Psalm 127 / Joshua 1
It was 5 years ago earlier this month that Jade and I left the Student Ministry that we had led for 11 years. When we looked around at our lives, it didn’t make sense for us to leave. Simple human reason would have told us to stay and continue on. But, the Lord had other plans. The way that we tried to explain it to our church family was by using the story of the call of Abram.
Genesis 12:1 says, “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” In verses 2 and 3 we see a specific promise made to Abram, to make him a great nation, a blessed nation. And right after God spoke to him, in verse 4 we see, “so, Abram went, as the Lord had told him.” And we kind of felt like that was what God was doing for us. We didn’t know where we were going, but we knew that God called us to go, and so we went.
And now, 5 years after that call, I look around this room and I see what the Lord has done. I look around the room and I see what the Lord is doing, and I stand on this stage anticipating what the Lord is going to continue to do. Today is a celebration, a bittersweet celebration. One chapter of our church’s story closes, as a new one begins. And so, I want to encourage us with a few things to take with us as we go.
You know it’s easy to get excited at the main reason for us having to move. Week in and week out I see the line of children grow longer as they get ready to walk through that door to learn about Jesus. And it’s easy to get excited about the number of men that are involved in our Men’s Discipleship Groups, or how many City Groups we now have, or how many potential Deacons will be on our team, or the new staff we are hiring, or the financial health that we have experienced. And listen, we should be excited about these things. These things are marks of a healthy, growing and vibrant church.
But I want us to be careful. Over the last 2 message series, in Daniel, and now in 1st Corinthians, we’ve seen both authors write about how important it is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus; how important it is to have proper perspective on our lives as Christians in relation to the Lord. Go ahead and turn over to Psalm 127. Read Psalm 127:1
This is the Lord’s Work
A. The Lord Builds His Church (1a)
We must understand that what has happened here at Family Church over the last 3 years has been a result of the Lord making it happen. We can follow all the books, and all the templates, and all the marketing strategies. We can do everything that church growth strategists tell us to do, but if God is not behind the work, then everything we are building here is in vain. It is a non-negotiable for us to keep the glory of God as the motivation for everything we do, to rely fully on Him to provide the laborers, to be a people of faith that He will build His church.
We’ve been talking the last few weeks about spiritual gifts, and how it takes every part of the body to ensure a healthy church. This is essential, but if we miss the point of why we utilize our gifts, then we aren’t really functioning as the Lord would want. Remember Paul said, the reason we need to get this right is so that “they” might be saved. We work, and exercise the gifts so that God would be glorified and so that the world might be saved.
This is our desperate plea to the Lord, “Lord use us as a church family to bring the gospel into the homes and lives of those who need it, for your glory so that they might be saved.”
Look back at the 2nd part of verse 1 in Psalm 127. “Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
2. The Lord Protects His People (1b)
While contextually this would have been talking about a literal city, the main point remains. The Lord provides ultimate protection for His people. The Lord protects our minds from the onslaught of moral confusion. The Lord protects our hearts from idolatry and a temptation towards vain pursuits. The Lord protects His church against the attempts of the enemy. Jesus tells us in Matthew 16 that upon Peter’s profession of faith, upon the truth of the gospel, the Lord will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. A more accurate translation would be the gates of Hades. In context, this would mean the realm of death, not necessarily a place called Hell.
And we often think of this as a defensive posture. We need to be ready because Satan and his army are coming. But Jesus uses the term gate, which is the entrance to Hades. It is the place where spiritual life and spiritual death meet. This would imply an offensive by the armies of the Lord. This would imply that the people of God are called to take ground from the enemy. This would imply that we, as the people of God, are called to storm the gates of spiritual death. Death and Hades will not prevail against the gospel!
Listen, I need to tell you guys something. In our move next week, I believe that we are entering new territory with the gospel. I really believe that. We visited the school for the 2nd time a couple of months back, and when I was leaving I just had this weighty feeling that something had a hold on that school. I heard from parents and students who had gone there that there is a dark culture there, a culture of pride and openness to certain cultural issues that we would disagree with. And I just had this sense that God was moving us there to take ground from the enemy with the gospel. And I don’t mean for this to sound like a sequel to Braveheart or anything, but then I get a text from one of our members last weekend, and here’s what he said:
“I think it would be a good idea to pray over Apex Friendship High School before we move in. Pray against what made the previous church have to downsize. Pray for the Spirit of the Lord to bless the building and drive out any spirits that remain that don’t glorify him. Conduct some spiritual warfare against whatever happened to the previous church seeing that we are moving right in behind them.”
And I took this as the Lord confirming what I had felt that day we visited. The Spirit is prompting others in our church family to look at this move as an opportunity to shine light into the darkness, to bring hope to the hopeless, to see the glory of God go forth so that they might be saved.
With that said, I want to just share a bit of biblical history before I offer up one more verse of encouragement:
Historical Context
The covenant that God made with Abram included land. It’s believed that this took place around 2100 BC. A couple hundred years later, Jacob, also known as Israel, and his sons, end up settling in Egypt. They were there for 430 years, most of which was under brutal and oppressive enslavement. Somewhere around 1450 BC, the people of Israel were freed from Egyptian slavery, and began a 40 year wandering in the wilderness on their way to Canaan.
During their wandering, Israel struggled to trust the Lord, and had moments of rebellion. God punished the people with the 40 years of wandering, until the generation of unbelief had died.
Now, in Joshua chapter 1, Israel stands on the precipice of the promise. Right across the river from where they stand is the land that God had promised to Abraham 700 years earlier.
In the first chapter of Joshua, in just the first 9 verses, the Lord tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous” 3 times.
Read Joshua 1:1-9
Be strong and courageous in…
A. The Lord’s Presence (5-6, 9)
Jesus said in Matthew 18:20 that where 2 or 3 are gathered in His name, there He will be. When we gather together, we know that the Lord is present. When we move to a new location next week, and we gather together, we know that the Lord is present. And we hold true to the promises that the Lord made to Joshua, “I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.” We believe that to be true. We believe that the Lord has had His hand on this church since the beginning. We believe that as we remain faithful to Him, He will continue to have His hand on this church. But, I also believe we need to heed the warning that He gives Joshua as well.
B. Obedience to the Lord (7-8)
“Being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.” Now, we are not living under the Mosaic Law, but we are under a New Covenant enacted by the blood of Jesus. We live under the law of grace, but even so, we have been given a blueprint for how to live. We are careful, then, to live according to the Scriptures. We do not turn from them, to the right or to the left. We are laser-focused on Jesus. And I really believe that if we can stay right in that lane, that lane of faithfulness, of obedience, of complete dependence on the Lord for the growth of His church, He will continue to do incredible things in our midst.
Application
And so we close this chapter and step into a new one, I want to do it in the same way that we began. I want us to spend just a few moments praying together. We’ve done a lot of praying this morning, and we still aren’t done. But as we look forward to what’s next, we must continually cover it in prayer. And I love that our last Sunday here at Family Church is a Family Sunday with our kids here with us.
Small Group Prayer Time:
* Pray for the new space. Pray against spiritual oppression. Pray for Family Church to remain steadfast in truth. Pray that the Lord would open doors for gospel influence. Let’s just pray for this next season, that the Lord would continue to do what only He can do.
