It’s a blessing to be here again this morning. Many people believe that blessing means only
material things. If they get a nice car or money they believe they are blessed
but blessing means more than that.
Sometimes you can go through suffering but that is a blessing. E.g. a mother going through pain to give
birth.
Truly, life is so short. During this short period of time God gives to
us, there are a lot of challenges. Some
are physical others are spiritual, moral and sometimes psychological. No one will tell you that they have never
faced a challenge in their life. Challenges
have different degrees and we all think that the challenge we are facing is
harder than the challenge others are crossing.
When we cross a challenge we all say, “Oh God, why me?” but when we go
through a blessing we don’t say, “Oh God, why me?” We all want to grab it and enjoy it.
Joshuaua 5: 13-15, “Now when Joshuaua
was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a
drawn sword in his hand. Joshuaua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or
for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army
of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshuaua fell facedown to the ground in reverence,
and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” The
commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place
where you are standing is holy.” And Joshuaua did so.”
This verse sounds a little bit strange. Joshua was a servant of Moses. When Moses passed away, God told Joshua he
was now to become a leader to lead the people of Israel and take that big
role. That was a blessing wasn’t
it. God raises you up to become the
leader – lead my people. I’m sure Joshua
couldn’t stop smiling all night to be chosen to lead the people of God. God promised to walk by his side to fulfill
the mission. Joshua was happy. Everybody could salute and bow down in front
of him when he walked passed and they showed him they loved him. He walked pass them proudly. When he spoke, everybody listened to him.
You and I are leaders of our lives. When you grew up, God said you won’t be the
same anymore, you won’t be a child anymore but a mother of a family, a wife of
someone, you must become someone in your society, in your church, workplace etc. You were a little boy yesterday but I’m
taking you somewhere else, I’m raising you up.
You are not five years old anymore, I’m taking you to another step and
finally you become a leader who others will learn from.
During the week a someone was telling me about our
brother Hugh. A lady told me about this
man who runs every day and he is very strong although he is very old. I wondered how a person can measure another
person’s strength just by looking at them.
This lady told me that this man that she sees running has the courage to
push himself to run every day. People have seen this man running for hours, for
many miles. How many have seen him, we
don’t know. Those who see him every day,
they know him very well but Hugh does not know them. Whatever we are doing with God bringing us
up, people start to discover who we are.
They will say to Hugh, “I know who you are, I see you running everyday”.
Joshua was put up to the level where he was noticed by
everybody and this was a blessing. Now it
is the time for him as leader to organize an army to fight Jericho. We are the leaders of our own life, we make
the decisions in our life such as when we will eat, go to bed, take a walk etc. We who are the boss of our own life must take
that role of commander in chief of our own lives. Joshua was a commander and he was preparing
now to fight Jericho.
Jericho had a big wall surrounding the entire city
made of solid bricks or concrete. The
Israelites had no rockets or missles or bombs to break the wall. They would have had to climb ladders to get over
it which is very hard because you can’t tell what or who is on the other side
of the wall and they knew many soldiers would die.
Joshua believed he was blessed with leadership and had
strong army but he didn’t know how to cross this wall. He thought hard to find a way to get into the
city without losing people. Today you
have your family, friends, community and all those people can make a big wall
in your life. You talk to your child and
they don’t listen, there is a big wall.
You talk to your husband and he doesn’t want to listen, there is a big
wall. You talk with your family, your
friends and others in your community but they build a big wall to keep you out. The people God gave you are like a barrier
with a big fight. God told Joshua, he
would give him the city of Jericho but he is there now and doesn’t know how to
take it. The blessing started to become bitter.
Imagine someone giving you a car but no key. Or like this morning, our family faced this a
big battle because we couldn’t find the iron.
The clothes we prepared yesterday had to be changed all because someone
had borrowed the iron without letting us know.
We all felt in our hearts anger and we felt like killing the person who
took the iron. He took an iron without
thinking about us. You will always find
challenges along the way and those challenges will take you somewhere you never
dreamed of.
