When It’s Time to Move Forward
Series: Moving Forward: Choices that Free Us
Brad Bailey – January 28, 2018
Intro: This first month of this new year we have been hearing the call to keep moving forward.
The first week I noted that no year is just a new year because God always has something he wants to do in my life and through my life. What he desires… I’m know that I haven’t reached yet. I haven’t accomplished all that God has for me; And you haven’t either. The fact that we’re still alive means God has more for us. So I asked each of us to consider:
What does God want to be different about your life?
What does God, the Creator of the universe who loves you and has great plans for you, what does God want to be different in your life?
In this final week of considering the nature of going forward…I invite us to hear the words which God spoke to those He first called… the people who became the nation of Israel. It is a point during what is called the Exodus…in which the people of Israel has been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years…and God brought forth their freedom…liberation… and they were now free to continue towards the Promised Land…the destination that God had promised and prepared for the. Near the border of the Promised Land they camp… and begin to get a bit too settled.
At which point, the Scriptures record…
Deuteronomy 1:6-8 (NLT)
“The LORD our God said to us, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on. … Look, I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it...”
Many of us may sense a similar word to us…
You have stayed at this mountain long enough.
It is time to break camp and move on.
I believe these words can speak to something that each of us may face…. When we have stayed in the same place long enough. It’s a time when what we accepted as temporary is becoming permanent. We might describe it as feeling stuck…or stagnant.
You may feel you going through the motions… less alive inside.
You may wonder…why you don’t feel what you use to.
When you first met the reality of God you recall feeling wonder, expectancy, and moments of deep joy.
You felt life was an open road…but now you’ve moved into a cul-de-sac.
Your life that was once marked by some passion… seems to have “morphed into the safe confines of a predictable, domesticated belief system.”
It may come with a quiet loss of aspirations… passions…we just put on hold for a bit…but now they seem faint…lost… we feel the loss of focus…loss of any aspiration.
It may feel like a slump. Maybe we we had felt our life was really progressing… but then we had some bad times up at bat …we haven’t felt like playing any more…. so we just took a break….and now it’s been so long it’s become more like an unplanned retirement.
At some point most of us are going to face a time in which we need to face the truth that …
We’ve stopped moving forward.
We’ve been making peace with passivity.
We stopped focusing on where you are going… and have become more fixated on where you are and perhaps where you’ve been.
Fresh movement doesn’t come just from the start of a new year…it doesn’t come from discovering some new novel “it.” It comes when we allow ourselves to hear God calling us…
“It is time to break camp and move on. … Look, I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it...”
Notice God how calls them to focus on what is ahead…still to come… not yet reached…says…”Look”…look where I have called you…where you are meant to go.
• If someone got into a car with you…and you start driving and you block out the windshield and just focus on the little rear view mirror… I see a horrible end. Yet that is how some of us are driving our lives.
• To be fair….the further in years in one’s earthly life-span…the more the past is a source of memories …influence…warmth… BUT…God is focused on where we are going.
• God always is always at work…always redeeming what was lost. If today was just another day…we wouldn’t not be here. If today exists with us in it…it’s because God is still fulfilling His purposes. [1]
What matters is what is ahead.
When we feel stuck… it’s hard to identify what has happened and how to get out of it. So let me offer what God has pointed to as what is needed to move forward. I want to help us identify with five steps that can help us…
When Its’ Time to Move Forward…
How do we break camp?
1. Realize that we may not be so much stuck as stopped.
Israelites…this wasn’t the end of 40 years… it had never been God’s intentions for the people to wander in the desert for 40 years...that would come by consequences for fear…but this was after just a couple years…and the issue… they had stopped.
It was good to have a break from movement… but they were starting to become settled.
I believe they need to realize something: “You’re Not Stuck, You Just Stopped.”
We often do FEEL stuck… but we are using the word to describe what we feel… more than what has actually happened.
I stopped going to the gym for a long time… I felt stuck in my daily patterns…I didn’t FEEL I could get up and go. But in truth…I had just stopped going. And when you stop…you FEEL stuck. The natural desire goes… the connection in thoughts and physical desire get lost.
The call of Jesus always bears those words…’Follow Me.”
And it is like a call that awakens a bigger world… a new identity we haven’t even begun to take in…a new destiny we can’t even imagine… … the get up and come… the sense of change…
I sense many of us trade “follow me” for “I think I’ll just stay here … maintain a few religious habits.”
We need to hear that call… it hasn’t changed.
“Follow Me” ….
When does he stop moving? Never.
So we may do well by re-thinking whether we are stuck…or just stopped.
2. Recognize our attachment to what’s familiar… and our resistance to change.
Israel begins to look back at Egypt…after all… 400 years there was a long time…and at least we knew what to expect. [2]
The longer you stay somewhere…the more comfortable and connected you become.
It’s harder to want change.
