Your 2023 Guide To A Victorious New Year

Did you say you were glad that you are here? You know, I was thinking this week, we have our Christmas service. On Sunday and of course, New Year's Day is on Sunday and you know, it's going to be 11 years before we have another Christmas on Sunday. I'm 11 just think about how our lives will have changed in 11 years. We don't even know if we'll be here Dewey in 11 minutes. 11 years, they'll be children. That's moved out of home. They'll be babies born. They'll be relationship started, maybe relationships ended, they'll be deaf. They'll be burst just think how Everything Will Change in 11 years. That's why I think it's so important that you have your family in church, when Christmas falls on Sunday because, you know, we don't have that every year and we don't have New Year's on Sunday every year as well. So, here's what I want to do. Let me explain what we going to do. Before I get started, this is the first time. That I'm going to preach a message and I'm not going to finish it on Sunday, I'm going to have to finish it next Sunday. Unless y'all want to sit here for 60 minutes today and hear me preach, but here's the reason I'm splitting it up will do about 30 minutes today and then next Sunday, we have in communion service so that takes a little longer and we'll have about 20 or 25 minutes sermon so it should work out perfectly well. So so what we're going to do today and I have a sermon, it's a new year sermon and I'll go ahead and give you the title. I'm going to give you your 2023 Guide to the great unknown. Now, how many of you in here right now? Know what's going to happen in your life in 2023, how many? No, no one. You can't tell me anything really that, you know that's going to have you. So I'm going to go to work where you met. If you're around. If you still have the same job, you may you may go to work. So I'm planning on having a baby where you might, but you might not

You're not planning on losing your job, are you? But you may You're not planning on dying. but we might, We we don't know what's going to happen in 2023. So we're facing what I call a brand new gear. We don't know what this year's going to bring. And so we need. to look and what I want us to do in these next two weeks is, I want us to formulate, A New Year's resolution now, you'll probably know what it is by the time I get through with today's message but I want us to be able to formulate a New Year's resolution. So we're standing at the brink of a new year. Today's the first day we have no idea whether we going to go up where we going to go down where we going to go sideways. But this, we know, if the Lord leaves us on Earth, we're going to go home. We may go up may go now but we're going to go on. We're going to go on word but we don't know what this year whole. So let me tell you how I got to this message, a couple of weeks ago. I was reading a devotion by Adrian Rogers, and he was talkin about our Fates and how we can increase our faith. and he took that devotion from Joshua chapter 3, And I read that and I thought myself quite what a wonderful New Year. Sermon could come from Joshua chapter 3. So I want you to take your Bibles this morning. I want you to turn the Joshua chapter 3 you say, where is Joshua, is the sixth book of the Old Testament? Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers, Deuteronomy Joshua is the sixth book of the Old Testament and I want us to read Joshua chapter 3, Joshua chapter 3.

And we're going to see what we can learn.

About formulating a New Year's resolution how we can face a brand new year without knowing exactly what's going to happen. So we're in Joshua chapter 3 is 17 versus. So I'm going to read all these verses and then we'll come back and we will unpack there. So 3:1 then Joshua Rose early in the morning and they said about from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan. He and all the children of Israel and Lodge there before they crossed over. All right. So, let me give you the contacts. Moses had led the children of Israel out of Egypt. Then they had wondered because of Disobedience. They had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses has died. And now Joshua is in control, God made him, the leader of the people. And the what they needed to do was they need to go from They need to cross over the Jordan River so that they could go into the promised land and Conquer that land. So, they had many battles to fight to be able to conquer that land. But first of all, they had to cross the Jordan. So that's where we at right here, first to. So, it was after 3 days at the officers, went through the camp and they commanded the people saying, what's up, when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, your God, and the priests and Levites bearing. It, the priest, the Levites were the Priestly tribe and they would carry the Ark of the Covenant. They would carry it when the, the children would be a movie for 40 years, they wondered through the desert carrying that Ark of the Covenant. Now, I'm, I've got a picture of Arc. I want to show you in a minute and we'll talk about what was in it and what it stood for, but he says, when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, your God, the priest Levites bearing. It that means carrying it then you shall set out from your place. And go after it. So if you ride in your Bibles which I hope you do, I want you to underline. And it says, Go after it. You go after it when you see it. Moving you go after it verse for there shall be a space between you and it. The ark about 2,000 cubits by measure. 