God's Surprising Effort Deuteronomy 10:11-22

When the best of me is barely breathing When I'm not somebody I believe in

Hold on to me When I miss the light the night is stolen

And I'm trampling over doors you've opened Hold on to me

Hold on to me

Hold on to me when it's too dark to see you When I am sure I have reached the end

Hold on to me when I forget I need you When I let go hold me again

When I don't feel like I'm worth defending And I'm tired of all my pretending

Hold on to me when I start to break in desperation Underneath the weight of expectation

Hold on to me

Hold on to me

Hold on to me when it's too dark to see you When I am sure I have reached the end

Hold on to me when I forget I need you When I let go hold me again

I can rest here in your arms forever Cause I know nobody loves me better

Hold on to me

Hold on to me

So the question on my heart as I come to the conclusion of lengthily studying this passage

of scripture that we're about to read is does Christianity, real Christianity, the following

of Christ ever become kind of obsolete? Car parts become obsolete, computer parts become obsolete,

all technology becomes obsolete, traditions become obsolete. Believe it or not there are

more traditions that have gone away that no longer exist than currently do. For example

in Jesus' day at dinner they always lay down or reclined around the table and they would

often sit with their elbow on the table as they ate. Now in popular circles you're not

allowed to lay down or put your elbows on the table when you eat. So things change,

everything has changed it seems like. Eighty years ago, eighty five years ago something like that,

every adult male on the continent of Europe whether they were German or Polish or English

or French or whatever, every adult male went to church an average of 2.5 times a week.

So they would go up to three times, they'd go Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night

typically but some churches were a little bit different but typically they would go two to

three times. Needless to say that number has dropped dramatically. The question is does

Christianity become obsolete? There's a moment in time at which certain worldly teachings,

the things that the world teach us, it's okay to do this, it's okay to do that,

stand directly in opposition and frankly even though we don't necessarily like to think this way,

hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars are being spent even as we speak and will be

spent this year in pushing some of those notions. Example, there was a tv show called Leave It to

Beaver, you may have heard of it, you may not have, most of you before your time. Leave It to

Beaver was a kid about nine, ten, eleven, twelve years old while the show was on tv and he was

quite an interesting kid. He was kind of a Dennis the Menace kind of kid, getting all kinds of trouble,

had certain notions about the way the world worked and that kind of thing and on that show at one

point in time, I think it was about 12 episodes in, they showed a toilet on tv. This was the first

time that a toilet had ever been shown on tv and Leave It to Beaver, the producers were fined $50

for showing a toilet on tv. The FCC fined them $50 because no one should ever show a toilet on tv.

Now I have now seen in spy movies and various other conflict movies, action adventure movies if

you will, fight scenes in bathrooms showing dozens of toilets. I saw a guy get his face broken on a

toilet, I saw a guy break a toilet with his back, I've seen so many toilets on tv now and none of

them got fined $50. Will those rules about what's okay to display in public and talk about in public

change? We're watching Downton Abbey, the movie, the new movie, the second movie last night with

my wife, she's a Downton Abbey fan, has been for a number of years, watched the entire series

and I'm somewhat a Downton Abbey fan but the bottom line is we were watching the second movie

last night and in the movie one of the actresses who was making a movie at Downton Abbey said,

it's a funny thing to think that every man in the room wants to give you one and she was making a

sexual innuendo and everyone in the room was shocked. They were like, oh right, I couldn't

believe it that she would make a sexual innuendo in her conversation but she didn't say anything

about sex, she just said and so people could kind of understand what she was talking about.

I submit to you that today what passes for crass or disgusting or irreprehensible speech has changed

radically. The f-word has become common so that literally people use it all the time and they

wouldn't be saying he wants to give me one, that's what they would say or something distasteful like

that. So the question is do the rules, the teachings of God, the things that God has laid out for us,

the way that God wants to work in our lives and the way that we are supposed to go, grow old?

Do they wear out? When I was a young Christian I thought, man I want to serve God and I was gung-ho

and the truth is I'm pretty much like that now 27 years later, okay, but in between there I've had

moments where I thought, I don't think I can walk this course, I don't think I can continue. God

called me to preach and I'm driving down the road, I'm going to New Heights on Main Street to preach

and I had it happened to be three different times in the space of two years and I was going to seminary

at the same time so I was putting in 40 hours of ministry and 40 hours of school work every week

and it was just too much and I felt like I was going to melt under the pressure and I got to

Navarre East Broadway which is the East Little Baptist Church, the church I got saved in, the

building that I got saved in and I thought all I have to do now is turn to the right and go

somewhere else. I literally thought all I have to do is turn, I was sitting at the red light and I

don't like, as you know, I don't like to wait, I don't like to wait for red lights. I think there

should be a special law that Dan does not have to wait for red lights but I don't think that's

coming anytime soon so I pull up the red light, I could have turned to the right, it's a right turn

on red, I don't have to wait and everything in me said I'm not going to go to New Heights, I'm not

going to preach today, I'm going to give up the ghost if you will, I'm going to quit, I'm going to

turn to the right and go somewhere else and I sat there and I'm like but that's not what's good for

me, it's not what God wants for me and I talked myself through it and God said the light will turn

green in the second, I'm like okay, light's going to turn green, light turned green, I drove to New

Heights and in the middle of the first worship song I repented and came back to the Lord for the

the feelings that were mine, had nothing to do with God. I was feeling that way because of my own

selfish hardened heart, okay, so I know it's possible by now that I would have caved in and

become no longer a Christian 20 times, 20 times I could have given up this faith, 20 times I could

have quit preaching, 20 times I could have quit studying, 20 times I could have quit praying,

there was a moment I was doing laundry in my old laundry room before we renovated it so that could

be like I was standing in my downstairs bathroom now because that used to be where the laundry was

and I had been under such attack by the devil and I know whether it was him or evil spirits when I've

been under such attack and I was ready to give up and I said I am not going to quit no matter what

you say, I'm not going to quit serving God, I've been through this, I know better and I said get

away from me in the name of Jesus Christ, leave me alone and my head got quiet and I was like,

I'm going to quit. And a minute or two later said wow you, you're pretty strong in the Lord,

you know how to defend yourself. A voice in my head said you're pretty, you know how to defend

yourself and I started thinking I guess I do, yeah I gotta bring out the name of Jesus on you brother,

kick you out of here and then it said but you can't teach anybody else to do that and just as

sudden as I felt better I felt worse and I was back in such a deep hole and literally 10 seconds

and I told myself would I give up and I prayed in feed for goodness or sin and in the name of Jesus

Christ I said I'llüğ while you're at it preventing from reposting the 105

By the way, in fencing that's called a repost when the enemy attacks in one place and then

attacks harder in another place.

