If Your Heart Turns Away

12th Sunday after Pentecost – C (Proper 18)                                                LSB #’s 496, 707, 704
Text – Deuteronomy 30:17-18a
 
But if your heart turns away, & you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods & serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish.
 
If YOUR HEART TURNS AWAY
 
How much water should you drink?   It’s something you hear about fairly often as doctors discuss ways to stay healthy.   And,  as with any topic these days,  there’s a lot of debate concerning the correct amount of water to drink.    If you’re 65-75 years old,  one site recommends 7-8 cups of water daily.  By the time you’re 85  it drops to 5 or 6 cups per day. 
But those are simply average guidelines,  & since every single one of us is a unique individual, those averages vary from person to person.  The % of a human body that is water varies from 45-75 percent, so it clearly is an important aspect of life.  Yet, water cannot bring a dead body  back to physical life.  We drink water  because it keeps us from becoming  dead. 
In the reading from Deuteronomy,  God also gives guidance  on how not  to become dead.  He warns His people about turning their heart away from the commandments He gave to them.  That’s where the similarity to drinking water comes into play.  Dead bodies can’t drink water,  so it cannot give life.   Living bodies drink water  so they don’t get  dead. 
If you are dead in your sins,  as an unbeliever,  you cannot follow God’s commandments.  Believers work at keeping the commandments,  not so they gain life,  but so they don’t get  dead.   This is how God introduces  what I chose as the sermon text:
“If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today,  by loving the Lord your God,  by walking in His ways,  & by keeping His commandments & His statutes & His rules,  then you shall live & multiply,  & the Lord your God will bless you in the land  that you are entering to take possession of it.”  (Deuteronomy 30:16 ESV)   And then  the other shoe drops: “But if your heart turns away,  & you will not hear,  but are drawn away to worship other gods & serve them,  I declare to you today,  that you  shall surely perish.”  (Deuteronomy 30:17-18a ESV)    Keeping the commandments will not make you alive.  It will not get you into paradise,  but it will keep you  from getting  dead.    
And that’s not all bad – especially  since getting dead in the spiritual sense  means suffering for eternity  in hell.  If those words from Deuteronomy seem a bit harsh,  consider these words of Jesus in the Gospel reading from Luke:
“If anyone comes to me & does not hate  his own father & mother  & wife & children  & brothers & sisters,  yes,  & even his own life,  he cannot be my disciple.”  (14:26 ESV)   It is not a neutral world that you & I live in.  This is not a game called life.   What all of us do on a daily basis  leads to heaven  or to hell  forever! 
Satan is prowling around & he is looking for someone to devour.  If you sense in any way that your heart is turning away from the commandments of God,  surrender to His mercy immediately.   Hell  could be just around the corner.  Pride does come before the fall.  St. Paul wrote to encourage the church at Corinth  to receive the mercy of God  before they fell:
“‘…In a favorable time I listened to you,  & in a day of salvation I have helped you.’  Behold,  now   is the favorable time;  behold,   now is the day of salvation.”  (2 Corinthians 6:2 ESV) 
Many of the slogans in our culture  come with the implicit assumption that human beings are in charge.  They make bold statements which directly contradict the commandments of God, & they see no danger in that  at all.  “You shall not murder,” & “You shall not commit adultery,” (Exodus 20:13-14 ESV)  are easy to understand,  until we allow Satan to get involved. 
First, he stirs up feelings of pride & accomplishment.   Then  he whispers into our ear, “Doesn’t God want you to be happy?  Love is forever.”  One question leads to another,  & before we know it,  the slogans of man  have replaced the Word of God.   Once human slogans have taken God’s place,  the first commandment has been left in the dust.  A helpful paraphrase might be this, “You shall have no human slogans  before me.”   And Yahweh does not give us those warnings because He makes the rules.   He warns us  out of sacrificial love for us. 
A member of the church I served in North Dakota was in the hospital dying of  diabetes.  While visiting Brian, he told me he’d been diabetic since he was a child.  When he was diagnosed, the doctor warned him that, moving forward, he couldn’t just eat & drink anything he wanted.  He responded by thinking the doctor was just trying to enforce a bunch of rules. 
