Joshua You have Not Passed this way before.
“for ye have not passed this way heretofore." Joshua 3:1-5
Intro: In a way we are all like Joshua. We are continually entering upon new pathways.
1. This morning started a new day
2. Tomorrow we start a new year.
But after a while many of these new pathways…, turn-out to be..., just the same old pathways...not new ones.
We end up going down the same road…, doing the same things we have always done over and over again.
Often without…, the results that God wants in our lives.
We can learn this valuable lesson from the People of Israel.
I. The people of Israel had also been down this same pathway.
A. Not too many years prior to this time…, they had traveled down through this very same dessert land.
But...
1. They had been abruptly turned back to Sinai.
2. [They were driven back.]
3. BECAUSE they refused to be obedient to God!
4. They did not completely trust in God.
God said...,
"Go on! Take this land that is before you! Possess it! Own it! Claim it for Israel!"
God had said...,
"Every place where the sole of your foot shall tread upon I will give it to you."
C. But the children of Israel were scared to death...
1. The bible says…, there were giants in that Land.
The sons of Anak the GIANT lived there.
The Anakims were tall…, longed neck…, warlike people. Their name meant “Ridge” or “Mountain”
Most bible scholars agreed these were the ancestors of the Giant Goliath.
2. These were strong people.
3. There city had great walls of stone built around it.
And even though the people of Israel…, knew the promise which God had given them...
...even though the people knew that God had promised to do wonders among them…,
and to bless them with great blessings....
(1) They were afraid and not willing to go forward against these mighty men of Great Stature.
(2) It seemed to them that this was something which they could not overcome.
And so it was...
Israel abruptly turned back...
Only a few short miles from the promised land of milk and honey…
And they wandered with Miriam, and Aaron, and Moses, in the wilderness for the next 40 years….
Now after the death of Moses…
Joshua was selected by God to be the new leader of Israel.
Joshua was born in Egypt during the time of slavery.
He was of the member from the Tribe of Eprhaim which later forms the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Joshua was a military leader, he was a political leader, but most of all he was a spiritual leader.
Romans 7:15-20a (CEB) the Apostle Paul said,
“I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it.
Instead, I do what I hate…,
it is sin living in me that does it.
18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.
[a] I want to do what is right, but I can’t.
19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t.
I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
it is sin living in me that does it.
It sounds like the Apostle Paul had difficulty going down the same old pathways over and over again.
Have you ever felt like you were taking two steps forward and one step back?
Paul is teaching us that struggling in one’s own strength is not the answer.
Have you ever said, I am doing my best?
You keep trying your hardest not to sin.
But you find yourself doing the same old things over and over again?
Paul says you can’t change from your own strength.
That kind of victory comes only from a relationship with God.
We must never underestimate the allure and attractions of sin.
It is not willpower but God power that changes us.
And the less God power you have in your life the less peace, contentment, and hope you will have.
Don’t go around living defeated.
Trapped by sin and worry.
No, worship is praise and joy!!!
Lift up holy hands unto the Lord.
Clap with sounds of drums unto God.
Shout with thankfulness for you salvation and the blessings God has given you.
II. NOW...Joshua is at the edge…, of this same pathway.
That Israel had been many years ago.
A. God has said to Joshua...,
"As I was with Moses…, so will I be with you!
I'll not fail you!
I’ll not let you down!
I’ll not desert you!
I'll not forsaken you!
I will show you that I am your God!
Lead my people!
Go and possess the promised Land of Canaan!"
B. And Joshua says, to the people..,
"We're gon'na rise tomorrow!
And we are going into this land!"
Joshua said...,
"When you see…, the Ark of the Covenant...,
You follow after that!"
For you see...
III. The Ark of the Covenant contained all that was Holy unto them.
A. It contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
B. This ark was their bible…, the symbol of God’s presence.
C. It is the word of God with them!
D. It was the mercy seat…, the very throne of forgiveness.
1. Joshua was telling them to walk behind the ark.
2. Joshua was telling them to follow and obey the word of God.
3. He was saying stay on the pathway of the Word of God.
This is one thing that we need to be doing today...
