Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / August 18, 2019 | There's An App For That - Joshua 1:9 & Discovery Day

Transcript

August 18, 2019 | There's An App For That - Joshua 1:9 & Discovery Day · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:35
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing here?
0:38
SPEAKER_00: Mulvaine, call it, John Alliance.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Great to have you here.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: We're combining Topeka Bible Church's annual Discovery Day, where we have a tent in the parking lot.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: We introduce you to all kinds of ministries, and then we try to browbeat you into serving in Iwana.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: And uh and we're combining that with our summer uh theme, our summer sermon series called There's an App for That, which is looking at the Favorite Verses in the World over the last eight years, which is as long as you version, which is by far the number one Bible app in the world.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: That's as long as they've been checking that out.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh last year, 2.5 billion chapters read every month on this app, 35 million verses shared monthly.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: So they look every year at the end of the year at the verse that was shared most often, bookmarked most often, et cetera, et cetera.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: And that's the favorite verse of the year.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: And we've gone through 2012 and now we're up to 2017, world's favorite verse, Joshua 1.9.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: Say it with me.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: Have not I commanded, let's start over.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: Have not I commanded you be strong and courageous.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: Do not be afraid, do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you are.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Time out for a second.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Let me share with you something I'm really excited about.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: This last week I was in Toronto, Canada for four or five days.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: For a conference called the Luzon Conference in Jewish Evangelism.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: Billy Graham started something in 1970 called the Luzon Conference, World Evangelization, to get Christian leaders from around the world, especially in third world countries, who couldn't afford to come to pay their way to come for an evangelism conference.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: And so there are all kinds of subgroups now, 20, a couple dozen.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: And the Jews, Jewish uh evangelism is maybe the largest and best one.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: And they meet every four years in the off-years, and so they had their meeting up at Toronto, and as uh because of my work with Jews for Jesus, I might go, 150 Christian leaders from around the world.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: It was so exciting, so exciting.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: So I believe if you like prophecy at all, if you studied it, then you know that when uh when there are prophetic events and when there are changes of dispensation or whatever you want to call it, oftentimes the thing that's gonna come true in the near future leaks back into the past.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: All these messiahs came forward just before Jesus, you know, every time big transition.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: So you know that the next thing that's going to happen when Jesus returns, well, you know, according to Romans 11, that Israel is going to look in the sky, they're going to see him whom they pierced, they're going to mourn, that is, they're going to repent, and all Israel will be saved.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Romans 11, 26.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Well, what we are seeing around the world just exploding is Jewish people which have so long been antagonists of the gospel, coming to Christ, even Orthodox Jews.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
3:34
SPEAKER_00: So we had people leaders from all over the world telling stories.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I was a leader of my table every morning and evening.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: Same group of people, about 10 people next to me is uh a Danish girl in her mid-twenties leading a super ministry in Denmark seeing incredible things.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: On the other side of me is uh Chinese guy from Hong Kong.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't think there are loads of Jewish people in Hong Kong.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: There are, and they're coming to Christ like crazy.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: He had, if you followed the news last week, uh China's exploding, Hong Kong's exploding, he had some nephews and so forth stuck at the airport, so he had to leave.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: But the stories he could tell about Jewish people coming to Christ next to him, there's an Australian.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Then there's a someone with a ministry to hundreds of Jewish people coming to Christ every year in Eastern Russia.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: And it's so, it was just so exciting.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: I had to dump that.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: It has nothing to do with Joshua 1.9, but it is for me a little hint that the coming of Christ is getting nearer and nearer.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
4:28
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
4:29
SPEAKER_00: You should hope that's gonna happen.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Even you young people who'd like to get married first, like I did.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: So um, Joshua 1.9, have not I commanded you.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: This is, you can this is such a cool verse, and you can see why people around the world would like it, because it's a worse verse about courage and fear, and all of us have fears, right?
