In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of living out the teachings of God in our daily lives, particularly within our families. He mentions a conversation with someone who aspires to write a theology book titled "Where the Rubber Hits the Road," highlighting the practical application of faith. The preacher then focuses on Deuteronomy 6:4-5, where Moses instructs the Israelites to love God with all their heart, soul, and might. This verse is seen as the foundation of their faith, and the preacher encourages the congregation to confess it daily. He also addresses the misconception that God's commandments are burdensome, emphasizing that God desires His people to experience peace, joy, and the fulfillment of His promises through obedience to His word.

Let's open up the Bible to Deuteronomy, chapter six. Deuteronomy, chapter six, beginning in verse one, all stand now, this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord, your God has commanded me to teach you that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord, your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged. Oh, Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you might multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. Here, oh, Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words which I commit, which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand. And they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Father, I pray that you would speak through these ancient words and speak anew to us a truth that does not change. Lord, help us in every way to conform to your character and to your will. In Jesus name, may be seated. The last Sunday that I preached in this pulpit, I preached from verses one and two, and we'll briefly go over that for just a moment. This is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which the Lord, your God, has commanded me to teach you. Says commandment and single in its singular and then the statutes and judgments are plural. And what he is saying, this is the law of God revealed to you in statutes and in judgments. My dear people, listen to me. We are much more pagan than what we believe. When we came into Christianity, we brought much paganism with us. We are much more worldly than we know, and that is why we have such a great need, not for new visions or teachers with new ideas, but we have a great need to go back to the statutes and judgments and laws of our God to discern rightly how we should live, not as pagans, but as new creatures. Not just in our so-called religious life, but every aspect of our life and most importantly, beginning with our families. And he says these are the judgments which the Lord, your God, has commanded me to teach you. There's the idea here of sovereignty. That God is Lord over all things, he is Lord even over the man who clenches his fist and shakes it in the face of God. How much more is he Lord over his people? And we are to submit to him, to declare God to be your Lord and to know very little of his statutes is a contradiction. To know what he has commanded you is a demonstration and the first step in proving that you really believe he's the Lord of your life. He goes on and he says to teach you that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it. It is not enough to learn the commandments of God, but it is to do them, to learn them and not to do them is to even keep judgment upon ourselves and to show that we are deceived. God desires that we be an obedient people in our works, in our actions, that every aspect of our being, our mind, our eyes, our ears, our mouth, our hands, our feet, that they all be submitted to the law of God in the land that we're going over to possess. Israel was going over to possess a physical land. We've inherited a kingdom and in that kingdom there are certain rules and those rules are nothing like the rules you are accustomed to in the world. Absolutely nothing like it. And so it's going to be hard, it's going to be hard, it's going to be hard to let go of the worldview of the pagan and to accept the commandments of the Lord of glory. Because his ways are higher than your ways and his thoughts are higher than your thoughts. But he has revealed them to his people. Will his people hear? Will you hear and will you obey? Goes on and he says, verse two, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God. This is not just about you, specifically speaking to the men here this morning. This is not just about you and the salvation of your own soul, but the salvation of your household, your wife and your children. You are to learn the commandments, not just for self and the preservation of self and the salvation of self. You're to learn the commandments for the glory of God. Then you're to learn the commandments for the benefit of your wife, sir. For the benefit of your children, what does it matter if a man gain the whole world and lose his family? It goes on that you might fear the Lord your God, the greatest thing that we as men should desire to hand down to our families and especially to our children is the inheritance of the fear of the Lord and awesome, mighty, reverent respect for God to our children. That is their greatest need. They can have everything else. And if they do not have that, they have nothing. But if they have that and have nothing