On the Brink of Everything

Deuteronomy 31:7–13 (NIV)

Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance.

The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.

Then Moses commanded them: “At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Festival of Tabernacles,

when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing.

Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.

Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Introduction

Well Lighthouse, we are about to turn the page on another year.

How many of you like transitions?

Not everyone does… some do, and some don’t.

And today, I want to talk to you about transitions as we end the year to give us some handles on how we can transition in faith.

Everyone say IN FAITH.

What I am not going to do is give you a plan on how to lose weight in 2023 or how to pay off your debt in 2023. I’m not going to talk about how to live your best life in 2023 or how to finally launch that business in 2023.

I know that this is an opportune time for people to maximize the moment of transitions, but I am most concerned about how to you grow in your in faith and leverage transitions in the process.

Transition

Transitions can become catalysts to change when you are intentional about the process.

Throughout the scriptures, God was meticulous in using transitions to bring about spiritual change in his people.

Text

Now in order for me to walk us through the scripture together, I need to tell the story of what is happening here in the Book of Deuteronomy.

God has chosen a people for himself. These people are the Israelites, or the Jews.

God has always been with them, but their history is one that has been marked by slavery or genocide on more than one occasion. The first and most notable in their history is the slavery that they endured in Egypt.

For hundreds of year they were the labor force behind Egypts expansion in the 3rd Century.

This was not a cute Amazon labor force with blue vests and box trucks. They were slaves building pyramids.

Over time, God would see their oppression and raise up Moses to be their deliverer. Moses would enter into a supernatural match with Pharoah and successfully negotiate the release of what is believed to be up to 2 million Jews from Egypt.

They would journey into the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land.

Now let me catch your attention while I emphatically declare, that leaving Egypt, and every step in the wilderness, was surrounded by miracles, signs and wonders. Their preservation was done with nothing less than the hand of God parting seas, delivering food in the morning, leading them with a cloud in the day, and a fire in the night, and that’s just getting things started!

But what should have been a two week excursion turned into forty years of wandering in the wilderness.

Why?

Because when given the chance to enter into the Promised Land the people believed that the same God who miraculously delivered them from the most powerful empire of their time, was not able to give them the land that He had promised them.

Said differently, they made an agreement with a lie.

And so we get to the story of Deuteronomy, and it is a story of transitions. It is probably one of the harshest, but most necessary transitions in the scriptures.

God has to allow all of the generations that left Egypt to die in the wilderness because they did not believe God could bring them into the Promised Land, and he would wait for the generation born in the wilderness to rise up and be of age to fight for their new home.

In the story of Deuteronomy, Moses retells the stories of God’s deliverance to the next generation and gives to the next generation the Law so that they are prepared to enter and fight in the Promised Land.

The name Deuteronomy means The Second Law becuase Moses once again gives the law to the people. But this time, it is the next generation hearing the law directly from Moses, and it is not second hand information.

Finally, I’ll say this of Deuteronomy, it is the most quoted book of the Old Testament by Jesus.

Jesus took this second law and contextualized it for his audience as the platform to transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.

Somethings need to stay in the wilderness

In Deuteronomy we read that there was a generation that could not enter into the Promised Land.

This feels like a very severe judgment, doesn’t it?

But there’s a reason why this generation couldn’t enter into the Promised Land. They did not believe.

How could you go to a place you didn’t believe in?

How could you live in a land you don’t believe you could manage?

How could you live in the newness of Christ if you don’t believe you can?

The truth is, you can’t.

God made it very clear that they couldn’t make it in the next season without belief.

Every time you believe that you cannot do something that God says you can do, you are making an agreement with a lie.

Let me follow that statement up with this verse:

Amos 3:3 (NIV)

Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?

God has promised to be with us wherever we go, but you cannot walk with Him in constant disagreement with Him.

And here’s a little secret that some of you need to deposit deep down into your spirit… you aren’t right and God is wrong.

“Oh, but he doesn’t understand me!”

“Oh, but he doesn’t see me!”

“Oh, that worked for then and this is now!”

We need to wrestle down our thoughts that want to go against God’s words and God’s thoughts.

As a matter of fact, that’s the first way for you to transition into greater faith, we begin by knowing and agreeing with God’s word.

Listen, I want you to leave unbelief behind in 2022.

Don’t take doubt with you into 2023.

Don’t take fear with you in 2023.

Don’t take skepticism with you into 2023.

