Deuteronomy 6:16-20 Bible Study | Episode 867

 February 4, 2025

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

Deuteronomy  6:16-20  Bible Study | Episode #867

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.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. 

Please follow us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church

Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope 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 would 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 6 and we come across one of these passages where God, well, he just reminds us to remember and he does it with, he does it with the Israelites all the time.

It is, it is one of those perplexities of human beings that the things that we really need to remember in life, the things that we really, it's really important that we, we keep at the forefront of our mind.

The things that we, we need to remember that are, you know, permanent, that are, are important, that, that are life changing for us.

Those things we tend to, well, we just tend to forget, if you want to know the truth. We, we just leave them hanging out there. We don't, we don't remember those things.

And then the things that are destructive, the things that are deadly, the things that, that bring us down, the things that don't allow us to move forward, don't allow us to be changed.

Those things we, we. It's almost like we don't remember them. It's like we, we just innately are drawn to them like a moth to the flame. We just, that's just the way humans are in their sin nature.

We, we. We fail to remember the important stuff that is life changing. And we just go right back to the things that, that are destructive. And, and the Bible does use a very graphic, I guess, gross illustration that, that, that we are like dogs returning to their vomit.

Meaning, you know, well, its meaning is pretty obvious.

We go back to the things that really kill us. We, we go back to the things that depress us. We go back to the things that drag us down and we don't remember the things that are uplifting.

And oftentimes God has to remind us. Oftentimes we have to remind ourselves. Oftentimes we have to have others remind us that God's Done some really, really wonderful things. And God knows you and loves you and, and seeks you out and, and his promises, the Bible says, are yes and amen.

Amen. Being so, let it be or it shall be so. God's promises are yes and amen, but I don't remember the promises in midst of, of turmoil or struggle or failure, if you want to know the truth.

Failure.

I don't remember those things. I just, I sink back into my old thought process processes. The Bible talks about sinking back into your old man. The, the, the, the one, the one that is continually in the midst of the struggle.

And so when we get to Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verse 10 through 15, God's just telling them, he says, he says, so it shall be when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob.

Now remember, he's, he's pointing back to that was made hundreds of years ago, that is in the process of being fulfilled. So God's. God's telling you that he's, he's beyond time.

He. He. He remembers things that are beyond a natural life of a human being. He. He remembers things, things that he promised way back. He doesn't forget them. We do, but you don't.

He's reminding them. I, I swore these to your father, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He said to give you large beautiful cities which you did not build. Remember, remember that's, that's what grace is.

We get us getting what we don't deserve. Well, he, he says we did. They didn't deserve these cities. They didn't build them. They didn't do anything for them. But I'm giving you these large beautiful cities which you did not build.

Houses full of good things which you did not feel or hewn out notice. He says, I'm giving you homes that you didn't fill with good things. He says, he says hewn out wells which you did not dig, meaning you're not even going to have to dig wells.

And you go, well, you know, those are, those. Why is he bringing that up? Well, because God does the work. And wells are pictures of new spiritual works, new works of God.

When you dig a new well, it's a picture, a new place where God's going to do his, do his work. He said, I'm doing these things. I'm digging these new wells for you.

These wells. I'm giving you the wells that others have dug. He said vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant.

And I've already talked about the power and the goodness of God that those two things represent. And he says, and when you have eaten and are full, then, or when you, when you, when you are enjoying the largest largess of my, my love, my, my dedication to you, my promises.

When, when you're, when you're enjoying the largest of those things, beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

And you go, well, how could they do that? I don't know. How could we do it? We do it all the time. All the time. We, we get into a situation and listen, it doesn't even have to be a new situation in life.

It doesn't have to be a new thing that happens. It can be an old thing that happened and it's happened before and God has delivered you from it. He has taught you through it.

He's. He's brought you up above it. He's fixed however he's done in that situation, whatever God done in that situation. I mean he's, he's doing it all the time for you.

In the midst of him doing those things, you come across the same, it could be even the same parties involved. Say you've got an issue with a family member and God has delivered you from that issue.

In fact, maybe he's even brought about, maybe he's brought reconciliation between you two because y'all both believers, family members, but you know, grew up and had some situations that happened over life, can't stand each other.

