After the Sermon: Deuteronomy 1:1-8

1/12/26 | Will DuVal | DEUTERONOMY: Remembering God's Faithfulness; Responding in Obedience

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Welcome to the After the Sermon podcast. Our pastor Will answers follow up questions and we share your personal applications from the sermon for the benefit of the church. My name is Brian. I'm here with our lead pastor, Will. Hey.

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And our new digs as well. Yeah. Hopefully not too much of the highway noise. We're a little bit closer to the highway here in my new office at West County Assembly of God than we are in our building. So just a little nice white noise in the background.

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That's right. Yep. See what I can edit out.

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Yeah.

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Now we're good. Maybe I won't. It's relaxing.

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It is. I feel like between that and my deep soothing voice, people, this is going to be an ASMR kind of listen to get people to sleep at night, just throw on our podcast.

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Don't listen while you're operating your car.

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Yeah. Be careful.

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We want to remind you with this podcast that sermons are not just a Sunday thing. So we have one question from Cody. So start with that one. He wrote in virtually, he wrote again for preaching. It was truly a blessing. Then he writes his question, "My flesh likes to confuse the eternal and sure blessings I have in Christ with the temporary, although good blessings I have now on this earth. How should I think about the blessings I have on this earth? Be thankful for them, but at the same time, not confuse them with the promised hope I have in Christ." How can we encourage one another at West Hills to do the same?

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Yeah, that's a really good question. And thanks Cody for pointing that out for us. And it has me thinking about, yeah, I probably should have included a line, even just a short line yesterday, mentioning in that point number three, but we're running short on time, but just mentioning, "Hey, by the way, as much as yes, all the promises of God find their yes and amen in Christ and are therefore in many ways accessible to us, even in the here and now, that we can have relationship with Christ here. It's not just that earth is a waiting room until we get to heaven and then we enjoy all of God's promises or something like that. We can have eternal life begins now and joy and deep and lasting peace and the experience of the love of God. I mean, all these things start now that at the same time, there really is a sense in which we know as believers that we have even more infinitely, eternally more to look forward to in the life to come.

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And that certainly ... To lose sight of that, obviously that's when preaching starts to sound and feel like the kind of prosperity gospel, kind of your best life now. I've always liked even just that title. And to be fair, I haven't read the book, so maybe there's some way that he spins it. But Joel Osteen's your best life now.

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It's such a punching bag because the only people for whom their best life is now here on this earth is unbelievers because they've got nothing but eternal suffering to look forward to. I mean, this is God causing the sun to shine on the just and the unjust and the good and the evil here. This is as good as it gets for an unbeliever, but this is ... We know that for us as believers, this is as rough as it gets. My family's had a cult. We've had the sniffles for the last three weeks now and it's like, " I'm not going to have to deal with that one day. "And I hope and pray my kids, my rest of my family won't either. So to go back to Cody's question about it, that's kind of the flip side of what he's asking here, which is at the same time that we know that this life is as rough as it gets.

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  We're going to a place no more pain, tears, sorrow, grief, loss, all that. And yet how quick are we sometimes to even fall in love with this world and its blessings and so much so that we would be content with the temporary and fleeting and relatively small little happinesses of our hobbies, our interests, even the love that's offered us by our broken, sinful loved ones here on earth. And forget that God has eternally more and better, both waiting in store for us that we'll experience one day perfectly and when we see him face to face and we're changed and like him and sinless and all of that. But even again, that we can experience from him in the here. Now, I think all that to say that the short, the one word answer for me that comes to mind, and I think I actually mentioned this word yesterday in introducing communion, and it comes to mind for me here in answering Cody's question, how we should think about the blessings on this earth.

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  The word is foretaste, the greatest blessings of your kid's smiles, your spouse's love, that unity and just comradery of friendship, the sense of purpose and fulfillment of a job well done and at work or perfectly hit volleyball or the perfectly cooked Chick-fil-A sandwich. I mean, whatever it might be that all of those things should be for the believer, a foretaste, we remember but a foretaste of the blessings that God has in store for us that are to come. And not in a sense that hopefully that there's any kind of disappointment. I mean, we want to experience the fullness of joy and pleasure and gratitude that comes with each of those blessings.

