Theme: Go up and possess the Land!
Text: Deut.1: 5-8
Intro.
A. Taking a closer look at our churches today, what can we see? I can see people who called themselves Christians, who come to church contentedly in a once-a-week basis. There, as their custom, they had their “worship service”. Everything is fixed, programmed, and routine. They sit, stand, listen and sing piously, and at the end, as if everyone is satisfied, they receive the benediction with a great “Amen”. But where is the victory? Where is the growth? Where is the productivity? They looked the same! They felt no difference! They lived as usual!
B. Why, what is the problem? They say it’s the devil. So some groups had mean business to “bind and defeat” the devil. But this is impossible! Please church, we should pray with our heads! Satan is already a defeated foe. We are already victors in Christ! And to bind satan is not our work to do; it’s Christ’s when He comes to set up His millennial kingdom.
C. The liberal teachers are not the problem either. The worst enemy of the church is the dictatorship of the routine. When we are satisfied with what we already are or have, then there is no more room for anything to become. If you don’t desire to grow, you won’t grow! If you stop desiring for productivity, your life will produce nothing worthy for the church to rejoice. To this kind of church or Christian God has a message: “Go up! Possess the Land!”
D. God’s people don’t have to stay where they are; they must be going forward. The church must not be satisfied with what she already is or has, or she closes herself the door of greater experience that is for her. The church is not a dead monument; it is a living, dynamic organism that has the state of becoming.
E. If you look at our text, God spoke to His people through His servant saying, “Enough of your stay here! Go up and possess the land!”
F. What is the implication of this command of God to His people? What is its significance to the church?
T.S.
I. IT IS A CALL TO ADVANCE.
Ø God is so ardent for the advancement of His people. In this passage, God says, “You have stayed long enough in this mountain…now set up your journey. Go up and possess the land.” It is both a command to leave the place where they were staying –a place where they were already accustomed, and to advance their journey toward the Promised Land.
Ø God’s desire for His people is not to stay in a spiritual status quo, or what we called the customary life. Instead, He wants to see His people progressing with great measure in their spiritual journey.
a) FIRST, God wanted to see the intensity of His people’s emotion toward Him.
· As the Israelites lived long enough in Mt. Horeb their passion for the Promised Land had grown cold. Their emotional fervor, their excitement and their exuberance for God’s Promise had to some extent been alleviated. “It’s okay here. We’re already accustomed here. No more adjustments.” The promise was still in their minds, but the intensity of their passion for it has waned. So God came to rejuvenate their emotions. “Go up and possess the land.”
· God dislikes half-heartedness, lifelessness, and, as the Spirit of God says to the Church of Laodicea, “lukewarm” spirituality.
· Both Peter and Paul understood this and said: “continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior and Lord.”
· There must be an increase of devotion; there must be more passion, more fervor, more joy, and greater willingness to sacrifice for the Lord!
b) SECOND, God wanted His people to come to a new horizon of experience.
· The Israelites were becoming accustomed and contented with their stay in the mountain. What more could they long? They had comfort, ease and safety in that mountain. Everything is fine, why should they go up to another place? First because that was not the place where they should be. Next, they can never come to that place until they leave the place where they were. This gives us the principle that “what has been should not determine what will be.” So for them to be in the place God wants them to be, they must go through new horizons of their journey. Exactly true with us. If we want to be a person God wants us to be, we must be willing to go through new horizons of our spiritual journey. What we have been should not determine what we will be or what we are to be spiritually. That’s why Paul said: “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching…let us press on to maturity.”
· Illustration: A man with his written life-testimony. Having found that rats spoiled his paper, he said to the pastor: “Oh, my testimony was gone. I have now lost my wonderful experience with God.”
· I want to say this: A crumb of fresh encounter with Christ is better than a feast of stale experience.
II. IT IS A CALL TO CONQUER.
Ø To possess the Promised Land the Israelites must first conquer it. In most dictionaries, to conquer means, “to take over an enemy’s territory by force”. This is the picture of Israel taking possession of Canaan. Of course the Canaanite people will not easily hand their land over to the Israelites. There must be resistance.
Ø In light of God’s covenant to Abraham, the land belongs to the Israelites. Nevertheless, the Canaanites knew nothing about that covenant. Granted that they knew, would they recognize it? Therefore until the last drop of their blood, they will resist any invader and defend their territory. This leaves the Israelites to have no other option: to take the land forcibly! They must conquer it as implied in God’s command. From this we can see that:
a) God wanted to see that His people forcibly fulfilling His purpose.
· Do you remember the tower of Babel? The people of the ancient world wanted to stay in a certain place called the Plain of Shinar. God confounded their tongues to scatter them. Why? Because God wants the human race to conquer the world.
· Do you remember the command of Jesus before His ascension? Yes! Go and make disciples of all nations! In a short while the disciples were permitted to tarry at Jerusalem waiting for the Holy Spirit. But after that, the church went everywhere to obey the commission from the Lord beginning from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth. God wants the Gospel of Jesus through the Church invade the whole earth.
