WHAT DOES GOD ASK OF US? DEUTERONOMY 10:11-11:32 JUNE 15, 2008

Transcription

1 WHAT DOES GOD ASK OF US? DEUTERONOMY 10:11-11:32 JUNE 15, 2008 Do you remember your first full time job? Most new jobs have a specific event that leaves a mark in our memories. I have a vivid recall of my first job out of graduate school which was with IBM. I was assigned to a special government team in the Bethesda, Maryland office, just outside of Washington, DC. Our IBM team was competing with the top 10 computer companies in the world to design a new payroll system for the United States Air Force. There was a very detailed job description that listed what was required in order to be the selected computer firm to do the job. Our boss was very strict and made us follow the job description to the letter. The process took 4 months. After anxiously waiting for another month for the US Air Force to make a decision, our IBM team was selected to write the software programs and install the hardware. It was a huge financial win for IBM and we were allowed to then go into the Pentagon and begin the installation. One of our team members remarked that it was like we finally were claiming the promised land. We were later told that we were the only company that did everything that was asked in the job description. It is important to do what is asked by those in charge of us? However, far more important than our jobs, is for us to do what God commands. If you have a Bible this morning, please turn to Deuteronomy 10:11 through 11:32 and we will consider the question, What does God ask of us? Our story picks up with God giving instructions to Moses on what the next step should be. Let s see what it says in verses 11 to 13: Then the LORD said to me, 'Arise, proceed on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.' 12Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13and to keep the LORD'S commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? God gives Moses five things in verses 12 and 13 that He requires, or asks, of the children of Israel concerning how they should live. The word require means what is expected, something that is not optional. These five things still apply to us today! It is encouraging to me that we have clear instruction from God s word. As God s children, we don t have to guess how to live. This instruction applies on Father s Day, Mother s day and every other day of our lives. As I was studying these verses, I learned so much from the various commentaries that have been written on what God requires. One of the best was done by Steve Malone and some of those thoughts are included in what I want to share with you this morning. In verse 12, we see that the first requirement is to fear God. The Bible tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. I really have not even begun my understanding of God if I have not even begun to fear him. When most people think of the word fear they think of being scared or terrified. Others view the fear of the Lord from a negative sense. This, by the way, is how the world views God that God is sitting there waiting to pounce on someone who does wrong. Many Christians have this view, always living in fear of punishment and judgment. Their view of God is distorted, viewing God as a hard taskmaster. I grew up with some of these thoughts and had to change. This is not what the fear of the Lord is. So then, what does it mean? It means that in spite of popular opinions of men, God is still right. In spite of what my friends and family say, I am still obligated to obey God. The proper fear of God is an attitude of reverence and awe because we love Him and respect His power and greatness. 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, then we will know and believe that God is with us. And, one day He will take us home. When we fear God, we will fear nothing else When we fear God, we will fear nothing else. 1

