“choose life! moses’ final instructions” - fumc durango€¦ · “choose life! moses’...

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – October 24-25, 2015

“Choose Life! Moses’ Final Instructions”

Theme: Moses the Reluctant Prophet

Scripture: Deuteronomy 30: 11-20 Things I’d like to remember from today’s sermon: ____________________________________________________________________________________

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This study guide is designed to help you dig deeper into the Bible and to grow in your faith. This week we wrap up our study of Moses with the final years of his life. Use this study guide on your own, with a friend, co-worker, or your family. Enjoy!

Meditation Moments for Monday, October 26 – Blessings and Curses Read Deuteronomy 28. Verses 1-14 describe the blessings God is promising His people.

What are the conditions of this blessing? What are the four areas of blessing in verses 3-6? How might these blessings have an impact on Israel conquering the Promised Land? How might the words of these blessings affect the current situation in the Holy Land? How could these blessings be applied to your life?

The rest of the chapter is about curses that would befall the people of Israel. Is there any significance to the amount of space devoted to blessings as opposed to the amount devoted to these curses? What might God be teaching the people through this? What are the conditions of these curses? Is there any relevance here for us today?

Tuesday, October 27 – Renewing the Covenant Read Deuteronomy 29. It has now been forty years since the people first made a covenant with God found in Exodus 24. All the people who were over 20 (except Moses, Joshua, and Caleb) have died. It is now time to renew that covenant so it will be fresh in the minds of the people as they enter the Promised Land.


How does Moses call these people to this covenant? What is he calling them to remember? Why was it important that everyone, as families, be there? What does he warn them about in verses 16-21? What will happen if they fail to keep the covenant?

This idea of one generation dying so a new one can be renewed is a metaphor for what sometimes needs to happen in our lives. When has something inside of you needed to die so something new could be reborn?

Wednesday, October 28 – Joshua Succeeds Moses and Rebellion is Predicted Read Deuteronomy 31. For 40 years God has been leading His people through Moses; shepherding them, instructing them, melding them into a great nation. Moses would not lead them into the Promised Land and the conquest of the people there. They needed a new leader--and God chooses Joshua. Joshua in Hebrew is Yeshua-- the same as Jesus. This name means God will save.

Is there any significance that Joshua was selected to lead the people into the Promised Land? How old is Moses at this point? Who would go before them across the Jordan River into the Promised Land? What is God's promise to Joshua and the people? How does Moses encourage Joshua?

What can we learn about encouraging our leaders from this? What does God predict about the people, even before they go into the land He is giving them? What does this warning teach us about how we should relate to God?

Thursday, October 29 – The Blessings of the Tribes Read Deuteronomy 33. This is an amazing chapter! Even after all the rebellion, the complaining, the stiff-necked behavior, Moses, as the man of God, pronounces some wonderful blessings on the people of Israel. (Note: Jeshurun means "the upright one", that is, Israel.)

What are the blessings each tribe receives?

Verses 26- 29 are general blessings on Israel. What are the areas where Moses calls attention to the blessings of God? What blessings have you received in your life that may have been overlooked?

Friday, October 30 – The Death of Moses Read Deuteronomy 34. It is time to bid farewell to this patient, visionary, tenacious, humble servant of God and His people. He never made it into the Promised Land, but did get to see it.

What does this chapter say about his physical condition? His leadership ability? When Joshua took over, why did the people wait more than a month to move into Canaan? What might this teach us about dealing with grief? But this is not the end of the story for Moses--for he appears, alive, once more in scripture in what is called the Transfiguration. You can find this in Matthew 17:1-3.

Psalm 90 is the “Prayer of Moses.” What does this Psalm tell us about Moses as the Hebrew people looked back on his life? How does verse 10 encourage us to look at our lives?

Saturday, October 31 – Moses in the New Testament – John 10:10 and 11:25 These are just two of many passages where Jesus talks about coming and bringing life, or literally refers to himself as “life.” In the text we looked at during last week’s sermon (from Deuteronomy 30) we heard Moses imploring the people to, “choose life!”

