Deuteronomy 30:11-20 Bible Study | Episode 951

June 2, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 Bible Study | Episode #951

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.

I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are In Deuteronomy, chapter 30.

Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verses 11 through 20.

And we are dealing with. We're dealing with a passage where God sets before them blessings and cursings. I think it's really important when we're studying this that,

you know, sometimes I just go back and, and, and remind you that these people that are going into the promised land are not a picture of the, you know, people who were not sure whether or not they've got a relationship with God.

We're not sure whether they're.

They're what we would call saved,

what I would call born again.

These people are the picture of God's people. They are God's people. They've been delivered out of Egypt through the blood on the doorpost. Okay, you go. Well, that was their parents.

No, some of them were there, too. Okay. And by the way, they've been doing the sacrifices.

They've been living up to God's word.

They've been delivered out of Egypt, delivered from the world,

gone through the blood. They've been through the first river, the first crossing of the water, which is a picture of, of, of. Of our. Our practice of baptism.

They have received God's word, meaning they. They've able to receive it. It's not like they're. They're. It's hidden from them. They've received God's word, so they're a picture of all that is required for a person to, what we would say, go to heaven, be God's people.

Okay? That's who they are.

Now,

the issue is not whether or not they've got a relationship with God. That is not the issue. The issue is whether or not they have the best of God, whether they have.

Whether they live the life that God has designed for them to have,

and whether they live the life that,

that brings about God's goodness, His best, his purpose, his wonder, all the peace, passion. I can come up with all kinds of wor,

Joy,

purpose. I mean, all the things that come from being with God. That's the question. And so when God is telling them about entering into the promised land, he is offering them literally life or death.

Now that doesn't mean spiritual death.

That means literally death of what could be for you, death of what should be for those who follow God. That's what he's offering.

And so when we, when we think about this passage, and this is really important because we're, you know, we're, we're finishing this chapter and we've got four more chapters in Deuteronomy and then we're in Joshua,

okay? And Joshua was entering into the promised land. So it's the story of God's people going and taking the promised land. Then you've got the Book of Judges where, where each person does what's right in their own eyes, which is a picture of really today's, you know, church age.

And, and then, you know, first and Second Samuel where you've got David and Saul and Solomon and, and, and so we, we've got a lot of really good territory coming up that's about the Spirit filled Christian life.

And what God says here is,

is, is, is one of those pinnacle moments where he's describing for the people of Israel going into the promised land. But really he's describing for us, you know, it's a direct correlation.

He's describing for us his offer of the Spirit filled Christian life, the fullness of the Spirit filled Christian life. And he says, I want you to have it. I want you to have this.

And so when we, when we come across it, it's, it's, you know, it's Deuteronomy 30, 11.

For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you.

It's not too far off. I love that this is. These three, four verses right here are so illustrative. Illustrative of God saying,

you know, I'm not making this hard on you. He says it's, it's, it's not too mysterious for you.

Nor far off. I mean, it's not something, he says it's not in heaven that you should say, who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it.

What he's saying is it's not up here. It's not a spiritual understanding that's too far away that you can't really figure out how to do it. Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say, who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it.

He's saying these things are not.

They're not hard, they're not mysterious, they're not difficult.

But the word is very near you.

It's in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it.

What he's saying is, is my instructions, commandments, my will.

We're going to use. You know, we always talk about commandments, precepts, laws,

instructions,

orders. I mean, you come up with all these words and what they are. Is God verbally relating his will to you,

okay, so that you can know his will? Well, if I'm talking about his direct instructions to me, that is a defining characteristic of who he is. It defines the character he is.

And he wants me to live in.

And. Okay.

It's a defining characteristic of who he is. If I'm talking about his will,

it is that characteristic,

manifest to me,

revealed to me. And I walk in it,

okay?

And. And so he's saying he's not hiding the ball from us.

That's. I mean, really. That's what he's saying here. I'm not hiding the ball.

Ball's not being hidden from you. I'm. I'm going to. I'm going to reveal my will to you. If. If you'll seek me, you'll find it.

Now he says, I got to have the whole heart. I don't want part of it. He says. He says, and my will is in your mouth, meaning you can speak my word.

You know it now, and it's in your heart.

I've written it on your heart. You have it.

You have my will,

which includes all the other stuff. He says, you got it. And then he says, see, I set before you today life and good, death and evil.

I've set before you blessings and cursings,

life and death, good and evil. I've set before you all the good stuff.

What he's saying is,

I've laid it out for you. You can continue in your will and your way, and you'll have none of that. All those words we were using, peace, patience, purpose, passion, all the stuff,

joy,

life.

You'll have all that, or you can have you, which all you produce is death.

You can have your will and your way, which is death.

