Deuteronomy 1:32-34 Bible Study | Episode 838

December 25, 2024

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 1:32-34  Bible Study | Episode #838

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to hope alive, applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today, in Jesus name. Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We're in deuteronomy, chapter one, verse 34, and we're dealing with Moses explaining the situation that they find themselves in the the next generation. He's explaining to them what happened. He's doing it in oral form, but he's also doing it in written form in that he is letting them know why and how and where they got to the place they're at. And so it is very important that he explained that to them, especially why their parents did not go in and then the consequences of it. And today we're going to go through what God said was the, what God said was the reason and what God said would happen. And I think we can gain a whole lot from this. Because, remember, entering the promised land is a picture of entering into God's best, his spirit filled life. It's a picture of taking on the giants of our lives and overcoming. It's a picture of experiencing the plentifulness and the abundance of God's grace and his mercy and his peace. And so when we're studying through this, it is a master study on how to walk with God in this world, but also have God's promises, live and walk through his promises. And if you really think about it, when you think of the promised land, I always think of the promises of God. And the promises of God are not always, well, there are some promises that are future promises, but they're mostly today promises. They're mostly promises that God makes. If you will live this life, if you will walk this way, if you'll be this, I promise you, I'll give you this. And some of them are promises that he that require nothing except that us trust him and believe him for him. And so the promised land is a land full of those promises. It's a land that has the promises of God that he has for us that are true. They're true for today, yesterday, and forevermore. And so we need to. We need to see the promised land that way. Moses told them after. After the people rebelled and said they did not want to go in, they murmured in their tents. He said the. The Lord heard the sound of their words and was angry and took an oath saying, notice God's angry, and he doesn't sin. He. He's. He's angry with them. Why? Because they refuse. They refuse him. And really, that's ultimately what's going on. When they refuse to go on the mountain, they were refusing him. When they refused to. When they refused to go in the promised land, they were refusing him. They are. They are shunning a relationship with him. Even though he delivered them out of Egypt, even though he delivered them out of the bondage of sin. Even though he delivered them through the blood of the lamb. Even. Even though he delivered them over the. Over the. Through the Red Sea. Even though he delivered them with manna and water in a area where there would be no manna and there would be no bread, there would be no water, there would be no meat. He delivered them to that, and he gave them those things, and they. Well, they rejected them. They said, you know, we don't want that. We. We. We're not going to go up on that mountain. We're not going to enter into your promised land. And God took an oath saying, surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give your fathers. What he's saying is, you're not going to experience that land. You're. You. If you reject God, and if you push away God's promises and his best, if. If you do that, then you don't get hit, you don't get those. You can't. You. Look, being born again, having eternal life, is a gift that's given to you by God. It's not something that you do, but experiencing that life in this lifetime, in the. In. In this physical world that he's placed us in experiencing, that requires that you walk by faith and trust him in it. All right? The. The. The genesis and. And the ability to have a relationship with God is completely in his hands. He makes. He does all that it takes to make that happen. But you experiencing it and walking in it, you becoming those things requires. It requires you to walk through that land. And he said, these people won't do that. They won't. They won't. They will not trust me and act upon the things that I've. I have given them, and so they can't have it. They're not going in. Now. There is an exception. Caleb, the son of Jepuna. And he shall see it. And to him and to his children, I'm giving the land on which he walked because he wholly followed the Lord. Meaning he's going to give him everything that he takes with his land, with his feet, everywhere. Notice everywhere he sets his feet, he gets that. That is a. That's not just a physical act. It is a intensely spiritual act. He says, everywhere Joseph walk. I mean, Joshua walks. He. He gets that. Well, that. That's. That's the. That's the whole point of the promises. Every promise I walk in, I have. Every promise I don't walk in, I don't have. He says, the Lord was also angry with me for your sake, saying, even you shall not go in there. And the Lord was, Moses is not going to get to go in. Why? Because Moses. Moses disrespected God's word. He. God gave him instructions, and he did not follow those instructions. So Moses didn't walk in it. And God said, you're not going in. You're not going into the promised land. And in many ways, is Moses being a picture of the law, even though he is a picture of the redeemer, him being a picture of the law excludes him from going into the promised land, because the promised land is not based off of law. It's based off of faith. So you go, why? I don't understand how Moses. That doesn't seem right. It does seem right. If you understand that Moses is the epitome of the law. He is the picture of the law because he is the law giver. He. The law does not get you the promises of God. Okay? The law. The law just defines the holiness of God. God delivers you from the sin that. That is a result of rebellion against that law, and then he allows you to walk by faith in the salvific process. And there you are. And Moses is a picture of the law. So he says, Joshua, the son of nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there, encourage him, for he shall cause in Israel to inherit it. What he's saying is, follow this young man. Follow this leader. That's an important, real important principle there. Those who were leading you in, what does he say to them? Encourage them. Those who are leading you into the promised land, encourage them. Encourage those who are. Who are helping you walk in the promises of God. Be a source of encouragement. Be a source of strength. So many times, young believers tend to do what they did. The generation that didn't go in do, and they fall into that. They let roots of bitterness grow up in their hearts. They. They murmur and question and, and always are trying to search for why not to do what God has told them to do. Don't be that way. Don't let bitterness have a foothold in your heart. Do not let discouragement take over. Continue to study God's