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  But again, in a different way ... I'll hear, and I'm sure our listeners have heard atheists make the argument that they believe that their atheism really causes them to live life to the fullest here on earth more so than a Christian could, because there's always this sense for us of this world being temporary, of we've got even more waiting in store and sort of a longing for that, and that sort of thing. Whereas the atheist says," Well, for me, I believe this life is all we got, one shot, and therefore I'm going to savor that Chick-fil-A sandwich more than a Christian is able to because they can't help but look beyond that bite of the sandwich in the here and now to, wow, if this tastes this good, what is the feast at the marriage shepherd of the lamb, the heavenly banquet? What is that going to be like the chicken serve there?

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  And to be honest, I think there's, again, I mean, maybe a bit of truth in that.

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  However, obviously life is ... We would say, I mean, I think the counter argument would be that we as Christians would say, it's not like the goal of this life is to maximize pleasure and enjoyment anyway. So it's not like the atheist is somehow living life better than we are because they're savoring that chicken sandwich more. The goal of this life is to bring glory to God. And when they're just enjoying these good gifts, the sun shining and the rain falling on their crops and the chicken sandwich and their belly, when they're enjoying that, those good gifts from God without giving any sense of ... I mean, maybe there's some vague thank you to the universe, whatever it is, but they're not actually giving glory where it is due to God, the giver of the gifts and certainly not filled ... Although I sometimes doubt this, I think there have to be many of those moments for even the most art and atheist where they do experience that longing, that stirring Ecclesiastes says God has set eternity on every human heart.

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  We all have this stirring for more than just that temporary fleeting happiness because the chicken sandwich ends and then what? And so I think the counter argument for us would be that, yeah, no, this life is not about us savoring in that same sense. It really is about us giving glory to God, appreciating the beauty and happiness and blessing material in the here and now appropriately in terms of giving the thanks the glory to God, like letting that be a cause of worship. I mean, yeah, if your lunch today can cause you to worship God, that's a beautiful thing, but also there should rightfully be that sense of foretaste, of longing, that it stirs within us a desire for more. And again, the atheist then is going to counter and say, well, that's ... I mean, how greedy, how greedy that you can't just let the chicken sandwich be what it is, and that you can't just enjoy it on its own term and not be caused to look past it for more and for the infinitely, eternally better lunch that you look forward to kind of thing.

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  And I think that's where we as believers would just have to say, "Man, you're dreaming too small, or not at all. " You just don't understand the hope that you can have to look forward to. And again, all of, even the marriage supper with the lamb, what makes it so good is not the chicken there, it's the lamb. It's the one who's sitting at the table with us and the fellowship that we're going to enjoy with him in person, face to face when our faith is turned to sight. That's what we really ought to be looking forward to when we enjoy any, again, any blessing that this life has to offer. So I hope that, again, hope that somewhere in there, some of those reflections are helpful edifying to Cody and to others. Great question. Thank you. In terms of his last question there of how can we encourage one another at West Hills to do the same?

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  I guess the first thing that occurs to me is I think that not in some sort of sanctimonious way, but just you try and always help point one another back to the Lord with every good gift. Yeah. I'm just trying to think of even the most menial kind of like our church basketball game on Saturday and somebody makes a really amazing shot. Think of like saying to them during time out in between games like, "That was quite a shot." Praise the Lord for giving you the ability to do that. But just again, you're always thinking about, and again, I'm not the best at doing this, but just when I certainly try and do that when, for instance, someone thanks me for a really great message on Sunday, a great sermon or something like that, I try and not just out of a sense of some sort of false kind of pious humility or whatever, but just like to remind myself and to remind them, like I'll say, "Praise the Lord.

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  Thank you for the encouragement and mostly thank him for speaking through me in some way that it wasn't just me up there rambling, but that he spoke to you this morning and blessed you in that way." Again, it's a blessing in the here and now that then I'm trying to be intentional about pointing that person and myself back to the Lord, the giver of the blessing, his word, and even his ability to speak through me and speak to people through my words and give me a voice and give me a brain and give me whatever else it takes to preach a good sermon, but to do that with all of life. And again, you can do that in a way that feels forced and sanctimonious or if that's the right word, I keep saying it.