Can you see the connection between Moses and Jesus in these texts? Those first followers of Jesus were Jewish and they would no doubt have the words of Moses ringing in their ears as they heard


Jesus talking about being the “resurrection and the life,” telling them he came to bring the life to the full. Choosing Jesus is about choosing life.

Family Activity: If you still have your blessing basket, get it out and write on slips of paper how you can choose life and blessings over curses in the days ahead. How can you choose life over death, blessings over curses?

Prayer: Thank you God for the blessings we receive and the sacrifices made for us so we could receive them. We often take our blessings for granted. Help us not to do that in the days ahead but to always be grateful.


Theme: Moses the Reluctant Prophet “Choose Life! Moses’ Final Instructions”

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber

October 24-25, 2015 at First United Methodist Church, Durango

Scripture: Deuteronomy 30: 11-20

11 “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach. 12 It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’ 13 It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?’ 14 No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it. 15 “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. 16 For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy. 17 “But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, 18 then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy. 19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! 20 You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This* is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

VIDEO Sermon Intro – Choose Life

SLIDE “Choose Life! Moses’ Final Instructions”

I want to encourage you to take out of your bulletin your Message Notes and your Meditation Moments. There is a space for you there to take notes on anything you want to remember and feel like the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. The Meditation Moments will take you through the complete story of Moses and we are encouraging all of you to read the story of this remarkable man. Every week you will have a chance to read through the life of Moses as it was written by


him and the people who loved him. At the end of each week you will find Scripture passages from the New Testament which tie into the life of Moses as well as a family activity. I think you will find it to be a blessing so I hope you will use it in the days ahead.

Today we bring to a conclusion our series of sermons on Moses the reluctant prophet. We began this series in ancient Egypt some 3500 years ago when the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had been invited to live there because of famine in their own land. Joseph who had the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was Jewish and the Prime Minister of Egypt because he had saved the Egyptians from famine and it was through him that the Jewish people came to live in the land of Goshen which is northern Egypt while the Hyksos were in power. The Israelites increased in number until they were a nation within the nation of Egypt.

We learned that the Egyptians eventually defeated the Hyksos and kicked them out of Egypt and the Jewish nation which was living in Egypt then became a problem because there were so many of them and the Egyptians feared that they would rise up and revolt so they made the Jewish people their slaves. The Pharaoh who was the most powerful person in this part of the world became afraid of the Jewish people which led to paranoia which led him to active population control. He ordered the male children of the Israelites to be killed, first by the midwives and when they didn’t do what they were asked, then by his soldiers and the people of Egypt themselves.

SLIDE Courageous Women and an Evil King

We learned through that part of the story how it is that each of us has Pharaoh living inside of us and if we are not careful we can let fear turn to paranoia which turns to hatred and then leads us to doing things we would never do when we are at peace. This is why we are encouraged to bring our fears to God so we don’t come to worship those fears and give in to responding out of our impulses. I thought of this last week as we watched in horror the story unfold of road rage in Albuquerque where young four-year-old girl was shot on the highway because two drivers let the Pharaoh inside get the best of them with the victim being a child.

We also saw an image of character in the midst of the crisis in the early part of this story when the midwives Shifrah and Puah refused to cooperate with killing children. They refuse to obey Pharaoh and instead were obedient to God in


the face of fear and hatred. We are challenged by them in this story to do the right thing at all times in the eyes of God, even when it’s hard or it means risking our own comfort or personal danger.

It is in the midst of this environment into which Moses is born. His mother hid him until he was three months old and then gave him up for adoption as she placed him in the basket in the Nile River which then floated down to where the daughter of Pharaoh was bathing. She took Moses into her own home and even hired Moses’ biological mother, unbeknownst to Pharaoh’s daughter, to be his nursemaid. Moses was not only spared from certain death but grew up in the lap of luxury with the finest education as he was raised in the palace of Pharaoh.

We see in this part of the story how God has a hope and a dream for us and often places us in moments in life that can be used later if we will give them to God. Moses was in a unique position to know Pharaoh well enough and know the culture of the palace to eventually approach the King with God’s demands to let the Hebrew people go from slavery. Moses had access because of this early experience in his life. We are meant to be reminded of the truth that even though we can’t see what God might be doing in our lives, if we are willing to trust God and place even the painful moments in his hands, God can do miraculous things with even our broken places.

