The First Sermon of the Year

My sermon report for the first sermon of the year on the first Sunday of the year by my elder, Mr. Scott Brown:

Nearing the end of Deuteronomy, we are now in the last two chapters of this amazing book.

Before Moses goes up into the mountain that God has called him to, he blesses the children of Israel.
Just to note that in ch. 34:7 we are told that Moses died in full bodily strength even though he was 120 years old!

In Numbers 12:3 it says that Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth.

The flaming law in the hand of God in v. 2 being given to us is an act of love even though it may cause us some pain when we sin.

Moses was an anti-type of Christ in the way that he blessed the children of Israel before he died, as Christ blessed His followers before He ascended into heaven (Luke 24:50-51). Men of God should be full of blessings.

There were three periods in the life of Moses, each of them forty years. We may be able to see our own life through the life of Moses. The first forty years of his life Moses spent as a prince of Egypt where he thought he was a somebody. Before we were saved we lived for the world and ourselves, always searching for our own pleasure. We believed we were able to govern our own selves and thought we were somebody.

The second period of Moses's life was the forty years that he spent in the desert where he found out that he was a nobody. God brings us hard times to show that when we are in those hard times we must be totally dependent on Him. God uses difficult periods to prepare and sanctify His people for the plans he has for us.

The third period was the forty years that he spent in the wilderness leading the people of Israel to the promised land. This is the time that many are in right now, and the place that we are called to bring other people to.

The reason that Moses was never to enter the promised land, although he saw it from the top of mount Nebo where he died, was because when the Lord told Moses to speak to the rock and Moses, because of his anger, disobeyed the Lord and struck the rock. In doing this, Moses was saying that the Lord was not sufficient for them and showed that Moses needed to do something to make it happen, giving the example of doubting the sovereignty and power of God (Numbers 20:8-11.)

At the end of this journey to Gods kingdom we will sit at His feet and be in awe of His wisdom and power. But we can do this even on this earth by the way that we live our lives. It is awesome how God will ordain our steps when we live in obedience to Him.

One of the amazing things that we see here is that Moses was very meek and patient with the people of Israel, and even though he was the most humble man on the earth there were some times when he wanted God to just take his life! The example that Moses gives is a life of faith and He proves that with God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37).