Dr Robert Smith Jr - A New Beginning - "Semicolon"

speak Lord speak Lord speak Lord for your servants are listening in Jesus's name we pray amen god be praised once again god has blessed us with this delicious opportunity this delightful privilege to worship Him in spirit and in truth not that he needs us but he wants us and even though he receives perfect praise from angels who've never fallen before he accepts us even in our brokenness in anticipation to a time when we will never ever ever cease to praise him when we've been there ten thousand years bright shining as the Sun we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun I've had a ball today I've had fun I've had holy hilarity it's been a wonderful worshipping with people that I will worship with for the rest of eternity eternity will not have an addiction a conclusion not even a transition Thank You executive pastor first viscus for being a brother I feel like I've known you for a long time sister Melanie takes care of me make sure she told me I told her to tell tell me if I'm getting ready to go over time to do this if I don't stop and do it the other way I want to keep my neck I want to talk this morning from Joshua chapter 1 verses 1 to 5 I can't assure you how far I will get but let's see Joshua chapter 1 1 through 5 I want to talk about a new beginning a new beginning hear these words from the word Joshua chapter 1 verses 1 through 5 after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord the Lord said to Joshua son of noon Moses is aid Moses my servant is dead now then you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them to the Israelites I will give you every place where you set your foot as I promised Moses your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the great river Euphrates all the hittite country to the Great Sea on the west no one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life as I was with Moses so I will be with you I will never leave you nor forsake you Dawson is a healthy Church and a healthy church is a church that embraces the past while simultaneously envisioning the future Dawson is a healthy Church which means you will not take and four-fifths a retrospective view for a present perspective view and a prospective look glance because Dawson is a healthy Church and you're simultaneously embracing the past while you envisioning the future Martin Luther was concerned about holding in tension past and future he said that we only advance by returning to the beginning we go forward by going backwards it's a paradox a paradox occurs when two mutually exclusive statements meet at the intersection of apparent contradiction only to produce truth GK Chesterton the celebrated Roman Catholic lay theologian from Great Britain has said that paradox is when truth stands on his head and screams for attention screams to be heard and therefore God challenges you Dawson and me to embrace the past while we continually look at envisioning the future Luther would say to us return to your baptism return to your past return to the fact that you have been justified no matter what takes place in your life whatever crisis take takes place in your life take and return to the fact that you've been justified you've been saying for all eternity return to Solus Christus by christ alone for first Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 reminds us there is only one mediator between God and humans the man Christ Jesus solafeet a by faith alone Paul says in Romans chapter 5 verse number 1 therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Sola gratia by grace alone and Paul once again says in Ephesians 2 an eighth by grace are you saved through faith Sola dear old Gloria solo Dale Gloria for the glory of God and law and Paul says the 1st Corinthians 10:31 whether you eat or drink do it all to the glory of God and God calls us to embrace the pass while we are constantly envisioning the future we need to do that because we have the proclivity the propensity the tendency to get amnesia to forget king of my life I crown thee now the iron shall the glory be lest I forget die thorn scarred brow lead me to Calvary lest I forget Gethsemane lest I forget that agony lest I forget thy love for me lead me to Calvary in the words of James Weldon Johnson in 1927 lift every voice and seeing he says god of our weary years god of our silent tears thou who has brought us thus far along the way thou who is bad I might medicine to the light keep us forever in the path we pray lest our feet stray from the places our God where we met the lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world we forget thee shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand true to our God true do I need a flame and we must not become like Israelites who in the Greeks grow point in their historical pilgrimage these words serve as an indictment to them in judges to first 10 another generation of roles that did not know the Lord nor what he has done for his people didn't know the Exodus didn't know that God baked bread from Heaven's kitchen for 40 years didn't know that God opened the Red Sea didn't know the reality of the history of God and therefore God tells us to remember the pass while we honor the envisioning of the future and God opens up this book of Joshua which stands between dune romani that we should remember not to forget and judges which book in Joshua and shows that they forgot to remember and here we are in Joshua and we are enjoying and instructed to remember not to forget what God has