Asking for Directions | New Normal - #9 | John Lindell

[Music] we're in a series we've entitled new normal we're looking at the book of joshua we're learning lessons from joshua about what it takes not only to experience the blessing of god and a lot of people have momentary temporary encounters with the goodness of god the grace of god the blessing of god they just don't live it in the blessing of god but there are some things you and i have to do if we're going to live in the land of blessing there are things we have to be a part of what god is doing and the way we live the way we think the way we function god's blessing is not automatic and god will bless anyone who seeks him so the whole purpose of this is to say what do we need to do because i don't know about you i just want all of god's blessing that i can possibly have on my own life on on the personal aspects of my life my marriage my family my kids my grandkids on the church and god is delighted to do that he delights in doing good i don't know what you've heard about god i don't know what you've been taught about god if you're new here today if you've been at james river you've heard me say this over and over again settle it in your heart that god is good psalm 119 in verse 68 you are good and you do good once you make that something that is a non-negotiable in your life and your understanding of god it will open your heart and mind to god's working in a whole new way because rather than believing you've got to convince god to do something for you you believe god wants to do it and that makes all the difference in the world in the way you seek god and walk with god and so really my prayer for the church is simply that we would walk in a new awareness of his presence a new experience of his hand upon our lives that we would we would see god do things just like joshua's going to see we're going to look at some amazing things in the coming weeks just like god saw joshua saw god do miracles he'd never seen before even under moses god has more for you god has more for this church more of his presence more of his goodness more of his power as we draw close to him he'll draw close to us that is the backdrop the title of the message is asking for directions asking for directions life's full of decisions all of us face decisions it's a part of life which job to take which car to buy which person to marry which school to go to which house to should we sell a house buy a house should we rent here rent there should we move here move there their relational decisions should some are wondering should you date this person should you date that person should you not date during this time we all face decisions and as we come to joshua chapter 9 joshua and the leaders of israel faced a decision a nation comes to them and wants to make a treaty with israel and joshua and the leaders of israel make a terrible decision let's look at it joshua chapter 9 verse 1. as soon as all the kings who were beyond the jordan in the hill country and in the lowland all along the coast of the great sea toward lebanon the hittites amorites canaanites perizzites hivites and jebusites heard of this they gathered together as one to fight against joshua and israel that verse is is similar it reminds us of what we read in joshua chapter 5 and verse 1. look at it as soon as all the kings of the amorites who are beyond the jordan to the west and all the kings of the canaanites who are by the sea heard that the lord had dried up the waters of the jordan for the people of israel until they had crossed over their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of israel the niv puts it this way their hearts melted they no longer have the courage to face the israelites what's the difference before it can sin nobody wants to fight the nation of israel they've seen the power of god they've watched that god is going before israel but now after achan sins they're emboldened to fight why because remember when after aiken sends a.i the city they're attacking wins the first state of battle and i think it points to a reality that all of us need to be aware of it's a motivation to walk as close to the lord as we possibly can and it's simply this sin has built-in consequences that affect our future your sin may not seem like a big deal to you in fact even as i mentioned sin some of you right now the holy spirit is putting his finger on it and saying yeah that's what he's talking about that relationship that activity whatever it is substance abuse whatever that sin is to you that the holy spirit puts his finger on we have a tendency to excuse it people have a tendency to say it's not that big a deal people have a tendency to say you know what i'll ask for forgiveness later [Music] but you can be sure of this sin will affect your future because what happens is when a person tolerates sin in their life it creates future battles they would never had to have fought if they hadn't compromised battles that'll be harder to win battles that will bring some very difficult issues to a person's life don't think it's not a big deal i mean we've become in our society and in our culture too casual regarding sin it pays to serve the lord in fact i think of proverbs chapter or proverbs chapter 10 and verse 22 the blessing of the lord makes one rich i'm not saying everybody's going to be a millionaire i like the way the message makes life rich makes life full makes life good it's it's kind of that hebrew idea of hayam you know they uh that life is full but it's wonderful that we're talking emotional prosperity we're talking about mental well-being we're talking about peace that shalom on your life that when when you have the blessing of the lord it makes your life full it it makes your life good and he adds no sorrow to it versus when a person says you know what i'm going to compromise here i'm going to do what i want over here and and it'll it'll be all right i'll ask god to forgive me later well