loves you’ - and look that's an aspect of God. ‘And God loves us and you know and He just loves you and He loves you matter what, He loves the things you do, He loves your sin He loves all of that.’ That's not true! Right? There is an aspect of God being that loving God who wants to rescue us and accept us, but that is not the only part of God. There is the might of God, and the justice of God, and the awesomeness, and power. And how His power is great, and mighty, and He is not one to be mocked and He is the most high God whom we have to love. God does not accept anything less but the hearts of His people. You see, those are all aspects of God. How are they made known? They’re made known through what God has done in your life. We pass along these things. Why? So that our loved ones might prosper.

"Our lives are meant to make God known."

The Lord has commanded us it says in the verse, “…to obey all these decrees..to fear the Lord [your] God, so that [you] might always prosper and be kept alive, as [in] the case today.” We make His name known so that people know He is the I Am. He is the all-powerful, the deliverer, the healer, the awesome God. No one talks about the justice or the might, or how He is the creator and that one day all men will bend a knee to God. You see we need to be speaking about who God is so this world knows who God is.

People come in and sometimes when they come from somewhere with maybe not a strong father figure they have a hard time relating to God, because all of a sudden it's like they try to equate God to their father, right? And it becomes this culture shock, it becomes this like, ‘Woah, you know, who is this God?’ Our lives are meant to make God known. Our lives and everything we have seen God to be and everything we know God to be and everything God has proven Himself time and time again in your midst and in your homes to be - we need to be passing that along so that people might know the character of God.

I think about, you know, when I first became a cop, coming in, I remember hearing a lot - you wouldn’t think I heard it but I did - you know people saying, ‘He's not gonna be a good cop he’s gonna go out and try to save world, and he’s not gonna obey the laws and he's going to…’ you know, just, I don't know, ‘carry around a bowl of water and try baptizing people.’ You know like I don’t know what people thought. Right? Chuck can tell you look, I use my handcuffs more than anybody in the department right? Like I use ‘em a lot. You know I look at that, and I think - listen, why is that? It’s because people only know this one American aspect of God, that is so in a box. God is a God of love, and I'm not saying He isn’t. But you know when I began to, you know, kind of get into the job and they saw I wasn’t like that, people started to say - all of sudden it’s the flip, ‘How could you arrest people you’re a Christian?’ You know like, ‘How could you do that?’ You know, that’s so mean.’ You know and I’m like, ‘What? Two seconds ago I was this guy who wasn’t gonna do it.’ But, you know, I began to speak and I began to say ‘Dude, you don’t know God. Let me tell you about the justice of God. Let me tell you about the might of God. You know those laws that you swore an oath on the Bible to uphold? God wrote those. God wrote those. Our country was instituted upon the laws of God. Let me tell you about a God of justice who makes us accountable to our sin, and makes us accountable to what we have done. But a God of love that when a man bends a knee to God - when a man has to put down their own pride and lower themselves and come to the cross upon their knees - and say “God I am in need of a Savior....”’ Amen.

That is the God that I serve. That is the God that I serve. It’s not that I don’t have seed, but I'll tell you the ones who are ready to lower themselves God is ready to bless. And I'm spreading my seed out into the world looking, and I know God has put certain people in the community even on my heart. You know why? Because God, He is a God of love, and He is a God of justice, and He is a God of might.

I look at my son look my son wasn’t there for any of those things that I mentioned in the beginning, right? He didn't see any of those. But yet do you think I'm gonna be telling him about those? I’m gonna be spreading the news of God, who God is to my son. I’m gonna be telling him how he would not have a family if it were not for God. How he would not have food if it were not for God. How He is awesome, and He is the God of justice, and He is a God of love, and He is a God of might, and He is a God of mercy. And I will tell him all about all those things, because I want my son to know who God is, and I want him to know the character of God, and I want him to know the love of God, and I want him to know the might of God, and I want him to know the God that cannot be mocked. I want him to know the God that is terrifying to His enemies, but loving to His children.

"Obeying and relationship with Him is our righteousness."

And I'll close with this it says, “And if we are careful to obey all [the laws] before the Lord…God…has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.” What is our righteousness? It’s not the fact that you come from a family of Christians. It’s not the fact that you come from somebody who goes to church. It's not even that you know the words of God. Our righteousness is when we have set it upon our hearts to no longer hold up the ways and the things of the world above God - when God is the Lord our God is one. Hear, O Israel the Lord your God is one, and you will worship Him and love Him with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength. You see when we put that inside of our hearts and He is number one, and His commands are not burdensome, but we are like David in Psalms or Solomon in Proverbs, and we talk about how the wisdom of God is our love, and we love the commands of God, and they have been life to us…You see, when that is our righteousness, it’s not about where you are on Sunday, it's about where your heart is every single day.

Our righteousness is based off of God, because we know who He is - how awesome and powerful. Because we have been told over and over again of His awesome power, and that we are in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and He is our righteousness. Obeying and relationship with Him is our righteousness.

I read this verse two weeks ago, “One generation commends Your works to another; they tell of Your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty - and I will meditate on Your wonderful works.” You see the works of God should reverberate through generations. Your relationship - not religion - with God is meant to reverberate through generations.