The Story - Chapter 8

I want to read a passage of scripture from the book of Deuteronomy, if you'd like to find that in your Bibles. It's not in the story book, but that's what I want to read today from Deuteronomy, I'll read it in just a minute. Deuteronomy chapter 7, beginning with verse 7, we were having a moment of prayer, I felt like we ought to pray especially for Natalie, I think that's the way you pronounce her name. So join me in prayer for Natalie's grandfather, the father I asked for this man who has cancer in his lungs, that you'd give him comfort, that you'd give him peace, that today he would know that you're responding to a request from Natalie for him. You'd know this because today is a peaceful day. We ask father that if it is your will for her to see him, that you would provide that. You can do anything you want, anything that's good, and so we ask this in the name of Christ, amen. People of Israel were in a great situation because a long-term promise had been coming true for them. They were in the land of promise. God had said he would give them this place and he did, but years before that, when they were on the very verge of entering the land, Moses was called to give some instruction to them about what was going to take place. That's what I have in Deuteronomy chapter 7. Moses had led them all the way out of Egypt right to the edge of entering the land of promise and he wasn't going to get to go in himself, but God had given him directions as to what he should say to the people before they entered. His instructions were to guide them to make sure that they knew exactly what God wanted. Verse 7, the Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all people. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. But those who hate him, he will repay to their face by destruction. He will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him. Therefore take care to follow the commands, decrees, and laws I give you today. If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you, bless you, increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land, your grain, new wine and oil, the calves of your herd, and the lambs of your flocks, and the land that he swore to your forefathers to give to you. You will be blessed more than any other people. None of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you. You must destroy all the people the Lord your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity, and do not serve their gods, for they will be a snare to you. Now I want to skip to chapter 8 of the book of Deuteronomy to verse 19. What Moses is talking about is the contract or covenant that God made with Abraham. He said to him, I will give you a place. I will guide you to where I want you to go. When you get there, I will give you land that will be a source of provision for you the rest of your days and all of your descendants. I will protect you because your enemies will also be my enemies, and your friends will be my friends. And I will make your nation so great as the sands of all the seas, and your nation will impact the entire world. That's my promise to you. Verse 19 of chapter 8, If you ever forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Now he is making this statement to the people he has made this covenant with, all the wonderful things. You will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God. The contract that God made with the people of Israel, the covenant as it is called in the scriptures, was a very simple one. The same one he made with Abraham, he delivered them out of Egypt and he took them to Mount Sinai and there on the mountain he made this new covenant with all the people. The same one he made with Abraham. I want to make sure that all of you understand what I am asking you to do. I want to make sure that you are really pledged to this. Three times he asked the people this question and they said we will do everything you tell us to do. And so on Mount Sinai he gave the Ten Commandments, he gave all the information or instructions about how to live that are found in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. All those laws that explain how the people of God were to live in the world where he places them. That they might be unique like no one else in the world. Their clothing was unique, their food was unique, their way of farming was unique. They were different than all the other people because they were to reflect the character of God. They were witnesses to the world of what God was like. They were his missionaries. Then he said to them, but my promises to you can only be fulfilled if you do your side of the contract. You said you would keep all of these instructions that I have given to you. Living this separated life. God's command to the people of Israel was a powerful one. He wanted them to have the land of promise. He wanted to take them straight to the land where they were to live. But when he got there and they were ready to go in, the people looked at the enemies and they said they are too big for us. They did not count on the fact that God said their enemies would be his enemies and that he would defeat them. They violated trusting God and the contract that he had made with them. You make a contract with someone. You expect them to fulfill their side of it. But if you question their integrity, you are going to be unwilling to sign a contract with them. The people of Israel were not willing to do what God told them they should do. They didn't believe that he would do his side of the contract. God waited 40 years for all those people to die. They weren't willing to live up to the covenant or the contract that they had made with him. A new generation came and the 40 years that he spent in the wilderness, he spent trying to teach them that he would keep that contract. He guided them all around that area, proved he could do it, led them back to the place where they were ready to go in. He provided everything they needed. Their shoes didn't even wear out. Forty years. You can imagine that, walking in those shoes. I don't know what the women would have done with only one pair of shoes, but that's the way it goes. Every time they needed something, he provided it. Manna rained from heaven. Birds flew in and fell at their feet. And then he brought them