May 7, 2006, Dr. Joseph B. Fuiten

 

            I have preached this sermon several times in the last 25 years at Cedar Park.  It was my first sermon after becoming Pastor on May 1, 1981.  I have two purposes in preaching it today.  First, I believe the message will cause some here to think differently about themselves and the problems and challenges they face.  Secondly, it has special meaning as it increasingly applies to me and my vision for Cedar Park. 

Israel had been captive for 400 years in Egypt when God renewed the call to the land of Canaan.  God had given the land to Abraham and his descendents in the most public real estate deed in human history.  They had made the effort 40 years before but a lack of faith and outright disobedience created wandering in the desert for 40 years.  All that is about to change.

 

Scripture Reading:  Joshua 1:1-9  Page 151 (Led by Bob Brothers)

“After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide:2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them-- to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.4Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates-- all the Hittite country-- to the Great Sea on the west.5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

 

Think how wonderful it must have been to have been Joshua on that day!  You are God’s project.  In all the world, this is what God is doing at this moment.  Joshua is God’s man doing God’s job, in God’s timing, and now he has God’s promise of help.  It really doesn’t get any better than that.

The last time they tried this, 10 of the 12 spies lost faith in God.  They thought it was up to them.  Now those people were dead and a new generation had arisen who had learned the hard way to trust God.  The desert was a stern but effective teacher.

Here is the irony.  The walled cities were just as strong, maybe even stronger.  There were still giants in the land.  The enemy had not declined in strength at all.  As always, it is never about the enemy but about us.

This time, the difference was Israel understood more clearly who God was, and they understood who they were.

Here is the personal message you should get from today’s sermon.  There is no need to be afraid of the future.  You don’t have to fear the giants in the land.  You don’t have to worry about the battles that lie ahead.  Even though there will always be a struggle, and it sometimes lasts for a long time, you don’t have to be afraid.

However, some of you are afraid.  You are afraid because you don’t know who you are in God’s economy.  You don’t know where you fit in the grand scheme of things.  You are still running your life according to your own system.  You still take your cues from other people. You still think too much about the enemy when you contemplate the potential for your success. You have not yet understood what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10  “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Our statement should be, I promise to do the will of God, the whole will of God, and nothing but the will of God, soooooo, help me God!  You need to understand that you matter to God.  Your family matters to God.  Your finances matter to God. Your job matters to God.  Your ministry matters to God.

If you cannot say that about yourself, then today would be a great day to give your life to Jesus Christ.  I am suggesting that you get on your knees and say “Jesus, please forgive me for going my own way and doing my own thing.  From this day forward I intend to follow you and to do your will as best I understand it.”  From that moment on you will be God’s workmanship and you will end up doing the good works that God planned for you all along.  To relate it to the text, you will suddenly understand that God has a land prepared for you.  All you have to do is go get it.  In our text, that is exactly what Israel did.

I have felt that empowering of God from time to time giving me success.  Of the things that have been accomplished during these 25 years, a unique one has been Presentation Sunday.  We could fill this building with the children and their parents from that Sunday.  Maybe the most impactful and revolutionary thing was the development of the Cathedral Church concept which is being copied around the country.  I think I have contributed three ideas to biblical understanding and theology.  Most important is basing the doctrine of subsequence upon the life of Christ and the ancient church.  Second, was proposing a theory of history based on God’s dream given to Nebuchadnezzer, and finally, I think I have been able to contribute some new understandings of Timothy and Ephesians based upon the history of the ancient world.  In public life here in Washington, the statewide poll that we did in January I felt was inspired by the Lord.  I wrote the conclusion and analysis before the poll was even taken and was on target exactly.

            What God will do in you and through you is not to be taken lightly.  It was fun to be at the White House for the National Day of Prayer.  We prayed in the East Room and had a reception in the State Dining Room.  Besides the President, Don Rumsfeld of Defense and Michael Chertoff of Homeland Security were present.  I had a nice visit with Secretary Chertoff.  I also visited with James Dobson and saw other famous ministers such as Chuck Swindoll and spoke briefly with Henry Blackabee.  I came away feeling like they were just like me.  They were just like me when I was 21, or when I was 15, just at a different stage of life.  If a young person can appropriately think like that, it will powerfully affect their life.

            In light of God’s promises, the fear of man has got to go.  If God be for us, who can be against us?

            The other key factor is accepting the challenge and going to work.  I love the line of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who wrote, “The lives of great men, reached and kept, were not achieved by sudden flight. But while their companions slept they toiled upward in the Night.”

           

 

The Israelis leaped to the challenge offered by God. 

