DEUTERONOMY 11:16-21 HOW TO KEEP FROM DRIFTING2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Deuteronomy 11:16-21 How To Keep From Drifting

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015.

Did you hear this week about the guy who got lost here in the Cleveland National Forest over off Indian Truck Trail? Last Sunday was, well, he was with his family there at a cabin they had rented and they were there and he took off out into the wilderness in the Cleveland National Forest and

And he was missing about two days. And they realized he hasn't been around. And so they notified the authorities and they began to look for him. And they found him after three days of being there in the wilderness. So on Wednesday, he was found dead.

And they found him at the bottom of a ravine. He was dehydrated. He was incapacitated. They had to airlift him out with a helicopter. And they found him in this critical condition. He's doing much better and recovering well. But he was last seen by his family on Sunday afternoon.

I thought it was a little bit humorous as they were writing about it in the press enterprise. It says that they became worried after a couple of days because he has medication that he has to take every day. And I just thought that was a little bit humorous. Like, well, if he had his medication, it's no big deal. If he doesn't show up for a couple of days out in the wilderness, you know, he's probably fine. But because he didn't have his medication, they were concerned. And so they had to search for him. They found him and they found him at the bottom of the ravine.

A similar thing happened about last month. There was a couple of girls you might remember who went for a hike up Skyline Drive and then they got lost and there was a big search party and it was overnight that they were out there lost, you know, trying to find their way back but unable to do so. And I was thinking about that this week as I was thinking about the passage for today. How does it happen that a person gets lost and

in the wilderness or in the Cleveland National Forest? What is it that takes place that makes that happen? Now, probably this guy or those girls didn't set out that day to say, you know, we're going to go get lost in the wilderness. Now, I'm sure there are some people who do that, you know, kind of intentionally like, I'm just going to go get lost. And then they get lost and that's not a big surprise. But, you know, a lot of times people get lost and

for a variety of reasons, but not intending to get lost, never thinking that they might even get lost. It's not even a possibility they would entertain, but as they're walking along, perhaps they're just not paying attention, and they take a turn somewhere, the trail becomes a little bit vague, and then they look back, and nothing looks familiar, and then

Being disoriented like that, it's very easy to get lost. Sometimes people get lost because something exciting happens. You know, like you're just so excited to get to the top of the hill, you're rushing. And so you're not paying attention. You're not thinking about how to get back. You're just excited. So you're going forward without any thought of return.

Sometimes people get lost because something unexpected happens. So there's a snake right in the path or something. You freak out, you run, and then you realize after five minutes of running and screaming, you don't know what direction you've been going and you don't know how to get back to where you were. And so those kinds of things can cause you to get lost as well. Well, as I talk about this idea of getting lost, of course, I'm going to be transferring that and talking about us getting lost from a spiritual perspective.

And as we look at Deuteronomy chapter 11 this morning, I want to encourage you and I want to teach you how to keep from drifting, how to keep from getting lost. We're setting out on the course, but how do we stay the course?

you know, that was something that was really strongly on Pastor Chuck's heart in his final years. Whenever people would ask him, you know, well, what do you want to be, you know, kind of the message as you go to be with the Lord for the pastors, for the people as they continue on? What do you want for Calvary Chapel? He would encourage us, stay the course, to press on and make sure you stay on target, stay on the course and

And that's really what Moses is encouraging the children of Israel to do as they're about to cross over into the promised land. Moses here is kind of giving his final speech, his final message to the children of Israel in the book of Deuteronomy. And he's giving this exhortation to enter in and to receive all that God has for them. But here in this passage, he gives them a warning to help keep them on track as they enter in.

Let's look again at verse 16. He says, take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. Verse 17, lest the Lord's anger be aroused against you and he shut up the heavens so that there be no rain and the land yield no produce and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

And so here Moses gives them a warning. You're going into this good land, the promised land, but there's a condition on this. That is, it's not always going to be blessed. There's a need for you to take heed and make sure that you don't turn aside, that you don't go off the path and start following other gods.

And so he gives this warning and it's a warning that I believe every one of us needs to hear. As believers in Jesus, you need to hear, take heed to yourselves, lest you turn aside. Take heed to yourselves, lest you drift away. Take heed to yourselves, lest you get lost. Now, it would be very easy for us to think in our hearts and in our heads and say, you know, I would never get lost.

when it comes to a relationship with the Lord, I would never turn away from God. I would never stop walking with God. I would never start chasing after other gods. I would never do that. It would be very easy for us to begin to make those declarations. Kind of like I mentioned last week with Peter, right? He tells Jesus, even if everybody else turns away and stops following you, I will never stop following you. I'll never deny you, right?

