After the Sermon: Deuteronomy 5:1-21

2/18/26 | Will DuVal | DEUTERONOMY: Remembering God's Faithfulness; Responding in Obedience

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Welcome to after the Sermon podcast where Pastor will answers your follow-up questions and we share your personal applications from the sermon for the benefit of the church. My name is Brian. I'm here with our lead pastor Will

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Happy Wednesday, better late than never

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And Wonder want to remind you with this podcast that sermons are not just a Sunday thing. I'm looking at a big stack of questions. Thank you so much for submitting all of these. It's

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Great.

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First one is from Victoria. She wrote is the crucifix slash cross a carved image Wait for the

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Application. Yeah, this is so quick recap or context to start talking about the 10 commandments here. Deuteronomy five verses one through 21, so 10 commandments. So yeah, this Victoria's asking about the second commandment, no idol idolatry don't make a carved image and she's asking specifically about crucifix cross as a possible carved image. I think the answer is it could be. I think that yeah, historically I believe you've probably had even otherwise maybe perhaps well-meaning Christians who have maybe unknowingly tried to use the crucifix for instance as a sort of tangible, almost like a talisman in sort of animistic religions. But as this, we Christians are not exempt from this and the violation of the second commandment obviously, and using even again otherwise sort of sacred or religious artwork in that kind of a way. I think there's a whole kind of debate there with the Eastern Orthodox Church, so kind of three main branches if you will.

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Quick church history, you had all one church then the great schism in the 11th century and Roman Catholicism split off from Eastern Orthodoxy and then of course the reformation 500 years later and you got Protestants split off. But with the Eastern Orthodox, I mean iconography is a big part of even still today their religious sort of worship. And if you ask an Orthodox Christian, they're going to tell you, well no, of course it's not an idol, it's an icon. It's we're not praying to this statue of Mary or this painting of Jesus or whatever. We're using it in the service of our worship of the invisible God or invisible Christ or maybe invisible Mary for them, which is a whole nother problem. But there's a fine line there. There's a fine line between praying to and praying through or utilizing in worship. And when does that, and I do think that again, part of God's prohibition in that second commandment is the recognition he wants us to recognize that not only is a strict, I don't want you to confuse creator with creation and I don't want you to slip into over time worshiping this cross instead of worshiping the invisible now savior who died on that cross for you.

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I mean there is that obviously, but I think it's even more than that, that God wants us to know that we can and should worship him at all times. And part of what an idol does, or even I would argue an icon for those who would want to use that in worship is part of what that does. It can implicitly make you more reliant on dependent on this particular object for your worship. And so now if I forgotten my cross at home or I whatever, again, just let's turn the mirror back on us and make it, I think even we have to be careful about this in even our circles with things. And by the way, this is why, going back to the church splits thing and the Protestants, this is why a lot of those Protestants, you had a whole kind of wing of Protestants that still have survived to this day that are aggressively anti stuff and worship to the point of singing. And no, you don't want to have a guitar or an organ. You don't want to have anything that you depend on for worship so you can go too far and go crazy with it to the exclusion of other scripture that commands

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Praise him with the harp and the liar and use instruments and worship. So

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There's

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People that take it too far, but even in their sacred spaces of, again, a lot of the reformers were ripping the crucifixes out of the buildings and breaking the stained glass out of the churches and obviously just building new buildings that were very plain because they didn't want to be guilty of even being in any kind of gray area with regard to this commandment and making people, again, depending on any kind of physical manifestation or representation of God for worship, because God is transcendent, he's invisible and so we worship him all the time. But I just was going to make the case about even our own worship today in sacred spaces that some people could and I think do and have become more dependent even on a building and they somehow feel closer to God. Now, Jesus says, where two or three are gathered, I'm there with 'em.

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  So maybe we should in a sense feel Christ's presence with us in a unique way, obviously when we're with the gathered church. But I think part of what we're experiencing even this year with the renovation in our building is we're out of our, we have a beautiful building at West Hills, I think with our arched kind of wooden flowing up to heaven kind of ceilings. I mean it is purposely designed the way it is to facilitate this kind of experience of transcendence and worship and yet God's imminent presence with us here and we have a big cross on the wall and things like that. We're over at Westminster now in their theater, no cross on the wall. And again, it's kind of that just very stark, much different, but it's also a test to us of how much have we become dependent on a physical space for our feeling of connection with the Lord and sensing his presence and all that kind of thing.

