Again, this week, I'm kind of going out on a limb in regards to spiritual disciplines. Last week, we talked about the personal spiritual disciplines of integration, what that looked like to make what you say you believe as a Christian match up with your heart, right? That's the true Christian experience, is to obey God in the greatest commandment. So, it's not, these aren't things that I've learned in one particular book per se, but really it's just a reorganization or a recategorization of principles I've learned over the years and hopefully a way and a format that will be most beneficial for all of you and for your futures as well. Let's kind of do a little bit of a recap of everything we've talked about in regards to the spiritual disciplines. We defined the spiritual disciplines as spirit-empowered activities practiced by Christians guided by a renewed mind that cultivate godliness, deepen our experience with God, and help conform us to the image of Christ. So the main things to take away from this, of course, is that they are activities. They are things that we actively seek to do, and that they have a goal in mind, to give us that communion with God that we desire, and of course, to conform us into the image of Christ, which we see in the golden chain of salvation in Romans chapter eight. That's our goal for everything. That's why God does everything he does in our life, whether it be Providence of smile or providence of frown everything's done for our good for his glory that we be conformed into his image So first we covered the discipline of the intake of the word This discipline of course is of prime importance For us today. We went through an inductive study method really quickly It was like three lessons combined into one Just trying to go through it as fast as I could it seemed like but we made it through We talked about whole Bible reading plans, meditation methods, and we also talked about some interpersonal or public ways of the intake of the word, such as being under preaching, what that looks like, being in a group Bible study, and the importance of all these disciplines for us in renewing our minds and to give us the thoughts that God has. But we cannot stop at just renewing our minds alone, right? The exercise of a Christian life is not just a mental consent or a cognitive thing that you just believe these certain things and you're good to go. Rather, we have these spiritual disciplines that act to integrate our mind and our heart. They make Christian orthodoxy and orthopraxy into a whole being experience. In other words, these disciplines in particular help us obey the greatest commandment, which Jesus says is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Last week we talked about this personal aspect of these spiritual disciplines of integration. We touched on preaching the gospel to ourselves in all situations, and we spoke on gaining an eternal experience. We talked about how we're all dreamers, we all dream about something. Most people in America, what are they dreaming about? It's the American dream, right? Have a good family, have success. But the dream for the Christian is that day of glorification, right? When we're unified with Christ and we're with Him forever. And what that looks like when we have that eternal perspective. We talked about ways we can do that. For example, even going on a short-term mission trip, you gain a global perspective of the church. Communication with the missionaries, supporting and receiving updates from missionary societies. And we gain this eternal perspective also by observing the history of the church, studying church history, studying those who have been martyred, or reading biographies of godly men and women. We can gain this perspective, this eternalist perspective, also by picking up a systematic theology textbook and just reading through it, studying God for who he is. Another way we can gain eternal perspective real quickly before we move on to today's topic is by meditating on the providence of our lives. We've been talking about this a lot in the men's study group with John Flavel's book, The Mystery of Providence. It's been really amazing to me to reflect on the providence God has had in my own life with this whole journey here and taking on a new job, a new home, and going through this entire adoption process to see how God has had it in His hands the entire time. Even when we thought we were at the end of our rope, nothing was going to work out, everything was in God's control. And meditating on the providence God has for our own lives helps us gain that eternal perspective that there is another end goal there. It's not just to have success in this life, it's not just to have what we think we need, but it gives us that perspective that one day we will be made like Christ. Today's topic we're gonna focus on and detail is the interpersonal or group aspect of these spiritual disciplines of integration. So these are the disciplines that we practice with others to help ourselves and others obey the greatest commandment. But before we move any further, let's go ahead and turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 6 from whence we get this great commandment. Deuteronomy chapter 6 is the Shema. Deuteronomy chapter six verse one says this. Now this is the commandment. The statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land which you are going over to possess it. That you may fear the Lord your God, you and your sons and your sons' sons by keeping all his statutes and commandments which I commanded you all the days of your life and that your days may be long. