[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be starting a new little mini series the next two weeks.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're taking a break from Romans, and the name of the series is called faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to see that God is faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was thinking last night about the faithfulness of God, while I was watching the LSU Tigers, totally annihilate Clemson.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's football season.
[SPEAKER_00]: You all come on.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can have fun and church too.
[SPEAKER_00]: But seriously, I was thinking about God's faithfulness last night, and I was thinking about that phrase, God is faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought across my mind, I was like, I wonder what people think when they hear that phrase, God is faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then another thought came to my mind, and I was like, well, I think it depends on what season they're in.
[SPEAKER_00]: For some of you, you're in a sweet, sweet moment in life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're in a great season.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for you, you might think, yeah, God's faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's brought me through some hard stuff, but I'm in a sweet season, God's faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're just kind of even Stephen, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're just kind of like God's faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for some of you,
[SPEAKER_00]: The emotions might be a little bit different because you're just coming out of a really tough season.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're just cresting the hill, you're right out of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're not just kind of national art like, yeah, God's faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're kind of like, thank you, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just got through this hard season and God is faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Jesus, for getting me out of that season, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Your emotions are going to be a little bit different, like, thank you, Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for getting me through that, you are faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're in the middle, smack that in the middle of a super, super tough season.
[SPEAKER_00]: And your response might be different.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you think about God as faithful, maybe you're thinking, I want to believe that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know God's been faithful in the past, but I just, I'm having a hard time seeing God's faithfulness right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is tough.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how I'm going to get through this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is God doing this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is God allowing this?
[SPEAKER_00]: and that might be your response.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then for some of you youngins in here, some of the kids that aren't here, students, you've never been through a trial before.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you hear, God is faithful, you're like, yeah, it's faithful because the Bible tells me so, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And seriously, that's why we teach our kids the truth of Scripture, because one day they're going to be in a trial, every one of us know that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we teach them to fill their minds and their hearts with the truth of God's Scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: So one day when they're in that heart spot, they're like, I know your faith, I'll even if I don't feel it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever season you're in, you're gonna respond different to God is faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this little mini series that we're doing is all about the faithfulness of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because sometimes we're faithful and sometimes we're not, but God is always faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: This week, we're going to be looking in Deuteronomy 8, so you can turn there, and we're going to be taking a look back at God's faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Next week, Pastor Gabe is going to be here, and he's going to be in Joshua 1 looking forward to the promises of God and his faithfulness for now and for the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: But today, we're going to be in Deuteronomy 8.
[SPEAKER_00]: talking about remembering the faithfulness of God in the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before I jump into Deuteronomy 8, I love to give just a little bit of context and share, just in case some of you are new to this church thing and you don't know the story of the Bible or just for all of us that just need to remember where are we in Deuteronomy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the first three books of the Bible,
[SPEAKER_00]: Genesis through numbers, tells us a historical account, tells us a lot, but specifically it tells us a historical account of the nation of Israel, the nation of Israel, and then there was a promise, the nation of Israel came from this promise to a man named Abraham, and he said, God told them through your offspring, there's going to be this great nation called Israel, and I'm going to give you as many sons and daughters as the stars, and
[SPEAKER_00]: And I won't, I can't get into all the stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: He actually had two sons and two nations were kind of born, but we're going to focus on the nation of promise that children of Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And through his descendants over many, many, many years, God fulfilled that promise and the people of Israel became a large nation, millions of people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they became a great nation but through the human nature just like we go through, through sin and through God's sovereignty that people of Israel became enslaved to Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're in slavery over many years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so now there's this huge nation but they're enslaved by Egypt under the rule of Pharaoh.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Pharaoh recognized then, this nation is great and an attempt to stop the multiplication
[SPEAKER_00]: of the children of Israel, he says, I got to slow this down and so he calls for this order for all the baby boys of the Israelites to be killed.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there was an Israelite family that by faith, they said, I'm not going to let that happen and so they put their baby in a basket, they floated it down the river, you guys remember the story, some of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: His name was Moses, and by God's sovereignty and his grace, Pharaoh's daughter sees this baby and she saves him and she adopts him, but also in God's sovereignty, she's got a nurse him, but she's not, she didn't have him, you know, there wasn't, you couldn't go to target and get some formula back then, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So we need a mom and we need a nurse to come and nurse this baby and through God's sovereignty, Moses's biological mom comes and
[SPEAKER_00]: fully with all the benefits of being under the rule of Egypt, but also knows who he is as an Israelite.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he has all that going on and he realizes as he gets older that his people are enslaved and being mistreated.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Moses is dealing with this anger.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one day in a fit of anger, he sees one of his people being mistreated and he kills an Egyptian soldier.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he has to flee Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he flees, and when he's in hiding, he decides, well, he doesn't decide, God decides to meet with him in a burning bush.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so God saves Moses, shows him who he is Yahweh, but he not only saves Moses, but he calls him to go back to Pharaoh and demand that Pharaoh let the people go.