right up to the Jordan River again, ready to go in. And he said, when you go in there, I'll go ahead of you, I'll defeat your enemy. This land is yours. They were now ready to fulfill their side of the contract. They entered the land of promise, did what God asked them to do. The enemy fell before them, one city after another, when they were obedient to God. They possessed all of this land. They divided the land up. They went to live on it. Everything God wanted them to do came to pass. Because the contract they'd made with God, he kept his side of it. The contract they made with God, they kept their side of it. And then we come to the section that you're looking at today. Chapter 8 in the story, or if you want to read it in the scriptures, it's Judges chapter 2. The same thing. Verses 7 through 15. The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him. And they had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. Joshua, son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110, and they buried him in the land of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the land of the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Ganesh. After this whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshipped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord's anger because they forsook him and served Baal and Ashtoreth. At his anger against Israel, the Lord gave them to the hands of the raiders who plundered them and sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress. What's happened here? The long-held promise of God came to pass, and it turned into a disaster. The book of Judges covers a period of 330 years, you'll read. 111 of those years, they were prisoners or captives or slaves to other people, not free to enjoy the land that God had given them, that they had won. It wasn't because they weren't trying. They were trying really hard, but the harder they fought, the worse it became, because the hand of God was no longer on them. There they were. They should have been receiving the greatest times of their life, but they were in distress. Now, this one story is repeated over and over and over again. In fact, in the story of Judges, there are 12 different Judges, and 12 different times this cycle occurs. The people of Israel come to God, renew their covenant promise, prove to Him that they're willing to live for Him. He gives them the ability to throw off their enemies and live again as people free to serve Him, and then the same thing happens again. Over and over and over. This is a picture of what it means to be a backslider or to be backsliding. It's not something that anyone sets out to do. I've never known of anyone who said, well, I want to backslide on my promise to God. Never have met anyone who wanted to do that. What happens is that people start out and something takes place in their lives that causes them to be removed from the protective power of the contract that they've made with God. It is so subtle and so gradual that most people never realize it occurs to them. You might actually be in that state right now and not be aware of it. How can you be aware of it? It's because your life gets in distress. That's what the scripture says. But in every one of these events, the same thing takes place. The people of Israel traveling through the wilderness experienced powerful actions of God. He told them where to go, when to stop, what to do. They did it. He provided food for them when they needed it. He provided water when they needed it. He protected them from people who would try to attack them and kill them. And He made them into a great and powerful nation ready to do His work. All of that they experienced themselves. They literally saw the manna fall from heaven. They literally saw water squirt out of a big rock. They knew the power of God first hand. Now you see in this story a scary thing. In this story it says that the people who knew all of these experiences, who had all of these experiences, died. A whole generation gathered to their ancestors and another generation grew up that neither knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for His people Israel. If there is ever a verse anywhere in the Bible that tells us the importance of teaching children about God, this one stands there. You can't count on the fact that you as a faithful person, as an adult, are going to pass on to your children the same faith you have. You cannot do that. It must become their faith. You can't help them by telling them all the stories of the Bible and telling them the stories of your own life. There is a missing ingredient that must take place. They must learn how to trust God. They must learn how to say, God what do you want me to do about my friend at school who is a jerk? And find God's answer. They should learn that whenever they do something wrong and their parents or the teacher or whoever it is says, did you do this? To say the truth. As risky and as hard as those things are, they are learning that you can trust God to do the things that are right. They must learn the miracle of good things coming to them by obedience to God. They must learn what it means to face things and sacrifice doing what's right and realizing that God does help you in the end. They must learn how to listen to God, to tell the difference between Satan's discussion in their head and God's discussion in their head. They must learn, just like you do, exactly what it means to follow God on their own. So they will know, not your story, but they will have their own story. It starts as a small child. Learning how to read the Bible, learning how to memorize scripture, learning how to put it in practice, not only watching parents but imitating them in their own faith. And as it grows to a young child, to a teenager, to an adult, they must grow in that practice of putting into operation the contract with God. You must come to Him to say, you are my Lord and I'm going to let you control the way I think. I'm going to let you control my behavior, even when it seems disastrous. So you have a friend, a girlfriend or boyfriend in high school and they're doing things that you shouldn't do and you think, man, if I lose this boyfriend or girlfriend, it's the end of my life. God, what should I do? You have to learn on your own that if you say