Steven Furtick - Closing The Loop (10/31/2018)
In Joshua 24, Joshua gathers Israel at Shechem to recount God's faithfulness from Abraham to the Promised Land, urging them to fear and serve the Lord alone. Steven Furtick highlights closing the loop: circling back to see God's progress, seeing through faith the invisible miracles behind and ahead, and choosing this day to serve Him fully—settling the matter of commitment before the promise fully unfolds.
Joshua 24: Recounting God's Faithfulness to Close the Loop
Joshua 24. I'm going to read you 15 verses, just a heads-up. Look at this. The Bible says that Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Long ago your fathers lived beyond... Everybody shout it beyond. Long ago your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from... Shout it again. Come on, University City, Uptown in Matthews. I need you to shout beyond. I took him from beyond the river, and I led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac. It didn't look like it was ever going to happen, but I gave him Isaac in the fullness of time. When the time was just right for the genealogy to continue through Abraham, I gave him Isaac. He had to lay him up on an altar, but I gave him Isaac. I don't take away what I give. I'm a giver. I'm a good god, so I gave him Isaac. And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess. But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt, and I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it. And afterward, I brought you out. Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. And when they cried to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea come upon them and cover them. And your eyes saw what I did in Egypt, and you lived in the wilderness a long time. Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand. The blessing didn't come without a battle, but when it was all said and done, you were still standing. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand. And you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and invited Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you. But I wouldn't listen to Balaam, because you can't curse what God has blessed. Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand. And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites and the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and since it's Thanksgiving weekend, the Cellulites. We have to fight all of them, y'all. And I gave them into your hand, and I sent the Hornet before you. I always knew God was a Charlotte fan. I sent the Hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites. It was not by your sword or by your bow. I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities that you had not built. And you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant. Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your father served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the river. or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Do me a favor on every location. Would you take your right hand and just do like this a couple times? Just do like this a few times. And while you keep doing that, turn to your neighbor and ask them. Ask them with an incredulous tone in your voice. Ask them, what are you doing? Now tell them, I'm closing the loop. That's what I want to talk to you today for a little while about if I can. I want to talk to you about closing the loop.
Why Shechem? Circling Back to the Promise's Origin
And you may be seated. We've gathered with Joshua and the leaders and the people of Israel at Shechem. Joshua wants to close the loop before he is no longer with the people. To help them understand the magnitude and the meaning of some of what they've seen and experienced under his leadership. It turns out not only is Joshua fierce on the battlefield, but he's also good with the microphone. He turns out to be not only an excellent commander of the Lord's armies, but an adept motivational speaker. He employs several rhetorical techniques and devices to bring the people to an understanding of the connection between their past victories and their future vision. He wants them to understand how God has fought for them so that they will be confident that he will continue to do so. He wants to leave no doubt about the reason for what God has done and the meaning of what God has spoken.
I'm very interested in what he has to say, because I would like to do for you what Joshua did for these people. I do not have a Star Wars interpretation of the Word of God. It is not a book about long ago in a galaxy far away. To me, the Scripture is nothing if it's not living. So, if it doesn't have application in our current contemporary situation, then to me we should do something different than gather together and talk about the remains of an archaeological and historical record of people who lived a long time ago.
The Power of Place: Shechem as Full Circle Faith
And I'm interested in what Joshua has to say, because I think it applies to us. I think all these battles that he mentioned and all these blessings that he remembered have something to do with you and me. I do. I believe there's a continuity. I believe that the words that he spoke were meant to live beyond. Somebody shout beyond. Beyond the generation that he spoke them to and to echo into our lives today. So, I'm interested in what he said. All 15 verses. I think each of them have something to teach us, although, don't worry, we won't talk about all of them individually. However, I'm interested in what he said. I'm interested in who he said it to. These people who had seen a lot of progress in their day who were now living in the fulfillment of the promise that God had made.
But I find equal interest and give consideration today not only to what he said and who he said it to, but I was noticing where he said it. So, it was remarkable to me that he met them at Shechem. This is the kind of thing that I would have skipped over when I first started preaching, because I wouldn't have had good sense enough to go and look up Shechem on a map. I wouldn't have remembered as a 17-year-old, 18-year-old, or perhaps even 25-year-old preacher when the church was first getting going. I would have got down to verse 15, choose this day whom you will serve. I would have called the people on the carpet, and I would have told them to quit with the pouring and the drinking. Choose this day whom you will serve. I started out preaching to teenagers, and that's what I would get straight to. You want to put your hands all over your girlfriend, or you want to lift them in worship because you can't do both. I was that kind of preacher. I would come through, wreck your place, and leave in my Jeep and not even think about you again.
