BORN TO BE BLESSED
Deuteronomy 18:9-22
THE LORD HAS BLESSINGS STORED FOR YOU
9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.
A. The first thing I see in the text is God has blessing stored up for
Us that has others holding for us
1. Second, I see that God has some activities He commands us to
do and some actives that He command us not to do to be
good stewards of His blessings.
2. God has standards that He wants us to live by.
3. The third thing I see is that God has two administrations He has
designed for us to live by.
a. He has the religious administration that He set through His priest.
The Levite priest were the ministers of His Word.
b. He has His civil leaders
Moses was the first governmental official. He was the general of
The army.
GOD SETS US APART FOR HIS GLORY
B. God developed a unique nation. He gave them His commands to govern
them and Priest to minister the commands.
1. By His holy word, God separates us from the world.
2. Out of all the nations that existed, God created a new nation and
called them His own to serve and worship Him.
C. God does not want us to take on the habits of the world around us.
1. We are commanded not to learn the ways of the world or imitate them.
2. We can only escape exposure to the world by keeping our focus
on the Word of God.
D. God gave Israel a land that He promised to Abraham and his descendants
over 400 years earlier.
1. God expected Israel to be good stewards of that which He gave them.
2. God has blessed us with gifts and talents to be used to build the body
of Christ.
3. We are to be role models of His righteousness.
DON’T DO WHAT DISPLEASES GOD
V:10. Let no one is found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in a fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices, the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.
A. God listed 7 evil and detestable practices of the nation the Israelites
would face.
1. Anything that man does to predict the future is evil.
2. Anything that man does to worship himself or idol gods is evil
3. Any scarifies man makes to idol gods is evil
4. Any attempt to communicate with the dead is evil.
5. Anything that man does to harm another person is evil
6. Sacrificing human life for the worship of idols is evil.
7. Anyone who practice magic spells or observe signs and omens
is evil.
B. We have to be careful who we associate with.
1. We should avoid those who practice that which is prohibited by
God.
2. It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel to those who practice
a lifestyle of sin in hope that they will turn to Christ.
FOLLOW GOD’S COMMANDS
V:13. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.
14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so.
A. God set us aside to be a Holy Nation.
1. We are to live according to God’s standards.
2. When others look at us they should see role models for Christ.
3. People who are doing what God detests will
try to entice you into believing what they practice will be
beneficial to you.
a. We are commanded not to listen and focus on God
b. The best thing we can do is not to visit places where people
practice that which God detests.
B. Those who hold what God has for you, want to have it very long.
1. God will make a way for you to get what others are holding for you.
2. What God has for you is for you.
3. Some of the blessings that has for you is because of the prayers
of your parents, grandparents and long gone ancestors
4. Israel was blessed with promise land because of the faithfulness
and obedience of Abraham.
LISTEN TO JESUS
V:15. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die."
A. We have to be careful about what we ask God to do for us.
He may grant our request, but it may not be the best for us.
1. In Exodus 20:19, God called all the people of Israel to the
mountain to hear His commandments. His voice was preceded
by thunder and fire.
2. The Israelite became afraid and asked to hear only the Word of God
from Moses.
3. God’s direct input in our lives is the sure way to keep us on track
and focused on His righteousness.
4. Anytime we back away from God we are headed downhill.
5. Man is not capable of giving us God's Word without a fleshly input
which distorts the true meaning.
B. It is easy for us to take the Word of God given by man for granted.
1. When a preacher speaks the Word of God, we have to wonder if
he is speaking the truth or mixing his agenda with the truth.
2. God promised a Messiah which is Jesus Christ to the Israelites.
3. However, Jesus came to Israel 1443 years after Moses.
4. After Moses came Joshua, then priests, then Judges, then kings
then Jesus.
5. Israel went from being an independent nation to a divided
nation to a nation controlled by the Romans by time Moses
prophecy was fulfilled.
C. The Israelites ask for a prophet just like Moses.
1. Moses was a type of Christ.
2. Moses was the prophet of God who delivered Israel for slavery
in Egypt.
3. Christ delivers all believers from the bondage of sin.
4. We are commanded to listen to Christ for He is the living
Word.
5. If you want to be close to Christ, study His Word.
GOD ANSWERS PRAYER IN HIS WAY AND TIME
V:17. The Lord said to me: "What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.
A. God answers prayers in His time and in His way.
1. Because of their prayers, they would get a prophet (Jesus Christ)
but not until they had suffered many years of wars and destruction.
2. They were forced to live at the hands of corrupt kings.
3. Their way of life would be degraded to second class citizens in the
land God gave them.
B. The Israelites were held accountable to God’s commands given them
by Moses.
1. They suffered the consequences of their sins.
2. We should let Israel suffering from rejecting God commands be
a lesson to us to follow God.
3. On judgment day we all will have to give an account to God of what
we have done.
THE PENALTY OF MISLEADING OTHERS
V:20. But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death."
21 You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord ?" 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
A. This is a warning to all preachers and teachers to teach the Word of
God in truth and love.
1. 2 Tim 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to
be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2. We have been given this ministry of teaching to edify and build-up
the body of Christ.
3. We must study the Word for ourselves.
4. We cannot fully rely on anyone to know the Word completely.
5. When we know the Word for ourselves we will not be easily
misled by anyone.
B. I have found in my personal Bible Study, that I get the most out of my
efforts when I study the Bible S L O W L Y.
1. When I have done all I can do, it always good for me to put
the text down and meditate on what I have studied.
2. When I come back to the text, I most often find that the Holy Spirit
has revealed more areas of study and better enlightenment of
what I have studied.
3. You can never study the Bible too much.
C. The Bible is complete and inerrant.
1. The way we know that a person is not speaking the truth
is to compare his statements with Word.
2. There are many people who use the Word God out of its
context to support their ideals.
3. We are all servants of God and have duty to use the Word to
build-up the body of Christ brings glory to God.
Rev. M. Mitchell
Asst Pastor of Greater Macedonia Baptist Church
5510 West Sam Houston Parkway North
Houston, Texas 77041
For more lessons follow me on facebook and visit my blogs:
Revmmitchell.com and goodnewsrevmitc.blogspot.com
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