7. BELIEVING GOD HAS BEEN THERE ALL ALONG

7. BELIEVING GOD HAS BEEN THERE ALL ALONG

Introduction:

Nehemiah 4:14 – Fight for them! When we can look in God’s Word, and we can see clearly God is on our side, God will help us discern by way of the Holy Spirit the answers to our situations and problems. The Word of God is energizing.

Joshua 4:1-24 – The word “set up “ in the Hebrew often means going from a laying or lying position up to a sitting or standing position, or from a sitting position to a standing position. These are standing stones, standing upright. The hand of the LORD is powerful!

1. Joshua 4:6-7, 24 / Isaiah 43:10 – Plural for witnesses, singular for servant. We all have been called to witness Him personally, but we in a given generation make up the servant of the Living God. The enemy does everything he can to bring division, because he knows that our purpose, united is profound and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. We are the servant of the Living God in this generation! We will be held responsible for our testimony to the generations behind us.

Psalm 102:18 – God will give us the ability through the power of the Holy Spirit to remember that He has been there for us, that we have not thought about in years

a. Orthodox Jews and Ancient Jews instill this into their children’s lives. It was not their religion, it was their life.

Christianity is that we are born of the Spirit. We are wealthy in Christ. He is the Hidden Treasure (Colossians 2:3). Ephesians 1 – We come into the riches of our inheritance. When we portray what is truth in God’s Word, we portray that the life with God is the richest of all existence; that in all life any kind of abundance or meaning is in Christ, they want that wealth.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 – You move out the love and all that you have is the law. We love the LORD our God, then we teach His ways. The reason why there are rules for living is because God wants to bless His children; and our obedience puts us in a posture where we can receive blessing.

2. Joshua 4:7 – Cut off – covenant – crossed.

Genesis 15:9-10 – Cut them in two – make covenant.

Verse 17 – passed between the pieces – crossed the Jordan.

Verse 18 – “Made a covenant” in Hebrew is to “cut a covenant.” Cut the animals in half – made a path of blood – God passed through the pieces.

When God had them at the edge of the Jordan about to come into their Promised Land, He said “I want you to remember this forever.” God was having a memorial moment and He was reconfirming the very covenant He had cut with His people.

Deuteronomy 31:3 – Cross over – when God just started walking toward the waters they just got out of the way.

Joshua 4:7 – Cut off – crossed the Jordan.

a. God is saying “I have cut a covenant with you, and I want you to know, if I cut a covenant with you,; I will also cut a path through any obstacle between you and the fulfillment of that promise.”

b. God is not going to force any of us into our Promised Land.

Zechariah 14:4 – The Mount of Olives will split in two and He will make a path through it. If that mountain does not move, and He wants you on the other side, He can also split that thing in two, and you can just walk a path right through it.

3. Joshua 4:5 – Middle – some of us are to the halfway point in our lives (place of crisis). It is the deepest part – we bring our stones out of the hardest part.

1 Samuel 7:12 – Set up – standing stone. Some of us are too busy carrying around our Ebenezer. I am going to live on the sufficiency of God one day at a time.

4. Joshua 4:10-11 – Walking by faith.

a. Sometimes we are wisest when God put’s a word on us, and He is telling us something to do, we are wisest to go with that fresh word and move it!

b. Exodus 14:12-15 – Their attitude was wishing they could go back.

c. Moses advice was stand still. Half the time we know what to do; we are just waiting for Him to give us multiple choice.

d. God says “Move on.” When God gives us a word, commands us to do something, with that revealed word comes the empowerment to obey. God will never tells us something and not empower us to do it. We stand there and just reason.

1 Peter 2:4-5 – We are the memorial stones, the living stones. We are to live our lives as living stones.

Sometimes the mountain has moved, but the child has been moved around to the other side; but it’s the child that won’t move the mountain.