“Five Things God Ask of You in 2017”
January 1, 2017
Deuteronomy 10: 12-22
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, 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?
14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. 16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. 20 Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. 21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.”
If you are familiar with Moses’ writings (the first five books of the Bible) you will remember how Moses, called and empowered by God, led the Children on Israel out of bondage in Egypt through a series of wonderful miracles. They passed through the Red Sea and stood on the border of the land promised to them by God, Himself. But they faltered. They feared. They failed. They lost faith. So they sent a spy from each of the twelve tribes to check out the land God was promising them and telling them to go and possess. And by the way, that pretty much establishes unequivocally the Jews title to Israel. But they didn’t do it. They did go possess it. They lacked faith. So they send the 12 spies out and 10 of them came back with a frightening, faithless report. Only Caleb and Joshua came back with an encouraging and faithful report. Guess whose advice the people followed? That’s right! The ten frightened ones.
For their faithless choice they had to wander around the desert for forty years until they all died off – except for the two faithful spies. Even Moses and Aaron would not be able to enter in. But now they were on the verge of crossing over the Jordon and taking possession of the land that flowed with milk and honey; the land God promised them.
But first God wanted Moses to make known to them very clearly the things He wanted them to do and the things He didn’t want them to do. So Moses went up on the mountain for forty days and communed with God without any food or water. Finally he came down with two tablets of stone in his arms that God had written His will for His people on. And what did Moses find the people doing? Worshipping a golden calf and engaging in revelry.
Moses was so angry he threw the tablets on the ground and broke them to pieces. Many died of a plague because of their sin. But God is a God of second chances and Moses went up on the mountain a second time and God wrote a second set of tablets for the people. Why did He do that? God was preparing them to enter the Promised Land. Moses was not going to be with them so from this point on in Deuteronomy Moses shares with them God’s will and God’s instructions. He shares God’s covenant with them. He says,
“Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do.” Deuteronomy 29:9
I think that promise is for us today. If you want to prosper in this coming year – follow the terms of your covenant with God. Moses continued on,
“You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.” Deuteronomy 29:12-15
I think he is talking about you and me when he refer to “those who are not here today”. He wants to enter into a covenant relationship covenant with us and will bless us beyond what we can imagine or expect. The covenant we enter in today -is a New Covenant where we don’t need to sacrifice animals because Jesus was the Lamb who took away our sins. The Bible says,
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29
The instructions for sacrifice has been fulfilled in Jesus – but God’s will is the same forever. He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Some people want to update the Bible. They do it at their own peril. God hates sin today the same as He did yesterday. And if you want His blessings today He asks the same thing of you that He did to the rebellious Israelites. This morning, as we face a New Year, I want to tell you what God asks of you. Do these five things and God will pour out His blessings on you.
First ‘fear’ Him. The Scripture says,
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God…” Deuteronomy 10:12
Wikipedia says, “"Fear of the Lord" generally refers to a specific sense of respect, awe, and submission to a deity, while Fear of God suggests apprehension of Divine punishment. Jewish philosopher and Torah scholar Maimonides spoke of the fear of the Lord as the feeling of human insignificance derived from contemplation of God's great and wonderful actions and creations.”
So understand that there is a difference between being afraid of God and “fearing the Lord”. One is inspired by sin. The other is inspired by love. Who can help but “respect” or be in “awe” of God when you see and think about His great and wonderful creation and the wonderful, loving things he has done?
But you see, that is the rub; that is the problem. We need to spend time with God. We need to get to know Him. How do we do that? The Psalmist said, “Be still and know I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) This New Year, if you will be still – you will know God. But you have to make it happen. You have to discipline yourself to be still and wait on the Lord. If we don’t - the busyness of life will come in and steal our time. But if we will discipline ourselves to make time for God He will come in that still, small way He has of doing things. Only the spiritually sensitive will hear his voice – but He is speaking. He is communicating with you two ways theologians tell us - through creation and through the Holy Spirit. Open your ears to His voice. When you do that, you will hear God speaking to you and then the Lord asks something else of you.
He asks that you 2)walk in His ways. Listen!
“… what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him…” Deuteronomy 10:12
Today you hear a lot of people claiming you don’t have to obey the Lord – in fact, they say, it is impossible to obey the Lord. Peter wrote about a people like that. He said,
“17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” 20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.”
2 Peter 2:17-20
Paul wrote: “and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” Hebrews 5:9
Do you see? Eternal salvation is for all who obey Him. Salvation is for those who fear the Lord. The same can be said for being filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke, the writer of the Acts of the Apostles records Peter as saying,
“We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” Acts 5:32
Do you see that the Holy Spirit is only given to the obedient? He works in the hearts of sinners convicting of sin; He works in the rebellious, calling them home; He gently knocks on the heart’s door of the wayward child – but he only comes in when invited. He only leads the obedient. The greater blessings are only for the obedient. The power of God is reserved for those who will do His will.
The Lord asks you to fear or reverence Him. He asks you to walk in all His ways, Thirdly, He asks you to love Him. Do you understand that love is a choice? Modern culture would have us believe that we are swept off our feet by love; that we don’t have any choice who or what we love. They would convince us that our passions control us. That is not so. God gave us freedom of choice. We have the power to choose. We can give in to our passions; we can let them control us and go along on a tidal wave of emotion – but we will be unstable in all our ways. God says that we are to control our hearts. (Proverbs 4:23) We are to control out thoughts (2 Corinthians 10:5). We are to choose to love Him. We are to love Him first and most. That’s a command. That’s the greatest commandment in the Bible. This year – choose to love God. God asks this of you.
The fourth thing God asks of you is to ‘serve Him with all your heart and all your soul.
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul…” Deuteronomy 10:12
In the New Testament God tells us that He has given us gifts and talents. He tells us why He has given them to us – to build up and equip our brothers and sisters (Ephesians 4:12).
Let me ask you a question. Are you serving the Lord – and if so are you putting ALL your heart and soul in it? This New Year let’s do better at serving Him. Serve Him with ALL you have.
Lastly, God asks us to do what He says. He asks us to observe or keep all his commands and decrees.
“what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?” Deuteronomy 10:11-12
Notice there is a difference between walking in obedience and observing his commands and decrees. A person can obey like a robot. A person can follow a list of do’s and don’ts without passion. But God wants a loving relationship with us. He wants us to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees. That touches our thoughts and our intent. He has to do with motives. We are to walk in obedience – but more than that we are to observe his commands and decrees. Why? It is for our own good. God has your good in mind. That is why he tells us to do this or that. He loves us. He wants to protect us. He wants us to do those things that will bring blessing in our lives.
We have just come through the Christmas season with all the hoopla - the parties and the decorations and the celebration of Christ’s birth. We celebrate Emmanuel – God with us. The celebration is that God loved us so much He came to earth in the form of a baby so He could die on a cruel cross. We should celebrate that. It is the epitome of love. And now as we face a New Year God asks us to do five things. Why? For our good. God wants us to have a blessed year. He has given us everything we need to make it a good year. Let’s do these things God asks of us – and it will be a Happy New Year.