4:48
SPEAKER_00: And all of us want more courage.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: Nod your head, we do.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: And so you can see why people would love a verse that has to do with courage and fear.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: And every couple, and by the way, I want to tell you, I'm talking fast because I want to let you out 10 minutes early.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to let you out 10 minutes early.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: I want you to throw something at me if it gets to be 10 minutes before, and I haven't let you out already.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I'm talking fast because this is a great verse, and I want you to know about it.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: So we're talking about courage and fear, and what I'm about to say is that every couple worth their salt, you know, as a Christian couple, wants their children to become brave and strong.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: And so is one of the first verses.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: I was taught as a kid, one of the first verses we taught our kids to be strong and courageous, don't be frightened, don't be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: All right?
5:36
SPEAKER_00: It's a verse about courage, it's a verse about fear.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: To understand it in context and how wonderful this verse really is and the secrets it holds, we have to go back to the first verse of the book.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: We'll look through verses one through nine.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: In the Christian Standard Bible, we read, after the death of Moses, stop there.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: When you see the word Moses, you should be thinking, and death of Moses, this is a huge turning point.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: Moses is the greatest leader, pretty much the only leader that the nation of Israel has ever had.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: And he was amazing and oh dear.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: He's the guy who brought them out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea and into the Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments, and then for 40 years to the wilderness, and now he's dead.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: What are they going to do?
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Because they're still in Moab, they're still on the eastern side of the Jordan River, still haven't gone into the promised land, and now our hero has died.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
6:31
SPEAKER_00: That's the setting.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: After the death of Moses, the Lord's servant.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: That's the title that Moses gets.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Nobody else gets that title.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: It's a great title, the Lord's servant.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: The Lord spoke to Joshua, he's the commander of the army, the general, second in command to Moses.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: That's the guy we're talking about today.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Spoke to Joshua, son of nun.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: Son of none, Joshua's son.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: This is the answer to the Bible riddle.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: Who other than Adam and Eve in the Bible had no parents?
7:01
SPEAKER_00: The answer, Joshua, son of none.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Chuckle sob, right?
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I know a better joke about this.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell me you must be Joshua, son of none.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how did you know that?
7:14
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, uh, if you're Catholic and you're visiting today, I don't mean anything serious.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: I love Cat.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I just thought.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, really, isn't that?
7:22
SPEAKER_00: I don't care who you are.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: That's funny.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: So Joshua, son of none.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: The other thing that calls Joshua is Moses' assistant.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Notice, he's not called the Lord's servant, he's called Moses' assistant.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: And in my view, and I'm gonna talk about this, I think that was what he thought about himself, right?
7:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm Moses' assistant, that's who I am, that's who I should be.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm no more than that.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2 and 3, Moses my servant is dead, the Lord says to Joshua.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: Moses my servant, notice, is dead.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: Now you and all the people, prepare to cross over the Jordan to the land I'm giving the Israelites.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: All the people, how many are there?
8:04
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: They've just counted the fighting men, those over 20 who fight, and there are 600,000.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: So if each of them is married, that's a million point two.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: If each of them has a child or two, that's two to three million people.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: Huge job of leadership.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: Cross over the Jordan.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: What's the Jordan?
8:28
SPEAKER_00: It's a river.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: And today it's just this little brown thing, you know, that you can walk through.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: But back then it was the deepest, most raging river in the world.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: It was narrow, but it was a hundred feet down from the side where you had to hike down steep cliffs to a raging river, which even in the middle 1800s, Mark Twain said was impassable and had lions and other wild beasts in the thickets.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: And so they're supposed to take two to three million people with little babies and goats and sheep and all this stuff down a deep ravine through a raging river past wild animals, and that's what God's telling him to do.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: And then God says, I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised Moses.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks, Lord.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tread at the bottom of the Jordan River and stay there.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: And you've given it to me, thanks.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: Joshua 1, 5.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: I will be with you, key phrase.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Just as I was with Moses.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: I will not leave you or abandon you.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: That's verse 5.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: We move to verse 6.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Be strong and courageous.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: The theme command, right, in this passage.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: This is the first time it's mentioned.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: It will be mentioned a second and a third time.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: It's so great to have you.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for coming.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: Be strong and courageous, for you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Now that's just the first time.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: Notice the second time it's mentioned is in the next verse.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Above all, what is it?