2,000 cubits is somewhere around a half a mile Well, the land was flat. There was about two million Israelites so all of them was moving at the same time. So they had to get that are coming out in front of them so they can see where it was going so they could go after it so they can follow it. So he said about 2,000 cubits by measure, do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go underline. This next phrase for you have not passed this way before. Did you know that not a single person in here has lived out 2023. Yet, we haven't passed this way before. We don't know what 2023 is going to bring in our lives. We do not know we hadn't passed this way before. So we need the art to move in front of us and we need to go after it. We need to follow it first. Five and Joshua said, the people sanctify yourself for tomorrow, the Lord will do wonders among you, then Joshua spoke to the priests, and take up the Ark of the Covenant and crossover before the people. So they took up Ark of the Covenant and went before the people, and the Lord said Josh. With this day, I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel. That they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. You shall command the priest who bear the Ark of the Covenant saying, when you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan, So Joshua said to the children of Israel, come here and hear the words of the Lord. Your God Joshua say it by this. You shall know that the underlying this the Living God, underlying, where it says the Living, God by this. You shall know that the Living God is among you. And that he will without fail, drive out before you listen to this. The Canaanites, the Hittites, the highlights, the perizzites, the girgashites amorites, the jebusites. The Mini Max, the Mighty Mites and termites and I added those last three, but we going to cover all the pipes right there. He says, he'll drive them out, but hold the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. Underlined this phrase Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the Earth, underlined that Lord of all the Earth is crossing over before you into Jordan. Now, therefore, take for your sales 12in from the tribe of Israel. One man from every tribe, it shall come to pass. As soon as the soles of the feet of the priest who bear the Ark of the Lord. The Lord of all the Earth. There it is, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the Waters of the Jordan. She'll be cut off the waters that come down from upstream and they shall stand as a heat sink, water stand in the heat. I give every one of us a shovel and we can go out here after service and dig dirt up and we can make a big old heap of dirt but if I gave every one of your jugs they go in there and get it full of water and we just going to come out here. We going to pour water in the same place. How, how big of a heap of water we going to make, none will have muddy feet. That's about all will have, you can't we can't build a heat of water but look what the Lord is going to do. Hear the water shall stand as a Heat verse 14. So it was when the people set out from the camp to cross over the Jordan with the priest buried, the Ark of the Covenant for the people. And if those aboard the ark came to the Jordan and the feet of the priest Who Bore the art dip in the edge of the water. Now, this is not a creep. At some point, the Jordan is not even as wide as this church. It's not like that they were carrying the art, they can look down and see the little Pebbles and rocks down there. So just come over here and stand. How do you know that we'll look at that phrase. For the Jordan overflows. All these Banks during the whole time of harvest this was harvesttime what these what these Levites was going up against was a flooded river that was flowing quickly. This was not a little creek where you can see the Pebbles with standing water. This was an overflowing river. That was raging now over 60 that the waters with came down from the Upstream, Stood Still and Rose in a heap, very far away at Adam. The city that is besides their tents, are the waters that went down to the Sea of air above the salt sea failed. And we're cut off in the people crossover opposite Jericho, then the priests aboard, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. Stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, all Israel cross over on dry ground to all the people that cross completely over the Jordan, over two million people had to cross. So it wouldn't like like our driveway out here. This this passageway, where the water stood is a heat on one side. And drained out on the other was probably 123 miles wide. So, all these people could get over. So, here's the children of Israel. On the brink of blessing on the brink of entering the promised land standing right here on the wrong side of the river. Jordan getting ready to pass over before them was a land of opportunity. Between them and the land of opportunity was a raging