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Aug 08, 2010

Turning Obstacles into Monuments

Passage: Joshua 3:1-4:24

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: Taking the Land

Category: Old Testament

Keywords: memorials, obstacles, challenges, faith, monuments

Summary:

God often takes us to a place of human impossibilities so that he can work in powerful ways and get the glory. When God moves, he wants us to turn those impossible challenges and obstacles into memorable monuments to his power.

Detail:

Turning Obstacles into Monuments

August 8, 2010

Joshua 3-4

 

Intro:  How many of you have ever run through a serious obstacle course?  Where?  What was memorable about it?

 

The military thrives on training with obstacle courses.  (Visual examples) 

Why they do this:  to strengthen recruits.  To train them.  To break them.  To teach them to work in teams.  To build more muscle and stamina.  To prepare them for war.

 

Obstacle courses are not new with the military.  God has been using them for thousands of years with his own children. 

Q:  If you were to do an on-the-street/outside-the-tent interview of the Israelites in Joshua 2, what would they have said was, 1.) the objective God was calling them to, and 2.) the obstacles to achieving those objectives?

 

REVIEW:  We’ve come through the period of training in the desert of God’s kids.  A whole generation of his kids could get no farther than out of Egypt and into the desert.  Their lack of faith held them hostage to a certain level of reduced blessing far less than what God wanted to give them.  Unable to rise to the bigger faith callings of God in the Promised Land, they were left with only a fraction of what God had intended for them to experience. 

      In some ways it was easier than the Promised Land—daily manna, daily meat, visible presence of God in fire and cloud, water from the rock, cloths that didn’t wear out, shoes that didn’t need repair.  God’s grace and provision was there for them, but at a much-reduced level.  

APP:  I sometimes think I see too much of myself and the church today in the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites. We’ve grown overly-content with life in the desert when God has a verdant, green and challenging “Promised Land” for us of spiritual exploits.   We get stuck in a routine, day after day, that loses sight of WHY we’re in this journey, WHERE we’re going and WHAT we have been called to do—obstacle to cross, battles to win, people to see Christ conquer. 

 

Well, we pick up the story and God’s Word to us today in Joshua 3.  God’s people are on the east side of what was, at the time, a massive river at flood stage. 

TODAY:  The Jordan River is but a trickle of its former greatness.  In fact, recent predictions say that the Jordan River will completely dry up in the not-too-distant-future because so much water is being used for irrigation by the surrounding nations.  But in Joshua’s day, some 3500 years ago, imagine it being more like the Columbia River…in late spring…at flood stage!  (Pics)

 

Have you ever tried to cross a river…or even a stream…at flood stage?  How about getting your whole family across safely?  How about a whole city?  Nation?  With each additional person, the difficulty and danger rise exponentially. 

 

So notice what God has his children do with this unbelievably difficult obstacle in their path called the Jordan River.  3:1-3. 

1 Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. 2 After three days the officers went throughout the camp, 3 giving orders to the people….

“…After three days….”  Why did God have his kids park in front of the biggest obstacle they had ever seen at the worst possible time of the year just before they were scheduled to take the biggest faith-step of their lives? 

  • Imagine what the engineer-types were doing during those days?  “Well, there are 2 million of us…at 50 rafts that can carry 100 people each that’s…5,000 people per trip…and we can do probably 3-4 trips/hour…that’s 20,000 people an hour…plus 1,000 yards of rope for each raft…that’s 50,000 yards of rope…not to mention 5 cedar logs from Lebanon for each raft…that’s 250 logs.  Wait just a minute!  Even IF we could do that, we’re talking 4-5 days, 24-hours a day.  There’s no way this will work.”
  • Then there were the military strategists.  “If we don’t get enough fighting men over there in the first wave, they’ll just destroy us one-by-one, raft-by-raft.  How are we supposed to ford this thing when it’s overflowing its banks and moving at 5 miles/hour?  
  • I’m sure the life guards were fit to be tied.  “Is Joshua crazy!  There are only 5 of us who even know how to swim in the entire nation!  Where does he think we’ve been the last 40 years, a seaside resort?” 
  • Not to mention about 300,000 sets of parents who are petrified with fear about trying to get across this river any way, any time, any how. 

 

Which direction do you think their thoughts were going as they sat by the Jordan, watching the flood debris wash downstream?  Getting more hopeful…or getting more pessimistic about the challenge? 

 

Sometimes God lets us sit in a situation until we really lose all hope of figuring out a human solution to the problem.  Sometimes he lets us noodle on something until we get to the place where we’re really convinced it can’t be done…even with the best human brains…even with the strongest human bodies…even with the deepest human pocketbooks.  God wants us sometimes to have NO other recourse than absolute faith and trust in Him.  It is those very situations that often lead to the greatest experiences with God.

