finding your way with god

M00450

Years ago my father had a brown 39 Chevy four door. It was quite a car in 39. As a little kid I used to get in the car when it was in the driveway and sit in the driver’s seat and steer away. I would screech around corners and speed down the streets. What an imagination I must have had.

The point I think I want to make is that I could steer all day, but there was absolutely no progress forward, backward, or to the side.

A few years later - I was still quite small - Dad went hunting with a friend. The friend and my brother went down along the river, but my father being crippled could not walk and hunt. He set me on a box in the car and started the car idling along in the pasture along the fence. He got out on the running board [explain running boards] and was hunting. I was on the box steering away FOR REAL. I just followed the fence row and was doing great.

After awhile I looked over and saw the friend and my brother and being excited I swerved the car toward them to give them a ride - the problem was that I didn't realize that they were near the river. It also threw my father off balance and he struggled to hang on. Well to close the story, my father finally scrambled into the car and shut it off to stop our trip to the river.

Come to think of it I didn't get to drive again till I had a learner’s permit.

Come to think of it, that was the last time my father went hunting.

The point? Only when the car was moving did anything happen. You can steer a car all you want, but unless you start it moving, that steering has no effect.

Let us consider this line of thinking in relation to God and His leading of us as individuals or as a church body. Unless we are moving forward, we cannot expect God to lead or steer us in the way He would have us go.

Please turn to Joshua three for our thoughts in this study.

READ Joshua 3.1-8

The Israelites are at the East Side of the Jordan River awaiting the order to enter the land to begin the long war with the people of the land.

THE FIRST THING WE SEE IS THAT THE PEOPLE WERE TO FOLLOW: verses 2-4 Follow God's commands as they are given. It is of interest that it was the Priests and Levites that were leading the armies into the land, not the generals or the soldiers, but the Priests and Levites.

Do you get the idea that spiritual leadership is the important item when we begin to move forward for God?

There are two items of application in this thought.

1. Leaders are for leading.

2. Followers are for following.

This may seem a little too simple to bring up, but many there are of the follower class that attempt to lead in the church today.

Also, sadly to say, many leaders there are that allow the followers to run the store.

We had a missionary tell us once that the main problem missionaries have on the field is that there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians. The point being that all missionaries are graduates of Bible College or Seminary and are trained to lead. Put all leaders in one area and they all desire and attempt to lead.

The solution is a hierarchy of leadership. Corporations have to do it. The military has to do it and the Church must do it.

The hierarchy is seen in verse three in that the commanders went throughout the people telling them of the instructions.

You have the leaders, you have the commanders and you have the people. ALL ARE INVOLVED, ALL ARE IMPORTANT, BUT ALL HAVE THEIR PLACE AND RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE OVERALL PLAN OF GOD.

I once read an account of two men that met while building one of the great cathedrals of Europe. One man was the architect that had designed the massive building and the other was a common laborer. The moral of the story was that they both realized that they were co-laborers in the project and that the beautiful cathedral could not have been built without the labors of both men.

So it is with war, without the generals and without the privates nothing can be accomplished. The generals could never have seen victory without the soldiers that did the work.

So it is with the church, without church leaders and without the laborers nothing can be accomplished.

NEXT WE SEE THE PEOPLE WERE TO SANCTIFY THEMSELVES: verse 5 - Sanctify yourself as an individual - not others, and God will do wonders. NOTE that sequence. Sanctify and then God will do wonders. It might leave you wondering if we don't sanctify ourselves will God do wonders? Many times this is the case.

May we inspect ourselves in the area of sin and wrong doing to see if we might have problems that we need to deal with?

The term “sanctify” has the thought of to consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate or BE HALLOWED! It is the term kaw-dash' (6942) This term is very closely related to the term Kadesh Barnea where Kadesh means holy.

MAKE YOURSELVES HOLY AND WE WILL SEE GOD DOING WONDERFUL THINGS!

Notice that the wonderful work is not in the battle, not in the river, not on the other side, but AMONG YOU! YOU SANCTIFY YOURSELF AND HE WILL WORK AMONG YOU.

Possibly we need to think of sanctifying ourselves for a moment.

Syrus a mime, writer and freed slave of the first century B.C. wrote of sanctification: "Those who have never tried the experiment of a holy life measure the laws of God, not by their intrinsically goodness, but by the reluctancy and opposition which they find in their hearts." (Excerpted from "Complete Speaker's and Toastmaster's Library" Copyright © 1993, 1994 Compton's New Media Inc.)