Don’t take insecurity with you into 2023.

So how can you do this and how can we help you?

Commit to getting God’s word into your heart in 2023. Start by finding a daily Bible reading plan. Join a Connect Group when they launch in February. Surround yourself with people who are also growing in their faith.

One of the ways we want to help you is we have created a church profile in the Bible App. How many of you have the Bible App on your phone or tablet?

They have a new feature that allows you to connect with your church and Lighthouse is now on there, and we will begin sharing plans with you that will come alongside our teaching at Lighthouse. We want you to grow in faith in 2022.

Promised Lands requires our Engagement

The generation in the wilderness was prepared for the Promised Land.

As we read in our text, Moses stood before the congregation and begins to give them their history and their law once again. You see, their parents didn’t hear about the Red Sea, they walked through the Red Sea. They didn’t hear the stories, they were the stories!

And Moses knew that it was important to not just hear their story but bring them into the story.

We transition in faith by engaging with God’s plans for us.

Let me try and unpack this loaded concept with you all...

Many of us continue to be spectators with God’s redemptive plans for this world.

Let me make that even more personal, many of us are spectators in God’s redemptive plans for our worlds.

God has not only saved you from, but you have been saved to.

You’ve been saved on purpose, for a purpose. And we need to figure out why we were saved and what we’re supposed to do next!

For many of you the best thing you can do in the coming year is engage with God’s plans for your life. Start doing the thing God has called you to do.

In the text, Moses tells the story of what God did for the previous generation so that they could be ready for what God was going to do through them.

As we read the scriptures it should lead us to the place where we begin to ask, “God what is my part in this?”

Let this example settle in your spirit...

The scriptures are not handing you a photo album, they are handing you a baton.

As we began the work of getting this church off the ground, and it was and continues to be a lot of work, I remember having a conversation with some of the other Pastors. I told them that as fun as this is, it’s the generation that is coming after us that will reap what we are sowing. We are crawling through the process of purchasing, permitting, and renovations, but they are going to run with what we have built for them. And that’s good thing. That’s a God thing.

Promised Lands require our Preparation

The last thing that I want to share with you from the text is we transition in faith by preparing today for tomorrow’s battles.

When we read the story of the Israelites before they enter into the Promised Land there were some battles that they fought before they crossed the Jordan. Jericho wasn’t their first rodeo. We all hear about the battle of Jericho being their first test, and it was on the other side of the Jordan, but in the wilderness, there were battles they had to fight that prepared them for the ones that would come later.

After 38 years of wandering, and after the last person of the previous generation died in the wilderness, God raised up the next generation and they fought and won battles. This strengthened their resolve, and whatever unbelief their parents had about the Promised Land, this next generation did not share.

Dr. Samuel Chand wrote a book called Leadership Pain, and his thesis is that the level of our leadership will rise to the amount of pain we are willing to endure.

I promise, it’s a great read.

But I believe faith works in the same way. We grow in our faith according the battles we are willing to fight.

This isn’t our favorite types of messages, I know, but we are in a fight. We fight daily. Paul reminded us of this.

Ephesians 6:12 (NIV)

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Whether we like it or not, there’s a fight going on. There’s a struggle happening.

And those that grow in their faith are those who get into the arena and fight the fight of faith.

But what I see in the entirety of scripture is that not only will God not put more on you than you can bear, but today’s victories are rewarded with greater challenges tomorrow.

When I think about what we want to do for the Kingdom and what God will allow us to do for the Kingdom it all comes down to trust.

Can you be trusted with the results of victory? Could you handle the weight of people applauding your effort? Can you be faithful when your options are increased beyond what you can imagine?

The only way to know is by testing. Testing is our preparation. Testing is how we grow.

Conclusion

We grow in our faith by agreeing with God’s word, engaging with God’s plans for us, and preparing today for tomorrow’s battles.

As I said earlier, transitions are catalysts for growth. This is why so much self help and improvement booms in the New Year. And listen, I want to see you win this coming year! I want to see you win in all areas of your life. But there’s one area that you can’t ignore or just leave unattended and hope that it will somehow grow on it’s own, and that is the area of your faith.

I want to see your faith grow.

As we stand on the brink of a New Year I feel like we are standing on the brink of everything.

Joanna and I were having dinner the other night with another Pastor couple from the church and Joanna declared, “I want to be surrounded by people with great faith!”

Come on, how many of you want to be a person of great faith?