January 4, 2008
Let’s Google
Joshua 3
If I were to ask you to pick a number, any number, what number would you choose? (Pause) How many picked a number between 1 and 100? How about 100 and 1,000? Or maybe you picked an even higher number. Anyone pick a number over one million? If you didn’t, why not?
In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded a company with a very strange name, Google. Google is now the most preferred Internet search engine in the world. There are over 2 billion searches a day on the Google search engine. One study recently showed that Google processes 20 petabytes of information per day. That’s 10 million times 100 million. Suffice it to say, no search engine comes close.
So, how did they get so big? I mean in just 10 years, they are far and away the largest search engine.
Those who started with Google, say it began with their initial vision. You see, the word Google comes from another word, googol. Googol is a mathematical term for the number 10 followed by 100 zeroes. While most people are likely to pick a number like 14 or 88, Brin and Page decided to pick googol — 1 with 100 zeroes. Now, to get an idea of what that looks like, this is the number googol.
Jim Reese, the chief operations engineer of Google, said: “It takes a lot of confidence and courage to go ahead and be huge. It’s rare to find people who think on such a grand scale and are able to create a great product at the same time.” (From “Preaching Today - Citation: FreshMinistry.org (11-5-02))
To be able to think and dream on such a grand scale. Isn’t that exciting. Isn’t it great to be with people who are excited about what they see in the future?
Now, let me ask you this – how big are you willing to dream? What are you willing to believe God can do in our church? Do you believe God can increase the size of this church by 10 people, or 20, or 30 people by the end of 2009? Or maybe more? What do you believe God can do right here at FBC!
Do you believe 10 people will receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior? Are you willing to believe you can make a difference in this church and in our community? Do you believe the miraculous can happen in our church? Do you believe amazing new ministries can be started and thrive, even ones that are not so
conventional?
Are you willing to believe we can do all of this and more, right here at First Baptist Church in Alexandria, Indiana?
I believe we are on the brink of greatness. In fact, I don’t just believe it, I know it. I know that’s exactly what God has in store for us. More than anything I need you to begin to believe, to trust, and to expect that this will be true for our church.
I believe God desires that we trust Him. We trust Him in a manner which is so outrageous, so passion-filled, so extravagant that the only way we could accomplish His plan would be to place 100% trust in God to work in our midst.
I believe this is what happened in Joshua 3. I could spend the next month unpacking all that happened in this passage, but that isn’t what I want to focus on today. There were a number of significant events which took place in the life of Israel and I believe there are many parallels for us to look at.
The Israelites had traveled through the desert for 40 years, their great leader Moses was never able to enter the promised land and he is now dead. There’s a new leader who was going to lead the people into this great land. His name was Joshua; and he was anxious, how was he going to lead these stiff-necked and stubborn people into the land flowing with milk and honey?
They’re standing at the edge of the Jordan River, finally ready to enter their new land. But can they do it? Were they ready for their new home, Israel? None of the original people who left Egypt are alive, except for Caleb, the fierce warrior, and Joshua, their leader.
There had been discouragement and disappointments along the way – but now it was time to look forward. There was no time to look back and recount the many times they were on the brink of entering the land, but refused. The people had been afraid to take the risk, yet now was the time to move forward. It was time for something new.
Sometimes we’re afraid that if we take a risk, we will fail. We’re afraid of all the “what ifs . . .” So many times in our lives, we have allowed the “what ifs” to hold us back and we end up dying a slow and painful death. Robert Quinn says the very change we want to make, which we don’t make will lead us to a slow death. Ultimately, the very thing we did not want to happen, happens. Because we’re afraid to risk, we’re afraid to make that DEEP CHANGE.
If we accept risk, doing it in an effort to build God’s Kingdom, not ours, we will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER fail. Only when we give up and don’t try, that’s failing.
The economy, the job outlook, the housing market, all look bleak. It would be easy to just quit, to give up and wait until everything rebounds. Then we can come up from under the rocks we’re hiding under. If we take a good hard look around us, risks abound. Did you see the new add for Hyundai? They promise that if within the first year of owning your car, and you lose your income, you can just return it. That’s the uncertainty we live with. There is a lot of risk in this world, in our country, as well as right here in Madison county.
