Becoming Dependable | Sunday, April 26, 2020

And the LORD heard the sound of your words... and was angry and took an oath, saying, "Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good of the land which I swore to give to your fathers... As for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea." ... Then you answered and said to me, "We have sinned against the LORD; we will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us." ... And the LORD said to me, "Tell them, 'Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.'" ... yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the command of the LORD, and presumptuously went up into the mountain. (Deuteronomy 1:34–43)

When everything is chaos, God wants to make you dependable—but only as you become dependent on Him.

Learning to Interpret a Chaotic Time

In the midst of all that we are currently experiencing as a culture, I believe we are learning new and valuable lessons—about ourselves, our families, the organizations we belong to, and the communities we live in. In many ways, the coronavirus and our global reaction to it has been enlightening.

One thing that has become clear to me is that, in my vocation as a pastor for more than twenty years, I have had the genuine privilege of being conditioned to search and research information according to an interpretive method. You may not realize this, but the applied theologians who occupy the pastorate in our nation are well suited to look at data with an unbiased and critical eye. Not all pastors do that—sadly, many do not—but the ones I am privileged to work with, here at Cross Connection Church, at Enduring Word, and at Blue Letter Bible, are objective and critical when it comes to interpreting and applying information, and not just biblical information.

I have been surrounded by mentors and peers who are wise, understanding, and knowledgeable. They are like the men of the tribe of Issachar in 1 Chronicles 12, who understood the times and knew what their nation Israel ought to do.

Who Can Be Depended Upon?

Once upon a time, journalists were also taught to be objective and critical. But much of what has been happening in our culture has exposed that many people offering commentary right now are no longer as objective and unbiased as you might hope. Some are; far too few are. This is unfortunate, especially when so many people get the bulk of their information through the filtered headlines of the news.

This is a challenging time, and I believe it is incumbent upon all of us—especially those who act as though God exists, that is, Christians—to be the kind of people who can be relied upon for knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and faith. Even if you are a not-yet follower of God, we need to work to become the kind of people who can be depended upon in chaos and crisis—the kind of people who can speak order out of chaos.

Speaking Order Out of Chaos

How do you do that? First, you become dependent upon God yourself, and then you work to become Christlike. God is the logos who spoke into the dark, pre-cosmogonic chaos of Genesis 1 and said, "Let there be light," ordering the chaos with His word.

You might say it isn't even possible to speak order out of chaos. But I see it happen routinely. I see it when a person's life is turned upside down and disintegrated by a terminal diagnosis, divorce, the death of a loved one, or the destruction of their livelihood. Who do people reach out to? More often than not, they call the church; they call a pastor. Why? Because pastors have hopefully spent enough time with the One who brings order out of chaos that they can speak that same kind of life-giving logos into the chaos of a disordered life.

For a lot of people, coronavirus is just the latest chaotic happening that has revealed how disordered their lives already are. In more than twenty years of pastoral ministry, I cannot begin to count the number of lives I have watched be reassembled, reconstituted, and transformed by the simple, clear working of God's Word.

For the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The Scriptures are God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man or woman of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

You Could Be That Person

You may not be that dependable person yet, but you could be. Your life might be a mess, but by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit and the working of His living and powerful word, God can transform you and me—extracting habitable order out of your chaos, just as He did in Genesis 1. He can accomplish this by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

This is exactly what God set out to do in the Old Testament. He brought order out of chaos in Genesis 1 and 2; then man, by his disobedience and rebellion, disordered and disintegrated all that God had accomplished in Genesis 3. The story that continues through Exodus and the rest of the Old Testament is God's story of reordering the chaos our sin brought about. Deuteronomy 1 is simply the continuation of that story.

Israel at the Border

Before this home-church experiment started eight weeks ago, we had begun a study in Deuteronomy. In chapter 1, Moses has been speaking to the people of Israel, reminding them of their history. These historic details were important, for they would help make Israel wise for the challenges before them as they prepared to enter the Promised Land—land that had been promised to them nearly five hundred years earlier.

They were about to do what those who came before them had failed to do. Thirty-eight years prior, their parents and grandparents failed to move into the land. They had knowledge of what lay before them, according to the spies who explored it, but they failed to mix that knowledge with understanding, wisdom, and faith.

The most strikingly insane part of the exodus generation's story is that they chose not to rely upon God, and instead to witness the death of every one of them outside the Promised Land—rather than trusting God and seeing some of them die inside the land as they battled to take possession of it by faith. Instead of walking in wisdom, understanding, and faith, they wandered and died in the wilderness for nearly forty years. Clearly, the decisions we make today as governed by fear may have long-lasting and devastating effects.