And that's what happened there.

So what I'm saying to you is if you've been a Christian for a while now or if you're not

wrong people, to feel shame if you can't replace them, will you panel your enemy?

yet a Christian, then we need to address this fact.

Is there going to be a moment in time at which this faith, this walk with Christ, this Christianity

is no longer relevant to the moment?

Does it become obsolete?

Now I didn't start there.

That's where the scripture took me.

So I'm giving you kind of like the conclusion question before we start reading the scripture

today, okay?

All right, so grab your Bibles if you would.

Maybe you say a who to holler amen or just go, ugh, as we go to chapter 10 of the book

of Deuteronomy.

Ugh.

All right, so it is 10, 10, 10, 10.

So if you memorize this verse, you'll never have to worry about the reference because

it's Deuteronomy 10, 10.

How hard is that to remember, right?

10, 10.

I moreover stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights like the first time and the

Lord listened to me that time also.

The Lord was not willing to destroy you.

So you could memorize that verse pretty easily.

It's Moses talking since I moreover stayed in the mountain 40 days, 40 nights like the

first time and the Lord listened to me that time also.

The Lord was not willing to destroy you.

I want you to see what's happening there before we go any further.

This is like huge.

It almost could be the sermon.

It is, but it almost could be.

What did he do?

He made intercession for the Israelites who had sinned against God while he was up on

the mountain getting the tablets.

They were down having the debauchery fast.

They were doing sexual things.

Probably started out with worshiping this false idol that they created and then they

sat down and ate and they got up to play, right?

There's that innuendo that the Bible is using to say there was sexual, basically an orgy

going on or there were lewd celebrations, right, going on.

So he goes back up there, spends 40 and he makes intercession for the Israelites to the

point that the Lord was not willing to destroy the Israelites.

Then Levin says, 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.

So what does he do?

So here Moses makes intercession, then God assigns him a job.

You see?

He makes intercession for them and then God gives him a job.

He says, now you go in in the front.

You go and lead them in, right?

If you're a Bible scholar and if not, I'm going to help you in a second here.

If you're a Bible scholar, you can kind of hear Jesus saying, pray.

He says, the harvest is white.

The wheat is white under harvest.

We need harvesters.

He says, pray the Lord will send workers into the harvest.

And then in the next verse, he sent those who prayed that the worker would go into the

harvest, he sent them into the harvest.

This is what happened to Moses.

Moses goes up on the mountain, 40 days and 40 nights again, begs God.

God says, OK, I'm not going to destroy the Israelites.

Then he says to them, 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.

Now you know the story in the long run, he does not do that because he fails as an intercessor.

Ultimately, he sins against God and he is not allowed to go into the promised land.

But the people still go, but Moses is not allowed to go.

That's what ultimately will happen.

Verse 12 says this, and now 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, to serve the Lord

your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments

and his statutes, which I am commanding you today for your good.

I don't need to hit him too hard, but that is a kind of like five point summary essentially

of what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be a follower of God.

And behold to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all

that is in it.

God owns everything.

Yet on your fathers did the Lord set his affection to love them and he chose their descendants

after them, even you above all peoples as it is this day.

So in all creation, all that God has made, God chose you.

Okay, and that's true for every Christian.

If you're in this room, God loves you.

If you're in this room to hear this message and you're not a Christian yet, understand

God loves you and if God had to send Jesus to the cross to save only you, he would do

it.

You follow?

So if the only person left in the world that wasn't saved was you, he'd have sent Jesus.

And if no one was saved and you were the only one going to get saved, he'd have sent Jesus.

You understand?

That's how extreme that sacrifice is.

Jesus could do it for everybody because he didn't have any sin, but he would do it for

one.

God has that kind of affection for you.

There was an old story that I heard a long time ago, probably 25 years ago, about a pastor

and he was out on a boat fishing.

He took his son and a young man who was not a Christian from his son's Sunday school class

and they went out fishing.

And they were fishing and a storm started to come up and the waters got tossed a little

bit and one of the boys, I'm sorry, both the boys got thrown overboard.

Suddenly they're in the water and he's still in the boat and he had to save one of them.

And he had time to snatch up one of them and maybe enough time to snatch up the other one,

but he knew he could get one for sure.

And he had to make a choice.

Did he save his boy or did he save the other boy?

And he in that moment with great presence of mind, wisdom to the Lord, chose to save

the other boy.

And his son died.

And so that's crazy.

I'm not sacrificing my son for somebody else.

Not some kid that doesn't even know, doesn't even believe in Jesus.

But when his son died, he went straight to heaven.

If that other boy had died, he'd have gone straight to hell.

Now because of that, that boy got saved after that because of the sacrifice that was made

and that boy went on to serve the Lord and became kind of an evangelist and a pastor

and would tell that story the world over about how the pastor had chosen him over his own

son.

And the thing that's not about that pastor, that's the sacrifice that Jesus made.

When Abraham goes up on the mountain and he's going to make a sacrifice and the only sacrifice

he's taking with him is his son.

And his son says to him, where's the sacrifice, dad?

And he says, God will provide it because God had told him to sacrifice his own son.

And then because he was willing to sacrifice his own son, not that you ever should do that,

but because he was willing to do that, God saw his faith and counted it to him for righteousness.

That's how much God loves you.

It cannot be overstated.

And yet he has chosen you to hear this message from his word.

He's chosen you to hear the gospel and I submit to you, chosen you to represent him on the

face of the earth.

That's how much God loves you.

Verse 16 says this, then, or in this translation, circumcise then your heart and stiffen your

neck no more.

We'll come back and break those terms down in the points in a moment, but the bottom

line is this is a two-point summary essentially of what to do in following Christ.

Verse 17, for the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great,

the mighty, the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.

In the Lord's Supper and in a model of prayer that I believe in, the very first thing we

do is express adoration toward God.

We adore God.

We love God.

We show, we talk about how awesome he is.

Can it be said any way better than this?

For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty,

and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.

He executes justice for the orphan and the widow and shows his love, bless you, for the

alien by giving him food and clothing.

So in other words, God is always at work executing justice for the orphan and the widow.

I suggest we do the same, James 1.27, because God is doing that, show his love for the alien,

the person that isn't at home here, by giving him food and clothing.

Widows, orphans, aliens, they are a big part of our purview.