Let me repeat that for you. "Those who have never tried the experiment of a holy life measure the laws of God, not by their intrinsical goodness, but by the reluctancy and opposition which they find in their hearts."

Smith's Bible Dictionary tells us OF SANCTIFY: "Consecration of a person to God...to make holy, or to set apart for God...."

The first reference to sanctification in the Bible is in Gen 2.3 where it mentions that God set the seventh day apart unto Himself.

1. Consider your own spiritual life - not mine - not your spouses - not your friends - YOURS.

Now, "consider" means that you stop - take time to think through your recent days of life and ask yourself:

Have I sinned?

Have I wronged someone?

Have I lived ethically?

Have I been honest in business?

Have I followed all that God has asked me to do?

Have I been living a GOOD Christian life?

Are you willing to do as the Lord leads?

2. If you don't find anything that you need to take before the Lord in confession then you should be sanctified. You should be set apart for God's use.

If you find yourself lacking, confess your sin and commit yourself to Him! It is time to take steps before God to correct your area of problem.

This thought of consciously considering your life is very important. A friend of mine was pastoring a church - I was his co-pastor and the church instituted a new constitution. It was a constitution that required all existing and new church leaders to go through a qualification process.

The pastor and I made ourselves available with two other people to REALLY consider whether we were qualified to serve.

Pastor and I had more the idea of we will lead the other two through the process - thinking we were qualified and that there were no problems. As we considered each qualification over time, I realized that I had one area where I did not feel I was qualified. We met to talk one day and he mentioned, you know Stan there is one area in my life that I am just not satisfied that I am qualified in. As he spoke, he mentioned the same area I felt unqualified in. As we talked, we both knew that disqualification was the next step. That is just what we did. The next year we both moved forward with official church leadership.

I would like to read some comments from an article that I recently ran across. It is a little lengthy, but I think that it might remind us of some things that we know, but may have put on the back burner. (Comments by A.W. Tozer taken from an article on the Internet at acts17-11.com)

The thought of the article was a comparison of the real, New Testament cross and what the author called the nerf cross.

"The old cross is a symbol of death. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again in newness of life. God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death."

"Why do we build our churches upon human flesh? For we teach men not to die with Christ but to live in the strength of their dying manhood. . . If I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal Christianity. The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it."

"All unannounced, and almost undetected, there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. . . The old cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam's proud flesh it meant the end of the journey. The new cross, if understood aright, is the source of oceans of good clean fun and innocent enjoyment. It let's Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged; he still lives for his own pleasure.

"That this world is a playground rather than a battleground has now been accepted in practice by the vast majority of fundamentalist Christians. They are facing both ways, enjoying Christ and the world too."

"The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. . . Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name. . . We want to be saved but we insist Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of Mansoul and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility."

"The man who is crucified is facing only one direction. . . He [cannot] look back. The crucified man on the cross is looking only one direction and that is the direction of God, and Christ and the Holy Ghost. . . The man on the cross . . has no further plans of his own. . . Somebody else made his plans for him, and when they nailed him up there all his plans disappeared. . . When you go out to die on the cross you bid good-bye - you are not going back!

"If we would preach more of this and stop trying to make the Christian life so easy it's contemptible - we would have more converts that would last. Get a man converted who knows that if he joins Jesus Christ he's finished, and that while he's going to come up and live anew, as far as this world is concerned he is not going back - then you have a real Christian indeed."

NEXT WE SEE THE PEOPLE IN JOSHUA WERE TO HAVE LEADERSHIP: verse 6-8 Notice the sequence. The priests picked up the Ark and began moving and THEN God began to raise up the Godly leadership - Joshua. Godly leadership raised up by God not themselves and only after the people are ready to move if not moving - indeed, the raising up of Joshua as leader was to be accomplished during the day thus the people would have been on the move.

It is also of note that Joshua did not raise himself up, God raised him up in God's own time.

While at orientation in Pennsylvania with BMW we were assigned at times to do work around the mission headquarters. We did a lot of the cleaning and one day we were to re-coat the driveway and do some cleanup on the back lot.

