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Joshua 3:7-17, "Sharpening Your Ax", Rev. Dr. Michael Fitzgerald · Clifford Baptist

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  Speaker A: Welcome to the Aug. 2 sermon from Clifford Baptist Church, 635 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Today's sermon is the beginning of revival, and our guest speaker is Pastor Emeritus Dr. Michael Fitzgerald.
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  Speaker B: It is good to see you here on this Sunday morning. And what a privilege for me to be invited by Pastor Jeffrey to come in this first service of revival. I am so thankful for that. It's always a joy and a privilege to come to the pulpit of Clifford Baptist church. After spending 40 years here. This is still home and always will be so thankful for it. Over the last four years, I have been helping some other churches in revitalization and as interim pastor as well. But this is always home. Wherever we go, wherever Gwen and I might be, we are missionaries out of Clifford Baptist Church. This is our church, and we love you so much. It is amazing to me those 40 years went by so quickly with now four grandchildren, the oldest being nine years old. I can't believe it, but Gwen and I next month are coming up on 44 years of marriage. Can't believe how quickly that went by. But I say that to say this, as marriage goes on, the way you communicate changes. Gwen does not speak as loudly as she used to. In fact, most of the time when she speaks to me, her head is in the refrigerator or a closet. So much of the communication in our home is, huh? But I read a story this week, and I'll have to say it rang a bell with me. A couple sitting at home one night, and the wife says, you know what I would love? I would love an ice cream sundae. And he said, well, I'll be glad to run out and get you an ice cream sundae if that'll make you happy. I'd be glad to do that. She said, well, write it down. Write down what I want. She said, I want a hot fudge sundae with peanuts on it. He said, I got it. I got it. She said, now you better write it down. He said, no, I got it. I remember. So he goes out about a half hour later, comes back, and he hands her a ham sandwich. She said, I told you to write it down. I wanted cheese on that. That's kind of where we are. As I sat down to prepare and pray about this particular service, and standing in this pulpit in this minute, I asked God to give me his word for God's people that would be a springboard message into the entirety of revival in this week that is to come. And so I thought about it, prayed about it, and something came to mind. That I remember from many years ago. I was meeting with a couple who had been married many, many years back in the 80s. Gwen and I were newlyweds then, but back in the 80s, this couple had been married for many years. And I'll never forget that husband saying, you know, when we got married, we didn't have nothing. And today we still have most of it. But that memory comes back to say something to you. If you believe this week that you will get nothing from this revival on Wednesday night, you will walk away with most of it. You need to come with an expectant heart with eyes open, ears open, heart open, ready to hear what God Almighty has to say to you, singularly alone. What is God saying to you in what you are to be doing for him? The 19th century preacher Charles Finney said revival is nothing more than, than a renewal of the people of God's obedience to him. How is God calling you and me to obey him? Perhaps in new ways. In these days of revival, if we come together, we know that our prayer should be this Sunday morning, that God Almighty will prepare our heart for a call to a new ministry, to a new obedience, to a new way of, of following Him. And you and I need to be ready for that call. We need to be prepared to hear what God has to say to us. You know, a saying has been attributed to Abraham Lincoln. Whether he truly said this or not has not been proven. But whoever said it once upon a time said, if I had four hours to cut down a tree, the first two hours I would spend sharpening my axe. In other words, you have to be prepared to do the job that God has called you to do. I pray this sermon will be God's tool that will sharpen our hearts to hear what God wants to say to us today and in the next four services to come in this week of revival. So I pray that God wants to speak to us and that we will want to hear what he says to us. This is preparatory to his speaking to us and, and as we hear him today and through the next four services. My scripture for this sermon comes from the book of Joshua in the Old Testament, chapter three. I'd like for you to find that in your Bible. Open it up there, lay it on your lap. Let it rest for a moment. As I begin. Let me set the stage for this sermon. If you remember, God called Moses to a huge ministry late in his life. At 80 years old, Moses had been a shepherd of the sheep out in the wilderness with a very quiet existence. He really was doing nothing. More than keeping his father in law's sheep out in the wilderness there and making sure that they had a safe passage home, a pretty easy lifestyle, very little commitment there, being a shepherd to the sheep. In fact, at 80 years old, he probably was prepared to