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God’s Formula for Your Future Deuteronomy 29:29, NASB

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.

Introduction:

The children of Israel were at a crossroad. Behind them, were the promises God had given them through the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God had promised them, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you, make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.” Through Isaac, God repeated similar words to them: “I will bless you and multiply your descendants for my servant Abraham’s sake.” Moreover, through Jacob, God emphasized again: “I am God almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. The land, which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I give to you and to your descendants after you I give this land.”

Yes, my brothers, sisters and friends, the children of Israel were at a crossroad. Behind them were the promises God had given to them. However, behind them were other things as well. Behind Israel were the happy and sad memories of the past. Behind them were the happy memories of the faithfulness of the descendants like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Behind them were the happy memories of being set free from the slavery of the Egyptians. Behind them were the happy memories of receiving God’s promise of becoming a great nation, with a great name, and with a land of opportunity. However, behind Israel also existed the sad memories of slavery, their moments of idolatry, and of their unbelief.

Now, Israel was at a crossroad. Behind them were sad memories of a sinful past, but in front of them was the future: a land described as being full of milk and honey. However, in front of them was also a future filled with challenges, uncertainties, and dangers.

In front of Israel was the challenge of conquering a land much bigger than them. In front of them, were changes they had to adjust to in order to live there. In front of them, were uncertainties about the people they were to encounter and the decisions they would have to make. And yes, in front of them were dangers and risks--dangers and risks on how to encounter the different cultures, religions, and even death.

But, you know what? The children of Israel are not the only ones who found themselves in a crossroad. We, too, are at one. We do not find ourselves at the border of a new land, but we are just entering a new year. Like the Israelites, we have a past of happy and sad experiences. Behind us, there is a past of wonderful experiences and rich blessings, but also, a past of painful, sad, and failing moments.

As a Church, you have the wonderful experiences of your birth. You have had the wonderful experiences of seeing people receive the forgiveness of their sin and God’s gift of eternal life. As individuals, there is a past of the rich blessings of good health, a good job, a good family, and having what you have needed to live behind us.

But behind us, there is also a past of moments of sadness, pain, and unbelief. There are moments of seeing loved ones pass from this life into eternity; moments of not believing every-thing God tell us in his Word; moments of being tripping stones to people; moments of saying things we shouldn’t have said; and moments when we did not grow in our faith. There is a great list of good and bad experiences behind us.

Yes, today we find yourselves at a crossroad with a past behind us.

We also find yourselves at a crossroad with a future before us. Like the Israelites, we must go forward. We must cross the border of the past and enter into the future. I know that we might have some fear or apprehension. The Israelites felt the same way! And because they found themselves at a cross-road, with the future ahead of them and with the fear of the experiences of the past behind them, God took the time to give them a formula for their future. God wants to do the same with us this morning. God wants to give us His formula for our future as we enter the year 2024. In Deut. 29:29, we find that formula. The first part of the formula belongs to God. The second part belongs to you.)

Let us look at God’s formula for you and me for 2024. Let us begin with the first part of the formula, the part that belongs to God.

1. The First Part of the Formula:

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God…”

The first part of God’s formula for 2024 for you and me belongs to God. The reason why it belongs to God is because it has to do with the “secret things.” What are the secret things that belong only to God? Let me suggest to you that “the secret things” are those things that only God knows and He has not revealed them to us. What are those things that God has not revealed to us humans? For example, let us talk about the events that will take place tomorrow.

How many of us know what will happen tomorrow? We have plans, but how many of us truly know that we will have the power, health, or will to do what we have planned?) How many of us know if it will snow tomorrow or not? The meteorologists try to warn or inform us with their prognosis on the weather. Do they really know what is going to happen? How many of us know what this year will bring? How will our finances, our health, or the economy be? The list goes on. None of us know! Why not? Why is it that we do not know those things and others like them? We do not know those things because those things belong to God and only to God. He has chosen not to reveal those things and others to us.

Why? Why has God chosen not to reveal those things to us? Let me suggest to you, that God has

chosen not to reveal those things to us—the secret things—first, because God is sovereign. He is God! We are not. Because He is God, He does not have to reveal anything to us.

Second, God does not reveal those things to us--the secret things--because of His mercy. What would happen to us if God revealed all those things to us? What would we do with that in-formation? Who among us would be able to tolerate or deal, in a healthy way, knowing all the good and bad things that will happen this year?

It is because God has mercy on us that He has chosen not to reveal those things to us. If that is true. If God has chosen not to reveal the secret things to us because He is sovereign and merciful, what does all of that imply to us? Let me suggest to you that because the secret things belong to God and not to us we should not be obsessed with the physical future.

Considering the recent and past events many people today are seeking or visiting psychics and other questionable forms of information) who can explain the past to them. Beware of giving attention to people who have an answer for all the things that are happening.

I know we want to know what is happening or has happened. If we want to know the truth, let us read and study the Bible. For in the Bible, God’s word, we can find the things God has wanted to reveal to us. Remember that there are things we will not find an answer for, because those things are a secret and they belong to God.

There is a second implication behind this first part of God’s formula for our future and that second implication comes in the form of a question. The question is, if secret things belong to God, why worry? Let us not forget that there are things in life that are beyond our control, but are always under God’s control. Also, remember what Jesus said in Matthew 6:27: “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”

We lose a lot of precious time and energy worrying about things we do not have the power, wisdom, or ability to control, answer, and solve. Let us control what we can control! Let us answer the questions we can answer. Let us solve the things God has given us the ability to solve. Also, let us leave the things that belong to God, to God.

