Last Sunday, Pastor Kyle continued in our Sermon series through the book of Exodus. He states that the greatest achievements in life do not normally happen overnight; they usually happen little by little. Even for the Bible, the greatest achievements took place little by little. We personally know and experience that the history of human achievement advances little by little. Little by little, we all learn what we need to learn in order to do what God calls us to do ... and God does great things through ordinary people, little by little ... one step at a time.
Exodus 23:20-33 “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off. 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. No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. “I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and 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 from before you. 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. And 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. You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
Pastor Kyle spoke of three encouraging reminders from Exodus 23 about how God does great things through ordinary people. The first is that God is taking us to a place that He has prepare for us. Remember that in John 14:2-3 Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” In Exodus, God rescued the Israelites and was faithfully taking them to the Promised Land that God prepared for them. But, it didn’t happen overnight, but over 40 years in one step of obedience at a time to the Land of Milk and Honey. God is taking you and I to the place that He has prepared for us little by little.
We are never going to find 100% of the things that we like in any single organization that we are a part of, including jobs, marriages and churches. As long as the core of Christian ideology (God is sought and taught, the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached, and the inerrant Bible taught and applied accurately), preferential practice may differ. Jobs are different as, like it or not, employees are paid to work. But, even there we encounter and grow to love people, find opportunities and gain experiences that God uses to show us that life is broader than imagined and to prepare us for the place that He is calling us to ahead. If you are living an obedient life before God, then you can rest. You can trust that God is preparing a place for you in His timeline, and there is nothing you can do to accelerate it.
We keep obeying God’s instructions until we receive new ones, knowing that the church of Jesus Christ has been growing since He rose from the grave over 2000 years ago. You may think that you have ruined God’s plan for your life, but you haven’t. You and I are not capable of ruining God’s plan for our life. It’s not about our strength and ability, but about the grace of God towards us.
Let's continue Pastor Kyle's message about changing little by little in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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