back to indexBerean Community Church 10/25/2020
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It's me come and die and find that I may truly live 00:01:39.000 |
All who gather here by grace, trial, or name, and bless your name 00:02:01.000 |
It's me come and die and find that I may truly live 00:03:37.000 |
It's me come and die and find that I may truly live 00:03:59.000 |
All who gather here by grace, trial, or name, and bless your name 00:04:22.000 |
It's me come and die and find that I may truly live 00:04:56.000 |
Oh, great God of highest heaven, occupy my lowly heart 00:05:04.000 |
Own it all and reign supreme, conquer every rebel power 00:05:13.000 |
Let no vice or sin remain that resists your holy war 00:05:23.000 |
You have loved and purchased me, make me yours forevermore 00:05:32.000 |
I was blinded by my sin, had no ears to hear your voice 00:05:42.000 |
Did not know your love within, had no taste for heaven's joys 00:05:52.000 |
Then your spirit gave me life, opened up your words to me 00:06:00.000 |
Through the gospel of your son, gave me endless hope and grace 00:06:29.000 |
Help me now to live a life that's dependent on you 00:06:38.000 |
Good morning, Church family. Happy Lord's Day. We will begin our service. 00:10:13.000 |
Well, good morning. Welcome to our Sunday service. 00:10:16.000 |
If you guys have your phones, you can kind of follow along with the announcements there. 00:10:21.000 |
The first one that we have is this week, there's not going to be our weekly Bible study, 00:10:29.000 |
but instead we're going to have an all church praise and prayer on Friday. 00:10:39.000 |
Okay, so this Friday we have all church praise and prayer. 00:10:42.000 |
If you're a college student, on Saturday the 14th of November, 00:10:46.000 |
we're going to actually have a college car rally. 00:10:49.000 |
And so if you are interested, you can go ahead and sign up on the Google Doc. 00:10:57.000 |
And earlier in that morning, we have a church maintenance day. 00:11:03.000 |
So if you guys are handy, you're into cleaning, you're into serving, 00:11:08.000 |
by taking care of our sanctuary and our building on the whole, 00:11:15.000 |
And the link is provided for you there as well. 00:11:18.000 |
And I'm sure all of you guys are aware of the different social justice issues, 00:11:25.000 |
racial tensions and differing views that everyone has. 00:11:28.000 |
And the leaders have been fielding a lot of questions about these things. 00:11:32.000 |
And so on the 15th of November, we're going to host a seminar after the service at 1.30, 00:11:40.000 |
titled "The Worldview of Secular Social Justice, Critical Race Theory." 00:11:44.000 |
And so if you are interested, this isn't open only to members. 00:11:47.000 |
This is just -- you can just sign up and bring a friend as well. 00:11:54.000 |
And so save the date for that and go ahead and fill out the Google form that's 00:12:02.000 |
This Saturday, if you guys haven't done so already -- 00:12:07.000 |
actually, I think the registration is closed, but we are having a trunk formation night. 00:12:12.000 |
It's going to come in two waves, and the kids are going to be coming 00:12:15.000 |
and learning about a reformer, hearing a brief gospel presentation, 00:12:20.000 |
and enjoying all the activities and candy and stuff. 00:12:24.000 |
And so if you guys want to support this, please do. 00:12:31.000 |
And we also have 40 days of devotion for the family ministry for the married men. 00:12:37.000 |
So if you guys are interested in that, you can sign up on the link or talk to Jason Choi 00:12:45.000 |
Right now we're going to take a time of offering. 00:12:47.000 |
The offering basket, if you brought a physical offering, it is in the back. 00:12:50.000 |
Or as we usually do, we can Venmo, PayPal, and whatever have you. 00:12:57.000 |
So let's pray together, and we'll proceed with our service. 00:13:03.000 |
Father, we are thankful that you give us the freedom to come and to worship, 00:13:08.000 |
and we want to just offer to you just our hearts of gratitude and our gifts. 00:13:15.000 |
And so we pray for your blessing over our service, over our day. 00:13:21.000 |
Help us just to be faithful and grateful people. 00:14:37.000 |
The lightning crash, the thunder sings His praises. 00:15:00.000 |
Our soul must sing, oh, let the heavens ring. 00:15:24.000 |
You hold me fresh, God's promise to the fallen, 00:15:35.000 |
The light of life was crushed for our rebellion. 00:16:34.000 |
He'll rent the skies, descending in His glory. 00:16:40.000 |
Then an instant, a thankful church will sound. 00:18:09.000 |
Though the nations rage, kingdoms rise and fall. 00:18:42.000 |
None above Him, none before Him, all outside in this place. 00:19:00.000 |
All the power, all the glory, I will trust in His hand. 00:19:22.000 |
Though the dread of night overwhelms my soul, 00:19:56.000 |
None above Him, none before Him, all outside in this place. 00:20:16.000 |
All the power, all the glory, I will trust in His hand. 00:20:47.000 |
O soul, I may not see what the future brings. 00:21:06.000 |
In my joy come rain, descending face to face. 00:21:22.000 |
None above Him, none before Him, all outside in this place. 00:21:43.000 |
