Fannin Terrace Baptist Church
Dec 28, 2025
  • This Is Amazing Grace
  • Battle Belongs
  • Same God
  • Good morning church and welcome to what is affectionately referred to on facebook communities that I am a part of to National Youth Pastor Preaching Sunday. Supposedly the final Sunday of the year is when a lot of youth pastors are given the opportunity to preach, so here I am! It’s been a while since I have been able to preach for you all, and I am pretty excited about this opportunity.
    2025 was a craaaazy year in the life of Fannin. When January 1 rolled around, we had 6 paid ministers on staff. By the middle of February, that number was quickly down to 4. Suddenly 4 of us were doing the job of 6 people. You didn’t complain. You didn’t disengage. Rather you stepped up. Asked what can I do. Where can I help? And because of that, You made 2025 a very special year, and on behalf of the staff, I’d like to say thank you for your constant calls, texts, emails and encouragement that we received from you in 2025. You carried us in ways that you may never fully know.
    If you are not aware, we have a podcast that you can catch previous sermons on, interviews with the staff, and just recently we began publishing episodes detailing some behind the scenes looks at 2025 from different people’s point of views. Caden, the newest addition to our staff, and how great has he been, right? He is taking on the role as interviewer as someone who is hearing a lot of this for the first time, so be sure to tune into those episodes. I believe we have worked up a schedule and because of how chaotic 2025 was, the limited series will run for only 32 weeks. Ok, it’s really just 7 episodes.
    But all of that brings us to today. The final Sunday of the year always feels like standing at a threshold. One foot still rests in the year that’s ending — full of memories, blessings, and perhaps some regrets. The other foot is stepping into the unknown of what’s to come.
    That’s exactly where Israel stood in the book of Deuteronomy. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn over, or click over to chapter 8 of the book of Deuteronomy. We will make our way there in just a moment.
    After forty years in the wilderness, the people of God are camped on the plains of Moab, right across the Jordan River. Deuteronomy 3:29 says “so we remained in the valley opposite Beth-Peor. That’s number 12 on the map. They can see the Promised Land — the inheritance God swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — but before they enter, Moses pauses. He doesn’t give them battle plans. He doesn’t give them a strategy meeting. He doesn’t just give them new instructions. He calls them to remember. Because before God moves us forward, He often calls us to look backward — not to live in the past, but to learn from it.
    Let’s read Deuteronomy 8:1–10 and see the three things Moses taught Israel before they crossed over the Jordan river…
    Deuteronomy 8:1–10 ESV
    “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
    So the first thing you see Moses teaching the Israelites in verse 2 is “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you…”
    That phrase — “remember the whole way” — is packed with meaning. The Hebrew word for remember is זָכוֹר (zakor), (where the name Zechariah comes from, which means The Lord has remembered) and it doesn’t simply mean “to recall.” In Jewish thought, zakor is active memory. To remember is to act in light of what you know to be true. It’s to let the past shape your present faithfulness.
    That’s why the Torah continually commands Israel to remember:
    Exodus 20:8 says “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
    Deuteronomy 5:15 says “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”
    Deuteronomy 25:17 says “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt,”
    This wasn’t for nostalgia purposes. Memory was a spiritual discipline. And forgetfulness was a spiritual danger.
    Moses is essentially saying, “Before you cross this river, stop and remember every step — the good, the hard, the confusing — because God was faithful through it all.” Once again, as Moses touched on this briefly in chapter 6, Moses’ argument is based on history: Israel’s experience in the wilderness showed that man depends on God, not solely on natural forces, for sustenance. In the promised land Israel will no longer have to overcome hardships of the sort that made this clear in the wilderness, but if it forgets this lesson and turns to other gods, it will suffer the same fate as the nations whose land it is now receiving.
    Look back at part 2 and I want us to focus on that phrase, “the whole way.” Not just the miraculous moments — the Red Sea or the manna — but the whole journey. The detours, the dry days, the discipline.
    The Hebrew word derekh means “the road” or “the journey.” It’s the same word used throughout the books of Psalms and Proverbs to describe a person’s way of life. So Moses says, “Remember the whole derekh — your life’s journey — because God was in all of it.” I am challenging our students this year to do their own journey, derekh hashem, the way of the Lord, to incorporate God more into their way of life. It has been challenging but rewarding for those who have taken me up on it.
    That’s something we can easily forget. We often remember the miracles and forget the mundane. But Scripture teaches that God’s faithfulness runs through both. This past year, maybe you’ve walked through a wilderness — uncertainty, loss, change, fear. The message of Deuteronomy 8 is this: You didn’t walk it alone.
    Verse 2 continues: “That He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart.” The wilderness was never random; it was refining.
