The offer of life in the light
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
Introduction-
last week we looked at covenants. We closely looked at what God expects from us once we accept Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. We saw that 40 years the Israelites wandered in the desert because of complaining and their disbelief. The whole time God took care of them by their clothes and sandle’s not wearing out and met their needs for food and water. Today’s message carries much the same theme. God is talking, He is giving a warning. The Israelites had a choice to make. I will listen and obey God or, I tune him out and do my own thing. The covenant contract remained the same. I will be your God- you will be my people. If you choose not to put me first, if you choose to have other gods and idols. There will be a consequence because I am a jealous God and I will not share my glory with anyone or anything. I told you last week that society is shifting toward being agnostic, but God does not expect people who call upon the name of Jesus to think or be that way.
•Believe that there is a god, but that he does not want to have a relationship.
•Believe that he does not care what you do.
•Believe that there will not be consequences... because God is just out there in a distance.
God spoke to the Israelites and He is speaking to each one of us.. And He offers us Life In abundance In His Fullness For obedience and a relationship with Him. He also promises death and destruction for those who reject Him.
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
The lord is telling the Israelites , what I am commanding you is not more than you can handle. It is not difficult. You don’t have to ascend to heaven to get it, you do not have to cross the sea. No, what I am commanding you should be close to you, it should be in your words and actually in your heart. The commandment is simple to understand, but not easy to do.
Love the Lord your God....
Walk in my commandments...
Obey God, do as I have told you.
Then... you will live and I will bless you
But...(v17) change of direction, if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods- you will be destroyed
Life is full of decisions- each day we make big ones, (life changers) and one’s that really don’t matter in life. Sometimes we worry about what tie we will wear and forget the things of God that matter. When it concerns things between you and God, your destiny, your eternity, they are life changers
Illustration- SermonCentral
let me set the scene for you. You and your spouse decide that you are going to “go out” to eat. As you are driving down the street you say, sweetheart, where would you like to eat? And she says, I don’t care, you pick a place. He says, no, I picked the last time, you choose. I don’t care, just pick a place. Fine, lets just go to such and such restaurant. (Her attitude changes)She says, I hate that place. So as you are peeling out of the parking lot, you say.. (change of attitude)Where do you want to eat (change of attitude) “I don’t care”
Attitude of the heart matters Relationships matter Where we place our priories matter
Here is Moses at the end of his life- he has made both good and bad choices in the past. He has paid consequences for his bad choices, and he is giving final instructions to the people he led for 40 years in the desert. Moses is telling them, they have two choices.
• choose life- relationship with God
• choose death- be stubborn and have it your own way
Seems impossible to me that someone would not choose life, but I am sure they did. Everyday people are dying without a relationship with Jesus Christ. Choose life through Christ or death
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” John 10:10
God has given us a wonderful gift of choice
• some will accept the wonderful gift of Christ.
• Some will make horrible choice and decide that they want it their own way, or procrastinate and say they will make that choice later.
We have choices;
• Will I commit to a life of obedience or self-will?
• Will I commit to spiritual growth?
• Will I listen to the Holy Spirit or will I tune Him out until I can no longer hear His voice?
Listen to me
We need each other I need you You need me If we are going to journey together, we need to help each other along the way. People who say they no longer need the church, don’t need to be accountable to God are the ones falling out of communion with God. George Barna believes by 2030 that our young people will be parents who have disconnected from the church but claim to be born again believers, and have a relationship with God.
• It is about the self-fish attitude of “It’s all about me”
•It is about the lack of commitment to anyone or anything.
• It is about having no absolute truth and that what ever you think and do is your own business.
I want to tie this passage to a New Testament passage. Turn with me to 1 John 1:5-10.
Moses is telling the Israelites - God is giving us a choice. Choose life. Love the Lord your God, and walk in His ways
John is telling us;
verses 1-2, which we did not read, he gives his credentials.... it is not education, but information.
A reminder!
The Word of life is Jesus
We have heard Him.