The first part of God’s formula for our future—as we enter 2024—is simple. Let us leave the secret things to God.

That takes us to the second part of God’s formula for our future and that second part belongs to you and me.

2. The Second Part of the Formula:

“…but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do all the words of this law.”

What does this mean? We know that we should not worry about the things that belong to God, the secret things, because He is in control and does not need our help. However, there are things we should not leave to God. Those things are our responsibility and, according to this text, those things are the things God has revealed to us.

What things are the ones God has revealed to us? There are multitudes of things God has revealed to us that are our responsibility.

We do not have the time this morning to cover all those things. We would be here until Jesus returns. Let me share one thing, that as a Church, we ought to be doing during this new year. The thing we ought to be doing, which God has revealed to us, that is our responsibility, is in Matthew 28:19-20. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…”

Please note that this verse has four verbs, four actions words, if you will, or four things we ought to be putting into practice as individual Christians and as a church. The four verbs are: go, make, baptize, and teach. One of these verbs describes what we ought to be producing continuously as a church. The other three verbs) describe the actions the church must take in order to achieve this product.

The verb that describes what we ought to be producing continuously is the verb “make.” We are to be making disciples of Jesus Christ continuously until Jesus returns. What is a disciple of Jesus Christ? We know what it is. God has revealed that to us in the New Testament. According to Matthew 4:19, a disciple is an individual who follows Jesus, is changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus. We know that! How do we become and produce those individuals? We know that too. Matthew 28:19-20 tell us that we must go to them, we must baptize them, and we must teach them.

We make disciples of Jesus by going to them. Jesus uses the illustration of the fisherman in Matthew 4:19 to tell us that. We are to be fisher of men or people. A fisherman does not stay home, work, school, or the church building in order to fish. He goes to where the fish are! The same is for a disciple. If we want to make disciples, we need to go where we can find potential disciples of Jesus Christ. Where are those potential disciples? Everywhere! They in the neighborhood, in the streets, at the stores, at the doctors and dentists, in our classrooms, families, etc.

We must not just go to them, we must also tell them about their spiritual condition, about the consequences of their spiritual condition, and about God’s solution for their spiritual condition. We must encourage them to decide to turn from their sins to Jesus. We must call on them to believe in Jesus, what he did, and what he offers to them.

Second, in other make disciples we must baptize the new believers. Baptism is the first step of obedience God requires of a new born again believer. By requesting and submitting to baptism the new believer is identifying with Jesus, His Church, and His mission.

Finally, we make disciples--by not only going to them and sharing the Gospel and baptizing them--we also make disciples by teaching those believers to obey the things Jesus commands us. You see, discipleship is a lifetime endeavor. Discipleship is not just coming to Sunday school once a week for one hour. Discipleship is learning to obey the things God teaches us through His word and that takes a lifetime.

In his book, First Things First, author Stephen Covey writes about Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychologist who survived the death camps of Nazi Germany. Frankl made a startling disco-very about why some survived the horrible conditions and some did not.

Covey wrote, “He looked at several factors - health, vitality, family structure, intelligence, and survival skills. Finally, he concluded that none of these factors was primarily responsible. The single most significant factor, he realized, was a sense of future vision - the impelling conviction of those who were to survive that they had a mission to perform, some important work left to do.” It is the same for us.

We have a mission to fulfill in 2024. We know that! God has revealed that to us. He has revealed many things to us in His book. Yet, we tend to want to know more about the “secret things” of God than the things He has already revealed to us.

That is what happened to Israel. They were not satisfied with knowing God and following God by faith. They wanted to return to slavery in Egypt. They were not willing to trust God to deliver what He promised. They walked by sight and complained about God’s servants and God himself. Finally, they refused to enter into the promised land.

For forty years, Israel wandered in the wilder-ness until that disobedient and rebellious generation died. Forty years later, their children— who are now adults—are at the border of the promise land. They are at a crossroad between the wilderness—the past—and the promise land—the future. Moses is reminding this new generation of their ancestor’s past, of God’s promises, and of God’s commandments. And at the end of chapter 29 of Deuteronomy, Moses gives them the formula for having success in the promised land.

Moses simply tells them, “Do what God tells you do. Do the things He has already revealed to you in His word. Leave what He has not revealed to you to Him. We must do the same. It is that simple. It is that simple because God has given us His word, His Spirit, His promises, and His people. All of them are our help as we enter and travel through 2024.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I leave you with this.

Many years ago, a man hired an experienced guide to lead him on a hike into the Swiss Alps. After many hours, they came to a high and remote mountain pass. To the man’s dismayed, he saw the path had almost been washed out. What could he do? To the left was a sheer rock cliff, to his right, a precipice that dropped nearly 1000 ft. Looking down, he felt his head was growing faint and his knees were beginning to buckle. At that moment his guide shouted, “Do not look down or you are a dead man, keep your eyes on me, and where I put my feet, put yours there as well.” The man did as he was instructed and soon he passed from danger to safety.

We are like that man. We are taking a hike into the future. We are at a crossroad between 2023

and 2024. None of us knows what lies ahead of us. We have plans and dreams, but we have no control of the times and seasons of life. We, too, need a guide and we have one. We have God and we have His word. But like the man in the story, I have just shared, we must follow the instructions of our guide in order to pass from danger into safety. Our guide is God and His instructions are found in the Bible.

Let us pray.