OPEN: I did an internet search to find the most popular New Year’s Resolutions for the coming year and I found one source that gave the top 10 promises people wanted to make to themselves. What do you think was the number 1 New Year’s Resolution for the coming year? (most of the audience guessed “lose weight”, “exercise more”, and “quit smoking”).
This was the list:
1) Spend More Time with Family and Friends - more than 50% of Americans have vowed to appreciate loved ones and spend more time with family and friends this year.
2) Commitment to be more Fit
3) Tame the Bulge
4) Quit Smoking
5) Enjoy Life More
6) Quit Drinking
7) Get Out of Debt
8) Learn Something New
9) Help Others
10) Get Organized
How many of you made New Year’s resolutions this year? (only a few hands went up).
You know, I don’t find that surprising, since this practice has become something of joke. People rarely seem to follow through on their commitments to change.
One man once put it this way:
“Right now it is 11:35 on New Year’s Eve, so you have 24 minutes to get a new job, become a nicer person and lose 15 pounds.”
So, New Year’s Resolutions have a bad reputation, but people keep making them. WHY? Because these personal vows reflect the desire people have to make a change. When people make these resolutions, they actually are hoping for:
Ø a new start
Ø a new beginning
Ø a new possibility for their life
I. In Deuteronomy 34, God is telling Moses that the people of Israel are about to have a new beginning… a new start
They are about to enter the promised land. A land flowing with milk and honey and with potential and possibilities beyond anything they had ever encountered or experienced.
But… there’s something about this New Beginning that doesn’t quite seem right.
Of all the people that should have gone into the promised land
Of all the people who should have earned the right to for this Fresh Start…
… you’d think it should have been Moses.
But Moses wasn’t going to be allowed in!
A couple chapters earlier in Deuteronomy 32 we’re told why. God says to Moses:
“There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel." (Deuteronomy 32:50-52)
What had Moses done wrong?
Israel had been in the desert for 40 years when they came to the Meribah. This was the desert and water was a precious commodity. And at Meribah… there was NO water.
(pause…) the Israelites were NOT generally a patient people and when things didn’t go their way they tended to get argumentative and blame Moses for their troubles. They demanded that Moses get water and they wanted it NOW!!!
In Numbers 20 it says:
The LORD said to Moses, "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink."
So Moses took the staff from the LORD’s presence, just as He commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?"
Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." (Numbers 20:7-12)
It appears that Moses had gotten fed up with 40 yrs. of constant bickering and lack of respect from the Israelites and he overstepped his bounds. Instead of saying:
“God will bring forth this water for you.”
He said “Must WE bring you water out of this rock?”
Basically, Moses took credit for something only God could do. And thus he lost his opportunity to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land.
As far as we know this was the ONLY mistake Moses had made in 40 years. And Moses had had to put up with these quarrelsome Israelites for ALL of those 40 LONG yrs.
ILLUS: How many of you have been parents? Have you ever listened to children as they argue, and quarrel, and bicker ? How many of you have YELLED at them? How many of you have said something you’re pretty sure you shouldn’t have? Me too. So… can you really blame Moses for having finally had enough of these Israelites?
It hardly seems fair that God denied Moses the privilege
II. There are times when life just doesn’t seem fair
In fact, there are times when life can seem SO unfair (pause) that we actually begin to question God. And when those times come we have a choice to make:
The choice is: do we trust God… or don’t we?
Now… I don’t mean that to be cruel… it is simply a fact. Life can be difficult and disappointing and when those times come even the best of us can begin to doubt our faith… and our God.
As most of you know, we’ve dedicated December’s sermon series to Disney movie based on C.S. Lewis’ books – “The Tales of Narnia.” But as intriguing as his books are an even more intriguing story revolves around Lewis himself.
C.S. Lewis was a prolific author, not only writing Christian fantasy books, but also books that dealt with the deeper understandings of faith like “Mere Christianity”. He was a man of deep faith and strong convictions. So it’s somewhat surprising to realize that at one time Lewis wanted nothing to do with God.
Until he was 30 years old, Lewis was an avowed atheist. In a letter written to a friend in October, 1916 he said:
“I believe in no religion. There is absolutely no proof for any of them, and from a philosophical standpoint Christianity is not even the best. All religions, that is, all mythologies to give them their proper name, are merely man’s own invention.”
Lewis didn’t just NOT believe in God… he hated God. At one point in his life he admitted that he resented God for not existing.
Why? What could have made Lewis so angry that he literally became God’s enemy?
When Lewis was 9 years old… his mother died and his father sent him off to live in a boarding school. (to the reader: I apologize if this specific age is incorrect. The internet sources I consulted ranged from age 7 to age 10 when Lewis lost his mother. I chose this one because it seemed to come from the most reliable of my sources).
Can you imagine the harshness of not only losing your mother at that tender age but being rejected by your father and sent away to a strange and uncomfortable place such as this boarding school. Lewis hated that school, with its strict rules and hard, unsympathetic headmaster and he missed his home terribly.
Later, he enrolled in the army and fought in WWI - being wounded 3 times - and watched in horror as the his compatriots and friends died terrible deaths around him. One author noted: “Lewis thought God was at fault for causing the suffering he saw in the first World War. That was God’s fault, he shouldn’t have allowed that to happen. He thought he was a blackguard. That is the way he described God in his own poetry.”
Lewis himself wrote: “The early loss of my mother, great unhappiness at school, and the shadow of the last war and presently the experience of it, had given me a very pessimistic view of existence. My atheism was based on it.”
Like many who embrace atheism Lewis was influenced as by his anger toward God. His atheism wasn’t as much intellectual as it was personal. He was angry with God and could think of no better way to hurt God than to deny His existence.