buy a lazy boy, take a nap, draw Social Security. He was done. And yet, at 80 years old, God gave him a new call. God gave him a new way to be obedient to him. In that. At the burning bush, Moses meets God. And God says, moses, I have a job for you to do, an act of obedience for you. I want you to go to Egypt. I want you to bring my people Israel out of their years of captivity and slavery there. And I want you to lead them through the wilderness and to the promised land, a land that I have promised them. You are my chosen vessel to lead them there. Even at 80 years old, God gave him a new act of obedience. I want to say this to you today. If you're climbing the ladder of age as I am now, if God calls on you, never entertain the. The thought that you're too old to make a new move for God. And God may give you an act of obedience in this revival to come. And no matter your age, no matter your stage of life, you must follow him. Amen. That is our call from our mighty God. So over the next 40 years, Moses leads God's people to the very edge of the promised land. But before they enter the land, Moses passes. And the baton of leadership then goes to his right hand young man whose name was Joshua. And Joshua was to lead God's people. His first job was to get God's people over the Jordan river and into the land of Canaan, where God had promised them would be their homeland. In Joshua, chapter one, God says this to Joshua. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon that have I given unto you. And so God is giving the promise to Joshua and to the people of Israel that when they cross over the Jordan river and enter into Canaan land, that wherever their soles of their feet trod is a gift of God. He has already given it to them. It was his homeland given to his people. So with God's promise of total victory, Joshua takes the people into the promised land. But they have to fight for their homeland. But God had promised, in every battle that you face, if you will go into that battle in faith, I promise you, you will be victorious and you will Claim the land, it will be yours. That is based on God's very integrity that they would not fail. As they kept their eyes on him, God said, I've already given you home. But listen, here's where Israel had to sharpen their axe. They had to totally trust God's promise of victory. They would face battles, they would face hardship, they would face obstacles. But they had to keep their eyes on a holy God. That said, I have already given you home. You face the battles with faith, because I'm going to take you home and it will belong to you. So let's go to Joshua. Chapter 3. The first act of getting to home was to cross the Jordan River. So they're at the threshold of the Jordan river, still in the wilderness, crossing over outside of Jericho, in Canaan land. Let's see how they get across the river. That's their first step into the promised land. So they're taking their last step in the wilderness. They to the first step in Canaan. Listen. Listen to these words. Joshua, chapter three. Go to verse seven. The word of God. And the Lord said unto Joshua, this day I will begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. And thou shalt command the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant, saying, when you come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan. And Joshua said to the children of Israel, come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites and the Jebusites. Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the Earth passeth over before you into Jordan. And now Therefore, take you 12 men out of the tribes of Israel, one out of every tribe a man. And it shall come to pass as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of Jordan. That the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above. And they shall stand upon an heap. And it came to pass when the people removed from their tents to pass over Jordan, that the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people and as they bare that Ark were come unto Jordan. And the feet of the priests that bare the Ark were dipped in the brim of the water. For Jordan overfloweth all its banks all the time of harvest. That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city of Adam, that is beside Zaretan. And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even salt sea failed and were cut off. And the people passed over right against Jericho. And the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan. And all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. May God add His blessing to the reading of this portion of his precious, holy, eternal, inerrant word. J. Vernon McGee says that this is one of the greatest miracles in the Bible because it is based on the faith of the people to follow in obedience what God has told them to do. In this day. I want you to remember that Israel had a mighty symbol of God's presence. The Ark of the Covenant. A gold covered wooden chest, holy before God. So holy because it contained three items that brought their remembrance back to God. It contained the stone tables of the Ten Commandments that God etched with his very finger and gave to Moses. It contained a jar of manna by which God fed the Israelites as they journeyed through the wilderness for 40 years. And it contained Aaron's rod of