The Revelation Series

The Revelation

Jeffery Anselmi / General

The Bible: Prioritizing God's Word In Our Lives / Bible / Deuteronomy 6:4–9

God’s Word reveals who God is. Scripture should be something we interact with on a regular basis, not just at church or Bible study.

INTRODUCTION

• Throughout my time as a Christian as well as my time in Ministry, I have heard a common theme from people that God is a mystery, and His will for my life is something I have a hard time figuring out.

• Today we begin our new series entitled, The Bible: Prioritizing God’s Word in Our Lives.

• What does prioritizing God’s Word in our lives have to do with knowing God and His will for my life?

• Here is why this subject is vital for us to understand.

• God’s Word reveals who God is and his purposes for believers, but we often struggle to engage with Scripture in a meaningful way.

• Honestly, I think the problem many have with knowing God and understanding His will for their lives comes from wanting to know these things without knowing God.

• We want to know God and His will without taking the time to know Him.

• We get to know Him through His Word, the Bible.

• There is no getting around that fact; there are no shortcuts.

• When you consider human relationships, there is no fast track to getting to know someone other than time spent with one another.

• Today we will go back to the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy to a passage that Jesus quotes when asked about which commandment is the greatest in Matthew 22:37-38.

• From this critical passage for Jesus to share, we will learn that God’s Word reveals who God is.

• We should interact with Scripture regularly, not just at church or Bible study.

• Let’s turn to Deuteronomy 6:4-9!

• We will begin with verse 4.

Deuteronomy 6:4 (NET 2nd ed.)

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

SERMON

I. Where it all begins.

• God reveals something essential for us to understand.

• We need to have a frame of reference in life, and this passage gives it to us.

• Verse 4 gives us an important frame of reference.

• This passage gives us a vital frame of reference.

• Let’s talk about verse 4 so we can understand why this passage was so important, to the point that Jesus used the passage when asked about the greatest commandment.

• This passage is called the Shema, named for the first Hebrew word of verse 4: “Hear.”

• It is a core text of Judaism and conveys what God commanded Moses to teach God’s people (Deuteronomy 6:1–3).

• First, he declares that “the LORD is one.”

• This statement is an affirmation of what Moses already told them in Deuteronomy 4:35: “the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.”

• The word HEAR is essential.

• This word does not mean just to let something come into your ears; it denotes both paying attention AND obedience to what is written and spoken.

• Before I became a Christian when I was 20, I ALWAYS believed there was a God, and I also believed there was a Jesus and a Holy Spirit.

• I think many people’s belief in God may line up with that.

• The problem I had, as well as many others, was the OBEDIENCE part of it.

• I liked thinking there was a God who has a heaven so my existence isn’t over when I die.

• That is what scared me about death, NEVER existing again.

• I was comforted by the thought that I would exist for eternity without any strings attached!

• Did you catch the no strings attached part?

• My view of God was that if I was a good person, that was all it took.

• However, I fought with the religious upbringing that made me feel like I was not a good person and that God did not love me.

• But when push came to shove, I did what I wanted and figured it would all work out.

• Folks, when we live life in that manner, we become our own god, setting the rules and demanding that the true God follow our rules.

• I never heard God because I was not willing to obey Him.

• What are we called to hear?

• We are called to hear (pay attention and obey) that the Lord is OUR God, and the Lord is ONE!

• The word ONE speaks of the uniqueness of God as well as the unity of the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)

Commentary on Deuteronomy (Chapter 6 (Deuteronomy 6))