told us to remember God makes a statement it's an announcement it's an announcement to Joshua who is now the heir their leader now the leader of Moses after the death of Moses God says to Joshua Moses my servant is dead that's a catastrophic announcement it has a cataclysmic effect it sends tidal waves across the surface of the nation of Israel Moses is dead we are 3,400 years removed from that statement and yet when they heard it it was a time of great severity in terms of that nation's history Moses is day at the one who had been there long given God gave him the law he gave the law to the people those of our servant is dead the one who'd been their great mediator in the 32nd chapter of Exodus verse number 12 13 and 14 God threatens to make Israel and stick because they are dancing around the golden calf they're breaking half of a thing commandments before they get there and God says I'm gonna wipe them out and start all over and Moses stands as an intercessor between God and Israel and God and says to God God you can't do it based upon the fact that you've got to act according to covenant Oh panda verse 13 remember the promise that you made to Abraham Isaac Jacob you're gonna bring them across this land you can't do it and then what will the surrounding nations say when they see that you brought them out of Egypt but you could not bring them into the Promised Land like you promised and the Bible says in verse 14 that God relented God took it back from Moses caused God to remember the promise that God had made Moses the great mediator instead the great liberator who has delivered them for four years of Egyptian bondage and taking them into the wilderness and they come to the very edge of the Jordan River he's there and what do you do when you have a leader who is no longer there and what do you do after 25 years of stellar faithful leadership and dr. Gary Fenton is not standing in this place on the first Sunday of September you do what you've always done and you look to the God who cannot die a God who is suffering no wonder Calvin James says in her book about when faith and the leaf collides she takes this section and she says when faith is stripped to the bone and all your props that you've been leaning on and crutches are gone your knowledge of God that he is good and that he's still on the throne is the only thing that's gonna keep it wrong when faith is stripped to the bone and all your props and crutches are gone your knowledge of God that he is good is the only thing that will keep your boardroom titles a gold when health breaks down when relationships suffer rifts when jobs ago the only thing that you can trust in is the fact that God is on his throne in his throne his throne and he will never leave you alone nor will he forsake you according to Joshua one verse number five all brothers and sisters I know that feeling I know the feeling that one has when someone that is significant in your life is no longer on the face of this earth my wife and I know that feeling on October 30th 2010 our son Tony was murdered while working at his restaurant and a hole was there that no one could feel no boy could feel a god-sized hole but God has filled that hole God has sustained God has kept God has undergirded and when someone in your life has left the vacancy understand in the words of the black tradition that he will be your leading post he will be your prop that will never give away he will be your mother he will be your father and he will never ever leave you alone Moses he is dead but God is not for God buries his workers but never his work his work goes on we need to reassess ourselves sometimes we become puffed up with arrogance and were the sense of indispensability as if we are absolutely necessary dr. Fenton understood he was not he know this was not his church it's the Lord's church upon this rock I build much it and some of us walk around like we the only rooster on the barnyard and were the only pebble in the beach and the we're only fish in the sea you're not as important Robert Smith as people tell you that you are don't read your own bulletin releases and your press reports don't read those because you're not necessary don't you understand that if you decide to get out of the choir the crowd just might sing better if you decide you're gonna stop giving and hold back your offering you might see that the budget goes up what God does is to let all of us know I don't need you but I won't you therefore when you come into the church you ought to come into the church said I'm just glad to be in the service one more time he didn't have to let me live I'm glad to be in the service one more time I want to be a spectator I'm gonna be a participator because the laws been good when I was in high school they voted me the most likely not to succeed but look at me right now when I was dad Mary and I got married they thought the marriage was not gonna last but I've been married for forty some years now in fact they've been free is that I walked away but God has kept me when the doctor gave me a bad diagnosis and said I would live for two more months I'm out living the doctor that gave me the diagnosis and therefore I come here to give him some praise I've come here to thank you for what he's done for me because I'm not necessary he's good and because he's good I lift up my hand and I say thank you Jesus no this is day God there is here two workers but never his work and all of us like William Shakespeare said there is one stage where actors on one stage we pray out our part and then