GOD’S LAY AWAY PLAN
Deuteronomy 11:16–25 (KJV)
Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
And then the LORD’S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;
Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.
Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.
There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.
The burden for my preaching this year stems from,
Matthew 6:19–21 (KJV)
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Where is your treasure?
Growing up, I remember my parents used a purchasing tool called a “lay-away”, to get items the family needed or wanted, without going into debt for them.
Mom and Dad would put a deposit on an item, say a winter coat for one of us kids, to secure it for a later purchase. The item stayed at the store while Mom and Dad made regular payments. They did not bring it home until it was paid for.
I went on to Dave Ramsey’s website to see what he had to say about lay away plans. I learned:
It is a depression era plan
People were strapped for cash on hand to buy items, so the stores came up with the plan to enable (or induce) potential customers to purchase the goods the stores had in stock. Often the lay-away “bait” was that it was that the current sale price could be locked in with the deposit.
Lay-away plans are making a come-back
Even in the online world, Sears and stores like it offer “lay-away eligible” items.
It is a better than going into debt
A lay-away plan is usually interest free and serves as a sort of forced savings plan. You are committed to the item, so you are motivated to chip away with small regular sums until you’ve paid for the piece.
This is always better financially better than putting something on credit, especially a credit card, so you can have it now.
According to Ramsey, it would be better still to save in your bank until you had the money to pay cash outright
The lure of the sale price is seldom, according to Ramsey, as much or an advantage as the power of having cash in hand to shop for the best deal when paying full price.
Ramsey strongly counsels not to make your lay away payments with a credit card.
In other words, as in every wise purchase, a lay away plan only works with real capital.
I think what I see in Matthew 6 is God’s lay away plan.
The Bible encourages us to “chip away” a little bit at time, day after day, year after year, until we have laid away enough treasure in heaven where we want it more than anything this world has to offer us.
But no one can lay up treasures in heaven without some capital, some treasure to lay up.
I want to propose to you that Deuteronomy 11 teaches us where to get that capital.
I think I see at least three ways to lay up capital in your heart:
I. KEEP GOD’S COMMANDMENTS
Deuteronomy 11:1 (KJV)
Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.
A. I think the first thing to notice is that this is a recurring concept in this chapter.
Deuteronomy 11:8–9 (KJV)
Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;
And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
Deuteronomy 11:22–23 (KJV)
For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;
Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.
Deuteronomy 11:26–28 (KJV)
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:
And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
It is obviously important to the LORD that we keep His commandments.
We live in a different economy than Moses and Israel.
In our case, I am thankful to say that
· Jesus fulfilled all the Law of God on our behalf. Not only that but,
· Jesus died as payment for our disobedience to the commandments of God
I’ll tell you, we tend to handle what Jesus did altogether too casually.
On the one hand,
· We act like, since Jesus paid the price for our sins, “it’s all good”. We can get away with sin. and
· We act like, since we can’t be that good anyway, it really doesn’t matter if we aren’t so good.
A Biblically Christian response to the work of Christ would be to so appreciate what He did
· That we would want all the more to quit our sin and
· That we would want all the more to be obedient to the Word of God.
B. I’d like, secondly, to take a moment or two and simply break down
Deuteronomy 11:1 (KJV)
Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.
Because you love God you ought to
1. Keep His charge
This is the burden; the thing God entrusts to us.
Keeping God’s charge would be similar to being a faithful steward.
I entrusted Daniel with the Sunday school lesson today.
To keep that charge means that he did his best to prepare and deliver a message from the Bible that was
· Meaningful,
· Thought out and
· Prayed through
It would have been disappointing, wouldn’t it, had he come to the platform and given an excuse why he hadn’t adequately prepared.
How often do we disappoint the Lord because we do not faithfully keep those things He has entrusted to us?
2. Keep His statutes
A statute is a law or custom designed to bring people together, to make it possible to live in unity.
We saw what happens when people live selfishly and without concern or regard to others recently, didn’t we?
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone was really the “Capitol Hill Anarchist Zone”.
It was destructive, violent, and self-willed.
· It had no good purpose but
· It has done great damage
· People were injured and left without medical assistance
· Residents and local businesses were frightened and intimidated into giving the thugs what they wanted
People can’t live together without statutes — expectations placed upon one another for the mutual benefit of all.
The best of them are given to us by God.
3. Keep His judgments
These are those decrees of God that define what is right and holy.
The Ten Commandments would fit into this grouping.
1. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
4. Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep in Holy
5. Honor thy father and thy mother
6. Thou shalt not kill
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery
8. Thou shalt not steal
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness
10. Thou shalt not covet
4. Keep His commandments
I take the word commandments to be the sum of them all.