It's easy for us to make those statements, but I would ask you to consider and be honest with yourself a little bit. Have you ever in your Christian life drifted away from God?

Has there ever been a season where you've walked away, where you haven't really been close to the Lord? You haven't been paying attention. You haven't been hearing from him. You haven't been focused on glorifying him with your life. Has there been that kind of season in your life? Have you drifted from God at some point? I think if you're honest, you'd be able to say, yeah, I have. And for me personally, I can say that very clearly and easily. I have drifted away from God.

And there's been, you know, a season of my life where I drifted away from God to the point where I was running away from God. But then there's also those seasons where I'm drifting, not in an outright rebellion, but that things just start to kind of fall apart. You know, things that I was doing, I'm not doing anymore. Things that I was faithful in, I'm not faithful in anymore. Things that I was engaged in, I'm not engaged in anymore. It's a subtle drifting. And that's why I use the word drifting.

Because it's not something that's like you start out and say, hey, I'm going to go get lost today. I'm going to turn away from God and start chasing other gods. But there's these subtle things where you're not doing what you used to do. You're not walking with God the way that you used to. You're not serving the way that you used to. There's a change where you're drifting away from your relationship with God. And that's what Moses is warning against here. Now, the author of Hebrews says,

Many years later, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the author of Hebrews writes to Hebrew believers, Jewish believers, and he gives them a similar warning in Hebrews 2, verse 1. He says, He says, you guys need to hear this warning. There's a danger of drifting away. And I would say to you, the longer you've been walking with the Lord,

The greater this danger is for you, there's a danger of drifting away. The longer you've been a Christian, the longer you've known the Lord, the greater the danger you face. Not because, you know, there's all this idea like all of a sudden you're going to, you know, forget everything and just rebel against the Lord. No, the danger is there because the longer you've been around, the easier it is to get comfortable.

to get in a routine, to get in this place of, well, I've heard that before. I've read that before. I've studied that before. I know those things. I've done those things. And so it's very easy to find ourselves in this place of comfort and we're just coasting. We're just beginning to drift away. And that was what was happening as the author of Hebrews was writing his letter because the people he was writing to were believers who were drifting away.

He wrote about probably 10, 15, 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus. And so some of the people that he was writing to had been believers for that long, but they were drifting. They were in a place where they needed to be instructed and corrected. They were turning back to the things of Judaism, the rituals and the sacrifices. And they were thinking, maybe I need to go back there. Maybe I need to go back. And Christ isn't sufficient. Right?

And along the way, they had drifted. And that's why the author writes to them in Hebrews chapter five. And he says, by this time, you ought to be teachers. You've been around for 10, 15, 20 years. You've been around for a long time. You should be teaching others, but you need to be taught again because you've been in this perpetual state of immaturity. You haven't spent much time in the word. You haven't been growing in that. You should be able to teach, but you're not quite there yet.

Remember the Ephesian church faced something similar. Paul wrote to them the letter of Ephesians. It's a glorious letter. We love it. They were doing well. But then Jesus writes 20, 30 years later in the book of Revelation, we see the letter that Jesus writes to the church of Ephesus. And he says, you've left your first love. You've drifted.

You were at one time here and right in your relationship with the Lord, but things have entered into your life and things have entered into your heart and you've drifted, you've turned away, not because you dropped everything to run from the Lord, but there was these subtle changes. And so this morning, Moses gives the children of Israel this warning. It's a warning that applies to us because, well, we face a similar situation.

where we can begin to subtly change in our relationship with the Lord. And so Moses says, take heed, pay attention, be alert, be warned. There is a danger. And notice what he says. He says, take heed to yourselves. He says, look, this is your responsibility. You need to pay attention to your own heart and you need to pay attention to your own life. God has

blessed us with other believers around us. And many times he uses them in our lives to help keep us on course. But ultimately God would say to you, it's your responsibility. It's not your spouse's job. It's not their responsibility only, you know, to keep you on track in your relationship with the Lord. It's not just up to them. The responsibility ultimately lies with you. It's your responsibility. You take heed to yourself and pay attention and make sure that you take

Well, that you heed this warning and that you don't turn aside to other gods. Notice what it says there in verse 16. Again, take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived. Now, deception is an interesting thing because, you know, those who are deceived are convinced they're not deceived, right? Those who are deceived are convinced they're not deceived. So,

How can you know if you're not deceived? You might be convinced that you're not deceived, but does that mean you're not deceived? No, because everybody who's deceived is convinced they're not deceived. You get the point? And so there's this danger here that we got to recognize. Take heed to yourselves because there's a danger of deception where you think you're fine.

