October 31, 2021 - 5 Walls Satan Builds - By Any Means Possible

 5th Wall - By Any Means Possible

Matthew 24:23-24

Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

 

1. Introduction

Edward Burne-Jones, a British painter from the middle of the 19th century, known for his religious art, did a painting of Lucifer leading his army out of heaven after he was defeated by God. When asked about it, Burne-Jones gave this account as his inspiration for the painting. He had heard this, and related it to a friend who had written to him. He states “Once in Avignon a priest was hearing confession from his parishioners. As the parishioners came and went, a splendid-looking youth, broad-shouldered, stout-necked, golden-haired, and fierce, very tall, came to the confessional booth. He confessed so many things that the priest’s hair stood on end. The priest asked the youth “But have you lived hundreds of years to have done so much evil?”

“I have lived thousands and thousands of years,” said the youth: “I fell from heaven at the beginning of the world. I want to get back there.” The priest, who belonged to a glorious, ample, wide-hearted religion, said it could be done. He didn’t even ask him to be sorry, being wise, and knowing the story. The priest said “say after me these words, ‘God only is great and perfect.” The beautiful young man looked beautiful no more, strode away desolate and still damned. He would not humble himself.

Now, this story is of course just a story, but to me it shows us the true heart of the enemy. We know from the Bible that in Ezekiel 28:13-19 that God cast Lucifer out of Heaven for being haughty and for trying to be higher than God himself, which we find in Isaiah 14. Even if you have trouble with that in the Old Testament, we have an account of Satan being thrown down to Earth in Revelation 12:7-17. We know that Jesus spoke of Satan, too. In Luke 10:18, Jesus states that he saw “Satan fall like lightning from heaven” and that those who believe in Him would have power over demons. Jesus also tells us in John 8:44 about Satan’s attributes, telling us that “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”Satan is the great deceiver, the great counterfeiter, and the greatest fraud in all of history. He is a murderer because he tries everything that he can to separate us from the grace of God which saves us from the death we deserve.

That all said, Satan will use anything and everything to try to get between us and God. I could go on and on about the different things that he could use, but instead of preaching for 5 hours today, I think that there are three main weapons that Satan is using today against God’s church. These are three things that I think are affecting every church in America, and even to a certain extent, the world. The first of these is apathy.

2. Apathy

Romans 12:11 says “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” Apathy, which is by definition is a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern, affects so many different parts of our society today. It’s the “who cares?” of today. Who cares if we don’t work? Who cares if we aren’t involved in the lives of our friends or neighbors? Who cares if we aren’t going to church at all, even if it’s not something on Sundays? Do you know who cares greatly? God does. God cares very greatly about how we live our lives. He wants us to not be apathetic in our lives, and especially not be apathetic in our relationship with Him.

I read an article in Christianity Today from November of 2018 about apathy in church attendance. They referenced that people would get up early for Black Friday sales, for sporting events, but not for church. But this is not about shaming people into coming to church. As they state in their article, “Jesus didn’t say “I have come that they may get out of bed early on their day off to sing songs together and listen to a sermon.” They state that guilting people into coming to church will not work either. Has it ever worked for you, at least on a continuing basis? Or do you come to church because you have made a habit of it, ensuring that you have not become apathetic in this part of your relationship with the Lord? It’s a barrier that some of us in ministry trip over, and that we let Satan use, when we equate church attendance with working within the kingdom of the Lord.

But this isn’t a sermon about church attendance. How else can Satan use apathy to attack you in your spiritual life? He will make you apathetic towards your relationship with God in a personal way. Satan loves to use sinister, personal attacks to lure you away from living a righteous life. It starts with not praying when you tell someone that you will pray for them. It continues when you realize that you haven’t touched your Bible in two days. It keeps going when you haven’t even looked at something that is slightly religious in nature in a week. And believe me, I’ve been there too! Apathy is easy to slip into. It’s comfortable. It’s familiar. And beyond that, one of the great ways that Satan lets apathy get into your life is to make you think that what you might be studying with God, or what you might discover with God is boring! How can the Lord Most High ever be boring?! I mean, look at his creation and see how fascinating it is!

Let me urge you in this. If you find yourself becoming disinterested in what God is doing in your life, take a moment to pray for God to provide you clarity, to provide you a spark in your spiritual life, and to provide you with the interesting parts of God to be revealed. If you truly do that, you will be able to fight against the apathy that is so rampant within the church today on a personal level, and encourage others to do so!

3. Over Acceptance

What I believe our second major attack from Satan comes from is an over-acceptance of sinfulness in the lives of people. This is not to say that we are to remove ourselves from society wholly. That would be what many people, including myself, have called the ‘Baptist Bubble’. Have you ever heard that phrase? It means that people are so concerned with being influenced by the world that they regress into a group of people who are only Christians, who only believe in what they believe, and are never once challenged to grow in their faith. It’s related to apathy because Satan will make that place comfortable as well. But in turn, the opposite is the over-acceptance that many of our churches, especially in America, have turned to. This is not to say that we are exclusive in our worship. At our church, we welcome anyone to come and worship within our doors. But we also recognize that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that He has a very specific set of standards which we are to live by as revealed through the Holy Spirit.

I was asked very recently a question about if a certain type of person would be welcomed into our doors here at Mount Lebanon. I had to think on my feet a little bit, but I think that I answered it well. I said, “well, yes, they are absolutely welcome to worship with us, especially since we have people who are sinners just like them.” We know that we are sinners that have fallen short of the glory of God. This is not a put down towards you or to me! It’s acknowledging that we are not perfect, and that we are accepting of people! But I followed up with this, though. After I said that we are all sinners, I stated that we worship a perfect savior that saves us from all our sins at Mount Lebanon, if we accept that we must live the life that Jesus commands us to. It’s a tough pill to swallow for many people in our country today, frankly.

