Looking Back, Looking Forward

Good morning, my name is Chris, for those of you who are here for the first time.

It's exciting to start a new year together.

Well done if you've made it this morning.

Some of you may be bleary-eyed this morning, but I love New Year in Hong Kong because you

actually get two New Years, which is great because if you've made all your New Year's

resolutions and then broken them, by the end of January, it's okay, you've still got another

chance, right?

Because you can start it in.

And for some of us, we're going to be going to a wedding.

The New Year's going to start with a wedding of Dan and Soda, Soda who work with the youth

here.

Tomorrow's their wedding day.

It's an amazing way to start the New Year.

And I've been thinking quite a lot about this idea of the difference between New Year's

resolutions and wedding vows because I'll be doing the ceremony tomorrow.

And it's very interesting because you see, wedding vows are what we call covenantal, okay?

They're relational.

They're relational expression of unbreakable promises and commitment to one another, which

if you do break them, has relational consequences.

Whereas resolutions, they're just kind of personal.

They're just goals that you want to meet for yourself, things that you want to achieve.

And if you don't achieve them, then you just feel a little bit guilty, a little bit regretful

that you only went to the gym three times in the last year.

And then you hope, maybe this year, it will be the year where I go five times.

But covenantal wedding vows, you've got to kind of live them out day by day.

You can't just kind of put them on the shelf for another year.

Otherwise, what happens is what I call relationship creep comes in.

You don't mean to, but little bit over little bit, time after time, you just kind of stop

pedaling on the marriage bike.

You freewheel.

You coast.

You kind of hope that your bike will continue while I focus on other things, like work,

like kids.

And every so often, I ask Fiona, my wife, how am I doing as a husband?

How am I doing?

How can I love you better in this relationship that we're in?

Because my tendency is to get relationship creep.

But I wonder, are you ever like that with God?

Are you ever like that with God?

And we're going to be looking at the book of Deuteronomy over the next eight weeks.

And it's appropriate for us to start this new year looking at this book, because this book

is really all about covenant vows, not marriage covenant vows, but vows between God and his people.

Between God and us, and what he wants us to be.

And Deuteronomy, have your passage in front of you.

Keep it open, because we'll be just looking through it a little bit.

Deuteronomy is basically Moses preaching his last sermon.

Okay?

It's a sermon.

It's a long sermon.

You'll be glad Moses isn't preaching to you today, because it's 34 chapters long, this

sermon.

Okay?

But it is a sermon.

And these are his final words to the people.

It's generation 2.0, who are Israel standing on the edge of the promised land.

Okay?

Just picture it.

They've taken 40 years to get from Egypt to this place.

Their parents, who God had called to enter in the land, failed to do so.

And basically, in the passage, in verse 2, it says, it's only an 11 days journey, but it

took them 40 years to get where they were, because they failed, the parents had failed

to trust God.

And now, it's the kids' turn.

And they're on the land.

They're standing there, and Moses is going to say, your future is dependent, not on how

great you guys are, but whether you remember the covenant vows that you have made as a people.

Whether you forget or remember who God is.

And maybe, let me just frame what we mean by these covenant vows in words similar to what

Dan and Soda are going to say tomorrow.

Something like this.

The covenant would go, I, God, who rescued you out of Egypt, take you, Israel, to be my

people.

I will love you, bless you, protect and provide for you, and be faithful to you as long as

you shall live.

That's my promise to you.

And then, the flip side is, now Israel, and you can imagine them kind of standing there.

Now, Israel, now my people, now Watermark, do you take God to be your God?

Do you promise to love him, honor him, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in

sickness and in health, forsaking all others, be faithful only to him for as long as you

shall live?

That's the covenant.

That's the covenant.

And so, Deuteronomy begins with four words.

These are the words.

And that's the title of the book in Hebrew, of this book of Deuteronomy.

These are the words.

This book, this sermon was to be placed every time when Israel came to worship to be reminded

of what they committed to, this covenant.

So, we're going to have a little look into this book, and I want to talk about three things

today.

Even as we start this new year, and we think, where am I in my relationship with God?

And where do I want to go this year?

Three things.

Move on, look back, look forward.

Okay?

