[0:00] Okay, it's okay. All right, take your Bibles, go into the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 10, Deuteronomy chapter 10. This evening will be in verses 12 through 22, finishing up the 10th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy.
[0:12] Just to be honest with you, I almost included the 11th chapter here, because what appears is that there are certain truths set forward for us at the end of Deuteronomy chapter 10, starting in verse 12, there are these truths that are set forward for us to grasp, and then they seem to be kind of fleshed out or applied in the 11th chapter, but I didn't want to connect so much scripture together, because I thought that maybe we would lose some of the impact of what is there at the end of the 10th chapter.
[0:43] So I didn't get into the 11th chapter, so as is the case in much of Old Testament scripture, we will probably hear a little repetition as we move forward in the book of Deuteronomy, and we look at the 11th chapter, and we kind of see how Moses is continuing to repeat the same themes and the same truths and the same aspects, but still, we are amazed by it.
[1:08] Before we open up with prayer, before we get into the text, I'll give you this opportunity. This is our chance, you know, when we're not videoed or anything like that, anyone want to testify or anyone have a word they want to share this evening before we move forward.
[1:23] It's good to hear from the saints. Any questions prodding anybody's hearts? I didn't announce that. We're not doing a question and answer time, but I'm just asking.
[1:35] Any questions really just weighing on someone's heart? Discipleship, right? We want to give ourselves to discipleship. Anything? All right, well, let's open up with prayer. Let's pray together.
[1:47] Lord, we thank you so much for this evening. God, we thank you for just allowing us to come together. We thank you for the benefit of being together as a church body, as brothers and sisters in Christ.
[2:00] Lord, the blessing of opening up your word. We pray, oh God, as we open it up now that the truth of it would captivate us. The truth of it would, Lord, transform us and change us and mold us.
[2:14] Lord, help us to be more as you are calling us to be, but Lord, help us to be more like you each and every day. Lord, we just thank you and praise you, and we ask it all in Jesus' name and amen.
[2:27] Deuteronomy chapter 10. Just very few verses, really, in particular as we get into the Old Testament. But I love this section of Scripture. Deuteronomy chapter 10, starting in verse 12.
[2:41] Really, verses 12 and 13, and then verse 21 just resonate, kind of set the whole theme here. Moses is calling the people, if you remember, to faithful obedience.
[2:53] He is calling the people as they go in. It is a settled fact that they are about to go take possession of the Lamb. He is reminded the nation that they are not going to take possession of the Lamb because of their self-righteousness or their self-worth.
[3:07] Not because they've earned it. Not because they deserve it. That God is giving them this Lamb because of the failures of the inhabitants of the Lamb. That the people there had rebelled.
[3:17] The people there had sinned. The people there had failed to treat God as holy. The people, while they had had a witness, did not respond to that witness and really were just in disparity and wickedness.
[3:30] And God had made a covenant. So this is just a gracious act of God to give His people this land. Right? They weren't taking it from anyone. God was giving it to them.
[3:41] And as they went into that land, Moses is encouraging them and moving them to see it in its proper light. Because we don't really, I don't think we properly live out our salvation with fear and trembling until we get a grasp of what we have been given in spite of us.
[4:01] Right? What we have been blessed with in spite of who we are. And when we feel like we've earned it, when we feel like we deserve it, when we feel like we deserve all these things, then let's just stop.
[4:14] I know I'm getting way off subject here. But then we hold it lightly. I'm in the process in the Old Testament class I'm in. The last two weeks have been kind of challenging.
[4:25] This week is equally challenging. I've studied the book of Proverbs and the book of Ecclesiastes the last two weeks. And this week studying the book of Job. So the book of Proverbs sets forth these great truths.
[4:36] Right? Just these truths. These applicable truths. Many people refer to them as, you know, not necessarily dogmatic truths. But if you do this, then this will happen.
[4:47] Train up a child in the way that he shall go and when he is owed, he will not depart from it. Now, is that dogmatic? Is that a guarantee? No. But it's something that we can usually count on.
[4:59] Right? Well, to combat that, what is referred to as retribution theology. That if I do this, then God has to do that. If I'm faithful, God has to bless me.
