Deuteronomy 10:12-11:32, What Comes First?

Deuteronomy chapter 10 starting verse 12 be reading all the way to the end of Chapter 11 so a long passage bear with me hear the word of the

Lord and Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?

but to fear the Lord your God to walk in all his ways to love him to serve the Lord your God with all your

Heart and with all your soul and to keep the commandments and the statutes of the Lord which I am commanding you today for your

Good behold to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens the earth with all that is in it

Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them you above all peoples as You are this day

Circumcised therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn For the

Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords the great the mighty and the awesome

God who is not partial and Takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner giving him food and clothing

Love the sojourner therefore for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the

Lord your God You shall serve him and hold fast to him by his name. You shall swear. He is your praise

He is your God who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen

Your fathers went down to Egypt 70 persons and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven

You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge his statutes his rules and his commandments always and consider today

Since I'm not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it Consider the discipline of the Lord your

God his greatness his mighty hand and his outstretched arm his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land and What he did to the army of Egypt to their horses and to their chariots how he made the water of the

Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day and What he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of The son of Reuben how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households

Their tents and every living thing that followed I followed them in the midst of all Israel For your eyes have seen all the great work of the

Lord that he did you shall therefore Keep the whole commandment that I command you today that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land

That you are going over to possess and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give

To them and to their offspring a land flowing with milk and honey For the land that you are entering to take possession of it

It's not like the land of Egypt from which you have come where you sow your seed and irrigated it like a garden of vegetables but the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water by the rain from heaven a land that the

Lord your God cares for the eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it from the beginning of the year to The end of the year and if you will indeed obey my commandment that I command you today to love the

Lord your God And to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul he will give the rain for your land in his season the early rain and the latter rain that you may gather in your grain and Your wine and your oil and he will give grass to your field in your fields for your livestock and you shall eat and be full

Take care Lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them

Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens So that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit and you will perish quickly off the good land that the

Lord Is giving you? You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul and you shall bind them as a sign on Your hand they shall be as frontlets between your eyes

You shall teach them to your children talking of them When you are sitting in your house and when you are walking by the way and when you lie down and when you rise you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the

Lord swore to your fathers to give them as Long as the heavens are above the earth For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do

Loving the Lord your God walking in all his ways and holding fast to him Then the

Lord will drive out all these nations before you and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours your territory shall be from the wilderness to the

Lebanon and From the river the River Euphrates to the Western Sea No one shall be able to stand against you

The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread as he promised you see

I Am setting before you today a blessing and a curse The blessing if you obey the commandments of the

Lord your God Which I command you today and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the

Lord your God and turn aside From the way that I am commanding you today to go after other gods that you have not known

And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it

You shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal Are they not beyond the river west of the

Jordan? Toward the going down of the Sun in the land of the Canaanites who live in the

Arabah opposite Gilgal beside the oak of Mount Moray For you are to cross over the

Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you And when you possess it and live in it, you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules

I am setting before you today May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his

Holy Word Well, which comes first or what comes first? You know, the old question is what comes first the chicken or the egg it's supposed to be a conundrum

You know, there's a chain of events that has to have started somewhere I guess in the Garden of Eden God created a whole grown full -grown chicken

But if you mean like on a farm which came first, well, it could be either one or both Perhaps you could have started with the laying hen already on an egg who knows who comes first in a relationship

Sometimes it's some dating relationships. One partner is this is way ahead or maybe a prospective dating relation

Sometimes one partners way ahead of the other in pursuing or enticing the other who came first to want them to to become a couple

Now traditionally people are thought well the man should be the one to take the initiative that he should make the overtures

That his advances come first the woman could then respond one way or the other

Usually the woman though wasn't supposed to To move first it just was not not proper

Of course a woman could find ways to try to encourage a man to take the initiative, but properly

Properly it was thought. Well, the man should move first now that's been fading away over the generations But even when

I was a young man that was still kind of most of the time normal That meant though for me when

I could sense that perhaps a girl was interested in me and it wasn't mutual I could then pretend like I didn't notice and we could still be friends.

I Wouldn't have to I wouldn't have to openly reject her Because I could just act like I'm not catching the hints while all along.