10:04
SPEAKER_00: Be strong and very courageous.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: To observe carefully the whole instruction my servant Moses commanded you, so that you'll have success wherever you go.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: Now he's moving into the Word of God, the Bible, and we get one of the most famous verses about the Bible in the Bible, right here in verse 8.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: You are to meditate on it day and night, so that you may carefully observe everything that is written in it, for then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: And now we get to our verse, Joshua 1.9.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Have not I commanded you be strong and courageous.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Third time.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: Great passage, right?
10:49
SPEAKER_00: And seminary moment, really quickly.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have books back then, but they wanted the Israelites to be able to memorize.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we were pretty sure Jesus and the disciples had memorized the entire Old Testament.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: How did they do it?
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Old Testament has loads of patterns in it, and one of the most famous is a mirror pattern, like a mirror of a lake, and you see everything double.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: It's called a chiasm.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: And you can see it here in verses five through nine, where verses five and nine, the outer envelopes, uh say, I will be with you.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: And then six and seven A say, be strong and courageous, and that's repeated in nine, first part of verse nine.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: And then in the middle you have obey the law and you'll have success.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: And then verse eight, meditate on the law and you'll have success.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: So one of the nice things about this, it makes it easy to memorize, but also it shows you what's, you know, really important.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: This is our verse, verse nine, but you can see that it's just repeating in reverse order what verses five and six and seven say.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: End of the seminary moment.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: But it is really, I love this kind of stuff, and if I'm the only one in the room, that's that's your problem.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: One thing's for sure is that Joshua's getting the message loud and clear.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: It takes courage to lead, and he has a choice between courage and fear, and he's supposed to take that jump into the unknown with God.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm not positive that Joshua had a number of objections, but I am sure that if we were Joshua, we would have these objections, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if, since he's told three times not to be scared, if he was a little scared.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: For one thing, I would imagine he feared the job.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: The job was huge because his job was to take three million people over, including children and animals, and somehow these people were supposed to conquer the Canaanites.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: The Canaanites, who were in huge walled cities, they could see Jericho from where they were off in the distance, already a city that was three to five to six thousand years old, with huge walls, absolutely impregnable.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Remember, they'd spied out the land and come back and said, Yeah, these guys are giants, they're well armed, they're entrenched, they know warfare.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: And who are the Israelites?
13:11
SPEAKER_00: There are millions of farmers who are completely really out of practice, even at farming, because they'd be getting their food free every day for 40 years.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: It had dropped from heaven.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: It was called manna.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: Once in a while they'd get quail.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: They weren't even used to sewing and knitting because remember, their thongs, their sandals, their clothes never wore out for 40 years.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: God had taken care of them.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: They were comfortable, they had life easy, they were not ready to fight, and yet somehow the job is you're supposed to take these three million across into the land of the Canaanites and defeat them, right?
13:51
SPEAKER_00: And claim the land for yourself.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know for sure, we're not told that Joshua offered this objection or had this fear, but I can tell you that we have this objection, and we have this fear.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: When in this very room, when I was 26 years old, somebody came up and said, representing the search committee, we'd like to offer you the job to be pastor of Topeka Bible Church.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't care that the church was only 300 or a little under back then.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: What?
14:22
SPEAKER_00: That job's way too big for me.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and I I would guess that you've been approached at times about doing things.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Would you lead this Bible study?
14:31
SPEAKER_00: Would you teach this Sunday school class?
14:33
SPEAKER_00: You know, would you run this program?
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Would you would you coach this major league team or whatever?
14:38
SPEAKER_00: And you go, whoa, whoa, whoa, I am not ready for this.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: I think that Joshua probably felt that, but even if he didn't, I know we feel that.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Number two, I'll bet he feared the risk.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Joshua probably is thinking, you know what, I'm one of the two oldest guys out of the three million.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: If you know the story, you know that everybody else died out.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: Everybody else, you know, over 20 years old, but except for Joshua and Caleb.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: So now Joshua's one of the two old dudes.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: He could be going, you know what, if I die in this, that's no big deal.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: My kids are grown, you know what?
15:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean we could all, we could be drowned at the bottom of the Jordan River.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, but the problem is the risk is, what if I ruin everything?
15:20
SPEAKER_00: What if all three million of us are at the bottom of the Jordan River?
