CCS Sermons
Deuteronomy 1
Lord we thank you for this time And Lord as we look into your word tonight Lord. We are trusting Lord that you will speak to us Lord, this is your word Lord Lord these words are Inspired by you Lord. They're God-breathed. They're your words Lord and they they must be spiritually Understood and discerned Lord and Lord in our flesh we can't but Lord you've given us of your Holy Spirit Whereby we can understand we can apprehend and take hold and apply Lord the truth in your word Lord And so we look to you Lord to guide and direct our time Lord. Thank you for the time of worship that we've had Lord We thank you Lord for all that you're going to do In our midst tonight speak to our hearts Lord Lord I always pray that the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts would be acceptable in your sight You are our Lord our Redeemer our rock and Lord. We love you and we thank you and praise you in Jesus name Everybody said amen. Well, we're gonna begin a study tonight Through the book of Deuteronomy and you're a Deuteronomy, man. I know when I When I first started studying this book years ago I kind of thought the same thing because I was going through On our Sunday night service up in Washington We were going through through the Bible and we'd we'd read a couple of chapters a week And I'd comment a little bit and then we kind of had that model that we took from pastor Chuck and then Sunday mornings We would take a portion of that and I would do a message And you know what this book just of all of I love I love all the Bible This is one of those special books Especially of the Old Testament the Pentateuch Deuteronomy is the last of the five books of Moses All written during Israel's wandering in the Sinai desert Genesis of course deals with the creation the beginning things Dealing the creation up to the time of Joseph and Israel living in the in Egypt in the land of Egypt Exodus tells of Israel's deliverance from Pharaoh in Egypt To the giving of the law at Mount Sinai Leviticus further Amplifies the law and the details the rules the procedures for worship Numbers tells us of the wilderness wanderings and Deuteronomy is a series of messages given by Moses to Israel as they prepare to enter the promised land Now the title Deuteronomy Literally it means the second law, but it's it's really a a Transliteration or a misunderstanding of a word Literally the Hebrew title for this book And I'm not going to even try to pronounce the book the word But it means these are the words and it's taken from verse one. These are the words of Moses And it's more accurate because this is not a second telling of the law Deuteronomy means a second the second law of the second telling but this is an Exertation to walk now in obedience to God's commands It covers approximately a 40-day time period the last one and a half to two months of Moses's life You know this is his last words His last address to the children of Israel. They're on the edge now of the promised land This is the new generation the previous generation that came out of Egypt died in the wilderness because of unbelief They failed to believe that things that God had promised that he would do and he would be able to deliver And so when they got right up to the the promised land and Moses is going to recount all this for us They failed because they looked at their circumstances Rather than the God that is overall the circumstances They had turned away 38 years before this and this is now the new generation So he Moses is going to encourage Israel to go in and possess the land now He speaks not as the law giver here, but he speaks more as a prophet Applying and giving application of how this law how these these ordinances how these commands should interact with our lives See Moses was preaching the law to Israel to impress God's Word on our on their hearts David said thy word I've hidden in my heart that I might not sin against the it's on 119 and We know that to be true as we as we dive into the word as we as we take time Daily, I hope to spend time in the word and and allow the Holy Spirit to to speak to our heart We move from a head knowledge Hopefully to a heart knowledge and as we grow in the Lord We find those those riches that that God Brings forth at the time that we need those times that we're going through rough times Maybe the times of joy as well and God will bring those things last night It was I was telling Pastor Bob earlier. I had a very fitful night And there was a lot of things on my heart and my mind last night And you know what kept going through my mind the song I just sang Therefore we shall not and that led me to Philippians 4 8 9, you know Actually, six, you know rejoicing the Lord always I will say it again rejoice do not be anxious about anything But in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving Make your requests known to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding Will guard like a century your hearts and mind and then you know whatever things are lovely Whatever things are pure whatever things are are of good rapport those things Those are the things that we should dwell on and and thankfully the Lord has planted those those things in my heart So at that time when I needed it most he was right there bring it to my remembrance Moses's goal was to get the people to renew the covenant that they made it Sinai but not just renew it but to make a fresh commitment to the Lord See it was only by unreservedly unreservedly committing Themselves to the Lord could the people hope to enter into the promised land to conquer the its inhabitants and ultimately live in prosperity and peace Moses was a great leader wasn't he I mean we think back and we look at you know It was him it was Moses in Elijah was that was there on the Mount of Transfiguration Appearing before Jesus No one else were told in the word enjoyed a closer communion with God Exodus 33 11 says so the Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face as a man speaks to