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  So anyway, I took it and made it about way more than the cross. But I think there is a deeper principle there that to go to Victoria's question can absolutely apply with things like the cross witch is so sad of course, because I think God clearly wants us to be reminded of the cross and be reminded of Christ on the cross. Now I will say too though that this quickly, I mean hopefully most of our listeners will have kind of recognized this or have heard this, but the difference between, again, a Protestant cross and a Catholic cross that for Catholics, their crucifix is almost always you have the image of Jesus on the cross. And so that was one of the big things with reformers. It kind of a compromise thing of like, okay, we're still going to have crosses, but again, we don't want to, Jesus is God and we don't want to be guilty of again, breaking the second commandment and making an image of him. And so maybe some aversion to even paintings of Christ and things like that in some cases. So I think we'll actually talk about that more in Lexi's question the second one. Maybe a good segue,

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  But thanks Victoria.

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  Yeah, and Victoria also wrote, love the quote, the law is a mirror and not a bed Rest and I'll rest spiritually and meditate on him loving me first. Thanks Victoria.

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  Yeah, thank you Victoria.

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  So yeah, Lexi's question she wrote are shows like the Chosen or animations of Jesus, modern equivalents of Carved idols of God.

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  Another great related question, and we had a whole

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  Sounds familiar.

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  Yeah, we had a whole ask the pastors episode on this and I remember it was one of the kind of few where Thad and I in particular have a little bit of a disagreement of opinion on this, which is fine and healthy for us to have different views. I think that is more so just even more cautious about that and not a big fan of shows like the shows. And I think he's fine with other, I'm thinking about everybody's on a David Kick now. There's the David animated thing and theaters Phil,

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  Yeah,

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  Yeah, with Phil. And then there's Young David kind of spinoff miniseries, then there's the David on Amazon Prime, and then we're going to see David at the Sight and Sound Theater in Branson next month. So David's everywhere. But anyway, he's not Jesus, he's not God. So I guess we depict him. But so again, I don't think Thad is opposed or folks who are opposed to shows like the Chosen or hopefully maybe take the same issue. Now there's other issues with some of those shows. Is it a biblical portrayal of David? Are they adding to scripture? Things like that. But anyway, just strictly on this one with Lexi and the chosen, again, my view is that I think as long as, so again, there is the issue of adding to scripture or changing the meaning of scripture, things like that. I think that's another factor with the chosen.

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  And I think that in my opinion, the creators of that show have been pretty clear that, hey look, we're not trying to say this is exactly, we don't presume to have some sort of secret knowledge of the behind the scenes director's cut version of Jesus' life and all the other interactions. They're just saying this is one possible way that the backstory to the wedding at Cana and John two might've happened and we're going to add some characters in that give more color and context to that encounter and things like that. I don't think there's anything strictly unbiblical about that. Again, as long as you're not claiming that you're trying to help people understand, look, there is a difference between the Bible and the parts of the story that we know are true because it's in God's word. And then the parts that we're going to sprinkle in just to make it a more full-fledged story, well-rounded story, but with specific on the case of depicting Jesus, you, I think just again my opinion, and I think I tried to articulate this on the podcast with that is that mystery of one of the mystery of the gospel is that the transcendent invisible God became imminent and visible and became Emmanuel God with us in human form taking on human flesh to become one of us.