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Or what if, as I look over there, what if I take us to total defeat and all of us slaughtered and dead and bloody over there except for our wives and children taken for slaves?
15:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what an incredible risk I'm taking.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Even if Joshua didn't feel that, I know that you and I have felt that at times.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: We go into a project or we go to something, we go, we say, you know, uh, if I take this, what is the risk, not just to me, but to my family?
15:55
SPEAKER_00: Someone came up to me this morning and said, you know what, I've been resisting the Lord for years.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, because I know there's one thing I've been resisting him on.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: He wanted me to tithe, you know, and and I've done all these other things, but I'd never tithed, and so I finally relented and I did that.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you the amazing story she said of what the Lord, what the Lord did for us, the amazing thing financially that he just did for us.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: But you know, the thing is she said, I was afraid to risk my family's entire income.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: I was afraid to risk everything.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: You go into this and the Lord gives you a choice.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Courage or fear tells you to be courageous, and you go, well, the job is too huge or the risk is too high.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: Or number three, Joshua could have said, but look who I am.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm a I'm a second-in-command guy.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm Moses' assistant, right?
16:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a leader.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: And you say to him, but hold it, you're the leader of the army, you're the five-star general.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And he'd say, Well, hold it.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: Have you read the stories?
16:51
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't free to decide who to attack or when to attack or where to attack.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: In every case, God told Moses who to attack, when to attack, where to attack, and then Moses would tell me who to attack, when to attack, where to attack.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: I was always his uh right-hand man.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: I was second fiddle.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: I always, you know, carried the piano stool.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't the head guy.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: And then you say, Well, yeah, but you know, you're clearly courageous already.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand this.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: You were one of 12 spies sent up to spy out the land, and you and Caleb came back and you said, We ought to go, the Lord will give it to us.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: And the other ten said, No, don't go.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: What do you say to that?
17:27
SPEAKER_00: And Joshua would say, Yeah, have you noticed how everybody caught into what Caleb and I said?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we had the minority report and everybody ignored us.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: You think I'm the leader type?
17:38
SPEAKER_00: And maybe Joshua didn't think these things, maybe he didn't make this objection, but whether he did or not, I know that we do.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: When they approached me, yeah, you know, so so I come to this church.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: I've always been a second in command kind of a person.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: I played second fiddle in the orchestra in high school growing up.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: I was always, and you say, Well, you were the oldest of all those kids, a dozen children.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: The oldest, I was the oldest son, but I had an older sister.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: She never let me forget it.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: So, so you know, I was always, you know, I was used to being number two when I came up here.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: I came up here to serve a guy named Pastor Tom Burbage, wonderful guy.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Tom.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: But I came up to do what he wanted.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: He wanted me to lead the youth group, the sing, the junior high, the high school, and the singles.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: And I did that.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
18:26
SPEAKER_00: After one year, it was such a difficult place to work, and he just suddenly left.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Not for one moment, not for one split second, did I think maybe they'll make me pastor.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: I never applied for the job, I didn't want the job, I didn't even think there was a chance in the world they would ever ask me.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: It didn't make any sense that they would ask me.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: I simply told them when the next guy comes, I'm free to step down, free to leave, because he may want to bring on bring along his own man.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: And then seven months later, totally desperate, I guess they hadn't, I guess they couldn't find anybody.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Then they go, you know, yeah, you're single, yeah, you have a beard, yeah, you're, you know, a do we, but we'll take you.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: You're only 26, but we're fine.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: And I go, what?
19:06
SPEAKER_00: No stinking way.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: Do you know who I am?
19:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a lead guy, I'm a helper, I'm an assistant coach.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm the guy who blocks for the running back.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: And they're going, it's time, God's basically said to me, it's time for you to carry the ball.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't think that's who I am.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: You don't know my personality.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Joshua could have said, you know, how about my background?
19:26
SPEAKER_00: I grew up a slave.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm used to being a slave, not Moses.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Moses, he grew up in the palace.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: He's used to leadership.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm used to being a slave.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm used to being a number two guy.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: God says, you know what?
