Lathem Postell: Well, good morning, Sam Jones Methodist Church. It's so good to be here and worship with you this morning. I told the first service, I think that on the spring forward Sundays, everyone should get a prize for being at church. Now, they get a little bit bigger prize because they were here at 08:30. You get the kind of the second prize which is being here 09:45, eleven o'clock gets the leftovers.
I don't actually have a prize. So, maybe next year, we could do that but it's good to to be here with you. We got a little less sleep than normal but that's alright. It's a good day to be in god's house. If you weren't here on Wednesday, we started the season of Lent.
You may not know what that is. Perhaps, you do, you do. Lent is the forty day season excluding Sundays that leads us to to Easter. It starts on Ash Wednesday which was this past Wednesday. It's a season marked with with repentance, a season marked with preparation, a season marked by fasting of of particular things.
It's just a time for us to to really take seriously the calling of Jesus on our life and to to be ready to receive and to hear the good news of his life, death, and resurrection during Holy Week. If you weren't here with us on Ash Wednesday, we told you about a way that you can hopefully enter the season of of Lent with us this year. Normally, on Sundays, if if this were a normal year, we'd have a Lenten series where we would look at sort of a theme throughout the season of Lent leading up to Easter that would kind of culminate there with with that Sunday. Since we're doing the Bible in a year, it's not quite how we're going to be able to do it. We're just going to kind of keep going through the Bible but we also want to do Lent together and so, if you weren't here Wednesday on Thursdays, I think pastor Mark mentioned this as well.
We're going have Lenten communion services. Please know that you're invited to that. It is going be at 12:00 on Thursdays in the sanctuary. So, I know for some of you with work schedules, it's not possible for you to attend and and that's okay. We understand that.
You have obligations to to do. If you can't be here, even if you can, you'll find in the back and outside, you'll find these forty day Lenten prayer guides. I I challenge you to take those with you on one side are some things that you can pray about daily, some prompts for you as you pray throughout the season of Lent but on the backside, what you'll find is is what we're going through at our Lenten communion services. Each week, we'll have a different fast for you and then an action that that we're called to do. So, not just something that we do ourselves but then something we do out in the world.
I think if I remember correctly, the first week is fasting from eating out. Fasting from fast food restaurants and then the action is to to take what you would have spent eating out and donate that to a local organization along those lines and so, consider that. Consider doing that with us. Hopefully, if you can, you'll be here with us on Thursdays at noon over in the sanctuary. If not, I hope that you'll consider going through that fast with us so that we can stay close to Jesus and I think when we do that, we deny ourselves.
We're filled with Christ and so, know that I'm praying for you as we go through this time. I told you last week, we're going to kind of speed up as we go through the Bible in a year and so if this is your first Sunday with us, know that we're glad that you're here and and also know that we're we're kind of going from Genesis to Revelation looking at the grand narrative of scripture. And so we spent two months just going through Genesis and Exodus, four weeks in each. Those are some heavy hitters we might would call them. Last week, we were in Leviticus.
This week, we're finishing up what we would call the book of Moses, the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament and so we're we're here in Deuteronomy and we got here and we go back to Exodus, the Israelites, god's chosen people, you know the story, they're freed from their slavery to pharaoh in Egypt and they kind of go through this process of being made into god's people and so they're taken through the Red Sea and god tells them. He instructs them to go forth from that place to leave Egypt and go to the land that he had promised to their ancestor, Abraham. They spend a year first and we talked about this last week in Leviticus. They spend a year at Mount Sinai. Moses goes up and receives the covenant from god, part of which the 10 commandments, right?
We looked at and and and he gets this command but then they have this cycle of obedience for a time and then disobedience and over and over again, they're they're not faithful to the covenant and and this kind of culminates with a story that we find in in numbers as as the people are there at the promised land and god sends in 12 spies. The people send in 12 spies to the promised land to see if they can conquer it and if they can enter the land. And so two spies come back and give a good report. They trust that God will deliver them the land. But 10 spies, most of the spies, come back and report that the people are too big, that there's too much to overcome, the cities have big walls, they're not gonna be able to do it.
And so because of their lack of faith, because of their lack of trust, god tells these people, this generation, in the Exodus generation, that they will not enter the promised land. And that's where we get the forty days of wandering the wilderness or the forty years of wandering the wilderness. Right? The people that were there at the Exodus are not allowed into the promised land. They're waiting.
