After the Sermon: Deuteronomy 14-15
4/13/26 | Will DuVal | DEUTERONOMY: Remembering God's Faithfulness; Responding in Obedience
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Welcome to the After the Sermon podcast, where Pastor Will answers follow-up questions and we share your personal applications from the sermon for the benefit of the church. My name is Brian and I'm here with our lead pastor, Will.
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Hello, hello.
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We hope to remind you with this podcast that sermons are not just a Sunday thing. Our first question ... Oh, first, Will, would you like to maybe start with a reminder or recap? That's right.
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We said we're going to do that. Yeah. Just a quick. Okay. So we're in Deuteronomy chapters 14 and 15 yesterday. And the title of the sermon was A People Holy Unto the Lord because that is the sort of unifying theme of those two chapters. Moses has just in chapters 12 and 13, introduced this middle section of Deuteronomy. Remember three sections of Deuteronomy, remembering God's past provision, middle, honoring God's present precepts. And then the last section is going to be anticipating God's coming promises. But the middle section about God's precepts is commands, rehashing the law, reminding them of all the various laws. But he started last week, or I guess two weeks ago, because we had Easter in Deuteronomy 12 and 13 with worship. First things first, like assigning God worth. This one now is sort of making that transition to be holy as I am holy, kind of a theme.
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And so we worship God because he's holy. And also secondarily in response to giving him praise is we then too are called to live lives of holiness set apart unto him, the word holy, set apart, different, distinct. So what does it mean look like for God's people to be distinct from those around us? Just like, again, that's the kind of the bigger
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Principle is for Israel. There were certain practices that God called them to eat a certain way, kosher, celebrate funerals a certain way and give a certain percentage and way and sacrifice a certain way and all these things, own slaves in a certain way, like release debts. For us, what are those underlying principles behind those practices? And so the four things we talked about is pursuing holiness and what comes into us, what we let into our lives and our hearts and our bodies and expanding it beyond just kind of what you eat, obviously, to everything that you consume at media, whatever. And then what comes out of us, what comes forth from us. And so again, that could be tithing and giving back financially, opening your wallet, but also just expanding that and giving back to God of our time, talent, and treasure, and our whole heart, mind, soul, strength.
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And then finally, the last two is honoring God and pursuing holiness and our horizontal relationships with one another and how we treat Christian love for, especially one another within the church, ought to look different, distinctive than the way the world treats each other transactional and hating your enemies and whatever. And then in the way that we relate to God, most of all obviously is in honoring him, vertical relationship. So that was the quick recap and let's dive into some questions.
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Sounds good. First one's from an anonymous congregant who wrote in, "What does it look like practically to give God our best? I still have my job, my kids, my husband. How do I know God gets my best when so much depends or so much demands, excuse me, my time and
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Attention?" Yeah, really good questions. Again, just trying to make this really practical. I think it's in some ways impossible to answer other than on a case by case basis. And like if somebody was to come in and sit in my chair of my office and say, "I feel convicted that by your sermon, I don't feel like I'm necessarily giving God my best. How can I do a better job of that? " We could sit there and talk about, "Okay, well tell me about your average day or walk me through and let's talk about different ways." Part of it that just immediately stands out to me is where does your mind go first in the morning and last in the evening and not that there's anything especially, although I will say there's something to this idea of first fruits in particular when it comes to what God invites us to give him the first fruits of our offerings and what does it mean to give God our first and our best.
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So I do think that certainly the way even what's on your mind, first thing in the morning and starting the day, setting the tone for the day, I mean, even there, we probably have to guard against a kind of mentality of like, "Oh, well, I got up and I did 10 minutes of kind of Bible reading and prayer before the kids got up and then the day got crazy from there." And that was the only 10 minutes, but you know what? At least I gave God the first and whatever. But I think that for so many of us, and one of the passages that comes to mind for me is when Paul a number of times says, "Pray constantly, pray without ceasing." And again, most of us, none of us at West Hills that I'm aware of are monks or nuns. We don't literally sit around in conscious prayer, eyes closed, head bowed all day, every day, nor do I think God calls us to that, nor do I think that that's what Paul ... I mean, Paul didn't do that.
