The Stones (Joshua 4) - Pastor Daniel Fusco

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] alright let's open up in our Bibles to the book of Joshua chapter 4 Joshua chapter 4 as we continue our study as leisurely as it may be through the Bible here in the book of Joshua you know I was thinking about this as I was coming to church this evening about what an awesome blessing it is to get to study the Word of God together you know it's something that if if you've been learning the scriptures for a while and studying them you have a tendency maybe to take it for granted a little bit that God chose to give us his work and his heart in a book and and we live in a day and age where if it's not new it's not important but what's beautiful is that as you study the Word of God you begin to realize that although cultures are different and and and situations are different God never changes and people never change although the details of their lives might change and things that went on thousands of years ago are so relevant for us in this generation and then really in every generation now what's beautiful today is I've called this message the stones because we're at that point where the children of Israel are finally walking into the Promised Land their God had promised hundreds of years earlier and now they're actually for the first time as an entire nation walking into the inheritance that God had given them but God before he just it's it's not like just go on in and just go for it it's like go on in and I want you to erect a memorial because left up to your own devices you're gonna forget what God has done now think about that for a second that it's so normal for us in the busyness of our lives that we forget what God has done and because we forget what God has done then it changes the way that we live in the present because when we remember how faithful God has been in our lives then all of a sudden it gives us hope in the present whatever is going on I mean how many of us right now were fearful and were anxious but if we begin to remember what God has already done north all the ways that God has moved and shown himself to us how that would change the way we're feeling in the present moment so we need these memorials we need these ways to recollect what God has done it's interesting because you know within the within Christianity of course you have Christmas and Easter but when most people think about Christmas and Easter most of society doesn't think about Jesus you think about Easter bunnies and getting a bad credit card debt if you're an adult if you're a child just think about a lot of presidents but but the resume just think about all this debt that I'm racking up but that's how what happens in our culture we're all of a sudden you take something and it gets slightly changed so that it misses the point and I think what's important for each one of us is we need to learn in this generation how to set up memorials to be able to remember the things that God has done right I mean we do it for birthdays for anniversaries I mean I remember someone told me just when Linda and I first got married they said on your anniversary should always watch your wedding video and I said why and and they said because the promises that you made then you're gonna forget over time because everything isn't new as time goes by you know I was just talking to a friend of mine who read just watched his wedding video and he said you know I was actually really convicted by watching it because the promises that we made to one another we're really not living them right now and it's a good reminder it's like what Jesus said to the church in Ephesus when they had left their first love in Revelation chapter 2 he said I want you to repent and do the first works oh wait you go back and do again what you did in the beginning and these memorial stones that the children of Israel are setting up as they are moving into the promised land for the very first time is meant to be a continual reminder to the children of Israel what God has done and we need those reminders don't we I don't know about you I need pretty much reminders for everything at this point you know I need to remember to pay my bills on time I need to remember you know to get somewhere on time and so we need to make sure we don't forget the things that God has done so let's break this open together so the book of Joshua chapter 4 picking up in verse 1 it says this and it came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan that the Lord spoke to Joshua saying take for yourselves twelve men from the people one man from every tribe and command them saying take for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan from the place where the priests feet stood firm you shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you Lodge tonight then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel one man from each tribe and Joshua said to them cross over before the Ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come saying what do these stones mean to you then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord when it crossed over the Jordan the waters of the Jordan were cut off and these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever so this idea of raising stones it's a common memorial but what we find here is that the children of Israel as they're passing over the Jordan River now if you remember at the end of chapter 3 what we learned is just like the passing of the children of Israel over what we know is the Red Sea or more specifically the sea of reeds that God stopped the water so although there was a body of water there the children of Israel were able to to go cross on dry land the exact same type of thing is happening but now it's the Jordan River and they're leaving where they were wandering in the wilderness and they're moving into the Promised Land and he says so as you I want you to choose one person from each of the