All the power, all the glory, I will trust in His hand. 00:22:41.000 |
Speak O Lord, for your servants are gathered here today and we are listening. 00:22:52.000 |
That we will be fed, that we will be changed. 00:22:57.000 |
That we will grow in holiness and gratefulness. 00:23:01.000 |
That we will be more and more effective in our witness as we look more and more like Jesus after today. 00:23:10.000 |
I pray that you would open up our ears, open up our eyes to the wonderful things in your law. 00:23:24.000 |
If you guys have your Bibles with me, the bulk of today's message will be coming from Deuteronomy 8. 00:23:30.000 |
It's going to be up here for you, but I do find it helpful when I actually have the text open just throughout the sermon. 00:23:38.000 |
So, Deuteronomy 8, verses 1-7, and I'm going to be reading out of the NASB. 00:23:45.000 |
All the commandments that I am commanding you today, you shall be careful to do. 00:23:52.000 |
That you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. 00:23:59.000 |
You shall remember all the way with which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years. 00:24:06.000 |
That he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 00:24:13.000 |
He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. 00:24:20.000 |
That he might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. 00:24:28.000 |
Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. 00:24:33.000 |
Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. 00:24:40.000 |
Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in his ways and to fear him. 00:24:46.000 |
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills. 00:24:56.000 |
Every nation has significant events or moments in their history. 00:25:02.000 |
And many of the events are either annually celebrated or they are so painful that they are rarely talked about or discussed. 00:25:11.000 |
So no book on Chinese history will leave out the Cultural Revolution, the Opium Wars, the Great Wall of China being built by the Ming Dynasty. 00:25:20.000 |
And the books on the US will discuss at length the American Revolution, the Great Depression, or the Civil Rights Movement. 00:25:28.000 |
So every nation has significant moments in its history that its people remember proudly or events that they would rather forget. 00:25:38.000 |
So the same is true for the people of Israel in both the Old and the New Testaments. 00:25:43.000 |
The nation of Israel had many significant events that they were called to remember. 00:25:49.000 |
The Passover is a big one. The building of Solomon's Temple is another. 00:25:54.000 |
The Babylonian captivity is an especially painful one. 00:25:58.000 |
And you have the entire book of Lamentations emotionally devoted to that event. 00:26:04.000 |
One of the most significant ones, though, in Israel's history is the Wilderness Wanderings in the time of Moses. 00:26:12.000 |
So it's so significant that you have about 40 of the books of the Bible reference the Wilderness Wandering. 00:26:23.000 |
So they had left Egypt with so much hope. They crossed the Red Sea in awe of God's power. 00:26:30.000 |
And they were excited about Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. 00:26:41.000 |
It had been a horrible experience for the Israelites. 00:26:44.000 |
And of the 600,000 plus of the people who had left Egypt, only two actually made it through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. 00:26:53.000 |
So everyone else was either struck down, bitten by venomous serpents, or literally the earth swallowed them whole. 00:27:02.000 |
And the Wilderness Wandering wasn't just hard, it was also seemingly endless. 00:27:08.000 |
The journey from Egypt to Canaan should have taken about 11 days, but it took them 40 years. 00:27:18.000 |
You guys are very familiar with COVID and pandemic, right? 00:27:23.000 |
You know, we've been in lockdown for 31 weeks now. 00:27:31.000 |
And 40 weeks would be a horribly long time under any kind of suffering or wilderness wandering. 00:27:46.000 |
I was living in Korea, sporting a fresh bowl cut, eating choco pie, and toddling around and falling and eating dirt, probably. 00:28:00.000 |
You guys, most of you have not been around that long. Most of our church is under 40. 00:28:06.000 |
So the wilderness was hard, and it was 40 years long. 00:28:11.000 |
So as I said, the Wilderness Wandering of the people of Israel was one of the most significant and most painful chapters in their history, and they were constantly exhorted to reflect on it. 00:28:22.000 |
And in the scriptures, you and I as new covenant people of God are also called to reflect on it. 00:28:28.000 |
And that's what we're going to be doing a little bit this morning. 00:28:31.000 |
And I just read for you in the beginning, the opening of Deuteronomy, Chapter 8. 00:28:35.000 |
The book of Deuteronomy is written toward the end of the end of the wanderings with the land of Canaan in view. 00:28:42.000 |
And the people of God are finally about to enter into the promised land. 00:28:47.000 |
Deuteronomy is addressed to the second generation of the people of Israel, almost all of whom had never known life in Egypt. 00:28:55.000 |