else. They possess a kingdom goes on and he says that you might fear the Lord to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I commanded you here again, the fear of the Lord is not just some song. It is not just some emotion. It is not just some thing that causes you to holler out hallelujah. But it will manifest itself in obedience to the specific commands in God's written word. Specific commands regarding specific situations in our lives. And he goes on and he says, all the days of your life, it's not just specific obedience, it is a persevering obedience that we continue in this and continue in it all the days of our life, even in the last days of our lives. For a for a preacher, I'm not that old. Twenty two years of preaching is not that long. But even in my 22 years, I have seen so many men. I started the race with them, but over the years I have seen them fall. Would you say a few of those? No, I would say the majority of those have fallen by the wayside. It is not enough to continue to begin well. It is to end well, to continue well. What this world needs and what this church needs are stable, persevering men who fear the Lord as a lifestyle or as John MacArthur would always use this word habitually, habitually now. And what is the purpose of this? That your days may be prolonged. So many people have this idea. I think sometimes I could look at a congregation and write this hymn that they they look to me like they would sing a hymn like this. You are God and I'm a worm. Step on me and watch me squirm. They have this idea that God is just up there to lightning bolt them and that these commandments are somehow burdensome, fearsome things. He says, no, how I long for you to enter into the land, the good land that I have for you. He longs for you to be there. He longs for you to have peace. He longs for you to have joy. He longs for you to inherit every good promise he's ever given. But the way to do that is through hearing the word of the Lord and obeying the word of the Lord. Now, we get to three and he says, oh, Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. Now, the first thing that I want to look at and probably the most important part of this entire passage is, oh, Israel. The exclamation, do you hear there the heart of Moses? He's looking at a people, not that he just leads to a place. He's looking at a people that are knit with his own heart. He's looking at a people that he loves. He's looking as a father on his children. And he's saying, oh, Israel, listen to me. Listen to me, please listen to me. There are good things I want to tell you. There are great things I want to show you. There are things I want to warn you about. Why? To keep you from joy? No, so that you might have it. Oh, Israel, I have seen God and know to fear him. Oh, Israel, I have seen the glories of Egypt, Moses declares, and seen its destruction. I have seen what sin can do. Oh, Israel, listen to me. Now, if you think that that might just be emotionalism, look in verse twenty nine of chapter five, we hear the same thing from God. Verse twenty nine of chapter five, oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always. Why? That it may be well with them and with their sons forever. Can't you see here the desire of God to give good to his people? You say, oh, yes, brother Paul, and we want that too. I'm sure you do. But do you understand the condition? Hearing the word of the Lord. And obeying the word of the Lord. And he says, I want you just to look at something for a moment. If Moses can have this about such a large people, what should pastors and teachers and elders, what kind of compassion should they have? What should be the motivating desire of the men who lead this church? What should it be? Oh, High Point, I desire such good things for you. Oh, families of High Point, I desire such great things for you. Joy unspeakable. And I have such fear for you that you will step off the path and do harm to yourself. And if elders and the such should have such concern, how much more fathers, heads of family? You know, we as husbands and fathers love to talk a great deal about our headship, forgetting that we have a headship in heaven. We like to speak much about our headship and not realizing that it is not a place of privilege. It is a place of servanthood. They tell me, I don't know if it's still the case with the Marines, but the first Marine arrives when the last Marine arrives. They all arrive together. Sir, are you running ahead of your wife? Are you proud of it? Get back there to her. Sir, your children, are you their teacher? Are you the one discipling them? Are you pouring your life into them? You say, oh, Brother Paul, you know, I work so hard and I do this and I do that. Yes, that is. That's a manifestation of the curse and it's not going to go away until Jesus comes back. So suck it up and become a man and realize that there's not a lot of rest for a godly man on this earth. And we were told the same that when we were children, we were allowed to play children's games, but now we're men. We live for God, which means we live for our wives and for our children. And if God grants us a little free time once every few months, we rejoice. You say, I don't know if I like this. These things should have been thought of before you decided to become a husband and a father. I want