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  And so I think part of my challenge to Thad with any sort of strict prohibition of depicting God in physical form, that is what Jesus did. And so I guess you could say, well, their God's commandments, so he's allowed to break it if he wants. Did God violate the second commandment by making himself visible to us in physical form in the form of Jesus? But again, would it have been sacrilegious or sinful for the disciples in the wake of Christ's death, resurrection ascension back to the right hand of the Father in their obviously remembrance of him and celebrating and worshiping but also grieving and mourning and him not being with them in physical form in the same way. Now they have his spirit living in them, but would it be sinful for Peter or Andrew to sit down in their diary at home, which they probably didn't have, but to paint a picture of the Jesus that they remember, would that have been sinful? And again, my answer is no, because God himself made himself visible to them in that way. Now again, I think you have to be careful in the same way that you're careful in making a cross that you don't want to slip into idolatry or I would argue even you have to be careful about even that kind of iconography of letting your painting of Jesus then become a stumbling block to worshiping him as he is now once again invisible to us in heaven.

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  But I can see the counter argument that, hey, you're on dangerous territory, you're better off just not, and of course totally respect those who have that kind of conviction and for that reason aren't going to watch shows like The Chosen for Me, probably my favorite show just it really is I would say a worshipful experience for me to watch that show. And I do feel like it brings the story to life in a different kind of way and helps me that even when I go and then read the Bible on my own, it helps me because I just don't have a great imagination. It helps me then to kind of stir my imagination again in a way that I think draws me into deeper sort of love and worship for Christ, but hopefully not certainly again then trying to make him some sort of image or idol.

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  So anyway, I'll stop there. I think people are going to have different convictions on that and maybe it's a stumbling block kind of issue like Paul talks about with meat sacrifice to idols. And so maybe it's a case for not screening the chosen or something like that at church or it's something to think about in our kids' ministry. We sometimes play video clips of the lesson for the day. Maybe that's okay when the kids are learning about David, but when they're reading from the gospels and reading a story about Jesus or whatever, you don't screen him. Now I will say when it comes to God, the Father, and this is the last thing I'll say on it because strictly speaking that second commandment is Yahweh God the Father talking about making any kind of idols or images representative of him. And again, we're Trinitarian Christians and so others are going to lump Jesus into that I treat. They are distinct, they are different people, same one being the Godhead, but they're three people. And so Jesus is distinct from the Father. And so that is to me how I would apply. I would have an issue with let's say our kid's ministry showing a cartoon of God the Father.

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  So to me that's different, very different. And so even like a painting like Pauly and I went year before last on sabbatical to Italy and Sistine Chapel and the famous sort of creation of Adam and God and Adam touching fingers. And I think you could make the case like that's idolatry. I mean Michelangelo depicted God in physical form. He tried to put it and that's a problem, shouldn't have done it. So anyway, I'll leave it with that, but thank you Lexi.

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  Feel free to check out, ask the pastor of season four, episode three, is it breaking the second commandment to artwork in churches?

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  That's good, thank you.

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  Next one is Jake. He wrote in two questions. We'll start with the first one. It's a good place to start. Why does the ESV omit generations in verse 10?

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  So the real quick answer on this one, because there's not the Hebrew word for generations in the text, the words for third and fourth in the Hebrew. So if you want to translate it, if you want to translate it real literally, you'd say verse 10 of chapter five, for I am Yahweh, you're gone. A God visiting a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons and to the third and the fourth of those who hate me. And so the war is just not there in either case, but I think it's in my literal idiomatic, sorry, literal interlinear translation here. It's got generations and brackets because it's implied in the word. So those words for third and fourth here can actually can just mean because it's third with generations apply can mean great grandson fourth, great, great grandchild. So yeah, that's why

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  Number two, why does it seem Christians today choose not to honor an actual Sabbath day, not in a can't turn the lights on kind of way, but in taking a day off, a day of rest from work chores, et cetera.

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  So this is a great question and a much longer one and one that frankly Christians are split on might recommend to you. I love the gospel coalition and their resources. Have a

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  Podcast episode. Do we have a podcast on it?

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  Okay, good.

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  Season two episode 18. Should Christians still observe the Sabbath on Ask the pastors Good.