But let me tell you one other way that Satan will use the over-acceptance of sinfulness in our lives against God and us. He will make us want to not listen to Christ and his commands. He will say to us “well, those rules and commands were written for a different type of person a LONG time ago, that doesn’t apply to us today, does it?” It’s a lie from the chief liar himself. When we accept that lie, we are missing out on the greatness of a savior that takes all people where they are in their lives and makes them even better when they come to Him. He accepts all people that come unto Him. He says in John 10:9 that “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” That last part of that scripture reminds us that when we are saved, we are cleansed of sin, and that our ‘pasture’ is the fulness of God through Christ. 

4. Deception

The final tool that Satan uses against us, and against the modern church, is his oldest one. It is deception. As I stated earlier, Satan is the great counterfeiter. He creates things that look like the real McCoy, but are truly fake. This falls into false doctrine, which are things like the prosperity gospel that so so many so-called pastors are pushing (which, incidentally, seems only to give the so-called pastors prosperity rather than those who are attending their meetings!). But this is only part of the deception that Satan uses against the church today. 

I read a story of a pastor who had flown into Dallas, Texas with his wife. As they were returning to their car, they were mugged at gunpoint. After that happened, the pastor never made that short walk at the airport without looking around for danger, especially at night. He was on guard against danger that might strike at him. In that same way, we have to be on guard against deception by Satan in our lives. Just like we have mentioned, though, Satan will use subtle and conniving ways to attack us with deception more often than the huge frontal assault that we expect. Paul warns the church at Corinth in his second letter to them. In 2 Corinthians 11:12-15, Paul writes “But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”

Did you catch that in the middle of that passage? It’s verse 14 if you want to mark it for later. Paul writes that Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Satan doesn’t come at us in the red suit or with a pitchfork, he comes in the disguise of an angel of light from God! He offers us a great ‘light’. His servants are not outwardly evil, but they pose as servants of God, promising freedom, while inwardly they are enslaved to Satan and want to enslave you too! Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 7:15 to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” Satan and his followers disguise themselves to look like they are innocent and wholesome, but when they are truly revealed, they will devour you.

5. Conclusion (By Any Means Possible!)
   
   

But how do we keep Satan from building walls between us and God? We’ve heard so many things not only today, but through this entire month of how Satan tries to break our fellowship with God. We know that this is not an easy thing to do, first of all, to fight against the enemy. But we have weapons that can attack the enemy when he tries to build these walls between us and God himself!  Ephesians 6:10-18 tells us of the whole armor of God, but look at the weapons that God gives us. In verse 14, we have the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. In verse 15, we have on our feet the preparation of the gospel of peace. In verse 16, God gives us the shield of faith “with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one”. In verse 17, we protect our mind with the helmet of salvation, and finally, our best and greatest weapon of all, we have the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And finally, we have the Holy Spirit, which was promised to us by Jesus himself to help guide us. When we take up the entire armor of God, we are protected from the evil one. We are protected in all of our body, save our back. For if we turn and try to run from the enemy, from Satan, our backs are not covered, and he will destroy us. We must remember that this day, and every day, that God has already given us the tools to resist Satan in every way, if we will only take them up daily. Let’s pray. 

October 24, 2021 - 5 Walls Satan Builds - The Past

 Numbers 13:30-31

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”

• Introduction

I read a quote this week from Saddleback Church’s founding pastor Rick Warren that said “We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” Sparky Anderson, a two time World Series winning manager said “People who live in the past generally are afraid to compete in the present. I’ve got my faults, but living in the past is not one of them. There’s no future in it.”  These are such good quotes and help us to frame our fourth wall that Satan builds between us and God. 

There is a song that Waylon Jennings wrote when he first made it in Nashville called “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?” In the song, he asks the question that makes up the title of the song a few times. Each time he asks it, he refers to the fact that country music hadn’t truly changed, except for the shiny suits and news cars. Or the fact that people think that once you got a recording contract that you had ‘made’ it in Nashville. He finally realizes that the way that he truly can ‘make it’ in music was to do his own thing and not live in the past. You know, we do that a lot, in our churches, in our denomination, in our own lives. We look back and see how good things have been (or at least how good we think it’s been). We think, “well, if we could just do this again” or “if we did that one more time, we’d make sure to get this many people through the door”.

Well, the past is a tricky thing. We have to realize that there’s two things about the past that are incontrovertible. The first is that there is nothing we can do to change it. We can redefine it, we can interpret it differently, but there is absolutely nothing we can do to actually change what has happened. The second thing is that there we can learn from it to do things better. Now, I know you didn’t come for a history lesson today, and I don’t want to slip into that. But I can tell you that those two things are what we are here for today. We can’t change our past, but Satan will try to use that against you. We can also learn from our past, but Satan will try to use that against us as well, making sure that we do make the same mistakes over and over. I want us to take a little time today to look at these two things. 

• There’s Nothing We Can Do to Change the Past

When I say that there is nothing we can do about our past, it is truly that. Since science has not invented a way to time travel, unless it’s in the movies, we cannot change what has already happened. We can’t truly take back a word that we’ve said in anger or disappointment that we might regret later. We can make amends for that, but it is going to be there for all time! One of the most despicable ways that Satan uses the past against us is this: he will have people come to you and point out your mistakes as proof for why the Gospel doesn’t exist or why it wouldn’t work for them. Let me give you an example: when I was talking one time with a person about faith in Christ, they pointed out that there were people who went to war in Jesus’ name and slaughtered thousands of Muslims in the Holy Land. They asked me “how can a loving God let people go and do that in the place that Jesus himself walked?!” My response was this. I said to them that even though they claimed it was in Jesus’ name, the people were still ruled by man. Because these people are men, and because they are born into a world of sin and have that sin nature, they will fall into that sinfulness over and over again. Is it awful? Absolutely. Is it wrong that they did that? Yes. But we have to remember that Jesus Christ is not the one who went and did those atrocities, and truthfully, the geopolitical means by which those Crusades happened likely would have happened if the religious aspect of it had not been present. 

