God Has Blessed Us With His Word!

2nd Sunday after Pentecost, 6/26/11
Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28


God Has Blessed Us With His Word!
I. Study it.
II. Share it.
III. Live it.


Count your blessings. That’s our advice to others when they share with us their disappointment over something that has happened in their life. Perhaps that event seemed somewhat trivial to us by comparison. Or perhaps we took a quick inventory of all the remaining things in their life and wanted to remind them to do the same. It’s easy to forget how blessed we are. We tend to focus on what we don’t have rather than on what we have.

So count your blessings today. What do you include? Your family, your friends, your home, the fact that you still have a job in this economy, the fact that you still have a roof over your head, your education, we enjoy generally good weather, there’s peace in our country, for all its faults our country is still the best in the world.

And who could forget all of our spiritual blessings? We’re children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. We have a God who loves us enough to send his Son to die for us. We have forgiveness for our sins and life in heaven with our God forever. Our God has an eternal plan for us and he guides our lives on earth every day. And he does that through his word, God’s word, the Bible.

This morning we have the tremendous opportunity to focus our attention on the great blessing of God’s word. Sad to say, we need that opportunity because we often take that word for granted. So let’s remind ourselves how blessed we are. God has blessed us with his word. Through his great Old Testament prophet, Moses, he reminds us what to do with that tremendous blessing

Part I.
It’s common for people who feel strongly about something to overstate their case. For instance, the parent who has caught their child doing something terribly wrong in a fit of anger declares, “If you ever do that again, you’ll be grounded for life!” Really? Grounded for life? Obviously the parent didn’t mean that literally, but they said it in order to impress upon their child how strongly they felt about what their child had just done.

The Book of Deuteronomy is a lengthy farewell sermon by Moses to God’s people, the Israelites. Moses knew how wayward these people could be. He had watched them commit all sorts of heinous sins in spite of God’s command to the contrary. Therefore, in these last words of his to these people, he couldn’t urge them strongly enough to pay attention to the word of God. And so he said it this way, “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Really? Write God’s word on my hands and head, on my doorframes and gates? Is that what God really wanted?

Not really. His real intent was that first they learn the basic truths of his word. He wanted them to know that he is the God who promised them their salvation purely by his grace. They couldn’t earn their forgiveness with their good works or sacrifices. These blessings came to them by faith in him. He also wanted them to learn that he is the only true God and there is no other god. Even though the nations all around his people bowed down to all sorts of idols, he wanted them to know that these gods were nothing at all.

And with that knowledge, he wanted them to dig deeply into his word. He wanted them to know all his promises to them—promises of his love, protection, providence, security, daily food, and family and friends. He wanted them to know him as the Maker of all things and the God who loves every sinner. He wanted them to know about their life with him now, their death, their life in heaven and their resurrection on the Last Day. Especially he wanted them to know the details of his promises to send them a Savior from sin. He wanted them to know these things as if they were written on their hands and between their eyes. He didn’t want them to take his word for granted. He wanted them to know what a blessing it is to have that word. He didn’t want them to lay it aside and forget about it. He wanted them to study it.

Study God’s word. He wants us to know the depths of his truth for us as if we had those truths written on our hands and head and houses. And he tells us that because a shallow knowledge of his truths leads to frustration in this life and makes us easy targets of Satan. We forget his truth that he can be trusted no matter what our situation is, and, instead load ourselves down with worry. We forget that he is with us every moment of life and therefore feel all alone. We conveniently forget what God says about sinful behavior, indulge in it, and then wonder why we have trouble. We forget that God has a plan for us and get stressed out because we don’t know where we’re going in life. The answer to all these problems is to study the word with which we’ve been blessed. He wants us to begin understanding our utter sinfulness and his saving grace to us in winning our forgiveness by the life and death of Jesus. He wants us to know that he conquers all, even death itself, as shown by Jesus’ resurrection. And then he wants us to move on from those basic truths and plumb the depths of God’s wisdom for us as found in his word. Indeed, when you’re counting your blessings, make sure God’s word is high on your list.

Part II.
More than once I’ve heard it said that a parent has decided that they aren’t going to impose their religious beliefs on their child; they’re going to let their child discover what they believe on their own. I’m sure we’d all strongly disagree with that course of action.

So would our God. He let his people know exactly what he wanted them to do with his word. Moses told them, “Teach [these words] to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” God says exactly the opposite of letting your child find their own religious truth. God wants parents to teach their children the truths of his word. In fact, he makes that their highest responsibility. He wants them to make that instruction a part of every facet of life. Help your child see the wonders of this world—a world he created. In response to what your child is saying or doing, ask them what the Lord thinks of it and let them reflect and express it themselves. Help them realize their God-given place in their family, society and world.

And use the assistance that your church offers. In our order of worship for baptism, we rightly ask our members to assist parents in bringing up children in the training and instruction of the Lord. How powerful that is—that the parents know that their congregation stands beside them in this great responsibility that the Lord has primarily given to them. Parents, make use of it. Vacation Bible School and Sunday School classes are scheduled. You only get so much time to teach your children God’s truths. Use that time well. It’s more important than anything else.

God has blessed us with his word. Share that word.

There are countless problems in the church today and one of them is the lack of teaching, not just for our children but for all of us. Parents, understand that no parent ever did a perfect job of teaching their children the truths of God’s word. No congregation has ever done a perfect job of teaching God’s truths to others. But the amazing truth of God is that, to the degree we have failed, our God fully forgives us. He washes us clean of all sins and renews us and empowers us to set our sights again on sharing his word with others, especially with our children. What an amazing thing! And through those efforts, meager as they are at times, God accomplishes his saving purposes. What an amazing God we have! He has blessed us with his word!

Part III.
When we’re addressing children, we keep things simple. We know how important it is to talk to them at their level. If we talk over their heads or confuse them, we won’t accomplish anything positive.

God used Moses to speak these words to the Children of Israel and when he spoke to them, he kept things simple. That’s because, spiritually speaking, they were children. Listen for the simplicity in these words, “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.” Pretty simple, isn’t it? He told them he would bless them if they obeyed his commands but curse them if they failed to obey. If you read through the next 1,400 years of Israel’s history, you can see in black and white how faithful to these words the Lord was. His people experienced tremendous blessings when they followed his word and terrible tragedies when they didn’t.

But please don’t misunderstand these words. This isn’t an example of quid pro quo—this for that. Don’t think that the Lord was telling the people they could get what they want with an act of obedience.

What God really wants is our hearts—hearts that are full of love for him and a love for what he has done for us through his Son, Jesus Christ. A heart of love for God rejoices at obeying his word and gives no selfish thought for “what’s in it for me.” A heart full of love for God produces the fruit of obedience to what God says in his word. How blessed we are to have that word. Now live it!

It’s easy to believe what God says. That’s because God is the one who causes us to believe that what he says is true. The difficult part is living it. That’s because we battle Satan, our world and our sinful flesh. But there’s where God’s word comes in again. The power of Christ’s resurrection stands behind his word. He fills us with that power as we hear, study and take his word to heart. That power—the power of the risen Lord Jesus—enables us to live according to his word and receive the blessings—spiritual and earthly—that our gracious, all-wise God has in store for us. God has blessed us with his word. What a blessing it is! Cherish it! Amen.