A blessed morning greetings in the blessed name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Let’s continue with our meditation on the theme: Serving God as a Family. This morning we shall be focusing on Deuteronomy, and that is in chapter 6. Let us open our Bibles to Deuteronomy 6, and let us read responsively verses 1 to 15. I’d rather go as far as 15 this morning. Let’s read this responsively. I will begin with verse 1:
"Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you."
Let us read verse 15 together:
"For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you; lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth."
Amen. The Lord add his blessings upon the reading of his most holy and precious word.
Yesterday, we talked about how we should base our service to the Lord on the Scriptures. It is important that it is Bible-based. We cannot serve the Lord as we want, as we like, or as we desire, according to our own ways. It is not by the dictates of the world that we serve the Lord. We depend on how he wants us to offer unto him our service. He has outlined and given us this word, a complete record of how we can serve him, how we can live for him, and how we can glorify him.
As Christians, we desire to truly serve God as a family. Though there are some hiccups as we serve the Lord, we want the whole family to be part of the ministry, to be part of the work of the Lord. There are times that our children cannot join, there are times that our brethren, our own siblings, cannot come and join us, but we do desire that all of us—and even as a church—sometimes have our brethren of other concerns. There are sometimes that they have some errands to do and so we cannot force them to join us. But in our hearts and in our minds, we want everyone to be involved. And that’s how we should look at service. It is our desire that all of us will be part of it.
This is what we are going to look at in this part of the message. As we want to consider the norms in serving, if we talk about the norms, it talks about the standard, the pattern by which we serve. We already talked about the prescription of how we can serve; now we are going to talk about the pattern of how we can serve the Lord. There are things that we should follow, there are things that we should do, there are things that we should try to make and observe in our lives in order for us to truly serve the Lord and please him.
Of course, here in this chapter of Deuteronomy, chapter 6, we have the important message to every Israelite, and they must consider as they go into the land. You have to remember that they were already out there, facing the land of promise—the promised land—and they’re about to cross over. They were waiting for the Lord’s timing, and they could see, for some of you who have been to Israel before, mostly those who go there land in Amman, Jordan, and they cross towards Israel. Before that, they go to a mountain that looks out over the whole land of Canaan. And in this view, they can see the whole plateau or the whole land and the mountains of the land. They can see, "This is the place where we're going to live; this is the place that is promised by God."
But before that, here, the Lord wants them to see and understand that they have to do things or to be reminded of what they have to do and what they have to follow once they go into the land. Now we have to remember that Deuteronomy is a recollection or the second giving of the law. In fact, here in Deuteronomy chapter 5, we see again the Ten Commandments given. And here in chapter 6, the Israelites are reminded by God to keep these commandments. There are three things that we have to look into. God wants them to remember the commandments, the prescribed statutes, and the judgments, so that they will fear the Lord. They will fear the Lord, and in fearing the Lord, they have to love the Lord. And that fear and love can continue to be in the hearts and minds of the children and the children's children, the sons and their sons and daughters, when they teach the word of the Lord.
So these are the three things that we have to consider: we have to remember how God wants them to fear the Lord, and how they must love the Lord, and how they must teach their children about the Lord and about his word. So he started here with the commandments. Again, we are reminded of the word of God, the commandments of God, that we cannot add unto it, we cannot diminish from it. We have to make sure that what God has given us, these are the words that we have to follow. This is a tendency in today’s Christianity, where there are so many theologians who want to add something to make a name. “This is what I coined; this is the kind of theology that I added; this is the kind of teaching that I introduced.”
And so we have to remember what the Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, has said: “If we add anything new in theology, what is added, what is new, is always false.” So anything that is added into theology, into the teachings of God apart from the Scriptures, is always the false one. So there is nothing added into theology except that which is false, as he said. We have to be careful, and that’s why we have to fear the Lord as we remember his commandments. We want to know who he is.
The fear of the Lord is not that we have to hide from him, we have to run away from him, and we don’t want to come near him because he is a jealous God, or a mighty God, a consuming fire, as we have sung a while ago. He’s God who is so loving and caring; he’s God who is with us. He is God who wants to help us. He is our God who wants to help us prosper, to grant us success. That’s what he wants for the Israelites: that God wants them to have a successful entry into the land, so they can take over the whole land of Canaan, move on, and fulfil the plan of God. That’s how God wants them to remember him.