twelve tribes so the idea is we're picking representatives from the whole group of the children of Israel one from each tribe and as they're going they're picking up a stone from the middle of the Jordan and they're putting it on the place together where they're gonna sleep that evening right so they're taking rocks out of the Jordan and now they're gonna put it in the Promised Land at the very first place that they are gonna sleep and what goes on of course is by the time you get towards verse six and four set verse seven it says that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come saying what do these stones mean and you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord now so the idea here is that these stones are meant to be educational tools see now that's part of the keys of these memorials not only they for us to remember but for successive generations who weren't a part of this they'll see this stack of stones and they'll say what's that all about and I'll say oh you know what happened this is what happened and all through your Bible you find that God places a premium on the children of Israel making sure they explain these things to their children I mean if you think of that great Shema in Deuteronomy chapter 6 here o Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul strength in mind right and he goes on to say and you shall teach these things to your children when you're lying down and you're rising up when you're walking on the way see so much of what God wants is he wants to create environments for us to learn in how many times have you ever gone to a friend's house and you see something they're like hey what is that what's that all about see it's a conversation starter and God wants the good news of who he is and what he's done to run forth from generation to generation you know it's interesting we live in a day and age where people have a tendency to say things like and some of you've heard this you know I think it's wrong that you raise your kids to believe in your religion that's brainwashing ever hear that kind of stuff what's so funny is it's like you know people don't like competition so they they want you to give them their faith-based beliefs but you can't give them your own and super ironic I'm like oh so you think that is brainwashing for me to share my faith but you want to share your non faith and that's not brainwashing I get that people don't like competition right and so so the idea is everybody all education is in a sense brainwashing right all education is an attempt of socialization and so whether whether you teach a child not to believe in anything that is a faith-based position whether you believe all religions that's a faith-based proposition or if you say we believe in the Bible that true and living God the creator and sustainer of all things who send His Son Jesus to come and live and die on a cross and to be risen from the grave all of them are faith based and one doesn't get to be privileges because it's yours but don't miss the fact that God's design for discipleship is mom and dad with their chat with their kids God created the family to be the primary disciple in unit so parents are you pouring into your kids are you setting up memorial stones that they would say hey what happened here hey what's that all about so that you have all these opportunities to share with your kids about the faithfulness of God I'll be honest with you as a parent there's nothing more fun than getting to teach my kids about who the Lord is and what he's done there's nothing more beautiful than to be able to pour into them and say this is what God did in my life this is how he worked in my life and we want to be on the lookout for that and God is interested in that he's interested in making sure that his people son the reality of who he is to the next generation now picking up in verse 8 it says this and the children of Israel did so just as Joshua commanded they took of 12 stones from the midst of the Jordan as the Lord had spoken to Joshua according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant stood and they are there to this day now what you find is that really there's not one memorial there's two there's one in the midst of the Jordan River and then there's another one where they're gonna be camping which is in a city called Gilgal which we're gonna talk about in a little bit and so you actually have two memorials one in the middle of the Jordan now imagine you go to the Jordan River and you see all these rocks stacked out in the middle of it wouldn't that be an interesting sight see why because it's a reminder we actually walked on dry ground here and we were able to stack these rocks now there's water everywhere but those rocks still stand see God loves those testimonies but if you think about this you also realize that this was a great test for the children of Israel wasn't it I mean 38 years earlier they were right on the edge of the promised land but they didn't trust God and they didn't go in now they're walking in on dry ground where there used to be a big river and it speaks to how God wants to take our testings and he wants to create a testimony that is how God uses the tests and the struggles of your life he takes the tests and when he shows up that when he works he creates a testimony now for most of us we don't like the testing unless we realize God's endgame which is to create a testimony these things that are testing like oh these aren't some sort of a problem this is God's way of making me into the man or woman of God he wants me to be that's what God is doing God is seeking to make us into the lightness and conformity to Jesus and he uses all these circumstances but what happens is in the midst of them we take our eyes off of what God is doing and we despair in the midst of them rather than saying I know that all things are working together for my good even this and I felt really strongly impressed that I needed to bring that