So Close Yet So Far

Without further ado, I'm going to invite you to Deuteronomy 32, verse 51 and 52.

Deuteronomy 32:51

That's Deuteronomy 32, 51 and 52.

And then I'm going to be reading it off of the NIV version and it says like this,

this is because of, because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites

at the waters of Meribah, Kadesh, and the desert of Zin. And because you did not uphold my holiness

among the people of, among the Israelites, therefore you will see the land only from a distance.

You will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel. I'm going to invite you right

there to bow your heads with me and come before the presence of the Lord. Heavenly Father,

in this hour Lord, I submit to you Jesus, and I ask you to anoint my lips, Father,

that every word that is spoken is your Holy Spirit speaking to us, God.

I'm not here looking for applause, Lord, but simply to give you the glory, Father.

I want to speak, Lord, your will, Father. I ask you to minister to us. Open up our minds, Jesus.

Open up our hearts, Lord. Only you can change. Only you can transform us, Father. I surrender

to you in this hour, Lord, that this can be a blessing to your people, to your church,

to your congregation that you bought with your blood, Father. In the mighty name of Jesus,

we thank you and we say, amen. You may have your seats, church. This year,

not sure if you were aware, but the Olympics were happening this year in Paris, and

I've always been a fan of watching track and field, maybe a little bit of swimming, but

you know, obviously they were in Paris, so different time zones. There's no way I was

going to catch it live, or not everything at least. So I was keeping up with just certain

clips, recaps on YouTube. Like I said, especially for track and field, I've always loved the races,

the 100 meters, 200, 400, relays, everything, one mile, two mile. When I was in high school,

I participated in track and field, so maybe that's why I'm still engaged and I like to keep up.

I like to see the athletes who are the runners nowadays. But there was many good races, amen.

But there was one in particular that really caught my attention. I had that race on repeat

on YouTube, just watching it during my breaks at work, during my lunch. I just couldn't believe it.

It was the 100 meter race for the men's, and this was for the gold medal. So just in case you don't

know about track and field or you didn't watch it, there's different heats or rounds to get to the

gold medal race. So the eight men that are lining up for the gold medal for the 100 meters,

they've been through a process to get there. Matter of fact, just to qualify to the Olympics,

it's already a process. But when you get there, there's still another process.

You have to run a few races to make it to the final race, to make it to the gold medal race.

And that's the race you want to be in. And we had eight men, eight of the fastest men in the world

today lining up running for gold. And all this preparation just for the race to be 10 seconds,

it just boom. And that was the event. And I'm just, no way I need to watch this again.

That's why I watched it like 10 times. When I'm watching the race, I'm like,

man, when I'm watching the race, you hear the gun, you see these men just take off fast.

They take off. I'm zooming in because it's so close. The race was so tight, so close

that when the race finished, nobody knew who won. Not even the athletes. The runners were like

looking at the screen, they were shouting, come on, give us the results. They were anxious.

I was anxious. I was sweating. I was like, no way Jamaica beat us.

Come on, USA, we got to take this one. You know, the Jamaicans are quick and there's always that

rivalry between USA and Jamaica. And there was a few Jamaicans in there. And I was like, man,

man, we're waiting. And the two that we thought were the winners definitely knew it. They felt it.

And sure enough, they announced the winner, USA, Noah Lyles, took the gold medal for the 100 meter

race. And then there was a Jamaican that came in second place. His name is Kichane Thompson.

And when they put their stats, when they put the time, they were both running at 9.79 seconds.

100 meters, 9.79. And I said, wait a minute, they have the same time. And then they broke it down.

The difference was only five thousandths of a second. How do you know what that means?

If I'm being honest, that's got to be thinner than a hair. I'm not sure. How do you even calculate

that? I have no idea. But that's what they said. They gave to the USA guy. I was like, well, thank

God. But I started thinking if I was that Jamaican guy, I'd be so mad, so hurt because it was this

close to taking gold. And you're going to tell me by five thousandths of a second, I couldn't take

it. But then looking back at the race, I started thinking again, wait a minute, they put all the

stats from number one to number eight. The fastest was 9.79 seconds. And eighth place was 9.91

seconds. So I said, wow, the difference between first and eighth was just about 0.1 of a second.