You see how Satan uses the past to prevent people from coming to Christ?! Something completely unrelated to the here and now is used by people from our Christian heritage to prevent them from coming to faith. But let’s put it on a personal level. We have all failed Christ, to a person in this room. Romans 3:23 reminds us of this that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. We will all fall short, sometimes in spectacular ways. You may have a sin in your past that you have asked for forgiveness from the Lord for, and it has been forgiven. But someone will use that against you to try to prove your witness wrong. Or they will use it to try to beat you down. Or use it to try to belittle you. Remember that if you have been restored by God and by your fellow Christians for any sin, that you are a BIG person! It takes much strength and courage to admit mistakes and to ask forgiveness than to belittle others for their mistakes. 

And that is what it was like for the Israelites. They had realized that their past held nothing for them but slavery and death. They had come to the Promised Land, and they had sent the spies in. And as we just read, the people were afraid. Was it something in their past that held them back? Was it the thought of having been slaves that kept them from having full confidence in what God had said to them? In the first verses of chapter 14, we know from one of our earlier sermons that the people began to murmur against Moses and Aaron, even saying that they wanted to go back to Egypt to slavery! This is how Satan will use the past against us too; he will make the past seem like it was so great, even when it wasn’t. But we’ll see how things change when Joshua becomes their leader in a moment. 

• How We Can Learn From It 

As I said, there are two things about the past we can know, and the second is that we can truly learn from it. Y’all know that I was a history major originally. The entirety of studying history is to try to understand it and to learn from it. Even to this day, that skill has helped me to make sure that I don’t make the same mistakes in my personal life that I have in the past! But Satan will use the past against us and prevent us from learning from it. How do you think he does it? Well, here’s at least one thought. This week I went down to the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s meeting to welcome new pastors in Georgia. One of the things that we discussed was, without using these terms, how the Georgia Baptist Mission Board had to and still has to change to survive. The days of $50+ million budgets are already gone, and they anticipate that the giving to the Cooperative Program, which is where our funds that we send to the Southern Baptist Convention goes to and is shared back to Georgia 60% of what we give, is going to go way down within the next few years. In conjunction with this, back when the Mission Board was called the Georgia Baptist Convention, there was a great deal of lack of oversight, a great deal of puffery and bloat, and a great deal of disdain for churches like ours, frankly. They were not interested in churches that were trying to do work in small communities like Suches, but rather huge churches that gave huge amounts to the Convention. Well, this has changed, and it was because they realized, much like the Israelites did when Joshua took over, that if they clung desperately to the past, they were going to be destroyed. I don’t know if it will continue to work in the right way for our state, but the fact that they are wanting to come to even churches like ours to see us and work with us is a seismic change in our state convention. It is realigning with the vision that Jesus had in his Earthly ministry to GO to the people rather than for them to come to Him. Did Jesus have people come to him? Absolutely. But Jesus did not set up at one place and expect everyone to come to him, much like the Pharisees and Sadducees did.

The point of it is this: Satan will use our past glories and our past successes to keep us in one place and not moving forward. Our successes in the past are great, and we can truly hang our hats on them. They are there to provide us with a story to tell others, and to encourage us. But when we take that and make it into an idol, make it into something that we cannot move past, we are stopping that forward momentum. God provides us with knowledge of the past so that we can use it for our future! Look what Paul writes in Philippians 3:13-14. He says “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are being and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul had a great deal in his past that he could both be ashamed of and to celebrate! He could have pointed towards the fact that he would have likely been the high priest had Jesus not intervened in his life. He could have even pointed towards the fact that Christ intervened in his life as the ultimate point and not moved past it. But instead, he says that he has forgotten those things which are behind. Why? Because they are not moving him towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus! 

Look at what happens with God’s people with Joshua. In chapter 3 of Joshua, it tells us that the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of the people to the Jordan River. Even though it was at flood stage around the harvest time, the water parted when the priest’s feet touched the bank of the river. The priests stopped in the middle of the river, and all of Israel passed by on dry ground. This is important to note because look at how the people had reacted under Moses’ leadership. They had been hesitant to move. They didn’t want to go across and even pined for their past life in Egypt. But God had moved in a mighty way here! Because the people were not lacking in faith, because they were not troubled by the thought of new leadership and had stuck to their mission, and because they were unified now, they realized that God was leading them towards a great a glorious future! They knew what the past held, they understood it, and they had learned from it. And they even left a memorial to God to remind themselves of this lesson. At the end of chapter 4, verses 19-24, it says “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. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 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.”  The lesson was that even though the past is there, and we might have a reminder of it, our past can be something that we look back on to ensure that we are truly moving forward, being strong and courageous in the LORD to be able to do so. 

• Conclusion 

Our past can be a hindrance to our faith if we let it. Or we can learn from it and not let Satan use it for his devices to keep us from God. I read a story this week that reminded me of this. A man lived in a neighborhood, and one of his neighbor’s kids kicked a football that broke a small basement window. His family was hanging on by a thread financially, so the  man boarded up the window, saying that he would get to it someday. The frame was rusted shut, and he couldn’t fix it. Over the years, he would get an estimate from a window company, and every time they would recommend putting in energy-efficient windows for the whole house. One contractor let the man know that because the window’s frame was embedded into the foundation, that whoever did it would have to chisel out the window by hand. It would have been expensive, and there were six windows like that total in the basement. In the meantime, the boarded up window didn’t let light in, but it let bugs in and heating and cooling out.

That window ate at the man. Every time he went into a hardware store, it would nag at his mind. He knew he had to address it, but he had built up the process (and the price) so much in his mind that he was paralyzed. Then the man’s wife had a job change, and they had to move. He knew that the potential buyer wouldn’t have the house pass inspection for a loan unless the window was fixed. He pulled off the boards off the window to face it head on. It had been many years since he had looked at it. He thought, well, I might at least try to see what I can do with it before I get a contactor out here to tell me how much it’ll cost. He grabbed some WD-40, sprayed around the rusted frame, and gave it a tug. To the man’s astonishment, the frame moved and the window opened! For the first time in decades, the window had opened. He was able to remove the window frame, took it to the local glass store, and got a piece of glass for $12. 

