I guess every neighborhood has its bully. Well when I was growing up, I'll tell you our neighborhood did. "Boomer" this guy, made all us little kids in the neighborhood his victim. So he would beat us up, you know, tower over us and threaten us, took our stuff. And frankly I've got to tell you, one day I had had enough. Yeah, oh yeah, I was little - he was big, but I marched all the way down our little block on the south side of Chicago. I went up the steps on that back porch. I pounded on the screen door on the back of his house. Boomer came to the door, and I said, "Boomer, I want my stuff back." You say, "Man, you were a brave little kid." Well, ah, there's one thing I forgot to tell you - my ah Father went with me. You see, that made a very big difference. Boomer was bigger than I was, but my Father was bigger than Boomer was.
Well I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beating Your Boomer."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Deuteronomy chapter 1, and we find that God's ancient people are being terrorized and frightened by the "Boomers" in their world. They have scouted out the Promised Land that God wants to give them and has promised to give them. They've come back and said, "The people are strong, and tall. They are taller than we are. The cities are large with walls that go up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites, those giant people - nobody goes against them - we saw them there."
Now I don't know what your Boomer is, what your giants, what your walls would be. Maybe it's any challenge or problem that you are facing right now, that's a lot bigger than you or your resources. Now here's the reaction of these people. "You were unwilling to go up," the Lord says, "You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, because of how big the giants looked." They could have had the Promised Land - they ended up wandering in the wilderness for forty years instead.
Chapter 1 Verse 29, "Then I said to you, 'Do not be terrified, do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God who is going before you will fight for you as He did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a Father carries hisson - all the way you went until you reached this place. In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God who went ahead of you on your journey in fire by night, and in a cloud by day."He says, "You were unwilling to trust."
Did you hear that? "Look who is going with you," He said, "the Lord your God." And He reviews five promises for His people - for any of His people who are following His lead into something difficult or challenging. Five worries that keep us from going for it. First of all He says, "The Lord Your God will fight for you." In other words, you need to have no fear of your enemy - I am bigger than your enemy even if he is bigger than you are. Secondly, He says, "The Lord your God is going before you. I'll get wherever I am going to take you before you get there. No fear of the unknown."
He's already there getting it ready. He said, "I will carry you." That means that when you run out, He'll still be carrying you. There's no fear of your inadequacy. Fourthly He says, "I will search out places for you to camp." No fear about your location. He said, "I'll get you a spot, don't worry." And then He says, "I will show you the way you should go." There is no fear of getting lost somewhere. He promises His guidance. But, they made the tragic mistake - "You did not trust in the Lord your God." See you can miss the place to which all the journey has been leading you if you do not move out in total trust that God will fight for you.
Why don't you move boldly into the "Faith Zone"? After all, whatever is bigger than you are, your Father is bigger than it is.