· There is a purpose for which we are called to attain; a purpose for which we are to become. To the Israelites, it was to possess and become possessor of the Promised Land; to the church, it is to bring the Life-changing message of Christ to all lands and become God’s Catalyst for the transformation of people’s lives.
· Did we as a church obey the command of our Commander-in-chief forcibly, or, I shall say with all our energy? Have we been advancing toward the fulfilling of God’s purpose and goal?
· I seem to hear God says, “It’s now about time to advance. Go up! All of you. Possess the Land.” Did you notice? God did not say, “some of you will go and some will stay”; the whole congregation was summoned to go. Isn’t God calling for corporate and unified effort? Isn’t God calling for everybody to help set the journey? God expects us to say, “Let’s do it”. Let’s advance in fulfilling the commission of our Master, as a church together! Let us conquer the land!
b) God wanted to see His people experiencing victory.
· To possess the Promised Land, the Israelites will have to engage battle against the inhabitants of it and should defeat them. Though God Himself had told them to do it thus giving them the assurance of victory, but it takes great faith, courage and confidence to “go up and possess the land”. Isn’t it better that they would stay where they are? For God it is not! He wants His people to leave the life of customary to a life of victory. Staying where they are would spare them from battles and challenges, but they would never experience victory either.
· To experience the fullness of victorious life, God’s people must be willing:
1) First to “go up” –that is to leave the life they used to live. Enough of the life of pretensions, of emptiness, of dead formality, of mediocrity, of mere religiosity, of defeat and disobedience! Rise up! With great courage and confidence in God, go up and advance victoriously!
2) Second to “possess the land” –that is to face the challenges ahead with great courage and faith. Oh, it is lamentable to know that many Christians and churches do not have vision for spiritual advancement in terms of living and service because they were afraid to face the challenges ahead. Therefore they stayed in the status quo. Didn’t they understand? The command was from God. Therefore, victory is sure! The problem with us is our lack of trust and our being slow to understand that life’s challenges are meant by God to give us opportunity to experience His Great Power. Victory does not come by way of human competence and capability, but by way of man’s dependence on the Omnipotent God Who is faithful to keep His promise.
· C’mon church, let’s rise up in victory, for we are God’s conquering army.
III. IT IS A CALL TO CLAIM.
Ø When God came and told them to go up and possess the land, God had also reminded them that they have something to claim from Him.
Ø What was that something? His covenant to them. The Covenant that even goes far back to their Patriarch Abraham. Along with this Covenant were the blessings, promised and prepared, that include the Promised Land (the Land of Abundance), Victory over the Enemies, Becoming a Nation, and Becoming a Blessing to all Nations.
Ø Sounds familiar to the church? Yes. Because God had also entered into a Covenant with us through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. And through this covenant we have the blessings that include the Life of Abundance, Victory, becoming a Holy Nation, and becoming a blessing to the world. Like the Israelites, we have these blessings to claim.
Ø But the claim of these covenant blessings must be aggressive. And I must confess that the cowards, the doubtful, the hesitant, the lazy, and the unwilling have no part of the claiming party.
Ø One must be willing, ready and prompt to obey the voice of God. One must be diligent to follow God’s direction. One must have great faith and courage for whatever challenge he is to face. Two words are appropriate to characterize him: “Obedience and Dependence.”
Ø To claim the covenant blessings is more than using the name of Jesus in what they called “bold declaration.” This is only pseudo-boldness. We do not have the right to declare something using the name of Jesus if we have not lived in total surrender and full obedience to the Lord.
Ø Church, if only we have walked in total obedience and dependence to our Master, we would have been enjoying the fullness of the covenant blessings.
Ø It is sad to know that the prevailing message you hear from most churches today is about survival. Why should we worry about how to survive? The church doesn’t have to worry on how to survive because Jesus had promised that even “the gates of hell shall not be able to prevail against it.”
Ø C’mon church, enough of that survival mentality. We don’t have to stay living in pretension, in want, in defeat and in disobedience. Go up! All of us! Let us rise up and possess the land! Let us experience and enjoy the covenant blessings in Christ! Let us experience and enjoy the Life of abundance and victory, and become a blessing to the world!
Ø Now, let’s give ourselves to God. Let’s confess our disobedience and pride. And once again, renew our commitment to Him, that from now and onward, we will be walking in total obedience to our Lord and Master.
CONCLUSION:
God doesn’t want us to stay where we are in our spiritual journey –to look the same, to feel no difference, and to live as usual. He wants us to rise up from the life of pretension, want, defeat and disobedience to a life of abundance, victory and blessing.
He wants us to advance, to progress, to grow in our passion for Him, for His purpose and goal.
He wants us to experience the blessings of His covenant with us in Christ. Yes, why not!
What we need to do now is come to Him. Confess our pride, our disobedience, and our pretensions.
