Lathem Postell: Well, good morning, Sam Jones Methodist Church. Good to be here with you in worship. Glad that we're able to be here, that the storms as they rolled through weren't quite as bad as they had anticipated. That is certainly a blessing that we're able to be here this morning. As we get started, I did want to share as you are probably aware by now as you may have heard in pastor Jacob's prayer but but if you didn't understand what he was talking about, I did want to share a prayer request with you, one that we have had on our prayer list for quite some time.
We talked about it Wednesday night, our Wednesday night suppers and you may have gotten our Email blast as well sharing with you the news that that little Kevin, pastor Kevin and Peggy's grandson passed away this week after his fight with a brain tumor. Those that that got to know him, if you had the privilege of of meeting him while he was here with his grandparents, you know that he was a vibrant and imaginative person. I just had a a great personality and if you know Peggy and Kevin, you understand where he he gets that from. He was a light in every room that he entered and I can remember one of the first times that I met little Kevin. I'd I'd known Kevin for some time before getting here to Sam Jones, but but when I got here to Sam Jones, I got to meet little Kevin a couple times, and I think out of muscle memory, whenever he would come, he would kinda just find his way into my office.
I think there was a part of him that was going to look for his papa. And so, all the time, he he come into my office and we talk for a minute. And so there's this one day, I'm in my office and he comes through and and he goes straight to the candy bowl like everyone else that comes in office. Right? He goes straight to the candy bowl.
It doesn't matter how old you are. It never changes. He was probably seven in this story. And so he goes straight to the candy bowl and and he and he just looks at it for a minute and doesn't take anything. And then he looks up with a straight face at me and goes, where's the good candy that my papa used to have?
I was like, well, I I thought I had pretty good candy. I I I I'm sorry. I I don't know, what I what I'm missing there. You know, it's a story of the love, of a young boy for his papa. And so I know you've you've been in prayer for them.
I know that you'll continue and and so that's my my ask of you is that you'll continue to pray for them, that you'll think about Kevin and Peggy and and the entire family as as they grieve this loss of little Kevin. My prayer is that, god gives them that peace that passes all understanding. You know, that that's situations like this is is where we have to have that because because we won't understand this. We don't understand this. We don't understand why.
I don't know that we will this side of glory and so pray for peace that passes understanding. Pray for hope. That's what they're clinging to. I was just in awe. I'm often in awe of of pastor Kevin and his faith.
He said, on Facebook, he said that there's these words, he said, they have hope because they know that little Kevin's in a place where there's no pain, no tears, no heartbreak, and no cancer. And that's our hope. And and we have faith in that. We didn't have the information when we printed the bulletins but I wanted to share it with you. They are going to have a celebration of life for little Kevin.
That's going to be this week on Thursday down in Macon at the church. His family attends First Presbyterian of Macon and so if you feel led to go to that, I wanted you to get that. That's at 01:00. There'll be a visitation afterwards. If you want to see the family.
The reason and you heard pastor Jacob say there's a slight change in schedule this week. During Lent, we've been doing and are doing the Lenten communion services which are going to be usually at noon on Thursday. We're going to cancel our service this week so that those who feel like they need to be there or can be there can go and so pastor Mark and I are planning to be there. So, we won't have the service this Thursday. Please spend that time either going if you're able to.
I know that they would appreciate that but if you can't, I know that they would understand but spend that time in prayer for them and and for their family through this time. So, will you join me this morning as as we pray for the LaBella family? Let's let's pray together. Loving and gracious god, lord, it is in moments like these that we don't know what to say, we don't know what to do. Lord, we we confess that we don't understand.
It's just tragedies like this, lord. They don't make sense. But lord, they remind us that we still live in a broken and fallen world. And so god, we just ask in the name of Jesus that you bring all things back to you, that you make all things new again. Lord, I pray this day for for Kevin and for Peggy and for their entire family as they mourn and grieve the loss of this just beautiful life.
We thank you for the the privilege we had to know him. Even the little bits that we knew as part of his church family but I know that they certainly would thank you for what they got as his family. Lord, we just ask that you give them strength in this time, peace that passes all understanding, hope in your son, Jesus. Lord, just wrap them in your arms this very moment. Just fill their hearts with with only your love so that everything else is expelled.
