Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. All who bitterly ruminate over the missing of their canons miss the greater inheritance, the joy of self-giving, the contentment of soul that is found in Christ alone.
Canaan wasn't Moses' hope. God is. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in this series, Increase, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now available to you for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. Though he was in obscurity and tending a few sheep, he had a much bigger plan for this shepherd. Appeared to him in a burning bush. And from that time on, there was something inside of Moses that began to attach to God, and God attached to Moses. And he was a man like no other man.
The Bible said if God spoke to Moses as if you'd speak to a person face to face. This was a man who God allowed to see his glory in a way that no one else had. This is the man who fellowshiped with God on the mountain top. The man who was entrusted with giving the revelation of God to the people. And he was God's miracle man.
It started with the plagues and the Passover and the parted Red Sea. And then it and then it was manna raining down on the ground and water from a rock. And all throughout it, God gave him wisdom and leadership savvy. And he was full of faith. And he was a great intercessor, a man of prayer that moved the heart of God. Nobody was like Moses. And his task, his assignment was to lead the people out of their bondage and lead them to the promised land. And he devoted everything he had to it. The promised land flowing with milk and honey, a place of fruitfulness, abundance, rest, the dream. But the journey for Moses was not easy. It was grueling, disappointing. Not only did Pharaoh want to kill him, but his own people grumbled incessantly against him.
You can't miss that part of the story. It happens over and over. They doubt him. They question him. They persecute him.
They want to get away from him. More than once, Moses had to plead with God to not wipe out all the people. Like after they made the golden calf, Moses cries before God in Exodus 32, 31. Alas, this people have sinned a great sin. They've made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin. But if not, let's get this.
Please block me out of your book that you've read. Could they have had a greater intercessor? Could they have had a shepherd more noble, willing to lay his life down for the sheep? Could there have been a man who would sacrifice more for a rebellious people who didn't deserve a promised land? Moses gave his life for this calling. He resolutely set his face like flint towards this land flowing with milk and honey. He wanted to get there, and he wanted to go in it.
He wanted to go in that land, to drink of its pure streams, to taste of its grapes, and savor the figs, and walk in its beauty. And he asked the Lord for it in Deuteronomy 3 23. I pleaded with the Lord at that time saying, O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness in your mighty hand. For what God is there in heaven, on earth, he can do such works and mighty acts as yours.
Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country in Lebanon. He'd asked greater things of God. He'd asked to see God's glory, and the Lord had said yes. He put him in a cleft of a rock. He'd asked for the presence of the Lord, and he'd received a divine yes.
He'd held his staff over a sea and watched it part. He'd raised his hands to win wars. He had beseeched God for the pardon of the people and been granted it. And now it seems a simple enough request, and it seems like if anybody deserved to go in the land, it was Moses. He wasn't the one who'd grumbled all the way over there. This is Moses.
He deserved it surely. Let me see the land. Let me walk in it.
Let me taste of it. He wasn't asking to rule the land. He wasn't asking for a throne to reign upon.
He just wanted to be in it and to experience it. Let this dream of mine come true, please, Lord. Let me enter the promised land. And God said, no. Deuteronomy 3 26, the Lord said to me, enough from you. Do not speak to me of this matter again. I've dwelt upon that and trying to think, has there ever been a time I think the Lord said, Allen, don't speak to me of this again. Most of the time he says, keep on knocking, keep on seeking.
But he says, don't talk to me anymore about this. But instead he said, verse 27, go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward and look at it with your eyes for you shall not go over this Jordan. There'd been only one little infraction that was held against Moses as the reason for not going into the promised land. An occasion where God said, speak to the rock and it'll give you water. And instead he struck it with his stick like he had done a previous time. It seemed like a really small deal. Like almost God, you're keeping him from the promised land on a technicality.
This is the best you could come up with, Lord, is he had this one moment where he struck the rock with his stick rather than speak to it. It just reminds us of the biblical view, right? It's hard if you don't know this heart of God as so holy, it's hard to understand at first, but there's no grading on a curve with God. There's no, hey, Moses is really righteous so he deserves the promised land, but then there's these Pharaoh and he's awful so he doesn't.
It's not the way it is. Instead the Bible says all have fallen short of the glory of God and therefore all have sinned and all are justly deserving of God's displeasure and all are deserving of punishment. It's a hard thing, but it only makes sense when you think of it that God is perfectly holy and perfectly just.
And so any debt against him is an infinite debt. So though it be one little thing, Moses wasn't going in and there's some deeper symbolism of that, but we don't have time to go into it. But the point of it being there's no big infraction in Moses' life and God said, you're not going in.
