Messages
Deuteronomy 11 |
| Posted by Administrator (charlie) on Mar 23 2009 |
- Introduction
We tend to think of life in absolutes don’t we?
Things are either good or bad or black or white or light or dark.
Yet there is something that we need to think about and that is the heart of man and our bent toward that which is contrary to the word of God.
I received a picture of a car this week and it was a beautiful shiny silver car. And though you might think that he car was painted silver, it wasn't.
It was solid sterling silver.
Most of the time we need paint or the wraps like Scott uses to cover the cars so we don’t see the base metal and the ugly primer.
The same is true of humans.
We cover ourselves with noble intentions and all kinds of paint on our attitudes but in the end, we are all the same.
We are either sinners saved by the grace of God or we are simply sinners awaiting our demise.
- Describing the Biblical Text
This text reminds the Israelites of the work of God in their deliverance.
It points to His mercy in setting them free from Egypt in power and in glory.
It also points to His judgment as He held the Egyptians accountable for the sin of refusing to the release the Israelites.
- Narrate the Contextual application
This passage is all about the ability of God to bless BHis people.
God blesses his people and the respond to God by obeying His word or keeping His law which in turn prepares them to receive a greater blessing.
They are blessed through being obedient.
This doesn’t mean that because they or we obey God blesses but what it does mean that as we obey, we are receiving God’s blessing by the simple virtue that we have obeyed.
Look with me at Luke 11:27
Notice the blessing here is in the obedience and not in that which follows the obedience.
Obedience to God is its own blessing.
It connotes what is said in Psalm 37, “Delight thyself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
- Life Application (thesis)
So, here we are this morning.
We are here contemplating the blessing of God through our obedience to Him.
Most of us are already aware of the sacrifice that was made on the cross of Jesus to secure and to extend to us the blessing of salvation.
Salvation is the rescue from the eternal curse of separation from God.
It is the epitome of all blessing in that it has fulfilled the eternal decree of God.
Yet, as followers of Jesus Christ we must also be concerned with the temporal, the here and the now.
This is why it is important for us to be focused on the commands of God as we understand them from His word.
Keeping the commands of God is essential to being a follower of Jesus.
- SO WHAT!! (Outline)
In thinking about that idea, we then need to put some flesh on it.
Let’s come to a couple of understandings this morning that will enable us to better follow Jesus.
God’s commands help us understand how to love Him.
Did you ever want to do something special for someone?
Just last Friday night, we scrimped and we saved in order to give Alyson a 16th birthday party. It was not one of these large cotillion catered affairs and there were no expensive gifts but Valerie and I wanted to do something special for Alyson for one particular reason.
We love her
Look at verse 18
Now, think of what you would do for God to show Him you love Him.
It is not a matter of throwing him a party.
We are supposed to be doing that every Sunday when we gather for worship.
We celebrate the joy that we have in His salvation and we sing praises to His name.
We use worship as an opportunity to share His love for us with others.
We invite people to join the group by coming to Christ.
But is worship how we show God that we love Him?
Maybe we can join parachurch groups like world relief, CEF or the Gideons.
Certainly God would have to see that we loved Him if we are helping refugees, evangelizing children and giving Bibles away.
What would show God more than anything else in the world tha we really love Him?
1 John 5 tells us this.
1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
That’s is really a unique idea
God just wants us to obey him.
Keeping the commandments demonstrates our love for Him but it also demonstrates our dependence on Him.
When we are keeping the commands of God we are showing Him that we trust Him to take care of us because we are doing what he expects no matter what our circumstances might be.
When we consider the words of Deuteronomy 6, “Love the Lord with all your heart mind and strength,” we must think about what that means.
The commands of God draw our hearts to him because His perfection is shown in them.
The commands of God draw our souls to God because his connection is demonstrated in them
The commands of God draw our minds to God because His reflection is demonstrated in them.
We can see that our whole being shares the character of God when we are living in obedience to Him.
Since this is the case in demonstrating how we love Him, it also demonstrates how he loves us.
That is our second point or understanding this morning.
God’s commands help us understand how he loves us.
The mind of God has purposed or has decreed how God desires that all thing turn out.
IOW our final outcomes are dependant entirely on the decree of God.
These decrees are entirely a product of the perfection of God or determined in the mind of God.
In these commands, God then has shown His love for that by giving us the desire to obey Him we are to live in harmony with His law and consequently with him.
When God’s commands connect in our mind, we have comprehended something of the nature of God and we have gotten to understand Him and His nature better.
Our minds connect to God in a cognitive way that enables us to be able to think about and to contemplate Who He is.
Yet, that only gives us part of the picture.
Our souls must also connect to God and believe it or not, that happens through the commands of God as well.
Our soul is that spiritual place in our lives in which we recognize the godly for what it is.
The soul is the place of connection to the almighty and the command of God God is what makes the person of God recognizable.
The law has a spiritual purpose and that is to preserve the dignity and the integrity of God’s creation.
That is why the law is everything that reveals to us our sinfulness.
It points out our flaws.
But in pointing out those flaws, our souls connect with God in the effort to correct them.
This is when we come to that reality that we are not perfect in the sight of God, that we are sinner and that we have broken the divine ordinance.
We stand before God condemned and our souls cry out to God for his healing and his forgiveness.
And then Jesus comes and we receive that for which we have longed due to our disobedience of the Command of God.
Thusly we thereby live seeking to obey that rich command.
But, we are also drawn to God through His commands by our hearts.
This is true in that we reason and we feel, we must also relate.
The heart is that part of us that is related to God in His perfection.
Our heart wants to be like the heart of God in that we were created in his image and likeness and thus we long to be conformed to Him image in a uniquely perfect way.
We might think that impossible but in the cross it is not only possible, it is accomplished.
When we receive Christ trusting in the death on the cross that purchased us and believing the God raised Him from the dead, we connect with God very personally and intimately.
We connect at the crossroads of our being.
We connect to Him wholly because we have found Him Wholly true in that his commands have enlightened, and enlivened us to follow Him
Last changed: Mar 31 2009 at 9:46 AM
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