Forth Sunday of Friday Night Kids Club

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Joshua Sunday, July 16, 2006 Forth Sunday of Friday Night Kids Club Shelton, WA

BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS

You know, as I was getting ready for today’s message I have to admit that I struggled. Oh, it’s not that the story of Joshua isn’t very exciting or inspiring—it is! It’s not that there isn’t a whole lot to preach about from his life and from his conquest of the Promised Land—there is! It’s just that there’s this whole obedience thing hanging out there… and I don’t know what to do with it.

You see that was the theme for this past Friday Night Kids Club— obedience. We learned about Joshua’s obedience to God and God’s word. You see God made Joshua a promise: if he carefully obeyed all of God’s instructions he would prosper and succeed. And even more, God promised that he would be with Joshua wherever he went.

That’s quite a promise. And we can certainly see how that promise was lived out in Joshua’s life. From the crossing of the Jordan—as it stood up in a heap so all Israel could pass by on dry ground; to the falling of Jericho—as the walls toppled at the sound of God’s people crying out in obedient worship; to the slow but steady conquest of the land of Canaan, God kept his promise to Joshua. And Joshua, for the most part, was obedient to all of God’s instructions.

You know, I believe that same promise is just as relevant for us today. If we are careful to obey all that God has instructed, we too are guaranteed success

John Grant Page 1 5/7/2018 Page 2 of 7 01d8a83c0f020d234bb3e5ecc391ac29.doc and prosperity. And best of all, God will be with us wherever we go. Now, of course, our success and prosperity is not success and prosperity in the popular sense of the word. Success and prosperity in God’s economy is far different than success and prosperity in our Western/American economy.

In God’s economy, success and prosperity is a downward movement rather than an upward one. We talked about that a bit last Sunday as we talked about Joseph… and how Joseph had to learn humility before he learned how to forgive. Actually our English word humble comes from the Latin word hummus which simply means “earth” or “dirt.” Maybe that’s where the phrase “down to earth” comes from.

There’s a certain simplicity to humility. It’s not complicated because it’s not pretentious. It’s not out to prove itself… prove its worth… its value… its credibility. It has nothing to prove. Pride seeks to prove itself, not humility.

Humility is content with being simple. Earth is simple. Dirt is simple. Ask any kid who has ever played in the backyard—not much to dirt. Not much to humility, either. Maybe that’s why it’s so difficult for us. We like things complicated. Simple things make us uneasy. They make us nervous. That’s why we like to fix things up by adding a bunch of stuff to it.

I don’t know… maybe we just feel we need to put a piece of ourselves into everything that comes our way. Or maybe it’s a matter of something else… something more subtle. We like to insert things that keep us busy… things that we can be in control of… things that we can take charge of. Somehow

John Grant Page 2 5/7/2018 Page 3 of 7 01d8a83c0f020d234bb3e5ecc391ac29.doc it gives us a sense of importance… a sense of significance… a sense of superiority.

We do it with just about everything—from music to movies, from grandma’s favorite recipe… to whatever it is we’re making for dinner tonight… to the latest, juiciest story we just heard. We add a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We take a very simple thing and turn it into something very, very complicated. We even do it with our religion. As a matter of fact, that’s one of our favorite things to do it to.

Philips Brooks called preaching, “Truth through personality.” And at its very best, that’s exactly what it preaching is—truth through personality. The problem is all too often we start getting more personality than we do truth. We start letting personality take over and dominate.

Pretty soon that personality begins to turn heavy. Pretty soon that personality turns into rules, and formulas, and regulations. And pretty soon that truth starts to get all covered up by all sorts of other stuff. Oh, it’s still there. The truth hasn’t gone away. We can still point to it. It’s just that it’s much, much harder for folks to see.

As a matter of fact, it’s often missed. We end up getting so distracted by all the peripheral junk that we miss the really important stuff. We start to insist on conformity, making our way of doing things the standard by which everyone else is measured. Orthodoxy is reduced to orthopraxy. What we do is more important than who we are. We end up covering up the truth… we burry it under piles of personal preferences and hand-fulls of half-truths.

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We hide it under the melee of mediocrity… tucked away under the clutter of culture.

E. Stanley Jones has said: “If the church marries itself to the spirit of the times, it will be a widow in the next generation.” Well, starting some 6 or 700 years ago, with the dawn of the age of enlightenment, the church began the wedding ceremony.