Move on, look back, look forward.

The first thing.

Move on.

Moses, the first thing he does to prepare people for going into their future, for going into

the promised land, is remind them God is always taking his people on a journey.

Okay?

He's always taking his people on a journey.

Verse 6, he says, the Lord our God said to us at Horeb.

Now, Horeb is a name for Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were given.

Where this covenant, this marriage ceremony was given.

He says, you've stayed long enough at this mountain.

They'd been 14 months there.

They'd grown comfortable.

They'd settled down in their nice luxury tents.

And now, God says, it's time to move on.

You've got to move on.

See, I've promised you a land.

I'm going to bring you into a new place, into a new future.

And Moses is basically recalling this, because he knows from the past 40 years, the tendency

for people, the people, is when change comes, when God says, I want you to move on, is they

start getting afraid.

They start wanting to stay back where they're comfortable by themselves.

They wanted to retreat.

They wanted to return back to Egypt.

And because of that, they'd spent 40 years just wandering aimlessly round and round and

round, a journey which should have taken 11 days, took 40 years.

You know, in London, there's, I remember a few years ago, there's this ring road around

London called the M25, okay?

It's, on the news one day, there was an 82-year-old driver who had, who was found six miles away

from where he started, still behind the wheel of a car.

Police were called, because 30 hours traveling on this road, he was still traveling after

30 hours, one journey which should have taken him one hour.

And the police were called, and when they finally found him, he said, I just got a little

bit lost.

30 hours.

That's what happened to Israel, but that's so often what can happen to us in our own

spiritual life.

We can go round and round in circles, wandering aimlessly.

Maybe we want to retreat and stay comfortable when God is saying, I want to move you on.

And for Christians, we don't stand between a physical wilderness and a promised land, but

there's a wilderness of the world in which we live in, and a promised land of a new creation,

of a heaven that God is taking us to.

And in between, God is saying, I'm taking you on a journey to be more like me, to love

me, to reflect me, to grow, to honor me, to be more patient, loving, gracious, self-controlled

in this relationship.

And you're only going to become more like that if you move on.

Now, if you want to move towards a goal of being more like Jesus, and that is the goal

for every Christian, that's part of the covenant.

Change is necessary.

You can't stay at the mountain you're at.

To grow, change must happen.

You know, Hong Kong used to be a fishing village.

Look at it now.

Now, change happens.

The forest you see outside used to just be a seed.

The baby, the teenager you had was once a baby.

For some of you, it's going to go in teenager.

Change equals growth if you trust God.

But often, we want to stay where we are because change also means we lose something.

It's painful.

It reviles effort.

If you think of ever having to move a flat, there's a cost of time and money and effort.

But it's always worth moving on to the place God is wanting to take you on.

So let me ask you a question.

What is the mountain that you need to move on from this year to be more like Jesus, to move into the future that God has for you?

Some of us, our faith is stagnant.

It's like a stagnant pond, you know.

And that stagnant pond is a breeding ground for disease and death.

A moving river is a breeding ground for life and vitality.

But many of us, we come to church on Sundays, we listen to sermons, we even read our Bible and pray.

But our faith has become mechanical.

It's just routine.

It's religion without passion.

You know, I don't know if you've ever watched a child taking one of the trams down on Hong Kong Island and looking out of the window.

I don't know if you've seen this.

But I've seen it where you look on the child's face and they're kind of like this awestruck excitement.

They're like, billboard, bus, bus, like car, car.

And I'm on there looking at it thinking, that's a car.

I've seen cars before, right?

That's, you know, I'm so adult that I look at these things and I think, why are you so excited about that?

You know, I'm bored.

There's a much greater tram ride on somewhere else.

And, you know, some of us have been so long in church that we're very adult in our faith.

That honestly, deep down, we kind of know the answer is Jesus, right?

You know, what's the question?

Answer Jesus.

You know, you pray, you're nice, you don't murder anybody.

Yes.

But we know the tram ride of how it works, right?

Yes, you know.

She knows.

She's excited.

See?

There you go.

You know the tram ride.

But actually, you don't have that childlike wonder and excitement and that enjoyment and delight of the promises of God,

a sweetness of his presence any longer.