19:36
SPEAKER_00: It's time you started playing the piano, start time you started carrying the ball.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: This happens to you.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: It may happen to you this morning.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: You may be in the tent, and someone may say, you know, you're the perfect person for this.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: And you'll go, Oh, ha, no, that's not who I am by personality.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: You don't understand.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: Then there's who I'm not.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: I am sure Joshua thought, you don't understand.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: I am not my predecessor.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: I am not Moses.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, do you do you realize Joshua would say to us, do you realize we've just celebrated a 30-day funeral for Moses?
20:12
SPEAKER_00: And the words said at the funeral, this is the last words in Deuteronomy, this is just 10 verses before our verses.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: No prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all these miraculous signs and wonders.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: No one's ever performed the awesome deeds Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm not him.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: I can't follow him.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm nothing like him.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: He performed these miracles down in Egypt.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: He split the Red Sea.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: He walked up to the top of Sinai and got Ten Commandments directly from God.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: Then his face glowed for the next couple of months.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Then he hit a rock and water came out, and then he called for man and it fell from heaven.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: That's not me.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm not him.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't do miracles.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Now, whether or not he thought that, I can promise I've thought that, and I bet you've thought.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had to follow someone in a job who was like a legend?
21:10
SPEAKER_00: First time I got a phone call to do a major conference overseas of hundreds of people, missionaries, you know, they said to me something like this.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: They said, Um, I've heard of you.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: We'd really like, you know, have you come and do next year's conference?
21:26
SPEAKER_00: And then they said, and oh, by the way, we just finished this year's conference.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: Tony Evans was the speaker.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: I go, shut up.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's a friend, but I can't hold his shoes.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: You don't want me.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: I did not want to follow Tony Evans.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: I'll guarantee you.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: And I talked to God and he said, Shut up and go.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: I was asked to join a board.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm on I'm on a certain board that I'm on right now.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: Here's the phone call.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Phone calling me and went, you know what?
21:53
SPEAKER_00: We'd really like for you to consider joining our board.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: I said, Me, join your board.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Organization.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: And I said, why would that be?
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, the president of Denver Seminary just had to retire from our board.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: And he was sort of our theologian, a biblicist, and we've got, you know, questions about homosexuality.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: We have we have messy things that come before us, and we need a theologian, a guy who, you know.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: I said, hold it.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: President of Denver Seminary, I know him.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: He's a legend in Christianity.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: He's written all these books, he travels around the world speaking.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: I can't do that.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said, Shut up and do it.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is what happens to you sometimes, right?
22:29
SPEAKER_00: Your predecessor is just incredible, and you're not him.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: And yet God still says, I want you to be bold, I want you to be courageous, and finally, the worst of all, these people.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: You go to the tent and somebody say, Hold it.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us with these junior highs?
22:48
SPEAKER_00: You'll say, anybody but junior highs.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Then the next day will go, Would you help us in Iwana with these six-year-olds?
22:56
SPEAKER_00: No, not six-year-olds.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: You know what it is?
22:59
SPEAKER_00: It's these, it's the can you imagine Joshua going, Hold it, do you realize who you're asking me to lead?
23:05
SPEAKER_00: These are the same people who just last month wanted to kill Moses, the most popular guy in the country.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: These are people who are always complaining, who are always critical.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is ever good enough for these people.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Their name is Israel.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: It means wrestling with God.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: These people even wrestle with God.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: How can I lead these people?
23:28
SPEAKER_00: They're so critical and they're so always whining and complaining.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to lead them.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: I mean, remember how they treated me when I came back and you know, with the minority report from Canaan?
23:40
SPEAKER_00: Whether or not Joshua thought that.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: I can promise you, we think that.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: You think that when you're asked, you know, to lead in certain places.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: I thought that when I was a 26-year-old single guy and they asked me to lead this church, especially when a couple of people then came up to me and said, I don't know if you really want this job.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how many pastors they've run through here in the last six years?
24:04
SPEAKER_00: This guy Tom, who was here for one year and a half, two years?