And in Chapter 8, we have Moses' own commentary and reflection on this 40-year journey. 00:29:01.000 |
So for you guys who are taking notes, we're going to be looking at four biblical truths about the Wilderness Wandering. 00:29:07.000 |
And we're going to be looking at four things Deuteronomy teaches us about this Wilderness Wandering. 00:29:12.000 |
And I'm going to give you three up front, three truths or points up front. 00:29:16.000 |
And then we're going to tackle the fourth one at the end in application. 00:29:20.000 |
One, the Wilderness Wandering was on purpose. 00:29:27.000 |
Number two, the Wilderness Wandering was for testing. 00:29:31.000 |
And the third point that we glean is that the Wilderness Wandering was for training. 00:29:39.000 |
It was on purpose for testing and for training. 00:29:43.000 |
So the first point, the Wilderness Wandering was on purpose. 00:29:47.000 |
Deuteronomy 8.1, I'm going to read that for you again. 00:29:50.000 |
"All the commandments that I am commanding you today, you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers." 00:30:04.000 |
So Moses begins by telling the people that God will soon deliver on his promise to give them the land of Canaan. 00:30:12.000 |
He calls their attention to God's covenant with Abraham. 00:30:16.000 |
And in Genesis 15, that's where God makes this covenant with Abraham, swearing that Abraham will have many descendants and they will possess the land of Canaan. 00:30:25.000 |
In Genesis 15, Abraham is already physically living in the land of Canaan. 00:30:31.000 |
But the narrative tells us that Abraham believed God, trusted in this promise, and his faith was credited to him as righteousness. 00:30:39.000 |
And then later in that chapter, God proceeds to tell him the things that will happen before all of these things are fulfilled. 00:30:48.000 |
So Genesis 15, 13-16, God said to Abraham, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for a hundred years. 00:31:01.000 |
But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 00:31:08.000 |
As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 00:31:14.000 |
And then in the fourth generation, they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete." 00:31:22.000 |
So using the words, "Know for certain," God tells Abraham that with absolute certainty, one, his descendants will be enslaved and oppressed for a hundred years. 00:31:34.000 |
Two, with absolute certainty, they're going to leave Egypt, having plundered them, having become very wealthy. 00:31:41.000 |
And three, they will return to the very land that he is standing on, once the iniquity of the Amorite is complete. 00:31:50.000 |
The Amorites were living in the land of Canaan during the time of Israel's wanderings. 00:31:54.000 |
And just a little bit of an insight, Amos 2.10 reads, "It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt, and I led you in the wilderness forty years, that you might take possession of the land of the Amorite." 00:32:08.000 |
So, the four hundred years in Egypt, the exodus out of Egypt, the wilderness wandering, and the return to the land of Canaan are all spelled out in advance for Abraham in the book of Genesis. 00:32:21.000 |
So, how did they end up in Egypt? We see that the Israelites were not in Egypt as slaves because of their sins. 00:32:29.000 |
There's no record of any particular sins at the end of the book of Genesis or at the beginning of Exodus that give us reason to believe that the slavery period was judgment on the people. 00:32:41.000 |
We read in Exodus 1.8 that the new king of Egypt did not remember Joseph. 00:32:47.000 |
So, that's the only reason given for the explanation, like that's the only explanation given for the reason why they're slaves. 00:32:58.000 |
So, all of this was on purpose. The famine that initially forced the patriarchs out of Canaan into Egypt, on purpose. 00:33:05.000 |
The four hundred years of slavery, on purpose. And the journey through the wilderness was also on purpose. 00:33:12.000 |
And through all of this, God desired worship, and he wanted his people to know that he was worthy of it. 00:33:20.000 |
So, in his confrontations with Pharaoh, what is Moses commanded to say to him? 00:33:26.000 |
Exodus 7.16, "You shall say to him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, 'Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.'" 00:33:41.000 |
It wasn't, "Let my people go so that they may serve me after they get into the land of Canaan." It was, "That they may serve me in the wilderness." 00:33:50.000 |
So, they were in the wilderness for the purpose of worship and service to God. 00:33:56.000 |
So, the books of Exodus and Numbers make it seem like the reason for the wilderness is Israel's sin. 00:34:03.000 |
But here in Deuteronomy, God says that he deliberately led them there. 00:34:10.000 |
Israel's sin caused them to wander in the wilderness. That's biblical truth. 00:34:15.000 |
God's good purpose caused them to wander in the wilderness. That's biblical truth. 00:34:20.000 |
Now, is this a contradiction? No, it's a paradox. 00:34:27.000 |
It is a truth that cannot be explained without some degree of logical or emotional discomfort. 00:34:34.000 |