[5:10] Or if I'm obedient, then God has to take care of me. Or if I do this, then God will do that. That's called retribution. That God pays us back for what we do. I think a lot of people have that thought with salvation.
[5:21] That we are saved because of who we are. Well, to combat that, you have the book of Ecclesiastes and you have the book of Job. That says, sometimes life just doesn't make sense. Right?
[5:31] Because Job did do all that. Everything fell away and everything went away. And Job suffered. Even though he did do all of that. And then some. Right?
[5:42] So, a proper understanding of what we've been given in spite of who we are helps us to have motivation to live faithfully.
[5:53] This is what Moses has been doing. Moses isn't trying to belittle the people. He's just trying to remind the people. You are not getting the land because you deserve it.
[6:03] You're getting the land because God is good. And gracious. And holy. And his holiness is a standard to be upheld.
[6:14] His holiness is a reality to be acknowledged. Because when the people of the land who currently live there have not acknowledged his holiness, he's removing them. You're going to be the instruments of his judgment upon them for their faults, their sins, and all these things.
[6:28] So, he's reminding them. He's motivating them to live. And then right here at the end of chapter 10, he's going to give the call. Alright? It's the call to faithfulness. It's the call to respond to what they are motivated to do.
[6:42] Right? This is his call to the people of God how they should live. So, Deuteronomy chapter 10 starting in verse 12. Now, Israel.
[6:54] What does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, love him, and 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.
[7:08] If you are in the habit of underlining, highlighting, or putting any kind of marks in your scripture, underline that one. Anytime the Bible says, what does God require of you?
[7:19] Pay attention to it. Right? So, if, now Israel. What does the Lord your God require from you? You say, well, that's Israel. Right? But God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and forever. Right?
[7:30] 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, and 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.
[7:45] I'm having a hard time just reading this because, by the way, obedience is for our good. God's requirements of us are always for our good. Now, we go on. Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth, and all that is in it.
[8:00] 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 circumcise your heart and stiff, and your neck no longer.
[8:13] 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, shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.
[8:27] So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and cling to him, and you shall swear by his name. Look at verse 21.
[8:37] He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you, which your eyes have seen. 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.
[8:54] Deuteronomy chapter 10, verses 12 through 22. What a powerful such scriptures. We see here the call to respond to what he's been motivating them towards this whole time.
[9:09] A call to faithfulness, right? This resounding call of God's servant to God's people to be faithful. It is this declaration of live faithfully with the Lord your God.
[9:25] Don't just enjoy his provisions. Don't just take what he gives you. Don't just hoard up what he provides. But live in absolute faithfulness. Now, I'm going to go ahead and just give this caveat at the very beginning that this is hard, and this is almost an impossibility.
[9:44] And you'll see why I say that in just a moment. But here's the call to faithfulness. Always remember where we're at. We're in the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is the last book of the first five books of the Bible.
[9:58] You say, well, pastor, I'm glad you figured that out. You counted one through five, and you got to Deuteronomy. Right, the first five books of the Bible is also referred to as what? The Pentateuch. The Pentateuch is also referred to in the New Testament as the law of Moses.
[10:11] Or in general, the law. We're still in the books of the law, right? The law, the righteous requirements of God upon his people. We're not at the cross.
[10:22] We're not at the garden tomb. We're not at the ascended Savior. We're still here at the law. But we understand this call of God's people for faithfulness.
[10:33] This call resounds with four great truths. To the people of God then, and to the people of God now. And we need to grasp these to understand the call that God is really reaching out.
[10:47] Because this same call, by the way, resonates within the church. It resonates through Christ to his people. We see it kind of being played out all throughout Scripture. We see Paul issuing a similar challenge, even though not with exact words.
[11:00] To the saints at Corinth, and to the saints everywhere else that he wrote. To the brothers and sisters in Christ. This same call that is just so true that God issues to his people of faithfulness.
[11:12] Number one, we see the possibility of it. The possibility. I kind of alluded to this just a moment ago. And I believe that we spoke of it Wednesday night when we were looking here in Deuteronomy.
