"What is Expected of New Members - Be Biblical" - Joshua 8:30-35

"What is Expected of New Members - Be Biblical" -Joshua 8:30-35

Have you ever wanted to ask God a question and be able to know for sure what the answer was? You know, just sit down, face to face and ask Him something. Oh, sure, you want to know why something had to happen or why you were mistreated in first grade but I'm talking about asking God a practical question. Questions like these from school children:

Dear God, Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don't you just keep the ones you have?

Dear God, I am an American. What are you?

Dear God, If you watch in church on Sunday I will show you my new shoes.

Dear God, If you let the dinasar not get extinct we would not have a country. You did the right thing.

Dear God, Thank you for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy.

Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that ok?

How many times have you ever said to yourself, "If I were God, I would do things a little differently"? I know if you were God you would answer all those questions that those kids have and you would do this and you would do that. You would probably make your ways just a little higher than our ways and your thoughts just a little bit out of our reach, right? You would still be perfect but maybe not quite as perfect as this God is. That way you could still be in touch with the common man. And we appreciate that. But we are also glad that you are not God.

Because we want a God who is perfect in all His ways and able to know everything and be everywhere and have all power. I'm pretty comfortable with that myself. I've said before that if we could understand all of God's ways, He wouldn't be much of a God would He? Well, the good news is that God has made His ways known to us. He has made His will known to us. He has made our future known to us and it is all right here in this Bible.

It's interesting to think about what we would say to God if we were face to face but in His Word we have what He wants to say to us. Imagine being able to write a book that would answer every major question anyone ever had in the history of the world. Imagine having the thoughts and wishes of the Creator of the universe in written form that is accessible and easy to read. Sure, some of it can be difficult to understand but that is due to our lack of study rather than poor composition.

66 books written by 40-plus writers over the course of thousands of years. That's a recipe for disaster right there. There is no natural way that the Bible could have been written and come out at the end as this incredible manuscript that has changed lives and guided nations for thousands of years including many years in which it was only partly written! There is no natural way. The document that you hold in your hands is a supernatural book. It was written supernaturally and talks about things that are supernatural and has supernaturally survived as the inerrant Word of God for all these years.

　

Oh, it is still just as controversial as ever. In fact, just recently, a judge ruled May 8 that cheerleaders at a Southeast Texas high school can display banners emblazoned with Bible verses at football games. The Kountze school district had initially said the banners could not be displayed after receiving a complaint about them in September from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The foundation argued the banners violated the so-called First Amendment Establishment Clause that bars government — or publicly funded school districts in this case — from establishing or endorsing a religion.

What is it about this ancient book that just a few words from it are so threatening to people that they are willing to go to great personal expense to keep them from being seen? The Bible is under attack right here in the United States like this manuscript has not seen in hundreds of years and yet when the History Channel runs a miniseries about it, it is the highest rated thing on TV. What is it about this book that forces people to pay attention to it? Good or bad, people are paying attention to it.

In our passage this morning in the book of Joshua, we are going to look at a group of people who paid attention to the Word of God even before it was completely written. In fact, they took time out of a life and death situation, a series of battles the outcome of which would dictate the future of God's chosen people for thousands of generations to come. They took time out to read and meditate on the holy scripture and were blessed by God for doing so. Turn to Joshua 8:30-35 and let's continue to see what is expected of new members to our church.

We are in the 3rd of a 3-sermon series on what is expected of members. We started with Joshua 6 where we saw that we are to be warriors. In Joshua 7 it told us to be holy. And now in Joshua 8, we see that we are to be biblical. I believe this to be extremely timely for our church these days. We can see in the book of Joshua how the Israelites finally made it into the promised land; into the land where God intended them to be.

And just like the Hebrew people, Christ Fellowship has recently moved into the land where we are supposed to be and we have seen God bless and provide at every turn in ways that are almost as dramatic as He did for them. If you think about it, the Israelites struggled for a long time in their far-off land then spent some time in the wilderness and then overcame incredible obstacles to go into a land and take over an area that they did not build. And that was God's will.

This church struggled, overcame obstacles and now ministers and worships in a building we didn't build and nothing has ever been so obvious to me that it is God's will than this has. And while there were millions of them and not so many millions of us, I still see so many similarities and when I see that God blessed the Israelites for being warriors and being holy and being biblical, I know He will bless us as well. Look at Joshua 8:30-35.

30 Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel , 31 as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. 32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses. 33 All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal , as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel . 34 Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel , including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.

Let me tell you what’s going on here. Joshua and the Israelites have just crossed over into the Promised Land and they have hit the ground running. They immediately conquered Jericho and after a small setback they conquered Ai. And they are about to go on to the next city they need to conquer but they take a break. Joshua gathers all the people together. By this time, there had to be over 3 million people. But they gathered half of them on one side of a mountain and the other half on the other mountain.

I read that this was a very beautiful section of the country and that even today it makes something of an amphitheater. If somebody talks on one side of the mountain, you can hear it on the other mountain. And so Joshua stood in the valley next to the Ark of the Covenant and after making some sacrifices, he read what they had of the Bible, which at this point was just the books that Moses had written. It says he read the whole law; the blessings and the curses.

A story is told of a man who loved old books. He met an acquaintance who told him he had just thrown away a Bible that had been stored in the attic of his ancestral home for generations. "I couldn’t read it," the friend explained. "Somebody named Guten-something had printed it." "Not Gutenberg!" the book lover exclaimed in horror. "That Bible was one of the first books ever printed. Why, a copy just sold for over two million dollars!" His friend was unimpressed. "Mine wouldn’t have brought a dollar. Some fellow named Martin Luther had scribbled all over it in German.".

