From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You mark it down. God wants to shower his people with blessings beyond any shadow of any doubt. The Bible is clear about that. But, we learn all throughout the Bible, especially in Deuteronomy chapter 28, that the blessings of God are contingent on your obedience to God. You have to be on blessing ground with God so that he can rain down the blessings upon you. And the blessing ground, when it comes to the Christian life, is obedience.

Larry Nobles: Everybody wants to be blessed, right? Right. Today on Premise Heart, Pastor Jeff Shreve will explore the mandatory ingredient to be able to receive that show of blessings. There's not a Christian believer in his or her right mind who would say, no, I I don't think I want God to bless me. But yet, many believers live day to day without his blessings when they don't have to. Why? We'll find out today on Premise Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, who's in his eight message series, do you want to be blessed? How to experience the goodness of God.

And we're learning what's necessary to get on blessing ground with God in today's lesson entitled, when blessings abound. Now, Pastor, before you begin today's message, what are the parameters that God sets up for blessings to really abound in a believer's life? What are the key ones?

Dr. Jeff Schreve: God is a as we've been talking in this series, God is a good God who wants to bless his children. But the key to getting in on his blessings is to be on blessing ground, to be living in such a way that you're pleasing to God and that you're obeying him and that you're honoring him. For those who do that, no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly, the Bible says. And so, today we're going to see how boy, God just longs to pour out his blessings on his children, provided they're doing what he says, walking in his ways, and really glorifying him in their lives.

Larry Nobles: Well, that's a great introduction to our broadcast today. If you miss any of it along the way or want to hear part two, which will air tomorrow, go to promiseheart.org, click the listen link. Our main text today comes from the last sermon that Moses gave to the people of Israel. It's found in Deuteronomy chapter 28, which is where we'll begin today's lesson called, when blessings abound.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: We have always had dogs. We have three dogs right now, and they're all inside dogs. And Debbie's favorite dog that she's ever had is Rocky. His name is Rocky Road, and I call him Gocky Toad. And and we've just shortened it to the Toad, so we call him the Toad. And the Toad I've grown to to like him. And I did come home once when he was a puppy, Sunday night after church, and he had chewed a hole in the wall. And I instantly thought of that verse in Amos chapter four verse 12, prepare to meet your God.

I mean, I was about ready to kill him. And he almost didn't make it out of puppyhood. But you know, something changed within me just a few months ago when we brought home a little brand new little dog named Lola Belle. We have a picture of her. Lola Belle is a 3 and 1/2 lb Chihuahua, deer head Chihuahua. For a guy who never really thought much of dogs, I love this little dog. I call this dog little pup. And she's just so little and it's just amazing. I just marvel at her how she's she looks like a Doberman and she's 3 and 1/2 lbs.

And you know, one of the fun things about little pup is in the mornings when I get up, she is so excited to get out of her little cage. And she just runs around. She has tons of energy and she always wants to kiss. And so she'll jump up. Um, Debbie and I are in the sitting room there. We're having our coffee and our quiet time and she jumps up on the ottoman and then she runs across my legs and she just gets all up in my face and just showers me with kisses because she just wants to let me know how much she loves me.

And it's so wonderful. I said, Debbie, why can't you learn from little pup, you know? But you know, and and little pup does that with Debbie too, but if any of you have Chihuahuas, you know that Chihuahuas they don't just give it away, right? I mean, if they don't know you, you're not getting it. You have to be in the circle of trust. And for Lola to want to shower kisses and her favor upon you, you have to be in the circle of trust. And when you're in that circle, she's the greatest dog in the world.

My kids aren't all in the circle. And they don't call her little pup, they call her little puke. They don't really like her because but as soon as they get in the circle and she starts to kiss them, they love her to death. Now, I I was thinking about that with the passage that is before us in Deuteronomy chapter 28. It's the passage about blessings. And I've entitled this sermon, when blessings abound. You know, God is a God who wants to just shower us with blessings and with his favor and with his goodness. But you got to be in the circle of trust.