And there are at times very difficult circumstances and events in our lives that God has deliberately purposed. 00:34:42.000 |
Sometimes these circumstances and events are consequences of our sins. 00:34:47.000 |
Sometimes they are events divinely ordained for our good or for the good of his people. 00:34:54.000 |
Sometimes they are both. But whichever the case, James 1, verse 2, many of you guys know this passage. 00:35:02.000 |
"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." 00:35:13.000 |
So, there are seasons of trial ordained by God that sometimes feel like 40 years. They're endless. 00:35:20.000 |
If a trial just lasted a day or two, most of you guys would embrace them. 00:35:31.000 |
But sometimes a season of God-ordained trials seem to last an eternity. 00:35:37.000 |
And the longer these trials go, we are left to wonder if they are a result of our sins. 00:35:44.000 |
And when the trials do not go away somewhat quickly, or after we've prayed many prayers, 00:35:49.000 |
we might wonder, "Why is God not providing immediate relief?" 00:35:55.000 |
We wonder if it's because of our lack of faith. 00:35:59.000 |
Perhaps, maybe, I'm not praying enough. Or I'm not praying the right prayers well enough. 00:36:07.000 |
And we wonder if God is indeed a God of love. 00:36:15.000 |
So, no normal human being enjoys the tests of the wilderness. 00:36:23.000 |
But we'll see in Scripture, the wilderness wandering of Israel was on purpose. 00:36:28.000 |
And the wilderness wanderings ordained for us in our lives are also always on purpose. 00:36:35.000 |
So regardless of the who, what, why, when, and where the wilderness that you may currently be in now, 00:36:43.000 |
one thing is for certain, God, in his sovereignty and in his goodness, has purposed it. Amen? 00:36:54.000 |
Second, the wilderness wandering was for testing. 00:36:58.000 |
Deuteronomy 8, 2-3, "You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness each forty years, 00:37:06.000 |
that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 00:37:13.000 |
He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. 00:37:21.000 |
That he might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord." 00:37:31.000 |
So we read here that God led them into the wilderness on purpose to test them and to humble them. 00:37:39.000 |
And ultimately the test was to see if they would trust him, if they would obey him. 00:37:45.000 |
The test was to see if they would have faith in the God who had led them out of slavery, destroyed their enemies and all their strongholds, 00:37:54.000 |
to see if they would trust him to lead them into the promised land. 00:37:59.000 |
But with each passing year, remember, forty years, not a short time, with each passing year, each obstacle, every bout of thirst and hunger, the Israelites grumbled and complained. 00:38:12.000 |
On the surface, they may have looked okay, but they're like sponges. 00:38:17.000 |
As soon as you squeeze them a little bit, the stuff that's on the inside comes out and gets exposed. 00:38:24.000 |
So the wilderness squeezes exposed their faithlessness, the squeezes betrayed their rebellious spirit, their cowardice, their selfishness. 00:38:35.000 |
And what was exposed is that indeed their God is their bellies. 00:38:42.000 |
The Israelites were inclined to evil and self-destruction all the time. 00:38:46.000 |
They were a bunch of stiff-necked, ungrateful whiners. 00:38:53.000 |
They were weak, helpless, and powerless, but they had the audacity to curse the God of the universe and to blame him for this misery. 00:39:03.000 |
"If only you hadn't cared about us and led us out into this desert! We would rather be in Egypt and eat leeks and cucumbers and garlic. 00:39:10.000 |
We would rather be slaves than to follow you, you horrible God." 00:39:16.000 |
So God had delivered them out of slavery and showed them miracles and wonders, but the perpetual cry of their hearts was, "What have you done for me lately, Yahweh?" 00:39:30.000 |
Let me read this section of Deuteronomy 8-2 again for you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 00:39:39.000 |
The wilderness wandering was for testing, is our second point, right? 00:39:51.000 |
Were the tests for God's benefit, so that he could see what was in their hearts, because he wasn't sure? 00:40:01.000 |
Did God need some kind of confirmation or evidence that they would, in fact, turn out okay? 00:40:08.000 |
No. God is omniscient. He is all-knowing. He already knew what was in their hearts. 00:40:16.000 |
The tests were for Israel's benefit, so that in their humbled and their helpless state, they would seek God. 00:40:24.000 |
That they would learn to trust and put their hope in God alone. 00:40:28.000 |
They needed to learn this, and to teach them that they were not saved because God knew that they would be good at obeying. 00:40:37.000 |
Praise the Lord that God, praise him that he did not save us because of our ability to obey. Amen? 00:40:47.000 |
We may be shocked when we see the sins come out of our hearts, hear the things that come out of our mouths, 00:40:54.000 |
but God is never taken by surprise by our depravity. 00:41:06.000 |