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Paul was busy. Paul was out evangelizing and planting churches and training elders and getting beat and being in prison. Anyway, but he was busy. And so I think you're living life in like the way that the reformers talked about Coram Deo before the face of God, you're living all of life as you live, as you go throughout your day, as you parent your kids, as you fill your expense reports at work, as you know, wait in traffic or brush your teeth or whatever you're doing, you're living it in another way, people talk about God consciousness. So you're conscious of God. That's the goal is you're trying to be conscious of God all the time. And I think I've said before, I love the example. One of my favorite probably characters in any kind of book, movie, anything is the guy, I don't even remember his name, the guy in Braveheart that came and joined their army and everybody thought was crazy, but he just always talked to God.
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He called him the Almighty. He's like, "The Almighty to ... " You remember that guy? You remember Brave Art?
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It's been many years
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Since I've seen it. I'm sorry. Watch Braveheart every couple movies years. It's one of the best. But anyway, just everybody else thought he was crazy because he's always talking out loud to God. I just thought, "We should probably all be a little bit more like that, God." I wonder if Paul and some of those early apostles were just the way they write in their epistles, Peter and James and others, like if they would've just constantly been in conversation with the Lord. But anyway, I think it starts with your heart. I'm talking about prayer because I think that's your heart. I mean, you're praying about what's on your heart, right?
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Or you're worried about what's on your heart. I mean, the difference between prayer and worry is, worry is like I just keep it inside and I just ruminate and I just fixate and it festers. And that's anxiety is when there's something on your heart pressing that just kind of stays there, right? Versus prayer is turning it into directing that concern or energy or obviously prayers of praise and thanksgiving and just directing that to, externally, to someone, specifically God. And he wants that. God wants a relationship with us. He wants our constant kind of coming before him as his children. And so I think that's where it starts. And again, you can do that with and have a job in husband and kids and a busy day.
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I mean, in some ways actually, I would argue the more kind of busy we are, the more we ought to be convicted of our need for God and his strength and his energy and his focus to help us along the way with the task or to get us through, to give us the energy or to ... I mean, like the prophet says, unless the Lord builds the house, the labor and vain anyway. And so like, I'm sure we've all had those days where the to- do list was just overwhelming and you did it, you're checking off boxes and you're going through, but then you get to the end and you realize,
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Yeah,
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I feel like I just feel depleted and I feel like what did I even really, I don't know, accomplish. And yet you can have, maybe because God wasn't building the house, you were leaning on your own strength kind of thing versus a day where you are being intentional about inviting God into every part of that day and that task list and all of it. And maybe you're not as productive as the first day, the other day, and yet that day has just a different sense of purpose and meaning and joy and fulfillment and peace that attends it because you were aware of God's presence with you throughout. And anyway, I just think, yeah, I think that's where it starts. I do think that real quick, just on that, I do think that there's a need for carving out intentional time as well to be with the Lord.
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I think that needs to be said that no matter how busy the day is and how long the to- do list is, I think if you're not carving out ... And again, I really think there's something to the idea of first fruits. I think if you're not sometimes as soon as possible in the day, starting with time with God, that that is going to have negative ramifications for not only that day, but certainly if that's a consistent pattern, a consistent habit where you're not prioritizing that giving of the best of my time, the first of my time to God, that that's going to over time really, really have negative repercussions for your sanctification, your relationship, your walk with him. So whatever, I mean, it might be. It might be as short as five or 10 minutes. I don't think that it has to be a half hour, hour for everyone that they're up and immediately praying for an hour.
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I mean, I don't do that.
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Good for you if you do, and that's great and keep doing it. But taking some amount of time to just ... Even the consecration idea that we ended with yesterday of dedicating this to the Lord, I mean, even as short as a prayer of, God, you gave me this day. You didn't owe me this my life in the first place. You number my days. You didn't owe me this day that I've woken up once again. Thank you for it. I want to give it back to you. I want this day to belong to you. I want all that I say and do. And as I walk throughout it to be for your glory, would you help me use it that way for you? And I mean, that was 30 seconds, but that's setting the tone. But yeah, I'll stop there. It's a real question. It's a real question because I know we're all busy.