So, show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

See, they didn't belong in Egypt, but they were stuck there and they did not get love

from the Egyptians and ultimately they really did not.

They were in slavery, their babies were thrown in the river, it was terrible.

20, you shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve him and cling to him, and you

shall swear by his name.

He is your praise and he is your God who has done these great and awesome things for you

which your eyes have seen.

Notice that last part, which your eyes have seen, God is not asking you to respond to

what God has done that you don't know anything about.

That's why the lost world, people who don't know Jesus, there's really not much expected

of them.

They can behave kind of like however they want, pretty much, I mean they're going to

hell, it's a terrible thing, they're going to hell, but because of their end destination,

because of their relationship with God, you don't really expect a lot more.

But if you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, a higher expectation is there because

you have seen.

Once the Holy Spirit is in you, once you've been saved, once God has spoken to you a couple

times, once you've read his word and it's meaningful, once you've heard a sermon that

really touched your heart, verse 21 says, he is your praise and he is your God who has

done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen.

That phrase there, he is your praise is very meaningful.

God has done, bless you, these great and awesome things for which your eyes have seen.

In the last verse for today out of Deuteronomy it says, your fathers went down to Egypt,

70 persons in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

God expands people.

That's what he does.

All right, here we go.

So first thing is, in this text, notice that there is a simple answer to the question,

what does the Lord God ask of you?

That's awesome because like in every religion across the world they have checklists.

If you follow these steps, you'll be considered religious, you'll be saved or you'll be free

or you'll be, you'll ascend to the next plane or you'll regenerate as a better animal or

you know, whatever they foolishly believe that it is, they have lists, tens or forties

or whatever.

If you just do these things, that will achieve you the results of our religion.

So now we get a list, praise God, that will achieve for us a proper relationship, thank

you so much, proper relationship with God as we go forward.

And there's more to it than that, but I just want to share the list for you at first and

then I'll come back with some of the results.

So the first thing is it says, fear the Lord.

Now let's be realistic.

Let's say you had a brother.

We'll name him Joe because there's no Joes in the room at the moment.

Let's say you had a brother named Joe.

Joe came out a pretty ordinary brother, but then by the time Joe was 20, every time he

snapped his fingers, he could make the matter of stars, clouds, rain, lightning or fire

appear at will.

He said, boom, fire, boom, lightning, a star, there it is shining in the sky from then on.

Right?

Suddenly you begin to realize Joe is not ordinary.

People are not supposed to be able to do that.

I've never known anybody that could go like that.

There it was.

So they take Joe to a laboratory.

They try to dissect him, but they can't because every time Joe goes like that, anybody that's

trying to hurt him in any way, shape or form is evaporated.

Turn to dust, pile on the floor.

A couple of nice ones, he made them into stars or he sent them off to somewhere far away

instead of killing them instantly.

He's got that kind of power.

Then Joe comes home one day and you're in the refrigerator and you're going to get a

piece of chocolate cream pie.

It's the last one.

You pull the chocolate cream pie out of the refrigerator.

You go walk to the table, you grab a fork out of the holder, you pull the lid off and

you sit down and eat the chocolate cream pie.

And Joe walks in the room and says, hey, that's my chocolate cream pie.

What just happened to your heart rate?

It went through the roof.

You're like, oh, wait a minute.

I already know that Joe can evaporate people.

Joe can make people into things.

Joe can send people far away, whatever.

And I just took a bite of Joe's chocolate cream pie.

Even though Joe's my brother, even though I have a close relationship with Joe and probably

ought not to go evaporating or transforming your family members, that's really kind of

bad etiquette.

But even so, I just took a bite of the chocolate cream pie that belongs to my brother who has

stellar power.

Your heart rate goes through the roof.

You eat, your heart's in your throat.

Your hands start to sweat.

Your mouth goes, and you're like, and you can't get that chocolate cream pie out of

your mouth fast enough.

And you wish with all your might you could put it back and it would never be tasted,

never be touched, never be no abuse meant.

And then Joe says, it's okay.

I'll just make another one.

And you're like, oh, wait.

You scared the crap out of me.

You walked in there like that.

Fear the Lord.

Trust me.

He has that kind of power.

Fear Him.

Not because He's going to destroy you.

He loves you.

He's not going to send you into hell for eternity if you've accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and

Savior.

Ultimately, He is pitting all of that power into making your eternity a living bliss for

ongoing until there are no more calendars.

However, He is still the Lord.

He is still God who spoke everything from nothing into creation.

He is still God who wiped out the earth with a flood because there were no righteous people.

And He is still God who blew Sodom and Gomorrah off the map because they were getting into

debauchery, sin, sex, various other illegitimate ways of living.

And He blew them off the map with a column of fire and salt from heaven.

Maybe it sits under the lowest point of the earth now, which is the Dead Sea.

But somewhere over there, there used to be two huge cities that still, if they lived

now, they would be the most ancient and powerful cities probably on the earth.

But they're gone.

And their people are gone.

And if it's under the Dead Sea, it's a Dead Sea.

They call it that because literally no life can live there.

If you leave something sitting in it for very long, the salt will collect to it so bad,

you won't even be able to recognize what it is anymore.

This is the God we're talking about.

Fear Him.

And that fear provides a healthy sustenance.

We talk about how small children, you spank them when they're little.

Then as they grow up, you threaten to spank them.

And then as they get a little bit older still, you never have to threaten to spank them.

Or even raise your voice.

But we're living in a world where nobody cares enough to put the fear of their parents in

the children or the world is teaching that you can't do that anymore.

And so now we have children who don't fear their parents and they're going to do whatever

they're going to do regardless of what their parents want.

And we have some really bad parents who aren't teaching their children what to do in the

first place.

But God is not like that.

God is a strong and mighty God who can create from nothing and destroy at will.

He can separate a person from goodness for an eternity if he chooses to.

Fear the Lord.

Walk in all His ways.

I love this.

I was at the football game on Friday night.

We get to go to the North for football games when they have Hogan games during football

season.

There aren't too many left, but if somebody wants to go to one, there's one coming up.

And Arden's in the marching band.

He's a drum major and it's been really cool.

So Arden on Friday morning was supposed to get up and go to school, but he slept through

his alarm.

So he got to school a little bit late.

So he missed part of band.

Well, when you miss part of band, if you miss half your school day, you're not allowed to

march.

He's supposed to play a solo, march, he's drum major, direct the band some, that kind

of thing.

And he stayed for lunch.

