God's Prescription for Survival
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God's Prescription for Survival
God's Prescription for Survival
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,
Look at what had been tried ...
Is this not where we are today!
We have tried self reliance w/o God
We have worshiped the work of our hands w/o giving credit to God
We have not just ignored sin but glorifies it and in some circles in Christianity are reevaluating if it even sin at all
homosexuality
transgender
abortion
sec outside of marriage
etc....
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Now what prescription does God Give us to survive ?
Lets look not fi=uther than Deut Chapter 10:12
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,
Review :
Chapter 8 self dependence did will not work!
It was God that fed you in the wilderness
It was God that kept your clothes and shoes from wearing out
It was God that will bring you into a good land
remember
10 When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.
12 Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; 13 And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;
17 And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
18 But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Self dependence led to pride and was a disaster
In the writings of Isaiah, arrogant pride and self-sufficiency are particularly related to the denial of the authority and majesty of God in all spheres.
We replace God’s uniqueness with trust in human ingenuity or foreign gods.
Pride crept in and destroyed
Proverbs 16:18-27
God wants you to learn to walk in humility and kindness, not arrogance and pride.
18 Pride goeth before destruction, And an haughty spirit before a fall.
Pride comes before a fall: ‘First pride, then the crash – the bigger the ego, the harder the fall’ (v.18, MSG).
We are reminded that ‘It’s better to live humbly among the poor than to live it up among the rich and famous’ (v.19, MSG).
A lack of power is very frustrating at times when we think we know how best to advance the kingdom of God. However, Jesus had very little power from a human point of view. He was ‘lowly in spirit and among the oppressed’ (v.19).
Spiritual Pride did not work 9:1-10:11
6 Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.
7 Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the Lord.
Just summarize here
Spiritual pride crept in:
We are Gods people
Look at what we have done to the Law
Those people out there are evil and wicked and Look at us
pharisee and publican
Pharisee and the leper
We forgot Love
We forgot that we are to serve
We made idols out of preferences and called them doctrinal truths
We have alienated our mission field not by preaching against sin but but lifting up our spiritual pride.
24 Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.
Chapter 10
So in Chapter 10 God is giving a do over
Strip away the self reliance w/o God
Strip away the spiritual pride
Now I am giving you the stone tablets again
One one option left : a total commitment to the Lord and back to God...
They have a second chance the table of the law that were previous broken after willful disobedience are now given…
1 At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood.
God want to bless you and make you His people
To Survive
I. To Fear the Lord
I. To Fear the Lord
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,
respect/reverence/understanding
A frequent command given to God’s people in the OT is to “fear God” or “fear the Lord.”
By fearing God, we can avoid being trapped by the natural pull toward going our own way, defying God and giving in to the inviting ways of immoral behavior.
This is the surest way to eliminate pride.....
1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: 2 That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
What does it MEAN to FEAR God? The broad command to “fear the Lord” involves understanding several things about a believer’s relationship with God.
ONE: GOD IS LOVING & JUST
First of all, we must recognize that God is loving, merciful and forgiving; but he also is holy, just and righteous.
JUST HE IS RIGHT!
Knowing God and understanding his character (cf. Pr 2:5) means accepting the fact that his justice and holiness (i.e., purity, perfection, completeness of character and separation from evil) cause him to judge sin.
TWO: FEAR OF THE LORD CAN PRODUCE AWE
Fearing the Lord means to be in awe of his holiness, to give him complete reverence and to honor him as the God of great glory, majesty, purity and power.
For example, when God revealed himself to the Israelites at Mount Sinai through “thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast,” they all “trembled” in fear (Ex 19:16) because of his great power.
They even begged Moses to deliver God’s message to them so they would not have to encounter God himself (Ex 20:18-19; Dt 5:22-27).
Also, when the psalm writer reflects on God as Creator, he says: “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Ps 33:8-9).
THREE: FEAR OF THE LORD CAN PRODUCE FAITH
True fear of the Lord causes believers to place their faith and trust in him alone for salvation.
For example, after the Israelites crossed through the Red Sea on dry ground and saw how God destroyed the Egyptian army who came after them, they “feared the Lord and put their trust in him”.