Joshua went outside the city to pray and have a
look. He started to examine the big wall
to find a solution of where the Israelites could go, what strategy to use, how
to climb, who will go first. He started
to think maybe some will die and how he would feel as a leader. Then Joshua saw this man with a sword in his
hand. Imagine you are going to fight an
enemy and you know the uniform of your people and suddenly a stranger standing
in front of you, you will think the person is the enemy because you don’t
recognize the uniform and you expect a salute but the person says nothing.
Joshua asked him, “Are you on our side or the side of the enemy?” He did not
recognize it was God.
Sometimes when the battle field is in front of us and
we are planning our attack, we start to tell God to choose whose side He is on,
mine or the enemy? We start to tell Him,
“Hear what they did against me?” and we ask Him, “Where are you God? Do
something? One time when I was a child
my cousin needed to go to the toilet so I did a whistle and she retaliated by
smacking me. I started to cry to my mum
but my mum said, “bring me the machete to cut off her head, is that what you
want, do you want me to kill her for you?”
sometimes your children will come to you and want you to be on your side
and to punish the other side. Sometimes
we as children of God, want God to take revenge for us. God will tell you clearly, I’m not on your
side or the other side.
That brings us back to Jesus who told us to love our
enemies and pray for them. That is the
first blessing. We tell God, “God look
at what I’m going through, look at all my problems, be on my side”. How will you feel when God says He is not on
your side? You will feel rejected and disappointed. Maybe we will ask ourselves, how can God say
He is not on my side when I gave my life to him? We have been given the role of commander of
the army of the Lord so we wonder why God is not on our side. We still have problems and challenges in
life. What is the role of the
commander? It is to command which does
not mean to negotiate it means when God says to “do this”, you have to
immediately do what you are asked. There
is no time to ask questions.
When the commander of the Lord came to Joshua, maybe
Joshua thought, “But God says I’m the commander in chief. Who is commanding who?” Sometimes in your
life you believe you are in charge but God pushes you aside and he puts Himself
in charge. We try to stay in charge but God
says no, I’m the one who is going to do something here. We might complain, “O God, what type of
husband have You given to me?” or “What kind of child have You given me?” or “Oh
my God this situation again”.
For example, you can teach your child multiplication
day after day after day and you put so much effort and struggle so they can
learn but after two years they still can’t multiply 2x2. You try your best but they fail it
again. Or you ask someone nicely, can
you please do this and they turn up the volume of the television or they walk
out and you start to ask God, “God, did you really give me this husband? They
don’t really fit with me. Everything I
want they don’t do what I want. You
promised me God that I would be here to help them but they don’t accept
anything from me”.
Continuing with the story of Joshua, God told Joshua in
chapter 6 that the whole of Israel must walk around the wall, “Go tomorrow
around the city of Jericho”. How long
would it take us to walk around the city of Hamilton? A long time.
They were to keep silent with seven priests with trumpets. Next morning, go again. Third day…how will we feel? Maybe they started to think, “God You can
find a solution immediately, why are You taking so long. We are tired of
waiting”. These people who were
motivated on the first, second even third day will lose their motivation after
the fourth and fifth day and yet they are told to walk again on the sixth day,
around the whole city. Then, on the last
day, instead of going once they have to go around 7 times. Maybe they thought “What are you thinking God,
are you thinking of me? It’s foolish,
crazy”. God told them, “That is what you
have to do?” Was it a blessing or a punishment?
Sometimes you are asking God to solve a situation but God
takes you around and around until you feel disappointed. I once asked something from God but I didn’t
get it until 11 years later and by the time I received it, I didn’t need it
anymore.
After the 7th time walking around the city,
they were told to shout after all this time of not talking. Now you see the glory of God. The commander is fighting. God doesn’t need your thoughts or skills or
power to change the situation when He uses you.
Your skills or power are nothing without you. You can have children without you being a mother. To be a mother means to have responsibilities
and know the role of the mother. Dogs
can give birth to puppies and when someone takes their puppies away, they forget
about them after a few days. If a mother
loses their child, they will never forget them and will go everywhere to find
them.
The blessing of Joshua was in front of the door. Maybe if I was Joshua I would consult with
others before doing what God asked of me.
Maybe I would tell them the story of this man who said he was not on our
side or on the side of the enemy and he proclaimed to be the commander of the Lord
but he had no army. Maybe I would ask
for their advice since the man gave no proof of being the commander of the Lord’s
army. Sometimes God will tell you the solution
to your problem by coming to you as a simple person. Sometimes God sends you someone that you
don’t believe is the solution to your problem.