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Some of us busier than others. I got three young kids of my own, so I for sure can resonate. And just because you work for the church doesn't mean that ... I mean, most of it is busy work. Most of it is not sitting around praying all day long. So yeah, it's sending emails. But anyway, yeah, hopefully that's helpful somewhere in there.
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Victoria wrote, "What about healthy boundaries when it comes to giving? Some people's hearts burnout/over give." Share application after you answer or ...
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Let's start with that. I think maybe it's helpful to differentiate between giving to the Lord and giving to, you could say, the church or certainly beyond that, your family or your friends are the poor or those who need you in your life, community and day as you go about ... I mean, so on the one hand, I would make the case that it is impossible to over give to the Lord. And I think I get what Victoria's saying as far as boundaries and burning out overgiving when it comes to the church. And for instance, because we encounter that with volunteers, with staff, with ... We can all think of probably people that have just ... We all know people that just don't know how to say no to their own detriment, and that certainly I think that's part of the reason it's important to be in a church, for instance, or in relationships where you trust the people that they're not going to take advantage of that, because we've all heard those stories too, of folks being taken advantage of in terms of their overextending and not being able to say no.
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And certain kinds of people will latch onto that and like, "Oh yeah, I like a person like that in my life." So I think being cognizant of that, but that's certainly a possibility, a tendency when it comes to a relationship, overextending, over giving yourself without boundaries and someone who's taking advantage of that and again, to your own detriment and the detriment of everyone else around you that you now don't have bandwidth to give to or your job or your family or whatever it might be, the Lord.
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Same thing with the church or whatever else it might be. But I think that, like I said, I would make the case that it is impossible to overgive in terms of your time, talent, treasure, your heart, mind, soul, strength to the Lord. I mean, I think I can make that case biblically, God commands it, and if he commands it, it must be good. So when he says, "Love me, " I think it's fair to say, as a substitute, give me your whole heart, mind, soul, strength. I think about, I was even telling my kids on the way to school this morning, we were talking about this and the greater Guston quote that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you, Lord. And I think that's deeply profound and beautiful and true. And if it's true, then the more of our heart and time and talent and treasure, and the more of our self that we give to God, the more rest we actually find.
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And Jesus says that in Matthew 11. I mean, he says as much when he says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and I will give you rest for your soul." So I think the more we give to God, the more we give to Jesus in that sense, the more peace, rest, fulfillment, all of it that we find. So I think that hopefully answers that question. I mean, again, maybe the devil's on the details there and Victoria would have a follow-up about or a specific example of a time that this has happened in her life or others' lives around her. But
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I do think that part of the difficulty comes when people confuse giving to the Lord with giving to the church or giving to a particular relationship or this or that, a ministry. And you'd like to think that with something like the church or a ministry, I mean, that there's a pretty big overlap and that when we talk about ... I mean, yesterday talking about the tithing and giving, God commanded him to bring it to the temple, it's like to the Levites, to the leaders that ... So I mean, I think the principle there is, yeah, I mean, a lot of in church when we're talking about giving and are you giving 10% or whatever, it's like practically speaking, yeah, we are talking about bringing your time, talent, and treasure in a lot of respects to the church as God's appointed sort of broker, if you will, or ... I mean, certainly God's means of ministering to his people, ministering to those who are not yet his people, and that's all right and good and true, but we're not the only ones.
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And you see that in the text too from yesterday with Deuteronomy 14:15, and the charge to give and open your hand to the needy. So it's not just the temple and the church proper or whatever. It's doing good giving to others around us as well as, again, an overflow and expression of our love for God because he loves them and he calls us to love and serve them, give to them. But then again, above and beyond all of that is just what we give and how we live in relation to God himself personally. I mean, not vicariously through the church, but God. And so it's in that respect, count out give God, as they say. So I know that's been misused and abused to get people to give financially to the church or something like that. But I mean, at its heart, the sentiment is true that you cannot outgive God.
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So anyway, thanks, Victoria.
