PUT
THESE WORDS OF MINE IN YOUR HEART AND SOUL
June
14, 2020
Rev.
Bernt P. Tweit
Epistle Lesson; Romans 3:21 – 25a
Romans 3:27 - 28
Gospel Lesson; Matthew 7:15 - 29
Sermon Text; Deuteronomy 11:18 – 21
Deuteronomy 11:26 - 28
We have a hymn in our hymnbook that states this.
Take
my life and let it be
consecrated
Lord to Thee
Take
my moments and my days
let
them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take
my hands and let them move
at
the impulse of Thy love.
Take
my feet and let them be
swift
and beautiful for Thee
Take
my voice and let me sing
always
only for my King.
Take
my lips and let them be
filled
with messages from Thee.
In a moment, I will share with you why I am beginning
this sermon this way. But, before I do
that, I want to look at what happened right before our text for today. Our text is from the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is the fifth book of The
Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy.
Moses wrote these words. Moses
wrote these words one month, before he died.
He wrote these words one month before The Children of Israel entered in
to The Promised Land. The word 'deuteronomy'
means 'second giving'. So, here
is the second giving of The Law. God gave
The Law the first time in Exodus, twenty.
Now, this is the second giving of The Law, right before they crossed in
to The Promised Land.
The first city they would come to would be Jericho,
when they crossed over the Jordan River.
That town fell.
But, this is what Joshua, chapter eight, tells us God
commanded the people to do. He told them
to go to Shechem. He told them to do
this in keeping with what our text says.
(I want to talk it through, before I read it.) But, when you come to Shechem, when you are
looking toward the west, there were going to be two mountains. Mt. Gerizim would be to the south. Mt. Ebal would be to the north.
God wanted The Children of Israel to divide up in to
two groups. Half of them would be on Mt.
Gerizim. Half of them would be on Mt.
Ebal. They were to proclaim the
blessings of God from one mountain, and the curses of God from the other
mountain.
I am going to give you an aerial view of this area.
The red line depicts a distance of one mile. You can see it is kind of like a natural
amphitheater. Scientists recently have
looked at this, and it works. You can,
with a group of people, talk back and forth from these mountain ranges! So, it was to be this very memorable moment
for The Children of Israel, as they entered in to the land God had promised to
them - the blessings, if they obeyed, and the curses, if they disobeyed.
Here in our text for today, we see an intense concern
Moses has for his people. It is a real
care, and concern he has for his people.
As we look at this portion of God's Word, may we also have an intense
care, and concern for others.
This is God's Word, which are selected verses from
Deuteronomy, chapter eleven. God here
says, through Moses:
Put these words of mine in your hearts and in your
soul, and tie them on your wrists as signs and as symbols on your
forehead. Teach them to your children by
talking about them when you sit in your house and when you travel on the road,
when you lie down and when you get up.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that
your days and the days of your children may
be many on the land that the Lord promises to your
fathers with an oath, as many as the days that the heavens remain over the
earth.
You see, I am placing before you today a blessing and
a curse: the blessing, if you listen to
the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, or the curse,
if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God and you turn away
from the path that I am commanding you today by walking after other gods whom
you did not know.
These are your words, Heavenly father. Lead us in the way of truth. Your Word is truth.
Amen
So, how are we to take these words of Moses,
today? I want you to know there are
people who have taken these words literally, in The Old Testament, in The New
Testament, and today, who look at this section of scripture, and literally do
what it says.
Here is a picture of that.
They say, “God's Word says we are to take His Word,
and put in on our forehead.”
The name of that box on the forehead is called a
phylactery. In The Old Testament, in The
New Testament, and today, there are people who do this. They put a box, literally, on their
forehead. They say, “I am placing
God's Word on my forehead”.
On the right hand side of the picture you see the
inside of a phylactery. There are four
things inside there. There are four
Bible passages. One of which is our text
for today. They are passages that talk
about placing God's Word on your head, placing God's Word on your forehead.
There are people who take this section in scripture,
again, literally where it says, “Write them on the doorframes of your
houses...” In the Old Testament, in The
New Testament, and today, there are people who take God's Word, and they nail
it to the doorframe of their house. You
see that red arrow pointing there to a portion of God's Word on their
home.
This is not what God meant, when He said placing God's
Word on your forehead, or the doorframe on your home. This is Matthew 23. Jesus was speaking about the Pharisees, and
He was speaking about the teachers of The Law.
Jesus spoke out against those abuses, in His ministry. This is what He said to them.
“Everything they do is for other people to see. They make their phylacteries wide, and their
tassels on their garments long. They
love the place of honor at banquets, and the most important seats in the
synagogue.”
And so here Jesus is saying, “Don't just do this
for show, by putting it on your forehead, or on the doorframe of your house for
other people to see.” Rather, in
keeping with our text for today, Jesus is saying, “Put these words, God's
Word, in your hearts, and in your soul.”
Think of the verbs in our text for today that maybe
help to bring this out - what we are to do with God's Word.
We are to put God's Word, we are to tie
God's Word, we are to teach God's Word, we are talk about God's
Word with our family, we are to write God's Word. God is telling us, “I have given you my
Word. Now, I want you to take my Word,
and I want you to put my Word in your hearts, and in your souls. Now, I want you to take my Word that I have
given to you, and I want you to teach it to your children. I want you to hand God's Word down to your
children.”
That is the reason I quoted that hymn. It is a wonderful hymn that talks about
taking God's Word, and now putting it in to practice.
Take my life and let it be. Take my hands, my feet, my voice, my lips.
Take God's Word and put it in to practice. Hand it down to your children.
Within the last couple of weeks we confirmed five
youth, here at Holy Cross. A little
unusual circumstance, because they were all done privately. But, over the past couple of weeks it
reminded me of my confirmation and my preparation for being confirmed. We, just like the youth here, had to go
through an examination process at the church.
