Deuteronomy 1:1-8 Here We Are

Welcome to Recast Church, where we're growing in faith, community, and service. You're listening to a message by Pastor Kyle Douglas from the

Book of Deuteronomy, from a series entitled, Clinging to God on the Way from Here to There. If you'd like more information about Recast Church, check us out at recastchurch .com

or you can find us on Facebook. Here's Pastor Kyle. All right.

I got some good stuff for Christmas, including some trekking poles, which I'm excited to use at some point, like hiking poles, you know.

But I think maybe one of the best gifts I'm getting this year is the opportunity to preach for two weeks.

And I'm really excited to preach this week and next, and then I get another opportunity in February.

And I consider it a privilege to be able to get up here and share the Word of God with you guys. So, and hopefully it'll give

Don a little breather, he'll come back refreshed and ready to go. So, since I have a couple of opportunities here at the start of the year,

I've decided to begin preaching through a book of the Bible. And I've landed on the book of, drum roll please,

Deuteronomy. Right. Anyone excited? Oh, yeah. I can see it.

Preaching the book of Deuteronomy. And this morning we'll cover some brief introductory factoids about Moses' fifth book.

And then we'll work through verses one through eight of chapter one and see if God will use that to mess with our hearts a little bit this morning.

To begin, though, and to kind of set up maybe the spirit of Deuteronomy, I'd like to do a little quiz.

Anyone up for a quiz? Okay. What I'll do is I'm going to read three short speeches and then you tell me where they come from and potentially who gave it, okay?

And then at the end, I'll ask you what they all have in common. So the first one is a layup.

This should be so easy, okay? Jesus, so close. So close.

Always the right answer. Always go with that. It's a safe one. He did make the people who made this movie, okay?

It's all him. All right. Anyway, let's get to this. I fight and you may die, run and you'll live at least a while.

And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance?

Just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our, all together now, freedom.

Any guesses? Mel Gibson, correct? William Wallace.

Jesus, I hope someday in heaven does that, you know, just gives us a chance to see the real king.

Right. Mel Gibson playing William Wallace in the movie Braveheart, all right?

And then at the end, they all shout together, Alba gubra, which I guess means

Scotland forever. Okay. That was easy. Second one, maybe a little harder, but probably not much.

Name the character who gives it and the movie. There's a tradition in tournament play not to talk about the next step until you've climbed the one in front of you.

I'm sure going to the state finals is beyond your wildest dreams, so let's just keep it right there. Forget about the crowds, the size of the school, their fancy uniforms, and remember what got you here.

Focus on the fundamentals that we've gone over time and time again. And most important, don't get caught up thinking about winning or losing the game.

If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book, we're going to be winners.

Hold on. All together. Remember that? Okay. All right.

Well, let's go. Yes. Hoosiers. Who said it? From the movie Hoosiers? Coach Dale.

Coach Dale of the Hoosiers. I think they go and win, right? Did they win? That'd be a waste of a speech if they didn't.

Okay. So, that was number two. Good job. You guys are movie buffs. All right. Now, the next one, a little bit longer.

Tell me where it comes from. Who said it? For ask now of the days that are past which were before you since the day that God created man on the earth.

And ask from one end of heaven to the other whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.

Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of a fire as you have heard and still live?

Or has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the

Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown that you might know the

Lord is God. There is no other besides him. To you it was shown,

I already said that part, out of heaven he let you hear his voice that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence by his great power, driving out before you the nations greater and mightier than you to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance as it is this day.

Know therefore today and lay it to your heart that the

Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments which

I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the

Lord your God is giving you for all time. Who said that one?

Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy. That's not a movie, but it would make an awesome one.

Didn't they make, was that part of the Bible thing or whatever? Should be. Tarleton, I'm sure he said it somewhere.

So what do all these have in common? These three speeches. They're all motivational speeches given to a team or a group of people on the brink of a major battle or game or transition.

The leaders use these words to keep their people focused, to rouse their hearts and minds and steal them, steal their hearts for the task ahead, to excite them into their full potential.

Deuteronomy as a whole is like a pre -game speech given by Moses to the

Israelites before the invasion of the promised land. It's not just a boring old book full of rules for people who don't live anymore.

It's a passionate, zealous call for the people to love God with all their heart and do what

God has called them to do. So it's like this long sermon. It was likely given over multiple days and in a few different locations, specifically

Kadesh, Barnea, Mount Ebal, and Moab. And Moses used it to pour out his heart to a people that he was about to leave behind.

