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 land of which I swore to give to your fathers..." Then you answered and said to me, "We have sinned against the LORD; we will go up and fight..." 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 you rebelled against the command of the LORD, and presumptuously went up into the mountain. (Deuteronomy 1:34–46)

In a time of crisis, will you become the kind of person others can depend on—by first becoming dependent upon God?

Lessons the Crisis Is Teaching Us

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

One of the things that has become clear to me is that I have had a genuine privilege in my vocation as a pastor for more than twenty years: to be conditioned to search and research information according to an interpretive method. You may not realize it, but the applied theologians who occupy the pastorate are well suited to look at data and information with an unbiased and critical eye. Sadly, not all pastors do that—but the ones I am privileged to work with, here at Cross Connection, 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've been surrounded for twenty years 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.

The Need for Dependable People

Once upon a time, journalists were also taught to be objective and critical. Much of what has been happening in our culture has exposed that many people offering commentary in this moment are no longer as objective and unbiased as you might hope. Some are, but far too few—and that is unfortunate, especially when so many get the bulk of their information about the world through the filtered headlines of 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," and with His word He ordered the chaos.

You may say, "I'm not sure it's 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, a divorce, a death, or the destruction of their livelihood. Who do people reach out to when that happens? 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 life-giving Logos into the disordered life of that person.

For a lot of people, coronavirus is just the latest chaotic happening that has revealed how disintegrated and disordered their lives already are. In more than twenty years of pastoral ministry, I can't begin to count the number of lives I have watched be reassembled, reintegrated, 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 to the division of soul and spirit, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It is God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, so that the man or woman of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So we need to work to become Christlike people who can be depended upon in chaos. You may not be that 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 extract habitable order out of your chaos—just as He did in Genesis 1—by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The Story Behind Deuteronomy 1

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 in Genesis 3, man disordered and disintegrated all that God had accomplished through his disobedience, rebellion, and sin. The story that continues through Exodus and the rest of the Old Testament is God's story of reordering the chaos that our sin brought about. The passage we are in this morning, Deuteronomy 1, is a continuation of all that God intends to do in this world.

Before this home-church experiment began eight weeks ago, we were beginning a study in Deuteronomy. Here Moses is speaking to the people of Israel, reminding them of details about their history that led to their current situation. Those details were important—they would help make Israel wise for the challenges before them as they prepared to enter the Promised Land that had been promised nearly five hundred years earlier.

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

Fear, Self-Reliance, and Forty Wasted Years

The most strikingly insane part of the exodus generation's story is that they chose not to rely upon God—and instead chose to witness the death of every one of them outside the Promised Land, rather than the alternative of 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, governed by fear, may have long-lasting and devastating effects. Led by their fears, Israel chose to retreat when faced with the potential of hardship. Then the Lord heard the sound of their words—as informed by fear, self-reliance, and unbelief—and was angry, and swore that not one of that evil generation would see the good land. Because of their lack of trust and reliance upon God, Israel failed to inherit the Promised Land, and they went right back toward the life of bondage they had been redeemed from.

A Confusing Passage Made Clear

When the people heard God's verdict, they answered, "We have sinned against the LORD; we will go up and fight." They girded on their weapons and were ready to go up into the mountain. But the Lord said, "Tell them, 'Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you, lest you be defeated.'" They would not listen, but rebelled and presumptuously went up—and the Amorites came out and chased them like bees and drove them back.

This is one of those strange passages that makes people scratch their heads. Didn't God want them to go up into the Promised Land? And then, seconds later, He's upset when they try to go in. If you're confused, I understand. It can be confusing—until you set this situation in its place in the larger narrative.

God is a God of order. Genesis 1 and 2 reveal God bringing order out of chaos; Genesis 3 shows humanity reintroducing chaos through sin. The whole remaining story of the Old Testament, and its arc through the New Testament, is about the God of order working to bring order again through redemption. Israel and the Promised Land were central to that redemptive plan.

Dependence, Not Independence

This redemptive plan could not be accomplished by man's independence and self-reliance—that's what caused the problem in the first place. The land was promised by God, and it would be possessed only as the result of Israel's dependence, their enlightened reliance, upon Him. In self-reliance they said, "We can't go up; there are fortified cities and giants." There was no dependence on 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."

Moses reminds Israel thirty-eight years later: your parents and grandparents would not listen, but rebelled and presumptuously went up—proudly, arrogantly, insolently, rebelliously seeking to fulfill God's plan. None of those words go together with God's work. As one person once observed, "Nothing good can come when the will is wrong."

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

Becoming the Kind of Person God Wants You to Be

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

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

An Invitation to 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 in Romans, "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 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, forgiveness, and salvation, and then to see Him transform you—as you depend upon Him—into the kind of person others can depend upon in chaos and crisis. If you've never put your trust in Jesus, I invite you to pause and pray right now, to acknowledge your sin and ask Jesus to come into your life and forgive you.

I also speak to those of you who have done that before but maybe haven't been in a church for many years. Even though we're not in a building, God wants to minister to you and is 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 bow and pray with me now:

Dear Jesus, I recognize that I need You. I acknowledge that I'm sinful and have broken Your commandments, and 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. We at Cross Connection would love to rejoice with you and send you a Bible if you need one. You can let us know at the website. And for the rest of you, know that we are praying with and for you.

Closing Prayer

Father God, thank You so much for the work that You are doing in spite of our littleness. 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 other churches in our area and around the world as we seek to reach into this world through technology right now. Draw people to Yourself and do a work that would absolutely blow our minds. Thank You for how You continue to bless and provide for and work through Your church. Pour out a blessing upon Your people, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.