Just 0.1 of a second. And when we looked at the pictures, you could see all the eight men

right there at the finish line. So in reality, they all have what it takes to get gold medal.

But it was just so close. The race was just so tight. And I couldn't believe. And I started

thinking, well, forget second place. At least you got silver. And third, you got bronze. But what

about eighth? Just because 0.1 of a second kept you out from gold medal. And in that moment,

I was, like I said, I was watching on my phone, I was screaming, I'm like, oh my God, this guy was

so close yet so far. That must suck. And they interviewed him. He was totally devastated. But

today I wanted to share this because I want to preach on this stop. So close, yet so far.

And I want to share this, this is the actual picture of the 100-meter race.

The winner was this guy here in between lane six and seven. Second place was the guy in lane four

in the yellow. Third place was the guy in lane three. If you look at it, just looking at that,

I feel like they all got first place. They all looked like boom, they all came in first.

They all looked like boom, they all came in at the same time. So when I see this, I started to think

last place is between lane five and six. He's not that far off. But how is it that just 0.1 of a

second can make that much of a difference? And as I started praying, and the Lord led me to this

passage that we read in Deuteronomy chapter 32 where he's speaking to Moses and he's telling him,

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

while both of you speaking of Moses and Aaron, you both lacked faith and didn't keep my holiness.

So therefore I'm taking you up to this mountain where you're going to see the land,

but you cannot enter it. And I started thinking, Moses experienced what these guys ran because

they were so close to winning it all. Yes, so far because they didn't make it. And that was the case

with Moses because he ran all his life. He was chosen by God. He was used by God. He walked in

He walked in the wilderness with the people of God and all of that God was with him.

But at the end, God is telling him, I'll let you see it, but you can't come in.

He was so close. He was looking at the land. He was looking at the promise. And God is telling him,

I'll let you see it, but this is where you're going to be. This is where you're dying.

Can you imagine the pain of everything that Moses lived through?

For God to only tell him, you're only able to see this land.

Can you imagine the pain of being so close to the promise yet so far that you couldn't make it?

And this allowed me to understand that God can choose you, but we have to choose him back.

This is my first point that we have to choose him because God will call you. God will anoint you.

God will use you, but you in response got to be able to turn around and make a choice of what

you're going to do. If you're going to answer the calling of the Lord, if you're going to find out

if you're going to follow him back, what is the choice that you and I are going to make?

Exodus 32 19 says, when Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing,

his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of

the mountain. And he took the calf and the people had made and burned it in the fire. In this passage,

we know that Moses went up to meet with God. He went to the top of the mountain.

God gave him a word, amen, the 10 commandments, something huge. It wasn't just something,

hey, tell your people this, it was something powerful that God was giving Moses. But when he

goes down to the foot of the mountain, the passage says that because of what the people of Israel were

doing, he acted in anger and he took the 10 commandments, he took the tablet and he threw

them out of his hands. Now, I don't know how, I don't know, not sure. But out of anger, maybe he

just threw those things on the floor and he was burning in anger. He burns the false gods,

but in that anger, he let go of what God gave him at the top of the mountain.

And I'm here to tell somebody that when God gives you a word at the top of the mountain,

you got to make a choice of what you're going to do with that word when you reach the foot of the

mountain. Because let me tell you something, when you reach the foot of the mountain, the devil's

going to be waiting for you there trying to test you, trying to try you, trying to steal your peace,

trying to steal your joy, trying to put doubt in you so you could doubt the word that God gave you

when you were near him. So you could doubt what God gave you when you were in his presence.

And this is what Moses didn't realize, that when he, matter of fact, God even told him,

you got to go down there because you got to go clean up this mess. So in other words,

he already knew what was happening. And there's many times that God will speak to us and tell us

and show us what's coming or what's happening for us to be prepared. But many times we choose

to ignore the voice of God. And we have to be careful because when God gives us a word,

we have to tune in. When God gives us a word, we have to listen. When God speaks to us,

we have to follow. Don't let your situation take what the Lord spoke over you when you were in his

presence because the devil is there waiting to steal or to hinder you from reaching God's purpose.

