Deuteronomy 4:1-8 Bible Study | Episode 845

January 3, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 4:1-9    Bible Study | Episode #845

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Alive, Applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God will open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Deuteronomy, chapter 4. And it is a really, really. I like, I love the, the chapter. It is a interesting chapter. I guess it's a, one of those life talk chapters. It is, it's. It's a, a chapter where Moses really kind of talks to the young people. That's what he's doing. And he's given them a, given them a. A. Well, there's, there's great words of encouragement there. There is life instruction, how to live life, how to, how to be who, who you ought to be. There is, there's, there's some warnings. There's some, there's some parts of this chapter that deal with warning the children of Israel so that they do not follow in the ways of those who came before them, who, who decided to worship other gods. There, there's just, it's one of those chapters where Moses really kind of gives. And it's not necessarily like the law. When Moses gave them the law, he gives them how to live this out and why, and why it's important and what the value is of it. And you know, those are one of those life chats. Now when you're young, you don't always want to hear those live chats. When you're, when you're young, you don't want to have people telling you how to live. You want to figure it out yourself. We want to go out there and conquer the world on your own. But as you get older, I've noticed, I noticed that people love live chats. They, they, they, they tend to be attracted to them. And especially, you know, on, on social media, you'll, you'll have people who are giving these live chats and they have all these views and hits. And the reason that is, is because as you get older, you realize the, the importance of the live chats, that importance of the things that you were taught and how they were true and how sometimes you didn't live up to them and how sometimes you, you did. And so life chats, as you get older, become more and more special to you. And especially as those who gave those life chats go on to, to be with the Lord, you realize how really, really important it was to hear those things from them and to get a perspective that you didn't have, that you, you were, you were limited in. And so when we, when we come to this, I love this chapter because of that. It says that chapter four, verse one. And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you and do them now. He's not going to go through them. He's just saying you need to listen to the things you were taught. You need to take to heart the things that were said to you. You need to take them into your heart and listen to them do what you were instructed and do them. He said that you may live and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers is giving you. What he's saying is these instructions were giving you not so anybody could control you. These instructions were given to you so that you could experience life. And, and really aren't. Isn't that the reason we give life chats when we're older? We want the person who is the recipient of the life chat, we want them to experience really good life. We want them to live a good life. We want to have hope and have purpose. And, and that's what Moses is saying. Look, we. You received a bunch of laws, a bunch of revelation from God about who he is and how he lives and how he would have you live. You should do those things because you, you're going to take possession of the land. And, and the only way for you to really keep possession of the gift God's given you is to live this way. And so we need to live that way. He said, you shall not add to the words that I command you, nor take from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. What he's saying is don't, don't add to it or take it away. And a lot of times that's, that's difficult. I will say this. It's difficult for human beings. We want to add to it. And by the way, they do. They end up adding all kinds of rules and regulations to it. And a lot of times we want to take away. And that's, that's really a big danger also. Just as big a danger as adding to the law, adding to the Word, trying to come up with your own, your own traditions that ultimately you end up making as if they are equal to God's Word. Nothing wrong with traditions. Usually traditions come from big movements of God. God does something really big and whoever, whatever group of people are experiencing that, want to, want to continue to experience it that way. And they set up a tradition that is born of those things. Traditions are good that way because they're, they're in many ways kind of standing stones. But traditions aren't God's statutes. They're not, they're not the equivalent of God's Word. And so when the, when the tradition reaches a point where it really doesn't have the value that it was intended to have, meaning nobody really understands why you're doing it, then there's no use in doing it anymore. It's not, it's not having, it's an intended effect. God's Word is, is, is not time limited or temporal like your. Our traditions are. Our traditions usually are temporal or limited by time because only over a certain period of time do they actually have their desired effects or purposes. But God's Word, it's continual and it lives forever. And so he says, don't add to God's Word meaning, don't make anything else equivalent to God's Word and don't take away from it. And these are really two important. When you're thinking about whether or not you're straying away from the true faith, these are two ideas that are really important to, to, to add to how you're living your life. Don't add to God's Word. Don't take away from God's Word. Wow. Seems simple. But if you study church history and you studied the history of Christianity, you realize not as simple as you think. And especially if you study through the Old Testament as we will the children of Israel, you're going to find out not as easy as you think. He says. And in the life chat, you get taught that, you get taught that some things are not as easy as they appear. He says your eyes have seen what the Lord did at BAAL Peoria, and this is where they rebelled against God. They just openly rebelled and decided they were going to worship other gods and that they're going to