But they must also understand who he is, because without an understanding of who God is, they will imagine many things about him. “He’s so loving, but we forget that he’s holy; he’s so caring, but we forget he’s righteous; he’s so compassionate, but we forget he’s a just God.” So we have to understand and know who he is, and that’s the fear of God. It is reverential fear. It is something that we have to understand about who he is and who we are before him. That’s the right kind of fear: to know who God is and to know who we are before him.
And when we know who he is and we know who we are before him, that’s the right kind of fear. We don’t want to hide from him; we want to know him more. That’s the fear of the Lord: reverential fear. And when we know who he is—our holy God, who is perfectly holy, who cannot look at sin and just wink at it or close his eyes on sin; he cannot just sweep our sins under the carpet or hide them—he’s a God who is holy, just, and righteous. Therefore, when there is sin, he must punish it. He’s a God who is always righteous. And that’s the pattern we even want here in the secular world.
Can you imagine if somebody were to just come into your house and steal, and then after being caught by the police, simply ask for forgiveness and say, "Sorry, I didn’t mean to do it"? After he has destroyed many things in your house, would the police just say, "Oh, since he says sorry, we can just release him now"? We don't want that kind of justice. We want to ensure that just punishment is done for the man who has done wrong, who disturbed you and made trouble in your house. That is justice, and that is the pattern actually from God.
God is holy, righteous, and just, and therefore, whatever sin, transgression, fault, mistake, or error, God will correct it. He will not allow these things to continue or to persist in our lives, as if God would simply allow sinful ways to be practiced without correction. This is the pattern of the holiness of God and the justice of God. We must fear the Lord and understand that because God is holy, righteous, and just, we also know that we are a people who are depraved, and we must realise this about ourselves. We have to acknowledge that we are weak, that we have an inclination towards sin, and that our hearts are prone to do evil. Our minds are prone to think bad things. This is the nature of man, and we don’t need to reiterate how this all began. We all know, as our pastors have likely mentioned many times, how we inherited the sin of Adam.
Some people may argue, "Is it fair for God to pass down the guilt of sin that we did not commit? They were the ones who sinned first; why should we inherit their sin?" But this is the truth—Adam and Eve were our representatives and our first parents, and that’s why we still bear this sinful nature today. We can’t remove it from our hearts. We discover this truth, and we know that it is a part of the attitude of man, as we can even see in our own children. This is why, in a family, we have to understand this: we have a holy God, but we are depraved and sinful. We are reminded of this truth when we see our own children, how even though no parents would teach their children to lie, fight, disobey, or cause trouble, they still do it by themselves. They inherit that sinful nature.
And I’ve seen this even in my own children. Please don’t think that we are some kind of model family, where everything is perfect and we always serve as a family. No, we are also human beings, sinful parents with sinful children. I can remember when my son was still young. I can talk about my son because he’s not here right now. He was about six or seven years old, and he had some friends who were also Bible school students. You know what they did? They wanted toys or things they desired, but they couldn’t ask us for these things because we always told them that we couldn’t buy such things. People would think, "Ah, you’re a Bible school student, and you’re giving these things to your children. You have to teach them to live simply because you are serving God as ministers and pastors." So, as much as possible, we kept them living simply, without toys or whatever they wanted.
But somehow, I don’t know who told them, they came up with the idea that they should exchange gifts. They had some kind of exchange gift plan. They each had their own wish and desire, and my son asked his friend, “I want to give this gift to this friend.” Actually, it was my son who wanted something as well, and he told his friend what he wanted.
I want to ask your father to buy it for me. Of course, we have to buy it because it’s for other children, his other child. So, we bought it, and it was later that we realised they were actually planning it out: "I can get this," and they got it. We just realised it because, you know, later on, there was one who revealed that this was their strategy. So, who told them? Who taught them? They just imagined that this was the way they could get what they wished for.
That is in the heart of every child, and we know also that it is in every heart—not only of children, but even of ourselves. That’s why we have to know the statutes, the judgments, and here the Lord says, “That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged” (Deuteronomy 6:2).
You will continue to live in that promised land. We know how it was divided later, and the northern kingdom of Samaria, which fell into idolatry under Jeroboam, was taken away immediately by the Assyrians just a few years later. Judah followed, also. They had seen how the Lord chastised their brethren in the north, yet they continued in their sin to worship idols, even bringing idols into the temple, and that caused God to chastise them under the Babylonians.
So, this fear must be in every heart—not only of the parents but also of the children. “That thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life” (Deuteronomy 6:2). It’s important in our service for the Lord. The fear of the Lord must be there. Let us teach this to our children. Let us continue to tell them how God, who is holy, just, and righteous, will punish sin. This is important because for children to understand this fear of the Lord, it will bring them to also understand that they cannot even save themselves.
