Never Been Down This Road - September 13, 2020

[Music] [Music] good morning welcome to first baptist church live stream worship we're so glad you're with us today i want you to join us we sing this great hymn together great is thy faithfulness god my father there is no shadow of turning without [Music] as thou has been now forever [Music] faithfulness morning by morning new verses [Applause] [Music] is great is your faithfulness oh god [Music] you wrestle with a sinner's heart [Music] you lead us by still waters and to mercy and nothing can keep us apart so remember your people remember children [Music] your grace is enough for me [Music] praise and justice god i love this part you use the weak to leave us strong you lead us in the song of your salvation and all your people sing along so [Music] your people remember your children remember your promise is [Music] your grace is enough for me [Music] oh he's my provider for me [Music] by your strikes [Music] [Applause] [Music] and you supply everything thank you lord [Music] so much more [Music] oh thank you for your grace [Applause] your grace [Music] oh thank you lord for your grace this [Music] morning [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] let [Music] is oh that's the good news today [Music] our song of praise [Music] rise and worship christ our savior for the glory of his reign [Music] in the still [Music] praise will rise as darkness scattered and the song goes on and on [Music] [Music] [Music] still to say [Music] our song of grace oh i know we all have something to thank you for today let's do that right now thank you right where you are sing it [Music] come on let's sing it to the savior today lord we just want to thank you [Music] thank you for your love and thank you for saving me [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] is sing to him [Music] he is [Music] the courts of death they [Music] he is [Music] the stairs [Music] sing it with us [Music] so i'll stand and trust i'll stand in faith i will not be ashamed he is [Music] he's my salvation and my strength [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] our god will reign forever [Music] [Music] forever [Music] [Music] forever i'm not a warrior i'm too afraid to lose i feel unqualified for what you're calling me to do but lord with your strength i've got no excuse cause [Music] [Music] in the wilderness [Music] [Music] [Music] victories [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus i'm gonna sing and shout and shake the world won't stop until i see unfold gonna stand up step out when you call jesus give me hope like moses [Music] [Music] with confidence [Music] [Music] [Music] moses moses [Music] so i can place the reality competition show survivor is said to be now in its 40th season i've often wondered what it would be like if i were a competitor on that show i can tell you this knowing how weak and wimpy i am i don't think i'd last very long but let's just pretend all of us were on that island and we were competing and one of our competitors was the year 2020. let's just pretend 2020 is a person well we would all agree he's not a very good person he's not been good to us at all and i think the first chance we would get we would get together and vote that joker off the island 2020 has brought us pain 2020 has brought us confusion 2020 has brought so much division and unrest it's even brought a lot of death and when we think about it it's bad enough what we know about 2020 but part of the terror of of the year 2020 is how much we don't know how much we've been caught off guard and how many changes and surprises have resulted in so many adjustments that we have had to make to our lives many of which are are negative including the fact that we're not all here together today you know even people who have lived for a very long time are admitting that out of all the years they've lived they say we've never been down this road before and that's what i want us to talk about today never been down this road that's the title of the message and i want you to open to the old testament book of joshua joshua chapter three and in a moment we're going to read verses one through five we all know that one of dr stanley's favorite passages in the bible is the first chapter of joshua and in particular it is that ninth verse in the first chapter that has meant so much to him and it's because his mother when he was just a teenage boy and had been given his first opportunity to preach there in his hometown of danville virginia his mother knowing how nervous he was she wrote down on a piece of paper joshua 1 9 have i not commanded you be strong and of a good courage neither be dismayed or afraid for the lord your god is with you wherever you go and little did she know the strength that verse would give dr stanley not only to get through his first sermon but how often he would look back to that verse and find the same strength over and over again to this very day some 70 years later in fact on last weekend's intouch broadcast dr stanley preached a powerful sermon on courage and he quoted that verse several times today as we look into the third chapter i want us to look at some very valuable truths that i have gleaned through the years of my walk with god some truths that are perhaps overlooked quite often because they're tucked into a fairly obscure passage but we read in this third chapter that joshua was the new leader for the people of israel and that he was the one god chose to take them through the jordan river and over into the promised land that he had pledged to give his people and i want you to read along with me as we look into verse number one of joshua chapter three where it says then joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from acacia grove and came to the jordan river he and all the children of israel and they lodged there before they crossed over and so it was after three days that the officers went through the camp and then they commanded the people saying when you see the ark of the covenant of the lord your god and the priests the levites bearing it then you shall set out from your place and go after it yet there shall be a space between you and the ark about 2 000 cubits by measure don't come near it in order that you may know the way by which you must go for you have not passed this way before and joshua said to the people sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the lord will do wonders among you i hope you noticed there in the last part of verse number 4 where they said for you have not passed this way before that was their way of saying you've never been down this road and that's how all of us feel today about what we're going through and what i love about this passage is that god has given us some nuggets some practical steps that we can follow when we are traveling down a road we've never traveled before so here's step number one follow god's instructions don't write your own that's what god was saying through the leaders of the nation joshua was