no to what you know is wrong and right to what God wants, that He will bless you. If you don't learn that at that stage of your life, you're going to be messed up because you'll never know how to make choices. That's what happened to the people of Israel. They did great. They came into the Promised Land. They got their land, but their children did not experience the same things they did. And so they did not have confidence in the contract with God. They didn't have their own contract with God. And then the next step is inevitable. They did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Whenever you don't know what God wants you to do, you don't do the right things. But if you know what God wants you to do, but you've never experienced Him keeping His side of that promise, then you don't really realize the power of God to help you. And so what you begin to do is make choices about what you're going to do. You have this thing on one side, what God says, and this what looks good to you on the other side, and you have to make those choices. And if you're not nailed down to that promise you've made to God, pretty soon you begin to do the things that God considers evil. That's a key ingredient. You don't necessarily consider it evil. Sometimes it looks to you like good sense. Sometimes it looks like to you to a shrewd move. Sometimes it looks like to you it's necessary. But to God, it's evil. So if you have not taught your children what's good and what's bad, what God says and what the world says, they sometimes don't know the difference between those. The people of Israel begin to do the things that were evil in God's eyes. The third thing they did was they forsook the Lord of their ancestors who had brought them out of Egypt, and they followed various gods of the people around them. If you don't have God's plan as to how you should live, what do you do? You do what everybody else around you is doing. You raise a child in your home. You can keep them cloistered as long as you want to, but sooner or later they meet people out there in the world who are doing other things than they're doing. And the influence of our society is powerful and strong. And when you're walking through this world and the influence of the world is all around you, you have to make choices about what you're going to do. You learn to value some things and not value others. You learn what's a good choice and what's a bad choice. And you have the presence of God in your life to ask, what should I do? But if you've negated your contract and you're not going to do what God wants you to do, now it's all in your hands. You have to decide what is fake and what's real when you don't have anything but your human mind to figure that out. You have to decide the kind of people you should trust. When you don't have God's mind, you have to figure that out yourself. It's hard for us to take the words of a person and know their heart. It is not hard for God to do that. You can have someone to tell you the most wonderful things that you'd love to hear and inside their minds and their hearts are lying everything, every word they say is a lie. You may not know that, but God does. And in your mind there can come a little question. I'm not sure about this deal. I'm not sure about this person. God can tell you, but once that's removed from you, you're on your own to do whatever you see is right. Here's the reality. What Satan offers us in life appeals to our human flesh. It sounds good to our ears, looks good to our eyes, feels good to our experience. And what God often asks us to do is something that is sacrificial, saying no to what we see, no to what we hear, and no to some pleasurable experiences that we might have. How do you choose this sacrifice over this self-indulgence? If you don't have some bigger guide, there's no way to do it. But if you've said to God, I trust you and you alone, then you have with you at all times someone who knows the truth, what's right, and what will mean valuable things to you in your future. But the people of Israel lost that. They began to look around them at the people who worshiped the Baals and their religion was a lot more fun than going down to the temple and killing a calf. Their religion was a lot more pleasurable than going down to the tabernacle in that smoky area where they were setting things on fire. The promise was everyone else around you will be with you. Are you going to be one of those people over there by yourself? And so over and over again, one generation after another, they fell for this. God would raise up a judge and send them a mighty person who would help them deliver them from their enemies because they came back to God and said, look what we've done. How did we get here? Oh Lord, please save us. He would send them a judge. He would deliver them from their enemies. And that generation would have that experience and say, we're going to live for God all of our lives. And they did. But they died. And the next one came along without the experience, without the knowledge. And they wandered off again. Twelve times in this book it happened. You may find your own life safely in the hands of God, but it doesn't mean that the people who are behind you are going to. It happens to nations as it did to this one. It happens to churches too. It happens to churches because people come with a great vision of what God wants them to do. They're committed to God and they love Him with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their strength. They reach out into the community and they try desperately to do everything God wants them to do. I lost my sound. You'll give me this one. I can use it. Got it, Larry? Yeah, can I have sound? You can give everything that you want, every passion that you have to God and He'll bless it. Whenever that begins to slip away, then you have an empty form. People are not listening to the words of God, not reading the Bible. People are not being witnesses of the presence of God in their life. I mean by that they're not making choices God wants them to make. They're living the way their neighbors live, so they have no influence that there is a different lifestyle to be able to live. And it slowly, slowly occurs. No one I've ever known, no church I've ever known is passionate for God, passionate for living