The psalm writer encourages all who fear the Lord to “trust in the Lord–he is their help and shield” (Ps 115:11). In other words, fearing God produces confidence, hope and trust in him, which are necessary when we are looking to God for mercy, forgiveness (Lk 1:50; cf. Ps 103:11; 130:4) and spiritual salvation (Ps 85:9).
FOUR: GOD IS ANGRY ABOUT SIN
Finally, to fear God involves recognizing that he is angry about sin and has the power to punish those who stand arrogantly against him and break his laws (cf. Ps 76:7-8).
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they were afraid and tried to hide from God’s presence (Ge 3:8-10). Moses experienced this aspect of the fear of God when he spent forty days and nights praying for the sinful Israelites: “I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you” (Dt 9:19). In the NT, the author of the letter to the Hebrews acknowledges God’s coming vengeance and judgment, and then writes: “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31).
Fear of the lord eliminates pride and self reliance on our works. It an understanding of who God is
II. To Walk in His Ways
II. To Walk in His Ways
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,
To walk in his ways is to follow His example. This means they ways of God!
What are the ways of God? The ways in which God deals with us are His ways.
These are the ways of God. His ways are higher than our ways (Isa. 55:9).
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.
Love
Forgiveness
charitable
If you follow someone's ways, you behave in the same way as they did in the past, or in a similar way, especially because you admire them.III. To Love the Lord
Way of doing things -
Gods ways are not our ways
So how do we finds Gods ways
The bible
We must to get to know who God is
What are His attributes
How is mankind treated
How is sin viewed
How do we address sin?
I want to walk in the way of my wife.
I must get to-know my wife
I must follow her ‘
I must spend time with her
I need to know her ways
How does she treat people
How does she react to problems
What is her motivation
To walk in the ways of God is to react and be like Him.
III. The Love Lord
III. The Love Lord
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,
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Love God with everything you have .....
A total commitment
Jesus says that we should love God with all our heart, soul and mind, but what does this mean?
An easy way to answer this is to say that Jesus is clearly meaning that we love God with everything that we are. Both the heart and soul especially have to do with the very centre of our lives as human beings - they are where our life springs from, and therefore there should not be an area of our lives that isn’t touched by this command.
We are to commit everything to God, and bring everything under His control, giving ourselves to Him entirely for the rest of our lives.
More specifically, there are a number of areas covered by these three words - they imply that we should love God with all of the following:
our Desires - conforming our desires to those which will please and honour God
our Affections - that we love those things that God love
sour Purposes - that we pursue those things that God would have us pursue
our Will - that we choose that which is good in our lives
our Feelings - that we subject our feelings to the truth of God’s Word
our Character - that we pursue holiness, godliness, and purity
and lastly our Thoughts - that we meditate on the truth of God’s Word, and live everyday in the light of it.
Does this seem like a tall order to you? Absolutely it should - this is the first and great commandment, and is the pinnacle of what it means to be a Christian! All through the Bible we’re shown that God isn’t after half-hearted disciples - people who will honour Him with some of their time, money and affection - God wants fully committed, cross-bearing people who will give absolutely everything for Him, and the truth is, He is worthy of just that. There is not a person in this world who is anywhere near worthy of this kind of commitment, but God is. He’s your Creator, Sustainer, Saviour and King - everything you have comes from Him, and He simply wants you to give back what He has first given to you.
IV. To Serve the Lord
IV. To Serve the Lord
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,
Demonstrate God love by serving others!
Everything we do is in service to something. Much of what we do is in service to ourselves. When we serve ourselves we start with survival followed by any number of things which may include, pleasure, security, ego, greed, control, or simply a need to dominate others. What does it mean to serve God? When we choose to serve God, our focus turns to pleasing Him by following the teachings of Jesus.
What does it mean to serve God? Serving God is a demonstration of your love for Him through loving service to others. Loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor, as Jesus Christ taught, is the essence of serving God. All service to God is accomplished through the power which He supplies and therefore binds us together with Him.
So a prescription for survival
Fear God
Walk in His was
Love God -
Serve God by Serving Others