DEUTERONOMY 7 GOD WORKS LITTLE BY LITTLE2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Deuteronomy 7 God Works Little By Little

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. As we look at Deuteronomy chapter 7 this morning, I would begin by asking you to consider our great God. If I were to say, we have a big God who does incredible things, who might be willing to say amen to that?

Anybody? Amen. We have a big God who does incredible things. Amen. Amen.

But how does he do that? And that's something for us to consider this morning as we look at what he says in Deuteronomy chapter 7. I've titled the message this morning, God Works Little by Little. And I think we would all testify God is big. He does miraculous supernatural things. As we look back to times and situations and seasons in our lives, we can just be in awe of the incredible things that God has done. And

And as we look forward into eternity and into the things that God has for us, he says, you know, hey, I've got things in store for you. You wouldn't be able to really imagine them. You know, it's above and beyond what you could ever ask or think that we look forward and we say, wow, God has incredible things in store. We look back and we think, wow, God has done incredible things. But then we look to the present and that's what God is addressing today, the present.

And we wonder, like, where's the incredible things? And we can get discouraged in our lives as we look at the day-to-day, the little-by-little that we're experiencing. And God wants to remind us this morning that He does incredible things. He does great works. He has incredible promises for us. And the way that He accomplishes those things is a little bit at a time. Not one fell swoop, He just does everything.

but a little bit at a time, and those little things add up, and the day by day adds up, and the years by years add up, and it builds up to the incredible things that God loves to do. Most often, God does not do incredible, amazing, life-changing things overnight. Most of the time,

It's little by little. And that's what he's sharing with the people of Israel here in Deuteronomy chapter 7. As they're about to head into the promised land,

They've been led by Moses. They're about to be handed off to Joshua, and Joshua is going to lead them in and conquer the promised land. But Moses here gives this final address to the nation in the book of Deuteronomy. And here the Lord reminds the people how he works and what he's going to be doing as they enter into the promised land. And he tells them, he wants them to know, this is how I work.

So that they don't get discouraged along the way and quit, so that they don't give up when they don't see it all happen all at once, but that they would be encouraged to continue on and press on and know God works little by little. And it's a great encouragement for us this morning. I pray that you will be blessed as we consider these things. We're going to look at four points here in Deuteronomy chapter 7, and the first one is found here in verse 22. Here's what that says again.

And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little. You will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. That verse gives us point number one, which is growth happens little by little. This morning, I would ask you to consider, how does growth happen?

Here, the nation of Israel is about to enter into the promised land. And God has told them, in fact, in verse 1 here of chapter 7, the Lord said, look, there's seven nations in the land of Canaan where they're going. Seven nations that are greater and mightier than you. They're stronger than you. They have more people than you. They're more fortified than you. They are better off, you know, as far as their technology. They're better off as far as their fortifications and their numbers are.

It's interesting to think about that because I typically picture the nation of Israel. And, you know, we think about them coming out of Egypt, Egypt.

And we wonder how many there were, 600,000 men from the census we know, but probably about 3 million people altogether, maybe up to 6 million. Some people would estimate that it's a massive amount of people. And yet as they're entering into the promised land, God says, you're actually not that big. I mean, we think of the nation of Israel and it was a big population, but God says, you're smaller, you're weaker than the nations that are in the land currently, but you're gonna get bigger. You're gonna grow stronger.

And it's going to happen little by little. He says in verse 22, you will be unable to destroy them at once. As Joshua will lead the people into the promised land. We'll get through that in the book of Joshua. But the quick overview is Joshua leads them on this military campaign where they go over all of the territory and they conquer the land of Israel. They conquer the land of Canaan. But they conquer it in the sense that the major players are conquered.

Not every inhabitant of Canaan is driven out at the time of Joshua's leading. Instead, the major players, the major kingdoms, they're conquered, they're defeated, and then there's a lot, there's a multitude of populations and groups and kings and cities that are still left in the land. And then the land is divided up between the 12 tribes. And then the land is divided up between the 12 tribes.

And God gave the responsibility for each tribe to then clear out their territory of those enemies of Israel. And so they did the initial phase, you know, and conquered the big players with Joshua. But then the responsibility was handed off to the individual tribes to finish off that work and to drive the inhabitants out of the land. But here's what God says as he's preparing them to go in. God says, I'm going to do it.

I will drive them out before you, but notice how he will do it. These great nations, these big nations, these strong peoples that are there, I'm going to do a work and drive them out before you, but how am I going to do it? It's not going to be on that first campaign.

It's not going to be just, you know, one campaign with Joshua. We conquer everybody, and then all the work is done. The battle is done, and now you can just rest and farm and, you know, hang out and do what you want to do. No, there's going to be battles to fight because God says, I'm going to do the work little by little. You're not going to be able to destroy them all at once. Now, try to picture the nation of Israel living this out for just a moment.

