STEWARDSHIP #5 CROSSING OVER
Joshua 3:1-13
Today is our celebration Sunday.
For 8 months we have been waiting for this Sunday to
complete what our early forefathers started in 1886
It’s been an interesting journey as we have invited you to
Be challenged to give sacrificially to something that is bigger than yourself.
Some of you have accepted the challenge.
Some of you have just floated along with us in the challenge.
Others of you are scared that you are in over your heads with your challenge.
But this is the critical moment of crossing over.
Once we cross over that which is anticipated become an accomplishment.
And a thing done.
A political campaign should end in an election.
A interview with a job
An engagement with a marriage.
A pregnancy with a birth.
A CROSSING OVER TIME to stop all waiting and do what were called to do.
While I was in Pittsburg for the last two weeks at General Conference..
I spent time talking with people around the world.
Especially those from Liberia, South Africa, the Congo.
They asked me about SD.
What it was like where I lived.
I told them about the vast plains and prairies.
Bad lands and the black hills.
And about the wonderful people.
I didn’t want them to get their impression about SD
From the HBO Series DEADWOOD.
What a sad commentary.
I told them of Mount Rushmore
Carved into the face of Granite is a glorious artistic depiction of four presidents.
President who did great things for our country.
That when we look at that we see more than just four faces.
We see the affection of the America people for their president.
We see the cost of leadership in the lives of these men.
We see men with vision who cared and than proceeded to dare.
Men who were willing to sacrifice ands stretch
Who acted with courage to leave our world a better place.
for our children and the future generation.
MEN WHO CROSSED OVER.
I. CROSSING OVER TURNS OUR ATTENTION TO GOD
In Joshua 3: when the people of God came out Egyptian Captivity
In the Exodus, they were to enter the Promised Land.
It is the most famous period of procrastination of human history recorded.
For 40 years they detoured in the desert.
Because they were afraid to cross over.
The giants in the land were too big.
They saw themselves as grasshoppers.
But once they made up their minds to trust God.
They could no longer evade, avoid, step over, or around the crisis.
And they entered the promised land.
What a celebration they had.
When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.” Joshua 3:3
These desert bound slaves must have been scared to death
They had never been this way before.
Never seen that much water,
then to be asked to plunge into that flooding river
Following a box that contained the ark of God’s covenant.
Vs. 4 says: “Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.”
Are you glad that we don’t have to follow a box.
We can follow a living God.
Who does not live in the Ark-- but in our hearts.
They saw God open the Red Sea three mile wide
so the Israelites could walk across 5000 abreast on dry ground.
What a celebration they had.
The world is craving to hear the good news.
And we need to find the spirit and the enthusiasm to say:
He lives, He lives, He lives in my heart,
and in the United Methodist church.
There is a time to cross over.
There is a time to stop analyzing everything that paralyzes our actions.
And cross over.
What a celebration they had.
I. CROSSING OVER TURNS OUR ATTENTION TO GOD
II. CROSSING OVER BRINGS US TOGETHER.
After months of preparation we stand on the brink of our own Jordan.
Today we are crossing over.
God’s work in this place has brought us together.
And FUMC will not be the same for years to come.
We will build for the future and we will do it together.
We will follow God’s leadership not just to guide us into the future.
But to guide us when we deal with an unfamiliar future.
Consider the Israelites:
They had fought with one another in the desert.
Argued how long to wait for Moses to come down from the mountain.
Disagree over when they should enter the promised land.
Complained about food
Whined about water.
But once they crossed over.
They moved as a body.
Defeating and destroying Jericho,
Slaying the 5 southern kings,
Crushing more then 15 northern kings.
Destroying the kings of the east and west of Jordan.
Joshua praises them.
Joshua 22:2-3Then Joshua told them, “You have done as Moses, the servant of the LORD, commanded you, and you have obeyed every order I have given you. 3You have not deserted the other tribes, even though the campaign has lasted for such a long time. You have been careful to obey the commands of the LORD your God up to the present day.
The people of Israel might have argued with one another
Disgusted and even embittered.
But: When God called they got together and moved together
And accomplish together the miracle of God’s plan for their lives.
Proverbs 11:10a The whole city CELEBRATES when the godly succeed;
Sometimes it takes just one to step out.
To be the first.
To cross over.
And others will follow.
Perhaps you have seen the movie Martin Luther.
He was an Augustinian monk in 16th Century Germany.
He became the leader of the Protestant Reformation,
which forever changed the Christian world.
He was excommunicated by his church and banned by the Holy Roman Empire.
