The Promise Land of Graduation
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· 23 viewsHIGH SCHOOL SENIORS SHOULD BE CAREFUL TO REMEMBER GOD AS THEY EXPERIENCE CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES LESS GOD PUNISH THEIR DISOBEDIENCE.
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Transcript
Congratulations on your graduation! You’ve been looking forward to this moment for a long time. It seems like your whole life has been getting to this point. 12 years of going to class, homework, writing papers, taking tests, eating school lunches. So congratulations. Your parents, grandparents, teachers, and church are all very proud of you.
I count it a great privilege to talk to you a bit this morning about graduation and what life now hold s for you. This is something that I have some experience in, moving from graduation to the next step in your life. I’ve graduated 6 times, that doesn’t include Kindergarden.
In a sense, reaching graduation is something like reaching the promised land. Your whole life has been about getting to this point. It’s what you’ve been striving for, waiting on, and dreaming of. It’s a day that you felt like would never come, but now is here. And now you can reap all the rewards that you’ve been working for.
For some of you it will mean going to college, picking a major, and training for a career path. For others of you it will mean going immediately finding a job or going into the military. The one thing that it will mean for all of you is change.
How well you manage your life during this season of change during will affect God’s blessing on your life.
We have a word from God with instruction about how to manage this change. The Hebrew children which Moses has been leading for 40 years toward the promise land is experiencing their Graduation in a sense.
God had sent Moses to deliver the Hebrew people from slavery which he did. He had promised to give his people the land of Israel. However, when they arrived at the promise land, the spies they sent in to investigate were afraid of the people and the fortified cities in the land and complained to God.
God got angry over their disobedience and here is his judgment.
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me.
28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you:
29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me,
30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected.
So all the children and teenagers under twenty were destined to walk around the desert until all the folks 20 and older died before they could go into the promised land.
Now here they are 40 years later. That last old guy of that unfaithful generation finally died. The day which they have been waiting for 40 years has finally come. They are about to enter the promised land. So Moses gives his commencement address to them. His message was this: “Be careful to remember the Lord in the promise land.”
1 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers.
11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today,
CIT: God cautioned his people to be careful to remember Him in the promise land less they perish in disobedience.
Prop: High School seniors should be careful to remember God as they enter changing circumstances (the promise land of graduation) less God punish their disobedience.
Be Careful to Remember to…
I. Trust in God’s Provision (v. 1-6)
I. Trust in God’s Provision (v. 1-6)
I’m quite sure that there was a conversation came up often among that younger generation while the hot wind was whipping the sand across the desert into the tents or on the 900th time an adult told a teenager to go pick up manna for the family. “Why doesn’t God just kill this generation off and send us into the promise land now?” Why do we have to wait?
The answer is that God was disciplining this generation to prepare them enter the promise land.
5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.
These 40 years were difficult years, but they were not wasted years. God was using this time to teach them to lean on God for their needs.
+The same has been true for you these past 17-18 years. For you who are Christians, God has been using your parents and the times and trials that you have faced to discipline you to trust in God.
A. Physical Needs
A. Physical Needs
God taught his people to trust in him for their physical needs.
But, notice how he did it. When they hungered he fed them, but he didn’t he didn’t send them a 5 star menu from Heaven and tell them to order whatever they wanted.
3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Notice v.3 “He . . . fed you with manna, which you did not know.”
Manna is like God’s version of Mystery meat except with bread. Manna literally means, “What is it?”
15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.
I can see that being kind of like Mystery meat from the Lunch room. You poke it. What is it? And they didn’t like it at all.
16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you.
6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
They had to gather it every day because if they tried to gather for more than one day, it would go bad. They despised it, but they were fed.
God also provided for their clothing.
4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.
5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet.
How would you like to have to wear the same clothes for 40 years. Now I now that some of the adults in here have some leasure suits and bell bottoms 40 years old. But that is a long time for clothes and shoes to hold up walking around in the desert. It was a supernatural work of God.
God didn’t provide a supernatural work of giving them new clothes. He only gave them what they need. One person has said, “He didn’t meet their greeds, he met their needs.”
+There have been times and there are going to still going to be times when you are painfully aware that God has not given you all that you want. Rest assured he has given you all that you need.
I think King David sums it up well:
25 I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.
It was David’s observation here, that those who obeyed God didn’t go hungry.