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  So season two, episode 18, check that out. That's your best go-to verse one. But I know that I pulled from in recording that podcast I pulled from the gospel coalition had a great series of kind of disputed theological issues and presenting 'em from both sides of the coin. And so they did one on Pato baptism and credo baptism, but they did one on whether or not Christians should still keep the Sabbath. I think I pulled pretty heavy. But for me, when I study and read the best arguments for and against, I am pretty convinced that Christians no longer need to keep the Sabbath. Colossians 2, 16 17, Paul declares therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

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  These are a shadow of the things to come. The reality however, is found in Christ. Christ himself proclaimed himself as the Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus purposely did miracles and healings on the Sabbath to prove it that he's Lord of the Sabbath and to me, and what I understand in that is that he is in the same way that Christ is the fulfillment. He said, Matthew seven, I didn't come to abrogate or to do away with the law. I came to fulfill it. It's God's law. You don't get to just throw it out. No, it has to be fulfilled, but I came to fulfill it for you. So I hear him as saying, and Paul elsewhere, second Corinthians says, all of God's promises find their yes in amen in Christ all of God's loss. I would add find their yes and amen in Christ. He is our law.

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  And so I think that's what Paul s saying in Colossians two. Now some will point out that actually again in the Greek in Colossians two literally Sabbath, there is plural new moon celebration or Sabbath's plural. And so they're going to say, Saur. Christians will say, well, that's referring to not the weekly Sabbath day, but Sabbaths like other special like the Levitical year, the jubilee year in the Old Testament that we hear about the Sabbath of Sabbaths and things like that, which seems like a little bit of a stretch. And again elsewhere, Romans 14, five, Paul says, one man considers one day more sacred than another. Another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

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  So I think just yet another text that to me strongly suggests that if other Christians, and I would frankly make this again a bit of a stronger, weaker conscience kind of issue, like actually Paul is talking about, that's the context of Romans 14 and he's talking about the meat sacrifice to idols again. And he says, look, some Christians really get bent out of shape about that animal was sacrificed to a fake paak in God, and we should therefore not eat its meat. Paul's saying, look, you and I, we stronger Christians, we ought to know pagan gods aren't real. They aren't anything. God is creator over everything. He created that animal. And so it's all good as long as you can receive it with thanksgiving and knowing truly who it came from and who it ought to be sacrificed to or whatever. And so I would say this is one of those where again, I would say that the stronger, stronger conscience Christians are going to know every day is sacred. Every day is the Lord's. There's nothing magical or particularly special about Sunday.

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  Yes, the early church did Acts two gathered together on the first day of the week on Sunday, the day that Christ rose to remember that and to remember him and to worship him. And that's great, and I think that should be normative for Christians. I'm all for church on Sunday. If we ever, I mean there are lots of churches that have outgrown their building and have services on Saturday. I have friends that attend church on Saturday, and I don't think they're sinning by not being together with God's people on Sunday specifically because again, Romans 14, five, some consider this day more sacred and they're all about Sundays. That's okay, weaker conscience, go for it, be there every Sunday for us. I mean we only have church on Sundays, so you should be there on Sundays. I mean that much is a command. Don't forsake neglect to the assembly, the gathering of God's people.

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  But what we're talking about is just does it have to be on a pretty good day? Again, there's nothing in scripture in the New Testament actually connecting. Most of Christian Sabots will say that Sunday is now the Sabbath. There's nothing in scripture that would point to as best we know, actually we do know because we have their early writings, the early church first for however many centuries, I mean they still worked on Sunday, they just got up extra early to hang out or after work, they got together in their houses and broke bread and had their love feast and probably was after the workday because they were having communion and drinking wine. And then you had the whole thing in Corinthians with Paul saying, don't get drunk. So hopefully not getting drunk at 6:00 AM before work. But anyway, so yeah, but they worked and then they got together after.

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  So that wasn't the Sabbath. If they were still a steaming a Sabbath, it would've been Saturday, it was, Hey, we're Jewish Christians, so now we don't work on Saturday because we're still honoring that. And again, Paul said, go for it. If you want to honor and still do that, you can. But yeah, I mean there's just a lot of other texts we could pull into. Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council, the apostles gathered together, what are the Gentiles? What rules do they need to follow? They didn't mention the Sabbath. They'd say, you got to keep the Sabbath. So anyway, yeah, could go on from there. But I think those couple, Romans 14 and Colossians two in particular to me make it pretty clear that this is no longer something we have to do now. There's still a principle, rest is good, rest is important, rest is necessary.