It is when Moses finally leaves the palace in young adulthood that he is confronted with the reality of the slavery and horrid conditions his people are serving in Egypt. We talked about the need for all of us to leave the palace of Durango to get perspective on life. Moses sees the plight of his people and he reacts by killing an Egyptian slave driver, immediately becoming an enemy of the state, forced to leave the life of luxury he has been living. He escapes to Midian, the desert area to the west of Egypt, where he becomes a goat herder for the next 40 years. He marries and has children and thinks life is settled, even though he has gone from being at the top of the heap in the Egyptian palace to one of the lowest stations in life in the ancient near East which was as a Bedouin goat herder.

SLIDE The Burning Bush, The Reluctant Prohphet and the NAME of God

As he was tending the goats in the wilderness, Moses heard the voice of God calling from a burning bush in the desolate mountains. In that burning bush we are reminded that God sometimes presents himself through fire and light, flame and heat. The heat of the flame reminds us that God longs to burn away


those things which hold us back and lead us into a life which is meaningful and rich and has purpose. The light of God is meant to guide us through life, even difficult moments, so that we might know that God is with us and that being in God’s presence is a holy experience.

Even standing in the presence of a burning bush, Moses is reluctant to follow the call of God and it reminds us of how challenging it is for us to respond at times. When God calls Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let his people go Moses initially responds with, “Here I am God, send my brother Aaron! Please God, send anyone else but me!” Eventually Moses ran out of excuses and finally is willing to follow, ever so reluctantly.

We learned about the compassion of God in this story of the burning bush as God says to Moses, “I have heard the cries of my people. I have seen their misery and their hardship. My heart breaks to hear their voices so I am raising you up to set them free.” The God who is the creator of the universe here is even our prayers and our hurts and our sorrows and while those prayers might not be answered with the speed or in the fashion that we might want, we see that God does work the way he typically does which is through people. This story is meant to help us see that God will rescue us from our fears even in the most desperate of situations.

We discovered the name of God in this story of the burning bush, “I am who I am.” We learn that God is life itself and all that we are and all that we have comes from God.

SLIDE The Plagues, the Passover and the Red Sea

God worked through Moses and the plagues to set his people free. They left a life of slavery in Egypt and headed toward the Promised Land by crossing the Red Sea. That story is meant to give us a clear picture of the truth that God is at work and will bring us through those Red Sea moments in our lives, where there is no way through except by the power of God, including death which God will overcome.

SLIDE Leadership Lessons from the Life of Moses

Moses emerged from this experience with a compelling cause and a clear goal and we learned about leadership from the life of Moses. Moses had determination which carried him through people complaining and moaning and groaning and we saw how it is that leaders have to deal with whining. Even when people wanted to get rid of him and pick a new leader and return to Egypt and


slavery, Moses persevered and kept moving the people forward. Moses was willing to share leadership with others, because of the counsel he receives from his father-in-law Jethro, and through him Moses learned to raise up new leaders so he wouldn’t have to carry the burden alone. We look at how to apply the leadership principles of Moses at home and in our church and in our workplaces, wherever we might be.

SLIDE The Law of God and the 10 Commandments

We went with Moses to the top of Mount Sinai where he received the 10 Commandments and 603 other laws that were meant to be a gift from God, giving structure and guidance to a group of people with no legal system and no police force and no legislative process. They were meant to bring order out of chaos for the 1 million plus former slaves now living in the wilderness. Those laws were part of the old covenant and Jesus would fulfill those and create a new covenant with his death and resurrection. The new law of love which comes through Jesus is meant to be written on our hearts and lived in our lives.

Both of the old covenant and the new covenant were meant to bring us together with God in a relationship where we know that God will always be with us and we are his people. God made us to love us and God doesn’t want to share us with anyone else. We were created to spend time with God.

SLIDE Giants in the Land

Finally, last week we learned about the people coming close to the Promised Land and sending spies into the region who came back and reported there were giants and they should all be afraid. The people forgot about God’s guidance out of slavery and instead were ruled by an overwhelming sense of dread of being squashed like bugs by those giants. The people in that generation were forced to live in the wilderness for 40 years until a new generation would rise up who would then enter the Promised Land.