God's waiting to raise up a new generation that will trust him that he will allow to enter into the place that he has promised and so here in in Deuteronomy, we get to this fifth book of the book of Moses. Moses who also is not going to enter the promised land because he's a part of that Exodus generation and because of what happens in numbers chapter 20, you'll read it sometime. So Moses is standing there. He knows he's not going in with his people, but he wants them to remember the covenant that was made there at Sinai. He he seen what happens when they're disobedient.
He's seen the faithfulness of god and the unfaithfulness of his people and so he stands looking out on the promised land reminding them of how important it is to be faithful to god and and so this is really kind of Moses's last speech. Moses's last sermon to the people, his last will and testament. As you go forth, take these things with you. He reiterates for them the 10 commandments, the importance of those. He expands upon this covenant and some of the the rules and things that they are to follow in order to live set apart lives as people called by Yahweh and you hear in his voice this deep desire for his people to always be faithful to god and that's what leads us to our scripture for today in Deuteronomy chapter six.
So, if you have your Bibles with you this morning, I'll invite you to open with me there. These are perhaps the the most famous words that we'll find in Deuteronomy. Beautiful words here in Deuteronomy chapter six verses one through nine. Join me this morning as we listen to these words. It tells us this, These are the commands, decrees, and laws the lord your god directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess so that you, your children, and their children after them may fear the lord your god as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you and so that you may enjoy long life.
Here, Israel and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey. Just as the lord, the god of your ancestors promised you. Here, oh Israel, the lord, our god, the lord is one. Love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
Impress them on 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 door frames of your houses and on your gates. Will you pray with me?
Loving and gracious god, we thank you this day for the gift of your scriptures That lord, through this holy text, you continue to speak to us. Speak to us this day, lord. Your your story of life and of grace. May we hear and listen truly what you're saying to us that through hearing, we might be changed. For it's in Christ's name that we pray.
Amen. Shema Israel Adonai Eloheinu Adonai, Econ, Shema, Israel, Alonai, Econ, Here, oh Israel, the lord our god, the lord is one. If I can sing, it's the spirit through me. It's the spirit through me. It's the words themselves.
These words, the Shema, the beautiful, beautiful words are the central creed of the Old Testament and the Jewish faith. People like us for thousands of years, people in the Abrahamic tradition have prayed this prayer daily. In the Jewish tradition, it's not uncommon for folks to wake up every morning and pray the Shema and wait and go to sleep every night praying the Shema. Literally billions of people around the world, though they may have sang them slightly different than I have, the intonation there is probably a middle or a medieval or maybe a couple hundred years ago way of saying it. That that doesn't matter, right?
Because the words themselves have provided comfort, direction, and guidance for god's people for generations. And and though sure it's central to the Jewish faith, the words I have just sang for you are central to our faith as followers of Jesus as well. If you look in scripture, in particular, if you go to the gospels, what you'll find is that this scripture had impact on the words life and ministry of Jesus. To not get too far ahead of ourselves, Mark chapter 12. You may know the story.
When Jesus, someone comes to Jesus and asks him, Rabbi, which commandment is the greatest of the commandments? Which commandment is the greatest? And there in Mark chapter 12 verse twenty nine and thirty, he gives a specific answer. This is what Jesus says in response to that question. What's the most important command?
He says this, the most important one answered Jesus is this, here oh Israel, the lord our god, the lord is one. Love the lord your god with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. Those words hopefully sound familiar to you this morning because of the words of Deuteronomy chapter six and that is not on accident. When asked the most important command, Jesus recites the Shema. This prayer is at the center of Jesus' ministry.
If he basically, look, if you wanna follow me, he's saying, start here. I think if we want to to comprehend what it was that Jesus was doing while he was alive here on Earth, if we wanna understand what he did through his life, his death, and his resurrection, if we still wanna understand what god through Jesus and the spirit is doing in our lives now, then we have to understand these words. These are the central creed of Jesus's heart and and what I love, I was telling this to someone earlier this morning before the first service. What I love about these words is that when we pray them, when we hear them, we are praying words that Jesus himself would have said. In the language, he would have said them.