go after the Canaanite women. He says, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the BAAL of Peor what he's saying is God, there's only destruction for those who chase after anything but God. Now that's just true for life, period. I'm just going to say that there's only destruction for those who chase after anything but the Lord, their God. Ultimately, at the end, it leads to destruction. And throughout life it decays. It, it, it rots from within your life. And especially when you know God, when you don't know God, you don't know what you're, what, what's, what's causing all this struggle. But when you do know God, when you do know God, you, there's only, there's only decay in your life when you're, when you're not chasing after him. He says, but you held fast to the Lord, your God and are all alive today. Meaning your ancestors didn't do this, so you shouldn't. These are not the things that you come from. And you know, a heritage of faith is a very important, is a very important aspect of life. If you have family, if you have family that were people of faith, your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, you have a heritage of faith. You ought to walk in that heritage of faith. It increases your anointing. You receive your anointing and their anointing. If you didn't have parents or grandparents or great grandparents who were people of faith, hear me today, you are the starting point. You're something that is very, you're a unique possession of God. God loves to have to have new peoples come in and trust in Him. And so you're very special and you're building the heritage of faith for your family. And so you ought to see yourself as the starting point. And a lot of people love to be the starting point. And if you are, you ought to love it. But if you're not, if you're, if you come from generations of people of faith, you have an, a special anointing from that. So it's very special to be either one. Each one has its unique purposes that those anointings of faith that are passed down are powerful, but also those, those that God plucks out, out of, out of a family or a group of people that, that have never had anyone trust in Him. Well, they're, they're, they're a new, they're a new blessing, their new glorification of God. And so those are important too. So just one of those life lessons. Know who you are, know where you came from and, and recognize the special work that God's doing in your life because of where you've come from. He Says, see, I have taught you statutes and rules as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. He says, see, I've taught you statutes and rules as the Lord your God commanded me. He says. He says that you should do them. You know, one of those life talks is always just do right. As an older man now, I've had that life talk with someone who's older than me. He said, you know, do the right thing. You know, one of the things that is important about being the next person, the next one up. Do it when you're, when you're beginning to take something on new. You know, oftentimes you worry about how are you going to handle every situation. It's not really the issue. The issue is who you are and how you handle situations. And who you are matters. Who you are as your character and your purpose. And if you're a person that does what is right as best, you know, a lot of times you're going to succeed. Most of the time you will. And if you're not succeeding because you're really not doing right and you didn't know it, you'll learn it, which your character will inculcate, it'll take it in and you'll, you'll do the right thing. He says, keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom. Notice a lifestyle of doing the right thing will be your wisdom. Doing what I've instructed you is, is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of peoples. Meaning people will recognize that of you. That's what Moses is telling them. The peoples of the world will recognize that you have a wisdom and you have understanding and insight that, that the world needs. And by the way, that's been the case for the Jews. It's been the case for Israel. Their insights have informed in some ways not, not fully and completely with one of them, but the three major monotheistic world religions. So, yeah, you're gonna, you're gonna have wisdom and understandings and insights that, that nobody else will have. And it'll inform the people of the world. He says, surely this great nation is wise and Is a wise and understanding people, huh? It is. Why? Because they follow the statutes of God. That's been the case for every nation who has followed the statutes of God. They become a wise and great nation, understanding people. And when they've left it, well, you know, they've usually fallen. He says, for what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon Him. It's a great question. There isn't one. There isn't one. A nation who calls upon God and is close to Him. There's no nation greater and there's no God better to follow, he says. And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? Meaning who's got. Who's got what we've got as far as God's Word and His revelation and his. His. His teachings. Nobody. We've got the best. It's proven time, time honored, time sensitive. It's proven out to, to be healthy and good for the nation that serves God. It has for 3,500 years. It's proven out that this is the best. It's the best. It's the best in world history by far and away. No question. No doubt quarter of the world's population names themselves as Christians. Why? Because this has proven out to be the best. It has. And it's going to continue to be the best because it's from God. And even, even, even world religions that are not Christian, they're not from the God of the Old Testament. Even those nations, there's, there's many of them that have been informed by God's word. This way. It's, it's proven out to be what is the best. It always will be, he says. And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous? Meaning that teaches to trust God. Rules and statutes that teach us trust God as all this law that I set before you today, none. We ought to always chase after, we ought always move toward it. We ought to always push our people in this direction. We ought to always serve God. Good work. Really good as you go today. I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make.

His face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.