4.6.12 "Sometimes it Has to Be Impossible"

"Sometimes it Has to Be Impossible"

Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20
Luke 11:37-12:7
Psalm 78:1-31
Proverbs 12:19-20

How long does a pair of shoes last for you? Being the high-end shoe shopper that I am, I usually wear my Payless shoes a bit longer than they last. But i'm usually pretty good for at least a year or so on a pair of shoes. How about those Israelites? Wandering in the desert for 40 years!

"For forty years God has led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes haven't become old, and your shoes haven't worn out!" (Deut. 29:5)

Pretty incredible, isn't it? These wanderers were Gellin'! (don't take out your greek dictionary.... that's from a commercial!)

So what's this all about? check out the next verse:

"The reason he hasn't let you settle down... is so that you would realize that it is the Lord your God who has been caring for you." (29:6)

Sometimes in life we find ourselves in impossible situations. Sure the example of clothes and shoes may not seem like a huge deal, but there's a deeper principle here we need to look at. We serve a powerful God. At the same time, we have a "rebellious" nature that wants to do it's own thing. Verse 19 says, "Let no one blithely think... 'I shall prosper even though I walk in my own stubborn way!'" ("blithely" means casual indifference)

When circumstances around us seem impossible, they actually can serve to put us in a place of a proper perspective. "I can't do this on my own!" is exactly the place to be. We too often don't understand or realize the incredible danger of walking through life with the tumor of self-sufficiency growing in us. Left unchecked and unchallenged by truth, this tumor will eventually blind the eye to the need for relationship with God. It's danger can't be overstated.

Impossible circumstances serve to prove the greatness of our God. However, even though the circumstances seem impossible, God never demands of us impossible things. He only asks that we obey him. Yet sometimes in our mind we build obedience to be this monstrous impossible thing. It never is.

"Obeying these commandments is not something beyond your strength and reach; for these laws are not in the far heavens, so distant that you can't hear and obey them, and with no one to bring them down to you; nor are they beyond the ocean, so far that no one can bring you their message; but they are very close at hand - in your hearts and on your lips - so obey them." (Deut. 30:11-14)

God isn't asking us to take impossible steps. He's already laid out steps before us in his word that are within our grasp. It's often not the "huge" things we struggle with. It's the very simple steps of obedience that we fail to follow through on. We fail to recognize the danger therein.

"Look, today I have set before you life and death, depending on whether you obey or disobey... Oh, that you would choose life; that you and your children might live! Choose to love the Lord your God and to obey him and cling to him, for he is your life and the length of your days." (30:15, 19-20)

This is the heart of God. If we do the right thing by taking the small steps of obedience, He comes through in impossible situations. Man's concept of "religion" twists this all around. People think that to live "religious" is impossible. In fact, too often there are "religious" people who twist the truth into something 'impossible'.

The teachers of the law were doing that in Jesus' day. Needless to say, he didn't take too kindly to it.

"Woe to you experts in religion! For you hide the truth from the people. You wont accept it for yourselves, and you prevent others from having a chance to believe it." (Luke 11:52)

I'd hate to be on the "woe" end of a conversation with Jesus. We need to understand the profound simplicity of walking with God. Following him is a great adventure. As we seek his will we find that those impossible situations are nothing more than props in "rubber monster" movie. They are nothing in the presence of God!

Walk in obedience.

Through the Power of the Spirit,
Live the DREAM!

Pastor Greg Lathe

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