Limx→∞(FG) > Fh

One of the biggest things that occupies our family’s life these days is Stacey’s mom.  She is a beautiful, wonderful soul, and I could not have asked for a better mother-in-law.  But in her 87th year, she has advanced dementia.  Of course, the most obvious symptom of dementia is memory loss.  At first, she would forget small things.  She’d leave the stove on or forget some other little detail of everyday life.  Now, she often forgets where she is, where she lives, where her beloved husband is, and many other big details of life.  That loss of memory is hard.  In innumerable different ways, it is hard.  Hard for her, hard for us, and a challenge for those who care for her.

Memory is important!  It grounds us and gives us direction and purpose.  Without it, we are doomed to ask the same questions over and over and make the same mistakes over and over.  Our lives flounder because, without our memory, we’re never able to put our finger on the details that give our lives meaning and purpose.

As we dig into chapter 29 of Deuteronomy, we will see that once again, Moses tells the Israelites to remember.  Reflect, recall, and rehash in your minds all that God has done for you.

The title for my sermon today is: Limx→∞(FG) > Fh.  If math is your thing, you might be able to figure out what this means.  We are coming up on the third anniversary of the passing of my father-in-law.  He was a nuclear engineer and loved math, so, in his memory, I thought I would write my sermon title in calculus.  If you haven’t figured it out by the end, don’t worry; I’ll tell you what it means, but you’ll have to wait. Here’s a hint: F equals faithfulness.

Moses wants the people to remember, and so he reminds them once again of all that God has done for them.

Deut 29:1-9 (CSB)—These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his entire land. You saw with your own eyes the great trials and those great signs and wonders. Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear. I led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes and the sandals on your feet did not wear out; you did not eat food or drink wine or beer—so that you might know that I am the LORD your God. When you reached this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh. Therefore, observe the words of this covenant and follow them, so that you will succeed in everything you do.

Moses says: 

Remember—God Has Always Been Faithful

I think we should take a moment, right now, to remember.  I’m going to give you a couple of minutes of quiet, and I want you to remember:

• Something God has brought you through
• Prayers God has answered
• Ways God has provided
• Moments when God was faithful

Moses says, You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD did in the past; now I want you to see that He is faithfully fulfilling His promise as He leads you into the future.  God’s faithfulness to us in the past should lead us to faithfulness to Him in the future.

Deut 29:16-19 (CSB)— Indeed, you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and passed through the nations where you traveled. You saw their abhorrent images and idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which were among them. Be sure there is no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Be sure there is no root among you bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. When someone hears the words of this oath, he may consider himself exempt, thinking, ‘I will have peace even though I follow my own stubborn heart.’ This will lead to the destruction of the well-watered land as well as the dry land.

What does this faithfulness that God desires from His people look like?  Don’t shake your head yes, but in your heart plan on doing your own thing. Moses says:

Recognize—God Wants Your Heart

Israel can say the right words and still walk in the stubbornness of their hearts.  That is not what God wants from His people.  He wants their hearts.  What does that even mean- that He wants our heart?  Our heart is the name or the label for the root of our motivation.  

Jesus said it this way: 

Matt 6:19-20 (CSB)—Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In other words, the things that are important to you are the things that are going to motivate you.  If material things are most important to you, then all your decisions and actions will be motivated by wealth and material things.  If your family is the most important thing to you, your decisions and actions will be motivated by them.

But rather than our treasure being these things, God says, I want your heart to be focused on me. God isn’t looking for lip service, religiosity, or looking good on the outside.  

Jesus had something to say about that too when He addressed the religious leaders in Matt 23.

Matt 23:27-28 (CSB)—Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

God doesn’t want obedience that is merely external; He wants obedience that flows from the heart.  He wants our deepest longing and motivation to be for Him.  He wants our heart to echo the words of Paul:

Phil 3:7-8 (CSB)—But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ.

Even though Moses gives this passionate plea to the Israelites to be faithful to God, ultimately, God knows the Israelites will fail.  They will stumble, and they will struggle, and ultimately they will experience the curses written in the covenant.  They will do it the hard way.

When I was in farrier school, learning to trim and shoe horses, my instructor, Mark Plumblee, would often look at my work after I was done with a horse, and he would say, “Well, that’s a way.”  In other words, that’s probably not the way I would have done it, and probably not the best way, but it was a way.