River of difficulty. And not what life is like we can stand and we can look on the other side and we can see where we would like to be. But between where we are and where we like to be me, anytime is difficulty. It's sickness. It's financial trouble is relationship, problems. Joshua is telling these people how to possess their possessions, how to have Victory, how to enter into a land that they had never been in before, how to enjoy that land. How to have victory in that land, what an application for our life, as we face this new year. Now, the key to this passage is the Ark of the Covenant that we read about in verses 3 and 4. What was the ark of the covenant? Well, the ark A treasure chest of blessing. Vicki, let's put the Ark of the Covenant. There it is. This Is What They Carried around for about 40 years out there in the desert. Now, the ark God had ordered Moses to build this art and it was built so that they could how they could have caused the tablets of stone in which the Ten Commandments were written, they put those in there now. Now, look, this this Ark of Covenant here is gold but it was made out of acacia wood, but it was outlined in gold on the outside. And the inside right here, this little top right here, you could open it. It was called The Mercy Seat. All right, on top of The Mercy Seat, you see these? They look like Angels. They were cherubims with their wings spread covering The Mercy Seat in. These poles here that you see, this is what the Levites would hold. As they would carry it through out there wondering if it was about four feet long and about two and a half feet wide, two and a half feet high, the lead that covered the box was called, like I said, The Mercy Seat. It was made of pure gold to Gold, Cherry Bomb, or Angels were mounted on the lid. One on each end, they, they faced each other. Their wings spread out toward each. Other kind of overshadowing The Mercy Seat. If you read in Hebrews to other items were later added to the ark. One was the pot of manna. That the children of Israel ate that, that's what God fed them while they wandered for forty years and and how he provided in the other item was Aaron's Rod. If you remember that, that, buddy. That buddy, that you, that he could do Miracles with. And then it one time to Art contain the first five books of the Bible which is called the pentateuch of Moses, the art was held in the temple in the area that was called the holy of holies. It was the innermost part of the temple and once a year on the day of atonement, the high priest enter the holy of holies and he sprinkled blood right here on that mercy seat. And he did that to atone for his sin and the sins of the nation. Now, let me tell you about this Ark of the Covenant. What this thing right here, this little Treasure Chest represented, was the presence of God. And I'm going to tell you next week. How about mercy, seat and how, what was in it and those cherubims how it all pointed to Jesus Christ, but that will be for next week. But, just understand that the Ark of the Covenant, it was it represented the presence of God, damn it, amongst the people there, and it's a picture of the Lord, Jesus Christ, because it represents God's presence with them. Just like when Jesus was born, the Bible says, he'll be called Emmanuel Emmanuel, meaning God With Us. That's our represent. Jesus Christ is with us and he's with us today because he in the person of the Holy Spirit lives within us where in the Old Testament, it was that Ark of the Covenant right there, when those children of Israel had that Arc in their possession, they knew that the presence of God was with them. Well, this Arc is mentioned 10 times in the third chapter and what did God say? He says, when the art moves, keep your eye on the ark and when it moves you go after it, he said go after it. Why? Because you've never passed this way before. Don't you go out and get in front of the Ark and try to do this on your own? This is 2023. We've never gone through 2023 before. Don't get ahead of the art, don't get ahead of Christ. Don't get ahead of God, and run ahead and do your own thing in 2023. Because if you do, it's going to lead to discouragement. We need to go when the arc moves. Now there's something radical and dramatic that happened in the life of these people. They have been wandering for 40 years. They were about to make a dramatic change but what had changed? Well, think about it, was it? The ark was not necessarily they've had the ark for 40 years. They had been carrying the ark around in circles for 40 years but yet they had never entered the promised land friends. It wasn't the ark that made the difference. It was the position of the Ark. You say, what are you talkin about? You see, they had possession of the Ark, but the ark had always been in the midst of the people. The Bible says that night, when they would camp out that they would pitch their tents in the midst of the Ark. In other words around the ark, that's when they would pitch their tent. But now the ark is no longer in them. It's where is it at? It's out in front of them, it's leading them. It is guiding them. The ark is now their head, the ark is leaning, no longer. Are they taking the art with them there? Now, following the ark, you say, why do you make such a big deal about