he forgives sure god is a forgiving god but there are consequences that are unleashed that create battles in the future you would not have had to fight back to joshua chapter 9. as soon as all the kings who were beyond the jordan and the hill country and in the low land along the coast of the great sea toward lebanon the hittites amorites canaanites perizzites hivites and the jebusites heard of this they gathered together as one to fight against joshua and israel what's interesting and most scholars will say this they'll say this listing of the nations it appears in different places in the bible but this listing is identical to a listing that we have in deuteronomy chapter 20. and there god is saying in the cities of the nations the lord your god is giving you as an inheritance do not leave anything alive that breathes completely destroy them then it lists out all the nations like we have in joshua verse 18 we read this otherwise they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods and you will sin against the lord your god in starting joshua 9 with that phrase it's as if the writer of joshua is cueing us and telling us listen this is something that joshua should have remembered this is something that they clearly were told what god thought which tells us something very very interesting i think it is instructive for us you can know the word of god and you can want to do the will of god but if you aren't waiting on god you can make regrettable regrettable decisions sometimes people say well you know god knows i love him well great and he knows you love him but that's not the same as waiting on him to get his mind to get his input to get his direction to get his blessing on your circumstance some people say well you know john that the problem is you know it's easy for you to say that because you're paid to pray it's true i love it i can't believe it i'm so happy about it but the issue is this you don't have time not to pray for any of us it's much more effective to pray first and avoid the problem i believe in preventative prayer that there's a lot of things that will never happen to us because we spent time with the lord i'm not saying you're never going to have problems i'm just saying there's a lot of problems you'll never have when you and i seek god god promises to go before us it averts a lot of things it causes us to think differently to do differently to have our day order differently we put him first he's going to take care of us in a way that would not have happened otherwise a lot of problems could have been avoided we could save ourselves a lot of headaches a lot of heartaches if we would pray first better to pray preventively than to have to try to pray our way out of a problem things could have turned out so different for joshua and israel let me give you just three things three object lessons that can help us to not make his mistake number one pray instead of letting fear guide you the mention of those nations in that verse again reminds you of things that joshua knew and that israel knew when you have all of those nations listed in deuteronomy chapter 7 when the lord your god brings you into the land you're entering to possess and drives out before you many nations the hittites gergashites amorites canaanites perizzites hivites and jebusites watches seven nations larger and stronger than you so this chapter starts and what you have is you have israel coming off a victory that was in some ways initiated by a defeat and joshua he knows what's ahead as they're entering canaan he 40 years earlier along with 11 others spied out the land he and caleb came back and said it's a great land and we can take it ten others said it's a great land and there's absolutely no way they're bigger they're stronger there's no way there are giants in the land they've got fortified cities they're any one of the seven is bigger than we are and so now as joshua comes in to this time in his life it's very possible that he and the leaders of israel are feeling a bit more vulnerable because of a little town like ai can put up a fight and defeat them on a single day their cities way bigger than a.i there's armies way better than ai so joshua is feeling vulnerable he's feeling outnumbered and so here they are in a place where where very likely their confidence is shaken and all of a sudden when a nation shows up and says we'd love to be your ally that sounds very very attractive it sounds very very safe if i can just say that there's some today and you're looking at your your life and and maybe you had stepped out and you were walking by faith and you were believing god and you were trusting but things happened and somewhere along the line you had a setback things didn't work out like you thought you got hurt there there was a battle and you feel like you lost that battle and it's shaken you up a little bit and it's diminished your ability to believe that god will give you victory in other areas of your life and so you're gonna you're gonna play it just a little bit more carefully i'm not saying you're not gonna pray but you're gonna say you know what i'm gonna pray but i'm gonna work a little harder and what's happened is you're trusting yourself more as you're trusting god less saying i'm going to pray but i'm going to i'm going to take care of business over here listen it's like john bunyan said you can do more than pray after you've prayed but you can't do more than pray until you pray that there has to be and in that praying a praying with faith that doesn't give in to the fear that makes our problems bigger than our god because the longer we obsess on a problem the bigger it gets and when our problems get big our god gets small always better to magnify the lord to make him big always make god bigger than your problems and prayer has a way of doing that instead of letting fear guide us second i want you to notice this pray instead of moving too fast look at it in joshua chapter nine verse