But now I'm a pastor, so I understand there has to be a process involved. And I'm interested that Joshua called them to Shechem, which led me back to the maps in the back of your Bible. Now, sometimes you don't just want to read the words. You want to go back and look at the place, because when you put the promise in its place, sometimes you understand it in a different dimension. And when you read about Shechem, you remember about Abraham, because Abraham wasn't from Shechem. He was from Ur of the Chaldees, and he left with his father. And his father made it all the way to Haran, but he stopped there. Abraham didn't stop there. Abraham went on into Canaan, the land that God was leading him into, that he didn't give him much detail about.
The Only Way Beyond Is Sometimes Back
Have you ever had to go into a situation not knowing much detail but confident that God was leading you? That was Abraham. Abraham had an instruction from God, but he didn't have a detailed map for how to get there. He had to press on without his father. And when he came to Canaan, the first place that he ever built an altar was a place called Shechem. So I was thinking about how significant it is that when Joshua wants to close the loop for these people who are now living in the proof of what was once a promise, it must be significant that he brought them back to the place where the promise was initially made. It wasn't Shechem that God told Abraham, I will multiply you. I'm going to bring nations from you, not just for you, but I'm going to do it through you. The blessing of God is never meant to stay with me. It's meant to flow through me. And if God can get it through me, he can get it to me.
It was in Shechem that Abraham built that altar to the Lord. And now, hundreds of years later, Joshua is standing generations removed from Abraham, but the very seed of his promise back in that place called Shechem. And here's what I think. I think sometimes you've got to circle back to where you started to see how far you've come. So if I had three points for the sermon and they were going to come up on the screen behind me, the first one would be circle back. Sometimes you need to circle back. And this is an important principle for you to learn if you desire to go beyond where you are in God. Because sometimes the only way beyond is back. Can I preach a little bit? Just a little bit. Just a little bit. The only way beyond is back.
And so he calls them back to Shechem. The first time that the promise was made in Shechem, it was one man, but now it's a whole nation of millions. And Joshua seems to be using the backdrop of this particular geographical location to underscore his point. Look how far God has brought you. And there's sometimes you turn around and worship as a pastor and you see Nancy Phillips, who you've known since you were a teenager. And now she's here visiting her son, who you used to go to parties with, but now he's in your church because God has brought you out of some stuff. And sometimes you look at where God has brought you and you say, whoa, how did I get here? You have a moment, a full circle moment. These are some of the most beautiful moments, by the way. You don't live in these moments. It'd be nice to live in these moments. But sometimes God will bring you back to Shechem. God will bring you back to a place where it all got started just to show you how far you've come. Just to show you that it wasn't in vain. Just to remind you that he's working on your behalf. Just to let you know that this is headed somewhere.
Progress in God Looks Like Loops, Not Straight Lines
Just to let you know that if you will trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and in all your ways acknowledge him, he will direct your path. He'll do it. What I wish we would explain to people as they set out to follow Christ, though, is that progress usually doesn't look like a straight line. The assumption is that God is going to take me from here to there, which is why Abraham was confused why he didn't have a baby immediately following his conversation with God about a nation. But in God, progress does not look like a straight line. Don't you wish it did? Just wouldn't it be wonderful? This is what I thought. This is what I thought following God, growing a church, being a man of God, progressing in the promises of God. I thought it looked like this because the Bible says that he, you know, he'll take us from glory to glory. So I thought it would just be just like his head from glory to glory, success to success. You pray, you get an answer. You praise him. You pray again, get an answer. You praise him. Just moving right along. Got rid of that addiction. Got rid of that thought pattern. Got rid of those friends, which I had to do to get rid of that addiction and that thought pattern. Because sometimes it's my circle on the outside that's affecting my spirit on the inside.
I don't mean to make you get your phone out and delete contacts right in the middle of my sermon, but sometimes you have to change your circle. And Abraham had to come out from his people. He had to come out from among them so that he could go where God was calling him. But it wasn't a straight line. Progress does not look like a straight line. If you understand that, you'll be so much stronger for the journey. Progress doesn't look like a line. It looks like a loop. A loop where I thought I'd be done with this by now. Where how can I still be struggling with this at age 53. Where I thought God would have healed me by now. Where I thought the memory would be gone by now. Where I thought I'd be over it by now. Where I thought when I forgave them I would no longer feel that toward them. But then I saw them and they had a Range Rover and I couldn't help it. I wanted them to get a flat tire. It's not a straight line to forgive somebody. It's not a straight line to forget something. Progress doesn't look like a line. It looks like a loop.
