We have not passed this way before

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 31 MAY 2020 am

JOSHUA 3 VERSES 1 - 6

"for ye have not passed this way heretofore."

March 2020 changed a lot of things for us with COVID 19.  The way we work, shop, worship and meeting and greeting our families.  It has plunged many into the depths of sorrow with death.  There is one certainty in this day and age - God does not change.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  In this passage we read there is a blessing ahead on the other side of the river.

A route to follow.  God had delivered these people from the bondage of Egypt.  Day by day the taskmasters had put so much pressure on the children of Israel.  They got on their knees and cried unto God.  God heard their prayers and seen their afflictions and he told them "now I have come down to deliver you."  We need to be doing the same today - crying unto God that he would hear and answer our prayers.  Plagues were sent on Egypt but Pharaoh hardened his heart day after day.  He hardened his heart against Moses, against the Children of Israel and against God himself.  Are you hardening your heart today?  On the night of the last plague the Israelites were told to take a little lamb and kill it.  To apply the blood using hyssop to the doorposts.  God said when he saw the blood he would pass over and the firstborn in the house would be saved.  The Lord was the firstborn of heaven and he came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost.  He died on Calvary for you and I.  What a great sacrifice he has made for us.  Joshua had brought these people to the brink of the Jordan river.  There were days of uncertainty ahead.  Joshua did not depend on his own ability but God`s srength to lead the people and guide them into the Promised Land.

A request that comes.  Verse 3 "then shall ye remove from your place."  They were a people resting.  They had come to the brink of God`s blessing and had stopped.  Maybe you have stopped, you feel it is too difficult to take that step of blessing.  Do not settle outside of the blessing of God today  God will come to you and do the rest.  Don`t just settle this morning.  God has a task for each of us today.  Joshua was saying to the people "it is time for a change".  They had to leave the place they were encamped in and receive the blessing of God.  Think of Elijah before king Ahab.  Elijah told him that God had spoken and there would be no rain for 3 1/2 years.  Elijah turned from Ahab and walked out of the palace.  God spoke to Elijah and told him to go to the brook Cherith and there the ravens would feed him day by day.  He is living in the place of blessing.  As he looks up to the heavens he sees the ravens bringing him meat each day.  Are you living in that place of blessing?  When the ark of the covenant was present in the midst of the people then God was there with them.  In verse 5 Joshua tells the people to "sanctify" themselves.  Deuteronomy 2 verse 3 "ye have encompassed this mountain long enough."

The responsibility to be shared.  Joshua told the people to keep their eyes on the ark of the covenant.  It is our responsibility to keep our eyes on God in these days.  This was all down to the will and word of God.  The way would be uncertain for them.  God would take care of that.  God was asking something new of them.  Nothing had happened like this before.  Think of David the king of Israel.  How quickly things changed in his life.  He was leading his 200 men back to Ziglag.  They got to the top of the hill, could see the smoke ascending, could smell the burning, did not hear the noise of children, could not see their wives.  The whole village was deserted.  The people had been carried away by the enemy.  The men wept until they could weep no more, such was their sorrow and sadness.  The men looked at David and blamed him for what had happened.  David was in such a state.  The men were about to stone him.  David lifted up his eyes to God and encouraged himself in the Lord.  Maybe you need to look to God today, to lift your eyes off the dark tunnel you are in.  This is a way that is strange to us - will we get our eyes on the Lord?

The rejoicing that is in sight.   Joshua told the people to keep their distance from the ark.  We dare not allow anything to come into our lives that would take our eyes off the Lord Jesus today.  Some things have perhaps distracted us over the past number of weeks through our situations and problems but we should lift our eyes to the Lord and encourage ourselves in him.  There is blessing before us.  Maybe you are not saved, today finds you still in your sin, you have never come to the cross of Calvary.  You do not know what it is like to plead for God to save you from your sin.  You can look away today to Christ, admit you are a sinner, ask the Lord into your heart.  The Lord will save if you come.  Do not live on an empty profession.