JUNE 27, 2021 SUNDAY MESSAGE
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Transcription (Please disregard any errors):
Praise the Lord. Everybody. If you believe God for victory.
Let me hear your victory shout.
Let me hear your victory phrase. I gotta tell you the truth. That sounded like a phrase for people who hope they're going to win. That sounded like what you would say if you think you're going to win. But if you know that the battle belongs to the Lord and that he has already given you the victory. Come on, let's go in this morning. Give God some praise.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. You may be in the midst of that battle. And there's a song we used to sing that you don't have to wait till the battle is over. That you can shout right now. And in fact, if you praise God, he's going to send those people that you need in order for you to secure the victory. I'm excited to be here this morning. Good morning. And God bless you. There's a word from the Lord. Send the book of Joshua. Chapter number one. I'm so excited to be back to talk about this theme.
We're talking about community. We're talking about being devoted to God and to one another. So there's a text in Joshua chapter one that I think highlights those very principles. I want to thank God for my brother, my friend, Pastor Eric. Let's give God praise for him and his lovely wife, Emily. I think she just tipped out. Did she tip out? She's busy, man. She's got things. We thank God for the first family of common ground northeast. I do thank God for all of you here today.
For my lovely wife. Laurie, raise your hand so everybody will know the beauty of my life. Question. Anybody ready to fight? I think the answer is yes. Humor me. Anybody ready to fight?
Yeah.
Thank you so much. Let's go into battle with the Lord. Come on. Pray with me. Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you now that as Jonathan has so eloquently told us and he led us. And he told us that this battle does not belong to us. But it's the Lord and all over our society. We see so much that is broken and we don't have to look at the news. God, we can look in our houses and our relationships and so much needs your attention.
And I thank you this morning that the battle belongs to you. And that through your word, you have declared that we have a victory. And so, Father, it is in that that we are rejoicing this morning. I pray now that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart would be acceptable in your sight. Lord, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. And Amen. There's a word from the Lord and Joshua number one, do me a favor. Lift your cup up before the Lord.
Would you say, Fill my Cup, Lord, and let it overflow Joshua. Chapter One, beginning with verse ten, there's a word from the Lord. That kind of highlights the theme that we're on right now. So Joshua will order the offices of the people, go to the camp and tell the people, get your provisions ready. Get ready.
Three days from now.
You will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land. The Lord your God is giving you for your own. But to the Reubenites and Gaddites and half the tribe of Manasseh. Joshua said, remember the command that Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you after he said, The Lord, your
God will give you rest by giving you this land. So now your wives, your children and your livestock. They may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan. But all your fighting man, anybody ready to fight, all of your fighting men ready for battle, must cover, must cross over ahead of your fellow Israelites.
You are to help them until the Lord gives them rest, as he has done for you, until they, too, have taken possession of the land the Lord your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your
own land, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you eastward of the Jordan toward the sunrise. And then they answered, Joshua, whatever you have commanded us, we would do. And wherever you send us, we will go. A couple of years ago, I was watching news, and there had been this sizable earthquake in one part of our country in California.
I believe it was. And it had done so much damage and shaken the lives of so many people, their possessions, their houses were in ruin. And what happened? They showed people peeling out into the streets, coming out from the ruins, coming out from the Ashes, coming out from this devastation. And the initial thing that they wanted to do is that they wanted to check on one another. They wanted to see, was everybody all right? And today for a few minutes, I want to talk to somebody that's going through.
And you feel like those people that you're in an earthquake season and everything is shaking in your life. And you're not on steady ground. I came to tell you this morning just for a few minutes that it ain't over. That no matter what you're going through. And no matter what you're struggling through in your home and your marriage with your children, somebody rejoiced with me, that God does have the last say and it ain't over. It's not over. And then I watched the news when they came out.
And there was a key question that everybody was asking of their neighbors and of the people who had gone through this similar fight with them. And the key question is, this is everybody cool?
Hey, man, is everybody cool? Is everybody all right? Listen, I want to try that.
Would you just look at your neighbor and say, Are you alright?
Is everything cool? Are you alright?
Ask him.
Listen, is everything cool?
Y'all cool.