God, you know, through a, through clear movement of the Holy Spirit in both persons hearts, brings about reunification. Because by the way, you know, that's the work of the Holy Spirit.

That's one of the things that the Holy Spirit gets to where he's doing. He's. He's. He's bringing about reconciliation, reconciliation between us and him. Reconciliation between each, us in each other.

That's, that's the two greatest commandments. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. He's. He's a reconciling God between him and you.

He's a reconciling God between you and others. He. He's done that. Okay, y'all, y'all have fixed it. Same situation comes up, same old feelings, you know, resurrect themselves out of the dust of the ground, out of the, out of the depths of our dark hearts.

And we have, we have one of those, you know, knock down drag outs or we, we have these feelings again that we can't get past.

Even though God's already done big work in it. And you go right back to, well, you go right back to the vomit. You go right back to the terrible, awful death of a broken relationship, death of, of, of friendship, family, death of, Death of, of love and peace.

You go right back to it. Even though God's given you deliverance from it. Even though God's brought you to a new, new place in your life because of, you know, some of those things.

When you learn how to, how to be, Be a vessel of reconciliation. And that means I'm, I'm a holder of the power of God's ability to reconcile myself with him and recon.

Reconcile myself with other people. God, in fact, New Testament tells us he's given us a ministry of reconciliation, which means he's not only done the work of reconciling us to him, he's given us a ministry, an ability that's a supernatural, it's a spirit led ability.

Spirit empowered. Ability to be about reconciling. Not just reconciling you with others, but reconciling others with others. I mean, it's a powerful ministry that God has given us. In the New Testament, he, he spells it out.

He says, I've given you this power of reconciliation. And, and, and we, we're, we have all, you know, we got those vineyards and we got those olive groves and we've got those wells that have been dug and we've got those homes that, that we didn't build and we got these cities that we didn't, that we didn't build.

And, and we got all this stuff. And, and, and we, we're eating of the goodness of.

Something happens, something, something comes about and we are just back in the, in the morass, you know, in the terrible doldrums of it. Why? Because we forget.

He says beware lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. He's saying be, beware, Be.

We use these wrong words, wrong now. And I can't help it, it bothers me. We. Weary means to be tired.

Leery means to worry about something and not trust something. Okay.

We often use the word for weary, for leery. Okay. Weary means I'm tired. Leery. He says be, you know, be leery that you forget.

Not forget what happened Bad will not forget your sin nature not forget the things that God has overcome.

Be leery that you forget God and what he did.

That, that you go back to the old way of thinking, the old way of brokenheartedness, the old Way of destruction.

Be leery that you don't. You allow your heart and your mind, which is, by the way, what God's saving. I mean, he's saving my. My emotions and my intellect, my.

My desires and my. My thoughts. He's saving those things. That's my soul. He's saving it. He's saving it for me. Okay, and how does he save it for me? Well, I have a tendency to go back to those stuff, those things he says.

He says, be. Be. Be, beware.

Be leery that you forget that God has done a work of changing you, a work of salvation in you, and that you've been. You've been your. Your. You're not the same.

You're bought at a price. You're. You're a new creation.

You know, we use all these phrases, but, you know, when you really kind of put them all together and mash them up like a, you know, like some kind of wonderful Christmas meal, when you put them all together, it's wonderful.

It's good stuff. It's. It's wonderful what God has done.

And we easily forget and go back to the way we used to feel and used to do. How many times do I see people? You know, Jesus said, he plant that seed.

The farmer go out and sow that seed. And some of it fall on shallow ground, and it. It go in and it spring up quickly and everybody's fired up. And so what?

Just, I mean, worship and jumping up and down, moving, serving God, crying, weeping, being changed. And then, you know, six months later, they're not even at church.

Why? Because you forget.

He says, beware, lest you forget the Lord, your God, who delivered you out of Egypt from the house of bondage. We do it. We don't. Don't we do it? I think so.

I do it.

Something happened, and I'm back thinking the old way, not the new way. You pastor, you do that. I've been a pastor for three decades. Been a pastor for, you know, scary, but, you know, over 30 years.

And something happened in my mind. Goes right back to it. Just goes right back to it.

So if I do that. I know you do.