B. Spiritual Growth
B. Spiritual Growth
3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Look back at v.3. This treatment is a humbling that is meant for a purpose. “And he humbled you and let you hunger (God wanted them to hunger) and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
God sometimes “holds back” on our physical needs to teach us of the supremacy of spiritual needs. To eat and drink or to have things is merely to exist. But to know the Word of God and to live for his glory is to live the life of true satisfaction that we were created for.
The great danger that God knows is real for the Hebrews and us today is that their life will consist of pursuing things, acquire them, and trust in them for their joy and security.
The point of life is not to aquire things that we can enjoy until we die. The point of life is to know, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
*One day an angel and a man were talking. The angel asked him, “What can I do for you?” The man said, “Show me what the stock market will be one year from today so I will know how to invest and make a fortune.” The angel snapped his finger, and out came a Wall Street Journal dated one year in the future. The man noted which stocks would be high and which ones would be low. He was overjoyed.
But in the midst of his joy, a frown came upon the man’s face and tears began to roll down his cheeks. He had turned the page and seen an article about prominent business people who had died that year. His picture was among the dead. (Tony Evans, Returning to your First Love, 49)
Hear this, “He who dies with the most toys still dies.” (Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, 94)
When you cross into the promise land of graduation the danger is that you will forget to trust in God for your physical needs and try to meet them all yourself.
When you don’t always get what you want, remember you have exactly what God wants you to have to teach you to find you life in Him and not things.
II. Trust in God’s Direction (v.7-10)
II. Trust in God’s Direction (v.7-10)
God wanted them to be optimistic about their future. That 40 years of wilderness and discipline was leading them to a good outcome.
16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills,
8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey,
9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.
10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
This is a beautiful picture of bounty and blessing on them if they will trust in him and stay faithful to him.
+You, graduating Seniors, need to hear that you can trust God’s will for you will lead you into a good land, a land of blessing.
This land will look very different for many of you. For some He will lead to be business men, others school teachers, others doctors or lawyer, others military, some ministers and some missionaries who are led to the jungles of Africa where you live in a dung hut to share the gospel with the locals.
The place of greatest satisfaction in life is the place of greatest obedience to God. Don’t be afraid wherever God may be sending you.
What if I don’t know what God wants from my life? You should remember this: The most important thing about your life is not what you do with it, but who you serve with it.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
If you spend it devoting it to God, He will direct your paths.
III. Trust Not In Your Own Pride (v. 11-20)
III. Trust Not In Your Own Pride (v. 11-20)
11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today,
12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them,
13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied,
14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,
15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock,
16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’
God knew that there would be a danger that once they entered the promise land, things got easier, and they began to experience the blessings of God, they would begin to think it was their work, their brain, their strength and not God that produced there blessing.
+There’s going to be a day when things are easier for you, relatively. You will get done with school. You’ll be able to buy the new phone you want, or the car you want. Ladies will be able to buy the dress or jewelry you want. That is when you will be most tempted to think, “Look at all I have earned.” And you will forget that everything you have, from the shoes on your feet, to the breath in your lungs is nothing but a gift from God.
It is nothing but pride. That is dangerous because God hates pride.
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
God despises it when people take credit for his work and steal his glory.
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.
Stealing God’s glory is the surest way to destruction.
19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.
The Hebrews lost the promise land because they were not faithful. They disobeyed the Lord.
+I can’t tell you how many H.S. graduates that have been faithful to the Lord. They have been faithful to church attendance. They have been faithful to their youth group. They stayed away from premarital sex and alcohol use. They have sought to live for God.
Yet, when they go to college or get out on their on they forget God. They have new freedoms they never had before. They forget God. They begin to think they are where they are because of all their hard work and achievement.
They forget God. They stop going to church. They stop reading the Scriptures and praying. They start experiment with sins that they feel that they are entitled to. This is a sure way of losing the promise land.
*Pen Ill. I thought about some of the Books that you read in High School. Treasure Island written by Robert Lewis Stevenson. Alice in Wonderland written by Lewis Carol. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. These are great classics. Literature that is considered to be of the highest quality.
(Take out a pen) And then I thought about the Pen. What about the pens that were used to write all these classic works? No one ever thinks about the pen. The pen never gets any credit. Do you know why? The pen doesn’t deserve any credit. The pen was created to write. But what it writes is only a reflection of the hand in which it is placed.
You are just a pen. You have been suited with all that you need for God to write a beautiful story his grace and glory through your life. You were created for your life to reveal the majesty and glory of God in Christ Jesus. This will only happen as you place yourselves continually in the hands of God.