You all right? Cool. Meaning I know it's not optimal. I know what we just went through. I can't imagine that it's hunky Dory, but I just want to know, are you cool? And if you're cool from that place, we can work and things can get better.
When we share common experiences like an earthquake or some travesty or a pandemic. Then what happens is we have a commonness among us and we judge one another by what we're going through, not what we look like. Sometimes when these things come against us, they force us to know that men, in order to overcome this, we're all in the same boat. We're going to have to work together. We're going to have to fight together.
It requires a unified effort. It requires a unified front.
And that's what happened for the people in this community with this earthquake. And they realized that they had to fight together. But what happens when our circumstances are different when we don't have the same conditions, when we haven't been through the same thing, when our flights are not synonymous?
Are we willing to fight for people and for people whose conditions are different than ours? Well, we love you when you don't look like us, when you live somewhere that we've never been. And when our conditions don't align, do I still have the wherewithal to love you enough to fight for you? That's the question that's asked today is everybody okay.
Even if you don't look like me in our text today, we're introduced to Joshua, and Joshua is fresh off this big conversation with God, where God installs him as the leader of the Israelites, and God gives
him this assurance that wherever you go, I'm going to be with you and nobody's going to be able to overcome your efforts all the days of your life? Because just like I was with Moses, I'm going to be with you. Isn't that a great attribute, that God will not be better to anybody else than he is to us?
Somebody shout, yes.
I'm going to be with you, Moses, Joshua. But the people that you're taking over, that you're leading, you got to know something about them.
They're tired, they're weary, they're broken, they've been wandering and they're weary. And they've been so close.
But yet so far they've been living someplace in between the promises of God and possession. And when God makes us a promise. But there is an elongated amount of time in between what God has assured us is going to happen and our possession of it. You and I have a tendency to get weary.
So Joshua was taking over some weary people. And yet for some reason there's a confidence. And yet for some reason there's a boldness because in spite of all that they've been through, they believe that this is the time that God is ready to do it now. I know you wanted it to happen last week. I know you wanted it to happen last year, but somebody that's been waiting on God rejoice with me that now is the time. Come on, you can rejoice me.
Now is the time. God, I'm going to do it right now. And why does God know that he can do it right now?
Because the right people are in place.
He's put the right leader in place. Joshua, they were waiting on Joshua. Moses was awesome, but he didn't have this anointing. And you've got to understand that what God has called you to. It requires the right people.
And Joshua is the right leader, and not only Joshua, but there are some mighty men of Valor. There are some warriors. There are some soldiers, and they're going to be needed, and they have skills, and they have an ability that the masses do not have this group of warriors that God has put in place as well. I came to assure the Church that whenever you get to a place where God is ready to move, God is going to make sure that the right people are there. So they have to fight and we have to fight as well.
I want to stop right here. I got in a fight once. I want to tell the Church about my fight. I've only been in one fight in my life, and I'm proud to say I'm one and all, and I plan to keep it that way on one and all. Now, I don't want to advocate fighting because I know there are children in the room.
But I got to tell you about my one fight. I was in the fifth grade.
I want you to listen close because I'm going to test you.
And I had two friends.
One's name was Anthony Watkins. The other was David Baker, one of my friends names? Yes. So I'm cool with Anthony, and I'm cool with David. The problem is Anthony doesn't like David, and David doesn't like Anthony. So one day we're in the fifth grade. We're doing an assignment. And Ms. Flores, our teacher, she leaves the room.
And Anthony starts picking on David, and in fact, he's hitting him with pencils and he's fucking him, and he's dogging him. And so everybody's like, Chill man, why are you doing him that way?
So I stand up and I say, hey, man, you need to leave him alone, won't you? Chill, man, why are you messing with him?
Mess with you?
Leave him alone.
I'm going to cross the road. And so Anthony says to me, he says two things that all of us have to consider when we see injustice. The first thing he said to me, Kenneth, it ain't none of your business.
And I had to wrestle with that across the room because he wasn't hitting me. Was this my business?
Was it really my business? It wasn't happening to me.
But I had to wrestle. And I concluded that he was wrong, that if he was doing it in my eyesight, if he was doing it in my vicinity, if God had made me aware he was wrong, it was my business.
