when on high he sees us, our journey done. We will rest where the steps of Jesus and that make the path we go. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go. Amen. Please be seated. We'll let our little ones escape with Mrs. Shore, six and younger. And into your class. The rest of us can take our Bibles, please, and we'll open back up to the book of Deuteronomy. It'd be good to have your Bible open this morning, if possible, just because we're going to cover a lot of scripture. Hopefully, I'm not too ambitious. We're not going to spend an enormous amount of time on any one verse, except right at the beginning. We'll stop for a second on verse 1, but after that we're just going to try to go through this chapter. This chapter is an important chapter in God's Word to me. It seemed like When Katie and I were dating and praying about God's plans for us, God had me in the book of Deuteronomy, which is probably good for me, because there's verses like, arise, cross over Jordan, and move forward. I was kind of shy. And things like that. But as we got engaged, I had it all planned out in my mind. It was 16 days from the date of our first date. It was up above a waterfall at a country park. Sunset, I prayed for a long time, God just keep it a nice night. We had rained the day before, we had rained several days afterwards, bad storms. But it was a gorgeous night Just up there above it on this platform above this waterfall except for three kids that came along teenagers really punk, you know kids And I said to Katie I said I'm gonna go talk to those guys for just a second you're kind of coming down and she's probably thinking why do you care, you know, and But I went up to them and said, you know, I'm going to ask my girlfriend to marry me. Can you give us 15 minutes? And they're like, oh, dude, no problem. And went away. I don't remember if we read scripture before or after we got engaged. But we read scripture while we were up there. And we read Deuteronomy 11. And I told that at a church. In front of a large audience, I was asked how we had met, how we got engaged and stuff. And I had a preacher laugh at me and said to his wife, honey, did I use Deuteronomy 11 when I asked you to marry me? But we're going to be engaged for a year. And this passage speaks about from the beginning of the year until the end of the year. And it's just a passage the Lord put on my heart. What's interesting about it now, as I study it in preparation for preaching it today and sharing it at the men's retreat, I don't think there's a better passage in the Word of God really for a young couple to look at and say, you know what, this is what we need. As we seek to start a life together and live that life for God, this passage deals with what is the critical thing in life. It's a critical thing in our marriage. It's a critical thing in our church. It's the main thing. It's the big commandment that God's given. Thou shalt love the Lord your God. And it deals with it straight through. Love the Lord thy God three times in this chapter. Moses specifically commands the people to keep this commandment. He does so in verse 1, verse 13, and verse 22. Several other times he'll refer to keeping the commandments, this one included. So probably five or six times. really in this passage he says love God and so that's what we want to look at this morning this command found in verse 1 therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God and what stands out to me as I studied it again this morning looking at it it ties into Psalm 1 Psalm 1 is the happy man. It's the blessed man. This man, whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. But what you'll find about the Psalm 1 man, after we study this passage, is that man loves God. There's a real love for God. It's found in Psalm 1. You'll see it. But it doesn't say anything about His love for God. So hopefully that will come out as we study it this morning. Let's pray and ask God to bless. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the truths that are contained herein. Lord, we do praise You for the Spirit of God. We thank You. Because we know that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Father, until somebody gets saved and obeys the Gospel and trusts Jesus Christ as their Savior, there's going to be a lot of confusion when it comes to your Word. But Father, when we have the Spirit of God in our hearts, helping us to understand, that makes all the difference. And so, Father, we pray for His help this morning and pray for Your grace. We bit off a big chunk of scripture, but I pray that the Holy Spirit give us grace to chew it adequately and that we not miss anything You want us to get this morning. Help me as I speak. Guide me as I speak. Enable me as I speak. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God. So the command that God has given to us. The first thing I want to look at this morning is the proof of loving God. The proof of loving God. Loving God is an action. That's why Moses could command it. He could say to those people, love God. It's an action. It's something that we do. It's not, our world has this idea that love is kind of ushy-gushy, you know, this kind of, this feeling. And that's, biblically, it's not love. Love is an action. It's something that we can demonstrate. Jesus said it this way, John 14, 15. If you love me, what? Do you remember? Keep my commandments. It ties right back into this Deuteronomy passage, because he's commanded them, thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and so what? So keep his commandments. And that's the proof of our love for God. If you love God, you're obeying his express will. It says in verse one, thou shalt love the Lord thy God and keep his charge. It's his express