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in the land flowing with milk and honey. Verse four, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. So Moses hits here on spirituality. That's a term that's thrown around a lot today. even in our secular context. It may be defined as rituals or behaviors associated with a particular religious belief. There's been a lot of comeback for this term recently. In fact, when I was just Googling the term spirituality, you can see its usage over the years. You know how Google will show that? And it was like, do-do-do-do-do-do-do, and then you go to 2010, it would just jump up. where the term spirituality was just used so much more. And the reason why I would say that we have this is because we have a society who had turned into materialism, seeking after success, seeking after things, right? But they realized that doesn't satisfy. You know, we have a society who have been in the church and they're all about the church and trying to live a good and moral life. And they realize, well, the church has failed me. And so they are caught in between these two different things and they find themselves meeting somewhere in the middle and just saying, well, I'm just going to be a spiritual person. It's like the the Colette or the preacher of Ecclesiastes who's looked at all these things under the sun and tried them out and finding them unsatisfactory. So, They say, I'll be spiritual, not chase after materialism, but at the same time, I'm not going back to that church or other place of worship. Individualism and spiritual teachers with sharp teeth have convinced the masses that they need to go it alone and find out what's best for them. You see, everyone can see a glaring problem with themselves and with the world. Any first and foremost worldview question you ask a person is, what's wrong with the world? That's what we want to find out. What is that thing that's wrong? More education is not the solution. Being good enough is not the solution. Church is not the solution. A gifted preacher is not the solution. Great performances and music is not the solution. The only solution is Jesus Christ, his person, his work. The very Christ we see revealed in scripture, not the Jesus that we want to make for ourselves. You see, God created the world perfect, just as it should be. Humans were made in his image as viceroys, as rulers over his glorious creation. We had one commandment, don't take from that fruit, but in a garden full of yeses, we chose the one no. But God didn't fumble in the heavens, right, writhing his hands trying to figure out, oh no, they messed up, what am I gonna do next? He didn't crumple up his creation, right, like an author revising his first draft. No, instead, and nor did he, you know, look at his creation as a clock and just wind it up and let it run. No matter what happens, he's not gonna do anything about it. But instead, he had a plan. The first giving of the gospel we see in Genesis chapter three, verse 15. God promises this seed that's gonna crush the head of the serpent. The seed of the woman, right? We see later in Galatians, who's that seed referring to? Of course, it's referring to Jesus himself. Jesus is the one who's gonna destroy the work of the devil. God took a man out of the land of Ur of the Chaldeans named Abram and promised him a great nation, land, seed, and blessing. Abraham believed God, left his home, ventured into that new land. He knew that his ancestors would one day return to this land in 400 years. That was promised in the covenant of Abraham, Genesis chapter 15. And so he bought a plot of land for a burial place based upon that faith. He had Isaac, who had Jacob, who had Joseph. The people descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ventured down into Egypt during a famine. Years passed. Then came a pharaoh who didn't know Joseph or his works, right? You all know the story. And so he oppressed the people of Israel. Yet again, Moses, God had a plan, excuse me, he sent his service Moses to deliver the people of Israel by his mighty hand. As they were going through the wilderness, God was preparing them for the promised land. And all the parallels are so clear, right? We are in a wilderness preparing ourselves for that land to come. for that rest to come, because it says in the book of Hebrews, Joshua did not provide them ultimate rest. Moses was preaching the statutes that God commanded him to preach, and the people were on the brink of the promised land with no knowledge of God. Again, the parallels are clear. We are on the brink of eternity with no knowledge of God. And hear what Moses says. He's preparing them. He's preaching these sermons, preparing them. You're about to enter into the land that God has promised you. You need to know these things. He says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. As I said before, some preachers will look at this and try to separate it out. They'll say, here's some ways that you can love the Lord your God with your heart. Here's some ways that you can love the Lord your God with your mind. But that's not necessarily the point that Moses is trying to make. The point that Moses is trying to make here is that we should love God with our entire being, with all of ourselves. Right? Christianity It is always claimed, people, Christians are always claimed to be hypocrites. They say one thing and do another thing. That's not what Christianity is supposed to be. It's supposed to be something of integrity. That what we say with our mouths, we believe in our hearts and know in our minds to be true. Christian spirituality is integrating our artifacts, behaviors, feelings, values, beliefs, and worldview with our ultimate allegiance, namely Jesus Christ. In other words, what we collect, the stuff we have, what we do, what we enjoy, what we think is good, what we believe to be true, and what we believe to be real should revolve around the person and work