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Unity Church of Castro Valley

Sunday Message for February 18, 2007

Serve God

The title of today’s talk is “Serve God.”  But how do we do that?  The scripture reading this morning really says it all.  We are to follow God, respect Him, keep His commandments, obey His voice, and hold fast to Him. 

We are to serve Him in these ways.  But what it doesn’t say is that we are serving ourselves in doing that.  We are making our lives work better by serving God in all ways.

FOLLOW GOD

So it says (Deuteronomy 13:4) “The Lord your God you shall follow.”  In an earlier chapter in Deuteronomy it says, (Deuteronomy 5:33) “You must follow exactly the path that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and that it may go well with you.”

It’s interesting that people get the impression that God is mean and punishing.  Clearly, he is telling us that he has outlined a way for us to live well and happy and prosperous.

If you want detailed instruction on how to do that – go see the movie, The Secret.  Or borrow it from me – I have copies of it on DVD.  But this is not new instructions – it has been outlined in the Bible in so many different ways.

The prophet Elijah saw people taking the wrong path – or not fully committing to the right path.  The King at that time was Ahab, who did worship God – but he married Jezebel.  She had grown up with the Phoenician worship of Baal and the goddess Asherah.

The King, rather than demand that she worship as he did, allowed her to continue in her own religion.  Perhaps he thought it was harmless for her to worship her way.

What he didn’t count on was her influence in the kingdom.  Nor did he think that she would have her henchmen actively seek out and kill God’s prophets.

So the people in the land tended to worship God and Baal and Asherah.  I suppose they wanted to cover all bases.  But when we divide our focus this way our energy is diminished.  If you believe that God is the only source of your good, then focus on God.  In (1 Kings 18:21) “Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, "How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

So choose who you will follow.  Then follow Him with all your heart and your mind and your soul.  Don’t scatter your energy in different directions.  Focus on God and follow Him.

RESPECT GOD

(Deuteronomy 13:4) “The Lord your God alone you shall respect.” It says in (Hebrews 12:9) “We had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live?”

It was God that created us, God that gave us this beautiful world to live on, and God that supplies us with everything we might need.  It is God who loves us unconditionally.  How can we not respect such a God.

So in your prayers for all the things that you think God should give you – also give thanks.  Be grateful for all that God has already given you.  Give thanks for this body you have, for the abilities your have, for the spiritual gifts that you have.  Respect God in all things.

KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS

(Deuteronomy 13:4) “The Lord your God his commandments you shall keep.”  We all know the ten commandments of Moses.  And, again, they are not coming from a mean or punishing God – but one who wishes us to have the best experience in life.

They all say “Thou shalt not…” but in truth they should say “Thou can not.”  Thou shalt not murder, should be understood that you can’t murder.  Life is eternal – for everyone.  You might be able to kill the body of another person, but you can never extinguish the life of that person.

And the reason God doesn’t want you killing is because you will be killing a part of yourself.  You will be the one to suffer the consequences of murder.

Thou shalt not steal should be understood that you can’t steal.  You can not take and keep anything that is not yours by right of consciousness.  And you will create in your life the consequences of losing something that is dear to you.  Why would you want that type of consciousness to deal with?

All of the commandments are merely a guide so that we can follow the path that God has provided for us.  Jesus summed them all up very succinctly when he was asked in (Matthew 22:36-39) “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, " "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

These two commandments sum up all the others.  Because if you followed these two, you would not be able to break any of the ten that Moses gave us.

OBEY HIS VOICE

(Deuteronomy 13:4) “The Lord your God his voice you shall obey.”  Now I know a lot of us have a problem with obedience.  We would rather rebel than obey.  And, yes, we get to do that until we don’t. 

But when you go within in meditation and listen to that still small voice of God – it will never tell you to do anything that is not for your highest and best good.

It’s like telling your children, when you cook something don’t touch the burner, it’s hot.  You are not trying to be mean to them – you are trying to protect them and allow their experiences in life to be good ones.  Well, God is doing the same thing.  He wants us to have a good experience in life.

But, you know that if your kids don’t listen and touch the burner – they are going to have a painful burn that will take a while to heal.  And when we don’t obey God’s voice – we have painful experiences in life that take a while to get over.

But haven’t we all done that?  We pray and meditate on an answer to our problems or questions and then we don’t like the answer we get.  We want to ask if there is anyone else up there we can ask – or if we can get a second opinion.  Anytime you fail to listen to the still small voice within, or your gut feeling, or your intuition you are setting yourself up for a life lesson.

I can remember standing in front of the minister at one of my weddings thinking, “This is ridiculous, I shouldn’t be doing this, I know this won’t work.”  Something inside was telling me to cut my losses and leave.  But I didn’t listen, because I didn’t want to be embarrassed – and so went ahead and got married.  It lasted barely a year and crashed and burned.

We get so caught up in our ego stuff, or our fears, and we refuse to take the guidance that is coming to us all the time.  Guidance that only wants to help us have a better life experience.

HOLD FAST TO GOD

(Deuteronomy 13:4) “The Lord your God to him you shall hold fast.”  We need to persevere in our prayers.

There is a wonderful parable about a widow and an unjust judge.  It says in (Luke 18:1-8) “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.
He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.
In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, "Grant me justice against my opponent.'
For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, "Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.' "
And Jesus said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who pray to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them."

Now the lesson in this is to hold fast to God and to persevere in prayer.  Don’t be distracted that it makes God sound like he gives us stuff because we bother him so much.  We know that is not the truth of God.  But it’s a fun parable when we are feeling like an ornery kid.

Don’t get discouraged because you pray for something and it doesn’t show up in that very minute.  There is usually a very good reason for the timing of it. 

We know that having a baby takes 9 months.  Now in truth, we could manifest a baby in the blink of an eye.

But, it is a lot easier on our bodies to have them grow a baby slowly – and even at that, we still get stretch marks.  So physically, it just makes more sense to take the whole 9 months.

Then there is the psychological and emotional part of it.  It really does take 9 months to get emotionally ready to have a baby in your life.  So, we have got to know that God knows what He is doing in the timing of things.

We need to believe and persevere in prayer until the manifestation happens in our life.  Meanwhile we have to prepare in consciousness to own the thing we are asking for.  If it is prosperity, then we have to start thinking like a prosperous person thinks.

If you are having a baby – you start to prepare for it.  You fix up a nursery with everything you are going to need.  So have you prepared for what you are praying for?  Because as you prepare physically, you start to prepare your consciousness to receive it.  And once your consciousness is changed – it will manifest in your life.

Do these simple things. Follow and respect God.  Keep His commandments, obey his voice, hold fast to Him, and serve Him.  Then, (Psalms 23:6) “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life, and you shall dwell in the house of the Lord your whole life long.”

SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 13:4; Deuteronomy 5:33; 1 Kings 18:21; Hebrews 12:9; Matthew 22:36-39;
            Luke 18:1-8; Psalms 23:6

Last updated February 25, 2007