up because I think there's some of us right now who are hearing this who you're despairing and you're forgetting that God wants to make a testimony in your life through these things maybe it's a health struggle maybe it's a financial hardship maybe everything that you had planned just fell apart what if God needed all this to happen to put you where he really wants you see when we get our eyes off of what we think ought to happen and we say Lord your ways are better than mine your plans are higher than mine God what you are doing and what you have in store for me I has not seen nor ear is hurt then all of a sudden all of these struggles become beautiful adventures for the children of Israel walking in the Jordan in the midst of dry ground they could have been there 38 years earlier but they didn't trust God so we begin to say Lord teach us to trust you Lord teach me to trust you Lord what is happening in my life right now is not my preference but I know that you are gonna leverage this to make me more like Jesus and so thank you we need to learn how to say these things and believe these things we need one how to be able to say Lord I believe but help my unbelief the children of Israel have these memorial stones to remind them of where they've been and what God has and all of these raise questions now in verse 10 of Joshua chapter 4 says this so the priest who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua and the people hurried and crossed over and then it came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over that the Ark of the Lord and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people and the men of Reuben and the men of God and the half tribe of manasseh crossed over on before the children of Israel as Moses had spoken to them about forty thousand prepared for war crossed over before the Lord for battle to the plains of Jericho on that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel and they feared him as they had feared Moses all the days of his life now when you realize that the priests are holding the Ark and they're standing in the middle of the Jordan where there's no water right now and everybody else was going over it's kind of a provocative scene because for the children of Israel the Ark of the Covenant was meant to be the visible presence of God amongst the people and that ark was hidden away in the tabernacle and ultimately in the temple and only the high priest could go in there one time of year so now it's sitting there on display while everyone crosses over now you would get the sense I don't know about you but if like all of a sudden you're trying to cross the river and the water stops like you might run across take your valuables out first right but you have this sense that God has these priests holding this Ark and they're just hanging out with you know everything's done and that shows some faith doesn't it they don't feel like man we got to get this thing across we got to get this thing in there because the world and everyone else dies with the Ark of the Covenant here we're gonna be all good right but but there's this patience there's this patient trust in what God is doing and how this happened Joshua is doing his part he is a good leader he is telling the people what the Lord would have for them and everybody is honoring that now of course in verse 11 all the people cross on over they do everything that they're supposed to do right and not only that in verse twelve we find out about the the men of Reuben and GAD and the half tribe of Manasses now you remember out of the 12 tribes these two and a half tribes they wanted to stay on the other side of the Jordan right but in order for them to do it Moses made them promise that when everybody goes in the men who were going to be part of the army have to go in they have to help their brethren and now we find these two and a half tribes are also coming on over to fulfill the commands that Moses had given them and if you want a reference for this this is numbers 32 and Deuteronomy chapter 3 gets the reiteration of this exact reality so everything that's supposed to happen is happening but then we also read this and I think this is so powerful on that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all of Israel and they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life so now with this parting of the Jordan River and the people moving into the Promised Land now the sudden they realize God's hand is on Joshua just the way it was on Moses now even though Joshua had taken the place of Moses now in the hearts of the people this is the guy this is the person who God has anointed to be our leader and we can trust that and this idea of fear it's not that they're terrified over of him but they reverence God's anointing on his life and the plans that God has for them now one of the things I love about this is we should learn how to be in awe of the anointing that God has on people's lives and I'm gonna tell you if you're here today and you're in Christ you've been anointed and appointed by the Lord there's an anointing on your life and we need to learn how to appreciate God's hand on our brothers and sisters in Christ because what goes on is that because for many of us we have insecurities instead of enjoying and celebrating God's anointing on someone's life we say well why is in my life like that person's life and what you do is you you don't allow what God is doing to be a blessing to you because you personalize it as if it means something negative about you and does this happen all the time it's kind of a natural consequence of the self-centeredness of the fall of humanity that Jesus came and rescued us from he died and rose again to redeem us from this kind of thinking where everything becomes what does this mean about me what happens if instead of saying what does this mean about me we say what does this mean about our God because you begin to celebrate the uniqueness is that people huh