Crossing Over Part 2

This week, we discussed the last step in God’s process before we are ready to begin seizing the promises of the “Promised Land.” After crossing over the Jordan river and before Jericho, God gives Joshua a very strange instruction. In Joshua 5:2 He tells Joshua to have all of the men circumcised. Ouch! 

 

Does God realize that the odds are already stacked against them since they are not a trained army? Then they will be expected to go to battle after being circumcised?!? But, as He always does, God has a reason for His instruction.  You see, the Israelites had been in the wilderness for 40 years. Very few of them had been circumcised – and it was time to get things in order before the action begins. But why was circumcision so important to God?

 In Genesis 15:18, God made a covenant with Abraham that promised him descendants as well as this land of Canaan. Then, after Abraham had tried to get God’s promise HIS own way (Hagar / Ishmael), God spoke to him again in Genesis 17 about doing it the right way. He then said that all of Abraham’s household must be circumcised. Ouch again!

 There are a few reasons for this. One is that blood is always tied to covenant--Abraham with an animal sacrifice and circumcision, Moses the same (as well as animal sacrifices in the tabernacle), and even Jesus who, as our perfect high priest, not only made a sacrifice for us but BECAME the sacrifice for us. His blood seals the New Covenant.  So blood seals covenant. But why did God want blood from that particular place? Well, He also says that circumcision is a mark or a sign. But why put that mark in a place that no one else is going to see (except for the one person in a covenant relationship with you, your spouse)? The sign is for you – not others.

 But this still does not answer why this mark needed to be on the reproductive organ. It was a sign and reminder to man that we are in partnership with God. We create and produce together – not apart and not with other gods. Just as when a married couple joins together, and (if the woman has not been with any other man) there is a blood exchange. That exchange seals the covenant relationship, and it says that this womb and this seed are one. No one else will sow into this womb, and this seed will not be sown in any other womb.

God wants us to be in that kind of relationship with Him. Before we go and seize all of the promises, we need to be reminded that we are in partnership. We create together. God is going to give us some seemingly strange methods to obtaining victory. We must trust Him and stay in partnership with Him if we are to experience success. 

Now, for us, physical circumcision is not the sign or mark. Now, it is a circumcision of the heart. God said in Deuteronomy 30:6 that the time was coming when He would move the location of the circumcision to the heart of man. Then in Romans 2:29, Paul states that we are not children of God not by an outward mark, but a circumcision of the heart.

Our heart is the core of our being. It is where the things we create begin. We must remember that our heart is circumcised for God and that we should only allow His seed into it. If there is seed that is in conflict with His Word in there, it needs to be washed away in the blood of Jesus. If the wrong things have been sown in our hearts, we need to stop watering them and pray for “crop failure.” Make the commitment to be much more careful about what gets sown in your heart , and you will see that you begin to create a much better life in partnership with Him.

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Crossing Over Part 1

This week, we started a new series called “Crossing Over.” It picked up where we left off in the previous series. We are now crossing over from the wilderness into the Promised Land in our spiritual journey. In this first part, we did a general overview of some of the concepts related to Promised Land living.  Just as there were lessons to learn in the wilderness to prepare us for successful Promised Land living, there will be more to learn and enemies to defeat in order to thrive in Canaan (the Promised Land).

 One of the most profound differences in this phase is that we transition from operating from a defensive posture to an offensive one. In the wilderness, we relied on God to help defend us against enemies. But in Canaan we rely upon Him to lead us to victory in seizing territory from its current occupants.  Another drastic difference is that instead of everything being provided for us, we are now expected to follow His direction in supporting ourselves. The moment the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, the daily manna stopped. They were transitioning from being nomadic herders to being farmers who sow and reap and trust God to protect their crops.  In the wilderness, they lived in law with limited resources, and in the promised land we have unlimited potential by grace.

