You Have Never Travelled This Way Before

Introduction (5m)

Israel’s situation mirrors our own

Moses had led God’s people out of Egypt and freed them from slavery.

God had spent 40 years preparing his people for the future he had promised them.

He’d promised them the Promised Land.

And now under their new leader, they camped on the cusp of grasping hold of the future God had promised them, and entering the Promised Land.

But Joshua reminded them: You have never travelled this way before.

As we come to the end of this series, their situation mirrors our own

We have a wonderful heritage behind us.

We have seen God work in and through this corps many times.

We have many things to thank God for.

And we must remember those things.

You may feel as if we have been wandering in the wilderness

Whatever else we might think and say about the pandemic and its lockdowns, there is no doubt that in many ways it interrupted our journey.

Looking back it might well feel like we wandered in the wilderness for 2-3 years. Unsure what would happen to us. Unsure of what the future would look like when we finally got back together.

But I believe God has promised us a future

Do you?

I believe God has something planned for us, and as we continue our Big Conversation, he will reveal what it is.

I believe there is a Promised Land for us!

I hope and pray you have the same sense of anticipation that Israel had

You can imagine the buzz through the community as they reached the Jordan and could see the PL on the other side.

Imagine the excitement and the anticipation and the suspense.

Finally, God’s promises were going to be fulfilled.

Finally, we are going to enter the Promised Land.

Do you have that buzz about our Big Conversation and our future?

The excitement / anticipation?

If not, then it maybe you haven’t fully bought into the process, or believed in God’s promises for our future.

If so, the best thing you can do is get involved in the conversation - it’s not too late!

But I also acknowledge that for all of us, me included, there is probably a mixture of emotions

Because as we continue the Big Conversation, and work through its process, God is asking us to wait.

Just like he did the people of God camped out on the bank of the Jordan River.

God often opens his hand one finger at a time. (Alexander MacLaren, preacher and pastor)

The problem with being made to wait, even by God, is that often that’s when the doubts set in

You can imagine the Israelites, looking at the raging Jordan river, and around their campfires, discussing what was next:

"Maybe the strong among us can brave this flood, but how can we cross with infants, with the sickly, with the aged, not to mention all our possessions strapped to wagons?"

We’ve never travelled this way before!

Suddenly, all the buzz, and their enthusiasm, anticipation, suspense, their willingness to say yes to God, had become a firm “no way”!

Maybe we feel the same

As God opens his hand and his promises to us, one finger at a time, as we travel through this Big Conversation process, perhaps our enthusiasm and anticipation are mixed with anxiety and worry?

Will God really follow through? Will he really reveal his future for us? Will we really be ready to live up to it when he does?

So what will give us the courage to grab hold of the future God promises for us?

What will persuade us to set out on the journey God has planned for us, even though we have never travelled this way before?

These verses tell us two things:

Explanation (5m)

Follow the movement of God

Joshua 3:2–3 NLT

Three days later the Israelite officers went through the camp, giving these instructions to the people: “When you see the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, move out from your positions and follow them.

Why did God’s people have to follow the Ark of the Covenant?

What was so special about a piece of wooden furniture?

Why did it have to go first? What was the big deal?

The answer lies inside the box.

Inside were the two stone tablets on which God had written the Ten Commandments.

The Ark of the Covenant therefore symbolised God’s desire for relationship with his people.

There was also a pot of manna inside the Ark.

The Ark of the Covenant therefore symbolised God’s gracious provision to his people during their years wandering in the wilderness.

And one other object included - Aaron’s rod - a stick that miraculously grew leaves and almonds.

The Ark of the Covenant therefore symbolised the fact that God had the power to use anything he wanted to achieve his will.

But much more than all of that, on top of the Ark of the Covenant was a gold plate called the Mercy Seat.

Scripture describes God as enthroned upon the Mercy Seat. This is where God showed up!

The Ark of the Covenant therefore symbolised God’s presence with his people.

The Ark was the OT equivalent of Immanuel - God with us.

When the Ark of the Covenant was out in front of God’s people it meant God was in front, leading the way.

You see, we may have never travelled this way before, but God has.

God’s people’s role when they’ve never travelled this way before is to follow

It was not for Israel to second guess what God would do to enable them to cross the torrential Jordan river and get them into the Promised Land.

It was not for Israel to argue amongst themselves about how God could possibly do it.

Their role was simply to keep their eyes fixed on the Ark of the Covenant - to keep their eyes fixed on God’s presence - and to follow him.

As we continue our Big Conversation, and face our future together, it is not for us to second guess what God is going to lead us to be and to do.

It is not for us to argue about whether we as a corps are going to make it or not.

It is for us to take our eyes off the river - take our eyes of our circumstances - take our eyes off the consequences of the pandemic and the lockdowns - and fix our eyes on God and follow him where he leads.

We may have never travelled this way before, but God has.

Be on Spiritual Alert to See God at Work

Joshua 3:5 NLT

Then Joshua told the people, “Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.”

I imagine that when you hear those words, you immediately think we need to repent of every known sin

That’s often what we talk about when we talk about purifying or consecrating ourselves.