I find the power of that story is reminding us that there are some things which need to die in our lives in order for a new thing to be born. We have to let go of old fears and hurts and aches and pains and broken places an order for new life to be born. We were challenged to trust God’s loving care even when it looks like giants might overwhelm us.

This brings us to today’s passage where Moses, now 120 years old, is about to say goodbye to the people of Israel and turned leadership over to the successor Joshua who was chosen by God. Before Moses departs he is going to


give some last instructions and wisdom. Listen to these words from Deuteronomy 30.

SLIDE 11 “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach.

15 “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. 16 For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.

17 “But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, 18 then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.

19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! 20 You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

There is a sense of urgency in this message from Moses, who has seen many miraculous things happen in his lifetime and who has stood face-to-face with God. Moses knows firsthand what can happen to a person’s life when they make a poor choice, especially when that choice involves walking away from a relationship with God. Let’s look at several parts of these final instructions which I think have deep meaning for our lives today.

SLIDE It’s not too difficult

Moses begins by telling us that it’s not rocket science. Discovering true life is really not that complicated and it’s not something we have to wait until we see God in the heavens to experience. It’s not that far away and is already in our midst if we are only willing to choose it. It’s not across the Sea in another land and doesn’t require us to learn a new language.


Jesus tried to make it real simple for us when he said it’s about loving God and loving others. The challenge for us is that we don’t always want to do that. We want to do what we want to do. I was meeting recently with one of our members who is in their 80s and talked about how they just really struggled understanding the Bible. I asked them how they read the Bible and they confessed they hadn’t picked one up in about 20 years and before then had not really read much of it at all. This is why we give you the Meditation Moments with Scripture readings in them for each week with some explanation. If you come to a part that doesn’t make much sense then move to another section, but don’t just set the whole thing down because one part is hard. These are the words of life and there is power in them for us in our lives today.

Moses encouraged the people by telling them that it’s not that difficult and really they just need to make a choice and the truth is that a lot of times we don’t want to make the choice to choose life.

SLIDE Choose Life!

It seems like this choice is really a no-brainer. You have on this side life and prosperity and on the opposite side you have death and destruction. Over here you have life and blessing and over here you have death and curses. On one end you have hope and peace and on the other hand you have despair and discord. Is it really that difficult of a decision? It doesn’t seem like it should be but it often times is for us. Why do you think that is? Why do we have such a hard time choosing life and hope and peace?

This becomes especially difficult and challenging when we start talking about addictions which can be so destructive. I have been watching the news this last week and listening to accounts of what happened to Johnny “Football” Manziel. He was the young star quarterback from Texas A&M drafted by the Cleveland Browns several years ago with a first-round draft pick. He seemed to have it made until he struggled in his first season and it became apparent he had an alcohol problem which may have even included drug use. He spent some time in a rehab center and by all accounts he was choosing life over the addictions with which he wrestled. However just this past week he was pulled over for drinking and driving and assault towards his girlfriend.

Whenever you are in the limelight like that there will be people giving their opinions about your transgressions and sure enough the airwaves and blogosphere have been full of people quick to judge him for choosing a


destructive path instead of choosing the money and riches which his football career could bring to him. Some of us remember Ryan Leaf who was a star quarterback drafted just behind Peyton Manning 14 years ago with the second pick in the NFL draft. He is considered one of the all-time busts as an NFL quarterback and he is currently serving time in San Quentin federal penitentiary for drug trafficking.

These kinds of stories are all too common and wouldn’t it be simple if it were just about choosing blessings as opposed to choosing curses? Do you really think either one of those two men that I named, or anyone that you might know who struggles with an addiction, is choosing curses and destruction and death on purpose? I could tell you story after story of people I know in my life, people in my family, who have self-destructed and I’m pretty confident they never set out to do that.

Even though Moses gave this great speech to the Israelites as they prepare to enter into the Promised Land, words that were uttered from his deathbed no less, God knew they would not always be headed. Here’s what we read in the very next chapter of Deuteronomy, chapter 31, verse 16.

SLIDE 16 The Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die and join your ancestors. After you are gone, these people will begin to worship foreign gods, the gods of the land where they are going. They will abandon me and break my covenant that I have made with them.

