Choices at a cross-road

Deuteronomy chapter 1 please. Close up the ministry portion of the conference. I want to speak on being at a crossroads, where there's two choices.

Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 5. We're going to read about Israel being at a crossroads and then I'd like to apply it to us today. Deuteronomy 1 verse 5. On this side Jordan in the land of Moab began Moses to declare this law saying the Lord our God spake to us in horror saying you have dwelt long enough in this mount. Turn you again and take your journey and go to the mount of the Amorites and all and unto all the places nigh.

Verse 8. Behold I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give unto them and to their seed after them. Verse 19.

And when we departed from Horeb or Sinai we went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites as the Lord our God commanded us and we came to Kadesh Barnea and I said unto you you are come unto the mountain of the Amorites which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee. Go up and possess it as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee.

Fear not neither be discouraged. And you came near unto me every one of you and said we will send men before us and they shall search us out the land and bring us word again by what way we must go up and into what cities we shall come. Verse 26.

Notwithstanding ye would not go up but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and you murmured complained in your tents and said because the Lord hated us he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts saying the people is greater and taller than we. The cities are great and walled up to heaven and moreover we've seen the sons of the Antichom there.

Then I said unto you dread not neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God which goes before you he shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes and in the wilderness where thou has seen how that the Lord thy God beared thee as a man doth bear his son and all the way that you went until ye came into this place. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God who went or is going in the way before you to search you out a place to pitch your tents in and fire by night to show you by what way you should go and in the cloud by day.

Notice at the end of verse 31 until you came into this place yet in this thing you did not believe the Lord your God. There are times when people come to a crossroads in life. They're going along a path and whether it's a fork in the road or just there are two ways possible.

God had a purpose for Israel. He made it very clear. He wanted them to go and possess the land.

He brought him out of Egypt. He'd taken him through the wilderness. He wanted him to possess the land but we read of three times about the mountain of the Amorites and so it seemed impossible.

They had a choice. What are they going to do? What God wanted them to do or not do what God wanted them to do. God has a plan for your life and mine.

Spiritual blessing. Possess, lay hold of the spiritual blessings that he's given us. He saved us many of us here in this room and if you're not saved God willing in just a few minutes you will hear how you can be saved.

Know for sure your sins are forgiven. Know for sure you're going to be in heaven at the end of this journey. But many of us God has saved.

He's brought us through this wilderness world. Some of us have been on the journey quite a while now but there are moments. There are difficulties and there may be some in this room this afternoon and you are at a very real crossroads in your life.

There are decisions to be made to be made and you're wondering what do I do? Now with regard to the Israelites it's easy to if you know the context at all here it's easy to say well why didn't they just do it? You know you see people with t-shirts just do it. Well why didn't Israel I mean God had brought him miraculously out of Egypt. He brought him miraculously through the wilderness.

God could have taken care of the problems there. Why didn't they do it? But don't be too hard on the Israelites because often we just don't do do it either. Don't do what God wants us to do because the mountains seem insurmountable.

I want to look quickly at three problems that the Israelites had that caused him not to go in and you know it's not difficult to apply them to problems that we have today. First of all they got some bad advice. They had some bad influences.

You know they sent the spies in to see what the land was like and at least ten of those spies came back and said mm-hmm we're like grasshoppers. They're going to eat us up basically. Can't be done.

Don't go. And you know we may get bad advice too from time to time. That's why it's so careful to pick your friends carefully.

Not just your own age but even older ones so that when it comes time when you need advice and in the multitude of counselors there's safety. I hope you just don't plunge on. You've got your own ideas.

In major decisions it's wise to consult others that you have confidence in. But here they got some bad advice. I remember when I was first saved I was with the Pentecostals for a while and many godly people among them but when I started coming to assembly meetings and some of them found out about it they even used scripture to try to convince me that what I was doing was wrong.

It was bad advice. They meant well so they had some bad advice. They also had a bad attitude.

Now Brother Gary was speaking about that yesterday morning. In verse 27 Moses told him that he says you're grumbling complaining and saying because the Lord hated us that's why he's brought us out of Egypt and now he's going to destroy us these Amorites. He had a bad attitude.

They thought the Lord hated him. They thought the Lord didn't care. Do you ever doubt the Lord's care for you? You know we're hearing about Satan and it seems that this is one of his weapons.

He fires these arrows to try to get us to doubt the Lord's care and if we start to doubt the Lord's care if he doesn't care we're in trouble. But thirdly they were discouraged. They thought they had bad circumstances.

Verse 28 talked about the people that are greater and taller than they were and these cities walled up to heaven and they talked about the Giants circumstances. But you know the same things affect us. People.