that. Because simply this. If you hear this morning, you are saved. All Christians have the Lord Jesus Christ. Number, we have it, we have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of a. Every Christian is a possessor of God's Ark of the Covenant. But not every Christian follows the ark to Victory. Many times we like to do it on her own. We want to run ahead of God because we think we know what's best for our life. So I want to tell you the difference between one Christian and another of Victorious, Christian and a failing Christian is not in possession, both Christians possess. Jesus Christ is in position. Some of us have got out in front of us and we're following some of us have got behind us and we're running ahead. So I'm always have God way in front of us and we lag behind and we can't see the ark so we don't know where to go. So here's the problem. The problem is we need to run a hand of God or we lag behind. Got what did the Bible say to do you keep 2,000 cubits between you and the art? Why was that? So you can see it so you can follow it. If you up in front of it, you can't follow it. May take a right and you may take a left, if you're so far behind lagging behind, you can't see where it's going. You don't know where to go. And that's the same way it is with us in our spiritual life. We have got to learn to follow the art. So if you'll make that your New Year's resolution, wherever God ghosts, whenever God moves, I'm going to follow him and I'm not going to move until I see. God move you make that your New Year's resolution. I'm not going to take a step without my eyes on the park, wherever the art goes. I'm going to go after friends. If you'll do that, I can promise you, you'll have good success and victory in 2023. You know what victory is, let me put it in a sense, Victory is seeing which way God is going and then joining him. If you want a contented and a Victorious Christian Life, you wait for God to move it when he moves, you go after him. And I'm guarantee, you'll have success in 2023 when we fail is when we move before the art moves because we don't have the patience see where God is going enjoying it, when you see the art move, go after and that made the difference between 40 Years of wandering in the wilderness and crossing over and possessing the promised land, not the possession of the Ark, but the position of the art and I want to mention three things. That will happen to you. If you will do what God told these people to do long ago. Now, we're only going to cover one of them today will cover the other two next week. And here's the first point as we look ahead to 2023, just understand that God will guide you through the unknown places. Look at it in verse 4 of chapter 3, he says yet, there should be space between you and it about 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it. That you may know the way by which you must go for. You haven't passed this way before. You have a pat don't come up here and get beside it or getting front of it like you know, which way to go. You put 2,000 cubits between you and the presence of God so that you can see where he goes so that you can follow him. And that's exactly what we need to do. You say A new year is an adventure? We're going to walk through unexplored territory, if you will. We don't know what's going to happen. The next 15. Second. Most last 12 months, we don't know what's going to happen. We never been this way before and so we need someone to guide us in friends. That's the way this year is going to be. They may be dark times, they may be stormy times. We know that this world is not the way it ought to be. We don't know what's going to happen. We may go down. We may die, we may go up. Jesus may come this year, might I'm praying that he does come this year. I hope that he comes this year and takes us home to be with him, but whether we go down and whether we go up, it doesn't matter. We know that we're going on as long. Leaves us here. So we don't know what this new year will bring. We've never passed this way before. But let me give you three things that we don't have to know. And these are the three things that just stumps us every single time. When where and why? Why is this happening to me? Where am I going? What is this all about? We always ask these questions, will let me show you. We don't necessarily need to know where my, let me give me an example member when God went to Abraham and he says he called him out of order of the Kaldi's. And he said, Abraham, I want you to go with me, I'm going to take you to a Promised Land. I'm going to make you a great nation, pack your bags and let's go. What did Abraham do? He phone with me? Did he know where he got no idea where he was going? He had no idea how long he would be, or where he was going, Abraham marched under sealed orders. God didn't give him the answers till when where and why now do you know why that was good for Abraham? Because if Abraham knew where he was going to put his eyes on the destination and not on God and we do the same thing. If God were to tell us this year, this is where I'm going to take you. And we going to say why, we're when I'm going to get there, where we going to do, we get our eyes on the destination instead of on God, Abraham didn't know where he was going. So what