Monday, October 27, 2014
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I guess every neighborhood has its' bully. When I was growing up, our neighborhood sure did-Boomer! I'm not making that up. That was his name! This guy made all of us little kids in the neighborhood his victims. He'd beat us up, he'd tower over us, he'd threaten us, he'd take our stuff. One day I'd had enough! I was little and he was big. But I marched all the way down our little block on the south side of Chicago. I went up the steps on that back porch, and man, I pounded on the screen door there. Boomer came to the door. I said, "Boomer, I want my stuff back!" He said, "Man, you're a brave little kid." Well, he didn't really say that, but you probably said, "Well, Ron, I really underestimated you." Yeah, there was one thing I forgot to tell you. My Father went with me. That made a very big difference. Like this: Boomer was bigger than I was, but my Father was bigger than Boomer was.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beating Your Boomer."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Deuteronomy chapter 1, and we're finding here that God's ancient people are being terrorized and frightened by the Boomers in their world. They have scouted out the Promised Land that God wants to give them; that He promised to give them. They've come back and said, "The people are strong and tall. They are taller than we are. The cities are large with walls that go up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites; those giant people. Nobody goes against them. We saw them there."
Now, I don't know what your Boomer is, your giants, your walls. It could be a challenge or a problem that you're facing right now that's just a lot bigger than you are or your resources are. Well, here's the reaction of these people. "You were unwilling to go up" the Lord says. "You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God because of how big the giants were."
They could have had the Promised Land. Instead they got the wilderness; wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Chapter 1, verse 29, "Then I said, ‘Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as He did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place. In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.'" Then He says, "You were unwilling to trust."
"Look who's going with you" He said, "the Lord your God." And he reviewed five promises to His people; for any of His people who are following His lead into something difficult and challenging; five worries that could keep us from going for it. First of all it says, "The Lord your God will fight for you." In other words, you don't have to fear your enemy. "I am bigger than your enemy even if he's bigger than you are."
Secondly, He says, "The Lord your God is going before you." "I'll get where you're going even before you get there" is what he's saying. No fear of the unknown; there's no unknown to Him. He's already there getting it ready. Then He said, "I will carry you." That means that when you run out, He'll still be carrying you. There's no fear of your inadequacy because it's all about His adequacy.
Then He says, "I will search out places for you to camp." There's no fear about your location. He says, "I'll get you a spot. Don't worry." And finally He says, "I will show you the way you should go." There's no fear of getting lost on the way. He promises His guidance.
But they made this tragic mistake, "You did not trust in the Lord your God." See, you can miss the place to which all the journey has been leading you if you don't move out in total trust that your God will fight for you. Why don't you move boldly into the, I call it "God alone zone" where God alone could do this.
After all, whatever is bigger than you are, your Father is bigger than it is.