Do Church – Sharing our Faith

1. Pastor Gail got it in her spirit that we should start using the gifts of other translators. So, if you speak both languages, you’re in trouble. I thank you for being here with me today, George. Joshua 5 The theme that pastor Gail gave me today, since we are coming to the end of our series on “Being the Church”. We have things that we have to talk about especially during the fall, that we feel the Lord is speaking to the church in this hour. But we don’t want to lose sight of the fact that we don’t just Go to Church, we ARE the Church. You are the church of the living God. You, we, are the Body of Christ. You are the living experience in the world of the living Jesus Christ. I want it so badly for us as a Church to grasp that so deeply. The Lord is not looking for people to do religious things. He’s looking for people to be Him to the world. And we do that by gathering together, encouraging one another, enforcing one another. But then we complete it by going out into the world and doing something about it.
2. If the experience of your faith is contained in this room, listen to me for this is a bold statement, “then you are not a disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ – you are just a religious person, doing religious things”. Our faith has to walk out of these doors. It must impact the world around us. Our faith cannot be contained in us, it must be shared with other people. These are the words of Jesus, folks. We see too few people impacted by the Gospel that we carry with us.
3. Let’s just talk, let’s leave the sermon notes out. The passage we were going to read was where God would lead His people to the edge of the promised land. Go home and read the first 6 chapters of Joshua. And what I’m going to talk about is Biblical. God brought His people right to the point, now it took them some time. What they could have done in less than 2 weeks took them 40 years. Tomorrow marks the day I landed here in Greece 31 years ago. I would have thought that in 31 years I would have seen so much more. I’ve seen ministry ebb and flow. Leto, I remember when we were doing 3 services on Sunday. We had to do a Kurdish service early in the morning, then we had to do the normal service, and sometimes we had to do it again. It didn’t happen very often but it happened. I’ve seen people come to Christ; I’ve seen a lot of former Muslims come to Christ. It’s been a wonderful testimony. But I would bet you that if I put my hands up twice, I’ve seen fewer than that Greeks or Greek nationals come to church in 31 years. I believe less than 20. It’s not what I expected the day I landed.
4. Now, we’ve seen populations ebb and flow, we’ve been through a few crises, stuff has happened. God has been faithful. I don’t mark success by numbers; numbers are a reflection and numbers can be looked at in different ways. We know of about 14 congregations around the world that are led by people who came to faith in this Church. I think many churches would mark that as a pretty big success. We’ve been through times where we could pay the rent and more, in fact when I was the lead Pastor of this church you guys were paying me. Those days have gone. We’ve struggled, but we’re here; we haven’t survived. God has kept us. There have been reasons for that stuff. But in my mind’s eye I thought in 31 years we would have accomplished so much more, and I don’t want this to be a personal testimony, but I couldn’t help but think of this when pastor Gail gave me the title of this sermon. I think it was because of something I said first and it caught on. I like to say where we are now, is not where we’re going. In our personal lives, where we are today is not the end of the road. It's not the end of the road in my personal life, I’m still growing. Look at your neighbor next to you and say “I’m still growing”.
5. Now, spiritually speaking, if you said that to your neighbor and its not true, you’re a liar, you need to repent and turn to the Lord and say help me grow. There are 3 things that we talk about as our vision, mission. 1) That we’ll be a people who worship. That means that we gather. If you’re not interested in gathering, then you don’t belong in this church. Because worship is a communal event, but it’s also a personal event. I think you’ve witnessed that I like to worship in song, I like to worship in prayer, in fact something that I’m rediscovering is my prayer life in the Holy Spirit, not because it ever went away, but because I’m learning again that He takes me into depths in my spirit that I didn’t experience before. If you don’t know that experience, I encourage you to find it. We’re not a church that says you have less of the Holy Spirit if you don’t, but I think it’s a blessing to your life. We also worship by helping each other. In fact, the root of the word to worship is to serve. Which takes us in a circle because that’s the last of our 3 points, Worship, grow, serve.
6. Now as a church there are things that we look at like are we worshipping as a people? Are we growing, do we see individuals growing, do we see the church growing? Then there are things to look at, are we serving? In the church are we serving each other and outside are we serving the world? I want to re-enforce those 3 things, because I want you to seriously ask yourself today, “Am I worshipping, am I growing, am I serving?” Because where we are now is not where we are going. The Lord has a destination for each one of us, and He has something out in front of us together that we have not yet experienced.
