Getting Ready

Do you ever feel like you are in a rut? Do you ever feel like all that you’re doing is going through the motions? Everything just seems routine and there is no real excitement anymore. Maybe you feel like this at school, at home, with your friends, in your marriage, your job, or even at church. You just do it because that’s what you do.

Does it feel like that you are just going around in circles? Does it feel like you aren’t making any forward progress? It’s almost like you are playing the game of life and you get one of the cards that says go back five spaces. It’s like we just can’t seem to get out of the place we are.

I know that my job feels like that all I am doing is going through the motions anymore. I go up the same streets, up to the same houses, to the same mailboxes, with what seems like the same mail day after day. Most days, I’m just sort of on auto-pilot. I’m going through the motions.

Life can get that way. We find ourselves in routines. Tuesday is going to be pretty much the same as Monday. We’ll get up at the same time. Go through the same morning rituals before we get on with the day.

I want you to think back to the account of the Exodus. After the Israelites were liberated from Egypt and given the Law, they were disobedient to God and he did not allow them to enter the Promised Land for forty years. They wandered in the desert, in the wilderness for forty years. And God provided them with Manna. Every day except the Sabbath God would provide his manna for them to eat, to sustain themselves while they were in the desert.

They wandered for forty years and God was trying to teach them a lesson. He wanted them to understand that they could count on him, that they could depend on him for their daily needs. Six days a week they would get up and they would gather manna. He was providing their daily bread. But, can you imagine only having one choice for your meal every day for forty years?

What’s for breakfast? Manna. What’s for lunch? Manna. What’s for dinner? Manna. Do we have any snacks? Yeah, we have manna, manna, and more manna.

You want to talk about being in a rut, about going through the motions. They were stuck in the desert with only one item on the menu. I know some people that it would be okay for them as long as it was an item of their choice. They could live with no variety. They would be perfectly content. I know I wouldn’t be. The Israelites weren’t. But they were there because of their own disobedience and God wasn’t going to let them starve.

Over the next few Sundays were going to look at what it takes to get out of a rut, to help us quit going through the motions. I hope that we can learn how to quit going the motions not only in our lives but how we can quit going through the motions in spiritual lives and as a church. We are going to spend that time in Joshua chapters 3 and 4.

I need to set the scene before we start in chapter 3. The people, the Israelites, are in sight of the Promised Land. Moses, the man who had led the people out of bondage in Egypt had died and Joshua had been chosen by God to finally lead the people into the Promised Land. God repeatedly told Joshua to be strong and courageous because He was with him.

Joshua had sent the spies into Jericho and they were hidden by Rahab. When they came back they told Joshua that the Lord had surely given the whole land to them because all the people were melting in fear of them. They had one obstacle left before they began to take the cities that God had given them, the Jordan River.

That is where we are going to pick up the story, but before we do, let’s pray.

Pray!

Joshua 3:1–7 ESV

Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.” Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” And Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

The first thing that I want you to see, the first thing that we need to do in order to move forward:

Accept a Godly Leader

Before Moses had died, he had told the people that Joshua would lead them after he was gone. They even agreed to follow him.

At the end of chapter one, they agreed to follow Joshua:

Joshua 1:16–17 ESV

And they answered Joshua, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses!

It sounds good doesn’t it? We will do what you tell us do. We will go wherever you tell us to. We’ll follow you like we did Moses. Only make sure that God was with you like he was with Moses.

They even put a condition on their following. It is actually a good condition. They want a leader they can follow, one they can trust, but more importantly they want a leader that they know that God is with him. The church needs to make sure that when they choose leaders that they know that God is with them and is guiding them.

In Joshua 3:7, God tells Joshua,

7 The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

God will let his people know when they have a godly leader that they should follow. There should be no doubt that he is sent from God.

We need godly leaders in the church. Whether that is the pastor, the deacons, the Sunday School teachers, those people need to be committed to God, they need to be chosen by God, and they need to be obedient to God.

But we also need to have godly leaders outside of the church. We need them in our schools, our homes, our families, our workplaces, and our marriages.

If we are ever going to get of a rut, if we are ever going to quit going through the motions, we need to accept godly leaders.

Maybe today God is calling you to step up and be a leader. Maybe God has placed it on your heart to become a leader in this church. Is he calling you teach Sunday School, to take up more of a role in this church, to help move it forward and be obedient to the command of Jesus to make disciples.

Maybe God is putting it in your heart to step up to the plate in your school, your home, your family, your workplace, or your marriage and be a leader – to be a godly leader. We don’t just need godly leadership in this building. We complain that they are taking God out of our schools; we complain that this country is leaving God by the side of the road. And we let it happen. We just stood by and watched. Maybe it’s time to do something about it. But we never will without godly leaders.

And if we are willing to accept godly leaders, we better:

Be ready to follow

What does verse 3 tell us?

3 and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.

When you see the Ark of the Covenant moving, you need to get up and go after it. What was the ark? Was it a boat like Noah’s? It was a wooden box covered in gold and do you know what was inside it? No, it wasn’t just sand like in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It probably looked a lot like the chest that was depicted in the movie but the ark contained three things. It contained the stone tablets that were given to Moses, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and a jar of un-spoilt manna.