Then he asked me this other question that was so crazy. And I said, no, man, leave him alone. Chill. He got mad at me for intervening. He said, what you going to do about it. And that's when Church, I knew I was on the hook like that's the place of no return.
That when you see it. And you and I see injustice and you, as I see inequality and the fact that we've become aware of it, it also always asks us, yeah, but what are you going to do about it?
Knowing that it was my business.
I told him I'm going to come over there, and I'm going to do something with my foot. But I was woofing, right?
You know what I mean? Because he's bigger than me. And I was hoping that that was going to solve the problem. I said, I see a future destination for my foot, and it ain't going to be pleasant for you. And, man, I'm woofing, right?
But just saying it didn't get him to stop. So then there I am, man, standing up, walking to the middle of my fifth grade classroom, Anthony Watkins meets me in the middle of the class, and everybody puts their pencils down because it's about to go down. As I get to the middle of the class, I hear this voice. I didn't know the guy's name, but I could hear something in my spirit saying.
Ladies and gentlemen, sports fans around the world.
I heard that, man.
I heard that.
And then the thing went down, and I got in a fight. We got to the middle, and something rose up inside of me. I was so angry that I did it, man.
I never done it before.
I did it. I gave him a two piece man.
And then I jumped back because he's bigger than me. And I know it's coming. And just like that, the fight was over. He start crying.
Oh, shoot, I just won.
So later, when Ms. Flores came in the room, you know, that one person that no matter what happens, they're going to tell the teacher. And I hope you're not that person, right? So somebody tells Ms. Flores, and she counts the room down. And here's what happens. She says, Kenneth, I need to talk to you. I'm like, oh, shoot, I forgot about this part. There's a consequence to pay. So it's about 20ft between my desk and hers. And in that 20ft, me and God had this crazy conversation and something about a 40 day fast or something like that.
If he just don't tell my mother, like, 45 years from now, I'll preach a common ground northeast. I promise you I will. I promise you I will.
I'll do it now.
I'm going in there. I'm going in. So I get to her desk. She says, So you got in a fight. That shame voice, man. I was like, That's what you want to call it? I really don't think it was a fight. And she said something that I wasn't prepared for. She said, you know, you did the right thing, don't you? I'm like, Well, really, I did. She said, that guy is a bully, and you took up for somebody who couldn't fight for themselves. She said, Kenneth, I'm proud of you.
Like, this is sounding really good, and I'm almost buying in, but I'm thinking the other shoes going to drop. So I'm cautious. She says, Man, I'm really proud of you. And you should always take up for people. And when you see things are wrong, you should always get involved. So my fifth grade teacher gave me permission and in fact, commissioned me to always get involved. I noticed she wasn't giving me permission to use my hands, but she was telling me that I should always be willing to take up the cause of somebody else.
And that thing was birthing me in the fifth grade. That when it doesn't have to happen to me. But if I see it.
It is my business. Let me give you a couple of leadership perspectives, Joshua, and then I'm going to give you some points. And then I'm sitting down. Joshua is responsible for getting some people across two leadership perspectives that I think are key is that there are some things that the previous leader put in place, and he didn't have a big ego. He's cool with them staying intact. He says, whatever Moses told y'all, I'm not going to touch that, that the new leader doesn't have to come in and destroy everything he can build on the previous letter, what the previous leader did.
But the second thing that Joshua does that I think it's so key, Pastor Eric, is that the leader has to say it, that if the leader is not willing to use his voice and his words to lead us into higher levels, then he's no good as a leader or she's no good as a leader.
And in Joshua's case.
He uses his voice. And the voice of the leader establishes four areas in our lives. It shapes our perspectives. It establishes our precedents.
The leader's voice unveils our processes. And hopefully the leader's voice is prophetic. And that's what Joshua did. Joshua established a new perspective. He said, God said, Get ready. I know it's been crazy, but it's getting ready to change, and you got to get ready for the change. He put enthusiasm in the people because he told them to get ready for something that was going to be brand new or perspectives. He established a precedent that we're not cool unless everybody's cool, that if everybody hasn't walked into what God has for them, we're going to walk and fight with everybody.
It doesn't matter that some tribes are home and y'all chilling.