[SPEAKER_00]: which is crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like going to the most powerful person in the world in the sand, I want you to let go of your entire workforce.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just let them go, which is crazy, but this is the crazy, your part, Moses O'Base, my faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Moses goes and he demands that the people go, Pharaoh says no way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so God sends nine plagues, and Pharaoh just hardens his heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hardens his heart, hardens his heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the tenth plague, what goes around comes around.
[SPEAKER_00]: God sends an angel of death to kill all the baby boys of the Egyptians, except for the people who put the blood of lamb over the post.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he passes over all the Israelite kids, and he kills all the first borns, including Pharaoh's son, and Pharaoh's
[SPEAKER_00]: go, get out of here, take gold, take animals, take all the resources, just get out of here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as they're leaving, Farrow, I'll imagine, doesn't say this in the Bible, but I would imagine Farrow's like, man, my city just emptied out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where's all my work for us?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he has deeper grit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, never mind, I'm going to go back and get him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he starts chasing the Israel lights.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Israelites are like, what are we going to do now?
[SPEAKER_00]: And God opens the red sea and the people pass through on dry land.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then when the army comes to get after them, God closes the sea and destroys all the people who are trying to enslave them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amazing story.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't read the Bible, you should read it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's an awesome victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: But shortly after, the nation of Israel or in the wilderness, and they start to complain, and they start to sin, and they start to forget the faithfulness of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God and his love and his discipline, he lets him roam around the desert for 40 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm 46, that's like almost my whole life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a long time to be wondering in the desert, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But in this passage that we're going to read today in Deuteronomy Moses is getting close to dying.
[SPEAKER_00]: And eventually his predecessor, Joshua, which we'll talk about next week, he's about to lead the people into the Promised Land.
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's a question for all of us this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've never asked this, once I throw it out there, you'd be like, yeah, why did he?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why did God save the people of Israel?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then let him roam around in the desert for 40 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: or was this the plan of God or like, why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, in this text, Moses is gonna speak to the people and the Holy Spirit through Moses and through the Word of God's gonna speak to us to give an exhortation and an explanation of why they were in the desert for 40 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's start in verse one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Doonoronomy 8, verse one.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: that you may live and multiply.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like that word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you shall remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turn to your neighbor and say, remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now turn to your second choice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And say, remember in the kingdom of God, the last shall be first, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But read that verse again.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, and you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole way, if you have a Bible and you like to write in it, underline the whole way.
[SPEAKER_00]: You shall remember, not just the good times, not just the bad times, not just the tough times, not just the great times, but the whole way that the Lord your God has led you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has led you into the desert.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, as a church, like let's just talk a little bit about the church as a whole before we get individual, but as a church as a whole, we are entering into a new season.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the church is growing, we're multiplying.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's doing amazing things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm a basketball case on the front row, just weeping, I don't know what it is about baptisms, but it just gets me and I'm just like, God, you're so faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love how you save people in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're seeing those things and there's a lot of excitement about what God's doing in our church and that what he's going to do and as is excitement about moving in and expanding and multiplying our reach and reaching more people.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we're honest, there's also might be a little bit of fear and concern.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, especially for those who have been around a while, like will it be the same?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where will I fit in with this new church?
[SPEAKER_00]: We start getting all these new people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Am I going to kind of lose my position?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or am I going to know people with a church to be different?
[SPEAKER_00]: Will it get too big and impersonal?
[SPEAKER_00]: Will we be here off from who we've been?
[SPEAKER_00]: Will it be as good as the good old days?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But the fact is, that's not just about the church, it's about us individually.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every one of us are in a season right now, but thank God, thank God for seasons, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank God for season, if you're not, whatever season you're in, you're probably about to enter into a new season.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can't go back, but we can remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a good way to remember and a bad way to remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's another question for us this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you look back at your life or back at our church,
[SPEAKER_00]: and how does looking back make you feel?