you just to listen to the Apostle Paul in Acts 20, verse 31. He says, remember that night and day for a period of three years, I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. Look at the heart of this this apostle. Acting almost here as a pastor, remembering that night and day for a period of three years. You say, Paul was well, Paul didn't mean that literally. If he didn't mean that literally, he was exaggerating. Because in the context, in this type of literature, what he's saying here has to be true or it has to be false. It was not an exaggeration. Now, he could do this. Why? He wasn't married. A godly married man can't say this. A godly man with children can't say this. He can't give this type of thing to the church. And Paul talks about that in First Corinthians. Remember, men, the will of God is perfect. That means you do not have to violate one aspect of God's will to obey God's will in another aspect of your life. Anyone who says that, you know, I hear so many pastors say I've offered my family on the sacrifice, on the altar, you know, to God for the ministry. They're lying. They're building a kingdom of their own is what they're doing because you don't build God's kingdom by disobeying his will. But Paul says, remember that night and day for a period of three years, I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. I did not cease to admonish each one of these as men in this church. That's the way we should be. We should be concerned about the souls of the other men, women and children in this church. We should be watching, caring, praying, admonishing how much more with our own wives and children, families. Now, I want us to see again here in this verse, the relationship between hearing and being careful to do look what he says. He says, listen and be careful to do it. Not just do it, careful to do it. I was giving a lecture at a university this weekend and someone came with it and they said, what is why all the description of the temple? Why all the numbers and the genealogies and everything else? Why is that in Scripture? And there are many people that have really gone awry trying to chase down and get meaning out of everything that's in those lists or in the description of the temple. And I told that student, I said, look, if there is one thing God is telling us here, it is he is a detailed and specific, careful God. That if there was so much detail and preciseness about a physical temple made out of stone and blank planks, then how much more should we be careful with the living temple that we are? Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You be careful to listen, be careful to listen. And obey. It is not enough to know one must do, do one must do. We have a king. He has many laws. We have a prophet. He has much wisdom. It is Jesus Christ, our Lord. We have a judge. We will stand before him one day. And the mere fact that in Christianity we have both a sovereign Lord, a lawgiver and a judge and a prophet means that we are to hear. We are to be careful to obey. But this is the wonderful thing. Our sovereign loves us more than life. And those commandments that he's giving to us are for life. Moses said, Israel, this is not a vain thing for you. This is your life. The one thing I want to most instill into my sons and in the commandments and specific principles that I teach them is this. This is for your good. God has given this that you might hear and that you might live now, go on and look at a few things here. The goal of hearing and careful obedience. If we look in verse three, he says. That it may be well with you. And that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. First of all, personal well-being. Isn't that amazing? Personal well-being. God wants it to be well with you. You say, well, Brother Paul, does that mean healthy, wealthy and wise? Maybe, probably not. The wise part, yes. Healthy and wealthy, I'm not too sure about. I guess if I was more sure about that, the church would be larger, wouldn't it? I can tell you this. I'm standing here right now and my body hurts me. And I'm as well as I could be. There is a wellness that comes from God's favor upon a person that goes so far beyond. What anyone, any physical malady could take away. He wants your well, listen to this, listen to this amazing passage in Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and hope. Look at that. He wants more good things for you than you have faith to believe. Why can't you believe it? Because you've never seen anybody like this God of ours. You've never seen anybody this good. You've never seen anybody this kind. You've never seen undeserved favor, unmerited favor. God wants to give good things to his people, not because they're always good, but because he always is. He desires good things for you, church, good things for you, individual, especially those of you of the flock this morning that are beaten down, that you're almost angry that I'm talking about God wanting good things for you because you haven't seen good things in so long. My dear friend, that's true. Take heart, but also speak with someone who knows the word of God, because if there is such trouble, you need your brothers. If you're having so much problem, you need wisdom. Maybe you can be helped. Don't be silent. Come forward to help me. Now, it says personal well-being, look what he says here, he says that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly. Fruitfulness, not only well-being for you and not only should you want well-being for your wife and your children, sir, but fruitfulness. Fruitfulness. God wants his people to be fruitful. If you believe in the sovereignty of God, you believe that he's ordained fruitfulness for his people. He's ordained good works that we should walk in. He wants us to be full of fruit. It goes on and he says in John 15, 16, you did not choose me and read that again. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain so that whatever you ask of the father in my name, he may give to you. So explain that, Brother Paul. I don't have to. He said it. You just need to go believe it. I can tell you this. I mean, I just the Baptist catch 22. God will give you everything according to his will. Then if you ask a Baptist, well, does God will anything for you? No, I don't think so. He does have a sovereign, immutable will. He does say you have not because you ask not. Go figure. I don't have to. David said that he did not exalt himself, raise himself up to explain great things too hard for him. But he walked beside God like a weaned child, like a weaned child. All I can tell you this, you desire well-being. He desires it more. You desire fruitfulness. He desires it more. Now be confident, be lifted up, be encouraged and set about doing the will of the master, knowing that your work is not in vain. Give a cup of cold water to a man because of Christ. Even if he throws it to the ground and slanders your name, your reward is in heaven. Your work is not in vain. Now, fruitfulness. But also I want us to look, he said, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers has promised you in a land flowing with milk. First of all, I want to look at this idea of Lord, God of your fathers, Lord God, this idea of sovereignty, of power, of authority. But more than that, of your fathers. God's looking at Israel and he's saying, check out my resume. Go back as far as you can go back into history, talk to anybody you want to talk to and you will find out I failed not a one of them. I never failed, not one of all my good words have ever fallen to the ground. Talk to your fathers. Now, fathers, can your children talk to you? Are you a man who has so walked with God that your children can say, father, is it true? And then you stand up and for hours give instance upon instance upon instance of the faithfulness of God in your life. You see, here's the thing that we cannot get away from this idea of this family being knit so close, so close. Of the father having such prominence, such responsibility in the family to be a beacon, to be a to be a shield, to be a stone of notice that anyone can look at. And it's a testimony to the faithfulness of Yahweh. The fulfillment of God's promises, it should be the desire of our hearts that our children inherit all the promises of God. And you say, I want my child. I could care less whether or not my child goes to college. I can care less whether my child gets a great job, has a reputation or can stay in some of the neighborhoods you live in. I could care less. I want my child to inherit all the promises of God. You say you don't want very much, no, I want far more than what most men want. Sometimes I look down laughingly and I'll say, oh, Lord, whatever grace would be given to me. Give it to this boy and then laugh because I know his grace is not something that's limited, that he has to cut from me in order to give to my children. His grace is infinite. Lord, pour it down on us all. Show everybody how wonderful you are by raising this man from the dirt and his seed from the dirt and exalting us to your right hand. Demonstrate in my weakness, your greatness. Get glory for yourself, oh Lord, out of these old rags. God desires many things, doesn't he, church? Many great and wonderful things. Now, verse four, hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your might. Hear, oh Israel, listen closely to me, Israel. There are certain times in the Bible when we get things like behold or listen or hear or verily, verily, I say unto you. It's the same thing. It's saying all the words of God are special, but now I'm going to say something very, very special. And what Moses is doing is he's giving them the foundation of their faith. The devout Jew, even until today, will confess this publicly every day, will pray this, will declare this with his mouth. Hear, oh Israel, the Lord, our God is one. Now, I want us to look at some things. What does this mean? The Lord is our God. That one statement separated Israel from absolutely every other group of people on the face of the earth. You want to talk about power? That one statement and belief in that one statement literally separated Israel from every other tribe and nation in the world. When they believed it, when they obeyed it and when they turned away from it, they became as pitiful, as filthy, as decrepit, as vile as the nations that were around them. Everything in Israel hinged upon their taking this one statement to heart. How many maladies as we look through? I'm reading right now through second Kings. How many maladies would Israel have avoided if they would have clung to this one thing? There is one God and there is one Lord. How many problems