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When Ostea's new city's lake Good morning It is so good to be with you this day that the Lord has given to us and we'll be Beginning a new series in the book of Deuteronomy and as Zach mentioned during the children's blessing It's one of those books that we don't rush to study because it's a difficult book It's got some really difficult things that you read in there I actually remember one time while preaching through the book and we got to this chapter that talks about where you're supposed to Relief yourself in the field No fun to talk about it. In any way the title for a new theme is God the unchanging that God is not one who changes. He's the constant in all life And the reason why I picked on that book is because I think we can all agree that we're in the midst of a transition As a church for me as a as a person with my family. We're going through a transition having relocated from Baltimore to here And so the whole thing about change and changes in our life and and we can look around us in the world, right? Everything just seems to be changing Every second of your life you're getting older. Did you know that? And so life is changing, but there's one thing that remains constant and That is the Lord our God. So we're going to be starting by reading the first chapter just the first Versus and I will ask you to stand as we read God's word. Raquel is going to read for us to Spanish

Disahab

Morreos and at all the zones vecinas el araba las montañas las llanuras occidentales el negueve Y la costa hasta la tierra de los cananeos el livano y el gran río el eufrates Yo les he entregado esta tierra delante adelante tome in posesión de ella El señor juró que se la daría a los antepasados de ustedes es decir Abra esa y ha cop y asois descendientes You don't reach up to one verse one through eight These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness in the araba Opposites suf between parent and tofu Leyvin his Ross and Disahab It is 11 days journey from horror by the will man seared to catespanier in the 40th year on the first day of the 11th month Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them. After he had defeated Sion, the king of the Amarites, who lived in Hezbollah and awed the king of Beishin, who lived in Nasiroth and in Idra. Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law saying, the Lord or God said to us in horror, you have stayed long enough in this mountain. And take your journey and go to the hill country to the Amarites and to all the neighbors in the Arab, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the negative by the Seacos, the land of the Kennenites and Lebanon, as far as the Great River, the River Euphrates, see I have set the land before you, go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob and to give to them and to their offspring after them. The word of the Lord this morning pray with me, the grass withers in the flower fades, yet your word lasts forever. The Lord, would you be with your servant this morning who is weak and feeble, but your word is alive, it is living in all hearts, help us to hear it, to believe it, and to be transformed by its power. For it is your word that is given to us today, in Christ's name, Amen, please be seated. The day that Israel has been waiting is finally here, they've longed for this day for a long time, they've been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years after the rebellion, they've been wandering and then going around and God is providing for them, He's rescued them from the Exodus, but they know that there was a promise that was made to them of this land that flows with milk and honey and they haven't seen it yet as we begin our study this morning we see a people of God that is gathered on the plains of Noah, which is a really a place where they can see the land that God has been preparing for them, the place that God promised to them and here now they sit on the verge of making a change in their life, behold the time has come for them to dwell in that beautiful land, the promised land that God had given to them. But let's pause for one second and think about our own lives and think about Israel and where they stand. Suppose it was Christmas day or Christmas Eve whenever you open your gifts and you have this beautiful gift that was given to you and maybe your husband and your wife has bought a gift and it's a special gift and you're about to unwrap it and right at the time when you were just about to unwrap it they said, stop, they'll open it, it's not time yet and you're thinking, oh wait a minute, but it's Christmas, it's taking me 50, whatever, how many weeks that is for us to get to Christmas right, it's time for me to open my gift in a wrap and they said no, no, no, no, I really want you to listen to me first, before you open this gift, I want to prepare you so that you may know how to use this gift that I'm about to give you. That's exactly what God is doing here. As Israel is about to get into this promised land, God is basically saying, pause for one second. Listen, we're about to renew a covenant here, God had called these people to be his own people, he is the one who initiated the relationship between them and his people, he is the one who initiated giving them a gift, Abraham never asked that one day he would have a multitude of people and a big land to stay on, God went to him and told him, Abraham, here's a promise that I'm going