12 bucks, some WD-40 and some elbow grease! That’s all it took. But the man had let that window haunt him for years, shutting out light and letting in bugs. And he finally had fixed it for someone else when the house was empty. It didn’t need to be the most efficient, it just needed to be a window!

Now, we know that this story truly isn’t about a window really. For us, our past is filled with “broken windows”. It could be something that happened to you, something you’ve dealt with all your life. It could be like my family where we had to struggle so much to get pregnant, or even waiting on the Lord for a church to call me into ministry! They can be things that hold us back if we let them. But if you let Satan use those broken windows to keep the light from shining into your life, then your past truly can hold you back. Remember this, though; don’t blame yourself for dwelling on the past if you find yourself doing that. Turn it around! Reflect upon the greatness of God in your life in the past, and look at how he has taught you. Remember that there are times where there are broken windows in your past that you can’t fix by yourself. Know that Satan will try to isolate you using that, but that you have Christian friends and professional people who can help you get past that! Find the right help to fix your broken windows. And remember that your broken windows of the past could be the story that will help someone else come to find Christ. But you have to make that first step of going to Jesus. Just start by starting. And God will remind you that you have a great future ahead of yourself. Let’s pray. 

October 17, 2021 - 5 Walls Satan Builds - Disunity

 Joshua 1:16-18

So they answered Joshua, saying, “All that you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. Only the Lord your God be with you, as He was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words, in all that you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage.”

1. Introduction

Today we are continuing in this series on the Walls That Satan Builds. I’ll let you know that next week, we will talk about how Satan uses the past to try to put a wall between you and the Lord, and we’ll finish up on Halloween day with the topic of “by all means”, which Satan will try to unleash everything in his wily ways to try to stop people from connecting with Jesus Christ. As you can tell, we’re getting into some serious topics, and I hope that you are able to use some of this to help in your Christian walk! But today we are talking about a topic that is on the lips of many different Christian leaders today. Last week, on the Georgia Baptist Discipleship group on Facebook, one of our Georgia missionaries posted a question: if you were given the choice between more people and more unity in your church next Sunday, which would you take? Perhaps the best answer to the question that someone gave was “Give me unity or give me an ulcer!” But in reality, there is no right or wrong answer to this. The hope is that there would be unity AND more people. But unity is difficult to accomplish. 

There is a story that the great African-American pastor, Ezekiel E. Smith would tell about disunity. He said that in the village of Inver Gorie, Scotland, there is the ruin of an old church building. It is said to have been built in the fifth century of the Christian era. It was one of the numerous Culdee churches that flourished in Scotland in those days, which were supposedly built by the disciples of the Apostle John, who came to Scotland as missionaries. Tradition has it that the devil was so enraged at the planting of a Christian church in the village of Inver Gorie that he flung a huge boulder from across the river Taw, which runs hard by the village, in an effort to demolish the building. But the devil was not a good marksman, for it missed its mark by about half a mile. Do you believe the story? Ask a Scotsman, and he will take you to the spot for evidence. There is the village; there is the river Taw; there is the church; there is the boulder. If you are still unconvinced, I suspect the devil also could be found there for evidence. The only link missing is the act of hurling the boulder! 

Yet some people have been found who have their doubts, and there has been much, long, and unpleasant argument about it, even right there in Iver Gorie. The bitterness has passed down from generation to generation through these fourteen hundred years, and still it goes on, we are told, for there is no way of settling the dispute. But let me whisper it to you that I verily believe he did fling that boulder - no, not the boulder that one sees lying by the roadway there in Scotland, but the larger boulder of discord, of a world full of silly disputes over nothingness. Oh, the ugliness, the bitterness, the misery, the waste of time and energy, the destruction of grace and good works caused by difference of opinion concerning things that do not matter! 

The wall of disunity that Satan builds is the one that most often comes into the lives of Christians. It is pervasive in our lives that we will not always be in harmony with one another. Because of sin and the sin nature, this is inevitable. How do we understand it and recognize it? And perhaps more importantly, how do we deal with it?

2. God Hates Disunity

The first part of this is to realize that there is disunity in our lives. There is a gravestone in Ireland that reads “Here rests in silent clay Mrs. Arabella Young/Who on the 21st of May/Began to hold her tongue.” What an epitaph, right? Apparently Mrs. Young was well known for her tongue and the way that she used it against others, it would appear! We are reminded in Proverbs 6:16-19 that the seven things that the Lord hates, that are an abomination to Him, which are a “proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.” We know that the most important aspect when one speaks about God in list form is always at the end of that list. God hates sin, and we know that this list is one of sinfulness. But what God truly hates is the one who spreads discord between those who believe! 

But what causes disunity within our churches today? There are many different theories on this, but I feel that there are five basic thoughts that pertain to this for any church. The first is a lack of communication between people. When I counsel young couples before they get married, one of the things that I impress upon them is to always keep the lines of communication open with one another. I have told them that even if you are madder than you have ever been in your life, remember that if you shut that line of communication off completely, then you have decided that the person that you love is less important to you than winning an argument. I tell them that they might even be right in their argument, but if they don’t leave that open, then it’s going to lead to trouble down the road. This is the same in our churches. In James 1:19-20, James, the brother of Christ himself, wrote “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” The way that we communicate with one another is as important to ensuring that disunity isn’t happening in our lives. It’s listening to one another, and being sure that the way that we speak to one another is done in love and in true Christ-like manner.

