So live in Obedience to the Word
Deut 10:12-13
January 15, 2012
INTRODUCTION:
Agree/Disagree:
Determining where you stand.
Agree/Disagree:
Football is a cool game.
Agree/Disagree:
Walking in the rain is something couples should try.
Agree/Disagree:
Following Jesus is worth it.
Agree/Disagree:
Jesus' commands are not burdensome, and the life Jesus offers is a "winning" one that others desire because they are seeing it in me.
Matt 5:
14 "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. NIV
16Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven. AMP
Agree/Disagree:
Each of the fruit of the spirit is more evident in my life this year than last year.
(love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control)
The deeds of the flesh are serious failings, God intends that they not be in my life and each has become less and less evident in me during this past hear.
(The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like).
Agree Disagree:
I am being so transformed that when my life bumps into the messiness of the world that Jesus slops out.
Agree Disagree:
Life's Too Short so live in Obedience to the Word
Moses, knowing his is soon to die, delivers his second great challenge to the people of God in Deuteronomy. This one begins in Deut 10.
Deut 10:12-13
12 And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask 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, 13 and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
Deut 11
1 Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.
13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today -- to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul -- 14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. 15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
22 If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow -- to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him -- 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. 24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours: . . . 25 No man will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse -- 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you . . . .
I. Living in Obedience will mean remembering God's expectation for us is much higher.
Where you set the bar matters. Setting the bar to low leads to mediocrity in our walk with God.
A. Agree/Disagree: God expects me to be perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (NIV)
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (AMP)
48You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete [a]maturity of godliness in mind and character,[b]having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (NASB)
48 Therefore [a]you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Footnotes: a. Matthew 5:48 Lit you shall be
B. Agree/Disagree: God expects that I will not keep sinning.
1 Peter 1:16 (NIV)
16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."[a]
Footnotes: a. 1 Peter 1:16 Lev. 11:44,45; 19:2
Romans 6:
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Ask yourself if you have settled for too little.
Mediocrity is not the new Excellence
II. Living in Obedience to the Word will mean seeing obedience as more attractive than sin.
A. Agree/Disagree: God always punishes Disobedience.
There is always a price to pay, sooner or later for sin. The choice to sin always costs.
Deut 11: 26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse -- 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
David was a man after God's own heart. He willfully sinned, sexually, has an affair then commits murder to hide it. Confronted by Nathan the prophet he repents, writes of the greatest prayers of repentance in Psalm 51.
Does he pay a price? Shame, disgrace. The child born form the adulterous affair dies. His sons follow his example into sexual sins, murder.
God Punishes Disobedience. Yes forgiveness is always possible. Consequences will eventually catch up to us.
In his book Finishing Strong, Steve Farrar sums up well the terrible price of sin: "Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you're willing to pay."
B. Agree/Disagree: Obedience is always the better choice which God will always honor.
Deut 10:12-13
12 And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask 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, 13 and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
In the comic strip For Better or Worse Elly Patterson juggles the daily duties of being a dedicated mom and wife and a willing ear to friends. While sometimes wishing for nothing more than a few quiet minutes to herself, she thrives on being involved and active. In December the strip carried the story of her son's Michael experiment with shoplifting.
Though he first got away with stealing a scarf for his mother as a Christmas gift, Michael is overcome by guilt, Michael decides to return the scarf. He gets caught. Elly, gets called to the store. Blaming herself for her poor parenting skills she goes dreading the worst.
But rather than condemning Michael, the store affirms him, honors him and gives him a gift because he has done the right thing. Obedience doing right is always rewarded by God.
III. Living in Obedience to the Word will mean forsaking excuses.
99% of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. George Washington Carver.
Believe that God is calling you to recover the life that is yours in Christ, a life that only Holy Spirit can breathe into you. A life that changes you in this coming year.
A. Agree /Disagree: God has already done enough to enable me to live in godliness and power.
2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
B. Agree/Disagree: God expects me to make the effort to increase in Godliness.
2 Peter 1: 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
CHALLENGE:
We have also sorts of things that we believe, but they make no difference until we decide to live by them. Until we do that we may never really be transformed.
I have a lot of beliefs .... And I live by none of them. That's just the way I am. They're just my beliefs. I just like believing them--I like that part. They're my little "believies." They make me feel good about who I am. But if they get in the way of a thing I want, I [sure as heck just do what I want to do].
These six agree disagree statements will likely determine whether or not we progress deeper in our walk with God, if we are more transformed in 2012.
God expects me to be perfect.
God expects that I will not keep sinning.
God punishes Disobedience.
Obedience is always the better choice which God will always honor.
God has already done enough to enable me to live in godliness and power.
God expects me to make the effort to increase in Godliness.