I can hear sorrow and God’s voice in these words, recognizing that he is giving them a choice between life and death, and he knows they will choose curses and adversities. I’m sure the heart of Moses was broken as he heard these words as well. After all, he had committed his life to this mission of serving God and serving God’s people by leading them. Even though they were hard to deal with at times and they sometimes threatened to choose other leaders, he had given his life so they could choose life and now they were choosing something else. Moses had prayed over their children and done their funerals. He spent hours on his knees praying to God for them. He loved them and made sacrifices for them and his heart was broken, knowing they would choose not to follow the path of life.

Does this sound familiar to any of you? This is the same kind of pain we often experience as parents, is it not? The truth is that this is painful for Moses because he had disobeyed God himself and chosen a path that led to pain. He was


not able to enter into the Promised Land because of his own choices and he didn’t want to see the people he loved make those same choices. Moses’ relationship with God was never severed and God always loved him, but there were things he missed out on because of his choices that is the way life is sometimes. Moses knew there were consequences when we choose destruction and curses and he was heartbroken knowing his people would make some of those same choices because that’s what it means to be human.

SLIDE How do we choose life?

Moses says there are three things we must do to choose life. The first is this.

SLIDE Love God

The image the scriptures often use for our relationship with God is that of two persons who are married. We talked about that a few weeks ago. So let’s imagine getting married and then leaving the ceremony and never spending any time with our spouse. How would that work out? How would that feel? Would there be any marriage left after even a few days?

Choosing life is about intentionally spending time with God, and not just to ask for our prayers to be answered. The sound of God’s voice is meant to inspire us. God wants to be in an intimate relationship where we can hear God’s voice and be encouraged.

When Tami and I first came to Durango we moved here in the middle of the Missionary Ridge fire. We actually cancelled a vacation we had planned to arrive early because the previous pastor had left and the entire community was a bit anxious. My first weekend I was really nervous and I remember my wife saying, “You’ll be great. Just be yourself.” The sound of her voice calmed me and reassured me.

Have you ever had someone in your life whose voice reassured you and brought you comfort? God’s voice is meant to do that for us. Loving God, knowing God’s voice and God’s presence with us, is the first step to choosing life.

While that sounds great and simple, the truth is that we have a hard time with choosing life. This is where I think it can be helpful to take the idea of choosing life to the life of Jesus. You see, as followers of Jesus we are meant to see that that Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses. Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it and I can guarantee you that those early followers


of Jesus knew these final words of Moses to choose life.

That is why Jesus so often says things like this…

SLIDE I have come that you would have LIFE and have it to the full!

Remember that Moses says two other things about choosing life.

SLIDE Walk in God’s Ways

Walking in God’s ways is about loving God and loving our neighbor and living into the commandments. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus knew these lines from Moses when he said…

SLIDE I am the WAY, and the truth and the LIFE.

It’s no longer about getting it all just right but about following Christ, being the presence of Jesus Christ to the world. Letting Jesus come into our hearts, opening ourselves up to his love, so he can come and give us the strength we need. This is why we talk with anyone who is trying to recover from addiction that they need a HIGHER POWER, and for us that is Jesus, to give us the strength to choose life. If we try to do it on our own, we often choose something other than life.

The final way of choosing life for Moses was this…

SLIDE Keep God’s Commandments

Here is where we come back to the story of Moses and connect it to Jesus in a powerful way. Not one of us can always keep God’s commandments and often times we choose things that lead to curses and death. God even said to Moses on his death bed that his people would fall away. It was not a matter of IF they would fall away, but only WHEN.

This is true for each of us as well if we are honest. It’s true for Johnny Manziel and Ryan Leaf and every candidate for President we will hear from in the next year! So what do we do about that? This is where Moses’ story really is our story. Moses was sitting there on top of Mount Nebo

Some of our group which went to the Holy Land were able to visit Mount Nebo in Jordan where it Moses spent his final days.