She thought I was missing her clues once when I was dating Mary when she was back in Singapore and I was in seminary in Pasadena a young woman there in the church where I was an intern became obviously obvious to me anyway

Interested in me and she invited me to go see a Dodgers game And she had season tickets and I thought okay, you know,

I get to go see a major league baseball game at the famous Dodgers Stadium I watched the game attentively

Not really paying her much attention. And as we were walking out of the stadium together, it was with some disgust. She turned said

That was a horrible time And I thought oh No She wants to talk and I could see how she wanted this to play out.

You know, I was supposed to respond Caringly, you know, what's wrong? And she would probably first thing.

She would probably do is say nothing nothing. No, I'm supposed to follow that up What really what's wrong and she would start to get personal and we would need to have a long conversation

Probably have to go somewhere private to talk Feelings would be involved. Oh perhaps tears and I thought

I Do not want to go there. So instead of Responding the way she hoped, you know going the route she hoped

I said I Thought it was a good game. There was a home run a stolen base a double play and She kind of looked at me sideways

With you know, just was almost certainly with this kind of look of smirk on her face almost certainly thinking man

They don't understand anything and I was thinking Back this unspoken conversation we were having.

Oh, I understand perfectly and I don't want to play I wasn't going to start that chain of events

Well, we understand with relationships with people Maybe even with God, you know, there's a complicated

Chain of events. There's a dance One partner does one thing another responds and then it gets more complicated and one one thing after another but at the first Someone has to start the chain

Someone has to be the one to push over that first domino Someone has to come first now with God Who comes first?

What is the first act that determines Whether I am one who receives

God's grace whether I get to the promised land Sure, God might have love for everyone

You know many think but but they would still think you know, God loves everyone. It's still think it's well

It's up to me to start the chain of events that makes me One of God's people that gets me

To the promised land my decision is the crucial one So what really gets the ball rolling?

Is that true? Is it me? What sets the dominoes falling? What's the ultimate?

Cause back at the beginning that ends up The world may be a complicated chain of events you understand

But what's the what's the ultimate start the cause that ends up in you being saved?

Some say it's your choice. It's your initiative now. Sure you'd say Well, God has loved all people and provided salvation

They say for all people, but that's really not the crucial question. The crucial question is what comes first in deciding whether Someone eventually gets that salvation.

What's the cause that produces the effect of? salvation

What comes first our choices Do our choices or our or our actions come first or God's choice and his action?

Here we see You may think it's unlikely place to see it. But here it is in Deuteronomy that God's decision comes first we see that here in first the call and then the cause and Then like dominoes falling from the cause for effects

Go, but first the call the call begins in chapter 10 verse 12 now Israel What does the

Lord require of you? What are you called to do? Fear the Lord. He says walk in his ways love him with all your heart and your soul

That's with all your life keep all his commands now if that sounds familiar That's because it's really recalling what we called remember the

Shema from chapter 6 the hero Israel You shall love the Lord your

God with all that you are. That's that's what you are called to do. That's the call now

If you're not really paying attention, I'm just kind of taking phrases and verses out of context. Well, you might think

Well, that's then that's what I'm called to do You know, I'm called to fear the Lord so much that I'm too scared to disobey him

I'm called to keep the rules. I'm called at least to try to love him And you know and I read the

Bible I pray I saw my I go to church. I got baptized I sing the songs and the best

I can do then you might think If you're not really paying attention Then that act of mine what

I've done is starting the chain of events That leads to my salvation. I pushed over that first domino by responding to this call

That goes out to everyone apparently and God responds to what I did in this sort of dance.

I started He responds by saving me my response To his call is the cause of my salvation

My choice comes first That's the way many people think The problem with that is that is not what this passage says you first Notice who is addressed to it's addressed to Israel not addressed to the whole world

Israel is what is Israel Israel is three times were told in the book of Genesis the company the gathering of Nations the gathering of God's people from all nations the assembly of believers

It's the church. So these people are already Right from the very first verse from the beginning of the call they are already

God's people they're not being told you you do this to become one of God's people not like a

General address to all people you want to become one of my people then you do these things. That's not what's going on here

They're not being set say it again. They're not being told you do this to become one of God's people what they're being told

You do this Because you are already God's people and second

That knows the context This is not the beginning of the dance Think think about the situation.