of Jesus Christ. The disciplines of integration are what actions we can take to make that become a reality. Look on in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 7. He says, you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Right, so we can all go to Amazon right now and buy our phylacteries and have them placed right on our head, right, with the scriptures. Is that what Moses is telling us to do? No, not necessarily. What the spiritual discipline is, is to make, to direct. It's one of direction, right? Every moment we have, every conversation we have is something, we're directing something. Typically involves ourself, self edification. We tend to boast or lift ourselves up and keep the focus on ourselves, either doing that by boasting or self-loathing. We're keeping that focus on ourselves. Our conversations are sprinkled with, in my opinion, or I think, or the millennial term, I can't even. That's good, right? Millennials out there, you got that. Or I just feel like, you know, if you really want to see some other good I am statements, just pick up a good Joel Osteen book, right? That's his new phrase, is I am, right? I thought it was Yahweh's name, but obviously it's something we pronounce over ourselves. So we see, we're directing every moment, and it has a certain focus. What are we directing our conversations with others, our moments with others towards? Is it ourselves? It shouldn't be. Every moment, every conversation should be directed to Christ. Number one tips and steps for this is this can only be done with the intake of the Word and meditation and the personal disciplines of integration as the foundation. If we're not intaking the Word personally, if we're not sitting under preaching, if we're not in constant conversation with God, praying without ceasing, if we're not constantly reminding ourselves of the gospel, It's nearly impossible to branch out from there and direct our other moments, our other conversations towards Christ. Anytime that at work that I would direct a conversation towards God, the more I talked, the more I felt like I was making myself sound like the fountain of knowledge. That was really annoying to me. And this was especially true when I was not practicing the praying without ceasing. You know, so many times I failed at this at work. It felt like, I always felt like a failure, and now I'm just self-loathing over here. Right? But I take that, and I need to repent, and I need to know that what has Christ called me to? Not in an exaltation of myself, not to put down myself, but to look to Him, repent of my sins, and turn everything I can to Christ. Another tip on this discipline of directing others to Christ in every moment is to not be overly forceful or a lie. When I was working at Chick-fil-A, we had a guest who I would always see typically on my break. Anytime that I asked him, how are you, he would immediately stop and say, blessed and destined for greatness and so are you. And the first time, it just really caught me off guard. I was like, why is he saying that? But the more I thought about it, the more I was like, well... At least he's directing people's thoughts Godward, but I was like, well, what if I was Judas? What if I was destined not for greatness, but for hell? Is that necessarily the truth? And of course, we can define, redefine the terms blessed or greatness in any way we please to make it theologically correct, if we suppose. But the point stands, we don't wanna lie when we are directing conversations towards God. We don't wanna tell them lies, right? And of course the greatest of these lies in our modern world today is the sinner's prayer, right? That you just repeat these words after me and that you're automatically gonna be saved. Some of my background, I came from a school who identifies themselves as being Anabaptist, and they were all into the soul winning movement, and that was their thing. But when it comes to it, how we apply the gospel to people, how we direct them to the true gospel matters. Are we going to be real with people and tell them the truth, or are we going to simply lie to them and not share the whole counsel of God? We can all probably, if you're strange like me, think of the unusual street preacher tactic. Maybe you've seen a YouTube video of some crazy street preacher, or maybe Steve Anderson, that was really just too forceful. I remember when I was at the same college, we had a Big Daddy Weave concert going on. If you've heard of Big Daddy Weave, you might like saxophone. You know, he's got a lot of that in his music, a lot of acoustic sounds. And so there was a person who was protesting this concert. He stood out front of our school dressed as Satan, red, horns, pitchfork, and a sign, right? Because that's how Satan looks, red. You know, it's part of my logical exercises with some of my co-workers. I would say, Santa's dressed in red, Satan is red, therefore Santa is Satan. See? You know, logic is of prime importance to me in my theological efforts. So, this guy, he was dressed out there as Satan, you know, and he had a sign that said, I invented rock and roll. You know, sadly he didn't have any converts to his cause. And obviously this was too forceful. Why is that? Because Christianity is a set of affirmations about God and then a denouncement of the sin that God hates, right? It's not first a denouncement of things we think are wrong and then an affirmation of what God thinks about how we're right. One is Christianity, the other is, of course, legalism. When we seek to move conversations Godward, we want to carry the other person along with us. If we're too forceful, we can push them away. Of course, there are some people who will run as quickly away as they can in any mention of religion, but we must understand the people