That was it. You can look at it but the Lord also had a further word of instruction for Moses in Deuteronomy 3 verse 28, but charge Joshua. He said, you don't go in the promised land, but here's what I do want you to do. Charge Joshua and encourage and strengthen him for he shall go over at the head of this people and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see. He spoke plainly to Moses. Here it is in our text from today, Deuteronomy 32 49.
He said it as starkly as it could be said, go up this mountain of the Abirim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I'm giving to the people of Israel for possession, and die on the mountain which you go up. Can you imagine a greater disappointment than that? Spend your whole life with this call to lead a people to the promised land and not be allowed to go in yourself.
That's disappointment. We can pass down our values on purpose in Pastor Alan Wright's brand new six-week video series called Made for More. You'll discover the power of your lasting legacy as he leads you through a simple process to clarify your family core values and God-given purpose in the world. Pastor Alan will also help you dream to imagine your 100-year impact.
The video series is accompanied by a practical study guide with templates and worksheets. You'll also receive the full length preaching series Increase that exposes the biblical principle of generational blessing. Make your gift to the ministry today and get your Made for More audio video bundle as our thank you for your partnership. Contact us today and discover the power of your lasting legacy. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastoralan.org.
Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. What would he do with such a disappointment? Does he whine and whimper?
We have no evidence of that in the text. Does he become bitter? There is no such thing in this narrative. What does Moses do in the midst of the greatest disappointment of his life?
Does he start complaining? These people, they don't deserve to go in. I'm the one to take it. I'm led all the way over there. Anybody should go in. God, I should go in.
No? In fact, he'd made a life of obedience and faith and gratitude. Don't forget, Moses was an idol crusher, not an idol maker. So he wasn't about to make an idol out of the promised land. Instead, after chapter 32 where he's told you're going to go up on the mountain, look at the land and die and not go in. Chapter 33, you know what it is.
Here's what he did. He gathered the people of God and tribe by tribe, he blessed them. Deuteronomy 33 one, this is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the people of Israel before his death.
And then it tells us, let Reuben live and not die. Of Levi, bless O Lord his substance and accept the word of his hands. Of Benjamin, the beloved of the Lord, let him dwell in safety. The high God surrounds him. Of Joseph, blessed by the Lord be his land with the choicest gifts of heaven.
And of Zebulun, rejoice in your going out. And Issachar, in your tents. And Naphtali, O Naphtali, sated with favor and full of the blessing of the Lord. Possess the lake and most blessed of all sons of Asher.
Let him be the favorite of his brothers and let him dip his foot in all. And so the man who was not allowed to go into Canaan, but only to see it, gathered up the people that he had led to the brink of the promised land. And instead of being embittered against them, there was a great swelling up, like a pressure of a geyser that couldn't keep itself within. And he began to bless, because if blessing is what is in you, then it's blessing that you give. Wow.
Oh, God make us like that. That in our hour of deepest disappointment, what grows in us is not bitter roots destined to defile, but the well of gratitude and love that gushes forth for the wellbeing of others. Oh, wow. To love like that. To want someone else to experience the very blessing that you've been denied. Oh, wow.
Can you imagine? And I say to you, that is the abundant life. This is the great joy. The great joy is not in the taste of Canaan's fruit, but in the spiritual fruit of love and joy and peace that defies all circumstances. The great joy is not in the attaining of Canaan, but in the giving of it. The great joy, the higher joy is determined not by what you have in hand, but what you have to hand off. To him who has ears here, it is more blessed to give than it is to receive.
And when you discover it, you have come to the heart of God. All who bitterly ruminate over the missing of their Canaan's miss the greater inheritance, the joy of self-giving, the contentment of soul that is found in Christ alone. Canaan wasn't Moses' hope, God is. There's no earthly blessing that is our hope.
Christ is our hope and our hope is in him alone. Give thanks to him and praise his name for whether or not we have good experiences or hard experiences, God is good. Whether we stand on Nebo's peak and only see the land, or whether we march around Jericho's walls, God is good.
And we're most blessed. And there are, don't forget it, plenty of people who walk in the shade of Canaan's Olive Gardens and have no peace while there are those that peer from the pinnacle of Nebo and don't ever enter the land and yet still rejoice and bless everybody in their lives. And Moses does another thing before his death. Not only does he bless the tribes, but it is mentioned offhandedly, Deuteronomy 34 9, and Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom.
