It's hard to imagine a book more obviously relevant to our generation than the book
of Deuteronomy. In certain respects as a North American church we're at a
pivotal point, a moment of decision. Those who embrace the biblical gospel are
facing enormous challenges. Every day you and I are being tempted
to grow cold in our love for God and one another. Even though we're family
in Christ, we're tempted to tweet at one another in cheap disapproval rather
than coming alongside one another in costly compassion. We grieve over fracture
and division among us and yet we're still tempted to value our own rights more
than the rights of others. Even those neediest members of our family
in Christ. And because we're a strange people in a troubled world,
we're tempted to relate to our neighbors in fear or in arrogance,
or else to compromise our distinct identity as God's blood bought people
in this world. Today is a day of decision for us. While we choose to listen to God's
voice above all others and live the way of life set out for us in the scriptures.
This is a momentous decision with far reaching consequences.
It's comforting to know that the Lord Jesus Christ shows us how to make such
a decision. We're not alone in this. After 40 days in the wilderness
Jesus himself faced a crisis, a moment of decision.
He was tempted directly by Satan to exploit his power and test his father.
How did Jesus withstand such temptation? He relied upon the word of God.
Specifically, he relied upon God's breathed out word in Deuteronomy.
And this shouldn't surprise us because Deuteronomy mostly consists of sermons
preached by a dying prophet to a people in crisis. A whole generation at a pivotal
moment of decision. The Israelites are standing at the edge of the wilderness and
they are peering into the Promised Land. And Moses is preaching with all the
urgency he can muster, appealing to them to choose life and
blessing and not death and destruction. To take hold of the good God is setting
before them, unlike the the generation before them who had squandered
God's grace. As Moses preaches, he's sober about their challenges he tells
them the truth about their predicament. And their most desperate dilemma is not
that they're facing a culture that despises them, that doesn't embrace
biblical values. Nor is it that they are not big enough or powerful enough relative
to the world around them. No, their most desperate dilemma is that they
have a heart that is hard toward God. A heart that is stubborn.
These men and women need a new heart. They need God to renew them from the
inside out. That's the only way they'll have the power to love God and love
one another. Only by embracing the grace of God can they obey the commands of God.
But it was written for them and for us. For their generation's moment of decision
and for ours. It's a book that pulls us forward because the solution to the book's
core dilemma lies beyond it. We'll gather together at the 2018 women's
conference and see how God meets his people's most desperate need in his son,
the Lord Jesus. Only in Christ do we find God's remedy for our rebel hearts.
Only in Christ can we embody the way of life set before us in his word.
So at TGCW18, we'll gather together and ask God's spirit to conform us more and
more into the image of Christ as we reflect upon the very God breathed words
that helped shape him and his sense of mission. Jesus throughout his ministry
quoted from the book of Deuteronomy more than any other book of the Bible
after the Psalms. So we'll study Jesus's scriptures and we'll see how he fulfills
them perfectly and beautifully. This will equip us to face our moment
of decision. To listen and live, taking hold of the God of grace who first
has taken hold of us in Christ. I hope you'll join us.