Oh…we may complain a lot about the place we are… BUT… we are also becoming less willing to change.
I complain about things…more than I invest in change.
Breaking camp involved a major change in their mindset and expectations…. They had been camped for a long time… now it’s time to move forward into all they knew were called to. Those tent pegs were getting pretty settled in the ground. They were relaxing. Now it was time to put on a mindset of mobility… they weren’t home yet… had to shake off the settledness.
Recognize our attachment to what’s familiar… and our resistance to change
3. Confront any unresolved disillusionment…and the potential misguided expectations involved.
Often what lies in the deeper recesses of feeling stuck…is an underlying disappointment…a disillusionment. At some point we can face a disappointment with life… in some way it was not the way it was supposed to be.
Often when we begin to respond to God’s calling… we feel what it means to be loved… to discover a life of meaning and purpose. We discover that life is eternal…and everything becomes bigger.
But then…life between here and that ultimate home is not as different as we thought….it’s not only still hard…it can be harder…because we are no longer at home here nor there.
At the root of becoming disillusioned… disappointment…lies some false expectations.
• Sometimes we face a deep wrong…or a deep loss….and we just can’t accept life anymore. We may keep living…but our hearts just not in it…because it’s not the way it’s supposed to be.
• We thought we would always feel lighter…but we often feel a new heaviness of heart…God’s heart….and we didn’t expect that.
• Sometimes it can come with assuming that those who are committed to Jesus would always be like him….and sometimes they seem to have aspects that are unsettling… disappointing… disillusioning.
• Sometimes it’s our own struggles to change. We expected we wouldn’t struggle with certain problems and patterns again …but we do.
It can come in so many ways. We can become disappointed with ourselves… others… life…and God.
And so often…it lies deep and unresolved.
And when life does not fit our expectation…we become disoriented. There is an inner disorientation… we can’t engage the world we wake up to every day …because we don’t know what to expect. And at some level we withdraw so that we don’t expect anything. No wonder we aren’t going forward.
If you identify with such a state…I want to encourage you…write down what disappointed about…and as best you can…what expectations were not met.
And then reflect deeply on those expectations.
At some level…we can begin to realize that God wanted us to be clearer about that.
We see this so clearly in Jesus’ first disciples.
They expected that they were going to see him as a new earthly ruler…instead he dies… not the way of change they understand. Jesus wasn’t simply going to be the new hero… he was going to conform the powers of this world…and overcome them…but not without the ongoing work of earthly forces at work.
And Jesus understood how significant it was to help them prepare their expectations. It was going to be hard.
What had Jesus been trying to communicate to all of them?
John 16:33 (NLT)
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.
Can you hear how much he desires to help set the expectations right?
Jesus UNDERSTANDS what it’s like to have to trust what we don’t always understand. He himself cried out…Father… WHY have you forsaken me?”
At some level…what we are stuck in…is a stalemate between our will and God’s will.
We don’t want what God may allow…or we want what God is not providing.
Like a child refusing to budge until we get what we want…we passively decide won’t keep going forward.
This unspoken stalemate…isn’t really going to work. God isn’t playing a game with us. His ultimate will is unchanging…it’s to change us… to form the nature of good in us…the nature of Christ.
Romans 8:28-29 (MSG)
We can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.
God’s will is ultimately to shape my life towards true goodness…the divine nature of God. [3]
We need to confront any unresolved disillusionment…and the potential misguided expectations involved.
4. Count the cost of the changes you need to make.
We read in Proverbs…
“It is foolish and rash to make a promise to the Lord before counting the cost.” (Proverbs 20:25 TLB)
Often, we have not counted…so we aren’t prepared…
The truth is that if you choose to go forward… there will be changes.
And the first step if you really are going to go forward… is to face the changes… by counting the cost.
At one point, Jesus saw growing crowds coming to be healed…
He knew that we tend to see the good before the cost…to count on the profit before the expenses.
Jesus understood the difference between fans and followers. [4]
So he said: …
Luke 14:26-29 (MSG)
"Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one's own self!—can't be my disciple. 27 Anyone who won't shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can't be my disciple. 28 "Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it? 29 If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you're going to look pretty foolish.”
Strong words. They aren’t words aimed at discouraging people…but rather at preparing people.
Jesus says…count the costs…and you will build well. [5]
When we don’t count the costs…here’s what happens…the enemy of our souls will either keep us shallow…impulsive… short lived…so we never really keep following after God
OR…we will just sense a great cost… and by not really facing what it is…we will become overwhelmed.
When we count the costs… we face the fears…and prepare for them. [6]
When we count the cost…we are able to move from “why not” to “what if” which opens the way to going forward.
Finally…
5. Embrace the opportunity to rely afresh on God.
When Israel came to the edge of the Promised Land…a portion of the spies sent to scout the land could only see the scope of the opposition… but two could see the opportunity… an opportunity to experience God.