someone else comes in and they do what they're called to do so do your work well and understand that we are here on borrowed time and we are to give God our best as good stewards are found faithful in fact I think I saw coming in the church that we ought to be faithful God has called us to be faithful as to Moses my servant is dead we're not going to use the word transition starting next Sunday so I'm going to use it one time today you're getting ready to pass over to something that you haven't experienced for 25 years but God has never vacated that spot it's Fredrick Douglas the 19th century abolitionists and great statesmen who said that there is no progress without difficulty nope yes without difficulty some people he said they want crops but they don't want to plow the ground some people want the ways but not the awful roar of the ocean now some people want the sky but not the third of the Thunder and not the zigzag of the lightning but you can't have progress without difficult and there may be some difficult days ahead but the same God who has navigated your way through rough waters is still the captain of the sea and will guide you to the port that he is already destined Moses my servant is dead now I told the first crowd and that's true that Hebrew read right to left has no punctuation logs straight texts no question marks no exclamation points no he lifts these no commas or semicolons no periods but our versions - and versions supply and furnish and provide a theology for instance Moses my servant is dead in most versions the punctuation mark that follows dead is the word is the punctuation mark period and it makes sense Moses my servant is dead what are the preparation mark you will put there there that means termination that means there seems to be appropriate and that's exactly what the CEV the contemporary English version provides most of my service there period the NRSV New Revised Standard Version most of our service is dead period the NIV most my servant is dead period the Amplified Bible most of my servant is dead period the New International Version was my servant is dead period the TeV most of my service that period the ESV most my services in theory but in the new American Standard Bible and in the King James Bible which really is good enough for Paul and Silas if you get my drift good enough for the Hebrew children good enough for my mom and Danny good enough for me molding my servant is dead semicolon because a period suggests termination a semicolon suggests continuation and too many believers have adopted the punctuation mark of a period that is a theology of termination the end when God wants us to adopt a theology of continuation a semicolon that's the gist of many of the texts that we love in the Bible that's the essence of it from Genesis chapter 50 verse 22 Romans chapter 6 verse 23 in Genesis chapter fit the verse 20 Joseph says to his brothers who have wouldn't defrauded him many years ago what to men and me for evil semi-colon God meaning unto me for good the same many people alive and here david says in psalm 30 verse 5 weeping may endure for a night don't you put a period there the essence of it is semicolon continuation but joy comes in the morning psalm 34 verse 19 many of the afflictions of the righteous put a semicolon their continuation but the Lord delivers them from them all in Habakkuk chapter 3 verse 16 and 17 if there are no crops in the field there are no cattle in the stall there are no feeds on the tree there are no grapes on the vine put a semicolon there yeah well I rejoice in God my Savior in Matthew 16 and 33 he says in this world you will have tribulation don't you put a period there the essence there is a semicolon continuation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world and thank God in Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is there if you put a period there you are in deep trouble super-cold the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord too many individuals have decided to live as believers by a theology of the period a a termination instead of waiting on the invocation they're waiting on the benediction the individuals who are perhaps sitting right here who have had bad diagnosis and now decide that it's all over it's not over when x-ray says this under this anybody here who is here and they're not supposed to be here my medical prognosis anybody here that's not supposed to be walking not supposed to be doing a whole lot of things but what God does since he's a chief of staff is to step in and do what no other doctor can do anybody here knows what it's like to be in school and think that you can't pass Hebrew and Greek and all these other kind of things and yet God has opened up a way for you not only to mature particularly but also to graduate summa laude cool melodic magna laude because you have to say I really graduated Thank You Lonnie because the Lord was the one who brought you through all brothers and sisters Moses my servant is there semicolon continuation what are you going to do when life breaks down and you don't know what to do it is done in McClurkin who takes he takes Ephesians chapter 6 verse 13 and 14 and says when you've done all you can do to stay in verse 14 stay when you've done all you can do to stand stand and ask questions do you do when you've done all you can and it seems like it's never enough tell me what do you say when your friends walk away and leave you all alone tell me how do you handle the guilt of your pals tell me how do you make it through summer