What does God want from me?
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31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
Most of us at some point begin asking ourselves...”Why am I here?” And again we repeat this idea that we are to bring glory to God in all that we do. But what does that look like? How can I bring glory to God? What does God actually want from you and me?
WHY AM I HERE?
I’m glad you asked…because God has told us in His Word. God’s word is so full of wisdom for every situation. And in a way, every time we ask, How can I bring glory to God, we find our answer to it in His word.
And again....it’s not just the good things that we do. Even the bad things can bring glory to God…when followed up with repentance. Look at
3 And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
:3-7
God is glorified in sinners who repent and turn to Him.
Now again, if you are not a believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and are still in your sin, the first thing that God requires of you is to repent and turn from your sin. Your sin separates you from God.
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Romans 10:9
So if that’s you, that’s where you need to start.
However if you have done that, you might be asking, “Ok, now what?”
For that we turn to Deut. 10:12-13
12 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
13 To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
Now Moses was a great man of God and had led the People of Israel for 40 years. That’s a good long pastorate if you ask me! But His time had come to and end. And leadership would be passed on to the next generation. Now Moses, by way of reminder gives some final instructions before he dies. Deuteronomy is in a sense Moses’ instructions to the next generation. Which is very appropriate here, because you are the next generation tasked with leading the church. So what does this teach us about what the Lord requires of us.
teaches us that the Lord requires us 5 things. Now these are not exhaustive but everything the Lord requires can be traced back to these 5.
Fear God
Walk in His ways.
Love Him
Serve the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul.
Keep the commandments and statutes.
Fear God.
This is one that people in america have a hard time with. If God loves me and wants what’s best for me then why do I need to be afraid of Him? Well this isn’t fear like when we see a scary dog or a snake. This is is fear that keeps us from straying off track. For example, growing up I feared the discipline of my father. I knew that He loved me as His son, but at the same time, he was willing to bring discipline (sometimes harsh) when I rebelled or disobeyed. So fear of my dad’s discipline kept me from straying. Fear of God is like this. It keeps us on track. When we recognize that God has promised to discipline us when we stray, it reminds us to keep moving away.
Walk in His ways.
The New American Commentary: Deuteronomy (4) Love of the Lord and Love of Humankind (10:12–22)
Proper fear leads to a godly walk or lifestyle. The language of travel or pilgrimage is a favorite biblical metaphor to express adherence to principles and pathways of obedience
Proper fear leads to a change in lifestyle. The idea of walking brings to mind a movement from one place to another. Jesus invites us to come as we are, but he doesn’t allow us to stay that way. Walking implies a change. Our lives should be changed by the power of Jesus.
Take basketball for example. The game is fun but it has basic skills that are required to play it well. Skills like dribbling, proper form in shooting. Layups, passing. If you want to play well, you have to practice. In a sense you need to walk in the ways of the one who invented basketball. Never underestimate the importance of the fundamentals. Work on free throws before you you start shooting 3s. The same is true of the Christian life. We won’t do the hard things like enduring persecution and being rejected by men until we do the fundamentals like reading our Bible and praying daily. Serving in the church and in the community.
Love Him
Love is a word that has been thrown around way to much these days. We might say we love our families. We love our pastors. But we also say that we love pancit or lumpia or we might say that we love basketball. Do we love these things in the same way that we love people? Do we love these things in the same way that we love God? We need to reclaim the word love and reserve it for those things that worthy of genuine love. God is worthy of our genuine love.
Serve the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul.
I love what Pastor Ron said on Monday night. He challenged us to serve God. It’s one thing to be saved, but are you serving God in the church? We are expected to serve, but what kind of service does God want from us? Does he want us moping around saying, “well I guess I have to serve” or putting in the minimal effort that takes to do the job. Now remember that 1 cor 10:31 reminds us that we should do all things for the glory of God which means that serving God is not just for the church. We serve God and bring glory to him when we do our jobs for His glory, when we study in school for His glory, we we serve our families for His glory.
God doesn’t want our half-hearted devotion. God doesn’t want the serve you offer because you are obligated to serve.
God wants the kind of service and worship that comes from a heart full of love for Him and soul that has been redeemed to serve Him.
It’s not just about serving the lord, but about the attitude you have when you are serving.
Keep the commandments and statutes.
The commandments and statutes of God are contained in the 10 commandments and the rest of the book of Leviticus. There are 631 statues that go along with the 10 commandments. There are a lot of thing God wants us to follow. It got complicated for the Jewish people to truly understand what God was asking of them. But all of the commandments can be summarized in 2 ways:
How we relate to God
How we relate to people
28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?
29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:
33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.
You see all of the other laws are summarized in these 2. But at the same time we see that all of the other things that God has asked of us:
Giving.
soul winning
reading His word.
going to church
These mean nothing if we don’t love God and the people in our ways.
Now I love that we are reminded that the the commandments and statutes are for our good.
When I was growing I thought that the Bible was a list of rules that were meant to keep me from having any fun. Don’t do this....don’t do that…don’t look at that…don’t eat that. I wanted to be free to do whatever I wanted. But the things that I wanted only served to take me further from God.
And again the laws of God are for our good and they keep us focused on God. When we are focused on God, we stay out of trouble. But there is more.
We will have joy. The Christian life is not meant to be one of joyless obedience. Being a Christian and serving God has brought me more joy and happiness than I ever had before I was serving Him. I’ve laughed more, played more, and enjoyed life more by following Jesus.
So do you want pure joy in your life even in the midst of trials and tribulation?
Serve Him with your whole heart, full of devotion.
Fear God
Walk in His ways.
Love Him
Serve the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul.
Keep the commandments and statutes.
And remember that it’s for your good.