Church Renewal week 5
Notes
Transcript
A Church in Transition part 2
A Church in Transition part 2
Two weeks ago we started this message from Joshua 1, and there was five points to the sermon and we only made it through the first two points, today we will look at the final three points.
Therefore, today we are in part 2 of A Church in Transition.
It is a day of transitioning for sure, what used to work five years ago to reach the lost, and draw people into the church, does not necessarily work in today’s society.
But as we started to look two weeks ago at Joshua 1 at how Moses had died and the people of Israel had to trust and have faith in a new leader, but most importantly they needed to see it was not the human leader that was doing all the great things, but it was God.
We must be like Israel, and understand that the pastor, deacon, Sunday school teacher, parents, grandparents, and other leaders are not the ones doing the great things but it is God working in and through them.
We must continue to trust and have faith in God when leadership changes, because God is still in control.
God had a plan and a purpose for Israel, and He has a plan and purpose for His church today.
God’s plan and purpose for Israel was that the rest of the world would see the love, mercy, grace, and greatness of God through them, and the plan and purpose for God’s church and people is still the same today.
God wants to use each and everyone of us, to reach the lost world, the people around us, so that they can see Him through us.
In part one, we seen that a Church in Transition must deal with its Past, because when we live in the past, we are not doing what God has called us to do. We must deal with the past, whether that is negative things, positive things or a mixture of both.
When they are negative we must learn from those mistakes, when they are positive we shall rejoice in them, but not live in them.
The second point we saw was A Church in Transition must Develop His Plan, and to do that we must first find His strategy and plan, second we need to finish His design and plan, and third, we must have faith in His Provisions and plan.
We must understand that it is all about Jesus, and when we do we are able to be used by God in the way that He intends to uses us.
That brings us to the third point of the message:
III. A Church in Transition must Discover His power.
III. A Church in Transition must Discover His power.
7 “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.
Joshua discovered God’s power.
Joshua did this by listening and obeying what God was telling and leading Joshua to do.
God prospered His people by allowing them to experience His power.
How do we prosper?
We prosper when we do what Joshua did.
We must first start by listening to God through the reading of His Word, and spending quality time in prayer.
Then we must listen for God to speak to us, and when God leads us to do something, we must be obedient to God’s leading in our life.
We prosper when we obey God’s Word, and we do not turn from it at all!
God told Moses what to do, God told Joshua what to do, and God will tell each and every one of us what we are to do!
IV. A Church in Transition must Determine their Doctrines and Principles
IV. A Church in Transition must Determine their Doctrines and Principles
8 “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
We need to remember that in the world in which we live, that the Lord our God is not satisfied with only partial obedience.
The Lord explicitly tied obedience to success in these verses.
The God who had promised to give the Israelites the land would not do so apart from their total obedience.
The experience of their fathers forty years earlier gave grim testimony to the importance of obedience.
There can be no doubt that Joshua was possessed with a spirit of obedience to the Lord.
If we desire to discover and determine God’s principles we must:
1. Grasp His Word.
1. Grasp His Word.
In order for us to determine God’s principles we must spend time in His Word.
We must read it in order to understand it.
We must be grounded in it, and build our life upon it.
There is a song on Christian radio by Hope Darst called: If the Lord Builds the House.
The courses is: ‘Cause if the Lord builds the house nobody can tear it down, If the Lord builds the house nobody can tear it down.
When it’s built on His name, there’s nothing gonna shake this ground.
If the Lord builds the house nobody can tear it down.
The song goes on talking about how when we build our life, our house on God, it does not matter what we are faced with, nothing can tear it down.
2. Ponder His Word.
2. Ponder His Word.
The second step to discover and determine God’s principles is to meditate.
Meditation causes us to think about what God is saying.
1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
Meditating is the practice of focusing one's thoughts on specific spiritual matters.
In Christian traditions, meditation is a spiritual practice typically involving quiet reflection, contemplation, and prayerful focus on God, scripture, or other spiritual themes, with the aim of deepening one's connection with God and seeking spiritual insight. Meditation can also refer to the repetition and memorization of scripture.
Meditation upon the Word of God is one of the most important of all the means of grace and growth spiritually, there can be no true progress towards godliness without it.
3. Apply His Word.
3. Apply His Word.
To determine God’s principles is totally meaningless if we do not apply them to our lives.
To grasp and be grounded in God’s Word, and meditate on it, does us no good if we never apply what God is teaching us through it, to our lives.
To be the disciples that God has called us to be, so that the Body of Christ, the church can be truly what God has called it to be, we must first individually apply the Word of God to our lives, then to our church.
V. A Church in Transition must Develop through His Purpose
V. A Church in Transition must Develop through His Purpose
9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Have you ever noticed that in Scripture that when God gives a command, He often accompanies it with a promise?
Here the Lord assures Joshua a lifetime of continuous victory over his enemies, based on His unfailing presence.
Listen God never walks out on His promises and His faithful people.
In the Great Commission Jesus tells us at the end of it, I am with you always.
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
A promise that I believe all disciples of Jesus need to remember, need to meditate on, need to memorize is John 10:27-29
27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
No one or anything can take us out of the Father’s hand, that is we are safe in the hands of God.
As God told Joshua, Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble of be dismayed; or as the (CSB) puts it, Do not be afraid or discouraged, because the Lord you God is with you wherever you go.
Our purpose as a church and as Christ followers is to be motivated by the Lord’s command.
Who is sending us?
Jesus has commanded us to go into the world and share the Gospel message.
The Israelites were not merely motivated by Joshua, it was God who was inspiring, stirring, and moving them.
1. Our purpose as a church and as individual Christ followers is strengthened by His commission.
1. Our purpose as a church and as individual Christ followers is strengthened by His commission.
Have not I commanded you?
For remember it was Jesus who said, “Go into all the world.
We are not nor should we ever be affected by what others in the world and nor in the church say or think.
2. Our purpose as a church and as individual Christ followers is solidified by His Company.
2. Our purpose as a church and as individual Christ followers is solidified by His Company.
Who is with us?
When we gather, we unite in the promise that, “if God is for us, who can be against us?”
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
We are to be motivated by His presence and for the Lord’s purpose!
May I ask you a personal question this morning: Have you dealt with your past?
Have you developed His plan?
Have you discovered His power for your life?
Have you determined His principles?
Do you have His purpose?
You can experience all these and even much more today!