did he have to do? He had to keep his eye on the ark. He had to follow the Ark in about 2,000 cubits, so he would know which way to turn, you see? That's why God many times Keeps Us in the dark so that you'll keep your eyes on him. I know when God called me to preach. I remember this a vividly. He called me to preach. And I, and I was praying about where I'm going to go to school. Do I even need to go to school? Am I going to end? And he told me, he said, you need to go to Fruitland. So I said, I'm going to Fruitland, but look, I've got a house here and we got a house payment, I'm about to move my family up. How am I, how am I going to do this? How you want to do that? You know what he said, nothing. He just said, go. Go in train. And you put the are confront and I as we come to the steps you need to take, I will show you what you need to do but I want it all the answers, right? Then I won't know how much I have to make this house payment. Go to make money. How can I move my family? I'm 35 years old. I'm too old to do this. How, what? When, why, where? How come he didn't? Tell me any of it. He just said, go. And so we went. But the problem is, that's why he keeps us in the dark. You don't have to know where you going. All you have to do is when the art moves, go after, that's what the Lord is saying. What if you knew that in six months from now, Your child will be diagnosed with leukemia. What if you knew in nine months from now that you were going to lose your job? Or that your husband or wife was going to walk out on you. Or that you would experience some type of tragedy and heartache. If you knew that, how would that affect you? Where you'd be no good for nothing. You you you couldn't do anything. You couldn't enjoy today because you anticipating the tragedy that's going to occur. You see God keeps the future from us. It's not good for us to know the future. We're not supposed to know the future, why? Because we've not passed this way before we hadn't gone this way before, so we can't know it. All we know, is that we need to keep our eyes on the art. So you don't need to know where. Let me give you something else. You don't need to know. You don't need to know when. What do I need to know? When you see the art move. Go after it. That's what you don't move until the art moves and whenever it moves then you moved, you don't have to know when. Now, let me tell you this about God, I have discovered in my life, God With God, timing is more important than time. God's timing is always perfect. And some of us will make a mistake this year. Because we're going to choose to do.

A good right thing at the wrong time. Did you know you can do what God wants you to do but you can do it at the wrong time. Before he sets everything in motion and before he gets it exactly the way that he wants it. It may be God's will for you, but friends are cat and moved into our cat and moved. I don't need to move, I don't need to try to hurry God. Again, let me talk about Abraham, what did God tell, Abraham Abraham, I'll make you a great nation. And I'm going to give you a son in your old age and what Abraham and Sarah? Do they laughed Sarah's outside. Then she laughed. She's going to have a baby and I'm 100 years old and Abraham, he's 90 something. I don't know. Where are we going to have a baby and she laughed? The Bible said she laughed. Well, she did have a baby. Name is Isaac. No Isaac means laughter. God's got a sense of humor. You laugh at me. You wait, this baby born. I'm going to give him the name laughter, but what happened? That was a good thing. I'm going to make him a father of all the nation and all of a sudden time started going by. They never had a child and Abraham got antsy. And he said, I don't know what we going to do. We're too old to have a child and now, God has not given us a child. We need to think of something. There's that, I've got it. I've got a handmade right here, a little young girl. She's able to have children. Why don't you go into her and have a child? And hopefully, she'll have a boy. And if she does, he'll be the Sun that will have, that will bless all the nations, of course, Abraham being a man tonight, I'll do that. Yeah. Yeah I'll do that. So Abraham debt. And what happened? Well, little Hagar. Little handmade had a son in his name was Ishmael and Ishmael is the father of the Arab Nation. Why is that important? Because he's been fighting ever since then, the Arabs and the Israelis. Now let me say this, God loves the Arab people, the Muslim people, he loves them just as much as he loves the Jewish people. But because Abraham got antsy and he ran ahead of God, he caused all this trouble. That's been going on for two thousand years. Those two tribes do nothing but fight all the time, over the land of Israel and it happened because Abraham ran ahead of God. He simply would not let the art moved first. He had to help. Now I told you another problem is lagging behind.

Remember, when they sent the 10 spies into the promised land to see if they can take it? 10 of the five came back said we can't. We can't go in there. There's Giants over there and they make us look like grasshoppers. We can't take that but the other two spies that came back. Caleb and Joshua said oh we take that land. Are God's bigger than all those giants.