Or you can have my will in my way, which is life. And that's why he says, I set today before you life and good death. And evil,

good meaning God. You know, it literally means his character, nature,

and evil, meaning not God.

I set before you life and God, death and not God.

In that I command you today to now notice what is the. What is the.

What is the preeminent commandment? Is it to not commit murder? No, no, no, no, it's not. Is it. Is it not to steal, not to lie?

No, no, it's not. What. What is his primary commandment? For them to love the Lord your God.

Wow,

that sounds like New Testament. Well, because New Testament is based off of the. I mean, it is Jesus. This is still. This is God's word. This Jesus.

Okay?

This is much Jesus as John is. This is Jesus,

okay? He says,

I set before you today life and death,

good and evil,

and that I command you to love the Lord your God.

Listen to walk in his ways, know his character and walk in them, and to keep his commandments, meaning to keep his will.

Whenever I think commandment, precept, law, I just think God's will,

okay?

I also think his character, but I think his will, his will for me,

his statutes, his judgment. So we got his. Oh, I forgot about statutes. His statutes and his judgments. Forgot about that too, right?

All those words describe God's revealed self to me.

Okay? He says,

I've said all this stuff before you, that you may live and multiply,

and that the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.

He says, I'm setting all this for you so that you, God can bless you.

What's the whole purpose? So that I can walk in God's goodness, his blessing.

If you do this,

I'm going to multiply you, meaning you're going to have family. And let me say this, as older I get, the more important family is. We all know that when we're young, we're trying to figure out how to make our own family.

And sometimes we forget about the. The older parts of our family. But, you know, once you start having those children,

boy, all of a sudden you realize all my family's important. Family is important. He says, I'm he. He says, I want you to be in the promised land. I want you to love God.

I want to make you live. I want to multiply you. I. I want.

I want to bless you in the land that you possess. Meaning I'm going to give you something that's yours. You're going to possess it. It's yours.

It's a gift given to you.

I'm giving you this stuff.

Okay?

What he said is Is you can possess. You have things that are literally yours. And you go, well, in the United States, I understand that. Right? But that's not always been the case.

Not everything that anybody had was theirs. God says, if you walk in his ways, if you love him, if you do the things he says, I give you things that are your possessions.

Wow, that's. That's pretty cool. But he says, but if you turn away so that you do not hear,

and if you draw away and you worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish.

It's not like God is condemning them.

I want you to hear me. It's not like he's condemning them. He's saying, the natural result of not following my being me, following my will and my way is death.

He says, I'm announcing to you today. I'm telling you, no, notice it's not. It's not a. It's not an order. It's not a precept. It's not a law.

He says, I announce. I'm just revealing this to you. This is just. I'm revealing it to you. If you don't walk in my way,

you're going to perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go and possess. You're not going to have my best. You cannot.

You can't do it.

There's only one way to have my best,

and that's to love me. That's to hear me, and that's to walk in what I say. And that's just faith. That's the process of faith.

We hear God. We love God.

We, we. We. We hear his revelation, his commandments, precepts, his will. We hear his will and we walk in it.

I call heaven. Now, notice God says, I call heaven and earth as a witness today against you. What he's saying is, I call my creation. My creation clearly identifies that.

And how do I know that? Well, God says.

God says in his creation, he says. He says,

do not be deceived. God is not mocked. That which a man so. So shall he also reap. We know that. We know that in. In, you know, very common parlances that there's a.

There. There are consequences to action. For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. What goes up, it must come down. That's a little bit,

you know,

just common language, but we know that that's true.

You're gonna get what you do.

I mean, I can say it to you so many ways and Then we know that it's true. And he says, I announce today you shall surely perish.

You shall not prolong your days.

He says, I call heaven and earth as a witness to that. I'm saying to you that, that the universe that I created screams it too. That it, it has its.

It.

I mean, there are consequences to this,

to this that I have set before you. Life and death. He's saying, I am all that I've created, watches you. And you get to choose. You of all the creatures get to choose life or death.

Blessings and cursings.

Therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants may live. Notice. Choose life so that you get it and your family gets it.

You get it and your family gets it.

You get it and your family gets it.

That you may love the Lord, your God, that you may obey his voice,

that you may cling to Him.

So you're going to love Him. We're going to, we're going to hear him and we're going to be obedient by faith.

We're going to cling to him, we're going to hold on to Him. For he is your life and the length of your days. He is life to you, God's life to you.

And that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers,

to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob to give them. What he's saying is this is a long term process. This is not something I just came up with today.

This, this plan's been going on and by the way, this was written 3500 years ago and it is absolutely relevant to you today. It is intensely relevant to you today.

Highly important.

Very, very important.

It's life,

he says.

He says it's life that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers.

He says, therefore choose life that you and your descendants may live.

It's good stuff. It's God's stuff.

That's how we should.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.