So technically he was there for over half the day, but he came home and he's like, I

don't know for sure if I'm going to be allowed to march tonight or not.

He said, I think I am.

He said, I think I convinced him I was there for enough time to march, whatever.

So we get out there to march.

And sure enough, they let him march.

And then he directs the marching band like the drum major does.

I don't have the rhythm to do that, but he does that.

And he played the trumpet, played a solo, did an awesome job.

I was really blessed.

And as he was walking down on the field, it struck me that he could not, he could have

been not allowed to do any of what he was about to do.

Then the seventh graders were out there with the marching band.

So once a year, they have the seventh graders come out for their first taste of what it's

like to be in marching band and they come out there.

And so with all those seventh graders there, there were 95 band members.

There have never been 95.

That is roughly one quarter of the entire high school, just in the marching band.

And there were 95 band members, but some of them were in seventh grade, so technically

they're not in high school.

So even if you add the seventh grade, it's almost a quarter of the seventh through 12th

grade.

And so he goes up and who's going to direct them?

The one song that they all do together, who's going to direct them?

Arden.

Arden gets up there, stands up on the ladder, and he directs them to the one song.

He did a good job.

I don't know.

I can't tell when music is screwed up and when it's not, but it seemed like it was awesome.

And as he was standing up there, this is what the Lord said to me.

He said, see, I've given you a walk to walk and you can walk it.

And I was like, oh, wait a minute.

I get it.

See Arden could have got out of bed, could have not missed his alarm, could have made

it to band on time, but he made a mistake.

He slept through his alarm.

He's been having some trouble with his allergies or whatever it is, keeping him up in the middle

of the night, waking him up somewhere.

So he overslept, he slept through his alarm.

And then he could have been not allowed to lead the band at all, but he was allowed to

lead the band by a fortuitous turn of events and then became the very first person in Northwood

band history to ever lead a band of 95 people.

Not a teacher or a principal, but Arden.

That's awesome.

This is what happens.

When you walk in the ways that God has laid out for you, things work the way God wants

them to work.

Does that mean you might avoid martyrdom?

No, God may have it in a plan for you to someday die for your faith.

Of course, there's great blessings for that.

And you'd be first entering the kingdom of God according to what the word says and so

on.

But hopefully that doesn't happen to any one of us.

But the bottom line is if you walk in the ways that God has laid out for you, then God

will do what God intends to do for you.

Ultimately, the way is Jesus Christ.

And so you must first trust in the Lord and I don't want to get ahead of myself.

But the bottom line is you walk in the way that God has laid out for you.

If you fear the Lord and walk in his ways, you've got two of your bases on the ground.

You're becoming firm, but you're still kind of teetery.

Number three then is to love him.

We must love God.

And we're like, well, why would I not love God?

I mean, he's a greater God.

He gave me life.

He lets me do things.

He lets me eat.

He lets me pray.

He lets me sing.

He lets me walk, talk.

He could evaporate me and he chooses not to, all that kind of thing.

I mean, there's lots of positives about God.

But the truth is there are a lot of people that don't love God.

Rather, they hate him because they want to live a lifestyle that God says you cannot

live.

Or they want to do a thing.

They want to lie to somebody or they want to steal from somebody.

And God says you cannot do that.

And they know God says that.

And so they begin to hate the one who tells them that they cannot do what it is that they

want to do.

I'm going to be completely transparent with you for a moment if I may.

There are things that I want to do that God tells me I cannot.

What?

How can that be?

Well, because I'm not perfected yet.

I am a normal person like anybody else.

And yeah, I've come out of things that I used to do that I knew God didn't want me to do.

I've stopped doing.

But there are still things that are in me that I want to do.

But God tells me I can't, and so I have to restrain myself.

And so when I restrain myself not to do what I want to do that God tells me I cannot do,

there is a moment of friction there.

I'm like, well, I could be mad at God.

I could be frustrated with God.

I could rebel or I could sneak and try to go around God as if that were a thing.

Love God.

Love him.

He has given you everything.

And we already heard, walk in his ways.

At that moment in time, when you choose to do what it is that God wants you to do rather

than the thing that you want to do, that's walking in his ways.

And then you're showing your love toward him when you don't respond mentally, emotionally,

psychologically, in rebellion against him.

And be aware rebellion, on a side note, is extremely addictive.

So fear the Lord, walk in his ways, and love him.

And then maybe best of all, because it seems to have worked really well when I've tried

it, serve him.

Find ways to do what it is that God wants done.

Can God do it himself?

Yes.

Are you going to replace God?

No.

Never.

But God, through his great grace and mercy, allows us to do what he could easily otherwise

do.

I'm not going to give too much specifics here because I didn't ask this person permission,

but I came in to the house and I had a long list of things that needed to be done.

And I looked at one of my children and I said, do you have some time to take care of a couple

of things?

And the response was, well, if it's only a few minutes because I have to do this.

This was what I had planned to do today.

So then I went on and I did all of those things myself.

And the truth was, because I did all of those things myself, I didn't get done everything

that I wanted to get done.

My child missed out on a blessing because I gave them an opportunity to serve me.

The truth is, I took that blessing away when I did it myself.

God is an ultimate servant.

Who came to serve?

Jesus.

Who serves the most?

Who is the leader servant of all?

God.

God is.

Because he made all of this for us and walks with us, protects us, provides for us, etc.,

etc., etc., every day, all day.

God is a servant.

If you want to be made over to the image of Jesus, fear the Lord, walk in his ways, love

him and serve him.

And maybe you didn't serve him at first, but you started serving later and you will be

determined to be the one who actually serves the Lord if you will decide to serve him now.

You say, well, I haven't been doing it.

Stop not doing it and start doing it.

It's simple.

Decide what it is that God wants you to do and do that.

And then the last on this list for this passage anyway, the question, what does the Lord God

ask from you, is to observe his commands and his decrees and then fix them in your hearts

or minds.

And that's a little bit more tricky or challenging, right?

So to observe here can easily be translated as to keep or to obey and to teach them, right?

They are the requisite things of the kingdom.

This is what God wants from us.

Our job is to look to them.

What do you want, God?

Okay, I see that, right?

And then our job is to do that the best we know how and at the same time absorb it, right?

I now know the recipe like the back of my hand for homemade waffles.

It's very easy.

I don't make them from scratch.

I make them from a mix.

I add a little bit of canola oil, vanilla, cinnamon and enough water to make it thin

to pour.

And then I let it sit for one minute and I pour it on the waffles, on the waffle iron.