They cannot do any good thing in order to be saved. They will realise that they are not able to do whatever service they present, however faithful, loyal, or devoted they are. No matter how they serve, however they present themselves in the church, they cannot be saved, and they cannot be forgiven of their sins by all these things if they understand the holiness of God, the justice of God, and the righteousness of God. Even when they desire to do all things for the Lord, they will realise they are not able to earn God’s favour.
You know, I was brought up in a Roman Catholic family. In the Philippines, we lived just a few yards from the Roman Catholic Church. Even if we did not go into the church, we could hear everything the priests said in the Mass and all that they did. It was so near that we could hear everything. That’s why I was brought up as a very devoted Roman Catholic. It was only when I was 30 years old that God, mercifully and graciously, saved me.
From a young age, I was involved in the church, helping the priests. I was even in school, participating in many campus ministries—like the Student Catholic Action in the Philippines. Going into college, I was also part of the Colombian squads, the junior organisation of the Knights of Columbus. I did all of this, and I believed I was so faithful to the church. Because we were taught that salvation was through the church and good works, I trusted in my own good works. I believed I could be saved because of my loyalty and devotion to the Roman Catholic Church.
The more I did for the church, the more I trusted that through my faithfulness, I could be saved. When I finished university and started working, I joined the Roman Catholic Charismatic Movement, Couples for Christ. I was first in Singles for Christ, and that community—the charismatic community—we called ourselves the "Marines for Christ" because we were so active. We had Bible studies, we spoke in tongues, and we did so many things, even fellowshipping with the so-called evangelical new charismatic Christians.
I trusted that through this I could be saved. If somebody asked me, I would say, "Yes, I’m sure I’m going to heaven." I thought that when I died, before I entered, Peter would call me and say, “Oh, Jose, come. You have done so many good works for the church. Come into the kingdom of God.” That’s what I expected. I really believed that I had done so much for the church and that I looked good to many people. Through this, I thought I could surely enter heaven.
But only when God struck me and showed me how evil, wicked, and sinful I was did I realise the truth. At that time, God convicted me, and I had a crisis in my life. I could not sleep. I was so scared, thinking that if I slept, when I woke up, I would see hell. I wanted to stay awake all the time. For one week, I thought I’d go mad. But thank God, somebody came to tell me about the gospel and share the Word of the Lord with me. This came by God’s grace. Nobody told me I was going to be judged, that I was a sinful man. I thought I was a very good, pious, devoted, loyal Roman Catholic who could enter immediately into the presence of God when I died.
I praise and thank God for His mercy and grace. That’s why we have to teach and tell our children, as young as they can understand, what it means to be saved, what it means to trust in the Lord. This fear of God will cause us to understand that we need a Saviour, we need the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we cannot do anything by our own efforts. Whatever service we can offer cannot save us. We can only be forgiven, cleansed, and saved by Him.
This was also God’s reminder for the people of Israel as they were about to cross over into the land of promise. They had to remember that God remains holy, just, and righteous, and they had to remember that God is one. This is important because they could not love the Lord their God, the living and true God, if they didn’t know Him as one. If they entered the promised land surrounded by other gods—the gods of the Canaanites, the gods of the Amorites, the gods of the Hivites, and the gods of the Hittites—they may think that these gods were the same. They may think they just had different names. They may think that this god was on their side, that this is how He looked or how He acted.
God wanted them to understand and remember: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4). This is what is called the Shema in the Jewish faith. When they reached the age of twelve, they were taught to memorise this: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” They had to remember that the Lord their God is not the god of other religions, other tribes, or other groups of people. He is one Lord, the God given through the Scriptures.
This is also taught in many religions today. Some believe that coming to God is just like climbing the same mountain by different ways—coming from the north, south, east, or west—but it is the same mountain. Some may believe that Jesus is a prophet in another religion, or a modal person or a good man in another denomination, but the Lord here describes Himself as one. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Even the idols and gods of other tribes are nothing—they are just the imaginations of men.
You think they have a god, but they do not truly have God. The God of Israel is the only living and true God, and He is the God of the believers—the Christians today. He is not the prophet of other religions, not a modal person in other denominations, and not a good man in other beliefs. He is one Lord. And that’s very important because we cannot love Him truly if we don’t understand that He is this God.
