Summary
Passage – Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Preamble
Brent starts off by explaining one of the defining moments in his life. Brent’s plan was to play basketball in university and then become a teacher after university. He was great at sports and also got good grades. He was a star in highschool, yet in university he got cut from the basketball team. He also started doing poorly in his courses. Brent had losses his identity as a great athlete and a good student. What a shock to his personality.
A crisis of identity
If you haven’t had a crisis of identity, you will. It happens at any age. It can happen from a loss of a job, the beginning of retirement, the loss of a quality (like being considered the best in high school at basketball). An identity crisis makes us question who we really are.
Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Moses is talking to the people. They are about to enter the Promised Land. But these are not the people who left slavery in Egypt. This was the next generation. Moses is now reminding the crowd where they came from, and what God had done for the people of Isreal.
- v14 – God owns everything and he is a God of provision.
- v15 – God loves the Israelites and he has chosen them. (And in the new testament we learn that God’s love extends to everyone.)
- v17 – There is no one else like God, no one stronger or awesome than God.
This is what it looks like to be in a relationship with God.
- To fear God – to be in awe of His power, to stand in reverence.
- To walk in all his ways – We must be in awe of God and we must choose him as an example for our lives.
- To love God
- To serve God
- To observe God’s Commands
An identity crisis occurs when we do not love God
We were meant to love God. It is what we are designed to do. Yet we do rebel against this. When we refuse to love God we face a spiritual identity crisis.
What does it look like to actually love God
Three things:
- You have to soften your heart. (v16 – It isn’t enough to do traditions and appear to love God, you must love God from the depths of your heart.) If there is something that is preventing you from loving God then you must cut it off! An indicator that we have a hard heart is that you never apologized or seek forgiveness, and you can’t respect authority.
- Repenting: asking for forgiveness from God and turning away from your previous behaviour.
- Hold on: clinging to God during life’s journey (during the good and bad).
You are created to love God. As a church one of the reasons we exist is to love God.
About this Message Series
This is a message in the message series This is who we are. You belong here. The goal of this series is to discuss and explain SouthRidge’s mission statement — Love God, change the World, one life at time — and introduce the new 2020 vision statement. This series was started in September 2015.
About the speaker
Brent is the lead pastor here at SouthRidge. He and his wife Pam were part of the original church plant.