Here you are, you know, you're part of the children of Israel. You march in with Joshua. You have the battles. The land's divided up. You get your portion. And so there you are. You go to your land and you're like, wow, this is great. And you build your house and then you go out in the morning to get your paper from the front yard and you look up and there's your enemy's fence right there. You're like, that guy who bugs me so much. You know, that enemy who's like right there. And every morning you go out to get your paper and you're reminded there's your enemy's right there. Your enemy is your neighbor. Right?

And they're throwing rocks at you and trying to mess you up, trying to get you to stumble into sin. And it's like, man, I can't get rid of these neighbors. The enemies were camped, were living, were established right there in the land, right next door to the people of Israel while they were there. This is how it all plays out. And then what God is saying is, over time, though, you're going to grow stronger and

And then you'll be able to drive them out. But you're going to have to live with the presence of the enemy for some time. There's going to be temptations around you as a result. There's going to be battles that you fight and things that irritate you. Those things are going to be there in your life while you grow stronger, while you develop little by little until you're able to drive them out. I'll do it, God says. It's a great promise.

But it's important to take note of how he says it will take place. Pastor Dave Guzik says, Here in verse 22, God says, It's going to be overtaken by wild beasts because...

Israel, you're not quite ready to inhabit all of this land yet. You're not ready to occupy this land yet. In other words, I could put it this way and apply it a little bit to us as well. You're not quite ready for the work that God plans to do. You need time to grow. And it's going to be a process of time. It's going to be a little by little growth where you go from that place of being unable to destroy the enemy, unable to drive out the inhabitants, to being unable to destroy the enemy.

Little by little, you would become stronger, and then there will be a point where you are able, and now God will call you to that work. But it's not going to happen all at once and right away. There's another aspect of this that we need to consider also. I would ask you this question. Do you think that God ever wants you to try something and fail? Is there ever a time where God would say, you should go this way, you should do this, and then fail?

It doesn't work out. Does that ever happen? Does God ever lead in those ways? Does God ever actually allow that? Or is that always an indication of something being wrong? I think it's interesting here in verse 22. God says, you will be unable to destroy them at once. The idea presented here is you'll be unable. It doesn't mean you won't try. You will try, but you're not going to be able to do it completely.

There were some peoples as the children of Israel moved into the land, and we'll see that in Joshua and Judges, that the children of Israel were able to drive out some of the inhabitants, but some of them they were not. But they tried. They fought. They had battles. They had campaigns. They had these things. They tried, but there were some that they were not able to defeat, which was exactly what God told them would happen in advance. But

Don't miss the understanding here that there was an attempt. It's what God wanted them to do, but the design was not that they would be successful on the first try. You can sit in a worship service and think, man, Ronnie is like the best guitar player I've ever heard. I want to be a guitar player like Ronnie. And so you pick up a guitar and you put your fingers on the string and you

try to do a strum and it goes, you know, really bad sounding. And you're like, well, that must not be of the Lord then. God didn't want me to play the guitar. Hey, if you're judging it on your first strum, you're judging it prematurely. Ronnie did not wake up this morning with all of a sudden never having played before the technique and the ability and the good looks that he has today. That didn't just happen overnight. Right?

That's not a surprising truth, right? We all accept that. We understand that. No, if you want to learn to play the guitar, you can play the guitar. It's going to take some effort and it's going to take some practice and you're going to have to try and fail. I tried to play that chord and it just didn't work. And you get a couple of chords in, okay, I'm going to try to play this song and then it didn't work. I wasn't good at it. It wasn't successful. I'm going to try to do, I'm going to, and we understand that there's a process of

trying, but as you're trying along the way, there's those multitudes of errors and mistakes and issues that you face. And you know, the way that God works in our lives is very similar. There are things that God has placed in our lives for us to do. There are battles that God has placed in our lives for us to fight.

There's callings in our lives, there's giftings in our lives, and we are called to go forward and to pursue those things and try those things, but we need to be careful to not have this expectation that because God is leading me in this direction or because God has called me this way, that that means it's always going to be successful on the first try without fail.

Many times it is like learning guitar or learning some other skill, that there is this process of attempting and trying and going forward with successes and with failures, that this is part of how God works in our lives. Growth happens little by little, day by day. Think about the Apostle Peter.

You remember that occasion where the disciples were in the boat, Jesus had stayed back on the mountain and the disciples were crossing over and then Jesus decided, I'm going to go meet up with them. And so he walks across the water, they're on the Sea of Galilee and he catches up with them and they're freaked out. They're like, there's a ghost. And Jesus says, no, it's me. And then Peter says, Lord, if it really is you, I don't know if it is, but if you're really Jesus, then call me to step out on the water with you. And Jesus says, okay, come on out.

