Long life in the Land Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God, our Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has won long life for us in His Promised Land.

Our message is based on our Old Testament: 5 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.

We’re going to talk about Living Long in the Promised Land.

One of the amazing things about some of the magnificent structures of ancient times, like the pyramids of ancient Egypt, or the Roman Coliseum, or the Great Wall of China, is that they’re still standing after all these years.

But there will come a time, when they’ll crumble to the ground.

You, however, will still be standing… alive and well in the Promised Land.

When God made humanity, Adam and Eve, in His image, He made us to live and last forever. And He made us to live in a paradise forever.   

But Adam and Eve, and we, foolishly threw that eternal gift away. By our sin and disobedience, we cast aside a gift of priceless worth; we tossed it away like so much rubbish.

I’ve accidentally thrown things away into the garbage or recycling that I should have kept, and was distressed that I didn’t… but to intentionally cast aside a gift so wonderful and lasting, just to experience the other side of paradise, just to have a life of worldliness and sin, and with it, pain and shame… it makes no sense.

But that’s what we did, by choosing sin and evil over goodness and love, choosing the world over the Kingdom of God.

To choose to sin is to choose to die, but to have God and receive His Spirit, is to have life, beautiful life, life with love and joy forever.

Although our sinful nature sometimes causes us to make bad, foolish, even deadly choices, thanks be to God, He sent His Son, who makes way better choices than we do. 

In fact, He’s never made a bad choice, not in choosing to obey His Father, not in choosing to die for you, and not in choosing you to belong to Him as His dear, baptized child. 

In our Old Testament, Moses told the people that that there are two ways to live your life, both with very different outcomes, so choose well.

He said, 15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 

One way of living your life, is living to die; the other way is living to live. 

With love and goodness goes life; with sin and evil goes death. How amazing that we would choose the latter.

How foolish we can be. How wise and discerning Jesus is, that He chose goodness and life for us -- won it for us on the cross, and delivered it to us by His Spirit, that we might live.. and live more wisely.

Moses continues, 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it… the Promised Land, where God’s people were to live until the Messiah would come. 

And then He would replace geography with faith; and His people would live all around the world.

In His dying and rising for the world, that the world might live; then ascending above and beyond the world, and sending His Spirit to His apostles and His people, in this way He opened up the Promised Land to be in all nations, people all around the globe, united in faith, believing together in the world’s one and only Messiah.

So although we, and the vast majority of the followers of Christ today, don’t live in that Mideastern land that Joshua led the Israelites into, still we live in the Promised Land… not a geopolitical land, but the fellowship of believers that we call the Church.

Wherever we may be, whatever the nation, whatever the land and soil on which we walk, when we walk with Christ, we’re walking in the Promised Land.

Jesus came to us that we might have long life in the Promised Land, in the Church on earth, and the Church in Heaven.

But this promise comes with a warning, because we’ve proven that we’re prone to wander.

Moses says, 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, to take on the ways of the world, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.

In other words, if you fall away and no longer live as My people from whom the Messiah will come, then I will withdraw my blessing from you, because you’re not serving your purpose, to be the people from which My Son, the Messiah, will be born to win the world back to Me.

Likewise, if we choose the world and abandon the Gospel, then we lose the blessings of being God’s people on earth, and His people in eternity. 

Moses continues, 19 I call heaven and earth to witness today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

Moses, speaking God’s words to the people, just as they were about to enter the Promised Land, implored them to remain faithful, that the  blessing of God would be with them, and their children, and with the generations to come.

Sadly when Jesus came to earth, many of His own rejected Him. But His Gospel has spread around the globe, and there are faithful, His own people in every nation.

But sadly, also apostate in every nation, those who have left the faith, to better fit in with the world, choosing death in the world over life in the Promised Land, in the Church of Grace on earth, and then, in the Church of Glory in Heaven.

May the Word of God never be lost or forgotten in this land, or in any land on earth; and may it never be forgotten in you, in your heart and mind, and in your family, among your loved ones.

May we pass on from generation to generation, our faith and mission, to know and love Christ, and to make Him known and loved by all.

May the Gospel live long in our land, and in every land. May the Good News of the love and life Christ gives, endure until He returns.

And may we, the Church, last longer than the pyramids; their time is just a moment compared to ours, compared to our resurrected life into eternal fellowship with God and saints and angels.

Thanks be to God, in Christ, you have ahead of you, a life so long and lasting that it’s eternal; and so good that it’s glorious.

Let us spread the Word on earth while we’re here, that the Church may go on, and future generations might believe and walk in the Promised Land, among the redeemed on Earth; and in the eternal Promised Land of the redeemed in Heaven.   

And as we continue to walk and rejoice with our life in Christ, the peace of God, which passes understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, who brings us into His Promised Land forever.  Amen.