we begin to learn how to say lord I love that you made that person that way and Lord I love that you made me different to be used uniquely by you see God in His wisdom chose Moses and he chose Joshua to be the leaders but everybody in the life of the children of Israel had an integral role to play in the purposes and plans of God yeah Moses and Joshua were the face people for it but everyone had a part to play I mean think about those 12 people who were chosen to carry those are those rocks what about those priests because of being born of the tribe of Levi now it was a negative care for the different utensils within that within the within the worship community see everybody has a role to play and when you fast forward into the New Testament what you find is that the Apostle Paul speaks about the people of God as a body and if you think about your body your body has all these different parts to it now I'm not I don't know a whole lot about biology so I mean you know you love all that stuff I don't understand a lot of it but what I do realize is that every part of your body is perfectly suited for a specific function that if it doesn't do that the body is not working well and God's interested in all of us as he redeems us in Christ here use us out of our sin and then into the body of Christ how we all take the parts and places that he created us to take that's why we say here at Crossroads that because Jesus is real were a family of faith what fully engaged which means every part of the body needs to add what God has given it to add so that the whole body grows up in our head who's Christ for Joshua it was I mean he gets a whole book in his name but really the book of Joshua is not about Joshua who is it about it's about the Lord you know Moses was the head of Israel for 40 years but his Exodus Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy really a book about Moses no it's a book about the Lord I mean you go into the New Testament Jesus chose these twelve apostles we commonly call the book of Acts the Acts of the Apostles is that really what the book of Acts is all about no it's about the acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles and the same is true for you and same is true for me your life is not about you it's about the Lord working uniquely in you and through you to change the world it's about all of us becoming incredibly excited about being the part of the body that God has created us to be it's about learning how to say God these gifts and talents these natural inclinations and passions that I have under the authority of Jesus is perfectly suited to play this role and I'm gonna play that role to the best of my ability and that my friends is a game-changer because what happens is when you embrace that reality then God's kingdom begins to touch down effortlessly in and through your life because now you're saying Lord I'm just gonna live into what you created me to be and what I found is that when you are willing to do that all that God has for you begins to unfold in your life because instead of being worried about what you're not you're being faithful with what you are and then all that you are begins to come to the surface because now you're already living in the God's kingdom are you the kind of person right now who you are not in in a fully engaged family member you are not an integral part of the body because you're so busy looking at other people why they like that and why don't I get to do that and what's that story this story this thing we get into all this stuff and we completely missed out on we're not gonna be faithful with what you have in front of me right now and as I do that you're gonna continue to give me opportunities and all all that you created me to be is gonna blossom each and every day in all these different ways you might be saying well you know like right now you know I really want to be like the hands of the body of Christ but I kind of feel like I'm a wart on the knee right anybody know what I'm talking about yeah I mean I remember when when God in my own life I remember when when God started to birth a passion for teaching the word and I remember I remember I went to to to my pastor at the time and I said you know I think I'm called to teach the word now I was really walking strongly with Jesus at this point for like a minute you know and I remember this pastor he just looked at me and he said well you know Daniel a person's gifts will make room for them and bring them before great men you know and the idea was is that the gifts that God has placed in you if you are faithful with where you are will come to the surface but we live in a day and age especially in an entitlement generation where people who get saved for one minute - like well I'm supposed to be the pastor here and you're like well did you just start a walk with Jesus last Sunday at church you know works that you know you gotta be on the step that you're on and you have to embrace that step now that doesn't mean that you don't want to be passionate about what you have in front of you but God doesn't give us things just because we wanted God gives us he places us in the body because Jesus is the head and Jesus knows this is where you need to be you think about the great example of David he was anointed king but Saul was still the king and Saul was persecuting him hunting him down right and Dave had all these opportunities to kill Saul because David was a better warrior but in every situation David didn't do it even though Saul was trying to kill him in every turn and David said Who am I to touch the Lord's anointed no it's fast anything about that David was the Lord's anointed but it was willing to allow Saul's reign to run its course to say I have to be faithful where I am in the same way remember when Samuel came to the house of Jesse they'd even called David and David was out in the field just tending to the Sheep everything that happened in David's life before he became