I've talked to many guys who are much older and much wiser in the faith than me, and they do, too.

We all prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. I just. That, that. That. Him always just, you know, it. It's real.

The struggle's real, ain't it? It really is.

He says, you shall fear the Lord your God and serve him. You shall take oaths in his name. Meaning, listen, you need to. You need to. You need to focus your mind when these things happen.

And by the way, that's a process, too. Learning to focus your mind on what you've already known about God and then. And doing those things. That's a process, too. It is.

It is. You know, it is something you got to learn how to do.

You got to learn how to. How to. How to react when these things happen. And people do. Believers do get good at that, too. I'm here to tell you, I'm here to give you a word of.

A word of encouragement. Believers actually get good at that, too. They do. They get good at remembering.

And, you know, usually they got a lot of gray hair and a lot of wrinkles and a lot of struggles and a lot of difficulties and a lot of pain and a lot of heartache and a lot of road they've gone down.

I agree with that.

But there's no sense in you.

There's no sense in you not getting started today. Even if you're young and you're dealing with all the emotions and all the struggles and all the hormones and all that stuff, even if you're young, you can do it.

You can. You can learn how to remember the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of bondage. You said, well, he didn't bring me. Yes, he did.

Yes, he did. Egypt is a picture of the world.

Pharaoh's a picture of Satan being in the world and beings being with Satan. When you're a child of God, you're in bondage. You're. You're. You're being held by sin into the world.

God has delivered you from that. He has delivered you from the land of bondage. He's delivered you from Egypt, every one of you. He has.

And you can remember him. You can. God wouldn't tell you to do it if you couldn't do it. You can do it. But today's a good day to start learning.

Today's a good day to live a life of expectation of God being God. It's remembering God for what he's done in the Bible with others and for you.

Okay, just. You said a lot of people want to. Want to, you know, divide those out. God does this for these people in Scripture. God does these people this for these people.

I know, but God doesn't do that for me because I'm somehow special in a bad way. God doesn't have special children in a bad way. He has special children in a good.

He doesn't. He doesn't it's not. That's not how he works. That's just. That's not in his character nature to have you be the special little, you know, child that, you know, he never does anything good for.

That is not. It's just not true. And if you think that you're, I mean, you're just wrong.

He says, you shall not go after the gods, the gods of the people who are all around you. Meaning don't let how other people do and react be again how you react.

Don't let those things happen.

For the Lord your God is a jealous God among you. Notice he's jealous and he's here. He's a jealous God among us. He's. He's. He's jealous. He wants you.

There was a song we used to sing at my old church, and thank God Tina's not learned it.

That's about God is jealous for me.

He's the wind. I'm the tr. I can't. Anyways, it. It turned out to be a really, really great song. The whole congregation loved it and loved to sing it. And I, you know, I just didn't like it because I'm Chad.

Sometimes you just don't like things and I don't like mayonnaise. And I didn't like that song and so anyway. But it did teach a good biblical principle. God's jealous for you.

You aren't jealous for somebody you're not emotionally attached to and love and don't love. He loves you. He. He does. You, you, you sitting there on the other side of the screen.

He loves you, so he's going to do good things for you.

You got to remember that the Lord your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.

Now this is really for the Israelites because he's not going to destroy you from the face of the earth because he's already washed you in the blood of the lamb.

But remember, God feels pretty passionate about these things because that last little verse there will give you an idea how passionate he is about you staying hanging around him.

You. You not choosing the world over him.

Don't do that.

You know, my father in law one time went to the doctor. He's in his 70s when he went there and he's now approaching 90. And, um, his shoulders kind of messed up.

And he told the doctor. And I know if you listen to this on. On a podcast, you can't see it, but I'm taking my right hand. I'm kind of putting it high above my head, over, behind my head, behind and over my head, he says.

When I reach up like that doctor, it hurts really bad.

And, you know, he's in his mid-70s, and the doctor said, well, don't do that.

He's not going to fix your shoulder, go through a bunch of surgery so you can do something you shouldn't be doing.

God's not going to go through a whole lot of stuff with you because you keep doing things you shouldn't be doing. He's just going to tell you to stop.

Boy, that's some good advice, isn't it?

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.