priestly authority leading the Israelites under the very word of God Almighty. This Ark of the Covenant was absolutely precious to Israel. They could not lose was the symbol that God was with them. The Ark was so holy humans could not touch, had gold rings on the side of it through which were inserted horizontal poles. And the priests would carry the ark with those poles and never touching the Ark itself. It was so holy, so precious, so mighty as the presence of God exemplified before them. So according to scripture, then here's the plan of God to get Israel across the Jordan river into their promised homeland. The priests of Israel were to carry that Ark of the Covenant to the very edge of the Jordan River. And they were to wade into the water. And when all of their feet were standing in the water, God said, I make you a promise. When all of you are all in, when all the feet of the priests are in the water, when you have made that step of faith, I will then stop the waters about 20 miles upstream at the City of Adam. And I will make sure that you cross on dry ground. But I want you to understand that the Bible says the waters would not cease, would not stand up in a heap upstream until the Priests walked in in faith that God would indeed fulfill what he said he would do. Now, I want you to remember that the priests bearing the ark had to make a decision of faith that all of them would walk into that water. Now, according to scripture, it's springtime and the Jordan river floods in flood stage. Throughout the springtime, most of the time they the Jordan river ran. It was 100ft wide. During flood season, it was between 200 and 300ft wide. And no one could navigate the raging waters of the Jordan because of the flood stage. And so that's what the priests had to walk into. They had to walk into rushing, mighty, raging water with the precious ark of God. They could not lose it. And they had to trust God that as all of them walk in, that all of them get their feet wet in this raging water. God would then uphold his promise of victory, that he would stop the waters in a heap upstream. So in sheer faith, they walk in. I don't want you to miss this central point. They had to march in before the miracle. Everybody with me. They had to march in before the miracle of God's keeping the waters back would happen. This was their all in moment. Not one of the priests could say, hey, wait a minute, let me call a committee meeting. Let's pray about this. Let's think this over, let's count up the odds and then we'll take a vote. There was no time to do that. Immediately they had to make the decision to charge into the water with that ark, believing God's promise that he would hold the water back. That was the key to Israel's victory in getting across the Jordan. The key to Clifford Baptist Church's victory of revival, as God wants to give it to us this week, is that we need to march in before the miracle. We have to be expectant, we have to be ready, we have to be primed. We have to be prayed and praised up so that God can pour his word into our hearts and into our lives individually. This is our all in moment as we follow what God would call each of us to do. How does God bring revival to people? How does God speak to God's people? Well, first of all, I want to say he speaks to us individually. He speaks to the need of your heart and my heart. He speaks to our need of obedience. He speaks to our need of stepping forward as a missionary and minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's when we come in faith to hear him, when our ears are open to him, when our hearts are receptive to where he wants to lead us. We have to be prayed up and ready to hear what God has to say to us. Brothers and sisters, I want to say this to you. The job of, of the revival preachers, this one standing here today and the next four who are going to be among us this week to come. Our job is not to talk you into God calling you, but rather the preacher's commission is to give God's word to you and allow God through that word to speak to you. We're not supposed to twist your arm, we're not going to sing 37 verses of an invitation hymn to get you, beg you, to the altar. But rather we're going to preach God's word and speak God's word and allow him then to implant God's Word in your heart and in your mind and call you to obedience. However he wants you to walk for him. So you come primed and prepared and ready for God to speak to us, expectant. So let me give you three steps of how you need to sharpen your axe so that revival can come to your life, to your heart, that the message of God can come to you this week. Three ways to march into the water expecting a miracle in your own life of God's Word being spoken to you. Here's the first step of sharpening your axe. First one is very, very simple. You need to attend the services. You need to make time to attend these services. You're not going to hear God's word from long distance here. You need to be in this place. It is crucial that you are here in your place to hear what God wants to say to you through the men of God who will be standing behind this pulpit. You respect the preacher of the Word by being here. You respect him, but you also expect him to give you the Word that God will use in your heart, in your life to call you to the next step of ministry in the