Clearing it all out
Notes
Transcript
Having chickens has been an interesting experience so far. You should have seen the egg that one of the hens laid the other day. It was almost as big as a baseball. I cannot imagine how that felt to lay! Once we permitted the ladies to be free ranging they discovered the garage. I guess they are like us, they do not like to be out in the weather. As soon as the boys let them out of their coops in the morning, the make a be-line to the garage if the door is open.
There is one corner in the garage that they have decided is a good place to lay eggs. They will line up to use that one spot. They don’t lay them any place but in that one spot.
One of the problems with the chickens having access to the garage is that they make a mess. We had some hay stored in there for the coops and they had it spread all out all over the place. Darlene finally got tired of it and she cleared it all out the other day.
There comes a day when things need cleared out. It might be that junk drawer in the kitchen that all sorts of stuff that we think we might need but don’t know where to put. It might be that closet where we toss stuff just to get it out of our way. I have a drawer in my desk that is nothing more than a junk drawer. I keep telling myself that I need to clean it out and get rid of the junk or file the papers in their proper place. I guess someday when I’m bored that I will clean it out.
In our spiritual life we often keep hold of junk and it begins to pile up and it starts to choke out our spiritual growth. There comes a time when we need to allow the Holy Spirit to clear all that junk out of our lives. We need to stop holding onto it and allow the Holy Spirit to do a deep cleaning.
How do we do that? How do we get to the place where we allow the Holy Spirit that type of access to our lives?
We come to that place when we begin walking in obedience to the Holy Spirit’s leading in our lives.
Moses in our scripture text is giving instructions to the children of Israel. They are there on the eastern shore of the Jordan river. They are preparing to march into and claim the land that God had promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Moses is wanting to tell them what it is going to take from them to enjoy the blessings of the promised land. He wants to make sure that they have counted the cost of the promise from God.
As I thought about what they were about to embark on, I thought about the story that Jesus told of the wise and foolish men. Do you remember them?
24 “Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a house on bedrock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It didn’t fall because it was firmly set on bedrock. 26 But everybody who hears these words of mine and doesn’t put them into practice will be like a fool who built a house on sand. 27 The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It fell and was completely destroyed.”
As Christians, we have to come to the place where we determine how we are going to live our lives. Are we going to build our lives on the foundation of Jesus or are we going to do what we want to do.
I remember when my parents bought a house near us in Mississippi. My dad wanted to build an addition onto the back of the house so that they could have a family room. We got the site prepared and he had the cement company come out and put the footers in and pour the slab. The came the day before the cement came to put the forms in for the slab. The day the truck came with the cement was a rainy day that morning. They had to carefully maneuver the truck to the back yard. Unfortunately the truck hit the form and knocked one corner off from being level. No one notice that it wasn’t level so the concrete was poured.
The next weekend two of my brothers and I began to put the framing up and we realized that the floor was not level. What a mess that made trying to build walls because my dad did not want to tear up the concrete and start over. It would have been so much easier if we had a level foundation to start with.
If we intend to serve God, if we are going to claim that we are a Christian then we have to build our lives on that sure foundation of Jesus Christ. We have to walk in obedience with God if we hope to claim the promises of Christ.
We cannot claim the promises of God if we do not walk in obedience to Him!
Moses beginning in verse 18 tells the children of Israel what kind of life that God is wanting from them.
Place these words I’m speaking on your heart and in your very being. (Deut. 11:18a)
I think we often believe that the religion of the Jews was strictly external. There is good reason that we believe that because of all the sacrifices and ritual that was a part of the practice of their faith. It is very unfortunate that we think that because the faith of the Jews was not just an external practice of religion, it was an internal faith. It was a religion that was grounded in faith in God.
Go and read Hebrews 11, that great chapter about faith. In verse 6 of that chapter the author wrote:
6 It’s impossible to please God without faith because the one who draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards people who try to find him.
It’s impossible to please God without faith. You can do all the right external things, you can do all the ritual that the church practices, but if you do not have faith in God, believe that he exits, that he rewards those who seek him.
Moses is calling the people to a faith that is not based on outward actions but rather a faith that is grounded in their hearts and very being. He said to “place these words I’m speaking on your heart and in your very being.”
When pray with someone to become a Christian we tell them to ask Jesus to come into their hearts. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians wrote about how he prayed for them. Part of his prayer included this from chapter 3
17 I ask that Christ will live in your hearts through faith. As a result of having strong roots in love,
Where does Christ live?
He lives in our hearts through faith which is the result of having strong roots in love.
Where is Moses instructing the people to place the words of God? In their hearts, their entire being.
They had the spoken word of God and they were to embed it into their hearts and their entire being. We have the living Word of God, Jesus, God Himself and he comes to live within our hearts and entire being. We are rooted in Christ through love.
Is that not amazing? Jesus, God Himself comes to live within us through faith, grounded and rooted in love!
Look at what they were to do with the spoken word of God.
18 Place these words I’m speaking on your heart and in your very being. Tie them on your hand as a sign. They should be on your forehead as a symbol.19 Teach them to your children, by talking about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up. 20 Write them on your house’s doorframes and on your city’s gates. 21 Do all that so your days and your children’s days on the fertile land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors are many—indeed, as many as the number of days that the sky’s been over the earth!
I read that passage and think that this Moses is prescribing how to externally live out God’s word. As I thought about it I began to think a different way. Moses is saying to tie them to your hand and to your forehead, teach, talk, and write them. Those are all external things but I see that Moses is using those external actions to point towards and inward change.
The tying of the word to the hand and forehead they become a sign and symbol. A sign and symbol point to something else. That something else is the word of God that is to be in their hearts and very being.