And Peter takes this huge step of faith, probably a bigger step of faith than you or I have ever taken, right? He actually puts his foot over the side of the boat and steps onto the water. And he begins to walk to Jesus on top of the water. Incredible faith. But then he begins to see the wind and the waves. And he gets distracted and freaked out. And he begins to sink. And he cries out, Lord, save me.

And Jesus reached out and caught him. And you know what Jesus said to him? Oh, ye of little faith, why did you doubt? Little faith, Peter. You had a little faith. Why did you doubt? In this, Peter, well, he was growing. This was part of Peter becoming the apostle Peter. It was not that the Lord said, look, you should have never got out of the boat if you weren't going to trust me the whole time. Why did you even get out? You should just stay in the boat if you're... No, this whole...

situation was part of God doing things little by little in Peter's life. In order for him to grow in faith, he had to get out of the boat and take a step of faith. But then he also had to start to sink in that avenue, in that direction, in that step of faith, and call out and have God save him, and get back in the boat, and then later on have another opportunity to take a step of faith, and to trust the Lord, and do something. And it's all part of the process.

Sometimes we get so hooked or focused on the failure. We're like Peter, like we try to do something and then we start to sink. And then it's like, sorry, Lord, I will never try to do anything ever again. But listen, it's how God works. He does things little by little. Let me say it this way. God doesn't expect you to never fail. God does not expect that you will never fail.

Now, that is not a fatalistic thing that you should take it, well, God expects me to fail, so I might as well just go ahead and fail. No, that is not at all what the Lord would say to you. But don't take it too far the other way where you're like, I failed and God's so upset with me and he's so disappointed. No, he knows everything ahead of time, first of all, but he also knows it's part of the process. Now, listen, God could just rapture you into heaven and

And skip the whole success and failure little by little because in eternity, he's going to change things radically. It's going to be a different situation than what we're living in today. But in this life, here's how growth happens little by little.

And God knows, God understands that means that there's going to be victories in your life and there's also going to be failures. And God counting all the costs and adding everything up says it's worth it for you to grow little by little, including the victories and including the failures. God accounted for that. He's prepared for that. He's not shocked by it. He's not giving up on you because of it. He's built that into the plan, right?

Think about what the author of Hebrews taught us in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15 and 16. He says, Talking about Jesus, our high priest, he says he can sympathize with our weaknesses. He understands the frailty of humanity.

And when we fail, when we fall short, when we try to take a step of faith and fail, or we disobey God in some way, that he's able to understand and to sympathize with our weakness. And so then it goes on to say, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Because Jesus can sympathize, it gives us great boldness to come to him. You see, the issue that happens oftentimes for us is not that we fail, that we fall in some way, that there is some loss, but the issue many times is that we fail and then we allow that failure to keep us from coming to the Lord. And the Lord says, look, this is part of your growth. You're going to fail.

You're going to fall short. You're going to try things for God and you're growing. It's not always going to work out exactly right the first time. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to offend people. You're going to say something wrong. You're going to misrepresent God. You're going to sometimes deal with issues of sin and struggle with temptation and not be successful. And you're going to fall and you're going to

You're going to find yourself in that situation, those weaknesses that we experience. But the main thing is that you don't let that weakness keep you from coming to the Lord because the Lord can sympathize. And he says, come boldly to the throne of grace. Grace, receiving the good things from God that you don't deserve. And when you come boldly to the throne of grace, you find mercy. That's the withholding of judgment that you deserve.

And there at the throne of grace, you find mercy and you find grace. So judgment is withheld and good things that you don't deserve are given to help you in time of need. The point is you keep coming back to the Lord. In fact, the word come boldly, it's in the present tense. It means to keep on coming boldly to the throne of God. This is what God wants. This is God's plan that we would come boldly to God repeatedly and continually and

Because that's how we grow, little by little. Sometimes we hear testimonies and kind of get the wrong idea. You know, you hear the testimony of the guy who, yeah, man, I just, I went on the field and I prayed that prayer and then I never struggled with addiction ever again, not even once. I didn't even want it. It just was disgusting to me. And God can do that. And God does do that in people's lives sometimes. You know what he does most of the time? Little by little, he brings deliverance from that addiction.

Oh, I went and I got saved and then my marriage was just healed. It was turned around and everything, you know, was just radically changed. And man, we just love each other. We just sing songs all the time. It's just amazing. And God can do that. You know what he does most of the time? Little by little, he does that work in your marriage, in your life, in your heart, in your mind, in your attitude, in your workplace, whatever it is that you might be looking at. This is the way that God works. He does incredible, great things little by little.

And those little by little things that God does, as we meet with him little by little, they add up and they begin to multiply and they become part of that great work that God is doing. And so we look back and we say, whoa, God has done incredible things. We look forward, we say, wow, God has incredible things in store. But many times we're looking at the right now and all we see is the little things and we're like, eh, you know, like, why is it such a struggle? I failed and that's all I see.