[11:24] And we got into chapter 10. And we're just a little bit excited about this section of Scripture. Because it is amazing to me. And we should never get over the fact that God shows us what he requires.
[11:41] That God reveals to us. Have you ever thought about this? In your hands you hold 66 books referred to as the canon of Scripture or the Bible.
[11:53] 66 books. The Bible tells us that this is the full revelation of the Word of God. Which means that God's not going to say anything other than what he's already said.
[12:08] Right? I'm not looking for someone to come to me and give me another revelation. Or a new revelation. Or even really a fuller revelation. This is the fullness of what God wants to say.
[12:22] Now, we need great help by the presence of the Spirit. And we need one another to help us understand what God has said to us. Right? Because God can say, it's amazing, you can take a book like, I don't know, let's take one of the minor prophets.
[12:41] The book of Obadiah or something like that. It's like one chapter in your Old Testament. You would miss it if you were just flipping pages. Because the pages of your Bible, they just kind of stick together. And you would go over it.
[12:52] And man can write a three-volume book on that book of Obadiah. Because what I have found is God can say in a few words what it takes man a multitude of words to understand.
[13:04] But still, the reality is this. When God told us everything he wanted to tell us, the central message he's proclaiming is he was revealing to us his expectations.
[13:19] What it takes to be with him. He didn't speak so much of who we are. Rather, he spoke of who he is.
[13:31] He spoke of what it takes to be in his presence. Of what the requirement is to live in fellowship with him. What it looks like to live eternally.
[13:42] How man is going to live eternally in the presence of God. God, in his grace and mercy, reveals the possibility to us.
[13:53] Man does not have to wonder if he can live eternally in the presence of God. God boldly declares how man could live eternally in the presence of God.
[14:06] And that's a big difference. God reveals the possibility to the people that he's calling to himself. He is not a God who says, Do your best and see if you can make it.
[14:21] He doesn't say that. He doesn't say, I'm up here, you're down there. Do your best and see if you can make it. He says, what does the Lord your God require of you?
[14:33] Our tendency is, let's just be honest, Our tendency is to go, who is he to tell me what I should do?
[14:44] Because I like to set my own course. Well, good luck with that. It doesn't work. It is so much more gracious. So much more loving.
[14:56] So much more merciful to tell someone what the expectation and the requirements are. Than to allow that individual to grope around in the darkness and see if they can find it themselves.
[15:09] And what we see is that as Moses is issuing this call to faithfulness, He reminds the people of God the possibility that God has given them.
[15:23] It is at least feasibly possible. And I say that word, I'm trying to be careful in my wording tonight. Because I'm reminding you of where we are. We know what God requires.
[15:35] But, in reading this list, does it seem possible to you on your own?
[15:47] Can you do it? What does it look like? This is all, listen. Try, if you will, for just a moment. It's hard to do. We really, quite often, don't want to do this for just a moment, okay?
[16:02] Don't automatically run to the cross. Don't automatically think of Jesus, your Savior. Just put yourself in their position. What if you knew nothing of the New Testament?
[16:15] What if you knew nothing of Scripture? And I came up to you and I said, all that God requires of you, all that He requires of you, is that you fear the Lord your God. Sounds pretty good.
[16:26] Fear means to have a holy reverence and respect for. Okay? Fear the Lord your God. Now, here it gets troublesome and hard. Walk in all His ways.
[16:40] Fear the Lord your God. Walk in all His ways and love Him. Doesn't stop there. And to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
[16:57] And to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes, which I'm commanding you today for your good. So here it is. All you have to do is everything God says.
[17:08] There's the possibility. But almost automatically, we are confronted with the fact that though God has stated the possibility within me, I find it impossible to do.
[17:26] I can't do that on my own. I cannot keep all His ways. I cannot love Him with all of my heart and all of my soul.
[17:41] I cannot keep all of His commandments and all of His statutes. The list just goes on and on and on. God, this is the requirement of God. And it is for my good.
[17:52] If I could do these things, it would be good. Right? If I never touched anything that was unclean. If I never did anything that was wrong. If I never did any of those things that God said don't do.