his friend He was mightily used by God But as we'll see Moses had been Disobedient to the command of God and God would not allow him to lead Israel into the promised land and we won't take time tonight We'll refer to it as we go through and we come to those portions But you can read numbers chapter 20 and you can get some good background there But Moses had misread represented God by implying God was angry with the people when he wasn't angry When they cried out for water when he when they cried out because of their thirst in the wilderness God gave Moses Instructions go speak to the rock But rather than speaking to the rock he struck it like God had told him the first time To strike the rock and water would gush it well when God told him to speak the rock and it would bring for it Now by striking it again It was a He disobeyed God and and Moses is going to refer to that later and we'll deal with that later but These are the Moses's last words to the children of Israel before he died And if you can you can see and as we as we read this Moses's heart and His longing to go in with them is shown You know here. He's he's he's brought them through the desert through the wilderness. He's brought him right up To the edge of the wilderness edge of the promised land They sinned by don't not obeying and then he then he has to wait with him for 40 years While that generation dies and he's he's been there. He's been like a mom to them He's been like a like a father. He's been he's been you know everything that they need as God's personal representative and now He can't enter in and enjoy What? They're going to enjoy This is a much more personal book than any of the other books of the Pentateuch As I said, he speaks not as a law giver, but as the prophet He wants the children this next generation to understand the importance of being obedient to the word of God and to understand the cost of disobedience and unbelief even using himself as an example and So he recounts this new generation their own history God's hand of delivering Israel from their enemies relating Israel's deliverance from being slaves God's supernatural protection and presence in the wilderness that pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud and His presence to lead them to a land flowing with milk and honey He desired that they would each have their own personal relationship with the Lord That they would learn to love the Lord with their the love their Lord their God with all their heart With all their soul and with all their strength and we'll see that in this in this book chapter 6 verse 5 so really the theme of this book is Love and obedience or love the love and the proper response to love is another way It's interesting to note a couple more things and then we'll get into it But Jesus this is probably his favorite book Jesus quoted more from this book than any other Old Testament book When tempted by Satan in the wilderness each temptation Jesus deflected with a quote from the book of Deuteronomy The first time we hear of God's love in the Bible is in this book It's amazing you go through through Exodus, you know Genesis Exodus Leviticus and Numbers and and I'll read a quote here in a minute But it's like love is is is not mentioned. I think but five or six times in The sense of God's love to his people Where here you'll see it over and over again God telling the people here's a couple of examples Deuteronomy 4 35 Moses says to you it was shown that you might know that the Lord himself is God There is none other beside him out of heaven He let you hear his voice that he might instruct you on earth he showed you his great fire and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire and verse 37 and Because he loved your father's first mention of God's love for his people Because he loved your father's therefore he chose their descendants after them and he brought you out of Egypt with his presence With his mighty power driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you to bring you in and to give you Their land as an inheritance as it is this day God is saying something in this book That he's never said before to the children of Israel never said before to us This is the beginning the motive behind Everything that God did for Israel and the motive that everything God does for you and I is love It is his love that motivates Motivates him to allow trials to come into our life to allow good things to come into our life Blessings to allow allow us to to go through tile times of of being corrected by him The motivation God has his love and that shows comes out in this in this book Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 7 and 8 the Lord did not set his love on you Nor chose you because you were more in number than any other people for you were the least of all people But verse 8, but because the Lord loves you God didn't call you and I because we're so special. We're so wonderful, but because he loves us and Because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers The Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt and Deuteronomy 7 13 says and he will love you and bless you and multiply you He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land your grain and your new wine and your oil the Increase of your cattle the offspring of your flock in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you God is faithful and he's going to show that he is faithful and he will Come through with his promises G camel Morgan. There's there's It's a rather long quote, but I think it's good. He says the word love is indicating Relationship between God and man occurs only once in Exodus when God declares that he shows mercy unto them That love me and keep my commandments And as indicating relationship between man and man once in Leviticus thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself the word love He has is a lonely stranger in the first four books now. We see, you know Jacob having that love For Rachel and wanting to endure, but