Home | What's Happening | Explore | Pictures | Links | Contact Us
August 5, 2007AM
Deuteronomy 30:8-20
God’s Faithfulness
God is a Miraculous Giver.
He miraculously makes His Resources available to His people.
He is more than willing to provide for all He asks us to do.
And He is willing to Risk everything on us.
These are some of the truths about God we have been discovering lately.
It is especially important that we recognize those truths right now.
God is placing a high calling on us as a congregation.
We are recognizing the challenges of our future.
In a month we will be starting multiple services.
That is a tremendous step of faith.
You’ll know more about that step next week.
And let’s not allow the vision of our S.A.V.E. S.I.T.E. to fade.
That is going to be another tremendous step of faith.
But our Scripture gives us some wonderful assurance.
It is all about God’s faithfulness to the people that He calls.
Some of you have probably traveled to Wyoming and seen the geyser Old Faithful.
No one knows how long it has been erupting up to 8,400 gallons of boiling water.
It shoots that water to an average height of 145 feet for up to 5 minutes.[3]
It has done this on average every 91 minutes.[4]
More than 137,000 eruptions have been recorded.
Its next eruption can be predicted on the basis of its last eruption.
That is faithfulness.
It is reliable and can be counted on.
No one who travels to Wyoming to see Old Faithful is disappointed.
And God’s Faithfulness is just as reliable.
His faithfulness has not changed.
But it will not be fully appreciated unless we respond to His voice.
To appreciate Old Faithful you have to make the trip.
To fully experience God’s Faithfulness requires obedience.
And in our passage we discover He provides plenty of opportunity.
God wants us to experience His Faithfulness.
But it won’t happen if we choose to be dormant in our faith.
Listen to these thoughts from William A. Ward
“Faith in God makes a person undaunted, unafraid, undivided, and ‘unflappable’.
“Real faith results in active response, responsive action, & willing obedience.
“Faith is continuing to run the race, assured you will get your second wind.
“Faith is focusing on God’s promises & cropping out the world’s discouragements.
“Faith is confidently expecting miracles from the Source and Promiser of miracles.”
God does not want us to drift.
To drift means there is no course of action.
There is no plan and no destination.
To drift means to wander aimlessly.
That is not a godly life.
That is a sinful life.
Paul says that God has given us His gifts “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.” (Eph. 4:14)
Let’s see what God calls us to choose.
It is very evident this is what He wants of us in vs. 15.
“See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil.”
God presents us with a choice.
We can drift or we can follow Him.
Verses 11-14 give us the first choice.
I CHOOSE GOD’S CHORES (read vs. 11-14)
What God calls us to do is not too hard, or too far away.
What God calls us to do is not beyond our capacity.
We must never throw up our hands in despair.
We must never say it is useless or pointless to obey God.
God places, burns, ignites His chores in our minds and hearts.
We become inseparable to His chores.
His call, His word is very near to us.
“It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.”
I didn’t just make this up friends.
God says to us, “When I give you a chore, you can do it!”
“When I ask you to do something it can be done because I’m faithful.”
But it won’t happen if we sit still and worry.
It won’t happen if we think it is done in our strength.
It won’t happen if we do not take a step of faith.
It won’t happen if God is not in our hearts and minds.
If God is distant to us it will seem like we have to ascend to
heaven ourselves or cross the ocean ourselves.
Faith begins by choosing God’s forgiveness through Jesus.
And it grows as we choose His will each day.
One person is quoted as saying, “Obviously faith honors God, while doubting His Word must insult and displease Him.” (Weekly Review)
We must CHOOSE GOD’S CHORES.
II CHOOSE GOD’S CHALLENGES (read vs. 19-20)
Israel was on the threshold of the Promised Land.
All they had to do was cross one more river.
Only the Jordan River stood in their way physically.
It was a formidable barrier.
The water was at its highest and fastest.
This was not their first time looking across this river.
They had been at this place 40 years earlier.
That time the barrier was their lack of faith.
God gave them a challenge and they cowered.
They did not step across into the Promised Land.
As a result 40 years were wasted.
An entire generation squandered the joy of living in God’s will.
Here they are again.
God says, “Choose this day what you will do.”
The same challenge blocked their path.
It wasn’t the swollen river.
It was again a choice of faith.
They had to choose all over again.
Moses said to them, “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear of be in dread of them: for it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.” (Deut. 31:6)
They were faced with the Challenge of the Promised Land.
As Israel crossed the Jordan God’s presence was there.
In His presence they crossed over on dry land (Josh. 3:17).
But it was not automatic passage.
They had to choose God’s Challenge
We are faced with choosing God’s challenges for us as a congregation.
How will we choose?
It begins with the confidence in God’s faithfulness.
It is an act of our love for Him.
“loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice, and cleaving to Him; for that means life to you and length of days” (vs. 20a)
We have another opportunity to say yes to God again.
We can choose life and good, or we can choose death and evil.
Choosing God’s Challenges ushers us into life and good.
III CHOOSE GOD’S CHANCES (verse 8-10)
You know, we don’t always get it right the first time.
Sometimes we choose the wrong direction.
But there is a single word in verse 8 that speaks volumes to us.
It is that word “Again”.
What a beautiful word “again” is.
It means we have another chance.
We are given another opportunity.
We might have blown it the last time.
But God presents us with another opportunity to get it right.
When we CHOOSE GOD’S CHANCE, notice the results.
“The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground; for the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, . . . if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
There can be no half measures.
There is no such thing as partial obedience.
We can go where God is calling us to go and be sure of His
faithfulness.
He will not lead us only half way through the river.
He will take us all the way.
He will provide all that we need.
How are you serving God today?
Is it half-heartedly?
Is your service of Him minimal?
Are you doing anything in the ministry He has given to us as a congregation?
If we are going to move ahead obediently it will require consecration.
Yours and mine.
It will require each person living in loving obedience to the Father.
It will require each of us to turn to the Lord.
To make Him our choice.
And to love Him with all our heart and with all our soul.
“Saving faith is passing from death into life.
“One is either lost or saved.
“The scale between the two conditions is not graduated.”
We cannot be alive unto Christ and dead to His will at the same time.
How are you ready to put God’s faithfulness to the test?
Will you step out where you have not stepped before?
Where will you say yes to God by faith?
Will you choose God’s Chores, God’s Challenges, and God’s Chances?
To do so is to choose life and experience God’s Faithfulness.