· The things God has entrusted us with
· The things God has given for the good of society and
· The things God has decreed are moral, just and right
Keeping God’s commandments lays up capital that we may then lay up in heaven.
Secondly
II. REMEMBER GOD’S MIRACLES
Deuteronomy 11:2–7 (KJV)
And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm,
And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land;
And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day;
And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place;
And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel:
But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.
All of you know that Anita and I just returned from visiting the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum in Kentucky.
As a Baptist preacher I am compelled to say up front that there were some disappointing things about the exhibits, I knew in advance they would be disappointing:
· They do not quote or use the King James Version of the Bible.
· They present the gospel repeatedly but never concluded the gospel.[1]
· They constantly blamed “the church” for failing to communicate God’s truth.[2]
But there was plenty to appreciate and give credit for.
· First, they constantly talk about what God has done
· Second, they always place science as secondary to the Bible
Whether they were addressing:
· The planets
· The rocks
· The flood
· The fossils
· The age of the earth
· The races of people
· Dragons and Dinosaurs[3]
They said again and again, believe the Bible, and then look at the evidence.
Scientists have NO PROOF of their theories.
The Bible always explains the evidence better than the scientific theories do.
I just want to say that the children of God ought to make much about what God has done.
· We ought to talk about Creation
· We ought to talk about the Flood
· We ought to talk about God choosing Israel
· We ought to talk about Jesus
· We ought to talk about the miracles of the Bible
And
· We ought to talk about the miracle of our salvation and
· We ought to tell people that God will do that miracle for them too
We lay up capital in our hearts that we can then lay up as treasure in heaven when we
Keep God’s commandments
Remember God’s miracles
Finally, we lay up capital in our heart when we,
III. TEACH GOD’S CHILDREN
Deuteronomy 11:19–21 (KJV)
And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
Did you notice that, way early in our passage today, the Bible said,
Deuteronomy 11:2 (KJV)
…. for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm,
Every one of the people Moses spoke to in this passage was under 20 years old when they left Egypt.
Their parents had disobeyed God in the wilderness and were condemned to wander around out there until they were all dead.
For 40 years this generation had watched the chastisement of the Lord upon their parents.
Moses now told them that they must, “…teach them your children.”
In my heading, I called them “God’s children.”
I did that for consistency in my outline, but it is a truth that every parent ought to pay serious attention to.
Our children are not our own.
We have no right to teach them as we want to teach them.
Our children are first of all God’s children and
We are to bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
I realize that there is no guarantee that, if we teach our children the lessons of the Bible, they will grow up to obey them.
Our children are free moral agents just like we are.
But woe be unto the parent who teaches his child to rebel against God.
Notice we are to
A. Teach them all the time
Deuteronomy 11:19–20 (KJV)
And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
When thou liest down — that’s at night
When thou risest up — that’s in the morning
We ought to start the day teaching God’s children about the Lord and we ought to finish the day doing the same.
I figure by implication that means we do the same all day.
B. Teach them every where
Deuteronomy 11:19–20 (KJV)
And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
When thou sittest in thy house
When thou walkest in the way
Whether you are home or out about town, we ought to teach God’s children about the Lord and His Word.
C. Teach them in every way
Deuteronomy 11:19–20 (KJV)
And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
Speaking of them
Thou shalt write them
I understand that you don’t want to bore them with “God stuff” and you don’t want to push it down their throats, so they reject it when they are older.
But what that means is that, when you teach them, you need to be sincere and genuine.
It will only become boring and forced if it is not real in your own heart.
Conclusion
Jesus told us to lay up for [ourselves] treasures in heaven
For where your treasure is, Jesus said, there will your heart be also.
I am trying to tell you this morning that God has no credit department for his lay away plan.
If you wish to lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, you’re going to have gain some treasure to lay up.
Deuteronomy tells us we can do that by
· Keeping God’s commandments
· Remembering God’s miracles and
· Teaching God’s children
[1] The most important part of the gospel. They end every time with something like, “Do you have a Bible at home?” The application or conclusion of the Gospel message is the difference between salvation and condemnation. As it stood, what they did would get someone under conviction but leave them vulnerable to any form of doctrine to find hope.
[2] They do not understand the Bible doctrine of the church. They accept that the church is the invisible body of all believers. God’s Word 1. Speaks only of local churches 2. Never criticizes those churches but says that Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.
[3] I appreciated that they never categorically stated that any animal was extinct but that it was presumed extinct. People constantly find living animals that scientists arrogantly declared extinct. Evolutionary science needs them to be extinct to support their position that the earth is 4 billion years old.
