2 Timothy 3:16-17; Deuteronomy 30:11-20

God’s Instructions For Us Are…

It’s not too hard…neither is it far off.
Devoting ourselves to listening to God and obeying Him is not beyond us.
We try to make it hard, but it’s really not.
- We try to over complicate it, but it’s generally far more simple to do what God instructs us to do and walk in His correction than it is to ignore Him and walk in our complicated, busy, and frustrating lives.
God’s Word is pretty straight forward on most issues we face.
- Most of the time, grey areas arise because we don’t just listen to God’s Word and obey it.
- We try to get God to say what we want Him to say instead of letting His Word be the only and final instruction to us.
If we will let it be in our mouth and on our hearts we will be able to follow His instruction. (v.14)
- Understand it, Memorize it, and apply it.

Once again, we there is no middle ground!
- Life and death…good and evil.
IF…THEN
- IF you obey…THEN you shall live and be blessed
- IF you turn your heart away and not hear…THEN you shall surely perish
Obedience is a natural outflow of our Love for God.
- If you say you love God, but you don’t seek His instruction and obey Him…you are a liar.
- John 14:15 “15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
- You cannot claim to love God because you make Jesus your religious preference…You can only love God by embracing Jesus as your LORD and obeying His Instructions for us.
Obedience = Loving the LORD, Walking in His Ways, and Keeping His commandments, statutes, and rules.
- We don’t do so out of obligation, but out of admiration and adoration.
- We do so because we want to please Him and glorify Him.
- If you only obey out of obligation you’ll be miserable and you will fail because your heart is not in alignment with His, but if you love Him, adore Him, admire Him, then you can’t help but obey Him.
When you understand that Jesus is your life, then you embrace His correction because His instructions are life to you.

You can’t be neutral and in the middle. You’re either all in or all out.
- God is so great and so worthy that anything less than full surrender is falling short of His glory.
We are called upon to embrace His instructions for us and to choose life!
- This is why we want to THINK…LIVE…AND CARE…BIBLICALLY!
Choosing Life means
- Loving the LORD
- Obeying His voice
- Holding fast to Him
- …for He is your life and length of days

Each and every day we have a choice…to embrace the Life we have in Christ by embracing His instructions for Us and embracing His correction of our lives, or we can neglect His Word and deny His Instructions for us and His correction for our lives.
If our hearts turn away and we will not hear, but are drawn away to take hold of and be shaped by false worldviews and fruitless pursuits, then we are turning to death and embracing the very things Jesus died to save us from…
But if we will not write off the Lord’s commands and embrace them, walk in them, keep them, and hold fast to Him then we will experience the fullness of life that He gives us.
The choice is set before you this morning and every morning…choose life that you might live loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for He is your life…what will you choose?