Like I'm barely just making ends meet. And that's all I see. I'm just barely surviving. And that's all I see. I get discouraged perhaps because I don't see that God is using those little things, using the victories, using the failures, using that day-to-day and those moment-by-moment things to add up to something incredible. God can do a once-and-for-all deliverance. But here's the reality. That's not always best for us.

And that's what he says. If I destroyed all the inhabitants at once, well, then the wild beasts would be too numerous for you. There would be some side effects to that. It's not to your advantage for me to do that, God says. And that is true in our lives as well. Listen, if it was best for you, for God to just deliver you from that temptation so that you never experienced it again, God would do that if that was what was best for you. But that's not what's best for you. If God's

If it was best for you, for God to, you know, do that particular work or whatever it is that maybe you're asking for or praying for or wanting him to do. And if it was God's work for him to just do that all at once, he would do that. But most of the time, it's not best for us, for God to do that kind of thing in our lives. What's best for us is the little by little walk and struggle and victories and defeats and coming to God through it all.

And he is able to add those things together to do something great. What is it that you are struggling with? What is it that you are praying for, that you're wanting God to do, that you're hoping God will do, that you're, you know, maybe even God has promised you that he will do? What is that? Understand, God's focus is not just on that end result, but he is working towards that end result through all the moments in between now and then.

And in the little by little by little by little by little by little, he's able to accomplish that which he has set before you. Many times, you know, we're looking at ourselves and we're in the midst of a struggle or a battle. And my focus is, why do I still have this issue? Why am I still struggling with this? Why am I still focused on that? Why do I still have this battle? Why is it still so hard to do that? And I'm looking at that and God's looking at it the other way and saying, why am I still struggling with this?

The real issue is not why you still have that. The real issue is, why don't you come to me for grace? Think about the Apostle Paul. He had that thorn in his flesh. We don't know exactly what that was. And I think maybe that's partly by God's design that we could relate and understand a little bit that we have those kinds of issues in our lives. And maybe it's an issue of physical affliction, which many believe that the Apostle Paul was referring to.

But it didn't have to necessarily be a physical affliction. It could have been something else. And he cried out to the Lord, Lord, would you take this away from me? Take it away. Destroy it all at once. Just give me the land altogether. Just take away the struggle, the battle completely. And what did the Lord say to him? My grace is sufficient for you. My strength, God said, is made perfect in weakness. God told Paul this.

Little by little, keep coming to me for grace. Every time that hurts you, every time that pains you, every time that afflicts you, every time you're worried about that, every time you're concerned about that, little by little, keep coming to me. I'll see you through. I'm gonna give you victory, but it's not gonna be by removing it all at once and you never have to deal with it again. Little by little, I'm gonna grow you through this, Paul. Little by little, I'm gonna do my work. This is how God works in our lives. You're not ready for the work that God plans to do.

If he were to just do it all at once, you're not prepared for it. God's preparing you in the time between now and the completion of it. You need that time to grow. And God's not expecting that you never fail. We'll touch on that a little bit more in just a moment. But there are victories, there are defeats. And through it all, God is saying, come to the throne of grace and find the mercy and grace that you need. God is looking to give that to us. Well, moving on to verse...

23, we get point number two, and that is God's promises are fulfilled little by little. Check out verse 23. It says, Here God gives them a great promise of victory. A great promise. I'm going to work, God says. Now remember, they're going in and God had told them in Deuteronomy 7, verse 1,

These nations are stronger than you. They're mightier than you. They've got better weapons. They're, you know, they're established in the land. They're militarily, you lose every time if I'm not on your side, basically God is saying, but I'm going to work miraculously. In just a couple of verses before these verses we were reading here, starting in verse 22, the Lord says, you know, I'm going to do some strange things too. Like I'm going to send hornets into the land to drive out the enemies before you, where you don't even have to fight, but

They're just going to be stung so bad. And so many times they're just going to move. They're just going to get out because I'm going to invade their land with hornets and clear it out for you on your behalf. And so there would be pockets where the Lord says, all right, I'm clearing them out. They're great and mighty people. Great promises that God is going to give them victory in arenas that they have no business having victory. In arenas where they

Militarily, logically, rationally, it doesn't make sense that they should be able to have victory. But God promises, I'm going to give you victory. But how does he give them victory? Little by little. He says, look, I'm not going to do this. I'm going to deliver them over to you, but not all at once. Now again, try to picture Israel living this out. So they've conquered the land, took out the key players of the enemies. Now they've settled. They're living. And many enemies are living next door to them. There's...

strongholds and cities and populations and kings around them that are enemies to them and they're living in their midst. And God said, okay, today we're going to deal with that one. We're not going to deal with all of them, but just today, just go fight that one. I'm going to give you victory over that one. And that battle lasts for a while. And next year, okay, go after that one.

