Deuteronomy 10:12-22

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?

Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth and all that is in it. And yet, The Lord set his heart in love on your fathers, chose their offspring after them, you, above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God, who's not partial, takes no bribe, He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow.

He loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you are sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

What worship requires

Well, friends, if we're going to worship the Lord our God, we've got to know what worship requires. Our first point here, and we see that in verses 12 and 13. A few main things, if you notice there, fear the Lord, walk in all his ways, Love him, serve him, and even more, serve him with all of your heart, with all of your soul, all encompassing, and keep all of his commandments in thought, in word, and in deed.

This is what the Lord requires. This is what worship requires. I don't know about you, but when I look at those things, it kind of feels intimidating, doesn't it? When I read each one of those things, it feels like a heavy responsibility and obligation to keep. I would feel a little bit better if it said, you know, maybe serve the Lord sometimes or with maybe a part of your heart. but to serve the Lord always with all of who you are, and yet that is what the Lord requires. And it begins to raise a question in my own heart of, if this is what worship requires, then man, how can I worship? If this is what the Lord requires, how can I ever be His worshiper? But I want to point out something in verses 12 and 13.

Notice here that Moses writes, and it's not a statement, but rather a question that Moses poses. When he sees all of the requirements of the Lord, a question begins to rise in Moses' heart, but it's a much different question than the one that rises in mine. I ask, does the Lord require all of this? And Moses asks, is this all the Lord requires of you?

Look there at verse 12 again. He says,

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but these things?

See the difference there? How can he have that perspective? How can he not be intimidated by these things? How can he pose this question? Is this all the Lord your God requires of you? Well, we're going to see in our text why. And the structure of this text is significant here.

And what I want us to see and notice is that this text kind of flows and it has commandments and then a description of who God is and what he's done. So even verses 12 to 13, you see some commandments and then verses 14 and 15, a description of who God is, what he's done. Verse 16, commandment, 17 and 18, who God is, what he's done. 19 and 20, commandments, 21 and 22, who God is and what he has done.

Why do I point that out? All of the commandments in this text are a response to the descriptions of who God is and what he has done. The reason that Moses can say this is because he knows who his Lord is and all that he has done for him. When he thinks about all of God's mighty works and all of God's character, he says, man, is this all the Lord requires of you? It's just these things. Dear Christian, is this true for you tonight?

Do you know who your Lord is and what he's done for you? If you don't, worship may feel like a burden instead of a blessing. Worship will feel like an impossible task instead of unspeakable joy. Worship will lead you to exhaustion instead of refreshment if we don't know who our God is and what he's done.

Ultimately for your good

So with that being said, that's what the Lord requires. Let me give us some reasons of why then should we worship? Well, again, my main point here is to worship the Lord, your God, because of who he is and what he's done for you. We're going to see some specifics in this text. What God requires of his worshipers may seem overwhelming to you, but tonight I want to give you four reasons why we should worship the Lord. Four reasons why what God requires of us actually just makes sense. So number one, worship the Lord because ultimately it's for your good. We see this there at the end of verse 13.

Isn't that amazing? All of God's commandments, all of his requirements for us are ultimately for our own good. Now let me ask you, who would reject something that is ultimately for their good? Only a fool, right? Yet we do this all the time, don't we? Even if we look at the Garden of Eden, didn't God give a good command? Don't eat of the tree. That was for their good. And yet when they distrusted God and they disobeyed God, what did it lead to? Not their good, but actually corruption and ruin.

Man, you parents in here this evening, isn't it frustrating when you tell your children, hey, don't do this, because you know they're gonna get hurt if they do, and then they throw a temper tantrum, and they try to do it anyways? It's frustrating, isn't it? You love them, and you want what's best for them.

Now, if we can relate to that as sinful human beings with limited knowledge and even an imperfect love, how much more the Lord our God, who perfectly knows what is good for us, who perfectly loves us, all of his commandments are for our good. Man, that changes how we see worship. Worship the Lord because it's ultimately for your good. Number two, Worship the Lord because of His great love for you.

His great love for you

This is verses 14 and 15. And notice here what these verses are doing. Verse 14 begins to lift our eyes up to the glory of God. It starts off with, Behold this glorious God who owns all of heaven and all of earth. But then 15 shows how this great God stoops down to us. Look at verse 15 with me.

It says,

Yet the Lord, this glorious Lord, set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you, above all peoples, as you are this day.

God's amazing love chose and set apart Israel for Himself. And don't think for a moment that God did this because Israel was awesome, or that they had something special that none of the other peoples had.

No! It was all by his grace. And in fact, if we look at the broader context here in Deuteronomy, just before our text, Moses actually reminds them of the golden calf incident and how he personally had to be a mediator and intercede on their behalf because of their idolatry and sin. No difference.

God freely chose by his grace to pour out his love on Israel. But, oh Christian, why should you worship the Lord? Man, do you know what He's done for you? How this great and glorious God who owns all of heaven and all of earth stooped down to save you, stooped down to set His heart upon you. And don't think for a moment it was because you were lovely or you had something in you that God desired, but rather all because of His grace. Even when you were walking in idolatry, your golden calf moment, God sent the greater Moses, Jesus Christ, as a mediator on your behalf to intercede for you by offering himself for your sin.