24:08
SPEAKER_00: He's the longest.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they've been cut, this church chews up and spits out, pastors.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what they did to what they wanted to do, what they tried to do to Moses.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: And and you know that you know, I'm burdened by the fact I now I now have a ministry to some extent with younger pastors.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and they come to me just because they know I'm old and about to die, so they want to be nice to me.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: So, so but anyway, you know, do you know the statistic now is that 80%, 80%, four out of five.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: People graduate from seminary or Bible school who go into the ministry, four out of five quit within five years.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: It's always, almost always exactly the same reason.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, they come out into a ministry and they start pedaling as fast and as hard as they can, and other people, other people hear the call of vision to be bold and courageous, not for themselves, but for him.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Come and say, you know, we'd really like you to be bold and courageous in your preaching.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: So we've been listening, uh we have these podcasts of these uh megachurch pastors who are who are good.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: And if you'll just listen to these six podcasts this week, we think you'll do better next week.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: And because he wants to please them, he starts pedaling faster.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: He listens to a podcast every day and it makes him feel awful, but he improves a little bit.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: A couple weeks later, somebody else comes up because they're really bold and courageous, and they have a vision for him and their church and their small group and their Sunday school class because we always have visions for other people.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: And they say, you know what, that worship band you have up there, you know, I know they're trying hard, but if you could get a couple of them to lose weight and if they could play a little bit more like Hillsong, because we love listening Hillsong music, and if they could do this and they could do that, yeah, and wear better clothes, then would you would you talk to them about that and get that solved?
25:53
SPEAKER_00: So he peddles a little harder and he goes and talks to them and it's all stressful, and then he comes home and he's not sleeping well at nights, and then somebody else comes and says, We've got a vision for this church, an evangelistic outreach vision.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: Then somebody else comes up and says, We've got this vision for prison ministry.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: We really believe that you ought to be bold and courageous to grab hold of this vision.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Somebody else says, There's this charity, this social vision that we have for really ministering in this town.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: Somebody else says, you know, there's this whole mission field that I'd like to introduce to you overseas.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: And they pedal so fast and so hard, and finally they fall off the bike and they decide never to get back on.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Because everybody seems to have bold, courageous visions for other people, right?
26:33
SPEAKER_00: For the groups that they're in.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: God says, you know, why don't you have a bold, courageous vision for yourself?
26:42
SPEAKER_00: And everyone within sound of my voice has some unclaimed territory in your life, God wants you to be bold and courageous for.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's like that person this morning, tithing, but maybe what it is, is maybe it's just going up against that Goliath of a besetting sin again.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe what it is, is it's making the decision to finally go and seek forgiveness with that brother or sister in your family or in the church.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it's getting off your duff, no matter whether you're as old as Joshua or not, and deciding that, yeah, I really might be able to serve in that ministry.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it's telling one of your best friends about Jesus Christ.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Or going to that person at work whose life is falling apart and they hardly know you, but they've just gotten divorced and they have an alcohol problem and actually inviting them to church.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: But I am sure that everyone listening to me this morning has got some unclaimed ground, some unknown territory that God is saying, I want you to step into that ground.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: And I promise you two things.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: There's two assurances.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: Number one, God's promise, be strong and courageous, for I will help you with that and you'll succeed.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: And number two, and I'll give you my presence.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: No one will be able to stand because I will be with you.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: That's verse five.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: And in our verse, he says it again for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: I want to leave you with a phrase right now.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: It's a Hebrew phrase, Imka Adonai.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: Imka Adonai, say it with me.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Imka Adonai.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: Say it again.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: Imka Adonai.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: Say it one more time.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Imka Adonai.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: It means the Lord is with you.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew, it could mean the Lord is with you, it could mean the Lord will be with you, which is why your translations, some translations say, for the Lord your God is with you, others say, will be with you, right?
28:58
SPEAKER_00: There's no verb here.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: Imka Adonai.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: God gives you that promise, the Lord will be with you and says, I want you to step into the unknown, knowing that I am with you.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: This morning, step boldly into the unknown with God because you know Imka Adonai.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: I want you to watch this nine-minute video, eight-minute video right now of people in our church, half a dozen people in our church who have stepped into the unknown, who have learned to serve, and who have overcome their fears in doing so.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Watch this great video right now.
29:35
SPEAKER_07: We asked some volunteers, in what ways are you involved at Topeka Bible Church?
29:41
SPEAKER_01: I am a part of our young adults group here at TBC.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, in being a part of that group, I am the girls' leader for a memory verse challenge that we have every year.