Amen. You can be filled. Let me tell you something, church, when God gives you something,

you can be filled here at church. You can speak in tongues, be filled with the Holy Ghost on Sunday

morning. But on Monday morning, you got to wake up and there's a new choice waiting for you.

On Monday morning, you still got to wake up and decide, am I going to serve him still?

Am I going to follow him? On Tuesday morning, you got to wake up again and ask yourself,

am I going to still serve God on Wednesday morning, on Thursday, on Friday night when

people are calling you, are we still going out? There's a choice that you still got to make.

Am I going to follow him? Am I going to answer him? Because it's easy to be filled with the

Holy Ghost here. It's easy to say yes and amen, praise God, and we cry, we're filled with the Holy

Ghost. It's easy to receive a word at family camp, at district service, at men's camp, youth camp,

whatever camp you go to, it's easy to receive a word and be filled. But the challenge comes when

you show up to work. The challenge comes when you show up to school. The challenge comes when you're

back at home in your daily life. Is God present there? We have to choose him every day that we

get up. We have to choose God in every moment that we live, every circumstance that presents itself.

The question still stands, who are you choosing? You got to be careful what you choose to listen to.

You got to be careful what voices you're listening to because not all voices are the voice of God.

And we got to be able to have the sermon of the Spirit to know who, when God is speaking

and when he's not. We got to be careful when we choose what we feed our spirit,

what we feed our mind, what we're feeding our eyes. What is it that you're choosing now that every day

when you wake up, there's a choice that we got to make. And no matter what choice,

the word speaks to us, whatever it is that you do, don't choose to be lukewarm.

The word says, because you weren't either hot or cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

We got to keep fighting for our salvation. You got to keep fighting for the calling that the Lord

spoke of you, the calling, the anointing that the Lord gave you. We got to keep fighting for the fire

to be alive in our hearts. And everything that we do, there's a choice that we must make.

I want to take you to Joshua 5-6.

And it says, the Israelites had moved about in the wilderness 40 years until all the men

who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the Lord.

Among all the choices that we have, we also have to choose obedience.

Joshua 5-6 is telling us about what the Israelites lived through.

They walked in the wilderness for 40 years. And the passage, this verse tells us

that it was because they didn't obey the Lord. You see, God waited until that generation

passed away in the wilderness, raised up their sons and daughters, and he still delivered the promise,

but not just to them, because they didn't obey. So God said, I won't take you into the promise

because of disobedience, but I'll take your sons and daughters into the promise. So God is a faithful

God. He's still going to deliver his word. He's still going to deliver the promise, but it's up

to you and I if we're going to obey his word or we're going to disobey. You see, the people of

Israel lacked faith. They didn't believe that they could enter the promised land. It almost felt like

it was too good to be true. Because if you remember, when they're walking in the desert,

when they're walking in the wilderness, they begin to complain about the promise.

They begin to complain about their situation to the point where they started to desire to go back.

They started saying, well, we were better off in Egypt. What are we doing here? You brought us here

to die. And they started saying, what about if we go back because we had it better there?

And you got to be careful when your flesh starts speaking on your behalf because it wants to go

back to the world. You got to be careful when your flesh wants to desire to take you back to a sinful

lifestyle. Let me tell you, it's not better in Egypt. They were wanting to go back to slavery

only in exchange of food, in exchange of perhaps a bed, because they didn't realize that the

wilderness was not their final destination. They didn't realize that that wilderness, the desert,

wasn't the promise. But they were blinded by their past. And I'm here to tell somebody that you have

to be careful and not deceive yourself in wanting to go back out of a place that the Lord brought

you out of. You don't want to go back to a place of captivity. You don't want to go back to a place

that held you down or to a person, a relationship. You don't want to go back to that place.

I want to remind someone, don't get lost in transition because the desert is not where God

is calling you. There's still a promise, but to get there, you got to keep moving forward. To get

there, you got to keep obeying the word of God. Don't forget that the 40 years in the wilderness

were simply, it was just simply a delay. That wasn't necessarily the plan of the Lord.