But in case comparing Deuteronomy to Hoosiers does not yet convince you of the importance of studying this book, let me give you a few other reasons that I think, that I've used to decide to study this book of Deuteronomy.

First I think it helps us get greater clarity on the faith works debate and New Testament theology in general.

Anybody else interested in figuring that one out? Faith versus works? Kind of?

If you've got it locked down, don't worry about it. Is it all just faith or does

God want us to do some stuff? Do we follow the law anymore? Of course not.

No. It's all by Jesus. But are we to murder? Well, no. Anyone want to get in a debate about whether we should commit adultery or lie or steal?

So in some way the law still is important to us. We still want to know what God wants us to do.

But we of course know that it's all by faith. So as straight up rules go, much of what we read in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy just doesn't apply.

Like not being allowed to pick up sticks on Sunday or having to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. But we do know that some things still do.

What about the Sabbath? Maybe we can pick up sticks today, but doesn't the spirit of the law still apply?

Shouldn't we still take a day to set aside God as holy? Do we still need rest? Would anyone agree with that?

That you still need rest? That God is smart by telling us to take a day off? And I'm still working this one out.

So figuring out exactly what this means, how we live totally, how we're saved totally by faith and yet how we live for God, how we live in His freedom and the grace that He's given to us, takes some work.

And specifically the work of understanding God's patterns and His character. And Deuteronomy gives us a lot of information about how

God works and what He wants from His people, which may be why it is one of the most, if not the most quoted books in the

New Testament. It's referenced over 80 times. So if Jesus thought it was a good idea to bring it up in His teachings and His debates, maybe we ought to pay attention as well.

And I do think that having a good understanding of this book lays a solid foundation for our New Testament theology and understandings.

Secondly, as I just mentioned briefly, it does help us to get to know God better because He reveals a lot about His will and strategy for working with humans in this book.

I think a careful study of Deuteronomy helps dispel a common stereotype that we

Christians tend to lean on a lot. And that's that the God of the Old Testament is this mean, nasty guy who just gives a bunch of rules and the only way you get to heaven or please

Him is by keeping all the rules. Anyone been there? That's kind of your idea of the Old Testament God, big cranky guy, just like a school marm or something, dictator type

God. Faith didn't have much to do with anything once the law came around. Of course, you had the faith of Abraham, but then you get to the rules and now it's just about not picking up sticks and what else.

And likewise, now that Jesus has come, we don't have rules anymore, amen. And God certainly doesn't cramp anybody's style with something as 2000

BC as judgment for sin. As we will see,

I think studying a book like Deuteronomy helps keep us honest in our modern evangelicalism.

Yahweh was just as concerned with the heart condition of His people back at the giving of the law as He is today.

And our gracious Messiah is still concerned with us following the law of love that puts an emphasis on committing ourselves, including our lifestyles and everyday actions, fully to our

Creator, Provider, Savior God, and ridding ourselves of the despicable practices of the godless nations and showing the world how magnificent life can be when we obey

God with gladness and full -hearted obedience. And man, do we need an understanding, a strong understanding of the character and nature of God today.

And I wonder how many of us sign up for this Jesus thing and yet we never really take time or effort into figuring out who we actually follow.

You ever thought of that? We come to Jesus and we're glad that He saved us because, well, we don't want to go to hell, but then we don't really struggle to find out who it is we serve.

So sometimes we adopt things that aren't right or we have a weak sense of God's own identity and what

He'd want for us. And so studying a book like Deuteronomy helps us with that. Thirdly, last point,

I think Deuteronomy as a sermon given to God's people on the brink of a great national geopolitical transition has a few things to teach us as a church family as we ourselves are on the brink of one of our own major transitions.

I think it might be a mild exaggeration to say that that 12 acres over on East McGillen is the promised land, right?

Parallel probably isn't that tight. But we are a community called by God in a covenant or relationship with Him by the blood of Christ to be a holy people as He is holy.

We are to be a light to our community, a light to the nations. We are growing and expanding and needing to move to a new place.

And we have plenty of challenges to face on the way from here to there. And the journey may include a brief stint in the wilderness that is

Matawan Later Elementary, in which case half of you will rebel and die. It won't be that bad, trust me.

