2019-09-01 Deut 30:16-20
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16 For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow in worship to other gods and serve them,
18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not prolong your days in the land you are entering to possess across the Jordan.
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
20 love the Lord your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him. For he is your life, and he will prolong your days as you live in the land the Lord swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
I. You have a choice.
I. You have a choice.
16 For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow in worship to other gods and serve them,
18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not prolong your days in the land you are entering to possess across the Jordan.
A. God has called you to love him with all that you are.
A. God has called you to love him with all that you are.
16 For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
Illus: When we hear the word love we think emotion. When God hears the word love he defines much more than that.
Love is far more than feeling good about God. Love is far more than emoting positivity towards God.
When you make love more emotion than lifestyle, you can rationalize that you love God while living for the devil.
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When the bible talks about love it is a loving God with you heart, soul, mind, and strength.
You should love God emotionally. You should love God intellectually. You should love God in obedience.
To love God is to worship and serve him with every part of who you are.
3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands.
4 The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him:
6 The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.
B. Your heart is broken and at war with God.
B. Your heart is broken and at war with God.
17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow in worship to other gods and serve them,
18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not prolong your days in the land you are entering to possess across the Jordan.
Illus: The ideal of loving God sounds good, but actually acomplishing it is impossible.
You cannot love God with all you heart mind soul and strength. It is impossible. Why?
Because of sin we all have broken, self seeking hearts which war against loving God.
Our sinful desires are constantly pulling us away from the life and love of God.
The problem of following God is not that we do not have good intentions, nor that we don’t try hard with good works.
The problem we have of loving God with all that we are is that we are constantly pulled backwards by a sinful heart at war with God.
You can never give God all of you while part of you is controlled by sin.
17 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their thoughts.
18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts.
19 They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.
II. There are consequences for your choice.
II. There are consequences for your choice.
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
A. Life and blessing are found in following God.
A. Life and blessing are found in following God.
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
Illus: This past week there has been a raging debate in our culture. Popeyes vs. Chick Fil A.
On one side you have the death and curse of popeyes will long lines, artery clogging chicken, and a parking lot which is a death trap.
On the other side you have chick-fil-a with incredible service, calorie free chicken, and a drive through system which can only be heaven sent.
Fried chicken aside the choice given to us in scripture doesn’t seem to be much of a choice. love God: get lie and blessing, Love sin: get death and curse.
Is there really a choice there? But if the choice is so simple, why on earth do we find ourselves in the pig sty of sin over and over again.
The reason is that sin is more than a choice. When sin holds on to your heart you become it’s slave doing it’s will and reaping it’s rewards.
But, when God owns your heart, and the spirit transforms your heart, you can reap the life and blessing found in God alone.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
2 in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,
5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?
B. Death and curse are found in your depraved heart.
B. Death and curse are found in your depraved heart.
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
Illus: What sins holds your heart today? Honestly, what sin in your life have you chosen over and over again.
Perhaps you are feeling the effects of your sin. There are natural and real consequences for the decisions you make. How many times do we try to blame our own sinfulness on the devil.
Death and curse follow broken sinful decisions. Sometimes your life is a train wreck because you brought your sin onto the train.
What God does when you embrace sin in our life is allow you to follow sin all you want. He hands you over to what you love the most.
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,
19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
III. There is provision for your choice.
III. There is provision for your choice.
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
20 love the Lord your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him. For he is your life, and he will prolong your days as you live in the land the Lord swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
A. God has made a way to transform your heart, for He is your life.
A. God has made a way to transform your heart, for He is your life.
Illus: THis sermon has been quite simple… life of death, blessing or curse.
Without Jesus Christ there is no way you can love God with all that you are. You need transformation.
Jesus Christ is the transformer. He fulfilled all righteousness and is ready to give it to you freely. He put to death the curse so that you do not have to bear it.
So the choice today is simpler than you might realize. Do you choose a life of faith in Christ who is your righteousness and will transform you, or do you choose death.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
2 in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,
5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!