Scripture: John 10:10; Exodus 2:23 - 25; Dt. 1:6-8; Joshua 1:1-9
Theme: Living Abundantly
Title: Promise Land Living
INTRO:
Grace and peace today from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
I want to talk to you today about where you are living. I don't mean your physical address; although that is important but your spiritual address. I want to talk to you about the place where you heart and mind lives this morning.
I have been studying the journey of the People of Israel over the last few weeks and have discovered that for the most part they found themselves living in one of three places:
+ As slaves under bondage
+In the wilderness going around in circles
+ or enjoying life in God's Promise Land
I have also discovered that like Israel a great many people live in one of those three places - in slavery, in the wilderness or in the Promise Land.
+ In a place of spiritual slavery - being enslaved by sin, addiction and death
+ In the wilderness - having been rescued by the LORD but finding themselves spiritually going around in circles and having an up and down spiritual life
+ In the Promise Land of God - being filled with Holy Spirit and living under the guidance and will of God's favor, anointing and blessing
Let's take a few moments and look at all this in more detail.
I. Land of Slavery
When we get to the end of the book of Genesis it looks like the Children of Israel are in a good place. They are living safe and secure in the land of Goshen. They are able to grow their crops, tend their sheep (livestock) and serve the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY? Everything looks like they will be enjoy a time of prosperity and success for generations to come. The Egyptians are their friends, Joseph is in control and life is good.
So what happened? What happened between the last chapters of Genesis and the first chapters of the book of Exodus? What caused them to go from being a part of the highest social class to being a part of the lowest social class? What caused them from being in people in power to becoming slaves?
While we don't know for sure, But, I think the Bible does give us some very important clues. If you read Genesis chapter 47 you find out that while Joseph and the Pharaoh at the time gave people food to eat during the years of the famine they also enslaved the people.
At first, the people spent all their money for food. When their money ran out they gave all their livestock. Then when they no longer owned any more livestock they signed over their homes to Joseph and Pharaoh.
Listen to the words found in Genesis 37:20 - 21
"So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. All the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe upon them; and the land became Pharaoh's. As for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other."
Everyone except for the Israelites living in the land of Goshen had become slaves.
Then in Exodus chapter one we read about a new Pharaoh, a new king coming to power in Egypt. A Pharaoh that did not know Joseph. In other words, the new Pharaoh did not come from the same line as the Pharaoh that knew Joseph. Bible scholars tell us that a new group of Egyptians came to power. This new group had been a part of the people that Joseph and the former Pharaoh had enslaved.
When you read that, it doesn't take long to realize that whether they knew it or not when Joseph and Pharaoh enslaved those people they sent about Israel's demise. The enslaved people came to power and when they came to power they set about enslaving the people who they thought had been responsible for taking their land, their homes, their livestock and their lives.
It appears that Joseph and Pharaoh made some bad decisions. The Bible never tells us that the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY wanted Joseph to enslave the Egyptians. Joseph was God ordained to come to power so that His People and the people of Egypt and the whole Middle East would survive the famine. God did not endorse the plan to enslave the people because they could not pay for food.
Poor choices, going beyond God's permission and thinking that we know best always gets us in trouble. It's the perfect formula for disaster. It got Joseph and the Children of Israel in trouble. It got Adam and Eve and trouble and it will get us in trouble as well.
How many times do we find ourselves enslaved to this addiction or that addiction, to this sin or to that sin because we made a bad choice, we thought we knew better and we did something without God's permission?
Jesus warns us in John 8:34 -
"Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin."
Later on Paul will tell us in Romans 3:23 -
"... all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God...
Romans 6:23 -
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
The truth is this morning like Israel we first find ourselves enslaved - enslaved to the world, enslaved to our own warped thinking and enslaved to sin. It is the natural state of mankind. We didn't get there by mistake. We got there by rebelling against God's will. We got there by breaking God's laws. We got there by making bad decisions.
That is the bad news. But there is good news just like there was for the Children of Israel.
II. God will lead us out of slavery and through the wilderness
The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY did not abandon His People nor did He allow His People to stay in bondage forever1. At the appointed time the LORD sent Moses to rescue, redeem and restore the Children of Israel back into a people of freedom and abundance.
The picture we get of the Exodus Event is one of victory and honor. It is not a picture of a people escaping or running scared.
