Take hold of your Inheritance

Nora Grace

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April 10, 2021

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Dave Edmond’s: Richard (Carol)

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Carroll Family

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In the last couple weeks I have been really aware of my need to know and submit to God’s word.

In my times when I talk with the Lord I find myself coming back to this one prayer

“God, bring me and my community back to a place where your word is most important.”

That prayer has become a bit of a mantra for me,

as I learn more and more my need for Him.

As we take a bit of a break from 1 Kings this morning,

I think it would be helpful for us to consider what it means

to love God & Obey Him

and why loving and obeying Him is so important

King David loved the Lord his God,

from 1 Kings 1-11: Solomon struggled with his desire for God and his willingness to submit to His will.

Rehoboam learn from his father Solomon and showed no heart for the Lord and certainly did not obey His word

Jeroboam - God handed the majority of Israel to was even worse,

by (at the very best) combining Canaanite worship with worship of the Lord

Do you remember how we started our Kings series?

the litmus test for Israel’s kings would be

whether they loved the Lord, and obeyed His word as David did.

Since we have this forced hiatus this morning, I thought we would examine ourselves and ask of ourselves this same question:

Do I love the Lord, and obey Him?

If I do, what can I expect?

As we begin looking at Deuteronomy 11 this morning, please read just the first verse …

Love & Obey God (Deut 11:1)

So God delivers Israel from captivity in Egypt and establishes a covenant, a contract, with Israel.

And on their way into the land that he had promised them, in Deuteronomy 10, he gives them one command:

“fear the Lord .. love him … [and] keep the commandments of the Lord”

he says circumcise your heart, be no longer stubborn, but love God and obey him.

And so we get to Deut 11:1 and he reiterates this command again: love God and keep his charge

You know, circumcision was done away with in the new covenant in Christ?

Circumcision was a sign that you are of the people of God.

showed that you identified as a member of God’s community, committing yourself to him,

and publically acknowledged your submission to him.

But, in 1 Cor 7:18 Paul would write that Circumcision is no longer necessary in Christ.

If you are circumcised, don't seek to under that, and if you are not, do not go and do it.

It doesn't really matter, says Paul

No longer could one point to it and claim to be a part of the community of God

as the Jewish leaders had tried, when claiming Abraham as their father. (John 8:39)

Now, it will be your acts that mark you as a member of God’s community

Our deeds show who we truly are.

Our Love

I think one of the best ways we to define love is “commitment”.

I am committed to my wife, spiritually, physically, emotionally

I made a commitment to be there for her and to live my life with her.

I am committed to my kids, spiritually, emotionally, for training, support, and protection

The days they were born I was committed to loving them.

I am committed to my God … in all of my being.

when I understood my need for Christ to take away my sin it became clear that

just as He committed himself to the cross for my benefit,

I must commit myself to him as my new Lord.

I love the Lord and want to know him, learn about him and grow with him in my life.

Just as I love my family I love the Lord,

But I do not just love in word only

When I say that I am committed to Kelsey because I love her, it means that I go out of my way to show that I love her.

I act in a way that communicates to her that she is loved.

I rub her back when it’s hurting,

feed the animals when she is otherwise busy,

praise her for the way she parents,

and comfort her when she is sad or lonely.

The same goes for my kids.

When they are overwhelmed

have fallen and need a hug,

I show them that I love them.

Why should it be any different with God?

The way God wants us to relate to Him, to show our love for him, is in our Obedience

God is not physically here with us right now,

but this does not mean that we cannot show our affection for him in real and tangible ways.

He tells us how we can love Him, how we can be committed to him

“love [me] and keep [my]charge, statutes, rules, and commandments”

The major way that God says he wants to be loved is by us committing ourselves to obey Him.

Parents: you understand this.

you generally feel more pleased with your relationship with your kids when they obey you and are committed to you as their authority.

If I could label the opposite of loving the Lord, and obeying him: forgetting the Lord

I chose the word “forget” intentionally, because it is not just willful disobedience that separates us from the Lord,

to neglect the Lord from our considerations is equally wrong.

Let us not neglect our relationship with Him, forgetting to obey him,

but remember the Lord.

By Remembering His Greatness (Deut 11:2-7)

1 Peter 3:7 - “Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way”

understand what makes your spouse tick.

what do they value, what irritates them, and what about them is beautiful and good in your sight.

I think this is a good analogy for how we are to live with our God: in an understanding way.

we should know who he is, what he has done, and why he loves us.

and so, when asking Israel to love and obey him, he says “consider”

Consider what I have done for you

How He used the 7 plagues of the Exodus to secure Israel’s freedom. (Deut 11:3)

They learned Lessons: The Lord delivers those who He chooses.

