How You Living? (Deut. 30.15-20)
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See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.
If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them,
I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Intro:
Freedom family....
I believe that life is about choices.
And so.....
One of the first thoughts that we probe into relate to the question of,
How is it that we choose?
Or.....
How do we make choices?
What helps us or what do we use to come to our final decisionsd in life consistently?
(pause)
Because.....
those choices compose the results in how we are living.
And in my spiritual imagination...
I see Every decision we make
Either.....
Promoting or Demoting our lives!
(pause and expound)
Look at it now.....
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.
Moses says in the text....
On today I am letting you choose between....
Life and Death......
Good and evil......
(slight pause)
Moses says......
I’m letting you compose a decision to either experience.....
Long existence as a people in the Promised Land with prosperity, success, and wealth.
....or
Disaster, adversity,and destruction.....
(pause)
Now.....
......this looks like an easy decision doesn’t it!
Because.....
.....who doesn’t want to live a long prosperous, and successful life?
(slight pause)
I mean.......
.......I don’t know too many people walking around eager and exhilirated about the possibility of living a life that is full of adversity, disaster, and destruction....
(pause and optional expound)
And then I pictured myself in this crowd listening to Moses......
......because I would have had at least two questions for Moses
(slight pause)
And my first question would have been,
If this much is riding on how I live, why don’t God just take my decision making ability away and/or fix it where “Good Living” is my only option to choose
(pause and expound)
But then I remembered.....
Adam and Eve messed that up for us in the Garden of Eden.
Because actually God already had it set up inclusive of our ability of Decision making capacity.
All we had to do was “Live the Good life” God had prepared for us.....
But Satan crawled in with what we understand as temptation.
And Temptation by definition is....
…the desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise.
God had it all set up for us......
But even when they were INSIDE of the EXPERIENCE of Good living
Adam and Eve (emphasis on both of them)
.........made a concious decision to make a new decision that opened up their lives to experience something God never intended for them to experience....
And that’s what Sin does.....
Sin opens our lives to,
Adversity, Destruction, and Disasters
(pause)
That would have been my first question to Moses....
And......
My second question would have been,
2. Moses......... it sounds like you’re talking to us as a community in addition to our individual decision making...
..and I’m not sure that I’m comfortable counting on somebody elses household to decide what happens in my “Life Outcome”
But then I remembered.....
God never intended for us to live outside of community....
Because after God created Adam and saw that he was in isolation.....
God said,
“It is not GOOD for man to be alone!”
And so God pulled out of Adam a rib,
......and created Eve
And so as life began to multiply and become fruitful...
......and community transitions to this crowd that is standing in front of Moses in multiple households....
Even though they look like seperate households.......
......in my spiritual imagination there is actually a RIB that is keeping them connnected in community.
And so I hear Moses responding to me to say,
Baker,
A successful life is never lived in ISOLATION!
Because when God looks at a life that we would call very good that is being lived outside of community...
Even if Community puts Success AT RISK......
God says that ISOLATION is “NOT GOOD”
(pause)
That’s why some of us are struggling so much right now......
.......you would think that we would be “GOOD” without anybody other than what’s in our house....
And I know some folk are declaring that you feel better with just you....
But if the truth be told........
Something is missing!
(pause)
And that’s because God has decided that.....
Success without Community really aint GOOD!
(pause - Preach Baker)
Look at it now....
If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
Moses says,
Devotion and Loyalty in living your life the way God told you, and obeying all his laws and teachings.......
......will trigger you to Live Good, and multiply!
(pause)
And Freedom family can I tell you something.....
What I see God saying here is that.....
There is a God given responsibility to us to RECREATE what God has commanded!
See I don’t see what Moses is saying as a LIMITATION........
I see this as an OPPORTUNITY........
(pause)
Because.....
......whithin this Commandment
God has built inside of it a Promise
God has built in Promises to a life that is lived in obedience and faithfulness to Him.
(pause and expound)
Look at it now....
But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
Moses says,
If we abandon our loyalty to God..........
.....and if we refuse to listen to God’s teaching
.....and began worshipping and bowing down to other stuff that aint even real
If we make that decision.......
We’re going to perish and our life is going to be shortened......
(pause)
The text says,
As a nation and as an individual they will soon dissappear
Because.....
......their enemies would destroy them.
(pause)
Watch this.....
Because they are getting ready to cross over the Jordan and go into the Promised Land......
Meaning......
......they are getting ready to experience accomplishment and fullfillment of God’s word.
But Moses tells them......
If they forget how they made it over!
.......the Good life wont last long!!!
(pause and expound)
And I believe......
Our disobedience gives our adversity the advantage in our life.
(pause)
Because.....
We lose power when we reject our power source.
We miss out on successful outcomes when we are unfaithful to God....
And I believe this because......
It takes Power to live successfully!!!
(pause)
I wonder if there is anybody in here that has recently experienced a.....
Power Shortage..!!!!
Somebody hit.......
#HowYouLiving?
(pause and expound)
Look at it now....
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
The text says....
Moses called some witnesses to give credibility to what he has been saying on behalf of God........
And he says his two witnesses are,
Heaven and Earth......
Moses says.....
You can look up or you can look down.......
But I’m giving you two witnesses that aint going nowhere..... no time soon!
I’m giving you some stable, generational witnesses that’s going to be here for a minute!
(pause)
And everything I’m telling you about your choices is being watched from two perspectives......
A heavenly perspective.......
......and a earthly perspective
And so....
everything in your life is being watched cross generations.....
And if.....
You Prosper and become Powerful
Heaven and Earth will tell the story!!
But if.....
You Dissappear through some destruction
Heaven and Earth will tell the story!!
(pause and expound)
Watch it now.....
loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
The text says at the end of verse 19, and then in verse 20.....
I’m telling you this so you can make the BEST CHOICE!
(pause)
Moses says!
Choose to.......
Be completely faithful to God.....
Because the consequence or result of Choosing this best choice......
....means a long and prosperous existence as a nation.
(pause)
And there is a Promise connected to this Choice.........
(slight pause)
Moses is referring to the Abrahamic covenant........
And in my spiritual imagination I hear Moses saying.....
Your decision is CONNECTED to something “God said!”
Moses tells the crowd........
The Lord Promised to your ancestors/progenitors that he would give you the land that you are going into to possess.......
He says.........
This is what God said!!!
And when you get ready to make your decisions related to your life....
I need for you to match your decisions with what God said!
(A type of living)
“God said..........LIVING””
I wonder if there’s anybody ready for some......
“God Said Living!!”
(pause and close)
Freedom let me help somebody.......
Because the reason we can count on.......
.....what God said is found in
Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”
And so......
God is watching over what God SAID!!!
And so every CHOICE we make to live BASED on what GOD SAID......
God is WATCHING OVER that!!!
The same God that delivered the Three Hebrew boys......
The same God that healed a Blind Bartimaeus.......
The same God that raised Lazarus from the dead.......
(pause)
And I don’t know about you........
But I’ve MADE........
......MY
.......DECISION
(Repeat over and over......)
“GOD SAID LIVING.....”