    There is always more than one way of looking at history. The most obvious evaluation of the wilderness period could be that it was a monumental waste of a golden opportunity because the generation that came out of Egypt failed to go up and take the land at that time. However, in retrospect, one can see that the ensuing years were not all wasted. As Moses looks back on that time, he discerns a purpose in having a generation wander about in the wilderness. God turned it into a learning experience that must never be forgotten.
    This verse has a strong sense of that purpose. God had led the people all the way in the desert, in order to humble … to test … to know. It was not just a matter of salvaging something positive from the wreckage of a failure. Like other events in biblical history (e.g., the story of Joseph, the rise of the monarchy, and ultimately, of course, the cross itself), the wilderness wandering is presented to us both as arising out of human sin and rebellion and as having a divine purpose.
    In Jewish teaching, the wilderness or midbar, is a place of both testing and revelation. The root of that word midbar (דבר) means “to speak.” So the wilderness wasn’t silent — it was where God spoke. The same is true for us. God tends to speak loudest when life is stripped down—when self-reliance fades and dependence grows. The purpose of the hardships in the wilderness was to prepare Israel for the future. May we learn and be prepared for the future as we go through hardships in our own lives.
    As a response to their rebellion at Kadesh Barnea, the wilderness was indeed punishment. But as a place of learning, it was an ideal classroom. The irony is that in that very classroom the Israelites thought they were testing God, whereas in fact it was the other way around; it was God who was testing them. The meaning of test is the same in both cases. It does not mean to tempt someone into doing something they would not otherwise do, but rather, it means to prove a person’s word and intentions. Israel wanted to know if God really could do what he promised (even after the exodus?!); God wanted to know if the people really would do what they had promised. The wilderness was thus a learning experience for God as well as the people. God wanted to know what was in Israel’s heart. What would be their settled disposition, attitudes, and thinking. The issue was, and still is, obedience. God’s learning goes on, for the challenge of these words addresses every generation of God’s people. When God puts people in the crucible of humbling affliction, what experimental results does God get from such testing of hearts and wills? Moses does not leave this as a theoretical question. He answers it by directing Israel back to their lived experience in the wilderness. To understand what God was revealing through their testing, Moses points to the daily provision that defined their journey. Listen to his words in Deuteronomy 8:3, as he reminds them of the bread that fell from heaven.
    “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Here Moses is reminding Israel of the manna — the bread from heaven. This is one of the most important theological lessons in all of Torah.
    Every morning for forty years, God provided manna — just enough for that day. Not for tomorrow (unless it was the day before the Sabbath). Not in bulk like costco bread. Daily. bread. That rhythm formed the foundation of Jewish emunah — faithfulness and trust. It’s why, in later centuries, Jewish prayers began with “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” Israel’s hunger in the wilderness was no accident: it was brought about by God to teach the people that nature alone could not be relied upon for food. Then He fed them manna, a previously unknown food, to show them that nourishment depends on Him: man does not live on natural foods alone but on whatever God decrees to be nourishing.
    This verse may sound familiar, and we see Jesus quoting this verse in Matthew 4:4 as He was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He was stepping directly into that tradition — affirming that real life doesn’t come from material provision but from God’s sustaining presence. There is no doubt that the evangelists intend us to notice the significance of Jesus, the Son of God, spending forty days in the wilderness suffering hunger and thirst, just as Israel, the nation of God, spent forty years in the wilderness facing similar hardship. No doubt Satan’s repeated insinuation, “If you are the Son of God …,” was intended to induce in Jesus the same spirit of “testing God” that had so characterized Israel. Had God really meant what God had said, even in the scriptures? It was the same trick Satan had played on Adam and Eve with such tragic success. If God could feed the Israelites, why be hungry now when a miracle would solve the problem? But Jesus sees through Satan’s temptations to the reality of God’s testing, in its Deuteronomy 8:2 sense: what was in Jesus’ heart? Would he live by the word and will of God? Would he be covenantally faithful and obedient where Israel had failed? The ancient word of Deuteronomy pierced the fog of Satan’s confusing question and confirmed Jesus on the pathway of faithful obedience that led ultimately through Gethsemane to the cross.
    So Moses is saying, “Don’t just remember what God provided — remember what He taught you through it.” So what did God teach them through it?
    Quiet Faithfulness
    Verse 4 says “Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.”
    That’s a quiet miracle. Forty years. No shoe replacements. No worn-out sandals. No swollen feet. I go to Disney World for a day and my feet are done. After a day.
    Sometimes God’s faithfulness isn’t loud or dramatic — it’s the quiet, daily sustainment that keeps us going when we didn’t think we could.
    God also taught them to