Yet, my understanding of this church is that we don’t back down from risk. We built this building 16 years ago, and the Family Life Center over 3 years ago, that was risk. You hired me, that was risk. You hired Pastor Doug, that was risk. Many of you have expressed a desire to have this church grow . . . that is risk. Risk is all around us. And unless we grab hold of it and do something about it, we will not fulfill the mission God has for this church.
I am here because I believe in you and I believe in God’s call for this church to be a lighthouse, a beacon to all people, starting with Alexandria and Madison County. I want the doors of this church to be open wider than ever with more ministry happening than ever before, and keeping track of it is making our heads spin. I am here to help us move the church to the point where it is considered THE church of Alexandria. For this to happen, we all must work together, we have to be on the same team.
I want you to become so passionate about Jesus Christ . . . because He has called you to something that is bigger than yourself. I want you to be so committed to the call of Christ, that your world changes because of your relationship and experience of who Jesus Christ is in your life.
I want to be a church filled with people who have a . . .
GREAT PASSION who are filled with a
GREAT COMPASSION because of the
GREAT COMMANDMENT and the
GREAT COMMISSION, all because you believe in the
GREAT SHEPHERD, Jesus the Christ!!
Some of you have had set backs and disappointments along your journey, this church has had set backs, BUT let me tell you something – THAT WAS IN THE PAST. TODAY WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD, WE ARE LOOKING AT A FUTURE THAT WILL BE GLORIOUS ---- AND I BELIEVE IT IS TIME FOR US TO ENTER GOD’S PROMISED LAND!
You see, Moses got to the edge of the river, but never crossed over. Have you ever gotten to the edge and wanted to step forward, but you never did? You didn’t have the nerve to cross over. You couldn’t stand the risk or the change . . .well, today we are looking at the promised land. And I’m calling on each of us to make a decision.
The people prepared to cross the Jordan. They could see the prize. Now the Jordan River is not a wide river. At its widest point it’s 40 feet wide and not very deep.
So Joshua tells the priests to prepare themselves to cross the river. Grab hold of the ark and prepare yourselves. Because the next day the next day, they’re going to witness something great from God.
The priests pick up the posts which hold the ark, the most sacred possession of the Jews, the 10 commandments are inside the ark. They come to the edge of the river . . . but there’s just one problem. I left that one out.
You see verse 15 tells us, Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest.
Oops. It’s springtime – and the normally narrow Jordan river has flooded its banks. God is asking the Israelites to cross the Jordan River during flood season. Does God have a sense of humor, or what?
Joshua lines up the priests who are going to carry the ark to the edge of the water. Normally they would argue over who is first, not today. Nobody in their right mind would want to go first. When I think of flood waters, I think of amazing rescues from the weather channel’s “Storm Stories.” Flood waters move at a fast pace. Nobody wants to go into the water first. They must carry the most sacred possession into the raging flood waters before God will act.
Have you ever been at the edge of the promised land? You see it, you know it’s there, but you’re afraid. What will happen if I step into the water? Will I make it? Will the waves swallow me up? What do you do? If you do nothing, you die that slow death.
Folks, we have a choice to make, will we step into the river, into the wild raging waters, into the waters of uncertainty and risk? Water which in our minds could lead to failure, but remember, failure is not taking the risk. Failure in my eyes is doing nothing. Failure is not trusting the promises of God.
If we walk into the water we will never be failures. We will be successes. Now is the time for us to take the risk of stepping in faith into the deep waters, but the waters of trust and faith so we can make a difference and lead people to Jesus Christ.
We must trust that God has a plan for us, that together we will walk into the water and God will part those waters and lead us to the promised land. We will go together, we will protect one another, we will trust one another, we will carry one another, we will encourage one another . . . and we will make a difference.
Back to the river . . . what happens? Well,
· They couldn’t build a bridge, there were no materials
· They couldn’t swim across, they didn’t know how
· they couldn’t transport everyone over in boats, there were no boats
· there was only one way around their problem and that was through the water – they needed a miracle
Aren’t you glad we have a God that goes before us and makes a way for us?
When God calls us, we must listen and follow Him. The priests were to walk into the water ahead of everyone else. The water was deep and wide, the current was moving quickly past them. They were carrying the 10 commandments.
