(This sermon launched with the utilization of Google Earth to provide screen shots of the community we are located in. Could be personalized to each church’s community.)
Kenneth Scott Latourette writes that from A.D. 500 to 1500 the church did not grow. It merely exchanged real estate. We gave up Africa and gained Europe. His research led him to the conclusion that there were about the same number of believers and the same number of square miles under Christian influence in the year 1500 as in the year 500.
Reflecting on this, Ray Bakke writes in his book, A Theology as Big as the City, "As I reflected on his research, it became clear that we may be doing this again in our time. But this time, we are exchanging urban churches for suburban ones."
With that backdrop, and reflecting on what Bakke writes, you are here! Very literally, this is where you are sitting. This is Stonewall Wesleyan Church from 1300 feet via Google Earth. Pretty cool, huh? It gets better.
Step back a few thousand feet to 3800 feet, and you see SWC, along with a few other familiar places: Beaumont Middle School, and one of my favorites, Burger King.
Pull back a bit further. SWC from 20,000 feet. Now you can make out Beaumont Center off Harrodsburg Road, some of our SWC family homes are in view, and Shilito Park.
If we step back to 13 miles above the surface of the earth, you can pick-up Wilmore and Nicholasville, lying just outside the city of Lexington.
This is the land. Two weeks ago we began looking at the transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua that the nation of Israel experienced. Well, this is our 2006 version of standing on the bluff, looking out across the expanse, and God saying, “Moses my servant is dead. Arise, go into the land.”
Look at that passage with me. Joshua 1 (read through verse 9). God called His people to enter into the promise land, after 40 years of disobedience, stubbornness and wandering, and He called them to do it with strength and courage.
But this is what is happening in the land today. Let me give you one example, through the city of Lexington, of what is happening in cities across America today. Zoom into the city of Lexington with me, and you will find a boom of residential life and housing converging on downtown Lexington.
RESIDENTIAL EXAMPLES:
The Mark - at site of Faith Covenant Church – (1/4 to 1/2 million dollars)
Lofts at Gratz Park
The Blackhorse at Gratz Park – 26 Luxury Condominiums (1/2 to 2 million)
Centre Court
University Lofts
Luxury Penthouse Suites across from Rupp Arena
This is just a sampling of the many examples of new, often high dollar, residential housing, moving into the heart of the city. Inside New Circle Road.
Meanwhile, simultaneously, you will also find a movement of churches away from the center of the city.
RECENT CHURCH EXAMPLES:
Faith Covenant Church
Ashland Avenue Baptist Church
Bethel Harvest
Porter Memorial Baptist Church
Quest Community Church
Central Baptist Church
First Baptist Church
If we went back further in history you would find older church examples such as Southland Christian Church. And even a little holiness church that used to be located on Short Street that is now Stonewall Wesleyan Church and First Wesleyan Church.
This is the current picture of the city of Lexington, and many cities across our country today. Residential life is being established in the heart of the city. Spiritual life and influence is moving out of the heart of the city.
Why does this matter? Well, something we are going to be looking at over the coming weeks includes my belief that the spiritual realm where angelic forces of good and evil dwell, to some degree reflects the physical world. Maybe not a direct mirror, but there are similarities between what is happening in the spiritual realm, and what is taking place in the physical world.
Likewise, the physical world often provides a reflection of the spiritual realm. And as we see people moving back to the hearts of our cities in the physical world, we are simultaneously seeing the influences of the spiritual world moving away from that same territory. Not an indictment on any of those churches. Simply a statement of fact.
Did you know that just 100 years ago, only 8 percent of the world’s population lived in cities? In urban centers. Today, more than 50 percent of the world’s population is found in the city.
So this is what I believe. I believe, the church. . .or churches. . .that choose to accept the challenge of the city with strength and courage, the challenge of forsaking an “if we build it, they will come” mindset, and accepting a posture of strength and courage to arise and go into the land. I believe that type of a church will be a church blessed by God.
The church that goes to the land, enters the masses, reaches out to the marginalized people of our society, culture, and day. God will give them the land. They will posses it.
As you look on the city from 10 miles in the air. Ask yourself, and ask God, “God do I have the strength and the courage to enter the land, and allow SWC to enter the spiritual inheritance, the harvest, the bounty of kingdom building ministry that you have for us?”
Recap of last week’s message -
JOSHUA – THIS IS YOUR LIFE
The story picked up in Exodus 24:9 where we saw Joshua ascending the mountain with Moses. That scene tipped us off to this intimate relationship between God, Moses, and Joshua that we saw further hints of later in Exodus.
The most famous of scouting reports came in Numbers 13-14. Caleb and Joshua are the sole spies ready to take the land, and subsequently the sole survivors of a plague God sends against the spies for their rebellion from His plan.
That rebellion led to 40 years in the wilderness. Then in Numbers 27, Moses laid his hands on Joshua, and pronounced him the next leader of Israel. After having to spend the entire 40 years in the wilderness with them, Joshua is called to become their leader.
TWO COMMUNITY OF FAITH LESSONS:
1. Our faith, or lack there of, impacts each of us. We are not an island.
N.T. Examples of Jesus healing – One positive, one negative
2. The lack of faith of those around us does not change God’s call upon us.
Joshua still had to awaken, every day, for 40 years, and dwell with the people. God did not change His call on Joshua’s life simply because of the lack of faith of those surrounding him.
Moses passed the torch to Joshua, God gave His future forecast, and it was a stormy one. As if that wasn’t discouraging enough, Moses followed it up with his own glorious vision of the future team Joshua would be leading. A vision of sin, rebellion, and discontent.
Then Moses death was recorded for us in Deuteronomy 34, and the stage was set for the heart of our passage.
