My father is a repetitive man. He owns the dad jokes. He loves to tell the same jokes over and over, and his enthusiasm does not wane with each repetition. He laughs at each joke as if it's the first time it has ever been told. He has other repetitive statements that we love to poke fun at him for. “Son, be careful on this road, it is a speed trap.” This particular statement is made even more humorous by the fact that he is the only one who has ever received a ticket on the road in question. Another famous line of my father that always struck the core of my heart and annoyed me as a teenager was, “Son, do you think this glorifies God?” It was an interesting parenting technique. If I wanted to go see an R-rated movie or engage in an activity that was questionable, he always laid the onus on me to decide if those actions would glorify God. Inevitably, I would have to decide if my actions were consistent with my faith. Other repetitive actions of my father were found in his practice of family Bible studies. Dad was faithful to share the Word of God with us. I remember him sitting beside my brother and me just before bedtime, with his arms around us, rocking us back and forth and telling the story of Jesus with his disciples in the storm. If there was anything he found more joy in than his own jokes, it was talking about Jesus. He still spends his life telling others about the faithfulness of God. Last week, we talked about remembering God’s faithfulness by writing it down. We read what has been written in the Bible, and we can make our own log of God’s faithfulness to us so that we can return to it often. Another way to remember God’s faithfulness is to tell others.
 
Deuteronomy calls us to speak of God's faithfulness. Actually, it does more than call us, it commands us to tell others. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord 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. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7). The command God gives to us is to make our consideration of and conversation about his faithfulness a daily enterprise. It is to invade our entire day. It should be the conversation we have with our children and family members in our homes. When we travel, our thoughts can be taken up in the telling of his faithfulness. Of course, we don’t usually walk to our destinations now, but as we “go along the way,” we can speak of his faithfulness in the car. We should rise with the praise of him on our lips and end the day with the praise of his sustaining presence. It is in telling others of his faithfulness, that we search our minds and hearts to consider what providences he has shown throughout the day. 
 
Practically, it isn’t that difficult. In the morning, it could be as simple as saying to those around us, “Look at the sunrise God is displaying to us this morning.” Or maybe at the end of the day, we recount one way in which God was faithful to us. Each moment we tell others of his faithfulness, we are sealing in our hearts that God is always with us. This type of conversation is best fueled by being diligent in the habit of searching his Word. It is most enjoyed on Sunday when we corporately read his Word together, speak his Word back to him in prayer and song, and when the pastor “tells others” what God has said and commanded in his Word. Let the Word burn so richly in your heart that you must tell others. There is no better way to remember God’s faithfulness. This is righteous boasting! 

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Nathan