to give to you and now God is saying as you enter this promised land, I want to prepare you so that you may know how to live in the land, that God's people must listen to what God has to say if they are to survive in the new land. Now I don't know about you, do you make new years resolutions? I don't, because by February I've forgotten everything I decided to do, do you make plans in your life? We all do, right? I'm sure you've sat down, you're studying college, new semester and you're thinking, oh man, this is what I'm going to be doing this semester, maybe it's a workout plan that you're thinking, I got to lose some five pounds somewhere and so you have a plan or as a church we're thinking about who we are and what God is calling us to do in Eastlake in our community in our lives, whatever plans you have, the question we need to ask this morning is where do we begin in making those plans and how are those plans going to survive, so to speak, that unless we begin with God, unless we begin by listening to what God has to tell us those plans will fail unless we keep our eyes on him who never changes because here's the truth even when we make those plans into our life, we know that interruptions will happen, right? There will be bumps on the way, trials will come, there are times you'll actually doubt if you made the right choice in life, hopefully you're not going to be wondering if you made the right choice calling me as your pastor, but doubts will be there, even with all those plans that you made, doubts will be there, you start thinking, man, did that really make the right choice when I decided I'm going to sign up to go to this gym every Monday morning and oof, oh yeah, but there's one thing that's constant, whether our doubts are there, when we face trials on our journey on what God is calling us to, one thing must be constant for us and that is the Lord our God and so just two things real quick that we're going to be looking at this morning, the idea of us listening to God and what he asked for us is that we must listen to God's word to us because first God's word to us is timeless, we must listen to God's word to us because God's word to us is timely, so the timelessness of God's word and the timeliness of God's word, let's begin, let's dive in versus one through five, the book begins, Moses is writing and saying these are the words Moses spoke to all his people, these are the words, this actually is the title of the book in Hebrew, of the book of the Jordanian Hebrew Bible and in fact that that idea of that these are the words that God is giving to his people, introduces or rather gives us the main purpose of the book because all throughout this book Moses or rather God will be speaking to his people so that they may listen and that this idea of God speaking to these words to his people is really where we encounter the heart of God's word being an effective resource, right? God's word is an effective resource, what does Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3, he says that God's word is good for us, why? Because it instructs us, it corrects us, it rebukes us, it trains us, trains us in what? In righteousness, why? So that we may be competent to do every good work that has God that he has given to us, okay? And so the whole idea of the word being this authoritative word of God and we're going to read in chapter five of the 10 words, the 10 commandments that God gives to them and Moses is going to continue to expound on those words to explain on what that means for God's people. But then again he says these are the words that Moses spoke to who? To all Israel. All Israel, why would I want to focus on that idea of the all? It's really the the covenantal language that Moses is using yet to speak to his people. I can remember who are the people who are going to possess the new land in Canaan? Is it the first people that God spoke to in Mount Sinai when he was giving them the law? They're all going to die. Moses is not going to experience the joy of being in the promised land even though he led the people from the Exodus. God is going to tell him, no you're not. You will not enter. You can see gaze upon the land that you can see as I look at the beautiful view as I stand over again and see the mountains. God is going to tell Moses to gaze into the land and see it but he's not going to see it. He's not going to be in that land. Only Joshua and Caleb and their children, the children of those who rebel against God, this is the generation that is standing on the plains of Moab, the God is saying the promise is for you. Again, think about it. The reason why we're here this morning is because of that promise that God gave to his people but actually kept and fulfilled so that through Christ when the fullness of time had come, God sent for the Son to be born as a child to down the cross for sin so that you and me Gentiles may be a part of that covenant of that promise that God made to his people. Do you hear it? Do you see it? The whole idea of the timelessness of God's word is that he had spoken to a generation before the generation that stands on the plains of Moab and made a promise and he's basically saying the promise was not just for them. It was for you and you're actually going to be a part of it but it also reminds Israel what awaits them if they rebel against God. Again, their fathers and mothers, they rebel against God and he's telling this new generation the senselessness of the 40 years that