telling the people okay tomorrow when you get up you're going to see the ark and you're going to notice it being hoisted up on the backs of the priests and the levites and only when you see it hoisted on their shoulders are you to then leave your tent and begin moving in that direction in other words these were very specific instructions about what they were to do when they woke up the next morning they were to look for the activity by the priests and to see the ark lifted up and only then were they to leave their their tent where they had camped out for these three days and this was god's way of letting israel know i will always give you instructions to follow you don't have to write your own because i will give you the steps that you are to take when you look at their history it's filled with god giving them instructions in fact lots and lots and lots of instructions and yet when you look through their history time and time again they opted to write their own instructions instead of following the instructions that that god had given them in fact they're getting ready to go into the promised land but the truth is they should have gone in 40 years earlier they're on a delayed plan after wandering in the wilderness for four decades because they went with their own instructions instead of following god's instructions so let's be reminded today that confusing times should not lead us to confuse our instructions when there's so much that you do not know let's all remember to stick with what we do know and god has given us every instruction that we will ever need right here in the pages of his holy word so be sure to follow god's instructions don't write your own here's the second thing i want you to remember with me today right from this passage which is why i love it so much it's it's god's way of saying to his people let god stay in the lead don't rush ahead of him let god stay in the lead position did you see when we were reading verse number four the the leaders of israel who were under joshua's direction they had given the direction that they the people of israel that were many in number they were to keep a very healthy distance between themselves and the ark now the ark represented god himself the ark was the symbol of god's presence among his people and this distance that he he told them to keep it was about a 1 000 yard distance why would would the leaders tell the people to keep about a thousand yards between them as a nation and the ark on the back of the priest going forward it was in order to give everyone as equal a vantage point as possible because if you throng around the ark too much certain people can see it better than others but by staying a distance from it it's a wonderful way to keep god out in the lead nobody gets too close and nobody rushes ahead of god oh the regrets of rushing ahead of god and we all said amen why is it that we would get ahead of god well i think it's because we often believe that we know better where we should be going than god knows this passage is telling us to let god stay in the lead because when god is leading us we always get to the place where he wants us to be but since only god knows the way he reminds us to let him always stay out in front it's not only foolish to get ahead of god it is very dangerous to get ahead of god and what we find out when we either get ahead of god or we walk away from god is that when we get to where we think we want to be we find out that where we thought we wanted to be was not all it was cracked up to be and we wake up with regret wishing we had let god stay in the lead but here is the third thing that i want you to remember as we look into this wonderful passage today and it is this we need to prepare for god's blessing and not just expect it to happen prepare for god to bless don't just expect it in verse number five as we read it a moment ago these are the words of preparation they were sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the lord will do wonders among you this was god's way of telling his people get ready don't just take for granted that god's going to do something great if you want god to bless you've got to make personal preparation for it god always blesses preparation on the part of his people and in this case the word sanctify is kind of a churchy word we read there in verse 5 but another translation says purify yourselves purify yourselves what does that mean it means to make sure that as a child of god you are right with god what what god was saying is hey if you want me to bless you tomorrow you need to check your heart today if you want my best for you tomorrow you need to confess your sins today god was saying get ready for what i want to do in the future and if we want to purify our hearts before god it requires us to be completely open to god to completely surrender our lives to god and ask god to search our hearts years ago i learned to pray in my prayer time the prayer that david prayed in psalm 139 and i want you to see it in the new living translation where he prayed search me o god and know my heart test me and know my anxious thoughts point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life did you see what he prayed he said lord show me anything in my life that is offensive to you anything that grieves you anything that is displeasing to your heart and to what your best is for my life because when we're on an unfamiliar road it is essential that we stay right with god and here's the reason why it's because if you want to be blessed by god you need to stay right with god that's the truth so let's think about this man joshua who's giving these instructions he looks and sounds to me as he's getting them ready to cross the jordan into the promised land like a man who's mighty bold and confident but we know that down on the inside from chapter one he was struggling with insecurity and fear i mean if he weren't struggling with insecurity and fear why in chapter one did god tell him so many times don't be afraid don't be dismayed be strong and have good courage it's because god knew he was afraid not only had joshua never been down this road before but the truth is joshua had never led these people before so he was going down a road he'd never traveled and he had a new assignment that had been given to him that he had never had before he had watched moses lead these people for all these years and then boom in one instance moses was no longer leading the people but joshua was leading them so just realize that while joshua was standing before them and telling them to follow instructions and to wait on god and to prepare for tomorrow because he wanted everything to work the way it needed to work joshua was really talking to himself the whole time and today as i share this message with you i'm preaching to myself because today will prove to be a historic day a monumental day in my life and in the life of this church every reality that i have just described in this brief message will soon in fact in just a few moments all