Transcription
Well, hello everybody. Jerry Dearman here. Welcome to the Solid Lives weekly message. And I've got something so good for you today. It's the brand new series called "Possessing Your Promised Land." And I really believe that this is a prophetic message from God. I've been looking forward to this, and I believe with all of my heart that the Lord is speaking to so many people in the body of Christ and saying, "Look, there's a lot of chaos going on out there, and you should not be distracted with that. You should be paying attention to the Spirit of God." Because while all of this is happening in our world, God is speaking to the church. God is mobilizing the church. God is positioning the church to be able to minister to this world.
And so, in this series, "Possessing Your Promised Land," we're talking about how God wants to bring the body of Christ across the Jordan, so to speak, but so that every tribe, every family, every individual receives the land that God has for them. Now, of course, that land includes the calling on your life. It includes you stepping into that calling and being used by God, being fulfilled in your heart. But more than that, being able to be the minister that God has called you to be, whether it be in the workplace or in your neighborhood. But when you come into that ministry and begin to flow in it, in that harvest that the Lord has called you to, fruit begins to happen, and you realize, "Oh my goodness, this is what I was called to do."
Well, that doesn't happen for most people in the body of Christ. This has to be laid hold of by faith. And to have faith, you have to hear the Lord speak to you. And that's what I'm believing for in this series, that as these messages are coming forth, that each of us will discern what God is saying to us and know what steps we need to take to be able to cross our own Jordan, so to speak, and possess that land, that new season, that life that God has for each of us.
Now, this first message is called "Blessings in the Promised Land." And this is about how God promised, "When I get you over there, you just need to know I have many, many blessings planned for you." Now, it sounds kind of pie in the sky, maybe too good to be true. But let me tell you, it is true. The Lord wants to reward his people. He wants to reward us for following him. He wants to reward us for being laborers in his harvest. And so he put these promises in the Word of God to incentivize us to say, "Look, if you listen to me, if you follow my direction, I promise you, I will bless you. I will remove the the wilderness experience from you, those things that have been difficult and challenging, and I'm going to replace them with blessings. Blessings so good that you'll want to rejoice in the goodness of the Lord your God. You'll want to tell other people about how good your God is to you. It's part of your message. It's part of your story. It's part of your testimony."
And so, I want you to hear this message. I'm delivering this at my home church, The Rock, but I believe this message is far beyond one church. And I want you to listen to this message and let the Spirit of God minister to you. Renew your hope, maybe, that God really does have a promised land for you. So let's go now to the message.
God has a promised land for each of us. It's part of our divine individual callings. These are not new or recently developed plans. They were scripted from the foundation of the world, as Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." God created and designed each of us for a specific purpose and calling, and He equipped us with gifts and abilities and wired us, if you will, each with our own personality. He intentionally gave each of us certain strengths and intentionally deprived us of others that we might best serve a unique purpose and plan. And He also has prepared supernatural graces and abilities for each of us so we can accomplish His supernatural plan.
God's plan for each of us is the most fulfilling and rewarding plan for two reasons. First, it's the only plan that matches our unique design and giftings. And second, because God, our Creator, walks with us and guides us to carry it out. The question is, will you answer God's call and walk according to His plan for your life, or will you live life the way you decide? Proverbs 14:12 says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Today, God is calling each of us to enter a new season where we walk according to His plan and calling for our lives.
So, Deuteronomy chapter 8. Let's look at it. I want us all to read that first verse out loud together. Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 1. We'll read from the New King James Version, but let's all read that aloud on the screens. If you don't have the New King James with you, but let's all read that together. Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 1, loudly and together. Let's read: "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers." And let me read it back to you: "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which I swore to your fathers."
You know what I love about the Lord is He makes these promises to us. He commits Himself to fulfill these promises conditionally, if we'll do certain things. He promises to respond. But then, after He promises, knowing that we typically don't do what we're supposed to do, He keeps coming back to say, "Now, if you do it, now, if you do it, here's what else I'm going to do." Here He gives us four things that He wants to do. And remember, He's talking to, He's talking to the second generation whose parents have died. And He's telling them, "Your parents didn't make it in, but now I'm talking to you and saying, 'I want to bring you in.'" And so He says this: "I want to do four things." He says, "That you may live." I don't want you to die unfulfilled, having not received the promise like others. "I want you to multiply." I want you to be blessed and to multiply even before you fully possess your land. I want to bless you on the way. "That you may go in." I'm bringing you out of this wilderness season into a whole new season, a season that you've dreamed about, prayed for, and wondered if you'd ever have. And "to possess." I'm not only bringing you into a new season and land, but I'm also going to strengthen you so that you can fight for and possess and take every part of that land that belongs to you. God's saying, "I want to do all those things."