[18:03] And I always did the things God said to do. Right? We forget about the sins of omission as much as we forget about the sins of commission. So it's not just not doing the things we're not supposed to be doing. We're also supposed to be doing the things that God has commanded us to do.
[18:16] So if I could not commit the sins of commission. And I could do the things that I am omitting. Or I could live as I should. If I could always bring the right sacrifice at the right time.
[18:27] If I could always not touch the things I'm not supposed to touch. If I could just wrap myself in a bubble. If I put myself in paradise. Guess what? I'd still mess up. Because even though God states a possibility.
[18:41] Man is automatically confronted with the reality. That what God has proclaimed as possible is almost. No it's not almost. It is absolutely inaccessible.
[18:57] God says if you want to be faithful. This is all you got to do. That's the point. That's the point.
[19:09] Right? You know why I'm beginning to love the Old Testament so much? It's because the Old Testament shows me how good the New Testament is. If you look at Calvary in the light of who you think you are.
[19:25] Who I think I am. It's not that bad. But when I look at Calvary in the light of this. I'm like oh boy. I need that cross on the hill. I need that Savior shedding his blood.
[19:37] I can't do. What God says is. This is what God requires. This isn't what God suggests. This isn't what. This is the possibility. If I'm going to be faithful. If I want to be seen as faithful.
[19:48] This is what I must do. But the reality is. Is within me. On my own. I can't do it. Be careful. How judgmental. We become.
[19:58] Of the people of God. In the Old Testament. Be careful. You say oh. God gave them everything. He took them out of Egypt. He provided for them for 40 years.
[20:10] He manifested his glory among them. He brought them across on dry land. On the Jordan River. He gave them the land. They didn't battle for them. The walls of Jericho fell down before them. How could they deny him?
[20:24] The book of Judges shows us that. Remember. We went through the book of Judges. This downward spiral. This downward spiral. This downward spiral. You remember how the book of Judges starts? There arose another generation.
[20:35] Who did not know Joshua. Nor the people who had come into the promised land. Which shows us that we're only one generation away. From the great tragedy. Of the book of Judges.
[20:48] One generation. And that word. That phrase. It's repeated five times. In those days. There was no king in Israel. And every man did what was right in his own eyes. In those days. There was no king in Israel.
[20:59] And every man did what was right in his own eyes. Right in his own eyes. Now who was supposed to be king in Israel? Yahweh. Yahweh. God. God was to be their king.
[21:09] Right? He was supposed to rule over them. In those days. There was no king in Israel. And every man did what was right in his own eyes. So here's the reality. We're one generation away. And if we don't allow God to continue to be king.
[21:22] And allow the king of kings and lord of lords to continue to hold his rightful place. We allow man to continue to do what is right in his own eyes. The possibility becomes inaccessible. So this call to faithfulness reminds us that it is possible.
[21:36] But man stands in a desperate desperate need. Of a messiah. An intercessor. A redeemer. We need the man who's done this.
[21:47] And we know that man who is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. So the possibility. The second thing we see here is position. The position. Look at what it says. He changes in verse 14.
[21:58] He says behold. Behold. Stand back and take notice. Look at the God you serve. He's calling them to faithfulness to the Lord their God. Right over and over again.
[22:08] To the Lord your God. To the Lord your God. To the Lord your God. To Yahweh. Live faithfully. And he wants to remind them first of all the position of Yahweh. To the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens.
[22:20] The earth and all that is in it. Now that's just a great biblical way of saying it. What belongs to God is everything you can see. Heaven. The first. The heaven and then the highest heavens. Right. In most Jewish lineage of thought.
[22:31] There were like three layers of heaven. There was what we refer to as the sky. That was heaven where the birds fly and all these things. And then there was the ozone. Or the expanse. Not the ozone.
[22:42] They didn't call it the ozone. The expanse. Of what they could see. Like stars and moon and sun. And then there was the highest heaven. Which was like that which was above all creation. So what he's saying is everything you see.
[22:55] So when Paul says I know a man that was caught up into the third heaven. Right. He was called above. The stars and the galaxies and everything created. He was caught up there.
