"Life & Death"
Curse • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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In the Beginning, There were 2 Special Trees in the Garden of Eden:
A Tree that Gave Life
A Tree that Brought Death
God Told Humanity Not to Eat from the Tree that Brought Death…
But Humanity Did Anyway
And that’s What Unleashed the Curse Upon All Creation
Before the Children of Israel Entered the Promised Land…
Moses Recounted the Law that God had Given to Israel
At the End, Moses Left Israel with a Similar Choice:
“Life & Death”
“Life & Death”
They could Choose Life & Blessings
Or They could Choose Death & Curses
Deuteronomy 30:15–20 (NASB95)
15 “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; 16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
17 “But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.
19 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
It’s Really an Easy Choice
Especially if You Read the Description…
Of the Blessings & Curses in Deuteronomy 28
If Israel will Love God & Obey His Laws…
They will Be Blessed Immeasurably with Prosperity & Life
If Israel will Not Love God & Obey His Laws…
They will Be Horribly Cursed with Adversity & Death
Moses is Pleading with the People to Choose Life
To Love God & Obey His Laws
Unfortunately for Israel…
The Rest of the OT Shows Us They Progressively Chose Death
Application
Application
Ironically, Today We Choose Life BY Choosing Death
Only When We Die to Ourselves…
Can We Receive Life
Our Faith in Jesus Leads Us to Self-Sacrificial Living
In Christ, We’re Called to Set Our Minds on the Things of the Spirit
Not on the Things of the Flesh
Romans 8:6–13 (LSB)
6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. 12 So then, brothers, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the practices of the body, you will live.
To Live with One’s Mind Set on the Spirit…
Is to Live a Sanctified & Holy Life of Rejecting the Desires of the Flesh…
And Putting Them to Death
If We’ve Been Baptized into Christ…
Then We’ve Been Given the Holy Spirit…
And We're Obligated to Live According to the Spirit
If We Do, Then We have the Hope…
Of the Holy Spirit Resurrecting Us & Giving Us Life…
When Jesus Returns
Jesus has Set Before Us Life & Death
Choose Life By Choosing to Die to Yourself & Your Fleshly Desires…
Set Your Mind on the Things of the Spirit & Live By the Spirit