From Excusing to Choosing
Series: Moving Forward: The Choices that Free Us
January 6, 2018 – Brad Bailey
Intro:
Welcome to a new year. I believe God created us to enjoy life with seasons…and that which would make time…such as a year. The start of a new year stirs the desire for change. I think everyone has a desire for change…but in truth…it’s usually change around us…changes in our circumstances…more than change within us… that involves us.
The story that captures this so well…is the one that is central to the history of God’s people. It is what is usually referred to as the Exodus.
It’s often said to be the story that depicts everyone’s story…for it is the journey from being enslaved to that of entering a promised land.
We read in the Biblical Book of Deuteronomy how Israel had the distance that the people of Israel had between their freedoms from Egypt to the land God had promised as an 11 day journey…but they had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. And then …
Deuteronomy 1:6-8 (NLT)
“The LORD our God said to us, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on. … Look, I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it...”
I wonder if the Lord has a similar word for some of us.
You have stayed at this mountain long enough.
It is time to break camp and move on.
You’ve stayed at that mountain long enough…in other words… don; let what is ‘temporary’ become ‘permanent’.
There is a promised land…and you are not there yet.
There is a plan to bless the whole world. And we are not settled there yet.
It’s a call to move forward.
When a little life is learning to walk… a parent will hold them up… pointed forward…and help them develop their walking legs.
It’s funny to watch.
Two elements… face forward…and take steps.
And this begins a life that is moving forward.
As basic as it may seem as we grow older… I wonder if as spiritual beings… we lose this basic aspect of life.
I wonder if we are really moving forward … taking steps forward.
I wonder if some of us aren’t more like the baby who sits down…. And waits.
I wonder what God sees when he looks at me.
Today we are going to begin a focus…for the 4 Sundays of this January month… on “Moving Forward”…and the choices that free us.
Most of us want to move forward. We sense there is more potential than we have reached yet…more that God wants us to become. We may have moments of quietly declaring it’s time to change… but we often find that we are stuck…and we just don’t move forward as we had felt so determined to do.
In this series we will engage the choices that can free us to move forward. We will confront the underlying issues of blaming, comparing, fearing, and controlling.
We will allow God to speak to these forces as He leads us in moving forward.
God created life with movement…God is constantly at work… redeeming life…and that includes us. [1]
We might ask: What about rest? Aren’t we told to stop and reflect?
Absolutely. But rest and restoration is about perspective for the movement we are a part of. God created rest…and calls for rest…but it was to help prepares us for working with perspective.
When a team has a half time…they don’t head home… or take a nap…it’s all about preparing for the next half. Spectators may just grab a hot dog and beer…but the players are resting and renewing their perspective for the rest of the game. And that’s what I hope we do as we stop and gather every week …and especially as we prepare for a new year.
Ultimately…we need to hear the calling about what is ahead…about moving forward.
Job… in the Old Testament…says…
“The righteous keep moving forward…” Job 17:9 (NLT)
Jesus called all to “follow him.” That means moving forward …into what is new…a new life with God. He wants us to be sowing… and even says…
Luke 9:62 (AMP)
Jesus said … “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back to the things behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”
The Apostle Paul realized the freedom…and the power to choose to move forward. He had been a religious leader who had thought he could he could rest on his past good works. When he realized that Jesus had come to bear his sins and lead the way to become a truly good and right person….he declared…
Philippians 3:13-16; 4:13 (CEV)
My friends, I don't feel that I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead. 14 I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done. 15 All of us who are mature should think in this same way. And if any of you think differently, God will make it clear to you. 16 But we must keep going in the direction that we are now headed. …. Christ gives me the strength to face anything.
What a sense of one who is moving forward. Can you hear how he lives loosened from being bound to the past and his profound intention to be moving forward towards what is always greater.
Paul is not speaking simply of positive thinking…which is rooted in belief that we control reality… rather it’s all rooted in God. [2]
Moving forward is not about wishful thinking in which life is easy…Paul says he is going to “struggle for what is ahead ….we must keep going in the direction that we are now headed …”
It’s not a life of denying the facts, but in enlarging them.
One thing that I’m convinced of, is that I haven’t arrived yet. I haven’t accomplished all that God has for me; And you haven’t either. The fact that we’re still alive means God has more for us.
So I want to ask you to consider two questions:
What does God want to be different about your life?
What does God, the Creator of the universe who loves you and has great plans for you, what does God want to be different in your life? What do you believe that God wants to be different about your life? A lot of you, you already know and you can go ahead and write that down right now.