Why? For Moses, he laid his hands on him. Moses blessed the people and then he went to his beloved spiritual son, his protege, Joshua, and validated him in the eyes of the people and blessed him and imparted an anointing to his life. And then Moses went up to the top of Nebo. Hear the words again from 34 verse 1, Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead, as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah.
Do you see what he's reading out here? All the tribes are the people that will be in the land and all he's going to do is look. And he shows it all to him, the Negeb and the plain, the Valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as they are. You can go there today up top this 2,500-foot hill and look out to the north, the south, the east, and the west.
It's some panorama. You can see there the salt sea, the Dead Sea. You can look in another direction and not only see the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, but you can look and you can see on a clear day Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the house of bread. And don't you think that as Moses was atop Mount Nebo and looking at the panorama, that he also began to see in the Spirit. He began to see further than the natural eye could see. He was seeing with faith all that could happen for the people of God that he'd given his life to lead to the brink of the waters of the Jordan and now he looked at it and felt joy.
And felt joy. Did God break a promise to Moses? No, a close reading of the text shows that God never specifically promised Moses that he'd enter the land.
He had a call to get people there, but he wasn't called to be in it. Charles Spurgeon says Canaan was Moses's wish but not his work. So it wasn't a broken promise. But the matter of Moses's blessedness and ours is so much deeper than just whether God kept a promise or not. It's all we've been learning this year, if you've been with us, that blessedness is generational and blessedness goes beyond what we have and what we get that starts with a dream that God has of through one man Abraham blessing all the peoples of the earth.
And God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob says there's a limit to the curse and to the patterns of generational sin but that the steadfast chesed love of God goes on to a thousand generations on and on and on. And when you discover your call and your purpose in this world you will not have every wish fulfilled but if you walk in the ways of God there is a blessedness and an abundance in the giving over of your life for the very cause that God had made you. And you can discover in your life, beloved, a kind of spiritual maturity in which you are no longer like a child who is simply wanting to get things for yourself. But instead you can discover the joy of a parent. A parent is someone God's designed is like Father God who gets more joy in seeing a child blessed than anything of his own. As you learn and you think about being a spiritual parent and you think about being a blessing to others, the image of parenthood is the one that comes to mind because this is what parents want.
They want it better for their kids, you hear it said. When Bennett and I were, when he was little and we played golf together and he was so frustrated he couldn't beat me and so we were so we played a game where we're playing against the course and we say okay today we need to break two over par that's our goal today you know because he was too frustrated that he couldn't beat me. Then he got older and bigger and better than I and I was frustrated I couldn't beat him so we played a little game against the course. But the truth was that he didn't know when he was eight years old when he couldn't hit the ball as far as me.
He didn't know that I really wasn't that good golfer and he also didn't know that I couldn't wait for the day that he could beat me. I couldn't wait till you could hit it farther and I can hit it. It's what you dream of if you love someone. With God's kind of love you want it to be better for them than ever for you. That's Pastor Alan Wright and today's teaching the view from Mount Nebo from the series Increase and we've got more with Pastor Alan coming up here in just a few moments with a final word.
You're made for more than your span of years on this earth. What might happen if you start taking the long view of your impact? We need to know what matters most to us so we can pass down our values on purpose. In Pastor Alan Wright's brand new six-week video series called Made for More, you'll discover the power of your lasting legacy as he leads you through a simple process to clarify your family core values and God-given purpose in the world. Pastor Alan will also help you dream to imagine your 100-year impact.
The video series is accompanied by a practical study guide with templates and worksheets. You'll also receive the full length preaching series Increase that exposes the biblical principle of generational blessing. Make your gift to the ministry today and get your Made for More audio video bundle as our thank you for your partnership. Contact us today and discover the power of your lasting legacy. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.
When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Thank you now with Pastor Alan and the message, The View from Mount Nebo.
And I think you make reference in this. This in the timeline of the year you were preaching was a Palm Sunday message. Well, I feel like it's a fitting Palm Sunday message because if you think of Jesus as the greater Moses and Moses goes up to Mount Nebo and he says, can I go into the Promised Land? And then God says, no. He says, no, but Moses ends up just imparting blessing to all the tribes. And Jesus comes riding in triumphantly seeming on a donkey and they say, Hosanna, but they're looking for an earthly king. And Jesus gets into the Garden of Gethsemane and he sweats blood and he says, I wish, is there another way, God?
Could I, I mean, in a sense he's saying, could I just go straight to the Promised Land? And God says, no. And so Jesus goes up his Mount Nebo, the cross.
He climbs up and he dies for us. And therein comes our blessing. So in the earthly death of the earthly death of Moses and even in that of Jesus, there's the picture of the increase of blessing for us all. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.