Nothing would happen until they stepped off the riverbank of life. It was a step of faith. They went out on a limb and they finally received what they were praying for. God did amazing things that day.Their miracle wouldn’t happen until the “priests” began to lead in faith! Isn’t that the way with us? We must step out in faith in order for God to move!
Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:20— “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us”
As I read the Bible I find something else amazing happens. Listen to the rest of the story . . .
15 . . .Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
You see, nothing happened to the water where the priests stepped in. The water stopped flowing upstream. In other words, the priests were in the water while the water was backing up.
The people stood on the banks of the river, watching this dangerous activity, without seeing anything happening for the first little while. Can you picture it? Joshua had said the river would stop, and we believe it, but so far… um, nothing’s happening…
Why is this important? Because we always expect the miraculous to be instantaneous. And sometimes it is! Yet, more often than not, it happens the same way it happened for those priests and Israelites. We have to wait. We have to stand in the water, fighting the current, believing in the promise, and then we see the miracle.
Maybe God does it to test our faith,
maybe He does it to prove His faithfulness and His presence prior to the miracle, maybe He does it to teach us how to be strong in the current,
maybe He does it just because He works on a different agenda than we do.
But here is the key to the promise: He always comes through. The Israelites would have seen a gradual miracle – the water level would have dropped slowly but steadily, and I can imagine them saying to one another, “I think it’s getting lower… maybe… yup there… or maybe that was like that before…” until it became completely obvious. That is often how I see God heal – it takes a bit of time, but He does it. That is often how I see God set people free – it takes a bit of time, an intentional process, some hard work on our part, but God does it. That’s even how God saves people – it takes a bit of time, but God reveals Himself and draws people to salvation.
Here is the challenge for us today – will we take the risks to cross the river? I have a strong sense that we are at a critical decision point, individually for many of you here today, and also corporately. Individually, I know many of you need to make a decision to stand for Jesus – to partner with God in becoming free from the past – to step off the edge of the river bank into the flood waters. There are places in your life that God is begging you to give up to Him. There are places where God wants you to risk trusting Him. Today I proclaim to you God’s promise – He will set you free. He will first cross over ahead of you to show you the way, and He will also walk moment to moment by your side.
I want to challenge you to make that leap. And it strikes me that a big, big part of the Israelites crossing the river was that it was a public thing. The surrounding nations witnessed this – they knew the Israelites were coming. The people of Jericho had spies keeping a close watch on things. I believe this crossing was the same – God used it to make His power known to all the people in the land. And so I want to challenge you to make that leap publicly. We are a community, this place is full of people who want nothing more than to be obedient to God, it’s safe for you to share your willingness to make a decision here right now. Let us encourage you! And support you and pray for you!
So, what is the Holy Spirit calling you to right now?
When I think about the future I am not just thinking about 2009. I am thinking about 2012 and beyond. What will life be like then? What will our church look like then? I am hoping that by 2012 we will have an average attendance of over 400 people. That is a 25% increase in attendance. Yet, I believe it could easily surpass that number.
Can you imagine needing to have two or even three worship services? Hire more full-time staff, to have our church constantly busy? We do ministry because people are empowered to do ministry. People are excited about coming to worship and excited about going into the community to make a difference.
It means our church is making a difference. It means more people know Jesus Christ because of who we are. We must continually look at ourselves, look at our church and strive to become the prevailing great church God expects us to be.
To do that will mean we take risks, it means we try some things that have never been done before in this church. But let me reassure you of one thing, all that I want to do is for one purpose and one purpose only. . . that is to bring glory and honor to the Kingdom of God. . . to Jesus the Christ.
God has offered us all we need today. But are we complacent? Do we even believe the promises of God? Have we become so jaded and cynical that His power is no longer allowed, nor effective.
Has God called you to something great? To reach for your dreams? He has called you to fly!! I want you to fly, I want us to fly. Soar like an eagle!
Friends I am asking you to make a decision. Do you want to make a difference in this community? Do you want to be excited about Jesus Christ? I am gong to ask you to make a decision this week, next week and every week. We need to make a decision to take this community by storm.
Our starting point and ending point must always be Jesus. It is not about us, it is about Jesus. It is not about me, it is not about any group of people. It is about Jesus and Jesus alone.