The second cause of disunity is a lack of direction in the church. This is somewhat of an indictment on the leadership of the church. One church’s website put it this way: “so there may be great communication processes within your church, but is anything being said? Without direction, a church is bound to be pulled a million different directions by different people within the church.” Now, I will say that it is good to be able to express your opinion and your desire to see the church do different things. That way we don’t stagnate. But we always have to make sure that what we do is in line with the mission of the church! We know that the mission is to reach out to those within the community and to connect them with God in a meaningful way. By having a clear direction in the church, it means that we have a rallying point to be united around. If we truly boil down everything that we can be united over, we can know this as our ultimate rallying point: Jesus Christ died for our sins, was raised to life, and we have victory in Him when we believe in Him. When we start at that as our point of direction, we cannot go wrong.

The third part is the lack of expectations. Have you ever been in a job where you either had very low expectations of what that job could do for you, or in reverse, there were very low expectations of you? It could have been low expectations that you would succeed at the job you were given. Or even the task given to you was truly below your experience and knowledge? What happens sometimes if you don’t have a great deal of expectation for that particular job? You might get sloppy, you might get bored, and you might mentally check out of it. Now, that might sound harsh when you think of it in the church sense, but that is truly what is happening within our country right now. Go and ask any pastor what they feel the greatest problem will be for churches coming out of Covid, and it’s inevitably going to be “how do we get people to raise their expectations of the church so that they will return?” There’s no good answers right now, and I feel that this is because we are still in the midst of all this with Covid right now. But let’s put it in another light. Think about the body itself. If a hand tried to do what the foot does, it wouldn’t do it very well, would it? When the body of Christ tries to do its own thing, disunity will inevitably be at hand. It falls apart quickly. 

A lack of inclusiveness is another great hurdle for unity in churches. We can get pretty insular, can’t we? One thing that I cannot fathom to this day, having been exposed to it well before being here as your pastor, is how churches can get to the point where there is a mindset that someone will not go to a church because so and so went there, or so and so goes there, or this type of person is in that church. I feel that our church is extremely welcoming, and is extremely aware of the fact that we don’t want to be the kind of church where people can say “well, you’re ‘that’ kind of church”. It hurts when people say such things about our church, or any church for that matter! I can tell you that I have been in churches all my life, and there have been some that have been too insular. You know my experience at Sandy Springs Baptist, where they wouldn’t allow for a Farsi-language church to be there because they didn’t want “those people” at “their church”. But there were also churches where they had certain families that wanted to run the church as their own personal chapel rather than a church. I know of one that has for years struggled to keep pastors because there is one man there, and his family is there with him, and they will have someone preach for a while there, and after about a month or two, the one man tells the preacher to not come back. In fact, that church was one that I guest spoke at, and was supposed to be there for two weeks. I was told after the first week not to come back! They were too comfortable in their way of doing things, and had decided that being inclusive towards others was too much of a step. Again in Galatians, Paul reminds us in 3:28 that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We are truly one in Christ, no matter our differences, and should be inclusive towards those who are seeking Christ.

Finally, there is a lack of focus on God that provides the greatest opportunity for Satan to sow disunity within our congregations.  This includes sinfulness in our churches, which can present itself in many different ways, such as pride, haughtiness, or even the tolerance of sin itself. When we look at things that can cause division and disunity in our churches, it all comes down to a sin issue. And they have to be dealt with appropriately, or else it will be like a poisoned arrow that has hit us. The poison arrow must be removed, and yes, it will hurt taking it out. But if we don’t take that poisoned arrow out, then we are doomed to die.

It can also be the lack of prayer. We talked a great deal a while back about prayer and how it can change things. We know from personal experience what prayer can do for us. But are we praying also for unity in our lives and in the life of our church? This was something that hit me hard this week because I will admit to you that it is something that had slipped my mind often. I know that we are a praying church because we have seen the power of prayer working in the lives of so many just during my time as pastor here at this church. But we need to add to our list weekly for the unity of our church, and specifically for the preservation of that unity.

The final part of the lack of focus with God for the church is to understand that lack of relationship with God. How is your relationship with God right now? Are you invested in it? Are you taking time daily to talk with God? When we did See You at the Pole a few weeks ago, I asked the kids there what their day would be like if they didn’t talk to their best friend for a day. The response from their faces was immediate! You could tell that they couldn’t imagine a day without talking to their best friend. It’s disconcerting to not talk to your best friend, and for many of us, we know the sting of knowing that you cannot talk to them because they have passed on to glory. But we have to maintain that relationship with the Lord like we do with someone who is our best friend. Jesus is that, plus our Lord, our intercessor, and our High Priest. And when we all unite in that kind of relationship with the Lord, we see so many of our disputes wane away because we are being more Christ-like in our lives.

3. Some Solutions for Disunity 

You might be thinking to yourself at this point, though, that this is all good and fair that we can recognize the dangers of disunity and how to spot it, but what are we to do to actually solve it? Well, I’m glad you’re thinking that now, even if I just said it. We have no better place to look than at the early church to find out how to solve disunity within the church. So many of the early churches had some major disputes, be it over how to distribute aid to those in need, or even to the rise of false teachings. But there are five basic things that the early church did to solve those problems. 

First, they prayed about it. We know that prayer is one of the things lacking that causes problems, so it seems obvious that the solution to disunity would be to increase our praying, right? Acts 1:14 tells us that “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” The early church was constantly in prayer with one another to seek God’s will, but also to be in unity with one another. Paul reminded the Romans in 12:12 to “rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer”. James reminded his reader to call for the elders of the church to pray over those that were sick, and in turn to have all those who are gathered to pray for those who are sick. 

The early church also studied the scriptures. This is in line with making sure that they were on mission together still. How often do we not consult the scriptures to help us along the journey and along in our mission in life? 2 Timothy 3:16 reminds us that “all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”. In reading for this week, I came across an interesting article that pointed towards the fact that the early church often had public readings of the scriptures. This was somewhat a leftover of Jewish worship, but it was beneficial for the early church to do this because it gave them the opportunity to tell others about how Christ fulfilled the Law! This is still profitable for us to do today, too, because it truly does show us how we can be in one accord with each other.