And of course, we do need to do that.

It would be an awful waste of our potential if God was to show us the way forward into our future, only for us to find it blocked by personal or corporate sin.

Our sin is a barrier between us and God.

So we do need to examine our lives, confess and forsake our sins, and renew our dependence on God.

But purifying or consecrating ourselves before God is about much more than that

Consecration in the OT was about more than simply confessing our sins and seeking God’s forgiveness. It was also about washing your clothes, abstaining from sex, changing your work schedule, and a whole host of other routine things.

In other words, purifying or consecrating yourselves involved deliberately interrupting the good and normal things in your life in order to be on spiritual alert for what God was doing or about to do around you.

Joshua knew that God was about to do great wonders among his people, and he didn’t want God’s people to miss them by being involved in things they could do at any other time.

As we continue our Big Conversation and face the future, God is asking us to put aside the typical, put aside the normal, put aside the routine, and put our spirits on high alert to see where God is working so that we are ready to join in with him.

We have never travelled this way before, so we must fix our eyes on Jesus and follow his lead, and we must set ourselves apart and be on constant spiritual alert to see his guiding hand amongst us.

Application (5m)

Then we must be ready to get our feet wet!

Eventually, God’s people had to find the courage to follow his lead and enter the Jordan river to cross over into the Promised Land.

We must be ready to do the same.

Will we have the courage to continually add fuel to our spiritual fires so that we are hard working and enthusiastic servants of God?

Will we have the courage not to rely on our history, our uniform, the military metaphor, our size, our strength, our finances, our service for God but on Jesus, the only one who is holy and true, and reliable, and totally consecrated to God? The only one we can follow through any door he opens, with confidence?

Will we have the courage to faithfully invest in the Kingdom, by looking outwards and investing in others according to our abilities, to help rescue them and bring them to Jesus, to care for them, to understand the mind of Christ and do what he would do if he were here - be his hands and feet in our community and in the world?

Will we have the courage not to be spectators, to not be an Army on its bums, to not be Asleep in the Light, to be fully mobilised, to be good and faithful servants?

Will we have the courage to love our neighbours, make disciples of them, teach them to obey God, and lead them into membership of his Church, all through our love for God?

Will we have the courage to share God’s love and grace with those around us as shining lights in our dark world, to overcome evil with good, to love others with a radical love?

Will we have the courage to learn to love the church like Jesus loves it?

If so, then we simply need to take the next step of faith on the road we have not travelled before

We will never receive God’s promises for the future of this corps unless we are prepared to step out in faith.

We can be focused on Jesus. Our hearts can be right with him. We can be alert to what God is doing amongst and around us.

But if we don’t move our feet and go forward together then God’s work will not progress through us, and eventually we will die.

We must all commit ourselves - our time, our energy, our money, our lives, to what God wants to do through Maidenhead Corps, or it will not happen.

No one is exempt from this!

Acts 2:17–18 NLT

‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike— and they will prophesy.

This is the promise God makes on the very first day of the Christian church, and it’s a promise which is still ours today.

Who will God pour his Spirit on? All people. Everyone. No one is exempt.

Are you a son or a daughter? Then God is going to pour his Spirit on you and he expects you to commit yourself to his work.

Are you young? Then God is going to pour his Spirit on you and he expects you to commit yourself to his work.

Are you old? Then God is going to pour his Spirit on you and he expects you to commit yourself to his work.

Are you a man? Then God is going to pour his Spirit on you and he expects you to commit yourself to his work.

Are you a woman? Then God is going to pour his Spirit on you and he expects you to commit yourself to his work.

No one is exempt!

As we conclude this series, and as we continue to hold our Big Conversation and discern together what God wants to do in and through us in the future …

I long to see God do in and through us what only God can do!

God’s people crossed over the impossible Jordan river because they were focused on taking the next step of faith God asked them to take.

There are challenges before us. But we must never believe that those challenges are too difficult for God.

We must focus on him, and be ready to move when he is ready for us to move.

We have never travelled this way before, but God has. And he will lead us into a glorious future together.

Next Steps

Prayer

Heavenly Father, you have brought Maidenhead Corps through the last almost 138 years for a reason. We believe that we have been blessed in so many ways to be a blessing to those around us.

And now after almost 138 years of getting to this place where we are right now, we stand like the Israelites on the edge of the Promised Land.

Please help us to have the faith and the courage to move forward.

As we continue our Big Conversation over the coming months, help us to dream great dreams. Help us to believe that you want to use us. Help us to know that if we give our lives away, you said seek first the kingdom of God and everything else you need will be given to you. Help us to believe that. Give us the courage to walk through the doors that you open to our future.

Lord, I pray for those who have not yet been part of this Big Conversation. Those who have not yet signed up to a Mission Cluster Group or come along to the whole corps sessions. Lord, I don't want them to miss being a part of this giant blessing that you're going to pour out on our corps. Help them to take that first step that be a part of focusing on the future you are planning for us.

Lord, I know you're going to continue to use this corps. You have in the past 138 years and you will well into the future. Thank you. In Jesus' name, Amen.