They're in the Moses is not taking this to the slaves in Egypt before they've been brought out and Given them this sort of ultimatum this plan

And said if you do this, then God will rescue you. No, they've already been rescued This is after the

Exodus These people are not being told it if you do this if you follow the law you do the right rituals you believe the right

Doctrine you say the right prayer as a result of your first actions

You push over that first domino then the effect I Will save you

That's not what's going on here These people have already been brought out of slavery already safe and the oppression of the enemy all already brought miraculously

Through the water these aren't Unsaid people's being told do this first and then the effect will be

That you are saved. These are Saved people Israel out of Egypt is a picture of the church being saved out of the world

These are saved people being told that what they are to do now is because They have been

Past tense saved the call here is not what they are to do to get salvation

But what they are to do in response To having already been saved They are already

Israel and now Israel Here's your here's your next step in the dance.

I always got to say look I started it Here's what you do next keep these commands which are not for your salvation

But for your good in verse 13 notice that these commands are for your good They are for your benefit.

Your life will be better if you live it God's way We see clearly then who comes first beginning in verse 14 with the cause

The call and then there's the cause You're called To love him to walk in his ways.

It's not what comes first. It isn't the cause It's the response the cause

Begins with behold. It's like look pay attention see Think carefully about this

To the Lord your God belong heaven The you know the entire universe

With billions of galaxies. It's so large that even light takes billions of years to travel across it and it all belongs to the

Lord he says and the Lord your God belongs the heaven of heavens

We don't even know what that means. Okay, it's just like everything beyond we don't know.

We don't know what that means and That's the point really There are vast realms beyond What we know even now with our modern science astronomers and physicists today talk about dark matter and dark energy

Which is really their way of saying that there's they can tell that there's a vast amount about this universe that is beyond what they know and can measure and Here we're told it all belongs to God and The earth of course belongs to God not just a land in the

Middle East but the entire planet is his possession so the Old Testament was never a about a mere tribal

God a Cultural national God a bunch of goat herders and sort of them atheist mock and made up their myths

It was never about that like today. Some people think if you're in China, you worship the

Chinese way The ancestors and the Jostics a little Taoism and Buddhism thrown in if you're in America You worship the

American way and go to church and eat pizza and watch sports and Jesus is the sometimes American God But apparently and now non -essential that there's a virus going around and no from the beginning the

Lord claimed Everything he's not just American or Chinese or Israeli He claims everything he's that big yet in verse 15

It's an interesting yet Notice that the beginning of verse 15 yet, despite how enormous he is

And how small we are Now you would think Being how small we are.

You've really thought about it. You know, this planet is you would think well this planet Even if you take the whole planet, it's just too tiny for him to be concerned with you know

He could think to himself let those minuscule sinful creatures Go their own way to oblivion eventually the

Sun will you know, whatever it turns into supernova and burn them all up And they'll become nothing you would think that this one nation

Israel small even by the incredibly small standards of Earth remember a couple chapters before I didn't choose you because you were the largest

You're kind of you're tiny. Remember why he chose him. I chose you because I chose I loved you because I Loved you now you would think

So small even by the incredibly small standards of Earth and we're just too incredibly Insignificant for him to notice you would think that we are not worth such a great

God paying any attention to us, but yet Yet despite how small we are how and how great he is the

Lord says set His love actually set his heart in love that is

He first what comes first His choice to love comes first.

He determined in his heart from the beginning to love you your holy nation to make a covenant a commitment to this

Body of people the body that you are a part of The church the

Israel of God The Lord delighted that is it was his good pleasure like an

Ephesians chapter 1 It's good pleasure to choose you by choosing to commit to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the end

Spiritual descendants who come from his promise to them and they will be as many as the stars of the sky and that's you

It's not an ethnic group he's talking about he's talking if you're believer He's talking about you the spiritual offspring who fulfilled that promise to have as many offspring as the stars in the sky

He chose you above all people He chose you about all the people who try to become one of his people by keeping the rules

By thinking how how they can they think they can cause God To accept them with their religion or with their morality or because they were born into the right ethnic group or the right nation

Those those ways are not the cause They bring about the effect of salvation the cause is

The Lord setting his heart to love you What comes first God's loving choice

Well, that's the cause and it has effects, you know, like in science there's cause and effect, right what what causes something

What's the cause of that? There's there's causes correlation. What's the cause that produces the effects?

