"WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE OF YOU"
TEXT: DEUTERONOMY 10:12-22
INTRODUCTION
Right at this moment things are looking pretty good for the building of our fellowship hall. We are this close to having our permits.
One thing this struggle with the county has reinforced once again in our minds, is the power of prayer. Every time that we have bathed our visits to the county with prayer, things have gone great. And the one time that it slip just about everyone’s mind that Ronnie was going down there, and we didn’t pray, the bottom fell threw and the roof caved in. And this past week we all did some serious praying, and all those who the last time were just looking for things to block are efforts were as helpful and as nice as can be. Don’t tell me prayer doesn’t work.
This whole ordeal at times has been very frustrating. And perhaps the most frustrating thing has been trying to figure out exactly what the people issuing permits, would require us to do. It would have been great and it would have made sense if they would have said from the start, "okay, if you all want us to approve your plans you need to do this and this and this". As I said it would have been nice, but it didn’t happen that way. Each time we went down they gave us something else to do. What they told us to correct we did, and then when we went down they told us of something else that needed to be done. It seemed like this cycle would never end.
It was like we were constantly in the dark as to what the requirements were. It was really hard to figure out what was expected of us. We were never sure what we were to do.
I think we all have experienced this frustration before in our own lives, whether trying to get permits, an A on a report card, trying to satisfy our boss or trying to please a family member. It is frustrating and hard to measure up when they don’t tell us know what they want us do, when they don’t let us know what the requirements are.
Have you ever asked yourself the question, "What does God want me to do, What does God require of me?
If you have, you can be thankful, because God is not like; the county permit office, and he is not like our teachers, employers or spouse. God does not keep us in the dark, He tells us exactly what He requires from His people.
Today we will be studying Deuteronomy 10:12-22, and as we study this text we will see that God has spelled out in clear and specific detail what He expects from His people.
And as we study this passage from God’s Word (that was delivered by to the Israelites over 3,000 years ago) we can be certain that we who have experienced a far greater deliverance (a deliverance from the power of sin, and an eternal promise land in heaven), we can be certain that we will be expected to meet these requirements as well.
[Deuteronomy 10:12-22]
I. WHAT GOD’S PEOPLE OWE GOD. (12,13)
A. GOD’S PEOPLE MUST FEAR GOD.
1. When people are told to fear God, they may respond in this way; Don’t we have enough things to fear? Many people fear; disease, they fear the economy, they fear war, they fear for their safety, they fear for their families safety, they fear being ridiculed, THEY FEAR BEING REJECTED, they fear being alone and they fear death. With all these other fears why do we have to fear God to?
2. The fear of God is a prevalent Biblical doctrine. We find this concept mentioned from The book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, and in over 30 books in between. So therefore we can readily see that this is a prevalent teaching that we must understand.
3. What does it mean to fear God? Is this the fear of terror or tread? No, the fear of God is an attitude of reverence and awe that His people show to Him because they love Him and respect His power and greatness.
In the book of proverbs we read that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge". Our fear of God is the starting point of our knowledge and of our relationship to God. When we recognize who God is, "The Almighty, The Creator, Our Savior, Our Provider", we then will bow in humble adoration before Him.
4.The fear of the ungodly/sinful makes them run away from God (as it should, "it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Heb 10:31), but the fear godly/saved causes them to fall to their knees in loving submission to God.. (Those who fear Him, trust in the Lord for he is their help and shield, Ps115:11).
Oswald Chambers wrote, "The remarkable thing about fearing God, is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else; whereas, when you do not fear God you fear everything else.
You see when we fear God, when we trust in His Power and His Greatness, When we realize that He is our Help in times of trouble and our Shield in times of danger. We will then know and believe that God is with us and that nothing can ever hurt us. And one day he will take us home. When we fear God we will fear nothing else.
B. WE MUST WALK IN ALL HIS WAYS
1. We are to walk in all (not some, not just the ways we like), we are to walk in all His ways. We are to imitate God.
How are we to do that? We can do that by walking like Jesus, we can do that by following in the ways/in the steps of Jesus.
I really like how The Apostle John said it, "Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did". I John 2:6
2. How did Jesus walk?
Jesus walked in love, He walked in compassion, He walked in truth, He walked away from the things of the world and he walked in obedience.
3. When we walk like Jesus, when we walk in His steps, the world will notice and we will make a difference. I just began reading the first time the book In His Steps, a book about a church where everyone decided that they would before doing anything ask themselves the question what would Jesus do? There decision to do this was influenced by he questions asked by an unemployed printer, in dirty torn clothes who came into their church service one sunday. Here is some of what he said.