You think you're good. And you would maybe even say, I don't need this warning. I am right with the Lord. I'm doing what God's called me to do. I have a right relationship with God. You might be able to clearly declare that today and be convinced of that. But the reality be something altogether different. Beware, take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived. There's a danger of deception that we must watch out for.

And so how do we protect ourselves from deception? Well, he's going to go on and I'm going to give you three points this morning. And I would liken these points to the, I don't know exactly what they're called, but you know, the bumpers in between lanes on the road, you know, there's a little dum-dum-dum. So that when you're drifting out of your lane, you hit the dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum and you realize, oh, I'm drifting and you get back in the lane and

That's what these points are. These are things to help keep you in the lane, help keep you where God wants you to be. You know, Jeff has been my boss for a couple months now, and so I have to do mostly what he says. And he told me I needed to start using some more construction examples. And so when you're cutting a piece of plywood, you got to chalk a line, right?

Because if you don't chalk a line, you're not going to be able to cut that plywood straight. No matter how convinced you are setting off. Listen, for me personally, I can't even cut a two by four straight without a line. It's like somehow in that three and a half inches, I get squirrely. I got to have a line to be able to follow. I have to have a standard so I know. And inch by inch.

And half an inch by half an inch and quarter of an inch by quarter of an inch, I'm making sure, am I on the line? Am I where I'm supposed to be? And it gets even more so, you know, when you're cutting a larger piece of wood.

You need those measurements. You need those standards in your life. And he's going to be looking at the word of God, how to keep from drifting, how to make sure, how to take heed to yourselves that you're not deceived. It's going to involve the word of God and the word of God becomes that chalk line. It becomes that standard by which we look and we examine and we make sure that our hearts are where they need to be with God. And so how to keep from drifting. Three points.

Number one, found in verse 18, is receive the word. The first thing that we need to do is we need to receive the word. Look at verse 18. It says, Therefore, you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul and bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Therefore, he says, lay up these words. Now, notice the word therefore. Therefore.

He's making a point. He's saying because of this danger of deception, because there's the danger, there's the potential that you could be deceived and you could turn aside. And again, we might say, oh, I would never turn aside, but that is a danger that every believer faces. You can turn aside from following the Lord. You can be deceived and think that you're fine, but

but there's the danger of drifting. And so therefore, because that danger exists, because you have that potential to keep you from drifting, he says, lay up these words of mine. The way that he's going to instruct us to keep ourselves from drifting, to keep ourselves from deception is going to be pointing us back to the word of God. The word of God is the standard.

It's the line by which we measure our hearts and make sure that we're on the right track, that we haven't lost our course, that we haven't wandered off into the wilderness and we're lost at the bottom of a ravine somewhere thinking that we're fine, but really in terrible conditions. The Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 3, a scripture I'm sure you're familiar with,

2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. Paul says, here's the word of God. It's inspired by God. It's God breathed. And it's profitable.

God has designed it to do certain things. It's profitable for doctrine. So it gives us what we need to believe about God. It reveals to us the truth of who God is and what he does. But he says it's profitable for doctrine. And then notice what he says, for reproof and for correction. The word of God is profitable. It's built for, it's designed by God for reproof.

And the idea of reproof here is it's an absolute about face. So that is when you are completely going the wrong direction, the word of God is profitable to show you to turn around. It's profitable to bring that kind of reproof where you need to change completely. Your heart is completely wrong. You need to go the opposite direction. But then it's also for correction.

And the idea is it's course correction. You're not going completely the opposite direction, but you know, you're like five degrees off. You're a little bit off course and you need to be brought back on course. Paul says, that's what the word of God was designed by God to do. Again, the word of God becomes the standard by which we measure our hearts, by which we check and evaluate and see, am I deceived? Do I think I'm fine? But, but in reality,

I'm off course. I'm in a ditch somewhere, not where I should be, but all the while thinking I'm fine. He says, therefore, because the danger of drifting exists, lay up these words of mine, because that's what the word is profitable for. It helps keep you on course, to turn you around when you're going the wrong way, to get you back on the right path when you've wandered off a little bit. He says, lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul.