[SPEAKER_00]: In a room this size, I'm sure it's gonna vary from person to person.
[SPEAKER_00]: For some, looking back is awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, man, God's been great.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: For some of you, it's really hard to look back.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, whenever we look back, we usually look back through the lens, one of three lenses.
[SPEAKER_00]: We either revere the past,
[SPEAKER_00]: We resent the past, or we regret the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: For those that review the past, the way you might put it is this, remember the good old days, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We all know that guy that's in his 40s and 50s and he's still talking about how awesome he was in high school football, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, could never get any better than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, yeah, well, because you never grew up, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But seriously, something a little bit more noble.
[SPEAKER_00]: I joke, but let's think about something more serious than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever experienced a great move of God in your life or in your church?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you'd think about the past and you might think, man, that was a real awesome move of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll probably never see those days again.
[SPEAKER_00]: The church or the ministries I've been a part of,
[SPEAKER_00]: Or remember when we first got married and we were so in love, we couldn't keep our hands off each other, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that'll ever happen again.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of lives happened between then and now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or remember when the kids were a little and they thought we were superheroes and they always wanted to be around us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we are striving for five minutes with them, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We can revere the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we can also hold on too tightly to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wishing we can go back to the good old days.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just revere the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for some of you, you don't revere the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you do resent it.
[SPEAKER_00]: All you can remember are the hard times.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you had a rough past.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe abuse or sickness or relationships that you shouldn't have been in or that you should have pursued, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: or just a life of tough trials.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you remember seasons of your past, you just resent it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just can't see anything good from it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But lastly, some of you guys don't really resent, necessarily the past, but you view the past with deep regret.
[SPEAKER_00]: You regret the decisions you've made, life choices, maybe sin, relationships,
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's all your fault.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just regret the life that you've had and it's all your fault.
[SPEAKER_00]: I regret.
[SPEAKER_00]: I regret it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't like remembering the past because you're reminded of how much you don't like you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just a life full of regrets.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you spend too much time revereing yesterday, it blinds us from seeing the blessings of today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you spend too much time and energy resenting your past, it will keep you suspicious of your future.
[SPEAKER_00]: And living in regret will keep you from living in the freedom that God gives you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Reveering, resenting, and regretting the past is not what the Holy Spirit through Moses is saying in verse 2, when he says, and you shall remember the whole way that the Lord God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if that's true, how are we to remember?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you should remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness that He might humble you, testing you to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not, and He humbled you and let you hunger, and fed you with mana, which you did not know, nor your father's new, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these 40 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: No then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land.
[SPEAKER_00]: A land of brooks of water of fountains and springs, flowing out of the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this is awesome, because they've been in a wilderness for 40 years, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: A vines and fig trees and pomegranates and a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread with scarcity.
[SPEAKER_00]: a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: A land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper, and you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he's given you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's next week, verse 11, take care.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes which I command you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and living them, I like verse 13, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart will be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flini rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the last verse that I'll read out of this passage, who fed you in the wilderness with mana that your fathers did not know that he might humble you and test you why to do you good in the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so much in this passage, but there's two big reoccurring themes which is my two points today.
[SPEAKER_00]: That God is faithful through trials and through discipline.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's look at trials.
[SPEAKER_00]: verse two again, and you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: That He, circle that, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not, and He humbled you and let you hunger.
[SPEAKER_00]: interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: He led them into a desert.
[SPEAKER_00]: He saved them and immediately led them into a wilderness and then let them hunger.
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't seem very loving or faithful, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you say, me, God, yay, now go suffer, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't seem like the faithful thing to do, and this was a major trial for the nation of Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: But not only for the nation, I think about the individual families.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because a lot of times when we think about a nation, we're thinking about like the whole, it takes a little bit of the emotion out.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want us to think just right now, just about the individual families.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about you and your family if you were in this situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine telling your kids, hey kids, we have great news.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's been crazy and always plagues what happened in and we've been in there and your dad is coming home beaten, you know, from being a slave and we have no freedom, but God just freed us, relieving, relieving Egypt, good news, we're leaving this awful place of Egypt, he saved us from all the beatings and the slavery, get your stuff, we're about to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you get to see this miracle of God opening up the sea and then you're passing through and you're like, they're chasing us, oh no, what are we going to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then God closing the sea and destroying all the people trying to kill you or enslave you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're so excited and full of hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: But a couple of days later, you're walking in the desert.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're running out of food.