 The crossing over the Jordan river in Joshua 3 was also a test of whether they learned one of those important wilderness lessons – to have faith in God. The river was at flood stage, and God instructed Joshua to have the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant to the river and, AS they stepped in the river, it would back up in a heap and they would cross on dry land.  God’s people passed the test and crossed over. Joshua then had each tribe take a large stone from the dry river bottom and bring it to the west side and place them there as a memorial – or reminder of what God had done. He knew that in days would come, it would be easy to forget what God had done in the face of a new challenge. They would need this reminder.

This is an important picture for us.  Jordan means “destroyer,” and it begins at a place called Adam (where our sin began) and ends in the Dead Sea (all sin leads to death).  Sin backed all the way up to Adam when they crossed and kept it from getting to the Dead Sea (sin no longer leads to death).  Jesus was also supposedly baptized very near this place.  The priests walked on dry ground (no sin still there) when they crossed.  The power of sin was dead and gone.

 

 It was also important to remember for them, as well as us, that the Ark, or Jesus, always goes before us. When we follow Him, He will ALWAYS lead us to victory!

 

As we ended we went over some attributes of Promised Land dwellers:

1)      Spirit of God is on your life

2)      Prepare for and go to battle (we know we win if we don’t give up)

3)      Actively sow and reap (in all areas of our lives, not just financial)

4)      With blessing, it’s easy to become selfish and fall into the me, me, me trap

5)      Exercise perseverance and self-control, even when they’ve been defeated

6)      Things could turn to thorns and thistles because it turns into work (another trap to watch out for)

7)      Loves the thrill of the fight because we know we’ll win

  To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Is This It? Part 6

We continued again this week in the “Is This It?” series regarding our growth in the wilderness phase of our Christian walk. This week we discussed the importance of transitioning from slave mentality to servant-ruler mentality.

 

In Exodus 25, God begins instructing the people to build a tabernacle for Him to dwell with them. However, after a few chapters of “you shalls” and “you shall nots” He makes this assignment an “If you want to.” There is a reason for this. Remember that the Israelites had been slaves for 10 generations. They knew nothing but being slaves. Everything you did was because you had to. Now they find themselves free in the wilderness with no “have tos.” He needed them to change their “want tos” to the right things. He wanted them to WANT to build His house.

 

Keep in mind that all of the things He asked for them to contribute came from what they took from the Egyptians on their way out. And the wealth of Egypt came from what Joseph, a slave with a ruler mentality, had wisely acquired.   

 

God wants us to want to serve Him and give to Him. In Genesis 4, God looks with favor on the offering of Abel because it was the best he had to offer and it took faith to give the best he had. It took trust in God that giving the best of his flock was not going to diminish the quality of his flock moving forward. Cain gave of what he had gained, but not his best.  God did not reject Cain's offering. He simply did not look at with the same favor that He did Abel’s. Abel’s offering moved God. The Hebrew word for the phrase to look at with favor is sh’ah. In ancient Hebrew it paints a picture of God looking at the offering, consuming it and sighing. It moved Him.

 

God wants a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). He doesn’t want forced, compulsory giving. He wants us to give him our best because we want to – our best resources, our time, energy, finances, etc…

 

Finally, we serve. Colossians 3:23-24 tells us that we should work as unto the Lord in all things. Stop working FOR your boss and stop working hard if you don’t think you are being appreciated. Work for God. He WILL see and you will be rewarded.

 

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Is This It? Part 5

We again continued in our “Is This It?” series. What we looked at this week was the next important lesson that must be learned in the wilderness to equip us for Promised Land living. We have to learn to live within God’s boundaries.   I know you thought we were one of those “living by grace” churches (and we are), but grace does not eliminate the Law. It merely ensures that we are no longer justified before God by our ability to keep all the rules.

In Exodus 20, about 90 days after leaving Egypt, God begins giving Moses the Law for His people to live by. This starts with the 10 Commandments. The first three directly relate to our relationship with God. The fourth is about keeping the Sabbath (entering His rest), and the remaining six instruct us on our relationship with others.   

We can line this pattern up with Jesus’ response in Matthew 22:36-40 when He is asked which is the greatest commandment in the Law. He says that the most important thing is to love God with all your heart (commandments 1-3) and follows up by  saying the second command is like the first – to love others (commands 5-10).  You see, in the Old Testament, without the cross, man needed a list (a long one at that) of rules to tell him how to love God and love others. Now, we have the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. All we need to do now is to love God and love others.