We were told to put a lot of trash in a trailer. We rolled the trailer over to the area and began loading. We really cleaned that place out. In fact the trailer was full and we had to hook it up to the vehicle to have it towed to the dump.

As we attempted to hook the trailer to the car we found that we had to lift one corner of the trailer to get a block out. It was a cement block. The eight or so of us could not budge the trailer because it was so heavy. We stood around trying to figure out what we were going to do.

As time went along it was evident that no one was going to do anything unless someone took charge. Being the up-front person I am I did not take charge.

One person suggested we break the cement block so some began beating on it trying to break it. Impossible with the tools at hand.

Finally after about an hour Stan the man said, "Look let's get organized here." Let's take this old pipe and lay it under the trailer - block it up with this old lumber and pry the trailer up using the pipe as a lever - see I wasn't asleep in Physics class.

We laid the lumber down, inserted the pipe and two of us pressed down enough to lift the trailer and out came the tattered cement block.

With all leading, little was done. HOWEVER under my SUPERIOR LEADERSHIP we were able to accomplish much.

Actually had anyone taken leadership it would have worked just as well.

YOU SANCTIFY YOURSELVES - YOU ACT - THEN GOD WILL DO WONDERS - GOD WILL RAISE UP LEADERSHIP.

The term “magnify” has the simple thought of making important or making into the leader he needed to be - to show the people God was with this man Joshua.

This might be something to look for in a new pastor or in a new church leader. Wait to see if God is showing this man to be a leader. Does he allow God to magnify him or does he magnify himself?

NEXT WE SEE THE PEOPLE WERE TO HAVE PURPOSE: verse 9-11 - Godly goal clearly in mind.

It was their responsibility to purify themselves.

It was their responsibility to go forward.

It was God's responsibility to do wondrous things.

It was God's responsibility to raise up a Godly leader.

Note that when they took that step THEN God moved. When they were on the move He began to work.

He did not just roll back the water, but he dried it out. Have you ever been in a river and dug your toes into the mud at the bottom and brought your foot up to see that black slime that is usually all over your foot. God dried up that soggy mess at the bottom of most rivers. DRY LAND!

The people moved and God gave them the victory.

That first step was a step of:

FAITH - Marching through a flowing river is not all that easy especially with the weapons that they would be carrying.

COURAGE - Big battles facing them on the other side of the river.

FORWARD PROGRESS - It was taking a step in the direction that God had directed them.

OBEDIENCE TO GOD - they were doing what God had said. That always has to be good.

I believe there is one further observation that we should make. I am not sure what all is to be learned from this observation, but it is significant.

The ark was to lead the people over Jordan. The priests themselves were to carry the ark at this time. The position of the ark is also significantly different than normal. In the camped position of the people it was in the center of the camp. When the people were on the move, it was in the middle of the column.

Here we see that the ark is in the front of the people. The people were to remain about a mile from the ark as they began to move, thus giving all an unobstructed view of the leader.

Indeed, I assume the significance of all this is that the pillar of smoke - the pre-incarnate Christ was to be the sole leader of the people as they entered into this battle for the land that God had promised them.

God Himself was leading them into battle - He didn't just send them into battle.

And so to what application might we come via our study?

APPLICATION:

1. AT YOUR CHURCH ARE YOU INTERESTED IN MOVING?

(PAUSE and consider that for a moment.)

Some time ago I put out a questionnaire to all members of a small church. I received only two sheets back and one person verbally shared some thoughts along the line of the questionnaire. Three out of seven.

One of the questions was “Why do you think that the church should continue to exist?”

The answers:

One person said for the Lord.

One person stated, "There are still lost people to be won to Christ, believers in need of encouragement, a need for the sound teaching and preaching of the Word of God, missionaries in need of financial and prayer support. AMEN!

And one person said there was a real need for a church just like ours in this neighborhood. AMEN!

Now, what am I to say after that? Not much. I think those three comments said it all.

DOING ALL WE DO FOR GOD IN THE AREA OF

EVANGELISM

ENCOURAGEMENT

TEACHING

PREACHING

PRAYING

AND GIVING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND WORLD!

I would like to interject a comment on one of the other questions at this point. I also asked what they felt was the one worst thing that they felt a newcomer would encounter at the church.

Two responded, "The lack of people." I had to agree with these observations, but as I thought about it for a few days I began to refocus on the thought. I would like to share an illustration.