"To make you understand, the man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord." 00:41:16.000 |
Israel was created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, but rebellion and rottenness was at the very core of their hearts. 00:41:26.000 |
Israel was created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, but in their core, they hated that purpose. 00:41:35.000 |
Acts 17.28, Paul in front of the Areopagus. This is what he says. 00:41:39.000 |
"That in God we live and move and exist." Other translations say, "In him we live and move and have our being." 00:41:51.000 |
But for you and me, oftentimes, in our rebellion and foolish arrogance, we often think that God lives and moves and exists to serve us. 00:42:08.000 |
Because Israel too had inherited Adam's sin nature. 00:42:12.000 |
Israel would always default to faithlessness, forgetfulness, rebellion, and placing hope in all the wrong things, walking by sight and not by faith. 00:42:23.000 |
And without God's intervention, Israel would destroy themselves, be ravaged by their neighboring enemies, and seek always to worship created things rather than the Creator. 00:42:35.000 |
And that would never lead to them being fully satisfied. 00:42:40.000 |
So why did God deliberately allow Israel to feel hunger? Was that his cruelty? 00:42:46.000 |
No. Because bad things always happened when they were full. 00:42:56.000 |
"Yet I have been the Lord your God since the land of Egypt, and you are not to know any God except me, for there is no Savior besides me. I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of drought." 00:43:10.000 |
As they had their pasture, they became satisfied. 00:43:14.000 |
And being satisfied, their heart became proud. 00:43:20.000 |
And Jeremiah calls it the fountain of living water. 00:43:29.000 |
But the problem is that oftentimes, man believes that he can. 00:43:37.000 |
Because in arrogance, man is destined and doomed to wrath. 00:43:42.000 |
The Israelites needed to understand that there is nothing good in and of themselves. 00:43:51.000 |
And that the only reason they are a chosen people of God, that they are a royal priesthood, is because of God's mercy alone. 00:43:58.000 |
So the wilderness wanderings, one, were on purpose. 00:44:03.000 |
And two, they were for testing and exposing and humbling. 00:44:08.000 |
And likewise, there are wilderness wanderings ordained in our lives to show us that there is nothing good in us outside of Christ. 00:44:17.000 |
That we live and move and exist solely by the grace of God. 00:44:23.000 |
And the wilderness seasons in our lives expose oftentimes our sins and painfully remind us of our need for a Savior. 00:44:32.000 |
Lest we forget that we do not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. 00:44:39.000 |
Brothers and sisters, you were created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. 00:44:48.000 |
And praise the Lord that the wilderness wanderings in our lives remind us of that purpose. 00:44:55.000 |
Praise God that the wilderness wanderings in our lives help to wean us off the things of this world. 00:45:00.000 |
Teach us to worship the Creator rather than created things. 00:45:04.000 |
Because again, created things will never satisfy. 00:45:12.000 |
Praise God that we often get dissatisfied during the wilderness because it makes us long for home. 00:45:21.000 |
So our call is to praise Him in the wilderness and through the wilderness. 00:45:28.000 |
The wilderness was on purpose. The wilderness was for our testing and our humbling. 00:45:34.000 |
And third, the wilderness wanderings were for the purpose of training. 00:45:41.000 |
Verse 4 and 5 reads, "Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 00:45:50.000 |
Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son." 00:45:56.000 |
Now the word discipline, it feels negative, right? 00:46:00.000 |
Here God is training Israel to trust Him and to obey Him in faith. 00:46:09.000 |
God, the Creator of the universe, had handpicked and adopted and had vowed to be their Abba Father 00:46:23.000 |
Hosea 13 and 14, the last two chapters of the short book, reflect on the wilderness wanderings. 00:46:29.000 |
And Hosea's conclusion here is, "For in you only the orphan finds mercy." 00:46:38.000 |
The Lord their God in the wilderness was treating them as beloved sons. 00:46:44.000 |
Love-motivated and saturated discipline is a tremendous blessing to a child. 00:46:51.000 |
Beloved children are trained up and disciplined. 00:47:04.000 |
They are left to fend for themselves, usually to their harm. 00:47:08.000 |
But this would not be the case for Israel with Yahweh as their Abba Father. 00:47:13.000 |
So as a good father trains a son in all things, 00:47:19.000 |
disciplines with loving correction, God would be a good father to Israel. 00:47:25.000 |
He was their Creator, yes, he was their King, 00:47:29.000 |
but he would also love them as a father loves his child. 00:47:33.000 |
Correction, building up, teaching, exhorting, and when necessary, the rod. 00:47:43.000 |
So God the Father was more active and directly and physically tending to his people in the wilderness 00:47:57.000 |
He let them understand hunger, but he did not cause them to starve. 00:48:01.000 |