And then I flip the waffle iron, I wait until I don't see any more steam coming out.

I flip it over, check it, it's golden brown, boom, I ate it.

It takes me eight minutes roughly to make a waffle.

I'm talking about a waffle, right?

And about less than a dollar's worth of mix in canola oil, vanilla and cinnamon.

And that's my choice.

You don't have to put cinnamon or vanilla in it.

You can just make it without it, right?

If I cut out certain steps, for example, if I decide to eat that waffle mix in that bowl

with a spoon instead of putting it in the waffle iron, it's going to be pretty gross.

And that's the way it is lured.

So the first time I went to make those waffles like that, I looked at the box and I said,

okay, I'm going to make it like this.

The second time I looked at the box and I said, okay, I'm going to make it like this.

By the third time I started making it, I thought, now what was that again about the, and I looked

at the box one more time.

And from that point on, I had hidden the instructions in my mind, in my heart, whatever inside me

somewhere, and I've never had to look again.

That's the way it is with God.

He doesn't just want you to walk in his ways or serve him or even fear him or love him.

He wants you to look at what he has told you to do.

Like I was talking about during the inspirational moment, if you're praying to the Lord asking

God, God, should I tell him about Jesus?

Should I tell him about Jesus?

God may never answer that prayer because God has already told you, you should already have

that in you to know the answer to that question.

Just go home and ask your parents if you've got a bedtime, ask them, should I go to bed

on time and see what the response is?

Probably it's like, well, yeah.

Meaning duh, yeah, that's what you're supposed to do.

Or maybe they'll say, no, don't worry about it because they're human.

But God is not like that.

When God tells you to do something, you're supposed to do what he says.

And you take that command into you and you observe it, understand it, and bury it at

a place where it's not going to go away.

Notice that all of this is actually for their own good.

All the commands.

God said to me, I have given you a path to walk and you can walk it.

As hard as it may look, as impossible as it may seem, at times you may have to let go

of some things that you think are good to do the great, whatever.

But I have given you a path to walk and you can walk it.

What does the Lord God want from you?

Number one, he wants you to fear the Lord.

He wants you to walk in his ways, love him, serve him, and observe and absorb, if you

will, might be a good modern word for that, the teachings of the Lord, and do what it

is that you learn and teach those same things to others.

It's called being a disciple.

The second thing that's in this text then, the first one was, what has God asked for

you?

And I now told you, I hope you got it.

The second one was, how great is it that God chose us for this?

Instead of getting out of bed and going, well, God wants me to do this, and going, oh man,

I got to do what God wants me to do today.

Or, oh man, I can't steal that.

Because God says I'm not supposed to do that.

Or I can't behave that way.

I can't have this lifestyle because God says no.

Instead of doing that, we should realize, how great is it that he chose us?

The caliber of God, the great and mighty, awesome God who created all things versus

the caliber of us, we are like a speck of dust on the bottom of a shoe.

We are nothing compared to the God of the universe, and yet God makes us into literally

everything.

He has elevated us to a position to be heirs and joint heirs with his son, Jesus Christ.

He's taken you from nowhere and put you somewhere to take you to there.

God has done that.

How great is it that he chose us?

Instead of going, oh, I don't know if I'm that afraid of God.

When you think about doing something you shouldn't do, you'd be like, terrified.

Instead of, I'm going to walk in this ways, but at times when it's inconvenient, I sort

of do something different.

So I'm going to be determined to put all of my strength to walk in his ways.

Do I love him?

Yeah, I love God.

Sure I do.

But not when it's inconvenient or not when I'm distracted by something else or not when

I'd rather stream or play.

In those times, I'm not really worried about it.

No, you love God with every waking moment, every second, every fiber of your being.

Do I serve God?

Sure I do, but at times I have to schedule my service because there's things I also want

to do.

No.

I do it 24-7 every moment that you have a choice.

Do I observe his commands?

Do I read my Bible, learn what it is that God wants me to do?

Do I pray and listen to him and follow what he says?

Well, if you don't, then you're not doing what God asks of you.

And that might be because you've forgotten how great it is that he chose us.

That he set his affections on our forefathers in the faith, those who shared Christ with

us, and that he chose us above all nations.

The kingdom of God will stand the test of time beyond every border, beyond every constitution.

The United States of America is a young nation on world scale.

Queen Elizabeth ruled England for almost half the time that America has been in existence.

You follow?

That's crazy, but it's real.

A third.

The point is, we are a young nation as a country, and everybody's hanging their hopes on what

the United States of America is going to do and what the president is going to do.

I'm not an insurrectionist.

I believe in our nation.

I believe in the foundation, the way it was made, because it was written on Christian

principles.

The men who signed the Declaration of Independence, every single one of them was a deacon or a

pastor except for one.

Every single one of them.

Men who jumped into their clothes and grabbed their gun and ran out.

They called them Minutemen in the war for the liberation of the colonies.

They called them Minutemen.

Those people were all Christian men who went to church 2.5 times a week.

They all loved the Lord with a few exceptions, but basically all of them.

So I believe in our country because of the principles it was founded on, but hear me

now if the United States of America goes away, if it dwindles and dries up, and I believe

it probably will.

Actually, I believe it will probably be elevated to be one of the horns, and then that power

is submitted to the Antichrist or the beast, and the world will go in a place that we don't

want it to go, but the church, the Kingdom of God, will remain.

You won't get a vote anymore because you'll be persecuted and ruled over by an evil empire

if it comes to that, but the bottom line is how great is it that God chose us to add us

to a nation that will persevere beyond all nations, that doesn't need another constitution

or another set of laws or rules or rulers even, because we have the supreme ruler who

is Jesus Christ who's on the throne forever.

How great is it that he chose us to add us out of a great nation, yes, out of a liberal,

free, free nation where you get to vote and have your own opinions and think things and

whatever.

All of that is there so that you can choose Jesus Christ and be added to the nation that

God is creating that is eternal.

How great is it that he chose us, that he elected us, not that we elected him, but that

he elected us into a nation that will persevere.

How great is it that he chose us?

What does God the Lord ask of you and how great is it he chose us?

And then a logical urging then comes out of this text, Moses urges them and he says, then

crucify your hearts.

So I'm now going to explain in simplicity if I can what it means to crucify your hearts

because if this has not been done then either A, you're not a Christian or B, you're barely

escaping by.

To crucify your hearts means to be open and responsive and obedient.

So you're not distracted, you're paying attention to what God wants and every time you figure

out something new that God wants, whatever it might be, you're immediately pitting yourself

to that task.

