“Recipe For Disaster?”
Deuteronomy 29:24-29
Sermon Blog
We begin today by wrestling with a question found in Deuteronomy 29:24 - all the nations will say “Why has the LORD done thus to this land? What has caused the heat of this great anger?”
The scenario presented is a prophetic warning. If the nation of Israel abandoned the God who saves them, betrays the God who loves them and lives in careless disobedience to the will and ways of the God who created them they will be justly punished. The punishment will be so severe that it will leave their enemies in wonder and amazement at why the Lord has done this.
Do you find yourself wanting to defend God and explain away the judgment of God found in the Old Testament? God does not apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah or Uzzah or the people of Jericho or the Philistines, or Ananias or Saphira or King Herod.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Psalm 103:8). God mercifully, graciously and steadfastly loved the nation of Israel and after several hundred years of abandonment, betrayal and careless disobedience God allowed the northern Kingdom of Israel to be conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC and the Southern Kingdom was conquered by Babylon in 586 BC.
In 1994 Warren Wiersbe published a book titled, “ God Isn’t In A Hurry”. Chapter 2 is “The High Cost of Short Cuts”. The author shares “there are no shortcuts in learning God’s truth, there are no short cuts in building godly Christian character. Churches don’t grow by addition; they grow by nutrition. If you are interested in the praise of men, then use shortcuts and publicize your statistics. But if you are interested in the glory of God, stick with God’s methods-the Word, prayer, witnessing, sacrifice and suffering-and leave the results with God who gives the increase. There are no shortcuts when it comes to solving life’s problems. There are no shortcuts when it comes to revival. True revival is not worked up; it is sent down. It is not imported from the outside; it must begin on the inside. Our instant society has so invaded the church that we are constantly looking for shortcuts. We are looking for shortcuts because we don’t want to pay the price for doing things God’s way. Travail in prayer, hard study, serious heart searching and patient sowing of seed have been replaced by methods that guarantee instant results. Results yes; fruit no. You cannot have fruit without roots, and you cannot have roots unless you dig deep. Beware of the high cost of shortcuts.”
Wiersbe who died in 2019 was prophetic in writing about shortcuts in ministry. Today a preacher can pay a company and basically get a year's worth of sermon, sermon outlines, visual aids, slides, song lists that go with the sermon, the whole package. While that might be tempting and a great time saver it would also lead to a generic reproducible church service void of God’s power and creativity. It would be the equivalent of inviting someone to your house for a meal and serving them a frozen meal you heated up in the microwave. A microwaved meal will fill your stomach but it is not the same as a meal cooked with love, creativity, patience and hardwork. For a church to grow by nutrition everyone must contribute and serve the Lord with their whole heart.
God warned the Israelites about the recipe for disaster. Abandon God through forgetfulness, betray God by worshiping false Gods and live in careless disobedience to the will and Word of the Most High God of Israel.
God’s recipe for disaster is timeless. Proverbs 13:21 says, “Disaster pursues sinners, but the righteous are rewarded with good.” Jesus said, Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
The way to destruction is easy just listen to what everyone else says about God instead of getting to know Him yourself. Just live like everyone else and put your hope in some better place instead of trusting in the One who died and rose again to prepare for you a place. Jesus said in John 14:1-6,
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
The recipe for disaster is simple: abandon God through forgetfulness, betray God through idol worship, carelessly live against God’s Word and Will and your life is heading for disaster.
The recipe for life is simple too. Admit you are a sinner who needs God. Believe God sent Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God the Father rose Jesus from the dead and you will be saved. Romans 10:8-10 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Live your life to remember what God has done, is doing and promises to do. Worship and love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Confess Jesus as Lord of your life every single day.
Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:16-25 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Are you following a recipe that leads to eternal life or a recipe that leads to eternal disaster?
