Sermon Central
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That Was Then, This Is Now
Contributed by Ken Hubbard on Feb 2, 2010 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon is to encourage listeners not to let life's "detours, delays discouragements" distract them from God's sovereign work in their lives.
INTRO
- Have you ever wondered
- Why bad things happen to good people
- When I am asked that question
- I must respond with:
„X God is sovereign
„X His ways are higher than ours
„X When you can't trace / trust
- If we're not careful we will let life's...
Detours
Delays
Discouragements
- Hold us in our THENS
...and we will miss our NOW
Verse 1 THEN Moses
- They've been on a journey
- They're about to reach their destiny (40 years)
- They're on the brink of a breakthrough
- Right across from Jericho / Canaan
Verse 4 THEN the Lord said
- You will not go in (detour)
- Have you ever had a detour
- You would have been farther along...
o ...but a detour
Verse 5 THEN Moses died (AND in NIV & KJV, original THEN)
- This was an end to a season
- We must understand seasons
- Many people try to do...
...the wrong thing in
...the wrong season
* 40 years of a promise...
...an exit
* Moses was bad -- he liberated a people from a tyrant
* They are heading somewhere
* They are working toward something
* But THEN Moses died!
THEN = A concluding word
= A summary word
* This is not how the story is supposed to end.
Verse 4 A promise on the brink
Verse 5 THEN Moses died
I have a promise -- that needs fulfilling
I have a destiny -- to reach
* Have you ever had a THEN (conclusion)
* When you were supposed to have a NOW?
...THEN I filed bankruptcy
...THEN he left
...THEN the baby died
...THEN the divorce was final
...THEN Moses died
* And I don't know what to do
o Preacher, I'm stuck in my THEN
„X Hurt
„X Pain
„X Anger
„X Resentment
* To the people
o Moses' death was a major death
o They don't know they're in the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy (the last chapter)
o What do you do when you have an end...
o ...when you thought you were at a beginning
o What do you do when
„X You hit a detour
„X THENS try to stop you
- This is how far you can come and no further
* I've had those moments as a Pastor
Moses died - dilemma
Jordan flooded - detour
Jericho fortified - defining moment
* I've come to tell you
o That God never has a THEN
o Without providing a NOW!
Joshua 1:1 NOW after
Joshua 1:9 NOW Joshua
Then = ending word -- conclusion - summary
Now = a new beginning -- new season
* Aren't you glad that when one chapter closes
* God can open another
* You can't even die without a new biginning
* There is a Canaan
o Abundance
o Flow
* Nobody ever invents anything that doesn't have a purpose
* God our creator didn't create us without a purpose
* You might be at a:
„X Detour
„X Discouraged
„X Doubtful
„X Derailed
„X Defeated
* But I've come to tell you to turn the page
* And look for your NOW!
* If the road is closed...
* ...God has an alternate route
* Booker T. Washington
o Was detoured because he was born in slavery
* Thomas Edison
o Was detoured because he was born deaf
* Abraham Lincoln
o Was detoured because he had illiterate parents
* Julius Caesar
o Was detoured because he had epilepsy
* There is nothing worse than to be on your way to your destiny
o And hit a detour
o Get behind
EXAMPLE: my car getting jumped when I was 18
* I want those who are stuck in a THEN
* Facing detours to remember
* A few things...
1. DETOURS CAN BE DEFINING MOMENTS
Movie sliding doors
If Helen makes it aboard a London subway train before the sliding doors close, she will have a different future than if she is left standing on the platform. In parallel stories, this tale follows Helen's lives down both paths simultaneously, as two totally different futures unfold.
Our lives are filled with sliding doors and defining moments...that determine the outcome of our lives.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. (KJV)
Defining = to give form to something
To delineate the outline or form of
Moment = a specific point in time
A particular period of importance
A brief indefinite period of time
* There are many detours that became defining moments in the archives of history:
- April 14, 1912 -- that was the fateful night that the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg.
- October 24, 1929 -- Black Thursday -- the day the stock market crashed