this is talking about God's love for us God's love for his people He adds everything is changed in the book of Deuteronomy It's supreme and overwhelming message is that of love to Understand this will enable us to state the permanent values and to deduce the living message in the and they are this First that God's love of man is the motivus of his government and Secondly that man's love of God is the motive of his obedience We need to keep that in mind as we go through and as we see God allowing things to happen We've got to remember God is a God of love and God is allowing things not because he wants to Be angry or be me it's because of love and When he calls the people to obey to respond and that word to obey really is the is Comes from the root word in Hebrew to hear to hear and listen to respond and He wants that to be a response out of love. I Don't think Moses could have written this book at the beginning of his walk. This is this is 40 years in the wilderness Walking with God meeting with God To now where he has an understanding of of what God is all about This is the friend of God telling them Here's the commands There's a series of three or four some say six messages sermons however, you want to break it out they all break it off differently, but I Like that my outline is going to be basically chapters one through four. What God has done for Israel And we'll look at chapter one tonight and then we'll do two and three maybe four next week if we get to it What God expects of Israel as a result is chapters five through 28 the largest section and then What God will do for Israel? if they will obey chapters 29 through 30 and The consequences if they will reject him and fail to obey chapter 31 to the end So as we walk through really briefly here, and then we'll get started chapters one through four Moses First tells them what God has done for them Israel's part was to be in response to what God has done for them it reminds me of Paul's approach in Ephesians where chapters one through three Paul lays out all the heavenly blessings that God has blessed us with in the heavenly realms and Then he gets to chapter four and he says therefore walk worthy Moses uses a very similar response a similar pattern here Chapters one through three what God has done for us chapter four through the end our response to God's grace And that's the same for him in Israel. So Father once again, bless your word chapter one Verse one these are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness in the plain Opposite Suf between paron Toful Laban Hasaroth and Dizahab It is 11 days journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seer to Kaitish Barnia Now it came to pass in the 40th year in the 11th month on the first day of the month that Moses spoke to the children of Israel According to all the the Lord had given him as commandments to them After he had killed Sihan or Cihan king of the Amorites who dwelt in Heshban an Og king of Bishan who dwelt in Astoroth in Edre'i And so Israel had journeyed 40 years on this 11 day journey 126 miles approximately Now some wilderness experience was legitimate But most was unnecessary and it took 40 years because of their unbelief Because of their fear of the circumstances Unbelief so often disqualifies us from the enjoyment of the promise it cuts us off from the blessing of the promise We say no Lord. I can't believe that because the circumstance is too great and so we end up not Acting not obeying not walking the way the Lord has called us to walk Israel's wilderness experience the purpose of it we see in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 2 through 5 Moses says and you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and Test you to know what was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not Now God knew Whether they would keep his commandments or not He's humbling them in testing them so that they would know whether they would follow his commandments or not Verse 3 said so he humbled you allowed you to hunger fed you with man Or which you did not know nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone But man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord Your garments did not wear out on you nor did your foot swelled these 40 years You shall know in your heart that is a man chastens his son so the Lord your God chastens you There's the purpose of the wilderness wanderings That they would know that they would be humbled that they would come to believe The nature of it is long 40 years reminds us of the patience of God Someone said the great wheels of the divine purpose moves slowly, but they move surely God has his own timing The nature of it is also severe they had times of hunger Times of thirst and God could have easily present prevented this It's good for us sometimes sometimes to to feel the pinch of need To be in that place second Corinthians 12 8 Paul says concerning these this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times talking about his his Infirmity I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart for me and he said to me My grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness Therefore most gladly Paul says I will rather boast in my affirmities that the power of Christ May rest upon me Sometimes it's good for us to feel that need to be to have that concern to feel that hunger to have that that pain That thorn or whatever it is so that we might draw closer to God and have a greater dependence upon him It's one Jacob wrestling with God there at pin you out and He's wrestling with God all night and God The angel of the Lord, you know, he says, okay, let go of me now It's it's day. I need to go and and Jacob says no not until you bless me And it says that that the angel Lord touched the hip And from that point on Jacob walked with a limb He was a changed man. He was altered physically but more importantly it was a picture of how God had altered him spiritually and in his heart Sometimes God allows those things to bring us to that