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The Blue Letter Bible

Chuck Smith :: Sermon Notes for Deuteronomy 28:47

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"YOU'VE GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY"
I. THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE WE ARE CHALLENGED TO SERVE THE LORD.
A. Serving the Lord is a matter of choice.
1. I cannot force you to serve Him, though I would like to.
2. He will not force you to serve Him, though He could.
3. We talked a few weeks ago concerning the pierced ear which meant that a person was a slave by choice.
4. It is interesting how the New Testament writers loved to refer to themselves as bond servants of Jesus Christ.
B. How are we to serve the Lord?
1. With joyfulness. (simchah) Glee.
a. God does not want you to resent what you do for Him.
b. He doesn't like His servants grumbling or complaining.
c. Paul said that whatever you gave to God should be that which you have purposed in your own heart to give. You should never give out of a sense of pressure or duty. God loves a cheerful giver.
d. God wants cheerful service.
e. If you cannot give to God or serve God without cheerfulness, you would be better off not to give or serve.
2. Jesus is our example of service, He said, "I delight to do Your will O God."
a. Serving God is the joy and delight of my life.
b. I believe that I have been highly blessed by being called to serve the Lord of the Universe.
3. We are to serve with gladness of heart. (Toob) Cheerfulness.
a. In the psalm that we read this morning, we were encouraged to serve the Lord with gladness.
b. Have you ever asked someone to do something for you and the way they answered yea, you wished you had never asked them?
c. I usually say, "Oh forget it, I'll do it myself."
d. How much better when they respond, "I would be thrilled to do it." They make you feel like you are almost doing them a favor by asking them to do it.
4. How do you respond to the commandments of God?
C. Why do I serve God?
1. Because I am so grateful to Him.
a. "For the abundance of all things."
b. When I think of all that I owe to God, I am thrilled for every opportunity He gives me to serve Him.
c. I know that I can never repay Him.
d. I know that His gifts come to be by His grace.
e. But I would like to show my thankfulness.
2. I know of no other occupation in life that is more worthwhile.
a. So many of the things that people do today is for the recognition of man, but that is as wood, hay, and stubble, it will all be consumed in the fire by which our works are to be judged.
b. Whatever you do for your own pleasure is a total loss.
1. Solomon devoted himself to live for his own pleasure,
ECC 2:10 And whatever my eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor: and this was my total reward for all my labor.
ECC 2:11 For when I looked on all the works that I had accomplished, and on the things that I had labored to do: behold, it was all empty and my spirit, was frustrated, and there was no lasting satisfaction in any of these things that I had done under the sun.
2. Some of you who are living for self, you have made molech your god, and are living purely for pleasure you need to take a page out of Solomon's book and realize that at the end of your life, you will be cynical, frustrated and bitter.
3. The lust will still be there as strong as ever, but there will be no capacity, strength or ability to fulfill those lusts.
4. I think that will be one of the things that makes hell, hell, is that a person will still possess all of the strong lusts that had controlled their lives, but no capacity to fulfill them.
3. I desire to lay up treasures in heaven.
a. I feel so sorry for the person who when he dies, leaves all of his treasures here on earth. All of the strife, sacrifice, and wisdom that it took to lay up these treasures will be left for someone else to spend. Mostly the government. Just think, you pinched your pennies, went without, so you could amass enough to guarantee your security in your old age, but when you die, the government moves in and takes a massive portion of what you saved, in inheritance taxes so that Hillary can spend $500,000 a year for her offices in New York.
b. The government cannot touch the treasure that I have laid up in heaven.
c. The treasure that you lay up on earth, you have so few years to truly enjoy it.
d. The treasure that you lay up in heaven, you will have all eternity to enjoy it.
D. If you don't serve the Lord, you will serve somebody.
II. BECAUSE YOU DID NOT SERVE THE LORD JOYFULLY, THEREFORE YOU WILL SERVE YOUR ENEMIES.
A. Jesus said that the enemy has come to kill, steal, and destroy.
1. He kills every worthwhile thing in your life.
2. He steals your virtue.
3. He destroys your fellowship with God.
B. Look at those who are serving the world, and the world is your enemy.
1. They are hungry.
a. The world promises to fill you.
b. It is much like cotton candy, it looks so tasty, and fluffy, but when you go to eat it, it just dissolves, there is nothing there, no real substance.
2. They are thirsty.
a. Have you ever tried to satisfy your thirst on a hot day by drinking an ice cold coke?
b. My experience is that far from satisfying my thirst, it only left me thirstier.
c. When you feed lust it only grows.
3. They are naked.
a. The world will strip you.
b. We see those who are stripped of every virtue they once possessed.
c. Stripped of all decency.
d. They are doing things that at one time were abhorrent to them.
4. They are in want of all things.
a. After Satan has used and abused you, and taken everything of real value from you, they he will just cast you aside like a worthless piece of junk.
b. Because that is just what he will make of your life.
5. Look at them, just lying there, broken, bruised, beaten. What has happened? The enemy has robbed, killed and destroyed.
6. They did not want to serve God so now they are serving their enemy.
7. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death.
a. Serve sin, and you cannot escape the wages of sin.
C. He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.
1. The Bible tells us that the way of the transgressor is hard.
2. The end of the path is destruction.
D. A wise man standing at the fork in the road will ask, "If I take this path, where will it lead me?"
1. There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end is the way of death.
2. David said, "He leads me in the path of righteousness for His name sake, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
PRO 4:18 But the path of the just [is] as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
III. WHAT DOES HISTORY TELL US?
A. They failed to serve the Lord with joyfulness and gladness of heart. They turned aside from following Him.
B. They were taken captive by their enemies, they lost the good land, their homes, their farms, their families, and they became the slaves of their enemies.
C. God was faithful and had warned them, even as He has been faithful in warning you.
D. Some of you have been playing foolish games with God, but take heed for God said, "He that has been often reproved, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy."
E. The issue is not if you will serve, but who will you serve.
Sermon Notes for Deuteronomy 25:17 ← Prior Section
Sermon Notes for Deuteronomy 30:11-20 Next Section →
Sermon Notes for Numbers 6:2 ← Prior Book
Sermon Notes for Joshua 1 Next Book →
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