29:51
SPEAKER_01: I also organize our dinner groups that we have been doing twice a year.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: Um I help with uh child care here at TBC for various events.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: I am a part of a Tuesday night Bible study, and I help lead the girls' group whenever the leader needs me to.
30:09
SPEAKER_01: And most excitingly, I am going to be the co-director for Sparks with this upcoming year of Iwana.
30:15
SPEAKER_06: Over the years I've been involved with single moms car care clinic, uh, cooking for men's breakfast, harvesters, groundskeeping, the tech team, the light show, and Camp Catapult.
30:28
SPEAKER_02: I started attending a Bible study here at church and then I led a Bible study after that, and I currently co-lead a group of 10th grade girls in the student ministry and attend single moms every Sunday after service.
30:45
SPEAKER_05: In the past, I've been involved in the Cancer Connections Ministry with Ward Reeland when he was working in it.
30:52
SPEAKER_05: And then since that time, my wife and I have been involved in the greeting ministry most recently at the College Avenue building.
30:59
SPEAKER_05: And I've been involved in Awana as a TNT boys leader.
31:04
SPEAKER_05: We've been involved in two different small groups, which we are currently in one.
31:08
SPEAKER_05: And I've also been involved in the single mom's ministry with the Car Care Clinic.
31:14
SPEAKER_04: Iwana.
31:16
SPEAKER_04: A couple of small groups, the Deacons Board, Spring Fling, Baptisms.
31:21
SPEAKER_03: Intentional Moms, Light Show, Camp Catapult, Women's Bible Study, and I'm a part of a small group.
31:30
SPEAKER_06: What motivated you to serve?
31:33
SPEAKER_06: Well, I think I just saw a need.
31:52
SPEAKER_02: I had moved here recently from out of state, and Patty DiLoberto, the women's ministry director, and Debbie Parker, the single mom's leader, both were encouraging me to kind of get involved and find my people and find my place here in the church community at TBC.
32:10
SPEAKER_04: The motivation to serve came from Christ.
32:12
SPEAKER_04: As I matured in my relationship with him, he really did put a desire in my heart to be around his people more and to take the gifts that he's given me and start to use them.
32:23
SPEAKER_04: However, the great recruiter, Doug Will, is the one who first approached me with opportunities to serve and just been grateful for it ever since.
32:34
SPEAKER_07: How has serving changed your faith life?
32:37
SPEAKER_05: I could like to say that I'm the perfect Christian, but we all know that will never happen.
32:41
SPEAKER_05: But it has given me a stronger desire to dig deeper into my faith and into the Bible and to be more involved in helping in other ways that I can.
32:52
SPEAKER_01: I have met so many people who have just challenged my faith and have just really pushed me to know the word more, get and uh really analyze the knowledge that I have, and they have just provided so much encouragement.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: And I really think the Bible study that I'm a part of they just helped me think of things in different ways, and it's really helped me get into a solid reading plan so I can have uh I'm being fed throughout the week.
33:18
SPEAKER_04: It's made it grow by leaps and bounds.
33:22
SPEAKER_04: Um there's several places where God has commanded us to serve, and it's one of those places that's easy not to, but it has made me so much closer to Him.
33:34
SPEAKER_04: And the more I serve, the more time I wish I had to serve.
33:40
SPEAKER_07: How has your involvement changed your relationships with others?
33:45
SPEAKER_01: I moved here about a year ago and really didn't have any connections, and so getting involved has given me a group of friends and accountability partners, and it's really just kind of filled my life, whereas as a single person I don't have much going on.
34:00
SPEAKER_01: It's given me a fulfillment that I wouldn't find elsewhere.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: So that's really the big change that it has had in my life.
34:07
SPEAKER_03: Most of my closest friends I've met through these groups, particularly intentional moms.
34:13
SPEAKER_03: These are women that I call to when I need support, when I need prayers.
34:18
SPEAKER_03: It's just deepened my connection with other women here in the church.
34:22
SPEAKER_06: Serving has drawn me much closer to other people.
34:27
SPEAKER_06: And I've got some of my best friends now that I met while serving.
34:34
SPEAKER_06: And we just enjoy each other's company and we know we've had a shared experience together, and having that builds bonds of friendship and strength.