would you have avoided if you had held to this one thing? There is one God. I am nothing, Isaiah says, but a nose full of breath. That's what a man is. You want to know the greatness of a man? He's a nose full of breath. That's his greatness right there. There is one God and I am not God. My heart beats because he gives it a beat. I breathe because he gives breath. I think because he makes my mind work. Draw back from me a hair's breath and I'll become an imbecile. I'll turn to dust. Who am I? There is one God and I must live in absolute dependence upon that one God. Absolute dependence. You cannot depend upon God and sin at the same time. You cannot depend upon God and walk your own way because dependence means you're leaning on him. And if he's walking down one path and you're walking down another, you're not leaning on him. There is one God, Israel. Look to him. Apart from him, Israel, you are absolutely nothing. Sir, apart from God, you are absolutely nothing and you can do nothing. You are nothing but a nose full of breath and you will perish. And the place where you existed will acknowledge you no more. There is one God, depend upon him, cling to him, hold to him, cleave unto him. There are no sub lords, you know, they're under pastors, under shepherds, there's no under lords. Is your heart divided? When it says blessed are the pure in heart, that word in Greek basically means blessed are hearts that do not have mixed loyalties that are undivided, unalloyed. Who's Lord most? The one true Lord are you, the usurper. Think about that. Do you know what Lordship means? It is so hard to teach Lordship in a democracy. I don't have anything against a democracy, but it's really hard to understand Lordship in the context of a democracy, because in a democracy, the people all decide. So we can't have a Lord. We have a president, but not a Lord. Why? Because we elect who the Lord is and we tell the Lord what to do. And that's the way most people think their Christianity is. You didn't elect this Lord. He was Lord before this earth came into being. And there'll be no changing of the guard. You know, you don't like one administration. Just wait around four years. You'll get another one possibly. It's not that way in the kingdom of heaven. There's no changing of the guard. He will not change this Lord. And he also has nothing to do with a democracy. It's a theocracy. He decides everything for everybody. That's Lordship. Lord, how do I use my life? It's not yours. It's mine. Lord, how do I spend my money? It's not yours. It's mine. Lord, how do I treat my wife? She's not yours. She's mine. You better treat her carefully. Lord, my children, mine. Abraham Kuyper, the great Dutch theologian. Dutch reformed theologian. He was speaking one time. He said, when Jesus comes back, he'll have only one word on his lips. He will stretch forth his hand and he will say, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. It's all mine. Some people have a problem with that. So that's greedy. Not when it really is all yours. It's not. If you and I were to take seriously that there is one God and we are not that God and there is one Lord of absolute sovereignty, it would change everything in our lives. How little we have to know in order to be what we ought to be, if we would just obey. Now, I want us to look at something that is extremely important here, and it is how are we to respond? And if you look in verse five, he says, you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul. With all your might, Jesus is asked, what is the great commandment? And he says the same. Love the Lord, your God. Love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And now we as Greek philosophers go in there and try to use that passage in order to dissect how is a man? Is he a dichotomy, a trichotomy or what is man? And we're missing the entire point. Jesus is not speaking like Aristotle, speaking like a Jewish rabbi. He's not dissecting man. He's saying this in Jewish literature. We have a thing called Hebrew parallelisms and a stacking of one thing upon another to prove a point. For example, I'll make up one. The wicked shall not dwell in the land. The wicked shall be destroyed. That's a Hebrew parallelism. I'm saying the same thing twice and I'm changing it just a little to add more emphasis. Usually the second phrase is defining more of what the first phrase means. And when when you hear things like love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. He's not saying this is what makes up a man. He is stacking one term on top of another to say this. You love God with every aspect of your being, every fiber of your being, everything that you are. From the deepest point to the point farthest out, whatever you are inside and out, love God with everything you are. Every beat of your heart, every breath of your mouth, every thought of your mind, every blink of the eye, every word from your tongue, every movement of your feet, every touch of your hand. You love God with every emotion, with every will, with every act, everything brought in to love God as a life of worship. That's what he's talking about. But now let me pull this into a more defined realm. How are we to respond? How do you love God? Jesus told us clearly, let's just look at a few things. We're to flee from all forms of idolatry. A verse that he and my little boy is learning is 1 John 5, 21. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Simple, no? You say, well, you know, I've got that one at least. I mean, I don't have some big monster looking stone image in my house that I'm burning incense to. No, but you might have a metal one sitting out in your garage. It might be your job. It might be your clothes. It might be your reputation. It might be your body. It might be the things of this world. It might be just your desire to act as sovereign. Oh, there's so many idols. Relationships can be idols. Everything can be idols. Marriage can be an idol. Children can most certainly be an idol. My dear friend, we have so many idols, but the biggest one is us. Self, the idol of self, the God of self, exalted beyond measure above all things. Yeah, even above the highest heavens and the throne of God, not realizing that it's nothing but dust and will dash to pieces that every time we climb up that throne, it is made out of paper mache and every crown we put on our head is nothing but tin. Flee from idolatry. If your right hand offend thee, cut it off. If your right eye offend thee, pluck it out. Now, that is very radical. That is very radical. There are so many things in life that I desire to do and I do not do them. And this is one of the reasons I'm very passionate person about whatever I do. I have a one track mind. My wife says I can't chew bubblegum and walk at the same time. And she is right. If I do one thing, my mind is focused on that one thing. And there's so many good things that I would like to do, but I know who I am and I know I could start doing them and lose myself in them. I purposely put parameters around my life so as not if you never let the idol in, you don't have to run from it. Preventive medicine, flee from idolatry because you cannot love God and love idols. It's amazing. And when it talks about in the two books, First Kings and Second Kings, it's amazing. They talk about Second Kings, about the people from the nations being brought into Israel and lions start attacking them. So they bring some priests from Israel to come in there and teach them how they're supposed to really worship God so they don't get eaten by lions anymore. And it's amazing. I mean, they're going into the temple and they're worshiping God and they're coming right out and they're burning incense to Baal. And they can't see any kind of difference whatsoever. It's just like I could preach on holiness. I was preaching at that university this weekend on worship is what we were preaching on. And mine was on unholiness, the need for separation from the world. And I said, you young guys, you come in here, you want to worship God, but you've been watching pornography on television for the last hour and a half. And then you're going to come in and have a heart for worship. You see, we have this idea that, well, we can just kind of shut things off and turn things on. And it's not. You bring not a moment of worship into this church building. You bring your lifestyle into here. You come with your lifestyle. You can't leave that thing at the door. If it's a sinful lifestyle, you can't come in here and worship. It's more than just, you know, OK, I'm going to church, let's purify ourselves. Doesn't work that way. You bring your lifestyle in here. Flee from idolatry in order to love the Lord. Another is we are to purify ourselves from everything that is unholy. First Corinthians 7-1 makes it clear we're to work at being holy. Did you know that? Here is a great problem. I have many times I have to, I deal with students who. They've embraced the idea of the sovereignty of God and salvation. And that's wonderful. That's what I teach. But then they just go wild when someone comes to understand the doctrines of grace. We ought to lock them in a room for two years so that they don't hurt anybody because they just go wild. And pretty soon it leads to, if you're not careful, antinomianism. What I mean is there's this declaration that if I am going to be holy, God's going to do it. If I'm going to be sanctified, God's going to do it. And there is truth in that statement. But the Bible also says that we are to strive to be holy. The Bible also says that we are to purify ourselves. The Bible says that we're to work at these things. Timothy was told by Paul, listen, you need to endeavor, give yourself diligently to these things. Because God used means to carry out His sovereign will. It really does. And you've got to be very, very careful here. Because like I said before, truth or falsehood, you can go a million miles that way and still be false. A million miles that way and still be false. But truth is like walking on the edge of a razor blade. You can go over on either side. You have to be careful. Now, we're to love God and we're to purify ourselves. We're to seek to be holy. We're to seek to be holy. Men, holiness, your children are going to see right through your declaration of holiness. Because they're going to see you with mom. And they're going to see you in front of the television set. Not that you can't watch the TV, you just can't watch most of it. They're going to see you. And they're going to see, is this real or not? Because, listen to me, sir, if every person on the face of the earth that declares themself to be a Christian is nothing but