WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:02.600 Grace and peace to you from God our Father 2 00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:06.800 and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. 3 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:13.100 Today's text is the text from Deuteronomy that was read and I'd like 4 00:00:13.100 --> 00:00:18.200 to begin by sharing with you a really bad idea that I came up with 5 00:00:18.200 --> 00:00:19.500 while studying this text. 6 00:00:20.900 --> 00:00:22.000 This is the idea. 7 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.100 Let's get together and collaborate on the very next Christian themed 8 00:00:27.100 --> 00:00:32.299 self-help book that will likely appeal to Americans. And I imagine a 9 00:00:32.299 --> 00:00:36.300 book that will Norman Vincent Peale's the Power of Positive Thinking and 10 00:00:36.300 --> 00:00:40.600 Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now and what we'll do is we'll take the 11 00:00:40.600 --> 00:00:45.700 principles of Deuteronomy 30 and simply apply them to life. Here's the 12 00:00:45.700 --> 00:00:46.000 title 13 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:51.200 I first thought of our book will be called love God choose life and 14 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:52.100 get rich. 15 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:59.500 That's a little crass and so maybe love God choose life and be 16 00:00:59.500 --> 00:01:00.100 blessed. 17 00:01:00.100 --> 00:01:02.400 Okay, that would be a maybe a better title. 18 00:01:02.400 --> 00:01:06.900 And I imagine that if we were to collaborate on this we would like we 19 00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:11.100 would likely get rich this could become a running bestseller for the 20 00:01:11.100 --> 00:01:12.500 Christian Community out there. 21 00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:17.200 But also we would likely damn ourselves to hell in the process. 22 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:23.500 Because of this would be a profoundly unchristian thing to do and not 23 00:01:23.500 --> 00:01:27.900 only that this book would likely be very faithless to the 24 00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:28.400 scriptures. 25 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:32.600 And so I'd like to explain this by making this point right at the very 26 00:01:32.600 --> 00:01:37.400 beginning. The text from Deuteronomy 30 that was read does not 27 00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:40.600 directly apply to you. 28 00:01:40.600 --> 00:01:43.500 It does not directly apply to you. 29 00:01:43.500 --> 00:01:48.400 It's not about you now, should you love the Lord your God and keep his 30 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:48.600 Commandments? 31 00:01:48.600 --> 00:01:50.200 Yes. 32 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:55.000 Should you worship the Lord your God and avoid gross idolatry worshiping 33 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:55.400 other gods. 34 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:57.000 Absolutely. 35 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:02.100 Yes. But does this mean that when you leave the plains of Moab and 36 00:02:02.100 --> 00:02:05.200 enter into the promised land the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and 37 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:06.900 Jacob that you're going to be blessed. 38 00:02:06.900 --> 00:02:12.100 Well no, you're not those people that Moses was talking to. 39 00:02:12.900 --> 00:02:18.300 And in a sense if you know the whole story you shouldn't want to be. If 40 00:02:18.300 --> 00:02:19.700 you want to apply this text to you 41 00:02:19.700 --> 00:02:21.400 here's a likely outcome. 42 00:02:21.400 --> 00:02:26.600 Your kingdom will be destroyed and the Assyrians or the Babylonians 43 00:02:26.600 --> 00:02:28.900 will drag you off into captivity. 44 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:31.900 Cuz that's how the story ends. 45 00:02:33.100 --> 00:02:39.500 Moses sets before then those two paths and as a whole the nation of 46 00:02:39.500 --> 00:02:43.600 Israel the collective people of God as strange that it would seem they 47 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:52.400 chose not life but death not good but evil not blessing but curse. 48 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:57.500 Because throughout their history they again and again went after those 49 00:02:57.500 --> 00:02:59.400 other gods and 50 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:03.400 did not remain faithful to the Lord their God who delivered them out 51 00:03:03.400 --> 00:03:10.300 of slavery in Egypt and brought them to that Promised Land. And so strangely enough the 52 00:03:10.300 --> 00:03:14.600 very Torah that God intended to be a good thing for his people instead 53 00:03:14.600 --> 00:03:18.800 became a curse and a cause of the curse. 54 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:23.000 And from our perspective looking back at the story. 55 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:29.500 We can actually marvel at this one thing how in spite of their 56 00:03:29.500 --> 00:03:30.500 repeated faithlessness 57 00:03:30.500 --> 00:03:34.900 it is God who remains faithful to them. Though. 