Lord, help them to know that there's a church here and and really because of their ministry, lord. There's churches all across the state but but particularly here in Cartersville, Georgia. Lord, there's a church that loves them but it's just a fraction of the love that you have for them. Help us to be there as a part of the body of Christ. Help us to be there for them, supporting them, loving on them, reminding them of your mercy and your grace as they go through this season.
For it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you for your prayers for them. As we move forward, I I will invite you to open to our scripture passage for today.
It comes to us again from the book of Deuteronomy. We're going to be reading together starting in chapter 30. So, if you have your Bibles with you, I'll invite you to open with me to chapter 30 starting with verse 11 and reading through verse 20. Let's hear this word of god together in the book of Deuteronomy which tells us this. Now, what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.
It is not up in heaven so that you have to ask who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it Nor is it beyond the sea so that you have to ask, who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it. No, the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death, and destruction. For I command you today to love the lord your god, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws.
Then, you will live and increase and the lord your god will bless you in the land you are entering to possess but if your heart turns away and you are not obedient and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day, I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings, and curses. Now, choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the lord your god. Listen to his voice and hold fast to him.
For the lord is your life and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Will you pray with me? Almighty and gracious god, we thank you for the gift of your scriptures. Lord, we thank you that they are near to us. Keep em on our hearts.
Keep em on our lips, lord, that they might shape us and form us in your image. For it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Amen. As you know by now, hopefully or if this is your first time with us, allow me to explain.
We are going through this year a year long sermon series called The Whole Story where we are preaching through the Bible starting in Genesis going through Revelation together. Last week, I set up Deuteronomy for you. There was a little bit of, concern that I didn't talk about numbers. I jokingly heard that from a couple of you. I was gonna make the joke that you're welcome to come up and preach the number sermon if you want to at this time.
Okay. I saw some hands. So, let's see if they actually stand up, right? No. No.
We're here we're here in Deuteronomy and and and so I kind of explained to you what was going on and and and if you missed that, I wanna give you a short synopsis of of how we got here, right? So, we see the Israelites, Moses is called to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt. He does that. The Israelites are freed. God leads them to the Red Sea, delivers them from slavery to pharaoh.
And then as they're preparing to enter, god tells them, I'm gonna take you to the land that I promised to your ancestors. They go to to Canaan and they go and they see and and they're not sure whether or not god can actually deliver the land to them. And so god allows the Israelites to wander the wilderness for forty years until he raises up a new generation of Israelites that will be faithful to him that can enter the promised land. And so Moses here, who who knows he's not entering the promised land, God's already told him he's not gonna cross the Jordan. He's not gonna see that to completion.
In fact, in the next chapter in Deuteronomy, if you look ahead or if you've read that, you'll know that he appoints Joshua and blesses him to follow him as the leader of the Israelites but Moses knows he's not going into the promised land and so Deuteronomy is kind of his last sermon to the people and and here in in Deuteronomy chapter 30, Moses gives what I would call kind of the closing remarks of this sermon, right? He's preparing the people. He's giving them these words. He's reminding them of the covenant that they made and like all preachers, he's getting down to the end and he's giving them the application. Modern preachers, we might call it the challenge, right?
You you probably hear me or other preachers when we say, I challenge you to do this. That's that's what Moses is doing here. He he spent his whole life. He spent the entirety of of this book, this this sermon, or this speech that we might call it, telling people the importance of following god and listening to the commands that god gave them at Sinai. He tells them, look, that this word is near to you.
It it's not up in heaven that you gotta somebody's gotta go up and get it. It's not across the sea that you have to cross it and go get it. No, god has sent it to you. It it is near you. It's on your hearts.
It's in your mouths and so he gets the end of his sermon and he gives them kind of this challenge and he says, look, it's before you. The choice is now clear. Will you listen to what god has told us or will you not? And so, he gives them this simple, clear option. He says, look, god has given us his word now lays before you two options.
You can choose life or you can choose death. He goes on. He says, look, you can follow god. Stay close to Yahweh. Worship him and him alone.
Obey his commands. And if you do these things, right, this is what leads to life. On the other hand, and he gives them the option. He says, look, you can leave god. You can flee from Yahweh.
You can begin to worship other gods. You can obey your own heart rather than god's heart. You can do what you want rather than what god asks of you. And if you do that, you can have death. It's a stark contrast.