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  And certainly in a way that can be off-putting to those outside the church. I mean, Cody's asking about encouraging one another, but to me, those are evangelistic opportunities as well when I'm on a walk, even looking out today, it's like going to be, I think, unseasonably warm again. I imagine if I take off work a little early, go home in the afternoon at the peak, 3:30 when the kids are off, maybe we go on a walk and I bet there'd be going to be some other people out walking the dogs in the neighborhood, son's out, Matthew five, God makes this beautiful sun to shine good weather for unjust evil people too, and sinners and saints and all. And you're passing somebody and, "Hey, how you doing?" And what a beautiful day. I mean, that to me is just such an easy, low hanging fruit opportunity to say, "I know, praise God." And I don't know maybe what that person believes, but it certainly gives just a five second opportunity for me to point and for them to stop and think, because probably in all likelihood these days, they're someone that just takes those blessings for granted or when they come, oh, the universe or the atmospheric pressure or what.

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  It's like, no, God could have made the weather anything he wanted today and look at this day he's made for us and let us rejoice and be glad in it. And anyway, I think there's ways to do that without it being super preachy and off putting like, "Oh boy, here comes the Christian. Let's cross to the other side of the sidewalk kind of thing." But just that, yeah, that models for people too like, "Yeah, I'm enjoying this blessing, hopefully just as much as you, but it is. It's still a foretaste for us and it can be for you two." And anyway, thanks Cody. Great question.

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  Yeah, thanks Cody. Do you have any questions that you hoped would have been asked? Anything you would like to share with the listeners regarding your research around the sermon? Yeah.

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  Yeah. I think first eight verses of Deuteronomy and again, not so much content there that I expected tons and tons of questions. I think if I was to think about a couple maybe questions that I might have anticipated from someone, and again, I think practically there's maybe ... We're still adjusting to the new space at Westminster. It's been amazing. Praise God for their hospitality in that space, but even like somebody mentioned to me, "I couldn't find a pen this morning." So maybe once we get more rhythms there and the dust is settled, people know how to submit their questions and all that. But I think maybe two quick ones. I made the point with verse six where the Lord our God said to us, Moses is relaying to them in Horab, Mount Sinai, this is 38 years prior, he's reminding them of, we set out on our journey beginning of the Book of Numbers, but the Lord, our God said to us, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain now wheels up.

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  Let's go take your journey. Let's go to the promised land that I've got waiting for you. " And I made the comment that maybe God is saying that to some of you this morning and I tried to, again, make that personal and practical for folks. I did maybe anticipate that someone might have even been honestly, as much as that could be heard as a perhaps relieving, freeing, liberating thing for some, like, wow, yeah, I had a pastoral conversation with one of our congregants just last week, has felt trapped in a frankly abusive marriage and she just got notified last week that her husband served her divorce papers and I called her and we talked and prayed and she said mixed emotions, but honestly more than anything, probably relief. And I feel like God's allowing me to move on. And so I thought about her with that, "Hey, you've stayed at this mountain long enough." Now, again, the analogy is not perfect because we shouldn't think of Mount Sinai as some terrible place that Israel was trapped at.

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  I mean, it was a fearful place. The mountain's shaken and they're scared and don't go near it and all that. And even now as we look back on what does Mount Horeb Sinai represent, the Apostle Paul wasn't particularly ... I mean, he does qualify in Romans. He's like, "Is there anything wrong with the law? No. What's wrong with us and our inability to keep it? " But he does say even some of the metaphor that he used with the old covenant, the law, Mount Sinai was like Hagar, the slave woman. And this is not particularly positive in a lot of cases. And I think it's relative. It's kind of like when Jesus says, "Unless your love for your family looks like hatred compared to your love for me, you're not worthy of relationship with me. " It's kind of one of those things. You got to hate your own family, mother, father, sister, brother, spouse, kids, life, your own life.

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  I think it's one of those things is how I make ... What Paul's saying there is like, "Hey, when we think about what God did for us 1500 years ago at Sinai and given the law and all that, it was amazing for Israel back then, but in relation to relative to what he's done for us now and sending Christ and the new covenant under grace and we're no longer under the law and his gift of Christ, it makes it look like a slave woman. It makes it look like Ishmael. It makes it look like slavery." And so anyway, I say all that to say like, what was I talking about? You've stayed long enough at this mountain. I mean, I do think there's a sense in which maybe Moses didn't even prophetically know how we could today take those words from God and interpret them as, yeah, like Sinai served its purpose.