He allowed them to feel thirst, but he gave them water whenever they needed it. 00:48:06.000 |
Not always when they wanted it, but when they needed it. 00:48:09.000 |
He knew that in their immaturity, they would need visible evidence of his presence. 00:48:16.000 |
So he led them by a visible pillar of cloud, and he led them by a visible pillar of fire. 00:48:23.000 |
And what's more, you look at Deuteronomy 8.4, 00:48:28.000 |
"Forty years their clothes did not wear out, their feet did not get swollen." 00:48:35.000 |
For 40 years, the clothes that they walked in, slept in, and labored in did not wear out. 00:48:42.000 |
I don't know what kind of material does not wear out with that much usage. 00:48:47.000 |
They likely wore the same things day after day, and yet the material stayed intact. 00:48:52.000 |
Not just for 40 days, not for 40 months, but for 40 years. 00:48:58.000 |
Do you think textiles were readily available in the wilderness? 00:49:03.000 |
Do you think material for crafting garments was readily available in the wilderness? 00:49:07.000 |
No, my guess is that the clothes that they were in at the end of the journey, 00:49:12.000 |
were the same ones that their fathers had been in when they exited in haste from Egypt. 00:49:20.000 |
And Deuteronomy 8.4 also says that their feet did not swell. 00:49:26.000 |
They weren't necessarily genetically enhanced feet, 00:49:29.000 |
but all that wandering did not cause their feet to swell, and it wasn't just their feet. 00:49:37.000 |
If you run on a smooth treadmill with the best Nike running shoes long enough, 00:49:47.000 |
But for Israel, in the midst of all of that rocky, thorny path, 00:49:57.000 |
Deuteronomy 29.5 says that these crudely fashioned sandals, not hiking boots, 00:50:09.000 |
Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your feet. 00:50:17.000 |
He was divinely and miraculously preserving them, 00:50:21.000 |
even to supernaturally protecting their clothes, 00:50:25.000 |
supernaturally protecting their shoes and their feet, 00:50:28.000 |
but they were too busy grumbling and griping to even notice. 00:50:33.000 |
What other God would discipline, love, and preserve in such a way? 00:50:39.000 |
Because remember, 40 years is a long time to put up with a bunch of people. 00:50:45.000 |
The wilderness wandering, and even sometimes a very difficult application of Yahweh's rod, 00:50:55.000 |
He was loving on them as sons, and he was and is and always will be both God of the universe 00:51:05.000 |
and good, good father to the orphans he has adopted. 00:51:10.000 |
So one, the wilderness wandering was on purpose. 00:51:14.000 |
Two, the wilderness wandering was for testing, 00:51:18.000 |
and the wilderness wandering was for blessed training. 00:51:22.000 |
And the purpose of all of this was to teach us children how to worship him 00:51:26.000 |
and revere him, to trust him, and to obey him, 00:51:37.000 |
Are you in the middle of a wilderness wandering season currently? 00:52:01.000 |
No matter how hard you pray, there may not be immediate relief. 00:52:07.000 |
And things may get worse before they get any better. 00:52:12.000 |
In the wilderness wandering that is your life, you may be squeezed again and again and again and again, 00:52:21.000 |
But remember, wildernesses, they are on purpose. 00:52:30.000 |
They are for your training to grow you in your faith and to grow you in reflecting his glory. 00:52:46.000 |
Most of you guys know this, but for those of you who are newer to our church, I'll briefly share. 00:52:53.000 |
This Friday I'm going to be going in for surgery to have 10 inches of my colon and parts of my rectum permanently removed. 00:53:03.000 |
I was diagnosed in December of last year with stage 3C colorectal cancer. 00:53:09.000 |
And there was a disgusting -- if you want to see it, I'll show you, okay? 00:53:12.000 |
There was a disgusting -- I actually texted that to the leaders, and they're like, "You've got to warn us first." 00:53:20.000 |
It was a disgusting 6-centimeter-long tumor in my colon. 00:53:24.000 |
And starting in January, I've done 6 months of chemotherapy with some very strong drugs I found out later, 6 weeks of radiation, and the final step in my cancer treatment is this Friday. 00:53:40.000 |
And so -- and for you guys who have been praying for me and my family, we do have some good news. 00:53:49.000 |
So there's a little divot in my colon where it used to be, but it's gone. 00:53:59.000 |
But I will have the surgery to remove the area where the 6-centimeter tumor and the enlarged lymph nodes were, mainly to prevent the cancer from coming back. 00:54:11.000 |
And a lot of that, I'm assuming, is you guys have loved on us and prayed for us and sent us lots of food. 00:54:23.000 |
But I don't praise God because I'm cancer-free. 00:54:28.000 |
I praise him because he is worthy of my praise. 00:54:39.000 |
I praised him when I first got diagnosed, when I didn't know how my body would respond to the treatments. 00:54:48.000 |
First service, I was totally fine. I don't know what's going on right now. 00:54:54.000 |
Anyway, I praised him when I first got diagnosed, when I didn't know how my body would respond to the treatments. 00:55:02.000 |
