Deuteronomy 11:1-7 Bible Study | Episode 882

February 25, 2025

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

Deuteronomy 11:1-7   Bible Study | Episode #882

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 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 are In Deuteronomy, chapter 11 and verses 8 through verses 17. 8 through 17. And so we're. We're in. In a passage where Moses is telling them about taking the land.

But one of the, one of the things that, that is kind of, you know, really, to tell you the truth, it's kind of strange about the Christian life is that Christians want Christ, but they don't always necessarily want the Christian life.

They want the benefits that come from knowing Christ. But they don't want.

They don't want to live in the land, I guess is the best way to make for me to say it. They want to have a. They want to have a condo there.

You know, they want to maybe buy a vacation home in. In God's promises. They want to have some access, you know, maybe, maybe be able to come in the gates and enjoy it for the day.

But eventually they want to be able to move away from those things, and they want to move toward just continuing to live in the lifestyle that they have. And when we're talking about the Christian life and when we're talking about the Promised Land, we're talking about the same thing.

The Promised Land is a physical representation of a spiritual truth in the New Testament, which is the fullness of the Christian life, the complete Christian life.

The New Testament tells us to make every effort to enter God's rest. That's in Hebrews. And so it's talking about make every effort to enter into the place of God's promises.

And God's rest in the Old Testament was in the Promised Land.

And so notice the New Testament, Hebrews tells us to make every effort to enter God's rest. It doesn't make, doesn't say make every effort to vacation there or make every effort to have access to it or make every effort to go and spend some time there, you know, maybe once or twice a year.

It says make every effort to enter God's rest on a permanent basis, on a long term basis.

Moving forward, wanting to enter God's rest all the time. And, and that effort to enter God's rest, that effort to be in God's kingdom is important. It's important. And, and, and God in the Old Testament when he's talking to the children of Israel, he is preparing and he's preparing them to live there and to understand that the promised land is not like Egypt.

And Egypt's the world, Egypt's a picture of the world for us in the New Testament. So he's saying being a believer, you know this, this Old Testament picture, saying being a believer is not like being in the world.

It's it now we're in it, but we're not of it. Were to love our neighbors as ourselves and, and, and build relationships with those who were still left in the world.

But we're, we have a, we have another home. We have a home that's not here. We're sojourners. The Bible says we're, we're passers through of this world and moving on to God's kingdom and God's world.

And so the Spirit filled Christian life is a realization that in this world is not our home. Our home is in, in, in heaven. Our home is in God's will.

Our home is in his eternity. And so I don't have to live in the present life as if it is my permanent dwelling, because it's not, it's not my permanent dwelling.

And so when we're studying this, I want you to see that picture. That is the picture that entering the promised land is all about. And we're going to move past Deuteronomy into Joshua.

And that is taking the promised land and all the issues that come up with taking the promised land. And so I want you to understand when God is giving them these directions, he's teaching them how they should have the mindset to be prepared to go into the promised land, to take God's promises, to live in his best.

And so he says, therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today.

That you be strong and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess. Now notice he wants them to keep his commandments and we've talked about that, but he also wants them to be strong.

And he'll later say to Joshua to be courageous.

What he's saying is, is in order to take my land to Take my promises. You have to buy, you have to buy your own will, seize it. And by the way, that's what the promised land's all about.

That's what the salvific process is all about. That's what salvation is. That's what sanctification is, is. It's the one aspect of the whole plan of God which, where we actually get to play a role, we get to be a part of it, we get to exercise our faith, we get to walk in the goodness of God, the plans of God, the purposes of God.

And so when you're looking at these plans and these ways and this will that is going on, when you look at it and see it, you see God's real best, you see his most taking place here.

And so you realize that I have to, I have to engage in that. And how do I engage in it? Will I engage by faith? And so what is the source of my strength?

The source of my strength is my faith. The source of my strength is what I'm trying to, is, is how I'm trying to trust in God and see the big stuff.

See the big stuff that's going on. And so he says, he says that you got to be strong and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give your father's notice.

This is not a, this is not a visit to the promised land. It's not a, it's not a, a, a, a vacation spot that you're going to go. What does he say you got, he wants you to prolong your days there.

Meaning that we're going to live in the promised land. We're going to live in the Spirit filled Christian life. We're going to possess that life. It's not a, it's not a, it's not a, a destination that we're, we're going to leave from.

It is a destination where we're going to live. He says God swore to give it to your forefathers and their descendants. Meaning this is a part of that eternal plan that's part of that divine plan.

And by the way, when you're thinking about it in the theological sense, you know, when he says those I foreknew, I predestined, those I predestined I call, those I called, I justified.

And those I, I do glorify. Notice the only part of the process that's left out is sanctify. Why? Because all the rest of the process, God does himself, he foreknows, he predestines, he calls, he justifies, he glorifies, he does all of those parts of the process.