 

But remember, none of this would have happened if they had been content to stay where they were…where they had been for 40 years.   God is always inviting his children to move forward… step into new territory…make faith-based advances that are Spirit-led but totally impossible apart from God stepping in.

      I’m not talking about picking out of thin air some grandiose dream or business venture that has little to nothing to do with the advancement of God’s kingdom in your life or the lives of others.  I’m talking about things we either know God has called us to do because it’s very clear in His word OR steps we know God has asked us to make because we’ve waited on Him, prayed about it a whole lot and listened to the Holy Spirit’s whisper.    

 

ILL:  Prayer letters I receive regularly from Paul Pauli, a man who my parents were supporting as a missionary 40 years ago.  Paul is now in his late 70s.   He’s a national East Indian, educated at Biola University.  He returned to India some 50 years ago to start a Bible College in New Delhi.  Then they felt God wanted them to do something with orphans, so they started an orphanage. 

      India is a very volatile nation when it comes to religion, particularly Christianity.  The Hindu and Muslim majorities don’t want more Christians.  So India has seen in recent years some of the worst persecution in the world—churches burned, pastors and parishioners attacked, hands cut off, beaten and killed.  The obstacles are real and they are big. 

      From the last newsletter “India Today” from Paul’s India National Inland Mission, listen to where they are now. 

  • The class of 2010 trained and commissioned 237 native missionaries from 49 different S. Asian people groups.
  • 650 new missionary candidates are being trained at the Grace Bible College.
  • They have 207 new orphans that have arrived, bringing the orphanage count to 1118 resident children.
  • Since 1976, 41% of former orphanage residents are in fulltime ministry.  They are now praying that God will raise that number to 60%!
  • April saw 10 new church plants.
  • They sent out 81 summer evangelistic and church planting teams. 

 

APP:  God takes us up the ladder of faith-experiences with him, one rung at a time.  He knows that if we’re called upon to jump 5’ up in one leap, we’ll miss the step and probably fall and hurt ourselves.  Steady progress is far more healthy than breathtaking leaps of faith followed by stunning wipe-outs. 

      If we grow in our trust and faith in God’s calling and power, one step at a time, making steady progress all along the way, then God can take us places in this journey that will be utterly amazing. 

 

That’s how God deals with us this way as individuals, families and even churches.

ILL:  Chipley’s friends and the purchase of their RV.

APP:  Mosaic and step of Alpha—God is giving us a faith-challenge that is just big enough to be impossible without His intervention but not so big that we don’t even consider stepping out in faith. 

  • Example of something “too big” for our level of faith right now would be Empire Ford.  50,000 sq. feet of usable indoor space with 35,000 sq. feet of parking.  It’s perfect…for a church 5 times our size in both numbers and faith. J
  • Story of Jeff Manion this week at Willow Creek Leadership Summit.  Jeff is Sr. Pastor of Ada Bible Church in Ada, Michigan.  He took over a struggling church plant 15 years ago.  God added to the church and it grew to about 150.  They purchased land on which to build a new church and told the congregation they would start construction the following April.  When Aril rolled around, he had to go back to the congregation and say, “You know what.  We’re not ready to build yet…but we’ll start construction next April.”  Many were relieved and expressed their appreciation to him for being a leader that would wait on God rather than just launch ahead unprepared.  When the next April rolled around, he came to the church and said, “Well, last year I told you we’d be launching our new building program this year.  But after much prayer and what we believe to be the leading of the Holy Spirit, we have to tell you that it won’t be until next April.”  There was no clapping or “ata boy’s” that Sunday.  And the next year, guess what?  Yup.  Another delay.  The church grew to about 50! J  Jeff admitted that he wrestled with God a lot during that “land between” time in the church.  But eventually they started building.  Eventually the church grew…in fact, it’s over 6,000 today.  But it required growing in faith in God when faced with seeming impossibilities. 

 

But what happens when God’s people say, “NO.  We can’t do that.  That step may cost us too much!  It’s too risky!  Why can’t we just stay where we are and have God just give us a better menu right here…better selections than just this “manna” we’ve been eating for what seems like forever?”  And we start complaining about life being “the same ol’ same ol’ week after week, year after year.” And God says, “I’ve called you to the Promised Land.  I’ve brought you this far.  Why won’t you get your feet wet in this “impossible” obstacle of a river I’ve made and put in your path?  Why so little faith?”   

      The only alternative to being stuck where we’ve always been is to move to where we’ve never been. 

 

Joshua 3:2-4

2 After three days the officers went throughout the camp, 3 giving orders to the people: "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. 4 Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it."

 

You know, it strikes me as remarkable that when the leaders gave the call that God had given to Joshua, nobody balked!  Nobody grumbled!  Nobody said, “You’re nuts!  You go ahead.  I’m staying right here.  I’m not marching into a swollen river at flood stage!”  No, they of one accord stepped out in faith. 