Well here the causes is God's choice his election his love and then there's four effects

That come from that cause four things that that fall into our lives that come into our lives because of The cause there's first the mark

Second, there's the there's the motive third. There's the manifestations and finally there's the mind therefore

You notice the before therefore's everyone there. What's the therefore therefore? Well, you go back to the cause

Therefore's telling you pay attention to what caused this Therefore the first effect from the cause in verse 16.

He says circumcise your heart That is take the mark of the Covenant in your heart your life in your heart

Show that you were in a covenant with God God made a covenant with you from eternity past He set his love on you and the effect of that in your life is

That you take the mark of that covenant in who you are in your heart You show what sets you apart from the other people in the world

Who are not in that covenant with him now literal circumcision was was the outward mark of the old covenant

But Moses here isn't really concerned at all Some people think the Old Testament is all about outward things and laws and rituals here

Moses is not really concerned at all about the old ritual the literal thing. He's more concerned with the heart

In their heart your heart that your heart shows that you are in a covenant With the

Lord the literal mark won't do you any good if in your heart You are not any different if you're not set apart if you're not in a relationship a covenant with the

Lord, so He says Don't be stubborn It's just you're just setting your old

Worldly ways that you were raised in don't be excusing your sin justifying yourself people in the world Justify themselves by comparing themselves with each other and they think they're all they all think they're above average

Right, right. Everyone thinks they're above average So they're they think they're good and God will grade on the curve and they'll go to heaven

It's the way most people think even if they surely they commit some sexual immorality and they get drunk occasionally and they cheat on their

Taxes, but they all think they do that less than most people So they'll be alright

He's saying here. Don't don't be like that. Don't be stubborn unchangeable and teachable always assuming that you are right as you are

Submit to God's ways. You don't bend to him and The effect in your life of God's prior covenant with you is that you are meek you're submissive to him.

You're open to his word The cause again in verse 17 is that the

Lord your God is God of gods. It's an interesting phrase, isn't it? He's God of Gods all the things the world has is their gods

Well, he's the God of them He's the God he's the creator the reason for being of all the things that you are tempted to make your

God Maybe money mammon things sex gadgets sports health food relationships romance

Family, you know, whatever and you usually good things Those are gifts from God most of the time, but you're tempted to make them

Into your God to make them into your reason for living and he's here saying

He's the reason for those things. They're supposed to serve him. He's the cause of them

He is their God and He's the Lord of Lords and he's the boss of all earthly bosses

He's the king of all earthly Kings the president of all earthly presidents the great and the mighty and the awesome

God He's not impressed with the rich and the powerful He's for justice for the poor and the weak because you know from his perch

The president doesn't look all that much different than the you know The poor illegal immigrant so you better give justice to all

Even the foreigner who has no friends who doesn't understand how to get along in this country You think you can cheat him because he's a look illegal immigrant

He can't report you and you think you can get away with that. Well, God sees it He's the

Lord is the cause he comes first and so in verse 20 serve him hold fast Hold fast to him interesting phrase there in verse 20 hold fast to the

Lord It's the same phrase as used of Adam in Genesis chapter 3 famous passage man shall leave his father mother and hold fast to his wife here hold fast to the

Lord because You do that because back to the cause in verse 21

He is your praise. He's the thing in your life That you praise as the cause of all the good things in your life all the other things he has done

Notice that has done past tense again. He's not speaking to people He's not saying you do this and I will do this for you.

No, he has done already These great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen That is your salvation out of slavery notice.

It's not again We've got to get this idea out of our heads It's not first you do this you first you take the mark circumcision, whatever baptism you do the religion then then as A response to what you've done.

God says I'll do I'll do that. I'll save you. I'll bless you No here he has done it.

He started the dance. He's the cause Now the effect be markedly different Hold fast to him live your life to praise him.

He's your praise Well the second effect of his cause your motive beginning in chapter 11

Therefore this is a therefore again. I was because of the cause The second therefore from the cause that God set his love on you

People think the Old Testament is all about rule keeping and rituals and you just turn Look notice here knows how many times did you notice we read the passage how many times

Moses says love The Lord your God here it is again. Therefore Since he has loved you.

He has set his heart to love you Love him back Love the

Lord because he first loved you his love for you should cause

Your love for him and that will show that love for him caused by his prior love for you will show

Practically by you keeping his his charge following his commands you want

To live in a way that it pleases him Not because you think that if you do if you keep some rules that will cause him to do something for you

To give you whatever you want Your motive is love Not trying to manipulate him

To give you what you want A Gustin said love the

Lord with all your heart and do as you please Some people thought you can't say that can't say do as you please

You say back. Well now that you love the Lord with all your heart What pleases you?

