Deuteronomy 30: 1-20
Theme: Grace
Series: LAOS: The People of God
When We Fail: The God of Second Chances
Churches (and pastors) can do some truly stupid things. It can make you wonder if there really are any Christians left. One church I know of had voted to relocate the church property because they had long outgrown their location. Through the leadership of the pastor, the church was going to locate to the area where the town is growing. They had secured property in a location that would give them high visibility for years to come. However, one member, a real estate agent, did not like it. He wanted them to move to the other side of town where, he said, the property was cheaper. It just so happens, he owns the property and was developing an area on that side of town. It appears he wanted to make some money off of the church. And to prevent the church from moving, he manipulated the church and the deacons and got the pastor fired. He said, either the pastor goes or he would stop giving his considerable sum to the Church.
It is not just this kind of thing. Churches fail to love one another. Churches fail to carry out their mission in the world by neglecting to share the Gospel or by refusing to help those in need. Sometimes Churches out of fear or laziness or ineptness fail to provide the funds and the facilities and the equipment and the personnel and the hard work that is needed to build the kingdom of God. But, what is perhaps the most heinous act of all is when we fail to do these things because we would rather be doing something else that interests us. That is the greatest act of rebellion. We want all the privileges of being the Chosen people of God but none of the responsibilities.
We really are no different from ancient Israel. God always kept his promises to Israel. God made a nation out of that old man, Abraham. Later He delivered Israel out of Egypt. Amid the noise of thunder and the splendor of lightening, God made a covenant with them. They would be his people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. And God would be their God. God expected that they would follow his rules and live peculiar lives among the pagan world.
Moses went upon the mountain to receive the Law engraved in stone from the very hand of God. But, he was gone longer than the people thought he should. They gave up and pursued their own spirituality. In less than a month, they had rejected the ways of God. This would be the pattern until that fateful day when the cowardly people refused to enter the promised land. They did not trust God, so they refused to follow him. God’s divine patience had taken all it was going to and God brought judgment upon them. They would not enter the promised land for another generation. Only Joshua and Caleb of that generation would enter the promised land.
Forty years later, Moses, a very old man Moses, stands before the people to make one more prophetic statement to the people before he dies. Soon the leadership of Israel will be passed on to Joshua, God’s chosen leader. Moses reminds them that even God’s punishment was redemptive. It was designed to return them to God. It would become a familiar refrain among all the prophets. If you stray away from God and serve other gods and idols, then this will happen. This could be drought, war, devastation, plaque. Or, it simply could be to be left alone in their sin. What could be worse than when you call out, God does not answer?
On the other hand, if the people should repent and return to God, God would move heaven and earth to redeem them. He said that he would inflict all those curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.
Obedience is not out of our reach. "It is not in heaven that you should say, who will go up to heaven for us and get it or us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, who will cross the sea for us and get it for us and make us hear it, that we may obey it?" No, the word is near, it is in your mouth and in your heart, obey it.
As his last great act as the leader of God's people, Moses laid the choices of God before them. It was as simple and clear as it could be, choose life or choose death. There was nothing hard to understand about the terms of this covenant. Choose life so that you may live.
Israel might have constructed various arguments in response to God. They might have said, we need to choose a defense strategy or an economic plan. We need to produce an educational philosophy so that we might educate ourselves out of our problems. God said, you need to choose life or death, choose Me or the world.
Our future does not depend on who is President or who is in Congress. It does not depend on our educational system or our economic plan or our national strategies. It depends on God's people choosing life and living it. We are like salt. We preserve the nation. God's people are the conscience of the nation. If we choose to be lead around by politicians and by social thinkers and by fads and trends, then we Christians will lead the nation down the path to destruction. We literally will be in front of the pack marching and leading our nation down the road to hell.
The rest of the nation may not hear the voice of God, but we are God's church, our ears are attuned to our Great Shepherd, we should be able to hear him when he calls us to choose life. You see, choosing life has nothing to do with our surroundings, nothing to do with the politics of the day or the social order. It has nothing to do with the threat of physical death. For even in death we can choose life. What does it mean to choose life? Moses said that it means three things.
First it means to love God. That is the first and greatest commandment, to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." Loving God means recognizing that he is the Creator and Master of the Universe. It means giving him the place in our lives that he deserves.
Second, choosing life means obeying his voice. This is where we Christians so often fail. We follow Christ in faith, but then we listen to the world. We hear the plans of political leaders and social thinkers and say well we certainly need that. We listen to the sinister voice of pop culture that tells us to loosen up, party a little bit, indulge yourself, you deserve it. And we say to ourselves, "that sounds good to me." What good is our faith if we let the voices of the day convince us so easily to disobey God? If we are to be light, if we have chosen life then we must obey God's commands. I submit to you that if we live like Christians, loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, going the second mile, blessing those who spitefully use us, we will do more to change our world than any plan, procedure, or strategy. It is by our witness that we challenge others to choose life.
Third, the way we choose life is to hold fast to God. We are not flash in the pans. We are not just a passing fad. We are citizens of heaven and children of the Most High God. God allows us to cling to him, for he clings to us. He has promised to never let us go. God is faithful to us and when we are faithful to him, we are full of life, He causes us to prosper. We choose life, not by accepting the accolades of men or honoring the threats of dictators. We choose life by being obedient to God.
God is the God of second chances because he is a God of grace. When the people of God follow after other gods, the glory leaves. God is not a blessing to us, and he will not bring his blessings to his people until they return to him. But it can be worse, God can bring his judgment to us and deny this generation the privilege of living in the promised land. Yet, God is gracious and calls us to repentance so that we may have another opportunity to serve him.
So, the choice seems clear doesn’t it? Life and prosperity, death and adversity, choose life in order that you may live.