If you don’t have a strong sense of movement…. don’t worry…ask God. When God speaks…life happens…so take time to listen.
Second question, and this to me is where a lot of the power comes in. Let me ask you this:
Why does God want this to be different in your life?
Why does God want this area of your life connect the spiritual why with the what, there is power and motivation to accomplish the what.
Now… with some sense of what God might be calling us to…I want us to begin to confront some mindsets that can keep us stuck.
We all have probably had some god intentions in the past… but then find we are still in the same place.
Often the challenge lies in the unspoken excuses that have developed within us.
Excusing is the enemy of choosing…and of real change. [3]
So let’s quickly consider…
Freedom from the Inner “Excuses” that Hold Us Back
….that Keep Us From Moving Forward
Now there are legitimate reasons for problems… some things we have no control over. So it’s fair to ask: What the difference between legitimate reasons…or excuses and deceptive excuses? My short sense is this:
A deceptive excuse reflects something we don’t want to change…a fear that we are not willing to face…and are not engaging.
Example - maybe you have questions regarding God ... they may be really legitimate… but if you are not actively seeking answers then it may reflect excuses and a lack of choosing ... more willful than actual. The same holds true for any of the responses we may give for why we cannot move forward with what God wants.
Let’s quickly consider the three most common inner excuses we may have…and the alternative power to choose.
1. Excuse: “I don’t have a choice” (Blaming others…even God)
When we blame…we are essentially saying that we aren’t responsible for what we are doing or not doing.
Throughout the people’s exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land, there is a lot of complaining and blaming that arises as the people have been suffering in enslavement…and Moses is called to return and confront Pharaoh …and then their escape seems dangerous and hard.
The people blame Moses, and in the end…Moses doesn’t follow God’s leading….and is told he will not enter the Promised Land.
Moses in turn… blames the Israelites…
Deuteronomy 1:37 (NLT)
“.. the LORD was also angry with me because of you. He said to me, ‘Moses, not even you will enter the Promised Land!”
Moses loses his recognition that it was his behavior that prohibits his entrance into Canaan…and focuses on the actions of the people. Moses shifts blame. Refusing to take personal responsibility for his actions, Moses blames the Israelites for his being denied access to the Promised Land. [4] Some of us haven’t entered the places God wants to lead us to and we blame others. And when we blame…we are essentially dismissing the one thing that gives us power…which is our own power of choice.
And at another point…. Moses blames God for the allowing Pharaoh to continue his harsh treatment of the people. [5]
Nothing new… from the very start… our greatest power is our ability to make choices… we like the freedom…but hide from the responsibility.
In the opening Book of the Bible…the Book of Genesis…we are told about those who depict human beginnings…Adam and Eve. It is so foundational to grasp that they were given the power of choice…and responsibility. And they are told they can work with all that God has created…but they are not to eat of one symbolic tree…the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well…they eat and find themselves in the nakedness of their shame…and God confronts them. He begins with the man He created first…asking him why he ate…and we read…
Genesis 3:12-13 (NLT)
The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
“It was the woman.” Wow. Sound familiar? We might laugh at what sounds childish… immature… but I wonder if we aren’t refusing to move forward with the same premise as a reason.
It was my parents.
It was my past.
It’s just who I am.
And Adam says…the women “you gave me”… implying that it’s really God’s responsibility.
After Adam blamed his wife, God turned His attention to her. “What is this you have done?
Genesis 3: 13 (NLT)
Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
In other words, “The devil made me do it!” The spiritual forces outside me control my choices. I wonder if in our own way we aren’t denouncing the power of our own choices with a similar mindset.
With these words we hear the human heart declaring that it is no longer responsible for it’s actions…that we do not have the power of choice… and are only living out what others have determined.
We demand our right to choose…but then we refuse to take responsibility for our choices. It is deeply ingrained in human nature.
Nothing will keep us from moving forward more than losing our own sense of power to choose. Much of our circumstances and challenges are not only not of our choice…they may not be humanly just. But we have the power of choosing how we respond. Choose personal responsibility
Galatians 6:5-6 (NLT)
“We are each responsible for our own conduct….You will always harvest what you plant.”
The first redemptive choice we can make is this…
Choice: Focus on your personal responsibility
Choose to embrace the power of your personal responsibility.
A second common excuse that can keep us from moving forward is this…
2. Excuse: “It’s not within my comfort or confidence” (Security of the familiar)
Another theme which runs through God’s leading the people forward towards the Promised Land…is their fear of stepping out and facing the challenges.
