Sermon for Feb. 16, 2020

This morning I'll be reading Deuteronomy chapter 30 verses 15 through 20.

And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

In these verses Moses is speaking to the people before he leaves them and before they enter the promised land. Hopefully we can study these verses and learn from them how to apply these verses to our life today.

15 See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity. 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 down to other gods and worship them, 18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not live long 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 life in the land the LORD swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, as we begin this morning, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.

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We celebrated valentines day this past Friday and we had our valentine's day supper Thursday night.

If we don't have it,,, then we are searching for it.

We may not realize it until after we become Christians,,, but God should be the first thing that we "see" when we think of love.

It's the most important piece,,, I might add,,, that we need to truly enjoy love and life,,, at it's greatest!alentine's day supper Thursday night.

Valentines Day is always associated with love,,, something that we all truly need and want.

If we don't have it,,, then we are searching for it.

We may not realize it until after we become Christians,,, but God should be the first thing that we "see" when we think of love.

It's the most important piece,,, I might add,,, that we need to truly enjoy love and life,,, at it's greatest!

In these scriptures,,, Moses is talking to the people before they enter into the promised land,,, and he is trying to make them aware of choices that they need to make that will determine their true happiness.

He is trying to tell them that it's God's love for them,,, and their love for God in return,,, that will fulfill every need that they will ever have in life.

(2:53)

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Beginning in verse 15 it says: 15 See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity.

Moses is telling them that they have choices to make.

And the choices that they make will have a direct impact on their life and happiness.

Their choices will also decide where they spend eternity.

Moses wants them to understand that their future depends on the choices that they make and he is trying to warn them so that they can choose wisely.

In this verse there are distinct differences between the choices.

You can either choose life and prosperity,,, or death and adversity.

Moses is trying to warn them that once they enter the promised land,,, they will enjoy the good times that are coming,,, and when that happens,,, they will be tempted to ignore God.

We are always running the same risk today.

So many times today,,, if everything is going good,,, no problems or sickness or any other problem,,, we let our thanks to God be silent.

It's during these times of plenty,,, that satan will take that opportunity to ease his way into our life and help us to miss a little bit of Bible reading here,,, a little bit of prayer time there,,, maybe miss this Sunday,,, what can it hurt,,, until we are comfortable doing away with most of it altogether!

In these verses,,, Moses is trying to compare the choices that they can make,,, and the consequences of good choices verses the bad choices,,, and hopefully it will help them to make right choice.

As I look back over my life,,, I can see now where I made mistakes by choosing my way instead of God's way.

There is always a choice to make,,, God's way,,, or our way .

The "right way" or the "wrong way".

The Israelites had to make that choice,,, I had to make that choice,,, and you have to make that choice.

It's our choice,,, each one of us can choose either path.

Moses tries to warn the Israelites to make the correct choice,,, and by our reading and studying God's word,,, he tries to help us make the correct choice today.

(5:34)

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Verse 16 says: 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.

Moses begins this statement with the command "love the LORD your God",,, because that is the key to our happiness here on earth.

We will never be truly happy until we do give our full commitment to God.

And once we do that,,, we realize the ways that God has loved us "while we were still sinners",,, then we can truly see why we must obey the greatest commandment found in ,,, where it says:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Once we have made that commitment to God,,, then everything else becomes easier to accomplish.

Through the help of the Holy Spirit,,, every command that God gives us becomes possible.

We can't do these things on our own.

But if we get this part right,,, then everything else will fall into place.

The Holy Spirit will help and guide us to "walk in His ways",,, and "to keep His commands, statutes and ordinances".

These things will be easier to accomplish this way.

This will allow us to "live and multiply" and for God to "bless us" in the things that He has planned for us to do,,, in the land that He has chosen for us!

I want to make sure that you notice that I said that God will "bless us" in the things that He has planned for us to do,,, not everything that we do!

So many times we rush our decisions and don't get the answer from God like we should,,, then we find ourselves where we shouldn't have gone.

That choice might turn out ok and it might not.

So many times in the past,,, I've made choices to go a different direction than God wanted me to,,, even though I knew that God was calling me to preach.

Some of those choices worked out ok and others did not.

But even when they worked out ok,,, I can see how much easier it would have been if I would have had God's help.

And,,, God's way is always right and there will never be any regrets.

(8:02)

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Verses 17 and 18 says: 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not live long in the land you are entering to possess across the Jordan.