I've been praising him for the last 10 months of treatment. 00:55:06.000 |
I praised him on the days when the treatments were hard. 00:55:11.000 |
And I praised him on the days I felt so good, I forgot, and you forgot, that I had cancer. 00:55:19.000 |
And I would like to think that I will praise him in the event the cancer comes back. 00:55:25.000 |
Because if God purposely ordains it, it will come back. 00:55:30.000 |
And if it does, if he ordains, it will be for my good and for the good of this church, for the good of the family. 00:55:42.000 |
So like I said, I got diagnosed in December of last year. 00:55:46.000 |
And there are two things that I still have not done. 00:55:50.000 |
Two things that I likely will not continue to do. 00:55:53.000 |
One, I have not once prayed for my healing from this cancer. Not once. 00:56:00.000 |
I haven't asked for it, though I know many of you guys have prayed for it the past 10 months. 00:56:10.000 |
And he is able to cure all of this at a word. Be gone. Gone. 00:56:19.000 |
I don't need to pray for the God who loves me more than I love my children for healing. 00:56:26.000 |
I mean, it's biblically prescribed for you to pray for healing, but don't get me wrong. 00:56:32.000 |
So keep praying. All right? Do it in my stead. 00:56:37.000 |
The second thing I haven't done is I have not once asked why. 00:56:46.000 |
I don't need to know the why of this disease. 00:56:54.000 |
The regenerate man trusts fully in the one who in his power and mercy has regenerated him. 00:57:03.000 |
I don't need my why questions answered because I trust that he is good. 00:57:09.000 |
The cancer was on purpose and it was for good. 00:57:13.000 |
It was used to humble me, to remind me of my mortality, which is always a good thing. 00:57:19.000 |
It humbled me and exposed areas of pride, selfish ambition, selfishness, and doubt. 00:57:25.000 |
It moved me to cherish my relationships and cherish my time and my opportunities. 00:57:31.000 |
It sharpened my resolve. It empowered my testimony. 00:57:38.000 |
And through all of this, what were evidences of God's grace? 00:57:42.000 |
What were my miraculously preserved garments or sandals? 00:57:58.000 |
I worked and ministered through chemo, through radiation, in the midst of a strange pandemic. 00:58:08.000 |
my radiologist, who I got randomly assigned to, 00:58:12.000 |
just happened to be my high school friend's older sister, 00:58:15.000 |
who actually was concerned, prayed, and she's a Christian, 00:58:21.000 |
and designed a treatment as if she were treating her own brother. 00:58:26.000 |
A whole bunch of my nurses just happened to be Christians. 00:58:34.000 |
And praise the Lord for ordaining it for good and for my good. 00:58:39.000 |
Cancer was a very short, but a very real, mini-wanderlust for me and my family. 00:58:48.000 |
The wilderness wandering for the people of Israel was on purpose. 00:58:57.000 |
And I told you in the beginning that there would be a fourth point. 00:59:00.000 |
And here is the fourth lesson we learn from Deuteronomy 8. 00:59:07.000 |
The wilderness was not and will never be home. 00:59:13.000 |
The wilderness was not and will never be home. 00:59:21.000 |
"Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, 00:59:27.000 |
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, 00:59:31.000 |
a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, 00:59:39.000 |
Okay, so "therefore" is an important word in an inductive Bible study. 00:59:43.000 |
So you always want to ask, "What is this 'therefore, therefore'?" 00:59:47.000 |
It connects what has just been said to an expected and appropriate application. 00:59:52.000 |
So in reflecting on this wilderness wandering, 01:00:09.000 |
because sooner than later, you're going to go home. 01:00:14.000 |
You're going to go to the home that the Lord has promised your forefathers. 01:00:19.000 |
The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land." 01:00:27.000 |
The New Testament believer hears a similar promise from the Lord in John 14. 01:00:41.000 |
"If you love me, you will do what? Obey my commandments." 01:00:44.000 |
So, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me." 01:00:48.000 |
Verse 2, "In my Father's house are many dwelling places, 01:00:51.000 |
and if it were not so, I would have told you. 01:01:05.000 |
And there are two aspects of these verses in John 14 01:01:08.000 |
that not only encourage me, but cause me to persevere 01:01:15.000 |
One, Jesus Christ is going to return to take us home. 01:01:21.000 |
C.S. Lewis once said, "The Son of God became a man 01:01:29.000 |
where there are many, many, many, many rooms. 01:01:38.000 |
both the physical and the spiritual wilderness. 01:01:48.000 |
and I can and I will also believe in Jesus Christ, my Savior, 01:01:52.000 |
and because of these things, my heart will not be troubled. 01:01:57.000 |
I want to turn your attention to Matthew 4, verse 1. 01:02:03.000 |
"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness 01:02:20.000 |
Two, "And after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, 01:02:26.000 |
because it took 40 days and 40 nights to become hungry? 01:02:29.000 |
