He is Faithful

Intro

Have you ever heard the saying fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me?

essentially the saying means that if I allow you to hurt me a second time knowing full well that you hurt me once before then I have no one to blame but myself because I knew what you were like and put myself in a position I probably shouldn’t have.

Have you ever been there? Have you ever made a decision or done something that you know wasn’t a good idea, and you know this because you have been there before? You have made that mistake before. You know how it is likely going to turn out because it always ends badly.

And this is easy to point out in others. It is easy to be critical of others when we see them drinking from the same well that poisoned them time and time again.

It is a lot harder to recognize it in ourselves.

2020 has been a year that has felt to many like 10. Usually, at the end of every year we tend to reflect on the past and then look to the future. And for many this produces a desire to do things differently in the coming year. Call it a resolution, call it whatever you want, but this year probably more than most we are hoping for a better 2021.

But, if you are like me, and if we are like most people, we will find that despite our best intentions, oftentimes we find ourselves making the same mistakes we made before.

We end up right back in that toxic relationship

We end up right back in debt we can’t manage even after we worked so hard to get out from under it

We end up holding on to the same bad habits and addictions we said we were done with

We end up carrying the same burden of sin that we thought we had let go of.

We end up with the same hurts, the same disappointments, the same problems, and the same pain as if we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of our past.

So that brings me to our new message series that will take us through January called Doomed to Repeat.

Over the next six weeks we are going to be looking at the story of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and their journey through the desert into the promised land.

However, we are going to work backwards through the narrative. My hope is that this series will provide a unique vantage point on the ups and downs of Israel’s journey.

It is through their story that I hope to draw biblical truth that will help us to realize that we don’t have to live lives where we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of our past but can find freedom from our past and hope for our future.

Big idea

Has anyone here ever had someone break a promise to them before? That is a painful experience isn’t it. When someone promises something to you, and they don’t follow through that can be painful.

And sometimes these promises are big, like the promise a husband and wife make to each other on their wedding day. And this is why divorce is so painful because when a divorce takes place that means that promises were broken.

Sometimes these promises may seem insignificant but that doesn’t mean that when they aren’t broken they don’t leave someone in pain.

And personally, I think this is why so many people have a hard to believing in the God of the Bible and relating to him because he makes a lot of promises in this book (hold up bible)

And people aren’t used to promises always being fulfilled and when they hear about a God who when he makes a promise, he always delivers, that just sounds too foreign or hard to believe.

But that brings me to my main point this morning, a point I hope to establish and that is that God will keep his promises because he is always faithful. God’s ability to always keep his promise is tied to the fact that he is always faithful.

Power in the text

Let’s look to our text this morning to illustrate this point.

Joshua 1:1-9 NLT After the death of Moses the Lord’s servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant. He said, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them. 3 I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you—4 from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites.’ 5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.

6 “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. 9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Several times in this passage, God commands Joshua to be strong and courageous as he leads the people to finally enter into their land.

God repeats that this courage can be found in believing that he will be with Joshua; he will not leave him or forsake him (1:5, 9). God’s presence made a difference.

Why is it that when a child has a bad dream they cry out for their parents? Is it because their parents have the ability to make them forget the dream as if it never happened? It is because they can prevent them from having another one?

Of course not! A child simply feels safer when their parent is with them. There is a sense of security and protection that a child feels in the presence of their mom or dad, especially if they are scared.

God knew that what Joshua was about to do would require him to have an unshakable confidence in God’s ability to follow through.

He needed Joshua to know that He was with him no matter what. And it was his presence that would be the difference maker in him moving forward, or staying stuck in the past.

And so Joshua leads his people to the Jordan River but once again it looks like the path forward is blocked. But look at what happens.

Joshua 3:9-17 NLT 9 So Joshua told the Israelites, “Come and listen to what the Lord your God says. 10 Today you will know that the living God is among you. He will surely drive out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites ahead of you. 11 Look, the Ark of the Covenant, which belongs to the Lord of the whole earth, will lead you across the Jordan River! 12 Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13 The priests will carry the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.”

14 So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. 15 It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, 16 the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.

17 Meanwhile, the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant stood on dry ground in the middle of the riverbed as the people passed by. They waited there until the whole nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground.

The ark of the covenant symbolized God’s presence on earth during the time of the Old Testament. It was this presence that miraculously pushed back the waters of the Jordan River so the people could cross over

Why this matters

Some of you watching this are stuck in the past. You know God is calling you to a greater level of service, obedience, and accountability but the fear of failure has you stuck.

And the reason you are stuck, the reason you can seem to move forward is because you have traded the presence of God in your life for a counterfeit presence that looks like God but is lacking any real power.

What do I mean by this. I am talking about emotionalism in the Church. This idea that unless I have this emotional experience with the music, the lights, the sounds, unless I feel this connection to my environment then I am not really in God’s presence.

And this my friends has created a system in Churches where it is more about the production value than it is about the actual presence of God.

It is more about having the perfectly choreographed service than it is about being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

It is more important that we hear messages that connect with us on an emotional level that in a lot of ways leave us feeling like “yeah I know I am not where I need to be, but God loves me and I am enough for him so there is no need to feel bad about that”.

I am just so loved that no one is going to call me out on my hypocrisy or my disobedience, or my selfishness. And if someone does they aren’t preaching Jesus.

Ephesians 5:3-9 NLT 3 Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. 4 Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. 5 You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.

6 Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. 7 Don’t participate in the things these people do. 8 For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

You and I are loved. Loved so much that Jesus died for us. Loved so much that he gave us his Holy Spirit. Love so much that he now lives in us and through us so that we can produce what is good and right and true.

God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to stay the way you are. And until you and I are willing to get alone with God and truly invite his presence into our lives we will be doomed to repeat the sins and mistakes of our past.

Application

God warns his people to meditate on the Book of the Law, that is, the Book of Instructions, day and night so they can be careful to do what it says (Joshua 1:8).

We have to know God’s Word in order to know his promises so that we can stand on them in our time of need. We also need to spend time with God in his Word in order to know him better and fellowship with him in his presence.

You can’t conjure God’s presence through emotional experiences. The only way to enter into his presence is to do things his way. This means knowing his word. This means praying and fellowshipping with him. This means being with his people in Church.

Closing

God was faithful to deliver the Israelites out of captivity and into the promised land.

But you see, if you know much about their story, they became stuck a number of times and repeated their mistakes, but God remained faithful throughout the ordeal.

In that same way, if it wasn’t for God’s unfailing love and grace, we would surely be doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes, remaining stuck in our own sin.

But just as God delivered the Israelites into the promised land based on his faithfulness to his promises, so also God will show his faithfulness to us in spite of our weaknesses.

But in order for him to do so, we have to invite his presence into our circumstance and then get out of the way and let him do what only he can.