Path of Purpose

This is the third week of our study in Joshua. We're going to cover chapters 3, 4, and 5. The whole Bible study session is called the Path of Promise, but this week is called the Path of Purpose. That's our title for this week. So, let me ask you a question. As Christians belonging to God, what is your purpose in life? What is your purpose in life, and how does that question make you feel? Does your stress level go up? Do you love questions like that? It's like, yes, what's my purpose? Or do you just like, you know what, I just want to pay bills, I want to take a nap, and I want to have some pie. That's all I want to do. Don't talk to me about purpose, and let's make it worse. How about, how do you fulfill your purpose in life? Is that like a weight? I got one of those weighted blankets for Christmas. I love it. But anyway, we don't have to stress. I found a Psalm. I'm going to show it to you. Look at this. Psalm 138, 8. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. So, everybody take a deep breath together. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. And he does have a purpose for you. He had a purpose for Israel. Israel's purpose was that the whole world would be blessed through them. This is what it looked like when God talked to Abraham. Look at this.

Their purpose would be fulfilled after barriers, and after battles, and after centuries of time. But God would ultimately fulfill his purpose through them. So, right here in this lesson, right here for the first time in the Bible, the people of God are stepping into the place that God intended for them to fulfill their purpose. So, it's a big deal. This is a big epoch in the scripture. They are on the path of purpose. In our studies, we always want to uncover what are the parallels between Israel's natural history, what happened to them, and our spiritual life. What are those parallels? So, this event here parallels a personal willingness for a Christian to leave behind the life of the wilderness and step into the life of purpose that God has promised. In the wilderness and between the promised land is this raging, flooding river, a barrier that seems impossible for the nation of Israel as a whole to cross. And sometimes it seems impossible for us in our spiritual lives to cross into that life of purpose. But it is accomplished with God's divine intervention and God's hero, Joshua, Jesus. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. So, let's dive into Joshua chapter 3. I just want to tell you that throughout, since we're covering three chapters, I'm serving these chapters. And that's why we do the study guide. You read every detail, verse by verse, but we're going to have to consolidate a little bit to fit into our time. Joshua 3 verse 1,

So, I'm going to bullet point some instructions that were given here. First instruction from the officers, told the people to keep your eye on the ark and follow it. And in verse 4, they said, 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 never passed this way before. They have never been into this land before. Then Joshua said to the people in verse 5, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. In other words, get ready for divine intervention in your purpose. Then Joshua told the priests in verse 6, now take up the ark of the covenant, pass on before the people. Then the Lord said to Joshua in verse 7, 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 wanted to make sure that the people really knew he was behind this and that Joshua was his man for the job. And then finally, Joshua said to the people, starting in verse 10, here is how you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. And then he went on to explain what would happen, we'll drop down to verse 15 and read how it went.

So there it is, just like that, they crossed into the land that God had promised them. It was a pretty swift thing, but it was miraculous, just like the crossing of the Red Sea, this was miraculous. But did you note here, the miraculous didn't happen until the command was obeyed. They had to want it. They had to act on it. And that little snippet there, that'll preach in our lives, won't it? God does the miraculous once we begin to obey. The key phrase in this verse was the Ark of the Covenant. It was mentioned ten times. Certainly it was a focal point, okay? The priests were to lead with the Ark, and the people were to follow the Ark, and everyone was to keep their eyes on the Ark, yet keeping a respectful distance from the presence of the Lord, because the Ark represents the presence of the Lord. And that was our memory verse from last week. That is what God said to Joshua. He said, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. So the presence of the Lord was right there in center stage. And because this event was so huge, so monumental in the life of Israel, it required a monument. So that takes us into chapter four. Let's get started in chapter four.

Verse eight, and the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded. They took up 12 stones out of the midst of the Jordan, carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. I picture big boulders on these guys, because a little pile of stones isn't going to be much of a monument. So I picture big stones, boulders on their shoulders. Then Joshua himself made another monument right there in the depths of the Jordan. Look at verse nine,

Verse 14,

Verse 18,

And then two final pieces of information in 19 and 20, the people came up out of the Jordan on the 10th day of the first month, that's intriguing, and then they camped at Gilgal, which is an important place for us to know, that is where the 12 stones were set. So that's a whirlwind survey of that chapter, okay? A couple important bullet points I just want to pick out of this chapter, is that first of all, remembering is important. Remembering things is an important thing to do. When Israel left Egypt, Passover, that was a big deal too. And what did God do? He set in motion an annual reminder, the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so that they would do that on the same day every year to remember. And now in this text there's a different kind of a memorial, it's not every year, it's every day. These monuments of stones, these piles of stones will serve as a reminder of what just happened to them. Ok? Remembering is important in our life too. We need memorials as well, whatever that looks like in our life, particularly memorials that will help us not backtrack in our spiritual life. Second thing about this chapter is I love that Joshua caused Israel to begin to inherit the land that God promised to them on the 10th day of the first month. Because you might remember back at Passover that was the day that the lamb was selected for Passover. Lamb selection day on the 10th day of the first month. Passover was on the 14th day. And so it's just so awesome that God is so consistent with how he does this. He exalts Joshua, who is a type of Jesus, on lamb selection day. And if we fast forward 2,000 years to Passion Week, Jesus himself will be selected to be the Passover lamb at that same time. So it's just awesome when we find those things in scripture. But what was happening now in the minds of all the people who already lived in that place? What about the people that lived in Canaan? Up until this moment, they probably still felt like, okay, Israel, I don't know what's going to happen here with these people, but there's still yet a flooded river between us, so it's all okay. No longer, they couldn't, now they're on the same side. Did they think Israel was going to attack? Did Israel think they were going to attack? Let's dive into chapter five and look and see.

