EXODUS 23:20-33 THE WAY GOD WORKS WITH HIS PEOPLE2021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Exodus 23:20-33 The Way God Works With His People

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 2021.

Well, as we look at Exodus chapter 23 this morning, it's a different message than I would have anticipated in the beginning of the week. As I, you know, began to work our way through Exodus and we got to see the Ten Commandments in chapter 20, and then many of the laws and things that God was establishing for the nation in the following chapters. Here in chapter 23, the Lord really just kind of threw a curveball at my heart.

And I desire to share that with you this morning. A little bit different thing, a little bit different perspective than I would have expected from this passage here in Exodus chapter 23. And it really centers around the idea of God working in our lives. Do you want God to work in your life? And I think if we ask that question, our immediate answer, of course, is yes, we want God to work in our lives. And

At the same time, we all could recognize that maybe we know that's the right answer and maybe that is our answer, but how much do we want God to work in our lives? How much are we actually actively working towards the work of God and to see him work in us and to see him work in us?

Here in Exodus chapter 23, we really get a good overview, a good insight from the Lord on how he works with his people. And so I've titled the message this morning, The Way God Works With His People. We get some insight here as God gives the children of Israel some instruction about the days to come.

Now they're still a little bit a ways off from the promised land. At this point they're in the Sinai desert. They're at Mount Sinai. They're about to get the instructions for the tabernacle. And there's still some time that is going to take place, maybe up to a year that is going to take place before they're brought to the edge of the promised land. Now of course you and I know

When they get to the edge of the promised land, they don't enter in right away, right? They find some excuses, some reasons, some unbelief in their hearts, and they begin to run from God, and they spend the next 40 years wandering in the desert, and it's not till the next generation that they actually enter in. But God is preparing them nonetheless. Amen.

And as he prepares them, he gives them an overview of, look, this is what's going to happen. I'm sending you into the promised land and here's the way it's going to unfold. Here's how this work is going to take place. Now, as we consider the children of Israel and their approach to the promised land and entering into the promised land, we can parallel that in our lives to some things that we need to take to heart for our Christian walk.

The promised land for a long time has been a great illustration for us of God's work in our lives. Now, for a long time, people related the promised land to heaven.

And the idea was, you know, crossing over into the promised land was like us entering into eternity with heaven. And for many years, there's, you know, hymns about that entering into the promised land of glory. But the promised land, it does provide a good picture for us, but not so much of heaven. The promised land really pictures for us the journey more than the destination. Because in the promised land, the children of Israel are going to face battles, right?

And in heaven, our battles will be won. They'll be conquered already. But in the promised land, there is going to be battles for the children of Israel. In the promised land, they're going to experience victories. In the promised land, they're also going to experience defeats. In the promised land, they're going to experience growth and temptations and challenges, ups and downs, highs and lows, promises and warnings, and

It really pictures for us, as you consider the totality of the promised land experience, it pictures for us a life that is lived in fellowship with God. That is this life here on this earth for you and I to walk with God in the way that he's called us to, to stay in close communion with him is really the ideal picture of this promised land.

And that in this life, similarly, we will have battles, we will have victories, we will have defeats, we will have growth, we will have temptations and struggles. We will see promises fulfilled, we'll receive warnings from the Lord. And the Lord has great insights to teach us about our relationship with him and his work in us through this picture of the promised land.

Now, there'll be more details going forward as we head in further and we get into the book of Deuteronomy, right? Into the book of Joshua. There's more details about these things to come, but here the Lord gives us a glimpse, a quick overview to allow us to appreciate and consider his work in our lives. If you want to spend some more time considering these things after this morning,

I would encourage you to check out Deuteronomy chapter 7 later on. It is like almost the same exact passage except for a lot more detailed and much fuller in God's explanation of the various points. But here as we look at this glimpse, as we look at this preview, we can see very clearly the way that God works with his people.

And there's four things that we need to consider this morning for ourselves as we look at their example in this illustration of the promised land, the way that God works in us and the way that God desires to do his work in our lives, we can learn a great deal from this passage here. And so the first thing we'll consider is found in verses 20 through 23. When you consider the way that God works with his people, the first thing to consider is that God provides a guide for his work.

God provides a guide for his work. This is really important because sometimes we feel like it's up to us to figure out the will of God or to figure out, you know, what to do or what God wants. And we need to understand that God doesn't just leave us blind and without any direction.

