Blessed Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• Last week in our reverse order journey with the Israelites on their deliverance tour, we left the nation of Israel on the cusp of ending their 40-year journey to get into the Promised Land.

• Today, we go back into the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses is going to give his final sermons to the people of Israel before they enter into the Promised Land.

• Now for some Old Testament Context that is interesting.

• The Book of Exodus, which details the nation falling into slavery to Egypt to being delivered from that bondage covers about 431 years of history.

• The book of Leviticus covers about one month of the history of the nation after they were delivered from Egypt, to just before the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

• The book of Numbers covers almost 40 years of history, the time of the wandering.

• The book of Deuteronomy will cover about a month of history, it details the month before the Israelites entering the Promised Land.

• The book is broken down into three primary sections, which represent three messages Moses shares with the people.

• From Chapter 1 to chapter 4:43 Moses shares the message, What God has DONE for Israel.

• From 4:44 to 26:19, the message is, What God EXPECTS of Israel.

• And the final message from chapter 27 to 34:2, is, What God will DO for Israel.

• Our text is found amid this third message.

• Today our message is entitled, "BLESSED."

• What do we mean when we use the word blessed? Surely the overuse and misuse of that word needs to be examined biblically.

• This passage reveals that God does, indeed, want to bless us. Our choices and their consequences affect our experience of that blessing.

• Another thing to take note of in this section is the fact that the word prosper is used in this passage at least four times (see vv. 5, 9, 15).

• We rightly shy away from anything that sounds like a false prosperity gospel, but we need to see what God says about how he wants to bless us and how he wants us to live.

• The key is how we define abundant life and prosperity.

• All too often, our idea of prosperity is narrowly limited to wealth and possessions.

• Here is where the rubber meets the road for us today, in 2019.

• I think most of us want to be blessed, we do not want to live a miserable life chocked full of failure and misery, we want to be prosperous.

• Today we are going to see how that works.

• There is something you need to be aware of, God wants to bless us with abundant life.

• Just like a parent wants the best for their children, God wants the best for us.

• Today we are going to cover Deuteronomy 30:1-20, but our focus will be on verses 15-16.

• Let’s start with verse 15.

• SLIDE #2

• Deuteronomy 30:15 (CSB) — 15 See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity.

• SLIDE #3

• Let’s begin our expedition this morning by first looking at…

SERMON

I. The choice.

• In the previous chapter, Moses laid out two possible choices for the people, acceptance of God and His Covenant with the people, or rejection.

• In verses 1-10 of this chapter, Moses tells the people, I have laid out the blessings and curses you may receive, now you need to make a choice.

• After forty years of wandering in the wilderness, Moses is telling the people the choice is still theirs to make. Life and prosperity, or death and adversity.

• These are the same options we get to choose from today.

• Even after all those years in the wilderness, God still left the choice up to the people.

• Yet today, God still gives you the choice as to how you will spend your life on this earth as well as where you will choose to spend your eternity.

• Moses painted a dire picture of what a life of disobedience would look like, this disobedience led to the nation of Israel into their time in the wilderness.

• I touched on this last week a little, our society is selling our young people, and all of our people a bill of goods.

• The path that society and the media seek to lead you down is a dangerous path that will lead to your ultimate destruction.

• In the United States, we have so much freedom, but freedom does not mean that we live life without restraint.

• When we choose to live life as if there is not God, we will reap what we sow.