Have you ever been stuck in the loop? Because the children of Israel had. For 40 years they wandered in a wilderness that they could have passed through in a matter of days. But sometimes you get stuck in a loop. A way of thinking. A way of behaving. A way of believing. The Lord told me when I was preparing this message. That someone would be stuck in a loop. Circling around something. See, Joshua knew all about circling around something. He was one of the spies that wanted to go into the promised land. But Moses wouldn't let him. And sometimes you get stuck in a generational loop and have to bear the consequences of somebody else's bad decisions. Joshua knew all about going around in circles and wondering when will God bring us up out of this place into the land that he promised us.
Into the land that Joshua 24 describes they had settled into, but they didn't start there. They had to go through the loop. Through the loop? I mean, talk about a loop. How would you like for God to bring you to the first city in the promised land and you get ready to fight? Because for 40 years you've been preparing mentally for this moment. And the first thing God tells you to do around the walls of Jericho is take a lap. You mean I've been circling the wilderness for 40 years and now you want me to keep walking? I've walked enough. I've got walking down. I'm a speed Walker. You ever see him in the mall? They don't walk like that. I don't know what that was. And now you want me to keep walking? See, watch this. Just because you're circling doesn't mean you're stuck.
What God Does in You Matters More Than for You
Joshua had to learn that sometimes… I want to preach this. I want to preach it to you. Sometimes what God is doing in me is more important than what I'm asking him to do for me. Sometimes I have to take another lap. Sometimes I have to circle the issue. Sometimes I have to go back to Shechem. Sometimes God doesn't change the situation. Sometimes he changes me. So I'm back in Shechem now. The same place I started. But I started here as one man and now I am many. Sometimes God will bring you back to the same struggle to show you how much stronger you are than when you first began. Sometimes you have to go back to the bottom to see how high God has raised you. Sometimes you have to circle back. Sometimes you have to circle back.
And he has taken them back through their history and their wilderness wandering. And he kind of downplays it when he gets to it. He said, you wandered in the wilderness a long time. He takes 40 years and condenses it into half of a sentence. It was a long time. But I'm not focused on that anymore. Because everything I've been through. Even if I didn't like it. Even if I didn't choose it. I wouldn't change it. Because God was with me every lap. I was learning a lesson with every lap that I would need for the land that I'm living in. And Joshua said, look, the land that your fathers looked forward to, you're living in it. Sometimes you can be living in something and not even appreciate it for what it is.
Invisible Miracles: God Had Your Back All Along
If I ever start to take Holly for granted, I just remember how I would watch her walk across that campus. I came home and told my mom my first Thanksgiving home from college. I found my woman. I'm not sure about my major yet, but I found my mate. That's worth the tuition. I was on a scholarship anyway. I got her. And I circled her. And I closed that deal. Now, here's the thing. I don't even know why she said she would, but she did. And she still does, and I still do. And when I ever start to forget about that, you have to have these full circle moments where you realize that everything isn't like I want it to be. But man, I dreamed about this day. When y'all sing a worship song in the church, you sing a worship song. When I sing a worship song in the church, for me, it's like a 360 turnaround reminder of the faithfulness of God.
To me, I always go back to Shechem, because not only do I remember telling Mac, Chris, and Wade we were going to write our own songs, but I was in the room writing when we started singing. I see you move the mountains. I have the video of it when that melody first started coming. You were there, Mac. I'm not making it up. And I said, I think it's something about him. You have to just sing syllables until you figure out what the words are. I was standing there during Cold War and Revival. We were recording that song for the album, which is due out in March. It's a long time to wait. But for me, that song was eight months in the making before we even wrote it, back and forth with my friend who heard me preach somewhere. And I said in my sermon, the promise still stands. And my friend said, you totally write a song about that. Which I wrote a song about that, and it sucked. And so we left it alone for a little while, back and forth. I can show you all the little voice memos of all the little pieces of the song. Just little stupid pieces of the song. You heard it. You would laugh. But it had to start somewhere.