The Bible tells us that the Lord God Almighty led His People out with His presence illustrated through the Pillars of Cloud and Fire. God led them out with all their livestock, with all their possessions along with the richness of the Egyptians.
Listen to the words of Exodus 12:35 - 36:
"The Israelites had done as Moses told them; they had asked the Egyptians for jewelry of silver and gold, and for clothing, and the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And so they plundered the Egyptians." (Exodus 12:35 - 36)
When God freed His People it was a moment of glory. It was a moment of triumph. When we allow the LORD to rescue us and redeem us it too is a moment of glory and victory.
The Bible tells us that when a person comes to faith, Heaven throws a party (Luke 15:7-10). Think about that for a moment. When a person comes to faith, when a person asks the LORD to forgive them of their sins and they become a whole New Creation all of Heaven sings Praise Songs and Rejoices.
Heaven must have been really rejoicing when God's People left the land of Slavery to the Land of the Wilderness.
But the Land of Wilderness was just suppose to be a stopover.
Bible Scholars tell us that it is a 11 day journey from Egypt to the Promise Land. Now with all the people that Moses had under his command it would have taken a little longer but as we read the book of Exodus we discover that it took over 40 years for the people to make it to the Promise Land.
How in the world did it take forty years? How in the world did it take the people that long? And on top of that the only ones (aside from Joshua and Caleb) that got to go to the Promise Land were the people who were 60 years of age and younger.
The original generations that had prayed, that had pleaded with God, that had prepared and that had walked out of Egypt never got to enjoy the Promise Land.
Why?
Well, the Bible tells us that when they got the opportunity they decided that they would grumble, they would complain, they would test God, they would decide to live a negative lifestyle and they would rebel against the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.
They were free. They had been redeemed. They had watched as God had removed those who had enslaved them from their lives forever. They no longer had to worry about the Egyptians.
All they had to do was to live as God wanted them to live. All they had to do was to go and live in God's Promise Land.
Instead, the Bible tells us that some of them wanted to go back. They wanted to go back into slavery. They couldn't understand that they were free. They had gotten so comfortable being slaves that they couldn't conceive of a life of freedom and abundance.
Others wanted to be free but they wanted God to take care of them. When they got close enough to the Promise Land to see all the riches and understand that they would have to spiritually fight for the LAND they decided that they would just stay in the wilderness. They allowed their fear to overtake them. They decided that they could never live in a land of milk and honey.
Instead, they opted for the LORD to give them manna. They voted to live on God's manna instead of God's milk and honey. They voted to cry out to the LORD, murmur and complain instead of walking in a life of abundance, freedom and victory.
For 40 years they went around in circles, seeing the Promise Land, hearing about its abundance and yet once again we would find them complaining, allowing fear to overtake them.
In so many ways they wasted their lives. They could have enjoyed living off a land that was filled with fertile soil and that would enable their livestock to prosper and multiply.
Listen to what Moses said was theirs to possess:
" And when the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build, 11 with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant ..." Dt. 6: 10 - 11
All of that was theirs for the taking - land, cities, houses, vineyards, olive groves and wells. None of which they would have to work for - God would provide a way for them to have all of it. All they had to do was to journey through the wilderness. Journey through a time of testing and learning how to obey the LORD.
But time after time they failed the test. And day after day they remained in the wilderness.
In Matthew chapter four we see Jesus being led out to the wilderness for 40 days. During that time Jesus was tested and tempted. But instead of complaining, murmuring, having a negative mindset and disobeying His Heavenly Father we see Jesus doing the direct opposite. Jesus obeyed His Heavenly Father. Jesus undergoes the hardship of the wilderness and comes out of it ready to live the LIFE of miracles, anointing, blessing and favor that the Father had for Him to live.
Too often people come to faith and never leave the wilderness. The LORD breaks the chains of sin in their lives. They LORD frees them from the penalty and the power of sin.
But some return to sin. They don't want freedom. It is too much. They return to a life where the Devil rules over them and oppresses them. They could be free if they would go into God's Promise Land.
Others stay in the wilderness. They spend their life complaining, murmuring and fighting against the LORD. They grieve the Holy Spirit. They put limitations on God. They demand that the LORD feed them, take care of them when all the time God has a new life for them to live in His Promise Land.
In John chapter six we read the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. What we sometimes forget is that after Jesus fed the 5,000, He invited them to follow Him. He invited them to experience a new life through Him. But they refused to do so.