[23:06] So what he's saying. First of all the position of God. To the Lord your God belong. Heaven and the highest heavens. And everything. The earth and all that is in it. So he reminds you of God's position.
[23:18] He's calling you to live faithfully. He's calling his people to live faithfully. To the Lord their God. And then he reminds them of who this is. He's the one who owns it all. Right. Everything belongs to him.
[23:30] Everything is his. It belongs to him. It's rightfully his. He rules over it. He's really intimately involved in it. He continues to hold it together.
[23:42] By the power of his strength. He holds it together. Not only does he hold it in the palm of his hands. He also moves it. And forms it. And shapes it. And everything conforms to his desire. And the New Testament would tell us that Jesus created it for himself.
[23:55] Right. It is for his glory. And his enjoyment. It is unto him. It is his. So while we get to experience that which he has created. He didn't create it for us.
[24:06] He created it for his praise. And his glory. This is his masterpiece. His work. He owns it. This is his. This. That's his position. In light of all that.
[24:18] Look. He owns all this. Look what he says. Yet. Yet. In light of everything that God owns. In light of everything that God possesses.
[24:30] Yet. Own 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. He reminds them of the Lord.
[24:43] Their God's position. And then he reminds them of their position. The Lord your God owns everything. Yet. He chose. You. In particular. In light of everything he had to choose from.
[24:58] He chose you. The psalmist declares. What is man? Oh God. That you would take notice of him. In light of all of creation.
[25:09] What is man? That you would take notice of him. Or let's. Take it on a little bit more scriptural. What about this? In light of everything he's ever created.
[25:21] And everything he's ever owned. In light of everything that rightfully bears the stamp. Of his creative mark. Carrie bought me this little branding iron. It's really cool. This has got the farm name on it.
[25:32] And I get it hot. And I stick it on wood. And it makes a little wood brand. I love that. So like. I just. Yeah. I made that. You know. It's kind of a cool thing. So everything that God has created. It's got his mark. Right? The creator's touch to it.
[25:44] It belongs to him. In light of all of that. Before the foundations of the world were laid. He knew your name. And he wrote it down.
[25:57] The name recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life. Before the foundations of the world were laid. That's amazing. And when we're called to live faithfully.
[26:08] In light of his position. And then. In retrospect. In light of our position. It blows me away. Right? In light of everything God had to choose from. He chose me.
[26:20] I've seen. Like. The tip. The tip. Of the tip. Of the tip. Of the tip. Of the iceberg. Right? I've seen maybe like a couple flakes. Of creation. I took a hike with my brother.
[26:34] Last week. By the way. There's some people in the audience. If they ever ask you. If you want to go on a midday hike with them. Say between bus routes. If you don't feel like going seven and a half miles. Then don't say yes.
[26:45] Makes the afternoon bus ride a little tiresome. But great hike. Saw a little. Snowflake. God's creation.
[26:57] This time of the year. You know. Leaves aren't on trees. So. As we were wore out. And tired. We turned around. Looked where we come from. And then we looked at it. In comparison. Of everything else around it.
[27:08] And we're like. We haven't seen anything. But what we saw was amazing. And you know what blows me away. In light of everything God had to choose from.
[27:19] While I was yet a sinner. He chose me. He calls me his son. He tells me I can sit on his throne.
[27:34] Look at Revelation says that. Those who endure will sit on the throne. Right. The position he's given us. Sure. In all of eternity. Will be magnificent.
[27:44] But the position he's given us. In time and space. Is awesome. He has chose. To love us. Yet. In spite of all this. He set his love.
[27:57] Upon you. Wow. What a position. What an amazing stance. The people of God.
[28:09] Get to stand in. The call to faithfulness. In light of their position. Number three. We see. In the middle of this call. A reminder of his provisions.
[28:21] Right. There's the reminder of his provisions. He says in verse 16. Because of your position. So circumcise your heart. By the way. There's not the circumcision of the flesh. Right. It's the circumcision of the heart.
[28:31] It is the removing of the flesh around the heart. It is opening up your heart to exposure. So circumcise your heart. Make your heart right. It's not an outward sign for all the world to see. And you're stiff.