whom we are conversing with and how to understand how to appropriately bring God to them. Another tip, I guess, on this directing people Godward. Of course, first was we must ourselves be directed Godward. If we're not preaching the gospel ourselves, if we're not directing ourselves that way, we can't help others along in that. The second was don't lie, don't tell them a mistruth, and don't be too forceful. And finally, find their ultimate allegiance. I can't tell you how many times I was able to start a conversation asking a catechism question like, what is your greatest hope in life or in death? And yeah, of course the answer is, I think this is a New City Catechism question. We were mixing, matching different catechisms at one point. But the answer is, you know, our greatest hope in life and death is that we are not our own, but we belong to God. And so I would ask people questions like that, and it really helped them identify what their ultimate allegiance was. You know, sometimes it'd be like, I just want to be a dad one day, you know? A lot of times they'll answer with things that sound apparently noble, or what is your greatest goal in your life? These questions can really get people thinking, especially if they haven't thought through what their ultimate allegiance is before. Most people, even Christians that you might talk to, haven't decided upon it. Of course, as I mentioned before, the American Dream is the center for most people in America. Our duty, though, our command, our resolve as Christians is to show them the cracks and the foundation of their false ultimate allegiance, right? And to show them you can't build the rest of your life on that, right? We believe as Christians that our ultimate allegiance is Jesus, and that's the only thing, the only person we can build our lives upon. We can't build our lives on rules. We can't build our lives on church. We can't build our lives on moralism. We can't build our lives on activism, success, a good family or friends, but only on the person of Jesus. And again, I would encourage when you're doing this to be really gracious. Some people really just haven't thought it through, especially believers. I remember, just personal aside, sometimes I've been too forceful with actual believers, you know, and helping them find their ultimate allegiance when it hasn't been Jesus. And just honestly, It's a gracious process to help them. It's a sanctifying process, and that's the key word. It's a process. It's not something that we can force upon people instantaneously, but it's something that we can pray about, we can work through with people, and we can help them on that process to sanctification. Look with me at verse 10 of Deuteronomy chapter six, verse 10. He says, and when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give you, with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt." That's key, right? That goes back to the personal discipline, that we need to remind ourselves of the gospel, especially in times of goodness, in times of happy providence. We need to remind ourselves that we were a part of the kingdom of darkness, and he transferred us into his kingdom, lest we too forget the Lord's. That is our tendency. Verse 13, it is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you. For the Lord your God is in your midst, is a jealous God. Lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. Verse 16. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him in Massa. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes which he commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may go well with you. and that you may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers by thrusting out all your enemies from before you as the Lord had promised." So we focus on what does it look like when we are teaching these things diligently to our children When we want to do things together, lest we forget the Lord, the scripture speaks fondly here about having practices in order to not forget the fact that the Lord is our ultimate allegiance. Whether that be praying or singing before you eat, or other minor things in those rituals, or using family worship. Family worship has been one of the most neglected spiritual disciplines of our day. I don't think I learned about this until maybe four years ago, that it was even a concept. Back in the Puritan days, a man would be excommunicated for not practicing family worship on a regular basis. And how often, you know, I fail. I let the idols get in the way, the comforts of just relaxing on the couch and watching a movie, or the idol of sleep and tiredness from work, or the idol of just staying up late and doing what I want to do. But God has been gracious to us to give us a family. I mean, the least we can do is spend five minutes a day worshiping him together in return. Our professionalism in America has caused us to allow the professionals to handle the worship process. And what a lie, right? Our Sunday worship should simply be the culmination of our private and family worship throughout the week. Here are some tips for you, whether you're wanting to start out on this journey, whether it's something you want to continue, or just affirmation of your current regular practice. Number one is to just have a consistent time every day. Some people, that's breakfast. Everyone's there together. For us, it's right before bedtime. Have that consistent time of day to make it a habit. Just know the best time that works for you and when your family can be together. Number two is to know the needs of your family. We all are in different situations, right? Some of us have very young children, some of us have older children, some of us are empty nesters. Whatever your situation is, you want to find what is the need for