will. It's God standing before us and saying, look, this is what I want you to do. I was filling up with autogas this week. My car burns autogas. And I asked where a former employee was. And they said, oh, he's no longer here. He was discharged. And I said, oh, why was that? And they said, well, he was watching the place for a week. head boss came in, the area manager, and said, I want you to do this, this, this, and this. I'm going to come back at the end of the week, and I'm going to see that it's done. Well, he comes back at the end of the week. None of it's been done. He asked him, why didn't you do it? He said, well, I forgot. He didn't keep his charge. He knew the express will of that manager was thus and so. You know, if we love God this morning, as God says to us, thus and so, this is what I want you to do. That's what we're doing. And so again, it's proof that we love God if we're obeying what he's charged us to do. Obeying is expressed, well, following his rule book, keep his charge and his statutes. His statutes are the limits and boundaries. It's kind of what a policeman has in front of him. It's the laws he enforces. It's a speed limit. In the states, there's signs all over the place that say no trespassing. You can't cross onto this land. Here in Scotland, we don't have any trespass laws. But there, there's trespass laws. Somebody sees the sign and says, no, I'm going to go on the land. They've crossed the limit or the boundary. And so somebody that is obeying God this morning, if somebody looks at the word of God and says, God says don't cross this. And so I'm not going to cross it. I'm keeping his statutes, his statutes. Applying his rules as well, it says, keep his charge and his statutes and his judgments. You can have laws in Scotland, but if they're unenforced laws, do people obey them? No. They'll laugh at it and say, I mean, it says no parking, but they never enforce it. It says that's the speed limit, but we all know that you can get away with this here. It's not going to be enforced. But God says, when it comes to his law, his commandments, they're to be enforced in his judgments, the way they're to be applied. You know, modern day churches, what have they said about loving people? They've said, well, God's word says this. But we're not going to judge you, right? We're not going to enforce that. We're not going to... The Word of God speaks very clearly that if a Christian's in sin, he's to be confronted about his sin. But in that case, we're not going to enforce that. Why? Because we love you. And yet, in doing that, they violated the principle of proof that they love God, and that's keeping His judgments. It's properly applying the Word of God and saying, you know what, this is what God's Word says, and therefore that's what we're going to do. So proof that we love God, obeying His express will, following His rulebook, and applying His rules, His judgments. And then understanding His laws. It says in His judgments and His commandments. Are commandments optional? Are they suggestive? No. It's God saying with all his authority, this is what you have to do. Imagine a sergeant in the army trying to lead his men by suggestion. He says, man, it's kind of a nice day out and I think it would help us if we had a bit of exercise. So what do you think? Don't you think that it would be good for us to get out on the parade grounds and do a little exercise? And what are the men going to do? Laugh, right? But he says, no. Because he cares about them. They get on the battlefield. They've got to be in shape. They've got to be ready. He says, no. You lazy guys get out of this place. And we're going to get out here on the parade route. We're going to get some exercise. Whether you want to or not. It's a command. This morning, God hasn't given us in his words suggestions. God's giving us commands and so somebody that loves God is somebody that keeps the commandments. It's God said to do this and that's what I do. And then without exception because it says always. Keep His commandments always. No time off for good behavior. Somebody, you know, I've done so well serving God so now I can have a little bit of time off. It's somebody that consistently looks at the Word of God and says, you know what, that's what God says to do. That's what I want to do. So this morning, what's the proof of somebody that loves God? It's somebody that is obeying God. Isn't that simple? It is. I know it's not something that really, you know, wraps itself around our hearts and makes us feel, you know, any feeling with regard to love. But the reality is this morning, if you love God, it's obvious. Why? Because you're doing what God says to do. You know, how do you know this morning that I love my wife? Because I honor her. Because I care about what she cares about. If I didn't care anything about what my wife cared about, am I showing love to my wife? No. That goes for anybody. You know, somebody could be the most nasty person in the world, but I can still love them. How? By doing things to please them. Right? And seeking to honor them. And seeking to meet their needs. That's love. It's not, again, it's not what she gives you feeling. It's just doing what pleases that person. this morning, it's not about saying, do you love God? In other words, do you have this feeling in your heart for God? Do you have this emotion for God? It's not that. It's are you obeying God? Are you pleasing God? Because that's proof of love for God. OK, now we're going to speed up. So that's the proof of loving God. The perspective of loving God is second. Loving God is not unreasonable. In other words, it makes sense, loving God. First of all, Moses says, because He is your authority. Verse 2 says, and know ye this day, for I speak