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  But I would say that that's more so even a, it's biological principle, I would say it's recognizing our own limitations. I would say. There's obviously spiritual implications to it too. Like I mentioned in the sermon, do you trust God to be sovereign and to still be at work while you rest? And I do think there's still a command to rest. I mean that's Hebrews four and five is there remains a Sabbath rest for God's people. It's just I think in context what he's talking about is looking ahead to the rest of heaven and eschatological kind of rest in the life to come and that that's what we ought to hunger for, but that he says we can enter and enjoy that rest now. And I think what the author of Hebrews is talking about is like he says, the one who's entered God's rest is rested from his works just like God did from his. And I think probably what he's talking about is again, this need to fulfill the law and do all these works of the law. And the author of Hebrews is saying, Jesus did that for you, and you can rest from that and rest in what Christ has done for you. And so anyway, lots more that could be said, but yeah, that's why

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  Yeah. We got five questions a little under 10 minutes.

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  Do it

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  Since from an anonymous listener, what does it look like to pursue a career and not be a slave to your career slash works?

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  Man, I think a lot of it has to do with your motivation. Why do you get up every morning and as you're driving into the office and oh yeah, what's going on in your mind, in your heart? I think that as believers, we, again, I think when it starts to become about my name and fame and reputation and status and salary and promotion and those kinds of things, I think you're in dangerous territory of work or again, status or whatever else, having become an idol for you and more just selfish motives and purposes for your work as opposed to Christians ought to be constantly going back and asking ourselves, how can I glorify God today? Bring him glory through the way that I keep books for my or clean toilets for this school that I work at or whatever it might be that God has given you to do.

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  I think treating this is one of those cases where treating the work itself as a means to a greater, infinitely greater end is actually the good and best thing. The work is just a means to whatever it might be, even pastoring, even preaching the so-called spiritual kind of work. I mean it's a means to a greater end, which is bringing God glory and being faithful to him, being obedient to him. How can I be a part of building his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven and recognizing that this world because of sin is a broken fall in place and there's darkness all around us, and yet God didn't give up on the world and he sent Jesus into the world that his light is casting out the darkness. And so you got the kingdom of darkness, kingdom of light, and they're at odds and they're both at work. And yet again, whether it is cleaning toilets or accounting, keeping books or representing people on the stand in the courtroom or fixing people's bodies and the hospital or the clinic or whatever it is that we do, we have the opportunity to be ambassadors of Christ and be pusher, backers of the darkness and advancers of the light.

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  And so that's, how can I do that today anyway, I think. But yeah, when it becomes about the status or the money or the promotion or the glory, certainly the glory for myself, then that's clearly you're in the wrong place.

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  Stacey Rodin. Hi, pastor Will thank you for another great thought provoking sermon as you were preaching on the fifth commandment on your father and mother and specifically the underlying principle that we are to respect all those that God has placed in authority, employers, governmental authorities, et cetera. My mine immediately went to Romans 13, which you briefly hit on as well. We're to honor and submit to those God has placed in authority out of reverence for Christ. You touched on the limit of our obedience to parental figures. Are they leading you in the Lord or are they at odds with the Lord? Do you believe there is also a limit to our obedience of government authorities? Why or why not? If you believe there is a limit, how do you reconcile that with Romans 13?

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  Yes, thank you, Stacy. And the short answer is yes. I absolutely believe there's a limit. If your government, like the government of China did 10 years ago, if your government tells you you're only allowed to have one child and you have to abort all the rest, you do not obey that government because they have overreached in terms of their scope of their authority. And now they are claiming an authority that God has not given them and because again, they're calling you to do something that is specifically at odds with God's word. If you were a German Christian in 1939 Germany and the government tells you that you are a mandatory reporter of Jews, and if you know of any Jews, you have to let them know or else you do not obey that law because that law is at odds with God's law that says we are to care for and protect and love everyone, especially those who are in harm's way, the oppressed and those who are vulnerable.

