I'm
taking you to a good place. 17 October 1999 CAPTAIN MARIEKE VENTER Reading: Exodus 6:2-11
Introduction: I went on a school outing once to a fun fair of some description. Now I must admit that I have never been really fond of wild rides, going upside down at great speed or anything like that, so I looked for a ride that was a little... more pleasant. I thought I found one when I saw a little boat thing floating down a peaceful kind of stream, and I decided that was the ride for me. I got on and really enjoyed being slowly pulled up a sort of a hill, until we got to the top and I realised that I wasnt on such a peaceful ride after all! The little boat hovered for a moment right at the top and down in front of me was the sheerest drop I had ever seen. Well, I wished I could get off. I would have done anything to get off that log right then but I couldnt, and so I plunged down, screamed, got soaking wet and surprisingly, survived! Sometimes life reminds me of that ride. You choose your ride, your direction, your road, and it seems as if everything is going to be plain sailing. Until sometimes gradually, sometimes quite suddenly, you come to realise: "I want to get off! Stop the ride! I dont want to any more!" When God first spoke to Moses about taking His people from Egypt to the promised land, neither Moses nor the people had any idea what the ride would entail, and if we read the account of their journey, we find many occasions where they cry out to the Lord: Let us off the ride! We are afraid! We are hungry! We are thirsty! We are sick! We didnt know it would be like this! But always there was Gods promise of the land to which they were going. We shared
this morning some of Gods promises to the children of Israel about the promised
land. God said to Moses in verse 8 of Exodus 6
"And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to
Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.""
(NIV) Lets look more closely at the land God promised His children: verse 8 of chapter 3 "So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians
and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with
milk and honey-- the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and
Jebusites." (NIV)"
And even later He says this about the land in Deut 8:7-10
"For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land-- a land with streams and
pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and
barley, vines and fig-trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will
not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig
copper out of the hills. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your
God for the good land he has given you." (NIV) This morning, wherever you and I may be along the course of our roller-coaster ride, could we just stop for a moment and listen to that promise of God to His people: "I am taking you to a good land"? I am taking you to a good place! Thats so easy to believe when life goes the way we want it to. But then we get to the point I think you know what I am talking about where we suddenly face a drop, or we find ourselves plummeting down and we cry out: "Stop the ride! I want to get off!" And there are some who do "get off". We hear about so many who decide to get off by taking their own lives. Many get off by changing direction and leave the Christian road altogether. But thank God for those who, even when the ride gets scary and we dont know where its all going to end, decide to hold on anyway! Because God knows where He is taking us! He knew where He was taking His children in the Old Testament, and He knows where He is taking each of us too. Deuteronomy makes interesting reading, and one notices over and over again Gods reassurance: I am taking you to a good land! I am taking you to a fruitful land! I am taking you to a place where you will be happy! But what they perhaps didnt understand, is that He didnt say when! I guess that really, there must have been an easier way for God to get the children of Israel into Canaan! You remember Philip in the New Testament, one minute he was speaking to a big crowd of people and the next minute he found himself in the desert talking to an Ethiopian? Well, I reckon that if it was Gods objective to just get the people from Egypt to Canaan, it would have been much easier if He had just snapped his fingers and whoops! The whole nation could have been lifted from the one place and put down into the other! Instantly! It wouldnt have been too difficult for God. But He didnt do it that way. That means He must have had a purpose with the journey itself that whole 40 year journey round and round the desert must have had a reason. Do you sometimes think about your lifes journey and wish there was an easier way? I sometimes find myself in a situation where I wish God would just reach down and pick me up and take me right out of there and put me on the other side of the mountain or the river or whatever it is that troubles me. But mostly He doesnt! That means that yes, God must have some purpose with the journey. I found a verse in I Thes. 4 of which I memorised the first part: v 3: "It is Gods will that you should be sanctified." That was the object of the journey for the children of Israel. That they should learn about God. That they should stay faithful to Him. That they should stay set apart for Him. That they should learn to rely on Him alone. That, I believe, is also the object of the journey of our lives. That we should be sanctified. That we should learn to be holy. That we should be set apart, different in the way we live, different in the way we think, different in where we are headed. I am taking you to a good land, said the Lord to Moses and his people. Lets have a closer look at that verse in Deut 8:7 that says: "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land." There are two things I want us to notice about that verse, bearing in mind that the "good land" to which He is taking us is, according to I Thes 4:3, our sanctification:
Have you ever had a back seat driver in the car with you? "Watch out! The traffic light is orange! Shouldnt you have turned left here? Dont break so hard! Arent we going too fast?" Its usually the gentlemen that complain about the ladies doing that, but can I let you into a little secret? I dont really enjoy driving with my husband as a passenger! Sometimes on a long road I take over, and he tries to get some sleep, but I just know hes happier with the wheel in his own hands! He finds it hard to trust someone else driving the car. Are we not like that sometimes? We like to hold the wheel of our own lives, dont we? We think we know the way, we think we have the skills we need, and we like to decide where we are going. And then God comes along, and He says to us: Let me take you to a good place! And like Moses and the children of Israel, we agree, and we hand over the steering wheel to Him but then we get to a tricky part and what do we say? "Wait Lord, let me handle this one! Lets go my way now instead of your way! You want to turn left? No, let me take the wheel and lets go right!" "The Lord you God is bringing you into a good land" The Lord your God is bringing you! He has to have the drivers seat. Listen to the song of Miriam after the people crossed the red sea, in Ex 15:13: "In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In Your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling."Lets echo that prayer of submission. Lord, you are the guide. I will take my hands off and move into the passenger seat. The Lord your God is taking you, thats the first part of our text the second part says: Thats why we can trust Him to guide us. Because we have the promise that He is taking us to a good place! Can you think of any parent who, when he holds a newborn baby in his arms, would say: "I am going to bring this child up to be a hobo! I am going to raise him to be unemployed, to be poor, to be uneducated and to be a loser.."? Instead, as human parents we have many wonderful dreams and plans for our children! They are going to be doctors and lawyers, we dream of them becoming sports champions and living full and happy and successful lives If human parents have good plans for their children, how much more wonderful are Gods plans for His children? Listen to Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future!" That is Gods plan for His children that is His dream for them and unlike human parents, He is able to make the dream a reality!
APPLICATION: I am taking you to a good land, says the Lord. He didnt say when well get there. He didnt say by what route. As for the children of Israel, take out a map some time and trace their journey. No, they werent led by the shortest or the easiest route. They were led through Marah where the water was bitter. They were led through dry places, through places of sickness and struggle and danger. But all the time the promise was there: The Lord your God is bringing you to a good land. And you know, the old saying that reminds us that his love will never lead us where His grace cannot keep us well, it was true for Moses and the people, and we will find it true too! Is life with God like a roller coaster ride? Maybe in a way. We dont always know at the beginning what were in for along the way. Sometimes we may want to shout: "Let me off!" But you know what the difference is? A roller coaster doesnt take you anywhere! The place you get off is the same place where you got on! Youve paid a lot of money, youve taken your life into your own hands, youve been through all the ups and downs and it hasnt taken you anywhere. Walking the way to holiness, the way God has planned for us, however, is far from aimless. Lets hold on today to that promise, made so many years ago and yet still true for each of us: The Lord your God is bringing you to a good land! I have printed out a prayer for each of you, one that one can perhaps keep and refer to in times to come, and I would like us to read the words together:
"O Lord, by all Thy dealings with us, whether of joy or pain, of light or darkness, Let us be brought to Thee. Let us value no treatment of Thy grace Simply because it makes us happy or it makes us sad, Because it gives us or denies us what we want; But may all that Thou sendest us bring us to Thee, That, knowing Thy perfectness, We may be sure in every disappointment That Thou art still loving us, And in every darkness That Thou art still enlightening us, And in every enforced idleness That Thou art still using us, Yea, in every death That Thou art still giving us life, As in His death Thou didst give life to Thy Son, Our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen. (Phillips Brooks)
Amazing Grace .. |