you spent wondering in the wilderness when you should have taken 11 days to get to this land, please let this be a warning for you to renew your covenant with the Lord and know and hear what he's telling you so that you may do well to succeed in the land. So God's word to his people to Israel really has a permanent significance if you will for Israel and I just love the fact that it is Moses speaking here and communicating God's word to his people but there's something that we need to hear from Moses this morning and it is this. If we're going to be effective communicators of God's word, we must learn to do something. You know what it is? You can say we got to listen. We need to get that message to stay in this day and age. We are so quick, we're just a people that are so quick to speak right and I don't just mean in terms of how we use our mouth and say things. Sometimes we hold back because we're scared of what people are going to say that we may get punched if we say the wrong thing but we're so quick to write stuff on Facebook and Instagram and just post them and say all kinds of things and we're so slow to listen. Friends, let's be a people that listen to God. Listen to his word here, his word so that we may be effective communicators of his word. It's the only way we're going to communicate what God is telling us. And so these words that are being given here, Moses, as he's speaking to the people, is really speaking to a new particular situation, if you will, to this new generation that is standing on the plains of Moab because again, for God's people, his word, his communication to them was not just some archaic information, some historical perspective that they were supposed to be told tales about Abraham and about Isaac and all those people. It wasn't ancient history that made no sense to them. Something that was supposed to be archived, gathering dust, but it was supposed to be a guide, a relevant guide to them. Something that was alive, something that was supposed to be taught to them and to their children and to the generations to come. That was the whole idea of a covenant which begs the question every time we hear God's word preached. Do we think of it as some tale from from the old? I mean, I know some people in the world want to think about all the Bible and people that people still believe in the Word of God that it is true, that it has anything to say to us. And for those who are in Christ, we know that God's word must sound fresh every time we hear it. The God's word is alive and, well, in fact, John will tell us the God's word is not just God's word. The God's word is a person. The word became flesh and dwelt among us and his name is Jesus. He is the one who is speaking to us. The author of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 4 verses 12 tells us that for the word of God is living it is active. It is sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of the soul and spirit of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. You know, before he gets to chapter 4, he asks chapter 1 where he begins by reminding us that long ago God spoke to us through the prophets. Now he has spoken to us through his son. The word is alive. The word is a person. The word is Jesus Christ who continues to speak to us every day. You know, it's interesting that God is telling his people to move on. Get out of this place that you've been here for too long. It's time for you to go. But God is not just telling his people to just pack up their bags and his cane and just go. He's actually beginning by preparing the way for them to go. What does verse 4 say? It says that Moses is speaking to the people after. He had defeated Simon and oh, you know, this two horrible kings that were occupying this land that God's people were supposed to be occupying. The God has actually started achieving victory for them. So he's preparing the way so that they may follow and go. Isn't that awesome? What is God calling us as new city, East Lake to go? To move on. It's time for us to go serve our community to serve one of the things the mission that we have here is new city. One of the some of the things that God is calling us to go and do. And we shouldn't forget that God is not just calling us and saying, okay, go and he turns his back towards us and we're alone that he's actually with us. And he's actually saying, I'm not calling you to go do something that I've not prepared you to go do. The way is set for you. Whatever difficulty you may face, whatever trials you may face, know that I am with you. I'll guide you through it so that you may achieve what I've prepared you for. See, there's an obligation that's laid upon us as we hear God's word. As we hear God calling us through His mission to whatever He wants us to do. He's not just simply saying, okay, here's what I'm calling you to go do in. Okay, let's just chill and hang out. That's about it. There's an obligation for us. We must respond. We must respond. Again, the idea is that as God's people are standing on the plains of Moab about to achieve to take possession of this land, we are in the same place. We're in the same place as the church, and maybe you're in the same place as a person. Maybe you have things changing in your life. Maybe you just change into a new job. Maybe there's several changes happening in your own family. I don't know what it is, and I don't know where you are in your life, but the question must be before you make that change, before you