He didn't tell Moses, we're going to make you wait 40 years. That came out of the disobedience

because they doubted God. They couldn't see the miracles that were happening in the desert.

They were complaining about food. We had it in Egypt, but let me tell you that the Lord

was doing miracles, bringing food to them every single day for 40 years and they couldn't see it.

God kept sending Uber Eats and they kept ignoring it.

Can you imagine that? They couldn't see that God was truly with them. Exodus 13, 21 says,

and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way and by night

in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night. They couldn't see that God was

with them to go by day and night. When I was reading it, I couldn't help but remember a song

in Spanish. God was with them in the day, he was with them in the night, he was with them 24 seven,

he was with them, but they just simply doubted the move of God, the spirit of God, the hand of God,

and you got to understand we can't doubt the creator, the provider, he's with you day and night

and you just got to stand up and believe that he's with you, that he's going to provide no matter

where you are in life, no matter what situation you're in, God is going to provide.

We can't be blinded by the situation the enemy throws at you sometimes. Matter of fact,

this situation, I want to say maybe it wasn't even the enemy, it was just their lack of faith.

Sometimes we do blame the enemy for everything and poor guy, he's like, that wasn't even me.

There is a price to pay for disobedience

and we don't want to find out what the price is. The people of Israel found out that it was 40 years

and it cost them an entrance to a promise. That's the price that they had to pay,

that's the price that Moses paid as well. Don't let disobedience keep you out of the promise of God

because disobedience will keep you out but obedience will lead you in.

You have to remember that when we disobey it'll keep you out of the promises of the Lord

but when we simply can obey and say, yes, God, I will follow you, I will trust you,

it will lead you in to the promise that God spoke over you. Doesn't the word say that he can do it

exceedingly and abundantly above all that we could ask or imagine? He can do it but my question is

for you today is do you believe it? God can do it, amen. Obedience will keep you from the hand of

the enemy. I want to share this passage with you, it's found in Daniel chapter 3. I'm going to skip

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

a few verses here. Verse 15 says, but if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately

into a blazing furnace. Then what God will be able to rescue you from my hand. 19 says, he ordered

the furnace to be heated seven times more than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers

to tie Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the blazing furnace. Verse 22 says,

the king's command was so urgent and the blaze so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers

who took Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Verse 25 says, look, I see four men walking around in the

fire, unbound, unharmed, and the fourth looks like an angel. I see four men walking around in the fire,

unbound, unharmed, and the fourth looks like an angel.

In this passage, three men of God decided to stand up for what they believed. They decided to obey

their God and the king said, we're going to turn up this furnace seven times more. It was so hot

that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And when these young men were thrown into the fire, they did not die. The king came and saw and said,

wasn't it just three? Because I see there's four. I see that there's four of them in there.

And they're just walking around like if they're praising. They're just walking around the fire

there's something about obedience that God will move in your favor. No matter what fire the devil

throws at you, when we obey the word of the Lord, it doesn't matter what devil in hell comes your

way. God's protection will stand for you. The God that we serve will fight your battles

when we can obey and stand up for what we believe in.

And this hour is so important for us to stand

because there's a lot of doubt in this world. There's a lot of people that are arising,

but not for the kingdom arising in doubts. There's a lot of people that will question you.

Why do you believe in that? Why do you believe if I don't see him? I've never felt a lot of questions

to challenge your faith. And this is the hour that the Lord is calling us to stand and still preach

the word of God. This is the hour that the Lord is calling us to obey and speak his holy word.

You know why? Because his word has power to break chains. His word has power to restore the sick.

His word has power to raise up the dead. His word still has the power to convict and to change the

hearts. But it's only when we obey and we speak the word of the Lord, obedience is the key

to the promise.

Obedience is the key to enter into the promise of the Lord.

If I go back to the first passage, the Lord is speaking to them and explaining to them,

to him, to Moses why he wasn't entering. After he tells them, because you broke my faith,

he tells them also because you didn't uphold my holiness among the Israelites. Therefore you will

see the land only from a distance. We have to choose God. We have to choose to obey his word.

But most importantly as well, we have to choose holiness.

If the Lord told Moses, you're also not entering because you couldn't uphold my holiness.

