A while back, my oldest girl Clarissa was in her play room and she had overturned a box of wooden blocks and it made to worse mess you could imagine. I walked in there and said, “Clarissa, I want you to pick up every last one of these blocks right now.” She fussed a little bit and then I walked out and started doing something else. About 10 minutes later, she comes to my desk dressed up like Cinderella holding a picture that she had just colored and she said, “Daddy, you like it?” I said, “It’s pretty, but how does that room look?” No comment. So I asked again, “Is the toy room picked up like I asked?” Her response…. “I don’t know.” Then she goes, “Don’t you like my picture?” I said, “I do darling, but do you know what I would really like? Do you know what would really make Daddy happy? If you did what I had asked you to do.”
And you know the one thing God wants from us above anything else. To do what He says. 1 Sam 15:22 says, “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice” Obedience isn’t a real hot topic. You probably didn’t see the title this week in the bulletin and say, “Barry is going to be preaching on obedience, I can’t wait to hear that!” It’s not a real popular issue to bring up, but it’s one we need to talk about, because that’s the direction toward which we are going to be moving. Eugene Peterson has written a book entitled , A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. And I think that explains our church. We’ve looked at our wonderful past This is not the time for our church to rest on its laurels, its not a time to coast. It’s a time to make certain that we deepen in our faith and our relationship with Christ. That’s what we want to talk about this topic today. How can we focus upon obeying God’s commands in the present?
For the base of our talk this morning we want to look at what was expected of the Israelites as they prepared to enter into the promised land. Remember Moses had brought them there but he would not be able to enter in with them, so he is giving them instructions on what to do and how to behave when they enter into the promised land, and you’ll see here that the one reoccurring theme is “Do what God says. Listen and obey Him.”
Throughout this chapter Moses will continue to drive this point home, in a variety of different ways. In this opening verse he overemphasizes and he restates the same word four different times to describe what it means to follow the commandments of God. Look at verse 1 of our text, “Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.” Always, not sometimes, not when you feel like it, but always. You see, selective obedience isn’t obedience at all, it is merely convenience. So Let’s start off this morning by looking at the motivation for our obedience.
Our first motivation given is to be our love for God. In the New Testament Jesus taught that this was to be the distinguishing characteristic of the Christian. He even crystallized commitment down to this phrase, “If you love me, you will obey my commandments!” John says in 2 John verse 6; “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands.”
When you love somebody, you don’t want to disappoint nor upset that person and we know that when we go against God’s commands it hurts the heart of God just as a child’s disobedience hurts his father. There were two teenage boys who were toying with the idea of doing something wrong that they knew they shouldn’t do. One of them finally decided he just couldn‘t do it. The other young man asked sarcastically, "Are you afraid your dad will find out and hurt you?" And the other boy quietly said, "No, I am afraid he will find out and it will hurt him." And we obey because we don’t want to hurt our Father.
Obedience is the choice of those who love their Heavenly Father and want to please Him. But it’s not just our love for God, but also God’s love for us. We know that God wants what is best for us and He wouldn’t give us a bunch of commands just to harass us. Those laws are there for a reason. A high school guy who wanted to go swimming with his girlfriend at midnight. The neighbors down the block had a pool, and he knew it. So they ran down there and scaled the fence even though there were No Trespassing and Do Not Enter signs. Just as he hit the diving board, the girl yelled, but it was too late. There was only a foot of water in the pool. He broke his neck, and he’s in therapy to this day. He didn’t realize that the signs on the fence - the precepts - would have protected him. And so many people ignore the signs that God has placed up to warn us. Jesus came to give us abundant life and He doesn’t want to see us spoil it. So out of love, He has rules to guide and protect us.
Now the next motivator is out past blessings. Look at the next verses. Moses starts to go through a top 10 list of the miracles God had performed for the Israelites, when he delivered them from slavery. It almost sounds like a review of Sunday school lessons!
Deuteronomy 11:2-5, 7; “Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: His majesty, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm; the signs He performed and the things He did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to His whole country; what He did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how He overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the LORD brought lasting ruin on them. It was not your children who saw what He did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place; But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done”.
These people saw with their own eyes the blessings of God, and Moses reminds them, “Hey look, God’s been good to you.” Let’s suppose for a second that you were from out of town and needed a place to stay and I said, “Look you can stay with me, all I ask is that you make your bed in the morning.” Now while you’re their, I feed you, give you a place to sleep, take you to some sights around town and so on. Then in the morning you get up and say, “I don’t feel like making the bed.” How would I feel, after all that I did for you the least you could do would be to do what I asked.
And think about all that God has done for you. He sent His Son to die for our sins, He has sent his angels to care for you, His Holy Spirit to dwell in you, His church to encourage you, and His word to guide you.…Anytime you speak, he listens; make a request and he responds. He will never let you be tempted too much or stumble too far. Let a tear appear on your cheek, and he is there to wipe it. He gives us His presence as well as our hope for Heaven. Now with all that, He says, “All I ask is that you do what I ask.”
Now the next motivator is one we don’t like to talk about very much but it is very effective nonetheless is fear. Fear can be a good thing when it motivates us toward holiness and obedience. Look at verses 5-7. “It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done.”