take that step to move on. The question must be, are you listening? Not to anything, or to anybody, but you're listening to God. Are you living in anticipation and expectation? The bad news for us, before I say the good news is, listening is a problem. I said, listening is a problem. Especially when you have to hear the same thing over and over again. We don't like that. And we tend to dismiss God's word because we tend to think, but I was taught that yesterday. Do I need to hear that God is good all the time? Do I need to hear that His mercies are new every morning, every time? Do I need to hear that I'm forgiven, that His grace is sufficient for me all the time? Yes, you do. And yes, I do. Because every time we hear it, it's an encouragement for us, and to be reminded that His word is timeless every single day. And the reason we need to hear it is because we are stubborn and broken. And we just don't want to hear. And so God has to tell us over and over and over and over. Secondly, we see that God's word to us is time to look at verses six through the end. The Lord, our God, said to us in horror. You have stayed long enough at this mountain turn and take your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the neighbors in the Arab and He continues. God is basically beginning His speech to His people, which is going to continue all the way to the end speaking to God's people, speaking God's authoritative word, commanding the people to leave horror. And horror here is actually really Mount Sinai because, again, God's people, this was not the resting place where they are. God did not bring them to come on the plains of Moab. God did not call them to live in the wilderness. He had promised to provide a place for them, the promised land. And so He's saying, you must move physically to possess the land, but there's actually something beautiful about this call to move, to turn around. It's almost like turning your head and facing your face to the other side. There's actually a real spiritual aspect of moving that's going on here because, again, what is going on in this chapter? What is going on in the whole book is this. It is a covenant renewal. God's people are renewing their covenant with the Lord. God has summoned them to come and renew their covenant, which is basically their relationship with God and He's saying, listen, you know what your forefathers did when they were sinning and rebelling against God. So I want you to renew your covenant, not just by physically moving into the place that God has called you to, but to actually recommit your life, to renew your faith. Why are you here this morning? Why are we all here this morning? You know what we came to do? The King called us to come here. King Jesus commanded us to come here. And why did we come here? We came here for covenant renewal. We came here so that God may speak to us so that by the time we get out of this place, we leave having renewed our commitment to God, saying we're going to love you more, we're going to worship you more, we're going to listen to you as you speak to us more. That's what we're here. It's a covenant renewal. It's a great reminder as well, not just in terms of the spiritual aspect of this covenant renewal, but also a reminder that the God's people commanding them to go to the promised land. It's really an illusion for us to think about that this is not our home, this is not our resting place. Yes, we call this home, but this ain't home. Because if it was, I would not be happy because this home is filled with so much brokenness and heartache and difficulties and I cannot wait for that time that comes and I meet my maker and I am home with him where there's no sorrow, there's no brokenness, I don't have to struggle with sin, I don't have to struggle with everything else that I struggle with. That's our desire. That's our goal to be with our Lord Jesus Christ forever and ever. In the meantime, we can rest here. This is not time for us to rest. We must keep on keeping on holding fast to the faith that we have in Jesus Christ, striving to the goal that is set before us until we arrive at our eternal home. The problem, the problem for us is that we tend to hold on to the things that we shouldn't be holding on. The problem for us is we're too comfortable here. Did you hear me? I said we're too comfortable

here. We like it on this side of heaven and we shouldn't. Someone once said that the way to hold on to the things of this world is with slippery hands. If you really want to live on this side of heaven in a way that glorifies God is to have slippery hands. But the good news is that when you have slippery hands, when you think about the material stuff and all the things that clamor for our attention on this side of heaven is that we will find our firm grip on the one who has a strong hold or not grows even strong. Not that we are the ones who hold tightly to Christ because we can't. But he holds tighter to us so that we find ourselves going to him all the time and having slippery hands when he comes to holding the things of this world. I love the phrase in verse 6 again that begins the word of our God. I don't know about your translation. Maybe it says Yahweh, our God, or it says simply our God. That's a beautiful language. It's really an expression of this covenant God. It's really the way God identified himself early on in Exodus to his people, declaring that I am the Lord your God as He gave them the law. And it really emphasizes