And through the process of time, the little by little, one by one, God was going to be addressing all of these enemies that were encamped around them. And through that, God is saying, I'm going to give you victory. I'm going to deliver them over to you. And I'm going to inflict defeat upon them. Notice, until they are destroyed. I mean, incredible promise here. God says, you're going to have complete victory over the whole land. One at a time, little by little.

As you grow and develop and become strong, and then you're able to attack, and then I'm going to give you victory. The promises of God are fulfilled little by little. This is really important for us to remember and to grasp hold of, because sometimes we read a promise in the scriptures, or God gives us a promise and speaks to us about something he wants to do, and sometimes

And we are excited about that promise. We want that to be fulfilled. We're looking forward to that. And we can become very discouraged when we don't see it fulfilled all at once right away. How many times do we get promises from God and then...

Boy, it just doesn't, maybe, and we start to wonder, did I really hear from the Lord? Is that, maybe God's not going to do that. Did God not promise that? Maybe God's word isn't true. And we have to wrestle with all of these things that go around, these promises, because we don't see them fulfilled in the way that we were expecting. But God will fulfill his promises, little by little. And as he works little by little, those things begin to add up and develops into this incredible work of God.

And you say, well, God gave me a promise. I was going to be healthy, but I'm still sick. God, he does want you to be healthy. He's going to do that work in his time, not all at once, maybe not ultimately until eternity, but it will be fulfilled. I thought God was, I mean, God told me he was going to heal my marriage. He was going to do a work in our relationship, but we're still fighting. Okay. Yeah. Well, hey, if it's a promise from God, it's going to be fulfilled. And

There's probably going to be a lot of fighting between now and then. That's part of the process. That's part of the little by little. It's still God's promise being fulfilled. It's how God is working. He's still working towards that. And he will accomplish his promises. We often refer back to the Apostle Paul's letter to the Philippians. Philippians 1, verse 6. There's that incredible promise. He who began the work in you...

will be faithful to complete it until the end. He who began the work in you, the Lord began the work in you. And here's his promise. I'm going to be faithful to complete that to the very end. But notice, where is the completion at? The completion is at the end. And so many times we're not at the end yet. So that's why we don't see the completion of the promise yet. We're not completed yet. We don't see that promise fulfilled yet because we're not at the end. We're in the middle.

We saw him begin it and we're journeying through the midst of it, but we're not at the end yet. And that's why it's not fulfilled. And so don't get discouraged or freak out or just quit because you don't see that promise fulfilled yet. God's promises are being fulfilled little by little as we go. He is working in the midst of the day-to-day and the moment-by-moment. Sometimes we

young married couples have this struggle that they fight with because, you know, they move out of homes that are established, and then they move into these rinky-dinky apartments, and like, hey, how come I can't have, you know, the kind of lazy boy chair that my dad has? And how come I, you know, have this broken down car, and I don't have a nice SUV like my parents have? And, you know, and there can be this discouragement, like,

But you forget, well, that's, you know, 40 years of investment that your parents put into, you know, building that life and that lifestyle and establishing themselves in that career. And, you know, sometimes we get so discouraged looking at other people in their end game. Well, sorry, parents, I didn't mean to call your game the end game, but you get the point, right? We're seeing people in the fulfillment and receiving, you know, the benefit of

many little by little by little by little by little is added up and we're at the beginning and we're like why am I not there yet and we can get messed up and discouraged and freaked out over this idea that maybe I'm maybe God's not going to fulfill this promise to me maybe I'm not worthy of it and we begin to you know go down those paths in our minds that are not good and you need to understand God will fulfill his promises to you he will complete the work in you

but the work is completed at the end. So don't get discouraged when you're not completed yet. Don't get discouraged when you don't see the promise fulfilled yet. God promised to do his part. God promised to do this work and he does it little by little. But he also does give us a part to play.

in his promises many times. And that's what we see as we go on to verse 24. It's point number three. Your obedience is tested little by little. Verse 24, and he will deliver their kings into your hand and you will destroy their name from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. So God promised he's going to fulfill his promise. He does that little by little along the way and he involves you in the process. How's he going to give them victory over all these people?

God says in verse 24, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give these people to you. I'm going to give these people to you. And then now it's your job to fight, to drive out these inhabitants, to deal with them. And so the way I'm going to fulfill my promise, God says, is I'm going to enlist you to be part of the work.

And so I'm going to bring you this person. I'm going to highlight this group and I'm going to say, all right, now it's time to battle there. It's time to fight that fight. It's time to deal with this issue. Obedience is tested little by little. Again, here, picture the nation of Israel. They've moved into the land. Now they're comfortable. They've been there for a few years. And now God says, okay, now it's time to fight.