John 6:66ff tells us that in the end all that was left after Jesus preached was Jesus and His Disciples. Everyone else had enjoyed the meal but didn't want to walk with Jesus to the Promise Land. They did not want to accept Jesus as Savior and LORD of their lives.
It has been said more than once that people are looking for a Savior but not for a Lord. They want their lives to be free of sin but they do not want anyone to tell them what to do, how to live or be their Lord and Master.
They do want a God who will bless them no matter what. They do want a God who will meet their every need and they want a God who will look over every sin, every complaint, every murmur and every rebellion. The only problem is that God does not exist.
But the Good News is God will lead us not only out of a life of slavery and through the wilderness, He will lead into a life of living in His Promise Land.
III. We can Live in God's Promise Land - now and forever
In the book of Joshua we find the People of Israel ready to walk into the Promise Land. They have chosen now to fully obey the LORD. They know that the manna will stop and they know that they will have to continue to obey the LORD but they also know that the God who rescued them and redeemed them will help them live a higher life in the Promise Land.
This Promise Land Living is what I call Holy Spirit living. I call this - Pentecost Living. I call this allowing God to infill you, lead and guide you through His Holy Spirit. I call this living the Abundant Life. I call this living in God's favor, God's blessing and God's anointing.
The Bible tells us that when the Children of Israel allowed God to lead them and guide them amazing things happen. The first city they faced was Jericho. The people of Jericho wanted to destroy Israel and yet God fought for Israel. All Israel had to do was to walk around the city, sing praises to the LORD and wait for the Power of God to bring down the walls.
I think one of the things that will surprise us most when we get to Heaven is how many times the LORD was ready to bless us and anoint us and we did not accept it. He was ready to fight our battles for us and we began to talk to him with Wilderness language - we complained, we murmured, we thought the LORD was against us when He was for us, we became negative and we thought ourselves too small and God too small.
A man by the name of George Mueller lived in England during the 1800's. Over his lifetime George helped over 10,000 orphans find shelter, clothing and food. What is remarkable is George relied on the LORD to help him take care of all those children. He didn't go to the government, he didn't hold out a bucket on the street corner and he didn't complain.
Now, George's life did not start off the right way. He was not born in England but in Prussia. He was an intelligent child but not one bent on serving God. By the time he was 10 years old, George writes in his journals that he was inventing ways that he could embezzle the government money that had been put under his father's care. At the age of 10, he was inventing schemes in which he could trick his father out of some of that money.
George writes that his school years were years of dedicating himself to living a life of pleasure and sin. During his teenage years he tried to stay drunk as much as possible and be with as many woman as would have him. By the time he was sixteen he was imprisoned for failing to pay his bills.
While George had given up on God and on a life of holiness the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY had not given up on George. God had plans for George. God watched over him and through His Holy Spirit did all He could to bring George around. Finally, after years of living the wrong way, George came to faith. He received Jesus as His personal Savior and LORD after attending a prayer meeting with a friend. Hallelujah for prayer meetings!
George had gone from Egypt - from being enslaved to sin to being with God in the wilderness.
But his wilderness life did not last very long - George was hungry for the LORD and wanted to live a Promise Land life. It was not always easy to trust in the LORD but the longer George lived the more he came to realize that God was for him and not against Him. God had great things in store for him and did not desire to keep George burdened down and depressed.
The Lord led George to England and into a new type of ministry. George believed that the LORD wanted him to take care of the orphans. And he came to believe that if God wanted him to take care of orphans then God would make a way. He came to understand that he didn't need to have a ministry in the wilderness where he would pray, complain, pray, worry, pray and be defeated.
Instead, he came to believe that since God called him into this ministry then God must be ready to make a way. When people later read his journals they discovered that Muller wrote down over 50,000 specific recorded answers to his prayers. 30,000 of them Mueller wrote were answered the same day or the same hour that he prayed them.
So, how did this man pray? How did this man live? How did he get so many prayers answered?
The answer is rather simple. He believed that the LORD wanted him to live an abundant life. He believed the words that Jesus said in John 10:10. He believed that the LORD wanted him and his orphaned children to live an abundant life. He did not spend his time complaining but praising and believing.