More importantly, the ark symbolized God’s presence with the people. The ark was placed in the tabernacle when they camped. It was where Moses would communicate with God. At this time, that was where God was actually present with his people. They carried him around in a box.

Yes, God had chosen a leader for them – Joshua. But God was the one who was really calling the shots. Joshua didn’t go first, the ark did. And when the ark moved, the people needed to get up and follow it because God was on the move.

4 Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.”

They were stay back two thousand cubits – that’s about a thousand yards or 900 meters. Ten football fields was the distance that they need to stay behind the Ark of the Covenant as it was carried forward. Why do you think that they were told that? Was it to keep them from the Lord? Was it to show respect? There were Levites carrying the ark. But the people needed to keep their distance. Why?

I think that God was trying to teach them an important lesson. Let me lead and you follow. I think he is trying to make them understand that he is choosing the direction that they go.

It’s like he told them not to try to go first and hope that he follows them. They would have gone in the direction that they wanted instead of the one God wanted. Why?

- Because you have never been this way before. God is telling them that they are going in a new direction. They are going someplace new. We aren’t going to travel down the same old roads that we have in the past. And so that you don’t get lost, you need to follow me. Let me go first and you follow after.

How often do we try to make God go in the direction that we want? We start pushing forward and we just assume that God is going to bless what we are doing. We think that if we say a quick prayer that he will make things work out the way that we want.

It doesn’t work that way. God wants us ready to follow him and when he moves, he wants us to move with him. Hebrews 11 says:

Hebrews 11:8

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Abraham went were God told him. He didn’t even know where it would lead him. He did it any. He did it by faith. He followed because of his faith.

Back where the people agreed to follow Joshua, think about what they said again.

Joshua 1:16–17 ESV

Now part of this, they should have left out. They say that they will obey just like they fully obeyed Moses. If you have ever read through the Exodus account, you might wonder about that. Were they fully obedient to Moses? Did they do everything that Moses told them to do?

There is a pretty good reason why a journey that should have only taken a few weeks wound up taking them forty years. They were not fully obedient. They did their own thing and it cost them forty years and not being allowed to enter the Promised Land.

In a way it makes me think that their idea of following was when it was going to be easy. When the times got tough, what did they do? They decided that they would have been better off staying in Egypt as slaves.

God wants us to be ready to follow even when it doesn’t look like it will easy. But there is one last thing and its found in verse 5. What did Joshua tell the people to do?

5 Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”

He says you need to consecrate yourselves.

Consecrate yourselves

Consecrate is a great word. It means: Separation of persons, utensils, buildings, or places from everyday secular uses for exclusive dedication to holy or sacred use.

Joshua says to sanctify yourself, consecrate yourselves - If we are to be of use to God, we need to separate ourselves from the ways of the world and dedicate them to Him. We need to become holy because he is holy.

For these people, it would have involved bathing, possibly washing their clothes. In a way, it was like they were washing the contamination of the world off of themselves.

But how do we consecrate ourselves? What can we do to set us apart from the everyday, from the secular ways that we live in?

Well, it is still a good idea for us to continue bathing and washing our clothes. That’s one of those good things that I’m going to encourage you to keep doing. More seriously:

The two most important in my mind are spending time in the Word and prayer. Do you want a deeper relationship with Christ? Do you want to help separate yourself? Spend time in God’s Word on a daily basis. It is so important and so many people neglect this. Make a commitment to spend time reading and thinking about God’s Word.

And Pray! I don’t mean just in the morning, or before a meal, or right before you go to sleep for the night. Make prayer an all-day thing. Talk to God all day long. Tell him how you feel. Ask for guidance. Ask for his will in your life. Don’t just use prayer to ask for things.

Start spending more time in the Word and prayer. Amazing things might even happen when you do. But there is something else I want you to see here:

And I love this verse, because there is such a great promise in it. If we accept a godly leader, if we are ready to follow, and if we consecrate ourselves, tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. He will do amazing things. But we need to get ready. We need to be prepared.

God is getting ready to move. He is ready to move in this church, in this community, and in your own life.

God is getting ready to move!

We better be ready. And you know what? Tomorrow he will do wonders among you. He will do amazing things because we are going to start moving forward and we better be ready to follow. He is going to take us to places we have never been before. We better be ready. He isn’t sitting still and he wants to lead us in the direction that he desires in order to fulfill his purpose.

We don’t have to be stuck in a rut. We don’t have to go through the motions anymore. God is ready to move and it’s up to us whether we are ready to follow or not.

Pray with me:

Lord I pray that we look to the future. I ask that you help us to be ready to follow when you move. Help us prepare for the wonders that will come when we are obedient to the call to follow you. Lord, lead this church in the way you desire. Lead this church forward. Lead us across the Jordan we face. Help us get out of a rut, help us stop going the motions. Lord, I pray that anyone who has never accepted your son as the savior makes that life-changing choice today. Lord I pray that you take these people and use them to build your kingdom up and in everything, let us bring you all the honor and glory. I ask this in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen.

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