      There is something very powerful about God’s people being of one accord in faith.  God does something with that.  He moves in powerful ways…and even new ways.

Notice what vs. 4 says.  “[When you obey this call to faith]…then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.”

There are a couple of possible interpretations of this phrase, “…since you have never been this way before.”  The translators of the NIV chose to go with the meaning that “this is new territory for you to cover” by saying, “…since you have never been this way before.”  Certainly, when God asks us to take another step of faith, it’s usually into something we’ve never experienced before or on to someplace we’ve never been before.  This may be what God was saying to the people.  “This is new territory for you.  So follow the Ark of the Covenant and you’ll be fine.” 

 

But the interpretation that I think best fits the context is one that would read something like this.  “Then you will know which way to go, since you have never [been led in this manner or way] before.” 

 

HOW had they been led up until this time?  [Pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.]  But now they are entering into a whole new way of being led by God.  They are to follow the Ark of the Covenant.  God’s presence would from now on be represented among them through this symbol, this holy box containing the Law of God which they were to follow but also covered by that golden covering called “the mercy-seat” upon which the blood of the Passover lamb was sprinkled once a year. 

[Talk about what that signified in terms of the presence of the holy nature of God (Law) mediated by the sinless sacrifice of the Lamb of God for us, guilty sinners, so that we experience God’s mercy and grace by faith in that sacrifice rather than God’s judgment upon our sin.]

 

What if the people had said, “NO.  I want the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.  Don’t ask me to change the way I walk by faith!” 

 

One thing stayed constant in the way God asked them to walk by faith.  That constant was the presence of God.  HOW that presence was manifested and represented change somewhat.  God had used that cloud and pillar of fire for their parent’s generation.  The Ark of the Covenant had been there.  But since the day they had their back against the Red Sea with the army of Pharaoh pursuing them, God had used that cloud and fire-pillar. 

      Now his presence was going to be represented simply by the Ark of the Covenant.  The same powerful, delivering God would be with them but now he was asking them to exercise more faith than their parents had by stepping into the Jordan without a pillar of fire or cloud, just the promised presence of God represented by the Ark. 

 

APP:  There is always something that will change about the WAY God leads his children generation to generation.  But there is something that will also never change:  the fact of his presence with children who will always walk by faith in His word and utter reliance on his presence. 

      Maybe this is why there is always somewhat of a generational struggle or tension in the church.  God works a certain way with one generation and they find it hard to let go of that and embrace a fresh way of following God by faith in their children’s generation.  Same God.  Same wonderful saving work.  Same kind of faith asked for.  BUT the younger generation must now take their own steps of faith…usually in a slightly different manner than their parent’s generation. 

 

But what MUST remain constant in it all?  (Looking to and following the presence of God.) 

APP:  The church today doesn’t follow a golden box with images of angels hovering over a plate of gold on top of the box that has blood spattered on it from Passover lambs.  Who/what do we follow today?  Jesus Christ, the “head” over the church.  It is the presence of God in His covenantal Word that we look to.  It is the Passover Lamb in Jesus Christ crucifixion that we look to.  It is the same God, now made visible in the person of the Living Word, Jesus Christ. 

 

Our job is to do what the Covenant People of God have always done in following God’s lead by faith.  Joshua 3:5--Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you."    

 

What does it mean to “consecrate yourselves” again? 

  • How we practice this weekly in Communion: letting God speak about sin that is standing between us and Him. 
  • Daily consecration means…taking time to daily listen to God’s Spirit about heart issues, particularly ones that need realigning.  

God is ready and willing to do “amazing things” among us WHEN we are willing and ready to set our hearts and lives aside for His kingdom purposes. 

 

Joshua 3:8-10

8 Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: 'When you reach the edge of the Jordan's waters, go and stand in the river.' "

 9 Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.

            It’s interesting that it isn’t the military leaders whom God commands to take the first steps into the impossible situations.  It’s the spiritual leaders of the nation who are to get their feet wet first.  They are to go “stand in the river”…step forward into the very things that seem like they are insurmountable obstacles to the forward progress of the people of God. 

            One of the primary requirements for good leadership among the people of God is people who will exercise obedient faith.  God’s people need leaders who will say, “This way.  Follow me as I follow Christ.  Follow us into the raging waters of life and watch what God does.” 

            Notice, God’s leaders are not to ask God’s people to do whatever hair-brained thing that pops into their minds.  They are simply to ask God’s people to “listen to the words of the LORD your God.  This is how you will know that the living God is among you….”   When we act upon the Word of the Living God, God does that which will enable us to “know that the living God is among us…” and that he will certainly finish the good work already begun in us (Phil. 1:6). 