We have the lord's prayer, a great prayer. Jesus teaches us how to pray, right? Those should be on our hearts. It should be deep within us but we all know Jesus didn't speak English, right? So, when we pray it in our language, we're not quite saying the same thing.
Jesus would have prayed this prayer. As god himself walked on the Earth, he would have said, Shema, Israel, Adonai, Eloheino, Adonai, Echad. Hear, oh Israel, the lord our god, the lord is one. If you want to know Jesus, his heart for ministry, start here. And if we're gonna start to maybe you've heard this before, maybe not.
If we're gonna start to understand what it is that we pray when we say that, what it is that Moses wanted the Israelites to see there on the banks of of the promised land. Well, then, we have to start with that first word. This prayer is called the Shema because the the first word of that prayer starting there in verse four that we translate as here, hero Israel, that word here is Shema. It's translated here or listen and as you can imagine, this is a pretty common word in the Old Testament. You'll find this word littered throughout it.
Hearing is a pretty common human experience, right? And sometimes it's used in mundane ways. It's used to just describe a story where someone hears someone else's voice, right? Someone calls out and they hear them. Sure, it's translated that way, but it's often also used in deeper meanings.
It doesn't just mean that the act of hearing someone, of sound waves going in our ears and us hearing. It can also be used and often is translated to show someone who who's focusing or or someone being asked to focus, someone who's being asked to pay attention, being asked to respond. If you remember back a few weeks to Exodus chapter three and if you weren't here, you maybe know the story where god comes to Moses in a burning bush and he tells him, I have heard the cry of my people. The word there is Shema. God heard, God Shema'ed his people.
I was listening, I don't know that we picked it for this reason, but maybe we did. You know, the song Same God, right? You heard your people then, you hear your people now, you are the same God. That's the concept, right? That God shamaz his people.
He has heard them, and he hasn't just heard the cries. He hasn't just heard the sound waves, but he has heard and responded and will act. The parting of the Red Sea is the culmination of God hearing his people. Shema is not a passive verb. It is an action verb that compels us to respond.
Here, oh Israel, the lord our god, the lord is one. To hear, oh Israel, is to not just sit and hear, it is to listen. In our house, we've started using the term be a listener and and since Tammy's in here, she's probably, you know, when we hear that, we we just kind of start to twitch a little bit because we tell it to our daughter, Evie, who's two and and if you have a two year old or if you know a two year old, I'm praying for you. But also, at the same time, you know that they don't love to listen. She's in a I'll call it a wonderful phase.
It's a wonderful phase. I know she can hear me, but she doesn't seem to listen, right? And so, every every day, every hour, really, we'll have a conversation with her that goes something like this. We we may be in the living room and we say, Evie, go and and do this and this maybe clean up your toys, go wash your hands, stop trying to do flips off the couch, right? Whatever that is.
Evie, go and do this. And then she proceeds to act as if we didn't say anything, right? Either doesn't do it or continues to do it. And so, we'll say, know, Evie, did you hear me? Yes.
Well, what did I say? And a voice said, I'll leave for 08:30. I tried to mimic it at 08:30 and it wasn't good, but she just goes, I don't know. Right? What did I say?
I don't know. I know she hears me. Her ears are working, but it's one thing to hear, and it's another thing to listen. Right? So when Moses tells the people, here, oh Israel, he isn't just telling them to turn on their ears.
What he is sharing with them is that the deep desire for them to move beyond just hearing what he's saying to actually listening to it. He wants them to be because for generations, they've heard it and they've not responded. They haven't been obedient. He wants this generation preparing to go into the promised land to be the generation that responds to the truth of God's goodness. He's saying, look, the holiness of God, which we talked about last week, his set apartness, his his oneness, his holiness, his being should call you as his followers to action.
And so as they stand there, Moses is is crying out, are you listening Israel? Not to my words, but are you listening to what it is that God wants you to do? He's saying it's not just enough to know the words, you have to obey them. In fact, funny thing about Hebrew, there is not a different word for obey. So in English, listen and obey.
Those are two different words. We'd use them in in two different context. We know that those are doing two different things. In Hebrew, the word for obey is Shema. It it's to listen, to hear, because what the language understands is to hear the words of god and to not respond is to be like a child who hears their parents and does nothing else.