It could be your children or neighbors or friends who bring a solution
but we are not sure they could be the answer.
Joshua was told, “The place you stand is holy”. Can a battle field really be a holy
place? It doesn’t seem possible. The holy place for me is church or where we
offer sacrifices. The situation you are
crossing is the holy place because God is in the midst of that situation, no
matter how bad or tough it is, God’s presence is there. It is not for you to tell God what to do but
for God to act.
God can solve the problem with a new strategy and you
don’t even have to fight. Maybe Joshua
thought (and sometimes us also), “I have an army and I’m trained, I want to see
blood” but God says, “That is not what I want”.
We hold our heads in our hands and say, “I’ve tried this and that but
nothing works” and God tells you to walk around in silence and God will work.
Psalms 1:1-2: “Blessed is the
one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night”.
or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night”.
Blessed are those who do not get together with the
counsel of the wicked. When we have
problems, we run towards people and ask for advice. I remember when I was a child, I couldn’t
memorise all of the citation that was given to me to recite in front of the
class. The advice I got was to smoke marijuana and I was only 7 years old.
Sometimes we go to the wrong people to get advice. Once you are with the wrong person you will
get wrong advice and then you will be discouraged to do what you should. Once you have a bad advice, you keep it and
believe it will be fine.
How often do we take our burdens to our family or
friends and put God aside? Will that
advice bring a better solution? We can
ask others for assistance but we have to pray first to know who we should speak
to and ask God for a solution from that person.
If you want to be blessed:
- Put aside
the counsel of wicked people. Don’t
live according to their way of living, don’t try to imitate them. If the world is wearing a hat, you don’t
also have to wear a hat. E.g. this
person used his cellphone to read a bible so that others won’t know he was
reading the bible. Sometimes we try
to look like them, to fit ourselves in their lives. God says if you are ashamed of me, then
I was also be ashamed of you.
- Don’t stand
in the way of the way of sinners.
We should not live like them.
E.g. some will tell you that they are going to nightclubs to make
lots of friends so they can bring them to Jesus but while there they drink
they slowly, slowly lose their salvation.
Be far away from danger.
Joseph ran far away from Potiphar’s wife. There were many advantages for Joseph if
had accepted that women plus she was attractive but he saw the danger and
ran.
- Don’t sit
in the seat of scoffers. Scoffers
are people that are just different when they make a decision. For eg, I use to write comments on-line. Some people’s comments are not good such
as “go to hell” and their message is bitter for no reason. E.g. Saul wanted to kill David for no
reason. These people have negative
thoughts with no intelligence. Scoffers don’t accept other people’s point
of views, you are wrong no matter what you say. These kinds of people only talk
negatively about others. We have people in our communities like that, full
of bitterness and destroying wherever they go. We should avoid these
people. Ange can tell you she has a
problem with Annette and in comes peter and tells ange negative words
about Annette. We should avoid
those kinds of people.
God told Joshua he was chosen. Why were others not chosen? God chose you for a good reason, to be the
wife of the one you have and the mother of the children you have. How many walls do you have between you and
your family? How many battles do you have
per day?
I was telling a friend recently, you should give your
life back to Jesus. He answered, “But I
do”. I said, “No you don’t because the
life you live doesn’t reflect the life of the one that the Creator gave to you”. He answered, “maybe when I’m 90, I will”. I told him many young people die and they
have to stand in front of their God. For
me it was a battle, he doesn’t want to listen, to follow Jesus, he doesn’t care
about his soul. God is standing there in
the battle field and God tells you that He is not on either side but continue
to pray and do what you should do. For
how long? Should I give up? That is the way God works especially with
those he loves the most. If he takes
very long to respond, that means He loves you the most.
A good parent will not give everything to their
child. A mother that gives everything
the child asks does not love the child
because the child will learn wrongly and things will turn bad one day.
You are not alone in your battlefield, God is standing
next to you giving you new strategies and that is a blessing. Avoid those that can mislead you and avoid
scoffers. It is time to remember that
although I’m crossing this problem, God will deliver me from it.