The early church also solved disunity by evaluating everything based upon the mission of Christ. This sounds familiar, doesn’t it? When we spoke last week about Satan trying to build a wall between us and God through the change of leadership, one of the ways to overcome that wall was to make sure that the leadership still was doing the mission of God. This is true for us when we look at unity as well! The early church certainly was aware of the true words of Christ, where he told them to go and make disciples. But think about when Pentecost happened in the early church. They had been promised the Holy Spirit, and it had come upon them in a way that could have sown discord amongst themselves. How would you have reacted to something happening where you could suddenly speak in a different language that you had never once known? But look at the end of Peter’s sermon in 2:40. It says “and with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.” The mission of the church was at stake that day, and because they stayed focused on that mission, three thousand people were saved!

Besides evaluating everything based on the mission, the early church also had clear lines of communication open with one another. Look at Acts 15:2: it says “therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders, about this question.” The question being asked at that point was to see if the men who were coming into Christian faith would have to be circumcised per the custom of Moses or not. This ended up being a major dispute within the early church. They would go and discuss it with those in Jerusalem, and even though they did not agree with one another until the council had decided what to do, we should note that this did not keep these believers from worshipping together, nor did it cause true disunity with one another. In 15:3, it states that “so, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles; and they caused great joy to all the brethren.” They had joy, true joy in Christ, because people had been saved along the way back to Jerusalem! Because they were able to keep their lines of communication open with one another, they were able to stay on mission, and they were able to see the mission continue through. 

Finally, the early church trusted one another enough that when they made a decision, they moved on with that mission. Concerning the circumcision of those who were coming to faith, the Jerusalem council decided that they would not require the Gentiles to do this act since it was not part of their custom, nor part of the reason to believe in Christ and his redemption in their lives. They wrote a letter to people to ensure that they knew this, but also to put off the old life that they had once lived, including to not offer anything to idols, from sexual immorality. But here is what the amazing thing was: we see in the end of chapter 15 that they went to Antioch and gathered the multitude together to read the letter. It says in verses 32 and 33 that those that were sent to them “exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words. And after they had stayed there for a time, they were sent back with greetings from the brethren to the apostles.” It is clear that the people were in unity with one another, and it provides us a basic plan for how we are to react as a church towards disunity! 

Now that we know what we have to do as a church to avoid disunity, how in the world are we supposed to do this on our own and in our own lives?! We have to realize that Satan will absolutely use your emotions, thoughts, and feelings towards others to stir up disunity within your life. As one pastor put it, “Satan stirred  up dissention in the first couple, hence the fall of the human race!” We also have to know that when we strive against disunity that we are doing what Jesus himself wanted for us in our lives. In John 17:20-21, Jesus said “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” Jesus was speaking to his Heavenly Father here, and his fervent prayer was that we would be united as one in Him in our faith and in the resurrection. 

Remember one other verse, which is Titus 3:10. Paul tells Titus in Titus 3:10 to “Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.” In other words, Paul reminds us that if we have to reject a person for sowing discord and disunity twice, we should have nothing to do with them after that, unless they acknowledge their sinfulness and ask forgiveness for it. 

Look at what it says from our focus verses today. We remember from last week that Joshua had been selected by Moses and then ordained by God to lead the chosen people into the Promised Land. We remember that Joshua had reminded the people that they had to be with him all the way to the end of the job of taking the land that God had promised them. In these verses, the people answered Joshua telling him that they would do as he commanded, and do as they were told to go. They reminded themselves that they followed Moses to the letter (which we see in verse 17), and acknowledged the fact that their mission had not changed with the leadership change. But look at verse 18: they take the charge of unity to the extreme! “Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words, in all that you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage.” We see it once again: be strong and courageous, this time not coming from Moses, not coming from God, but coming from the people that Joshua is commanding. They have realized that if they have disunity within their ranks that they will likely fail in their mission!

 

4. Conclusion

When we look at disunity in the way that the Israelites did, we see the seriousness in which we must take it. While I’m not advocating that we go and kill someone if they don’t agree with me (brings a whole new thought to “what would the Bible have us do”, doesn’t it?!), I would say that we must do what Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20. He reminds us that “I have been crucified with Christ; it is not longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” The disunity of our lives, in our church, comes from a place that is from the old self, not from the new in Christ. And we must be known for being united. Does this mean that we’ll agree with everything that is said to one another in this congregation? Absolutely not! Nor would anyone expect it to be that way. But we have a choice today. We know that God hates division, hates disunity, and hates it when people spread it amongst the believers. He hates it when people stir up disunity because it is contrary to His nature and His plan for the Church. It goes against the mission that we have to stick to. We have to ask ourselves today, are we uniting under the mission that God has given to us, or are we going to allow Satan to build that wall of disunity, diving not only ourselves, but dividing us against God? Let’s pray. 

October 10, 2021 - 5 Walls Satan Builds - Change in Leadership

 Joshua 1:1-6

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying: “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall [a]divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

1. Introduction 

Mark Twain once said that “the only person who likes change is a wet baby.” Change is often a hard thing, and especially a change in leadership. We have been extremely blessed in this church that we have not truly had a massive amount of change in leadership other than me and Doak! But even with those changes, there often is a time where it seems that there are either stresses or discomfort. Think about this: when you were growing up, you had growing pains. Even as you get older, you get other pains! Maybe we need to call those shrinking pains, right? In any case, when change happens, it is a time where we have an opportunity to see the Lord in action. But we must be aware, too, that this is one of those times where Satan will try to attack us and build a wall between us and the Lord. He’ll try to remind us that “well, wasn’t it better when we did it this way under this person?” or “well, those ideas might have been good where that person came from, but it won’t work here!” I saw this this week on a website that said that “the Bible is a book about changes, those handled well resulted in great gains, and those handled poorly resulted in great losses.” This same website reminded us that the only thing that does not change is God, though. God is constant, but is still dynamic! The essence of God is that he is steadfast, and is wanting to pull us closer to Him at all times. He provides us the way to overcome this wall that Satan builds when we have changes in leadership. Let’s look at how the change from Moses to Joshua affected God’s people.