[28:43] And be stiff neck. No longer. Right. So circumcise your heart. And stiffen your neck no longer. Because of all he's done. For the Lord your God is the God of gods. And the Lord of lords the great.
[28:54] The mighty and the awesome God. That's pretty cool. Accurate description of who he is. Right. He is this. Right. And he does not show partiality. Nor take a bribe.
[29:04] So it's not like he's out there choosing. Picking favorites. He is awesome. He provides for all. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow. And he shows his love for the alien.
[29:15] By giving him food and clothing. By the way these are three things. That will cause problems for the nation of Israel moving forward. These are three things that are always raised up. Among the people of God.
[29:26] That they should be examples. Because God cares for the orphan. He cares for the widows. And he provides for the alien. That alien would mean the stranger. The people who are not of that particular group. God chose a people in order to bless the people.
[29:38] Right. He chose a people in particular. That they would be a blessing to the people in general. That is whoever came to them. Right. He wasn't choosing sides. He wasn't choosing favorites. He didn't pick a group of people just to say.
[29:50] He chose these people so that whoever was attracted to them. The aliens. They would be blessed by them. So they were always chosen for the purpose of being a blessing. To the multitudes or to be a blessing.
[30:01] So we are a set apart people because of our position. But the whole reason we exist today is so that we can be a blessing to those who are drawn to us by God. And we see here that he is providing.
[30:12] And he lifts up the provision of God first. He said this is who God is. God cares for the orphan. Quite often in scripture it's referred to as the fatherless. Right. The fatherless.
[30:23] He cares for the fatherless. I believe. And prayerfully and hopefully so. We'll move forward into this next year. And just continue to resound.
[30:34] I believe it is one of the great challenges of the church to minister to the fatherless. In particular. The men of the church to make an impact on society by touching the lives of the kids around them.
[30:48] Right. Just to be there. Tony Evans speaks of the reality of some of the school systems around the greater Dallas area. And they had one particular school that had a lot of problems. And a lot of issues going on in this school.
[31:00] And most of the issues that's going on with these students were students where there were male students in this school system that were causing problems in the middle school and the high school years. And just wasn't doing good. So Tony Evans went to the school and he said hey I've got some men who would just come hang out during the day if it's okay.
[31:15] And they'll just kind of hold these boys accountable. He said if it's okay with you I've got some men that will just show up at school. Right. And they want to meet with them. You know maybe for 45 minutes an hour. Ask them how their student studies are going.
[31:26] Ask them how lives are going. And just kind of meet with them. And the principal of the school said sure that sounds fine. We'll do that. We'll try it. Whatever. At the end of that year the change was so dramatic in that school system that the superintendent said you know what we've got another school that's having similar problems.
[31:41] Could you do it? And he said yes. So they started sending men to two schools. And all of a sudden it's changed. Then the whole greater Dallas area said would you adopt us as well? And so what goes on is this church and they're not paid staff.
[31:53] They're just men in that church. They were men that would show up at school and look at young boys and young ladies and say how's it going? And it has completely transformed.
[32:06] Maybe you've heard of it. It's called the Adopt a School Initiative. It completely transforms how things work. Because it's one of the things that God does.
[32:20] Right? He cares for the orphan or the fatherless. He cares for the widow. He cares for the alien or the stranger. He provides. He is a provider.
[32:32] We see the provisions that they're called to. So look at what he says in verse 19. So since this is what the Lord your God does. So show your love for the alien. And by you know just by context that means do what God has done.
[32:46] Also it's not discounting the orphan or the widow. Because this gets repeated quite often in the book of Deuteronomy. So show your love for the alien. For you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God.
[32:58] You shall serve him and cling to him. And you shall swear by his name. So what is he saying? Do what your father does. Right? He provides for you. And the provisions he gives to you are to be provisions for others.
[33:11] James would say he who has what someone else needs and yet fails to meet that need sins. Now that's a paraphrase right?
[33:22] When it's in our ability to do good to another and we do not do good then we sin. That's how the book of James records it. Because what good is it to say to your brother go and be warm.
[33:32] To not give him clothing to be warmed by. So as God provides to us. We provide to others. We see the provisions that exist within the call.