not with your children, which have not known, which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, His greatness, His mighty hand, and His stretched out arm. You know, growing up, my dad often had a stretched out arm. with a strong hand on the end of it. My mighty dad. You know most often where that hand was going? It was going to the seat of correction in my life, right? Why? Because dad's my authority. And dad loves me and dad cares about me. And so he disciplines me because he loves me. That's what this verse is now going to speak about. He's saying to them, He's just said, he's commanded him, love God, keep His commandments. Why? Because remember God's chastisement? Remember His authority? Remember, this is the children of Israel. They're the ones that saw the exodus take place. They're the ones that saw the Red Sea part and saw the walls of it come back together upon Pharaoh and his army. And so he speaks about that. They watched him judge Egypt. Verse three, it says, in his miracles, in his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and unto all his land. And what He did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, unto their chariots, how He made the water of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day. Okay, Israel, point of fact. Remember that day you crossed the Red Sea? We've seen a documentary, my family's seen a documentary that shows the possible crossing of the Israelites across the Gulf of Aqaba at the Red Sea. You know what's interesting? They found wheel hub shaped corals. Just the right size, just the right shape. And they believe that's, I mean, the iron's gone, but the shape is still there because the corals have preserved it. Should we be surprised by that? This morning that under the sea, there's this evidence that, oh, it actually took place. But you know what? Israel saw it. If you had seen God judge a whole army by drowning, imagine how awful that would be to witness this taking place. Don't you think you'd have a bit of a fear and respect of God's authority? You'd say, you know, God's nobody to be messed with. Look at what God did. And so he reminds them of his judgment upon Egypt. They personally have been chastened, verse 5, in what he did unto you in the wilderness until you come into this place. And now they're thinking, they go, oh, remember the molten calf and worshipping him and Moses and God's wrath against us? Remember the plagues that God sent? And more specifically, he deals, he shares a story about the rebels that God had destroyed in verse 6. It says, and what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the sons of Reuben, how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their household, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession in the midst of all Israel. Have you ever on the telly seen a sinkhole? I read a story, and they showed pictures in Florida, a man had been laying in his bed, And a sinkhole opened up underneath the house and everything went down into that. And the brother was in the house. He just heard his brother scream, ran in there, tried to save him, jumped down in there. Thankfully, he was rescued, the guy that jumped in there. But the other brother died. Can you imagine what it'd be like to have that memory? I'm not trying to be scary this morning. I don't want to try to give the kids nightmares or something. But Israel had seen a whole house and a whole household of people disappear into the ground. Again, don't you think they should fear God? You know, it's one thing for my eldest, when she was youngest, you know, growing up, she didn't have any examples in front of her to see discipline. But my youngest now, Mac, as he grows up, he should be the smartest of all of them when it comes to obedience. Because he sees how it affects all of his siblings. He's got five examples in front of him. And Moses is saying to them, if you love God, keep his commandments. Why? First of all, because of his authority. Remember, God's the God that chastens. If anyone should be cautious about disobeying God, it should be them, verse 7, but your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did. And you can think, well, you know, Pastor Ben, that's kind of a rough way to start a message on loving God. Because look at it, God's, because God's a God that has the power to chasten, and the answer to that is yes. We should love God, why? Because of his authority. Why does God chase us? Is God chasing us because he's angry with us? No. Proverbs 3.12 says, For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth. Even as the father, the son, and whom he delighted. Hebrews 12.6 For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. And so Moses says to us this morning, Love God, why? Because he is your authority. Our children ought to grow up having a fear of God. so that they love Him. Because they understand that He has the power to discipline them as nobody else can. You know, parents can discipline their kids, but not like God can. Young person, you want to grow up and you want to live a rebellious life against God, realize this, there's somebody that loves you that's not going to let you go that way, and it's not your parents. It's God. Love God because He's your authority. Second thing He says, love God because God is your strength. Verse 8. Therefore shall you keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that you may be strong and go in and possess the land where you go to possess it. He says, love God, keep his commandments. Why? So that you're strong, so that you have strength. You know, have we learned the lesson this morning that God is our strength? God is in. When it comes to our ability to do anything, we can feel like we have different abilities to serve