August 22, 2021 - Dr. Alan Brumback

Following God to the Promised Land

Exodus 23:20-32

Dr. Alan Brumback

 

God challenges and encourages us to follow Him by giving His presence to guide us and His promises to sustain us.

 

I. God’s Presence will guide us to the place He has prepared for us.

 

I send an angel before you to guard you on the way

 

To bring you to the place I have prepared

 

Tozer, A Cloud by Day and Fire by Night: If we are open to the Holy Spirit, He will lead us on the pathway; a destiny He has in mind for us. At this point, we may not fully know what that is. We may not know where we are going, but as long as we are following the Lord, we have nothing to fear. As we let go of our past, we can get a firm grip on the future God has for us.

 

II. God’s Promises will sustain us as we obey what He tells us.

 

Why was idolatry so alluring:

- It felt guaranteed

- It was convenient

- It was normal

- It was fun

 

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:1-3

 

Exodus 23:20-32 ESV

20 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. 22“But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, 24you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. 25You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. 26None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 27I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. 29I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. 30Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. 31And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. 32You shall make no covenant with them and their gods.

 

John 14:1-3 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.