[33:44] And we end here with our fourth and final one. We see the praise. This call to faithfulness has a resounding praise within it. Right? It is this praise that is magnified and lifted up.
[33:59] And I love how Moses declares it here. I love the simplicity of the word of God. He is your praise. He is your God.
[34:13] He is your praise. He is your God who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 persons and all.
[34:25] And now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven. He is your praise. We don't have to have a reason to praise.
[34:37] As a matter of fact, our lives ought to be so defined by praise. Someone should be trying to give us a reason not to praise. We shouldn't have to lead the people of God to praise.
[34:54] With all due respect to Miss Lynn and Miss Tricia, we should not have to persuade or ask the people to praise. He is your praise.
[35:09] No matter what's going on, no matter how bad it is, how good it is, how mundane it is, how just, ugh, it is, He is your praise.
[35:26] I was going down the road last night and listening to Moody Radio. I like moody at night sometimes because it's kind of those obscure programs.
[35:38] And I heard a song I had never heard, though it's an old song. I think I have heard it, but maybe I had not heard it in this rendition, in its original sentence. Written in 1934, and I can't remember the composer's word.
[35:49] It's an African American individual. And he wrote it with the intended purpose of having a reflection of a gentleman in slavery because he knew people that had been slaves.
[36:01] Right? And he was writing it in kind of the persona, if you will, of an older African American gentleman in the middle of a plantation field, standing in the middle of that field, looking up to heaven and praising sweet baby Jesus.
[36:17] Casting crowns is a rendition of it. It's pretty good. But if you don't mind, it's almost a little too white. I got a little bit of soul in me every now and then.
[36:28] And, you know, I pulled it up for Carrie. She looked at me. She said, really? I said, yeah, I wish I could sing it like that. But it's simple, right?
[36:41] Sweet baby Jesus born in that manger scene. It's really good. But it's reality. And if you take it in a setting, because every song, every one of them in here has a setting, right?
[36:55] Every one of them has a reasoning. Every one of them has something that puts it in context. But when he who had nothing could look up into the heavens and say, because he is our praise.
[37:11] He is our praise. Psalmist declares, sing to the Lord a new song. I understand there's nothing wrong with the new music, but you know what? The new song is just resounding and resonating to the same old tune.
[37:27] He's still our praise. He was the praise of David before the Ark of the Covenant. He is the praise of the New Testament churches that gather together. He is the praise of the early church in their chants and all those things.
[37:40] He is the praise of the church through the medieval period. He is the praise through the Lutheran revival. He is the praise when Ira Sankey and D.O. Moody went with the devil's music and started putting it to barroom tune.
[37:51] He is the praise in the 50s and 60s of the American culture church. He is the praise of the hymnology. He is the praise of all music. But he is our praise. However we declare it, whatever words we use to say it, the reality is our praise is the same.
[38:06] He is our praise. And my stance has been that anything that would remind me that he is my praise, it's not my circumstances nor my situation nor my blessings that I love my blessings nor my challenges when if it can point me to him then it's worthy of my declaration because he is our praise.
[38:30] And God's people always have a reason to praise. And it is here that we see the call to faithfulness. In light of all these things shouldn't we answer with a resounding yes, Lord, to the best of my ability to reside in Christ.
[38:54] I will live faithful. We're going to pray and then we'll dismiss and we'll be through for this evening. So let's pray together. Lord, I thank you so much.
[39:08] I thank you, oh God, for the opportunity of coming together and looking at the word of God. We thank you for the comfort that it brings. We thank you for the reminder that it offers us.
[39:20] We thank you for the Savior that it exalts in our needs that it continues to see fulfilled in you alone. We thank you, oh God, that we can come in every circumstance and every time and realize we have opportunity to praise.
[39:39] God, we don't praise you for what you've done. We praise you because you are you. You are God, the great and awesome God. and while our praise may be simple and our praise may fall woefully short of what you deserve, Lord, may our lives be reflections of that on a daily basis.
[40:01] Lord, we love you, we thank you, and we praise you. And it's in Jesus' name that we proclaim all these things.
[40:11] Amen.