For Your Consideration Deuteronomy 4:39-40
Introduction: The old “Twilight Zone” TV series started each week’s episode with the catch phrase “submitted for your consideration...” This morning I would like to submit four areas to you for your consideration; Your Fallibility, God’s Goodness and Severity, Your Ways, and Your Influence on others.
I. Consider your Fallibility
A. One of the very first things for us to consider is our frailty and fallibility. This is pointed out to us in numerous passages of Scripture.
B. Galatians 6:1 “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.”
C. 1 Corinthians 10:12 “...let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
D. How often we overlook our own failures and sins while criticizing the faults in others! In fact, our judgment may reflect our own flaws, which usually are more serious than those we see in someone else. A woman named Ruth Knowlton told how she came to see this truth. The building across the alley was only a few feet away, and she could easily look into her neighbor’s apartment. Ruth had never met the woman who lived there, but she could see her as she sewed and read each afternoon. After several months, she noticed that the figure by the window had become indistinct. She couldn’t understand why the woman didn’t wash her windows. One sunny day Ruth decided to do some housecleaning, including washing her own windows. Later that day, she sat down to rest by the window. To her amazement, she could clearly and distinctly see her neighbor sitting by her window. Ruth said to herself, "Well, finally she washed her windows!" By now you’ve guessed what really happened: Ruth’s own windows were the ones that needed washing. - copied
E. Did you hear about the inscription on the tombstone of a hypochondriac? It read, "NOW will you believe that I’m sick?" When it comes to recognizing most are the exact opposite of the hypochondriac. They do not want to admit their imperfection. The Bible teaches that all humans are "sick"—because of the effects of sin. Only the grace of God can make us well.
F. In order to be saved we must acknowledge our need of a savior. This awareness ought to produce godly sorrow that results in repentance.
G. But too often after we have been redeemed we forget where we came from and that we are still only sinners but that we have been saved by grace.
H. Romans 7:18 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.”
I. Sgt. Shultz, the German prison guard on the old {Hogan’s Heroes} television show, used to bellow, "I zee nuthing, Nuthing!" He didn’t see because he did not want to see. Many of us do not see what God is doing around and through our lives, not because we can’t see but because we choose not to see the hand of God. - Matt Neace Jr., The Southeast Outlook, 26 Sept, 1997, p. A-12
J. 1 John 1:8-10 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
II. Consider the consider the goodness and severity of God
A. Romans 11:22 “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.”
B. To understand the goodness of God we must see His severity.
C. God’s holiness demands that sin be punished. God’s justice demands the full weight of the penalty to be applied – death.
D. Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death...”
E. The Bible declares that God hates sin We have lost the reality of God’s wrath. We have disregarded His hatred for sin.
F. We have come a long way since Jonathan Edwards’ delivered his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". Edwards portrayed sinful man as being held over the blazing abyss of hell in the hands of a God whose fury over their sinfulness might plunge them at any moment into that burning inferno. He read that sermon with little personal emotion but the conviction of those listening was so great that women fainted and men in agony dug their fingernails deep into the pews before them.
G. Today we no longer fear God.
H. Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.”
I. Some would say that when "fear" called for is a devout sense of awe and reverence. Certainly the fear of God includes awe and reverence, but it does not exclude literal holy terror.
J. Isaiah 8:13 “The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.” (dread - cause to tremble, terrify)
K. When we realize how repugnant and grievous sin is to God two things great truths ought to thrill us the wonderful grace of God bringing us salvation and the privilege of being a child of God.
L. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
M. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
III. Consider how you are the Way living your life
A. Haggai 1:5-7 “Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: "Consider your ways! "You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes." Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Consider your ways!”
B. The people of Judah had returned to Jerusalem from the long Babylonian captivity. They spent time and energy rebuilding their houses, planting their gardens, establishing their careers. Doing all these things while the neglecting of the House of God. They had become so focused on their own personal needs and desires, that they completely forgot about what God wanted.
C. God called them to build the church. But they were too busy worrying about their day to day lives that they completely forgot about what was their mission.
D. What is important to you? Consider what your life is all about. What is the real motivation in your life?
E. Matthew 6:33 “"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
F. Paul envisioned in 1 Corinthians 3, two builders on the one foundation, Jesus Christ. The one builds a palace, the other a shack. No doubt in Corinth, as in other ancient cities, side by side with the temples shining in marble and brass were the huts of the poor and the slaves, built of flimsy materials such as Paul mentions. He envisions a sudden flame playing around these buildings, the fire of the Lord coming in judgment. The marble gleams whiter, the silver, gold and jewels more resplendently, while the tongues of light leap about the palace. But the straw hut goes up in a flare. The two builders stand before God, the ultimate Paymaster. The one man gets wages for work that lasts; the other gets no pay for what perishes.
G. 1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
H. 1 Peter 4:10 “As every man has received the gift, even so minister the same one to another , as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
IV. Consider your Influence on others.
A. Hebrews 10:24 “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works”
B. What are we doing to build up the Body of Christ? To encourage others to grow, to glow and to go and sow?
C. Christians are urged "to provoke" one another "unto love and to good works." The word "provoke" means to arouse, incite, hearten. Is it not a most worthy ambition and privilege to awaken and inspire others to live righteously and godly in this present world? Few are aware of how much failure is due simply to the lack of incentive and courage or the loss of spirit. When the heart goes out of a person, there is no longer any vision to quicken, to cheer, to lead. So it is Christian to hearten and provoke others unto love and good works. Singing to the merry ring of his trowel, a bricklayer aroused Carlyle from the stupor of despondency and provoked him to rewrite the second volume of his French Revolution which had been destroyed in the manuscript. A line quoted from the New Testament and a pat on the head changed the stupid, shy lad, Walter Scott, and kindled in his heart a quenchless flame. A kiss from his mother at the psychological moment made Benjamin West a painter. Thus a seasonable word, a mother’s prayer, a friendly grasp of the hand, the memory of a face, often turn out to be provoking destiny-making acts. —Christian Observer
D. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
E. Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”