receive the word of God. Let it take root within you. Receive it in your heart. Receive it in your soul. And then he says also to bind it on your hand and to allow the word of God to be as frontlets between your eyes. Now, the Jews took this instruction from Moses and they took it quite literally. And so they would wear what's called phylacteries. They would wear these boxes on their heads where they would put scripture. And they would put

because God said here, it shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And so, okay, we'll put it right here, right on our foreheads. And then it shall be on your hands. And so they would bind these things on their hands as well. But I don't think that God meant it to be that type of thing. I don't believe that he was talking and instructing them to do this exactly that literally. I think he's speaking figuratively of how the word of God is to have this kind of place in

in their lives. In Exodus chapter 13, God uses some similar language as he's instructing them about the Passover. And he says, look, when your kids ask you why we do this, let them know. This is the thing that God did for us as he brought us out from Egypt. And so he says, you're to keep the Passover. And the Passover, he says in Exodus 13, 9, he says, it shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes.

So the Passover feast itself, he wasn't saying, you know, put the wafer on your forehead, put it between your eyes and then cross your eyes and look at the wafer. That's not what he was saying. He was saying, it's like that. This is how it's supposed to be. It's a memorial. It's a reminder so that it's always before you so that you're reminded continually about how God delivered you out of Egypt.

We have the saying today, you know, that someone looks at life through rose-colored glasses, right? Everything looks pretty and beautiful because they look through rose-colored glasses. So for us as believers, I would say we need to look through word-colored glasses. I don't know what color the word is, but you get the point. That we're to look through things, so look at life through the filter of God's word.

And notice that the different ways he talks about us receiving. He says, receive it or lay it up in your heart, in your soul, on your hand, and between your eyes, or you're looking through the word. It's frontlets between your eyes. And using those things, the heart, the soul, the hand, the eyes, I would encourage you to consider the word of God in relation to your life in a variety of ways. So first of all, considering your heart,

I would ask you to use the word of God to evaluate how you feel. Use the word of God to evaluate how you feel. You experience emotion. And that's part of God's design. He's given us emotions. He's given us the capability to feel. And we have feelings. But a lot of times we allow the feelings that we have, the emotions that we have, to dictate how we behave and what we do.

And if we are living our lives according to how we feel, you need to understand the idea of setting off on a path. You've got your compass with you. When you're operating by your feelings, you're looking at this compass of your feelings. And it's not a compass that is always accurate. And so you trust in your feelings and you think you're going north because, well, this is how I feel. But you don't.

very easily could be going a different direction. A lot of times your feelings don't match up with reality. And we know that to be true. And yet in the moment when we're feeling things so intensely, it's very easy to allow our feelings to dictate how we live, what we do, and the decisions that we make. But lay up God's word in your heart. And that is allow God's word to evaluate how you feel.

Use the word of God to instruct you the right way to feel and the things that are real and not just the things that you are emotional about. And a lot of times there's triggers in our lives. There's certain areas of our heart where we're extra emotional and we can recognize those things and realize, okay, especially in those things, I need to look to the word of God and let God's word instruct me and evaluate the way that I feel about this situation.

The way that I feel about these conditions or this person, is that accurate to reality? Is that what the Lord says? Is that what God instructs me to feel? And we need to let God evaluate us by his word in our hearts and our emotions. But he also says the soul. And I would relate the soul to the mind and what you think. And I would ask you to use the word of God to evaluate yourself.

what you think. Similar to our emotions, our thoughts sometimes have no bearing in reality. What we think is just stuff we make up. Our imaginations and our fantasies and things that we think but aren't actually true. Our thoughts need to be evaluated. That's why Paul talked about taking every thought captive that's in opposition to Jesus Christ. Because there's those thoughts that are

They're in opposition. They need to be taken captive. And the word of God needs to be the tool that we use to evaluate. Is that a good thought? Remember what Paul said? Whatever's noble, whatever's good, whatever's beneficial. Hey, think on these things. Set your mind on these things. Let the word of God dictate and evaluate what you think.

I read an article this week. It was, I think it was a guy from a Presbyterian church and he was writing about the idea of women pastors and leaders. And the basic premise of his article was, you know, it's time guys that we lay down the old traditions of, you know, it's men that are called to be pastors and we let the women come in and be pastors and leaders within the church.