three but when the inhabitants of gibeon heard what joshua had done to jericho and ai so gibeon's about seven miles northwest of the city of jerusalem uh the town still stands today they are hivites in that list of the different nations they on their part acted with cunning and went made ready provisions and took worn out sacks for their donkeys and wine skins worn out torn and mended with worn out patched sandals on their feet and worn out clothes and all their provisions were only dry and crumbly so they were all they looked very old and they went to joshua in the camp at gilgal and said to him and to the men of israel we've come from a distant country so now make a covenant with us but the men of israel said to the hivites perhaps you live among us then how can we make a covenant with you and they said to joshua we are your servants and joshua has said to them who are you and where do you come from the idea in the original is as you're passing by where did you come from and where are you going and they said to him from a very distant country your servants have come because of the name of the lord your god for we have heard a report of him and all that he did in egypt and all that he did to the two kings of the amorites who were beyond the jordan to sion the king of heshman and to all king of baitian who lived in ashraf notice they don't bring up and we heard what you did to jericho and we saw what you did to ai they're not bringing up recent news they are playing them like a fiddle so our elders and the inhabitants of our country said to us take provisions in your hand for the journey and go meet them and say to them we are your servants come now make a covenant with us to give you knights come to joshua and israel and here's what they say we have read about you you are famous we we saw the write-up in the new york times about what you did we you know actually we've been following you on instagram and wow it is really amazing how how god is going before you and they're playing them and fooling them watch verse 12 look at it here's our bread it was still warm when we took it from our houses these wine skins were new when we filled them behold they burst these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey notice what joshua did joshua said to them who are you and where do you come from they want a treaty they want a covenant and joshua's only asking two questions that's ridiculous we like to have a lifelong treaty of covenant which incidentally is going to affect israel for centuries and joshua is saying well i just need to know two things who are you and where did you come from he didn't investigate he didn't stop to think it over it looked very obvious to him it looked like well you know it is what it is he judges by appearances look at it in verse 14. so the men took some of their provisions but did not ask counsel from the lord and joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live and the leaders of the congregation swore to them listen be careful about making quick decisions be careful about making a decision on an issue or on an area of your life when you don't have all the information some of you today are getting ready to make a decision god has brought you here today to tell you whoa stop slow down you don't have enough information wait you're gonna make a mistake often there's more to a decision than meets the eye if it's at all possible take time to research the matter to get some wise godly counsel to ask some other people to investigate to look at it proverbs chapter 14 says this only simpletons believe everything they're told it's foolish to say well they said it well i know they said it but what was their motive how did how does this play is it true what they said just because they said it doesn't mean it's true the prudent carefully consider their steps be careful about making a quick decision let me give you a piece of advice if someone is pushing you to make a quick decision almost always it is for their benefit not yours if somebody's like you got to do this now limited time don't miss out on this i'm doing this for you and man i can't do it for everybody but i'm doing it for you but only if you do it you need to say this is bogus this is not real this is not good wait stop pause but especially pray pray rather than making quick decisions number three pray instead of assuming you know joshua 9 verse 14 so the men took some of their provisions but did not ask counsel from the lord not one time did they stop and say god these people have come to us all he has to do if you look in it's in um i think it's in leviticus um that all joshua has to do is joshua or it's it's in deuteronomy excuse me all joshua has to do is if he has a question go to the high priest they've got the umam mentions which is a means of discerning the world lord just ask him he'll he'll go to the lord the lord will tell you exactly what to do are these people legit no that's all he had to do i want you to think about this anytime joshua prays it's amazing when he prays jesus appears and says let me give you a really wild way of taking the city you're going to love this it's going to be hard for you to believe but it's going to be amazing and for all human history people be saying that's crazy joshua is going to pray next week and he's going to say son stand still it's going to happen joshua doesn't pray and 36 israelites are dead lord how should i take this city i know it looks easy but i don't i don't want to assume i can do anything without your help lord i'm dependent upon you i'm seeking you you show me and i just want to do your will please let me know if he prays ai is captured in the day if he doesn't pray sin stops everything if he prays there's no treaty with the gibeonites he doesn't pray he makes a massive mistake you can almost hear the leader say well i think about to go with our gut on this one and you want to say what in the world you can pray you can ask god you've