King all of it was an example of faithfulness he ended up really the Lord slayed Goliath through the smooth stones that David picked on up but the only reason David was there it was that today I want you to go bring provisions to your brothers who are in the army and David was like okay you know it's like he's not even supposed to be there and when he hears Goliath mocking the armies of the children of Israel David's sense of rightness and righteousness gets provoked he's like who is this uncircumcised Philistine now listen if you want to speak pejoratively if someone don't call him an uncircumcised to anything but David grab that one who's this uncircumcised Philistine think he's talking about the armies of the Lord and if you don't know what that means praise God anyway move past that one you know but David wasn't even supposed to be there but what he was honoring his father and doing what his father asked and the faithfulness of being on that step now puts him right where God wants him so really my encouragement and I think I mean I think about this with Joshua because Joshua up until this all happened he was Moses his assistant he had no title he got no clout he was the one guy Moses was serving the Lord and Joshua's like I just wanna be around Moses right and when the whole camp was here and Moe was set up outside the camp right and the glory of the Lord would fall and speak to him Joshua was just hanging out there he was I just want to be right by where Moses and he was faithful there and now through the faithfulness of what God has given him now God has raised up Joshua and he's using Joshua in similar ways so my encouragement to all of you is to be faithful and be fully engaged we use that language because we see it in the Bible that's what the that's what church is churches in the building it's people but it church isn't just a collection of people it's the question of people who are all lined up with the purposes and plans of God in this world and you do it together not individually we do it together now in verse 15 it says this then the Lord spoke to Joshua saying command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony to come up from the Jordan Joshua therefore commanded the priests saying come up from the Jordan and it came to pass when the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord had come up from the midst of the Jordan and the souls of the priests feet touched the dry land that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks as before Wow so don't miss this order that we keep seeing first the Lord tells Joshua next Joshua tells the people and then the desires of God is obeyed by the people there's no way you get them the Lord speaks to Joshua verses 15 and 16 Joshua is a faithful messenger he tells the people in verse 17 and then in verse 18 they do what is commanded to them now the beauty of this I think for us is that the Lord gives us what he wants in his word right and a good pastor and if I love crossroads not just because I'm here bill Ritchie today long before I ever got here preach the Bible preach the Word of God right so God gives us word a good faithful pastor teaches the word and then we all respond with obedience now I realize that that sounds controlling but I'm not asking anyone to be obedient to me I'm asking you to be obedient to the Word of God what does the word say and are you willing to say this is what it says and I'm gonna live it out what areas of disobedience are there in your life what areas in your life is what you're doing not lining up because God has given us his word in a book you're hearing it tonight you can hear it on a million in 25 podcasts videos a million ways that you like to do it you're reading it and then do you obey it there's such blessings for obedience we don't obey God because he makes us we obey God because God's way of living is better and wiser than our ways what I have learned in my life is that the things that come naturally to me outside of Christ make sense to me but they never leave me feeling fulfilled they always leave me with something that is enjoyable in a moment but ultimately leaves me feeling Hollow and empty and lost at the end of it but when you do life the way that God encourages us to the way of Jesus then everything changes and so obedience is a necessary step and we have this here all the people go Joshua says okay it's time to come out right as the priest feet hit the edge of the banks what happens all the water feels back in again all the water it's it shows the faithfulness of God it shows what God is doing in their midst now in verse 19 it says this now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho and those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan Joshua set up in Gilgal then he spoke to the children of Israel saying when your children ask their fathers in time to come saying what are these stones then you shall let your children know saying Israel cross over this Jordan on dry land for the Lord your gods ride up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea which he dried up before us until we had crossed over that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord that it is mighty and that you may fear the Lord your God forever now it's interesting that we learn in verse 19 that it's on the tenth day of the first month now the reason I think that's important because you know what else happened on the tenth day of the first month that was the day that they selected the Passover lamb go back and look at Exodus chapter 12 verse 3 so the idea is that a lot of these events are lining up things that God had done historically he is doing again it's like and this continues on of course into the New Testament because on the tenth day of the first month was actually what we celebrate every year has Palm Sunday when Jesus he comes in on the tenth day of the month on that day in the Passover account the lamb that was going to be sacrificed so