Yeah, you may have had it in the past.

You may have stepped out in boldness in the past to trust Christ.

But now, things have just gone a little bit stagnant.

You'd be more excited by meeting the CEO of a Fortune 500 company than meeting the CEO of the universe.

I wonder if that's you.

Because if that's you this year, God is saying, I want to move you on.

I don't want you to stay at this mountain any longer.

You've stayed long enough there.

And the place that we start, if that's, you know honestly that that's where you're at.

The place where you start is by coming down on your knees and saying, God, Father, I need you to warm up my cold heart.

To warm up this heart until it's blazing hot for you.

Every day to be praying that until that spark lights.

Some of us need that fire warmed up by getting up and getting baptized this year.

Because you've said, I'm a Christian, but you've never made that public commitment.

And God will say, this year is a time to move on and to change.

Some of us need to move on because we've kept holding on to this overriding sense that God is out there to punish us.

Times have been hard.

Things have been difficult.

On the outside, we're a nice Christian.

But on the inside, we feel guilty for every failure we've made.

We wallow in that guilt.

And we've just been stuck there for a long time.

You know, you've got shame on your back like a rock-filled backpack.

And it crushes you.

Some of you, that's you.

And the thing is, no one who ever lives under condemnation and guilt ever lives obediently to Christ.

Did you know that?

Because Christ is looking for that relationship of love and longing.

And if you think that God is there, always about to hit you over the head for what you've done wrong,

that's not going to incite love and desire and longing for him.

And Christ says, you've stayed long enough at this mountain.

Come to the fountain of my grace and receive the forgiveness that my grace brings.

There is cleansing for you.

If that's you, there is cleansing for you today.

Bought by Christ on the cross.

And he says, lay down that backpack at my cross and go free this year.

It's time to move on.

You've stayed long enough for this mountain.

I don't know what your mountain is.

But God says, I want to move you on.

C.S. Lewis said this.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird.

It would be a jolly sight harder for a bird to learn to fly while remaining an egg.

We are like eggs at present.

And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg.

We must be hatched or go bad.

We must be hatched or go bad.

What he's saying is a church, God, like a good father, wants to hatch us to be more and more like himself.

And he doesn't want us just to be nice, ordinary Christians who go about doing the routine.

He wants us to get serious about the relationship with him and to chase after him and say,

I'm not just interested in making resolutions about reading my Bible more, praying more,

and then feeling guilty that I haven't done it enough.

He wants a covenant relationship where you look back at your vows and you say,

I want to move on with you this year, God.

I want to move on with you this year.

So he's going to bring circumstances in your life.

What's the mountain in your life that you've got to move on from?

Because he wants to do that.

So that's the first thing, move on.

Second thing, look back.

You see, moving on with God

is not a resolution.

Because it depends not on your personal willpower and effort.

It depends more on his faithfulness to get you through than on your ability to be faithful to him.

You see, what Moses does at the moment of decision,

he tells the people to look back at the past performance of God.

He rehearses the promise he gave them.

Verse 21.

He says,

See, the Lord your God has set the land before you.

Go up, take possession,

as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you.

Do not fear or be dismayed.

God's the one who initiated this.

God's the one who's promised it.

He's promised to give them a good land.

And God has promised,

and he's kept his word.

Because you see verse 25,

the spies go in and they say,

Wow, it's a good land.

It's amazing.

God wasn't lying.

God wasn't lying.

But they rebel.

Okay?

They rebel.

Verse 26.

They would not go up.

Verse 27.

They say,

Because God hated us.

He brought us out of the land of Egypt to destroy us.

Verse 28.

They say,

The people are taller and greater than we.

And then Moses says to them,

Listen, God goes before you.

He fights for you.

You've seen what he did in Egypt.

He's going to fight.

You've seen how God carried you.

And yet, in spite of all of this,

they didn't believe God.

How is it that you can experience God's goodness and faithfulness

and still be reluctant to obey him?

Because if you're like me,

that is actually just what I'm like so often.

You see, they'd forgotten who God was.

They'd forgotten what he'd done for them.

They'd forgotten that he'd been like this father who,

from the beginning, he'd carried them.