God this morning, but the reality is that we can't do anything like we should do without God. Remember Samson? Was Samson strong, kids? Yes. Unbelievably strong. Samson physically, I mean, he talks about, he picks up the gates at the Philistine city and carries them away. It speaks about him killing Philistines right and left with a, was it the jawbone of a donkey, right? And so he has amazing strength, but he forgot that his strength was in God. Judges 16, 20, Delilah said to Samson, the Philistines be upon thee. He woke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before and shake myself. And he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. But the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass. And he did grind in the prison house. What happened to Samson? Man, Samson, you forgot. God is your strength. Why should we love God? Because he's our authority, but he's our strength. He's the one that is our enabler. We should love him also because of his goodness. Verses nine through 12, Moses says that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey. For the land whither thou goest in to possess it is not as the land of Egypt from whence he came out, where thou sowest thy seed and waterest it with thy foot as a garden of herbs. But the land whither you go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven, a land which the Lord thy God careth for. The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year." He says, God's good. The children of Israel love God. Why? God's good. He's promised you a land of blessing. He said, it's not like Egypt. Egypt, they had irrigation ditches. Egypt, they lacked water. He said, no, this land is flowing with water. And the eyes of war that God are upon it, the war that God careth for it, from the beginning of the year, even until the end of the year. This morning, does God love you? We've talked about, yeah, love God because He's your authority, and that seems harsh. Because He hates us? No, because He loves us. and because of His goodness to us. This morning, God is exceptionally good to us. Jeremiah 29, 11 says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. God's not against us this morning. God's not in heaven saying, I want to make their life miserable. God is absolutely for us. He's abundantly good to us. There might be trials that we face and Satan comes along and says, ah, see, God's not good. And it's like Israel walking through the wilderness. Where was God taking them? He's taking them to the promised land. He's taking them to the land of blessing. He's taking them to the land of abundant provision. But they've got to go through this to get to there. Is it because God isn't good? No. God is good. It's coming. You have to go through this to get to there. You can't get there without going through this. And so love God this morning because of God's goodness. And then love God because of God's blessing. Verse 13. says that he shall come to pass, he shall hearken diligently unto my commandments, which I command you to stay, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thy oil, and I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle that thou mayest eat and be full. Okay, you get to the promised land. Why is it good? Why is it green? Why does it have all this milk? Why does it have all this honey? You know why? It's because of God's blessing. God takes away his blessing, that stops. He's saying, love God. Why? So that when you get there, you've got the rain, you've got the blessing of God. You know this morning, you want a blessing in your life, love God. He's the one that gives it. Love God because of His provision. You can think this morning, ah, that's Old Testament. But you know what, it's New Testament too. Remember the Sermon on the Mount? Jesus goes through the things that He wants them to focus on. And what's He say? He says, therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. Somebody that's a believer, there's storms in life. I spoke to a neighbor, our neighbor is Dino's, chip shop. You guys know Joe and Carmela and Dino and Marina? They lost their son-in-law two weeks ago to cancer. It might have been actually three or four weeks ago now. That's hard. That's hard. It's a storm of life. Alec, you know what it's like to lose a son-in-law as well last year? We know it's like, life's hard. I shared with Joe this morning, my wife lost her birth mom when she was five years old. That's tough. But you know what? God's the one that gets us through that. God's the one that brings peace. God's the one that gives grace. God's the one that brings, revitalizes and brings the blessing. He's the one that meets the need. And so, you face the storm in life, you're anchored to the rock, the storm comes, and the house stands. Why? Because it's anchored. It's anchored on the truth of God's Word. But everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. Why? Because it wasn't Strong. So how do we get through this thing? Stick with God, because that's where the blessing is. That's where the house is going to stand if it's with God. And then because God is a jealous God, verses 16 and 17. It says, take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived. And you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you. And he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit, unless you perish quickly from off the good land, which the Lord giveth you. Israel's going along. They get through the wilderness experience. They get into the promised land. They're building their houses. They're settling down. Their community's thriving. What's the natural tendency of a human heart when everything's going well? Turn away from God. Forget that it's God's goodness, it's God's blessing, it's God's