 But there is a reason God brings the rules and boundaries to His people then and wants us to live in them (the two Jesus mentioned) still today. He does this to differentiate us from the world – to set us apart. If you live by loving God and loving others, you will stand out in this world quickly. In John 13:35, Jesus says that the world will know we are His disciples not by our squeaky-clean image and living by all the rules, but by our lifestyle of loving God and loving others.  1 Peter 2:9 says that we are supposed to be a peculiar people. That doesn’t mean we’re supposed to be weird and fruity. It means we live by love. Look around the world today. Living by love is quite a peculiar thing indeed.

 In all of this there is also a trap that the enemy likes to set. He likes us to, in our desire to do what is right and see others do so as well, get us to create our own rules. Jesus fulfilled ALL of the Mosaic Law, but had no regard for the man-made rules. When the religious leaders confronted Him about His disciples not properly washing their hands, He pointed out that it is the inside that needs to be cleaned. The hand washing rules were man’s rules.  I am not talking about the rules of the land or rules of the road when I say man-made rules. I mean things like how long your hair can be, how long a skirt must be, who can come into your church, etc… These are rules we’ve come up with to try and “help” people be more “holy.” They are oppressive and miss the point. Love God! We don’t need a list to tell us how to do it. Love others without a list of rules. Let the Holy Spirit lead you, and others, to truth.

 

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Is This It? Part 4

 

This week, we continued the series, “Is This It?”. In this part we discussed another of the wilderness traps we need to learn to avoid. This trap has to do with having the correct priorities for our lives.

 

Most of us would easily name the top priority (our relationship with God), but we get into a trap when the enemy convinces us  to include things in that top priority that do not belong. He also likes to trap us into miscategorizing other priorities – or simply getting them completely out of order.

 

Matthew 6:33 tells us to “seek first His kingdom.” When we have the priority right, we can then expect “all these things” to also flow in our lives. Notice that it also does not say seek ONLY His kingdom. There are dreams and desires in your heart that are okay to pursue and work toward, but do not let them become what you seek FIRST. The reality is that those true heart’s desires you have are likely to have been placed there by God anyway. When you seek Him first, He’ll come along side you and help you achieve those things.

 

So, the first priority is our relationship with God. What is the second? It is family and life obligations. After that comes ministry and purpose/dreams. One of the traps I alluded to earlier was that sometimes we confuse and combine relationship with God and ministry. They are not the same thing.

 

We cannot adopt an attitude that if we get immersed in doing God’s work that He’ll just take care of all our responsibilities – like our families. God has equipped you to do both! Moses learns this lesson in Exodus 18.

 

In Exodus 18:2-3 we read that Moses sends his wife and two children to go stay with her father, Jethro. This is presumably because he is so busy with attending to the needs of the people that he has no time to care for his family.

 

A few verses later we read that Jethro brings them back. He is essentially saying, “No way. This is YOUR responsibility, not mine. I already raised her. Now she’s yours.” But what is Moses supposed to do? He has millions of people looking to him for direction and for him to speak for God.

 

Jethro takes a look at how Moses is doing things. He asks Moses why he is doing everything alone while all these other people are just standing around all day. He goes on to give Moses a lesson in leadership and delegation. Jethro recognizes that if Moses continues to act as he is, he will fail his mission and his family.

 

Moses takes Jethro’s advice and organizes, delegates, and sets up structure and a chain of command. Then Jethro goes home – without Moses’ wife and kids. Mission accomplished.

 

Now, there is an interesting thing to understand about Jethro. He is not an Israelite. In fact, he is a Midianite high priest. He sacrifices to idols. Why would Moses receive any guidance from a wicked idol worshipper? Why? Because he was right!