But instead, when he's doing a work in his people, he provides a guide. Check out verse 20 again. It says, And so here the Lord tells his people, you're going into the promised land, but listen, I'm sending an angel before you.

Now in the wilderness time, you know that God led his people with the cloud over them by day, the pillar of fire by night, right? So they had that direct visual, visible representation of the Lord leading them. And where the cloud camped, they would camp. And when the cloud moved, they would move. And they had this, you know, ongoing experience with the Lord in that way. But when they crossed over the Jordan into the promised land, that was going to change, right?

But God was not going to stop guiding them. He wasn't going to stop leading them. It was just going to change the way that they related to that or that the way they understood that. And so God says, look, even though you can't see the cloud by day and the fire by night, when you get into the promised land, you need to know I have sent an angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

I've sent an angel ahead of you to accomplish these things on your behalf and to lead you into that promised land that I have prepared for you.

Now this angel that the Lord is sending before them, there's a lot of discussion that could be had about that. It seems to be an appearance of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament. As we see oftentimes, the angel of the Lord is a specific angel that is actually a manifestation of Jesus himself.

there in the Old Testament. And so it's possible that it is Jesus himself that is, you know, the one to lead them. But again, it wouldn't be necessarily visible like they were used to with the cloud overhead. It was going to be a different experience, but the same leading nonetheless. Now, as I was considering this passage and reading through it this week in our reading schedule, what really began to stand out to me was the parallel here as Jesus

They headed into the promised land and there would be this one that was the messenger of the Lord sent ahead of them to guide them in the way. I began to meditate upon the reality and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And this morning, I really want to encourage you. I think that the Lord wants to refresh us really in the reality of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That there is this reality that you are not without a guide.

The promised land is a picture of your life in Christ today. And just as the children of Israel would have this guide from the Lord, this messenger of the Lord to be with them, to show them the way, to keep them in the way and to bring them to the place that he has prepared, you and I have been given a guide as well. The Holy Spirit has been given to us. In John chapter 14, Jesus told his disciples as he was preparing them for a similar transition.

He's like, hey guys, you've been walking with me for three years, right? You had the physical manifestation of me right here to lead you, to guide you. And we went this way, we went that way, we went to these places, I taught you these things. Just like the children of Israel had the cloud overhead, Jesus says, look, there's going to be a transition, there's going to be a change. After the resurrection, Jesus would ascend to the Father. But he wants them to know that doesn't mean they're going to be all alone.

That doesn't mean it's going to be up to them to figure out what God wants and the way that God wants to work. In John chapter 14, verse 16, Jesus says, I will pray to the Father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever. The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. Jesus gives us this promise today.

of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. He says, look, I'm going to give you a guide. And this guide will be a helper. He'll be the one who will be able to lead you. He will abide with you forever. He'll reveal to you the truth. He'll direct you in the way. You know, it's really important for us to be refreshed and renewed in our understanding of the Holy Spirit because many times we can

become religious in a kind of a structural way. You know, we read the word of God, we attend service, but sometimes we miss out on that major component of the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it's more than just we learn a bunch of like laws and rules and regulations, or we learn a lot about God intellectually. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have a connection to God.

And we have the opportunity to have direct personal influence from the Lord that he would show us steps to take, that he would answer questions that are heavy upon our hearts, that he would lead us into the truth and into the wisdom for the situations that we face.

We need to take care because sometimes we can kind of get into a system. We can kind of get into a routine and we leave out the supernatural encounter with God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus says, listen, I'm not leaving you as orphans.

You're entering into the promised land, disciples, and the cloud is not going to be there. I'm not going to be there physically, but I am going before you, and I will pray to the Father to send you the Holy Spirit to dwell within you. In John chapter 14, verse 25 and 26, a few verses down, Jesus says, these things I've spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper,

Just as the children of Israel would have this helper, would have this guide, would have this one to lead them and to teach them, the Lord has given to us a guide. God provides a guide for his work. There is a work that God desires to do in your life, a work that far exceeds what

your ability to calculate or comprehend. It's a work that far exceeds our ability even to imagine. And it's a work that we will miss out on if we're not allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us. Later on in John chapter 16, Jesus says, We have a guide.