GRAPHIC 1 Mount Nebo Vista

GRAPHIC 2 Mount Nebo Memorial

GRAPHIC 3 Mount Nebo Sign


The first image is one as we arrive to Mount Nebo. You will see a church at the top of the hill. When you arrive at the top of the hill you find this memorial to Moses as the place in which we remember that he died. This final picture is a sign at the top of the mountain which tells you the direction of different places in Israel you can see from this vista.

It was here that Moses was reminded by God that although he could see the Holy Land he would not be able to enter into it with his people. When we stood atop this place my first thought was sadness for Moses.

Then I thought about it for a minute. Moses had spent the first third of his life living in the lap of luxury in the house of Pharaoh. He becomes a wanted man after killing and Egyptian and spends the next 40 years herding goats in a place where it’s hard to find them enough food and water. God calls him out of a pretty ordinary and settled life to oppose Pharaoh, really his family, and then leads his people out of slavery in one of the greatest escapes in human history—only to spend the next forty years wandering in the dessert with them complaining and moaning and whining about wanting a new leader that will take them BACK to slavery and Egypt. He is constantly uprooting his family and moving from place to place in tents as God directs, never getting to put down roots, only to get here on top of this mountain.

From here, God says he no longer has to feed goats, listen to any of these people, be nomadic or come down from this mountain. Instead, he gets to go home and be with God. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad deal for Moses! I mean, he was 120 at this time and he had lived a full, long life. What would my choice be? Moses could stay and face years of fighting and war or go be with God. I would be out of there! Take me home country roads, and let me rest! It was probably a bitter sweet feeling. Maybe God was doing Moses a favor!

Or maybe God was pointing to something more, for Moses and for us. Maybe God was letting Moses know that it wasn’t about what he achieved in this life. It was simply about doing our best to love God and Moses had done that and now God would do the rest.

The end of Moses’ life points us to one of the most powerful sayings of Jesus that is meant to bring hope at the moment of our death. Jesus was talking to Mary and Martha after the death of their brother Lazerus, before he raised him from the dead, when he said these words. Let’s say these words together.

SLIDE 25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the LIFE. Anyone who


believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.

Choosing life is about choosing Jesus Christ. It’s not about getting it all right because we never will. We will all fall short. We will all make mistakes. We will all do things we wish we had not done or say things we wish we had not said. Jesus came to fulfill the law and chose life permanently for each of us and for our brokenness. Jesus came to give us life abundantly.

GRAPHIC 4 Grandpa Lane

My grandfather lived to be 97. This picture was one of the last times we were together. On his last birthday I can remember celebrating we played a card game we called, “Oh Heck,” because my grandma wouldn’t let us use the real name! It was a game that involved having a trump, which means you have a suit which trumps or tops all the others. 8 of us were playing and we go to the last hand of the last round in our game. Only a few were in a position to win on the last hand and my grandfather was one of them. The hand went around he was the last to play his card. Everyone else played and it looked like my cousin had the hand one because he had the highest card, but grandpa laid down his final card and he said, “Not so fast.” He put down a 2, but it was trump. He got a big grin on his face and then said, “Now, let’s eat some pie!” Grandpa always wanted pie for his birthday and not cake, and now that the game was over we all got to enjoy in the spoils of victory, even those of us who were out of the game early in the game.

You see, Jesus holds the trump card to life. All we have to do is choose him and we get to celebrate at the end, no matter what the score. My prayer for each of you as you think about the life AND death of Moses is that you will choose life by choosing Christ, knowing that in doing so we will have the power to love God, love others, follow in God’s ways and keep God’s commandments.

Let’s pray together…

SLIDE Prayer

God, help us to remember the lessons you taught us through Moses throughout our lives. Often times we struggle with choosing life and we get caught up in paths that lead us to addiction and loss and curses and death. Help us to find hope in the truth that the worst thing in our lives will never be the last thing because Jesus fulfilled the law. We don’t have to live in slavery to our past or to a set of rules, but simply need to turn our hearts to you and love you and love


others. Whenever we fall away from following in your path and your way, help us to know that we can always return. Help us to hear your voice, to listen for your voice, to spend time with you so we know what that voice sounds like which longs to call us by name. May we always remember that you made us to love us and you long for us to have a life that is full and rich.

“choose life! moses’ final instructions” - fumc durango€¦ · “choose life! moses’...

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