Title: God’s Amazing Works!
Text: Joshua 3
Introduction: We have never been this way before
‒ One thing that we know is certain is that things change. (20 Year Reunion)
‒ Look at yourself in the mirror.
‒ Listen to the music on the radio.
‒ Watch a little TV.
‒ Listen to your children talk – And your parents.
‒ Our church is in the process right now of change. None of us know quite what to expect. Today from this lesson we are going to learn that no matter how much we don’t know about the future, we know the one in charge of the future–God!!
**In our text today we are gonna read about an event that happened to Israel that was at the beginning of a real change in times.
**Moses is dead, Joshua has been commissioned to lead Israel. After sending two spies into the land that reported how afraid the people were of Israel, and how they could take the land, the Israelites camped poised to take it just as God had promised them.
READ JOSHUA 3.
**3 THINGS TO TALK ABOUT TODAY. FOCUS, PURPOSE AND DELIVERANCE
1. The Lord was their FOCUS (Joshua 3:5 NIV) “Joshua told the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.’”
A. The very presence of the Ark of God represented God’s presence to the people!
1. They were to follow that ark wherever it went because God was there!
2. In this one chapter alone the phrase, “the Lord” is mentioned 7 times!
B. We need to be focused on the Lord as our target and aim!
1. Many of you guys cannot wait until deer season to begin. You want to shoot Bambi!
1. You get dressed in camo.
2. You get the tree stand.
3. You wait and prepare in every way to the point of clicking antlers together. All for what? To kill Bambi!!
2. Our focus and aim needs to be on the bull’s eye.
1. Noone wants to shoot and miss the target.
2. Yet so many times we aim for the wrong things in the Lord’s church.
1. It is not the church, the people, the preacher, the shepherds, IT’S THE LORD!!
3. How many of us work our lives in order to focus on the Lord.
1. We need to dress like our focus is on the Lord.
2. We need to work like our focus is on the Lord.
3. We need to walk like our focus is on the Lord.
4. We need to worship like our focus is on the Lord.
3. The Lord was their PURPOSE (Joshua 3:7 NIV) And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.
A. This whole event happened so that the Lord could be their purpose!
1. Never has there ever been an event in the Bible that did not have the glorification of God at the very center of its purpose!
1. David and Goliath (David said, “The Lord will deliver me....”)
2. Daniel and the Lions Den (Daniel answered, "O king, live forever! My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions....”)
3. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednigo (Daniel 3:28 NIV) “Then Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.”
B. Our purposes better be seated in the Lord our God!
1. Our purpose need never be to please us. Joshua did not fight so that people could glorify him.
2. Our purpose need never to be big by the world’s standards.
3. Our purpose needs to be focused on pleasing God and Him only.
4. The Lord was their DELIVERER (Joshua 3:13 NIV) “And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD--the Lord of all the earth--set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap."
A. Why do you think the Ark of the Covenant was to go first? One reason only–Because God was represented by it.
1. They would never ask the question, “Well, how in the world did that happen?”
2. After the event took place, they built an alter to the Lord. Why?
1. (Joshua 4:19-24 NIV) “On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. {20} And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. {21} He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ’What do these stones mean?’ {22} tell them, ’Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ {23} For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. {24} He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God."
5. Why look at such a familiar passage our first Sunday together?
A. Because I am convinced that when we focus on God, when He becomes our purpose, He will do amazing things in us!
1. We must be like Moses after the children of Israel sinned against God.
1. God told Moses that the children of Israel could go into the land of Canaan, but that He would not be with them.
1. Moses told God (Exodus 33:15-16 NCV) “...If you yourself don’t go with us, then don’t send us away from this place. {16} If you don’t go with us, no one will know that you are pleased with me and with your people. These people and I will be no different from any other people on earth."
2. MOSES INSISTED THAT GOD BE A PART OF THEIR JOURNEY. GOD HONORED HIM FOR THAT.
1. WE CANNOT TAKE ONE STEP WITHOUT HIM!!
B. I commission all of us to “Make ourselves holy, for tomorrow God will do a great work” in us!!
1. Today if you are not a Christian, there is no better time for you to make yourself holy.
2. Jesus is the only way to holiness. You cannot make it without Him!
3. When God looks at me He sees holiness. Not because of my goodness, but because of the goodness placed on me when I was baptized into Jesus. He clothed me and I received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
4. If you are a Christian and have fallen away from the Lord, I can’t think of a better time to renew your focus on God and godly things!
Conclusion: I wonder what you are going to get yourself ready for this ride. I know that God has a plan for you, but you have to be willing to accept it.