Since you love this great and mighty and awesome God then consider he says

Command to consider let's think about Think about his discipline and his greatness in verse 2

Think about it meditate on on that is discipline now a lot of Christians today don't like to think about God disciplining or judging

Everything they think has to be, you know positive and encouraging But here we're specifically we're told to consider a study think about God's discipline his judgments.

He disciplines his children whom he loves and Here they are to there to remember that remember he's trying to recall.

Remember what you've experienced you his rights 40 years in the in the desert Remember what you saw saw the ground open up is swallowing rebels the plagues the attacks of poisonous snakes all that kind of thing consider

That even though God has set his love on us He still disciplines us

Think about that Expect it to come up in sermons and lessons when you read the

Bible Even if you don't like it, you know, you don't want to think about that But you realize that you need to be reminded of it then consider how he judges the world.

He stretched out his arm Against Egypt with miracles to devastate that land

Think about that Think about what he did to the rebels to Dathan and a

Byron of the ground opened up Right near them and then they fell in That's how

God does business Sometimes and that's not just the Old Testament and well we if you glad we don't have to worry about that anymore

It's it's Hebrews the book of Hebrews in the New Testament that tells us still That our

God is a consuming fire It's in the New Testament where we're told that believers Have been afflicted and brought to death by the

Lord for taking the Lord's Supper disrespectfully Think about that the effect of his prior choice to love

Us to love you Should be that we love him and then we get to know him.

I know that he's great that he's holy And he disciplines his children And then he judges the world

Well the third effect from the cause Manifestations kind of generally

Displays in our life change life. Therefore the third therefore from the cause that God set his love on you show manifestations in Obedience in a changed life now over the last couple of generations

Some Christians particularly in America have bought the false doctrine of technically called antinomianism.

Sometimes they like to call it Redundantly free grace Okay, if it's grace, it's free.

So I don't know why you need the free part, but whatever they believe that if that you can be saved by grace and It not make any difference in your life the cause of God's prior love they say

May not produce an effect in how you live That's what they say.

It's cause without effect Now the idea is that it sure. Okay, if you want if you want to respond to God's grace you can

But you don't have to you can continue to live just like the world just as immoral or dishonest or unfaithful

But as long as you as long as you say you believe in Jesus Then you're still saved

That's what they say. You don't have to show any manifestations of faith in your life. Well here we see in this passage in verse 8

That's not true you shall therefore Third therefore because the

Lord set his love on you then you will keep all the commands if you do

And remember therefore you're good As in chapter 10 verse 13 that that is they they benefit you they make your life better and then here

We're told well in chapter 10 chapter 11 verse 13, they'll make you strong they'll make you able to possess

God's promises You'll you'll get the abundant life that he has for you If you follow following God's Word brings benefits, it makes your family better makes you more self -controlled

So you don't have to to go into debt trying to buy stuff. You don't really need you're more content

So you don't feel like you have to buy satisfaction With with credit cards or get fat or destroy your liver and get unhealthy because you you tried eating or drinking or smoking your way

To something like joy, so you'll live long because you're not like that You'll live long in God's promises here from verses 9 to 12.

God reminds them of the promised land Holds it out before them. See this is what I have for you.

This is where you're going This is on the other side of the Jordan. This is what's coming God is cultivating it as a picture of The promise that he has for us is a picture of the place where Jesus said he is

I'm going to prepare a place for you. God manifests that love that he had for us at first.

He manifests his love The caused everything else in our relationship with him. He God manifests it

He shows it outwardly by giving us a Happy future no chilling winds nor poisonous breath can reach the helpful shore sickness and sorrow pain and death are felt and feared no more

God's love manifests So our love for him will manifest itself in obedience in all our life

So in verse 13 you will indeed It's certain Obey his commands including to love the

Lord Manif and you'll manifest that love in serving him with all your heart and soul then he says he will bless you

Here in verses 14 and 15. He'll give you the the rain that you need the the fodder that you need the opportunities the the open doors the customers the relationships the family the investments or His Grace that is sufficient so in verse 16

Here's another manifestation of your love That's an effect from the cause of his first setting his love on you manifest a carefulness