that the Angel of Death would pass over the people was chosen on the tenth day in the month and then examined for a number of days to make sure it was perfect Jesus is triumphal he entered into Jerusalem heralded as the Messiah and then matthew's gospel makes painstaking work that every day people are coming and they're examining Jesus he keeps saying they could find no fault in him they couldn't find any fault in him it's a perfect parallel and now the sudden they are crossing over the Jordan River on the tenth day of the first month now of course they encamped here at Gilgal this is where they are staying and they make the note that it's on the east side of of of Jericho to the east of Jericho literally Gilgal was only about two miles from Jericho and so the idea is of course if you know the book of Joshua and we're gonna get to it in chapter 6 that Jericho is the first great battle of what goes on there right so they land at Gilgal and they set up these while stones and what's beautiful is you're gonna find that Gilgal was the first of kind of three religious bases or places that the children of Israel occupied in the time of Joshua first you get Gilgal here you get Shiloh in Joshua chapter 18 verse 1 and then the third is Shechem which you're gonna get to in chapter 24 of the book of Joshua so there's these three spots where thing different things go on we're gonna see in chapter 5 how this generation gets circumcised here at Gilgal that's an awkward study for a later date not exactly wise warfare we're gonna go over and we're gonna hurt all the warriors think about it but we'll talk about this another thing powerful stuff though thank God them not us amen but but the idea here is again they set up these twelve stones now again it's it's meant to be a teaching opportunity when your children see them and they ask about them they say why is this and of course it says Israel crossed over this Jordan on the dry land for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until he crossed over just as the Lord did on the Red Sea so the teaching is that God dried up this water just as he did in his previous deliverance so you see what God is doing his God is stringing together all these different things that he's done in their life and he's making one beautiful Universal teaching moment with these stones but not only that because there's a second purpose that's spoken about here as well notice what it says verse 24 that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord that it is mighty that you may fear the Lord your God forever so now check this out these stones are not just for the tribe to know for the people of Israel to know but it's for the whole world to know and that is why for us as a church family we are not only interested in raising up our kids to know the Lord but Jesus is real and he's made us a family of faithfully engaged that we may transform our community in her world see the message of the good news of Jesus needs to go global that's what God is interested in he's interested in the whole world knowing that the hand of the Lord is mighty and that God is to be feared why because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom God wants his people all from every tribe nation in song he wants all of us to walk in the wisdom that comes from honoring God as God knowing that God's hand moves mightily and I friends listen God wants you to be a part of the global thrust of the gospel God wants you to live sent by the Lord every day just as I feel like every single week here we're commissioning more and more people to go different places and in some ways God is commissioning all of us to go go to the grocery store go to your job go to school be a part of your community be involved in the things that God has for you to be involved in and that global thrust of the gospel is for every tribe nation and tongue not just Portland in Clark County Washington in the Pacific Northwest in America but everywhere you know it's unfortunate we don't talk up all the time about all the different things that this house this family is doing in the world I mean we we just recently we helped fund a water project in a huge area in Somalia just as last year we did one in North India we have people on missions scattered all throughout the globe we're sending team after team I mean we just commissioned the Browning team we have the Macedonia team coming we have people you know we have we have some of our worship is out just because sent out there on the road right now serving the Lord it goes on all over the life of this place and it's something that we want to happen more and more and more I think by the time this year is over we've officially run I think six or seven cross-cultural trips and we've unofficially been involved in probably fifteen other ones amen amen and whether we're working with refugees in our community or were working with foster care or were doing clean water projects or we're trying to eradicate malaria or we I mean we've been serving in Mexico we sent teams down there we're doing medical clinics and we're helping churches I mean it was Wow when we were down in Mexico churches that we helped start twenty years ago now they are reproducing other churches and we go down there to support them and powerful and God wants all of us to be a part of his global plan listen you might say well you know I don't have a passport I'm never gonna get on a plane but listen you could be you you could be in any country in the distance it takes from your knees to hit the floor in prayer when was the last time you just grabbed a map and you began to look at the map and just let your heart be provoked for different places on the map when was the last time when you read the news he didn't let it get you all all torqued up and freaked out but you started to pray like right now North Korea's in the news when was the last time you prayed for the the leader of North Korea and their army and their