Such a Heart as This (Week 6)

*Pastor Nick Abraham; Deut. 5.19-20*

If we’re honest, obedience is challenging. How often can we look back and regret our various ways of being disobedient to the things we know to be truly good for us? For some, obeying God doesn’t seem like a priority—it’s just too hard to bother with it. For others, obeying God is something they want to do and they strive to do, but their actions tell a different story. The Israelites found themselves at the end of a 40 year season of punishment for disobedience even though their people had been miraculously delivered by God from years of oppression and slavery. Moses, inspired by the Spirit of God, preaches a sermon, which is basically what the book of Deuteronomy is—a sermon. In his sermon he reminds the people of the standard of obedience the Lord expects. But rather than this simply being a long reminder of how easily people can fail, the sermon is actually full of grace. As readers of this sermon long after that time and now long after Jesus came, lived, died, and resurrected, this sermon leads us directly to Jesus Christ and to the good news message that God has given to bring grace, freedom, peace, contentment, and joy into our lives.