7. Now, as I was studying this, back to the point where God has His people at the river Jordan. They’re on the wrong side of the river, because they haven’t entered the Promised Land yet, and up until this point they have been led by Moses, the greatest leader that this nation has ever had. Moses was a powerful leader, he got millions of people who had never been anything but slaves, to follow him around a wilderness for 40 years, because he put in front of them a promise from God, that the people didn’t even talk to, they expected him to talk to God. To be truthful God helped him out quite a bit, He gave them a pillar of cloud to cover them in the hot desert, and to lead them around. I tell you if you’ve ever been to Egypt or Jordan in the summertime, they needed a cloud. He gave them fire at night to keep them warm and alive, because the desert in the night time is not a comfortable place either. And He leads them by a cloud and He leads them by a fire. He feeds them manna from heaven and quail, they didn’t have to make their own food, grow their own food, God just said, “Here eat”. He fed them. He gave them water, Moses struck a rock, even when he spoke to a rock, well actually he struck it, when he was supposed to speak to it.
8. Miracles every day, not one but multiple miracles every day of their lives. What if you woke up in the morning to a miracle of God, that you knew, every day. Wow! So God gets them to the edge of the Promised Land, but because Moses struck a rock instead of speaking to it, God takes Moses up on a mountaintop, and He says “Hey you’ve been the greatest leader, I want to show you the land that your people are going to take.” And the Bible even tells us the amount of land that Moses saw, and I can tell you, I’ve been to the top of that mountain and several other in the area, and with your physical eye, you cannot see the land that God showed Moses. That means that God gave Moses sight in the spiritual that he didn’t have in the natural. He gave Moses one last miracle, saying “Hey look at this. This is where your people are going. But not you.” Can you imagine, freeing your people, leading them for 40 years, but now God is telling you, it’s not for you. And God takes Moses to glory.
9. But now, He has raised a man called Joshua, and that’s where our story begins. And I was going to preach about God giving Joshua new revelation and a new experience. Joshua encounters, probably, the pre-incarnate Jesus, the angel of the Lord appears to him, and Joshua asks the famous question, “Are you on our side or are you on their side?” And the angel answers, “No, neither one, I’m on the side of the captain of the hosts. You come with me. Don’t ask me to come with you, you come with me.” There’s a big lesson in that. For many of us, our prayer life is asking God to come to our side. “God are you on my side here? Is this new business deal going to work out? God are you on my side when I go to the doctor today? God are you on my side in so many different things?” And I’m not even saying that that’s wrong. I pray for all those things. But the angel answers wisely – “I’m not coming to your side. You come with me. And I’ll give you the city.”
10. I really feel deeply in my spirit, that the Holy Spirit is asking a lot of us to come with Him. We’ve heard words, we’ve had revelations, we’ve experienced certain things, but we’re living life day-by-day according to our own strength. We’re trying to strike the rock with God’s powerful rod, instead of speaking to it. Because that worked before – it’s got to work again. My strength, this is what I know, this is what I’m going to do. And the Lord says “Hmm, come to My side, let’s talk about this and actually do it My way.”
11. There’s a phrase I use a lot, and I have it written down, “God has a plan and His plan works”. So then why are you so often trying to deviate from His plan? Why am I, so often trying to deviate from His plan? That which you know to do, this is New Testament, “To him who knows what to do and doesn’t do it, it’s sin”. What does sin mean? Missing the mark, getting off base and a lot of us are good believers, but we’re still living missing the mark. What does that mean? It means living in sin. We use that phrase and we think somebody is committing adultery, smoking marihuana, doing bad things, cheating with their neighbor. That’s living in sin, right? No, living in sin is knowing what to do and not doing it – that’s sin. And whether we like it or not, the wages of sin is still… death. And we experience death in our lives in some way, in some regard. Because, we’re still trying to strike the rock, when God said, speak to it – in other words do it My way. Because I have a plan and my plan works.