It arises in Moses… who had tried to stand up for them when he was a prince within Pharaoh’s home…and they rejected him…and he fled. So when God comes to him after 40 years and calls him to return to confront Pharaoh and lead the people…Moses doesn’t want to risk rejection. We read in the Book of Exodus…
Exodus 4:1-11 (NLT)
Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The LORD never appeared to you’?”…. 10 But Moses pleaded with the LORD, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” 11 Then the LORD asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the LORD?
It might seem strange to think of this great man arguing with God…but it is an example of what can hold us all back. Moses was being called to go back and face all the powers of opposition of the Egyptian Empire…and all the pain of rejection by his own people. He didn’t want to face rejection. He had longed to belong. And he didn’t want to face the pain of being rejected again.
The truth is that he knew he was one of them…an Israelite… and had hoped to be embraced by them…but now he was living in the desert of Midian…accepted by a small nomadic family.
In other words… he had always longed to belong again to his people…and what he longed for had never been realized yet…BUT… he had gotten use to the security of what was familiar. Moving forward was beyond his comfort and confidence.
It always is. If we are going to move forward, we each will have to choose what is beyond our comfort and confidence.
Even more profoundly… when he does return…. and leads the people out of Egypt….they begin to complain about the hardships…and we read…
Exodus 16:2-4 (CEV)
There in the desert they started complaining to Moses and Aaron, "We wish the LORD had killed us in Egypt. When we lived there, we could at least sit down and eat all the bread and meat we wanted. But you have brought us out here into this desert, where we are going to starve."
Wow. Do you hear the way they begin to idealize the past? They were slaves … forced to do unbearable labor… and now they are liberated … heading towards a land God had promised to them. But the journey was hard….long…and so they begin to idealize the past.
Oh…the “good old days.” What draws them to the past more than the future? We feel more comfort and confidence than the uncertainty of what we might face ahead. [6]
As we consider what lies ahead…and the need for movement… one of the most powerful forces at work is familiarity.
It can be a helpful source of comfort along the way…but it can become a force that holds us back.
Perhaps the greatest fear of all is the fear of the unknown. And when we get right down to it, our problem often is that we would rather hold on to what we have than trust our future to God.
But God has something better. And here is the choice that will empower us:
Choice: Choose God’s greater good that lies ahead...moving beyond familiarity
There is a promised land. There is a plan to bless the whole world. And we are not settled there yet.
Finally, perhaps the excuse we identify most commonly with…
3. “I don’t have the time.” (“Busyness” that reflects priority)
For many of us… the most common reason we don’t pursue changes is because we feel we don’t have the time. I don’t want to dismiss that feeling. It takes energy to make changes. Many feel exhausted. So change seems like an ideal that will just have to wait for a future when we are not so busy…when we have more energy. That is what I often think.
But at some level…it’s never simply about a lack of time as much as it is a lack of priority.
Jesus tells a parable about how what God was bring was like that of a great banquet…the type no one would have been invited to in their lifetime. And when the servants were sent to invite the people…many had excuses… business… newly married. What is interesting is that they weren’t unimportant… but even these important elements of life were not as comparable to what was being offered. [7]
Amidst the all that may be important there is that which is MOST imperative … MOST significant.
So here is the choice that we will have to make in order to move forward…
Choice: Make what brings the greatest difference your highest priority.
Closing:
Let me close with this simple truth. The whole story of a Promised Land is not just a story. There really was a real land that our real God was leading these people to. It is as real as my son’s visit these past two weeks.
A real people were formed and led.
The land was only symbolic of the ultimate destination of all. Ultimately God said he would send through these people…a Messiah…a Savior…who would fulfill God’s promises. That Messiah…that Savior really came…and really did begin leading the way to the ultimate Promised Land.
And when that Christ came…he said he would fulfill something else God had promised and prophetically spoken…that He would pour out His Spirit to work in us.
This story is alive…and it calls each of us to respond…to move forward towards what God wants to do in our lives.
Closing Song: "Moving Forward" — Israel Houghton
Notes:
1. Other verses that speak of a focus on moving forward…
Proverbs 4:25 ESV
Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.
Ezekiel 1:12 - And each went straight forward; wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go, without turning as they went.
Luke 9:62 - But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
Job 17:9 (NLT) - “The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.”