You got to get on blessing ground for those blessings to come. You mark it down. God wants to shower his people with blessings beyond any shadow of any doubt. The Bible is clear about that. Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. Jesus said in Matthew chapter seven in verse 11, if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? I mean, you think about it. You evil people, he's speaking to the Jews, he's speaking to you and me.

We know how to good give good gifts to our children. Now, you think of a holy, righteous, good to the bone God, how much more shall he give what is good? So, God wants to shower his people with blessings. But we learn all throughout the Bible, especially in Deuteronomy chapter 28, that the blessings of God are contingent on your obedience to God. You have to be in the circle of trust, so to speak, with my dog for her to shower you with her favor. And with God, you have to be in his circle of trust.

You have to be on blessing ground with God so that he can rain down the blessings upon you. And the blessing ground, when it comes to the Christian life, is obedience. Deuteronomy chapter 28 was Moses' sermon. The whole book of Deuteronomy is Moses' last sermon to the people. They're getting ready to go into the Promised Land. They are camped on the plains of Moab, which is east of the Jordan River. And they're getting ready to cross the Jordan River to go into the Promised Land. They were supposed to do that 40 years earlier, but they didn't go in when God told them to go in.

And now, here they are 40 years fast forward 40 years and Moses is 120 years old. He's preaching his last sermon to these people. And he's getting ready to go up to the mountain to die and they are getting ready to go into the Promised Land. And he is reviewing the covenant for them and he is reviewing what God wants to do if they will say yes to God and yes to his ways and put themselves on blessing ground. And the blessings of God are conditional upon obedience. Deuteronomy chapter 28, I'll begin reading in verse one.

Now, it shall be if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you will obey the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 28 1 through 14 four times we read the word little word if. If God is going to do amazing things for his people if they will obey him. Now, what are the blessings that come that we're going to come to his people if they would obey him?

Look at verse three. Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country. Some of you live in the city where you'd be blessed. Some of you say, well, I'm a farmer out in the country. You're going to be blessed. Blessed shall you be in the city, blessed shall you be in the country, blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beast, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your needing bowl.

Hey, when you take your basket out into the field to get fruit, you get grain, it's going to be blessed. It's going to be overflowing. And when you take it home, your needing bowl is going to be blessed. Blessed shall you be verse six when you come in. And blessed shall you be when you go out. Verse seven, the Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and shall flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to do and he will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

And then verse 11, the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to you. The Lord will open for you his good storehouse the heavens and give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. All these blessings it it says in verse two, these blessings will overtake you.

God is going to unleash blessings and they're going to run you down. God's just going to pour it on you just like little pup comes from every direction and is kissing me. The God says that's what I'm going to do in your life if you will obey me. If you will obey. Now, it sounds pretty simple. But you know what? They didn't do it. They didn't do it. They said we'll do it and they did it for a while, but the history of the children of Israel is that they kept going after other gods. You know, obedience seems really simple, but they didn't do it.

And so often we don't do it. And so I want to take that just that thought about obeying the Lord and I want to unpack that a little bit. And I want to show you three steps that are involved in this thing called obedience. Three key steps you can't leave any of them out. Step number one, to obey God, you have to know what God says to do. You have to know what he says to do. You can't obey him if you don't know what he wants you to do. And the scripture says in Deuteronomy 28 13, and the Lord shall make you the head and not the tail and you only shall be above and you shall not be underneath if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully.

If you'll listen. Now, how well do you listen to the commandments of the Lord? When Debbie and I first got married, uh, periodically she would ask me to go to the store to get stuff for her. Well, if you're a guy in here and you're like most guys in here, detail on grocery shopping is probably not your longest and strongest. It wasn't mine. And so Debbie would tell me she might only need three things. And she would tell me she said, do do I need to write this down? You don't need to write it down.

Come on, I went to UT. Go ahead, give it to me. What do you want? She said, I need flour. And then she went on to tell me what kind of flour. All I heard was flour. So, you go to the store. And this is back in the dark ages before we had cell phones. You know, so I go to the store and I'm sitting there in the flour aisle. I was like, well, foot, they got a lot of different kinds of flour here. I don't know what kind of flour I'm supposed to get. Cuz they did she say wheat?