[SPEAKER_00]: The kids are hungry.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no familiarity.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sand and the sun are hot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you start to think, what are we going to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: A trial.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's scorpions and snakes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hate snakes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing worse than snakes is if the desert will roam in with cats.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm joking if you're a cat person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Snakes are worse a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the people start to grumble.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, what are you going to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: And they start to review the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember that?
[SPEAKER_00]: They start going, man, Egypt doesn't look so bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they start to review the past, but they forget that they were being beaten and enslaved, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We had me, we had a home.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure that some were starting to resent the fact that God led them out of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for some, perhaps, they thought the decision was stupid.
[SPEAKER_00]: I regret following this crazy man, Moses.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses even wrestled with God and resented and regretted the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: And numbers of love, and you don't have to turn there, but Moses becomes overwhelmed by the burden of leaving, leading Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And essentially, he tells God, why did you put this burden on me?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he even says that if this is how it's going to be, I would rather die.
[SPEAKER_00]: How about you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Has anyone here ever been through a trial?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you in a trial?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you feel like God led me into a wilderness, and he's letting me hunger, it's hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's silent.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is going on?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he saved you, but now you're in the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: I obeyed the Lord and I did this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I followed him, but now he's got me in this wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's going on?
[SPEAKER_00]: And for some of you, it's happening again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I've been through this already.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, what are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: Perry, can we talk about the Promised Land already?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's next week, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse three and four.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is so awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he humbled you and he let you hunger.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where we ended.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then he fed you with mana.
[SPEAKER_00]: He provided.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which you did not know, new season, or your father's new, is showing himself, people, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're clothing did not wear out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Me 40 years, and you're clothes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want some of those jeans, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're clothing did not wear out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or your foot did not swell these 40 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there it is, that he might make you know
[SPEAKER_00]: is your provider, God's your provider, God has a bigger story in your struggle.
[SPEAKER_00]: He allows trials, even leads us into them, to teach us to depend on him and why.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why does he do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because God is more interested in what he's doing in you than what he's allowing to happen to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's building his man.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's building his woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: God led someone else into the wilderness, not for 40 years, but for 40 days.
[SPEAKER_00]: That person was his son, Jesus, remember the story?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was hungry, he was hot, he was thirsty, he had eaten in 40 days, and then Satan comes and he starts tempting him.
[SPEAKER_00]: What did Satan tempt him to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, aren't you the son of the most high God?
[SPEAKER_00]: He tempting him to three things that we talked about are revering the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could be in heaven right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why are you here?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he tried to get him to resent coming to earth, like, look at all this that you can have.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're the son of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you just throw yourself off and let the angels like, you're God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then regret coming to save his people through the suffering, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Essentially, he tempts him to review the past to resent the Lord sending him, or maybe to even regret.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how do I know that?
[SPEAKER_00]: How do I know that the enemy tempted him that way?
[SPEAKER_00]: because in Hebrews, for 15, it says this, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know how Jesus responds?
[SPEAKER_00]: He quotes our text today, dooneronomy 83, man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from them off the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And why did Jesus put himself through that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, Hebrews 415 tells us, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yet without sin, the children of Israel, us, we sin, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But he did not sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've been through some trials, your inner trial, draw near to Jesus, who understands and has been tempted just like you are, has been through trials, who sits on a throne of grace, so you can receive mercy and fine grace to help, and Tom and me, God wants you to be dependent on him, not your stuff, not good times.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants you to be dependent.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he allows us to go through trials, so we learn to depend on him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God is faithful in our trials.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will see you through.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's doing more in you than you know, but God is also faithful in His discipline.
[SPEAKER_00]: His discipline, look at verse 5, know than in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't like that, but it's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you shall keep the commandments, so there's expectations from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: You shall keep His commandments of the Lord, your God by walking in His ways and by fearing Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take care, verse 11.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to skip down to verse 11.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take care, less you forget the Lord, your God by not keeping His commandments in His rules and the statutes, which I commanded you today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then verse 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: who fed you in the wilderness with manna, that your fathers did not know, that he might what humble you and test you, discipline you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But why, to do you good in the end, what he's essentially saying here is, I'm disciplining you, testing you, humbling you, so that you can handle my blessings when I give them to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you won't forget me.