And so I thought, well, that's an interesting idea for the article. So I was reading through it to see, well, what did he have to say? What arguments, what biblical support was he going to try to bring in? And what I found was he didn't bring in any biblical support. The arguments that he brought forth were his thoughts. He says, here's what I think. I think that we've spent enough time showing that men fail in morality and men are not always the best leaders and men fail in this and men fail at that and

And maybe it's time we give the ladies a shot is kind of what he was saying. And maybe they're going to be as bad at leadership as the men, he said. But, you know, we have to give them a shot and see, you know, are they going to be better leaders than the men? The whole argument, the whole, it was all about his thoughts. It wasn't based on what the word of God has to say. And listen, we can build up in our minds all kinds of great sounding arguments. And we can convince ourselves and we can convince people around us. But

But you need to let the word of God evaluate and instruct you how to think. Are those thoughts from the Lord? Remember what God said in Isaiah 55. He says, my thoughts are not your thoughts. Your thoughts are going to be different than God's thoughts. Very different. Not just a little bit different. He said, as high as the heavens are above the earth. And so you need to take your thoughts even to the word of God and see, is this worth thinking about? Does this match what God says?

Are these God's ideas or are these just my ideas? So he says, lay up the word of God in your heart, in your soul, but then also bind it to your hands. And I would use that to say, hey, you need to allow the word of God to evaluate what you do, your behavior, your actions, your activity. What are your hands doing throughout the day? Let God's word dictate the way that you use those hands. You place them on the steering wheel.

Let God's word instruct you how to drive that vehicle. You place them on the keyboard, let God's word dictate what you do, the actions that you take, the activities that you're involved in. A lot of times we can get involved in things that really should have no place in our lives. But maybe it's something that others are doing, friends of ours are doing. It's activities and things that God would say, you shouldn't be participating in that. You should not be engaged in that.

But then also use the word of God to evaluate what you see. He says, let it be like frontlets before your eyes. Like this. Like you have the word of God in front of you and you see things through the word of God. You know, like you watch a scary movie and your wife goes like this. My wife goes like this and I run out of the theater.

Let the word of God be like that. Let it be in front of your eyes and be the filter for what you see. Again, a lot of times the things that we see on the outside are not accurate to reality. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul says, look, we used to regard people according to the flesh. We'd look at Harvey and say, well, that's an old guy.

Now, whatever judgments you want to come to about that, maybe like, well, he's an old guy, so not worth my time talking to. Hey, that's not the way that God would say. That's not what God would say. That's not how God calls us to evaluate him. We used to look at people and just by the outside, just by our perceptions, evaluate their worth, their value, what we would do with them, what we wouldn't do with them.

But Paul says, we don't do that anymore. We used to regard Christ that way, but Christ has changed us. And so now we don't regard people according to the flesh. No, now we regard people according to what God says. I would encourage you, especially if you're having issues with a particular person, you're bumping heads, there's some difficulties there. Ask God to help you see them with his eyes. Because you look and you see, why that person hates me and is always just out to get me.

But maybe the reality, and often the reality is not like that at all. Sometimes it is. Sometimes people just hate you. And you know, I look around, I can understand that, but I'm just kidding. But you know, a lot of times people are just hurting and they don't know how to deal with it. They don't know how to handle it. They're lashing out and you're there. And so you feel the brunt of it. But, but a lot of times if, if God will show us what he sees, it'll change our perspective entirely.

Let God's word be the frontlets between your eyes that you look and you use the word of God to evaluate. What does God say about those things? What does God say about that situation? If we're going to keep on track and not drift away, this is the kind of relationship that we need to have with the word of God. It's the standard. Remember, it's the chalk line to keep us on course, to make sure we're cutting it straight.

Let the word of God evaluate and instruct you how to feel, what to think, what to do, and what you see. Or maybe that last one, what you see, maybe you could even rephrase it to say what you watch. You know, there's a lot of things that you could place in front of your eyes that adds to the deception that you could experience. It adds to and aids the turning away from the things of God.

Let the word of God dictate and instruct you on what to watch, what to see. So take heed to yourself. Receive the word of God. As I was reading about the guy who got lost this past week, I started thinking about, well, what do you do? How do you prevent that? And so I started looking around at some different websites and I found this kind of survivalist website, which had some interesting instruction on how to walk straight forward

in the woods. So if you do get lost, what do you do? Well, one of the things that they said is you need to make sure that you walk in a straight line when you're trying to find your way out. And so they gave some instruction on how to do that. Now, the reason why they felt this was important, I'm not sure that I actually buy it, but here's what they say. They say a typical error when you get lost is to wander off in what you think is a straight line of travel and

But often you're just walking in a circle and going back to the place where you started. And then they explain, this is because, and again, this is a part, I'm not sure. I'd have to look at this a little bit more closely. But here's what they say. You usually have, one person has a dominant leg that's stronger than the other. And so because you have a dominant leg, you know, one kind of bears the weight and then the other doesn't so much. And so you just kind of end up walking around in circles because one leg is stronger than the other. So that part's kind of silly. Yeah.