"I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other night,All for Jesus, all for Jesus,All my being’s ransomed powers,All my thoughts and all my doings All my days and all my hours.
and I kept wondering as I sat on there steps outside just what they meant by it. It seems to me there’s an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn’t exist if all the people who sing such songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don’t understand. But what would Jesus do? Is that what you mean by following in his steps.... But what I feel puzzled about is, what is meant by following Jesus. What do you mean when you sing, "I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way? Do you mean that you are suffering and denying yourselves and trying to save lost suffering humanity just as I understand Jesus did?
Those who claim to live in Him must walk as Jesus walked. We are to walk i all of God’s ways.
C. GOD’S PEOPLE MUST LOVE GOD.
1. Moses wrote earlier in Deuteronomy in chapter 6 about loving God. He said to God’s people; "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and all your strength".
2. The kind of love commanded here is intelligent good-will toward God, a love that always seeks to do what is in God’s best interests, a love that seeks to please God.to please God. This love is much more than an emotion no matter how deeply felt. It is also a motive to action, fundamental to everything God’s people would do. Israel was taught to love God. Love was to be the ultimate motive behind all they do. God orders this love, because when the guiding principle and attitude of the individual, is Love for God, then readiness to do what God requires will be there as well. And on the contrary when this high motive of love for God is missing the person will not always do what is right. If we tries to do the right without this love, we will do it for the wrong motives, and it will not be accepted by God. Or if we attempt to do right without love, our initial enthusiasm will not give us enough staying power, and he will not do right for very long.
To love God means to love his fellowship (to love being with God), It means to find our joy and delight in Him, It means to love His attributes: love, patience, mercy, grace, power. To love God means to love what God loves and to love what God is. It is to be constantly willing to obey anything God says and to imitate his character.
3. Moses says we are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all of our strength. We are called/required to love God whole-heartedly, with our entire being, with all our energy. We are not to love God with only pieces of our lives, but rather with our whole lives.
4. Jesus when asked in Matthew chapter 22 called the commanded to love God, the greatest commandment. And if you read in Matthew you will see that Jesus adds a world that is not in Deuteronomy, he adds the word mind "mind". We are to love God with all of our mind.
This is an extremely important concept to understand (and many groups today don’t understand this), How do we love God with our mind? For one thing we love God with our minds when we hold deep sincere beliefs about God and not by mere blind unthinking, unreasoning devotion.
Our faith in God must be based on evidence reasonably considered and evaluated. God does not want mindless unthinking devotion.
We also love God with our mind when we dedicate our minds to God, striving to learn more about God and his Word all the time.
What a shame it is that many of Gods people, have devoted more time to and know more about hobbies and trivia than they know about God and His Word.
We also love God with our mind by understanding all that we do whether in worship or in service. We are not loving God with our mind when our worship is mindless, unthinking "religious" motion. To disconnected our mind whether in prayer or praise, supposedly prompted by the spirit, is condemned in this command to love God with our minds.
D. GOD’S PEOPLE MUST SERVE GOD.
1. Service to God is not an option.
Jesus was with his disciples and the mother of James and John ask Jesus if her sons could sit at the right and left side of his throne in His Kingdom. Jesus told her that He could not do that.
And after this incident the other 10 ten disciples became indignant, not because they were upset at the lack of spiritual understanding on the part of Kames and John, But because they wanted those places of honor themselves, and James and John almost beat them to the punch.
[Matt. 20:24-28]
Serving God is not an option for God’s people. It’s a requirement. Both old and New Testament bare this out. Moses says we are to serve God in the same way we love God with all of our heart and all of our soul.
Are we serving God? Are we using our time and energies to build up His kingdom. Are we serving God in the church, in our Homes, in our jobs and with our lives.
If not it’s time to get busy, now!. If Jesus God the son served, surely we can see that we must serve.
E. GOD’S PEOPLE MUST OBEY GOD.
1. The concept of obedience is the dominant theme of the book of Deuteronomy. The theme of the book of Deuteronomy is "OBEDIENCE IS ESSENTIAL".
2. Now I realize that obedience is not on the top ten list of most people in our society. People want to do what they want to do and no one is going to stop them or tell them ant different.
3. We in the church have a hard time obeying God’s Word. Let me read a few scriptures and then I want to give you an illustration of disobedience.
"WE KNOW THAT WE HAVE COME TO KNOW HIM IF WE OBEY HIS COMMANDS. THE MAN WHO SAYS, I KNOW HIM BUT DOES NOT DO WHAT HE COMMANDS IS A LIAR AND THE TRUTH IS NOT IN HIM’ (I JOHN 2:3,4)
Notice that John doesn’t say we can know that we know God if we have a warm feeling in our heart at the mention of his name, or if we cry during a pretty song, or if we have a Jesus bumper sticker on our Car or if we speak in tongues like many groups falsely say is a sign that we have been saved.
John says we know that we know God How? If we obey him. All the tears and all the warm feeling can not take the place of obedience.