You know you can always see someone who does things better than you. Whether it's cooking, showing hospitality, whether it's praying or preaching or making money or all kinds of things you can always see somebody that can do something better than you. And sometimes that hinders us from doing what God wants us to do.

We think well you know I can't do it as good as him or her and we're at the crossroads and instead of going on where God wants us we go this way. Listen this is what the Israelites did. God wanted them to go into the land.

He was going to help them. But because of these mountains the bad advice they got, the bad attitude they had, they thought God didn't care. The bad circumstances they thought they had, they went nowhere for 38 years.

They mentioned about the people. Mentioned about walls and about Giants. Now I don't have time to pursue that.

But it's very interesting now after these problems why they didn't just do it. Why they didn't go possess the land. Moses says in verse 29 he tells them listen don't be afraid.

But then he goes on and tells them why they don't need to be afraid and he he tackles these very issues. He takes them in reverse order. First of all you know they thought they had bad circumstances and you know the people the walls and the Giants they were no match for him.

Notice what he says in verse 30. The Lord your God who is going before you he shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes. He reminds them how the Lord had helped them before in Egypt.

And those of us who are saved look back to that time when the Lord saved us. We are helpless. Talk about bad circumstances.

And you know I just enjoy this. The Lord your God who is going before you he'll fight for you. I was never much of a football player but you know if a person's running with the ball and there's some big guys coming at you you would hope you have somebody out there running interference blocking for you.

Now poor analogy maybe but that's what I see here. Brother sister when you go to school tomorrow maybe facing some Giants some mountains or at work or wherever your your circumstances find you. Nice to remember the Lord's going to go there ahead of you.

It's like he runs interference and it says he shall fight for you. The battle is the Lord's. David knew that when he went out against Goliath.

Jehoshaphat second Chronicles 20 when they went out against those three armies. Basically the battle is the Lord's. So Moses remind him of God's power.

And then you know they thought the Lord hated him they had a bad attitude toward God. Notice in verse 31 and in the wilderness were you seen how that the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son. The Lord doesn't care.

Just think of where you and I could be today. Not just hell but that's a possibility but even from salvation's day. If the Lord hadn't carried us and what a touching picture of a father carrying a little child.

Isn't it what the Lord has done? And yet because of the flesh and the devil we can get wrong thoughts about God and think he doesn't care. He's carried us thus far. You know there's one more thing though they felt they needed guidance so they sent in the spies they got some wrong advice.

But when it comes to guidance notice verse 33. Talking about the Lord who went or who is going in the way before you to search you out a place to put your tents in. In fire by night to show you by what way you should go and in a cloud by day.

Moses reminds them listen the Lord has guided you. And has he not guided us? So easy to forget this. You know I was reading in Deuteronomy a number of years ago and another brother and I we were going to have gospel meetings in a certain town in Michigan.

We had secured a building a community building and but it was in the summer and we wanted our families to be with us and so we're going to camp in a nearby state campground. Well the brother and I went there and we found out that the place was full. But the the attendant there said you know if you come back tomorrow figure eight o'clock or something we have certain a number of sites that people can't reserve first come first serve.

We said fine. So the next morning we got there way ahead of time and my heart sunk as we drove up there it was a big line in front of us. Now I forget how many sites four eight sites it wasn't very many that were supposed to be open.

And so we're in line and I'm praying and I figured my partner was too. To make a long story short when we got up to the window there we got the last site. You say what are you telling us about camping for? Well to me it was important that my family was with me for this three or four weeks however long we were going to be with me.

We needed a place to pitch our tents and this is where I was reading. Coincidence? I believe it was a divine provision. The Lord is going in the way before you even to search you out a place to pitch your tents in.

Brother, sister he wants to guide us. He wants to guide us. Now Moses is reminding the Israelites of all that God had done.

He had fought for them, he had carried them, he had guided them. Notice at the end of verse 31 he says, until you came to this place. Now I don't know what place you're in today and I'm not speaking about this building here in Waukesha but whatever place you're in in life God has helped us up to this place has he not? But now maybe we're at a crossroads and notice what Moses said about the Israelites.

He says God has helped you until you come to this place but he says yet in this thing you didn't believe, you didn't trust in the Lord your God. I wonder what is going to be said about us. Up until this point the place we're in now the Lord's helped us but the question is yet in this thing will it be said? We believed, we trusted the Lord our God or we didn't? May the Lord help us to learn from this example of the Israelites.

You know in Romans 15 we read the things that are written before time were written for our learning so that we through patience and the encouragement of the scriptures might have hope.