So maybe there aren't that many differences, really. But I do believe that the passionate cry of Moses to love

God completely and without compromise and to trust

Him unreservedly as we face the challenges before us are just as applicable today as they were to the

Israelites back then. So that's my hope for these four messages from Deuteronomy, this week and then next and then the two more in February.

I hope that we all come away with a deeper, truer understanding of God's history and character and that we would be inspired to comply wholeheartedly with God's plan to make us into a loving, obedient church community founded on the person and work of Jesus Christ, saved on nothing but grace and called to nothing less than wholehearted obedience, especially as we continue on to another phase in the life of our church in 2014.

So turn with me. We're going to read chapter 1, verses 1 through 8 of Deuteronomy. Could someone throw out the page number of the seat back

Bible? 125, Deuteronomy, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua.

We'll read verses 1 through 8. These are the words that Moses spoke to all

Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness in the Ereba opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hezroth, and Dizahab.

It is 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.

In the 40th year on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the

Lord had given him in commandment to them. After he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan who lived in Ashteroth and in Idri.

Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law saying, The Lord our

God said to us in Horeb, you have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey and go into the hill country of the

Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Ereba. In the hill country and in the lowland and in the

Najeb and by the seacoast. The land of the Canaanites and Lebanon as far as the great river, the river

Euphrates. See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the

Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. To give to them and to their offspring after them.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word as always.

It is a blessing beyond anything we can fathom that we have your word so readily available to us and even these ancient texts that we have a window into what you were doing thousands of years ago with your people.

And I thank you, Lord, for preserving it and for bringing it down through history, Lord, and making it so accessible to us.

And I pray that as we embark on this journey through Deuteronomy, at least a part of it, God, that you would open our hearts, that you'd open our minds, and that you'd soften us to what you have to say to us.

I pray that we would avoid the sin of thinking that somehow a part of your word is irrelevant to us, that it doesn't matter.

And instead, God, I pray that we would engage it with all of our strength and all of our heart and all of our minds so that we would know,

Lord, who you are and what your will is, Lord. I pray that we'd learn from this even if all of it doesn't apply to us,

God. I pray that you'd help us glean out the principles that we need to know you and to live for you fully. And just be with us now as we worship

God. We give these songs to you. We thank you for this time to come to you, Lord. This is your time.

We're here for you and to make you great. And I pray, Lord, that your spirit would be here among us.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Before I forget, I forgot to mention this in the beginning, but this is a

Bible reading plan. And we always kind of emphasize this at the beginning of a new year, resolution time, right?

Kind of maybe get to something like that at the end of the sermon. But if you're looking for help in reading through the

Bible, if you've never read through the Bible or it's been a while since you've done that, what an awesome thing this is. It comes complete with checkboxes.

Anyone like checkboxes? Yeah, knocking it down. And it also helps you read books that you would never normally read, like Deuteronomy, some of you.

So we encourage you to do this. And these are available back there on that desk there, and we can make more copies if we need to.

All right, go ahead and keep your Bibles open if you'd like to Deuteronomy. It might just kind of help you track with me, and the text will essentially be the outline, and it might just be good to glance down from time to time.

So let's just jump in. These are the words, the very first few words there of Deuteronomy.

In Hebrew, the book was titled literally, These Words, sometimes shortened to just Words.

And that shows a common Hebrew tradition of naming a book after the first few words or lines of that text.

The name that we know it by, though, Deuteronomy, means second law. And it actually came from a mistranslation.

Don't you love that, like when mistakes just get codified? So it's a mistranslation of chapter 17, verse 18 in the

Septuagint, which was the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. They were trying to talk about how the king was supposed to make a copy of the law for himself to read and to have as a reference so that he would rule well by the word of God.

And instead of using a word for copy, they used the word second law. And so that's

Deuteronomia, I believe, in Greek. And it stuck, though, even though it was a mistranslation, because in a sense, that is what's happening here.

Moses is giving a recap or giving a second time the law that he received at Mount Sinai.

And so they kept the word around, and that's why we call it Deuteronomy. It's not a second law in terms of new things, although there are some differences between what was given on Mount Sinai and Deuteronomy, but it was just meant to be a copy or a reminder.

In terms of structure, just kind of looking at the 20 ,000 foot view of the whole book, commentators have identified a pretty strong parallel between these words and the vassal treaties of the day.

