Looking Back, Looking Forward: A Year of God's Faithfulness

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B: Deuteronomy 11:1-21

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Welcome

Welcome is going to follow right on the heels of baby dedication. Remember “Merry Christmas!”

Announcements

We are intentionally moving my time of announcements to the end of my message today, so that we can go straight from baby dedication to the message.

Opening

We’ve arrived at the last Sunday of 2021. Is it just me, or did this year go by really quickly, in a slow kind of way? Or maybe it went by slowly, but at breakneck speed? We have decided to set this particular Sunday aside this year to step back for a moment and look back at all that God has done for us and with us and through us and around us this year, and then also look forward into 2022, and join our hearts and minds together as we contemplate what God might have in store for us in the year to come. Brothers and sisters of Eastern Hills, we have a lot to look back on and praise God for, and I believe a lot to look forward to in the year to come. For our focal passage this morning, we’re going to read verses 1-21 of Deuteronomy chapter 11. Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word as we read our focal passage together:

Deuteronomy 11:1–21 CSB

1 “Therefore, love the Lord your God and always keep his mandate and his statutes, ordinances, and commands. 2 Understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God: His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm; 3 his signs and the works he did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land; 4 what he did to Egypt’s army, its horses and chariots, when he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and he destroyed them completely; 5 what he did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place; 6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when in the middle of the whole Israelite camp the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing with them. 7 Your own eyes have seen every great work the Lord has done. 8 “Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit, 9 and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky. 12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year. 13 “If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and worship him with all your heart and all your soul, 14 I will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains, and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and fresh oil. 15 I will provide grass in your fields for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied. 16 Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, serve, and bow in worship to other gods. 17 Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut the sky, and there will be no rain; the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land the Lord is giving you. 18 “Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates, 21 so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.

PRAYER

I’m not really a “numbers” guy. By that, I don’t mean that I hate math or anything. I mean that I tend not to put too much stock in numbers as an indicator of the health of the church. Now, don’t misunderstand me: numbers such as how many people are in service, how many people are in Bible study, how much money is being given, how many people join, how many people leave, etc. are all useful as far as they go, but they are not the only metrics we should use as a church.

I’m not the one who keeps up with those things, and to be honest, I generally don’t ask about them week-to-week. Not because I don’t care, but because “good” numbers can mask unhealthy perspectives and practices—growth through putting on a good “show” that people want to see, and not the preaching of the Gospel. Likewise, “bad” numbers can be because of faithful, convicting preaching of the Word, as those who aren’t committed to hearing the truth of the Word scatter and run for darkness when the light of the Gospel shines on their sin. I’m not saying these are always the case… I’m just explaining why numbers can be an inaccurate gauge, at least in the short term.

And not only that, but numbers can become a source of temptation to sin for a pastor or for a church. “Good” numbers can lead a pastor to sinful pride, as if what he is doing is making the difference, instead of the power of God through the working of His Spirit through the preaching of the Word about the work of the Son. “Bad” numbers can tempt a pastor to worry, to fear, to despair, to consider pandering to the crowd instead of being true to the Word of God. These temptations are very real, and as a result, I try not to check these kinds of numbers more often than once a month or so. Of course, there are exceptions to that, but in general, I’m not really a numbers guy.

However, as I said, numbers can be an indicator that something positive is happening. And I believe that some of our numbers (I don’t have all of them) say some very strong things about the heart of the Eastern Hills Baptist Church family, especially toward supporting evangelistic missions and obedience and commitment to supporting the church mission financially.

For example, did you know that EHBC has met and exceeded every single missions offering goal this year? And not by a little. By a lot. Including last year’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and this one (it ends in January), our mission offerings goals totaled $89,500. Through last Sunday, Eastern Hills has given $118,565 to missions offerings, surpassing some of our goals by more than 50%!

But not only that, our overall giving has been an indicator of faithfulness to financially supporting the ministry of the church as well. Through last Sunday again, our budget giving goal was $872,361, and the church has given $957,322. That’s nearly 10% over our budget needs for the year.