this close and personal relationship between God and his people. You know why God's people rebelled? You know why God's people made so many mistakes and ended up spending 40 years in the wilderness? This is a big part of it. Their lack of faith was really forgetting who they were and who God was. They actually completely forgot that God was always with them. Friend, have you forgotten who the Lord your God is? Have you forgotten that the Lord is with you? Have you forgotten to call on him in times of trials, in times of difficulties, in times of change? That as he says in verses 31, he says that the Lord is our God. He's the one who carries us like a father carries his own son. He carries his own son. That's how God carries us. That's how he is with us. That's how he loves us. That's how he cares for us. That's a truth that will never, never change. Again, you see the idea of God knowing, or the idea of God's people knowing who he was was not something that was a philosophical discussion or understanding. God was not known in some mystical experiences by his people. It wasn't through some philosophical arguments that they came to know God. It was actually through his word. That's how they came to know him. God spoke. What do you read in Genesis chapter 1? God speaking all things into existence. That's how people came to know him because he spoke. He spoke his word. But he also spoke something else. He spoke about what he was going to do for his people. He tells them what he's going to do. When he first calls Abraham, he tells Abraham what he's going to do for you. Come follow me. Come go to the land that I'm going to show you. This is what I'm going to do for you. God speaks. Isn't that our redemptive story? None of us have seen Jesus. Have you seen Jesus? But he came. And he spoke. But he also spoke by his actions. He spoke about his death. He spoke about his resurrection. And he actually went to the cross and died for us for Austin. And he continues to speak in his word. I love the fact that Moses is going to continue retelling the story of Israel. He's going to continue reminding them who they are and where they came from. Why is that important? But why do we need to know our story? Why do you need to know your testimony? If I should say it's really a reminder of God's timeliness and what he did for you in the past and what he's about to do now and what he's going to do in the future. But it's also a reminder for us to be careful when we live our lives, our past mistakes, our past sins, our past successes and how God is going to use all of those things in our lives and that He's able to continue being with us. Again, as I mentioned, it serves as a warning for us. As we walk with the Lord, being reminded that our past failures ought to be learning processes for us and the same is true for the Church in every age. That we're always sermon summoned by God, summoned by God in his presence to hear, to listen, to know what God has done for us. And that's what defines who we are in Christ and where we're going. I love the way Paul actually speaks of it in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 through 6, this beautiful passage where Paul begins by talking about all the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ. He says all these things are yours. And then he says he doesn't say that all those things are ours because we are good because we did something awesome because we deserve it. But he says all these things are yours because before the foundations of this world, God adopted you as his children. God called you. I mean, do you just think about that in terms of our history and who we are, our identity in Christ and in terms of that God called you before the foundation of this world. God knew that you would be sitting here this day hearing his word because we now want to cause you say why then would I be worried about anything in this life? Why? If before the foundations of this world, God's blessings were declared and spoken about you and for you. There were all yours before you were ever here. Again, God tells us people, you must turn and go. Go for it. Now like I said, there's going to be some difficulties as they go ahead. Some huge dudes live in this land of Canaan, the sons of Anakin. I mean, that name just sounds, you know, it's like there must have been some really bad people, but they have to conquer them. They kind of battle. And so we may think to ourselves, I mean, let's think. Let's hypothesize one second. Wouldn't it have been nice if the Lord with just his finger went ahead and just cleaned up the whole place, all the enemies, just everything, just destroyed all the enemies and then said, Israel, here you go, walk on over to Canaan and possess it. Oh, that would be easy, right? Is God able to do that? But he didn't. Why? Because there's something that the Lord is always seeking from us and that's called faith and nothing would teach us to our faith unless we really trust him, even in those moments when there are difficulties, there are things we don't understand and we're thinking, God, are you sure this is the right time for us to go into this land with all this giant? There have been times where you wondered, you're going through a sickness or something just happened in your life and you just went like, God, are you sure this is the right timing for you to bring this upon me? I didn't share this in the early service, but I have a scar on my hand, my right hand. I will never