So we're talking probably around 1 ,000 to 1 ,500 BC, before Christ, when this was written, conservative estimate there.

When a king or lord would take over a people, and he would feel the need or feel the need to regain allegiance, he would make an agreement speech like we find in Deuteronomy.

He would give a recap of the awesome things that he did, and so we'll see a historical prologue in Deuteronomy. These are all the things that make me great and make me worthy to be your leader.

And then he would go on to explain the terms of the treaty, how they would live under his ruler reign, and then give consequences for both allegiance and disobedience.

And we will see Moses including all of these, exhortations about fidelity and allegiance to God, their ultimate boss.

The laws are expectations of citizenship. And then he gives blessings and curses at the end of the book, which are the consequences for both proper service and misconduct.

So in this way, it's very sermonic, a sermon like that or a speech like that given by a vassal lord is meant to do what?

To convince you to obey him, to create in you a heart of fidelity towards him as your leader.

So this isn't just about what to do, but why Israel should do it.

It's persuasive and meant to result in changed behavior. And in a lot of ways, I think of it like an orientation program.

They're getting ready to move into the next step. They're going to the promised land. And Moses is saying, guys, this is what it needs to be about.

This is where your heart needs to be, and this is how you conduct yourselves in this next phase of God's plan.

So these are the words that Moses spoke. Many of us are familiar with Moses, at least superficially.

He was a Hebrew born into slavery in Egypt. And then remember, there was a decree that all of the babies were to be killed because the

Hebrew women were pumping out too many babies and they were getting too big, the population was growing.

And so there was a decree to kill all the babies under two. Well, Moses' mother didn't want that to happen, and so she put him in a basket, floated him down the river.

And remember who found him? The daughter of Pharaoh, right. And she sees this baby and decides to raise him, actually gives him back to his mother to be raised.

And then when he's weaned around seven or eight, she brings him back to Pharaoh's daughter. And then he gets raised in the household of Pharaoh.

So he was very well educated, raised almost both as a Hebrew and an Egyptian. And yet, despite that, he was kind of a mumbler.

He wasn't strong in speech, the scripture tells us. He was a murderer. So at one point, as he's walking around watching how the

Egyptians' taskmasters were treating the Hebrew slaves, he sees someone being mistreated and he goes and he kills the

Egyptian for mistreating the Hebrew slave. And then he thinks that will be well received, but the

Hebrews actually are like, well, the next day he sees a couple of Hebrews arguing. And he's like, how can you do this, brothers?

Don't argue. And they're like, well, what are you gonna do? You gonna kill us both too, just like you killed the Egyptian? He realizes that he's been found out, and so he runs away into the wilderness for 40 years, becomes a shepherd.

And that's when we get to the burning bush. And that's probably what most people recognize, right? Moses in the burning bush. So he's out there, he's trying to run away, trying to just leave all that behind him.

He's acting as a shepherd. God speaks to him and says, hey, I wanna use you to rescue my people. So he becomes an administrator and a shepherd of God's people.

And then after the exodus, after they leave Egypt, he's working both as a mediator and a hero for Israel.

As a representative of God, he's giving the law. So God speaks the law to Moses, then he gives it back to the people, oftentimes through Aaron, who was his mouthpiece.

But he was also a hero in the sense that he was an intercessor for the people. And it's crazy to read, but there are times when

God is like, I am sick of these people. I'm gonna smoke them right now, pulling out the guns, they're done, right?

And Moses is like, God, don't do that. Like, please, for your name's sake, these are the people that you promised to rescue and to bring out into a good land.

And if you do that, people are gonna think you can't keep your promises. So God, please, please don't do this. And he intercedes.

And actually, the scripture tells us that he changes God's heart on a few occasions and withholds his discipline from them.

So in Deuteronomy, especially in Deuteronomy, he is highlighted as not just a lawgiver, but also an interpreter of the law.

He undertakes to explain this law to them and a prophet. He warns them about the future. So within Deuteronomy, we find a few things about what will happen, including their guaranteed disobedience.

He says, you guys are gonna fall away. Don't worry if you call out to God when you're getting messed up in a foreign land because you didn't follow

God's commandments, God will hear you and bring you back and all that. So he's a pretty important guy.

I would challenge us, as we read through Deuteronomy, to listen for Moses' heart.

To listen to his heart. I picture him as someone who has this great love for his kids, right?

The people that he's put in charge of, which drives him at times to be very passionate and sometimes harsh.