I think Mark would say to the Israelites, “Well, that’s a way.”  And that’s what Moses is saying at the end of chapter 29 and the beginning of chapter 30.

Deut 30:1-5 (CSB)—When all these things happen to you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you come to your senses while you are in all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and all your soul by doing everything I am commanding you today, then he will restore your fortunes,, have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. Even if your exiles are at the farthest horizon, he will gather you and bring you back from there. The LORD your God will bring you into the land your ancestors possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply you more than he did your ancestors.

The story of Deuteronomy isn’t ultimately about how faithful God’s people will be. It’s about how faithful God will be. Moses’ words remind us to:

Rest—God’s Faithfulness Is Greater Than Our Failure

God knows they’ll fail, and yet He still says, “When you return, I will restore you. Not “If you’re perfect…” or “If you never wander…” but “When you return.”  Even when they wander, God promises that when they return to Him, He will restore them.  This is exactly what Jesus was saying when He told the parable of the lost son in Luke 15.

You know the story: a young man, bored of working on his father’s farm, goes to his father and demands his inheritance so he can leave and live the life he wants to live.  Sadly, the father does as the son asks, and as happens when we try to live life on our own terms, things don’t go as planned for the son. So he resolves to humbly return to the farm and ask his father for forgiveness so he can at least work there as an employee.

Luke 15:20-24 (CSB)—So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.

Jesus gives us a picture of what the Father’s heart is like..  This is the posture of our Father in Heaven towards us. There is no end to God’s faithful love for His sons and His daughters.

Even though Israel chooses to do it the hard way and experience all the hardships and brokenness that come with disobedience, God promises restoration. He promises to gather them. He promises to restore them. He promises to circumcise their hearts and make them His.

This is the grace of God.  This is the favor of God that we receive, even though we haven’t earned it and don’t deserve it.

My faithfulness has a limit; God’s doesn’t.  That is what the title of my sermon means.  It may look like rocket science, but it is not.

Limx→∞(FG) > Fh 

And God’s faithful love is so secure that Paul says this:

Rom 8:38-39 (CSB)—For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In light of God’s unlimited faithfulness, Moses then calls the Israelites to respond.

Respond—Choose life by holding fast to Him

Deut 30:19-20 (CSB)—I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, love the LORD your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him. For he is your life, and he will prolong your days as you live in the land the LORD swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Moses has laid it all out.  Here is what God offers and here is what He requires.  What will you choose?  Will you choose life or death? Blessing or curse?

Moses doesn’t simply tell them to choose life; he tells them what life is.  Verse 20 says, love the LORD your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him. For he is your life.  For He is your life.  Choosing life means choosing God.

At the beginning of this series, I told you its title was Choose Life.  Maybe you automatically thought choosing life simply means making better decisions, but that is not what Moses is saying.

Moses is saying, turn your heart toward God. Love Him. Listen to Him. Hold onto Him.

But here’s the tension in all of that: God wants our hearts, but the reality is our hearts are stubborn.

Israel couldn’t consistently be faithful to the covenant they had made with God.  So what does God do?  He says this;

Deut 30:6 (CSB)—The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live.

The solution isn’t simply better behavior. It’s a transformed heart. Jesus doesn’t simply come to give us better instructions. He comes to give us new life; abundant life. And through the work of the Holy Spirit, God does the work He promised: He changes our hearts.

The message of Deuteronomy isn’t “Try harder to be faithful to God.” It’s “Trust the God who has been faithful to you—and let His faithfulness transform your heart.”

And then, because of that grace you have been shown and because God is a Father who loves His kids: love Him, obey Him, hold fast to Him, choose life by choosing Him every morning when your feet hit the floor.

Remember His faithfulness.

Give Him your heart.

Rest in His faithfulness when you fail.

And choose life by holding fast to Him.

“For he is your life.”

Maybe you’ve spent your whole life trying to find life somewhere else. In success, relationships, money, pleasure, religion, or in trying to be good enough.

Moses says there’s another way. Choose life.

Not merely a better life.

Not merely a more obedient life.

Not merely a more blessed life.

Choose God. Because He is your life.  And that is what it means to “Choose life.’