The church family has also showcased generosity in other incredible ways, giving above and beyond to bless Larry & Camille as they retired, blessing me and my family for my 20th anniversary on staff with the church, and blessing Wayne & Joy in his retirement just last week. You also gave to many other designated ministry endeavors such as our Shine partnership with Kennedy Middle School; our partnership with CareNet Pregnancy Centers; and others. All tolled, Eastern Hills Baptist Church gave over $1.4 million in 2021!

And throughout the year, our attendance in person has grown, while our online streaming reach has been essentially stable. We witnessed 5 baptisms, and 13 others have joined Eastern Hills in formal membership. All of this while in the midst of the pandemic.

And there have been a lot of less “data” oriented things that have happened in the life of the church and our ministries, including the fact that Eastern Hills Christian Academy has been in class all year in 2021 (both spring and fall semesters), we have called two new ministry group leaders, and we have had a group that represents a slice of the church at work on a master plan for the church since May (and we’re almost ready to present some things to the church family)!

And God has been actively working in the life of our church family, as well as in the lives of the members of our church family individually. I asked you to help me out this week with some testimonies of how you have experienced God’s faithfulness in the last year, both individually and in the life of the church. I received many responses, so I won’t be able to use them all this morning. But one of the common themes throughout the church family testimonies is how God has by and large protected this church body, and perhaps more importantly, how the family here at Eastern Hills has cared for one another through it. Here’s an example testimony:

As we are new to the church (we joined during Covid shutdowns), it has been great to get [to] experience the church coming back into more regular routines of fellowship. We've been able to begin making some connections with our new church family and it has been a tremendous blessing to us. God has been so faithful to carry us through the recent times of separation and isolation and it is wonderful to be a part of such a loving part of the Body of Christ. (Sara Ghormley)

That’s a great testimony of this church family! Here’s another:

God has been so faithful to grow our church. In a time when we could’ve let the stress of this pandemic tear us apart, we’ve come together as a family and, through God, we’ve grown in membership and faithful giving. (Anonymous)

I’ll share a few more testimonies throughout my message. So far, we’ve looked back on what God has done this year in the life of this church body. Our focal passage from Deuteronomy started with the same concept: looking back and recalling.

1) Look back to recall

“Remember & Look Ahead” was a sermon that I preached on February 16, 2020, from Joshua 24:1-28. In that message, I challenged us as a church to 1) Remember the past; 2) Respond right now to what God is doing and calling us to; and 3) Look ahead to the future. We replaced the pew Bibles that day with brand new ones, and we as a church dedicated those Bibles. Little did we know that a month later, the COVID pandemic would land on the U.S., and we would spend the next two months away from this building. And those same points would hold true this morning as well.

But in our focal passage this morning, Moses opens with a challenge to the people of God to remember how they had personally witnessed God’s faithfulness to Israel. We’ll look at the bookends of that section:

Deuteronomy 11:1–2 CSB

1 “Therefore, love the Lord your God and always keep his mandate and his statutes, ordinances, and commands. 2 Understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God: His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm;

Deuteronomy 11:7 CSB

7 Your own eyes have seen every great work the Lord has done.

They had seen God work in incredible ways, both in ways that we might refer as being “positive”—protection and provision through defeating Egypt—and ways we might refer to as “negative”—bringing judgment on the houses of Dathan and Abiram (who rebelled against the Lord’s using Moses to lead Israel). Of course, since both means accomplished God’s purposes, both are positive in God’s economy. And the people were to look back on what God had done in order to recall His greatness, and to lead them to love the Lord and keep His commands.

We need to remember what God has done. How He had led us, how He has blessed us, how He has disciplined us. It is in general the best indicator of what He will do in the future. We need to look back and recall who He is, so that we have a right perspective on who we are as His people. In what is likely the most well-known passage in Lamentations, Jeremiah said it this way: After lamenting the situation of Jerusalem and his own life, He calls out to God and recalls:

Lamentations 3:21–24 CSB

21 Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! 24 I say, “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.”

Because of what God had done, Jeremiah knew he could trust God in what was to come.