Because you couldn't uphold my holiness among my people, then that tells me that God finds holiness

important. God finds holiness important. I want to read Matthew 7, chapter 21,

that says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven,

but only the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day,

Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name

perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evil

doers. And that day I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. When I read this passage,

it hurts to read because if we look at this further,

somebody who's saying, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?

Tells me that it was someone that God was using.

And in your name, did we not drive out demons? It tells me that it was somebody that perhaps was

anointed. And in your name, did we not perform miracles? It tells me, it helps me understand

that it was people perhaps that the Lord had chosen. It was people that the Lord had called

and separated for His purpose and for His glory. It was people that God used for miracles, signs,

and for wonders. And it made me ask, then what happened? Lord, if you were using these people

to perform miracles, to prophesy, to cast out demons, what happened from that moment to that day

for you to say, be gone from me? I never knew you.

What happened? And the Lord took me to this verse found in Matthew 5, 8 that says,

blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

And as I prepared this word, I started to think about the Lord,

and how beautiful it was that He was separated from a young age. They saved His life

since He was a baby, putting Him in the river. The Lord was with Him.

God chose Him despite His disabilities. God still used Him.

Moses was the one who parted the Red Sea through the power of the Lord. God used Him. He led the

people of Israel out of captivity. God was with Him. Moses was in the presence of the Lord up in

the mountain. He spoke to the people of Israel. He spoke to the people of Israel. He spoke to the

people of Israel. He spoke to the people of Israel. He spoke to the people of Israel. He spoke with

God. And these people in Matthew 7-21 were crying out and saying, Lord, Lord, but in Your name we

perform miracles. I could imagine these people saying, but God, wait, wait, wait, just hold on.

Lord, I was a minister of your

word.

Hold on for a moment, God.

Didn't you use me for your

glory?

Lord, Lord, in your name we

casted out demons.

Lord, I was a minister of your

word.

God, I would pray in your name

and people would be healed.

Lord, Lord, just give me one

more opportunity.

And it would break me to pieces

to hear him say, I never knew

you.

Lord, if you didn't get anything

from this message, I want you to

hear this.

You and I don't want to show up

on that day.

After all we've been through,

after all the services that we

showed up to, after all the

miracles we saw, and after all

the services that we lifted up

our hands and filled with the

love of God, to be that close,

yet so far.

God, put this message in my

heart, to awaken someone in

their spirit and to tell if

somebody's here today, you don't

want to be so close that you

could see the promise, yet so

far that you can't enter it.

You don't want to go up on the

mountain, and God told him you

could see the promise, but only

from a distance.

You don't want to show up on

that day and tell God, but in

your name, Jesus, we minister.

The time is now.

The time and the choice is

yours here.

The choice for you is here now.

Because right now in this hour

we still have time to choose

what we're going to do.

If we're going to choose him,

we're going to choose her.

But no matter what you do, you

got to see that you got to

choose God every single day of

your life until the last day

that God gives you.

Not 90% of your life, not 95% of

your life, not 99% of your life,

but 100% of your life.

I will still follow you, God.

I will still serve you, Lord.

I still submit to your word,

Jesus, whether you're 40 or 50

or 60 or 70, Lord, I want to

wake up, Father, if you let me

live to 85 or 90 and say, Father,

I still submit to you.

Lord, I want to be used by you,

Father, but not just for a

season, but for all my life.

I want to invite you right there

where you are to lift up your

hands with me.

The Lord brought his word to us

today to tell somebody you're on

your way to the promise, but

when you give up, you started to

contemplate going back to Egypt

and the Lord is here to fill you

up once again, to fill you with

new strength, with new provision.

God is here to fill you up and

tell you, you got to keep

pressing forward because the

past is in the past.

I took you out of captivity.

You got to keep doing what the

Lord told you to do.

The promise is ahead, but you

got to keep choosing God.

You got to keep choosing his

word.

You got to keep choosing to

submit to his will.

And I'm wondering if there's

somebody here that can say, Lord,

it doesn't matter how long you've

been serving.

God is saying you still got to

make a choice if you're going to

hold on to his promises.

God is saying you still got to