cold you just stand when there's nothing left to do you just stay and watch the Lord see you after you've done all you can you just stand a semicolon is accommodation of a comma with a period oh but there's space between the comma and the period you don't take the comma and John it breeds the space and John it to the period no because that period represents your past you need the period there in order to have a reference point to your past all of us are products of our past but no one should be a prisoner of his or her past no the past is a nice place to visit but it's a terrible place to live in and Paul will say in Philippians 3 13 and 14 I have not apprehended me there my perfect but this one thing I do forgetting the things that are behind and reaching organizing straining stretching for the things that all before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord to many believers stand up and look at the bottom of their own feet crushing them filled with shame no believer should have shame yes guilts because if you are healthy believer and you have a healthy conscience the Holy Spirit's job Rome in John 16 and 7 when the Spirit of Truth has come he will convict the world of sin so much so that we have seeing we are convicted because of what we've done but shame has to do with who you are do you know who you are you are a child of God you've been adopted therefore when you see yourself as God sees you there is no shame there is now no nation Romans Aiden one to those when Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit so forget about all the things that are you've done notice that if you present in the God he takes it wipes him away and one of these days when we're done with sin fication and sanctification shall give itself to glorification then John says at first John three unto it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know this that when he appears we are going to be just like him for we shall see him as he is keep the period there but don't allow the comma and the period to be joined so much so that you become a prisoner of your past but also you need to period there because as a reference point to your past you can always look back and say you know I'm a member of the I was but now I am community I was but now I am community keep looking back at the period in your life it's a probable son's testimony that the father the waiting father supplies for him when he celebrates in Luke 15 the return of his son he says my son who once was a loss is now found who once was dead is now alive and you hear Paul say to us in 1st Corinthians 6 9 through 11 after he had enumerates which is not a comprehensive list at all but he enumerates people who will not inherit the kingdom of God but then he says but now you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus second person of the Trinity and by the power of the Spirit third persons of Trinity of God first persons of Trinity so when you and I get saved it's a Trinitarian transaction Father Son and Holy Spirit is involved in saving us I'm so glad today that I'm a member of that I was but now I am a community what God has done you've moved to a new house you've got a new testimony and a new destination Moses my servant is day period next word now it's about they've been waiting for 400 years before God with symbols us to lead them out of 40 years of Egyptian bondage now 40 years in the wilderness until those persons over 20 years of age who disobeyed and bumped and hesitated at Kadesh Barnea died now 30 days into the rommel in 34 verse number 8 for the morning of the loss and death of Moses now in Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse number 2 the Bible says that it will take them 11 days from Mount Horeb which is synonymous to Mount Sinai to get to Kadish Barnea where they could have made the journey from Kadesh Barnea in just a few weeks they traded in a few weeks for 38 years of wilderness wandering when it spent the first two years at Mount Sinai receiving the law and now God says now it is time for the church to understand that God wants to do something better he is the sovereign of superlatives he's able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works in us stop selling for mediocrity and God has called us to excellence God says to Joshua now Joshua you and all these people go across the Jordan and possess the land that I'm about to give to them in fact I've already given it to them and listen to that the Hebrew says I'm about to give it to them in fact I've already given it to them I promised that the Abraham in Genesis 15 and 18 gave them the territorial boundaries I'm about to do it in fact I've already done it now then why don't we have it because he has promised it but we have not possessed it every place that you put your foot down it's yours but it's not yours until you possess what I have promised it is divine human instrumentality it is Joshua and the children of Israel marching around the walls of Jericho one time for six days seven times on the seventh day it is a blowing of the shofar it is the shop and then God brings down the walls it is the men at the Methodist Cemetery rolling back the stone and Jesus says Lazarus come forth and Jesus speaks life into this dead man's body had been dead for four days and he comes leaping from the Bethany Cemetery like a schoolboy on a college campus God is in the business of doing something with us and we are not waiting on him he's waiting on us he has promised it and now it is our time to possess it well Joshua I have been