strength. And Moses says, be very careful. Because if you do that, you lose God's goodness, you lose God's blessing, you lose God's strength, and God is a jealous guy. God's not going to let you follow after other idols. Exodus 34, 14 says, For thou shalt worship no other god For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. You know, this morning I could tell you that God loves you with a jealous love. That's precious. I want my wife to know that I'm jealous of her affection, her love. I'm not going to be too polite to anybody that starts flirting with my wife. Why? Because I'm jealous of her affection. That's a good thing. Same with God. God's not going to let us this morning flirt with the world and just try to chum up to the world. Why? Because He's a jealous God. If we incur His jealousy, again, we lose His strength, we lose His goodness, we lose His blessing, all these precious reasons for loving God. Love Him because He's a jealous God. He loves us with a jealous love. So the perspective of loving God. Then the purpose of loving You might think this morning, well, okay, we've talked about the proof of loving God, we've talked about why we should love God, but now, how do you go about it? Right? Practically, how do I love God? Well, he speaks about, first of all, responsibility to yourself. Verse 18 says, therefore shall you lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. Okay, he's saying, bind scripture to your wrist, bind it to your head, and you know what the Jews did? The Pharisees. You ever heard of phylacteries? You ever seen a Jewish person and they've got a box tied to their head? Never? In a picture or anything? If you think about it, you'll notice it. There's a little box tied to their head, or there's a little box tied around their arm. Inside that box they've got scripture. Is that what Moses meant? Moses, you know, take scripture and tie it to your head. It's like osmosis, right? If you just lay your head on it, it's somehow going to get in. No. Moses said, if you want to love God, get in God's Word. Take it into your heart. Understand what God says about it. Remember how I said this ties into Psalm 1? Here it is. Psalm 1. Blessed is the man, right? Walking not in the counsel of the ungodly. But his delight is in what? The law of the Lord. And in his law does he meditate day and night. Interesting. The happy man is studying the word of God. And what's Moses saying? If you want to love God, take heed to yourself first. Understand what God's word says about your life. Understand what it teaches about living for God. I met a man in Florida when we were there. And this man came over to us swings that I was near with my kids. And as I'm speaking to him, he says, God and I have this understanding. He says, I know I love God and God knows I love him. And I kindly said to him, but look, you've already told me about your life and you're living a life of sin against God's word. Do you really love God? And he says, what? No. This morning, how can you love God? Get in God's Word and understand what it teaches and know what it teaches. That's how somebody loves God. It's by obeying God's Word. A responsibility to yourself and then a responsibility to your children. Verse 19 says, and you shall teach them, your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up. He says, it's not enough for you to know what's right. What do you need to do? You need to teach that to your kids. I think you know the story of my dad. My dad grew up on a dairy farm in Colorado. And as dairy farmers, back then, they milked by hand. My brother right now works for a German company that makes milking parlors. And they've got, it's all automated systems where the cow walks in and it's almost like the machine hooks it up and unhooks it. And everything's automated. Not back then. It was all milking by hand. And there was a day when the cows got out and they got into something that they could die from, a weed. And my dad and my uncle said to grandpa, he said, you know, we're going to get the cattle in. You guys go ahead and go to church. You know what my grandparents said? No, get in the car, we're all going. They just left the cattle. They had one sickly cow that died because of them. Every night, they would have family devotions. They had a mom that would walk out in the woods and have prayer time for their kids. You know what, all four of those kids went into full-time ministry. Why? Because they loved God. How do we know they loved God? Because in their house they were teaching the word of God. If we love God in our homes with our kids, we're going to be instructing them about God. So responsibility to your children. And then a responsibility to others, verse 20 and 21, says, And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon thy gates, that your days may be multiplied in the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. He says, learn it yourself. He says, teach your kids, then put it on the doorpost. Put it where visitors coming in look at it and say, what's that about? And you begin to speak about the Lord. Speaking about sharing God's love with others. You know what, this morning, again, love is not a feeling. It's an obedience. It's a yieldedness based upon God's revelation. And so if we want to love God, it's getting into His work ourselves. teaching it to our kids, and then sharing it with others. Then the product of loving God, verse 22, says, for if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave unto Him. He's saying, OK, if you'll do this, then what? OK, because they could be sitting there thinking, Moses, why? What's the benefit? First of all, he says, enemies will be defeated and subjected to you. Verse 23, then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you. And you shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. Jericho's walls are going to tumble. Why? Because they loved God, they obeyed God. Not the first generation, the second generation. They went in obedience to God, and so the walls tumble. They went in obedience to God, so Caleb takes his mountain and defeats the giants. This morning we could have giants in our life and we're saying, why am I not getting victory? Well, do we love God? Are we applying the truth of the Word of God and obeying the Word of God? That's where victory is. land shall be conquered, verse 24, every place whereon the sole of your feet shall tread shall be yours, from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea, shall your coast be. In obedience to God, I know it's physical, they're gonna go in, they're gonna take the promised land. It's physical. But you know, this morning, we need some people that really love God, that can take spiritual land for the Lord. that can move forward like Caleb saying, let's go up at once and possess it for we are well able to overcome it. How does that happen? It happens when somebody genuinely loves God and has a life that's rightly related to God. Land shall be conquered. And then your reputation will be established. Verse 25 says, there shall no man be able to stand before you For the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that she shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you." Israel. Remember Jericho, and they're going in, and the spies get in to raid up the harlot's house. What did she say? She said, oh, we've heard about this. We've heard of you. Everybody's afraid of what's taking place, just like Moses said. their reputation went before them. Why? Because they loved God. You know, many times in scripture it speaks about God giving somebody a reputation. Joseph, he's brought in favor with Potiphar, he's brought in favor with the jailer, he's brought in to favor with Pharaoh. You read about Daniel, he's brought in to favor with the Prince of Unix. God is able, we love God, God is able to make that love known to others in a way that establishes a reputation. We studied 1 Corinthians 8 in Sunday School this morning. It says in verse 3, but if any man love God, the same is known of him. If you really love God this morning, it's known to others that you adhere to the commandments of God, you obey God, you please God, it's known. And so, we made it, alright? I know it's been a lot of information this morning. We're going right through this passage. But it comes to the conclusion of it. And that's the proposition of loving God. You must choose to love God. And we'll just read verses 26 down through verse 28. Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. a blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and a curse if you'll not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way, which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known." So what's the proposition? It's a choice, right? You don't have to love God this morning. I mean, we can talk about the blessings, we can talk about the judgments, but the reality is, it's your choice. It's a wise choice to love God. It's a good choice to love God, but it's a choice. You know, are you going to love God? I guess, I mean, that's what it comes down to. Our walk with the Lord, are you going to love God? Our obedience to the gospel, are you going to love God? That's what it is. It's not, it's like, it's either please God or please myself. And so you look at it and you say, What is the summary? Or how could I summarize this this morning? And you know, I could really summarize loving God like this. Learn what God's Word teaches and do it. So how can you apply that? Well, you go home and you say, you know what? I want to love God more this week, so what do I do? I spend a bit more time in God's Word and I apply it to my life. I spend, you know, I meditate on what I learned in church or what I heard God spoke to my heart about. I meditate on that and I apply it to my life. That's how practically I love God. I don't do things that I know God disapproves of. Again, it's very practical and I guess as I studied it, you know, I don't know how I would have answered the question if somebody asked me, how do you love God? But I think I can now. Keep His commandments. Just like He said. That is how you love God. Again, we look at it and say, but that's impersonal. No, it is very personal, because again, if I love somebody, what do I want to do? I want to honor them, and I want to please them. If this morning you love God, then it's seen in your life by how you adhere to His Word. How you apply His Word. How serious you are about doing what His Word says to do. It's very practical, isn't it? But that is loving God. And so may God help us just to love Him like we should. Keep His Word. And that's where the blessing is. That's where it's all gonna make sense. That's where the strength, that's where the goodness, that's where the blessing, that's where I'm enjoying God's jealous love instead of going against it. And so God's for us this morning. May God help us to love Him. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. And I do pray where we went through a lot of scripture this morning. And Father, I pray for the kids that maybe just one thing they can remember, and that is if we love God, then we look in God's Word and do what He says. And that's how we love You. And so, Father, help us to love You. Help us today to adhere to the truth of Your Word. Help us not to turn aside quickly from all the good land which You've given to us. May You bless Your Word to our hearts this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. 327. Jesus is calling. 327.