A shoe salesman in the 1800's was sent to Africa to sell shoes. When he stepped off of the ship, he encountered hundreds of people without shoes on. He telegraphed his company and said, "The people here do not wear shoes so I'm coming home."

Another shoe company had also sent a shoe salesman to Africa to sell shoes. When he arrived he also was met by hundreds of people without shoes. He telegraphed his company and said, "The people here do not wear shoes so send lots more shoes."

You see the lack of people can be a real positive if the perspective is right. Personally that should be a good selling point for an interested pastor. What an opportunity!

I personally see potential in small churches. We need to see the empty pews as our opportunity to serve God. We need to see the empty pews as God's opportunity to do great things in our midst.

Yes, I know that it may be a draw back, but all churches start small.

I trust if you do not have a burden for your neighborhood and surrounding area that you begin to pray concerning it.

A church must have a focus as the children of Israel had. We don't have the ark, but we certainly have God to focus on.

The ark was their focus. THE PEOPLE WERE TO HAVE A UNIFIED FOCUS AS THEY MOVED FORWARD. They were not to be close to the Ark as it moved forward. Have you ever been close to something you were trying to follow? It is not easy. You have a better perspective if you are away from the item that you are following.

2. At your church what is the purpose? Do you know what the purpose is? Are you moving toward that purpose? Should you be doing more to achieve that purpose?

In any size church there must be a focus and a set of plans to achieve that focus.

SOME ITEMS THAT COME FROM MY PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE THAT YOU MIGHT CONSIDER IN YOUR CHURCH.

a. Many church constitutions could use some updating or at least evaluation. Is it really up to the stress and strain of the new millennium? Is it really indicative of what you want to present to prospective members?

b. Many church doctrinal statements are quite lacking in detail in light of all of the false teaching that surrounds us. Possibly some updating and reinforcing are needed.

c. It would be good to evaluate and set down on paper what you want your mission policy to be.

What kind of missionaries would you like to support?

What kind of mission agencies would you like to deal with?

What criteria of evaluation should you have to evaluate the missionaries continued support from term to term?

These people are your representatives to the world. Are they representing what you believe - what you stand for - values you want to present to the world?

d. You might like to set down some standards for leadership in the church.

What standards might you want to set for your pastor?

What standards might you want to set for your deacons?

What standards might you want to set for your Sunday school teachers?

e. Most churches could use some church clean up, repair and updating. I am not detracting from all that has been done, and is being done in churches, but I think if you look around you can see some things that might be better improved upon.

f. You might consider Sunday school curriculum and youth curriculum for future use.

You might think of your personal needs as well:

1. Personal commitment to prayer.

2. Personal commitment to further service.

What more can you as an individual do to help the church?

What more can you suggest for the rest of the congregation to do to help the church?

Now, don't just dwell on the second question in that series!

3. Personal commitment to further exercise your spiritual gifts.

Are you exercising your gift?

Why not?

Any person that knows what their gift is and is not active in the church with it is not doing what God wants them to do.

I read somewhere recently that if you are in a church and not using your gift, then there are things that are not happening in that church that will never happen for all of eternity, because you are inactive.

I personally believe that this is true. It is also true that God can intervene and bring someone else in to do those things that are necessary for His plan, but you have failed God in that area of your life and stewardship.

PERSONALLY I THINK THAT IS AN AWESOME TRUTH TO HAVE TO CONSIDER.

SUMMATION:

FOLLOW IF THAT IS YOUR PLACE TO BE

SANCTIFY YOURSELF

WATCH FOR GOD TO DO WONDERFUL THINGS

LEAD IF THAT IS YOUR PLACE TO BE

AIM TOWARD THE PURPOSE AT ALL TIMES

ABOVE ALL WE MUST BE MOVING FOR GOD TO GUIDE US.

We have the promise of God that He will assist us in all things we attempt for Him. We have the promise of God the Holy Spirit that He will empower us in all that we attempt for Him.

So why don't be attempt more for Him?

A pastor mentioned once that while he was traveling down a gravel road he rounded a corner and in the field was a large bulldozer lazily rumbling around the field tearing up the ground. He stopped to watch the machine do its work for a moment and noticed another man watching. The pastor walked over to the other man and asked how long he had been watching the dozer. His reply was "ever since I fell of the thing"

All that power at hand with no direction.

I trust that your church will use the power it has available to do what God might have you do.