Yet the LORD Delighted to Love - Deuteronomy 10:12-17

Introduction

Have you ever tried to change a habit? What’s most frustrating is that you can have all of the information and logic as to why you should change, you can believe that you should change, you can even need to change for the sake of your life, yet still not change. For me, my favorite time of the day to eat is the worst time of day to eat. I can make do with hardly any breakfast and a small lunch and a normal dinner, but around 9 PM, it’s like there’s nothing in the world that can fill me up. I usually just eat some hummus and wheat thins, but, honestly, if I had the resources, I could eat a t-bone and baked potato every night. And, it drives me crazy! I know that I shouldn’t eat it. I know that it’s going to cause weight gain. I know that it’s unhealthy. I know that it might hurt my sleep patterns. I’m even trying to motivate myself with my inner football coach, but, man, it’s a battle.

And, having talked with folks that want to quit smoking or want to stop sleeping late or want to stop watching so much TV, I know that I’m not alone. This is insight into human nature. Rationality is not enough for us to make significant changes. We pride ourselves on being rational creatures, but when 9pm comes, when the craving for nicotine comes, when our TV hangs there towering over our Bibles, it’s as though living rationally is impossible. Rationality isn’t enough for us to really change. We need a heart change for that to happen.

God’s Word

That’s what’s at the forefront of Moses’ mind when he’s speaking to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 10. Deuteronomy 9 outlines how unfaithful they’ve been and how gracious and patient God has been, and so when come to Deuteronomy 10, Moses is calling on them to live in a new way, to change. He’s wanting them to orient the entirety of their lives around their covenant relationship with God. No other nation is the world could claim a relationship with the Almighty but Israel, and Moses is calling on them to live like it. And so, he explains to them how they should should change by explaining to them what a relationship with God looks like (headline). And, y’all, this is exactly how relationship with God looks like with his people today.

He “requires” us “entirely.”

v. 12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?”

God requires two complimentary attitudes of the heart:

Fear - to be astonished/amazed/awestruck/trembling with wonder

To fear God is to be convinced that there is no one greater, no one mightier, no one wiser, no one more sovereign than Him alone. It’s to recognize his rule over all that is and to understand our accountability to Him. It’s to recognize that vastness greater than all the galaxies, might greater than a thousand hurricanes, and ferocity unmatched by boldest armies are consolidated into a single being to whom every, single one of us are answerable. So, we swear our allegiance and offer Him the entirety of our worship.

Love - affection/passion/desire/a willing commitment/a zealous devotion

To love God is to find him to be not only mighty and great, but wonderful, delightful, and satisfying. It is to desire to be wherever He is and to go wherever He goes and to do whatever He wants. It’s to commit yourself to him, not out of obligation, but passion and desire.

Fear and love are not competing emotions that we are to experience in our relationship with God. They are complimentary attitudes. Fear helps us understand why we are to love as we are, and love helps us to understand how wonderful the fearsomeness of God is.

ILL:

My dad dug up a yellow jackets nest. He was stung by tons of bees, but he stopped to shield me, pick me up, and protect me. I was amazed. He was so tough. He was so quick. He was so able to just pick me up and run. Such a show strength caused me to revere him - to know that he meant business - to know that he was honorable. And, at the same time, he was so selfless, so protective, so concerned with my well-being. I loved him. I admired him. His fearsomeness was on my side! His strength was for my protection.

Buddies at the firehouse made a crack about my sister and me — my kind-spirited dad would not let it stand — the man immediately knew that he’d crossed the line and backed up — I was awestruck by dad’s courage to speak and the respect the other men had for him — He wouldn’t let injustice stand — I knew he would confront me the same when needed and that I didn’t want — But, he was protecting me, defending me, standing up for me. His strength, his fearsomeness, his might, leadership were for me and caused me to love my dad more than any other man in the world.

God is fearsome. He is to be feared and not trifled with. He will not let injustice stand or sin go unpunished. But, if He is your Father, all of his sovereign might, all of his immense power, all of his zealous justice is FOR YOU.

The right attitudes will always lead to the right actions.

Fear always leads to walking in all his ways. Love always leads to service and obedience.

The right actions are never what God is after. He’s after service that is with all your heart and all your soul. He’s always after the right heart which leads to the right life.

Disobedient fear is not awe and wonder. It’s lip service. It’s pandering. It’s politics. Inactive, sedentary love isn’t true affection or desire. It’s wishful thinking.