That's why He says here, it does not end in a period or a full stop in verse 4: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." But how? There's a question. It's a big question for every one of us and for every one of them. How can we love this God, the Lord our God, who is so great, who is so holy, who is so righteous, who is so just, and we, having hearts full of sin, full of transgressions, inclined to do evil? How can we love this God? The Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love Him; thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And this is an important reminder, a pattern that we also must see in our service. We have the fear of the Lord. Second, we must love the Lord. But how can we love the Lord? The tendency of man is to go away and to hate God.
The tendency of man is to find his own way, not God's way. We are like sheep gone astray. But thank God that He made a way for us to be back into His fold. It is God who first loved us; it is not us who love Him first. We can love Him because He first loved us, and that is most important in service. If we acknowledge ourselves as sinners in the fear of God, in loving God, the needful thing that would happen, that should happen, and that should be the emphasis of every parent, every father, every mother to their own children, so that the whole family can serve the Lord, is salvation.
Thank God that all of us here know what it means to be saved, and that is only in the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith alone in Him. It's not by works, it's not by any other sacraments, or any other works that we can do in order to please God. It is only by faith, for without faith, nobody can please the Lord; nobody can please God. It is only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. And this week, it is very important for us to remember. Let us not forget, this is the Passion Week, by which we know this is the week we remember, we commemorate how the Lord Jesus Christ went through a great suffering, even gave Himself to die on the cross for our sins. How can we love the Lord? It is by knowing and acknowledging that He loved us, He cares for us, He’s a compassionate God, that He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world to save us, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
We cannot serve God as a family if we are not in Him. If we are not saved, if we are not a people, a family that is in His grace, when we come to trust and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's why in the pattern of service, yes, there is fear of the Lord, there’s love for the Lord. We have to acknowledge that we are sinners, we cannot please Him. The most important thing that we have, the basic teaching of the Scripture, in order for us to serve the Lord, is to be saved — salvation.
That's why there is no other priority that we, as parents, must give to our children — to teach them, to guide them, to let them know who Jesus Christ is. There was this story I heard of one preacher who was talking about a man who wanted to just, you know, enjoy himself. He wanted to be entertained. He just retired from his job and he wanted something to please him, to entertain him in his room, in his house. So, he thought of having a pet. He went to a store to look for some pets that could just encourage him, as he was alone and had no work anymore. He was staying at home, and he saw there was this dog, which he had to walk around for some hours each day. It was troublesome. He didn’t like cats, so he saw a small animal there and thought, "Ah, this is good. I don’t have to run around for this pet, just have to put it in a cage and be entertained by it. I will enjoy this pet." So, he bought the pet and brought it into his house. It played a bit, but then it stopped and stared at him. "What is this pet? I want to be happy, but this pet is just looking at me." So, he went back to the pet shop and asked. The person in charge said, "Oh, sir, when you have this kind of pet, it requires, you know, it wants to run around. You must have a bigger cage because your cage may be too small for it. So, you should buy a bigger cage."
The next day, he bought a bigger cage, brought it into his house, and it indeed ran for a while, but then stopped again and stared at him. "What is this kind of pet?" So, the next day, he went back to the pet shop and was told, "Maybe this hamster needs a wheel to run on." He bought the wheel, and when he brought it back, the hamster played for a while and then stopped again, staring at him. The next day, he went back to the shop again and was told, "Well, you know, hamsters are like rats. They want to play inside a tube. You need to put a tube inside the cage." So, he bought the tube, put it in the cage, and the hamster played for a while, then stopped again and stared at him. The next day, he wanted to go back to the shop, but he found out that the hamster had died. He complained to the pet shop and wanted to sue them for selling him a pet that died after only 3 or 4 days. The shop owner said, "Wait, let’s ask a vet to tell us what the cause of death was." And you know what the cause of death was? Starvation. He had all the gadgets, all the things — the wheel and the tube — but he forgot to give the hamster food. The pet shop owner said, "It’s foolish for that man to do that. Why did he not think of giving food?" Naturally, pets require food. But sometimes, some parents are like that. We know what is the Word of God, very important to our children, but we give them tuition, sports, and other activities, aside from God’s Word. They hear many things from us: how they go to play, how they go for lessons, how they have to learn this skill, except telling them that they must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to love the Lord our God.