    Remember His Fatherly Discipline

    “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.” The Hebrew word yassar means “to train, to instruct.” This isn’t punishment — it’s parental care. Parents, you know this. We don’t (or shouldn’t) punish our kids because we like to do punish them. We do it to instruct and to teach our kids something. It’s formation. The wilderness then, was the time of Israel’s adolescence, in which God taught them and disciplined them through hardship and suffering.
    In Jewish understanding, discipline was a sign of covenant love — a Father forming His children into maturity. We see this same type of teaching throughout the Bible. Proverbs 3:11-12
    Proverbs 3:11–12 ESV
    My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
    Hebrews 12:6 ESV
    For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
    Revelation 3:19 ESV
    Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
    So Moses is saying: When you look back, see not just the hard times — see the Father behind them, shaping and preparing your heart for what’s next.
    Now as we get to verse 6 the tone shifts. Moses looks forward: “For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land…” (v. 7)
    After forty years of wandering, a new season is coming — one marked by abundance. The country he was leading them into had great natural benefits: streams, pools, and springs flowing in the valleys and from the hills. This contrasted both with Egypt proper and with Sinai. Egypt relied on one river while Sinai had none; Canaan had more rivers and, in addition, had springs in valleys and hills
    The land also had an abundance of wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, olive oil, honey — the seven species celebrated in Jewish festivals like Shavuot. Abundant. Fertile. Full. And Moses knows the real danger isn’t suffering—it’s success. “You shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land that He has given you” (v. 10). So here Moses it teaching them to not forget God in the land of abundance.
    That’s not just a suggestion. It became a commandment. In Jewish life, this verse is the basis for the Birkat HaMazon, the blessing recited after every meal. Even today, observant Jews pause after eating to bless God (not the food) not before, but after the meal — fulfilling this command when they pray: “Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, for the food and the good land You have given us.”
    Why after? Because gratitude is hardest when we’re full. In the wilderness, they depended on God daily. In the land, the danger would be forgetting God amidst their abundance. Moses is warning them, and us: “When things get good, don’t get forgetful.”
    Gratitude is the foundation for trust. If He’s been faithful “the whole way,” He’ll be faithful in what’s ahead.
    In Joshua 4, right after this moment, God told the Israelites to take twelve stones from the Jordan River and set them up as a memorial.
    When future generations asked, “What do these stones mean?”, they would answer, “This is where God led us through.”
    Maybe we need some “stones of remembrance” this year — literal or symbolic.
    What if you wrote down one thing from 2025 where you saw God’s faithfulness — a moment, a provision, a lesson — and kept it as a reminder that the same God who was faithful then will be faithful now?
    Deuteronomy 8 is a fantastic chapter and I encourage you to read it over the next week. If you want to break this chapter down into a twofold message, here is how you can do that. Deuteronomy 8:16b says “That he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end,” so you can see that the wilderness, which was a place of testing, produced blessing in the end, whereas the land, which would be a place of blessing, would also be a place of testing of the people’s loyalty and humility.So here is that twofold message to the chapter: (a) Remember God in the hard times of the past, but ALSO (b) Do not forget God in the good times in the future.
    Before Israel crossed the Jordan, Moses did not ask them to sharpen their swords. He asked them to sharpen their memory. That alone tells us something about how God forms His people. Momentum without memory is dangerous. God is not only concerned with where His people are going; He is deeply concerned with how they remember where they have been.
    Deuteronomy 8 is not simply a historical reflection. It is a pastoral warning and an invitation. One that meets us exactly where we stand today, on the edge of a new year.
    So as this year closes, Moses gives us three practices that anchor God’s people in faithfulness.
    Intentionally Remember God’s Faithfulness
    Moses begins with a command that sounds simple, but is spiritually demanding: remember. Remembering doesn’t happen accidentally. It has to be practiced. Look back over the “whole way:” the victories, the struggles, the waiting, the answered prayers. Most of us are very good at remembering what hurt us. We remember the conversations that went wrong. The prayers that went unanswered. The plans that fell apart. But Moses says the people of God must remember differently. We remember the whole journey, the wilderness and the manna, the hunger and the daily provision, the confusion and the constant presence of God. If you look carefully, you’ll also see provision you didn’t expect, strength you didn’t know you had, and grace that met you exactly where you were.