He would open his Bible and read how God answered the prayers of His People. How the LORD took care of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How the LORD watched over Moses and the Children of Israel. How the LORD led Joshua and the Children of Israel into victory after victory. How the LORD led King David and King Solomon to take new territory, build the Temple and make the nation of Israel rich beyond compare. He read how God was with Esther and Daniel along with the Three Hebrew Children. He read how God watched over Mary and the Disciples and how Jesus, the Son of God healed, restored, feed, freed people and enabled them to live abundant lives.
+He focused on God answering prayer instead of fighting with God in prayer.
+ He focused on God taking away his burden instead of just acting like he was giving them to God and yet never actually giving them to the LORD.
+ He focused on God being a Good Father who knows how to give good gifts instead of God being like a bad judge who has to be badgered before someone can get his attention.
George Muller decided that when it came to the WORD OF GOD that he would read it, believe it and live by it.
+ If the Bible said that he could live an abundant life then he would do his best to receive it and live it.
+ If the Bible said that God would answer his prayers then George just believed it.
+ If the Bible said that God is able and willing to do abundantly far more than we can ask for or imagine then George just believed it and did his best to live by it.
+ If God said that He would bless you in the city, in the country, in the field, in the fruit of your ground and when you go out and when you come in then George just believed it.
Some people thought George was crazy. But if that is crazy then sign me up.
Joshua thought the same way. In Joshua chapter 24 Joshua reminds the people of the time that the LORD used hornets to defeat the two kings of the Amorites. Israel could not in her own strength defeat these two kings. They did not have the weapons, the technology or the military intelligence. But the People were living as Promise Land people and the LORD stepped in a defeated these two kings by using hornets. That is the God we serve.
It is the God of blessing and miracles. It is the God who divides the waters of the Red Sea and the River Jordan. It is the God who makes the sun to stand still. It is the God who makes a sling more powerful than a sword and stops the mouths of lions. It is the God who enables people to walk on water and raise people from the dead. It is the God who gloriously will save us and sanctify us through His Holy Spirit.
It is the God who frees from the power and penalty of sin. It is the God who will walk with us through the wilderness to take the Promise Land. It is the God who fills with His Holy Spirit and then so His best to get us to receive His blessings, anointing and favor. It is the God who so loves us that not only does He forgive us, He lives inside of us and we can live inside His Holy Spirit.
Too many people today live in sin - in Egypt.
Too many people life in the wilderness - live a life of spiritual poverty, impotence and with a lack of power and God's reassuring presence.
Too many people live below what God wants for them to live believing that somehow God wants them to be His Children and yet be burdened down with the trials and tribulations of life.
God is looking for a people to go with Him into His Promise Land - into an experience and a life that is full of peace, joy, kindness, gentleness and the rest of the fruit of His Holy Spirit.
God is looking for a people to go with Him into His Promise Land and be able to be conduits of goodness and righteousness. The Bible says that people will see our good works and be able to glorify our Heavenly Father. That necessitates that we will be able to have good works; good things happening to us. God is not against us, God is for us.
God is looking for a people who will leave a life of slavery, a life of going around in circles in the wilderness and will live an abundant life in His Promise Land - allowing God's Holy Spirit to infill them and lead them.
This morning, I believe that is who we want to be.
+We want to be a people free of the slavery, the penalty and power of sin.
+We want to be a people who do not spend their lives going around in circles - complaining, thinking negatively, thinking that we will never get ahead and that we will always be overwhelmed with smallness, poverty, hardships and trials.
+We want to be a people who are reaching to enjoy the fruits of the Resurrection and the Outpouring of God's Holy Spirit.
+We want to be a people who believe that God has favor and blessing to pour out upon us.
+We want to be a people who can sing praises during the hard times knowing that our time of favor/blessing/miracles are just around the corner.
This morning, where are you living
+In the land of slavery? Then Jesus invites you to experience a life of freedom
+In the wilderness - going up and down and around in circles? Then Jesus invites you to walk out of the wilderness with Him being led by His Holy Spirit. Jesus invites you to invite His Holy Spirit to empower you and guide you.
+Enjoying the fruit of the Promise Land? Living a life of love, joy, peace, kindness and the rest of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. Living a life of actively experiencing God's blessing and favor.
Closing hymn and prayer:
'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
"God Is Our Victory" - True Worshippers
or "How He Loves Us"
1Most Jewish scholars believe that from the time of Joseph death to the time of Moses' birth was around 100 years so that the period of time the Israelites were actually slaves was around 200 years at most. We need to understand that not all the time the Israelites were in Egypt were they slaves. Their slavery happened many years after Joseph's death.