The only part of the process left out in Romans is the sanctify. And why does he leave sanctify out? Because he does not solely do that. He does that with us.

Sanctification is, I trust him. I begin to take on the power and the purpose and the heart and the passion of God. I begin to do those things and I begin to change the world I live in.

And so taking the promised land is the one aspect of the Christian life where, where we actually join God in His work. We join God in what he's doing. And so when you join God in what he's doing and you join him in his work and walk with him, you are actually being a part of the process.

But now that means that it was God's plan for you to be a part of that process. And he says that he swore it to our forefathers. It's been planned for a long time that you would join God and that you would join him by trusting him by faith.

For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, meaning the promised land's lot. Like the world. We don't need to sell the church like the world.

We don't need to say the being being the church, being the body of Christ is going to be a souped up version of the world. That's not what we're saying.

It's different, it's not the same.

Oftentimes Christians want to do that, right? We want to sell the church as a souped up, better version of the world. It's not. It's not the world. It's not the same thing.

If you're doing that, quit acting like it is. It's not. Okay. The Christian life is not like living as a worldly person. It's not. It's nothing like it. It's a different place.

Did I make that point? I hope I did. He says, for the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you've come, which you where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot as a vegetable garden.

What he said, I mean, this is obvious. You sowed your seed, you watered it by a foot, and it's a vegetable garden. Mean you had to go out and water it.

You had to go get water from the Nile river which had crocodiles in it, and you had to bring the Water to your land. And you had to. Or you had to go get it from a well that's nearby and you had to water the seed yourself because there wasn't a whole lot of rain.

There was not. It was actually a desert where a river ran through it. Okay, it's not the same, he says, but the land which you cross over to possess is land with hills and valleys, with drink.

That which drinks water from the rain of heaven mean God's going to reign on that land. God's going to actually come and provide the salvation of his reign.

Which, by the way, is the whole picture of the promised land. It's the salvific process. He's. He's going to. He's going to provide you the salvation. Salvation of his reign.

A land for which the Lord your God cares, meaning he really cares for it. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

Meaning God's. God's working in this land all the time. He's there all the time. He's always at work. And by the way, when you're in the Christian life, God's always at work on you.

He's always trying to get you into his best.

That's what the Holy Spirit's doing. He says, it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commands, which I command you today to love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season.

Remember, we're serving him. We're walking by faith. We're trusting what he says. We're walking in his commandments. We're walking in his precepts. We're walking in his judgments.

We're walking in the things that he says. And when he does, he says he's gonna.

He's going to provide you rain all year long. I'll give you rain for your land in its season. The early rain and the latter rains, meaning the spring rains and the fall rains.

He says that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, your oil. Grain. The word of God. New wine. The goodness of God. Oil. The power of God. He's saying, I'm going to give you these things.

Boom, boom, boom. I'm gonna give you the word. I'm gonna give you the goodness. I'm gonna give you the power.

Grain, wine, oil. I'll send grass in your fields for your livestock that they may eat and be filled. Notice they're not having to Plant the fields for livestock. God's providing for the livestock.

His provision is making sure that you have the sacrifices, the ability to sacrifice, to have that cattle, to sacrifice that flesh. He says, take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived.

And you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. He says, don't let the world pull you aside or you're not in the world anymore. You're not in the world anymore.

You're in it, but not of it. Your whole mindset is totally different. The way you think, the way you act, the way you walk. Totally different.

He says, lets the Lord anger be roused against you, lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside, serve other gods, lest the Lord's anger be roused against you. And he shut up the heavens so that there be no rain and the land yield no produce.

And you're you perish quickly for good land which the Lord is giving you. What he's saying is, is that even though it's God's promises and God's best, those promises and that best can be cut off.

So what he's saying, he's saying that God can't cut that off. It's not just a land that produces based off of lack of effort. It's not something that self fixes.

And you need to know that because by the way, 150 years ago, the land of Israel was just a wasteland.

In fact, we have several accounts of pretty famous people, famous people from Europe, famous people from America going to Jerusalem, Judea, going to the land of the promised land and saying it's a wasteland with a few nomads roaming around.

That's all that there was.

Jerusalem was a small little city and, and, and there was little or nothing out in the actual hinter country. You know why? Because there wasn't a people there, a people of promise living in it.

Now, 150 years later, where the Jewish population has returned to Israel, it, it is a bustling society with, with wonderful gardens and wonderful places of, of food production and, and huge cities and, and a sprawling civilization.

Why? Well, when God's people do what God tells them to do and show up where they're supposed to be, God shows up and does his will.

And that's what Israel is today.

Now if that physical truth was a truth back then, and then it, it laid fallow and dead for a couple of sin, a couple of millennia. And then God's people show back up and he does it again.

That means God's promises are eternal. And for sure. And, and, and you can trust in them.

And so if you've not walked in the promised land very much lately, you need to go back to your home. Go home when you get there.

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.