Osceola Sermon Bible Deuteronomy Pastor Bob Vale / February 3 rd, 2013 Holy Communion Sunday

Transcription

1 Osceola Sermon Bible Deuteronomy Pastor Bob Vale / February 3 rd, 2013 Holy Communion Sunday In Deuteronomy: February 3 rd, 2013 Book Theme: He is your teacher. Sermon Title: Is your life going in circles? Sermon Topic: (Where do I find hope and purpose in my life?) Sermon Text: Deuteronomy 2:1-3 Speaker: Pastor Bob Vale Biblical Focus: Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Scripture Lesson: Deuteronomy 6:1-19 DT 6:1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you. DT 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. DT 6:10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant-- then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. DT 6:13 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; 15 for the LORD

2 your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. 16 Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah. 17 Be sure to keep the commands of the LORD your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. 18 Do what is right and good in the LORD's sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers, 19 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the LORD said. *Special Song: So you wanna go back to Egypt. 8:30 traditional Worship Service: Hymn of Praise: # 467 Trust & Obey Prayer Hymn: # 526 What a Friend we have in Jesus (Verse #1) Holy Communion: 11:00 a.m. Solid Praise Service: See Matt Boggs for song list.

3 The theme of the sermon today is finding purpose in your life. Do you sometimes feel like life is taking you in circles? Perhaps you had a goal or several goals at one time in your life, and now that goal or goals have gotten lost in the business or twist and turns of life? Moses had a goal of getting the Hebrew people to the promise land. However, he and the Hebrew people wandered in circles in the desert wilderness for 40 years trying to get them there. Why? Have you been wandering in circles? Let s look at the book of Deuteronomy and see what we can learn. By the way: Do you know why Moses and the Hebrew people wandered in the desert for 40 full years? Of course the Biblical answer is that God was weeding out the unfaithful to die off before entering the promise land. My wife told me it was probably because Moses and the other male leaders were just too stubborn to simply ask for directions!!! Summary of The Book of Deuteronomy The word "Deuteronomy" is taken from the Greek word for "the second law" or "the law repeated." The book is written in the form of discourses or sermons, which Moses spoke to the people in the plains of Moab on the eve of their entrance into the promised land of Canaan. This was also during the time when Moses and the Hebrew people had been wandering in the desert for 40 long years. These sermons by Moses are addressed to every member of the congregation of Israel and not just to a small segment, such as the Priestly Levites. The discourses are not a second law in the sense of being a different set of laws from the first as recorded in Exodus and Leviticus. They are rather an application of the law to circumstances which would face the Israelites in their new life in Canaan. Remember this is a new generation going into the promise land, many of the older

4 generations have died in the past 40 years. Remember also this is the last third of Moses life. Divisions of Moses Life: 1. First Third: Moses was raised by Pharaoh s daughter and in the court of the King and was taught to live and lead like a king. 2. Second Third: Moses learned to be a Shepherd and was called by God to lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt from slavery. He then led them across the Red Sea; and in the process had a lot of the Egyptian army killed by drowning. Moses also secured the 10 commandments during the second third of his life. 3. Third part of his life: Leading the Hebrew people in the wilderness and caring for their hunger, thirst and complaining needs, writing the first five books of the Bible, and establishing the new leadership of the Hebrew people with the 70 elders and Joshua as the new leader. Therefore, Moses reviewed the Law at the doorstep to the Promised Land, urging this new generation to recovenant with Yahweh, to recommit themselves to His ways. Is there a time in our life when we need to re-covenant with God? Have you been a Christian most of your life.and have forgotten what the faith is all about? Have you lost your spiritual fervor! Where is your joy? Do you need to restore and re-energize you faith in God? Some people call this back sliding. Others say it is just renewing your faith commitment. Whatever you want to call it; have you drifted away from the Lord. Illustration: A couple who had been married for over 50 years was taking a Sunday drive in their beautiful convertible car on a sunny summer afternoon. As they pulled up to the stop light another convertible sports car with a younger couple drove up beside them at the stop light. The older couple looked over and noticed the young couple

5 were sitting side by side with his arm around his pretty young girl friend. The wife of the older couple looked at her husband at the opposite end of the seat, then looked back at the young couple lovingly sitting side by side. She thought for a minute and looked at her husband and said, Just look at that young couple darling, they are so in love and she is sitting right next to him, with his arm around her. She looked back at the younger couple sitting close to one another and said to her husband; Why don t we sit close like that anymore? The husband thought for a bit, looked at the young couple then back to his wife of 50 years; and with a loving smile he said, honey, I never moved. The truth of that story is that the husband is correct; he never moved. In time, the wife just moved little by little, until they were both at opposite end of the front seat. As Christians we can also sometimes drift away from the Lord; who never moves away from us, but continues to love us as his dear children. When we move away from the Lord, it typically doesn t happen all at once. It typically happens bit by bit, little by little over time, until we have slowly removed ourselves from a close relationship with the Lord. Let s look at the different sermons Moses preached and what they are about. I. In the first Sermon: (Deut. 1:1-4:43), Moses strives briefly, but earnestly, to warn the people against the sins which had kept their fathers from entering the promised land. In order to stress the necessity of obedience, he recapitulates the chief events of the last forty years in the wilderness, emphasizing the role which disobedience and lack of trust had played in the afflictions of the Israelites.