Can anyone relate to that? Sometimes you love someone so much, especially your kids, that you're just like, oh, please, listen to me, right?

I want what's best for you. Wake up. He wants things to go well with them.

He wants them to be fully obedient to God. And his passion comes through and his zeal comes through.

And it's important to know that what he's saying, I believe, is said in love. So even the laws, even the commandments, even the parameters that he puts on the people are meant to produce good in them, to protect them from what might hurt him.

I think a simple, oh, lost my place there. Yeah, so again,

Moses is a big deal and I think we should pay attention to him. And that just goes for any time someone important speaks, right?

Even when the application doesn't apply directly to us. And maybe that's some of your trouble with the

Old Testament, is that you're reading this and you're like, well, we're not, we are God's people, but we're not

Israel. How do these laws apply, et cetera? And I think one way to think about it is to think of them almost like siblings.

And have you ever been in this situation where your sibling gets in trouble and you take the hint?

You know what I'm talking about? So for example, I'll be at home and we'll be trying to sit down and have a semi -peaceful dinner.

I have three daughters, Adelaide, Evie, and Charlotte. Adelaide's the oldest, Evie the middle child, Charlotte the young Rapscalian.

Let's say I get on Evie, who's generally the one who's like, you know, minds her manners or whatever. But let's just say she's wiggling around and she's like up and down for the 30th time.

And I kind of get on her and I say, Evie, sit your seat down and don't move, we're eating dinner.

I say that to Evie, but I look over and I see Adelaide and Adelaide's like got her head down, right?

All of a sudden she stops wiggling, all right? She has taken the admonition that I've given to Evie and knows that she could be under the same charge, right?

The metaphor breaks down when I talk about Charlotte because she's like asking me if she can have another role instead of eating her vegetables as I'm chewing

Evie out, you know, that kind of thing. But you know what I'm saying? Like sometimes when someone else gets an admonition or a teaching, we can learn from that.

And I think that's what's happening here. Even though not everything applies to us that God is gonna say to Israel, we can still glean wisdom from it.

We can take to heart what he tells of them. Final point though, despite Moses' high standing among the greats of the leaders of God, in fact, he would be with Elijah on the

Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus is transfigured, he was punished for disobedience.

And we may not get to that story, but essentially he pridefully changes a little bit the method that God gave him to produce water for the people and God says, because you disobeyed my exact words, you're not gonna see the promised land.

So he was a godly man, but he was only a man. And that's a good thing to keep in mind.

So he's speaking to all Israel. These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel. Who's all

Israel? Well, they're number one, a chosen people. Right now, Don is preaching through the book of Genesis, right?

So we go back and we hear the story of Abraham and how he was called from the wilderness and how he had

Isaac and Jacob. Jacob was the one who wrestled with God and was renamed Israel. And then he has 12 sons, they become the 12 tribes.

Joseph is one of those sons and on we go up into the Exodus. But at this point, post -Exodus in the wilderness, they become a sizable people, making the assembly all

Israel quite an event, all right? This wasn't, hey, meet at my place for games

Friday night, kind of a thing. This was like, hey, we're all meeting at the national monument, all right?

This is like the million man march. There's tons of people here. And if I'm really boring you, you can flip back to numbers and count up how many males of fighting age were in each of the tribes and then extrapolate women and children from that and come up with a number if you'd like.

But I can also cheat and just tell you that, I mean, we are literally talking about probably a million people here. So this is a major camp.

This is like a major city in the US, the size of this people. So they've really expanded out here in the wilderness.

So at this point, they're 40 years out of Egypt, but it's still debatable whether Egypt is all out of them.

They're out of Egypt, but it's still debatable whether Egypt is all out of them. And when we get to the historical prologue where Moses goes back in time and kind of recites for them the things that God has done and how they've treated

God in the midst of that, we realize that these were people in desperate need of a righteous rehab program.

They really needed to figure out who God was and what it means to live under him. And they would fight that continually.

So here we have these words spoken by Moses, to all Israel, where? The location is important here.

Where are they? Well, they're in the wilderness beyond the Jordan. And I didn't do a map, but essentially you have a bunch of water here, then you have land here, and the

Jordan River creates kind of a border there on the side. And then after you get off of the

Jordan River, you have a huge wilderness called the Ereba or the desert. And they're likely somewhere in there, east of the

Jordan. None of these other places that are mentioned apart from Kadesh Barnea, we have a good grasp on where they were.