12. We think that God is somewhere up there trying to beat us with His belt because we’re being bad. No, that’s not the God we serve. God says, “Here’s the umbrella of My blessing”. You can either walk beneath it and enjoy the shadow of My wings, or you can get out from under it and get yourself burned in that hot sun. But that’s not My choice, that’s yours. I’m not cursing you; I’m just allowing you to make choices. Because under my umbrella things work well. Come live under here. It’s a simple equation. And this is way off my notes. But this morning as I was thinking about this again, as one of my dogs was eating one of pastor Gail’s cushions – hope you’re not watching pastor Gail, I thought about them getting to that point, Moses has led his people all this way, the people have asked Moses for everything – you go talk to God, you get Him to do these things for us, you lead us, you get us better food, you Moses do, do, do. They’ve relied on Moses for everything, now they get to the point of this mountain, and God takes Moses away, and Joshua is left to lead the people. And God gives Joshua a fresh revelation, gives him a fresh experience, gives him assurances. God says be strong and courageous. Not just strong but VERY courageous, because I’m with you, and the enemies you see in front of you I’m going to take them out. Joshua, I’m going to give you victory
13. This is My absolute Word to you. You’re going to win. And He’d look at each one of you here today and say, “You’re going to win! You’re going to win, be strong and courageous”. But before that Joshua, I need you to have this revelation, “Moses my servant is dead”. That’s where the story starts. “Joshua, you got to lead the people, I’m with you. But you got to know, Moses is dead. In other words, you cannot rely on what has been. What got you here, will not take you far. What got you here will not win the day”. And I wonder if some of us need to hear God say, “For all those things that got you here, Moses is dead. That’s done”. Thank God, it got you this far. But that is not the revelation or the experience that is going to take you forward.
14. When the Israelites crossed the Jordan, they came up against the biggest, baddest city in the land – Jericho. You guys remember that story, right? These people aren’t warriors they’re slaves, they’ve never been to war. They have no idea; they’ve had no captains to teach them how to fight. No swordsmen, no archers, this was a weak nation. You remember that God opened up the river Jordan and they walked across on dry land. So, they experienced a miracle, then God tells them to set up an altar, to commemorate what God had done. It meant a new time in recognizing God, giving Him the honor that is due to Him – That’s what was in my heart earlier when I began to sing “Holy, Holy, Holy”, because I’m thinking we need to set up some altars, and just recognize who God is. And then He tells them to do one of the stupidest things I can think of, before going into battle. He said take all your grown men, and men you should be about to cringe, and circumcise them. Anybody who’s ever studied adult circumcision, you can forget about that as a baby, but you do not forget about it as a grown man. They say it’s one of the most painful experiences. Circumcise them, because in just a few days I’m going to take them into battle. WHAT!! The poor guys could barely walk, and then He tells them to walk 7 times around the city. This is not a plan, but God has a plan and His plan works. They had to build altars, they had to re-consecrate themselves. I think there’s word in this for us. I hope we come out of this summer season, as a people who have re-experienced, re-dedicated, and then received that new revelation, because after they did those things, God gave them the plan on how to take the city. I want you to think about everything in your life that you’re trying to move forward into, first of all spiritually. Because if it doesn’t begin there, the rest is worthless, I guarantee you. There’s treasure in heaven and there’s hay and stubble and this is going to burn away. And a lot of God’s people are going to be disappointed because He burns a bunch of stuff down. We’re going to be disappointed because our eyes were not on Him, but on our plan. And God is going to come to us and say, “Moses is dead, you’re not going there now”. So, get it in here with the Lord first, setup some altars, make some dedications, then receive the plan. Because where we are now is not where we are going.
15. You remember when the children of Israel came back from captivity I Babylon, and they re-built the temple, that had been destroyed; the most magnificent temple had been destroyed. And they re-built the temple, but the people who remembered the old temple, they were so disappointed. This doesn’t look anything like the old temple. It doesn’t have the gold, it’s just not the same. God speaks to them and tells them, “The glory of this temple, will be far greater than the former”. And when we let go of some things, and we move into what God has next, it may not look like that, but God’s going to tell you that beyond Jericho, is milk and honey – it’s the riches of the land; you’re going to experience greater things than you have ever known, when you follow the plan God has for you., rather than that, that you have planned for yourself. Where we are now is not where we are going. Where you are in your own life right now, this is not the end of the road.
16. Whatever tragedy you face, my family’s been broken, maybe my marriage has been broken, my business has failed, my neighbors are harassing me, my family despises me, I’m having physical problems. We could name all kinds of issues, but God is still saying, “There is life on the other side of the Jordan, and there is life beyond Jericho. I have a plan for you, not for the others, for you, and My plan works.” Where we are now, is not where we are going.
17. Some of that was from my notes.