To circumcise your hearts is to say, I'm not going to let anything that this world has

to offer and believe me, there's a lot.

There's a lot.

It can be sex.

It can be political thinking.

It can be video games or football, family outings.

It can be children, children draw people.

It can be finances, jobs, promotions.

The world has a lot to offer and basically you're saying, no, I am going to remain open,

responsive and obedient to the Lord.

So when it comes in, it starts to take up residence, I'm going to go, wait a minute,

that's not responsive and obedient to Jesus.

Therefore it is at best a tool that I can use to be responsive and obedient to Jesus

and if I cannot use it then it has no place in my life.

Understand?

So you get a new car.

Someone comes and gives you a new car and you're like, man, I got a new car, yay for

me, yeah.

And then you go to get the new car and the person says, there's just one thing you got

to do for me.

So I need you to work every Sunday morning from 8 a.m. to 11, just three hours a week

for the next three years and it's yours for free.

Three hours a week for the next three years.

It's 150, 450 hours.

You won't have to pay me a cent but just do some basic, you know, work in my yard for

three hours a week every Sunday.

I know it means you won't be able to get to church, you won't be able to worship God like

you've been doing but after three years are up, you've got it.

And here's this $20,000 car, it's yours.

You say no because I am open and responsive and obedient to the Lord.

I don't have time.

People go, well, I'll take you to Cedar Point.

My treat, tickets, get in for free, all the food's free, all the drinks you want, ride

all the rides.

We'll go to the water park and Cedar Point and you can spend the night and we'll stay

the next day too.

And we'll be there all weekend for free on my dime.

I'll take care of it.

And you say no, I'm open and responsive and obedient to the Lord.

You say but how does missing church on a Sunday mean I'm not open and responsive and obedient

to the Lord?

What are we doing right now?

We are looking to God's word for His direction.

How can you be open and responsive and obedient to the Lord if you miss an opportunity to

look that's been given to you?

Okay, if you don't believe this is an opportunity for you, then what are you doing sitting in

this room?

This is an opportunity for you to hear from God, not from me.

These are not my opinions.

This is what the word says.

He said Moses said to them then because this is true, because it's amazing that God chose

you because God chose you to do what?

To fear Him, to walk in His ways, to love Him, to serve Him, to observe and absorb His

commands because God chose you to do that because that amazing relationship exists.

Circumcise your hearts.

Become open and responsive and obedient to the Lord whenever you know what it is that

God wants from you, do that.

But He didn't just say circumcise your hearts.

That's enough.

It probably would be enough to run your life.

Your heart was truly circumcised.

Then every time you started to do something God didn't want you to do, you'd notice your

heart be like, itch.

There's certain foods I don't like.

If you bring me a birthday cake frosted with mayonnaise, I'm not going to eat it because

that's disgusting.

You're like, well, I'm not going to eat it either.

That's disgusting.

But that's exactly the notion, the feeling that you should have at the moment in which

you become non-responsive to God.

You should have this moment and go like, I get that.

That's available to me.

That's cool.

I can have that.

But no matter what it's worth to me, it's not worth not being obedient, open, and responsive

to the Lord Jesus Christ.

But above and beyond that, He adds this.

He says, stop being stiff-necked.

And I really had to break that down.

Your translation might even stay stubborn or rebellious.

But here's the reality.

Even with a circumcised heart, certain actions are physically addictive.

Are you familiar with the term muscle memory?

Just recently, a story from Arden's life he's working on.

Arden's been playing the trumpet for eight years.

And he found out just recently that there's a problem with his ombiture.

You may or may not be familiar with that term.

It's the way his lips touch the trumpet.

And he discovered the problem all on his own.

Nobody taught him whatever.

He's like, I have this problem.

And he come to me and he's like, now I really have a problem because my muscles in my face

are literally trained to play the trumpet a certain way.

And I realized that my range into these really, really high notes that some people, great

jazz players and stuff can play, is always going to be restricted.

If I always come to the mouth of the trumpet the way I've been, then I'm never going to

get there.

It's just not going to happen.

But to retrain myself to do it the proper way is virtually impossible because my muscles

will feel like they'll only move a certain way.

And that's what happens.

When you act a certain way, behave a certain way, and you do things a certain way, the

next time you go to do them, you're going to do them again.

If you wear red every single day in a few months, you're going to do one of two things.

You're going to hate wearing red and get rid of all your red clothes.

Or you're going to go, well, I'm just going to wear red for the rest of my life.

And that's not even muscle memory.

That's just habit.

So habit and muscle memory and steps that we take, they are addictive.

They build a path.

If you stream your favorite show one time until you've watched all the episodes on a

streaming service, you can guarantee that unless there's a miracle of intervention or

an intentional choice on your part, you will find a new favorite show and stream that one

too.

You're like, oh, well, that's not a sin.

I didn't say it.

Did I say it was a sin?

What I'm saying to you is when you do something repetitively, you get good.

Your body gets good at doing the same thing.

Sit down for eight hours a day as an academic like I have to do.

I can sit with the best of them.

Stand up and preach and be loud for a while.

I can project my voice with the best of them.

My lungs capacity is bigger than it should be.

Arden and I were joking about this because he's a trumpet player and big lung capacity

is a thing for trumpet players in any wind instrument.

And yet my lung capacity is quite a lot larger than his even though I don't play the trumpet.

And it's because I preach.

So do it for 15 years and see what happens or whatever it is.

But it works both ways, doesn't it?

If you're open and responsive and obedient to the Lord, that as you are open and responsive

and obedient in certain things, you'll get good at those things.

You'll get good at getting up for church in the morning.

You'll get good at remembering to take the right things with you.

It's pretty soon.

You'll stop being late.

You'll start being dressed.

You'll start being prepared.

You'll start having the things that you need.

You'll start coming to worship.

Wait for it because this will step on your toes.

Already prayed up and studied up in preparation for what the Lord might say.

You'll be like, I got church tomorrow.

I can get my Bible and read it.

I know we're going through the book of Deuteronomy.

I know we stopped in verse nine and I'm not going to ask you, but I'm going to bet any

amount of money.

There ain't one person in this room that read from 10 to the end of the chapter before they

got here today, even though we all knew that we're working through the book of Deuteronomy.

And I'm not saying that's a sin.

I'm just saying as you develop those muscles and develop those things, you'll be thinking

along that lines.

I'll tell you right now, next week, unless the Lord changes it, we're going to begin

in Deuteronomy chapter 11 verse one.