What God requires is that we love him as entirely as He has loved us!

Delivered from Egypt —> Sustained in the wilderness —> forgiven for their idolatry —> blessed in the Promised Land

God’s love has evidence, and so must yours! inward--->outward/attitude —>action/all of you!

APP:

Want to be more obedient? The best way to obey is to love. Don’t bear down and burn out. Draw deeper to go farther.

Want to more clearly express your love? The best way to love is to obey. Walk in his ways. Make his name great.

He “loves” us “freely”.

v. 14 = total freedom of God

v. 14 - “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.”

What do we mean by freedom?

Humanity is forever in pursuit of freedom.

Adam and Eve ate the fruit because they sought independence from God.

Enough education = freedom/Overworking = better career & more money = freedom/Laziness = do what I want = freedom/Alcoholism = escape = freedom/sex with whomever I want = freedom

Questions to test whether you actually have freedom:

Do you need anything?

Can you be forced to do anything?

Are you answerable to anyone?

Our freedom and autonomy are illusions; God’s freedom is unthreatened.

True freedom is without threat, competitor, or accountability.

God is totally self-sufficient. He owns everything and needs nothing.

God is above everything, everyone, every god, and is answerable to no one.

God cannot be manipulated, bribed, or extorted. No one has anything he needs. No one can threaten him. He is actually free.

In the position of freedom, you learn the nature of someone’s character.

ILL: Who are you? A child who has just left home/A man who’s just inherited life-changing wealth/A woman who has just retired in good health.

v. 15 “Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.”

The freedom of God reveals the goodness of God.

What does God do with his freedom? He loves and saves.

He isn’t motivated by accountability. He isn’t being forced against his will. He isn’t being manipulated by clever sinners. HE’S DOING EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTS IN THE WAY THAT HE WANTS. And, what does He want? What brings him delight? To love and save.

“Yet....you above all peoples.”

It gets better. He says to them: “Of all Gods, I am the greatest. Of all peoples, you are the least. YET, I choose you.”

God didn’t choose them because of what they brought to the table. God didn’t choose them because they were morally superior to other nations. God didn’t choose them because they first chose him. God chose them because He wanted them. God chose them because it delighted him to love.

God’s electing grace. We get the emphasis all wrong. We so obsess over our ability to choose God or not, whether we have freedom or not. But, that’s not the point. The point isn’t your freedom; it’s God’s. The point isn’t your character. It’s God’s. The point isn’t your choice; it’s God’s. The glory isn’t “In our freedom, we have chosen God.” The glory is “In God’s incomprehensible freedom, He has chosen us.”

APP: Of all the Gods, He is the greatest. Of all the people, you are the least. YET, He chose you.

We “follow” him “totally”.

The question is: How will you respond to God’s offer of a relationship to you? How will you respond to his requirement of total love, devotion, and obedience? How will you respond to his freely given love and relationship?

There’s only one rational response: reset your life with him as the center.

v. 16 “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.”

Calling for a change of direction/a change of heart

“be no longer stubborn” an ox that is constantly pulling its own way.

A teenager following his own heart. A woman living by her own advice. A man running after his own design for life.

Stubbornness is exhausting when you’re made for a relationship with the living God. Like an ox wearing itself out resisting its master for the freedom to go its own way, we exhaust ourselves trying to go ours. It’s like always walking uphill or swimming against the current. You were intended to live in a freedom that God’s strength and sovereignty provide, and it will kill you to try to find freedom apart from him.

The rational response to a God so great with requirements that prove so impossible for us is to turn to him for help. This is the rest that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 11.

Circumcision of the heart = marking your heart for the LORD = cutting away all of the self-interest and self-freedom and self-centeredness

It’s not just to start living a life of wishful thinking though. It’s to understand that Bible assumes your life will follow your heart. Your awe won’t be mere lip service. Your love won’t be mere wishful thinking. It will be obedience. All of who you are offered to God.

It’s the rational response, but it seems impossible when think of human nature. Except that God has provided a way.

Colossians 2:11-12: “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”

In his power and in his freedom, God provided the way. You see, Deut 9 is about the gospel. It’s about God’s goodness to you and your response to him. But, even the response has been enabled by the goodness of God. You must change your heart is true. But, it’s just as wonderfully true to say that God will change your heart. Now, what was rational but impossible can be genuine reality.