For truth, we have a guide for the direction of God. We have a guide in the Holy Spirit that dwells within us as believers in Jesus Christ. A direct connection to God, a direct messenger of God. You need to know that God provides a guide for his work. As he sent the angel before the children of Israel, he sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts to lead us, to guide us, to direct us. Now this angel, God tells his people here in verse 20,

I send my angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place. The angel was not just, you know, giving little bits of direction or, you know, painting a sign, you know, to show the way. He wasn't just there to kind of give a general sense of the direction that they were to go, but he was active in bringing them in. He was active in keeping them in the way.

He was an active part of their lives, or at least that's God's intention, that they would be subject to and listening to. That's why he tells us in verse 21 and 22, hey, make sure you obey his voice. You have the opportunity to ignore the guide, to ignore this angel. There's consequences to that. But if you obey him, if you listen to him, well, then there is this powerful ally on your behalf to bring you in, to keep you and protect you.

Something to consider very similarly. Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 5. He says, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The battles that Israel would face, God says, you listen to my messenger. You let him lead you and guide you. He's going to keep you. He's going to show you what battles to fight. He's going to lead you into the regions and territories where you need to be. And when those battles come,

He's going to provide you victory. And in a similar way, the Lord says, walk in the spirit. For you and I today, walk in the spirit. Be led by the spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. Just as the children of Israel in the promised land would have enemies all around them and battles around them and temptations to turn from the Lord. You and I, we live in a world and we have enemies around us. We have, of course, the enemy,

And many of his agents, many traps and things set for us to cause us to turn away from the things of God. And we have our own flesh that battles against the things of God. But if we're led by the spirit, if we tune into the guide that God has provided for us, he will keep us. He will bring us in to victory. We will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. God provides a guide for his work.

He's provided you and I everything that we need to lead us in to the work that he has for us. That's the transformation of our hearts. That's the transformation of our lives. That's the service unto him. And that's the glory of eternity. The Holy Spirit is there to guide us along the way. Do you want God to work in your life? Of course we do. And I would suggest to you that the way that we experience that is to be reminded that

of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Lord wants to remind us and refresh us that he is right here with us to speak to us, to lead us, to guide us. We're not just learning general truths. Of course, we are learning general truths, right? But that's not the limit. That's not the extent of our relationship to God. But God wants to work in our lives very personally and individually and speak to us very directly to lead us and guide us

into the things that he has in store for us. Well, continuing on in verses 24 through 26, we get the second thing to consider this morning about the way that God works with his people. Point number two, God promises blessing and victory in the work. God promises blessing and victory in the work. Check out verse 24 and 25.

He says, you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works, but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars. So you shall serve the Lord, your God, and he will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

Here God begins to lay out the blessings and promises to them as they enter into the promised land and listen to the guide that he has provided. And God promises some seriously great blessings here. Now the context here, God is speaking to the nation of Israel.

Sometimes we have to be careful as we look at these things that we don't directly apply everything to ourselves in the sense that, well, he's promising them no sickness. He's promising them no barrenness. He's promising them, you know, some very physical blessings in their lives. And definitely that was God's promise to the nation of Israel. When we consider these things for ourselves today, we need to understand that

Well, there's some elements of those promises that God has for us for sure, but the real fulfillment of these things is spiritual rather than physical. You think about what Jesus said, in this world you will have tribulation, right? We need to understand that there is going to be difficulty, affliction, sickness, disease. All of that does exist. It's part of our promised land experience, right?

It's part of our relationship with God and our walk with God. It doesn't mean that we will never experience sickness. For them as a nation, God's promise was, when you as a nation collectively follow me, the nation as a whole will be blessed in this way. For you and I individually, we need to take these things and understand them in a spiritual sense. Here's the thing. When we let the Lord guide us, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit and led by the Holy Spirit,

we experience no spiritual sickness. We experience no spiritual barrenness. We experience no spiritual miscarriage. Now, apart from the leading of the Holy Spirit, we experience all of those things. Think about what Jesus said. We know it well. It's John chapter 7, verse 37 and 38. On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, "'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.'"

He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Jesus addressed the issue of our thirst. He addressed the issue of our spiritual thirst within. And he says, look, if you're thirsty, I can satisfy that thirst. But more than that, I can fill you to the point where you become the distributor of water that quenches other people's thirsts.

