"Obedience to God Yields Awesome Blessings"

Scripture: "The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom." -Deuteronomy 28:12 - 13, NIV

Growing up as an only child, my mother was a big stickler when it came to good grades. When I mean good grades, I mean A's and B's, no C's, D's, and F's. Though my mother was a stickler about good grades, she rewarded me handsomely every time I brought good grades home on my report card. What my mother would do is make me "King for the Day". What this entailed was me watching TV on whatever station I wanted to, food being brought to me, and me relaxing on the sofa in the living room. Also, because of my good grades, it allowed me to be blessed with money from her as well. These things would not have came to me unless I was obedient to her call for good grades. If truth were told, God loves to share His awesome blessings with His people. However, He wants to do one thing for Him: obey Him. Today's text provides us the awesome blessings obedience to God yields.

Our focus book for today is the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is the last book of the Law Books written by Moses. If you examine the meaning of the word Deuteronomy, it means "second law". Within this book, Moses re-iterates the Ten Commandments given to him by God to the Israelites, before his eventual death and passing of the torch of leadership to Joshua. Within its 28th chapter, Moses pens God's blessings for obedience and God's curses for disobedience. Our main scripture falls into His blessings for obedience.

When you obey your Heavenly Father, Moses first writes that "The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of His bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands". Wow! God wants to do all of that for you, and for me, just for obeying Him. If truth were told, there have been seasons where God has rained and rained and rained upon us and it was due to our obedience! There have been seasons where God open up the heavens and dug into His bounty and blessed you because of your obedience! God has blessed the work of your hands because of your obedience! Ladies and gentlemen, God has allowed you to do some remarkable things and it was NOT because of your education! It was NOT because of the family you came from! It was NOT because of the company you keep! It is because you were OBEDIENT! As I am writing on today, many of us have lost our "rainy" seasons because we stopped being obedient and God wants to call you, my brother, and you, my sister, to a new level of obedience!

Moses continues on and he lets us know that through our obedience, "you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none". We always hear in the church this being said as you being the lender and not the borrower. God has blessed us with seasons in our lives where we had so much that we could bless others and not miss it! Whether if it was money, food, sanity, prayer, encouragement, or whatever else, He blessed you because you were obedient! Here again, because we slipped into our seasons of disobedience, we are the ones borrowing from others! Again, God just wants you and I to be obedient and stay that way!

Another something we hear in the church is presented next when Moses says, "The LORD will make you the head, not the tail". When you are a child of God, you should NEVER think of yourself any less! You should NEVER place yourself at the bottom of the totem pole of life! You ought to look at yourself in the morning and know that God created you! Look at yourself and know that God gave you activities of your limbs! Look at yourself and know that God provided you the best He could! He did that because He loves you and He did that so you would know that you are better than what the enemy places in your head! If you allow the enemy to infiltrate your camp, then he has probably brought along disobedience! When you are the head and not the tail, you kick disobedience out the door and walk in the fullness of obedience!

Lastly, brothers and sisters, Moses gives us the key to receiving the blessings mentioned before. He writes "If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom." What a built-in promise for just a simple instruction. Moses was telling his people that all they had to do was follow God and His commands and they would never be at the bottom, but always on top. Ladies and gentlemen, don't you realize that God wants you to be on top in life? As your soul grows, He wants you to grow! He came that you may have life and have it more abundantly! In order to receive this life and built-in promise, you have to do Him one favor: Obey His Word and His commands. When God speaks to you, don't divert your attention to the left or the right, go straight ahead! Walk in boldness! Walk in confidence! Walk in the authority God gave you and the innate ability to listen and receive His commands! Mind you, His commands will not only come from Him, but they will come from your supervisor, your parents, your children at times, your pastors, and others.

In closing, I never would enjoy being "King for a Day" if I didn't obey my mother and make good grades. God has some rewards for you and all He wants is for you to bring Him some good grades - passing life's tests with flying colors by simply obeying Him and His commands! Are you ready to continuously receive God's blessings? If so, walk in obedience!