Willingly we have dressed ourselves in the wedding clothes of the age. Willingly we have adopted the habits and mannerisms of the times. We’ve turned pastors into CEO’s. We’ve abandoned spiritual direction for program development. We’ve modeled ourselves after corporate America, defining success by more members and an ever increasing budget. We’ve substituted information for transformation. We’ve allowed the clutter of secularism to settle on the mantle of truth we have been entrusted to protect and proclaim.

“If the church marries itself to the spirit of the times, it will be a widow in the next generation.” Well, in case you haven’t noticed, the next generation is already here. There’s a whole new and different generation out there, folks. And it’s got a whole different set of clothes… a whole different idea of what’s important… a whole different set of goals.

That’s kind of what Joshua was—the next generation. Moses and his generation were gone. Now it was Joshua’s turn. The problem was Joshua was for the most part unproven. Oh, he had fought battles. He had led campaigns… but always under the leadership of Moses. But now… now Moses was gone. And so was his generation.

There was a new generation standing there on the banks of the Jordan River —a different generation... one with different goals… different obstacles… different strengths… different struggles. And a new kind of leader was needed—one with a different style of leadership.

Joshua wasn’t Moses. Joshua’s ways of leading weren’t Moses’ ways of leading. The old ways—the ways of Moses—were perfect for wandering in the wilderness, but for conquering and occupying the Promised Land… they weren’t so perfect. Things had to change. But before they could change, something else had to happen.

One of my favorite quotes from Eddie Gibbs book, Leadership Next: Changing Leader in a Changing Culture, is: “the paradox of aging is that every generation perceives itself as justifiably different from its predecessors, but plans as if its successor generation will be the same.” Let me read that again, that’s kind of a mouth full. “The paradox of aging is that every generation perceives itself as justifiably different from its predecessors, but plans as if its successor generation will be the same.”

I think that’s why God had Israel camp out on the banks of the Jordan while this transfer in leadership took place. They needed time. I also think that’s why God told Joshua to be strong and courageous. God knew Joshua would face questions and uncertainty. It would be easy for him to revert back to doing things the way they’d always done them before. But it would be with an ever decreasing effectiveness. God wanted Joshua to trust Him. God wanted Joshua to listen to God’s instruction… not to Israel’s grumbling.

That’s where this idea of obedience comes in. If Joshua was going to be effective, Joshua had to obey God. This may not always make him popular. It may cause some folks to question his leadership. It might even start the people grumbling… again. “Oh, if only Moses were here! If only we were back in Egypt.” Those are the times when it would be easy for Joshua to give in… those are the times when it would be easy for Joshua to go back to doing the same old things in the same old ways… but those are the times God says to be strong and courageous.

You see, over time, patterns begin to build up. Like tarnish on a piece of copper, these patterns build up layer upon layer until that piece of copper is totally obscured. Patterns leadership… patterns of evangelism… patterns of worship… patterns of how we do church… in everything we do we build patterns, and if we’re not careful there patterns become ruts. And even worse, sometimes they become tarnish and cover up and distort what really matters.

That tarnish is what keeps God’s miracle working power at bay. Why don’t we see miracles like they did back in the book of Acts? Why don’t we see miracles like some other places around the world? Well, maybe it’s because there’s simply too much tarnish covering it up.

That’s why Joshua’s words to the nation of Israel as they sat there waiting to march over the Jordan and take possession of the Promised Land are so important: “Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.”

As I thought about those words, “purify yourselves,” it occurred to me that the process of purifying ourselves is a process of deconstruction. All too often we have made purity a process of doing, when really purity is a process of undoing.

We need to undo all the patterns time and culture have imposed. We need to undo all the expectations each one of us brings into the mix. We need to undo all the old ways that have long ago become ruts. We need to undo all the preconceptions… all the biases… all the personal preferences… that have tarnished and distorted. We need to deconstruct the Ivory Tower we’ve built to protect the truth, and begin to rediscover new and fresh what’s been locked inside for so long.

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

The big question we all face is: Are we willing to pay the price? Are we willing to undo whatever needs to be undone in order to see and experience the great wonders God has in store for us? Are we willing to pay the price?

Well, I can’t answer that. At least I can’t answer that for you, but as for me and my house… the answer is: yes, Lord, yes. Whatever it takes, Lord, do that.

Please stand with me.

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