So when I saw thousands of people singing, tears in their eyes, pumping their fists to the heavens. Because I seen you move. For you, it's a song. For me, it's a full circle moment that goes all the way back when I sat with these guys, and it was just a few of us. And I pulled my phone out. Do you have that clip? Don't play the volume if you have it. I don't even remember if I told you to pull it up. I sent it earlier. Yeah, no. Just show them. If you can turn the volume down. This is my video of that moment. And see, I don't see what you see. I see it differently than you see. I see black people in that clip. I remember praying God would send a black person to our church, and it took him like three years. There's Josh. He's been with me ten years. There's my son. There's my wife singing that little song, singing about the faithfulness of God. There's some pastors. There's Buckley with his pecs flexing while he's singing. There's Eric looking angry at the devil. There's my mom, who God has brought through so much. There's Chunks with his bald head because it was falling out. I told him, give it up and shave it. Amy is next to him. There's Mac on the stage chopping the devil right in the Adam's apple. Y'all know how he does. Just chopping the devil right in the sternum like Daniel's son. Just chopping the devil.
See, for me, that's a moment. That's my people. That's my people. That's the dude I went to high school with. And now we're in a church together, and our wives look good, and we got kids, and we're in the presence of God. God, sometimes you have to go back to Shechem in your heart and turn around and say, look what the Lord has done on the right, on the left, to the north, to the south. I wish you would thank God for 30 seconds for everything he brought to pass in your life. If you know he made a way where there was no way, if you know he moved them out, why don't you just turn around right there where you stand? Come on, turn around real quick. Turn around and thank God for all the situations that he worked in your favor for all the times that looked like you wouldn't make it. For all those years you waited for Isaac, and Isaac came for how he brought you out of Egypt, and brought you out of bondage, and brought you into a land. Come on, turn around real quick. Turn around, turn around.
It lets me know that God was with me in the battle, and he'll be with me in the future. And I'm standing in Shechem today, and I am living in what I used to look forward to. And he wants them to know it. When Abraham came through here, he was just a visitor. Some of you have a job that your parents sacrificed so you could even have the opportunity to apply for it. He wants them to know, because it's difficult to appreciate what you can't see. It's hard to appreciate. It's hard to appreciate your heart. How many of you thanked God for your heart today? How many of you thanked God for your heart before I said, How many of you thanked God for your heart? You don't see it. It's just straight pumping, like a G. Just 2,000 gallons of blood going through your body. Your heart is only that big as your fist. It's only that big. It's going to beat 100,000 times today if you're a healthy adult. Without you thinking about it. Just running stuff. 100,000. I did the math, and I may not have it exactly right, but if I preached for an hour and I do not intend to preach for a full hour, more like 53 minutes, so cheer up. It will beat within the hour over 4,000 times, pumping that 2,000 gallons of blood through over 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body.
You said that wrong. It can't be 60,000 miles. No, 60,000 miles. All that is going on, and you hadn't even thought about it. Somebody in a hospital bed watching it right now might be thinking about it, because there's quit. But it's hard to appreciate what you can't see, and sometimes it's hard to see what's right in front of you. Sometimes it's hard to see the blessings that have become so much of a part of the fabric of your life because of the faithfulness of God that you just take them for granted. That's why Joshua speaks up. He says you have to see through, so you have to circle back and you have to see through. To see through all the things that you cannot see with your eyes, to see them through eyes of faith. To see the mountains that he's moving. To see how God is working in your life, even though you seem to be circling the same mountain. To know that every lap you walk is a lesson you learn, and to believe that when you can't see it. To see through the eyes of faith and to trust that God is working in my life some way, somehow.
God Had Your Back—Even in the Invisible
To trust that just because I can't see my progress doesn't mean that my progress isn't taking place, because you can't appreciate what you can't see. I doubt you fully appreciate the technology that sends this message to our Concord campus. How could you? It's all invisible. Concord campus sitting there watching the screen. Somebody even complained about it. He's on a screen. Now, come on. Let's think about that. God put us in a magic Internet age where stuff just goes all throughout the airwaves. That's the technical explanation for how the Internet works. And just puts it up, and here comes the message to you, and you can watch it right there on your phone. And some of y'all just hollered at your phone because it buffered while you were watching it. You stupid piece of crap! You're watching me preach on your pocket. You can Google my facts and check my historical reference, but it's hard to appreciate what you don't see. It's hard to appreciate a land you didn't fight for.
