How To Distinguish Yourself

SYNOPSIS: To live under God’s undeserved blessings, you have one, and only one thing, that you must do: obey! It is that simple—not easy, because of your fallen nature—but simple. And by your loving and loyal obedience to God’s law, not only will you turn on the spigot of grace for your life, you will distinguish yourself among those who watch your life; you will provoke them to envy by the amazing life you lead. Don’t believe me? Then believe God, who said, “Obey my commands completely, and you will display your wisdom and intelligence among the surrounding nations. When they hear all these decrees, they will exclaim, ‘How wise and prudent are the people of this great nation!’” (Deuteronomy 4:6)

The Journey // Focus: Deuteronomy 4:5-10

Look, I now teach you these decrees and regulations just as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy. Obey them completely, and you will display your wisdom and intelligence among the surrounding nations. When they hear all these decrees, they will exclaim, ‘How wise and prudent are the people of this great nation!’ For what great nation has a god as near to them as the Lord our God is near to us whenever we call on him? And what great nation has decrees and regulations as righteous and fair as this body of instructions that I am giving you today? But watch out! Be careful never to forget what you yourself have seen. Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren….‘Then they will learn to fear me as long as they live, and they will teach their children to fear me also.’

Just as God called Israel to be his people, he has chosen you, too. God has called you out from the world and redeemed you as his very own. He has distinguished you and set apart among the people of earth as holy unto him. And his intended purpose is to pour out uncommon blessing upon you as a way to provoke the world to reach out to him. They will admire you and desire him. Think about God’s plan for you: you are distinctly blessed!

Now to live under that undeserved blessing, you have one, and only one thing, that you must do: obey! It is that simple—not easy, because of your fallen nature—but simple. And by your loving and loyal obedience to God’s law, not only will you turn on the spigot of grace for your life, you will distinguish yourself among those who watch your life; you will provoke them to envy by the amazing life you lead. Don’t believe me? Then believe God, who said,

Obey my commands completely, and you will display your wisdom and intelligence among the surrounding nations. When they hear all these decrees, they will exclaim, ‘How wise and prudent are the people of this great nation!’ (Deuteronomy 4:6)

Your life of obedience will be translated to the world as wisdom and intelligence. What a witness! You don’t have to stand on the street corner with a sign that says “Turn or burn!” Just live a life of ruthless obedience and you will be attractive more than you realize.

Not only does God want your simple and sustained obedience, he wants you to live a life of obedience so winsomely that your children and grandchildren will embrace a lifestyle of obedience to God themselves. Through your life and from your lips, your divine calling is to reproduce the walk of obedience in the generations that spring from your DNA, because God wants to bless them, too. He wants to distinguish your posterity as his own. The fruit of authentic obedience is that it is sustainable and reproducible.

Of course, obedience is easier talked about than lived out. That is because not only does your sinful flesh recoil from it, but your soul’s enemy, Satan, continually and masterfully tempts you away from obedience. And then the world is there to partner with your sin nature and Satan to lure you into the seasonal pleasures of sin. The flesh, the devil and the world are an ever-present threat to your obedience. That is why Moses warned several times in Deuteronomy 4 about the drift into disobedience. And one of the more subtle drifts occurs when one of the aforementioned forces lure us into thinking that we know better than God, or that we can cut corners on complete obedience, or that God doesn’t really concern himself or care about little indiscretions. That is why Moses appealed,

Do not add to or subtract from these commands I am giving you. Just obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you. (Deuteronomy 4:2)

Just obey. That is the sum and substance of the life that God can bless and the kind of witness that distinguished itself among the people of the world. Just obey. And the good news is, God himself is helping you to obey, for as you “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, God works in you to will and to do his good pleasure.

Imagine that: God helps you to work out what he has worked in. Now that is quite the deal, wouldn’t you agree? God helps you to help yourself!

So just obey!