And it goes on to tell us in John 7, 39, that he was speaking about the Holy Spirit, that we have this opportunity apart from the Holy Spirit to be thirsty, to be sickly in our spiritual life, to be weak and beggarly in our spiritual life. But we also have the opportunity in tune with the Holy Spirit and being led by the Holy Spirit to be filled, to overflowing.

to have the work of God being done in our lives and the work of God being done through our lives. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 1 that we have every spiritual blessing in Christ. And so these blessings that God promised for Israel, they were spiritual blessings and also, quite literally, these physical blessings that he provided for them. For us as believers today, our focus is really on the spiritual things.

Because the fulfillment of the physical part of this, well, that'll be fulfilled in eternity. And there will be no more sorrow, no more tears. We just considered that a couple of weeks ago in the conclusion of Revelation, right? But here in the promised land, listen, God has blessings for us so that you don't hunger and thirst again, spiritually speaking. Now, the idea there is not that you take one sip of Jesus and then you're not thirsty again for the rest of your life.

The idea is that you have this continual resource of Jesus in your life, the Holy Spirit leading you and guiding you to constantly be refreshing and refilling you so that you, as you walk in step with the Holy Spirit, being led by the Holy Spirit, in touch with and in connection to the guide that God has provided to you, you have many opportunities to be filled and refilled and refilled and refilled and to overflow with

to be fulfilled within, to be satisfied in your soul, to be refreshed and renewed at the very core of your being. Well, God also promises the nation of Israel victory, not just blessing in the midst of it, but victory. In verse 27, he says, I will send my fear before you. I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you. God says, I'm going to give you victory. There's going to be enemies in the land. You're going to have to face battles, but you can trust me to give you victory in the midst of those battles. You can trust me to work on your behalf, and you're going to experience victory over those enemies that come against you. And this is something that can be really encouraging for us. Listen, God promises us victory.

blessing and victory in the work. Again, it starts with our relationship with the Lord and our connection to him by the Holy Spirit. And as he is our guide, those enemies that we face, those enemies of our flesh, the enemy, you know, the things that rise up within us, we can have victory. God wants to give us victory in our lives. He wants to give us victory. Those bad habits that we have,

Those bad tempers that we have, those bad thoughts that we have, those things internally, the fleshly nature that rears its ugly head so often in our lives, God wants to give us victory in those areas of our lives. The enemies that come against us from the outside, we have, of course, the enemy, we have the world around us, which is working and fighting against the believers of the Lord, and

And God wants to give us victory. He promises victory in the midst of the work. Again, we have the guide. We have the Holy Spirit. And as we stay close to the Lord, as we allow him to speak to us and lead us, he promises blessing and victory for us. Do you want God to work in your life this way? How much do you want this? It goes back to us staying close to the guide, allowing the Holy Spirit to influence, to lead us and to speak to our hearts.

But the core of all these things that we're working through really becomes more clear in verses 29 through 31. Here's the third thing for us to consider this morning. God does the work with us little by little. And this is the part that kind of captured my heart, captured my mind as I was reading through the passage this week. God does the work with us little by little. Check out verse 29 and 30. It says,

I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little, I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and you inherit the land. Here, God lets them know in advance, this is not going to be a quick overnight success conquering of the promised land. It's not gonna happen, he says, in one year.

It's going to take some time. And this is one of the reasons why it's so important for us to consider these things. Because in our lives, we can become quite frustrated by the battles that we continue to face, the struggles that we continue to have, the, you know, victory that seems to be still just out of reach for us. We haven't reached that goal. We haven't reached, you know, that

that area of victory, that season of victory, that field of victory that we're hoping to reach and attain. And the Lord this morning wants to remind us about the way that he works. Of course, God is big and he can do big things. I would suggest to you that the work of God always starts out with a great miracle.

Just as God led out the children of Israel out of Egypt with great miracles, right? With the plagues of Egypt and leading them out. And there was this great miracle that began that work of God in their lives. In a similar way for you and I, there's a great miracle of God in that those who believe in Jesus Christ are born again. There's a regeneration, a new birth for us.

It's a great miracle that God does at the beginning of our relationship with him. Now going forth from there, we would desire, we would want that everything in our lives is resolved in that same way. God just do a big work, boom. I no longer struggle with that. God do a big work, boom. My family has everything that they need. God do a big work, boom. And you know, this dream is accomplished and this victory is over. And we would want everything to be resolved that way.