But you can't chill when everybody's not cool. Yes, that's just the process. How are we going to do it,
Joshua, we're going to fight. And in fact, you all are going to lead the battle, the people who have the most strength, and then the leader's voice is prophetic. He tells us what the outcomes are going to be. That if we love one another and we engage and we fight, then we're going to walk into a circumstance in a situation where everybody's going to be at rest. This is the outcome.
This is the envision. This is the goal. And this is how we get there. But at least the leader's voice has to be prophetic. I want to start right here, man, because I got a couple more points and then I'm done. I want to thank Pastor Eric for using his voice. I believe your voice is prophetic.
Bro.
I believe your voice breaks ground. I believe that your voice establishes perspective. I believe your voice has been used to unveil our precedents and where we should be. And there's no way we could be here unless you have used your voice. Man, I want to thank you for using your voice. Come on. Let's give God pray for the leader. Finally, man, as I close, here's what I think the text reveals and what God wants. Blessed people to know. Anybody in the room feel blessed. You feel blessed, pastor, what do I have to do to feel blessed?
You have to come to this understanding. It may not be what I want it to be. It may not be what it could be, but it ain't what it used to be. And I thank God for that. Here we go. Here's what God wants. Blessed people to know. Number one, you have to fight for people who may not be able to fight for themselves. That if you're a blessing. Here's the word of the Lord in Romans, he says, we who are strong, ought to bear the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.
That's number one, that God will put you in circumstances when you're blessed, where you are required to fight for people who cannot fight for themselves. Number two, you are positioned close to the hurting so you can help them. The reason that you become aware of somebody's plight is because that plight is ultimately going to ask you, what are you going to do about it? And sometimes the answer is nothing. But sometimes the answer is something, and you have to hear from God to know the difference.
The poor you always have with you is not an indictment on the poor. It's an opportunity for those of us who are not. Number three, there is no spiritual difference between you, the hurting and the broken. Paul says it like this in one Corinthians.
He says, but whatever I am now, it is because God poured out his special favor on me and not without results. But I have worked hard then the other Apostles. Yet it was not I. But it was God who was working through me by His Grace that there go, I except for Church, the Grace of God. It could be me.
I'm just one decision away from being that person because, you know, you were there too. And you did it too. You just didn't get caught. God had mercy.
God had Grace.
David said, if it had not been for the Lord who was on our side. Number four, you have to add your perspective and your power to the fight.
We need you. What has God given you that is supposed to be active in the fight? You're supposed to activate that if it's education.
It should be used to the good of the Kingdom, if it's money, if it's career, if it's resources, if you're in a strong relationship.
Something God has given everybody to join the fight. Number five, here's the big two, three. It's going to cost you something that you hold dear.
That when God calls you to help, when God lets you see it. And he said to the mighty men of Valor, in order to do this, you're going to have to leave your wives and your children. There's going to have to be a separation. There's going to have to be a shift because you've been called higher and you can't stay at the crib. You can't stay home. You can't stay in your comfortable place. I've called you to go across and fight. You've got to leave home.
You and I have to do something that's uncomfortable.
But it's our calling in life.
It is the thing that God has called us to.
And what else should we do? Accept the things that God has called us to.
The Bible says that God will give it back to us. Minifold number six, there won't always be anything in it for you personally. You just know it's the right thing to do. You see, when they went across and fault, they weren't going to stay there. They weren't fighting for one of their homes. They weren't fighting for personal land.
And in fact, when they got done, they went back home. There was nothing in it for them except to see the will of God be manifested except to see justice and equality play out and anything that I can do. So the will of God can play out.
That has to be good enough for me. It's not about me. It's about the role that I play and I'm being used to God. And finally, every time you see people who are treated unfairly through injustice, inequality, systemic practices, you're being asked, what are you going to do about it? Although some people will give you the Anthony Walken's line.
It's none of your business.
But then there will be a missed floors to come and clean. It up for you and say. Not only is it your business, it's your problem.
God has let you become aware of it so that you would fight. Here's what Joshua is counting on. As I close, Joshua is counting on one thing that the people who are blessed and who are at home will also have a burden for those who aren't. And in this way, I don't know if we got the word. He's hoping. Watch this Church that they're blessed. He's hoping that He's preaching to blessedinned people. Pastor, what is blessed? It is a sense of feeling personally blessed while also feeling burden for others.
