Sermon Tone Analysis

Message

Repeat after me: CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY!!!

Every now and then, certain moments happen in our lives when one season ends and a new one begins, and our lives change forever.

Graduations

Weddings

Funerals

Baptism

Job Changes

Relocations

Birth of a child

One such moment happened for me in September 2006 when I officially began my preparation for ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary, which required me to move there for full time study.

All of us in my family felt excited, nervous, sad, and solemn…

You know that feeling when you want to say a million things and nothing all at once? That’s how we felt.

On the day of my move, I woke up at 5am.

I didn’t sleep much.

I looked over my road map, when we still used those, ate some breakfast, and then I awoke my mom to leave.

She walked me to the front step of our house.

I turned to her and told her I loved her.

She told me that she loved me, and then we embraced for a long while.

Then, as I turned to leave, she stopped me and said, “Ryan, listen, I want you to know that I love you, I want you to know that I believe in you, and whatever happens, I want you to know that God will be with you.”

In a word, my mom reminded me of who I am and whose I am.

(Pause)

No other moment in history did these identity-infusing words mean more than the moment when Israel, the very people of God, entered into their promised land.

In Joshua chapter 5, there they stood for the first time on the west side of the Jordan River, on the promised side of their land.

Now, 470 years prior to this moment, God entered into a promise relationship with a man named Abraham, as recorded in Genesis chapter 12. God blessed Abraham and made a promise to him that his ancestors would become a great nation, and through that nation on this promised land, God promised to bless the world.

Now for the first time in history, 470 years later, about two million people, historians estimate, stood with their feet firmly planted on their rightful land.

But make no mistake: though they were the people of the promise, Israel’s identity was a disgraced slave identity.

During those 470 years in between the calling of Abraham and this moment, Israel lived in slavery for 400 of those years and then wandered in the wilderness for another 40 years because of their disobedience.

But now here they stood on their threshold eager to receive God’s blessing... for the sake of the world.

Poised and ready to receive their land.

The people in the land feared Israel because they saw the waters of the Jordan part and an entire nation walk through on dry ground.

[[[That’s called the ultimate intimidation factor… can you imagine seeing the waters split and then watching an army of people come to take back what rightfully belongs to them from you? Ugh, here you go...]]]

In fact, Joshua wrote of the Kings in the land: their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

This was Israel’s moment.

470 years in the making.

Do you feel the anticipation and the energy?

Take the land.

“Ain't No Stoppin Us Now! We're on the move!”

That is, until, the Lord stopped them, right on the threshold of their promised land and made the most unusual request that none of them ever expected.

“At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise this second generation of Israelites.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the entire male population of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

At the precise moment for battle, God halted the fighting men, and here’s why:

4 Joshua had to circumcise them because all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died in the wilderness.

5 Those who left Egypt had all been circumcised, but none of those born after the Exodus, during the years in the wilderness, had been circumcised.

6 The Israelites had traveled in the wilderness for forty years until all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died.

For they had disobeyed the Lord, and the Lord vowed he would not let them enter the land he had sworn to give us—a land flowing with milk and honey.

7 So Joshua circumcised their sons—those who had grown up to take their fathers’ places—for they had not been circumcised on the way to the Promised Land.

8 After all the males had been circumcised, they rested in the camp until they were healed.

Important to note here, here’s how Israel disobeyed: The book of Numbers chapter 13 recorded when Moses sent the 12 spies, among them included Caleb and Joshua, to scout the Promised Land and bring back a report about the land and its inhabitants.

Each of the spies, except for Caleb and Joshua, stated in their reports that the people in the land were too big, strong, and fierce to conquer, even though the Israelites had something that they didn’t: they had God on their side.

As a result of their report, God punished their disobedience by making them wander 1 year for each day they spied on the land, which amounted to 40 years.

Not one single person from that generation, except for Caleb and Joshua, entered into the land.

And though God still provided food by day and protection at night for the nation, they did not receive their promise, and thus they did not celebrate the Passover feast nor practice circumcision until after they entered into the land.

9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt.”

So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.

Which means, ‘to roll.’

Friends, do not miss the significance of what God did in this moment: 470 years of generational memory, “I’m a slave and nothing more,” rolled away [[snap finger]] in a single act of obedient faith.

On their threshold of promise, the very doorstep of their rightful land, at their most opportune moment to attack, God held them back in order to say, “***Remember whose you are.”

Remember who you belong to.

Remember who I am, the God who restores and sets free the slave heart and intends to bless the world through you.

Circumcision reminded every man who his body, mind, soul, and spirit belonged to.

Now, understand the flipside to this: in order to follow through with this command, a man had to know in his mind and trust in his heart who he belonged to.

Every man who obeyed God’s command that day believed with his entire body, mind, heart, and soul who he beloned to, or why else would he follow through with such a painful act.

Listen, these men became unstuck from their own self-preservation that day in order to live most fully into their faith, calling, and receive their promised inheritance.

Which begs the question for all of us:

Are you fully devoted to your Savior?

Are you stuck in self-preservation?

Selfish ambition?

For all of those men who completed this act, the Word of God tells us that the Lord rolled away the shame and disappointment of their 470 year slave identity and restored them to righteousness!

How extraordinary!

God saw their obedient faith and richly rewarded them with eternity.

Do you feel stuck today?

Perhaps in old memories?

Listening to shame voices from your past, or replaying moments of failure?

Are you stuck in old ways, old identities?

Friends, Israel’s story is our story.

Our Heavenly Father has given us his son, Jesus, to roll away our shame, restore our wrongs back to right, and lift the burden of our guilt.

In fact, a stone was once rolled away, displaying an empty tomb and the power of our Savior who removed the guilt of our sin and the shame of our pasts.

Jesus offered his life for you and gave you His Spirit as the guarantee of your salvation.

***Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?

You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

The high price of the cross.

You don’t belong to yourself.

You can’t buy yourself back from the debt of sin that you owe God, but God in his grace, God in his mercy, God in his generosity, bought you back and made you his own and his heir to the promise of eternity as his royal son or daughter in the kingdom.

Friends, this is good news.

Also good news, we don’t practice circumcision as a faith marker anymore.

Amen!? Rather, as the Apostle Paul wrote:

True circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit.

And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.

Romans 2:29

Now, that same mark of the covenant back then is produced by the Holy Spirit on the heart for all of those who place their trust in Christ.

When you first believed, you received the Holy Spirit who marked your heart to indicate that this heart forever belongs to the true King, your Heavenly Father.

No shame.

No scorecard.

Only grace, only mercy, only forgiveness; just come to Jesus for salvation, and receive his Holy Spirit as your guarantee.

The Holy Spirit’s work cuts out our old stuck sinful ways and transplants them with God’s goodness and righteousness.

In Christ, our hearts and minds continually become renewed!

Now, the way to show this inward mark outwardly is through baptism.

At the end of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus calls for all ***to believe and be baptized.

Baptism symbolizes your surrender to Jesus.