Call to Worship: Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. 106 I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws. 111 Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart. 112 My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.”
Songs: I Will Follow Chris Tomlin
Everlasting God Brenton Brown
Let the Praises Ring Travis Cottrell
Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:1-20; 31:8
Song: You Are / You Are Lord Hillsong
Sermon: “What Do You Believe”
Closing Song: Glorious Unfolding Steven Curtis Chapman
Benediction: As Ruth said to Naomi we say to the Lord, Ruth 1:16 “Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
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Sermon: “What Do You Believe?”
At the end of the year we talked about having a new years revolution. This is a revolution that we actually cannot do on our own. We know that only by being clothed with power can we participate in this revolution. The important part of this is that you seek with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. As you know by now we are revolting against the status quote of what we know church to be. This is not a revolt against God’s word as rebellion against God’s word is happening around the world, but this is a revolt against the ruler of this world by standing on God’s word. As we start this year, we continue to call out to God to hear our cry and free us from this captivity due to our disobedience and broken covenant. This empty way of life handed down from our fathers has led us off the path of holiness. We continue to pray Deuteronomy 26:15 “Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.” We talked about how that land is now the world. So we continue to pray this prayer but here in lies the problem. After Israel had crossed into that land of milk and honey, they turned away from God’s word. We have done the same. This can also be said about the church today. We have not adhered to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the new covenant that he died and rose for. We too have turned away from His word. Judges 2:10 “After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.” The problem is the church doesn’t seem to know it should be in distress. When they crossed into the Promised Land, they disobeyed and were defeated. And here is why. Joshua 7:11 “Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. 12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. 13 “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.” This is a description of the church today.
The deception is that most in the church do not believe in God’s own attributes, which means they don’t actually believe God means what he says so they replace his words with their own. By doing this they have committed idolatry and adultery. Deuteronomy 32:17 “They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear.” The same can be said about the false gospels the church follows today. The lineage of David has turned away from our groom and has committed adultery just as David did and has turned to others god’s in the form of false gospels. David was told 2 Samuel 12:12 “You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’” But unlike David, the church refuses to repent. He confessed his sin but paid a price. Jeremiah 3:12 “‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will not be angry forever. 13 Only acknowledge your guilt— you have rebelled against the Lord your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,’” declares the Lord. 14 “Return, faithless people,” declares the Lord, “for I am your husband.” The church on the other hand thinks there is no price to pay for turning away from God and refuses to repent. They peddle a cheap grace to cover their sins. Look what happened to the Israelites in the desert. God means what he says. Numbers 26:64 “Not one of them was among those counted by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai. 65 For the Lord had told those Israelites they would surely die in the wilderness, and not one of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.” We cannot expect to live however we want and live and be guiltless. satan is still saying did God really say?
We read earlier about making a choice. Are we going to choose life or death, prosperity or destruction? Moses said Deuteronomy 30:19 “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God gave Moses a song for Israel to remember which is found in Deuteronomy 32. God said to Moses, Deuteronomy 32:15 “You are going to rest with your ancestors, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. 17 And in that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and calamities will come on them, and in that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come on us because our God is not with us?’ 18 And I will certainly hide my face in that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods. 19 “Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them. 20 When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their ancestors, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant. 21 And when many disasters and calamities come on them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath.” 22 So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites.” In the song God said, “They are corrupt and not his children; to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation. They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock their Savior. 16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. 17 They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear. 18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth. 19 The Lord saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters. 20 “I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful. 21 They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols.” Does this not describe the church today? They solve this problem by ignoring the Old Testament and saying it doesn’t apply to us.
We have done exactly the same thing yet we have been raised to accept a weak and powerless gospel which is no gospel at all. Paul said in Galatians 1:6 “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” So if it happened then it has been happening for 2000 years. He also addresses the unrepentant heart. Romans 2:5 “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” Mark 16:14 “Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.”
So we must decide what do we believe, as there is no middle ground, although you wouldn’t know that by looking at most churches. There is no such thing as lukewarm although lukewarm is being sold as vibrant christianity in the church today. Now remember we are not talking about how busy you are following your manmade gospel but how committed you are to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many people have no idea that the song of Moses is about them. They are wholeheartedly committed to their captivity. They work hard yet have no idea that what they are working hard for is a false gospel that in the end will cause them to miss eternity with Jesus as they will hear this same message. He said to them, Luke 13:24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25 Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26 “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ 28 “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.” People everyday are walking through the wide gate, all the while building their houses on sand and loving the tepid temperatures but the question is who do you say I am. We have the choice to believe the impossible, which is described in God’s word, or we don’t. If we believe we continue to ask God to turn his face towards once again. Hezekiah sent this letter throughout the land. 2 Chronicles 30:6 “At the king’s command, couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and from his officials, which read: “People of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. 7 Do not be like your parents and your fellow Israelites, who were unfaithful to the Lord, the God of their ancestors, so that he made them an object of horror, as you see. 8 Do not be stiff-necked, as your ancestors were; submit to the Lord. Come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever. Serve the Lord your God, so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. 9 If you return to the Lord, then your fellow Israelites and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will return to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.” That describes what the church should be doing.