I would have been hungry after 40 minutes, okay? 01:02:36.000 |
So, what happened to Jesus in the wilderness? 01:02:49.000 |
Hebrews 5:8, "Although he was the Son of God, 01:02:53.000 |
he learned obedience from what he himself suffered." 01:03:04.000 |
And then we see Jesus quoting Deuteronomy 8:3 to the devil. 01:03:14.000 |
but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'" 01:03:40.000 |
and with the macro wilderness, which is our life, 01:03:52.000 |
Well, the obvious answer, "To worship him in spirit and in truth," 01:04:25.000 |
I want to include--I want to close with one encouragement 01:04:28.000 |
for those of you who feel like in the midst of your wilderness, 01:04:32.000 |
in the midst of every squeeze, that you're failing. 01:04:36.000 |
I'm not going to have you raise your hand, but there are seasons 01:04:38.000 |
where you feel like every test, you're failing and falling on your face. 01:04:43.000 |
I also want to encourage those of you who are feeling humbled 01:04:48.000 |
no matter how hard you try, you cannot be holier. 01:04:56.000 |
And sometimes that's a very sobering and very saddening discovery. 01:05:04.000 |
The earthly consequences of your sins are already weighing you down, 01:05:08.000 |
and you're feeling like the venom of the spiritual serpents in your life. 01:05:17.000 |
We read the account of the Israelites grumbling yet again. 01:05:21.000 |
And God sends this time fiery serpents to bite them. 01:05:28.000 |
And God tells Moses to fashion a bronze serpent, 01:05:35.000 |
and those who want to be healed and spared need only to look at the bronze serpent. 01:05:44.000 |
And that was one of the many demonstrations of God's mercy in the wilderness. 01:05:49.000 |
And through it, through the serpent's visual representation of their curse, 01:06:10.000 |
who need hope, who need some strength to persevere, 01:06:17.000 |
Isaiah 30.18 says, "The Lord longs to be gracious to you." 01:06:28.000 |
Lift up your eyes to the only one who can and who is more than willing to save. 01:06:37.000 |
John 3.14.16 reflects on this wilderness episode. 01:06:43.000 |
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 01:06:51.000 |
so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. 01:06:56.000 |
For God, kutos, in this way, for God in this way loved the world, 01:07:04.000 |
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 01:07:14.000 |
and then in whatever wilderness the Lord ordains, 01:07:23.000 |
Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be what? 01:07:44.000 |
Praise God that he is more than willing to save, 01:07:48.000 |
and praise God that he is leading us through every and any wilderness that we face. 01:07:59.000 |
Not because we are good, not because we are able to obey, 01:08:22.000 |
They will end, and we will be in glory at home with the Lord forever and ever and ever. 01:08:37.000 |
no matter what kind of persecution, oppression, and strife we experience, 01:08:49.000 |
So today, we're going to take some communion, 01:08:53.000 |
and there should be a little disposable wafer and a cup there. 01:09:03.000 |
So if you find your prepackaged morsel and your cup, 01:09:13.000 |
and we're going to take a little time to pray and to reflect, 01:09:17.000 |
and then we're going to eat the bread together. 01:09:23.000 |
Wait a little bit, and then we're going to do the same for the cup. 01:09:30.000 |
So if you're not a believer, and you have not been baptized, 01:09:47.000 |
I'm going to read just a part of it for you in the beginning. 01:09:51.000 |
"For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, 01:09:56.000 |
that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread. 01:10:03.000 |
he broke it and said, 'This is my body which is for you. 01:10:22.000 |
Lord Jesus, we are so thankful for the gift of salvation. 01:10:35.000 |
As we take this morsel, as we take this piece of bread, 01:10:41.000 |
I pray that you would help us to feel the weight of our sin, 01:10:50.000 |
that we would not be spiritually stiff-necked or rebellious, 01:10:54.000 |
but in humility, because there is no other way 01:10:58.000 |
that we would appreciate the sacrifice of your broken body 01:11:22.000 |
Verse 25, "In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, 01:11:29.000 |
saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. 01:11:33.000 |
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. 01:11:38.000 |
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, 01:11:41.000 |
you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 01:11:45.000 |
Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord 01:11:47.000 |
in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of Christ, 01:12:06.000 |
and we acknowledge that without the shedding of blood, 01:12:12.000 |
And in faith, we trust that the blood that you shed on the cross 01:12:48.000 |
I would like for us to take a moment to reflect on what we heard, 01:17:44.000 |
- Father, thank you for the truth of your word. 01:17:58.000 |
and help us to live joy-filled, powerful lives. 01:20:01.000 |
So last week, they ran out of time to do Bible study, 01:20:14.000 |
And if you guys are gonna leave the sanctuary,