Joshua is speaking to a generation that knows nothing about the wilderness. They think this is normal. They don't know anything about set up and tear down at 5 A. M. at Providence High Square at Miller Mckenzie. I don't think they know anything about it. They're just sitting in their nice comfortable seat in a paid-for building. Offering. Offering. Offering. Offering. Offering? You're not giving it to God. You're returning it to God. We shouldn't even really call it an offering. It's a return. He breathes out, I breathe in. He doesn't breathe out, I don't breathe in. That's where Joshua got them real good. He was talking about all these battles they won, but then he flipped it on them. He's talking to all these people who killed the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Jebusites. He's talking to them like they did something. But then he brings up something, and it's interesting what he doesn't bring up. He talks about Jericho, but he doesn't talk about the walls falling down. He talks about the battle they had to fight after the walls did fall. And then he talks about the Red Sea.
How many of you have heard of the Red Sea? What did God do to the Red Sea? Say it again. It's not your question. God parted the Red Sea. Now, that's what we believe some of you may be new to the Bible and have a little bit more skeptical mind. But even if you just look at it symbolically, okay, however you look at it, the walls of water stood at attention while the people of God went through on dry ground. The Egyptians came up behind him, and when Moses took his staff and stretched it out over the water, the waters parted. That's what happened. Yet Joshua does not mention the parting of the Red Sea. This is the last time he's going to talk to the people, and he doesn't mention the fact that God blew back the waters, that God turned on the heavenly hairdryer and parted the waters like you part your hair. He doesn't mention that. Instead, he mentions verse 7, and I got happy when I read it. I got happy when I read how he said it, and I'll show you why. He said, And when they cried to the Lord, look at verse 7, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians.
The reason I love it is because Joshua doesn't mention the miracle that they could see. He talks about what was happening behind them that they didn't even know about at the time. How many of you understand that some of the greatest miracles in your life had nothing to do with a car or a house or jewelry or clothes or people? Some of the things that God did for me, it was the invisible miracles. How many know that the invisible miracles... Sometimes I'm praising God not for what he did for me that I'm wearing, but how he took my shame away. How he took my sin away. How he held my hand through the valley of the shadow of death. You're praising God for what you've got on. I'm praising him for what he did in me. Come on, praise him for the invisible miracles. Praise him for the things he said no to.
Joshua says sometimes you have to thank God for the darkness. Sometimes you have to thank God for things you were confused about at the time. You didn't know why he wasn't texting you back. He wasn't texting you back because he wasn't worthy of a commitment from your heart. It was God that kept his thumbs from picking up that phone and saying, Hey girl, it was God that kept him from giving you attention. It was God that had your back. That's what I'm trying to say. He had my back. Sometimes he did something that didn't feel good. Sometimes it didn't make sense to me, but God had my back. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm preaching. That's why I'm praising him, because he had my back. I went through the waters, but the important thing wasn't what I saw before me. It was what God was doing behind me. Invisible miracles. Does anybody have any invisible miracles, things you can't even explain, but God did it? He had your back. He didn't do the thing you wanted him to do out here, but he had your back. He didn't keep you from the fight, but he fought for you. He had my back.
Hornets Ahead: God Sets You Up for Success
Church, there have been times where I've wanted to defend myself, but inside I knew that if I will hold my peace and be still, the Lord would fight my battles. I'm a testimony that if you let God get your back, if you let God handle what's behind you and keep moving forward into what's ahead of you, beyond. Somebody shout beyond. He's going to bring this thing full circle. See, the world says you have to see it to believe it. That's not how my faith works. My faith has closed the loop, so watch this. I don't go that way. I don't have to see it to believe it. I believe it, and then I see it. And when I see it, I believe it, and I believe it. My faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence. Does anybody have a full circle faith? A faith that knows that he will even before he does.
I'm just thinking about some things that seemed impossible, but God did it. He brought it full circle in my life. He had my back, and watch this. Then Joshua says, when you got into the Promised Land, is it alright if I preach at a high decibel-level volume? I just feel it in my bones. I feel it in my heart. I feel it coming out through my vocal cords. I can't hold it in. Because he said, not only did God send the darkness behind you, but look at verse 12. He sent the hornets ahead of you. I had to go back and check that one. The hornets. You know all the Israelites are thinking that Joshua has surely become senile. Hornets. Hornets. Hornets. Yeah. Those invisible miracles. See, if you think Joshua is talking about insects, you've missed his entire point. He's saying that God sent a buzz ahead of the Israelites. When they went into these nations that were stronger than them, when they got there, the people had already heard about the Israelites. It wasn't how strong the people were. It was how weak the enemies were that enabled them to possess the promise.