in obedience to Him. And then one Sunday says, hey, let's vote not to do it anymore. Doesn't happen that way. It happens because one day some of the people in the church, maybe it's a preacher, Sunday school teachers, leaders in the church, say, well, I'm busy today. Not important to read the Bible every day. After all, you know, I read it most of the time and then it's two days and three days and four days. I saw a survey that had been taken that said pastors surveyed in this survey said their devotional time averaged five minutes a day. I don't know where they were, who they were talking to, but is it any wonder that the church is weak and powerless? But what about you? Can you remember a time in your life when you were so passionate for God that you wouldn't miss a service? You're so passionate for God that you wouldn't miss a day reading the Bible, that you took to Him every concern that you had, that you pled with Him about problems that you faced? If that's happened to you in your life, you know exactly what this story is about. There was a time in my life when I was passionate for Him, but now He's in another part of my life. I'm living for myself. What should I do here? Which one? I'll just use this one, that'll be safe. The story happens to churches. You can drive around any town that you want to go to, and you'll find large buildings that used to house thriving, passionate congregations that are empty. We made a loan in our foundation not long ago for a church building that had been built by a congregation that was really passionate for God, had a building like this for the auditorium, a stainless steel kitchen, a gymnasium. It was praised at $800,000. The congregation died. We had a black church buy it for $100,000. Dead church, empty building, once thriving. It happens to churches. Whenever you get to thinking, well, it's not necessary to pray for the lost. It's not necessary to witness to my neighbors. It's not necessary to tell people about Christ. It happens to churches. It happens to people. It happens to people because we get started, and God blesses us when you commit your life to Christ. I mean, it's just true, he does. You say, God, I'm going to live my life for you, and you start out, and he blesses you. He blesses you financially. He blesses you in terms of your protection and safety. He helps you make the right choices. You start living this when you think, you know, I can do this. I've been making right choices for 10 years. I can keep on making the rest of my life. I've read the Bible through. You know, I know it a time or two. I know that, and I've got that behind me. So you quit reading the Bible, and you start trying to make good choices like you used to make them. And because you're not guided by God, they don't work. You try harder and harder and harder, but it doesn't work. What happens then is, as you quit, take your eyes off of God every day, your eyes begin to wander around at the people around you. That family seems to be doing okay. Here's the things they do. They want to be friends. Why don't I go with them and do the things they do? Your friends around you attract you, and the first thing you know, the spiritual things that used to occupy your life are gone. There's no prayer time. Your church attendance is not regular. You're not in service to God, that is, helping other people come to know him. And then one step after another, and disaster. One of the saddest things the pastor goes through is to see in a congregation when you've been there a long time, the people have drifted out, marriages dissolve, their children end up in disasters. It just happens. God begins to withdraw his power from you. He doesn't help you make good choices. He doesn't provide for you, so you're always scrambling. He doesn't protect you, so you're always afraid, and your life becomes a mess. No one wants to be like you. It doesn't happen overnight, but it happens. Not only does God withdraw his hand from you, but this is a scary thing, he becomes your enemy. When you fight the battles, he said to the people of Israel, I'm going to be on the enemy's side. God's judgment is certain. He said to the people of Israel, if you wander away from me, and you sin like the people that I'm driving out before you and destroying, I will also completely destroy you. And you know he did. The nation of Israel was completely destroyed. The issue of falling away from God is not a small thing. It's so subtle for us that we never know it's happened until the life is disastrous. Here's the wonderful thing about God, though. He comes back and says to us, would you like to change? You remember whenever things were great between us? They can be that way again. All I ask of you is just make this covenant again with me. I pledge myself to live in obedience to you. I will read your word. I will discuss with you the issues that I'm trying to make decisions about. I will do whatever I believe that you want me to do as best I can. With that renewal of the covenant, God says, I will bless you. I will guide you, provide for you, protect you, and I will make your life a powerful influence. How many stories have you heard about people who strayed away from God and then came back to him and their powerful testimony is so strong? God is not through with anyone until the day of death comes. In the story of Israel, one generation after another, he kept coming back 12 times. I would wager to you that, I'm not going to bet with you, but I would just say to you that when you read the book of Judges, if you don't, by the time you get halfway through that saying, this is boring, the same old thing keeps happening over and over again, these people are so stupid that you want to quit reading. God didn't give up on them. Imagine how weary this was for him over and over and over again, but he never stopped. Death is the only thing that will stop God's work in your life. He wants you to be passionate about him, to love him with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. He wants you to listen to his word. He wants you to do what he's telling you, and he promises you, I will be your God. I will help you with all your choices. I will give you power to achieve things and provide for yourself that you never had before. Just trust me. No matter how big the enemies