forget it right before Easter of 2019. Saturday actually, I had prepared this awesome sermon that I was going to preach on Easter service and I'd been having this pain on my hand for months and doctors couldn't figure it out. And on Easter morning, I think to myself, well, let me go to the doctor and just get this checked so that, you know, I can come back finish my sermon. It's going to be great. It's Easter and then I'll come back and preach. And I was getting my blood work done and the pain was just unbearable and I'm just thinking, Lord, please have mercy, please, this is not the right time for me to be going through this. And so long story short, my doctor calls me and the doctor says, I think something is really wrong with you. I need you to go to the ER right now. I check into the ER and I'm talking to the doctors and they know they don't know what they're doing and they're thinking, Josiah, you're so young, why would you have, my hand was swollen. It was so bad. And they're saying, well, we don't know what to do, but we're going to take it off. You're going to fix the problem and say, okay, can you give me some medication so I can take it, go back home, preach, and I'll come back tomorrow Sunday morning and they said, no, we don't do that around here. You're spending the night. And I'm just thinking, God, what are you doing? I'm supposed to be preaching tomorrow morning. See, for me, God's timing was not right, but it was perfect because God had some amazing things to teach me during that time. I spent five days in hospital and I really wanted to get out of that, out of that place. I don't know about you. If you question what God is teaching you when certain things happen and you feel like they're not timely, I give the idea here is God has given his people a promise. But he's saying, the land is yours. It's a promise that I gave to you to, to get, but you got to do something about it. You have to make a move. You have to turn. You have to go.

It's a gift that is received by active faith. Friends, do you hear the gospel of Jesus Christ in that? Do you hear the gospel all through this in terms of our understanding who God is and that he has called us as his people that we are saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ, not because there's anything good in us, not because we deserve, not because there's anything that we can do to meet the standards that he has set for us. We cannot, we cannot obey him on our own. We cannot go to him on our own and on our own accord. We have to wait for him to reach out to us. But when when he reaches out to us we have to do something about it. And what is it? It is understanding grace which means understanding that I am helpless, that I am a hopeless sinner and coming to him empty and saying, Lord have mercy on me because you're the only one who can save me. But you got to do something and that something is recognizing your own sinfulness, realizing your own brokenness and that he's the only one who can fix every problem. See friends, when I prayed to God and asked him to help and lead me to know what I was going to preach for my first serious yet new city, East Lake, I had no clue that God was not only going to show me what to preach, but he was actually going to teach me what it means to listen to him in times of change. My family has been going through a huge transition moving from Baltimore to here. I can tell you with all honesty there are times where, when I've doubted, there are times that my family has been filled with fear and anxiety. We want to be in our house, we're not there yet. There are times where I wondered God, where are you? But do you know one thing that's been really beautiful for me with all those difficulties and times when I wanted to just weep and cry all day long, there's something that's been constant and it is this. God has reminded me that his word for me and for my family and for you friends, it is timeless that his goodness, his mercy, his love, his grace will never change and you can take that to the bank. But he's also reminding me something else. His word for me and for you and for all of us is timely as well. God did not make a mistake by bringing us here. God did not make a mistake by allowing the trials that we're facing in our lives. He does not make mistakes because he never changes. And all he's saying is son, can you listen to me and what I'm teaching you through these trials? So I don't know about you. I don't know what changes you're going through in this new year and in this new season. I don't know where God is saying it's time for you to move on. You've been here way too long. I don't know what kinds of things God is asking you to repent of this morning. I don't know where God is saying to you need to walk humbly before me. I don't know where God is telling you. You know what you've dismissed my word for way too long. It's time for you to listen! Whatever it is, may we as a church of Jesus Christ remember that his word to us is timeless and it is timely. Let us pray. Dear Lord Jesus, we thank you again for this day that we've come to worship you and to hear from you. Continue to speak to us not this day but even as we leave this place. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your promises declared to us in Christ Jesus. May we receive them as true because they are true. For you are the God who promises and you never make mistakes and you never change. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.