And the children of Israel, of course, would want to have the promised land conquered in that way. But God lets them know in advance, listen, you guys need to understand going into the promised land, this is not going to be a one-year endeavor. This is not going to be a one-year experience. This is going to be an experience that will last really for the rest of your life. I will not drive them out before you in one year. Now, later on, when Joshua actually leads the children of Israel into the promised land,

He leads them on this initial conquest. It takes seven years for that initial conquest. Seven years goes by as they're conquering the land. But as they're conquering the land, and we'll see that as we get to the book of Joshua, even though they're conquering the land, they're not actually conquering every enemy in the land. They're knocking out the major players. They're taking over the promised land.

and conquering the major kingdoms, but there's still many enemies there within their midst. In fact, towards the end of Joshua's life, in Joshua chapter 13, verse 1, the Lord tells Joshua, Joshua, you're old. You're advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed. So seven years have passed, and

Joshua is now old, advanced in years. Much time has happened as they had their initial conquering, but still there's very much land yet to be possessed. There's still a big work to do, God says. It's not going to happen in one year. Instead, verse 30, little by little, I will drive them out from before you. Little by little, I will drive them out. Little by little, you will conquer the land. Little by

by little. Picture the process. For many years to come, as the land was divided between the various tribes, the tribe of Manasseh had their boundaries. Within their boundaries, there was these different enemy territories. And the idea was that, going back to the beginning, the angel of the Lord would guide them. All right, tribe of Manasseh, here is the area that you need to conquer next.

And they would set their eyes on that area and they began to work to conquer that area. And when they conquered that area, it wouldn't be, well, now that the total land is theirs. No, even still then, there was other enemies in their boundaries. And so then the Lord would have a new battle for them to face, a new area for them to focus on, a new work for them to do. Meanwhile, the tribe of Judah would have enemies within their territory.

And the Lord would say, here's where you need to focus. Here's the battles you need to fight. And then the tribe of Naphtali would have enemies within their territory and they would have. And for many years to come, there would be this little by little conquering of the nations. This little by little taking of the promised land. It wasn't going to happen overnight. It wasn't going to happen in one year or seven years. But for this generation, for the rest of their lives, they would be working together.

led by God from one battle to another battle to bring about the fulfillment of this promised land that God had given to them. This provides for us a really clear picture of how God works in our lives as well. Again, it pictures for us this life in walking with God and there's still battles to face. There's still battles to fight. There's enemies within our own selves with our fleshly nature.

with our within our own hearts that are deceitful and desperately wicked there's enemies about and there's things that need to be conquered in our lives there's work that needs to be done and god's provided a guide for that work that we don't have to come up with a you know self-help plan here's our plan how we're going to clean up our lives and you know bring everything into order and get everything on track where it needs to be we don't have to come up with the plan

God has the plan. He's given us a guide to lead us in that plan. He's promised us blessing and victory as we work through that plan. But one of the things that we need to be reminded of is that it happens little by little, that we don't give up, that we have patience with the Lord and ourselves and his work and the process and trust God constantly.

That he will fulfill that work. He will finish the work that he began in us. That's the promise, right? He will finish that work that he began in us. But sometimes in the midst of the work, because it's taking so long, it's been seven years and I still have these same battles. Why is that? We can become discouraged, disheartened,

in the things that we face. How come I'm not at this level yet? How come I'm not beyond this struggle? Or how come I haven't, you know, achieved this level of blessing yet? And we can become very discouraged in our lives. And so God wants us to know in advance, prepare yourself in advance. This is not going to happen overnight for many years to come. The Lord's going to highlight something for you and say, all right, here's the next battle. And when you work on that, when you complete that, when he gives you victory in that,

then there'll be something new that he'll want to show you. Some new season he'll want to lead you into. Some new work that he will want to accomplish in your life. Pastor David Guzik says, though it sometimes frustrates us, this is often the way that God works in our life. He clears things out little by little. Though we might prefer it all at once, God cares that we grow. And so he often grows us little by little. God grows us little by little.

Listen, God has a good plan for you. And it includes all kinds of victory and blessings that you can't imagine at this point. But you need to understand it's going to be a process of walking with him little by little, step by step, day by day, listening to his voice and responding to him, fighting the battles that he calls you to focus on. And through the midst of that, over a long period of time,

God is going to work miracles and wonders in your life that are well beyond your ability to understand or imagine right now. I was thinking about this in the life of the Apostle Peter.

