Sunday, 6th August 2023
Rev Daniel Xi An Poon
Deuteronomy 28:1-14
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. “The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. “The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
1. Listen to the Word of the Lord, your God
God’s blessings are for us, He does not just tell us about the blessings then just put them in a box to be locked away. He wants to give all the blessings to us, and He doesn’t want us to be left out. So how can we receive the blessings of God? firstly we must listen to the Word of the Lord, your God. In Deuteronomy 28:1, it says, ‘Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.’ God wants to obey His voice an carefully observe His commandments. He wants us to be attentive to what He is saying to us.
2. Keep and Obey the Word of the Lord, your God
We need to maintain our body, our physical health, as well as our spiritual health. It’s just like how we do exercise to keep us fit, we also need to exercise to keep fit our spiritual health by obeying the Word of God. We listen to God not because we have to, we go to church not because we have to go, but everything we hear and everything we do, we must do it from the heart. When we listen, when we hear, when we obey, when we observe, what is our attitude? We must ask ourselves, do we let the Word of God sink into our lives and become our lives? To really listen and obey is not by force, nobody is pushing us to do anything, but we do everything out of our own willing heart. Then we will see our lives different, our family different, our work different, and our surrounding different. Only God can make it happen, and when we keep and obey the Word of the Lord, every blessing will be given to us and our lives will be transformed.
3. And God Exalt us
When we exalt God in our lives, God will exalt us. We talks about putting God first, people next, then the earth. It’s not just a slogan, when we really put God first in everything we do, we will experience God’s providence. When we lift up God in our lives, when we exalt God, and God will bless us. We thought it’s so easy to listen, to do, and to be exalted by God. But is it really easy? People don’t like to listen; people don’t like to be told what to do. This is human nature, this is our old-self; we want to go according to our own way, and we want to use our own method to fulfil our own desires. When we really listen to the Word of God and follow the Word of God, there will be many voices from the world that put us down. We must continue to seek God, to let the Holy Spirit fill us, so we can keep going. The end victory belongs to us, the blessings of God belong to us, and the key is our obedience.
Do not let Satan’s lies beat us down to the follow, do not fear, have faith in God and in the Word of God. We must enter into the Word of God, and the blessings will come to us.