that place where where he wants to really get to our heart And so he'll allow something to come physically to where we're more dependent upon him Israel enjoyed blessings while in the wilderness. They had that bread from heaven God fed them with manna Their clothing was preserved. I mean, it's wonderful how far a very little will go when the blessing of God is in it Jesus speaking to his disciples when they were they were wondering about, you know, hey We forgot to take bread with us, you know, and he says hey, don't you remember the loaves of the 5,000 and how many baskets you took up which I think we still have that picture up there remember the loaves Reminder that the Lord is able To pull supply all that we need that's in Matthew 16 9 their feet didn't swell Yeah, my feet gets sore at the end of the day there I have to take off my shoes as soon as I get home. I put on my Birkenstocks, and it's like, okay, man I'm much better man. Can you imagine for 40 years? Their feet didn't swell He gave them the ability to walk in his ways his presence was with them in the pillar of cloud in the file Fire he had that three-fold purpose To humble them to prove them to test them To reveal they're in a character, and he wanted to teach them our true dependence isn't upon Bread it's upon God man doesn't live by bread alone But on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord, and so from Mount Horeb to Kaidish Barnia Kaidish Barnia was that place where Israel believed the report of the unfaithful spies I mean the the they were the the the tin that came back that had the bad report and They rebelled against God by refusing to go into the land because they saw the Giants But notice that Moses reminds them that this happened After he had killed seehan king of the Amorites an odd king of Bastion Moses reminds them that they had already had victories over Giants and fortified cities There were some 66 cities. I believe I'd be 61 forget now That they conquered and they were high-walled cities and you remember Aug When they described him that that His great stature is shown by the dimensions of his bed of iron that was like 13 and a half feet 14 feet by six feet He was one of the last of the reth for him reth for it. Yeah, ref AM Who are associated in the Old Testament with an unusual height? We'll look more about the rethium in a bit when we get later to that part, but Israel's great fear David Buzick said when they first came to Kaidish Barnia and the opportunity To enter the promised land was that they would be crushed by the military prowess of the Canaanites But when the new generation trusted God and went forward God immediately gave them victory over two pagan kings Sayhan the seehan and and Aug and the victory was ready as soon as Israel was ready to receive faith You see God has already led you and I through victories through battles. There's things, you know, so often we forget. I remember our brother Can you remember his name now, but I remember him Used to come every week at Robert He would come every week and he would clean the church and he would talk to me when he would be here And he would say, you know, hey God has done things in your life publish it publish it Publish it remember it write it down remember what God has done in your life because one day you're gonna go What am I doing here Lord and God will use those? To bring to your remembrance that yeah, he was faithful then And I was overwhelmed. I thought that was a big trial This is a bigger trial and I but God delivered me then he can do it now God is doing that in our lives So verse five chapter one on this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab Moses began to explain this law saying the Lord our God spoke to us in horrib saying you have dwelt long enough at this Mountain turn and take your journey go to the mountains of the Amorites to all the neighboring places in the plain In the mountains and in the lowland in the south and on the seacoat to the land of the Canaanites and to the Lebanon as far as the Great River the river Euphrates now if you think about what land that is real now Occupies it that's a small part of what God had promised to give them far much more He was ready to give them see I have set the land before you Go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give to them and their descendants after them When it says Moses began to explain the law it comes from the idea of to dig or to mine deeply Moses is not just explaining it. Moses is Sounding on it. Moses is is is what we would say, you know He's he's giving an expository message on the law and he really wants to mine out the riches That of what God is wanting to speak to his people To prepare them to enter the commandment of God you've been here long enough walking in circles It's time to go in time to possess now get moving. I mean that's basically what it's saying In verse 9 I spoke to you at that time saying I alone am not able to bear you so no Moses is looking back. He's recounting their history. This is dealing with the first generation They were ready then God had already given them victory. He was he was ready to just open the door and let them go in And he says and I spoke to you at that time saying I alone am not able to bear you the Lord your God has Multiplyed you and here you are today is the stars in heaven in Multitude may the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are and bless you as he has promised you How can I alone bear you problems your problems and your burdens and your complaints? And so as he's recounting their history leading up to their refusal He he explains that you know he was overwhelmed You can see this in numbers chapter 11 As he experienced a crisis when the people complained again about the food God had provided when when he when they complained about this You know Moses needed help and So to help Moses bear the burden God directed him to a point 70 elders To assist him in bearing up and under the pressure of leading the nation. So this was