got the high priest there you can go to the lord when you're facing a decision pray i mean james chapter five the scripture is full of it if any of you lacks wisdom he should ask god who gives generously to all without finding fault if you need wisdom he's gonna give you a generous amount he's not going to give you a dab will do you he's going to unload the truck in fact when you're praying for wisdom for this thing he's probably going to give you wisdom for 100 other things you didn't know you ought to be praying for the united message says if you don't know what you're doing pray to the father he loves to help you'll get his help listen you only get god's help if you pray now is there a common grace yeah that causes it to rain on the on the just and the unjust is there a sense where you're a child of god and god watches over you absolutely that is true but if you could have more why in the world would you not want it so i love god great that's an awesome thing but listen jesus didn't say you know if you love god you'll receive no what he said is ask and you'll receive seek and you'll find knock and the door will be opened unto you if you want to receive from the lord you've got to pray you've got to seek his face before you make a decision pray let me add let me add one other thing to this whole matrix of how you want to consider prayer if you don't feel peace run i don't care if you've you've talked to the godliest brain trust that you can have around you if in your heart you don't feel peace don't do it because they're human and they can pray but nobody can make some decisions for you you need to you need to go before the lord and if there's not a piece then what you have to assume is you have to say assume god is saying pause stop or don't do it peace is the umpire when it comes to the will of god you want to know what the will of god is where do you feel perfect peace don't feel peace don't do it so it's really important that we pray that we that we wait on the lord joshua chapter 9 verse 16 at the end of three days after they've made a covenant with them then they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them i mean have you ever been have you ever been conned by somebody like they they told you you know you ought to buy this and it'll do that or or you ought to do this and or this investment or this thing or that thing only to find out it wasn't that way or maybe have you ever made a decision and at the time you you maybe were feeling like a little bit of lack of peace but you made it anyway because you wanted to because it it seemed like a good idea to you at that time only to find out it was a terrible decision i mean whenever you know i'm driving south on campbell and you you know you come across the james river freeway and you go up and it kind of goes up by plane views a slope there i i think back every now and then to when debbie and i were first married and we were passing out in western kansas and and we had a little honda accord hatchback and we had david and brandon was on the way and you could see the car was getting tight we were gonna need you put car seats and there's hardly any room for anything so we're gonna need to trade cars so we were in town visiting some friends and and i thought you know um i said to debbie we gotta we gotta trade cars and and she wasn't super excited about it and you know was a little bit like and i was like listen you take care of the babies i'll trade the cars okay you know i mean you know hey i've grown up since then so anyway we go over and we we look at a car and and um so we just have a gun test driven so it's a 1985 holes cutlass four-door and so we get out on the road and we go south of town and we're driving it and we get we get to the top of that hill and it stops it's a brand new car it stops it quits so you know when we're starting to get out of the car debbie's like i think the lord's trying to tell us something guys don't you hate that i mean when you know the holy spirit sounds a lot like your wife you know and and it's something so anyway i was like well i don't i mean i think he's trying to tell us don't buy this car i mean you know that's not doesn't have anything to do with buying a car i don't know i think the lord's telling us to wait and i said well maybe you know and i was i just i wasn't having so we go back to the dealership and i'm like don't want that car but you got another one like it we buy that car six months later that car is named consumer reports limit of the year in our first six months of owning that car we put on uh three or four water pumps two fuel pumps crankshaft pulley a new suspension on the front the tires the belts broke out because of the way the suspension was wet i mean that car was a disaster i've since learned something if debbie's not in we're not doing it you know if if she and i aren't together on that we're not doing it i would just say to husbands and wives listen you need to you need to understand god gives you one another to weigh out and discern the will of the lord for your life and you air if one of you wants to do something the other one doesn't want to do you're both walking with the lord and and you're not together on it don't do it wait until the lord brings your hearts together you say well i'm i'm single how's that work for me i would say this it's good for you to be in relationship with godly people with whom you can share the situation you can pray about it so you can have some kind of assistance in discerning the will of the lord [Music] i mean we can make a decision only to find out it was the wrong decision that's joshua look at this in verse 17. and the people of israel set out reach their cities on the third day now their cities were gibeon kephra bharath kyrieth jerem but the people of israel did not attack them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the lord the god of israel then all the congregation murmured against the leaders but all