Isaiah 43:18-19 - “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
2. It’s not wishful thinking but taking hold of the larger reality. The writer the Biblical Book of Hebrews declares that faith grasps that the temporal material world is a manifestation of the eternal unseen source that it reflects. While some consider that what is unseen cannot be real… others recognize, that in fact, everything is a manifestation of something that preceded it…something outside itself.
So faith is responding to whatever one discovers about that source …namely God.
It is never a matter of understanding everything…but understanding what we don’t know by what we do know. Faith responds to whatever God makes known amidst a lot that we don’t understand…a lot of mystery.
A life of hope begins not by denying the facts, but enlarging them.
Biblical hope is the anticipation of a favorable outcome under God’s guidance. More specifically, hope is the confidence that what God has done for us in the past guarantees our participation in what God will do in the future. This contrasts to the world’s definition of hope as “a feeling that what is wanted will happen.” Understood in this way, hope can denote either a baseless optimism or a vague yearning after an unattainable good. If hope is to be genuine hope, however, it must be founded on something (or someone) which affords reasonable grounds for confidence in its fulfillment. The Bible bases its hope in God and His saving acts.
3. More Biblical texts regarding excuses…
Jesus told a parable that illustrates our attempt to excuse ourselves from doing God will. The parable is about a man who was giving a big dinner and invited everyone to come “But they all alike began to make excuses.” (Luke 14:18).
? “I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.” (14:18).
? “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.” (14:19).
? “I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.” (14:20).
Proverbs 22:13 – The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!”
Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure. A poor workman always finds fault with his tools.
In Judges 6, Gideon was called a valiant warrior of God and was given the challenge to lead God’s people out of oppressions and defeat against the Midianites. But when he was given his mission, he began making excuses:
Judges 6:15 – O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.
Jeremiah 1:4-7 – Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Then I said, “Alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth.” [EXCUSE] But the Lord said to me, do not say, “I am a youth,’ because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak.” [EXCUSE DENIED].
4. Deuteronomy - Three times in the first four chapters Moses blames the people for the fact that the Lord will not allow him to enter into the Promised Land.
“Because of you the Lord became angry with me also and said, ‘You shall not enter it, either'” (Dt 1:37).
“But because of you the Lord was angry with me and would not listen to me. ‘That is enough,’ the Lord said. ‘Do not speak to me anymore about this matter'” (Dt 3:26).
“The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance” (Dt 4:21).
Similarly, in Exodus 32, we read how the high priest, Aaron, supervised the making of a golden image for worship. This resulted in the death of 3,000 Israelites and brought a terrible plague on the nation. Instead of repenting immediately and taking responsibility as the leader, Aaron first blamed the people, saying they had put such pressure on him that he had no choice. Then he went even further and lied. He said that all he did was throw the gold into the melting pot, and the image of a calf mysteriously appeared (Exodus 32:24).
Moses rejected Aaron’s excuse. He confronted his brother with his sin and then prayed for him (Deuteronomy 9:20). We can be sure that the Israelites who acknowledged their guilt were forgiven. But God judged the sin, and many died.
5.Exodus 5:22-23 (GW)
Moses went back to the LORD and asked, “Why have you brought this trouble on your people? Why did you send me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak for you, he has treated your people cruelly, and you have done nothing at all to rescue your people.”
6. We also read in Numbers 14:1-4 (NLT)
1 Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. 2 Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. 3 “Why is the LORD taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”
This pattern of fearing the future more than the past is reflected also in the report given by 10 of the 12 spies which go to spy out the land they must take. Two see the fruit….but 10 see the fight.
Numbers 13:31-33 (NLT)
“We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. 33 We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”
7. Luke 14:15-24 (GW)
One of those eating with him heard this. So he said to Jesus, “The person who will be at the banquet in the kingdom of God is blessed.” 16 Jesus said to him, “A man gave a large banquet and invited many people. 17 When it was time for the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who were invited, ‘Come! Everything is ready now.' 18 “Everyone asked to be excused. The first said to him, ‘I bought a field, and I need to see it. Please excuse me.' 19 Another said, ‘I bought five pairs of oxen, and I'm on my way to see how well they plow. Please excuse me.' 20 Still another said, ‘I recently got married, and that's why I can't come.' 21 “The servant went back to report this to his master. Then the master of the house became angry. He told his servant, ‘Run to every street and alley in the city! Bring back the poor, the handicapped, the blind, and the lame.' 22 “The servant said, ‘Sir, what you've ordered has been done. But there is still room for more people.' 23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go to the roads and paths! Urge the people to come to my house. I want it to be full. 24 I can guarantee that none of those invited earlier will taste any food at my banquet.'”
