Power Shift #4 - Abundance

What do you think of when you hear the word Abundance?

Here is my definition to fit my sermon for today. A supply that never runs out.

J. Hudson Taylor, a missionary to China once said...

“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.” J. Hudson Taylor, Missionary to China

In the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, we can read about Israel’s wandering in the wilderness and God’s provision. Think about this, God led them with a cloud, with fire, He kept their clothes from wearing out, He provided them with water in the desert and He fed them manna. But look at what Joshua 5:12 says...

Joshua 5:12 NIV

12 The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.

Manna was their provision in the wilderness, but the possession of Canaan was their provision to advance into the promised land.

I want us to take a moment and read a few verses from chapter 5 of Joshua. If you have your bibles, go to Joshua 5 and I want to begin at verse 9.

Joshua 5:9–15 NIV

9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day. 10 On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. 11 The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. 12 The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan. 13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” 14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” 15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

This passage of scripture that I have read to you represents 3 provisions that were provided to the Israelites and can be seen in the life of this church as well. The first provision is...

1. The Provisions of the Past

Look at verses 9 & 10 again.

Joshua 5:9–10 NIV

9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day. 10 On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover.

Do you remember what the passover was? We find the instructions for the Passover in Exodus 12. They have to take a perfect male lamb and slaughter it. They were to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. The same night they were to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.

Then that same night God would pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and He promised that he would bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. The blood was a sign for each house. God would know to pass over that house and no destructive plague would touch them.

The Passover in Egypt had been celebrated in anticipation of the exodus as the point when Israel would head out towards the land Yahweh had promised to the patriarchs. The Passover here in Joshua 5 is celebrated with the knowledge that Yahweh has indeed brought them to the land in fulfilment of his promise, and that therefore they can also anticipate moving beyond their toehold at Gilgal.

In other words, they can both look back with thanksgiving to the things God has done while also looking forward to the additional things he will do.

In the same way, when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we are simultaneously remembering what God has done for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and we are anticipating the day when Jesus returns.

Can we do that right now? In the middle of this sermon I want us to remember what Christ has done for us by participating in communion. Each of you should have received a cup of juice and wafer when you came in to service. If you don’t have one, an usher will bring you one just raise your hand.

Communion

The Israelites were remembering the past and what God had done for them. We remember the past and what Jesus did for us on the cross and being raised from the dead. This is an act of remembrance.

It is important for us to remember what God has done for us and what he has brought us out of but we can not and we must not dwell on the past. Because God has a greater abundance awaiting for us.

2. The Provisions of Today

Look at verse 12 again.

Joshua 5:12 NIV

12 The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.

Manna was their provision in the wilderness, but the possession of Canaan was their provision to advance into the Promised Land.

God never stopped providing for them. Of course the manna was something that fell from Heaven and the provision in Canaan was from the land but God placed them in the right field at the right time so that they could enjoy the provisions for that time.

How many of us take for granted the provisions that God provides for us on a daily basis? It is easy to think about God during a time of a miraculous provision, but every day provision we think of it as a part of our normal routine.

God is our provider. He gives us the skills that we need to perform the tasks in front of us in order for us to be who he wants us to be. Everything that I have is the Lords. That is why I make it a point to give my first tenth to the Lord. Then I live on the rest that He has given me.

My provision comes in my obedience. I am obedient because I love God and He has taken care of me. My trust is in Him. That was true in my past, that is true today and it will be true in my future. He is my provision.

The end of the manna signaled a new phase in Israel’s history. The people were no longer in the wilderness but in their homeland. Because of God’s provision they were able to take possession of the land that God had promised them many generations ago beginning with Abraham. Israel would continue on and possess the lands God promised through God’s provision. That brings me to the third provision.

3. The Provisions that are to Come.

God is not finished with us yet. God still has more work for us to do. Israel was not done just because they had reached Canaan, now they had to go and possess the land that God had promised them. And, it all starts with Jericho.

Look at verses 13-15 again in our text.

Joshua 5:13–15 NIV

13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” 14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” 15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

This is just the beginning. Chapter 6 is when you read the plans that God has for the city of Jericho. God gave Joshua a very specific and quite unusual strategy for conquering the city of Jericho. Some of us might even think that it was a crazy plan.

They marched around the city quietly for six days, then around the city seven times on the seventh day, and finally, they broke the silence by blowing horns and shouting on the seventh time around the city on the seventh day.

Jericho, was a tremendously strong, walled city. Some historians believe it was the most strongly fortified city in all of Canaan. Yet when the Israelites obediently followed the strategy God gave them, acting in His power, and in the strength of His provision, the walls of Jericho fell. While God didn’t ask them to replicate that strategy for any other city, He did require absolute obedience to the strategy He gave for that specific city, for that specific situation. The eventual goal was possession of the entire land.

We need that same mentality today! God is giving us a task to accomplish. He is asking us to look ahead. He is giving us something to possess. He is calling us to possess the nations. Look at what he has said to us in

Psalm 2:8 NIV

8 Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.

As Israel possessed Canaan, so we are to proclaim Jesus Christ as King and conquer and possess the people who don’t know who Jesus is. We must let them know.

We have to move away from a manna mentality, where we think, “God will give me what I need for today) and we must move toward the attitude of dominion.

When we take on this new dimension of abundance we are trusting God to give us more than enough for ourself and today, but also it will require us to share this abundance with others. We must accept the challenge of our inheritance and of “possessing the land” by incorporating this new mentality of abundance into our everyday existence.

We must move away from a manna mentality and move toward this attitude of possession. This means trusting God for the resources and the strategies to accomplish whatever task is given to us.

We must exhibit a “dominion mentality and attitude that leads to possession.” This dominion mentality is based on servanthood. We should not attempt to possess regions and peoples for our own benefit. Rather, we are called to release them from Satan’s dominion and place them under God’s sovereignty.

For Joshua and Israel, that meant they had to do battle according to God’s revealed plan. God guaranteed the result, if they were willing to obey. It means that, because of the work of Christ on Calvary, these unreached people are ours. God wants you and me, His church, to seize and possess them for His glory through prayer and cooperative outreach so they can receive what God has done for them.

This is a giant task, but we are not the only ones that have been tasked with this challenge. However, we have to do our part. And when we are obedient to what God is asking us to do, then we will see an abundance of resources continues to flow in for us to do the work God has asked us to do.

So, it is time for all of us to make a decision. Are we going to follow God’s calling and listen to his voice to do the work He is asking us to do? Or are we going to continue to just do what we have to do to get by?

I want to do all God is asking me to do. That may require me to think differently. It may require me to give differently. It may require me to act differently. Whatever it is, I want to do what God wants me to do. My question to you is are you with me? Are you wanting to give God everything and let him supply the abundance for you to do the work He is calling you to do?