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  But Romans 13, let every person be subject to the governing authorities. There's no authority except from God. And those that exist have been instituted by God. Those who resist the authorities resist what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment. And again, I think there's an implied caveat in all of that that again, that God's authority to still supreme. And so when Caesar is at odds with God, you follow God not Caesar. Now I think we still have to take his Paul's words really waiti there because he's writing in the time of Niro in the early sixties ad and arguably one of the worst rulers governing authorities of all time, especially for Christians. And so if Paul can tell us to be subject to a governing authority like Nero, at least to the extent that Nero's commands aren't at odds with Gods, then we ought to really, we're going to err on the side of obeying the law of the land and those authorities, God has put over us and not be looking for excuses not to. So yeah. Thank you, Stacy. Good question.

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  Next one's from an anonymous congregate they wrote, does honoring life extend beyond human life? Where is the line drawn euthanizing animals due to overcrowding in the shelter versus an old animal in pain and suffering hunting for sport slash trophy versus food source?

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  It's a good question. Thank you. And the short answer is I think it does. I think I made this point actually back. I'm reading through the Bible in a year again and as I always do, but I'm in the middle of Leviticus now, and so you're getting to lots of sacrifices and here's what to do with the blood and the fat and you can't eat this and you must eat this and all that. But part of, I think one of the things that I mentioned in Leviticus 17 about the life of the creature is in its blood, and so I've given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls and all of that. And you see this high high value in God's word again, on life and even the life of this animal. That's why God ordained the system of sacrifices in the Old Testament that he did. If you didn't have value, dignity worth, clearly not the same kind of value digging any worth is human life. You're talking apples and oranges. But if there wasn't any value in the life of the animal, there would be no sacrificial system in the Old Testament.

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  I guess you would've had to skip straight to Jesus, but then he wouldn't have been the greater and better sacrifice. You wouldn't have all the others, the sheep and the goats and the bulls. There was a value too, for a time for those sacrifices. And the value was in Leviticus 1717, the life of the animal. And so yeah, it's almost like you hear the Native American sort of when they go out and they would hunt and the Indians would kill an animal and they'd have this religious sort of prayer and sort of way of honoring. Now again, that's borderline kind of animistic religion where there's souls of the ancestors involved and the animal has a soul and whatever. And again, it's apples and oranges. We're not saying that the bull, the goat, the whatever that you killed or your dog at home now with it as your pet, we're not saying they have souls and therefore they're connected to God in some way and on the same level of value and worth as humans.

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  But all that to say, end of the day, yes, we do honor our life. And now that would make a great follow-up to go deeper question like they ask about hunting for sport versus trophy. That is something I would take very seriously if I was a hunter. I don't hunt just because it's not my thing, but if I did, I would like to think, yeah, that this experience of killing this living animal would be in some ways there's a sacred and even non-Christian hunters that you hear talk to about this. And even those who have hunted for a long time, hopefully if there's still, I mean, there's something supposed to be that God built into us instinctive about that kind of taking of life that hits us in a different way that feels weighty and you feel the gravity of it. And I would hope that that would never, no matter how much you hunt or whatever, go away. And yeah, I think the idea of this me personally, but I think I can make a case for it, the idea of hunting just for sport versus for food or something like that, I think it depends. Yeah, that's a bigger issue. Again, maybe and ask the pastor of if you're just killing to get rid of the deer because of overpopulation in the area, that's probably a good thing.

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  But if you're just killing for sport just because you like to kill, you're not eating it, it's not an overpopulation thing. You just like killing stuff. I think there's a problem there. So anyway, I'll pause there, but there's lots of spinoff questions that could be asked difference between killing a bug and a rat, a rat and a cat. A cat and a dog. A dog and a deer. There are, yeah. And obviously a human is just on a different playing field than all those, but yeah, it is a good question. Thank you. Whoever submitted that one.

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  I know we're about out of time for the pod. You need to get going?

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  No, let's do our last one real quick.

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  We got two. Two more. Okay,

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  Let's do

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  'em. Okay. This one's from Josh. He wrote, you mentioned that those with more wealth than they need may have received someone else's and they ought to give the excess away. While we obviously should give to the needy, I can't help but also think of someone like Job who had great possessions of what was considered righteous. Is it possible to be a cheerful giver while also enjoying personally the blessings God has given me? Is it necessarily sinful to keep any financial blessings above what is necessary?