It's interesting to consider the life of Peter. And of course, there's so many ways that we can relate to Peter and his journey with the Lord. And after the Lord's ascension into heaven, you know, his journey as a servant of the Lord, as a representative of the Lord. So many important things that we can relate to in parallel with Peter. Peter seemed to have a very quick victory in Acts chapter 2, right? Because we saw Peter just a few days earlier denying Jesus, right?

A little girl questioned him. Surely you are one of the disciples. No, no, no. Calling down curses from heaven upon himself. I never knew that man. But then a few days later, at the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2 verse 14, Peter stands and preaches to thousands and thousands get saved. I mean, that's a big miracle. That's a big turnaround, right? But even that I would suggest to you is not...

the way that we might imagine it, right? This is three years of Peter walking with the Lord, the Lord sowing and working into his life, preparing him, and then being filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, the culmination of all of that, so that he's able to then bring forth the message in a way that God accomplishes this great work. But one very important thing to understand about Peter at this point was that his journey wasn't complete.

They're on the day of Pentecost. He stands up, he preaches, thousands get saved. Listen, Peter's journey isn't finished. He hasn't fully conquered the promised land yet in Acts chapter two. He hasn't beaten all the battles. He hasn't had victory and received all the blessings that God has for him. That was just that segment of his journey that God had for him. He won a great victory on that day, but there was also more work to do

and more work to be done in him. Peter's journey continued on from there and included not only victories, but failures. The apostle Paul records for us in Galatians chapter 2, a situation that happened where Paul had to confront Peter face to face because of some hypocrisy that was going on, and it was causing people to stumble. You see, Acts chapter 2, great victory, but Peter wasn't perfect yet.

All those areas of his flesh, they hadn't yet been conquered. God hadn't finished the work in Peter and there was still going to be some struggles and battles, some weaknesses, some failures. And so Peter had to be confronted and he came to repentance. And so that battle was ended in victory, even though, you know, initially it seemed like defeat because then repentance changed the situation and there was a restoration there for Peter.

Throughout the rest of Peter's life, there would be these kinds of things happening. You know, sometimes we get in our heads like this picture of spiritual giants and we think of them like having been completed. They have the whole promised land. There's no more enemies in the territory.

Or we think, you know, well, maybe there's some enemies. I mean, of course, everybody struggles and we all are sinful. And, you know, so we kind of recognize that. But we really exaggerate how much victory those people have. And the reality is we all live in a promised land that is filled with enemies. And we all need to stay in tune with the Holy Spirit to guide us, to give us direction on which battles to fight.

which areas he wants us to focus on, the areas that he wants us to be moving forward in. And if we're not in tune with the Holy Spirit and allowing him to lead us, we will find ourselves like Peter, caught in a situation, caught in a scenario where our hearts are out of tune with God, where we've surrendered to a weakness, allowed it to overtake us. Peter was going to experience the completion of the promised land little by little,

through the rest of his life. Jesus gave him a little preview of that in John chapter 13. Again, as Jesus was preparing them for his departure, Peter says, Lord, where are you going? And Jesus said, where I'm going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward. And Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for your sake. I will die for you, Peter says to Jesus.

Now, of course, we know right after this, Jesus says, will you die for me? In a couple hours, this little girl is going to ask you if you know me, and you're going to swear and promise that you don't know me. You're not ready to die for me. Not right now. But I find it interesting that Jesus says, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward. Peter, you're not ready to die for me yet, but you will be. Little by little, throughout Peter's life, we know at the end of his life, Peter was martyred.

for his faith and his service unto the Lord. But he wasn't ready for that then. The Lord was going to be preparing him for that little by little over the years to come in his life. Sanctification is a long process. And it's not major battles one time and then it's over. It's little battles after little battles after little battles being led by the Holy Spirit with the promise of blessing and victory.

Don't let the length of time discourage you because God never promised us that everything would be over in an instant. No, that's not the promise. That's not what we're to set our hopes on. Don't let the length of time be a discouragement. Understand this, God is going to be with you day by day, step by step through the midst of this whole journey. And he's going to provide you the strength that you need, the blessings that you need, and the victories that you need.