2 The second requirement is that we are to walk in His ways Not just the ways we like, but, we are to walk in ALL HIS ways. How are we to do that? We can do that by walking in the steps of Jesus. The Apostle John says it clearly in 1 John 2:6: "Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did" So, 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. We can t put conditions on our love. We can t say I ll love and serve God if he helps me out in my marriage; or, if he finds me a job; or, gets me out of this tough situation I am in. In reality, we tend to act like the children of Israel. When things got tough, they rejected God and wanted to return to Egypt. Most of them walked with God only when He was doing things their way. When God didn t do it their way, they abandoned Him. I have to confess, as an adult and as a father and a grandfather, I don t seek Him and His will like I should. I don t walk in His ways very well at times. Selfishness gets in my way and I ask What about me and my wants. However, after I make a fool of myself and I take a look at how I wrecked a situation or a conversation, it drives me back to prayer and seeking answers in God s word. Why didn t I go there first? It s because I was walking in MY WAY. As an adult, and a father, I have to ask myself, Am I showing my love for God by my daily life and my modeling it in front of my family and work associates? If not, all my talk is worthless. When we walk like Jesus, when we walk in His steps, the family and workplace will notice and we will make a difference. Those who claim to live in Him must walk as Jesus walked. Step by step, the way the Father instructed. The third requirement is that we love God? Moses said in Deuteronomy 6:5-6: You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. We are 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. We are to put God before everything else jobs, family, money, sports, hobbies, and popularity. 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. If we try to do the right thing without this high motive of 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 we 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. The fourth requirement is to serve the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul. This phrase in verse 12 is longer than the other phrases. I think it is because God want us to have absolute clarity of its meaning. First, it says to serve the Lord, YOUR GOD. This means God is a personal God, YOUR GOD, and it is because He desires a personal relationship with you and me as we live our daily lives in a personal walk with Him. He gives us clear instruction about how to do that in the next 9 words WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL. God is a loving Father who wants us to return that love from our very core being from all our heart and from all our soul because we want to! It is even greater than the kind of deep affection that a parent has for a child. Serving God with all our heart and soul is basically putting His wants and cares above our own needs. When we love and serve with that kind of love, right from our very heart and soul, it is what drives all our other actions. Therefore, it leads us to the answer of the 2

3 question that we asked earlier, What does God ask of us? God asks us to love Him and serve Him with all our heart and with all our soul. That kind of love will give us a desire to want to do something to serve God. Questions should be coming into our mind such as 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 for us to get busy! Jesus himself said in Matthew 20:28: the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. Think about that even Jesus, stated clearly that He came to serve. As we consider that concept this morning, let me introduce Bob Hollander, our head usher, who will share one example of how service is put into action at North Pointe. (Introduce Bob. He will introduce Nicole Hollander and Maison Burnley with brief comments about how, as children, they serve faithfully). Thank you Nicole and Maison! I hope that many adults will follow your example of serving. In your bulletin is our Service Brochure. Take time to review the many places we need people to serve. Since it is one of God s requirements, I encourage you to mark one that you would be willing to try and put this in the forms box on the information table. If that area doesn t work, try something else. As we conclude the 5 requirements from God, Moses brings us the last one to make sure there is no misunderstanding. The fifth requirement is to keep God s commandments. The concept of OBEDIENCE is the dominant theme of the book of Deuteronomy. However, we have just learned that the key to obedience, and the key to keeping His commandments and serving Him, is that we must do it from the heart. If our heart and soul is so focused on pleasing Him that we do it automatically from the inside out, then we will be the kind of people that pleases Him. A couple of weeks ago, Andy taught about each commandment in Deuteronomy 5 & 6. He asked the question of us, How does God want us to live out our love for Him? The answer was by giving our devotion completely to Him and by obeying His commandments. The answer is still the same in Chapter 10. God does not change. In verses 14 through 22, God reminds the people that He is worthy of their devotion and obedience. He is sovereign. He created everything, controls everything and will judge everything. He tells the people in verse 16: So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. In the New Testament, it repeats that our heart needs to change as shown in Romans 2:29 where we are told: circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit. What does this mean? It means if Jesus is not in your life and if we don t allow the Holy Spirit to perform heart surgery on us, we re doomed to be crushed by the weight of this law because we have no hope of living like this on our own. Jesus is the only one who can empower our obedience to these things through the power of His Spirit. In the Old Testament, one of the ways the writer had to emphasize a point was to repeat it again and again. It is obvious that God wanted the people to understand what He required because Chapter 11 begins with the same obedience points made in Chapter 10. Verses 2-17 of chapter 11 give a very clear history of God s awesome power in bringing both good and bad things to Israel. As we look at how God wants us to live, verses give great instruction. Father s Day is a reminder of both the joys and struggles of being a parent. The 3