Maybe it indicates we shouldn't pay any attention to the rest of what they say, right? But here's what they suggested for walking in a straight line. Look at the place you want to go. So pick an object that you can see that's close by and just keep your eyes on that, fix your eyes on that, and walk to that point. And then when you get there, then fix your eyes at the next point. And so then you're looking at the next place you want to go and

And as you do that, then you'll get there and then you can look at the next point. You can look at the next point. And so instead of just walking in circles, you can, you know, go in this straight line hitting these different points. I think that's a useful way to consider and evaluate the word of God. That is not looking around at our circumstances, not looking at what we think or what we feel, but looking at the word of God and walk to that and hold yourself to that. And then keep doing that. Keep doing that. Keep doing that.

And in doing so, you'll take heed to yourself and you'll keep yourself from drifting by holding yourself to the word of God. Now there's different ways that we can receive the word of God. And I think there's a variety of ways that are essential that we need to receive the word, not just in one particular way, but in a variety of ways. So you can have your personal devotional time with the Lord, you sitting down and reading through the Bible.

And I believe that's crucial for every believer. And that's why we always encourage the body to go through the Bible in three years with us because it gives you the opportunity to spend time with God in his word day by day. And so there's the reading through the word of God. But then there's also the idea of memorization or meditation in the word of God where you take a particular passage. You're not working your way through a book, but you're just chewing on and considering a certain portion.

There's another way of receiving the word of God like you're doing this morning. And that is you're receiving teaching. You're being instructed by those that God has gifted to do that. And that's an important element of receiving the word. But then also there's personal study. That is where you, well, like Paul told Timothy to be diligent, to rightly divide the word of God.

Where you would take some time, not just to read through, but that you would dig in, that you would study, that you would evaluate, that you would see what God has to say as you go deeper into the word of God. And I would suggest to you that if you're just receiving the word in one of these ways, that's not the whole picture. You're out of balance. We need a little bit of all of these. We need our personal devotions.

We need those meditations and seeking out the word of God and pondering what he says in particular portions. We need to receive the instruction by those that are gifted by God to teach us. And we need to dig deep as well. And as we receive God's word in these various ways, what will be fulfilling or taking heed to this warning, take heed to yourself. It's the standard. The word of God is the standard. Make sure you're engaged in the word of God.

Make sure you're receiving it, that it's impacting your life. Well, going on now in verse 19, obviously we're not going to spend as much time in the next two points, right? That's by design. This is how the Lord put on my heart, but you'll get the point here in verse 19. Point number two is teach the word. So now that you've received it,

Now he says, pass it on and teach the word. Verse 19 says, you shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. And so he says, because of the danger, therefore, so that you don't get deceived and turn aside to other gods, here's what you need to do. Teach your children. Now notice he doesn't say because of the danger, teach.

Make sure you take your kids to church or bring your kids to Moses so he could teach them. No, he gives you parents the responsibility. You teach your children the ways of the Lord, the word of the Lord. Yeah, we love to do it. And God has given us some great gifted teachers there in the children's ministry. And they're blessed to minister to your kids. But it's not meant to be

the full instruction that they receive of the word of God. It's meant to be a tiny part of you teaching them the ways of God and to walk with God. But as he here encourages us to teach them to your children, you might be in a condition where you don't have kids or maybe your kids are grown. I would suggest to you there's a New Testament version of this. And that is Matthew chapter 28, verse 19 and 20.

We call it the Great Commission, where Jesus says, He says, Jesus says, In a similar way,

For those of you who are parents, you have that responsibility. Teach your children, make disciples of your children and teach them to walk with God. But even if you don't have children, you still have this instruction and it's good for you. It's helpful for you to keep you on course, to help you not be deceived. If you will teach others and engage in making disciples. Now, how does that help? How does that help you not drift away?

Well, anybody who's ever taught, whether it be biblical things or things in the world, you understand really the best way to learn something is to teach it. Teaching requires you to learn things in a way that you wouldn't if you were just learning it, if you were just hearing it. Teaching requires you to learn even better so that you can then pass that on to someone else.

And so it's important for you to be engaged in making disciples, not just for the person who's being taught, but it's also important for you because God will use you teaching them and making disciples to help you understand better the things that you're teaching. There's a study that was going on a couple of years back and they came to the conclusion of what they called the protege effect.

