INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Last week in our reverse order journey with the Israelites on their deliverance tour, we left the nation of Israel on the cusp of ending their 40-year journey to get into the Promised Land.
• Today, we go back into the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses is going to give his final sermons to the people of Israel before they enter into the Promised Land.
• Now for some Old Testament Context that is interesting.
• The Book of Exodus, which details the nation falling into slavery to Egypt to being delivered from that bondage covers about 431 years of history.
• The book of Leviticus covers about one month of the history of the nation after they were delivered from Egypt, to just before the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.
• The book of Numbers covers almost 40 years of history, the time of the wandering.
• The book of Deuteronomy will cover about a month of history, it details the month before the Israelites entering the Promised Land.
• The book is broken down into three primary sections, which represent three messages Moses shares with the people.
• From Chapter 1 to chapter 4:43 Moses shares the message, What God has DONE for Israel.
• From 4:44 to 26:19, the message is, What God EXPECTS of Israel.
• And the final message from chapter 27 to 34:2, is, What God will DO for Israel.
• Our text is found amid this third message.
• Today our message is entitled, "BLESSED."
• What do we mean when we use the word blessed? Surely the overuse and misuse of that word needs to be examined biblically.
• This passage reveals that God does, indeed, want to bless us. Our choices and their consequences affect our experience of that blessing.
• Another thing to take note of in this section is the fact that the word prosper is used in this passage at least four times (see vv. 5, 9, 15).
• We rightly shy away from anything that sounds like a false prosperity gospel, but we need to see what God says about how he wants to bless us and how he wants us to live.
• The key is how we define abundant life and prosperity.
• All too often, our idea of prosperity is narrowly limited to wealth and possessions.
• Here is where the rubber meets the road for us today, in 2019.
• I think most of us want to be blessed, we do not want to live a miserable life chocked full of failure and misery, we want to be prosperous.
• Today we are going to see how that works.
• There is something you need to be aware of, God wants to bless us with abundant life.
• Just like a parent wants the best for their children, God wants the best for us.
• Today we are going to cover Deuteronomy 30:1-20, but our focus will be on verses 15-16.
• Let’s start with verse 15.
• SLIDE #2
• Deuteronomy 30:15 (CSB) — 15 See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity.
• SLIDE #3
• Let’s begin our expedition this morning by first looking at…
SERMON
I. The choice.
• In the previous chapter, Moses laid out two possible choices for the people, acceptance of God and His Covenant with the people, or rejection.
• In verses 1-10 of this chapter, Moses tells the people, I have laid out the blessings and curses you may receive, now you need to make a choice.
• After forty years of wandering in the wilderness, Moses is telling the people the choice is still theirs to make. Life and prosperity, or death and adversity.
• These are the same options we get to choose from today.
• Even after all those years in the wilderness, God still left the choice up to the people.
• Yet today, God still gives you the choice as to how you will spend your life on this earth as well as where you will choose to spend your eternity.
• Moses painted a dire picture of what a life of disobedience would look like, this disobedience led to the nation of Israel into their time in the wilderness.
• I touched on this last week a little, our society is selling our young people, and all of our people a bill of goods.
• The path that society and the media seek to lead you down is a dangerous path that will lead to your ultimate destruction.
• In the United States, we have so much freedom, but freedom does not mean that we live life without restraint.
• When we choose to live life as if there is not God, we will reap what we sow.
• Life will become confusing and complicated.
• Take a moment to think about your own life, past or present.
• When you were in trouble in life, was it because you followed what God has laid out for you?
• Or are you or were you in trouble because you decided that in spite of the fact your choice was not good, that you made the choice because you wanted what you wanted and you HOPED the decision would not come back and bite you.
• Here is the thing about freedom and having free will.
• Part of the responsibility of freedom is knowing when to put on the brakes when to say, I know I could smoke CRACK, but you know what, that is not a good decision to make for me or those around me.
• Just like in the days when Moses proclaimed this message, each one of us needs to make a choice, and the outcome of our lives and our eternity depends on that choice.
• For the people part of the choice includes repentance, and from God the choice is forgiveness.
• One thing we need to understand about God is that He wants to see us succeed in this life.
• In the first 15 verses of this chapter, Moses uses the word PROSPER OR PROSPERITY four times.