Some people appreciate what they have in these scriptures and some people don’t but unlike any other book anywhere, the Bible allows us to look back and see what to expect of God but also to look forward to see what God expects of us.

First, let’s look back to see what we can expect of God. We need to see that God never changes. Once we wrap our minds around that fact, everything else about God begins to be clearer because through these scriptures we can see God when He is pleased and when He is angry. And we can see how He reacts when He is pleased or angry.

In the Old Testament, Malachi 3:6, God says, "I the LORD do not change.” In the New Testament, James 1:17 says that God never changes. Rest assured that God still loves His creation passionately and wants to have a relationship with you just like He first did with Adam and Eve. But we as a church also have to realize that He hates sin and will punish it just as He did with the first church.

We can look back and see that God is all-powerful. He spoke the universe into existence. He parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to leave Egypt . He had a fish swallow Jonah. He made fire come down from Heaven for Elijah. He made an axe head float for Elisha. He gave a young boy the ability to kill a giant. And He sold the Runaway Bay property so we could be where we are supposed to be. God never changes and He is all-powerful.

We can also look back and expect God to be all-knowing. Psalm 147 says His knowledge has no limit. Isaiah 55:9 says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. Matthew 10:30 says, “But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” If God never changes and He is all-powerful and all-knowing then He knows our needs as a church and will provide.

One last thing about God that we can look back on and continue to expect from Him is His sovereignty. This can be hard for us to understand. How can God be sovereign and yet still give us free will? How can God’s overall will always be done even though we are sinful? Do you want to know the answer to that question? I do too. I don’t mind telling you I do not understand God’s ways even while I stand up here and preach about them. This is just another way that if we were to understand Him, He wouldn’t be much of a God.

But I can tell you that from the beginning of time, God’s overall will has been done. People have fought it. They have complained about it and they have denied it. But God’s Word teaches us that we can oppose it and suffer the consequences or we can be a part of it and be blessed. It’s our choice as a church.

Now, an astute listener would have their ears perked up at some of that last part. It should ring a bell with you when I talk about suffering consequences for disobedience and being blessed for obedience. Some people joke about how much I talk about the benefits of obedience and the consequences of disobedience. I even have a way of remembering it. I always say remember BOOCOD. Remember that there are benefits to obedience and consequences to disobedience but I am not the first to bring this up.

In fact, as a biblical church and as we start to look forward to what God expects of us I want to turn to the book of Deuteronomy. A little bit of research shows that when Joshua stood before the people in the valley that day to read from the book of the law, that part of what he read was this very passage. Let’s read Deut. 28:1-2. If you fully obey theLord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. ² All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.

Now slide over to verse 15: However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you.

God says BOOCOD. God says if you obey Him then you can be blessed as you partner in His will. But because He is sovereign, if you choose to disobey, then His will is still going to be done overall. You just miss out on the blessings. It’s pretty simple. It’s not always easy but it is pretty simple.

So, as a biblical member of a biblical church, the first thing to know is that God expects obedience. Once you wrap your mind around that everything else becomes clearer because we can see through these scriptures everything that God expects of us.

God expects us to be obedient and He also expects us to be unified. Do you remember that that is what Jesus prayed for believers? In John 17 when Jesus was praying He prayed that we would be unified. Why was that so important that Jesus would pray that? He didn’t pray that believers would be comfortable. He didn’t pray that we would not have pain or problems. He prayed that we would be one.

There was once a pastor who decided he was going to do something different for a change, so instead of a sermon, he gave everyone two sheets of paper. On one sheet, the heading read,“THE PROBLEM IN THIS CHURCH IS …” and on the other sheet, the heading read,“WHAT THIS CHURCH NEEDS IS …” He had them fill them out and hand them in. The next Sunday, he gave the results. On the sheet that listed the PROBLEMS, such things were listed as:
· Should not serve coffee in church
· Should serve more coffee in church
· Should have shorter sermons
· Should have longer sermons
· The music we have is terrible
· It’s terrible we don’t have more music like what we have

On the sheet with the heading of WHAT IS NEEDED, things were listed like:

· Need to spend money on more chairs
· We don’t need to spend any more money
· Pitch all the songs and start over
· We need a new preacher!

We can see the humor in that illustration, but there is something else we can see, too. We can see the unhappiness of those in the church. We can see the lack of unity as a body of Christians, and there is one more thing … we can see a church that has dropped the ball in its teachings, because nobody mentioned Jesus Christ. (Bruce Ball, SermonCentral)

Satan has split more churches over music and pews than anything else and it is because the people were not unified in their passion for leading people to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. That is our motto and our goal and we are unified behind that. And as a member of this church we expect that of you and that is what God expects of you also.

If I could have all my wishes granted for this church I wouldn’t wish for big numbers. I wouldn’t wish for a big, fat bank account. I would wish for a church that was filled with members who were courageous warriors like in Joshua 6. People who would admit that they were scared to death to do what God asked them to do but they do it anyway because they know God will provide.

I would wish for a church filled with people who were holy like in Joshua 7. People who only wanted more of God and were only scared of sin. I would want a church filled with biblical people like in Joshua 8. People who knew what to expect of God and knew what God expected of them.

God is at work in this community but so is Satan. And Satan is scared of this church, mark my words. He’s not scared of us, per say, but he is scared of what we are able to do through Christ Who strengthens us. And he wants us to be more concerned with the style of music and committees and who’s mowing the grass than on people’s eternities.

But God has told us in His Word what to expect of Him and what He expects of us but He also tells us about our future and the future of the evil one. And Satan knows what is in there so he’s mad. Just make sure you know what’s in there.