Lord's work. Being here, attending here this week is step number one of sharpening your axe. I can tell you this, ladies and gentlemen, you will never hear the Word of God at 7:00 clock at Wheel of Fortune on TV. You need to be here to hear the Word of God. The second step of sharpening your axe to be available to the Lord is to pray that you will respond to His Word. Listen before you get here. Be in prayer before you come. Lord, I am expectant to hear your Word in this service. Before me now you know too many believers think I'll go to revival to see if God moves me. I'll go to revival to see if there's some way he wants to grab me with his word. Friends, I can tell you this. He has a word for you. He has a word to speak to you. It is a given that if you avail yourself to the word of God, it will speak to you. You don't have to wait for him to grab you the first moment. He's gonna have you in the palm of his hand, wanting you to hear his word. The better approach is to pray that you have ears to hear and a heart to respond before you ever get here, that you're prayed up and praised up and ready to hear what he wants to say. You know, when you come through that door today and through these evenings to come, I don't have to say, come and find your seat, because you already know where your seat is. Creatures of habit know. When I was pastor here, I knew who was missing. Cause I always knew where your seat was. And most of you are still in them. So when you come in to have your seat, when you take your place in this sanctuary, you have already prayed a prayer. Like Isaiah prayed. Lord, here am I. Send me. Speak to me, use me. Direct me. Help me. Be obedient to the call of your word in my life that I might reach out with the love of Jesus Christ. However you direct me to do that, here am I, Lord. Send me. You've said that before you ever got to your seat with an expectant heart. Here's the third step of sharpening your acts for revival. When God speaks to you and you know that His Word is coming to your heart, to your life, immediately act on that word coming to you. Be obedient to him. And in that very moment when God speaks to you, take action that very moment. Don't take time out and say, let me mull this over. Let me think this through. Let me see if I can find an alternate route. But rather, when God speaks to you, a word of obedience that you need to respond to, the time to do that in response is that moment. Find me a place in the Bible where God is in the Old Testament, or Jesus Christ in the New Testament said, I've got something I want you to do. I have an act of discipleship for you. You go home and mull this over, Think about it, come back, get in touch with me. But rather, when God calls, when Jesus calls us, the call is immediate. Couple of examples. In Genesis, chapter three, God comes to Abram, and God says to this man, I want you to leave your homeland. I want you to Leave everything that's familiar to you. I want you to leave behind your family. And I want you to take your particular family, beginning with your wife, Sarai. And I want you to follow me out of your homeland to a land where I'm going to lead you. I'm not telling you where it is, but I am telling you I'm going to take you to a new land. And if you will follow me in faith, not only will I bless your family, but I will bless your family so much that your family will be a blessing to every family on earth. How did that happen? Jesus came through the family lineage of Abraham. Abraham immediately followed God. He didn't know exactly where he was going, but he knew he had to follow God in obedience. When Jesus called some fishermen to follow him as disciples, these fishermen immediately followed. It didn't say that they went home and created a spreadsheet to see how it financially affect their lifestyle, but rather it says that immediately they dropped their nets and they followed Jesus. And then we also see the Spirit speak to Peter in Acts chapter 2. The Holy Spirit had fallen upon the believers, and the Spirit's guidance was for Peter to preach that first sermon on Pentecost in Acts, chapter two. Now, Peter could have said, you know, Lord, I've never preached a real sermon before. Let me order a course, Let me study a little bit, let me practice a little bit. I'll get back with you and I'll try preaching one day. No. Peter immediately stood preached on that day, and 3,000 were saved. When God calls us, our response to him is to be immediately obedient to the call. I believe that somehow, some way, God is going to call you this week to an act of obedience. My obedience in him will be completely different from yours. But he calls us as his people. And then when we are obedient, when we do walk with him, he connects all of our acts of obedience and our walk of ministry, and he makes us the church that can win the world. Friend, I have believed this about Clifford Baptist Church for 44 years. If God could change the world with 12 men, he can change the world. From a little community the world has never heard of, Clifford Baptist Church can change the world for Christ as we follow him as we're obedient to to Him. The Word proclaimed Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12 says, the word of God is quick, it is powerful, and it is sharp. And that means we don't go home and mull it over. We react