34:45
SPEAKER_06: And I I just don't know who I'd have for friends if I wasn't in involved with these people through serving.
34:55
SPEAKER_07: How has your life been enriched by your involvement?
34:59
SPEAKER_04: Probably the best example is recently there was a young boy that was in my class in Iwana last semester, and he sang at the uh uh the Easter show and then was baptized this past spring, and that just gave me so much joy that I never thought, even for a second, it would have happened.
35:24
SPEAKER_04: Um but that's that's really special watching these boys grow up through Iwana.
35:29
SPEAKER_04: The other places have have uh done similar things, but that's one that really stands out.
35:34
SPEAKER_02: My life has been enriched just by being able to serve in the student ministry and see other people like in the single mom's group, knowing that I'm not alone, knowing that I have the support that I need and that God has my back, you know, through them.
35:56
SPEAKER_02: So it's just been an amazing experience being able to be a part of TBC.
36:02
SPEAKER_01: I am more fulfilled, I'm happier, I have more connections, and I really don't think you get that unless you have a group of people that you can rely on and you are constantly connecting with people.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: And it's just really given me a great sense of fellowship, and sometimes it's not even church stuff.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: It's a simple text message saying, Hey, I want to go to the Festival Mexicana, will you come?
36:22
SPEAKER_01: And just those small moments that can really make a difference.
36:24
SPEAKER_01: But I wouldn't have had those if I hadn't gotten involved with the other groups.
36:28
SPEAKER_07: What has been most surprising about connecting and serving at TBC?
36:34
SPEAKER_05: That I went into it expecting to be helping other people, and I think I got much more out of it than they did, and that's that's not I don't want to sound like I'm selfish with it, but it makes you want to volunteer more just to have that effect on other people as well as them on you more than you already had before.
36:53
SPEAKER_02: I think what's most surprising is the fulfillment that I get from it.
36:57
SPEAKER_02: I didn't think that it would make me so happy to serve, but I feel fulfilled and I feel good, you know, leaving here knowing that I'm doing the Lord's work and that I'm helping make a difference.
37:11
SPEAKER_06: I think finding out how God can use me in my weakness is probably the most surprising.
37:20
SPEAKER_06: There's been times I think I can't do this.
37:24
SPEAKER_06: And it just seems like God gives you the abilities, the strengths to do it, and and I'm stronger for it.
37:34
SPEAKER_07: What would you say to someone who thinks they don't have the time or the skills needed to serve at TBC?
37:41
SPEAKER_06: I'd say just try it.
37:43
SPEAKER_06: Try it once.
37:44
SPEAKER_06: And God will be there.
37:46
SPEAKER_06: He'll meet you where you're at, and and he will bring things about opportunities and just excitement in your life that you won't even know is there and until you experience it.
38:02
SPEAKER_03: I think we all have time.
38:03
SPEAKER_03: A lot of volunteer opportunities here can be put in the calendar months, even a year in advance.
38:09
SPEAKER_03: I personally like volunteering for my children to see me giving back.
38:14
SPEAKER_03: There's even opportunities here that your children can volunteer with you.
38:17
SPEAKER_04: You know, it is something God commanded us to do, to be part of the fellowship, to serve one another, and by serving one another, we're serving him.
38:25
SPEAKER_02: I would say not to be afraid, um, to step out in faith, and um that you know, God doesn't call the equipped, but he equips the called.
38:37
SPEAKER_02: So you know that if he sends you, he has you.
38:42
SPEAKER_07: How is God calling you to discover, connect, or serve today?
38:48
SPEAKER_00: God is saying to all of us, Joshua's this morning, don't be afraid.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: Haven't I commanded you?
38:55
SPEAKER_00: Be strong and courageous.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: Do not be afraid, do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: Pray with me and then visit the tent before you go home.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for this uh word of challenge from the life of uh a guy who always played second fiddle, a guy who loved to help, but then whom you called into leadership.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for giving him uh the courage and the strength and the boldness to step forward into the unknown, because he knew Imca Adonai, he knew the Lord was with him.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: We know the Lord is with us, we know you are with us, and we thank you for that assurance, Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: All God's people said Amen.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.