Brian had spent his 30 years of life eating & drinking  anything he wanted.   From his death bed, he admitted  that everything the doctor warned him about was coming true.   It wasn’t until too late  that he understood – the doctor had given him those warnings out of love.  
Many people in our culture  believe that God & His church  are just trying to enforce a bunch of rules.  They think God & His church are trying to take their fun away.  Yet, He gave His first commandment, & the other nine,  out of love for us.   They were not given to take our fun away,  but to keep us from getting dead  in hell,  for all of eternity. 
Brian got dead in this life  because his heart turned away  from the doctor’s advice which was given out of love.  However, because his heavenly Father had rescued Brian from all His sins, he had already died to this life with Christ  when Brian was baptized.  At that same time, Brian was also given eternal life with Christ  because Jesus rose  from the dead  for him. 
Satan was able to deceive Brian about the disease of diabetes,  but he was unable  to deceive Brian about the disease of sin.  This life is not a game about rules & who gets to make them.  The devil & his demons are waging spiritual warfare & the stakes are eternal.  They cannot be undone  once your life on earth draws to its close.  Until then, our Lord is affording every opportunity to hear of His love for us.  In St. Paul’s letter to Philemon, he’s asking him to release Onesimus from slavery: “…though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you…”  (Philemon 8-9 ESV)  
Paul states that he’s bold enough to command Philemon, but Paul’s motive is the Gospel, not the Law.  So,  Paul,  for love’s sake,  appeals to him instead.  Paul is willingly assuming an inferior position, essentially that of begging Philemon to release Onesimus from slavery. 
On the cross,  & through the Gospel, Jesus Christ assumes the inferior position & for the sake of love appeals to you & to me, “Please follow my commandments,  not that you can earn anything,  but in order to keep yourself from getting dead,  eternally.”  Unbelievers only have death & evil before them.  As children of God, He has set before us life & good, death & evil. 
It’s clear that we are not in heaven,  though we are already citizens of that glorious paradise.  The danger is that we can still lose our way.  If once saved meant always saved, then God would not have said that He has set before us death & evil, along with life & good.   
His warning is not against accidentally turning away from Jesus in a moment of passion.  The words, “But if your heart turns away, & you will not hear,” reflect a deliberate decision to turn from God & to choose getting dead.  Making wrong choices  will surely bring spiritual & eternal death. 
Our Lord will not jam obedience down our throat,  but that also means  He must be willing to let us go.  Once we are brought into the reign of God there are choices laid before us: Serve God or serve man & Satan.  We can follow the ways & paths of the Lord  or stray into the path of sin & death.  
No one can snatch us from the Father’s hand,  but we can walk away from His presence.  That is what Moses is warning the people about  as they are about to enter into the land of milk & honey.  Abundance is seen by us as a blessing, but it brings with it  its own set of challenges & danger.  Following the commandments of God will not make you a child of God nor will it make Him love you.  That is already the reality, because Moses is speaking to God’s people whom He has brought to the Jordan River to enter the land Yahweh promised to them. 
On this earth, we live in danger all the way.  Our sins contaminate us completely.  Jesus did make the choice that Moses calls God’s people to make.  Jesus made that choice for us.  His heart never turned away from the Father.  Now, Jesus is offering His perfect life  for your sinful one.  Luther called that “The Great Exchange.” 
Because we are blessed with abundance, drinking water may seem very inconsequential, yet, not drinking enough can kill you.  In the same way, not following God’s commandments can seem inconsequential.  Obviously, it has not killed any of us yet.  However, “…if your heart turns away, & you will not hear,” God declares, “you shall surely perish.” 
That is a warning to take seriously, especially since God has already given us eternal life in paradise.  His Son Jesus paid a very steep price in order to win that for you.   It breaks His heart  if you turn away & refuse to hear.  Amen. 
 
 
 
 
Oh, that the Lord would guide my ways  to keep His statutes still!   Oh, that my God would grant me grace  to know & do His will!     Order my footsteps by Thy Word  & make my heart sincere;  let sin have no dominion, Lord,  but keep my conscience clear.     Assist my soul,  too apt to stray,  a stricter watch to keep;  & should I ever forget Thy way,  restore Thy wandering sheep.  Amen.  LSB 707:1-3.