Going back a year ago as we began to experience the lockdowns, right? I remember telling the guys, we will not do service outside every Sunday. That's just not going to happen. There is just no way that I can handle that in my schedule. That's what I said. There's just no way I can handle that.

working full-time, preparing for service. We talked about last year, we did an outdoor service, a special occasion. We're like, okay, we could do it once. But guys, listen, we're not gonna do that. There's just no way that we can do that every week. And then the Lord said, hey, you know what you should do, Jerry? You should do service outside every day or every Sunday. And I was like, how? And you know what the Lord said? Little by little, right? I'm seeing the whole thing. Like, there's just no way. I just can't.

And God says, I'm going to grow you. I'm going to stretch you. I'm going to expand your territory a little bit, little by little. You just got to take a week at a time and allow me to give you what you need. I was meeting with a banker yesterday and talking about various things in the ministry and taking care of some church accounts and stuff. And in the conversation, started talking about my full-time job as a web developer and

And then she's kind of like making the connections in her head. She's like, wait, so wait, you're pastoring the church. Isn't that like another full-time job? And I'm like, yes, it's two full-time jobs. Yes, you got it. That's right. So how can we do service outside? How can we do? I keep wondering how can I work a second job like this? And how long can I do this for? And God says, well, as long as I'm with you, little by little, it's going to take place. One of the reasons why God has me working at that job, he put on our hearts, we

need to save for the future. And so we're saving for the future. And we don't know exactly, you know, what that means. And, you know, saving for retirement is kind of the typical way to describe it. But I don't actually intend to, you know, necessarily retire from ministry. But we don't know what God has in store. So we're just seeking to be faithful. God's put this on our hearts. But listen, you think about saving for retirement and you're like,

Okay, I need how much to be able to retire and live off of? And I have how much in my bank right now? And that seems impossible to get from here to where I need to be, right? How is God going to, or how am I going to save what needs to be saved for that future? I can tell you, it's little by little. It's not by, you know, getting a million dollar stimulus check and putting that in the bank. It's getting...

Well, the check that you normally get and you take a portion of that and you put it in the bank and then next week you do it again and then next week you do it again and then next week you do it again and next week you do it again. And little by little, God is providing a promised land. He's conquering enemies. He's providing blessings. Now the point is not, listen, I've conquered the promised land and follow my example. The point is, hey, I'm in this battle too. We all need to be in touch with the guide, allow the Holy Spirit to lead us

Trust in God and the promise of blessings and victory that he's given to us and don't lose heart and little by little allow him to lead us and guide us in the work that he wants to do in our lives. The commentator F.B. Meyer says it this way, little by little does the work of God proceed through the individual soul.

Little by little, do the conquests of the cross win over the world. Little by little is the unfolding purpose of redemption made manifest. Little by little, God is going to be revealing himself to you and working in your life. The end result is far beyond what you can imagine or contemplate right now. But the steps along the way are little by little. Now,

This has the effect then that it takes some time. There is the duration of time that unfolds as a result. But it also has this effect. It makes the next step manageable. Because God works in our lives little by little, right? Sometimes we see the big battle that needs to be fought. And maybe we're trying to figure out how can I be delivered from this struggle or this situation. And it's so huge in our lives, right?

And sometimes God works miraculously and sets people free from lifelong addictions instantly. God can do that and God may want to do that in your life. And there's nothing wrong with asking for God to do that in your life. At the same time, God may want to conquer that addiction. He may want to conquer that habit. He may want to conquer that sin little by little, day by day over the next 10 years. Like, well, that doesn't sound very encouraging. Listen, your part is...

the little part, little by little. Stay in tune with the Lord. Stay close to God. Hear from him. Trust him to do that completed work. And as you walk with him, he will fulfill his promises to you. Check out verse 31.

God says, I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the river. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand and you shall drive them out before you. I will, God says, I will. Again in verse 30, little by little, I will drive them out. I will give you victory. There is the promise. You can hold on to that. We want everything to be resolved immediately.

God says, I want you to hold on to me in the midst of this process while I resolve all of these things. God is saying, look, I will do it. Your job is not to really deal with the end result. Your job is to stay close to me while I do the work. But he also invites us to contribute. And he gives us a part. Again, in verse 31 at the end, he says, you shall drive them out before you.