And this love is with all thine heart, meaning we have to love the Lord in all ways, in all the days of our life, in whatever ways we do—in our work, in our sports time, in whatever we do. We have to make the Lord the centre of our lives, with all our soul. And that's how we desire that we give ourselves to serve the Lord. It is important that we have this relationship with God, because without this relationship, we have no desire to serve. Our service will just be pleasing man, just to show off that we are in the church or just to show off that we are doing something for others. It is not really pleasing the Lord, because we don't love Him with all our souls, and even with all our might. Are we willing to give up some things from our time, from our work, from our jobs, in order to give unto the Lord? Many people cannot give their time to the Lord. They have more important tasks and other things; they can play golf for the whole Sunday, except going to church. There are some Christians who are like this. I pray and I believe there’s no one in Bethel who does that, but we have to understand, loving the Lord is to love Him with all our heart, our soul, and our might.
Shamefully, I must admit that when the Lord called me to full-time service, it took a longer time for me to respond. I was thinking of how I could feed my family, how I could let my children go to school, how I could provide for them, how I could clothe them, how I could give them what they desire in life if I were to resign from my work, if I would give up my profession, if I would follow the Lord and just rely on what He gives me. It took me five years to think. Until God really shook me, it was a time when we went for a research trip, and suddenly the vehicle we had was in an accident. You know, in the Philippines, we rarely put on the seat belt, but that was the time, the only time, that I remembered I must have a seat belt because I was so tired. We’d been sleepless for several nights because we were going to travel, collect samples, and examine them. It was the third night or third day, so I thought of sleeping. That was the first time, in fact, it was hard for me because I think the seat belt had not been used since it was bought. So it was hard for me to get the seat belt and then put it on. I slept, and there was an accident. The driver had some wounds and bruises. My students at the back were spared because I had a seat belt. I thought, "Lord, if I die just for this cause, just going around and doing these things, it is vain." I thank the Lord for reminding me, spared my life, and caused me to think over His call. I surrendered. "Lord, if You want me to follow You, then please give me the courage, give me the desire, and give me that heart to trust fully in Thee." I thank God for His grace and mercy because if I were to follow just my own heart, my own mind, and my own desire, I could not do it. Thank God for His mercy and His grace. We can only serve Him if He works in us, but that is first to recognise that indeed He is our God, who loves us so much that He gave His Son to die for us. We must receive and believe in Him, make Him part of our lives, and when He saves us, it is the Spirit of God that indwells in us, causing us to think and to understand the ways that we do in life. He is the one who guides us so that we do things according to His ways.
We have just sung, "The Mind of Christ," and the mind of Christ will control us. The mind of Christ will help us to see. The mind of Christ will help us to appreciate the goodness of God and the heavenly future He has for us, and the reward He has for those who serve the Lord. I’m not saying that going into full-time ministry is the only way to serve. What God is telling, or what we are going to talk about in the next message, is that full-time service is not necessarily to be a pastor, or an elder, or a deacon. You can serve the Lord in many ways. We can serve God, but we have to understand there is a pattern, and that is the fear of the Lord, and that is to love Him. We have to acknowledge that we are sinners, we cannot do anything to serve Him. It’s only by His love, through the Lord Jesus Christ, that we can be renewed and have the mind of Christ and the heart to serve Him. And that is the only acceptable way that God will see, pleasing before Him, when we truly serve Him according to His ways, when He renews us, quickens us, because we were dead in trespasses and sins. Then we continue on to teach others in order to serve the Lord.
And of course, here, the promise is given to them. Look at verse 10: "And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things." These are the things that God will provide. It's not a promise of material prosperity; it is not a promise of present wealth and health in this world. But it is a promise of eternal security, eternal security for Christians, for believers who truly follow the Lord.
And this we must see because without understanding eternality and the future of believers, we also cannot serve the Lord in sincerity of our hearts. We cannot give Him the fullest that we can if we don’t look forward to the eternal place that God has for us. I pray we have that understanding, and with this few years that we have, few decades that we have on this earth, we look forward to the eternal place that God has for us. This will encourage us, move us, and cause us to fully serve Him.
A brother asked me yesterday, "Why is it that many young people today are not into the ministry or into full-time study of God's word or into serving the Lord?" As I have told him, there are fewer and fewer students in the Bible college each year. I told him that even in Singapore, there is zero Singaporean in FEBC today, and he asked me why. If somebody will ask you why this is happening, it is because the value in the minds of young people, which partly we can say is due to parents not teaching them or not giving them the right instruction, is because they are only thinking of the now—here and now in this world. They’re thinking of what will be in the future. They’re thinking of what it will be in eternity. They’re just thinking of what it means to enjoy this life today, and that’s why they don’t want to risk or give their life to have some difficulties or hardships. They think to go into the ministry is not really rewarding. You see, a pastor is driving a very old car, and you know, these things will come into your mind. I want to have some kind of new car, a big car, a big estate, a big house. These are all the desires of our young people today, and they see that they cannot get it when they serve the Lord because they are just looking at the things on this earth.