They did a study on some students and they enlisted some students to tutor others and then evaluated their results and their scores and how they did and such. And they found that the students that they had enlisted to tutor others did better with the material that they were learning. So all the students are learning the material, but some of them, they said, okay, now you teach it to somebody else as well. And so the students who were asked to teach others and tutor others were

They learned the material better. They scored higher on the tests than those who were just learning the material and not having to teach others. And they came to the conclusion because as they prepare to teach...

Well, they're organizing what they've learned. They're improving their understanding as a result and they're able to remember it better. And then as they explain it, they're also identifying the gaps. Like, you know, sometimes you think you understand something until you're in the middle of explaining it and you go, wait a minute, how does that work? I never thought about that aspect of it. And as you're teaching, you identify the spots that are missing, the spots that you don't understand, right?

And so they called it the protege effect, where when you have a protege, you're teaching somebody else. Not only do they benefit from the teaching, but you benefit and you increase in your understanding of what you're teaching. And the same is true when it comes to the things of God. There's a danger. You and I, we're all capable of drifting away from the Lord. And we need to receive the word and keep our eyes on the word and use the word of God to evaluate our hearts and lives.

It's the line by which we measure, which we understand that we're on the right track. But also we need to teach the word and all those things that the Lord's been teaching us about how to deal with our emotions and how to deal with our thoughts and the things that he's been instructing us and the things that he's been giving us. He says, now turn around it and pass that on. You need to not just be receiving the word, but you also need that outlet. Who do you give the word out to?

Every believer is called to make disciples. How are you engaged in that? This is an important part of keeping you on track and helping you not get lost in the wilderness and turn aside from following the Lord. Well, finally, verse 20 and 21, point number three is to live the word. So receive the word, teach the word, and then also live the word. Verse 20 says, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

So these words, lay them up in your heart, lay them up in your soul, receive them, pass them on to your children, but also, he says, write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Now, here's what I want to say.

make sure we get about this idea here in verse 20. As he says, write them on the doorposts. God is not giving us decorating tips. He's not saying what you need to do is find a pretty picture that has a scripture and then post that on the door. He's not saying make sure that you have, you know, somewhere Joshua 24 15, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Like everybody needs to have that on a picture on a wall somewhere. That's not what God is saying. He's not saying

hang up a sign. Here's what God is saying. Make the word of God a priority at home so that when you come and when you go, you're reminded as you see the doorpost, there's that verse, there's that passage, there's that scripture, that instruction that God has given you so that you're not just, well, I heard it one time. I read it that one time. There was that one message I heard, but that

Over and over again, you're confronted with the word of God, that you have this reminder, set up a reminder for yourself, in other words, about the things that God has spoken to you. I think we could refer to these as doorpost verses. It's not, again, Joshua 24, 15, or some of those other popular verses that we'd like to put on the wall, but it's a verse that God speaks to you directly about.

And he's saying, set up in your life opportunities for you to be reminded of what I'm teaching you. So that you live the word, that it's not just, you heard it, it went in your mind, you know it. If somebody asks you a question about it, or if there's a trivia game and you could win some candy, you know, then you could get that. But as you walk out the door...

Give yourself an opportunity to see, this is what God's speaking to me. This is what God told me so that you can go out and live it. And then as you come back in, you have the opportunity again. How do I do with that? And now that I'm home, you know, sometimes we can be the best Christians, you know, out where everybody else can see us. And then we come home and we live like heathens. So when you come home, be reminded, this is what God wants you to do. This is what God has spoken to you. Many people have what we refer to as Christians, a life verse.

It's kind of a Christianese thing that we have, right? And some people know what that is. And some people are like, what do you mean a life verse? Well, a life verse is the idea. Like it's something that God gives you over and over and over again throughout your life. And for me, I have a life verse. It's Romans chapter 12, verse 11. It says, never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Now,

You could look at a life verse or the idea of a life verse in many different perspectives. Like, well, this is my favorite verse. This one makes me feel the warmest and fuzziest. Listen, this verse is my life verse because the Lord corrects me with this verse over and over and over again. This is a line for me. And when I get off track, God uses this verse to remind me, hey, you're off target. You've lost your zeal.