Did she say white? Did she say I I wrote some of these down. I didn't even know what they were. Better for bread flour? Self-rising flour? You run into all this stuff and you're like, I just want flour. I don't know about all these things. And And so I invariably I'd come home. I'm supposed to get three items. I got like two out of three wrong. She's like, you're not supposed to get that kind. I said, it said flour. You told me to get flour. Here's flour. If you don't like it, don't ask me to go again.

You're certified. Well, of course she was wrong. No, I was really wrong on that. But I didn't listen very well. Hey, how well do you listen to God? How well do you listen to the commandments? And you know where we get the commandments is in the word of God. How much time do you spend in the word of God?

Larry Nobles: Oh, well, that one will cause a lot of us to have to admit not nearly enough. Pastor Jeff returns to pursue this thought a little further to give you some encouragement and recalibrate your priorities in just a moment. As you likely know, Premise Heart is an internationally broadcast Christian ministry. Pastor Jeff has been doing this for 21 years. His church is in Texarkana, Texas, and he's been there all those years allowing the messages to be produced for radio and TV around the world. He created Premise Heart to facilitate that as a separate nonprofit. We're supported by our listeners who want to join us in this evangelistic outreach to the world.

He receives zero income from any donations that are made to Premise Heart. Every day your generosity helps place the truth of God's word before people around the world who are desperate to hear. And for your gift this month of any amount, we'd like to say thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's series beyond amazing, understanding the grace of God. It's available on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or an immediate MP3 download. Go to from his heart.org or simply call 866-400-BIBLE. 866-400-BIBLE and make that gift today and we'll send you beyond amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being a part of helping this happen around the world and in your hometown through the outreach of Premise Heart.

Now, back to the conclusion of part one of the lesson, when blessings abound.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: See, you know what the Bible is? It's God's mind in print. It's where God shares with us what is on his heart and what is in his mind and what are his, uh, ways and his will for us. It's in the word of God. You say, well, I want God to speak to me. Then spend time in the word of God cuz God speaks primarily through his word. Listen, you write this down. Bible study for a Christian is not optional. It's not optional. It's critical. And if you don't do it, you're not going to know what God wants you to do.

You're not going to be able to diligently obey the Lord your God because you are going to get flour, but you're not going to know what kind of flour and you're not going to be specific enough to know, uh, which way to go with the Lord. And so you have to spend time in the word of God. Look what he says in Joshua chapter one verse eight. The Lord is speaking to Joshua who took over for Moses leading God's people. He said, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.

Why, Lord? So that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success day and night in the word of God so that you can know what to do, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. Spending time in the word. Let me encourage you this way. Sometimes people say, well, you know, I don't really read the Bible much, but Jeff, you're you're challenging me and and I need to read it more.

And so, man, I'm going to I'm going to go home and I'm going to read 10 chapters. I'm going to read the Bible through in a year. Hey, it's great to read 10 chapters. It's great to read the Bible through in a year. But you know what's better for you to do? Why don't you read a chapter? Why don't you read for depth and not for distance? Why don't you just say, God, speak to me because so many times you get this idea, I'm going to read all this stuff and and you read for 20 minutes and you don't remember anything that you read.

It's better to read one verse and really think it through and then put it into practice than to read 100 and it goes and you're just a forgetful hearer. God says, listen, you meditate on my word. You know what the word meditate says? So you may meditate on it day and night. The word meditate means to moan. It means to growl. It's like you're you're wrestling with that in your mind. You're running the word of God over and over in your mind and you're just kind of chewing on it and you're like You're thinking it through.

What does this mean? What does this mean for me? God wants us to do that. Bible study is not optional. It's critical. And if you will spend time in the word of God, the Bible says in Proverbs 16 20, he who gives attention to the word shall find good. And blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. So that's the very first part of this thing called obedience. To obey God, you have to know what God says to do. Very simple, but it's the first step. Step number two, to obey God, not only do you have to know what God says to do, but you have to yield to what God says to do.