Dear Christian, when we realize the Lord's great love for us, man, that changes how we see worship, doesn't it? doesn't make those requirements seem that heavy anymore. God's requirements don't seem like much in light of all that he has done for us. And even there in verse 16, we see a response, a response needed for this.

Verse 16 says, "

...circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn.

" Dear friends, because God has cut you off and ascends from all the other peoples and made you His own, worship now requires you to cut off the idolatry and sin in your own heart. Because God has set His heart upon you in love, worship requires you to set your heart upon Him. Because of God's free grace and His willingness to save you, worship requires you to stop being stubborn towards Him. The required response of our heart is because of God's response of His heart towards us.

His great worthiness

Worship the Lord your God because of his great love for you. Number three, worship the Lord because of his great worthiness. We see this in 17 and 18. Again, 17 emphasizes the greatness of the Lord.

The Lord your God is the God of gods. He is the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who is not partial and takes no bribe.

Dear friends, the Lord is not like any other God, is he? He already proved himself in the Exodus to be greater than any of the mighty Egyptian gods.

And let me ask you tonight, what other God can you serve whose requirements are all for your good? Whether you worship the God of money or the God of power, the God of fame or popularity, whatever it may be, whatever they require of you, it's not going to be for your good, but only for your destruction. Only the Lord God, what he requires is for your good. Let me ask you again, what other God stoops low to save you? Any other God that you choose to worship, you've got to climb up to get to. You've got to work yourself and maybe you'll get there. Only the Lord God has come down to us to save us.

There's no other God like him. Verse 18 shows yet again how this great and glorious God stoops low to care for his people. Caring for the vulnerable, the weak, the widow, the orphan, showing justice rather than perverseness. Loving the stranger, the text says, and caring for them. Worship him because there's no one else like him. He alone is worthy.

And again, to show this pattern, 19 and 20, we see this response. Because of who God is, because of what he's done, now respond in these ways. The Lord loved you and cared for you as a sojourner, so you do likewise. It only makes sense. Because the Lord is the Lord of lords and because he is the God of gods, then you should only fear him and serve him and hold fast to him. It only makes sense. Worship the Lord, for he alone is worthy of your worship. Number four, worship the Lord because of his faithfulness towards you.

God's faithfulness towards you

We see this in verses 21 there and 22. Dear friends, the Lord had done many things at this point on behalf of his people. pouring out His wrath on Egypt in order to bring about the Exodus, and then leading His people, providing for them, disciplining them in the wilderness wanderings. Even the text says, fulfilling the promise to Abraham that, man, you started with 70 and now you're more numerous than the stars of heaven. Moses says, remember and look around and see the faithfulness of God to you.

Is this all the Lord requires of you? For you to worship him who has been so faithful to you? But, oh dear Christian, can I remind us in here tonight that the Lord has done many things on behalf of his people? That he has poured out his wrath at the cross to bring about a greater exodus from sin and death? that He has since led us and provided for us and disciplines us in His love? How He has fulfilled the promise to Abraham by bringing the true offspring, Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation? Remember and look around at God's faithfulness towards you, Christian. Is this all the Lord requires of us? that we worship him who has loved us so dearly and been faithful to him. Worship the Lord because of his great faithfulness. So in closing tonight, how then can we worship?

How can we worship?

Last point here. Even though hopefully now we understand Moses' point of view. Maybe hopefully now we're not as intimidated or burdened by those requirements. Hopefully they make sense. And yet even if that's true, we all still fail to worship God rightly, don't we? So I want to close tonight again with just the hope in Christ.

Who came and perfectly worshipped the Lord, His God. who feared him and walked in his ways and perfectly loved him and served him and obeyed all of his commandments. Jesus, who never had to circumcise his heart, for there was nothing that needed to be cut off. Jesus was the true and perfect worshiper who opened the way for us to be able to offer acceptable worship. All those who believe in Christ by faith receive the circumcision of Christ, Colossians says, and that our old self is cut off, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are made new, set free from sin's slavery, that we might go and worship our God.

Friends, how can we worship tonight? How can you worship this God tonight if you don't know him? Only by faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit within us. Dear friends, we like the Israelites here are just outside of the promised land, if you will. And as we prepare to enter, may we worship the Lord our God in Christ by the power of the Spirit.

Let's pray. Lord, we come before you tonight and God, we openly confess that we do not worship you as you deserve, Lord, that we fail utterly to render unto you what is just so reasonable and what makes sense as far as when we think about who you are and your greatness and your glory and your love for us. God, you deserve everything we have. Father, we're thankful for Christ. who came to be our substitute, to stand in our place, to succeed where we failed, Lord God, that we may offer to you acceptable worship in him and in him alone. Lord, may we serve you and fear you and love you with all of our hearts and our minds and our strength, all by the power of your Holy Spirit. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.