It's all speculation at this point. So we'd have a hard time putting a pin down on a modern map. But a few observations about the importance of this geographical information and why

I think it's included. First, these are real space and time places. These are real places.

This is not a fairy tale. The narrator here, which was either Moses himself or one of his editors listening to the speech and recording it, wants to make sure that we are rooted in the reality of where this went down.

It really happened. And it's meant to be understood as history. This place that they're at is the gateway into the promised land.

It's the doorstep to a better place, a land of real milk and real honey. It's the evidence of God's desire to bless his people.

It's not just a metaphor. Although we often take the Old Testament as that. It's, well, it's just kind of this legend.

It's this fairy tale that, you know, just kind of teach us some principles about God. But no, these were real people going to a real place.

They really walked through the desert. They were really tired. And they really hoped for what God had before them.

I emphasize this because I think it adds teeth to the principles that we will take from their story.

If this is just myth and legend, well, then great. Let's have fun. And yeah, I guess we have faith with God. And stuff, and love him, and what's next, right?

We can either do that or we can lean hard on the fact that there was a real people just as dumb, and just as unworthy, and just as weak, and just as hopeful as we are.

But Yahweh, who parted seas, and slayed enemies, and provided manna, established every sandaled footprint they laid down in obedience to him.

And we can know that he'll do the same for us. Not metaphorically, but really.

Secondly, and another important note about this geography, they've already been here, in this place before.

They're just east of the Jordan at a place called Kadesh Barnea, the same place they were camped the first time

God wanted to bring them into the land. It tells us that it's 11 days journey from Mount Horeb, which is another name for Mount Sinai, which is where they received the what?

10 commandments. 11 days journey.

But verse three says that they're here and now, the context of Deuteronomy being given is 40 years past the time when they left the mountain.

11 days journey, but 40 years later. More on that in a minute.

I think it's also important to note that the narrator firmly believes that God told Moses what he was to say.

Verse three states that Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them.

We have to be careful as we work through this book and the rest of the Old Testament for that matter, to remember that God inspired this to be written, right?

Yes, it was from Moses. Yes, his personality is used and his wisdom, but ultimately it is from God.

And I make this point because we can be tempted when things get funky, right? To say, oh, well, that was just Moses.

That was just those crazy Old Testament folks. Those were just those crazy Israelites. But even

Jesus, when questioned about divorce, said that Moses allowed you to write a certificate of divorce because of the hardness of your hearts, but it's not what

God intended. That's sometimes used to show that, well, it was really just Moses's idea in giving the law.

But even then, did God say it was okay for Moses to write that? Did God approve

Moses to give that teaching in that time? Yeah, he did. So if these are, as verse three says, the commands that God had

Moses speak, then we must approach them with proper reverence and respect.

Even when we find out that maybe they don't apply like they did back then, we still understand that they came from the mouth of God through Moses.

In verse four, we get some further context, and we're told that Moses speaks these words after Israel had defeated two

Amorite kings, King Sihon and King Og, which I'll just briefly say,

I think, shows that they are coming together as a people, and God is putting some Ws on the board, right?

The conquest of the promised land is not going to be an easy task. There are well -rooted and established people already there, and they don't like the idea that someone's gonna come in and kick them off their land.

So God gave them a few battles and a few tests, I think, of their military might to build their confidence,

I think. And if you're interested in those, those are recorded in numbers. They actually give us a little bit more detail about these two kings,

I think, around numbers 15. So it's kind of like the semifinals in a geopolitical land grab tournament, right?

They're getting ready, and these victories are a part of God's grace to them. Then it goes on to say, the

Lord God said to us in Horeb. So here in verse six, we have a transition from the intro about these words to the actual words that Moses is speaking.

Do you see that? So kind of a little bit of narration where they're saying, okay, God said these things in this time and this place, and then we hit some quotes, and we know that now

Moses is speaking. And Moses begins by taking the people back in time, which will end up being a three -chapter explanation for how they've arrived here and now, and that's the historical prologue

I've mentioned. So that's an important part of understanding this book. Moses is gonna begin by going backwards and recounting some of the history that brings them up to this place to stand and hear him give this sermon.

And what's he say? He says, the Lord said to us in Horeb at Mount Sinai, you have stayed long enough at this mountain.