Look at these three words. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time. At that time, we had 38 years in the wilderness to get this taken care of. And now that we're on the same soil as the enemies, at that time, God says, sort of just like disable the whole army. Why then? Why not a week ago? Why not on the other hand, or on the other side of the Jordan? The reason is because the act of circumcision, the cutting away of the flesh, needs to be accomplished in tandem with the second baptism. What do I mean, and why do I call it a second baptism? Well, I wanna call crossing the Jordan a second baptism. And I just am sort of following in the Apostle Paul's footsteps. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, he said, our forefathers were all baptized into Moses and in the sea. He was talking about the Red Sea experience leaving Egypt. So he called that a baptism. So if we could maybe just borrow from that and say, now they were baptized again into Joshua, because Joshua was leading them into this. And so in this crossing of a barrier of water, they left the wilderness experience behind. They followed the ark, they followed the presence of the Lord, and where did it lead them? Down into the depths of the river with Joshua, like down into a grave, and up on the other side, like a resurrection into newness of life, into a new land that they'd never been in before. That was their baptism, if you will. And I'm not trying to liken this to water baptism. I'm just using that to say crossing a barrier of water, okay? And this is where our memory verse for this week comes in. It was a hard one. You're all agreeing with me. And I didn't know why the Lord had me put that in there. After I wrote the study guide and then I went back and looked in the memory verses, I thought, for Pete's sake, this is hard. This handles difficult, but it's so worth it. When we put together an actual narrative from the Old Testament, and we have in our mind a drama playing out, and we put together a theology from the New Testament. And then we say, it makes so much sense. We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death. So that just as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father, so too we might walk in newness of life. And so we have a New Testament theology that is explained better by an Old Testament picture. And we have an Old Testament picture that is explained by a New Testament theology. So the memory verse is worth it. Good job, you guys. It also is like there's other verses too, like in Galatians, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. That's an easier one. We could have maybe used that one as well. So that's the baptism part. I said the baptism and the circumcision had to go together. So now let's talk about the circumcision part, okay? And you're like, that's such a guy thing. It's weird to talk about. Like, why do we talk about circumcision? But it is the most important part of this week's lesson. I'm gonna say it is the most important part of the book of Joshua. What happens at Gilgal is the most important part of this whole Bible study. Okay, circumcision was always a physical operation meant to represent a spiritual reality in the human heart. Moses even said that, Moses is gone, but he already said that prior to this. Okay, Deuteronomy 1016, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn. Be no longer wild, be no longer independent, be no longer stiff necked, okay? It was always meant to parallel a spiritual response. Why did God give circumcision in the first place? A little bit of review. The act of circumcision was given to Abraham before Isaac was conceived, before the child of promise for a couple reasons. Reason number one, identification. To identify Abraham and his descendants as belonging to God, okay? As opposed to the nations who didn't worship God, the uncircumcised. So it was a sign of identification. Next, it was given to propel them forward as their purpose as a nation. What was their purpose as a nation? Through your offspring, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. The Messiah would come from their parentage, okay? Now, in this moment, as we're crossing the Jordan, Israel is being propelled forward again in their purpose as a nation. And so God says before we take one more step or stop, we need pruning. Now, why do I say the word pruning here instead of circumcision? I would just wanna say that I think that the act of circumcision, the operation of circumcision on a human, is very similar to the act of pruning on a tree. Very similar things, okay? For one thing, it shows that that living thing has been tended by someone, belongs to someone, is no longer wild, but is serving a purpose. So let's move to trees for a minute. In my neighborhood, I have a couple of different groves of wild Russian olive trees. They grow a lot in this area. You all know what a Russian olive tree is. They're trash trees here. They grow like weeds. No one really likes them, but they have their own way about them. In June, the fragrance is awesome. I think some people are allergic to that, but man, they're mangy. They are just mangy trees. They even have thorns that are really dangerous. You don't wanna puncture your skin with them. So that's in my neighborhood. Now in my yard, at the corner of my yard, I have this smoke bush, which no one ever told it it was a smoke bush. It's a tree. It's enormous, and it's there on purpose to anchor the corner of my lot. And I pay money every year to have somebody come and prune it. I used to do it myself. Now I pay the money. Every winter, about this time, I have somebody come and prune that tree because my intention, my purpose for that tree is this little, it's huge, this spherical shape. And it is glorious. When everything else has lost its trees, the smoke bush turns burgundy, and it just screams out, look at me. It's an awesome tree. In my neighborhood, it is clear to everyone who comes which tree is cultivated, and which trees are wild, which tree is owned, and which tree isn't owned. So that's the backdrop I want to give you. It is clear from scripture that God has a purpose in mind for every single woman in this room, every single woman listening to this video. He has a purpose planned for you. The purpose is to bear fruit for his kingdom. Jesus said, whoever abides in me and I in him, it is he who bears much fruit. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes so that it will be more fruitful. God has given us specific tasks and assignments in order to fulfill our purpose. He's also given us gifts, natural and spiritual gifts, that need to be submitted to him. They need to be pruned by him, circumcised, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, that you may be no longer stubborn, be no longer independent, but be submitted. So now right here in this natural history lesson, verse three tells us, Joshua made flint knives and he circumcised the sons of Israel. And then it goes on to explain why they had not performed this operation of identification in the wilderness, because they didn't obey the voice of the Lord. They were temporarily out of covenant in the wilderness because it's a place of independence. Temporarily they were out of covenant with the Lord until this moment here where their actions demonstrated now that they were buried, yeah, that they were buried with Christ by baptism into death and coming up into newness of life. They were back in covenant with God and God says, okay, let's get you taken care of. Let's have you bear the image of that. It's time for pruning now. Both of those events have to go together. Identifying with Joshua in the depths and the cutting away of the flesh and look at what we studied. Those are the two locations where we put monuments. Those are the two places where the stones are. The stone monument is in the middle of the Jordan, identifying with our death with Christ and the stone monument is at Gilgal, willingly submitting to the pruning work of the Lord. Those are two important memorials. Those are two important monuments, points of consecration. So for us, those two things need to go together as well. Really choosing to leave behind the life of the wilderness, identify with Christ, die, I have died with Christ, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, coming up in newness of life, the life of the spirit as opposed to the life of the flesh, and willingly being pruned by the Lord, allowing him to cut away things from our life that do not serve the purpose for which he has created me. Now that work in this room is same and different. There are some issues of sin that God will prune out of all of us, okay? But there are very unique things as well. I am not allowed to do certain things in order to fulfill my purpose that God has created me for. They're not sinful or evil, you may be allowed to do those things. You're maybe pruned in a different way. My smoke bush in my yard has a very specific purpose, and I prune it for that purpose. My other trees are different. So same and different, but that is God's work that he does in our life. All right, verse nine, the Lord said to Joshua, today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you, and so the name of that place is Gilgal to this day. The reproach of Egypt had been rolled away because now every man bore the mark of belonging to Jehovah, and anything in the past, their lapses of faith, their personal failures, their fears, it was rolled away. It was taken care of. They were walking now in newness of life with a renewed identification as God's people. Have you ever been in that place in life? Like we might call it in Christian circles, when I was growing up, it was called dedicating your life to the Lord, or a rededication. It feels so good. It's like everything has been rolled away. All the past has been rolled away. It's a good place to be. Let's finish this off starting in verse 10.

