2019-08-11 Deuteronomy 15

Deuteronomy 15:1–6 CSB

1 “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 2 This is how to cancel debt: Every creditor is to cancel what he has lent his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the Lord’s release of debts has been proclaimed. 3 You may collect something from a foreigner, but you must forgive whatever your brother owes you. 4 “There will be no poor among you, however, because the Lord is certain to bless you in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance— 5 if only you obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow every one of these commands I am giving you today. 6 When the Lord your God blesses you as he has promised you, you will lend to many nations but not borrow; you will rule many nations, but they will not rule you.

I. God’s desire is that we are a forgiven and forgiving people.

Deuteronomy 15:1–3 CSB

1 “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 2 This is how to cancel debt: Every creditor is to cancel what he has lent his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the Lord’s release of debts has been proclaimed. 3 You may collect something from a foreigner, but you must forgive whatever your brother owes you.

A. God’s forgiveness of us drives our forgiveness of others.

Deuteronomy 15:1–2 CSB

1 “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 2 This is how to cancel debt: Every creditor is to cancel what he has lent his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the Lord’s release of debts has been proclaimed.

Illus: As we read through this passage, you might be thinking… I like this passage of scripture, let me run up my credit card for the next seven years, and then get my dept canceled. Not only that lets put medical debt underneath it, college loans under it, let’s even put mortgages underneath it!

Before we go to far, we need to understand the a few implications for just Israel in this passage.

1. As God separated the promised land, he split the sections of the land for each tribe. God’s intent was that those would perpetually belong to each group, and not that they could be lost to dept.

2. God hates dept. Part of the identity of the people of Israel is that they were people freed from slavery. God instituted a system where no person would ever be heald under the slavery they were freed from.

3. God wrote the story of redemption and forgiveness into the laws of the nation. He prophesied what he would do through the way he set up the nation.

For us, there are a few timeless principles we can pull out easily.

1. God does not want you to be in dept. Avoid it at all costs.

2. More importantly, There is a greater dept in our lives. Dept to God from our sin. We are all enslaved, in dept to to God through the woeful actions of our lives.

3. Just as God freed the people from slavery to Egypt and that was the reasoning why he expected them to free each other from debt, so God has freed us from our debt in sin when he payed for it on the cross and expects us to use that freedom to forgive others through.

Ephesians 4:32 CSB

32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.

B. The way we treat our brother shows the world what God has done in in our lives.

Deuteronomy 15:1–2 CSB

1 “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 2 This is how to cancel debt: Every creditor is to cancel what he has lent his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the Lord’s release of debts has been proclaimed.

Illus: As chrsitians we love the forgiveness we find in Jesus Christ.

We love to sing “My sin oh the dept of this glorious thought, my sin not inpart but the whole, was nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, praise the Lord it is well with my soul.

But, just as we no longer live in dept because every bit of our freedom was bought in Christ, So also that should make a difference in our lives. It should change the way we interact with the world.

We should be quick to forgive. Let’s be clear. There are a whole lot of people who do not deserve to be forgiven.

Can you imagine the credit holder in our passage reasoning with God, “But God, do you know how much they owe, do you know how foolish they are with money?”

Just like we do with people in dept to us, “But God, you don’t know what they did to me, you don’t know how they hurt me”

look to what scripture says.

Matthew 18:21–35 CSB

21 Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?” 22 “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven. 23 “For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle accounts, one who owed ten thousand talents was brought before him. 25 Since he did not have the money to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt. 26 “At this, the servant fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 Then the master of that servant had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan. 28 “That servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe!’ 29 “At this, his fellow servant fell down and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ 30 But he wasn’t willing. Instead, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. 31 When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened. 32 Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart.”

II. God desires that we be a generous people.

Deuteronomy 15:4–5 CSB

4 “There will be no poor among you, however, because the Lord is certain to bless you in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance— 5 if only you obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow every one of these commands I am giving you today.

A. As God is generous towards us, we should be generous towards others.

Deuteronomy 15:4–5 CSB

4 “There will be no poor among you, however, because the Lord is certain to bless you in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance— 5 if only you obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow every one of these commands I am giving you today.

Illus: There is nothing that makes us more tight fisted in generosity than when we see people use what we give foolishly.

I’ve thought it many times when I drive through the Walmart parking lot, or seen a panhandler on the street.... They’ll just use my money for beer or drugs.

I’m not saying be dumb with your money, but there needs to be a question if you are generous with your money. Do you live with open hands?

Most of our lives we look at our excess finances as a way to treat ourselves.

The bible teaches that we are stewards of our finances to use as God leads.

How do we live openhanded? 1. We see our fellow man in need and use our finances to support him. 2. We see God’s mission, the gospel, as so important that we we invest our our resources into kingdom work.

Money is not an indulgence to spend, but a resource to use for God’s great purposes.

1 Timothy 6:17–19 CSB

17 Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. 18 Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share, 19 storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of what is truly life.

B. Do we live openhanded or tightfisted towards the world around us?

Deuteronomy 15:4–5 CSB

4 “There will be no poor among you, however, because the Lord is certain to bless you in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance— 5 if only you obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow every one of these commands I am giving you today.

Illus: Toward money do you live openhanded or tight fisted… BTW Stewardship teaches that everything belongs to God right?

Towards love and forgiveness, do you live openhanded or tight fisted… BTW we love because he first loved us, and forgive because we are forgiven.

The core of our understanding of living open handedly and open heartedly is that we give of ourselves not because God has given to us not because of the response we give him.

Jesus died on the cross knowing billions of people would reject his grace… yet he died for them anyways. That compels our forgiveness, love and lives.

Deuteronomy 15:7–11 CSB

7 “If there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers within any of your city gates in the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. 8 Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him enough for whatever need he has. 9 Be careful that there isn’t this wicked thought in your heart, ‘The seventh year, the year of canceling debts, is near,’ and you are stingy toward your poor brother and give him nothing. He will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty. 10 Give to him, and don’t have a stingy heart when you give, and because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you do. 11 For there will never cease to be poor people in the land; that is why I am commanding you, ‘Open your hand willingly to your poor and needy brother in your land.’

III. Does the way you handle money magnify or detract people from following Jesus?

A. Can we take a moment and dwell on the generosity of God.

Illus: It is odd that on a sermon where I discuss dept and generosity that we will take the Lord’s supper.

But the message of dept and forgiveness is our story. It the story of how jesus took the dept of our sin and forgave us completely.

I want to challenge you as we come into a time of decision and Lord’s supper, If Christ has forgiven you, who do you need to forgive?

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 CSB

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.