We need to be sure that we are Obeying the Word of God! Amen?
...Following the Will of God!
God does not just give you a road map and say go.
God gives you relationship.
As you follow…, God reveals more and more to you.
It is not an Easter Egg hunt where you have to search to find the will of God.
No God wants you to know His Will.
Jesus knew that if just 12 people would have the heart to follow him
the world would know the meaning of the cross.
It just takes few people to start out and go where God is leading
and the where we live will be changed for the good.
BUT listen to what happened…
NOW...The people said...,
"Well, we know where we are going.
We have been across this same dessert land before.
We have wandered in this wilderness for 40 years.
We have been down this same pathway.
We know what is going to happen...
And we know where we are going."
They spoke the phrase that chokes growth. “We have always done it this way.”
Joshua said...,
"Oh No you don't
Not this time!"
He said...,
"We are going to take a different path than the one we have been on before!
You had not passed this way hereto fore."
We haven't gone through this way before.
Many times in life you will be just a few steps away from a breakthrough to God’s best for you.
How many times have not step out to receive it?
What happens when you don’t is your turn back to the same old things you have done year after year.
Nothing changes.
Instead of your spiritual life growing to the next level in your relationship with God
You just walk around in circles.
But God has so much more in store for you.
Let’s take a moment to
IV. Travel down memory lane with me.
Everyone stand as you are able:
(If you were not here when I call out the name of the Pastor please have a seat.)
A. Ken Spurrier
B. Don Barnett 7
C. James Doughton
D. Terry Reffett 8
E. Wayne Sparks
F. David Ross
G. Jim Powell
H. Graham Abbott 9
I. W.A. Johnson
J. Jeff Burton 10
K. Robert Hart
L. William Smith
M. Orin Simmerman 1957 60 years ago
N. William Pettus (Eugene Crigger)
O. Otis Polly (Vina Castle)
P. James Savage (Charlene Meade, Pat Preston)
Some were here 1 year some here 10 years…, some longer than others…, some shorter than others…,
Some pastors you loved to pray for and others you just prayed for
I don't know what the rest of this year or the future may bring...
But I know God has stopped calling us to go in circles
God is telling us it is time to stop wondering around in the wilderness…
Stop doing the same old thing we have done for 40 years and expect different results…
I believe like Joshua God is saying…
Get the people ready….
Because...,"We have not passed this way before!"
It might be easy for us to say...
1. We know where we are going...
2. This church year is going to be just like the one we had last year
3. Next week we will go back just like it was last week.
4. After a while Pastor Bruce will calm down….
!!! Oh, No you don't!
Not this time!
----I do get excited don’t I????
In 30 years my excitement hasn’t changed…, because my excitement is in following Jesus…
You have not passed this way Before!
We are starting a new one!
We have not been this direction before!
V. Therefore we must...
A. Follow the example which God has set before us.
Joshua said...,
"Follow after the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God!
This ark contains all instructions you need for guidance.
Unless the word of God leading us...
"We might go astray and become lost along this new pathway."
*** But Listen closely now...
Joshua also said...,
"Put a space between you and the ark.
A space about 3000 feet in length."
This space DID NOT MEAN...to separate ourselves from the Holy God...
But what he was saying was...
1. Stand back far enough that you can be sure to see the whole thing.
Sometimes we may be guilty of only seeing our little corner.
2. You have got to get the entire (BIG) picture.
3. You need to see how wonderful…, how miraculously…., that God will lead you!
4. Follow after the ark and Sanctify yourself....
5. Clean yourself...
6. Make your life holy...
Because tomorrow God is going to do wonders among you.
VI. On the next day...
A. They got down to the Jordan River.
1. It was near the harvest time of season.
2. The rain had just begun.
3. The banks of the Jordan River were over flowing continually.
The children of Israel got down there and they were saying...
"What in the world are we going to do?
Let’s turn back.
Let’s quit right Here.
We cannot possibly get through these troubled waters!
But there was one old saint...A priest in the 16th verse...
(Let me say something right here!!! There is always one old Saint…, in the church…,
That remembers what it was like to have a revival
They remember what it means to get a blessing from the Lord
They know what it means to shout!
