Out Of Exile

Sermon Text: Deuteronomy 4:25-31 (NIV)25After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and provoking him to anger, 26I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. 27The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. 28There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. 29But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. 31For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.

I.        Introduction: We become God forsaken people, not because God forsake us, but because we forsake God.

II.      It Is Possible To Become God Forsaken People: The Danger of Turning From The Lord Is Real

A.      People Becoming Unfaithful To God

B.      People Forfeiting The Blessings Of God

C.      People Earning the Punishment of God

D.      People Corrupting The Worship of God

III.   It Is Possible To Become God Forgiven People: The Offer To Return To The Lord Is Real

A.      People Seeking The Lord

B.      People Finding The Lord

C.      People Returning to the Lord

D.      People Obeying The Lord

IV.    Conclusion: No matter how unfaithful we have been, God extends mercy to those who seek him with all their heart, and forsake their sinful wanderings.