58 00:03:34.900 --> 00:03:40.500 they broke the Covenant he remainedf patient forgiving restoring them 59 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:40.900 again 60 00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:46.700 and again. So that when we come to the end of the story in the book of 61 00:03:46.700 --> 00:03:46.900 Nehemiah. 62 00:03:48.200 --> 00:03:51.500 We find that once again God some of God's people are back in 63 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:52.000 Jerusalem 64 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:55.300 they rebuilt the temple they have a ceremony where they try to 65 00:03:55.300 --> 00:04:00.500 reaffirm the Covenant with God and when the Levites pray in Nehemiah 9 66 00:04:00.500 --> 00:04:05.700 they look back or they acknowledge exactly why death and evil and 67 00:04:05.700 --> 00:04:11.700 curse of come upon them. It's because they were faithless because they 68 00:04:11.700 --> 00:04:17.100 broke the Covenant because they did not choose life and yet in spite 69 00:04:17.100 --> 00:04:19.399 of that God had remained faithful and gracious to them. 70 00:04:19.399 --> 00:04:23.900 And so in their prayer they confess their sins and then sort of 71 00:04:23.900 --> 00:04:24.900 simply leave it up to God. 72 00:04:24.900 --> 00:04:28.800 They simply pray that God would consider their plight. 73 00:04:30.300 --> 00:04:34.900 And so I'd like to tell you you're actually blessed to have been 74 00:04:34.900 --> 00:04:39.100 called into the story where you were called into the story in the new 75 00:04:39.100 --> 00:04:43.900 age because now we look back and we see how God answered that prayer. 76 00:04:45.200 --> 00:04:50.400 How he sent for his people his very Son our Lord Jesus Christ in the 77 00:04:50.400 --> 00:04:55.100 flesh. That when Jesus identifies with his sinful brothers and sisters by 78 00:04:55.100 --> 00:04:58.100 accepting the baptism of John, a baptism 79 00:04:58.100 --> 00:04:59.700 he didn't need, but that. 80 00:04:59.700 --> 00:05:00.100 he accepted 81 00:05:00.100 --> 00:05:03.900 anyway. We see that he came to be a friend of sinners. 82 00:05:03.900 --> 00:05:08.500 In fact, we see him call sinners, eat and drink with his sinful 83 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:10.300 fellow Israelites. 84 00:05:10.300 --> 00:05:14.800 We see him touching the unclaimed we see him proclaiming the good news 85 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:18.100 to captives and to sinners. 86 00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:25.400 And we finally see strangely enough that he redeems them from the 87 00:05:25.400 --> 00:05:26.300 curse of the law. 88 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:33.700 By becoming a curse for them for that same book of Deuteronomy also 89 00:05:33.700 --> 00:05:39.000 says cursed is anyone who hangs upon a tree and Jesus ministry led him 90 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:42.400 to that tree where he became a curse. 91 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:48.300 And then when our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead we know now 92 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:54.100 that he has abolished that curse and now for you who are called to 93 00:05:54.100 --> 00:06:01.600 faith in Jesus that curse no longer touches you. Jesus has redeemed from the 94 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:06.900 curse by becoming a curse and so now we're we are called into the 95 00:06:06.900 --> 00:06:07.300 story. 96 00:06:08.300 --> 00:06:15.500 We're looking at he who knew no sin, but became sin for us that we 97 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:18.000 might become the righteousness of God. 98 00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:22.000 And this is a blessed life. 99 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:24.900 When our Lord calls us 100 00:06:24.900 --> 00:06:28.400 we actually hear words kind of different than what was said in 101 00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:29.300 Deuteronomy 30. 102 00:06:29.300 --> 00:06:35.000 He tells you if you would come after me deny yourself take up your 103 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:36.700 cross and follow me. 104 00:06:37.900 --> 00:06:40.400 Whoever would save his life will lose it. 105 00:06:40.400 --> 00:06:44.300 But whoever loses his life for me in the Gospel will save it for 106 00:06:44.300 --> 00:06:44.900 eternal life. 107 00:06:46.100 --> 00:06:50.900 This is now the calling that we receive and do we acknowledge that God 108 00:06:50.900 --> 00:06:56.000 our Father is the source of every material blessing we have, yes. But 109 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:58.600 even more through our Lord Jesus Christ, he 110 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:03.700 he has made us his righteousness his people and he has called us to 111 00:07:03.700 --> 00:07:09.600 this blessed life to follow our Lord who has redeemed us. 112 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:16.300 Now may God our Father keep you steadfast in this faith 113 00:07:16.300 --> 00:07:19.800 and in this life both now and unto life everlasting. 114 00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:21.500 Amen. 115 00:07:22.900 --> 00:07:26.200 And May the peace that passes all understanding keep our hearts and 116 00:07:26.200 --> 00:07:28.600 minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.