We can hear but we don't listen. If we really truly want to listen, we have to respond. We have to obey or as the scripture puts it, I love this what Moses says and what Jesus reiterates, right? That looks like loving the lord our god with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our strength. Listening in the scriptural sense, listening here in the words of Moses is more than just using our ears.
Scripture tells us that listening is about our whole bodies, our entire beings. God wants you to listen. Today and every day, god wants you to hear his calling on your life. He wants you to respond. The hard part is if we're truly listening.
What I know is god is calling each of us. God is speaking to each of us. God is telling each of us something today and the question is whether we're hearing it or not. Not whether we hear the words but whether we're living into that calling, whether we're living into god's commands. For some of us, god is calling us into a season of repentance.
That's what Lent is, right? It's this season in the church where where we repent, where we turn our hearts to god, where we ask forgiveness, and see our need for Jesus. For some of us today, maybe all of us. God is is calling us to repent. Telling us to act.
Knowing that when we do, he's standing there and so I ask you today, are you listening? Are you responding? What god is asking you? For others, it comes at all points and times in our life. For others, god is calling you to hear a calling he's placed on your heart.
He's calling you to serve somewhere. Maybe here in the church, maybe outside, maybe both. For some of you, god's calling you to mission. Maybe in the community, maybe outside or both. For some, he's calling you to ministry.
Maybe pastoral ministry. For all, he's calling us to proclaim the good news of the gospel to our neighbors. Friends, it's one thing to hear that. It's another thing to listen. Are you listening to god in your life?
Are you listening? Are you responding? Are you obeying? God doesn't want you to be a passive listener. God wants you to be an active follower.
To hear the word of god is to respond. Listen, the lord, our god, the lord is one. But then Moses goes on. Right? He starts with listening and what he tells us is part of listening, part of living into that, part of being people who shema is also being people who tell.
When we hear god's calling, when we respond to his grace, it means we have to tell others. That's what he shares at the the back half of of that prayer. Right? He says, these commandments that I've given you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on 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 door frames of your houses and your gates. In other words, if we want to truly be people who hear, who listen to god, it means placing those commandments, it means placing those things we hear from god and putting them at the center of who we are. Moses calls it putting them on our hearts.
He calls them putting them on our lips. So, as we walk along the road, we're constantly telling em to people. Riding it on our foreheads and on our door frames so that when folks look at us, they cannot help but see Jesus. If someone encounters you, Moses is saying, they should not be able to mistake you but anything but a follower of Yahweh. After our Ash Wednesday service that that we had Wednesday night over in the sanctuary, I had someone come up to me who who was there for our drive thru ashes earlier that morning which is a great tradition that we've started here in the past several years.
We're from seven to nine, we're out in the parking lot and before work, before school, we have folks drive through and we impose ashes on them and pray for them. It's it's one of my favorite things we do and and so she came and she said, I just want to thank you for doing that. It just changed my day. She's a teacher and so, she said, I I went to school and it was a great opportunity for for students. Some of her students came and asked her about why she had a cross on her head.
Some of the teachers asked her about it. She just said, look, this is a it was a great gospel opportunity. Thank you for for doing that, for allowing me the the chance to to tell people about Jesus and she said, I realized as as I was going through my day, she said, shouldn't it be like this every day? Right? When I walk through the halls of of the school, every time someone sees me, shouldn't they see Jesus?
Shouldn't they they see a a cross on my head? I think that's what Moses is telling us this morning. He says, look, if you Shema, if you truly hear what I'm telling you, if you've heard the words of the gospel, if you've heard the words of scripture, everyone else you meet should know it. Everyone else should hear the same words. It's a daunting task.
I understand it, but it's what scripture wants from us. It wants our whole being. It want it wants our heart. It's a tough task. I'll give you that.
It's a noble one, but a tough one because we're still human. That's why and and Tammy can attest to this. That's why I haven't put a cross on my car because I don't necessarily love who I become when someone cuts me off in traffic, right? You know that too and I don't want to hurt my witness. So, I haven't put one on there yet but but god's saying, look, every part of who you are, yes, even you're driving and whatever thing is kind of your thing.
Right? Every part of who we are should point people to Jesus. It should show them the cross. It should be written on our door our door frames and our foreheads. Maybe I should say it should be written on my windshield.