It's kind of like, I don't know if you've ever done like a really hard day's work. I think Jeff and I can relate to when we, you know, we're doing the work around here and then you go to lunch. Like you're working like, you know, all morning long and then you go to lunch. And man, sometimes going back to work after sitting down for an hour eating lunch, that's like one of the hardest choices you make in your life. That, oh man, it's so painful to go back to work after enjoying a nice lunch, right? But

In the same way, I would imagine the nation of Israel. It's like, we're settled. Our families are comfortable. We don't want to mount up and go to war right now. Like, I was about to do the harvest, you know. My grapes are about ripe, and I was almost done with the baseboards in my house. It's like, almost complete, and now, God, you want me to go to battle? It's like, ah, like, I don't want to go to battle and risk my neck and face swords, and that's scary, and you know, can't we just make a deal with them, and we'll just kind of like coexist together and just try to make peace with the enemies, and

Their obedience was going to be tested one kingdom at a time, one city at a time throughout their stay in the time in the nation of Israel. It was tested little by little, not one big step of faith. Okay, let's go in and God wants us to conquer the land. And under Joshua, they go in and they obey God in a really big way one time, and then they're done. Now what God calls them to is a bunch of little steps of obedience.

We would much rather, I think, do one big thing and then be done than continually, little by little, be obedient. But that's what God calls us to. He's not looking for one huge step of faith from you. He's looking for a thousand normal steps of faith from you. Little by little, take a step of faith. Little by little, obey God as he speaks to you and as he puts things upon your heart and before you.

And little by little, our obedience to God and our faith in God is tested in this way. The Lord speaks about this in Judges chapter three, talking about the people that he left in the land. It says in verse four of Judges three, they were left that he might test Israel by them to know whether they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. God specifically says, here's why I left all of those inhabitants in the land. Here's why they didn't conquer them all at once.

One reason was you weren't ready to inhabit the whole land. And so the beasts of the field would have overrun them. But here's another reason. There needed to be some testing, some proving, some uncovering of the reality of the hearts of the nation of Israel. And the way that the Lord was going to do that was by leaving those inhabitants in the land and saying, will you be faithful? Will you be faithful today? Will you be obedient today?

And then now, six months later, there's a new situation. Will you be obedient then? And then three months after that, there's another situation. And will you be obedient then? And then six months after that, there's another situation. And will you be obedient then? And on and on it goes. It's little by little. Many times we look at, you know, one big thing that we did and look how obedient I was. And we're really impressed by that. But

God would say, you're focused too much on that one big way that you were obedient or that one big step of faith that you took. And you need to look more at the day-to-day and the little by little. And that's where your real heart is being revealed. That idea of being tested, that's what this idea of being tested means. It's that revealing of what is actually going on within. For the nation of Israel, their obedience was tested and, well, it was found out they were

They really were not very obedient to the Lord. And it was important for them to find that out so they knew where they stood so that they could have an opportunity to get right with God.

Think about what the Lord says about the children of Manasseh. So Manasseh was one of the tribes of the nation of Israel. And in Joshua chapter 17, it kind of gives a snapshot of not just what happened there in Joshua's life, but also in the years that followed. In verse 12 of Joshua 17, it says, the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities, but the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land.

So as they divide up the land, and here, tribe of Manasseh, here's your portion of land. Go in, and you have to go in and establish yourselves there and live there and also drive out the inhabitants. That's part of your job. And so they do that. They go, they move in, they establish themselves there. But it says that they could not drive out the inhabitants of certain cities. They tried, couldn't do it. The Canaanites were determined. They resisted strongly. They couldn't do it. No problem there.

That's exactly what God said. God told them ahead of time, you're not going to be able to. You should try, but you're not going to be able to yet until you grow stronger. And they grow stronger. Verse 13 tells us of Joshua 17. And it happened when the children of Israel grew strong that they put the Canaanites to forced labor and did not utterly drive them out. So you see, there's a big difference. There's a big issue between verse 12 and verse 13. Initially, they go in, they're not able to. That's okay. God said, you're not able to.

You're going to try, but you're not going to quite make it. You're not strong enough yet. You're not ready for that yet. But trying and failing, that's part of the process. I'm doing a work of growth in you. And so little by little, they grow. Little by little, they get stronger. And now it says in verse 13, when they grew strong, they did not utterly drive them out. They could not. There's a difference between verse 12. They could not drive them out to verse 13. They could

did not. They chose not to. Instead, they chose, let's put them to forced labor. I know, what we really need is some servants. It'd be really nice to have some servants. Wouldn't you like some servants? Yeah, for sure. Okay, so let's get some servants. And so now that they're strong enough, instead of being obedient and doing what God asked them to do, now they decide, I've got a better idea, God. Let me do what I think I should do. It's going to work out better for me if I do this. And so they, it's not the issue of strength anymore. They're

Now their heart is revealed. After being tested, their heart is revealed. We actually don't want to be obedient to God. We just want to do what we want to do. And so when we're strong enough, that's what we will do. There was an appropriate season where they were unable to drive them out, but that season ended. Now they were able, but they chose not to. Your obedience is tested little by little. It's not just about the one thing that you did that one time, but what are you doing with all the little things?