But they wouldn't go get it because you see those 10 wanted to lag behind the arc had moved but they didn't want to go possess their possessions because they were afraid for. And let me tell you this, when you run ahead of God like Abraham did or like we do, sometimes it will always lead to discouragement because our plans and our thoughts and our ways are doing things are not the same as God and will be frustrated. But if you lag behind. If you let the art get five thousand cubits in front of me and you can't see it, it will always lead. The unbelief and fear. Always, that's why many times when the Christian has something come into their life and they just Fall to Pieces. What happens is, the problem becomes very large and the problem moves between them and God. And the problem is so big that they cannot see God. When we lag behind God, it will lead to unbelief, lack of faith and fear of what might happen that's why it is so important that we stay. So we can see the art and when the art moves we move we don't run ahead of it and we don't lag behind it. Amen. We can't do that as a as a Christian this year in 2023 you make it your resolution that you going to follow the art. You're not going to run in front of it and you're not going to lag behind it. We ought to do the same thing as a church. As a church, what whatever we do this year. Try to grow our church in the try to outreach in the try to reach other people. We need to make sure we follow God. We're not going to run in front of him, but when he says move, we're not going to lay back. So no, the Giants over there. Bigger. There we are like grasshoppers. We're not going to be afraid. We're not going to be scared. We're going to do what God says, do as a church say, amen. That's what we need to do. We need to follow the art. You don't have to know where, You don't have to know went, and let me give you the last one and will close. You don't have to know why. All of us like ask that question Lord. Why why me why is this happening to me? Why do I have to work with so many on repeat. Why does my wife nag me all the time? Why does my husband is set around? Never call. He just come home. He sits in a recliner. You don't want to do anyting, yyyyy, that's what we ask all the time, friends. You don't have to know because God's not going to tell you why. Every time he's not going to explain it to you, he's just going to say just keep your eye on the ark. That's what he's going to say. And sometimes the things that happened to us, we couldn't understand it anyway if he did, explain it to us. Listen to what the Bible says, in Isaiah This is the Lord speaking for my thoughts are not your thoughts. He says, neither are your ways, my ways for the Hat Forest, the heavens are higher than the earth. So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts, higher than your thoughts, sometimes we wouldn't understand it anyway. If he had explained it in Roman says, who has known the mind of the Lord, and who has been the Lord's counselor, or we going to tell the Lord dies that and that and what's going to know? We don't know his mind. We don't know why things or have we don't have to know when we don't have to know where we don't have to know why. Because we've never been this way before. Just keep your eye on the ark. So how are we to live? When Hebrew says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith? Don't run ahead of God. Don't lag behind God. When you see the art move, go after it. That's the message here. And the Lord will lead you. For as many as are led by the spirit of God. They are the sons of God Romans chapter 8, in friends, this takes time It it, it takes time. Looking at the Lord Jesus to see what God is up to it takes patience. It takes courage. Many times. He's going to ask you to do something outside the box that you're not comfortable with. And then when the art moves in that direction, what are we going to do? Are we going to follow it? Or we going to lag behind in for your number leave? Or we going to go ahead and self presumption and then end up discouraged. You see? That's where most of us fail. We just run out and do something even if it's wrong. And then we ask God to rubber-stamp our plans friends. If we going to make a New Year's resolution, I'll talk more about it next week. Here's the thing. We need to do today, you go home. So I can in 2023, I'm going to follow the art, I'm not going to move until the ark moves and it when it moves, I'm going to go after it like Joshua said in verses 3 and 4. Well, next week, Got two more points and will finish it next week. The next point is simply this not only will God. God guide you through unknown places, but he's going to Grant you, his unfailing promises, And thirdly, he's going to guard you with his undeniable power. And we'll look at that next week. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. And praise. You and love you today. Lord, and Lord, thank you for this story. Joshua chapter three that we can learn so much from it. Well, we thank you that you sent your Holy Spirit to live on the inside of us. But Lord, forgive us when we just run ahead of you. When we think we know what's best and we just do it and we make a mess of it quite often and we become discouraged. Lord help us to wait for your presence to move. Help us to wait for the art to move. And then go hard after it. Help us to help, help us, not to run ahead help us not to lag behind because if we do, it will cause unbelief and fear and a lack of faith. Lord, I pray for each one here today, that they will have the best New Year that they've ever had. But to be honest, we have to say we don't know what's going to happen this year, but we do know that we possess you. And we do know that you'll never lead us in a way that we all not to go help us to wait on you, help us to be patient. Help us to watch you from a distance, see where you working? And then come and join you as we look and move. When the ark moves first in Christ's name, I pray. Amen.