[SPEAKER_00]: and you actually obey, so you don't put yourself back in the more trials, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: God disciplines those he loves.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever been through or are you currently under the discipline of the Lord?
[SPEAKER_00]: I would beg you, don't despise it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews 12, 6, which is quote in Proverbs 3, says, my son, or my daughter, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nor be weary when it will prove by him.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the Lord, disciplines the one he loves and he chastises every son whom he receives.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was having lunch with a church member one day when I was in Little Rock, Arkansas.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was sharing his testimony with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was sharing his testimony that his dad is a medical doctor.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was a surgeon, actually.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's done many surgeries that say people's lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he was of well, he'd been a doctor for a long time, great surgeon in the little rock area.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the most challenging surgery that he ever had to perform was about to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: One day, he and my friend, who was his son, was a little boy, and they were on a hike.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my friend, being a young boy at the time, they didn't really wasn't expecting this, but he unexpectedly had his lung collapse.
[SPEAKER_00]: What that means is that essentially air escapes your lung and gets caught between your lung and your chest and it's excruciating.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's trapped in a creates this increasing pressure which compresses the lung and prevents it from expanding.
[SPEAKER_00]: His dad knew,
[SPEAKER_00]: that if he didn't act soon, it could put a dangerous pressure on his son's, not only as long but as hard and as major blood vessels in that, it could kill him.
[SPEAKER_00]: With no car around or hospital close by, his dad knew what he had to do, but this was no ordinary patient.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was his son.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no anesthesia, there was no surgery prep.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he did, but only he knew how to do, and he gets on top of this son and holds him down
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no surgeon scalpel, so he had to use another object and he had to pierce his son's side to relieve the pressure.
[SPEAKER_00]: My friend told me when his dad was holding him down and essentially stabbing him, he thought in his side.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, Perry, I was so scared.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it hurt so bad and I thought, my dad's a doctor, why is he hurting me?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's supposed to be helping me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Later on, his dad told him, and he got a little older, he said, there was no time to explain what I needed to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just had to with tears in my eyes, hold you down, knowing you wouldn't understand, and pierce your side, to save your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's discipline is like surgery.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may be excruciating, but its purpose is to not hurt you, but to heal you.
[SPEAKER_00]: of a loving father.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there was another dad who had the pierce of sunside, but unlike my friend, he wasn't resisting.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went willingly to the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was willingly crushed for our equities.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was pierced for our transgressions by his stripes we are healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want to pause for a moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're in the room today or you're listening, maybe on a podcast or YouTube or whatever, and you're under the current discipline of the Lord, I implore you to confess and repent today.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will hurt, but it will also heal.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are some people in this room, I know it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your spiritual lung is collapsed.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't breathe, you're in the agony under the silence of your sin, let your good father perform surgery and start the healing process before you run out of air.
[SPEAKER_00]: The excruciating pain of discipline is better than the excruciating pain of death.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord is a master surgeon.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's also a master therapist who will nurse you back to health over time.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to hurt.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it starts with confession and repentance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any renewal, revival, or any good thing that happens to the people of God, it starts with repentance.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are some of you in this room, today, I know it, that you're living in secret sin, and you're under the discipline of the Lord, let him do surgery.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come fast, repent today at the end of the service when we ask you to pray, come tell somebody, get it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to live in the excruciating pain of the pressure of sin on your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: If that's you today, this is a loving warning from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Through His word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's wrap up, look at verse 16, says, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does it say right there?
[SPEAKER_00]: To do you good in the end, to do you good in the end?
[SPEAKER_00]: You believe that God has good for you in the end of no matter what you're going through.
[SPEAKER_00]: Seriously, do you guys believe that?
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to get through life unless you believe that God has good.
[SPEAKER_00]: That you have a future and a hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what good is he talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: A new car, new career, new life, new cause been, new relationship.
[SPEAKER_00]: maybe, but in this passage is he just talking to the Israelite, so is this for us today?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I know that the real story of the hero is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that, but I also believe it's talking to us because people are people.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, the promises in the Old Testament to the children of Israel were like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: The promises of the Israel were like land, nationhood, relationship,
[SPEAKER_00]: But did you know, I mean, there are thousands of, I tried to look it up, there's no one number, but there are thousands of promises of God in the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: But did you know that the New Testament and the New Covenant there's way more, I'll walk more promises?
