Text: Deuteronomy 33:1-4
The children of God are moving out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.
They are preparing to enter into a land "flowing with milk and honey."
But, before they inherit, they must overcome the obstacles of the past, and come to terms with Moses' place and setting in life.
In the end, something got started. This is not a sad ending, but a joyful beginning.
We frequently look at the end as a fearful thing- end of life, end of a job, end of educational experience...
If you're going to have a beginning, you must have an end.
Let us examine what God can teach us to positions at the end of something and the beginning of something new...
Some people look at Moses' life as a failure because he did not enter the Promised Land. They feel that Moses can't go in because of sin that was in his life.
That leaves us with a question. Did Moses' sin keep him from entering the Promised Land.
Let us look at the end of Moses' life.
His ending is connected to his beginning. The sin in his life did not deter him from the direction God has placed on his life.
His sin did not disqualify him from God's service.
His killing of the Egyptian didn't stop him.
Sin does not disqualify us from our duty and direction for the Lord. We are under his divine direction.
Sin is an undeniable fact of living. Sin will get "on" you as you journey through life. Getting dirt on your shoes is part of the duty.
Temporary sorrow does not keep us from enjoying.
A few roadblocks should not stop us from continuing on to where God is leading us.
Just because you've scraped your knee does not mean that you can't get back into the game.
Only in your determination to keep going forward, will you find your destiny in God.
Sin is a hurdle to overcome on the highway to heaven.
We have too much living to do to worry about death.
Sin can be cleared, overcome.
Sin causes us to stumble. But, stumbling doesn't keep us from staying in the race.
Moses did not allow sin to separate him from his assignment.
There is a difference between sinning and quitting. All of us are sinners. Hopefully, few of us are quitters.
"Your mess does not disqualify you from being blessed!"
Yes, Moses sinned and he struck the rock in anger.
But to all you sin pickers and garbage-getters: Stop picking through other people's garbage to disqualify them and make sure that your is getting picked up / cleaned up! [great!]
Moses looked at sin in the rearview mirror and kept moving forward.
Sin:
1) Separates us from God.
- It makes a space between us and the Divine
- God can reach across this chasm and chaos, reach beyond your failings and frustrations to lift you up.
- God is a lifter of downtrodden head
- He is able to pick me up
- We must be willing to press on
2) Slows us down
- Moses continued the journey even in the midst of his failings
- Faith fights for the future, it does not fail in the midst of adversity
- Paul says that he fought the good fight.
- We are to continue to fight for faith
- You must not give up on God, He will not give up on you!
3) Tries to belittle us
- You are not the sum of your sins
- It is the Christ in us that we must focus on
- Moses stayed large in his own mind
- We must stop looking at ourselves the way others see us. They will try to put us into a very small box.
- God is able to lift us up.
I am standing on a pile of mess, but this does not disqualify me from standing with the Savior, who is working on my stuff.
I am standing on a mountain of sin, but I am also standing on the Rock....
And His name is Jesus.
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