But if we truly are believers and truly know and understand eternal security in God, we are told that if we are truly people who have understood what it means to be resurrected, or about the resurrection and the life after death, we have the courage, we have the love, even to serve everything and give everything unto the Lord because of what He has prepared for us. These were the things that were in the hearts of many saints in the past.
I told you of a certain man, Peter Waldo, who gave everything up to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and to have a Bible translated. We also have one before him, Augustine, who is considered a saint even by the Roman Catholic Church. He had great success, was well-known, and an intelligent person, but gave up everything to follow the Lord Jesus Christ because he knew and realised that he was a playboy before he came to know Christ. He had even a son with a certain woman whom he took good care of. Then eventually, after that, the boy died, and he questioned himself. He loved that boy, but later he realised that if that was the case and the boy died, what about him? Where will he go? That struck him. He, who was, if we compare him with intellectuals today, might have been one of those who would be awarded the Nobel Prize because of his writings and what he had done, gave up all this and followed the Lord Jesus Christ because he knew that there is a far greater place that God has prepared for him.
That’s why he wrote—if you have time, it’s a long read, but if you can find it, The City of God is one of the great literatures in the past that many Christians today miss. The City of God was an explanation of why Christians continued to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was an explanation of what it meant for the city of Rome to be one that is under the control and sovereign power of God. But he looked forward to an even greater city, a city that is far more glorious and wonderful than the city of Rome. In those days, the city of Rome was the centre of civilisation, known as the great, mighty, and glorious city. But he says, there is a far more glorious and wonderful city prepared for me, and that’s why I have to give up everything to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
What are our patterns? What are the ways by which we set our standards? Are we setting our standards according to the ways of the world? Are we setting our standards according to the demands of the people around us? Are we setting standards because this is what this generation dictates, or are we setting the standard according to what God has given us? We can only fully give ourselves to serve the Lord, pleasing Him, honouring Him, glorifying Him, giving Him all the praises and glory that He deserves in our service, only if we follow His pattern. We have to have the fear of the Lord, to acknowledge that we are sinful people, we are weak, and that’s why we, even as Christians, continue on to confess our sins before Him, continue on to give up everything that is of the world, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ and love Him. Loving Him is because He first loved us.
How we have to remember this week, the Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed for us, how He gave Himself for our sins, and to look forward. And that’s why we have to teach our children to continue on telling them of the glorious future. It’s not that they will have all the millions and billions of dollars if they work in that company or if they enter into that profession or if they get this degree. It is to let them know there is a far greater, glorious future ahead of them if they truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the whole family is saved, the whole family is in Christ, the whole family has the mind of Christ, and the whole family has the heart indwelt by the Spirit of God, we can serve Him, and our service pleases God, glorifies Him, and gives Him all the glory.
I pray this is the service that we desire for Him. This is the kind of service that our family wants to give unto the Lord. It is not a service that is just to show off and tell people that we are in this church. It is to tell God that we are pleased. We know that Thou art our God, and Thou hast saved us, and Thou hast prepared a place for us. That’s why things on earth will be in vain if we will not spend these years of our lives, the strength that we have, for the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be moved, challenged to think and meditate: Are we truly, as a whole family, in Christ and serving Him to the fullest? Because we please Him, we honour Him by our lives as we are His, and what we are doing is according to His ways and according to His standard. May the Lord help us and bless us.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee for this morning as we continue to meditate upon how we can serve Thee. We thank Thee for this pattern that Thou hast set for us, how we must fear Thee, how we must love Thee, and how we must continue on teaching this true attribute and nature of Thee to our children. For we know that there is a place prepared for us in Thy kingdom and how we should give our lives to the glory and honour as we live for Thee in these days where people are no longer mindful of heaven, of eternal things, of life after death. We pray that Thou will not take these thoughts away from our hearts and minds. Let it be in the hearts and minds of every believer, as that’s why we are moved to serve Thee with all our hearts, with all our minds, even with all our strength. Help us, O Lord. Forgive us of the times that we neglect our service and forget to bring these words to our children. Help us, Lord, to do it for Thy glory alone and even for how we can please Thee and serve Thee the best that we can. We pray and we ask all this with thanksgiving in Jesus' name. Amen.