Wednesday, August 6, 2014

We Stink...And God's Love is Amazing

This past week I preached on the book of Deuteronomy. While I was reading, I noticed that numerous times in Deuteronomy, Moses pauses to remind the Israelites how unworthy they are to be in a covenant relationship with God. He seems determined to show the people how undeserving they are of God's blessing and provision. It’s actually pretty funny. Here are just a couple of examples:

“The Lord did not choose you and lavish his love on you because you were larger or greater than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! It was simply because the Lord loves you, and because he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the Lord rescued you with such amazing power from your slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt." Deuteronomy 7:7-8

"The Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are righteous, for you are not--you are a stubborn people." Deuteronomy 9:6

I love that. He’s reminding the Israelites: "You’re not that amazing. God didn't choose you because you were the biggest nation or the most wealthy. He does not love you because of your own righteousness. In fact, you’re a stubborn and rebellious people. God is not giving you the promised land because of your worthiness." And I’m sure the people were thinking at this point: “Ok, Moses, we get it, we stink. So why did God choose us.?” And Moses’ response is simple: “Because that’s who God is. God is good. God is love and he loves you.”

The same is true for us. We need this reminder because after you’ve been in the church for a while it’s really easy to become prideful and judgmental. However, the truth is, we have no reason to look down on others. We are not special because of our wealth or knowledge or own self-righteousness. We have not earned God’s love or favor. We do not deserve his goodness...we have it simply because this is who God is. Everything is a gift...it’s all grace. God loves us not because we have made ourselves worthy of it. He loves us because he is love. God's love for us is not based on our character. God's love for us is based on his character. This is good news!