I'm blessed that I know I'm blessed. But the more God blesses me, the bigger burden I have. That when I have a house and I have a car, I want this for everybody. That when I have good health care, that when I have equal quality and I'm living in and nobody talks me, it is not being okay. If nobody else has that, that the more God blesses me.
The more I want other people to be blessed.
The more God blesses me, the higher God takes me, the more people I want to take with me because I'm blessed. I'm blessed, but I never get so blessed that I forget where I came from.
I never get so blessed that I don't also have a burden for people who don't have what I have. Am I preaching to any blessing people in the house today?
Anybody here blessings that the more God blesses me, the more I want to be a blessing. I want to end like this. We have so much in our society that is pulling us apart. We're talking about
community and devotedness. But I know that that is the trick of the enemy. And I believe, Pastor Eric, that something's coming that this is the season. And yes, we wanted it last year. Yes, we wanted it before. But now God is saying, I'm ready. How do we know God is ready? Because he pushed the right people in place. And then when those people come together and they mess their ideas and everybody's a little comfortable, uncomfortable.
And everybody's out there.
But we're learning and we're growing. And if we can foster that atmosphere.
Then God says, I can do something special there. I can lift them. I can use them because they know it's not about them. I want to pray. I want to thank you for this opportunity. Come on, everybody, lift your hands. Let's pray. Every hand is lifted up before the Lord. I want to say, Lord, thank you. Would
you just help me say thank you? Come on. We can do it again. Father, I thank you. I thank you for this opportunity that we had to be here and hear this word and somebody's looking online and somebody will hear it later.
But that God. I thank you for great leadership. And I thank you for great opportunities that match our gifting, match our skills. Now, in God, we believe that the mighty men of Valor were training. And they were practicing all of those years for such a time as this. And God, we too have been being prepared for years, sometimes unbeknownst to us.
So that we can seize this opportunity so that we would be prepared for this day. And, God, we do not want to squander this opportunity. We want to go to the middle of our fifth grade class and handle our business. We want to be glorified. We believe that you have called us to this day.
And now, God, I pray for my brothers and sisters that whatever we have that can help usher in your will, that other people might also have God, we make ourselves available. And everybody here has their hands up. It's the universal sign of surrender.
God, we make ourselves available.
Would you use us.
Use our gifts, our talents, our skills.
And God, we will never again say that it's none of our business. And, God, we are asked by the circumstance what we're going to do about it. We're going to say whatever God Wills for me to do in this situation. God, would you bless common ground northeast, would you let there be a great move in this place? A great shifting, a great renewal, a great change that glorifies you. We believe it in Jesus name. Well, Amen and Amen. Come on, everybody. Let's give God. Pray.
COMMUNION:
(1 COR. 11:23B-26)
“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
SAVE THE DATE: The 2020 Marriage Retreat is scheduled to be Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and November 8!
PRAYER REQUESTS:
We are hosting prayer team meetings for both the congregation at large and individuals to sign up for individual prayer.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WORSHIP:
“Praise & Worship” Spotify playlist and “Praise & Worship” YouTube playlist (slightly different from each other), both of diverse music that are being constantly updated!
Bethel Music :
Bethel Music’s hours of live music YouTube Playlist, also being constantly updated
Bethel provides chords to most (if not all) of their songs here (just have to register email, but free!)
Live worship moments from the Upper Room YouTube Playlist
Journal writing! (I’m a writer too, so sometimes creative writing and writing my thoughts to God is my form of worship.)
Declare and worship with truth by singing and praying scriptures.
WORSHIP NIGHT! Dedicate a night to worship with friends and family, your house church or neighbors, those who need prayer, love worship, or just enjoy music through a video chat platform like Zoom. You can have one person leading at a time (switching off to whoever else wants to lead) while others sing along, pray, or prophesy, etc.
Serving your community, both online, in person, or both, is a great way to worship God, from spreading encouragement and God’s Word online to physically serving food to others. If you are able to go out and serve, click here for opportunities.
COMMISSIONING:
As Jesus said in John 20:21,
"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Go, be the Church!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.