your family in that time of worship. It doesn't have to be elaborate, you know, three hour long affair. Sometimes I read a chapter and explain it. Right now we're going through the book of Ezra. Just reading a chapter and explaining it. What does it look like when the Israelites were trying to rebuild the temple? What does that have to do with us today? Sometimes we use the gospel projects for kids. We actually used an actual curriculum that we got. And sometimes we've used Paul Washer videos explaining a catechism. You know, we've used all sorts of different resources. There's no perfect thing to make your, you know, family worship an amazing experience. But family worship, what does it do? You, together with your family, with other people possibly that you invite in your home, it makes this Christian experience not something you just open up your mouth and say, I believe, right? It integrates those things and causes you to obey the greatest commandment. And the three basic elements, finally, of family worship is just typically just read a little bit, pray a little bit, and sing a little bit. You don't have to have a degree in the Bible, right, to lead your family in worship. And I can tell you from personal experience right now, this has been very difficult for me in my stage of life. My schedule at work would change every week. I wouldn't know what I was working until Saturday, you know? And the general busyness of life with everything going on seemed to just sweep away this time from us. I didn't fight hard enough where I could have. But I would encourage us all to fight at this time and make it happen and surely God will bless it no matter where we are in our lives. Any questions on anything that we've kind of run through pretty quickly so far? Anybody have any experiences of family worship at home that you want to share that are just What kind of things do you do? Alright, well let's look at verse 20 of chapter 6 of Deuteronomy. Verse 20. He says, when your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you? Verse 21, then you shall say to your son, we were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes. he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he is for to give to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God as he has commanded us. When I was younger, I asked my dad, Why do we pray before we eat? Yeah, seemed like a simple question. Why do we do that, you know? Just looking through the Bible, I didn't really necessarily see it that often. Why do we pray before we eat? I just remember receiving an authoritarian, we do it because we do, you know? Basically, hush up, say the prayer and eat your food, you know? And this was the type of Christianity I experienced growing up in my home. And I don't believe it ultimately to be the fault of my parents, but that was it. We were in church every time the doors were open, but little mention of Jesus in the home when it came to the decisions that were being made or really anything. We were practically Christian atheists, claiming a belief, but living as if he had given us no commands. How much greater if when I asked, you know, why do we pray before we eat, if the response was like what Moses was talking about here in Deuteronomy 6. We were sin's slaves. the kingdom of darkness, and God transferred us out of the kingdom of darkness by his beloved Son, by sending Jesus to die for us in our place. We deserve God's wrath, but Jesus took that for us on the cross so that we can rejoice in the Lord. We can enjoy and commune with him. That is why we seek the opportunity to pray before we eat. What a difference that would make. And that's the final discipline together that we make, whether it be with a family, whether it be with your co-workers at work, that we seek opportunities to relate things to the gospel. The truth of what Jesus did for us and who he is When we integrate those things into our lives and the simplest of things, we gain that eternal perspective and we fulfill the greatest commandment to love the Lord our God, not with just one portion of who we are, but with our entire beings. When we respond, we just do it just to do it, right? We make that practice into something that's just ultimately vain. When in reality, we have a greater goal, a higher goal, right? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. With everything we do, whether it's just a tradition, whether it's family worship, you know, we always love those moments. Dad, why do we do this? Right? Or, hey, you're at work, hey man, why do you do that? And Moses says, we direct that conversation to the gospel, ultimately. We do this because of Jesus, what he's done for us, and we seek to find our joy in him. And with that, let's pray. Father, we're grateful for your word. We're grateful for your truth. As you chose Moses to prepare the people to enter the promised land, I pray, Lord, that you would prepare us today to enter your kingdom. That you would prepare us to find our joy in you alone. That you would seek the idols in our life and destroy them. All the things that we lean upon, Lord, take them from us. May we not find joy in how good we think we are. May we not find joy in how great we think our church is. May we not find joy in our success. in the things that this world find their joy in, Lord, but may we find our joy in you. Make our experience of Christianity not just something we say with our mouths, believe with our minds, or just emotionally feel, but make it an experience integrated together. I pray, Lord, that you would help us in these disciplines. Give us the grace that we need to continue to practice them. Give us the resolve that we need, that you are our only hope in life and death. And it's only because of your Son I can pray these things. Amen.