Well, what's required of us? Look at the beginning of verse 1. "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe." Now, some people would just quickly dismiss this and say, "But we're not under the law," which is true. We're not under the law. But you have to understand the doctrine of that we're not under the law to be saved. In other words, we can never measure up to salvation. So there's no point in trying to be obedient enough, good enough, to qualify for salvation. There's no way. None of us can qualify. You were born in sin. You were born a loser, and so was I, isn't that right? You had no chance because that sin passed down to us. And then, guess what? If that wasn't bad enough, you sinned again and again and again. There's nothing you can do to make up for that. And that's why Jesus, the sinless One, came and took all of our punishments so that by grace we could be saved. Amen.
But we're not saved from sin to continue sinning. He saved us, pulled us out of the the pig pen, the slop, the filthiness of sin, that we might live the life that we could not live in sin. So we were saved by grace. But having been saved, we need to follow the Lord and be obedient to Him so that we can receive the blessings. So obedience is not required to be saved. Obedience is required to receive the blessings of God. Amen. Amen.
And this is what the Lord is saying to us. He's saying, "I want to do these things for you. I'll help you every step of the way. That you may live, that you may multiply, that you may go in, and that you may possess the land. I'll help you with everything. But you got to follow me." And it's not always going to be convenient. You got to follow me. Most people just get focused on what promise they want to come to pass and then, "What do I have to do to get that promise to come to pass?" "I'm asking God for financial breakthrough. What do I need to do?" "Okay, I need to get another job. I need to, you know, start learning how to budget." And those practical things are good. But remember, Jesus taught, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Not by you. God's saying, "I want to move supernaturally on your behalf, and I'll do that when you start not putting your priorities and desires first, but when you start doing what I'm asking you to do, attending to the kingdom of God and My priorities. I will make sure to bless you."
Now, as the Lord was directing me and and signaling that we were going to start this new series called "Possessing Your Promised Land," and I knew we're going to start it on May the 1st, I just had this thought. I'm going to go ahead and look on the calendar and just see what we'll be reading. May the 1st. I couldn't hardly believe when I saw it was Deuteronomy 28. Oh my goodness. When God was incentivizing the second generation and saying, "This is what I want to do for you in the land. If you'll not be like your parents, if you'll go in, this is what I want to do. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you." So let's look at that quickly. Since we're right there, Deuteronomy chapter 28, and let's just quickly walk through at least the first 13 verses here, because it not only goes into blessings, but it also spends most of the chapter with curses of not obeying God. But thank God, we're redeemed from the curse of the law according to Galatians chapter 3, which I've aligned in the reading to be on the same day intentionally. Okay.
But notice this, Deuteronomy 28 and verse 1: "Now it shall come to pass." Boy, I like the way that starts, don't you? "Now it shall come to pass, if, if that might maybe the biggest word in the whole verse, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth." And look at verse 2: "And all these blessings shall come upon you." Oh, don't you love the Lord? "I want to bring them all on you. I don't want to leave any of them out. All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you." What does that mean? You're not even going to be able to outrun them. They will run you down, tackle you, and overtake you. All these blessings will come and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. If you'll obey Me, this is what will happen. I will make it happen. The Lord's saying.
Verse, verse 3: "Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed." I know it, the proper pronunciation is "blessed," but I want to use "blessed" today because I want you to catch the blessings of God. "Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country." You know, in real estate, they say location, location, location. And God is saying, "Yeah, but when you obey Me, I don't care where you are. I will find you and bless you." Isn't that right? You don't have to live in the right neighborhood. You don't have to live on the right side of the tracks. You don't have to have to have the right kind of job or the right kind of clothes. God says, "I will, if you'll obey Me, I will track you down and bless you where you are." Can you see that? In the city or the country.
Notice this, verse 4: "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body." Boy, that's talking about children. "And the produce of your ground, the increase of your herds and the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks." Most of these people were farmers and shepherds, so God's speaking to their context. But don't think that doesn't include you. This very much includes you. Whatever job you have, whatever income, whatever business you have, whatever you feel called and led to, God's saying, "I will bless it. I will bless it. You won't be struggling like everybody else. You'll have this supernatural blessing on what you do, like it people used to say, 'Everything you touch turns to gold,' the Midas touch, right? Everything you touch." God's saying, "That'll be you. I will make that you, supernaturally, supernatural."