The Confusing Reversal

Because of their lack of trust and reliance upon God, Israel failed to inherit the Promised Land, and they went right back toward the bondage they had been redeemed from. Yet when God declared that not one of them would see the good of the land, they suddenly answered, "We have sinned against the LORD; we will go up and fight." When everyone had girded on his weapons of war, they were ready to march up the mountain.

But the LORD said, "Tell them, 'Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you, lest you be defeated before your enemies.'" They would not listen; they rebelled and presumptuously went up. The Amorites came out and chased them like bees and drove them back.

This is one of those passages that makes people scratch their heads. Didn't God want them to go up? And then, seconds later, He is upset that they tried to go up. What on earth is going on? If you are confused, I understand—it can be confusing until you set this situation in its place within the larger narrative.

Order Only Through Dependence

God is a God of order. Genesis 1 and 2 reveal Him bringing order out of chaos; in Genesis 3, humanity by their disobedience reintroduced chaos through sin. The whole remaining story of the Old Testament and the arc through the New Testament is about the God of order working to bring about order again through redemption. Israel and the Promised Land are central to this entire redemptive plan.

But this redemptive plan could not be accomplished by man's independence and self-reliance—that is what caused the problem in the first place. The land was promised by God, and it would be possessed only as a result of Israel's dependence, their enlightened reliance upon God. In self-reliance they said, "We can't go up, there are fortified cities and giants." That was no dependence upon God. Then, when God responded to their unbelief, they renewed their self-reliance: "We've got our weapons of war; we're going up whether God is with us or not." But God said, "Do not go up, for I am not among you."

Proudly, arrogantly, insolently, and rebelliously, Israel sought to fulfill God's plan—and none of those words go together with God's work and plan. As one person once observed, "Nothing good can come when the will is wrong."

Becoming Dependable by Becoming Dependent

Why was Moses reminding them of this four decades later, and why are we reading about it thirty-four hundred years later? Because they were about to move into the land their parents and grandparents had failed to possess—and they would possess it only by total reliance upon God. As we move forward into all that God has for us, we too will only be successful if we are dependent upon Him.

God's aim is to make you the kind of person who can be depended upon in chaos and crisis. But that is only possible as you become a person who depends upon Him to make you that kind of person. Only by your dependence upon God can He make you the dependable person you desire to be.

Every one of us desires to be reliable when everything is chaotic, but times like these reveal how lacking we are in and of ourselves. We see our littleness in light of the challenges we face. That is actually not a bad thing, because it is in that place of humility that we most often meet God. The Scriptures teach that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Call Upon the Lord

This is a great opportunity—whether you have already affirmed your trust in God or not—to do so again, or for the first time. Quoting Isaiah and Joel, the Apostle Paul wrote:

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation... For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.

This is your opportunity to call upon the name of the Lord, to receive His grace, His forgiveness, and His salvation, and then to see Him transform you as you depend upon Him to become the kind of person others can depend upon in chaos and crisis.

I invite you today, if you have never put your trust in Jesus, to do just that. Pause in the midst of everything bombarding you and making you fearful, acknowledge your own sin, and ask Jesus to come into your life, to forgive you, and to give you His grace and salvation.

I also want to speak to those who have done that before but have not been in a church for many years. Even though we are not in a building, you are in a place where God wants to minister to you, calling you to turn to Him, to repent, and to confess Him once again as Lord. Wherever you are—on the couch, watching on a phone or tablet—you can simply bow and pray.

Pray this with me: Dear Jesus, I recognize that I need You. I acknowledge that I am sinful and have broken Your commandments. I pray that You would forgive me of my sin, come into my life, transform me by Your Spirit, and help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, Amen.

If you prayed that prayer today, I very much want to know about it. Cross Connection Church would love to rejoice with you and send you a Bible if you need one. Go to the website, commit.lifeinconnection.com, and fill out the form there. And for all of you, if you need prayer, please reach out so that we can intercede for you—go to prayer.lifeinconnection.com.

Closing Prayer

Father God, thank You so much for the work that You are doing in spite of our littleness. Lord, You are able to do great things—exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think. I pray that You would work through what is happening with Cross Connection Church, and the churches in our area and around the world, as we seek to reach into this world through technology. Draw people to Yourself, and do a work that would absolutely blow our minds. Thank You for how You continue to bless, provide for, and work through Your church. Pour out a blessing upon Your people. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The Scriptures say that You have not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. As we stand in Your love, we experience Your grace and Your power by Your Holy Spirit. I pray for Your church scattered throughout the county and the world, that You would give a strong sense of Your presence, that we would sense Your abiding love and stand in it, and not in fear. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you; may He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.