So 40 years ago, God says, guys, it's time. They'd been there about two years, they'd received the law, and God said, now, let's move.

Pick up camp and let's go. He says, turn and take your journey and go to the hill country of the

Amorites and to all their neighbor in the Araba in the hill country and in the lowland and in the

Najeb and by the sea coast, the land of the Canaanites and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river

Euphrates. So he draws out the geography of the place that he's sending them to.

He names the land where he wants them to go. And he says, go and take it.

I remember how I mentioned that it was 11 days journey, but they'd been walking for how long? 40 years with the two, but 38 from the point of leaving

Mount Sinai. 40 years ago, God gave them their there.

He said, there is where I'm taking you. Go there to a place.

It was the same there that he had spoken up to Abraham, right, a place of unfathomable blessing.

It's a large place, plenty of room for the people of God to grow and expand and shine their light to the nations.

They didn't deserve it. They hadn't worked for it. And on their own, they weren't strong enough to route the already well -established pagan nations.

But none of that matters to God. All that matters is verse eight.

And what does God say there? See, I have set the land before you.

I, Yahweh, your mighty rescuer God, have set the land before you.

Go in and take possession. It was theirs for the taking because God had already taken it.

There was no question. Is God powerful enough? If he goes with us, we'll be able to make it.

Is it really ours? No, God had set it before them. It was theirs.

Everything they needed to get from here to there was taken care of because all they needed was

God. Do you know that God's basic methodology has not changed?

If you take almost all the narrative of history, if you look at what God is doing in mankind, isn't it all about getting from here to there?

Isn't it all about moving us somewhere? He is a

God who calls people to a better place. He calls them from the slavery of here, from the pain of here, from the dark confusion of our self -serving fantasies and says, hey, it's time.

It's time to move. Do you trust me that the place I want to take you is for your own good?

Do you believe that I've made it available to you? What is our there?

I would propose that spiritually, it's the same for all of us, past, present and future, Jew and Gentile.

Physically, it can be just about anywhere though. Spiritually, very simply,

God is calling us to himself. He wants to be near us and the ultimate call for every person everywhere at every time is to come to me.

And we live in a time where it has been revealed to us that where Jesus is, God is too.

And ultimately, Jesus is our final destination. Romans 8, 29, maybe some of you know this, haven't memorized.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined, meaning determined in advance to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Where does God want to take you? What does he want to mold you into? Where does he want you to land?

He wants you to land in the character, in the person, in the spirit of Jesus Christ.

Every single one of us, that's his intention, is to make us like his son in every way.

God is planning a journey for you and me and not to land us on a tract of land, but to land us into people who are holy and blameless before him.

And if you're part of God's people, you are headed to a place of Christ likeness and he has guaranteed our complete and full arrival.

Just like the real promise for the Israelites wasn't the milk and the honey and the peace of the promised land, it was the privilege of being called a people after the name of the

Lord, their God. And they would miss that. They would fail to understand that, that it wasn't about the geography of the place, it was about the geography of their hearts.

John 14 two says, in my father's house, this is Jesus speaking, in my father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Jesus is getting our promised land ready and he's helping us on the way.

But the milk and the honey were real and the land was a real place. And today as God moves in our lives to achieve his ultimate purpose in our lives,

I think that he takes us through real places that will shape and form us. He gives us real scenarios and environments to test our faith and kill off the doubt in our hearts and minds and to teach us to trust him.

James told us, count it all joy, brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, right? Because of what?

What they would produce in us. The trials and the tribulations take us to a place where we can be more like Jesus if we surrender to him.

But as Israel shows us, we can sometimes be slow on the uptake.

We can sometimes be slow to realize that this is what God is doing, right? From that mountain where God gave them the green light, an unfathomable blessing, they had 11 days journey to walk.

Instead, it took them 38 years to go 250 miles. What? Man, if they only had

Google Maps back then, it was so much easier. Why are they here?

Why do we have Deuteronomy chapter one where they're at Kadesh Barnea again? Why are they getting a reminder of a time when

God told them 40 years ago to go and take the land? Shouldn't they be there already?

The full answer to that is coming later in Deuteronomy, but suffice it to say that God doesn't rush anything.

God has a lot of patience. And if the bread isn't fully baked, he doesn't have any problem keeping it in the oven until it's done.

God wanted to take them there to the promised land, but more important to him than the place was who they were when they got there.

