Sermon Tone Analysis

IMAGINE: The Big Step

Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor

April 22~/24, 2005

 

Good morning~/evening and welcome to the Big Step!

As has been stated, today specifically is a huge day, a historic day in our church.

What we do today will in large part define the future of our church over these next years.

Today for us as individuals and as a church is a defining moment.

What is a defining moment?

It is when God has us at a point of decision that we know will change the trajectory of our lives from that point on (show image).

When she says “yes” to the engagement question, that is a defining moment.

When life brings about a big character test, and your integrity is on the line, and you have to choose, do the easy thing or do the hard but right thing—that is a defining moment.

From that point, we are either known as a person of integrity or as a person of compromise.

Other times, God gives us as a church or an individual a faith challenge—a huge opportunity which forces a point of decision, to either step forward or hold back…and that decision will determine the rest of our lives, whether we are defined as people who take faith steps that God gives new opportunity to or whether we are defined as people who shrink back.

Certainly today for us a church is one such moment.

God has our church at a place where we really have to choose—go ahead or hold back.

That’s why today is not just another church service, it really is a big deal and a moment no matter what happens that we will look back on as a defining moment.

We are certainly not the first of God’s people throughout history to be at a place like this.

And when I think of such defining moments throughout biblical history, the primary one I think relates to us the most is Joshua and the people of Israel at the Jordan River.

That was a huge moment for them, as God put out in front of them a huge faith challenge—to step into the land that he had provided.

Today in our time in God’s Word, I want us to look back to Joshua chapters 3 and 4 at their big step as we consider ours.

If you have your Bibles, let’s look together at Joshua 3 and 4, and there we will gain perspective on our defining moment as a church looking back to theirs.

1)      God gives a clear vision

 

God was not fuzzy about what he wanted them to do—he wanted them to cross the Jordan River and take possession of the promised land.

What was not so clear was the how, but the what was pretty clear.

The what of the vision may sound easy to us looking back since we know how their situation turned out, but what God wanted them to do was staggering in its fear factor.

First, they were to cross the Jordan with a couple of million people, and God has them cross this time of year that we are in now, which is flood stage.

What would normally be a formidable border was now an impossible one—100 feet across and 30 feet deep of billions of gallons of fast moving water.

And then on the other side of the Jordan was no picnic either—seven nations all with real armies and real weapons and real fortresses.

From a human perspective, the Israelites didn’t have a chance, this little rag tag group of slaves from Egypt.

Las Vegas would put their odds at a million to one against them.

But what God told them to do was clear—to cross over and take possession of the land.

Joshua 3:9-13

 

And likewise, what God has called his church to do is very clear as well.

He told us to go and make disciples of the nations, to be his witnesses—to bridge people to a transforming life in Christ.

Jesus’ dream and vision for the church is not a fortress but a bridge-building, missional community, helping connect people to God’s love.

Our vision is to bridge people to a great life in Christ.

And it is that vision that is motivating us to take this step and why we believe God provided the land.

We are not relocating because we think it might be fun or we like construction projects.

We want to cross over to the land God has for us because we believe that the 650,000 people in a ten mile radius of our church matter so much to God that he gave the most precious thing he had to save them.

We want to reach them for Christ and be a church that extends Christ’s love to those who are marginalized, the hurting and hopeless and poor.

We want to be a place of rich community where people are loved and where people grow spiritually in the Word of God.

We want to fully express the vision that is Christ’s dream for the church.

I want you to hear from just one of these that our church has reached these past few years, and realize that there are hundreds of thousands to go!

 

Video

 

We believe it is pretty clear what God wants us to do.

He has provided our church an amazing opportunity with the land to better fulfill our vision, to make Christ known in this community.

And that opportunity puts in front of us a point of decision.

Defining moments always involve a point of decision, where we have to respond.

2)      We face a point of decision

 

God gives the opportunity, and then we must make a decision about what we are going to do.

That’s the way it was for those with Joshua 5000 years ago.

They had to choose to take the step or not.

That was significant for the Israelites, because this was not the first time they stood in front of the Jordan with the opportunity to go in and claim the land.

40 years before, the previous generation stood there on those banks contemplating the big step.

Forty years before, they stood at Kadesh Barnea where God had told them to enter the land.

They sent spies into the land, Joshua being one of them, and when the spies reported the circumstances, they were intimidated from doing what God wanted.

There were millions of reasons they could all think of to not go into the land, a thousand what-if’s, and so even though God was calling them in and Moses, Joshua, and Caleb were ready to go, they stalled.

They hesitated.

They didn’t go.

It was a defining moment for that generation.

As a result, that generation would be defined as the ones who would not take the step.

As a result, that generation would all wander in the wilderness until they died.

That’s how they would always be known, as the generation who did not take the step.

At times in our lives and in the life of a church, God places us at a point of decision that really is a defining moment.

At that point, we have a choice—a choice really about the kind of life we want.

We can wander aimlessly until we die or we can be the kind of people who take faith steps…we can as a church wander aimlessly or we can as a church step out in faith when God calls us.

We can be known as a generation that refused to take the step or the one who chose to move when God said move.

Joshua’s generation would always be known as the ones who did take the step, and they God to see God work.

They were known by the Canaanites as the people who crossed over.

That’s what the Canaanites called them.

And that fact of crossing the Jordan River is what scared those nations silly, because they knew that their God was real and really powerful.

Today, it is us who are at the Jordan River so to speak.

Today is a defining moment for this generation of our church.

God has provided the opportunity and given us a huge vision and with that a huge goal—to relocate our church.

Today is where we as a church in many ways define our future.

Tonight and that weekend will really determine whether or not we can fully relocate or not.

To fully relocate will take a huge step of faith for every one of us in this room.

It really is a defining moment for each of us in this room, and therefore a great faith opportunity.

They did step forward, and as we will see God responded with his power.

But they had to step into the water first.

They had to get their feet wet, and then the waters receded.

WE should have no doubts about God’s response…he will however leave it up to us whether we choose to step into the water and take the big step or not.

3)      God asks leaders to go first

 

The God always seems to work with his people is that he asks leaders to lead the way—to take the first step.

And in Joshua’s case, that is exactly what happened.

Joshua 3:14-16 says, /    14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them.

15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest.

Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing.

It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea [b] ) was completely cut off.

So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

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God asked the leaders to go in first, carrying the most precious and important possession they had as a nation—the ark of the covenant.

The leaders were the ones who stepped in the Jordan first, they got their feet wet, and they led the way.

And it says that they stood in the middle of the river while everybody else crossed by…which I’m sure made everybody else feel better.

The next chapter tells us that the people hurried by, and I would too.

They were walking through a river that was at least temporarily held back, and you wouldn’t want to be there when the floodgates broke loose again.

But the leaders stood there the whole time, as the millions crossed.

People estimate that it would have been a crowd of people ten miles wide and ten miles deep to get through in that one day, which would make for a long day as they stood I’m sure urging the people on—“We’re moving, we’re moving.”

As we mentioned last week, when the people of Israel built the temple, David gathered all the leaders and challenged them to make their financial commitments first…and as I mentioned last week, that’s what we did as well.

Some have wondered what that initial group was, so I guess I wasn’t clear enough.