But for the sake of the Gospel
When the moment came to cross over and nail his Thesis to the door,
God led him and the people followed
In 1886 a little girl had been turned away from a church because it was “Too crowded”. When the Pastor walked by she sobbed and said; I can’t go to Sunday School," Seeing her shabby, unkempt appearance, the pastor guessed the reason
and, taking her by the hand, took her inside and found a place for her
in the Sunday school class. The child was so happy that they found room
for her, and she went to bed that night thinking of the children who
have no place to worship Jesus.
Two years later, that little child died in one of the poor tenement
buildings. Her parents called for the kindhearted pastor who had
befriended their daughter to handle the final arrangements.
As her poor little body was being moved, a worn and crumpled red purse
was found. It seemed to have been rummaged from some trash dump.
Inside was found 57 cents and a note, scribbled in childish handwriting,
which read: "This is to help build the little church bigger so more
children can go to Sunday School."
For two years she had saved for this offering of love.
The next Sunday the pastor carried the note and the cracked,
red pocketbook to the pulpit, he told the story of her unselfish love and devotion.
He challenged his deacons to get busy and raise enough money for the
larger building. But the story does not end there...
A newspaper published the story.
It was read by a wealthy realtor who offered to sell them
a parcel of land worth thousands of dollars.
When he was told by the church that they could not afford the land.
He offered to sell it to the little church for 57 cents.
Church members made large donations.
Checks came from far and wide.
Within five years the little girl’s gift had increased to $250,000.00--a
huge sum for the turn of the century.
Her unselfish love had paid large dividends.
And brought the church together.
When you are in the city of Philadelphia,
you can look up Temple Baptist Church,
with a seating capacity of 3,300.
You can also see Temple University, where thousands of students are educated
And a Good Samaritan Hospital
and a Sunday School built for 100’s of children,
so that no child in the area would ever be left outside.
In one of the rooms of this building may be seen the picture of the
sweet face of the little girl (Hattie May Wiatt)
whose 57 cents, so sacrificially saved,
made such remarkable history.
Alongside of it is a portrait of her kind pastor,
Dr. Russel H. Conwell, author of the book, "Acres of Diamonds".
Celebration brings us together to discover what God can do with us.
Even if its only with 57 CENTS.
I. CROSSING OVER TURNS OUR ATTENTION TO GOD
II. CROSSING OVER BRINGS US TOGETHER.
III. CROSSING OVER RENEWS OUR FAITH.
CHALLENGES OUR FUTURE.
GIVE US COURAGE TO GO ON.
Look at Exodus 12:14-17 When the Lord saved the first born of Israel by putting lambs blood on the doorpost. What we call Passover:
He said: You must remember this day forever. Each year you will celebrate it as a special festival to the LORD… all the people must gather for a time of special worship. Exodus 12:14ISV
WHY it is celebrated:
17“Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for it will remind you that I brought your forces out of the land of Egypt on this very day. This festival will be a permanent regulation for you, to be kept from generation to generation. Exodus 12:17ISV
Celebration of Gods past victories in our lives rekindles our faith.
It help us to move forward.
Together we have prayed, planned, programmed, and presented.
Even eaten together at a special event.
And now we proceed to cross over for the glory of God.
The church is just like our personal lives.
There are crossing over points.
Some of you are crossing over and graduating from High School.
You will leave home for the first time.
And when you come back it will never be the same again.
Some of you will be standing at an alter this summer.
And your crossing over to marriage.
I can guarantee you that things will never be the same again.
Some of you will join the armed services,
Change careers, or move across the country
We will cross over lines that shape life permanently thereafter.
Churches also come to that moment of crossing lines.
Some chose to move forward in dependency of God
And see glorious victory.
Others come to the riverbank of their own peculiar Jordan and retreat.
And walk back into a dessert of decline,
Into the safety of predictability
Rather then the adventure of crossing over.
Maybe the story about an old American Indian who attended a church service on Sunday morning sums it up.
The preacher’s message lacked real spiritual depth.
So he did a lot of shouting and pulpit pounding
to cover up his lack of preparation.
In spite of this someone said: he “preached up quite a storm.”
After the service, someone asked the Indian who was a Christian,
what he thought of the minister’s message.
He summed up his opinion in six words, “High wind. Big thunder. No rain.”
I trust that what we are about to do is not just high wind, big thunder, and no rain.
But that what we do brings about a bountiful harvest of live and souls
For the kingdom of God. As we cross over to a new adventure.
Romans 11: 33 33O how deep are God’s riches, wisdom, and knowledge! How impossible to explain his judgments or to understand his ways!” Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his adviser? 35 Who has given him something only to have him pay it back?”For all things are from him, by him, and for him. Glory belongs to him forever! Amen.