Even though their feet had walked out of the wilderness, their hearts were stuck in Ereba. So here they are again back at Kadesh Barnea.

And what is their state spiritually now? They know more about God here and now than they did before.

As they stand ready for God to take them there. But are they ready?

Are they open? Have they learned their lessons? Do they yet know who

God wants them to become? Are they listening? I believe that Moses gave this speech because he knows that their success depends on the location of their hearts.

So here we are, right? We're on the verge of a new year. We have some kind of move coming likely soon as a church.

And I think it would be good for all of us to ask that question of ourselves. Where are we?

What is our here and now? And where is our there? As a church, the physical coordinates are easy to answer, right?

We're in Madawan, Michigan, small growing community with a decent church presence, but a whole bunch of people who don't know

Christ yet. We meet in a building that can't hold our growing numbers anymore, despite what it looks like right now.

There's evidence that a good number of us really love Jesus. The there is a little less clear, but we hope to eventually have a building on the 12 acres on East McGillan, and we'll likely get to spend some time meeting in the school.

But those here's and there's depend on a more personal set of here's and there's. What is here for you right now?

You're sitting in this seat. How did you get here? What's been your story?

What have you come through? Why are you thinking the thoughts that you're thinking right now? Are they good, are they bad, are they indifferent?

What makes up you? Are you in Egypt, enslaved to sin, praying for rescue?

Are you meandering in the wilderness, stubborn of heart? God pounding you day in and day out to listen up, even as he provides for your every need?

Are you on the verge of a great next step, maturing in your faith, and ready to hear whatever

God has for you? And we can ask the same questions of the there.

Where are you going? How does God want to change you in 2014?

Great things to think about, right? On the verge of a new year. What is your next step in becoming more like Jesus?

And are you gonna do anything about it? If you don't know, that's why we're here.

This is what we as the elders and the pastors and the small group leaders wanna help you with. We wanna help you determine what your next step is, where it is that you're going.

Yes, we know that ultimately we're gonna land in the likeness of Jesus Christ, but there's a lot of intermediate steps. It doesn't just happen.

It's a lifelong journey that we have to take together. And we're here to help anybody in any way that we can grow.

And I think Deuteronomy has a lot of practical advice for how we go about getting there. But I wanna make sure

I leave you with this. Wherever God is taking you, know that he has said it before you.

He is strong enough to take you there. Nothing can stop you.

It just depends on how quick you are to let him have your heart. Depends on how humble you wanna be in the face of his command to go.

And I can promise you, it's better to walk 11 days than 40 years.

Would you guys promise me something? I know preachers sometimes like to do this, but if you don't wanna promise, don't worry about it.

But I challenge you and would love a commitment on this. Before January 1st, would you take at least 30 minutes of totally isolated time with God to ask him to help you understand what your here and now is.

To figure out who you are in this place in this moment. And then ask him to give you some direction on where he wants to take you this upcoming year.

Or maybe this upcoming week. Don't even take a year, take a day, take a week. But ask him because he's the one who set the destination and he's the one that gives you the power to get there.

And God forbid any of us would try and do it by ourselves. Doesn't work very well.

And then maybe if you're really gutsy, share that with somebody. Share what he reveals to you and ask them to hold you accountable.

We end every service here at Recast with Communion, which I think is an awesome reminder that God sent his son to be here with us and then sent him there to that cross to die for our sins and to set us free and to give us a hope for the future.

When we take Communion, we remember the blood that he spilled and the body that was broken for us so that we would never have to be in a place without the

Father again. We pray with me as we get ready for Communion. Father in heaven, again, we thank you for your word.

We thank you, God, that you are a faithful God who keeps your promises and you kept your promise to Israel.

You were patient with them. They had to walk a long time. But ultimately,

God, you are a God who has a there in mind for us. You're a God who has planned good things for us.

You're a God who's gonna make us more like your son. Father, I pray that you'd give us a real, a real clear view of where we're all going, both as individuals and as a church, both in the long term and in the near term.

I pray, Lord, that you would convince us of the need for us to be quick to obey, that we'd listen for your word and that we would just follow you wholeheartedly, not because you're a

God who just loves rules, but because you're a God who's making every provision to get us where we need to go.

I pray as we encounter this new year, Lord, that you would just give us wisdom and direction and hearts filled with love for you and for each other as we embark on the next step of our journey.