Blessings are curses he says, life or death, both are there and the choice is yours. You know, as I I've read through this this book more and as I I've prepared for these past two sermons, every time I come back to this and I don't know if it's just because of the season of life I'm in now. That's probably part of it but but every time I I've read this this year, I can't help but think of all of the parallels to parenting. Moses in in a lot of ways here seems like, you know, he's at the end of his life. He knows his time and ministry is coming to a close and he's looking out on the next generation of Israelites and and there's a lot about what he's doing that feels like a parent teaching a child, right?
In in many ways, he's having the consequences talk with his children and if if you have children, you know the talk that I'm talking about. It's a conversation that we have a lot at our house these days. The the the consequences talk this week in fact and and I think Evie, you're watching. So, I'm telling on you right now. Don't go do it after I get done talking about it.
Just this week, I I was coming out of my bedroom. Our bedroom's upstairs. And so I was rounding the corner. I was getting ready to leave. I don't know if I was coming coming to the office or where I was going.
But I come around the corner and I looked down and Evie is climbing up the stairs, which she's to the age now. She can really do that on her own, except she's not climbing up the stairs like a normal person would. She is we've got railing. She's on the outside of the railing holding on. She's about halfway up, and she kinda does this maniacal laugh where she throws her head back and kinda hangs off the railing, on the stairs.
And so you can imagine, I say in the calmest voice I have, sarcasm there, if you didn't know, I calmly ask her to get down. Right? No. I I I make sure she gets down. I I I get her safely, and and when I get her down, I tell her, look, you you can't do that.
You you you go up the stairs the normal way. You don't climb on the outside. You can't do that. It's not safe. And you would think that when I tell her that, that I have just made the most unreasonable request of all time.
Like, how how dare you? I I want to climb the stairs on the outside. I can see in her mind that she's asking why. Why not? I know that in her mind, she's not old enough to understand the physics of it all.
Right? But but still, it's kind of this, how in the world could you not get this? So often in our house, the answer has to be because we said so. Right? But but at the heart of what God has told Moses, at the heart of what God has given to the people and what god has given to us is this desire to see us choose life over death.
Right? I'm not gonna be that dramatic with what my my daughter was doing, but certainly climbing up the stairs like that, if she's not careful, can lead to some serious consequences. It can lead to some pain. It can lead to a broken bone or it could it could lead to worse, right, if she climbs up too far. If she goes down the path, if she chooses that, it will lead to destruction.
I think oftentimes when we come to scripture, we don't think about it in that way. That god through his word is giving us an option. He's saying, look, I want you to have life. Here's the way you could go. Choose it and you can choose me, but you can reject it and you can reject me.
How often do we, like the Israelites, treat the word of god like a child listening to a parent? In one ear and out the other, right? Not considering the consequences of our actions. If that is you this morning and my guess is it's all of us at some point in time in our life, maybe it's today. Maybe it was twenty years ago.
Maybe it's ten years from now. Right? But each of us will will approach god in this way. If that's you, I think Moses has a few things that you can learn. As he rides off into the sunset, as he moves on from his role in god's story, he has a few parting words for you.
The first thing he has to teach you is this, that the Israelites success will not be based upon their strength. It will be based upon their loyalty to god. When we read the story, it can be easy to forget that they are right on the edge of a military campaign. We think of promised land and we think of kind of the the vacation bible school version of a lot of these stories, right? But but they are standing on the precipice of war.
Next week, pastor Jacob's actually going to preach to us. We're going get to the book of Joshua. He's preach to us a little bit about the conquest of Canaan as it gets underway but we can forget that that there's some difficult times coming and and Moses knows that. He knows that for the people, for this generation that god has raised up, they're about to enter into a season that's gonna have some hardships, some danger. You know, for us, this idea of life and death, the options that are put before us.
Those can feel metaphorical, right? Most of the time, the decisions that we make don't literally lead to life or death or if we try to view it literally, we see it as something that might happen in the future, right? Like, well, if I go down that road for too long, well then, sure, it might could lead to death but but for the Israelites, it it was a literal option. If they entered Canaan and were successful, if they successfully conquered the promised land, well then they get to live. If they didn't, they would die.
And so to that, to that situation that we're not in very often, hear what Moses said, not what he didn't say. Here's what Moses didn't say. He didn't say, look, I'm gonna set before you two paths. You've got life on one side, death on the other. He didn't say, look, prepare well and you will live.