The Lord talks about those who are faithful in the little things are faithful with much. The little things matter. And little by little, God is developing in us faithfulness and obedience. You know, there's a saying, it's not about how high you jump, but it's about how straight you walk once you hit the ground. And we can kind of look at the flashy jump, you know, like I was born again and there was this huge thing or I went on a retreat and there was this huge revival and, you know, big show. But

But it really comes down to not that big show, not to invalidate that, not to say that's, you know, not God's work, but the day-to-day that follows after that. How's your walk? It's one of the reasons why we call it a walk with God. You know, we don't refer to the big giant leap with God, right? It's like not just one big jump and then that's all you do. That's the extent of your relationship with God and your obedience to God. No, it's your walk. It's that step-by-step, day-by-day, moment-by-moment walk.

coming to God for grace and mercy, obedience, trust, relationship with God. Your obedience is tested little by little. Well, finishing it up, point number four found in verse 25 and 26, holiness is developed little by little. In verse 25, it says,

Again, picturing the nation of Israel. Here they are living in the land. They conquered the major players under Joshua. Now, as they get stronger, one by one, they're to conquer Israel.

these other peoples that are around them. But each time they conquer them, there's going to be some huge temptations that they face because they're going to come across their idols covered with gold. Gold's valuable. What if I just take the gold from the idol and just, you know, burn it down, purify it, and then I can keep it for myself and have some gold. It's nice to have gold. What if I just do that? God says, no, don't do that. It'll be a snare to you. You're

And you don't want to have any part of that. You need to keep yourself from that. So don't even try to like salvage just a little bit of gold from the idolatry. Just burn it completely. Consume it. Get rid of it. But they were just not going to have to do that just one time. Now it's time to conquer this kingdom.

And now you face that temptation. And then a year later, it's time to conquer this kingdom. And then you face that temptation. And then a year later, you conquer this kingdom. And then you face that temptation. Little by little, they're going to have to face this temptation. They're going to have to face this issue and make decisions. Am I going to be holy unto the Lord? The commentator William MacDonald says this. He says, the most serious threat to Israel was not the people of Canaan,

But their idols and the gross immorality associated with these idols, the battles which they needed to prepare for most were spiritual, not physical. Here's another reason why God said, you're not going to defeat them all at once. They weren't prepared for the spiritual battle that would go along with that. And little by little, God was going to be developing holiness if they would allow him.

He was going to be developing holiness and preparing them for those temptations that they would face, for those spiritual battles, those moral battles and dilemmas and challenges that they would face. Holiness is developed little by little. It's not about saying no to a really huge temptation once. It's about saying no to normal temptations a thousand times. That's the way that God works in our lives.

If you want to develop holiness, it's little by little. One thing at a time. Think about exercise. How do you progress? If we could, or at least if I could, lift a thousand pound weight one time and be done, boy, I would try to do that with my very best. I mean, I would give it all I got to lift a thousand pound weight one time and then I'm done. The Lord says, take a one pound weight and lift it a thousand times.

It's so long, it takes so much effort. And I mean, it's not heavy weight, but it's like, oh, so much repetition. And why can't I just do it once and be done with it? That's many times how we feel about temptation, right? Like, Lord, would you just take this from me? I never want to face this again. And God could, God could. He could just remove temptation so that you never, ever face it ever again. But he doesn't, why? Because he's developing holiness. It's little by little where you...

choose to honor the Lord in the midst of those temptations. Let me go on to say, it's the same principles as we looked at before. This holiness that is developed little by little includes the victories and the failures. God understands. You're going to face holiness issues a thousand times over and over again. You're going to face those, and some of them you're going to do well in, and some of them you're

He's not surprised by it. He's not disappointed in the sense like, I can't believe you would be tempted by that and fall into it and fail in that. I can't believe you would lose your temper in that. I can't believe I'm so disappointed in you. You know, that is not God's tone of voice. God's done all the math. He's figured out, look, he can just rapture you. He can just remove all the temptations, but that's not what's best for you.