• Moses told the people that God WANTS to bless them if they will turn to Him and trust Him.
• God wants to bless you, and it breaks His heart when he sees you in failure, pain, and misery.
• Eventually, the choice comes down to God or not God.
• God is the author of life, and a decision to obey him is a decision to live.
• The law was not an end in itself, but a means to an end—life is to be an intimate relationship with God.
• So how whin needed for us to choose life and prosperity?
• SLIDE #4
• Deuteronomy 30:16 (CSB) — 16 For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
• SLIDE #5
• First, we need to understand…
II. The challenge.
• The challenge that Moses issues is, For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God.
• What does love the Lord mean?
• Well, it is not much different than say, loving your spouse.
• The word love is broader than the concept of LIKING or AFFECTION, it also includes devotion and loyalty.
• When a person says they love their spouse, the feelings are not enough, their love has to include devotion and loyalty.
• A person who says they LOVE their spouse while cheating on them does not understand love. They love themselves as well as their own desires over their spouse whom they proclaim to love.
• In verses 11-14, Moses tells the people that the command is not hard to find, but it is close to them so they can follow it.
• Love is an action and love is a choice.
• When you say you love God, your desire should be to strive to live for Him.
• When you love your spouse, your love for your spouse should change you.
• That love should be strong enough to withstand any temptation the enemy sets before you.
• If we want to choose life and prosperity that choice means loving God to the point that we put Him and His will first in our life.
• This can be difficult because we love ourselves and our will a great deal.
• Loving God also means we trust Him as much as He can trust us.
• Faith over fear! Fear leads us down some dark paths in life.
• Trust means that we trust that God wants and knows the best of us.
• The devil wants you to believe God’s commands are torturously burdensome and the death of your happiness.
• The devil wants you to believe that God is withholding joy from you in the limitations he places on you.
• If you think God is trying to keep you from having fun or limiting your freedom, you will not trust Him, which means you will not fully love Him.
• Let’s look at verse 16 again.
• SLIDE #6
• Deuteronomy 30:16 (CSB) — 16 For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
• SLIDE #7
III. The path.
• So, how do I show God that I love Him? Verse 16 shows how loves manifest itself.
• First of all, we are called to walk in His ways.
• This just means that we know what pleases God and we strive to do whatever that is.
• We have to KNOW is ways before we can walk in them.
• The WAYS in which we are to walk is found in the middle part of the verse, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances.
• Real life in Him consists of letting His ways guide our path which will result in one growing in character.
• If I do not trust God and I think His only purpose is to make sure I have no fun in life, then I will not do anything He gives me to do unless it is something I want to do.
• Obedience is not optional if I love God. Fidelity is not optional if I love God.
• In verses 17-19, Moses again tells the people if they turn away from God, that life will not be good for them.
• The same is true for us today when you choose to turn away from God, life will not be good, and your eternal life will be terrible, to say the least.
• Look at verse 19 as Moses pleads with the people to do the right thing.
• SLIDE #8
• Deuteronomy 30:19 (CSB) — 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
• This leads to why Moses is pleading with the people.
• SLIDE #9
IV. The blessings.
• SLIDE #10
• 16 For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
• The direct context was the nation of Israel; however, the same principle applies today.
• WE need to understand something important.
• Whenever we obey a command of God in faith, he sets us free or keeps us free from the blinding, oppressive, destructive slavery of sin and increases our capacity for joy.
• The commands of God are not burdensome; they are the narrow gate to life and true freedom” (Jon Bloom, “What the Devil Doesn’t Want You to Know,” Desiring God, January 12, 2018, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-the-devil-doesn-t-want-you-to-know).
• Freedom, blessings, eternal life are all there for the enjoyment of those who love God enough to trust and obey Him.
• We do not trust and obey to earn a blessing; we trust and obey because we love God and appreciate the blessings, He offers us.
CONCLUSION
• Our obedience to God will be met with God’s faithfulness to bless us, but those blessings may not look like financial prosperity.
• Prosperity, as defined by God, is measured spiritually. We are invited out of death and into life—the benefit of knowing God, loving him and being loved by him.
• We have a choice of walking in God’s ways or not.
• Let me ask you something to ponder as we conclude, how is life going for you doing it your own way, following your own desires?
• I can promise you a better way of life in Christ!