You don't have spiritual fervor and it's affecting your serving the Lord. There's a whole teaching, of course, I could give on that. I'm not going to get into that, but it's a verse that God uses to correct me, to instruct me. And I don't have it written literally on the doorposts, but I have it written in places where I'm reminded. I have it written in places where I'm reminded that I need to keep my spiritual fervor. I need to not be lacking in zeal. And so when I'm

Out of line, God brings me back. It's a doorpost verse for me. In other seasons, there's other verses as well that God will bring in. And he's really, you know, giving me this. He's giving me this instruction to help me to stay the course in the season I'm in. I shared a little bit last week about Luke chapter 17, verse 10, where Jesus says, when you've done all those things which are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do. That's a doorpost verse for me right now.

as i'm busy as i'm tempted to start complaining and whining and thinking about how you know hard things are or whatever the lord says hey walk by that door post again now again i don't have it literally written but but i have it electronically written in places where i'm reminded i'm a servant i'm i'm supposed to do what my duty is to do i need to be faithful and obedient to the lord i would encourage you to live the word set up reminders

And not just, you know, fluffy verses that make you feel warm and fuzzy, but set up reminders of things that God really is wanting to teach you.

How many times, ladies, you're going to the retreat? How many times do you go to retreat, God speaks to you greatly, and then you go home? I'm not just talking about the ladies do this, okay? I'm just saying it's pertinent because you're going to a retreat. So all of us, we do that, right? It's like, wow, God spoke to me. It's like, at the moment, you think this is the most radical thing. God changed my life, transformed my life. That's what we might say in the moment. And then two days later, it's like it never happened. We need those doorpost verses, right?

Those reminders. This is what God says. And for us to be confronted with that every day as we leave, every day as we come home, that we're reminded and checked and several times, you know, throughout the day that we're reevaluating, am I fulfilling these things God's instructing me? Am I responding to what he's saying? I would encourage you, set up some reminders. And maybe it is literally writing it out on your doorposts.

or posting it on your refrigerator, or typing it in electronically and setting some reminders for it to bounce back to you, or text you, or whatever. But take, grab hold of those things that God wants to teach you, and set it up for yourself so that you are continually confronted by it. It'll help you to hold the course, to not be deceived, and to be led astray.

So how to keep from drifting? Number one, receive the word. Use the word of God to evaluate how you feel, what you think, what you do, what you see. Let it be the standard by which you measure life, your actions, your thoughts, your attitudes, and then teach the word. You need to be making disciples. You need to be passing on those things that God is showing you and then live the word. Set up those reminders for you to be confronted with those things that God is teaching you.

You know, we're people. And even though we're Christians, we don't stop being people. And we're still stubborn. And we still like to rebel, you know. We still drag our heels. And so we need to help ourselves receive what God has for us by keeping the Word of God right there before us on our doorposts, setting up those reminders because we know we're forgetful. And listen, going back to the very beginning,

Moses gives this warning because we need it. And I would suggest to you, the longer you've been walking with the Lord, the greater danger you face because it's so easy for you. When you're new in the Lord, it's different. You're excited, you're passionate, you're learning. Everything is new, but you've been walking for a while. You've heard these things. You've taught these things. Perhaps you've read these things. It's so easy to get comfortable and to just coast. And when you're coasting, you're drifting, you're in danger. Take heed.

Make sure you're receiving the word of God. Make sure the word of God is a standard in your life. Pass that on to the next generation. Teach others and make disciples and then live it out. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word, the powerful tool it is in our lives, Lord, and it's able to cut through the deception. Lord, the areas where we are convinced we're fine, but then we look in the mirror and we see the reflection. We see ourselves as

against the standard of your word and we recognize, I thought I was fine, but there's some issues. Thank you, God, for providing us such clarity. I pray that you would help us to learn, to appreciate, and to put to use this powerful tool that you've given to us. Help us, God, to use your word to evaluate our hearts, our minds, our actions, what we see, what we watch. Help us, Lord, to look to your word as the authority in our lives.

that we would put your word above our own thoughts, above our own feelings, above what we would prefer and our desires and wishes. Help us, Lord, to submit to your word, Lord, that you would keep us on track, keep us walking with you, protect us from the danger of slipping away, drifting away subtly. Lord, we need that help. We need that. So speak to us through your word. I pray that you would help us then to pass it on and to set up those reminders that we wouldn't allow anyone

what you've spoken to us to just be lost in the hustle and bustle. But Lord, that we would be reminded, that we would be mindful of the things that you have said, that we would live by it, that we would adjust our attitudes. And Lord, we'll adjust it today and it'll need adjustment again tomorrow. So Lord, help us to have those things in place for us, that we would remember you and that we would once again submit to your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.