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  It's a great question That was in the context of the John Christ system, fourth century church father quote about God giving you some of that wealth that really belongs ultimately to him, that he wants you to redistribute to those who need. The short answer is I don't think it's necessarily inherently sinful to hold on to finances above and beyond what you strictly speaking need. I mean, need is a relative term. Obviously Josh mentions job. Job is an example of someone who had a house seemingly bigger than he needed possessions and stuff, maybe more than any now I'd say he is got a bunch of servants, so he's employing people. I would argue part of what makes him a righteous man probably is that he's using his wealth to bless others. But I think it's absolutely possible to be a cheerful giver and not just possible. I think it's important to, we are exhorted to both be a cheerful giver away to others and also to enjoy the blessings that God has given us.

  (45:32):

  God may does call some Christians to a life of pretty strict asceticism and renouncement of earthly possessions. And I mean Jesus did that. And so a lot of the, again, early church fathers and later the monks and monastic tradition of renouncing earthly possessions and stuff to experience even closer communion with God and not being distracted by worldly stuff. I think there's something beautiful about that. I think it's also, yeah, job is an example of some, and there are many others who you think of Lydia in the New Testament who was wealthy and owned her purple old manufacturing goods business or whatever, dying business, and she made enough money doing it to be able to host the church in Philippi in her house. And that's a blessing. It's a blessing to be able to have stuff that you can then use to use to share with others, but also, again, the house was big enough for all the Christians in Philippi to meet there on the Lord's day and also big enough for she didn't need a house that big probably just for her the rest of the week, but you know what?

  (46:55):

  She had it and God used it. So yeah, I think it's all about, again, how you use it, the attitude and the heart behind it. But yeah, Chriss quote is an extreme kind of example of just something worth challenging ourselves about and thinking about, Hey, what if the reason God has given me this much money in my bank account isn't just for me to stock away for future, whatever, but to be shared. She's a Sid. I mean the guy who builds bigger barns and not knowing your life is going to be demanded of you tomorrow. You can store up all you want, but doesn't mean you're going to get to enjoy it. Doesn't even mean your kids are going to like job. Your kids might die and you might not get to pass it down to them. I think part of being a good parent is wanting what's best for your kids and wanting to be able to bless them too. But some of that depends on the kid too. Some kids do not need to get an inheritance like the prodigal son, and it only makes 'em worse anyway, so lots more that could be said there, but good question. Thanks Josh.

  (48:05):

  Lastly, Maggie wrote, what's the difference between being discontent and having a deep longing? Is there a difference?

  (48:13):

  That's a great question. Yeah, we talked about contentment with commandment number 10 and not coveting, not needing more from of what others have, looking at what they have and saying, I'd be happier if I had that instead. And I do think there's a difference. I think there's a difference between discontent and a deep longing. I think it's possible to, for instance, struggle with infertility and have a deep longing for a child, a baby that you can hold in your arms. And yet also in the waiting, learn to trust God's sovereignty. And if he hasn't given us a child yet, there's a reason for it. And I'm, we're going to be content with our childless life right now, and we're not going to waste these whatever remaining months and even years that he's given us of childlessness, just only longing in a grieving sort of way all the time.

  (49:27):

  And grass is greener on the other side, but it's okay to have that longing and pray for hope for and all of that and some of that grief and all of that, but in a way that doesn't rob you of your joy in the present and your contentment in the present and your ability to see the current blessings in front of you. So I think that's how I would probably distinguish it, is discontent is an inability to see and enjoy and have gratitude for the current blessings in front of you, whereas a deep longing is about a desire for future blessings in the future. And so I think both those things can be true. I can look at what I've got here and be grateful for it, even as I hope and pray for more or different in the future. So thank you, Maggie.

  (50:23):

  Thanks, will. We hope that this has been edifying for you as you seek to be changed to love God more as you apply God's word after the sermon. So go apply the sermon and continue to make disciples, and we will catch you next week.