Again Moses is warning the Israelites that their choices have grave consequences if they make the wrong ones.

As we look back and read about all the mistakes that the Israelites made,,, it seems hard for us to understand how they could desert a God that has improved their life so much.

You would think that they would remember the times when they had nothing and God took care of their them.

Yet,,, how many times has God took care of problems that we have had,,, and we go right back to ignoring God just like before?

It's when things that at first don't seem that bad,,, that are allowed to slowly creep into our life,,, that they all add up and eventually,,, we are ignoring God completely just as the Israelites did.

The times when we allow our wants to get in the way of time that should be spent in fellowship with God,,, they can become our idols of today.

The idols that can replace God.

It can be work,,, sports,,, relaxation,,, money,,, these can become our idols if they become so important that we ignore God.

Bible reading,,, church,,, Sunday school,,, all of the things that help us to learn and grow as Christians,,, should come before anything else,,, otherwise,,, the things that we put before them,,, stand the chance of becoming an idol for us today.

Just like Moses was trying to warn the Israelites,,, through the words in this scripture,,, he is trying to warn us today.

(9:47)

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Verse 19 says: 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,

In my Study Bible Notes,,, it says that Moses tells the people that he is calling heaven and earth as witnesses against them,,, and how as a courtroom example,,, God summoned witnesses that must be enduring and objective,,, since people can change their minds so much.

Heaven and earth are used this way several times in the Bible,,, some examples are,,, ;, 31:28;, 32:1;,,, ,,, and .

Again Moses is warning them to choose life so that they may live.

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Verse 20 says: 20 love the LORD your God, obey Him, and remain faithful to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land the LORD swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

The Israelites future is tied to the ability that they have in obeying this command from Moses.

The key is to "love the Lord your God" first,,, then everything else will be easier to do.

If the Israelites will obey God and remain faithful to Him,,, then God will prolong their life in the land that He gave them.

As we study the Bible,,, we can see where God is always faithful to His word,,, even during times when the Israelites weren't obedient.

And if we continue studying and reading further about them after they enter the promised land,,, we can see the Israelites disobedience and the punishment that they have brought on themselves.

That's why Moses was warning them,,, he knew that this would happen since they had acted this way over and over again.

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That’s why we read and study the Bible.

All of the good things that people have done are there,,, along with the bad things that they have done.

It's there so that we can learn from their example,,, the good and the bad!

(11:59)

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We have spent at least part of this week thinking about love.

It might have only been Friday during valentines day but I'm sure that it was probably more than that,,, if we are honest.

We don't have to tell anyone how much time we spent thinking about it,,, because the ones that we have shown that love to,,, know by our actions.

I wonder how much time was spent this week thinking about the love God so desperately deserves for all that He has done for us!

Again,,, we don't have to tell anyone how much time was spent thinking about it,,, because He will know by our actions!

That's why Moses was so intent on warning the Israelites about this.

This cannot be hidden from Him.

He knows exactly how we act,,, even before we realize it a lot of times.

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This is where God's love differs a lot of times from your love or mine.

When we think of those that we love,,, usually they have been good to us in one way or another.

But God loves us even while we don't deserve His love.

says: 8 But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!

God loves each one of us,,, just as we are,,, but He wants something better for us.

That’s why that He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.

We couldn't bridge the gap that sin had destroyed.

God had to fix it.

Since He gave us that wonderful gift we shouldn't have any problems giving Him our love and devotion.

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That's what Moses is trying to tell us in these scriptures.

And if we focus on God's love for us,,, and our love for God in return,,, then we can accomplish so much more than we can on our own.

We discover that it's through His love that we can have true joy and contentment,,, no matter what we are facing.

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So this week as we leave from here,,, I want us to remember these scriptures and the things that Moses tries to warn the Israelites about.

Be sure that we do our best not to make the same mistakes.

But,,, also remembering that if we do,,, God still loves us,,, but we must turn back from our sinful ways and try again.

Because it's only through God's love for us that we can experience true love!

(14:18)

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So as we sing our final hymn,,, let me remind you that the alter is always open,,,

If you feel God speaking to you,,, don't hesitate to come,,, maybe you just have questions,,, God will answer,,, you just have to ask Him,,, whatever the need may be,,,

As we sing the final hymn,,, come if needed!

Oakdale - Hymn Page - 462

Seminary - Hymn Page - 557

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