Morning Message Text: Deuteronomy 30: 15-20
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,
18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Morning Message:
What are just rewards? The word just can mean many things, but it’s meaning in the context that we are using it in this morning is: true, correct; proper or right, righteous. To receive your just rewards means to get what you deserve. Who determines what we deserve? Ultimately God decides what we deserve, but praise his holy name, He doesn’t give us what we deserve. Because of his great mercy and grace, he forgives us and gives us life through Jesus. There is a time and place where God will give all of his children their just rewards. God, who is the perfect judge, will determine what we deserve in heaven based on what we do with our salvation here on earth. Yes, it does matter how you live out your Christian existence. Let me read for you something from my devotional: 1 Corinthians 3: 8 says, “Now he who plants, and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.” Paul uses an agricultural metaphor to talk about rewards. How we plant will be tested by God. How we have used what God has given us will determine our rewards or lack of them. So, what have we been given? Grace, love, spiritual gifts, the Holy Spirit, talents and abilities, time, tangible resources—everything we have is given to us to use faithfully for Christ and his kingdom. Now here is the question: “If the judgment Seat of Christ took place today, how would your works fare in the fire of God’s presence?”
I saw a story on the news this week that gave me just a glimmer of hope. A school district in Missouri, in cooperation with parents, reinstituted spanking of students. Now I know that I will get plenty of people who will disagree with me on this, but I believe that in order to curb bad behavior and achieve obedience in our schools and in our society, we must have deterrents. I’m going to confess to you today. In my time growing up I was a bad kid. Not according to today’s standards of bad; some of what takes place today in our schools would make me look like a choir boy. The stories that I hear of what takes place in schools today I can’t imagine happening when I went to school: children fighting with teachers; punching and kicking them; swearing at them; refusing to do anything that they are told. I know that I am old fashioned, but there was very little of that behavior, if any, when I was in school. Do you know why? Because in every classroom there hung a paddle. Honestly, they were rarely used, although I have several memories of being at the wrong end of that board. I was either more stubborn, or not as smart as most of the kids, but even I was eventually deterred by the sight of that paddle.
There is a legacy of obedience throughout the Bible. God’s word is very clear that we all have a choice to make. We can decide how we will live, if we will live. “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.” The obedience which Moses spoke of can be passed down from one generation to another in this manner: When Godly parents lovingly, persistently, prayerfully instill patterns of belief and obedience in their children, then more often than not, the things of the Lord become a part of the maturing child’s life as well. Proverbs 22: 6 says: “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” There are no promises in the Bible that the children of believers will themselves become believers, but the influence of godly parents can be profound.
We all want our just rewards, but I think that we have forgotten the legacy of obedience and the cost of disobedience. God promises justice, and that includes a high price for ignoring the things of God. This message is not just a message on how we should raise our children. I believe that God is calling the church to obedience today. God calls us together to worship him corporately but how often do we come, and why is the church so empty? We are far from obedient in the way that we live before God. Most of us barely know what God’s word says. How are we supposed to obey it? We need to take a good hard look at what we do here. We need to look at our motives and judge ourselves so that God doesn’t need to. Maybe we have become satisfied with the little that we have. Maybe instead of strictly obeying, we are just going with the flow, putting in time, waiting for Jesus to take us home. I encounter three churches on Sunday morning. I pass by First Presbyterian; their worship starts at 10 am; there are very few cars there. When I get here, we usually have 10 to 15 in worship. In between these two Presbyterian churches I pass a church that has only been there for maybe 5 years. They have three parking lots; there worship starts at 10:30 am, and all three lots are full. What does that mean? I don’t know, but maybe we should take a good hard look at it.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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