    Like Israel, your journey has been guided every step by a faithful God. When you remember His faithfulness, you find courage for the unknown. When you remember His provision, you find gratitude in abundance. When you remember His presence, you find peace for the journey ahead.
    Remember, memory in Scripture is not passive. It is active. To remember is to allow the past to shape how we trust God in the present. And if we are honest, one of the reasons our faith grows shaky is not because God has been unfaithful, but because we have been forgetful.
    As 2025 comes to a close, we need to remember that this year cannot be reduced to what went wrong. God was at work in the ordinary, in the unseen, and in the daily. Take time—real, intentional time—to name where God was faithful this year. Not vaguely. Specifically. Write it down. Say it out loud. Share it with someone you love. Because here’s the truth: what you don’t remember, you will eventually doubt. And God knew that. That’s why Moses starts here.
    Take time to remember intentionally:
    Where did God show up?
    How did He provide?
    What prayers did He answer—even if not the way you expected?
    Discern What God Has Been Forming In You
    The wilderness was not punishment alone—it was preparation. Moses tells Israel that God humbled them, tested them, and revealed what was in their hearts. Not because God needed information—but because the people needed transformation.
    The wilderness stripped Israel of their illusions:
    The illusion of control
    The illusion of self-sufficiency
    The illusion that freedom meant ease
    And often, that’s exactly what God does in our lives.
    What has He been forming in your heart this year? Maybe humility. Maybe dependence. Maybe perseverance. Those lessons are the manna of your soul. This year may have exposed things you didn’t know were there:
    Fear you didn’t realize you carried
    Anger that surfaced under pressure
    Dependence on comfort instead of God
    And that exposure is not condemnation—it is grace. God reveals what is in our hearts so He can reshape it.
    So ask yourself honestly:
    What has this year revealed about my trust in God?
    Where have I learned dependence instead of self-reliance?
    What habits, attitudes, or assumptions has God been challenging?
    God doesn’t waste hardship. If He allowed it, He intends to use it—to prepare you for what’s next. We may not know what that is for us, and that may be the scariest part of all. But this will cause us to trust in Him even more. The wilderness is uncomfortable, but it is also clarifying.
    The question is not, “Why did this happen?” The better question is, “What is God forming in me through this?”
    Because the lessons of the wilderness become the strength of the future. And the last thing I want you to reflect on is to…
    Guard your heart in seasons of abundance
    Here is the surprising turn in Moses’ message: the greatest danger is not the wilderness—it is the Promised Land.
    In the wilderness, Israel depended on God daily. In the land, they would have food, security, stability, and success. And Moses knows something about the human heart: when life gets easier, faith often gets weaker.
    That’s why the command comes after the meal: “When you eat and are full, then you shall bless the LORD.” Gratitude is hardest when we are satisfied. And abundance can quietly replace dependence if we are not careful. We stop praying with urgency. We stop listening with attentiveness. We stop obeying with humility. If God brings you into a season of blessing:
    Don’t wait until things fall apart to seek God.
    Don’t let answered prayers replace daily dependence.
    Build rhythms of gratitude now, before abundance dulls your awareness of God.
    If God brings you into a “good land,” let that goodness lead you to worship—not forgetfulness. So as we step into a new year, may we — like Israel — remember, bless, and follow the God who has led us the whole way.
    As we read a moment ago in Joshua 4 Israel built a memorial so future generations could ask, “What do these stones mean?”
    So here’s my invitation as we close this year:
    Sometime this week:
    Write down one moment from this year where you clearly saw God’s faithfulness.
    One lesson He taught you.
    One way He carried you when you couldn’t carry yourself.
    Keep it. Revisit it. Share it. Because the same God who led you this far is the God who will lead you forward.
    “Father, You have led us through every season — through joy and through wilderness. Teach us to remember the whole way You’ve led us. Forgive us for the moments we’ve forgotten Your goodness. Fill us with gratitude for Your faithfulness this past year, and with trust for what lies ahead. You have been faithful then — and You will be faithful still. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

      • Deuteronomy 8:1–10ESV

      • Proverbs 3:11–12ESV

      • Hebrews 12:6ESV

      • Revelation 3:19ESV

  • Goodness Of God
Fannin Terrace Baptist Church
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