Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. This is part three of a message that was first preached on January 19th, 2025. That corruption.
Reaping brokenness, abuse. Where does abuse come from? Right there. The corruption from within. Because life has become about us, because it comes to abuse, adversity.
I want you to notice something with me, all right? This might. ruin some of your theologies, okay?
So bear with me on this. Look at verse 6. Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them. For it is the Lord who goes with you.
He will not leave you or forsake you. And the church said. All right, you know what's coming, don't you? Look at verse 17. Look over at verse 17.
You're like, Rich, is that really in the Bible? Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them. Ouch. You know what's going on there? Again, the tree and branch illustration.
We are branches that are come out of the tree. We grow out of the tree. We didn't create ourselves. We grow out of the tree. God is the creator.
He's our source and our sustenance of life. And the branch decides. I wanna go my own way. I don't need you.
So I'm gonna cut myself off. from the tree. And you know what verse 17 is? I'm going to let you try that and see how it goes for you. I'm going to remove All of my privilege, I'm going to remove all of my protection.
I will remove my presence from you. Tell me how that goes for you. Do you know that's why humanity is the way it is today? Because we think we're that branch. That doesn't need the tree.
And God's giving us a taste of Tell me how's that going for you?
Meanwhile, letting us know that He has made it possible. for that branch. to be reconciled back into the tree. Oh, they really have to there's the gospel. The branch can't pick itself up.
You need to be rescued. Every one of us needs rescue. Oh. And what that adversity leads to. And this is what adversity does for us.
That adversity for the people of Israel will be a chastisement. You think you know better? I'm going to let you try it for a while. Tell me how that works. And when your enemies have overwhelmed you, Because you trusted yourselves or you trusted someone else, but you didn't trust me.
Tell me how that works. And that correction: if Israel confesses and repents, then that will lead to. Restoration. And we see that happening numerous times, and it did, you know, through the book of the Judges, happen 14 times, right? 14 times cycles of sin and rebellion And then confession.
And then restoration. And then complacency again. And all through that history of that nation, again, let's not judge them. We're the same, we are the same.
Now as we get into the next portion that I want to talk about here I want to talk about five habits that prevent drift. Five habits that prevent drift. Very interesting because I just saw of a book that came out. That almost has the same theme. This message is not from that book, okay?
This message was complete before I even discovered that book. All right? Lest you're wondering, where's Rich getting his material from? All right, here we go: five habits that prevent drift. And this is what I gleaned from chapter 31 here, okay?
Chapter 31. Five habits that prevent drift. Number one, read God's self-disclosure. Don't just read it like it's information. On a page.
It is information, but it's not just information. Because behind that information is the person who made you and loves you. Hear him talking to you.
Okay. Read God's self-disclosure. And that's what he commanded his people to do. Verse 12: assemble the people, women, children, little ones, sojourners, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord and be careful to do all the words of this law. Read God's self-disclosure.
Now as we go through this, I want to talk about the advantage that we have because this is all under the old covenant. And the old covenant was a conditional covenant. That's why there's verse 6 and verse 17 in chapter 31. But we are under the new covenant and we have colossal advantages. Under the new covenant.
And as I say, the habit to prevent drift number one is to read God's self-disclosure. The advantage that we have under the new covenant is that now we have the complete canon. We have the complete. We have the fuller revelation of God. We have Jesus with his disciples taking the cup and saying, This is the new covenant, what?
In my blood. Messiah has come and redeemed. to reconcile us and we have that to look back on. They had to look forward to. We have it to look back on.
Habit number two. Number one, read God's self-disclosure. Habit number two to prevent drift. Number two, practice the presence. of God.
3, 6, and 8: I will never leave you. I will go before you. I will not leave you. Hear God's promise to you this morning. This is prayer.
Communion. Do you commune with God? I hope prayer for you is not a checklist. for the morning just to start your day. Yes, it's good to have routine to routine, but do you commune with God?
Do you know how to pray to him and commune with him throughout the course of the day? as you go about your business. Do you commune with God? practicing his presence. because it is the Lord who goes before you.
And here, here. Is the huge advantage that we have under the new covenant. It is that indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit. God has taken up residence in you, child of God. Follower of Jesus Christ.
God has taken up residence in you. Practice his presence. He is called the Spirit of Adoption. He is the one that gives witness to us as sons. It is by him that we cry out, Abba, Father.
Practice his presence. He is called the Spirit of Truth. He is the one who illuminates God's word to us and transforms us by God's self-disclosure. Practice His presence. He is called the Spirit of Power, who gives us the ability to become and to do what God created us in Christ.
to become and to do. Acts 1.8, you shall receive Power. Dunamis, dynamic active force, after the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Practice his presence. That's our advantage under the new covenant.
Yeah. Habit number one: read God's self-disclosure. Habit number two, practice the presence of God. That's a good discussion to talk about. That was a redundancy.
I get that. What does it look like? to practice the presence of God. Number three, remember Verse 10, and Moses commanded them at the end of seven years, and at the time of the year of the release of the feast of booths. The feasts Specific times where people are called to remember.
We gather at the table, the Lord's table, specifically to remember. We gather here at worship on Sunday to remember. But remember is not simply recalling to mind. It's not just a mental activity. Remembering is to take action on what you know to be true.
In the Old Testament, where it says the Lord remembered Noah, where was Noah? In the ark with his family, and it's not like God's going along in the business. Oh, yes, Noah. That's not what happened. God made a promise to Noah, and the scriptures say the Lord remembered Noah, which means God made a promise, and he fully intended to take action on that promise.
And when we are called to remember the Lord, We are called to take action on what we know to be true. Again. We'll use the illustration of a pilot. Faith in an airline, right? Flying 36,000 feet, 600 miles an hour.
Just amazing when you think about it. And the pilot can not see a thing. It's terrifying when you think about it. Right. But does that mean he doesn't know what he's doing?
Does that mean he doesn't have information? That's not what that means. You're trusting that pilot and he can't see where he's going, but he has all the information he needs to get that plane to where it needs to go. He trusts the instruments.
So him remembering the instruments means he looks at them, he trusts them, he follows them. This is our instrument. Look at it, trust it, follow it. Not only that, we have the very person of Jesus Christ himself, and we have the very indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
Now, what if that pilot were to look at those instruments and say, you know, I just. I don't think I want to trust them. It's just, they don't just they don't feel right tonight. I'm just going to follow my own instincts. He's gonna ditch the plane.
Right in the ocean. Because his feelings are not sufficient. His own senses are not sufficient. His own reason is not sufficient. to fly that airplane.
without the information that he needs.
So, remember the Lord means to take action on what you know to be true. And here's the advantage that we have under the new covenant: Jesus promised his disciples, again, the indwelling Holy Spirit, he says, he will bring to remembrance. Everything that I have told you and everything that I have done. What is it that he brings to remembrance in us? Rich Cowell, you are forgiven.
Rich Powell, you are justified before God. You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear this message and others, check out www.delightangrace.com. to discover how to live by grace. Tune in with us on weekdays at 10 a.m.
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