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  And whether that was this marriage of yours that served its purpose in your life and God obviously is going to use it and redeem it to grow you, whatever you learned from now that you're divorced and you're moving on, whether that's grief. I mentioned that as an example, a practical example of, you've been here in this place of grief over this loss for long enough. And I think of folks at our church that have had significant loss and it's hard to move on from this mountain to clear that deceased spouse or parents or child or what, clothes out of their closet and box them up and give them to goodwill and move on and like whatever that might be, that mountain that God might be calling you to move on from and take the next, turn the page in the next chapter in your story.

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  And I've got more waiting for you, but first you got to move on from the mountain and trust me.

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  I knew even in saying that, and especially in being late in the sermon and being rushed, that someone could hear that and feel either like it's insensitive or whatever mountain that they're at right now. And again, God had them there for 11 months at Sinai, right? So what do we take from that? I mean, I think some people are way too quick to move on from mountains and God actually wants you to stay here for a while and grieve, stay here for a while and learn your lesson from this job that maybe it's not your dream job. And eventually God's going to say, "Meh, time to move on. " But you know what, it's a season and you're not done with the season and God's calling you to wait here for your full 11 months and learn the lessons he's got for you and be faithful where you're planted before moving on.

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  So again, I think the devil's in the details there, you'd have to have a sit down meeting with every single individual person who's saying, "Hey, here's where the mountain that I feel like I've been at and what do you think? Is God calling me to move on? " And again, I can't be the Holy Spirit for anybody else and don't try to be ... But yeah, that was just one practical thing that I had said that I kind of maybe half anticipated somebody saying, "Can you say more?" Or, "I don't know how I felt about that or whatever." And then the other was maybe a little bit related to Cody's question versus seven and eight and just God specifically, again, the promise that he's calling them to move on to and take hold of and take possession of the land and claim. And I mentioned that the outline of the land that God outlines here all the way to the Euphrates and all that is like 300,000 miles and Israel only ever occupied 30,000.

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  And what about us? And is it possible you're only experiencing one 10th of the blessing God wants for you? And again, I kind of maybe half expected somebody who doesn't know me better or my preaching or theology or us as a church or whatever to be like, "Well, that started to sound like prosperity teaching and that kind of thing." But maybe that's where again I ... And I try to end the conclusion of taking hold of Christ. That's where all the promises really find their yes and amen, their fulfillment, the fullness of meaning and joy and hope to look forward to with Christ. So hopefully that maybe sets some minds at ease, hearts at ease. But yeah, I think I maybe could have done an even better job of making that connection even more explicitly for people to say like, "Hey, maybe the 10X blessing of what you're experiencing blessing in your life now, be grateful for it.

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  But keep in mind, church, for those of you in Christ, you've got 10 times the blessing to really look forward to and the life to come." And so because of Christ and again, when we're with him face to face and changed and made like him.

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  But to clarify that, I don't think there's anything wrong. We can use prosperity teachers as a punching bag, but I mean, there is absolutely nothing wrong with desiring to experience blessing materially even in the here and now. And God, again, gave Israel that. "I'm taking you to this good land and you're going to have lots of fruit and you're going to build your own houses and not live in tents anymore." There's lots of proverbs about, there's nothing like super, super righteous just in and of itself about being poor. Again, some of the Jesus and others that didn't have all the material blessings that we ... But anyway, that's a whole nother podcast, but I did maybe kind of expect a follow-up question on that. And again, Cody's is at least tangential to that, the whole prosperity and how much kind of blessing in this life should we be praying for, asking for, wanting.

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  But yeah, so just a couple things that were on my radar, maybe to give folks some suggestions to-

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  For sure.

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  Yeah, think about, I hope people are thinking real critically and deeply on Sunday mornings. So keep asking those questions. Remember, even if you can't find a pen, you can submit them how?

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  We have a QR code up on the slides during the benediction at the end. Grab your phone. It's also in our pre-service and post-service slide rotation as well. Scan that, submit that form digitally. We hope that this has been an edifying listen for you as you seek to be changed and to love God more as you apply God's word after the sermon. So go apply the sermon and continue to make disciples and Lord willing. We'll catch you right back here early next week.