This is a critical step that a lot of people struggle with and a lot of people miss. You have to yield to what God says to do. Now, listen, in life in life there are two ways to go. There is God's way and there is your way. Really only you just boil it down, two ways. God's way or your way. And the Bible makes it clear that God's way is higher than our way, way higher than our way. God says in Isaiah 55, your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord. Your thoughts are not my thoughts.

As high as the heavens are above the earth, so far are my ways above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts. So God's way is miles and miles and miles different from our way. And the question is, which way are you going to go? The Bible says in Proverbs 14 verse 12, there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. See, when you go your way, you go your way because you think that's right for you. You think that's where you're going to find peace and joy and happiness and good things.

When the prodigal son left the Father's farm to go to the far country, did he go there thinking, where is that pigsty? I'm going to find the pigsty. I'm going to find the place where I can ruin my life. Where is it? He didn't do that. He left the Father's farm going his way thinking his way he was going to find good things, peace and joy and happiness. And what he found was a pigsty. Pigsty. He went his way. There's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

Two questions that are so critical for you to ask yourself or me to ask myself. Question number one, do you believe God's commandments are good and right? Do you believe they're good and right, good and right for you and for your life? The psalmist said in Psalm 119, therefore, I love your commandments above gold, yes, above fine gold. Therefore, I esteem right all your precepts concerning everything. I hate every false way. I esteem right. Lord, your way is pleasing. Your way is straight. Your way is smooth. Your way is the right way concerning most things?

Uh-uh. Concerning everything. Everything that God's commands is right. So that's the first key question in this yielding to God. Do you believe his commandments are good and right? Second question, have you surrendered to his commandments? Psalm 119 goes on to say this, and I shall lift up my hands to your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. I'll lift up my hands to your commandments, which I love. I think everyone in the world would agree that lifting up your hands is the universal sign for surrender. Have you lifted up your hands to the commandments of God?

Have you surrendered to the commandments of God and say, Lord, your ways are right and I surrender. I'm going to yield myself to what you say. So that's the second key step. If you're going to obey God, first of all, you have to know what he says to do. You have to spend time in his word. You have to listen. Secondly, you have to come to his word with a heart that says, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. With a heart that says, not my will, but thine be done. With a heart that says, I yield to you, your ways are right.

And when I'm at a crossroads and it's your way versus my way, I choose your way because your way is right. My way may seem right. It may look right. Just like the tree looked good for food and looked like, yeah, that was the way to go. It's not the way to go. So I choose your way. And then the third step in obeying God and in experiencing his abundance and his blessings. To obey God, you have to do what God says to do. See, just knowing about it's not enough. Just saying, yes, Lord, your ways are right, not enough.

I have to do it. That's what he says in Deuteronomy chapter one or 28 verse one again. Now, it shall be if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today. Being careful to do it. Obedience requires action. It always requires action. You can't obey God if you don't do what he says do. And you can say all day long, well, I know what God wants me to do. You can say all day long, yeah, I believe God's ways are right concerning everything. But are you doing what he says do?

Larry Nobles: You're listening to from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve and the message today, when blessings abound part one. And when you look at your life, do you ever think, is this it? Surely there's more. And you'd be right. Yes, there is more. Your purpose in life is to live for Jesus and love him more each day. And you and I do that by loving others more and sacrificially at that. You may want to go to promiseheart.org and listen to part one of this message again and part two that will air tomorrow from the series, do you want to be blessed?

How to experience the goodness of God. And you can click the listen link to do that. Well, thanks for joining us today. I'm Larry Nobles and we hope the lesson was a blessing to you. Pastor Jeff will have part two of this revealing lesson next time. Here's part of what's to come.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: The Lord says in his word, you shall be holy for I am holy. You're different as a Christian. Problem that we have in our world today is you can't tell the difference between those who claim to be Christians and those who openly say they're not.

Larry Nobles: Make sure you're with us on Wednesday when we'll again open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from his heart.