Look at verse 5: "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl." What is this? Equipment. Equipment breaks down. But God says, "I'll make your car last longer. I'll make your appliances work better, right?" This is the Lord said, "I'll bless your stuff too, your equipment that you use."
Look at verse 6: "Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out." God says, "You'll be blessed coming and going." Other people may only get blessed one direction. Anywhere you turn, I'm going to bring blessing on you. See, this is God saying, "I will do something supernatural." This is not just you learning better business savvy. This is something from God that He does that you could not do on your own. And He said, "I will do that for you."
He's, "Lord, what are You doing? You're telling this second generation, why, why do they need all that? Just say, 'Look, I'm gonna give you some land. Be happy.'" God's saying, "No, I want to do more than just give you land. I want to bless you in this land. I want all the other nations to look and say, 'Why did it work so well for them?' So that you can say, 'Because of our God.'" See, God's after the world. That's why He wants to bless His people. Because after the world, He just won't bless us for disobedience, because He would bless us to hell. And so He needs us to obey, not only to pour out His heart toward us, but that we might be an example to others of the goodness of God. Can you see that?
Okay, look at this, verse 8. No, verse 7. "The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways." God says, "I'm going to give them a whooping. Your enemies are going to scatter. They don't have any idea who they're coming against when they come against you." See, but all this is contingent if we follow Him.
Look at verse 8: "The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand." The Lord's saying, "Where do you store your stuff? Do you have a closet where you store clothes?" God says, "I'll command the blessing on your wardrobe." "Do you have a garage where or a carport where you store a car or could have stored a car if there wasn't so much other past blessing there?" The Lord said, "I'll bless it. I'll bless it." "Do you have a bank account where you store some money?" God says, "I'll command, I'll command the blessing on your storehouses, wherever you store things, I'll command the blessing."
Look at verse 9: "The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself." "I want you to be a holy people to Me. I'll establish you as a holy people to Myself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord and walk in His ways. Then all the people of the earth shall see." They'll notice that you're called by the name of the Lord, and they'll be afraid of you. Why? Look at the influence. Look, anybody that tries to come against you or talk down or put you down or slight you or whatever, it ends up coming back on them. And so everybody says, "Man, don't talk bad about them. Don't go against them. It just never works, right? Never goes right." They'll be afraid of you, and not because you intimidate them, but because of this blessing that's on you. And people just recognize, "Just go with them. If they say something, just go with them. Why? There's something on them." That's what the Lord is saying.
Look at this, uh, verse 11: "And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods." Everybody say, "Plenty." "Plenty of goods, for example, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you." "The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season." God's saying, "I'll do things for you that only I can do." Think about this. These farmers back then, they had no irrigation that you know that they could just put sprinkler systems in and all this modern-day stuff. They didn't have that. They depended on the rain. And God says, "I will rain at the right place, at the right time, for you." Like, who else could do that but God? And it's what the Lord's saying, "I will, I will give you exactly what you need for whatever you're doing at the right time." What is God saying? "I'll work for you." Like, what God would do that? God says, "I'll work for you if you'll obey Me and follow Me. I will work for you. I will use My power, My strength, to make your stuff work right." What a loving God He is.
Look at this, "and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow." God's, God's not saying it's a sin to borrow. He's just saying when I get done blessing you, you won't have to. You won't need a loan. People will come to you and say, "Hey, can I, can you spot me?" And you'll be the one blessing. You'll be the one blessing.
Then look at this, verse 13: "And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail." How many of you tired of being wagged? Well, I remember Kimberly and I years ago, when we were starting the church, we rented a place, and man, it was a nice house and such, but the '70s wallpaper. We were on, at our own expense, wanting to upgrade and make it look contemporary and nice. And the owner said, "No, I like it like that." We wanted to paint the front door a contemporary color. "No, no, I like it like that." We were being wagged. Why? It didn't belong to us. He was the head, and we were the tail. And the Lord saying, "I'm flipping that in this new season. You follow Me, you're going to be the head and not the tail." Amen. "And you shall be above only, and not be beneath." Above only. Don't you love that? Above only. Tired of being underwater in any area? You'll be above. What? You'll be above only and not be beneath, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.