How do we incorporate the written word of God into our hearts and entire beings? It is through the teaching of the word, talking about it in the everyday ordinary actions of our lives. Talk about the word of God when we are sitting around our homes, when we are driving to the store, when we are getting ready for bed, and when we get up in the morning. Write the word on our door frames so we see it when we come and go. On our city gates when we come and go.
In other words, the written word and the Living Word of God is to become so ingrained in our lives that it impacts every aspect of our lives.
God is not interested in how well we live externally. He is not interested if we do all the ritual of the church. God is interested in a changed heart and life. That is what he was looking for with the children of Israel and that is what he is looking for with us.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossian church
16 The word of Christ must live in you richly. Teach and warn each other with all wisdom by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 Whatever you do, whether in speech or action, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God the Father through him.
That word richly means abundantly or fully. The word of Christ must live in us abundantly, fully, completely. We are to teach Paul says. That is what Moses was saying. It is not external, but it is from the heart because that is where Christ lives within us.
Their are blessings associated with our obedience to God
Moses uses that great theological word “if”
If you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do.
My translation begins verse 22 with phrase “it’s true”. The New Revised Standard Version renders this verse “If you will diligently observe this entire commandment.” I like this rendering because it references all the law that God is giving to them as a complete set, it is not individual commandments to obey but it is about obeying all that God has spoken to them.
Notice that this keeping of the commandment is about something that is happening within them. “to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him.”
To love God comes from an inner change. We walk in his ways because we love him. We cling or hold fast to him because of love.
If the keep all the commandments, love God, walk in his ways, clinging to him then there are blessings.
The blessings are that God will clear out the nations that currently occupy the land. God will be clearing it all out if they keep the commandments and love God, walk in his ways and cling to him.
Obedience brings well-being, prosperity, and happiness. The other side of the metal is also true, disobedience brings adversity, suffering, and death.
The land is currently occupied by nations that are larger and stronger than Israel. Remember when they sent the 12 spies into the land? They came back and reported that they seemed like giants compared to them. Here is puny Israel and God is tellling them that if they will obey Him then God will clear out that land. That was going to be a supernatural event. Remember when they captured Jericho? Who did it? God. God knocked those walls down.
25 No one will be able to stand up to you. Just as he promised, the Lord your God will make the entire land deathly afraid of you wherever you advance in it.
The nations will not be able to stand up to them because God is the one who will be clearing out the land. A verse from the New Testament popped in my mind as I read that and it is from the Apostle John’s first letter
4 You are from God, little children, and you have defeated these people because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
We most often quote just that second part of the verse but we are missing the richness of the verse. Those nations that God was going to clear out were nations that worshipped false gods. They did not worship the one and true and living God.
John in this chapter has been writing about false prophets and teachers. They are teaching about something that is foreign to Christianity. John is saying that these Christians that he is writing to have defeated these false teachers and preachers because the one who is in them is greater than the one who is in the world. In other words, God is clearing out these false teachers.
As Christians we are commissioned by Jesus, the great head of the Church to go and make disciples. Jesus said
19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.”
We are to go and baptize and teaching them to obey everything. Since the moment God created humankind he has called us to be in relationship through obedience. Adam and Eve made that fateful decision to disobey God. Every since that day God has been on this rescue mission to redeem his creation. That redemption comes through obedience to him.
I reflected back on the history of the former Jerome church and the Boswell church. Those churches came into existance because people sensed the calling of the Holy Spirit to have a church that preached the message of the full Gospel that we can live holy lives here and now.
The Jerome church began with a bedridden lady praying for a church that preached holiness. The Boswell church began when there was a sense of need to bring these message of holiness to this town. A tent meeting was held by some from the Jerome church and from that meeting the church was started.
That happened because of the obedience of those believers to the call of Christ to go and make disciples. Jesus said “I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.”
We often think, pastor we can’t do this. We are to few in number, we lack financial resources. You are right, we cannot do this. The Israelites couldn’t do it either. They were small and ill prepared to face the nations that occupied the land that God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The land that he had brought this group of former slaves up out of Egypt to have as their home was theirs for the taking but they could not do it themselves.
But, Moses said that the Lord will clear out all these nations before you. He said that “Every place you set foot on will be yours.”
How awesome is that promise? Every place you set foot on will be yours. Moses was emphatic about it because he started there in verse 22 by saying “it’s true.”
Moses didn’t stop there. Read a bit further:
26 Pay attention! I am setting blessing and curse before you right now: 27 the blessing if you obey the Lord your God’s commandments that I am giving you right now, 28 but the curse if you don’t obey the Lord your God’s commandments and stray from the path that I am giving you today by following other gods that you have not known.
Pay attention Moses says. The Message paraphrase put it this way
26 I’ve brought you today to the crossroads of Blessing and Curse. 27 The Blessing: if you listen obediently to the commandments of God, your God, which I command you today. 28 The Curse: if you don’t pay attention to the commandments of God, your God, but leave the road that I command you today, following other gods of which you know nothing.
There are blessings and curses. The blessings come through obedience to God. The curse comes through disobedience to God. The blessings come from a new way of living, of putting God first and obeying him. The curse results in disaster and separation from God.
This was a life or death decision that they are confronted with. It was a decision that called for an immediate answer. There was no more time to wait.
This is a decision for each of us today. It is a decision that calls for an immediate answer. There is not more time to wait. We don’t know what second will be our last second here.
There are blessings and curses. What are you going to choose? I chose Christ. I choose to say Yes to God. I choose to walk in obedience to him. I choose to follow him no matter the cost. I choose to allow God to clear out all that is a hindrance and to open the door to new opportunities to spread the Gospel, to tell people that they can live lives of holiness. I choose to say Yes Lord Yes to God’s will and way.