of these realities will become my reality and your reality and i think you will agree with me that we have never been down this road before this morning dr stanley has an announcement to share with our church family he pre-recorded this statement some time ago but asked that we share it with the church family today and i know that you along with me will listen prayerfully and trust god to comfort our hearts and give us the strength to hear these words with the grace that only god can give us dear church family thank you so much for taking a few minutes to allow me to give you an important update regarding our church and their plans for the future earlier this month i informed the board that i felt the time had come for me to step down as senior pastor of the first baptist church of atlanta to become pastor emeritus as i celebrate my 88th birthday so to say i did not rush this decision would certainly be an understatement one of the reasons this has been such a difficult decision for me is i love our church i love all of you and i love all that god has done through our partnership together to be honest i didn't want to come to first baptist atlanta my family and i were comfortable living in florida at the time and when the call came i resisted but when god asks us to do something uncomfortable it's usually because he wants to do something remarkable i'm so grateful i said yes then and i'm so grateful he saw fit to allow me to serve as your pastor for more than 50 years i'm grateful to you and for our church for many things i love that my children were raised in this church i love how you cared for our family when annie and i navigated a very difficult season you've extended grace and mercy to me over and over and as a result your impact and our impact together has been felt all around the world i have few regrets and i have many wonderful memories but as much as i love being your pastor i know in my heart this season has come to an end to be clear i'm not retiring as you know i don't believe in retirement i will focus the next season of my life on my opportunities at intouch i will continue to preach the gospel as long as god allows and my goal remains the same to get the truth of the gospel to as many people as possible as quickly as possible in the power of the holy spirit to the glory of god not long ago you chose dr anthony joyce to succeed me as senior pastor once this day came so i want to congratulate anthony you love him i'm so grateful for him thanks to anthony's leadership and his love for you and his love for god i have no doubt there are many great days ahead for the first baptist church of atlanta my hope is that the greatest days are still ahead i'm sorry i did not have the opportunity to communicate to you in person but god in his providence saw fit to perhaps make it a little easier for me and for you i love you dearly i'm forever grateful and now i will do what i have encouraged you to do for decades i'm going to obey god and leave all the consequences to him god bless you all before we close today and i lead us in a final prayer i just want to take a moment to share a few words of response first of all dr stanley all of us want to thank you for obeying that command which god gave to joshua in the verse that your mother gave to you so many years ago thank you for being strong and of good courage through every battle that you've had to fight through every trial that you've had to overcome you have stood tall and confident through all these years while at the same time remaining dependent and prayerful before almighty god you have trusted in god that he would be with you wheresoever you would go leaving virginia after college going to texas for seminary going back to north carolina to become pastor of your first church then up to ohio and then to florida where you serve two different churches and finally god led you to atlanta and from here you have gone to the ends of the earth and because you were a yielded vessel the gospel of jesus christ through you has blanketed this globe truly god has been with you wheresoever you have gone i want to say to you and to our church that serving you as your assistant dr stanley and serving this church as its associate pastor for these eight and one half years has truly been the honor of a lifetime it will be your legacy sir that is my standard the standard that will inspire me to always do my best with god's help for as long as god gives me to serve here finally i want you to know that i have been able to know some of the great people that you have known the difference is some of these great and legendary pastors have been personal friends of yours i've watched them from a distance and i've seen the relationship between some of the greatest churches in the country and their pastors who were larger than life whether it was my home church at first baptist in jacksonville florida and the love the congregation had for their co-pastors dr lindsay and dr vines or where i attended college in dallas texas and joined first baptist church there and i saw the strong and deep love that the church had for their pastor of over 50 years dr w.a criswell one of your own heroes or that church in memphis called bellevue baptist where the great adrian rogers who another one of your friends was the pastor there for so many years that church loved their pastor so much but i can say with absolute confidence that there has never been a church anywhere at any time in history that loves its pastor more than first baptist atlanta loves charles stanley we will forever love you and be indebted to you for your faithful service across 51 years and now i want to close us all in prayer we're going to pray for you dr stanley we're going to pray for our church that god would lead us in the days to come father we turn to you with that same dependence and prayerfulness and humility that dr stanley has modeled on his knees before you all the days of his life we acknowledge our dependence upon you for every step that we take for every breath that we breathe for everything that we need it only comes from you today we lift up dr stanley and pray for continued favor which includes all of your greatest blessings that he can enjoy for all the days of the life you give him we thank you for his investment in us and in your kingdom and we thank you that whatever pastor emeritus means to some people to us it means pastor forever in our hearts father we pray for our church this congregation this family of believers and we claim that promise that if we trust in you with all of our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledge you you have assured us that you will direct our paths so we thank you for being with us on this very significant day and we know that you will be with us in all the days that we face in the future and we pray in jesus name amen

Channel: FirstBaptistAtlanta

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Length: 44min 17sec (2657 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 13 2020