God sent a buzz ahead, so that by the time they got ready to fight, the kings were saying, Have you heard about the Israelites? Have you heard about the Israelites? See, I'm trying to say that God has not only got your back, but he is setting you up for success. God has closed the loop around your life. I don't know who I'm preaching to. You feel exposed. You feel vulnerable. You feel uncertain. You feel weak. But God is closing the loop today to let you know not only do I have your back, but whatever tomorrow holds, I'm already there. He's setting me up. I closed the loop.
Choose This Day: Settle It in Your Heart Now
Now, Joshua says to the people, now that you've seen what he did back here and now that you know he's already out there, the darkness behind you and the hornets before you. I feel a buzz in this place today. I said I feel a buzz in this place today. I don't know. I feel a buzz in Rock Hill. We're going to open that building next week and turn that community upside down for the glory of Jesus Christ. I feel a buzz. Choose this day. Let's close the loop right here, right now. Is he your God? Is he faithful to you? Has he been there all along? Will he be there when trouble comes? See, the key is I have to close the loop in my heart before it closes in my life, and I have to have the faith to keep going six times.
Today, you have a decision to make. The most interesting thing in the world I'd stand on my feet if I were you, and nothing else I'm going to say you need to write down. God has spoken. God has spoken. They have settled into the land they once passed through, but they didn't see that. They're living in a secondhand blessing. That's why thousands of people, when we take the offering December 10th and 11th, it's your turn to see what God can do through you. It's your turn to declare to a generation what God has done for you. I believe God is in your future. I believe he's redeemed your past, but God's people have a problem. We get settled, and the faith that we had in our struggle we often don't carry over into our success. We come to church when we're unemployed, we get a job, and we get more busy looking for checks than we do. Returning our thanks and praise to the one who gave us the ability to get wealth in the first place.
And Joshua said, settle it once and for all. You've settled into the land. You've gone from slaves to settlers. But just because you've settled into the land doesn't mean that you should become settled in your heart. Is there still a faith? Choose this day. Settle the matter right now before you even see what the outcome is going to be. Before you even see the fulfillment of the promise. Before the loop closes out here, close it right here. Choose this day. Away with the idols. Away with trusting in myself. Away with trusting in people. Choose this day. What will your response be?
The Cross Closes the Loop Forever
Father, I preached your word with all the power that I know how to preach it with, and I thank you for enabling me to get it across. I felt your presence while I've been preaching today, and I know that people have been coming full circle in their minds. Some of them to see that they used to really trust you, but it's been a while. They've gotten complacent. They settled into a life that they used to look forward to, and now they've got you on a shelf like you're one of many idols. We can come to church today just to hear something that would encourage us. We came to make a decision to settle it that you are our God, and whatever we're looking at that's ahead of us, that's bigger than us, it's nothing compared to your power and your strength in us. It's a covenant. Keep your head bowed. Just close your eyes. I want you to think about the meaning of covenant. It's not a human commitment. It's not a wedding vow. Joshua brought the people to Shechem to remember the covenant. That's why we wear a wedding ring, because it has no beginning. It has no end. It's saying, I'm closing the loop. I'm not looking for anything else. I'm committed to you. It's that full circle faith.
Maybe that's what Jesus was doing on the cross when he died for us. Maybe that's what the new covenant is all about, to know that nothing can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. I see him on that cross, and it's hard to appreciate what you've never seen, and I've never seen a real crucifixion. The crosses that we see today are jewelry, iconic emblems that we wear on our chests. But the cross was an instrument of death. And when Jesus was on that cross, with his arms open wide, he was closing the loop forever to let you know that nothing can separate you. To know that it is by grace you are saved. You cannot keep your commitment. That's why God came down. You cannot keep your faith strong. That's why God came down. And he says to you, I'm keeping you. I'm sustaining you. I'm closing the loop forever. My love for you will never fade away. Neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will ever be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. It's settled forever. It's settled forever. God made up his mind about you. His Son gave his life for you. It's settled forever.
Lift your hands. His spirit is here. It's settled forever. This day is settled forever. He did it before. He'll do it again. He is my God. I am his child. It's settled forever. It's settled. It's settled. It's settled.