This is a sermon I have used to challenge churches to take the next step forward, to achieve what God has prepared for them.
Joshua 1: 1-2, 10-11, 16-17
INTRODUCTION:
The primary focus of the message is this: When we trust God’s promises, good things happen.”
When you fear that the worst will happen, your own thoughts may help to bring it about. "Fear," a writer once said, "Is the wrong use of imagination. It is anticipating the worst, not the best that can happen."
A salesman, driving on a lonely country road one dark and rainy night had a flat. He opened the trunk--no lug wrench. The light from a farmhouse could be seen dimly up the road. He set out on foot through the driving rain. Surely the farmer would have a lug wrench he could borrow, he thought. Of course, it was late at night--the farmer would be asleep in his warm, dry bed. Maybe he wouldn't answer the door. And even if he did, he'd be angry at being awakened in the middle of the night. The salesman, picking his way blindly in the dark, stumbled on. By now his shoes and clothing were soaked. Even if the farmer did answer his knock, he would probably shout something like, "What's the big idea waking me up at this hour!" This thought make the salesman angry. What right did that farmer have to refuse him the loan of a lug wrench? After all, here he was stranded in the middle of nowhere, soaked to the skin. The farmer was a selfish clod--no doubt about that! The salesman finally reached the house, and banged loudly on the door. A light went on inside, and a window opened above. "Who is it?" a voice called out. "You know darn well who it is," yelled the salesman, his face white with anger. "It's me! You can keep your blasted lug wrench. I wouldn't borrow it now if you had the last one on earth!" (Bits & Pieces, May, 1991, p. 23. )
This story reveals a very true fact. Imagination can be a dangerous thing. We can imagine ourselves into failure.
But….imagination can also be a positive thing. Imagining great things are about to happen will encourage us to prepare ourselves for those great things.
At issue today is whether you will be a camper outer or a crosser over. That is an issue for both individuals and for churches.
Look at our Bible story. Moses was gone, Joshua was now the leader of the people of Israel. For forty years they had been wandering around. Their ranks had been purged of that generation of people who had been so fearful of crossing over into that land God had promised them.
Now, here they were….a new generation of people, standing on the brink of finally getting what God wanted to give them.
They were facing new choices and viewing new challenges. I believe they were looking at three choices. Let’s look at these choices.
I. CHOOSE THE NEW LEADER OVER THE OLD ONE
Look how the book of Joshua begins. God said to Joshua, “Moses, my servant, is dead. now, therefore arise, cross this Jordan…..” God’s intent was clear. He was anointing a new leader for Israel.
There’s a new sheriff in town. Moses is dead. This nation is under new management. The choice the people had to make was whether or not they would follow this new leader or wallow in wishes for former days that used to be.
Joshua’s challenge to the people can be found in Joshua 3:5: “Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”
If Joshua had the same experiences of most leaders, he would likely be confronted with those who did not want to accept his leadership. There would be those who would be loyal to Moses and refuse to acknowledge the new leader.
Folks, there is never any shortage of people who want to remain camped out in the land of what used-to-be. They are often heard saying, “We never did it that way before.” or, “Shouldn’t we wait a bit before we step out? After all, we really don’t know or have any guarantees that things will be as promised.” People have to make a definitive choice to either follow their leader or not to follow their leader.
Every leader knows that without followers there is no leadership. In fact, one person said it this way: “If you think you are leading and you look back and see that no one is following, you are just taking a walk.”
Joshua’s people had to decide if he is their leader or not. Those who chose to accept him as their leader would follow him into the Promised Land, but there would be some who would not give in to the fact that Moses was dead and gone.
II. CHOOSE CROSSING OVER INSTEAD OF CAMPING OUT
The word for the people of Israel is, “Don’t be satisfied with camping on this side of the river when you could be crossing over into the Promised Land.” In other words, don’t stop short of your goal.
The people of Israel had made this mistake forty years earlier and it cost them dearly. Forty years earlier they had made the wrong choice. They made the choice to camp out rather than cross over.
Those four decades ago they refused to cross over because of fear. They were literally paralyzed with fear about the giants and the fortified cities they found in the land God had promised them, Instead of listening to Joshua and Caleb, who told them they could defeat their foes, they listened to the fearful scouts who convinced them they could not.
There are really two kinds of people in any church. There are those who are content to camp out on this side of the river and those who want to cross over—take the risk—inherit the promises of the future. Fear can keep us from crossing over.
Another reason that the Israelites did not cross over was their lack of faith.
Thomas Carlisle once said, “A man lives by believing something, not by debating and arguing about many things.”
That so reminds me of the modern church. There are so many things we say we believe about God, yet we spend so much of our time debating minutia.
The only thing we need to decide is did God tell us the truth. Did He mean it when He said He would not forsake us? Did He mean it when He said, “I will be with you always?” Did He mean it when He said, “I am your God. Trust me.”
Those who do not want to cross over into the land of promise are those whose belief in God wavers according to the circumstances. It is the campers, not the crossers that lack faith in the promises of the Most High God.
Choose crossing over camping.
III. CHOOSE MOVEMENT OVER MONUMENTS
One of the things you notice throughout the word of God is the number of people who were into monuments. Abraham built altars wherever he went. The disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration wanted to build three tabernacles (monuments).
What is a monument? It is something that helps you to remember what once was, either a person or an event. How easy it is just to stand in front of those monuments and remember. Some of the most notable synonyms for the word monument are “tombstone”, “headstone”, gravestone, memorial, etc.
Some of the monuments are built by people who want to remember nothing more than traditions. Traditions are O.K. to remember but not to plan your future around.
We can stay here a look at monuments, or we can move to where God wants us to be.
The modern church is beset by those who want to stay on this side of the river and look at the monuments of remembrance. Some folks are just so enamored by the past that they do not want to venture into the future.
God has so much more for us than many of us have grabbed hold of. In order for us to experience all that He has for us, we must be willing to choose movement over monuments.
CONCLUSION:
The following letter was found in a baking-powder can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water on a very long and seldom-used trail across Nevada's Amargosa Desert: "This pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years. But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up. There's enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. Pour about one-fourth and let her soak to wet the leather. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy. You'll git water. The well has never run dry. Have faith. When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller. (signed) Desert Pete. P.S. Don't go drinking the water first. Prime the pump with it and you'll git all you can hold." (Keith Miller and Bruce Larson, The Edge of Adventure.)
If we are willing to follow God’s instructions on how to get it, He has a blessing for us that is beyond anything we ever imagined. Let your imagination fly and consider what God might do. How you choose during the next few months and years will determine whether or not you get all God wants you to have.
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