How He rescued Israel from Pharaoh's chariots as they were pursued. (Deut 11:4)

Lesson: The Lord protects those who trust Him.

How He provided for Israel when they wondered the wilderness for 40 years (Deut 11:5)

Lesson: The Lord provides for those that follow him.

How He handled spiritual rebellion … (Deut 11:6)

Numbers 27:3 “against the Lord” and his decision on who would serve him as priests.

Lesson: The Lord defends His decisions fiercely

“For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did” (Deut 11:7)

Basis for their obedience and love toward the Lord.

All these events are fresh on their minds, just one generation ago!

As Israel was to go into their new land,

it would be these events that would mold their obedience and love to God.

they would look back on the salvation of the Lord for their sake,

consider these things and remember Him

they would commit themselves to him, love him & obey him …

We just celebrated the death and Resurrection of Jesus as a church family for Easter

what more could we want to look to, to remind us that he has loved us.

what other great thing has he done to secure our love and obedience?

He has given wealth, family, centuries of church history, and friendship

but the most beautiful thing that God has done for me and for you is to save us.

Truly, the greatest thing God has done is save us, and rise again.

it is that event that molds my obedience to God!

I look at the Word of God telling me that he loved me so much that he would be willing to die for me,

and I cannot help but echo back that love in devotion to him!

If you do not see that he has loved you so much, then look again!

“Consider these things” - consider that your sin is bad enough for an eternity of separation from Him,

yet he cut himself off from the presence of the Father for you.

Consider that He now sits at the right hand of the father

pleading for you and for me when we continue to sin.

Consider that He asks us to listen to Him

to love one another, to be peaceable, selfless, honest, just, gracious, full of good works, and to serve others.

Consider that when God gives us commands such as “you shall not bear false witness”,

maybe, just maybe, it is for your good?

Consider that the God who died for you does not want you to go on living in sin

but to look more like the one who saved you.

This is why James would go on to say in his epistle that if anyone “thinks he is religious and does not bridle (or control) his tongue … this person’s religion is worthless.

It is no good “if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him?”

He uses common sense to make his argument

“for the body apart from the spirit is dead,

so also faith apart from works is dead”!

If you need any motivation to live in a way that is committed to Him, read James, or read 1 John

read it and while you read it keep this sentence etched in your mind “He died for me”.

When God says love your neighbor as yourself, remember what he did on the cross

when he says love your spouse as Christ loved the church, remember HOW he loved the church

When he says work out your salvation with fear and trembling, remember why you are trembling!

it is because He took the eternal punishment of an angry God on that cross that YOU deserved

So when you sit there, contemplating sin, REMEMBER His greatness on the cross for you and there is no question!

In that moment the only answer is to love him and obey, because how could we look at a God who so lavishly loved us and chose sin?

In so doing, you will take hold of your inheritance

To take hold of your Inheritance (Deut 11:8-18)

The final 11 verses outline two things:

the good land that God is bringing them to

the consequence of forgetting the Lord

This morning I would like to finish by looking only at the good land that God brought them to.

There certainly are consequences for forgetting God, but I think there is a reason that he devotes 9 verses to the promise and only 2 to the warning

it is because the promise of reward is enough to keep our eyes on him.

God spends the rest of our passage (11:8-18) talking about this land that Israel will take over.

Again, keep in mind that they have, relatively, just left Egypt

and have formed this covenant with God.

Their reward is this promised land, that is flowing with milk and honey.

Our promise is so much better.

I don’t know, maybe this is showing my ignorance of agriculture,

but when I look at photos of some of where Israel was, it looks pretty rocky and barren to me

I mean, by comparison, America is a veritable Rain Forest!

But God promised them land that would produce food.

and this land is the only land route between Africa and the East, so Israel would be prosperous as well.

This land is PERFECT … but it is just land.

We, having been saved in Christ, now have a new promise.

not of land, but of a relationship

a relationship with a God who loved us,

and wants us to love him.

Closing

I pray that this morning we see that God is concerned with having a deep and rich relationship with us.

that He has gone to extraordinary lengths to reach us in the pit of our sin.

And that he wants us to love and obey him.

I pray that you would remember what he has done for you, and that in the moment of your temptation you would recall the cost he paid for it.

truly there is nothing else greater that could captivate our attention,

and no one greater that could captivate our hearts.

In 1 Kings, we see king after king neglect their relationship with the Lord, and hindsight shows us that their neglect of Him and his commands led to heartache and tragedy.

As we continue to study 1 Kings & 2 Kings let us not be like those kings who forgot God, but like David, who chased “after God’s own heart”.

I’d like to close this morning by reading Colossians 1:9-12