Train hard and your campaign will be successful. Have really good military strategy and you'll overcome the enemy. No, he understands and realizes and preaches to them that their success, their life is holy and totally dependent upon their trust in Yahweh. It's their love of god, not their ability in battle that will save them. Friends, the same is is true for us as well.
And again, I I know that the context is different. We're not entering into a war like they are. But just like the Israelites, your success in life, and I hope that you will define that differently than the world does, but your success in life, your success in your life of faith will not be determined by your strength. Overcoming the difficulties that will come to you won't happen because you're well prepared and have become the best version of yourself that you can be. No, success.
Again, in that biblical idea of success, our success, our salvation, our life will only come through our faith to god. For our faith in Christ for us. Because don't get it twisted, right? God had had promised them the land but they could not take it on their own. The 10 spies understood that.
That's why they said, let's not go in. What the two spies understood was that they couldn't take it but god could. They couldn't conquer Canaan. They couldn't take the promised land. Only god could do that and so Moses is reminding them, look, if you depend upon yourself for this task, you will die.
If you depend on god, you'll live. Ask yourself, who are you depending on this morning? You trusting in your own power? Trusting in your own ability? Trusting in your your past success?
Or are you putting your trust and faith fully and holy on god? Your success will not be based on your strength. It will only be based on your loyalty to god. The second thing that Moses teaches us this morning is that our Christian faith is not a solo project. Christianity is a team sport.
Moses reminds him of this. There at the very end, he says, what you're doing now going into the promised land, what you're doing now is the fulfillment of a promise not made to you, a promise made to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In other words, this is bigger than just you. And likewise, right? Just as this was a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that's being fulfilled in this day.
He's saying, look, you will be the demonstrator of god's faithfulness to generations that follow. He implores them to choose life not just for themselves, he says, but for their children. And the implication being and not just for their children but their children's children and their children's children and their children's children. Moses knows that they cannot do this by themselves. If they enter into the promised land as just a thousands and thousands of different individuals, well, then they will die.
Again, for the Israelites, there's practicality in the context of this message. They're entering into a land that's hostile and dangerous. I've laid that out for you. They're entering into a land of different faith, a land of idolatry, a land of many gods where if they don't stay connected to one another, it's very easy and very likely because we know who we are as people that over time their faith will slowly erode and be replaced. They will no longer be people of Yahweh.
And while our world's different, we need to still probably hear that truth. And if we try to do this thing called following Jesus on our own, we will probably be unsuccessful. It's a very difficult task. I don't want to say it's impossible because all things with god are possible but friends, scripture tells us that it is a nearly impossible task. It's why I think later in scripture, if we're going to skip ahead and and talk about the New Testament for just a minute, the apostle Paul as he's talking about the church as he's describing followers of Jesus.
He describes us as a body. That the body of Christ. You've heard that analogy before, I'm sure and and it's a beautiful image. In some ways, it's telling us about all of us are are gifted. It shows us the beauty of when you get people together who who one person can do this and another person can do this and another person can do this.
There's the beautiful image that that's created. Right? This body that's formed. But there's more to it than that. He uses this image of a body because the body is unique.
If you begin to take parts away from the body, well then the body cannot survive. You can have the the healthiest lungs ever. Right? You could go in for a scan and the doctors could tell you, look, you you have the cleanest lungs, the best lungs, strongest I've ever seen. But without a a mouth, a a nose, without an esophagus, right, without all of the other pieces, it does not matter how strong your lungs are, you won't be able to breathe.
It does not matter how faithful you are to Jesus. Without the other members of the body, you will begin to wither. Moses is telling the people as they enter the promised land, he's saying, look, you have to stay together. Work together. Don't neglect being with one another.
You know, as a preacher and a pastor, what I would tell you is part of that is is saying you need this. And I don't want that to sound self serving. I I always feel like sometimes when a preacher tells you you need to be in worship, sometimes it can fall on deaf ears because of course, I want you to be in right? But but it's not about any of that. I think scripture tells you, you need to be together with other believers.
You need to be a part of the corporate worship of god. You you need this. Like lungs need a nose and a mouth. You need this. You need other people.
But you also need more than this. So don't hear what I'm not saying. Right? This isn't enough. You need it, but it's not enough.
You you need those small groups. You need those those people. You you need the people you can call when things are going great and when things are going bad. Right? The Israelites were not called to go into the promised land alone.
