Go where I say to go
and do what I say to do!
sermon by
Manfred Schreyer
Deuteronomy 30:18-20 KJV
I declare unto you this day, that you shall surely perish, and that you shall not prolong your days upon the land, which you pass over Jordan to go to possess. I call heaven and earth as witness this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live: That you may love the LORD your God, and that you may obey his voice, and that you may cleave unto him: for he is your life, and the length of your days: that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers, to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
When you study the first books of the bible, you sometimes shake your head about the people in the stories. How is it possible that they only listened to God for a brief period of time? How is it possible that they always had to push God’s limits, that they always had to do ‘their own thing’, go their own ways. . . ?
God had been so good the people He had chosen.
The verses we just read are an appeal from God to Moses where God pleads to follow Him. God had shown His chosen people that He is God in many ways. He had delivered them from the Egyptians, they had defeated numerous enemies, even though the Israelites were often in small numbers. . as a sign that God was on their side.
These very words of God tell us about God and His relationship with God. You may say: "Well, God can’t tell me what to do. I will do whatever I want to do"
You are right, and you have that right.
When I was young, about four years old, our landlord bought in an electrician who repaired some electrical line that was running above the wall close to the floor in the living room. He repaired an outlet of 220V (as custom in Germany). While he was doing some repair work he must have checked the outlet with a device where there were two cables. He placed one cable into one of the holes of the outlet and the other cable he placed into the other hole and then some light went on.
I still remember the repair guy as I was looking over his shoulder and I was amazed what he could do. Now I remember distinctly as he smiled at me and made it clear to never place anything into the outlet, my fingers or fork or anything else, because it can kill a person. Now, I have to tell you I was not really sure what the "kill" term meant. Nevertheless, I knew that it related to dying and I was explained just weeks before that my aunt Justine had died and that I would not see her again.
I remember that very clearly, because I could not figure out where she would go and how she had left us. She was old and she was not mobile at her old age. But when you are that young, thoughts fly in and out and things really do not have to make too much sense. . .I guess.
About a day later I had found some wire. . .and you guessed it . . .I was about to check the outlet myself.
Yes, I remember the words of the electrician, but for crying out loud I was told not to do a lot of things in my young life. Don’t jump off the chair (I never got hurt), Don’t go down the steps so fast (I counted as I was running down and see if I could beat my old record); Don’t eat so fast you get choked (eating? Are there rules? ; Don’t look in the sun. you’ll get blind (it just hurt after a while)
So this rule of not sticking these cables into the outlet made very little sense. . .just another way of saying: "Don’t have fun."
I carefully placed one end into the left hole and I remember distinctly turning my head to the right and saying: Now this is just for electricians, Don’t ever do this or touch the outlets" and then I took the right end of the cable and carefully tried to stick it into the right hole.
But somewhere the cable was split and I could not fit it into the hole. So I had to bend the cable. . ready. . .and I placed it into the right hole.
And that is about as much as I remember! All I saw was a stream of fire igniting my cable and I was pushed back about three or 4 feet into the living room where I hit my head on the living room table.
The worse was that my dad was two rooms away in the apartment and my mom was not home. As I evaluated the situation, I noticed that I had a big bump on my head and the fingertip was black and I do not need to tell you that my heart was racing like one of the astronauts who are about to await the lift off of the shuttle.
I felt helpless and alone. I must have sat there for at least 30 minutes, not knowing what to do next. . I was in pain, I was scared and I thought the world would now come to an end. "Am I dead, like aunt Justine" "Had I gone, just like she did?"
Well I recuperated from my electoral experiment, I never told my parents abut the situation. . .I just told them I fell. . I only explained it to them much later.
Why am I telling you this story? Because I was given a choice. Not to place anything into the outlet.
God asks us certain things in this life. They are not much to ask for. And the things He asks for are much less the things we can enjoy.
The best example is the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve could enjoy everything. . .except the one thing: Not to eat the fruit from the tree.
It is similar in this world: God says: "Enjoy, live, rejoice, life to the fullest, because I gave you life, but listen to this: Don’t do this!"
In this is one of the greatest gifts God gave us: The free will of human kind. God knows that He cannot make us do it. He knows that He cannot buy us off, that He cannot force us. . .only by recognizing God as the supreme ruler we are able to allow ourselves to follow Him. Then we start to trust Him.
That my bothers and sisters is a wonderful gift. . .the gift of making choices. Choices that are quite simple. Choices that are given to us in God’s word. Choices no scholar needs to explain to us, because deep inside us we already know or we are willing to accept his will. But there is the evil one who will tempt us to eat the fruit or to sway from the will of God.
The verses say that the choice is ours, but that the consequence is either life or death. Friends, I am so thankful that God is a consistent God and that god has never changed. When the first people sinned and ate the forbidden fruit the announcement that they had to die came true as for the following generation.
But God offered us a new life. He gave us His son Jesus, who died for us. For all the sins we have and continually commit. He died instead for us, because God loved us so much that He wanted to be with us.
The verse says that God is our life. How true that statement is. As God placed His breath into visible parts of our body, we became just like Him. We are a wonderful creation.
We belong to the one who designed us who made us who loves us and the one who gave us life. The electrician did not make the statement of warning just for the fun of it, but because He did not want to see me die and he cared for my well being. There are rules we have to go by. But we have a choice: Chose between life and death. . .just as God stated.
If you want to have life, chose God. Chose His ways, and don’t end up three feet from the outlet with burnt fingertips and a bruised head. . .or possibly dead. Chose God as the giver of eternal God and be thankful that He is a forgiving God, a God that can and will forget your transgressions and a God that wants to welcome you and for you to live in communion with him.
More Sermons by Pastor Manfred Schreyer >>
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