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Then she wrote in an application. She said, "I like the illustration of tithing our thoughts. Think positively." Next, we've got a few from Brad. First one, "Does Deuterteronomy 14: one amount to a prohibition of tattoos?" You mentioned yesterday that this passage was a condemnation of self-laceration and a head shaving as part of grief rituals connected to pagan worship, but would this verse also prohibit tattoos obtained in remembrance of deceased loved ones?
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Interesting question. Thanks, Brad. He's got like five questions here, so we'll try and be quick, two or three minutes a piece. I guess my short answer would be, I don't think so. I mean, even if you want to go technical, Deuteronomy 14: one said, "Don't cut yourself or make baldness on your forehead for the dead." I don't think technically tattoos are cut. I mean, you're injecting ink via a needle, but I mean, I know you bleed typically some, but I don't know that you would call it cutting. I mean, again, now we're splitting, we're parsing words and we're getting real technical. And again, I think we're past the point of how we ought to be thinking about and applying the text to ourselves anyway, because again, we're New Testament, new covenant people. These specific practices are no longer binding for us anyway, same way we eat kosher or non-kosher foods today.
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I would say even if tattoos were ... And there's other texts that we'll get to in Deuteronomy that, or maybe it was back in Leviticus, I forget, where it's a little bit more pointed even at not making markings on your body that people will say, "Oh, there you go. You're not supposed to have tattoos, like real legalistic Christians even." But I think, again, we're new covenant people. So if you eat non-kosher food, then you can't sit around and talk about tattoos in the same way.
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But the principle, the principle of Christians warning differently, that is something. There is something to that. And so maybe it would depend on the tattoo. If it was like a tattoo that sort of conveyed this sense of, which I don't know that is common or that I've ever seen, this sense of like, my heart will always be broken and keeping you in the state of perpetual kind of grief or whatever that kind of in the same way that the pagans back then ... Again, it was kind of a stuckness in the grief as opposed to having a hope and a trust and an assurance in the life to come because we know the Lord, that would be problematic. But I think even the kind of classic tattoo or whatever of RIP, rest in peace and that idea of, okay, there is peace in the afterlife and I can rest knowing that you're in peace because you're in heaven with the Lord.
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Again, that's assuming that's even true, which most people want to believe about their deceased loved ones, but most of the time it's not true. So I mean, there's a lot there that would have to be more unpacked, but I don't think you can say just on the surface face of it, that no tattoos because Deuteronomy 14: one or something like that.
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Next one, you wrote, "In the sermon yesterday, you compared the early church to communism. However, communism is government ordered distribution of money and property, and no government was ordering the early church to sell all of their possessions and share among the early church members." Wouldn't the proper parallel be a commune rather than communism or were you trying to say commune-ism rather than communism?
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Very good, interesting question. I appreciate it. I did wonder if somebody would kind of latch onto this one. So communism, according to Wikipedia, is a political and economic ideology whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and an exchange that allocates products in society based on need. Communist society entails the absence of private property and social classes and ultimately money in the state. So I think you could argue based on that definition of communism that the early church was communist, I do with one really big and maybe preventative or prevents it from being able to be considered common, is the word centered. The only word there that gives me pause is centered because it says socioeconomic order centered on common ownership. I would say that the church was obviously centered on Christ.
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That's the center, but because of their centering on Christ, all the rest of this, I mean, it's right there in Acts two, common ownership. Now, I don't know about means of production, that would be another ... I don't know enough about economic theory to maybe be able to weigh in on some of this. But yeah, I mean, allocating in society based on need, absence of private property or social glasses, all those things are there. Now, the other words that probably Brad ... I mean, Brad's talking about government, I read the words from Wikipedia, political and economic.
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I think you could argue, even you want to use the word government, fine. We have a church government, we have elders, we have deacons, we have a congregational governance model at West Hills, we have a congregation, we have membership. So we've got a government. It's not obviously a state government or a national government or whatever. It's a church government. We have a church, we call it polity, church polity. And so you want to talk about political ideology, it's political. It's the way you make decisions and govern. And economic, I mean, that's what it was. It's just determining what they were doing with their money. That's what they were doing. So I think because of the state run, state driven communism that we often go to immediately Actually in our thinking when we hear this word and yeah, I say it a little bit for shock value, but if you just want to look at the literal definition of what communism is as an ideology, I mean, that's what they were doing.
