Deuteronomy 11
Introduction:
Two questions are paramount as we are on the verge of a New Year, a wedding, or the start of a career. They are:
1. What is a successful life? Once I have settled upon this answer, I am ready to answer question two.
2. How can I have a prosperous life? Here, we need to answer the big five.
a. Who will help me reach my goal? (Mate, contacts, people to avoid, etc.)
b. What will be necessary to reach my goal? (Education, specialized training, etc.)
c. When will I need to do what to reach my goal? (Timing)
d. Where will I need to go to reach my goal?
e. What do I see to be God’s role in my life?
We can find these answers in this chapter of Scripture, as in many places in the Bible. This chapter is a Quick Start Manual that focuses on the fundamentals. As you may know, I do model railroading. The engines I use are not like those Lionels you received at Christmas and set up around the tree. The manual will be 12-15 pages of technical jargon. However, they know everyone is anxious to see the engine run and perform, so they provide the Quick Start Manual, which enables one to engage with the fundamentals.
Abstract: 1:1-7
Here we realize that my fifth question is answered first. God must be at the very core of my new year, my career, or any endeavor of life. “You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.”
And here is why! Your own eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD which he did. Moses is referring to what Israel has seen, but you, fellow Christian, have seen His great work in your exodus from the slave market of sin into the freedom of Christ.
Purpose Statement: 11:8-13
1. That you may be strong (resist fear, resist anxiety, resist the enemy) [reminds me of I Pet 5:6-10 and James 4:1-5)
2. That you may possess God’s promise (reminds me of Romans 6-8)
3. That you may prolong your days (reminds me of Matt 5 –Beatitudes)
Prescribed Methodology to Prosper 11:13-25
I. Love God 13 (Matt 6:33) [How to love God, that is the question].
A. Listen obediently 13
B. Serve him with all your being 13
C. Receive His blessing by participating with Him 14
II. Listen to God 16-20 (I Peter 5:6-9 [be being=all the time]
A. Be being sober-minded 16a (I am
borrowing the language of Peter 5:8-10)
B. Be being on the alert 16b
C. Be being warned 17
D. Be being rehearsing 18 (Rev 3:3
E. Be being depicting 19-21
III. Look to God with Anticipation 22-25 (I Thes 4:13-18)
A. To drive out enemies 22-23 (Rom 6:11-13)
B. To claim territory 24 (Rom 6:14)
C. To be victorious 25 (Rom 6:15-18)
Conclusion 26-32
The choice to be blessed is ours. The choice to be cursed is ours.
Live God’s Way and Live
Live Your Way and Die
Remember, you (I) are not God and therefore you (I) do not (cannot) know the secret things of God (Deut.20:29) else, you/we would be God. Trusting God runs from Genesis to Revelation. We will trust. It is a matter of who we will trust—God or Self (whether philosophy, science, or our idols).
Trusting God will be demonstrated by loving God, listening to God, and looking with anticipation what God will do, including:
Ø bringing exactly the right woman/man into one’s life
Ø putting us in His place: school, company, position for us
Ø providing the finances or lack of finances as most beneficial for us
Concluding Testimony
As we approach our sixty-third wedding anniversary and move toward finishing a career, I give God thanks for the prosperity He has given us.
As I moved through the late high school, college, and dating era, there were three reasonable opportunities for a relationship to blossom into permeance. As Pam moved through those same years, there were three similar relationships, including an engagement. We, by God’s grace, worked out these three steps (obviously with stumbles along the way) of Loving God, Listening to God, and Looking with anticipation to what God would do and have seen a wonderful outcome despite our foibles along the way.
He has been pleased to use us as His instruments in youth ministry, church planting, teaching, and counseling. Our testimony has been repeated in 10s of 1000s of other lives. I encourage you to join in with the throng who have taken to heart the instruction of Moses and help others to do likewise so that you and they may have a prosperous 2025 and longer.
Thirty-five occurrences of the word alert in the Bible
Eight in the OT and 27 in NT
More revelation, more responsibility
Deut. 29:18
Be alert so there is no man, woman, family, or a tribe whose heart is turning away from the LORD your God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Be alert so there will be no root among you that produces poisonous and bitter fruit,
Josh 8:4
telling them, “Pay attention now! You are to set up an ambush around the city. Don’t go very far from the city, and all of you remain on alert.
Ps 127:1
A Solomonic song of ascents. Unless the Lord builds a house,its builders labor over it in vain; unless the Lord watches over a city, the watchman stays alert in vain.
Isa 21:7
When he sees chariots, teams of horses, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, very alert.”
Isa 29:20
For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off —
Isa 50:4
The sovereign Lord has given me the capacity to be his spokesman, so that I know how to help the weary. He wakes me up every morning; he makes me alert so I can listen attentively as disciples do.
Jeremiah 1:12
Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am [actively] watching over My word to fulfill it.”
Hab. 1:8
Their horses are faster than leopards and more alert than wolves in the desert. Their horses gallop, their horses come a great distance; like a vulture they swoop down quickly to devour their prey.
Haggai 2:4
But now be courageous, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord, ‘be courageous also, Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and be courageous, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ declares the Lord of hosts.
Matt 24:42
Therefore, be alert, since you don’t know what day your Lord is coming.
Matt 24:43
But know this: If the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into.
Matt 25:13
“Therefore be alert, because you don’t know either the day or the hour.
HCSB, NASB, NET, LEB
Mk. 13:33
Watch! Be alert! For you don’t know when the time is coming.
Mk. 13:34
It is like a man on a journey, who left his house, gave authority to his slaves, gave each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to be alert.
Mk 13:35
Therefore be alert, since you don’t know when the master of the house is coming—whether in the evening or at midnight or at the crowing of the rooster or early in the morning.
Mk. 13:37
And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Be alert!”
Mk. 14:34
He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay alert.”
Lk. 12:37
Those slaves the master will find alert when he comes will be blessed. I assure you: He will get ready, have them recline at the table, then come and serve them.
Lk. 12:38
If he comes in the middle of the night, or even near dawn, and finds them alert, those slaves are blessed.
Lk. 12:39
Tools
“But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time the thief was coming, he [would have been awake and alert, and] would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
Lk. 21:36
Tools
But be alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Act 20:31
Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears.
Act 27:33
While they waited for the day to dawn, Paul encouraged them all [and told them] to have some food, saying, “This is the fourteenth day that you have been constantly on watch and going without food, having eaten nothing.
Rom 12:8
The teacher must do the same in his teaching; and he who exhorts others, in his exhortation. He who gives should be liberal; he who is in authority should be energetic and alert; and he who succours the afflicted should do it cheerfully.
1 Cor 16:13
Be alert, stand firm in the faith, act like a man, be strong.
Eph. 6:18
Tools
Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
Col 4:2
Tools
Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving.
1 Thess 5:6
so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.
1 Thess 5:10
He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep we will come to life together with him.
1 Pet 1:13
So prepare your minds for action, be completely sober [in spirit—steadfast, self-disciplined, spiritually and morally alert], fix your hope completely on the grace [of God] that is coming to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Pet 4:7
The end and culmination of all things is near. Therefore, be sound-minded and self-controlled for the purpose of prayer [staying balanced and focused on the things of God so that your communication will be clear, reasonable, specific and pleasing to Him.]
1 Pet 5:8
Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
Rev 3:2
Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before My God.
Rev 3:3
Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. But if you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come against you.
Rev 16:15
“Look, I am coming like a thief. The one who is alert and remains clothed so that he may not go around naked, and people see his shame is blessed.”