Jesus said in John 14:15, "IF YOU LOVE ME YOU WILL OBEY WHAT I COMMAND".
Jesus is saying, "don’t tell me you love me, don’t tell me how great you think I am if you are nit going to obey me. Because the test of your love for me is for you to be willing to obey what I say.
A friend of mine at FCC went to a church in town where another student attends. It was a pentecostal church. After the song service which was very lively, the minister said let’s pray. So my friend bowed his head expecting to hear a prayer, but instead the entire place erupted into wild ecstatic utterances. My fired was literally frightened by this crazy scene.
He talked to the other student who attended there and said, What was going on there you all violated the word of God as given by Paul in I Corth 14.
You see even if we assume the tongues still exist today as they did in the Bible (which I am convinced they do not, we have studied their purpose in detail on Wed, Now in SS), But even if they still did. This church violated every command of God in I Corinth. 14, there was no interpreter, more than one speaking at once, in fact every one, women were doing this and there were more than three total.
When asked how they could violate this clear teaching the student responded, "sometimes when the spirit of God gets moving you can’t control it". So in effect they were blaming and accusing the spirit of God ( A SPIRIT OF ORDER AND NOT DISORDER) as being the reason they violated scripture, NOT!!!!!!!!
God’s people must obey God’s Word!!!
If we don’t we do not know God and we are a liar and the truth is not in us.
4. God’s people must do what God says, they must not question why AND SECOND GUESS GOD. We had a saying in the Nuclear Power filed in the Navy, we had these Large manual of procedures and Operating instructions, and are motto was, "OUR’S IS NOT TO REASON WHY OUR’S IS BUT TO VERBATIM COMPLY".
5. When God’s word say’s "repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sin" we must obey
When God’s says I want the best of you time, your talents and your treasure your money" we must obey.
When God’s word say’s forgive one another, love one another, encourage one another, build up one another, we must obey.
When God’s word say’s study to show thy self approved, we must study.
And we could go on all day, perhaps there is a command of God that we are having trouble with and that we don’t really want to do it. To us I say very sympathetically, TO BAD! WE HAVE NO CHOICE! WE MUST OBEY.
GOD’S PEOPLE MUST FEAR GOD, THEY MUST WALK IN ALL HIS WAYS, THEY MUST LOVE AND SERVE GOD WITH ALL OF THEIR HEART AND THEY MUST OBEY GOD. THIS IS WHAT GOD REQUIRES OF HIS PEOPLE, THIS IS WHAT WE OWE GOD.
II. WHY GOD’S PEOPLE OWE GOD.
If any of you have looked at your watch you are probably pretty worried by now. As I just finished my first point and am about to start the second. Don’t worry this will not take long.
(but it is very important)
The God who spoke from Mt. Sinai was worthy of Israel’s allegiance because of who he is and what he has done.
A. GOD IS SOVEREIGN (14)
He created everything, rules everything, He will judge everything and He is in control of everything.
B. GOD HAS CHOSEN US (15)
God had chosen the Israelite nation as a holy nation and set them a part. We too as Christians have been chosen by God.
[I Peter 2:9-10] Not because of anything we had done but because of our acceptance of Jesus; we are now a royal priesthood, a Holy Nation, we belong to God, we are no longer in the dark but in the light and we have received mercy.
C. GOD IS GOD OF gods.
Why does it makes sense to do what God requires, to give our allegiance to Him. Because is the one true God, he is God of gods and Lord of Lords.
[17]
D. ANOTHER REASON IS BECAUSE GOD SHOWS NO PARTIALITY.
[17-19]
GOD DOES NOT GRADE ON A CURVE
DID YOU CATCH THE PART ABOUT LOVING ALIENS, WE ARE TO LOVE THE ALIENS THOSE WHO ARE OUTSIDE OF CHRIST.
E. GOD HAS GREAT POWER [21-22]
AND GOD USED THAT GREAT POWER TO WIN THE ISRAELITES DELIVERANCE AND TO WIN OUR DELIVERANCE.
BECAUSE OF WHO GOD IS, THE ALMIGHTY ONE TRUE GOD BECAUSE HE IS THE ONE WE MUST ALL ULTIMATELY ANSWER TO, AND BECAUSE OF WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR US, HE HAS DELIVERED US FROM SIN THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, HE PAID THE PRICE. HE PROVIDES FOR OUR NEEDS, AND HE IS PREPARING FOR US A HOME IN HEAVEN.
BECAUSE OF ALL THIS IT ONLY MAKE SENSE TO DO WHAT GOD REQUIRES. WE OWE GOD OUR LOVE, OUR SERVICE, OUR OBEDIENCE AND WE MUST FEAR HIM AND WALK IN ALL HIS WAYS.