Joshua 6-8  tells the story of the Central Campaign.  At Jericho and Ai they fought in a westward thrust that split the north and south like a wedge.  It was like Sherman’s march to the sea in the American Civil War.  If this brick could talk it would describe the piercing blast of the shofars and the rumble of God.  The boots of Israeli soldiers scrambled over it on their way up into the city.

The Southern Campaign is covered in chapters 9-10.  The Gibeonites, Alliances of the kings, Mak-ke-da, Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir fell to Israel.

The Northern Campaign is mentioned in chapter 11.  It was equally successful.

 

Joshua 10:40-43  “So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded. 41 Joshua subdued them from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza and from the whole region of Goshen to Gibeon. 42 All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign, because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel. 43 Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal.”

 

It took a total of seven years, but the center of Israel was theirs.

They took tribute and booty.  They took all they wanted.  It is true that Philistines, Canaanites, Mt. Lebanon people, and assorted other perimeter people still remained.  But Israel had the center and it was a good and productive land.

 

Having won the center, they paused to settle the land.

Farms were plowed and crops flourished.  They even moved into the houses formerly occupied by their defeated foes.

The boys came home from the war, got married and started families.  Homesteads became settlements, which became communities, which became cities.  The land indeed flowed with milk and honey.  I know the feeling.  I have lived it.

In my process of pastoring this church I had a family to raise.  Linda and I came here with two girls.  You know Rosalind and Criag.  Their oldest, Grant, just hit his first home run yesterday.  Sandy and Jay and their four girls are also a great part of our ministry.  When we arrived, Ben had just been born and we dedicated him on the Sunday we were installed as Pastors.  Ben and Traci are business people and Joey is their first.   Zachary was born on Fathers Day a couple of years after we started here.  He’s a golf professional and manages the clubhouse at Willows Run.  I could never had done this without Linda who has stood by me all these years and kept the home fires buring.  Linda is a faithful person who works hard, loves the Lord, reads her Bible and prays, and takes care of me.  She is the ballast in my ship.  She keeps me from tipping over.

 

How quickly the pioneers become settlers.

In the early pilgrim days in America, a meeting was held to decide about building a road five miles to the west from the East Coast.  These pioneers had left their homes, coming from England and Holland.  They had crossed the dangerous and uncharted Atlantic Ocean to arrive in this wilderness land.  Having arrived, why would anyone want to go five miles west.  They voted NO.  How quickly pioneers become settlers.

 

It was natural for the Israelis to enjoy the success of battle.  That’s what we do.

For Israel—10 to 15 years passed by in this relaxed situation before God returns to inquire as to what has happened.

 

Joshua 13:1  “When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the LORD said to him, "You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.” 

            It’s funny, in earlier years, the promise of success and help meant the most to me.  Now I think about what is yet undone and unachieved.  They had been promised it all, but they were given only what they possessed.  God needed to remind them about the unconquered territory. 

 

God not only told them to get going, but he gave them a plan.

He said, “Divide the land for an inheritance among the tribes.”  Each group got part of the conquered territory, but also some of the unconquered.  I believe this is also God’s word to us.

In the early days I was the youngest minister on staff.  I chose older ministers because that was where I needed the most help and balancing out.  Don Galloway, Frank McCallister, Dwaine Braddy were all older than me.  Things have shifted a bit.  If I had hired Peter, Jay, Stuart, and Arron I would have had to go to the church nursery, and Lindsay wasn’t even born yet.

When we started, the goal was to have a program for every age.  Today, we have all the ages plus all sorts of other categories of human beings.  We have geographic and worship style divisions via branch churches.  We meet human needs by way of outreaches.

We still need to motivate the individual members to see themselves as responsible for the success of the church.  If everyone feels like they need to do their part by inviting people, and giving, and by seeking God’s blessing, then we have success.

 

            Unlike Moses, I have not had regrets about the people I have led except on a couple of occassions. Once we had completed our Missions Emphasis some 20 years ago and it seemed to me that nobody cared.  I told God if they weren’t interested I would do it myself if he asked me to.  Linda and I went to Guatemala for three days just to see what God might say. She got sick and God apparently had other things in mind because he didn’t say anything, so we stayed here. We have had better Missions Services since then.  The only other time was about 15 years ago on a Monday morning.  I had had it for some reason long since forgotten.  I heard about some job leading something, I can’t remember what, but I sent an application.  They responded, but by then Monday had passed and I never opened their letter.  Only once some 15 years ago, did I ever have a member suggest I should resign.  We’re still friends, but not as close as we were.

            In spite of such things, the task remains the same.  Enemies abound in the world but I am surrounded by the people of God. We just need to get people doing God’s work and we will win many great victories in the years ahead.