INTRO
- Have you ever wondered
- Why bad things happen to good people
- When I am asked that question
- I must respond with:
„X God is sovereign
„X His ways are higher than ours
„X When you can't trace / trust
- If we're not careful we will let life's...
Detours
Delays
Discouragements
- Hold us in our THENS
...and we will miss our NOW
Verse 1 THEN Moses
- They've been on a journey
- They're about to reach their destiny (40 years)
- They're on the brink of a breakthrough
- Right across from Jericho / Canaan
Verse 4 THEN the Lord said
- You will not go in (detour)
- Have you ever had a detour
- You would have been farther along...
o ...but a detour
Verse 5 THEN Moses died (AND in NIV & KJV, original THEN)
- This was an end to a season
- We must understand seasons
- Many people try to do...
...the wrong thing in
...the wrong season
* 40 years of a promise...
...an exit
* Moses was bad -- he liberated a people from a tyrant
* They are heading somewhere
* They are working toward something
* But THEN Moses died!
THEN = A concluding word
= A summary word
* This is not how the story is supposed to end.
Verse 4 A promise on the brink
Verse 5 THEN Moses died
I have a promise -- that needs fulfilling
I have a destiny -- to reach
* Have you ever had a THEN (conclusion)
* When you were supposed to have a NOW?
...THEN I filed bankruptcy
...THEN he left
...THEN the baby died
...THEN the divorce was final
...THEN Moses died
* And I don't know what to do
o Preacher, I'm stuck in my THEN
„X Hurt
„X Pain
„X Anger
„X Resentment
* To the people
o Moses' death was a major death
o They don't know they're in the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy (the last chapter)
o What do you do when you have an end...
o ...when you thought you were at a beginning
o What do you do when
„X You hit a detour
„X THENS try to stop you
- This is how far you can come and no further
* I've had those moments as a Pastor
Moses died - dilemma
Jordan flooded - detour
Jericho fortified - defining moment
* I've come to tell you
o That God never has a THEN
o Without providing a NOW!
Joshua 1:1 NOW after
Joshua 1:9 NOW Joshua
Then = ending word -- conclusion - summary
Now = a new beginning -- new season
* Aren't you glad that when one chapter closes
* God can open another
* You can't even die without a new biginning
* There is a Canaan
o Abundance
o Flow
* Nobody ever invents anything that doesn't have a purpose
* God our creator didn't create us without a purpose
* You might be at a:
„X Detour
„X Discouraged
„X Doubtful
„X Derailed
„X Defeated
* But I've come to tell you to turn the page
* And look for your NOW!
* If the road is closed...
* ...God has an alternate route
* Booker T. Washington
o Was detoured because he was born in slavery
* Thomas Edison
o Was detoured because he was born deaf
* Abraham Lincoln
o Was detoured because he had illiterate parents
* Julius Caesar
o Was detoured because he had epilepsy
* There is nothing worse than to be on your way to your destiny
o And hit a detour
o Get behind
EXAMPLE: my car getting jumped when I was 18
* I want those who are stuck in a THEN
* Facing detours to remember
* A few things...
1. DETOURS CAN BE DEFINING MOMENTS
Movie sliding doors
If Helen makes it aboard a London subway train before the sliding doors close, she will have a different future than if she is left standing on the platform. In parallel stories, this tale follows Helen's lives down both paths simultaneously, as two totally different futures unfold.
Our lives are filled with sliding doors and defining moments...that determine the outcome of our lives.
Psalms 37:34
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. (KJV)
Defining = to give form to something
To delineate the outline or form of
Moment = a specific point in time
A particular period of importance
A brief indefinite period of time
* There are many detours that became defining moments in the archives of history:
- April 14, 1912 -- that was the fateful night that the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg.
- October 24, 1929 -- Black Thursday -- the day the stock market crashed
- May 6, 1937 -- the Hindenburg disaster
- December 7, 1941 -- Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
- August 6th & 9th, 1945 -- Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- November 22, 1963 -- President JFK was assassinated
- April 4, 1968 -- Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated
- August 5, 1964 -- US becomes involved in Vietnam
- January 28, 1968 -- Space shuttle Challenger exploded after take off
- January 16, 1991 -- US attacks Iraq
- April 19, 1995 -- Federal Building was bombed in Oklahoma City
- April 20, 1999 -- Columbine High School Shootings
- September 11, 2001 -- World Trade Towers, Pentagon, 4 planes hijacked
* These are just some defining moments
* They altered our lives...
...and are forever sealed in our memory
* They are earmarks in history and show us how fast life can change
* Every person has them
* Every Christian has them in a way that lead to and through their journey with Christ
„X How you got saved
„X Who you met that influenced you
„X The time God spoke to you
„X That Sunday you had a breakthrough
„X When the church sang that one song
„X Pastor preached exactly what I was going through
* The great men and women of the Bible
„X Adam's -- apple
„X Cain -- killed Able
„X Lot -- takes the Greenland
„X Abraham -- to sacrifice Isaac
„X Moses -- at the burning bush
„X David -- what will I kill l Goliath with
„X Elijah -- on Mt. Carmel
„X Elisha -- I'll take a double portion
„X Peter -- walking on water
„X Paul -- the road to Damascus
„X Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego -- fiery furnace
„X Daniel -- to pray even through lion's den
„X Ruth -- I will not go back
* These defining moments forced these ordinary folks...
...to become extra-ordinary
* And their lives were never the same.
* What will you do when your next detour presents you with a sliding door?
2. DETOURS MAY CAUSE DELAY
But you don't have to be denied
* When I was a kid my life detoured...
...when my parents divorced
* I always prayed for a Godly family
...that was delayed
...but not denied
* Joseph was delayed
o In the pit
o But not denied
* Caleb was delayed...
o Wanted to take Canaan
o But not denied
o Give me my mountain
EXAMPLE: Story of my mother
* I might be the last one on the bus
* I might be the last one to arrive
* I might be rushed and flustered
* You don't know what I went through to get here!
o But I am here
o Delayed yes - denied NO!
EXAMPLE: Engine went out
Emergency landing
Made us late
* But I would rather be delayed than denied
3. DETOURS MAY DERAIL YOU
But derail doesn't mean disgrace
* The prodigal son
o Was derailed but not disgraced
* When a Christian gets derailed...
o Let's not disgrace them
* Christians get detoured...
...and sometimes it derails them.
