Enjoy the Land or Just Exist – De. 30:8-20
8And you will make a new start, listening obediently to GOD, keeping all his commandments that I’m commanding you today. 9GOD, your God, will outdo himself in making things go well for you: you’ll have babies, get calves, grow crops, and enjoy an all-around good life. Yes, GOD will start enjoying you again, making things go well for you just as he enjoyed doing it for your ancestors.
10But only if you listen obediently to GOD, your God, and keep the commandments and regulations written in this Book of Revelation. Nothing halfhearted here; you must return to GOD, your God, totally, heart and soul, holding nothing back.
11This commandment that I’m commanding you today isn’t too much for you, it’s not out of your reach. 12It’s not on a high mountain--you don’t have to get mountaineers to climb the peak and bring it down to your level and explain it before you can live it. 13And it’s not across the ocean--you don’t have to send sailors out to get it, bring it back, and then explain it before you can live it. 14No. The word is right here and now--as near as the tongue in your mouth, as near as the heart in your chest. Just do it!
15Look at what I’ve done for you today: I’ve placed in front of you
Life and Good
Death and Evil.
16And I command you today: Love GOD, your God. Walk in his ways. Keep his commandments, regulations, and rules so that you will live, really live, live exuberantly, blessed by GOD, your God, in the land you are about to enter and possess.
17But I warn you: If you have a change of heart, refuse to listen obediently, and willfully go off to serve and worship other gods, 18you will most certainly die. You won’t last long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. 20And love GOD, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that GOD, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses is telling the Israelites they have a choice – Enjoy the land or just exist.
So many believers have faced that choice and way too many of us are choosing to just exist. We are not enjoying the blessing of God because we are not about fulfilling God’s purpose in our life.
How can we move beyond existence and enjoy the blessing?
1. Return to God v. 10
a. This is an act of repentance. God has not moved, we have.
b. We must make a conscious decision to abstain from sin and disobedience.
2. Listen to God v. 8, 10
a. How do we listen? Through prayer and deliberate study of the Word.
b. Often we find scripture telling us to hearken to God’s Word – that means to listen with the intent of obeying. James 1:22 - Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
3. Obey God wholeheartedly (it isn’t hard to obey – just do it. v. 11-14)
a. Too often we rationalize and make excuses why we can’t or didn’t obey God. “Our axe handle was broke.”
What can we expect:
1. That God will outdo himself v. 9
2. We will live exuberantly v. 16
We have a choice – Life and Good or Death and Evil v. 15. Life and Death, Blessing and Cursing v. 19.
Which will you choose.