 

God can use all kinds of sources to bring truth to our lives. Certainly the Bible is our first source, but not our only one. There are a lot of people and books out there who have a lot of knowledge that can help us. As long as that knowledge is not in conflict with the Word in any way, it is good. Understand also that Moses did not ask for or receive any spiritual counsel from Jethro. That would be an area in which Jethro’s knowledge would not be true wisdom. Moses demonstrated a humble, teachable spirit.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that when we either become first born again or when we hit new, exciting levels in our Christian walk, there is a zeal that drives us to the bigger things that God has for us. You should never  allow the enemy to use that zeal against you – to get you to neglect what you’ve already been given to do.

 

Luke 9:61-62 illustrates this. Many have ready this passage and believed that Jesus was telling this man that, to follow Christ you must be willing to leave your family without even saying goodbye. Jesus was actually saying quite the opposite. You see, when Jesus uses the example of a plow and a field, he does so intentionally. These are images and symbols in the Word for your family – the field you have sown into and continue to work.

 

What Jesus is actually saying is that you are not worthy to come follow Him if you would walk away from the field you’ve been given the responsibility to take care of. You already have a field to plow – your family. Don’t walk away from them in your zeal. Jesus is telling the man that he does not have the freedom to just walk away and join Jesus’ ministry. Maybe you don’t have a family to care for, but maybe you do have responsibilities that it is not okay to walk away from just because you are excited about what God has for you in the future. Be faithful with what you have now, and God will add other things when it is time and you are ready.

 

 

 

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Is This It? Part 3

We continued this week in our series, “Is This It?” where we have been discussing the wilderness lessons that must be learned in order to be prepared for life in the Promised Land.

 

Before we got into this week’s lesson we pointed out a couple traps that are common for us to fall into while in the wilderness. The first is grumbling and bitterness. Three days into the process, the Israelites began grumbling and complaining. The word used in Exodus 15:24 to describe their grumbling was the Hebrew word, luwn. It means to grumble and complain, but it also means to dwell and abide.

 

We all speak out of frustration sometimes. But do not fall into the trap of becoming one who dwells and abides in grumbling and complaining. The solution that God gave was to have Moses throw a piece of wood (representing the cross) into the bitter water at Marah (meaning bitter) to make it sweet so that the people could drink and stop complaining.

 

We can see the bitter water as other people – even in the church. What we must do is apply the cross, or grace, to others so that we learn to see them as God sees them. If we become grumblers and complainers about the problems in others in the church, it will drive us out instead of in. Sometimes we need to remember that if everything around us stinks, we need to remember the common denominator – us! Maybe we need to change our outlook.

 

The next trap was the relapse. When we left Egypt (became born again) we left the life of sin. However, that doesn’t mean we no longer sin. Out nature changed, but our flesh still needs work. After we become followers of Christ and leave the sin life we will still sin – sometimes big time. Are you then just a hopeless sinner?

 

The answer to that question comes from the fact that you even ask it. You see, the way you know you ARE different is that you now feel this thing called guilt. Before you were saved, there was no guilt when you sinned. Guilt can be good. It is designed to give us that bad feeling that we would like to not experience again – thereby driving us further from the sin in the future.

 

Guilt can malfunction. When it does, it drives us away from God. We step away from His grace and feel unworthy. This will cause us to either live a lowly, condemned Christian life or simply give up and go back to sin. Instead we need to use it to inspire us to overcome.

 

Now, the lesson… This one is related to the manna that God provided to the Israelites in the wilderness. There were certain rules associated with the handling and consumption of the manna. One is that , except for the Sabbath, it could not be kept overnight. It could not be stored up. There was fresh manna every day. We need fresh Word every day.

 

You see, the Word is our bread. Jesus is the Word become flesh (John 1:14). He tells us that He is the bread of life. In Matthew 4:4, when tempted in the WILDERNESS, he quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 in saying that we do not live by physical bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. You need Word every day! Just Sunday or every other Sunday or… well, you know, is not enough. You don’t have to be a Bible scholar. Just a couple minutes in the Word every day will bring tremendous spiritual nourishment to you.