God says, I'm going to drive them out. And he says, you shall drive them out. God's not saying, hey, you go work over there. I'm going to be over here. He's saying, I'm doing the work. Come and join me. Join me in the work. It's little by little. It's not too big that you can't handle it. What I'm requiring of you is this step. What I'm requiring of you is this next thing. And well, remember how the Lord calls us to be faithful in the little things, right? This is part of that reason why.

Because it's in those little things and faithfulness in those little things and that ongoing day by day relationship with God and walk with God, he provides great victories in our lives. He provides great blessings in our life. God does the work with us, with us, together. We join with him little by little, step by step. Walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Walk in the Spirit. That's the step-by-step. That's the day-by-day connection to God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Do you want God to work in your life? How much do you want that? Stay close to the Lord. Listen, deliverance happens little by little. In my life, I've experienced the mountain of credit cards. That seems impossible to handle, right? Looking back 20 years later, the Lord's conquered that mountain little by little.

And the victory, it's not less sweet because it took some time. It's more sweet because the Lord was with us throughout day by day and moment by moment. That temper that you desire to have conquered in your life, God's gonna conquer it. He's gonna take care of it little by little. And you're frustrated and you wanna give up just because it's not done yet, but it's in process. God is doing the work. The lusts that you desire to be rid of in your life

the canopy that desires to be blown away. God does the work little by little. He gives deliverance little by little. He accomplishes victory little by little. He brings blessing little by little. The one other thing I'll say on this point is make sure to let God guide you. Picturing, you know, the tribe of Manasseh, they have these different pockets of enemies throughout their land. Which one do we fight first?

And they could have their own ideas about which ones they should fight first, but they need to remember to let the angel guide them, right? In a similar way, you have some ideas about your life and where you want to go. You have dreams and goals and visions perhaps, but make sure you let the Holy Spirit lead you. Maybe the Lord does want to take care of your physical fitness, but maybe that's not first on his agenda. Maybe there's some other things he wants you to focus on first. And the Holy Spirit will lead you in those battles that he wants you to fight.

His priorities may be different than yours. And we can be really frustrated. I really want to be done with this weakness. But God says, you know, I'd rather work on this other thing first. This other thing is more pressing, even if you don't understand it. It's more important for you to address this area first. Well, finally, finishing up verse 32 and 33, considering the work that God does in his people, God warns against quitting the work. Verse 32 says,

The Lord says, you're going to drive them out. Make sure you don't quit. Don't just let them settle in your land. And it's not so much the people who are the enemies, but it's their idolatry. It will be a trap for you. It will hijack your spiritual life.

It will take you away from the guide that God has provided and you'll find yourself trapped instead in idolatry and sin. God says, don't quit the work. Keep pushing forward in the things that he has set. Keep going forward in the priorities that he has given. Keep fighting those battles. Don't give up because otherwise those enemies will

will become traps for you, will grasp hold of you and lock you into that place. And it's a miserable place to be in. Instead, let the Lord lead you and guide you. Now, the encouraging thing about this, as I mentioned, Deuteronomy chapter 7 includes a more fuller recording of this same content, but it's given at a different time. After Exodus 23, later on, the children of Israel are going to refuse to go into the promised land. They're going to wander the wilderness for 40 years and

And then they're going to come back. And as they're on the verge of entering into the promised land again, God gives them this whole accounting again in Deuteronomy chapter 7. Here's the point. When you and I quit the work and those enemies become snares to us and wreak havoc in our lives, when we come back to that place again of entering into the promised land, God gives us those same promises again. He says, listen, it's not lost. Here you are again. Here's a guide to help you and to lead you in the way.

Here's promises of blessings and victory that I'm gonna do in your life as you walk with me. It's gonna happen little by little. So trust me and let's do this step at a time. Let me lead you, let me guide you and trust me for the finished work. Don't quit, don't give up just because it's hard or just because it takes a while. Press on because I'm gonna fulfill those promises I've given to you. At this time, Josh is gonna come up and lead us in a closing song. And as he does, you know, the Lord tells us,

If we want to receive the Holy Spirit, if we want to experience his work in our lives, the main thing we need to do is we need to ask. And so let's take this time to celebrate the promises, the blessings, the victories that he has given to us. Let's also take this time to invite the Holy Spirit to show us what's the next little step. What's the next little battle? What's the next little thing, little by little, that he wants to lead us in?

that we might experience the fullness of all that he has for us. And so let's finish up with a time of worship and inviting the Lord to do great things in our lives. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.