Adoration Of God Series

Adoration of God

Sermon by CH(CPT) Keith J. Andrews

All scripture marked ESV: The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

This morning we turn to the book of Deuteronomy 10 and verse 12.

The verse reads:

“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, (Dt 10:12, ESV)

We read in this verse the writings of Moses as he recounts the story of receiving the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments.

The Israelites had just crossed the Red Sea, approached Mount Sinai, Moses met with God and received the first Tablets. At the same time Moses was meeting with God, the Israelites started to worship a calf! When Moses returned, he broke these tablets. Moses prayed for forty days and nights to prevent God from destroying these people.

At the end of Moses this time, God tells Moses in verse 11:

And the Lord said to me, "Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them." (Dt 10:11, ESV)

And Moses speaks to the people:

He says "What does the Lord your God require of you, but to...love him..."

It is very clear that Bible teaches us to love the Lord.

The Israelittes were quick to follow the golden calf. But, the Lord desires us to love him. And love him alone.

1. God requires of us a simple devotion.

We hear so much about the love of God for us. How he gave his life for us and if we trust him we can live forever with him. We love to talk about how wonderful it is to have a God who loves us. And we focus on that—when we do we miss the point it is we who should love him. He is the God of the universe. I praise him for loving us—I am grateful that he loves us—but let us not forget our piece of this puzzle to love him. This is the simple requirement to love him.

In Matthew 22:37 Jesus reminds us of Deuteronomy 6:5 when he tells his disciples that the greatest commandment is to:

“…love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Mt 22:37, ESV)

It is a very simple requirement to love him. When we stack all of the religions in a room—many will say for us to do this or do that to win favor. But, God says that we already have favor with him—he just desires that we love him.

In this very simple statement of the obvious, God says to us—"What does the Lord your God require of you, but to...love him..." A simple statement to place your love in God to avoid the idols of this world and to love him.

Money is an idol of this world. We idolize money. We idolize things that money can buy. We idolize the lifestyle that is fueled by money.

Jesus says in Matthew 6:24:

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." (Mt 6:24, ESV)

We must turn our complete attention to God and loving him. Understand the difference between having money and saving for the future and being controlled by money.

This is one of the issues of credit card debt. We buy things we can not afford on an account we can’t pay off. I recommend that you take this opportunity during your deployment here in Iraq to pay off some of this debt.

We are to serve the Lord and love him alone.

Matthew 16:24 reads

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Mt 16:24, ESV)

We need to learn the lesson of Christ, who gave all because of his love for us on how we should love our Lord God. There is no other that we are to follow but the Lord.

I hear people talk about there being many ways to God—if that were so, why would God be so angry when we chose another way.