Take care Be careful. He says Lest your heart be deceived

You be careful about your own heart that you don't lose your first love

That you don't become lukewarm You don't become more interested in and the next dollar than the

Lord more eager for the next meal Of the next sexual encounter the next ego boost and you start to pursue those things

Instead of the Lord the Lord manifest his love by blessing you when you manifest your love by serving him

Let the Lord manifest his love by blessing you when you manifest your love by serving him

So to he'll manifest his anger By disciplining you by taking away all the things that you pursued

Instead of him so take care That your heart continues to love him be careful with what you love

Be careful that you keep a wishful eye on his promises to be careful

Have the the fourth effect from the cause of the Lord first setting his love on us the fourth therefore

Have a renewed mind Let's renew your mind starting verse 18 Moses tells that tells them be careful about what goes in your mind

He says lay up these words Of mine in your heart and in your soul and it's surround yourself with the reminders of God's Word You know, you're often being surrounded by the media

They're your work with what the world is telling you life is all about it's about money and pleasure or whatever

They're constantly reminding you you need to make sure you remind yourself of What God has for you surround yourself with the reminders of his words so that it is regularly going in your mind

Put them on put them on your hand. He says I don't think he means literally I think it's just something that should offer you particularly in those days people are often working with their hands.

Like you just look at your hand Make sure you're looking at God's Word just as often put them in front of your eyes

So that you're seeing God's Word Constantly today you can have them on posters or paintings or calligraphy or embroidery on your wall, or you can read good

Christian books You can listen to it put to music. You can sing it as you drive along. You can go to church believe it or not

Where we try to put the Word of God in your mind Constantly renew your mind with the

Word of God and then he says teach it to your children in verse 19 Talk about it all the time

You get up you go to bed and in between the effect caused by the Word of God will be that you will enter

A new life that promised land starting now, of course hearing reminding thinking about it must lead to actually doing it in verse 22

Don't be a hearer But not a doer don't be just a hearer about loving the Lord. Yeah actual doer a lover

Hold fast to him again. You repeat that phrase faith or love without works Doesn't lead to life, but if your faith leads to walking in his ways

Practicing it then you are bound for the promised land and he'll put all your enemies

He'll put the world the flesh and the devil under his feet You'll get everything that you need for life and godliness You'll be led in triumph spreading the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

You'll be more than conquerors through him who loved you first and cause it all to happen so when you reach that happy place and Be forever blessed then you shall see your father's face and in his bosom rest

So see See he says in verse 26 in your mind see that he's placed before you a blessing and a curse

There's only two only two ways. There's only no middle ground Like Jesus said this broad road to destruction narrow road to life.

There's only two there's no like semi blessed and semi cursed 90 % blessed 10 %

You know There's nothing no gradations in the end Like the two mountains in the middle of the promised land one standing for the blessing one standing for the curse there.

They stood through Immovable mountains showing there's two ways and two ways only now sure for now

Life right now is more complicated. I understand. It's more like a dance. There's going back and forth

There's blessings and then there's discipline there's triumph and then there's the sin that still clings so closely but in the end

There will only be two destinations Just like there will only be there were only two mountains life comes from having the

Lord set his love on you and that causes the effect in you of The mark of the

Covenant in your heart You're not stubborn anymore. Your motive is love for the

Lord not not because you think you can get something out of him because He loved you first and that causes you to love him and that manifests in obedience and taking care that your heart

Doesn't love other things first like money like independence and You renew your mind constantly with the

Word of God So, so, you know you've experienced that God's commands are for your good

You don't think they're to take your joy away there for your good you you want to obey them even if when you fail

In your heart you you love the Lord with all your heart and what you want to do that pleases you is obey him

They bring happiness and blessing even if sometimes you have to consider his discipline so See the blessings that he has before you see even consider the judgment that is there if You are overcome by the world and the flesh of the devil and are pulled away to serve dollars or pleasure or pride see

What God has for you both now? and over across the other bank

What comes first? See that if it depends on you If it's if it's you that comes first on you taking the initiative you earning it then what you will earn is judgment the cause of that judgment will be your own stubbornness your own pride your your arrogant assumption that you can earn your rewards by rule keeping see that judgment and Tremble see also

God's prior love for you See that he has set his heart

To love you. He made it a covenant with you that he's prepared and cultivated a place for you see that fair and happy land

Where your possessions lie? What comes first Thank God that you love