            The greatest need of the people of God  is to know that the living God is among us, is it not?  If we are convinced that God is with us, noting will be too difficult.  Noting will seem too big, too hare, too impossible, too dark…if we know that the living God is among us. 

            How will we know that today?  When we see him doing miraculous things among us and on our behalf.

  • At times that might look like miraculous healings that prolong life.  At times that might look like miraculous grace that enables us to die with confidence.
  • At times that might look like miraculous saving of people we’ve been praying for for years.  At times that might look like steadfast faith to be people of prayer week after week even though we haven’t seen God answer yet.
  • At time it will mean instant deliverance from some addiction or personal problem. At time it will look like daily walking the process of growth that teaches us how to live victoriously over some sin or weakness. 

God wants to make his living presence visible among us so that we will have greater confidence for the even more frightening or potentially terrifying battles that await us in the future, those “Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites” and other “ites” that will be out there to further challenge our faith progress in Christ. 

 

Well, the people of God stepped forward smack dab into the middle of life’s biggest obstacle they had yet faced to experiencing the promises of God among them.  Those priests with the Ark of the Covenant, marched right out into the river and positioned themselves in the most fear-defying, faith-needed place—the middle of the river.  And they stood there, bearing the symbol of the presence of God among his people, for as long as it took.  Hour after hour they remained in the very place that would spell utter disaster for them IF God didn’t continue to come through as promised. 

Yes, God was already evidently at work with them.  The miracle of the Jordan River drying up at flood stage was already underway.  But it was happening some distance “upstream” (3:16).  The river was “piled up in a heap a great distance away…” (3:16).  The spiritual leaders of God’s people interposed themselves in the most dangerous place that day.  They stood there by faith every moment of the day, not able to see just HOW it was that God was working upstream but exercising faith every moment that He was, in fact, going to continue to protect them until the work of getting everyone across was over and God had told them to move on. 

 

APP:  This is the role of every one of us who may be called in any way to lead others in faith. 

  • Parents with children and grandchildren.
  • Business leaders with employees.
  • Husbands with wives.
  • Teachers with students.
  • Leaders, pastors, elders with churches
  • Government leaders with citizens

If you lead anyone, God’s call will be, from time to time, to put yourself in the most faith-needed, dangerous place of all—utterly dependant upon God to work if you are to survive. 

 

And WHEN God works…WHEN he parts the waters…WHEN he dries up that obstacle…WHEN he takes you to the next step of growth and faith…THEN we need to do something. 

 

Joshua 4:4-7

4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

 8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

 

Every time God takes us through some challenge, some obstacle, some seemingly impossible situation that he’s just asking us to step right into the middle of so He can go there with us, God also invites us to pick up something that can remind us of His work right in the middle of it all. 

            Notice, God didn’t ask them to build a cathedral, just pick up 12 stones.  God didn’t ask them to harvest a million pounds of rock for future needs, just 12 rocks.  Monuments to God’s work in our lives don’t have to be some big, audacious, expensive thing.  In fact, there is probably a danger if our “monuments” to God’s great works among us become something too big or beautiful.  Successive generations of believers may want to just “camp out” in or around those monuments rather than move forward into future exploits of faith. 

APP: 

  • How many churches are living off the faith exploits of previous generations rather than stepping forward into fresh ones for themselves? 
  • How many times have we allowed ourselves to get side-tracked building great monuments to God when all God really wants is a simple reminder that He is powerful and able to take us through whatever obstacles and challenges we may face? 

 

You know what I think are some of the most powerful “memorial stones” of God’s work in the world today?  PEOPLE…people whose lives have been taken from “the bottom of the river” and which now are part of God’s amazing family. 

            I Peter 2:5 says this.  “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 

2:9—“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 

 

“Living stones” who speak praises to God for what he has done to transform their lives from the darkness of the river bottom to the shores of life in Christ—these are the “memorial stones” that God wants to see testifying of His power to deliver from generation to generation. 

 

APP:  Some of us know what God has delivered us from.  Some of us know where our lives would be if God hadn’t taken us through some “flood waters” and brought us out on the other side. 

ROCKS—choose one from the basket.  On one side write a word or two that signifies some obstacle, some “river” in life that you know God has brought you through.  What is it you can say to the next generation of God’s people wondering what to do with the “rivers” in their path, “This is what God saved me from.  This is what God brought me through.”  Just one or two words…then write them with the Sharpie pens on one side of that stone.

(Share verbally now???)

THEN…write one or two words that identify an obstacle, challenge, seeming impossibility facing you about which you will exercise faith in God, step forward into, and trust God to “part the waters.”   Something that is going to require that you trust God about…and take action upon.  

 

Isaiah 43:1-2—“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” 

[Take time to write on the stones…and share about God’s faithfulness in past obstacles.]