I said there were six lessons from this passage, but we only got to the first two. First. . .
1. WE KNOW THE PAST IS PAST, BUT SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO BE REMINDED.
I suggested that may be why God began His call with, “Moses my servant is dead.” They knew that. It wasn’t new information. But God knows our need to be reminded that the past is the past, and He desires to be actively and working in the present.
It’s a great reminder for our graduates, our continuing students, and each of us today. We can celebrate what God has done in our history. We can envision what He wants to do through us in the future. But we better not get so consumed with the past or the future that we fail to be active in the present.
The story told by one pastor is of two homosexual men in his congregation who approached him and advised him that he wasn’t a very good pastor for them. They advised him that, "We resent the fact that you seem to have better relationships with dead people than with some of us who live."
They were challenging that pastor’s love of church history. His love for the past. And they challenged that pastor’s time spent in history and theology, and studying Luther and Edwards with time that could be given to present day ministry opportunities right in front of him.
After 40 years of wandering God says, “Moses is dead. Now it’s time to move.” The second lesson was found in the rest of verse 2 (read).
2. YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE LAND, TO POSSES THE LAND
I have been communicating this phrase frequently lately. Churches today are operating more from a “Field of Dreams” mindset than that of the army of God, and that is why most of our dreams never seem to become reality.
“If you build it, they will come.” That isn’t how the church is supposed to operate. That isn’t how God provides promises in His word. He doesn’t declare, if you build something great, they will come to you. He says, “If you go, I will give you the land.”
You have to go to the land to posses it. The remaining four lessons center around this phrase, “be strong and of good courage.”
That first word, strong. It means, “to prevail. . .win. To press. Be urgent.” One of the most common translations of this Hebrew word is to “hold” or “take hold of.” It is a battle word. A warfare word. It is about victory. It is about taking hold of something. Winning it. Conquering it.
When God begins to repeat this idea of being strong, He is saying, "Win the battles. Take the land. Prevail. Enough wandering and wondering. It is time to press in with a sense of urgency until the land is yours. Be strong."
It gets partnered with this other word – courage. The most common translation of this word is “strong”. Somewhat of a redundancy to emphasize the importance of being strong.
Then some others translations of this word include to be bold and brave. Or one of my favorite translations is to be determined.
This is how we are to enter the land. This is how we are to go in to the city. God calls us out to take the land with strength and courage. Four more lessons from this passage as we follow through these callings to be “strong and courageous.” What will the results be, according to God’s word, of entering the land with strength and courage?
Verse 6 (read). The first result of entering the land with strength and courage is. . .
A. AN INHERITANCE
God has something He wants to give us. He had something He had wanted to give the people of Israel for more than 40 years. Even longer. This was His desire for them. But when they first arrived at the doorstep of their inheritance, they lacked strength and courage. So they wandered.
Please do not miss this today. I believe God has something great for us as a church. I believe there is territory He wants us to possess in this city. But it takes an approach that is “strong and courageous” to receive what God desires to bless us with. We can not timidly sit in our pews awaiting the glorious unfolding of His plan. We have to rise up, and claim our inheritance. Possess the land.
What is another result of entering the land with strength and courage? Verse 7 (read). If we enter the land with strength and courage, we will have. . .
B. THE ABILITY TO OBEY GOD’S COMMANDS
If we are going to be in the world, but not of it. If we are going to be salt and light, rather than lose our flavor and be consumed by the darkness. If we are going to live holy lives in the midst of a sinful world, we will have to move forward with strength and courage.
Living a Godly life requires a bold approach and commitment. Taking the land is not for the faint of heart. Temptations will overwhelm us. Idolatry will creep into our hearts. And before we know it, we will not even be separable from the land we are trying to conquer. The ability to obey God’s commands comes from an approach of strength and courage.
Even beyond that. . .being strong and courageous gives us. . .
C. THE ABILITY TO LIVE OBEDIENTLY
Verse 9a (read). This is so important. This is not an issue of personality type.
I can just hear what most people in churches today would have said had they been alive when the spies returned to Moses thousands of years ago (play out scenario).
Not according to what God says here. We don’t have the option of just saying, “Well, those people are risk takers. Those people live with a confidence that I’m just not wired with. That just isn’t my nature.”
(Example of current District process.)
God’s word tells us that it is His command to live strong and courageously. Living any other way. Living in fear, and timidity. Living afraid and hesitantly. Living in apprehension and gloom. That isn’t how God has commanded us to live. God wants. . .even commands His people to live a ‘strong and courageous’ life!
“But Pastor, I can’t do that.” You may feel like that is impossible. So why would God command this of us?
Well, I believe that everything God commands, He empowers to do. So how do we live with strength and courage? Especially if we don’t think that matches our personality. Especially if we see ourselves as anything but someone who is strong and courageous. How do we live that way?
Verse 9b. (read) We live with strength and courage by living with. . .
D. THE RECOGNITION OF GOD’S PRESENCE
The Lord our God is with us. Do you believe that?
Do you?
Think about this. If God isn’t with us. If He isn’t, trust me, we have much greater problems to face than you can ever imagine.
If He is, and I believe He is, then we aren’t facing this challenge alone. We can move forward with strength and courage because “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
That is the mindset we need to have. Recognizing the past is past, and that we have to go to the land to posses it, we aim for a mindset of strength and courage to take the land.
Next week we are going to look at a great example of what happens when you go into the land. An inspiring look at what can happen when the people of God will rise up, go into the city, and possess the land.
If you like history, you won’t want to miss it. If you like hearing about little books of the Bible you have never heard preached, you won’t want to miss it. And if you like hearing great, inspiring stories of the human spirit and God’s redemptive power, you won’t want to miss it.
Let’s pray.