a bald-faced, lying hypocrite, but dad is walking with God, that'll be proof enough for son. But if there are a lot of godly people in the congregation and dad is a hypocrite, that will be enough for son. To say all the rest of them are just as false as my dad. Because I see him on Sunday morning, but I see him on Monday. And he acts differently on Sunday morning than he does on Monday afternoon. These are hard things, aren't they? I've prayed, I hope I'm not being harsh, but they need to be said. These are hard things, but they're true things that will lead to joy. Do you think godliness is a burden? It's not. It's a joy. A godly home is a joyful home. Godliness has nothing to do with legalism. It's a joyful home. It's a happy home. So we're to purify ourselves. And then we are to love God with an undivided and unreserved love involving our whole being. I want to read from John Calvin here, the cold theologian that many suppose him to be. He says this, with a superlative love above all creatures whatever, with the whole of the affections of the heart, with great fervency and ardor of spirit, in the sincerity of the soul and with all the strength of grace a man has, with such love that is as strong as death, that is how we shall love God. It is a passionate love. It is an energized love. It is a love that leaps off the seat in response to the lover's call. And then finally, and we'll end here, we're to love with obedience. Jesus said it better than anyone could ever say it. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Let me ask you, there's two steps in keeping his commandments. Which one are you on? Because you see, before you can get to step two, which is actually obeying his commands, you must be at step one. You know them. Do you know what he has commanded you, sir, with regard to your personal life? Do you know, sir, what he has commanded you with regard to what you're allowed to think and not allowed to think? Do you know what he has commanded you with regard to what you're allowed to hear and not allowed to hear? What you're allowed to say and not allowed to say? What you're allowed to do and not allowed to do? Do you know what he's told you about being a husband? Do you know what he has commanded you about being a father? Do you know what he's commanded you about being a son? You see, most people can't even begin to think about obedience. Because they don't even know what they're supposed to obey. And what happens is we obey what is right in our own eyes, thinking we are obeying God when we are not. And that's the task, isn't it, ahead of us? That's the task, isn't it? I so appreciate the foundation that's been built in this place. And what I mean is this. Someone asked me one time, what would you do if you took a church? I said, well, I don't intend in it, but this is what I'd do. First of all, I'd have to spend the next 17 years of my life, 20 years of my life, just trying to get to the point where if they saw it in the Word of God, they'd do it. I think many of you are there. If you saw it in the Word of God, you'd do it. Okay? Well, for the next few months, I'm going to be trying to get you to see a lot of things so that you will do what is here. And that is beginning with your family, with your family, where the rubber hits the road. I was talking to Ryan the other day and he said he has aspirations of writing a theology book, which I think would be a wonderful thing. The title of it, he said, would be Where the Rubber Hits the Road. You talk about this stuff all day, but it comes down to where does the rubber hits the road? Where does it hit the road? Are you going to obey? Now, if you're here today and you don't know Christ, or you're here today and you think you know Christ, but your life is a contradiction to everything Jesus says about Himself and a true Christian, you need to talk to somebody. If you're here today and you're a Christian, you're struggling with some things. We have counselors here. Not just me coming down here. There are people just waiting. If anyone comes down and needs any help at all, you come and we'll talk to you. You can set up an appointment. We'll talk to you during the week. Whatever we can do so that this right here hits the road. That's our desire. Now, let me tell you something about me. I was greatly burdened when I got up in this pulpit. I'm not burdened now. I'm released. All right. My job is over. And I want to tell you something. I've been in this long enough. Invitations mean very little to me. I don't want anybody coming down here just to be coming down here. But if you do have a need, please come. And if you say, well, I'm just not a very public person. Okay, then come afterwards. But there's a difference. If you come during the service, it's free. If you come afterwards, you have to take me out to eat. So see, I'm just kidding. If you have a need, we're going to have a lot of counselors coming down. Just come forward. Let's stand as I pray. Father, I come before you in the name of your son. And I know that your word has been spoken forth, even though through feeble means it has gone forth. And I pray that you would give your heart to your people. Give them such a heart, Lord, that they would obey, that they would hear and obey. Oh, dear God, do this for your sake, for the sake of your people. In Jesus name, amen.