the moment God acts and calls us to obedience. Well, as I come to the home stretch of this sermon today, let me say this. Maybe this moment right here, right now, you're thinking, well, Pastor Mike is saying that sometime this week, maybe in another service, God's going to call me. There are some right now that God is already dealing with you. And as you are in these pews or you're watching online today, God is already telling you and already told you the act of obedience in your life that should be taken right now. Maybe it's an act of coming home to him. Maybe there's some way that you've gotten out in the far country, and though you're a believer, you have not acted on his call to follow him, and you've gotten into the far country like the prodigal, it's time to come home. And God is saying right now, your act of obedience is to get on that road and come back to the Father. Maybe the Lord already has been dealing with you about preaching the Word. Maybe the Lord has already dealt with you about teaching somewhere in the church or. Or some act of ministry, some act of service within the ministry of Clifford Baptist Church. He's already dealt with you. Then when's the time to come? Right now, today. If he's already worked on your heart, he's already called you. You already know what the act of obedience is. The question is, will you react to that this very moment he's called you. Will you come in this moment if you've never come to Christ as Lord and Savior? For those of you who have heard me preach over the years, you know this is toward the end of the sermon, but I speak it in every sermon. I've spoken it in every sermon outside of this church, and I will continue to speak it throughout my life. If you've never come to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I cannot allow a meal to be set on the table without asking you to come and partake of it. If you've never received Jesus as Lord and Savior, here's your act of obedience. You need to come as a sinner, and you need to lay your sin down at the foot of Jesus cross in repentance, in sorrow, that you have broken God's heart and broken God's love and God's law. And you say, lord Jesus, I am a sinner, and there's nothing I can do to save myself. There's nothing I can do to pay it forward. There's nothing I can do to earn my way to heaven. So, Lord, I'm depending solely on your grace and solely on your son, Jesus. The way and the truth and the life. For Jesus, the very Lamb of God went to a cross and shed his very blood there, and his body was broken there, and he laid down his life so that I might live, so that I might be free, so that I might be saved and forgiven. So, Lord Jesus, today my first total act of obedience is, is to lay down my sin and ask Jesus to save me and to move into my heart and guide me for all eternity from this point forward. I give you my life, Lord Jesus. Is there someone here today, someone online today, who needs to respond in that first step of obedience to give your heart to Jesus Christ? You come. He's waiting. Today I truly believe God has a message for all of us. As I come to the end of the sermon, here's what I'm saying to you as we conclude here, will all of us together say, lord, I'm standing in the water and I'm waiting for the miracle of your word. He has a message for every one of us. If it's today you come, if it's this week, we entrust it to the Lord that he will speak to every one of us as we come before him with open earth ears and receptive hearts. Let's pray together. Our Father, our God, thank you for these precious moments. Father, thank you for allowing me to be in this pulpit, a place that I dearly, dearly love with a people I dearly love. Father, I pray today a prayer that includes me. Father, if you call us to obedience in some new way, I pray, Lord, that we will respond to you immediately. I pray, Father, that we will lay down any obstacles and that we will come to you and say, lord Jesus, I want to follow you in the way you've called me. I want to be obedient to my Savior. I pray today, Father, that you will speak that singular message to every single one of us in this week that is to come, that you will bless every revival preacher and that you will bless this place with your presence every time we meet. Father, I pray that you will bless that one today who has never come to Christ as Lord, that he or she, without hesitation, will come to this pulpit, take a pastor by the hand and say, I need Jesus. I come to him to be saved. I lay down my sin. I ask to be forgiven, to be adopted into the kingdom of God only by Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. Father, I pray that all of us have stepped into the water and we're waiting to hear from you and to follow your word of miracle and obedience in this week that is to come. Thank you for loving us. Thank you, Father, for saving us through Christ and for directing us throughout our lives and throughout eternity. Bless this precious church. I pray that we might go from this place to change the world with the love of Christ. And it is in his name we pray together. Amen.
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  Speaker A: Clifford Baptist Church invites you to join us for worship every Sunday morning at 11am for more information about our church, please call our church office at 434-946-0555.