They know what happens when the alter is followed!
There is always a few old saints that have faith to lead the younger people to the promises of God!
1. He walked over and stepped out into the water...
2. He began to wade out a little deeper.
3. He began to trust and obey God a little deeper.
4. He prayed a little harder!
Then he would wade out a little farther!
Now the Bible doesn't say...
"Ask and I might give it to you."
"Knock and I may opened for you."
The bibles says, “Ask and you shall receive, Knock and it will be opened.”
It says...
"If we ask with faith
If we truly believe that I am God.
and pray in faith, God will do wanders among you."
1. The waters began to pile up into heaps on both sides...
The water on the upsteam stopped at the City of Adam
And the water on the downstream flowed into the Dead Sea.
2. They crossed over the Jordan on dry ground.
This miracle had not been performed and many years!
---Like where God delivered them out of sin and bondage from Egypt across the Red Sea on dry land!!!
Some had probably almost forgotten this miracle.
Some had probably almost forgotten how to get in touch with God.
But all it took was this one saint to lead the children across.
I want to tell you here today...That God can do wanders for us.
1. First we must sanctify ourselves.
We must clean ourselves.
We have to unburden ourselves with worry and doubt and fears.
We have to free ourselves for joyful worship
We have to ask God’s forgiveness
We may need to make a trip to the Altar?
We may need to make a trip to someone who we have hurt or wronged.
We may need to allow God to give us a change of heart.
To do a new work within our Spirit.
2. We must pray
We must trust in God
Prayer changes things.
Prayer releases God to work in us.
One of the best prayers that we could ever pray is “God, not my will, but your will be done.”
If you will stay open to his direction, and follow your heart, God will bless you.
God is on our side.
He is not trying to hold anything back from us.
Nobody wants to see our lost family saved any more than God does.
We should pray: “God, open up the right doors and close the wrong doors.”
It says in Proverbs, “If you acknowledge God in all your ways, He will direct your paths.”
One translation says, “He’ll crown your efforts with success.”
A pastor was flying aboard a small airplane.
After they took off, he wanted to get his tray table out so he could make some notes.
Right beneath the window was a little sign that said “pull,”
so he pulled, but nothing happened.
He yanked on it even harder.
He said to himself, I’m going to get this tray table out if it’s the last thing I ever do!
He tugged, he pulled, and it still wouldn’t come out.
Nothing happened.
Finally, he sat back and looked up and noticed right above that window
where we had been pulling was a little sign in big bold letters.
It read, “No tray table this seat. Emergency exit only.”
He prayed
“Dear God, thank you for not letting me have my way.
Thank you for not opening up that door.”
Thank goodness the people who designed that plane knew there’d be people like him on board.
They put a latch up top, where you had to use both hands to open the emergency door.
Otherwise, pulling that latch probably would have been one of the last things he ever did!
Thank God, he knows what’s best for us.
Thank God that he’s merciful and he doesn’t always give us our way.
I’ve learned that when my prayers aren’t being answered,
that either means that God is protecting me from danger up ahead,
or God has something better in store.
But God knows what’s best for us.
Too often, we’re trying to do things our way instead of listening and doing things God’s way.
3. We must step out a little farther
We must obey God.
We need to wade out into the water a little deeper.
One of the things that make us Wesleyan and United Methodist is Social Justice
We believe in supporting the Connectional Church by giving to Our Mission Together Fund
Some call it Benevolence Fund, some call it Apportionments Fund.
This is the way we help the poor and offer the Gospel beyond the local church.
You can be proud that every time you give to this church a portion of what you give
Goes to fund a ministry or mission either here locally, or in our District,
or somewhere here in Kentucky, or Somewhere around the World.
When we pay 100% of our Apportionments, there is child that does not go hungry.
There is student that will get the help they need with their education
There is senior citizen who will get the care and medical treatment they need.
There is village that will have lights and electricity or will get clean water.
You can be proud that when you give to First United Methodist
you are giving to something much, much bigger than yourself.
This is the most basic thing we are asked to do is give and support our Apportionment Fund
Are you thankful to be a United Methodist?