 

The second part of this lesson is that you need a shepherd. You see the word manna, in Hebrew, means “what is this?”. You need the shepherd to tell you what it is. You need a teacher. Of course Jesus is THE shepherd. By the Holy Spirit He will reveal all truth about the Word. We realize that just knowing WHAT the Bible says is not enough and can lead to a lot of misunderstanding. We need teachers to help us learn and divine the Word rightly.

 

This does not mean every teacher, even the really good ones, are always right. You still must have the Holy Spirit help you sort it all out. But the church pastor has a job given by God to do the best he or she can to teach the truth of AND about the Word. The pastors are not the actual shepherds. They just work for him. This is another reason to get and stay connected to a good church.

 

 To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Is This It? Part 2

This week, we continued our series, “Is This It?”. Now that we have left Egypt behind, we need to get to learning our wilderness lessons so that we will be ready to enter the Promised Land.  As we’ve previously discussed, how long we live in the wilderness is entirely up to us. The vast majority of Christians never go beyond the wilderness – even if they think they did.

We looked first at attributes of wilderness dwellers:

1)      Blames God for all their problems

2)      Lacks resource to help others (not just finance, but love, health, joy, etc)

3)      Live crisis to crisis

4)      Continually switches focus

5)      Judgment toward others

6)      May understand purpose but lacks resource and focus to realize it

We know that the Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness. Is that how long it is going to take us? Actually the Israelites had an opportunity to cross over into the promised land after a few days less than 1 year and 3 months – or roughly 445 days. Unfortunately they were not ready and spent the next 38 plus years getting ready (by having the “unbelieving” generation pass).

There are six lessons or areas of growth that we must develop in during our wilderness time. This is not about making God happy so He’ll let us into the Promised Land. If we do not learn these lessons we will not succeed in the Promised Land.  The first generation of Israelites who could not go in because of their unbelief had the same God and the same power available to them to overcome the giants in the Promised Land that Joshua’s generation did – they just simply did not believe.

 The first lesson we must learn is the importance of the Word. This is illustrated in the Israelite’s story by the need for water (for the Word is a spring of living water). The first instance is in Exodus 15. Three days of travel and searching and they have not found any water. When they finally do, the water is bitter and undrinkable. The people grumble and complain, but God provides.  He instructs Moses to throw a piece of wood (symbolic of the cross) into the bitter water (the world and our old ways). The water becomes sweet and drinkable. Ironically we see that they find 12 springs of water in a place called Elim just a short time later. This was only about seven miles from where they nearly gave up and chose to either die of thirst or go back to Egypt. Did God know water was only seven miles away? Of course He did. But He meets the people where they are. They have been slaves for ten generations and know nothing of trusting God. So, He provides (we’ll see that He begins to expect more of them as they go).

 

The next time was in Horeb (which is also the place where God spoke to Moses in the burning bush). This time God tells Moses to strike a rock and water flowed from the rock. The rock is a picture of Jesus – THE rock. The water that flowed is a picture of the church. You see, water is good and there are a lot of places you can get water. But this truly vital water flows from the church. 

In Genesis 2:21, we see that Adam’s bride was taken from his side. Jesus is the second Adam and when He was on the cross and His side was pierced, the blood and water flowed that was the birth of His bride, the church.  Water flows from Him to His bride – us. But we need to be connected to His church to get this vital water. Again, there are a lot of great places to get good Word. You can watch a teacher on TV, read a book, read your Bible at home, etc… I see those things as “long distance relationship.” You can have a long distance relationship that is good and beneficial. Many military families will have a spouse away for months at a time and still manage a good relationship.   However, it is impossible for that couple to “produce fruit” (if you know what I mean) unless they are together. Unless you come to His house it is hard to produce the kind of fruit He wants to produce in you.

 You see, YOU are not His bride. The CHURCH is His bride. Unless you get connected to the church you will not be able to produce His fruit. I know you can argue with me that people do a lot of great things for God outside of church. But, until you get connected and produce fruit right from the source, you won’t know how much GREATER that fruit could have been.  The church is not the SOURCE of the living water. It is, however, the distributor of the water. It is where it is flowing from. Get connected to it!

 

 

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media.  To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.