Pt. 4 Lies of the Devil - Faith is a private issue

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome to God’s living room,

Think of a couple of significant events that have happened in your life. Share one or two of those with someone sitting next to you. One of the most significant events in our life is the day we spoke our first word. We probably don’t remember it, unless our parents happened to have a video camera running at that very second. But from that day forward we have been speaking ever since. And for some of you, I mean you have been speaking ever since. (Me too!) Today we are continuing our series Five Lies of the Devil. And a lot of us have grown up under the impression that our faith is a very personal issue but guess what. When Jesus says in Matthew 5:14-16 14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. When he says you, meaning you and me, and when he says world he is eliminating the idea that faith is simply a personal thing. It is a world thing, a global thing, a universe thing, a thing for everyone to see. So don’t try to hide behind the excuse that my faith is personal. That balloon is never going to get off the ground. In Romans 10 we are told The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. You and I don’t have to be extraordinary to tell others about Jesus.

In Joshua 5: 13 it says, Now when Joshua was near Jericho, The first time we meet Joshua, he is just an ordinary guy. The only thing that separated Josh from his peers, and I want you to get this, the only thing that separated Josh form his peers is that he believed that God was really big and that God could do what he said he could do! The town of Jericho is important, maybe you remember Jericho it was the town where Joshua and the Israelites had their first major battle as they were entering the Promised Land. Jericho is the town where the walls came tumbling down after all the armed men marched around once on day 1, once on day two, and so on until day seven when they marched around the city seven times and the trumpets blasted and the walls came crashing down and the armed men came in and took the city. It was at Jericho that God moved Joshua to the forefront. It was here that the people started to say of Joshua, “that man follows God. That man is the real deal.” I want you to know that I think some of us today are at our Jericho’s. We know we have eternal life, God gave us faith. But some of us are ready today to reach out and have abundant life. If we want to go to the next level we have to have recognition.

Now when Joshua was near Jericho he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"When Joshua saw the man standing with his sword drawn there was no mistaking what this man was up to. Joshua understood that this man was ready to fight. And Joshua goes up to the man and says, Are you for us or for our enemies. Because if you are for us, put your sword back in its sheath and get in line over there. And if you are against us, I’m going to whip you right here and right now. So this is not a couple of middle school age boys pushing and shoving each other saying, “you wanna fight?” The problem was Joshua didn’t understand who he was talking to. Has that ever happened to you? You are speaking to someone but you really don’t know who they are?

Verse 14 the man replies to the question of whose side are you on, "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." If you don’t know let me tell you who the commander of the army of the LORD is: It’s Jesus. This is one of those DOE moments in scripture. Joshua didn’t realize who he was talking to and so what he ended up doing was trying to give orders to God. So Jesus says, Joshua, I’m on neither side. I’m not on anybody’s side. Could it be that we are like Joshua spending way too much time telling Jesus what he should do or telling Jesus what he shouldn’t do? Could it be that we spend more time asking him for a job, a date, or to follow my agenda than we do worshiping him as Savior? Could it be that we spending more time asking God to the Brewers or the Packers or the Bucks win that we do worshiping him as Savior? If so, that’s a problem.

We must not fail to recognize him. Jesus is an aggressor. He isn’t some weak Savior. He isn’t safe. He isn’t small. He doesn’t need a reassuring hug from us that he is going to be ok. He is the Lord. He is the Savior of the world. He reigns. He is God for us to be on his side not the other way around.

Submission - when we recognize who Jesus is we have no problem submitting to him to his will. When we see him as he really is submission is easy. The reason we have problems and questions about the whole submission thing is because we don’t see him as he really is. When Joshua recognized who Jesus was scripture says, Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?" His demeanor changed. He was no longer in charge. What message do you have for me? What is it that you want? I will follow you no matter what. You tell me what to do and I will start doing it now. I belong to you. I trust you. Just tell me and I am good to go. How about us as individuals, are we completely submitting to Jesus? Or is there an area or two in our lives that we are holding back (money, mouth, sex, time)?

Jesus gives this command to Joshua, The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so. I don’t know about you but if God were to ask me to do this, I might be like, “really?” Is that all you want me to do? That seems foolish. I can do more than that? And let’s talk here Jesus. We are in the desert here and if I take off my sandals I might step on a rock and that would suck. Take off my shoes, there are snakes, and scorpions and spiders. If I take off my shoes I could get hurt. FEAR can keep you and me from submitting to God. Or maybe I might say, “take off my shoes, really? I mean have calluses on tips of my toes, and hair on my toes too. Nobody wants to see that. Jesus says, I know that’s PRIDE. Two reasons why you and I don’t obey Jesus in the small steps, FEAR and PRIDE. Fear and Pride. Fear and Pride.

Josh is ready to great and wonderful things for God but all God want shim to do is to take off his shoes. Jesus tells him why: If I can trust you to do something small, I can trust you to do something great. But if I can’t trust you to do something small how can I trust you to do something great. Jesus is telling Joshua, the only thing that is separating you and me is the soles of your shoes. And I want you to experience me even with the dirtiest part of your life. Take off your shoes. And Joshua did so. We have a public Savior. If you are afraid of being embarrassed then look at Jesus hanging naked on the cross for you. It wasn’t a private execution. Nor was it just for a handful of people that he died for. Staying private with our faith is not an option. Go ahead, I dare you to stare at a blood stained cross and say, “I’m too good for that.”

I know I’m not perfect. I want to have all the answers. I don’t ever want to mess up. I want to be all these things and probably for some wrong reasons. But I won’t be perfect this side of heaven nor will you. But Jesus is simply asking us to take off our shoes and to follow him. To share him, his love, his message, his peace, his comfort, his strength, his wisdom, his power with others because he wants us all to experience life with him too, even the dirty insecure parts.