Every step throughout the Wilderness was about relying on God.
We do not need to deny the challenges, we need to connect to the larger reality of God.
The challenges are real. There are people already living in the land God has promised to them. But reality is so much bigger…it’s as big as God…and God is infinite….and God is with us and in us. [7]
The initial spies who surveyed the land saw what would be hard…and wanted to just withdraw.
They didn’t see an opportunity to rely on God. It cost a whole generation to have to die out before they could enter the land.
The quiet tragedy for many of us…is that we talk about faith…faith in God…but we may have a hard time identifying what we are actually seeking God to do in us…through us.
We may have some great ideals… about what we hope we will do one day…but we feel that life has become too routine to see what God would want to do.
The truth is that everything matters to God. He can use everything to connect us to him…to work in us…and through us.
There is significance in what we dismiss as the ordinary duties of life. A Boston newspaper once interviewed a house cleaning woman and asked her how she could stand the monotony and boredom of doing the same thing day in and day out. The woman gave this reply: "Oh, I don't get bored. I use cleaning materials that God made; I clean objects that belong to people God made, and I make life more comfortable for them. My mop is the hand of God!" (Pastor George Gardiner recalls reading in a Boston newspaper.)
Our problem is that we think is not big enough for the big challenges of life…and that He is too big for what we consider the small things in life. So we slip into life separated from what God can do. Your life… roles… are a mop in the hands of God.
As we join in prayer before God… lets begin with reading these words from the Apostle Paul together..
Philippians 3:13 (CEV)
I don't feel that I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead.
Resources: I appreciate many who have sought to speak into the challenges of becoming spiritually stuck…stagnant. If any statements were drawn very directly from, they may include: Steven J. Cole - Getting Out of a Spiritual Slump (Genesis 35:1-29); Chip Ingram - How to Overcome Personal Stagnation, Part 1; https://www.gotquestions.org/count-the-cost.html; Preston Morrison - “You’re Not Stuck, You Just Stopped”; Sharon Jaynes - What to Do When You Feel Stuck in Life
Notes:
1. In Isaiah 43, God declares that he is doing a new thing: “Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already—you can see it now! I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there” (Isaiah 43:18b-19).
2. Egypt would also become a symbol of the worldly things one longs for. As the Apostle Paul describes,
1 Corinthians 10:1-6 (NLT)
I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did,
3. We hear something of this central work of conforming us into Christ-likeness also in Romans 12:1-3
4. Jesus understood the difference between fans and followers.
• Fans are drawn by what someone has done, followers because of who someone is. They are coming to Jesus strictly for what He can do for them. A fan cheers on someone who offers them. A fan is being served by the "hero." A fan is bound only by how the "object" they cheer serves their sense of well-being (i.e. inspiration, confidence, power, etc)
• You don’t have to do everything to be a fan....or change anything.
In fact, registering your support as a fan of something is so easy that it only requires clicking a button on Facebook. When Facebook was becoming popular, they had a button called “become a fan.” Today it is called the “like” button. Jesus isn't calling for Facebook fans....but rather those who want to participate in what he is doing.
• A fan is defined as an enthusiastic admirer. A fan can love the team and still not be on the team. He can wear the T-shirt and have thorough knowledge of the game and the players involved. He can feel like he is part of the game while never being involved on the field.
• One of the symptoms of a being a fan is that you think you are a follower
5. Jesus concluded his description of the cost of discipleship explaining: "Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). “Renouncing” means releasing our attachment…so that it no longer controls us.
There is an underlying confusion …some refer to it as the false idea of “cheap grace”…Jesus has done everything…we just receive it… spiritual welfare program…. Jesus understood he was making a way…to follow.
6. Some other Scriptures that speak of the wisdom of planning ahead:
Luke 14:28-33
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ...
Proverbs 21:5 ESV
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
Proverbs 14:8 ESV
The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving.
Proverbs 24:27
Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.
Genesis 41:34-36 votes
Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years. And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.”
1 Timothy 5:8
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Proverbs 6:6-8 ESV
Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.
7. The spies explained the complications they saw in following God into the Promised Land. First, there were giants in the land. Secondly, those giants lived in fortified cities. Finally, those giants were everywhere (v.29). We face all the same things whenever we follow God. The challenges are real…but only a smaller part of the real picture. The two spies who challenged the assessment NEVER suggested they didn’t see the opposition…they didn’t deny that part of reality…they didn’t dismiss that part of reality…. rather, they saw God in reality. It’s not a matter of not seeing the challenges…it’s a matter of not seeing God.
As God has declared…
“Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.” - Isaiah 46:9-10
Jesus reveals the power to always move forward…
Jesus said, "…with God all things are possible."- Matthew 19:26 (NIV)
The disciple John explains…
“He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” - 1 John 4:4 (ESV)