You know, like a father carrying a lost child on their back

and walking with them, carrying them back home.

That's what he'd done for them,

moving them all the way to where they were today.

But they'd forgotten that.

And then suddenly, there's some big people,

bigger than Eric, here in front of them.

Just imagine a room full of Eric's,

standing in front of you,

and you're looking up at them.

That's what they got to.

And they'd forgotten who was behind them,

beside them, before them,

which was a God who was far bigger than even Eric is.

And one commentator says this,

he says,

to experience God in their history

was not sufficient for the people.

You know, it's not enough to just have experienced God

two years ago, three years ago, four years ago.

That's not enough.

They had to be constantly reminded of that experience

in order to overcome their anxieties,

which tended to blot out their memory.

Okay?

Do you ever get that memory block?

Look, I constantly,

I have this delete button in my mind.

Every day, God does something.

He provides for me.

You know, Fiona and I,

we look back at the year yesterday.

So every New Year's Eve,

we look back,

we remember the faithfulness of God to us

over the whole year.

We write it down.

We put it down.

You know what happens?

A week later,

I remember back the conversations

that I was worried about

and God brought me through,

the situations that I've struggled with

and he brought me through.

And then I come straight to a new situation

and delete button,

forgotten everything about who's with me

and God being with me.

And I'm panicking and I'm stressed.

But imagine if your six-year-old child,

every day,

you provide food on the table for them,

every single day,

every single day,

every single day,

every single day.

One day,

you come home,

you're just five minutes late

and you see them

and they're at the door,

they're putting on their coat,

they're stressed out.

They're saying,

I've got to go to park and shop.

I've got to buy my own food.

God,

because you were five minutes late

and I don't know whether

you're going to provide for me.

If you were that parent,

how would you feel?

Would that be hurtful

that they didn't trust you

knowing that you were good

and that you would provide?

And don't you think God is grieved

when so many times

I come across the obstacles

and face those things in my way

and I forget to look back

and see what he's done

for all of these years,

all of this time

and I forget who is with me

and I get stressed

and I panic

and I say,

I've got to deal with it by myself.

You see,

if you're going to move on this year,

you have to look back

and remember

because you're going to face giants,

you're going to face things

which come in front of you

and if you're relying on yourself

to face the giant,

you know,

people who think

they can do it solo,

there will come a time

where there's a giant

too big for you

and then you'll stress.

Do you know,

people,

I don't know if you've done this,

if you've done teamwork

with somebody

and there's somebody

who just relies on themselves,

think they can do it

by themselves.

You know,

when somebody's part of a team,

when somebody's part

of a relationship

and they think

they can go solo,

they may get a project done,

they may even get

and achieve what they want to

but in their stress

and self-reliance,

they sabotage the relationship.

Have you ever seen that?

I've seen that all the time

but that's what we do

with our covenant relationship

with God.

This year,

you may have projects,

you may have plans,

you may have things

that you want to achieve

but you could achieve them

and sabotage your relationship

with God

if you're not looking back

to Him

and trusting Him.

There was a situation

in the New Testament

giants of persecution

were causing some Christians

to wonder

whether they could

really trust God

and they would begin

to drift away,

relationship creep

had come in

and in Hebrews chapter 12,

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

the writer tells Christians

this,

he says,

let us lay aside

every weight

and sin

which clings so closely

and let us run

with endurance

the race

that is set before us,

looking to Jesus,

the founder

and perfecter

of our faith

who for the joy

that was set before Him

endured the cross

despising the shame

and is seated

at the right hand

of the throne of God.

Consider Him.

You see,

when you're going to face

those things this year,

like your resolutions,

you know 92%

of resolutions

people never keep them

because what happens

is you come across

a giant

and you kind of give up.

Something happens.

But your resolve

to walk with God

this year

is primarily

dependent

not on your resolution

and your will

because that's going to flag.

Your willpower

at some point

is going to wane

but it's more dependent

on the one

who has already

run the race

for you.

It says,

let us run

with endurance.

You're going to have

to endurance

in this 2017.

There's all kinds

of stuff that's going

to happen.

Great stuff,

challenging stuff.

