RECAP – Romans 8:28-30
• God is concern with our CHARACTER, more than our comfort or our competence. Your character is what you will take into eternity.
• He is restoring us to back to His perfect and glorious image and therefore He uses every experience we have on earth to do that. Earth is the Potter’s wheel.
• Character COUNTS and character IMPACTS the world more than anything else.
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How to make God angry? I know some of you will think about sin or evil, but I want to talk about something else today.
• One line in Deut 1:26-36 caught my attention last Sunday night when I was preaching. [Read Deut 1:26-36]
CONTEXT: This was Moses’ sermon to the people, as they gather in the desert East of Jordan, at the edge of the land of Canaan.
• Almost 40 years have passed. This new generation of Israelites, with Joshua and Caleb, will finally step into the Promised Land.
• Moses was delivering his final words of the people, giving them a flashback of what happened over the last 40 years.
Moses recounted the unbelief of their forefathers that led to their wandering in the desert.
• 1:34 tells us very clearly that God was so angry with the people that He swore: “No a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers, except Caleb…” because he believed me.
• The whole entire nation came under God’s wrath because of unbelief.
Unbelief angers God. The opposite is true – faith pleases God. Heb 11:6 says without faith it is impossible to please God.
• Israel’s unbelief was expressed in various ways – 1:26-28 “You are unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, “The Lord hates us; so He brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. 28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, `The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.'”
• When you lose sight of God, these are the symptoms – you are not willing to trust, you become rebellious, you grumbled in your ‘tent’ quietly, you misread God’s good intention; you become discouraged, and you see your problems as bigger than they should be.
Sounds familiar? I went through bouts of these feelings over the years. It has its root in unbelief. And it happens when I set my eyes on something else other than God.
• Unbelief sets in when our perspective changes.
• What exactly are you looking at? Most of the time?
Jesus says, “Have faith in God!” (Mark 11:22) That’s the OBJECT of faith, and the FOCUS of our faith.
• Anything else – the circumstances, the challenges, the giants before you – will give you reasons enough to DOUBT.
• The Israelites had their eyes on everything else except God, despite all the signs He has given them.
The unbelief was not the result of a lack of EVIDENCES, because God has performed!
The unbelief was not the result of a lack of ASSURANCES, because God has spoken!
Moses pleaded with them then - Deut 1:29-31 “Then I said to them, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place."
Deut 1:32-33 “In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, 33 who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.”
God has spoken and God has performed. There were undeniable signs of His presence and power, but the people have chosen to look SOMEWHERE else.
• They looked at themselves, their problems, their circumstances, and even at Egypt, the land they have just left.
• Ultimately, belief or unbelief is a CHOICE. Faith is an act of the will.
Are you WILLING to believe? The people REFUSED to trust God.
• You may find this hard to believe, but over some time you will find this to be true.
• It is not just about evidences, although they are aids and can help us make a decision. But the decision to TRUST God is a CHOICE.
People like to argue it this way: “Show me the proof and I will believe.” Frankly, to show you the proof means you need not have to believe. You don’t need faith anymore. You’ve just accepted the truth by sight, not faith.
• Faith is not empirical. It is not a science. It is not anti-science. It is to believe in something that is true before you see it, because God has revealed it to be true.
• It is not illogical but paralogical – it’s beyond our present understanding.
• It is truth that we have yet to discover but God has already revealed.
(1) CULTIVATE A WILLINGNESS TO TRUST
Rom 10:21 “But concerning Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people."
• If we twist these two negative words around and make them into positive attitudes, it would be a readiness to obey and a willingness to trust.
What makes this unbelief so appalling is to know the other alternative they had.
• What other choice do you have beside Canaan? Despite the evidences of the miracles, the people said they would prefer to remain in Egypt and in slavery.
• Exo 16:3 says that they rather stay in Egypt where they can sit around pots of meat and eat all the food we want.
You gave me a gift and I say, “No thanks. I prefer to old one that I have. It’s better. I’ve been using it for years.”
• You tried to show me how good your gift is. Demonstrate to me how it works and the new features.
• I am not interested. “You are wasting my time,” I started complaining. Your good intention has turned out to be a ‘bad thing’.
• Israel would rather chose slavery over freedom; Egypt over Canaan, and eventually death in their sin rather than life with God!
The next verse says (Deut 1:34-35) “When the LORD heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore: 35 "Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers…”
• God: “If is it so difficult for you, then I will not force you. You can stay in the wilderness, for good!”
How can I cultivate a willingness to trust Him? Watch out for what God has been saying and doing in your life. Pay attention. Faith leaks when we fail to see Him.
(2) CULTIVATE A READINESS TO OBEY
Obey first, and you will see the promises of God come true.
• Abraham obeyed God and saw the inheritance. Moses obeyed and saw the deliverance from mighty Egypt. Esther obeyed and saved her nation.
When you obey, you will see. We may not fully ‘agree’ with Him all the time. We don’t always understand His ways. But CHOOSE to obey first.
• Cultivate this heart to OBEY and we will see the ACTS of God.
• The one who obey will get to see the blessings of God. You have nothing to lose, everything to gain.
Can we have it another way? Can I be blessed without having to obey God, in this and that?
• We are called to live life on His terms, not ours. He is the perfect God who knows the perfect way to give us the best life we can get.
• If we don’t life on His terms, we are left with living life on OUR OWN terms. So be it, the Lord says. Look at our world, and this is what we’ve got.
In closing, I like to share with you this verse in Heb 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
• People like to see this differently - “God will reward those who seek a reward.”
• If I need healing, I should be seeking healing and God will give it to me. If I need money, I should be seeking for finances and then God will help me.
• But the Word says we are to seek, not the reward, but the Rewarder. When we seek Him, we shall get what we really need.
I believe there are many unfulfilled needs in our lives because many are seeking the wrong things.
• We are going for the gifts and not the Giver. And if we are going for things, then no wonder they are not satisfied.
• If everything we need is in Him, we need to seek Him. Honour Him and blessings will flow.
Ronald Dunn: “Faith that pleases God believes that God is better than His best gifts.”
• Do you love Him for who He is or for what you can get out of Him?
• Obey Him, because that is the right thing to do. Cultivate a readiness to obey Him and what He has said.
• You are blessed because you have chosen to obey, even when it is hard to do so.