Deuteronomy 11 · chapter mention

Who might think about reading those verses before they come?

Anybody.

As you study and as you read and as you grow, you'll get good at studying, reading and growing.

The paths that we walk, these paths, we get stuck in them.

There's a winding path in the grass and it's finally fading away from my creek to my garbage

cans because there's an old groundhog and probably three or four generations actually

of groundhogs that would wander from the creek up to my garbage can to eat my garbage.

And they wore a path.

Why did they wear a path?

Because they went the same way every day.

That's what we're doing.

We're going the same way.

You think, oh no, I do different things all the time.

I'm constantly doing different things, but I bet you could categorize those different

things and they'd be basically the same things.

And the way you do them are basically the same.

We're creatures of habit.

We're stiff-necked and God says no more.

God says stop being stiff-necked.

Be open and responsive and obedient, not stubborn and rebellious.

That's what we need to be.

And that brings us to our conclusion.

I'll repeat one more time the points for those who are trying to bring them home or maybe

write them down or whatever.

What does the Lord God ask of you?

He asks you to fear him, walk in his ways, love him, serve him and observe his commands.

How great is he that chose us?

We recognize how great that is that he chose us.

It only makes logical sense for us to circumcise our hearts, become open and responsive and

obedient to the Lord in contrast with being stiff-necked or stubborn and walk in the paths

that we've always walked.

But the sermon title is God's surprising effort.

I'm guessing if you're in this room, you've been a Christian for a while, that none of

that comes as very much of a surprise to you.

It didn't to me.

As I read the text, I'm like, that's a five-point sermon that, you know, I probably preached

five different sermons or maybe 40 different sermons.

I probably preached fear the Lord as a sermon and I probably preached walk in his ways as

a sermon and love him and serve him and each one of those things.

So this could be a five-point sermon series.

I could do a sermon on each one.

And then I could add in there a sermon on circumcising your hearts and a sermon on how

great it is that he's chosen.

You think I've preached those things before?

They all seem pretty not new, don't they?

I mean, in some way or another, they might be, the application might be stronger today

or the Lord might be saying, you know, I see you're not doing that.

I'm calling you to it.

And you might be convicted in your spirit that you need to change things.

But the truth is, they're really not all that different.

But here's what's a little different.

The surprising effort of the Lord is not about making a way that you can walk.

The surprising effort of the Lord is not about making a people that fear the Lord or a people

that walk in his ways or people that love him or people that serve him or people that

observe his commands.

The surprising effort of the Lord is not about any of those things.

But there's something about circumcising our hearts that's in the surprising effort of

the Lord.

We look with me at Jeremiah chapter four, if you're following along in your Bibles,

we are in the conclusion.

Jeremiah chapter four.

And Jeremiah chapter four, and the prophet Jeremiah had quite a life.

He's called the weeping prophet because he really suffered for the Lord.

I'll go back to verse three.

I'm going to read verses three and four to you.

For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem.

Now that would be like kind of like the head of the nation of the Israelites, the people

that were called, people had God's commands.

They were supposed to be fearing the Lord, walking in his ways, loving him, serving him,

observing his commands, but they weren't.

They're supposed to be recognizing how awesome was that God had chosen them, but they weren't.

They should have crucified their hearts, but they didn't.

They should have not been stiff necked anymore, but they were.

And then Jeremiah says, for thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem,

break up your fallow ground and do not sow among thorns.

Here it is.

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your heart.

Now real quick, you do know what circumcision is, right?

It's when they take the foreskin of the penis of a man and they slice it so that the hood

can slide down and sit where it sits and we're familiar with.

Okay?

For those of you who have never seen a penis or have been trained on that, I apologize

if I'm breaking you in on that, but it's okay.

Don't worry about it.

This is not sexual.

It's nothing like that.

This is a physical surgery that's performed on almost every child in America now, but

not everybody.

There are some.

Parents choose not to do it.

It's a health thing.

It has health benefits.

But for them, it was a mark up to whom they belong.

Why did they circumcise the penis among the Israelites?

Well, they did it to remind them that as God's people, they should have had a circumcised

heart, but they didn't do that.

As long as they were circumcised physically, they didn't have to have a circumcised heart,

at least that's the way they lived, right?

Circumcise yourself to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your heart.

The part of your heart that is calloused, the part of your heart that causes infection,

the part of your heart that covers over and makes you unresponsive, right?

He says circumcise the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Let my wrath go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it because of the evil of your

deeds.

Let me read it again because I messed up one word.

Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath go forth like fire and burn

with none to quench because of the evil of your deeds.

Let me read the whole thing again because it's complicated English.

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, remove the foreskins of your heart, I think we understand

that part, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath go forth like fire

and burn with none to quench it because of the evil of your deeds.

So what is he telling them?

He says circumcise your hearts or otherwise, circumcise your hearts so that it won't be

this way.

Lest means, right?

So that it won't be this way so that my wrath will not go forward and destroy everybody

because of their evil deeds.

You follow?

They were to circumcise their hearts and we are to circumcise our hearts and no longer

be a stiff neck people.

We are to fear the Lord, walk in all his ways, love him, serve him, observe his commands.

How great is it that he chose us and therefore circumcise our hearts and not be stiff neck

so that God's wrath will not pour out and destroy all people who are wicked and evil

in their ways for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Now read Hosea 10-12.

Is our next to the last passage of the day.

Hosea is one of the little books, I didn't mark it either, it's one of the little books

back after Daniel I believe, right Daniel?

Yep, there he is, Hosea chapter 10 verse 12.

Hosea 10:12

Chapter 10 verse 12 says this.

So with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness, break up your fallow ground,

for it is time to seek the Lord until he comes to reign righteousness on you.

See this is the direction of the kingdom of God.

This is what we do.

Stand up in righteousness, be strong and do what is right, but understand that God has

prepared us to quench the fire of his wrath.

Our job as Christians is not to have a better path to walk.

Our job as Christians is not to be responsive and serve and do all those things.

That's how we do our job, but the bottom line is we have become a barrier between God's

wrath and the world.

I want you to think about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

You may recall God went to Abraham in advance and he said I'm going to destroy Sodom and

Gomorrah.

Abraham said but my nephew Lot lives there.

That's what he said in his head.

So he said to God would you destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if 50 righteous men lived there?

God said no, if 50 righteous men were found there I would not destroy the city.

If 50 righteous men were found there I would not destroy the city.

You hear it?

If 50 righteous men were found in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah I would not destroy

them for the sake of those 50 righteous men.