But there'll be times

when you feel like

giving up

and it's only

as you look back

and you see

that Jesus

had more resolve

in His relationship

with you

than you have ever

had with Him.

He is more committed

to you

than you have ever

been committed

to Him.

You see,

He went through

the greatest giant.

Moses passed

through the Red Sea.

Jesus passed

through sin

and death.

He overcame

the greatest giant.

Nobody in history

has ever overcome

death.

You might have

overcome

your rental payments.

You might have

overcome

your finding a job

but you've never

overcome death.

You've never overcome

sin by yourself.

Jesus did that.

He initiated

your relationship

with Him.

He's going to

carry on doing it.

He's brought you

to this point

and that's the point

where you have to

keep looking at Him

if you want to

move on with Him.

Preacher Charles Spurgeon

said this,

We shall never find

happiness by looking

at our prayers,

our doings,

our feelings.

It is what Jesus is,

not what we are,

that gives rest

to the soul.

If we would at once

overcome Satan

and have peace with God,

it must be by looking

unto Jesus.

If you've been

in the church,

you know that here

but God is saying,

have you seen,

do you ponder,

do you regularly

come back

when you're lying

on your bed at night?

Do you recall

and consider His mercy,

His grace,

His endurance for you?

Because He's committed

to this relationship

with you.

And you may have

giants this year

of death,

of cancer,

of sickness,

of things in life

but He is bigger

than all of them.

But there's a warning

in this.

There's a warning.

The people of Israel

were very religious

but they didn't

trust in God.

Some of us think

because we've been

in church a long time,

we're Christians

but being in McDonald's

doesn't make you

a hamburger

even if you stay there

a long time.

and you know,

some of you

have never said,

God,

I'm in for this

covenant wedding

relationship with you.

Some of you

have never said that

because you don't

want to commit.

You want the religion

but you don't

want the commitment

and God is challenging

you in 2017.

You know,

when you come to death,

the biggest giant

you'll have to face,

death.

If you don't go

all in for him,

you may have to face

that giant by yourself

because there's no one

else to rely on

if you don't rely on him.

And the promised land

of heaven

and new creation,

God will say

you cannot enter

because you cannot

overcome that giant

of death by yourself.

And if you know

you've only just been

a religious Christian,

God will say to you,

this year is a year

you ought to move on

and trust him.

Ask forgiveness

for your self-reliance

and turn to him

because he's there

running after you

and he will give you

the strength

to move forward.

Move on,

look back,

last thing,

look forward.

God's not just

wanting you to look back

to where you've come from,

he's wanting to look forward

to where he's taking you.

Because Moses does that,

he speaks,

Moses says,

the Lord goes before you,

the first generation

didn't listen.

Verse 38,

he says,

I'm going to raise up

someone else.

I'm going to raise up

someone else who's going

to lead you,

who's going to cause you

to inherit the land.

His name's Joshua.

He's faithful

when no one else

is faithful.

He's going to move you

in to being the people

that you always wanted

to be.

But you see,

the people were unfaithful.

The people were unfaithful.

Even in chapter 31,

Moses predicts it.

But where the people

are unfaithful,

there's another leader

who comes

who is totally faithful.

That's Jesus

we've been talking about.

And that verse

in Hebrews says,

he's not just

the founder

of your faith.

He's not just the one

who blazes a trail

to make you

come through

to where you are today.

He's the one

who's going to perfect

your faith.

He's going to move you on.

He's going to change you

into the person

you want to be.

You just have to keep

your eyes on him.

Because this year,

God is going to move you

into situations

which are going to be

too big for you to handle.

As a church,

he'll call us out

on a mission

which we feel

inadequate and ill-equipped.

He's going to call you

to people in your family,

to people in your offices,

to people around us

and we will feel like,

I don't know what to do.

I don't know how to do it.

There'll be opportunities.

There'll be challenges

and God's challenge to us

is don't fear.

Don't let fear

prevent you from moving on

into the gifts

that I've given you.

Don't let past failure

prevent you from moving on.

Look forward

and see that he's

not just behind you

but he's going before you.

He's already made the way.

He's going to bring you

through 2017.

More than the world economy,

whatever happens

in the world economy,

whatever happens

in your job,

he's going to bring you through

and he wants to use

every situation

to grow your faith

to be more like him.