God led Moses you need some help and he says verse 13 Choose wise understand choose wise understanding and knowledgeable men From among your tribes and I will make them heads over you and you answered me and said the thing which you have told us to do is good So I took the heads of your tribes wise and knowledgeable men and made them heads over you Leaders of thousands leaders of hundreds leaders of 50s leaders of tens and officers for your tribes Then I commanded your judges at that time saying here are the cases between your brethren and judge Righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him You shall not show partiality and judgment. You shall hear the small as well as the great You shall not be afraid in any man's presence for the judgment is God's the case that is too hard for you Bring it to me and I will hear it and I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do so under God's direction Leaders were chosen numbers 11 tells us that these elders had a precious function Numbers 11 16 they were to stand with Moses To have the same spirit as Moses and to bear the burden of the people With Moses see that through numbers 11 16 and 17 primarily Once selected Moses then instructed the elders in principles of righteousness leadership so that they might bear some of the burdens and so you know here is a picture of Really the philosophy of ministry that Calvary chapel has has adopted pastor Chuck raised up men That he would pour into them likewise like-hearted men that had the same spirit the same desire to teach the word To go forth and to make disciples of men and to bear the burdens with him And so that's that's why pastors have assistance and that's why we have elders and that's why we have have stewards because Pastor Bob can't bear everything alone, and so we have those those things in place And so when the issues come up they can be addressed and then if they need be then they get escalated Verse 19 so we departed from horrib and we went through all that great and terrible witness Which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites as the Lord our God had commanded us Then we came to katish bernie, and I said to you you've come to the mountains of the Amorites Which the Lord our God is giving us look the Lord your God has set the land before you go up and possess it as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you do not fear or be Discouraged again go up and possess it here you are God in his faithfulness enabled them To cross the lands of the Amorites, and he says let's let's do this. Let's go Don't fear Don't be discouraged. This was the critical moment for them It's been a little more than a year since leaving Egypt, and they were at the doorway of the promised land They're ready It's ready for them to take by fair by faith if they won't give in to fear or discouragement but Verse 22 every one of you came near to me and said let us send men before us and let them search out the land for us And bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up and of the cities into which we shall come The plan pleased me well so I took 12 of your men one man from each tribe And they departed and went up into the mountains and came to the valley of Eschkol and spied it out They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it back down to us and They brought backward to us saying it is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us Now numbers doesn't tell us that they came to Moses to request the sending of the spies We have kind of a new new information here. Moses is telling He Moses adding a little bit, but looking back perhaps with regret Because in numbers it just looks like it was Moses this idea But evidently it was the people brought the idea and Moses, you know, it seemed good to Moses Again, Dave goos is as this he said God had told them that the land was good Unless they did not believe him there was no reason to confirm it on their own God had told them that they would take the land and defeat the nation's living there Unless they did not believe him there was no reason to take a look at the enemies and see if God was somehow up to the challenge I mean, isn't that the truth? God tells us you go forth. I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you at the time when you need it I will put my word in your mouth Don't be fearful go out into the all the world Preaching the gospel make disciples of men and women Well, I don't know what to say if you're in the Word if you're prayed up You go in the Spirit and God will give you what to say God will provide those things, but no I want to spy out the land or I don't all those things we second-guess God We are just like these Israelites, aren't we or am I the only one? Yeah, I Think God wants to show us as we go through these things in our own heart our own lives Lord. What am I doing? Lord? Where am I? Selling you short. Where am I not believing you Lord? Where am I saying? Well, I believe you, but let me see it first Verse 26 Nevertheless, you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and you complained in your tents We'll come back to that they were murmuring in their tents and can you can you imagine? Okay, so there's what conservative estimates between two and three million people, right? And you know all the you know tents. Have you ever gone camping with several people? You know several different tent tent camping, you know, you can hear what they're talking maybe maybe you know You can't necessarily hear maybe what they're saying, but you can hear that And you're going oh, I wonder if they're talking about you know what The murmuring was going through You complained in your tents and said because the Lord hates us He's brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us Where can we go up our brethren have discouraged our hearts saying the people are greater and taller than we the cities are great and Fortified up to heaven moreover, we have seen the sons of the anakin there When when commentator says you