the israel the leaders said to all the congregation we have sworn to them by the lord the god of israel and now we may not touch them so there's nothing they can do the situation could not be reversed this is the thing to think about and a motivation to pray there are some decisions that when you make you're never going to be able to reverse it you just have to you have to especially if there's a decision that you're entering into you say well if they lie then i i can say well you lied so no not so fast that's not how god viewed it you see once you give somebody your word you say but they lied they were tricking god says you have to keep your word listen remember what it says i don't have on the screen but the psalms in psalm 15 says who can assu send the hill of the lord who can stand in his presence he who has clean hands and a pure heart down as it lists these different qualifications he who keeps his oath even when it hurts a lot of times we make decisions and maybe somebody wasn't honest maybe somebody didn't tell us all there was but now we're in a situation where we've given our word and in that moment we've got to honor god that's where they are they cannot get out of it verse 22 look what joshua says then joshua summoned them and he said to them why did you deceive us saying we are very far from you when you dwell among us it's almost like that's not fair you know our human nature is when we make a bad decision who made the decision he did whose fault was it his doesn't matter if it wasn't fair doesn't matter if he was deceived he didn't pray but this question why did you deceive us is absolutely the wrong question for a leader to ask he should have been asking why was i deceived that's the issue and the answer is he was deceived because he thought he knew it seemed like an easy decision seemed like seemed like a good decision israel could use allies it was so obvious he didn't think he needed to pray and there are some here today who are in the middle of a decision-making process and it just seems so obvious you don't think you need to pray you may go ahead and make that decision after prayer but you may pray and god may say don't do it and you may say that doesn't make sense and you may say you know god i really want to and you will do it to your own peril or you will say you know what i've listened i've heard the word of god i'm praying i don't have a peace i really like to do it but in obedience to the lord and trusting he knows more than i know and sees what i can't see i'm going to honor him and in about three months you're going to be saying praise god you'll be filling out the prayer card saying i sought the lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears listen joshua made a massive mistake don't assume you know don't think if it's obvious physically to your sight to your ears to your mind it's the right choice [Music] i'm just saying for all of us and some of you aren't facing a decision today but you're going to this week i believe the word of god has been sent with that kind of purpose every single week that if it's not right now and it doesn't apply today try tomorrow [Music] but you know some people are gonna make a bad decision and the reason why it comes down to one thing you trust yourself more than you trust god you sell nonsense really what i want well it's because you want it and you think you know what will bring you more happiness than god you think you know what's going to be better for you than god i'm just saying that's a dangerous place to be [Music] and you're going to find yourself making decisions some of which you cannot undo and you're going to find yourself fighting battles you never would have had to fought and you're going to find yourself emboldening things circumstances against you in a way they never would have had to if only you would have sought god instead of trusting in yourself let me leave you with this proverbs 3 trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding that's the problem isn't it well i don't understand because this really listen my understanding your understanding is human understanding it sees from a limited perspective lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him all did you see that all people get hung up and they say well you know i don't think it's that big a deal well you know what everything's everything counts [Music] if i want god to bless everything i take everything to him if i want his input in every aspect of my life i talk to him about the aspects of my life and he shall direct your paths today i really want to encourage you right now to order new normal on amazon or wherever books are sold you can pick up one for yourself a friend or a family member because god wants you to live in a land that's full of his promise and possibility and we believe this book will help you on your journey to a new normal we also have an amazing study guide available on amazon so you can go through the book with a small group your spouse or even friends at a coffee shop so you can get the most out of this amazing resource as you go throughout your day this is our prayer for you may the lord bless you and protect you may he smile on you and be gracious to you may he show you his favor and give you his peace god bless

Channel: James River Church

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Keywords: pastor john lindell, john lindell, james river church, james river church sermons, john lindell sermons, church, church online, online church, sermon, sermons, best sermon, best sermons, new normal, best sermon 2021, 2021 sermons, lindell, church sermons, joshua, joshua in the bible, bible, christian, christianity, biblical, teaching, preaching, preacher, sermon series, church live stream, online church live, god, jesus, directions, pray, prayer, power of prayer, decisions, making decisions

Id: wj5v_7rY6AU

Length: 37min 33sec (2253 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 14 2021