Adventurous Living

Turn to Joshua 3, I want to talk to you about adventurous living, having an adventurous life. Joshua 3: Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. After three days the officers went throughout the camp giving orders to the people, "When you see the ark of the covenant..." What does the ark of the covenant represent? It represents the presence of God, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it." In other words, when you find the presence of God, follow the presence of God. Do not leave the presence of God. "Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark, do not go near it." Don’t become so familiar to the things of God that you take them lightly, don’t lose your respect for the presence of God.

My main text today is from verse 4 where it said, You have not been this way before.

The laws of the physical universe says that objects that are at rest tend to remain at rest. This is also true when it comes to the Spiritual Universe. Souls at rest tend to remain at rest. I am not talking in the term of soul rest or spirit rest, I am talking about those you see dozing in the Kingdom. I believe there is a great element in the church that has dug in their heels, grabbed ahold of the pillars of the temple, and their favorite song is, "I shall not be moved," when they should be saying, "Lead on, King, eternal God."

This lust for sameness is not that which contributes to that which is exciting, but it contributes to the dullness of life and dullness of spirit. I believe it is so contrary to the character of an adventurous God that we cannot really move on with God as long as we fail to grasp an understanding of Christian adventure. Now this has to do with our view of life, the view of what we really believe to be true about the adventure of serving God.

What is your view of the adventure of serving God? Some think it is dull, some think it is hum drum, some think it is boring.

There is an adventure that is a foolish adventure, that people will risk all for the potential of gain, but it is a foolish risk, and this is not the type of adventure I am speaking of tonight.

A true Christian adventure is the vehicle by which God expands who I am, and increases my usefulness of heaven. A Christian adventure is not simply something that is daring, it is not something that is just thrilling, it is not a high risk, high gain financial whiz of a person. It is the means by which God expands who I am, and increases my usefulness to the Kingdom of God and to heaven itself. This is the adventure I am speaking of tonight. The true Christian adventure allows me to break from my natural desires to that which does not appeal only to my flesh, but to overcome the desire to remain at rest. It stretches me, it calls me out, it uses me for a higher and wider level. It calls me to something that is bigger than me, bigger than I can think, bigger than I can dream. God is abundantly above all I can ask or dream or think.

I want to give you the example of 3 people’s experiences when they have broken their leg, the three world views of a broken leg. The first one becomes bitter and resentful. "This even is without redemption," They say. There is no explanation why this happened, so they enclose their lives determined to never do anything again that will demand a risk of them. They limit their activity, every opinion, anything that might endanger their physical being. Thus they become smaller and smaller, more bitter resentful people who are not willing to run the normal risk that it takes to operate in life.

The second person experiences a broken leg by their own device, he breaks his own leg like Clyde Beatty did in prison when he asked one of the prisoners to put his leg over another prisoner’s leg and jump up and down until it was broken so he would not have to go to work. This person is self indulgent, a pathological person who is willing to immerse themselves in self-centered pain in order to avoid the adventure of work.