They were not called to go in in a vacuum. God is not asking you to live a life of faith either by yourself. He's calling you to live with others. Christianity is a team sport. Don't try to do this on your own.
The last thing that I think Moses can teach us this morning is that god's desire for you, for us, is life. So, Moses lays out for us two options, right? He clearly expresses those. You can choose life or you can choose death. But the witness of scripture is that god wants you to choose life.
He he hasn't just given you two options and said, will you figure it out and figure out which one's best? No. God wants you to choose life. Moses puts it this way. He says, look, my word or god's word is not far out of your reach.
It's not up in heaven. It's not across the sea. No, it's right here with us. All you have to do Israelites is obey it. God wants you to choose life.
If anything, the story of scripture that they they had lived should confirm that for them. Back in Genesis in the Garden Of Eden, god in the fullness of his glory, what did he do? But he breathed life into us. Later, when they found themselves on the banks of the Red Sea, what did god do? He parted the water so that they could live.
Right? God chose for them. God wants them to choose life. God has offered it. He's he's placed it for them on a silver platter.
Moses is saying, look, you only just have to reach out and take it. And I'm here today to tell you that that desire of god that Moses expressed to the people is not a desire that stopped in the banks of the Jordan. Yes, even today, god wants for you life. Jesus and again, know we're jumping ahead in our story here but we have to. Jesus in in in the gospel of John, perhaps my favorite verse, he confirms this.
John chapter 10 verse 10. When he says, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. Because spoiler alert shouldn't surprise you by now. The Israelites are gonna choose death far more often they choose life. They're gonna choose the curses rather than the blessings.
Yet, still, it's phenomenal, right? Still, people having made their choice saying, we're gonna choose death. God says, no. No. No.
I want you to choose life. So much so that he was willing to give his so that we might finally accept it. Yes. God has set before you two options. Yes.
You can choose either one as people made in his image. He has given you the freedom to choose. But he wants you to choose life. He wants you to choose him. So so as we go forward, we're much like the Israelites there that Moses is preaching to.
We're standing on the banks of our own promised land. The kingdom of god that's being ushered in through each and everyone of us. God is laying before us, giving us the choice and it is now ours. Will we love god and obey him? Or we despise him and reject Scripture is clear.
The the former of that, choosing god leads to life, rejecting him leads to death. Friends, the choice is yours. But don't choose death. Instead, live into the words that Moses said so many years ago. Choose life.
Choose Christ so that you and your children may live and that you may love the lord your god. Let's pray. Loving and gracious god We thank you this day for the gifts of your the gift of the words of your servant Moses. Lord, for his words as your people stood on the banks of the Jordan preparing to enter your promised land. We thank you that he preached them so many years ago and he continues to preach em to us now.
Lord, we thank you for the freedom that you've given us, making us in your image to choose. Lord, you have set before us two paths, life or death. And god, when we hear that, we recognize that sometimes we're like a little child. We're like a toddler. We think, well, that's unfair.
They're not another option but lord, you know. You know what lies before us. You know the dangers that will come if we continue down that path that doesn't seem so bad. So, lord, you have laid before us these two options and my prayer for each of us is that lord, you give us the strength to choose life. Like the Israelites, god, we recognize that far too often.
We choose death. Maybe not yet for us in this room literally lord but we have chosen curses. We we've rejected you. We've despised you. We've turned our faces away from you.
Well, help us to see the radicalness of your grace. That, yes, we chose, but you have not stopped trying to choose us. Through your son, Jesus, you continue to offer us life until the moment that our breath wastes away. Lord, you offer us life through your son, Jesus, who came that we might have life abundantly. Lord, I I pray for each of us in this room now.
Lord, I pray for those who who so many years ago chose to follow you as their lord and their savior. Lord, for those people, continue to empower them spirit. Continue to give them the strength to to choose you and to choose life each and every day. Lord, I I pray for those in this room who who've never been confronted as Moses did to the Israelites so many years ago, of the two options. Lord, for those who haven't accepted you as their savior, or lord, those who continue to choose death.
For this very moment, change their hearts, change all of our hearts. Maybe for the first time, allow them to choose you. Knowing that they don't choose you first, lord. You chose us on the cross. Lord, give them strength to choose you, to choose life.
A a life that does not end when our breath does. But a life through you that goes on forever. Lord, be with us as we continue on to the promised land. Fill us with your spirit. We might choose life over death.
For it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Will you stand