cannot rebel against the word of God without ending up in the wilderness Look at the horrible things they're saying about God that he hated them. This is the God that provided for them in the wilderness This is the God that caused our feet not to wear their shoes not to wear out their feet didn't swell This is the one that caused that got that caused water to gush forth from the rock not once but try twice the one that provided manna Yeah, they had to go out and gather it but it was Food in the wilderness he provided quail when they complained that they didn't have any meat Their concept of God was wrong and a wrong concept of God will always lead to wrong decisions If God is for us Paul says who can be against No one Either heightened or death or powers no principalities there are things to come or things present or things and that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God and if we lose sight of the fact that God is good and that God is love and that he Desires the best for us Then we need I mean it's Romans 12 one Our reasonable act of worship is to respond to God They never took the time in all their wanderings and all their their journey to meditate and all that God had done for them You see God was laying down for them a foundation of progressive faith He was showing them teaching them little by little. It's the same thing He's done and he does for you and I look back if you've been walking with the Lord for for any number of years and you look back to some of the things that God God dealt with you and God endured with you and brought you through and you see he was teaching you all along Again, I'm gonna read that verse in 8 to around me 8 you shall remember That the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and to test you To know what was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not So we humbled you allowed you to hunger fed you with man Which you did not know or did your father's know that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone But man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord But we've seen the sons of Anakin there. That's a deal breaker. We've seen them Anakin were giants The descendants of Anakin and unusually tall people that inhabited Canaan before the Israelites can be Anakin Like the Nephilim and the Retham Were known for their height numbers 1333 Genesis 6 for Deuteronomy 2 10 Several verses in Deuteronomy reference these So their fear even though they had already conquered Seihan and on their fear Was inspired because of what they saw with their natural eyes Oh, but I see they saw the anakin they saw the Giants so You defeated a giant This is just more Cities that were high and walled they saw and the people were you know They were they were large gigantic people and they looked at look at us like we were grasshoppers Okay, so you hop around them You know we we we Cut ourselves off at the knees Without giving God the opportunity so many times What's that old him trust and obey for there's no other way Trust and obey verse 29 then I said to you Do not be terrified or afraid of them The Lord your God who goes before you he will fight for you According to all he did for you in Egypt before your eyes remember those things that he's dead and Verse 30 went in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son in All the way you went until you came to this place Yet for all that you did not believe the Lord your God who went in the way before you to search out a place for you To pitch your tent to show you the way you should go in the fire by night and in the cloud by day He's saying don't be terrified Don't be afraid of them get your eyes back on God Remember what he's done for you God is with you even in the wilderness experience And you may not possess all that God has for you, but God will still be with you Even though it's not his desire for you to be in the wilderness. It's only a 11-day journey And he took 40 years God will lift you to the highest level that you will allow him to lift you plain and simple You will have a much victory that you will allow God to give you in your life We are the ones that put the limits on God You see but I've been struggling with this issue in my life. It's a besetting sin. I just can't deal it well Because you're still dealing with it You need to get with God and let God deal with that Because he wants to deal with that We're always the one who puts restrictions on what God can do for us Psalm 78 Psalmist's remniscence this whole this whole thing wilderness wandering and in verse 40 He says how often they provoked him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert Yes again and again they tempted God and limited the holy one of Israel God was grieved God's heart was broken because they did not believe him Israel limited God by their unbelief and it's always our Unbelief that placed limitations on God on the work God is seeking to do in our lives I remember when we went and we just felt that the Lord was calling us to go up to Washington and we thought we'd be planting a church and then we ended up taking over a church and That's a whole nother story But I remember that sense of we didn't know what we knew We didn't know what we didn't know but we knew God was calling us and we were gonna buy gum We were gonna go and we went up we spied out the land two weeks later. We said it's a good land We're going and two weeks later. We loaded up the truck and we moved not to Beverly, but we moved to Washington And God was faithful and God taught us things there and God brought us through things there that that We if he had showed us all those things ahead of time, we probably maybe not would have wanted to go But God was faithful Moses is saying yet for all that God did for all that God has shown you you did not believe the Lord Your God and in effect saying we don't believe God when he says he will enable us to overcome The enemies of the land and possess it God wants you to be victorious in your life and In the things that he