Sermon Central
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Tomato Seeds Grow Tomatoes
Contributed by Shawn Kelly on Jul 19, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: What You Plant is What Grows
Tomato Seeds Grow Tomatoes “Building a Family for God”
Before we go on and dig deep into the scripture, lets get to know a very faithful young man named Joshua.
(Read Joshua 1: 1-5)
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west. 5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Now, this is interesting…why would God pick Joshua and not Aaron, who was the brother of Moses?
Aaron worshiped the golden calf. Even though Aaron spoke for Moses during the “Let my people go” era.
Aaron was trusted with so many things…but when the going got tough, Aaron got going and strayed from God.
So, God saw the heart of Joshua…told Moses and Joshua, Hey…I’m coming over to your tent later and we are going to bless Joshua, your aid, to succeed you.
Aaron couldn’t be the next in line, because he died on Mount Hor. So he couldn’t get them into the Promise Land.
God told Moses that he would not be able to enter the Promise Land because of one act of disobedience.
God had given him a direct order to speak out to a rock and God would then cause water to flow out from this rock.
For some strange reason, Moses ends up striking the rock twice with his rod instead of speaking out to it as God had specifically commanded him to do.
Moses had disobeyed a direct order from God on how to perform the miracle of getting water from a rock, He did get water, by striking it 2 times with his staff, but God told him to “Speak” to the rock to get water.
As a result, God kept him from going into the Promised Land and he then died out in the wilderness. But before that, God spoke to Moses.
18 So the LORD said to Moses, "Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him.
Now comes Joshua’s turn to lead…
God said: Get up, let’s go….time to go to the Promise Land!
But before you do that, I need you to talk to the people…. Either trust in me or don’t.
Then Joshua says: “Okay, I’m going to lay it on the line with these folks….” and he does. Joshua wasn’t one to sugar coat anything.
14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." 16 Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! 17 It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God."
19 Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you."
If you want to grow tomatoes, you don’t plant onion seeds. You plant tomato seeds.
Same thing with society….In order to have a stable society we have to have families that are healthy and stable.
The only way to have healthy and stable families they have to be founded upon the word of God.