Abraham said what if there were only 10?

If there were 10 righteous men found there would you not destroy the city?

God said if there were 10 righteous men found there I would not destroy the city.

Abraham says if I may dare to ask you just one more time, what if there were only one

righteous man found there would you destroy the city?

And we know the answer, he would not.

What he did was he called Lot out.

Being the only righteous man in Sodom and Gomorrah he called him out and he said don't

look back.

You don't need anything to do with that.

Do not look back at where you come from.

Tell him and his family do not look back because the angels were leading them out.

His wife looked back and she was instantly turned into a pillar of salt because she longed

for that life that was in Sodom and Gomorrah in some way enough to look back and see or

she distrusted what God was going to do or whatever was in her heart at that time but

her heart was not circumcised unto the Lord and she looked back and she was immediately

turned into a pillar of salt.

Now Lot, terrified, takes his family into the mountains instead of going where he was

allowed to flee to and that creates all kinds of problems down the road but the bottom line

is God would not have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah if there had been but one righteous

man.

The surprising effort of the Lord is not that he has given you a way to walk.

It is not that he has given you a clear set of commands and made us able to follow those

commands or that he has called us to circumcise our hearts or that he has called us to be

obedient and listen and follow his teaching.

None of that comes as a great surprise but what the great surprise is is that he did

all of that to protect everyone else from his wrath.

We live today if you are in the kingdom of God as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fact that you are on the earth, that's why all of the teachings of the world that

are going on and people are getting involved in all the sexual things, all the abortion

and the violence and the murder and the stealing and the graft that might be existing in government,

the slander that's happening on social media, the gossip that's going around, all of that

stuff, people are not instantly being destroyed by God's wrath because we are still here.

That's the surprising effort of God.

God was giving himself and the people who do not know him time that the gospel might

save all that will come to him.

What did Peter say?

He said, God is not slow as some men count slowness but rather he is patient with us

that all men might come to repentance.

The surprising effort of God is that he was putting a force field up for the world and

the world's teachings and let's just say it plainly the crap that people are doing.

The men and women and children who do not know better or maybe they do and that force

field is us.

He's given you a way that you can walk.

He's called you into a kingdom that will persist and I submit to you that means, wait for it,

that there will come a moment in time at which the teachings of the kingdom of God, the kingdom

of God itself of the church will be obsolete.

We will be obsolete when as the book of Revelation says, the seals are open and the wrath of

God is poured out upon the face of the earth and the force field that is us that's in place

that we might share the gospel for this period of time as we are open and responsive to him

and as we fear him and love him and walk in his ways, do what Jesus told us to do basically

sharing the gospel, loving others, bringing people to Christ.

As all of that is no longer called for because God said he was done.

Oh and by the way, who is it who is worthy to open the seal and release the wrath of

God upon the earth?

None but the lamb, none but our king, none but our king Jesus who is holy and righteous

unto his own death for us.

Some people believe that the church will still be on the earth during the tribulation.

I believe that we will not be because there will no longer be a reason for us to protect

the disobedient from God's wrath.

Know ye therefore and tell everyone who will listen the truth about Jesus because that's

what he commands us to do, love and serve and be kind, deliver the gospel to a lost

and dying world that's going to hell because if they die not knowing Jesus that's where

they're going and if they live when Jesus comes again and pulls us out of the equation,

draws the force field if you will, opens the seal and exposes God's wrath to the disobedient

then that's where they're going, away from God forever.

I ask you today, the God who was that amazing and chose you, will you respond to him?

Will you say, okay Lord, I'm yours, the rest of my days are yours and even though there

are things that I might want to do, I know you know from me what is best.

I will circumcise my heart and I will not be stiff-necked and when I develop bad habits

or get into rebellion I will repent of them and turn back to you again.

I will follow you, you will be my Lord, I will be your people, I'll be part of the nation

that you've called me to which will last until Jesus comes again.

I'll be part of the force field, I'll be part of the righteous, I'll be part of the faithful

and then when Jesus comes again I'll be ready.

We make that decision today.

That is a decision to be saved, it is a decision to be owned, it is a decision to be a child

of God.

If you could elect yourself into someone's will to receive a billion dollars, wouldn't

you do it?

Especially if there were no other requirements, if it was already paid for, nothing less than

that is being asked of you.

Become an heir with Jesus today.

Turn away from your own ideas of the way things work and turn to his.

They will persist, they will last and this pathway is walkable until Jesus comes again

and he may in our lifetime and if he doesn't then we will die for him and go directly into

his presence, absent from the body, present with the Lord.

Do you want to be absent from the body and wondering?

Do you want to be absent from the body and sure?

Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord, that means he tells you what to do and you do it.

As your Savior, that means he paid the price for your sins.

Trust in him alone and he will bring you through.

I'll pray for us briefly and we'll have the praise team come up and lead us and this is

our opportunity to make a decision of whatever the Lord may be putting on our hearts and

it's our opportunity to commit ourselves to him and to follow his ways.

Father in heaven, you're an awesome God, an amazing and powerful God, a creator God and

when necessary a destroyer God.

You're a provider God, a protector God, a healer God, you alone are God.

You see what you've done.

Maybe one of the most known and proven facts in history is Jesus Christ dying on the cross

and being resurrected three days later.

Some people say that only events in recent history that happened while people are still

alive are more proven and more known.

Though I didn't stand at the cross then, though I didn't follow them as they were crucifying

Jesus, though I wasn't present at the purifying of the unclean or the healing of the blind

or the healing of the paralytic or when Jesus brought Lazarus back to life or when he walked

on water.

Some days I feel as if I can feel the sensations of what it must have been like and I wonder

if those sensations are not wrapped up in the very salvation that you've put in me.

I know in my heart of hearts that I've been saved and I commit myself to circumcise my

heart to give up my stiff-necked way of doing things and to become responsive and obedient

to you, to walk in the way that you've prepared for me.

It's a way I can walk.

No one said it was easy.

Many have said it was hard, but I wonder if they, maybe they forgot just how awesome it

is that you chose us to walk it.

Maybe I've forgotten at times.

I ask you Lord to move in the hearts of this people.

Let us unanimously decide, one and all decide to follow you through your son Jesus Christ.

To be forgiven, to be healed, to be reborn, to be sealed up for that day and to be at

work as the shield for other human beings to protect them from your wrath until such

day as Jesus comes again.

It's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

I ask the praise team to come forward and lead us in this final song.

And then as we sing, if the Lord is laid on your...