ILLUS: I’d heard this before at a Christian seminar - that most atheists are angry with God - and I learned about it 1st hand at the last church I served.
There was a street fair in the nearby town where our church set up a booth called: "Stump The Preacher."
We challenged all comers to ask the preacher (me) any question they could think of relating to the Bible. Of course, the idea was to “stump” the preacher and win a prize. But, whether they stumped me or not, I would hand them a gift (graciously donated by the merchants of the city). Many people didn’t bother to stop and ask me anything - perhaps feeling intimidated by a preacher who supposedly knew the Bible better than they did. But a lot of the teenagers and younger kids began stopping by and eventually they realized I had trouble with the names of the 12 minor prophets and the names of the 12 apostles. The word spread, and eventually, kids were lined up waiting to stump me on these and other questions.
In the early afternoon - as some teenage boys were asking me to name, for the 20th time that day, the names of the 12 Apostles - a teenage girl quietly came up beside my chair. When the boys left, she said, "I don’t believe in God." I wasn’t sure I’d heard her right. But she repeated her statement as if challenging me to argue with her. In my mind I asked myself, "why is she saying this?"
Was she trying to shock me?
Was she trying to get me angry and engage me in a fruitless debate to prove I was just another self-righteous Christian who cared for nothing but theology?
Then the words of that long ago speaker came to my mind and I said "I don’t think you’re telling me the truth. I don’t think you don’t believe in God. I think someone has hurt you so badly that you’ve begun to hate God and you feel that the worst thing you can do to get back at Him is to deny that you even believe in Him. Honey, you have to understand - you can’t hurt God. He’s bigger than you or I. The only thing that hurts God is the knowledge that you have been hurt, because He really does love you."
The girl didn’t respond. For a few moments she just stood there silently. She didn’t argue. She didn’t say I was wrong. She simply slipped away into the crowd and was gone.
And I thought to myself, "you really blew that one! She’s walked away and she’ll never come back." But I was wrong. A few minutes later, she came back with a Bible and asked me a trivial question to win one of the prizes. She left and came back again to ask another question.
I wish I could tell you that we had a long heartfelt conversation at the end of which she gave her life to Jesus… but that didn’t happen that day. I never knew her name. I never saw her again. But it has been my hope and prayer that the words I spoke to her that day awakened a long deadened heart for God.
That’s what had happened to C.S. Lewis. He had been hurt… and because he had been hurt he learned to hate God, and he hated God for the better part of his youth until someone came along who awakened a long deadened heart for God.
III. How did this man who hated God so severely… change?
Two things actually
1st – there was a part of him that was empty
One author noted: “As a child (Lewis) imagined places where joy existed freely and eternally.
As an adult he read the romantic poets, Plato, and (various) mythologies in hopes of finding a sense of lasting joy.”
Lewis lacked joy. He lacked contentment and peace in his life. It was if there was a “promised land” just beyond his reach that he sensed he’d never be allowed to enter.
2ndly – Someone came along who loved God enough to share Him with Lewis. While a professor at Oxford Lewis became friends with 2 believers who were also professors there: Hugh Dyson, and J.R.R. Tolkien (the author of “The Lord of the Rings”).
While he spent time with them and talked with them Lewis became convinced that their faith was real. AND even more critically… he became convinced that Jesus Christ really was an historic figure – He had existed and that Jesus really had died on the cross for HIM.
Jesus said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives…” (John 14:27)
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:10)
That was the peace and joy that Lewis REALLY wanted in his life. And he found it because there were people like you and I that cared enough to share their faith with him.
But the key thing to remember is that ONLY Jesus promised the kind of peace and joy that Lewis wanted in his life. It was the peace of God that transcended all understanding. It was a peace that was far beyond anything this world could give. That’s the repeated message throughout Scripture. And I believe that that’s the REAL reason Moses was not allowed into the Promised Land.
Moses was one of the most righteous men that had ever lived. And Moses – as the giver of God’s Law to Israel – has always represented the Law the law itself.
There are people in this world who believe that all they need to do to be acceptable to God is to be righteous people. If they can only obey the 10 commandments, they believe they will make it into heaven. But, here, Moses – the man who embodied the Law of God, the man who was more righteous than any of us could ever hope to be – couldn’t even make it into the promised land.
Moses didn’t lead God’s people into Canaan… but who did?
That’s right – Joshua.
Does anybody know how Joshua’s name is translated in the Greek? – Jesus
Thus, literally, Moses could not lead God’s people into the land of peace… but Jesus did.
So, Moses didn’t enter the promised land by the power of his goodness.
And Moses didn’t enter the promised land because he had given Israel the Law.
He died on the other side of the river and was buried in the valley opposite Beth Peor.
BUT… Moses did enter the promised land
Turn with me to Matthew 17
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
Just then there appeared before them MOSES and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters— one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.
But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don’t be afraid." When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. (Matthew 17:1-8)
You see… Moses did get into the promised land. But he didn’t get there because of his own righteousness or reputation. Moses was only allowed into this “new country” because he came there with Jesus. Only with Jesus, was Moses allowed to enter this new country
And that’s what C.S. Lewis discovered. After Lewis had come to believe in Jesus he said “I realized that all my life I was like that. I was looking for a country of my own.” And in Jesus he said he’d found a “better country.”
Lewis’ encounter with the power of Christ not only changed his life, it changed his eternity. It opened a better country for him, the country of heaven.
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES:
The Land Of Narnia - Romans 8:19-8:25
Narnia and an Angel Of Light - Matthew 4:1-4:17
Royalty - Revelation 1:4-1:7
The Unsafe Savior - Luke 2:25-2:35
Looking For A New Beginning - Deuteronomy 34:1-34:12
