Taking Off The Lid | Deuteronomy 32:48-52 (2)

Taking Off The Lid | Deuteronomy 32:48-52

Opening Remarks:

Grateful to be here

Apologize up front: If we brought this weather with us, I feel terrible

This has been something else. I hear they’re going to rename this region to Texsnowma.

READ Deuteronomy 32:48-52

PRAY

Introduction: One of my favorite illustrations comes from research done years ago on the behavior of fleas. Researchers put fleas in a jar and closed the lid so they couldn’t jump as high as normal. Fleas can jump over 50 times their height, which is crazy, but in the jar they would jump and hit the lid of the jar.

After a few days, the fleas got tired of hitting their heads, so they adjusted the height of their jumping just below the lid.

After some time, the lid was removed and the fleas continued to jump only to the previous height of the lid. Even though the jar was open and they could jump out of the jar, they didn’t. Because of the lid.

Truth is, most of us have lids in our lives that keep us from doing the things we should. Lids can be physical, financial, matters of discipline, weaknesses in personality. But the worst lids are the spiritual ones. Because those keep us from fulfilling God’s purpose in our lives.

One man with a well-known lid was Moses. We’re going to talk about his lid, but first I’d like to give a few truths about Moses that are true of all us:

I. Truth #1 – God had big plans for Moses

Moses’ Background

We know Moses’ background. A Jewish baby rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter, raised in the palace. But when he became an adult he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellowship Israelites and he killed the Egyptian. Acts tells us he was attempting to deliver Israel at that time, but it was in his own strength.

So he spent the next 40 years in the wilderness. And it seemed he was on the shelf, never to be used again.

But there are no lost causes with God. He appeared to Moses in a burning bush and said, “I’ve chosen you to deliver Israel. Go back to Egypt.”

God had big plans for Moses.

So Moses goes back to Egypt, God sends the plagues, and Moses leads the people out of Egypt through the dry Red Sea toward the Promised Land they were going to inherit.

Can you imagine being selected to do something that big?

Think about the biggest task you’ve ever been asked to do and multiply it by about 1 million. God selected Moses to preserve His people and bring them into the Promised Land.

It’s not surprising that Moses needed to be convinced. He asked God in Exodus 3:11, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh? Who am I that I should bring them out?”

Moses had already tried to deliver Israel and failed. He didn’t think he had what it took. But it wasn’t about him. It was about God.

God had big plans for Moses, and the second truth is this:

II. Truth #2 – God had equipped Moses with everything he needed.

God equips the ones He calls.

Think about Moses’ qualifications:

He was raised as an Egyptian, so he could relate to Pharaoh.

He received the best education in existence.

On the other hand, he was Jewish, so he had a heart for God’s people and could relate to them as well.

On top of all that, he had spent 40 years in the wilderness being humbled, so he was dependent on God.

Moses was equipped to do the task.

But it wasn’t about Moses. It was about all that God had done in the equipping process.

God made sure he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter.

God’s providence put him in the finest schools.

God’s hand protected him in the desert.

God performed the plagues.

God parted the waters. God destroyed Pharaoh and his army.

Then God sent a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day to lead them.

God provided food and water and clothes in the wilderness for 40 years.

This is a story about God doing what only He can and letting a limited man have a part in it.

But in one of the saddest moments in the Bible, when it came time for Moses to lead the people into the Promised Land, Moses doesn’t get to go.

God had big plans for Moses

God had equipped Moses

III. Truth #3 – Moses Had A Moment That Became A Lid

Look at Deuteronomy 32:48-52.

This is because of what happened in Numbers 20. The people were in the wilderness and needed water. And they were murmuring, as usual. So Moses and Aaron ask God what to do and He tells Moses to speak to the rock and water will come out.

So Moses takes his rod and says to the people, (I believe in anger) “Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” (Num. 20:11) And then he hits the rock twice with his rod.

And water came out, but God immediately tells Moses and Aaron, “Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation in to the land which I have given them.”

Moses got angry and disobeyed. But the root problem was unbelief, which is the root of most of our problems.

Moses and Aaron’s unbelief caused them not to sanctify the Lord or set Him apart in the people’s eyes. They didn’t treat Him like He was God. And it cost them everything.

Can you imagine having unbelief after all Moses had seen God do?

The Plagues, the Red Sea, the Pillar and Fire, Manna, Water?

All that and he didn’t believe. So God said, “You’re not going in.” And Deuteronomy 34:1-5 tells us he stood at the top of a mountain and saw it all, but died rather than going in.

All because of one incident at a rock. That was his lid. One moment with a rod and a rock.

One moment of unbelief kept Moses out of the Promised Land.

God had big plans for Moses. God had given Moses everything he needed to accomplish them. But Moses had a lid that prevented him from entering the Promised Land.

He missed it because of an emotional response in a moment.

Moses’ lid wasn’t what we would expect.

If you had asked Moses what his lid was at the beginning, he would have said “I can’t speak well. That’s my problem.”

But that was no problem for God. He could overcome that weakness and make Moses useful.

His lid wasn’t his weakness. His lid was unbelief. And his lid undid all God was trying to do. Tragic.

IV. So What Does This Have To Do With Us?

Well, all of these truths are true of us:

God has plans for your life

God has equipped you to accomplish them

How you treat your lid will determine how far you get

A. God has big plans for you

What are God’s plans for us? Easy – to enter the Promised Land.