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, this isn't just for the Israelites because we are the New Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are the children of God, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And let me just read off some of the new the promises in the new covenant.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our band can come up whenever they're ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause I'm wrapping up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen to some of the promises of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: To do you good in the end, what are the promises of God?
[SPEAKER_00]: Salvation, Romans 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: Forgiveness, first, John, one, nine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eternal life, John, three, 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Jesus, for your presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 28, 20.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit, John 14, 16, wisdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: James, one and five.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peace, John 14, 17.
[SPEAKER_00]: Prevision.
[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 6, strength and temptation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: 1 Corinthians 10, God working for our good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans 8, 28, transformation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Philippians 1, 6, resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will be resurrected one day.
[SPEAKER_00]: These broken bodies will be made new.
[SPEAKER_00]: 1 Corinthians 15, 51.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ returned, John 14, one through three, a future inheritance, first Peter, one, three through five.
[SPEAKER_00]: No condemnation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans 8-1, nothing, nothing, nothing, sin, brokenness, nothing separating us from the love of God, Romans 8-38 through 39.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just the name of few.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love what it says in 2 Corinthians 1-20.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, for all the promises of God find there, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Deuteronomy 8-16 says that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end, that promise is for you, in a trial under the discipline of the Lord, it's to do you good in the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we look back,
[SPEAKER_00]: We're reminded that God's faith on this Dan is the same faith on this today and that will carry us into the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's faithful, even when we're not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want us to think for a minute about our church and then I want to turn it and I want us to think about our own lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as a church, we've been through over the years, we've been through some trials.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen, John?
[SPEAKER_00]: Betsy, we've been through some trials, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been disciplined, we had to learn some things, yes, even the pastors had to learn some things in the end of this point of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had to learn things from the Lord, yet the discipline us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The future though, won't probably look the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's been some great times in our past, some awesome, holy, moments.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen God's faithfulness in some awesome times as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the fact is, God is growing us to have more influence in our city.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the future won't look the same, probably.
[SPEAKER_00]: It probably won't.
[SPEAKER_00]: It won't probably be like the good old age you remember, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it'll be better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it will have some trials in some discipline that will probably have to endure again.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we look back and remember that God has always been faithful, and He will be faithful in the next season as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it might not look the same, but God is on the move.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's working, go with the flow, learn from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I want you to think individually.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd like every head, bowed, and try to be still, because I really think that the Lord wants to work through His Word and some people's lives today.
[SPEAKER_00]: For some of you, it could be that you haven't experienced the promise laying yet because you're not ready for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It took the Israelites 40 years of testing and trials and discipline.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you didn't remember if you're in the wilderness, if you're in the 40 years, if you're in the meantime, that God is more interested in what He's doing in you than what He's allowing you to happen to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because He's doing a work right now that is going to prepare you for the promises so you won't forget Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: perhaps God is still doing work in you, but He's faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you hear this morning and if you think about your life and you remember it's just one big trial and you're having a hard time and trouble seeing God in any of it, it could be because you don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's because you've never surrendered your life to him and so
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard for you to see any purpose in the pain or see any triumphs in your trials.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, God disciplines test humbles those who are his, his children, and I know that this might sound harsh, but if you have never repented of your sin, place your faith in Christ, ask him to forgive you and ask him to be Lord of your life, you aren't his child yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Until your his, there will never be any lasting resolution for the trials in the discipline in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: the consequences, but here's the good news.
[SPEAKER_00]: You hear today, or you're listening in on a podcast or watching online, and I don't believe that that's a coincidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a loving God introducing himself to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that my friend is the Lord inviting you to be his child.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is in the business of not only forgiving your past, but redeeming it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we call our church Redeemer Church because we serve the Redeemer of all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: He could take the worst pass, redeem it, and give you a future and hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he did for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: All you have to do is repent and believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're in a trial, if you're under the discipline of the Lord,
[SPEAKER_00]: draw near to the throne of grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord has so much for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loves you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loves you too much, Christian, to lead you in your sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Repent and believe today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Repent, confess.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't leave today with unresolved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Confession.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to pray as the band starts singing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to invite you to come to this altar.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing special about the front of the stage, but it is a symbol of like an altar, to come and just give your trial to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Confess your sin to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's faithful and just to forgive you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in James says, if you confess one to another, you will be healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both has to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You confess to the Lord, but you need to confess to a person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's a spouse, maybe it's a pastor, but don't stay in your sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Confess, confess, the Lord wants to heal you.