Have you gone a little farther in your understanding of your church
And your commitment to giving to the most basic way we do Missions and Ministry
to help the poorest and least and the last and the lost.
VII. Listen: It may turn out…, that after this service…,
we just go back…, like all the rest of the services you have been to.
And nothing changes about the way we think or do
But I hope not.
I hope that we put helping the poor
through our United Methodist Connection as the most important thing we do.
I hope that we put sharing the Gospel and Transforming the World as the most important thing we do.
I hope that we put keeping our commitments as the most important thing we do.
1. We may be faced with flooded rivers that must be overcome.
----That seem too difficult to overcome…,
2. We may be faced with giants all around us.
----problems that seem too big to handle
3. You may be afraid to step out
---fear to change
---reluctance to work outside your comfort zone
---lack of commitment to journey out the past and into the future
It may seem to you as though you cannot possible overcome!
But I want to ask you this one question.
When troubles come to you…,
Has God ever let you down?
No!
If sickness comes in your home are you going to throw up your hands and quit on God?
No! You're not gon'na do it!
Your are going to trust him a little more!!!
Listen...(Pause)
Death may come to you and your immediate family.
The person you love the most may be taken from on this pathway.
Troubles may come to you and yours.
But what are you going to do? Are you going to quit on God?
No!
You are going to prayer a little harder.
You are going to go a little farther than you have ever gone before.
Friends as we enter this New Year tomorrow.
Will you join me in praying for one another?
Will you join me in nurturing and loving our members,
But also in reaching out to the underchurched and the abandoned by the church.
Will help win the lost for Christ by actively, intentionally, witnessing and sharing the Gospel with the unsaved?
Listen...
VIII. One time John was on the Island called Patmis.
A. John wrote of His Revelations.
John said...,
"I am your brother and I am your companion in tribulation.
I am suffering the same troubles in patience and trusting in Christ and His Kingdom."
John said...
"I am here on the Isle called Patmis."
Do you all know why John was there?
1. It was because John was a confessor.
2. He confessed Jesus Christ as his Saviour.
When the Emperor said...,
"You are going to bow down and worship the god that I set up before you."
John said, "No! I am not going to do it.
I want quit on God."
And so they put him in this prison on an island called Patmos.
Because he stood up for God.
Listen...
YOUR ISLE OF PATMIS MIGHT be along this new pathway.
We do not know what our future holds.
So we better get to know the one who hold the future. That is God!
You have not passed this way before.
2018 may be the year you meet God. You may meet God.
It is very doubtful that everyone of us here today
will be back again next year on this last Sunday of December.
And when you meet God...
1. You will meet him face to face in the judgment.
2. After this life is over we will all stand before God in Judgment.
Rev. 20:11 says...
"I saw a great white throne. And he who sat on it the face of the
Earth and Heaven turned away.
And there was found no place for them.
No place for the unrepenting sinner.
No place for those who die lost.
No place for those who have quit on God.
"And I saw the dead. small and great, stand before God.
And the Books were opened and another book was opened which is the Book of LIfe.
And the Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works,
the things they had done."
Vs 13 says...
"the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works and death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire.
And whosoever was not found His name written in the Lambs Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire."
Listen you may meet God along this pathway.
Are you ready to meet God??
Joshua said there is going be something new happen.
You have not passed this way before.
We have not passed this way before.
We have one more chance to make through.
Listen...
If we have our hearts sanctified
If we are cleaned up and ready for God...
Then He is going to do wanders among us.
God will do wanders for us during these next few days and weeks and months.
We could receive that blessing that we need.
We could see that lost friend come to an altar of forgiveness.
We could see wanders happen but this is a new pathway.
We have not passed this way before.
Canaan land is in sight.
Are you are ready and willing to step out.
Are you are ready to cross over.
If you don't know Jesus
If you haven't given your life to Christ the I invite you right now
Today...If you are here and you already know Christ.
Then I want you to lead the way.
I want you to lead the way for others to come.
It was the faith of the saintly person who stepped out and led the others across into the promised land.
Today...God is calling you to step out and open up the way for others the altar is open.