6 A. The ills or penalty of disobedience: B. Before the Hebrew people could enter the promise land of Abraham, they had to get rid of some rotten dead weight. You might ask; what rotten dead weight? What did they bring out of Egypt that turned rotten. C. That rotten dead weight was their parents and grandparents. (Anyone who was still around when they made the Golden Calf and disobeyed God in the wilderness. D. Do you remember when God asked Moses in Numbers chapters 14 to send out 12 spies to look over the promise land? 10 came back and said this was not a good land and the people in the land would destroy them. However, two men, Joshua and Caleb said the land was good, flowing with Milk & Honey and could be taken over. The Israelites wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb for telling the truth. God s anger burned against all of Israel and the Lord wanted to kill them right then and there. Moses pleaded with the Lord to both spare and forgive them. God did, but he said that none of them who saw the miracles in Egypt of the 10 plagues would ever see the promise land. E. Numbers 14:20-23 The LORD replied, "I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 22 not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times-- 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. 1. Is there something in your life holding you back from your promise land; (Your Purpose in life)? Whatever that may be? (Pride, unbelief, business, materialism, laziness, sinfulness in your life, broken relationships) (Pause) 2. Is your Promise Land heaven itself? Are you are unsure if it truly awaits you? (Do you have un-forgiven sins or a relationship that is un-forgiven, that could keep you from heaven itself?) (Pause)

7 In both situations I just mentioned; God is eagerly awaiting to love, support and forgive. (I John 1:9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. II. The second Sermon of Moses: (Deut. 4:44-26:19) enters more fully into the precepts of the Law. It may be viewed as the body of the whole address, the former being an introduction. This section is legal, consisting of a review of Israel's moral and civil statutes, testimonies and judgments. This discourse is broken into two main sections : 1) chs. 5-11, an exposition of the Ten Commandments. 2) chs , a group of special statutes on various matters, containing a strong ethical and religious emphasis. A. The importance of the 10 commandments: B. The 10 commandments have help establish the laws of the land for hundreds of different countries around the world. C. The first four commandments help us understand our relationship from Man to God. The next six commandments help us understand our relationship between Man to Man. Illustration: I like what President Ronald Reagan said about the 10 Commandments: I wonder at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had to run them through the U.S. Congress and Senate. D. I think we need to be thankful the Lord gave us the 10 Commandments.

8 3. The third Sermon of Moses: (Deut. 27:1-31:30) deals primarily with the blessings of obedience and the curses of disobedience. Moses now speaks in conjunction with the elders of the people and with the priests and the Levites, whose office it would be to carry out the ceremony which Moses describes in this discourse. The place selected for the ceremony was the spot in the center of the land where the first altar to God had been erected. As soon as they passed over the Jordan, the people were commanded to set up great stones on Mt. Ebal. These stones were to be covered with plaster and inscribed with the law of God. They were also to build an altar, which seems to have been distinct from the stones, although it is difficult to be certain about this. Then the twelve tribes were to be divided between the two hills. Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin were to station themselves on Mt. Gerizim to recite the blessings which God promised them if they would remain faithful to him. Across on Mt. Ebal, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali were to speak the curses with which the Lord had threatened disobedience. They were setting up Mile-Stone Markers of Remembrance: 1. Do you have mile-stones of remembrance in your life? Points of your life that you can look at see where you did well? 2. Do you have plans for the future to lay down mile-stones. (Reading completely through the Bible, going on a mission trip, serving someone in need for an extended period of time.) After completing these sermons to the Hebrew people, Moses encouraged them to follow their new leader, Joshua, and to go across the Jordan River and take the land which had been promised to Abraham. (Genesis 15:18-21)On that day, God made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river the Euphrates. The land of the Kenites, Kenizites, Kadmonites; the Chitties, Perizites, Refaim; the Emorites, Canaanites, Gigashites and Yevusites."

9 Moses wrote down the Law in a book and turned it over to the priests, who were to keep it as a perpetual reminder for all the people (Deut. 31:9-13). It was to be read every seventh year, when the people assembled for the feast of Tabernacles. At the command of the Lord, Moses and Joshua appeared before God at the tent of meeting. There God told them of the future infidelity of Israel and instructed Moses to leave the people a song which they were to learn and which was to serve as a witness for God against them. This song of Moses is recorded in ch. 32; it recounts the blessings which God has bestowed on his people and the corrupt manner in which they have responded to his beneficence. Ch. 33 contains Moses' blessing on the people and ch. 34 records the brief account of the death of this great leader of Israel. The best way to stop going in circles is to keep your eyes on the target. 1. The wise men kept their eyes on the star in the east to find the baby Jesus. 2. The Israelites followed the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire at night. 3. Jesus followed the will of the Father which led him to the cross of calvary in obedience. (Bringing humanity salvation.) If a farmer wants to plow his field or plant his crops in a straight line; he fixes his eyes on a single post or tree at the opposite end of the field and does not take his eyes off of it as he plows forward; In doing so he will keep a straight line. So it is in the Christian faith; we need to keep our eyes fix upon God.the author and perfecter of our faith.(hebrews 12:2) Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; PR 3:6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

10 Let s Pray, Heavenly father, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Lord, make us more like you daily. Amen. Words of Wisdom: Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. Benediction: An Irish Blessing: May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, And rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.

11 Pastor Bob s Sermon Notes I. In the first Sermon of Moses:(Deut. 1:1-4:43 II. The second Sermon of Moses: (Deut. 4:44-26:19) III. The third Sermon of Moses: (Deut. 27:1-31:30)