has called you to and the ministries that he has has put on your heart and maybe maybe you're just thinking I think my God might be moving me in that area, but you know I don't know God thinks step out go in and possess and if if it's for you He'll make that known if it's not he'll redirect you He's so faithful He'll search out that place for you to pitch your tent to show you the way you should go Leading you by the fire by night and the cloud by day if need be and I and I always liken that to the Word of God and the Holy Spirit We've got Finally verse 34. We'll begin wrapping this this up the Lord heard the sound of your words and was angry and took Oh saying surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that the good land of which I swore to give your father's except Caleb the son of Jafuna He shall see it and to him and his children I'm giving the land on which he walked because he wholly followed the Lord The Lord was also angry with me for your sake saying even you shall not go in there Joshua the son of none who stands before you he shall go in there encourage him for he shall cause Israel to inherit God heard their murmurings God heard their mumbling their complainings in the tent and was angry and he took that oath In response to their unbelief God swore note that all the adult generation that came out of Egypt Would not inherit the promised land, but they would die in their desolate wilderness instead The Lord was also angry with me for your sake now there may be a little bit of you know Hey because of you guys he was angry with me too, but I don't read too much into that, but But he was not allowed to see and we'll talk more about that later, but only Joshua and Caleb They were the only two exceptions because they were the only two Who had the faith and trust in the Lord's ability? The Lord told Moses Encouraged Joshua for he shall lead he shall lead Israel to inherit the land More over verse 39 your little ones and your children who you say will be victims who today have no knowledge of good and evil They shall go in there to them. I will give it and they shall possess it But as for you turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea You know their whole excuse was well. Hey, we we were concerned for our little ones. We don't we don't want to go in there Moses saying that God says no, you know, they're gonna inherit it. You're worried for them great They're gonna see it. You're not Spurgeon said anything in fact will serve it as an excuse when the heart is bent on compromise See they just used the kids as an excuse. They were fearful Then verse 41 then you answered and said to me We've sinned against the Lord will go up and fight just as the Lord our God commanded us And when every one of you had girded on his weapon of war you were ready to go up to the mountain So they hear the consequences, right? Those of you who are parents, you know, you tell your kid, you know, hey You need to go make your bed or you need to clean your room and they you know, and then you come or there's gonna be You know some consequences when they don't do it need you bring the car Oh, no, no, I'm gonna go do it now now. It's like I love what Louie used to always tell I picked it up and used it in our kids delayed obedience is no obedience They needed to respond and they didn't know they did no bay Now they're they're they're ready to go in. Oh, we're gonna go now now, but they were defeated verse 42 and the Lord said to me Tell them Do not go up nor fight for I'm not among you lest you be defeated before your enemies So I spoke to you yet you would not listen but rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the mountain they were defeated because of presumption and The Amorites who dwelt in that mountains came out against you chased you as bees do and drove you back from seer To Horma, then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not listen to your voice nor give an ear to you They're futile attempt ended in disaster They were defeated and returned weeping before the Lord God didn't want that for them God didn't want them to be defeated God wanted them the joy of entering in to the land that he had prepared for them And we have one of the saddest Closing verses of any book of the Bible any chapter so you remained in katish many days According to the days that you spent there There you were defeated whooped because of unbelief God's desire was to bring them into the promised land not to let them wander for 40 years And and we'll look more of that next week as we get into chap the rest chapter two and but Let's take away from this that God is great and God is awesome and God is more powerful and able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or think and he's willing to do His great work in us if we will believe him and trust him take him at his word and step out in faith Amen Father I thank you so much for this time Lord, and it seems has gone so quick. I just pray Lord that you would give application Lord Lord, you know what what each of us needed to hear tonight Lord, and I pray that as your spirit Lord Speaks to our heart Lord those things that that you want to work in us Lord that you would just continue to To bring forth Lord to our men Remembrance Lord that that we wouldn't be just here as only Lord that we would be changed Lord That would be conformed to be more like Jesus Transformed by the renewing of our hearts and our minds Lord God Lord anything that's not of us Lord that you would just blow away like chaff Lord Lord go with us now Lord go before us give us traveling mercies home Lord Pray that you give us a good and godly night's sleep Lord and tomorrow Lord you bring us into the path of others Lord Especially those that that need to know you Lord and Lord may our hearts and our eyes be open and ready Lord To have that word Lord prompt our spirit Lord. May we be prayed up and ready Lord. Thank you Lord Bless your people in Jesus name everybody said Amen Good night. God bless Next week will be