The old cliche is that “hindsight is 20/20.” That when we look back on a situation in our lives, we can see the outcome clearly and be able to evaluate whether our choices in it were wise or foolish, good or bad, useful or useless. But it also enables us to look back and see the fingerprints of God that we might not have seen in the midst of the struggle. This is one of the themes that the testimonies that I received from people in the church body contained. I’ll give you one example:

After 6 of the hardest years of my life, where sometimes the only thing that kept me going was clinging to the belief that God HAD to have a reason for my pain and loss. All I could do was cling to Him and trust His promises that -- He has a plan for me - a plan for good, and for a future and hope. -- Believing that He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will emerge as pure gold. This past year has been filled with God Moments. Time after time, in the midst of serving others, encouraging and loving on people, walking beside them through the pain of loss, God has gently whispered, "This is why. This is where I needed you- in this place, at this time, with all that you have gone through- to be My hands and feet." God is always faithful to fulfill His promises. Whether I can see it in the chaos of the moment or not, He has never failed me and I can trust that foundation. (Deanna Chadwick)

Looking back allows us to take in the movement of God more clearly, recall His greatness and provision, remember His discipline and correction of us, and praise Him for how He has worked. But He doesn’t intend for us to stay where we are. He intends that we use that recollection to move forward in wisdom and purpose.

2) Look forward in wisdom

We can’t just continually look backward if we are going to move forward. How would that work if you were walking, or driving? It wouldn’t! While we can’t forget what God has done in bringing us as far as He has, we must also constantly be looking for what He is doing in us, around us, and through us as we follow Him into the future.

Nearly every testimony we received spoke of God’s faithfulness to the church during COVID. How could they not include that, given the year we’ve had? But they all also saw His faithfulness as a means of having hope and confidence as we move forward into what is next. One testimony said this:

Our church was very blessed to be able to meet in person as soon as we did with fewer restrictions than there could have been. God was faithful in sustaining the church during lockdown and restoring face to face fellowship afterwards. He has established a strong church foundation for the future. (Mark Yee)

This is the theme of the next section of our focal passage, verses 8-17. Again, a couple of verses and a summary:

Deuteronomy 11:8–9 CSB

8 “Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit, 9 and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

God told His people what it would mean for them to go forward. They were to love Him and keep His commands, as we saw in verse 1, and then we see the purpose of that in verses 8 and 9: that they would be able to do all that God has called them to do. They were to go forward in trust and obedience and complete the task He had for them. The Lord explained what He would do if they obeyed, and what He would do if they disobeyed. And He called them in verse 16 to be careful:

Deuteronomy 11:16 CSB

16 Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, serve, and bow in worship to other gods.

They were to keep their eyes on the Lord as they went forward, because if they didn’t, they would go off the rails.

This is how we look forward in wisdom: we keep in mind the lessons that we have learned of the power and faithfulness of God in the past so that we are motivated to trust Him and obey Him in the future, and then we go and do so. The most important way that we can do that is to remember what God has done for us in Christ. This is the hope of the Gospel: that God has shown His power and love for us in sending His Son to take on humanity as a baby, to live a perfectly sinless life, and to die as a sacrifice so we could be made right with God again. He took our place in punishment and death, so that if we will turn from going our own way and trust His work to deliver us from sin and death, we will be saved. And He rose again so that we can live forever with Him. When we keep our eyes on Christ, we look forward in wisdom:

Hebrews 12:2–3 CSB

2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.

This is what we want to do as a church family: keep our eyes on Jesus, so that as we remember what God has done in the past, we also move forward with faith and wisdom into the future. Several of the testimonies included that God has used this year to deepen people’s faith, both through His Word and through relationships with others:

I have met and gotten to know some amazing people this year. I think God brought them into my life at a time when I really needed to grow and learn from them in my Christian walk. God has used this year and the trials I’ve faced to draw me closer to Him. (Anonymous)

I have drawn closer to the Lord and have experienced His peace in my life. I feel true joy and have become hungrier for His word. The Lord has brought new relationships in my life. He has helped me deal with past shame in unbelievable and shocking ways. I have experienced the power of healing through HIM. (Teddi Rivera)