Now let me read you this account of Elisha the prophet to give you a picture of belief. Then ask yourself if you believe fore the same. This gives the picture of the man of God who sees God and his power. We have to decide if we want to be like Elisha or his servant. 2 Kings 6:8 “Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.” 9 The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” 10 So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places. 11 This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?” 12 “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.” 13 “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” 14 Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. 15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked. 16 “Don’t be afraid,” (how many times do we see that in scripture?) the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” The question is do we believe we don’t have to be afraid. We sang earlier about following and trusting God. We have been praying for the power of the Holy Spirit to move on us in a powerful way but do you really believe God will.
Earlier we saw that before Elijah was taken into heaven 9 “Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” Elisha replied.” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” So Elisha was a powerful man of God. We don’t want to be powerful on our own. You don’t need to be rich or have a solid lineage, education or talent to be used by God, you simply need to humble yourself before him and wait to be clothed with power. Numbers 14:24 “Because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.” We need this spirit in us. Isaiah 66:2 “Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the Lord. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.” Judges told us they had no idea about his word. We talked about David earlier. He said in Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” This is what God is looking for; people who will repent. 1 Samuel 15:22 “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice.”
We know what it is we are praying for and what it is we are waiting for but do we actually believe for it. Are we standing looking at the enemy believing we will be conquered and destroyed and that the enemy will win? 1 Samuel 13:6 “When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns.” After Samuel arrived he said to Saul, 13 “You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.” We must really ask ourselves whether we believe God’s word. Yes we are under siege by the enemy but do we really believe the siege will end. Just after this verse about having eyes opened the city is under siege and it is horrible, which doesn’t begin to describe the atrocities that were happening and how near the end was for that city. You can read the account of the siege and resulting famine in 2 Kings 6. But remember Elisha is there and quite calm I might add. He knows that “those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” So he is sitting there 2 Kings 6:32 “Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Don’t you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?” 33 While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him.” 2 Kings 7:1 “Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.” Now these are the choices we have to make. Do we believe God will do what he says? Who is it that we say God is. Is he more powerful than our enemies or are we like this man? 2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” “Elisha answered, You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!” If we are praying for open floodgates, do we actually believe they will open and are we willing to wait for them to open or will we go ahead like Saul did. Malachi 3:10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Then just as Elisha said, the enemy was defeated. 2 Kings 7:5 “When the men with leprosy reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, 6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” 7 So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.16 Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said. 17 Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. 18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.” 19 The officer had said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” The man of God had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!” 20 And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.
We also saw the city of Jerusalem surrounded by Sennacherib the king of Assyria. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, 2 Kings 19:15 “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.” Isaiah then responds with a word from the Lord. “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: “Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. 22 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! 23 By your messengers you have ridiculed the Lord.” 30 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. 31 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.” By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the Lord. 34 I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.’” 35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp.” Whose side do you want to be on?
So I ask do you believe in the promises of God’s word even when it looks like God has forgotten about us, or the enemy seems to strong and hope us fading. Will you stand in the face of the enemy and believe God is greater than our enemies. Will you believe what Elisha said, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” We will believe God’s word. Deuteronomy 9:1 “Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. 1 John 4:4 “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
Revelation 12:10 “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah.” Revelation 11:15 “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Malachi 1:14 “I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.”
The question continues to be for all of us as to whether we believe this. James 1:6 “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” 1 Peter 2:7 “Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” Jesus had healed this blind man who had been blind since birth and what a testimony he had until they threw him out. John 9:35 “Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” 37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” 38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.” John 11:25 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 14:12 “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” Matthew 9:27 “As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” 28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied.” 29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; 30 and their sight was restored.”
As we read the word of God, we must believe that Jesus is the Son of David, son of God and that he came to destroy the work of the devil. We must also believe he has given us authority and power to also defeat the enemy. We must also understand that the power of the Holy Spirit is unavailable to us because of our disobedience. Having understood that, we also believe according to His word that if we humble ourselves before Him, the power will return. So we have made a decision to return to the beginning and wait upon the Lord to turn His face and shine upon us once again. In doing so we have to answer the same question Jesus asked Peter. Matthew 16:13 “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” There are many answers these days to this question but there is only one right one. There is only one way, one truth and one life Christ. 1 Peter 1:8 “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.” Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.”
So as we continue on our journey, no matter what happens Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. 6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. 7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. 8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has brought desolations on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. 10 "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" 11 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
So do we believe that God is our fortress? Will we bless his Holy name in our time of trouble believing he will come to our aide and redeem us as he said he would? Job said Job 19:25 “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. 26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in] my flesh I will see God; 27 I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” Will we stand firm on His word? Will we place our hope in God’s word and nothing else? Isaiah 41:8 “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, 9 I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. 10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. 11 “All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. 12 Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. 13 For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. 14 Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, little Israel, do not fear, for I myself will help you,” declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. 15 “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. 16 You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the LORD and glory in the Holy One of Israel.”
So I ask do you believe in the Holy One of Israel and all that He offers to us?