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That's what the early church was doing.
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So yeah, again, some of that, I might be put in my place by someone who's more of an economist who's like, "Well, no." When you talk about means of production and maybe technically it wasn't communist, but certainly commune dashism, like he says. I like that. I like his ... Brad's pointing that out. It was certainly that. It was a commune. Yeah, it's very reasonable to see why all the other pagans and Romans and everyone around thought this is a cult. I mean, we would call it a cult. If the early church, if we had nothing like it and then all of a sudden it cropped up today, it would be for sure considered a cult. And people would be like, "What in the world is going on with these people? They live pretty much together. They're selling everything and to give it to each other." It just didn't happen.
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And I mean, that's why the church grew faster than ever in history in those early first couple centuries is because it was such a countercultural witness of what it looks like to be that radically Christ centered and other focused and caring for one another. So yeah, thanks Brad. We got a couple more.
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Yep. Three more. If my giving, time, treasured and talents reflected a joyful response to Jesus rescuing me from judgment, what would look different on my calendar, my budget, and my priorities?
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Impossible to say without having, like I said to the very first question we got from the anonymous person, just without having that personal conversation with you, like, "What does your calendar look like now? What does your budget look like now? What do your priorities look like now?" Without knowing sort of the baseline, it's impossible to say how it would obviously look different other than to say if any of us truly fully grasped and meditated on and internalized and could absorb and live out of a place of response to what has been done for us in and by and through in Jesus Christ, his life, death, resurrection for us.
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Yeah. I mean, to the extent that any of us truly begin to reflect on and appreciate what Christ has done for us, it cannot help, but I think it's fair to say overused word, but radically revolutionize our lives, our priorities, our budgets, our calendars. And I guess the best way to just kind of summarize it maybe is just to say you know it when you see it. We can probably all hopefully think of a couple of those people, maybe one person who just stands out to you. It's like that person is completely sold out for Jesus because of everyone I know in my life, that person seems to really grasp, not in a performance kind of mindset of like, again, they do more for Jesus than anyone, but more so they understand more than anyone I seem to know that what he's done for them.
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I think it's going to translate into love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faith, want to self-control in your life. I think it's going to translate, yes, into sacrificial giving for others and for the Lord and the church. And yeah, and a lot of times it's going to look like, yeah, the people that do end up that give the most back. But again, we all know Pharisees too. We all know people that like the ones in Matthew 23 that Jesus was talking to and he said, "Wodie, I mean, yeah, you tithe. You tithe your mint and human and dill and you legalistically serve in the kids' ministry every other Sunday and you legalistically give 10% to the church and you're here every Sunday and you know, whatever, but where's your heart?" And their hearts are not living in joyful response to what Christ has done for them seemingly.
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So we know those people too, hopefully it's ... Yeah. But anyway, it's the kind of question we all ought to be asking ourselves regularly, God, how should my life, my budget, my priorities look different than they do right now because how could I be living more intentionally and more reflectively and responsively for you because of what you've done for me.
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You discussed being set apart from the world, but what does that practically look like in terms of habits, language, and actions? If we were truly "set apart" for him, shouldn't the world around us notice that?
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I think once again, it's going to be somewhat ... I really struggle. I thought about giving some more tangible examples. I thought about in preparing yesterday's sermon, going through Googling for top 10 shows on streaming devices like Netflix, Hulu, whatever, right now, and then just going through do Christians watch this show? Should they? I mean, again, you could probably within any show or movie or artist that gets listened to or ... Part of it is it's so hard because it changes so constantly now because of the just glut of content out there, nobody stays popular for more than five minutes to even try and begin to address content on something like social media and where do you ... There are literally thousands of content creators that are popular enough that have hundreds of thousands, millions of followers that it's like to ... I mean, I guess you could go through who's the most popular podcaster right now, or maybe, I don't know, Instagram content creator or whatever, who gets the most views.