Before the examination process at the church, we had an examination
process in the home. For a few weeks,
leading up to confirmation, it was the person getting confirmed who was being
examined at the dinner table. Now, I am
one of five kids. During that process,
it was the parents who were asking the questions. It was the confirmand who was answering the
questions. Yes, the Bible passages we had
memorized, yes the portions of The Catechism that were memorized, but all of
the answers that simply came from the heart, as well. Here is what made it easier. It was made easier because the person who was
teaching it was living it. Again, taking
God's Word, putting it in your heart, putting it in your soul, and now putting
it in to practice.
Take my life.
Take my hands. Take my feet, my
voice, my lips.
Our text for today is telling us to ingest God's Word,
to make it ours personally. But, now to also
teach it, to talk it, to write it and to live it.
We can see for today, maybe it comes out pretty loud
and clear, as it is talking about The First Commandment: You shall have no other gods.
Martin Luther asked the question and answered it when
he wrote:
What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God
above all things.
As we look at our text for today, we see that come out
with just this part of the text. “If
you obey the commandments of the Lord, if you listen, you will be blessed. But, if you do not listen to the commandments
of the Lord, and walk after other gods, you will be cursed.”
We can see what happened with The Children of Israel,
as they walked in to The Promised Land, and forgot God's Word. It is good to apply these words to us,
today. And, in light of the last three
months of this pandemic, we have been going through, I have seen, and I have
heard plenty of this. How easy it is for
us to become jealous, and greedy for the things other people have. The devil is very affective at what he
does. We see what other people are
getting, and we become jealous, and greedy for the things they have. That infiltrates our heart, and we think to
ourselves, “Wow, is he so good at what he does.”
Or, the devil may have this happen. He says, “I am going to get you so
consumed in doing other things, being concerned about the news that is
happening in our community, our state, our nation, and our world. I am going to have you step away from God's
Word. I am going to have you say, 'I am
too busy to hear God's Word. I am too
busy to study God's Word. I am too busy
to listen to God's Word.'”
Again, the devil is very affective at what he does.
Here is the thing that is so easy to do, as we look at
our text for today. It is so easy to
look at our text, and say, “I have failed.
I have not done what God's Word has asked me to do. I see the Word in front of me, what I
deserve. I deserve to be cursed.”
But, here is what I want you to know before I
conclude. I want you to know that the
same God who spoke these words wants you to hear the words of promise. He wants you to hear the words of
blessing. I am going to share with you
just one of those words of blessings He spoke in one of the Psalms. This is Psalm 103. I have explained this before, but I want to
do it again, today. In Psalm 103 the God
who makes promises speaks a blessing to you, when He says,
“As
high as the heavens are above the earth
so
great is His love for those who fear Him.
As
far as the east is from the west,
so
far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Now, just think about that for a moment. You can go north, and you can keep going
north, but there will come a time when you have to start going south. It's just the way it is.
But, that is not how it is when you go east, or
west. When you go east, and you keep
going east, you will always be going east.
If you go to the west, and you keep going west, you will be always going
to the west.
So, think about what God is promising here.
“As
far as the east is from the west,
so
far has He removed your transgressions.”
So
far has He removed your sins from you!
It is the God who speaks our text for today, who
speaks promises that He wants you to hear.
I am going to propose this, or contend this. In a sense, every time we gather together for
worship, 'we stand on Mt. Ebal, and we stand on Mt. Gerizim'.
In every single worship service, and every single
sermon, 'we hear from Mt. Ebal'. We hear
the Law of God. We hear Him tell us what
to do, and what not to do. We hear what
the consequences will be, if we don't do this, or we do something we should not
do.
But, in every worship service, and in every sermon we
also get to hear the blessings that come to us from Mt. Gerizim. It is the God who promised the blessings of
our text for today, is the same God who makes promises to you.
Do you remember what I said to start the beginning of
our sermon for today? The Children of
Israel were within one month of crossing in to The Promised Land. It was right on their minds. They were getting ready to go in to The
Promised Land. But, here is what God
wanted them to do. He wanted them to
take a step back, and take a look at the greater promise. He wanted them to look at the greater
'promised land', 'the eternal promised land' He had won for them through
somebody who would come – The Messiah.
In our life, maybe the same thing happens to us, where
we get so focused on the day to day living.
Here is what God wants us to do.
He wants us to just take a step back, and He wants you to look at the
greater promise He has given to you, and to me.
That is 'the eternal promised land' He has won for you, of everlasting
life in Heaven.
Think about our Epistle Lesson for today, in which
that promise comes through loud, and clear.
Romans chapter three says,
We
are justified freely by His grace,
through
the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
That word 'justified' is a courtroom term. At the end of a trial, a judge can say one of
two things. Either you are guilty, or
you are not guilty. When God says you
are 'justified', it means, 'He proclaims you to be not guilty'. All because of a promise He made, and kept.
God promised He would send His Son to be our Savior,
and He did that. So, at the cross, when
Jesus, our Savior said,
“It
is finished”,
He made full, and complete payment for all of your
sin, so that we have everlasting life with Him, in Heaven.
So, what is God's Word for? It is not just for show. It is not just something we should have on
our forehead, or something we should have around our neck, or a religious
picture we have hanging at home. God
says,
“Put
these words of mine in your hearts and in your soul...”
Have it be a part of your everyday living. Then, it is part of your life. It is part of your hands. Part of your feet. Part of your voice, and it is part of your
lips, as well.
Another verse in that hymn says,
Take
Thy Will, and make it Thine
It
shall be no longer mine.
Take
my heart
It
is Thine own
It
shall be Thy royal throne.
Amen