I don't know if you've ever

been rock climbing.

Anyone been rock climbing?

Anyone been rock climbing

not on a climbing wall

but actually on a real rock?

Two people.

Three people.

Okay.

Yeah, the rock climbing

in Hong Kong is so-so

but

my best friend

is a rock climbing instructor

and when you're,

he tells me,

when you're on a rock face,

you always have a lead climber

who goes up

in front of you.

He basically

takes the route

and what he does

every so often,

he puts an anchor

into the rock

and then he attaches

a rope to it

and then he carries

on climbing up

and he basically

paves the way

for you to move up

the rock face

and what you have

to do then

is you attach

your rope

to the anchors

that he's put on there

and then you climb up

and you just keep

attaching your rope

to what he's already made

and you'll be fine

because it's the one

who goes first

who takes the risk.

Well, when Moses says,

Joshua's going to lead you in,

when in Hebrews

it says,

Jesus is the founder,

the trailblazer,

that's what the word means,

the pioneer of your faith,

it's he's the one

who has already made the way

through 2017.

He already knows

where he's taking you.

He's already been up

and down 2017

quite a number of times

so he knows this pretty well

and I don't know

what your fears are,

there's so much uncertainty,

there's so many things

where I don't know

what's going on

in your world

but there's something

I do know.

When you get to the end

of 2017,

he's going to be there

and his anchors

of his promises

are still going to be

as sure as they ever were

and as long as you're

holding on to those anchors,

you're going to walk

through 2017

and you're going to be growing

and you're going to be moving

more and more like himself

and you're going to look back

and you're going to think,

how on earth did I do that?

And you'll look back

at the end of 2017,

you'll see,

it was only because

of the faithfulness of God

and I just keep holding

my anchor on to him,

I keep trusting him

with whatever situation

he brings me

this year

and you'll be fine

because he's already

got there.

He's already into 2020

and beyond.

He's already into eternity

actually.

So let me leave us

just with a couple

of thoughts.

This year,

are you all in

for this covenant

relationship with God?

will you stay

as an unhatched egg

or will you say,

I want to move on?

Some people say to me,

I wish I had your faith.

The Bible says,

you do have faith.

There is nobody in this room

who doesn't have faith.

In fact,

you do not need to grow

in faith this year

because you always have

the same amount of faith.

The issue is not

the amount of faith

you have,

it's where you put

your faith.

That's the issue

this year.

So will you put it

in the lead climber

who's already gone ahead

because otherwise

you're climbing solo

and if you climb solo,

there's going to be a point

where you just get

stuck on the rock

and if some of you

are stuck on the rock

right now,

you know the way back?

It's just saying,

Jesus,

I want to hook back

onto your rope.

I want to come back

to you.

Forgive me

that I've been away.

If Apple or Microsoft

or Alibaba this year

was to say,

I think we've grown enough,

we're happy as we are,

you'd say,

you're fools.

You'll die

if you stay

where you are.

Why as Christians

are we so often

happy to say,

I'm okay as I am.

This year,

consider Jesus.

This year,

look at Him,

His promises,

His faithfulness

and we need

to be a community

which is constantly

reminding each other

of Him

throughout whatever's

going to come

and you know what?

It's going to be

an amazing year

with Jesus.

Let me pray.

Father,

I just,

even as I look back

over 2016

and think of

Your faithfulness

and look forward

into 2017

and there's so many things

that I just don't know,

don't know what's

going to happen.

and yet,

Father,

You are faithful.

I pray that as a church

we would get serious

about our relationship

with You

and we'd realize

that that doesn't mean

living off a past experience.

That means running

day by day,

remembering who You are,

remembering Your promises

to us

and stepping out

in what You are calling us

to do this year.

I pray,

Lord,

we'd not stay stagnant,

whether it's

with the people around us,

whether there are relationships

we need to get right,

whether there are

just our relationship

with You

we need to just

pursue more.

I just pray

that You'd help us

to see

Your goodness,

Your love,

that You go behind us

and before us

and we would look back

at the grace

that You show us

and look forward

to the place

You're taking us,

which is to be

more and more like You.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.