Right? It should be written on yours. It's a daunting task, but I love where Moses starts. It gives us a place, you know, we probably can't go out and tell the whole world about Jesus. We can start where we are.
And so Moses tells us the best place to start. He says, impress it upon your children. Talk about it when you sit at home. If you're going to start, if you're going to live into this calling, if you're going to listen to god's commands and obey him, there's no more important place to tell people about Jesus than your home. That's where it starts.
On the radio the other day, driving in to the church. I heard they were talking about a poll that they had done or a study I guess and I don't remember where the study was from. So, it it's really kind of anecdotal but but I think it it it still applies. It was a study done on people who had grown up in Christian homes and who now didn't identify as Christians and and the study was asking them the reasons for this and there were a number of reasons. I didn't write them all down.
Again, I was driving but but I was struck by the number one reason which was the number one reason by far. I mean, the head and shoulders above any other reason that these people who were surveyed gave was what I would call an incongruence of belief and action. What they said, it it was living in a household that went to church one day a week and then lived six other days as if it didn't matter. Parents, I'll speak to you for a moment. Your number one evangelism opportunity in your life is your children.
You may not meet everybody else in the world, but you will meet your children. You'll spend more time with them, at least in the early parts of their life than almost anyone else. Your number one calling to be an evangelist is to your children. Grandparents, you're not off the hook either. Your number one evangelism opportunity is first to your children.
Yes, and then to your children's children. You have opportunities to show them the gospel and how you lead your families. That's why I love how Moses puts it. He's talking to them there at the promised land, and he says, look. It goes beyond just you.
I am telling you this. I'm calling you to obedience so that it will impact you and your children and their children that they may be found to live in a land of milk and honey. There's lots of opportunities to share the gospel but the number one opportunity you have to share the gospel are with the people that you see every day and the people that you love, the people that you call family. Don't miss the opportunity to evangelize. And I'm not saying it's easy, right?
At first, it'll seem easy because we spend more time with them than almost anyone else. It's hard. It's hard because your family sees you at your worst. It's easy to be a follower of Jesus here for an hour, maybe two if we go to Sunday school, right? We can we can put the walls up.
We can wear the mask but our children, our family, they see us for for who we truly are. They see us in our weakest moments. They see us in our toughest times. They see us when every wall is taken down and every mask is not being worn. In those moments, ask yourself, who does your family see?
When they're at home with you eating dinner, who do they see? Do they see God? Do they see the cross? God is calling you to tell people about him. He is calling you to be set apart.
He's calling you to a life of holiness. He's calling you to be an active follower. The best place to do that is with those you know the best. My prayer for you, whatever your answer to that question is, right? Whether you've never done that, whether you're going to start doing that, whatever your answer is, my prayer for you is that you'll choose today to listen.
To not just hear not just hear the words that I'm telling you or or not even the ones I'm telling you, the one that Moses is telling you, the one that scriptures telling you, right? To not just hear it but to listen, to obey, to take these words and place them at the center of who you are, to to impress them on your hearts, to write them on your foreheads and on your door frames. Respond and listen. So that you might be transformed. These words provided the center of Jesus' life and ministry.
It should be the center of ours. Shema, Israel, Adonai, Eloheinu, Adonai, Echad. Here, oh Israel. Here, oh church. The lord, our god, the lord is one.
Let's pray. Loving and gracious god, Lord, we thank you It's so easy to forget, lord. It's just that we thank you that you're one who speaks. That you're a god who has not left us on our own. That lord, even in our disobedience and our unfaithfulness, you continue to speak to us.
You continue to draw us into yourself, into your heart. Lord, we just ask that as you speak, that we listen. Lord, first open our ears. More importantly than that, lord, open our hearts, open our minds, open all of us to who you are, and what you're doing. God, we're we're sorry.
We ask forgiveness for all the times we haven't done that, where we haven't listened. Lord, we've done our own thing and gone another way or listen to someone else other than you. Lord, speak to us. Speak to us now and always. Call us into new and faithful lives dedicated to you.
You know, form us as your son, Jesus, was formed in this life. Lord, form us in these words of the Shema. May they be on our lips and on our minds that we might go forth to tell of the lord our god who is one. For it is in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.