4 joys are often centered on the birth of children or buying your first home. The struggles are often centered on the challenges of parenting those children or handling the maintenance of that home. My kids are grown, so my struggle is with home maintenance, especially my lawn. I have tried to handle it 2 different ways. The first way is to let nature take its course. Why go to all the work of mowing, fertilizing, and weeding? After all, grass grows naturally in pastures all over Nebraska. So, I ll just let nature do its thing. Well, I found out what the result was. I did have some grass; but, I also had a lot of weeds, because weeds are a part of nature too. I also had spots of gray brown patches from insects, mold and fungus. My yard looked like a cow pasture. What was the problem? The problem was that I didn t like what was left up to nature. I wanted a beautiful lawn that had thick green grass and nothing else. But, that takes time and effort. It takes thought and planning. If I wanted to have a nice lawn, I had to commit myself to weekly lawn care. Being a father and raising kids is a lot like lawn care. We can t treat either one with an attitude of neglect and expect them to flourish. Alan Perkins in his commentary on teaching children made the following comments. Some parents have the attitude that if they provide food, clothing and love, they can just let nature take its course with children. They ll learn how to get along. We don t have to concern ourselves with what they are hearing, seeing and learning. What will happen if we take that approach? We may get some good healthy growth by accident, but we will also get a lot of weeds, a lot of bad choices, and a lot of foolish ideas because those things come naturally, too. Perkins went on to say the following: If we want our children to grow into wise, confident, mature Christian adults, we can t just leave their spiritual and moral development to chance. We can t assume that they ll get what they need from their environment. We can t just turn them over to be shaped and molded by the culture, especially these days, when American culture is becomingly increasingly hostile to Christian values. We have to take seriously our God-given responsibility to teach our children. See what God says to parents in Deuteronomy 11:18-21: You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 19You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. 20You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth. This passage is very different than how we usually think of Christian education. We usually think of a class, Sunday school or Vacation Bible School. But those programs are offered as a help and an aid to parents. They re not the main course. The primary way that God intends for our children to be taught and instructed in the faith is "constantly", step by step. All the time, at every opportunity, throughout the normal course of life. And this has to be done by the parents, because they are the ones who are around the children when most of life happens. Verse 19 says teach them when you sit at your house. If you re watching television and some character does something contrary to God s word, then you don t just let it go. You ask your son, What does God s Word say about that? If someone did that in real life, what would happen?" Or let s take "walking or driving along the road". You re talking with your daughter about her day at school, and you see an opportunity to bring God s Word to bear, to think through with her what s true and what s false. How about when you lie down? Do you have a story or talk time before saying prayers? And "when you get up", do you pray with them before they leave for school or read a short devotional? God s instruction is parents should be talking 4

5 about God and His Word with their children all the time, in every kind of situation. His word should be so much a part of our lives that it s as if we literally wrote them on the backs of our hands and on our foreheads. We should love God with all our heart and all our soul so deeply that it becomes our greatest desire to please Him in our daily walk. In order to train your children in Godliness and wisdom, you have to be godly and wise yourself. Your ministry to your children is an outflow of your own love relationship with God. He calls us to be the kind of people who can impart to our children wisdom and truth because we have first found them in the way we love our Heavenly Father. What does God ask of us? God asks us to love Him and serve Him with all our heart and with all our soul. As we sum up what we have just learned and in order to do what the Lord requires of us, we can only do it if we have Jesus in our life. All of us are subject to sin and temptation. Our only hope for living the life that God wants is to receive the free gift of salvation by inviting Jesus into our life. If you haven t done that, don t put it off. You can ask Jesus to forgive your sins and come into your life right where you sit in the quietness of your heart. Think about it! A computer firm cannot successfully win a bid unless it follows the job requirements. A lawn will not look its best if its care is left up to nature. Adults and children will not receive God s blessing unless they do what God asks. One more time we will ask the question, What does God ask of us? God asks us to love Him and serve Him with all our heart and with all our soul. 5