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I'm sure you could do that. But yeah, I thought about trying to be real specific and being like, "Hey, here's a very practical example. Christians don't watch Game of Thrones," or just throwing out some examples of things like that. I didn't for a number of reasons, one of which being, I do think you have to be really careful about being someone else's conscience and drawing firm lines where God hasn't, especially from the pulpit, giving a thus say at the Lord, like, "Don't listen to this artist. Don't watch this show. Don't whatever." Because I think you just preach the call to holiness and you let ... And the call to, again, literally holiness to be set apart, to be distinctive, to be different. And then you let God work on people's hearts and their own Netflix skews, and you trust the Holy Spirit in them to convict when they're in the middle of episode three of season one, and it's like, "I don't know.
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Should we be watching this babe?" Maybe one more episode. You get halfway through episode four, you're like, "This just feels like garbage in, garbage out. "That's what pastor said on Sunday. Okay, we should probably ... As well made as it is, as compelling as the drama is, as well acted, all of it, it's like, is it worth it? Is this something or is it something that's like Romans 12 talks about, "Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." So is this something that's conforming me to more of ... Make no mistake. The world wants to conform ... We talk about catechism as in the church, we're trying to ... The world says brainwash. It's not totally out. I mean, I don't hate the terminology, right? Jesus washes us of our sins. Yeah, we kind of want to brainwash the world sin junk out of Christian's minds and hearts and heartwash, brainwash.
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Yeah, that sounds like kind of what Christianity is after, like what Jesus is doing for us. Praise God. But the world's doing it too. The world's brain rotting you. That's a popular term now. Sin is like a rod, a cancer, a virus that wants to spread, and the world wants to do that. Satan wants to do that. And so anyway, yeah, I'll stop there. It's another good question to be asking ourselves. Thanks, Brad.
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And last one from him. What is one sacrificial and concrete act of mercy I can take this week that mirrors God's open-handed grace to me and what might it cost me to love that way?
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Another great question that we should ask ourselves that I cannot answer for you. I think you take life as it comes at you. I mean, I think of, again, people that I know that do this so well, and my wife, and I look at her and Andrea Castle and Mary Pyles and Shayna Lowe and others and just what they've done for this young Muslim woman who our church has gotten connected with and through Oasis refugee ministry. And I can't even begin to tell you the countless hours. My wife has spent days and days, probably weeks at this point, of cumulative hundreds of hours ministering to this young 21 year old Syrian refugee who can't speak basically ... Now she can speak a few words of English, but physically, sexually abused by her own husband, now has a less than one year old baby she's trying to feed and take care for.
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He doesn't want to pair child support. She doesn't want to divorce him. Anyway, I don't need to go on and on, but I mean, this is someone who ... I mean, my wife wasn't seeking out her or this relationship or this ministry opportunity, but she's just loving and caring and compassionate and faithful and won't give up on people. And once God puts a need in front of her like that, she's going to step up and meet it. And again, not everybody's going to be called to that kind of a huge, huge investment of time and burden, frankly, of care and sacrificial concern for someone else, one specific person. But again, for a lot of us, it starts in the home, certainly, and it's your spouse, it's your kids.
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But yeah, I think it really ought to be extending beyond that for us because there's a lot ... The world's too broken, there's too many needs out there. We are the answer that Jesus is ordained. We are the light and the salt and you can't put it under a bushel basket. Like Jesus said, the light needs to get out there in the world and pierce through the darkness. So you really don't have to look, I don't think, too hard. I mean, even in West County, like with all the affluence and everything else that we've got here, I mean, look at my neighbors and they're kids and I mean, yeah, to me, the need is usually the brokenness is ... Yeah, it's pretty obvious. Spiritual brokenness is pretty obvious and the need for ... Yeah, someone needs to show this kid Jesus. And anyway, so I pray that for our church, that we'd be light and salt and thanks for all the questions and hope we get even more next time.
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And I'll be shorter with the questions once we get more and more. So thanks y'all.
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And we hope that this has been beneficial and edifying for you as you seek to be changed and to love God more as you apply God's word after the sermon. So go continue to apply the sermon and make disciples and Lord willing, we'll catch you right back here next week.