The grief class I have been attending led by Deanna Chadwick has been a true blessing to me. We have become like family. Grief is difficult but when you have believers walking the same walk of pain, it helps ease yours. Thank you Lord for this wonderful group. (Karen Cullen)

We must not waste the growth that God brings in our lives, but in wisdom keep looking forward to what He is doing next. A couple of things in that regard:

One of the first things that the Master Plan Planning Team did was think through what the purpose of Eastern Hills Baptist Church is. Why are we here? Through much prayer and discussion, we landed on three aspects to include in our purpose: that we are a family, that we exist to connect people to Jesus, and that we exist to connect people to each other. So the purpose statement that we arrived at in that group that was the baseline for evaluating everything else we talked about was this:

The Eastern Hills Baptist Church Family exists to connect people to Jesus and to each other.

This is what we are going to focus on as we move forward. This coming year, we will talk about what that means for our facility, for our programs, and for our direction as a church. We will pray hard about what it means to live our our purpose as a church family. We will take time to make sure we are all on the same page with our Statement of Faith, and we will strive to actively look for what God is doing and how He calls us to be a part of that work. But this calling is for ALL of us. All of us in the EHBC family have this purpose. Not just the staff or the deacons or the leaders. We are the church together. Let’s move forward in wisdom, through love and obedience!

And finally, there is an ongoing, out-in-the-future purpose for looking forward as well:

3) Look forward for those coming behind you

We pray that it is the Lord’s will that none of us here today will see the end of Eastern Hills Baptist Church. Churches have disbanded at an unprecedented rate in the past 18 months, but I don’t see that in this family. Truly, most of the church family is dedicated to the fellowship in faith, and we desire the church to continue to grow numerically, in maturity, and in ministry in the future. But should the Lord will for EHBC to keep going and should He tarry in His return, then this spiritual family, like a biological family, will outlive us all. So we must remember that we are not here for ourselves as we look forward into the future. We are leaving a legacy of faith and ministry that others will benefit from and carry on when we are no longer here. And it is our role to testify to what God has done in our lives and in the past before us, so that they will have that foundation of faith and the work of God as they carry the stories forward.

This was vital for the people of Israel as well:

Deuteronomy 11:18–21 CSB

18 “Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates, 21 so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.

The Scriptures and the stories of God’s work were to be what they talked about. What they focused on. What they passed on. What was this so important? Because their children hadn’t seen what they had seen! Remember what it said in verse 2:

Deuteronomy 11:2 CSB

2 Understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God: His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm;

The way the children were going to learn these things was only if those who had experienced them told them. And that was a role for the whole community to fulfill.

We had one testimony in our responses that wasn’t a member of the church, but whose child attends our school. They said this:

Your church has reinstated the Lord in our daughter and we are forever grateful for that. (Dory Warren)

This is why we have a school. This is why we have a children’s ministry. This is why we have a student ministry. This is why we have a building. This is why we have Sunday School and senior adult ministry. This is why: to connect those who come behind us to the Lord who saved us and to the church family. We don’t know where “those who come behind us” are coming from.

Preparing for the future. How do we invest in the work of God in this church family? Are we inviting those to come and be a part? Are we praying for our brothers and sisters in need? Are we connecting with others in the church family?

All of these things have been a major part of our discussions as a staff and as the Master Plan Planning Team. We want our facilities to reflect our desire to connect people to each other. More to come on that in the coming months.

Closing

We have a lot to look forward to, and a lot to look back upon.

Invitation

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Next Sunday, we will start Part 1 of our “We Believe” series, which we will do off and on throughout the year, looking at our Statement of Faith as a church.

Our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is already above our goal of $30K ($35,830).

Pastor’s Bible Study will start on 1/9 in Miller Hall (room 105) at 5:30 pm.

Men’s breakfast will be 1/15 at 8am in FLC.

Bible reading - 1 Sam 28 today.

Instructions for guests

Benediction

1 Peter 4:1–2 CSB

1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.