citizens most awfully just like when we start get rid of those people no no we're followers of Jesus nobody can repent when they're dead we need to pray for them see our a men see the news wants to get you all worked up and all angry but God wants us our hearts to be provoked to say lord will you do a work of revival in this situation we live in a day and age where you can go on the internet and you can find out anything going on in any place in the world in any given moment let that be your prayer journal when we have teams that are being spent on out do we devote ourselves in prayer and fasting to do we say Lord make me more generous so that the message of the gospel to reach the ends of the earth I'm here to tell you that in the over 2000 ethno-linguistic groups where they don't have a church in their own language it's reproducing only less than 1% of the missions dollars goes to reach the most unreached restricted countries and it breaks my heart as our as a church we've made a focus that we are gonna focus the bulk of our energy on reaching the people who have the least access to the gospel like some of the things we're we're I want to tell them to you but I'm not allowed like it's like security concerns and all these things but there are things that we are dreaming up and working on that God is saying I want you to get the good news of Jesus to the people who nobody's reaching right now and there's avenues to do it if you're willing to get involved and I share all this with you as we're closing this message because God is not just interested in the children of Israel walking into their inheritance he's interested in the children of Israel being in their inheritance so that the whole world would know that God is real and that God is worthy to be followed so what God is doing in your life and in my life and in our church family and in the church with a big see in this world as he wants us to live in our inheritance so that's a message of the God who honors his promise and his covenants reaches the ends of the earth and I believe God is asking all of us as a family of faith fully engaged to be a part of the work that God wants to do globally will you begin to pray I'm on how God's gonna use you will you begin to step in each and every day and say Lord I'm just gonna step a little bit deeper into what you're doing so that when my life comes to an end I'll be able to say I can't believe I got to see God's hand as mighty in all these amazing ways we don't want to play Church we don't want to think of churches just a building we gather in we realize that the Church of the people of God empowered by the Holy Spirit bringing the good news everywhere how awesome with the memorial of your kids in the city the emerging generations be to see look at what the Lord has done like like I went down to Mexico and I saw work that has been 25 years in the making 25 years ago it was a pioneering work and now it's a reproducing work I'm like look at what the Lord has done and now as we're taking these new steps we're saying as the Lord tarries we're gonna be able to say look at what the Lord has done and I want for each one of you in your own personal life to be able to show kids and grandkids and neighbors and friends and that would be like what is God doing you're saying this is what the Lord has done because God's revealing his mighty hands in the midst of your life it's gonna run forth like wildfire in all the people's hearts and God wants your life to be ground zero for a revival let him do that now listen if you're here today and you've already said yes to Jesus before set up those memorials in your life that people may know who he is and step on just take that step of faith I know it's kind of scary when we talk like this but you were created by Jesus to be on mission with him the the mission is his the adventure is his and deep down you don't want to have like a boring Christian life like deep down you're all like man just showing up at church that's really not all that exciting because that's not being a Christian you come together to get built up to be on mission everywhere you go right so we all deep down in our hearts know that there's something more to this thing let's step on into that together and if you're here today and you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus before listen the adventure is all found in Jesus and following him and if you've never yet given your life to Christ you've never allowed Jesus I mean that language giving your life to Christ it's like it's like when you get married you're giving your life to another person you're doing life together in the same way when you give your life to Jesus Jesus said I gave my life for you I want you to give me your life and I'm gonna do more with your life than you can ever do with it on your own and I'm gonna forgive you of your sins and I'm gonna empower I'm gonna fill you with my Holy Spirit and I'm going to invite you to be a part of what I am doing and you get the opportunity to abide in me and say yes at every turn and my friends and if you say yes to Jesus I'll promise you is it all easy definitely not does it all make a lot of sense not all the time but if you abide in Christ you will find yourself involved in things that you would never even have dreamed of and you'll be like how did I get here and you'd be so happy that you're there and the reason I can tell you that is that's my testimony every day I'm like how did I get here I'm so grateful I get to do these things and so many of our brothers and sisters in the Crossroads family like I do not know how I got here but this is awesome and that should be all of our testimonies but if you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus that's where I'm going

Channel: Crossroads Community Church

Views: 7,001

Rating: 4.681818 out of 5

Keywords: Crossroads

Id: -74G8qabdlg

Length: 48min 45sec (2925 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 10 2017