Now Dathan and Abiram had openly opposed Moses and said that they were just as holy as he was and they no longer needed Him nor did they need to listen to God’s commands. They made a choice to disobey God and because of it they suffered the consequences. And all the people saw the result of their disobedience and they learned to fear God. Not so much as a “stay away from God” fear, but an “awesome respect for who God is and what He can do” type of fear.
When you are driving down the highway you do the speed limit because you know if you don’t then you will get pulled over by a state trooper. He gets out of the car, and as you sit there, your hands start to shake, your heart beat speeds up, you start to sweat…or at least that’s what they tell me, I wouldn’t know. But you get that way because you know that since you broke the law he has the power to give you a ticket or even worse put you in jail. When we approach the laws of God, we need to have that same fear…The fear of knowing who God is and what He can do. That’s respect for God. To Fear God means to respect God. You respect His power and His authority over you.
And when love won’t stop you from disobeying, fear will. Max Lucado illustrates this wonderfully in one of his books about his dad. He writes: “When my mom was angry, we got spankings. When my dad was angry, we got whippings. You can guess which one we preferred. All Dad had to say was, “Go to the workshop,” and my bottom would begin to tingle. I don’t know how you feel about corporal punishment. I don’t mention the topic to discuss it. I mention it to explain the impact that the workshop had on my behavior.
You see, my father loved me. I knew he loved me. And most of the time, his love was enough. There were many bad things I didn’t do because I knew he loved me. But there were a few times when love was not enough. The temptation was so strong, or the rebellion so fierce, that the thought of his love didn’t slow me down. But the thought of his anger did. When love didn’t compel me, fear corrected me. The thought of the workshop—and the weeping and gnashing of teeth therein—was just enough to straighten me out.”
You see often times love is enough to cause you to obey, but there are times we need to be reminded of the consequences of disobedience. Just as God would bless the people of Israel if they obeyed, so would the be punished for disobeying…but if they did they would have no one to blame but themselves. God gives them the choice. Verses 26-28 says; “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse-- the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known”.
You see God has given us the choice...the choice to obey or to disobey. And the choice is yours. As C. S. Lewis stated: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ So whose will is going to be done in your life?
The choice to obey is not always an easy one. Sometimes the urge to do wrong will be oh so strong that all we want to do is to give in. A mom was had sent her five-year-old daughter to her room for disobeying her. After a few minutes, she went in to talk with her about what she had done. Teary-eyed, she asked, "Why do we do wrong things, Mommy?" The mom said, “Sometimes the devil tells us to do something wrong, and we listen to him. But we need to listen to God instead." The little girl sobbed, "But Mom, God doesn’t talk loud enough!"
Well, God does indeed talk loud enough but there are times when we don’t want to listen because we want to do what He is saying. Vs 18 says “Be careful , or you will be enticed to turn away.” And there are many voices calling you away from God, and it’s not always a popular choice to obey. If you choose to be obedient to God’s will for your life, and obey his commandments, then you won’t blend in with this culture-you’ll stand out. The world won’t reward you but they’ll probably ridicule you. If you pursue purity, you probably won’t be real popular. But that’s okay. You have been called by the Son of the living God to be distinctive and to be a preservative and purifying agent, and so you won’t please everybody. Matt Proctor writes, “Christ wants you to be salt, not sugar.”
And it’s just not that, but obedience requires a great deal of faith. Think about it. You’re called to tithe even when money may be short. To forgive even when you’ve been hurt so bad and the wounds are still fresh. We’re called to pray and talk with God even when we can’t see the face of God. These things require faith, but a loving father knows what is best, and He would never lead you astray. But you need to heed His warnings. He gives you command to stay with Him and so you’ll make the right choice. Choice, not chance, will determine your destiny.
In July 1976, Israeli commandos made a daring raid at an airport in Entebbe, Uganda, in which 103 Jewish hostages were freed. In less than 15 minutes, the soldiers had killed all seven of the kidnappers and set the captives free. As successful as the rescue was, however, 3 of the hostages were killed during the raid. As the commandos entered the terminal, they shouted in Hebrew, "Get down! Crawl on the ground!" The Jewish hostages understood and laid down on the floor, while the guerrillas, who did not speak Hebrew were left standing.
Quickly the rescuers shot all of the upright kidnappers. Two of the hostages hesitated, perhaps to see what was happening, and while they hesitated they were mowed down. There was one young man who was lying down when they came in, but when he heard all the ruckus instead of staying down, he got up and he was shot as well. Had these three heeded the soldier’s command, to stay down, to crawl, they would have been saved. Scott Marsh said, “Salvation is open to all, but we must heed Christ’s command to repent and make him Lord. Otherwise, we will perish for the judgment meant for the enemy.”
God has told you what His commands are. Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Now let me ask you, have you obeyed? Who is Lord of your life right now. When it comes to an issue like praying, or tithing, or about forgiving someone who has hurt you, even though it may not be easy do you obey what God has said? Perhaps you’re in a dilemma right now between obeying something God is asking of you and doing something that you want to do. Maybe its about making Christ Lord of your life, or forgiving a friend…listen again to what Christ says, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.”
And if you have never obeyed God to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, we invite you to that this morning.