We have seen Him.
We have touched Him.
This is the message we have heard from him(Jesus) and declared to you. 1 John 1:5-10. Read from Bible slowly.
“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” I cannot be that bold to tell you that if you claim to have fellowship with God, and continue to walk in darkness that you are a liar, but John doesn’t have that problem. Let that settle in a minute.
God is light; (Barclay commentary)
1. It tells us of his splendor and glory. The bright light that turns all darkness to light when He shows up.
2. God is self-revealing. Light is seen. Nothing secretive. God wishes to be found and He wishes to be seen.
3. God is purity and God is Holy. There is no darkness in Him. He doesn’t hide evil. He exposes evil and darkness.
4. God is guidance. Light shows the way God lights up the road so that the road can be easily seen and you can stay on the road.
5. Flaws are exposed and God desires to cleanse them from our lives.
God is light- walk in the light.
Hostile Darkness- (Barclay Commentary)
If God is light, then darkness has to be a Christless life. Darkness represents people before Christ or people who have strayed away from Him. God has delivered us from darkness and brought us to the kingdom of light. Those that follow Christ must not walk in darkness. “Out of darkness, into His marvelous light” Darkness stands for the choice of life without God. Darkness is unfruitful. Christless life bears no fruits of God.
Now would be a good time for a Amen Now would be a good time to give some Nazarene heritage. I believe you cannot be plucked out of God’s hand. I do believe you have a choice of weather you want to stay in that hand of protection. I have heard people talk about losing their salvation, like they were walking one day and they stumbled and your salvation fell out of your pocket and you could not find it. That is ridiculous. You cannot lose your salvation that way. If you stumble and you are walking with God in the light of God, when you stumble, God will pick you up and put your feet back on solid ground. You lose your keys by dropping them. You forget your lunch at home and have to do without for awhile. But you do not lose your salvation that way You lose your salvation by intentionally walking in darkness and staying out of the light. You lose your salvation because you intentionally walked away from God. You choose to walk in darkness instead of the light.
(V17)
“But if you walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus , his Son purifies us from all sin”
we need each other When we are in the light, we have fellowship with each other. Christ blood purifies us from sin. When we are outside of the light, outside of Jesus redemption. The blood of Christ does not cover our sins until we return to the light. (God’s grace allows that until we take our last breath)
Back to the text of Deuteronomy 30:15-16
“See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to keep His commandments, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord you God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
Closing
• If we say that we have fellowship but continue to walk in darkness, we are deceiving ourselves.
•If we believe that the blood of Christ purifies us as we willfully walk in darkness, we are being lied too.
•God insists- to have fellowship with God who is light, we must walk in the light. If we remain in darkness we cannot have fellowship with God.
Illustration- (SermonCentral)
The great “prince of preachers” Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to tell this story: “A certain duke once boarded a galley ship. As
he passed the crew of slaves, he asked several of them what their offenses were. Almost every man claimed he was innocent. They laid the blame on someone else or accused the judge of yielding to bribery. One young fellow, however, spoke out, ‘Sir, I deserve to be here. I stole some money. No one is at fault but myself. I’m guilty.’ Upon hearing this, the duke seized him by the shoulder and shouted, ‘You scoundrel, you! What are you doing here with all these honest men? Get out of their company at once!’ He was then set at liberty while the rest were left to tug at the oars.”
The key to this prisoner’s freedom was the admission of his guilt.
1 Corinthians 6:9-12
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God”.
Notice he doesn’t say that’s what some of you ARE but some of you WERE. There’s been a transformation. If we say we’re on the team but we never put on the uniform, we never make it to the game, then there’s a problem.(SermonCentral)
Right here is where the difference is between watching the game and playing the game, between observation and participation. If you claim to be a Christian but your life looks no different than those in the world, then you’re fooling yourself. Christ has called us to a life of moral integrity, honesty, sexual purity, kindness, & faithfulness to our promises. If our lives don’t exemplify those things then our experience doesn’t match our professed faith.
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