2. Change of Leaders

Moses had led his people out of Egypt, had led them through the Red Sea, and had come to the end of his life. We see two important things at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, which is the previous book. In the 31st chapter of that book, he tells the people that he is 120 years old, and had been told by God that he would not cross the Jordan to lead his people into the promised land. Moses summons Joshua to him in front of all of God’s people and says ““Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” He then inaugurates Joshua in the Tabernacle, showing to the people that Joshua is the leader. We then see in chapter 34 that Moses goes to Mount Nebo, which was across from Jericho, and God showed him the promised land. But in verse 9 of that chapter, it states “Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; so the children of Israel heeded him, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.”

Now, this is interesting to me because the change of leadership from Moses to Joshua had been conducted through mankind. Moses, of course, had been chosen by God to lead his people. But to this point in the story, God’s choice of leader had not been shown. I’m certain that Moses had talked with God about who would lead his people. But it is not until the first chapter and first verse of the book of Joshua that we see this: God’s word says “it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying ‘Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them - the children of Israel.” This is the announcement to Joshua that yes, God approves of him as being the leader to succeed Moses!

Now, there’s a few things to unpack here. First, there is an acknowledgement that Moses was God’s servant. He had served God with greatness, even though he would commit sin that would prevent him from leading his people into the promised land. This statement of Moses being the servant of the Lord was a simple acknowledgement of faithfulness for the past, and also for the direction for the present and future to begin in earnest. But we have to see that the people of God didn’t just move on quickly. There was true mourning for their leader. The people mourned his death for 30 days, which was the custom of the time. But you can imagine that during that time there was great emotions happening. The questions of “what are we to do without our leader?” and “can this Joshua guy do more than just battle? Can he do the diplomatic things and the spiritual things as well?” But we have to remember in this instance that God had already approved of Joshua. I will say that it’s good to recognize the past, to appreciate it, and to celebrate the great things that the leaders of the past have done for us. When a new person stands into a leadership position, it truly is that they are standing on the foundation that has been laid already for them in that position. But it is not good to continue pining for a past that is already gone.

Let me tell you a story about a church that pined for their previous pastor. This church was centrally located within a large city, and was primed well for a breakout. Their pastor served their church well, but unfortunately, he had died of a massive heart attack. He was well remembered, well honored even. But that drastic grief that this church encountered with this man dying after leading the congregation so well left its mark. The pastor that came after him was a dynamic pastor, and did a great job of encouraging his congregation to get out and to truly take part in the mission of the church, which was to bring people into the church and to grow in Christ. However, there was a small group of people who held onto the past, and held onto it hard. They never were able to get past their grief of losing that past minister. They undermined the new pastor, and undermined the new members. They undermined even the next minister, and the next, and the next until it became the new culture of that church. It still hasn’t been fully broken in that church, although that church is still working to this day, and still has hope to be fixed by the Lord.

A change in leadership is always hard. Change does not come easily for all people, and since we are truly part of the body of Christ, we have our own opinions as to how we are to operate. But we must remember that change is part of life, and is part of God’s plan. While some things had changed for the people of God, the mission itself had not, nor has the mission of the church today! God has not changed, and the goal has not changed. 

God says to his people “Now then, you (meaning Joshua) and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them - the children of Israel”. Like I said: the mission has stayed the same for Joshua and God’s people. God had promised them the land, and He was not going to let them down! And because of that, the people couldn’t live in the past anymore. If they didn’t embrace the future with this new leadership, then they were doomed to failure.

There is always a sense, even in changes, that there are some constants that we can rely on. Truthfully, there are if you believe. The constant is always God. God never changes, His word never changes, His commands and Laws never change. God is the constant that you can rely on in all changes in your life! 

There is evidence of this right in this passage. The leadership had changed, but the promises did not. In verse 3, God says that he will give them the land wherever their feet land, “as I said to Moses”. The goals stay the same even though there was a change in leadership. God says that all the land will be theirs. And finally, God shows that even though the leadership has changed, HIS power and strength will still be there for the people to accomplish the mission. It says so in verse 5 where is reads “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave or forsake you.” This sounds familiar, does it not? Remember that Jesus says to us in Matthew 28:20 “surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Here is the great secret when things change in leadership: it may be the end of one leader’s responsibilities for that position, but it is never the end of the mission itself. 

III. Change of Style

So, we are now at the point where the people of God had gotten over their initial shock of losing Moses, but here we have Joshua in the place of leadership. A potential place where Satan can attack and build that wall between God and his people is when this occurs, too. Things have gotten to a point where they might start to feel somewhat normal, even if things have changed. But then little things begin to happen. There might be a change in how things are done in the church, in how things are presented, in what events happen. It might even be that the person in charge is a good bit different than the one who preceded him or her. There can be changes in our churches without losing out on the overall change not to be successful. Change has to be approached correctly for continuity to occur.

Look at what God does with Joshua. He tells him to be strong and courageous twice! The first is to be strong and courageous as he conquers and divides the land between the tribes of Israel. The second time, it is a reminder to stay strong to the Word of God. It is further repeated another two times during this chapter alone, and how many times in the Bible does God remind his people to be strong and courageous? Our character in our witness counts for so much, as does our leadership in our Christian lives. Joshua had different gifts from God, different from Moses, but yet their character and their commitment to God was the same. Joshua had proven himself to God, and in turn God showed his commitment to him.