word. Continue walking his promises, and you'll have them. And he says, the ones who lead you there encourage them also. He says, moreover, your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, uh, he's talking about the, the people who wouldn't go in, their, his children. They're actually going, who today have no knowledge of good and evil. They shall go in there. To them, I will give it, and they shall possess it. So what God was saying is, uh, he's going to find a generation who's willing to walk through these things. He's always searching for people to glorify his name, uh, by walking in faith with him. And those who will not do it can't go in. But there always is a generation that will. And as, as, as God's people and as a pastor, that has to be the focus of the church. It has to be. One of the main focal points of the church is to teach the people how to walk in the promises and to give the children every opportunity to know what that's like and to watch their parents and the adults before them walk through it. That builds the next generation. He says to them, I will give it and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the red sea. And he did. They said, you're punishing our children. No, I'm going to give them the promised land. I'm just not going to give it to you. Uh, oftentimes people. People think that, uh, uh, they get to control where their children go and, and how their children live. And. And let me say this. You do, uh, you get to con. You get to, um, uh, uh, cause and bring about, uh, the goodness of God if you walk with God. But if you don't walk with God and, and if you choose your own will in your own way, don't expect that your children will follow behind you, especially if they're born again. They, they won't, they won't allow. They're not. They. If they know God, they're going to walk with God even harder. And faster than you do. And so if, if, if your thoughts are well, we're going to have our own little enclave and we're going to do things the way we want to do them. Uh, trust me, when they get older, they'll depart from your ways and they'll, they'll go to God's ways. Uh, and God knew that. God knew that the next generation would follow him. And they did so many times. So many times older folks realize, you know, my kids are starting to take out, take off and chase after God and they get with it and they start doing it. I praise God for that, but oftentimes I'll see that, see that children chase after God. And their parents, their parents even in some ways hinder that. Don't worry about it. Keep chasing after God, he said. Then you answered and said to me, we have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight just as the Lord our God commanded us, meaning we're going to do it now. Now that we realize what we've done, we're going to do it now. Well, sometimes in life your moment passes you by. Oftentimes that does happen. If God is giving you, is urging you forward, then your moment hasn't passed you by. But if God's not urging you forward, you can't make, you can't make the will of God change. And so they said, we'll go now. Well, you've not ever gone before. And God said, you, you have, you have totally rejected me. Don't expect that I'm going to bless you now. You've had your day, you've had your opportunity and that that day's passed. And so he says, and when every one of you had girded up with weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountainous. And the Lord said to me, tell them, do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you, lest you be defeated before your enemies. So I spoke to you, yet you would not listen. Notice every time they hear God's word, they do not do what God says. Every time they hear a word from the Lord, they do not do what God says. And so he told them. He told them, listen, I spoke to you, yet you knew would not listen, but rebelled the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the mountain and the Amorites who dwelt in the mountain came out against you and chased you to the, as bees do. That's a really great illustration. They chase you as a. In Alabama, it's yellowjackets. Sure. You can get bees that'll attack. But. But the truth is, it's yellowjackets. If you ride over a yellow jacket nest or you're pushing a lawnmower over yellow jacket nest, or you accidentally get in, into one, they will chase you like you would not believe, and you run screaming and slapping and swinging, and it is hilarious. And that's what the Amorites did. They drove the children of Israel out. Why? Because they didn't have God with them. God did not go up before them. Uh, you have to have God's will. You can't choose your. You can't choose it to do it the way you want to do it. So many times as believers, we. We want to do. We want to do the plan of God in our own way. And that. That will not work. It will not work. You can't do the plan of God in your own way. You have to do the plan of God in God's way. You got to walk with him the way he walks. Um, he said, then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. That is a terrible place to find yourself. When you've had every opportunity, you've seen the greatness of God, and you wouldn't walk in it. Finally, you reach a place where you can't walk in it. You go, well, is that. Is that. Does that happen? Yeah, it does. It does happen. What do we do about those things? Well, I can say this. If you hear the voice of the Lord, if you hear God speaking to your heart about something, move in it. Move in it quickly. And now, if you. If this is a point of concern for you, that you know God, you've missed out on your opportunities to walk with God and to see God do big things, if that's a concern for you, I would say to you wholeheartedly today, I would say to you that you probably have not, because you are greatly concerned about it. And if you're hearing God's voice, God urging you toward growth, toward grace, toward goodness, toward life, toward things, if you hear that, even if you've rejected him over and over and over again in the past, don't reject him today. If today you hear his voice turn to him, if today you hear his voice, allow him to lead you into these things, that's. That's a sure sign that you have not missed out on the will and the plan of God. And that is real. That's a real concern for people that they. They're never going to see. Uh, the best from God because they've rejected him so many times. And I will say this, that concern is. Is legitimate. It's a legitimate concern, but it also is. Is a concern that can be overcome. How. How do I. How do I overcome that? Well, one of the reasons I'm probably worried about that is because I've heard from God, so I know what it is to hear from God. One of the reasons I probably, uh, feel that way is because I rejected that. Don't do it now. And if you hear his voice, turn to him. That's a great message and a great understanding that we can get from this. Your day has not passed. If God is urging you forward to something, your time is not gone by. Your day is still today. And so if you hear his voice and you hear him pushing you toward his best, heed his voice as you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today. In Jesus name.