preparing you all this time you've been a spy in Egypt you've been a soldier in the wilderness and you've been understudy of Moses and Moses took in numbers 27 verse 22 and 23 and had Joshua the standard for the entire sembly all of the Israelites brought out Eleazar the high priests and Moses lays his hands on Joshua as if he is transferring his authority to Joshua in the presence of all the people God has been preparing Joshua for a moment when Moses breathed his last and there will not be any interruption in terms of placement of God's person when Moses dies Joshua is now the leader well God is a God of foreknowledge and God has your next pastor already in the wings already prepared and God wants to prepare him for you and you for him and therefore don't worry about it as long as you trust him as long as you look to him very another Garrett fits it on the way who is going to take you to higher heights and deeper depths because God is a God of transcendence and a God who takes us higher and higher from faith to faith from grace to grace and from glory to glory well when you deal with the semicolon you and I must understand that God is in the business of enabling us to trust him to praise him and the weight on him regardless of the waiting period I know what it's like to be able to stand and the see God work things out God took and said to Joshua in chapter 3 verse 15 Joshua I want you to tell the people to get ready to cross the Jordan River well that's alright Lord but look I want you to do it when the Jordan River is overflowing its base I want you to do it when it's harvest season the Bible says in 3:15 of Joshua that they crossed the Jordan when the water has overflowed as bait Blake drinks it's a flood season what did he convened it time but that's the way God does something according to Exodus 13 verse 17 and 18 when the children of Israel left 400 years of bondage in Egypt God did not take through the shorter way which is a way toward Philistia he took them along the way around through the wilderness toward the Red Sea and God says cross the Jordan River when it's harvest time and when the Jordan River is overflowing its banks why because when you read chapter 5 verse 10 and verse 11 the Bible says that when they got into the promised land the harvest season blessed them they didn't have to plant anything because verse 11 says that the manna stopped the next day God made sure that the neighbors the residents the Canaanites had already planted green beans and lima beans and kale collard greens turnip brings carne and squashing all that they have to do was just together it in other words I know it's inconvenient but I want you to cross at a time that's harvest time so when you get there I will already have something for you and you can eat the old corn of the land for one whole year whatever God permits he's got a purpose to promote you may not understand why God wants you to cross your Jordan and why God wants you to take and encounter some difficulties but what God is doing is setting you up to bless you because as sun king a god that 19th century danish theologian said life must be live forward but you can only understand it backwards and it may not make sense to you right now but when you look back in your life you'll see that God's fingerprints were on every page of your autobiography taking and orchestrating and choreographing every single move well it seemingly was an inconvenient time for Jesus because the text ends in verse 5 with I will be with you and the teaching paragraph of verse 9 he ends by saying wherever you go I will be with you the I wheel of God became the I wheel to humanity for he whose name is Emmanuel came and was with us in fact he became one of us the word became flesh and dwelt among us and Joshua of the Old Testament is Yeshua of the New Testament he came to save us from our sin and here he dies for our justification he rises from the grave with all power in his hand and therefore he came to be with us but one of these days we're gonna be with him my god that's why John says in Revelation chapter 21 verse number 3 the tabernacle of God is with men and we shall be his people and he shall be our God a Joshua we will sit down at his feet we will praise Him all power all hail the power of Jesus name let angels prostrate fall bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all it's a new beginning for you but the one who is the beginning begins the beginning and the one who is the end stands in between your mountainous and your will be miss and if you'll trust him you will see that he wants to take you to Heights that you've never seen before their heights of love that I may not know till I cross the Narrow Sea they have depth of joy that I may not reach till I rest in peace with the draw me nearer nearer nearer blessed Lord to the cross where thou has died draw me nearer nearer nearer blessed Lord to that precious bleeding side let us pray now father we do thank you that you have sent your Joshua your Yeshua the very Son of God down into our world to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves to bring us back to God he died but thanks be to you by the Spirit of God you're raising from the dead and because he lives we can face tomorrow because he lives our fear throne because we know he holds the future life is worth a living because he lives grant a new beginning to your people in Jesus name

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Length: 38min 35sec (2315 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2020