are around you, I will stand between you and whoever would destroy you. Then me, you won't suffer, but you won't be destroyed. And when your life is over, you will have made a mark in this world that will last forever. Now, the choice is really ours. It's not coming to church, it's not joining a church, it's not even praying a prayer, it's not being baptized. It is saying to the Lord, just like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the people of Israel, I say to you, Lord, I give my life to you. I pledge to you today to do what you tell me as best I can. I'm going to learn what you want from me, and every day I'm going to try to put it in practice. Every day I'm going to ask you, Lord, is there something in my life you want changed? And whatever you tell me, I'm going to say, Lord, give me a passion to be able to change that, and the strength to change it. Is there something, God, you want me to do? I will do it. Those things are what God asks. And then when your children come into your home, your grandchildren come into your home, you want to teach them how to do the same things. That they will know, not by reading a book or by hearing your story about God, but they will know for themselves what that story is about. You don't want to pass on your story to them alone. You want them to have a story. Let's pray. Where are you in this deal? Have you ever made that promise to God to give Him your life? If you haven't done that today, you should do it. You can do it right now. You just say to God, Lord, I don't want to be like other people. I want to be like you want me to be. So today I want to make a promise to you. I'm going to learn what you want me to do in the Bible. I trust you so much that I'm going to do everything I know you want me to do as best I can. I'm going to be perfect. And you won't become a follower, you won't become saved by doing what the Bible says. You're saved by trusting God. And because of your trust in Him, then you believe His words. If you make that prayer to God, sometime He's going to tell you, I want you to stand in front of people and say, I've given my life to God. I want the whole world to know it. Today may be that day for you. You may be here and you look back on your life and there's a time in your life when you were really close to God. Now you're not. God hasn't moved. He's still where He was. What is it that's come between you and God? Are you not passionate about listening to what He says to you through the Scriptures? Are you not regularly in Sunday school preaching to hear the words of God and instruction to your life? If you've shut your ears off to God, you're not going to hear Him. Or do you know what He wants you to do, but you just don't want to do it? God is waiting for you. He wants you to come back and renew the covenant with Him. I violated my side of this, God, forgive me. If you will give me wisdom and strength, I will live for you as you tell me. Maybe God said to you, this is a church you ought to be a part of. Maybe He's told you there's a job you should take. Today, God's people do what they know He tells them to do. So Father, speak to each of us. Let us know today the dangers that we face in moving away from you. Let us know what we need to do to be close to you. In this moment of quietness, I'm going to ask the pianist to play. If you know that God wants you to make some kind of promise to Him, and you know that He wants you to come and share it with us, this is your opportunity to do it. To openly and boldly say, today, this is what God has asked of me. And because I promised Him to do whatever He told me, today, I do this in obedience to Him, while she plays. You listen to God. And keep your contract with Him. And do what He tells you. Tell me what's going on. Brad came saying that he has a constant conflict with his parents, that he wants to be able to learn how to live in a way that God wants him to. And it doesn't mean your parents are not going to like what you do. Sometimes parents don't want you to do things God wants you to do, but if you do those in a good spirit, then God gives you, He'll stand, He'll help you. Linda, do you guys come and tell us what's taking place here? Whichever of you wants to talk. You want me to? Well, Kalinda's come today. She wants to be baptized. She wants to join the church. Debbie has been studying with her the story, and she feels that God has really been talking to her. And He has. And she decided she's changed her life, a lot has changed in her life. A year ago, her life was a mess. And I'm here to testify to that. A year later now, her life has changed. She's walking with God, wanting God to lead her, and now she wants to show the church by being baptized, and she just wants to become part of this church family. So Kalinda, you have made a promise to God that you're going to live your life in obedience to Him as best you can, is that right? Yes. Okay. This is the promise that God wants. learning from other people, being obedient to Him, are necessary parts of helping God make your life different. Would you stand, please, for a moment of prayer together? When we read the story of Israel, we understand that you didn't choose us because we're the best people in the world. You didn't choose us because we're the richest, because we're the smartest. You chose us because you love us. You've reached your hand down into this world and you've touched us and said, I want you to belong to me. Most humbling experience in all the world, God. And many of us have experienced that, as Kalinda has experienced it. We ask that you would give her the passion to continue to live the rest of her life as she is now, seeking you and obedient to you. God wants to learn to live a way that you want Him to. Seems to have caused conflict with His parents. Be with His parents and with Him, that they might be able to live in obedience to you without that conflict. All of us ask, Lord, that you would hold your hand on us, that the passion we have for you would never leave. In the name of Christ, we ask it, amen. For our closing, we're going to sing the last verse of In Christ Alone. No guilt in life, no fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever block me from His hand. Until He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I stand.