The Promised Land in Scripture is a picture of the abundant Christian life.

God wants us all to experience that.

Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

God didn’t save you just to take you to heaven. He saved you to live the abundant Christian life. Romans 8:29 says we were created to “…be conformed to the image of his Son.” To reflect Christ in every way possible.

You talk about big plans. God has a much higher target for our lives than wealth and success. God’s purpose for His people is to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

That’s our Promised Land.

B. Truth #2: God has equipped us with every resource we need to get there.

1. We have a map (God’s Word).

2 Tim. 3:17 says God’s Word is profitable “That the man of God (or woman, or child) may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

2. We also have God’s power.

2 Peter 1:3 says, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:”

3. We even have a transformed nature that makes Christlikeness possible.

2 Cor. 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ…”

4. We have God’s presence.

Hebrews 13:5 “…he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

5. We also have help through a church family.

God established this incredible living organism called the local church that is a greenhouse of growth in our lives.

Eph. 4 tells us the church exists “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” And the end goal is for us to grow in “the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

The church exists to help us become like Christ. Eph. 4:15 says that we “…may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”

That’s our Promised Land. The image of Christ is our abundant Christian life. And you have everything you need to get there. God’s Word, God’s Power, God’s Presence and a church family.

C. But here’s the catch: We all have lids.

If you’re like me, you have lots of lids, but there’s often one lid that affects everything else.

And even though God has plans for you to be like Christ and has equipped you to do so, that lid feels like a boulder crushing you, holding you back.

It has become your ceiling. And it’s keeping you out of the Promised Land.

That lid is your limitation. It’s going to keep you from being all that God wants you to be.

V. Truth #3: How you treat your lid will determine whether or not you fulfill God’s purpose for your life.

So what do we do?

A. First things first: Identify Your Lid

What is the biggest limitation in your Christian life?

1. Maybe it’s unbelief, like Moses.

Jim Berg says “Unbelief is rejecting anything God says is true.”

If there’s anything in God’s Word that you have chosen to ignore or disobey, or an area in which you lack faith, that is unbelief.

2. Maybe you have a spirit that is your lid:

Uncontrolled anger, Pride, selfishness, critical spirit

3. Maybe it’s an issue with someone else:

Bitterness toward someone…You can’t forgive someone for something they did to you, Maybe you struggle with patience toward others. Maybe it’s your marriage relationship.

4. It could be sin in your life.

That is often our lid. Hidden sin of the heart, an addiction that’s been present in your life for years, something you know God has wanted you to deal with for a long time. .

5. Maybe spiritual discipline is your lid.

Can’t stay faithful in your Bible reading

Prayer life is lacking

Faithfulness to church has slipped.

They’re all lids.

The point is, we must identify that one primary thing that is holding us back.

What is the one thing that, if you improved, would make the biggest difference?

In your family?

In your career?

In your finances?

In your physical life?

In your spiritual life?

If we can’t identify the lid, we’ll never take it off.

Name it, know what it looks like, be honest about it.

It might be good to ask someone that knows you best to name your lid. It takes humility, but sometimes we can’t see it.

So first, Identify your lid.

B. Second: Develop A Plan To Remove It

No one ever accomplished anything great without a plan.

If your lid is your prayer life, choose a specific time and place.

1. Make a plan.

2. Be reasonable.

Some people go overboard and say, “I determine to pray for 2 hours every morning before 5:30 am.” If you haven’t been praying consistently, that’s probably not going to happen. Start with 5 minutes a morning, same time, same place.

Make it measurable and reasonable.

3. Get someone else involved.

Be okay with help. Be honest, ask someone for their help and prayer. Give them permission to ask if you did what you committed to do on any given day.

4. Practice incompatible behavior.

If you struggle with drinking, pour out the alcohol and don’t drive by the liquor store.

If you struggle with anger, go for a ten minute walk so you can’t say what you want to say.

If you struggle with lust, get rid of the device that trips you up.

I know it sounds extreme, but sometimes that’s what it takes for the lid to come off.

It reminds me of Hebrews 12:1–2 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Life is like a race. Our finish line is Jesus Christ. He’s what we’re striving to be.

But there are two things mentioned in Hebrews 12:1 that will keep us from crossing the finish line.

The weights and the sins. You can’t run a race carrying something heavy. You can’t run a race dragging an anchor.

We must cast off the limitations, the lids, if we want to finish our race.

There’s no magic formula. According to Hebrews 12, you must simply choose to “lay aside” the weight and the sin.

And here’s the hope: God never requires something of us that He doesn’t make possible.

If we don’t reach our goal, it’s on us, not Him. God has given you every resource to get into the Promised Land.

God wants you to fulfill His purpose

He’s given you every resource to do it

It’s all dependent on how you treat your lids

2025 could be your best year. Or it could be like every other year. The difference is in how you treat your lids.

Most Christians stop growing because they give up in the battle to take off their lids.

1) They don’t take time to honestly name their lid.

2) They don’t come up with a plan to attack their lid.

Would you be willing to let the Lord deal with you about your lid this morning?

Would you be willing to ask Him to reveal what yours is?

Would you be willing to confess it and make a plan, steps to remove it.

Whether or not you ever experience the abundant Christian might just depend on how seriously you take the lid in your life.

Do something about it.

PRAY