But what else was there to do to make sure that the style of leadership would be successful? God tells Joshua to take the Word of God as the defining guideline of his leadership. For us, when we ignore the word of God, our lives become harder. It’s almost like we have no guideposts or signs to help us along in our lives. It reminds me of the early days of World War 2. When the Nazis invaded France, the French people took down signs and guides that would assist the Nazis. As the Nazis moved further into France, they didn’t know which way to turn or which direction their objectives were. As one writer stated, “does it seem to you that the signposts of life have all been taken down? They were not taken down by us to confuse the enemy; they were taken down by the enemy to confuse us. We don’t know which way to turn until we open the Scriptures. The only reliable signposts are there.” When we get away from our scriptures, we allow Satan to throw a wall up in the way of new leadership and for us to not listen to the new style that will be there. But we have hope.

God promises Joshua, and in turn us if we listen and read and commit the scriptures to our very souls, that we will have success. When we realize that it is not I, nor anyone else who might fill this pulpit, is the ultimate authority in this church, nor even in this community, but rather that it is God and God alone, we will see that success. God alone is the final authority for mankind! And know this, too, this is not just for preachers to be good leaders. The truth is this: all of us are leaders, and God uses us as his instrument for his message. 

IV. Change of Commitment 

We are comfortable when we have stable leadership. And frankly, when that happens, it is very difficult when things change. Satan uses that to his own advantage because we want things to be familiar and to be the same. There is the old adage, “You can never go home”. Why is that said? Because in reality, home is never the same. Even if we’re truthful, even when we are living at home our homes never stay the same. Change is hard! But if it is done with the Lord, then it can become easy.

We see in verses 10 and 11 that it was the time for action for the Israelites and Joshua. God had commissioned Joshua, told him what to do, and now was the time to do it. But there was an important part of this that cannot be understated. Joshua instructs the PEOPLE to prepare for forward momentum again. It was time again to move God’s plan into action! G.K. Chesterton, who was an English writer at the turn of the 1900s said this: “we do not want, as the newspapers say, a church that will move with the world. We want a church that will move the world.” Joshua could not do all the work himself. There was no way for that to happen. Can you imagine if you heard of someone trying to conquer a land by himself? It never has happened, and never will! Joshua enabled the people to get involved with the mission itself.

One of the great signs of a good leader is to do just that: to enable people to do their jobs, and to do it well. So many of the books on leadership is instruction on how to do that. All good leadership is always a shared experience. Even our Lord did this! Look at how many times he enabled the disciples to go and do work. Look how he sent people out to share the message. But it takes a shared commitment to do this. It takes a commitment to God, to the promises of God, and those who are not afraid to move forward with what God has laid at our feet to go and do. 

Joshua tells the officers of the camp to go to the people and gives them the instructions on how to proceed. One of the other great hallmarks of leadership is to enable and empower others to do work. This doesn’t mean that the leader is off the hook for leadership. In fact, we know that this is one of the greatest walls that Satan builds in churches today when the pastor decides to be the CEO rather than the servant to his congregation! No, the work continues, but it is shared and is empowering to do so even for the pastor! It is a trust that the leader does this, and demonstrated in Joshua’s time and even still today that he was part of them, not just the head of them to be followed without question or without concern on his part. Something that we can learn from this, both from Moses and from Joshua, and will empower us in this church, is that when we share servanthood with others, it promotes servanthood. It is something that each and every one of us can do, and will be the pathway to seeing people right here in the Valley come to Jesus Christ! 

There is one final part of this commitment that can be attacked by Satan. Have you ever been part of a team where roles were assigned to everyone? Might have been a science fair project, or even something in your work. Now, we know that everyone should see their part completed, but if it’s a project, it is understood that you will be available to help with its completion. Now, with that said, have you ever had someone get done with their part but just dropped out when all the rest of the people were still working on that project? It becomes a lot harder, doesn’t it? Sometimes, we are called into doing God’s work in our lives, and we do it, but we get to a point where we don’t want to do it anymore. We just drop out, and let others take up the slack. We let others who have more training do it. We leave all the work on just a few people. It’s hard, I understand. It’s hard to balance life out and leave enough room to still get done with everything that you want to get done with as well. But there is a need for everyone to still be available.

In the last few verses of this chapter, Joshua realized that as the promised land was taken, people would want to settle into their lands. But this would leave Joshua at a disadvantage going forward! Joshua understood that he was going to need everyone to be there until the very end of the fight. Joshua instructs the people to stay and fight until the very end, then everyone could truly benefit. The goal of the promised land was not just to get a piece of the pie and slack off, it was to to help each other achieve the promises that God had given to his people. And in turn, in our day today, doing God’s work is not just about personal satisfaction, or even personal prosperity, it is about doing the work together to achieve God’s purposes! They had to change their commitment to ensure that the purposes of God in their lives were fulfilled. 

V. Conclusion 

The success of Israel to experience all God had promises was contingent more on their working together than it was on just a certain person to lead them. There are a few last things that we learn from God’s word from this passage that if we are not careful, Satan will use to create discord and disunity. The people had to be united in their purpose to God. They had to support the new leader that God had raised up for them. They had to trust the promises that God had given them. And they had to have faith in the mission that God had given to them. It was only through this faith that they would realize that change would not hurt them.

We know that Satan does great harm when leadership changes if we let him. While personnel can change, we must remember that the character of leadership must not. It must be focused on what God wants for that ministry to do. Even though there might be a change in style from leader to leader, it must not be to the detriment of knowing and committing God’s Word to our lives. And finally, there has to be a commitment of all the people to God’s purposes. We can know from Joshua’s story that the personnel may have changed, the mission had not. What was the result of following through on that mission? The Israelites conquered the promised land! God will truly move things forward even in the midst of change because He himself never changes, and it is on Him that we have our ultimate hope, not the individual.

God truly is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can truly be at peace when everything around changes because of that. Do you know that God always moves in our changes to move us towards him, never away? And to move us forward in our lives, never backwards? We can remember good things from our past, and we can improve upon it. But God is giving us an opportunity to continue to work with Him to fulfill His promises right now. In every change, we can be sure that God is planning for our good. And in that way, we can embrace change and welcome it. Let’s pray.