Now, let me show you also, go back to chapter 8. God says the land itself is going to be better. This new season is going to be better for you. And He's telling them, "The land itself is better." Here's what I mean. Look at verse, excuse me, chapter 8, look at verse 7: "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of the valleys." God's saying, "Look, it's not like Egypt when there was a river and you had to, you know, irrigate and try to pump water with your feet." That's what the Bible says that you were, you know, had these pump systems with your feet that you had to get the water different places. He said, "No, I'm bringing you into a land. There are springs coming up out of the ground. There are brooks and things flowing through this land. You're not going to have to take it from a river everywhere. No, there are different places. I put these springs that just come up. It will irrigate, irrigate, irrigate your flock, give you drinking water and so on." Can you see that? God's saying, "I'm telling you the land I'm bringing you to." And some of you have been struggling, and the Lord's saying, "The land I have for you, it's a good land. It's not going to be that struggle like you had before." Come on, somebody say amen to this.
Look at this, verse 8: "A land of wheat," verse 8, "and barley, uh, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, all the good stuff." God is saying, "Land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack what? Nothing. A land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper." Opportunity. "And when you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you."
Look at chapter 6. God said, "Not only that, but I've actually gone before you. You're not even going to get over to that land and start from scratch. I've already given you a head start." Look here in chapter 6 and verse 10: "So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build." You don't have to start from scratch. I had other people working on this, but I knew it was for you. People have already been building and working on things, but I'm going to give it to you. I let them build it for you. Is that right? You didn't build them.
Look at this, verse 11: "Houses full of all good things which you did not fill." The pantries are stocked. God said, "There's already blessing built up for you over there." Look at verse, uh, well, the middle of verse 11, "hewn out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant." "When you have eaten and are full, then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." "You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and you shall take oaths in His name."
In other words, God's saying, "Listen, you're going to be tempted when the blessing starts to come and your life begins to feel easier to not lean in to follow Me anymore because you're not as desperate, you're not as needy." And so the Lord says, "Beware that you don't get there, but that you stay with the Lord. You stay with the Lord."
And not only that, but God is saying that it's time to get out of this wilderness. How many of you agree with that? I, uh. Now, now, what's the point? What do we need to do? Back to Deuteronomy 8:1. "Every commandment which I command you today." God's speaking some things today. "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land."
I, I don't do this very often, but I wrote a little poem about us getting out of the wilderness and going to the promised land. You know, they'd been going laps around this wilderness for 40 years. And so I wrote this poem called "No More Laps." Now, the first verse is sort of an introductory verse. There are three verses. The first one is more introductory and just a bit humorous, but it gets better. So, just, just relax, okay?
If you'll respond to the Lord Jesus right now, in fact, can we lift our hands to Him and can we say, "Jesus, I'll do whatever You want me to do"? Not now, in your own words, in your own words, however, however you're led. "Jesus, I'll do whatever You want me to do."
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Whatever I need to drop, Lord. The 40 days have passed, but I don't want to just snap back to an old rhythm. Lord, I want to get across this Jordan, and I want to be in this season where You and I are walking together.
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Lord, I let go of things that I like, but they just don't fit anymore. They just don't fit anymore. I put You first, Lord. I put what You call me to do in my calendar first, and everything else is going to have to work around that. I don't try to fit what You're saying in around my stuff. Your stuff goes in first.
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Lord, oh, the Lord's speaking various things to people. He's asking you to let go of this or that.
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I encourage you, respond to Him.
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Can we sing this song again of committing ourselves to the Lord and tell Him, "Jesus, I will follow You"?
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Nothing in this world will do. I yield all that I have, and I trust You, Jesus, to the end.
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Let's raise the key. Sing it again. "Jesus, I will follow You. Nothing in this world will do. I yield all that I have, and now we trust You, Jesus, to the end. I am Yours until the end."
And let's raise it one more time. Sing voices only.
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You.
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Nothing in this.
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One last time. Come on.
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I am Yours until the end.
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Lord, I am.
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Lord, I pray right now for our church and those that You've called to be a part of us. Lord, You know I'm doing my best to convey the Word of the Lord, what You're saying to us. And now, Lord, strengthen Your people, each one, each one to do what needs to be done, to begin to gather, to begin to organize, to begin to prepare, to sit at Your feet and to let You instruct us from Your Word on what You're looking for in Your church. May no one be left out. May everyone cross the Jordan. And Lord, may everyone realize and receive and possess the land that You have for them.
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In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. And can we say this? Say, "Lord Jesus, my life belongs to You. You know my strengths, and You know my weaknesses. I yield myself to You. Strengthen me, O God."
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I'm.
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And I glorify Your name, and I glorify Your name, and will do so for the rest of my life because You are my Lord. In Jesus' name. Can we say amen? Can we clap in agreement today?