There's going to be some victories and there's going to be some failures, but ultimately what's best for you is for you little by little to learn how to be holy unto the Lord. Sometimes we get so distracted by the failures

And not to minimize the issue of sin. Look, we spent some time on Wednesday nights over the past few weeks looking at David and his sin. And we'll be looking at that some more just by effect that the rest of David's life is affected by the consequences of his sin. There is an aftermath that's serious and long-lasting with David. So sin is not to be trifled with. And it's not to be, hey, just sin that grace may increase. No, because there is devastating consequences. But

The point I want to make is the failure isn't a reason to quit. The failure isn't a reason to give up. The failure isn't a reason to walk away. God's not saying stay away, you failed. The failure is part of the process and you still come back and hey, you know how to come to the throne of grace when you feel like you've been good. Well, that's great, but you need to learn how to come to the throne of grace when you feel like you failed. And so God's gonna let you experience some failure. He's developing holiness little by little in you.

Sometimes we get so caught up on the failure that we feel like, okay, I failed. And now all the last, you know, five years that I was victorious in that, you know, they've just been invalidated. And it's like, I'm starting over from scratch. You know, it's like, you know, those video games that,

Well, let me put it this way. I like video games that have lots of save points throughout the level so that when I die, because I'm not that good even though I like to play them, when I die, I don't have to go all the way back to the beginning.

I don't play those games very long. Some games are like that, right? If you get to the end of the level and you die, you got to go all the way back to the beginning and do all those things. I don't know if you remember that old game, Prince of Persia. It was like this horrendous game. You had to like dodge these sabers and fight these guys. And it's like one little fail and you're dead. And then you have to go all the way back to the beginning. And it's like, oh man, it kills me. And sometimes we feel like that with the issues of holiness. It's like, man, I blew it. I failed, you know.

All that previous victories, those are all just wiped out. And God says, no, no, I use the victories. I use the failures. Little by little, they add up and they build into something great. Again, it's not an excuse to sin that grace may increase, but you need to understand the way God works is little by little. Sometimes like Peter, you're going to get out of the boat and you're going to start to sink. That's part of the process. And through that, you learn to trust. You learn to walk. You learn to make good decisions.

God works little by little. We have a big God who does incredible things, but don't forget how he does it. Not in one fell swoop, he just fixes everything and you don't have to struggle at all. No, that's not good for you. Instead, God involves us in the process and takes us through little by little. Take that step of faith. Fight that battle. Recover from that defeat. Come to the throne of grace. And over and over, God walks us through

develops us, grows us, and ultimately fulfills the promises that he has set for us. Finishing up with one last example, the example of Peter in John chapter 13. Jesus is telling his disciples that he is going away. And Peter boldly says, I want to go with you. And Jesus says, where I'm going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward.

Peter says, look, why can't I follow you now? I'm willing to lay down my life for you right now. I'll die for you, Jesus. Jesus says, will you really? Before the rooster crows tonight, you're going to deny me three times. We know how that plays out. Peter denies Jesus three times before the rooster crows, exactly like Jesus said. He failed, yet God restored. He was recommissioned afterwards. It was part of the process of Peter's growth, of Peter's development.

And it's interesting that Jesus tells him in advance. In John chapter 13, verse 36, Jesus tells Peter where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward. You will go with me, Peter. You will go down this path that I'm about to go on. You will, but you're not quite ready for that. And to develop you, to prepare you for that path is

Well, first of all, there's going to be a lot of things. There's going to be little by little things all throughout the trip. But first of all, that's going to involve some failure. You need to recognize what you think our strengths are not that strong. And you're going to deny me.

But you're going to recover from that. And I'm going to show grace and mercy to you. And you're going to develop through that. And then you're going to face other challenges. And you're going to do other things. And I'm going to be working with you to prepare you. And later on, you will be where you want to be. You will be where you think that you are later on. But little by little, I need to prepare you and grow you for that path, for that work, to be that man that I've called you to be. And that's how God works in our lives.

He is so big and so incredible. He's able to use the victories and the defeats. Don't get discouraged. Don't give up in the middle. That's what the enemy wants to do. That's what the enemy wants to use against us. Don't think that God is out to get you or that he doesn't want you to draw near. The point is, whatever you're going through, it's little by little. Come near to God. Receive from God. Walk in obedience to God. Step by step, little by little, with God.

It's how we get to experience the promises of God and the incredible things that God has in store for us. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for each one of us, Lord, and you know the plans that you have for us. You know the works that you want to do, things that, Lord, we wouldn't really understand them or believe them if you were to tell us. They're exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think.

And yet, Lord, these exceedingly abundant works and things that you want to do in our lives, you accomplish them, not in one fell swoop most of the time, but instead day by day, little by little, you call us to yourself. You call us to walk with you, to spend time with you, to trust you, to obey you, to come back to you for mercy and grace and ask for forgiveness and to do that over and over and over and over again. And little by little, you use that

to build us into men and women who honor you and are able to experience the fullness of that exceedingly abundant promise that you've given to us. Lord, help us to hold fast to you in the midst of the ups and downs, in the midst of the little by little. Help us, Lord, with our impatience. Help us to recognize that it's not the end, but Lord, to trust you, that you will complete the work that you began in us. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

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