And I'm going to leave the next three verses for next week. So to wrap this up, I want to share with you an extremely deep truth right here. That is chapter five comes before chapter six. Isn't that deep? But it is, because chapter five is a chapter of consecration, and chapter six will be a chapter of conquest, and they have to go in that order. They cannot be switched around. We want victory in life. We want God to do things for us, and we rarely spend time in chapter five to be consecrated for that purpose for which he has created us. But it must be this way. We must spend time at Gilgal. That's why I said this chapter, Gilgal, is the most important part of Joshua. None of the victories in Joshua can be achieved until time is spent here. So it is deep, isn't it? So let's bring this around and ask, what does Gilgal mean to me? How do these chapters help me fulfill the purpose for which God has created me? So for every woman, once we're saved, once we come out of Egypt, the next step is to be cultivated into the image of Jesus. It begins with a decision to leave the wilderness, die with Christ, be buried with him, walk in newness of life, walk in the Spirit, and then submit to the pruning work of the Lord in our lives so that we bear fruit, so that he will fulfill his purpose for us. Now, if you haven't taken those two important steps where those two monuments are, and you're like, yeah, I just haven't really been that purposeful in my life, then now's the time. Like this is a good time, and it doesn't require anything special. You just need to go from here and spend some time with the Lord and say, I have to turn my back on the wilderness. Right here, I want to identify with you in death. I want to walk in newness of life, and I want to submit. Help me do those things. Help me have the courage to do those things, okay? If you have, and you are walking in newness of life, then the two stone monuments are really important reminders to have in view in your mind and in your heart, and I wanted to share with you what that might look like based on what happened to me this week, okay? So this week, someone hurt my feelings, like how could that ever happen? But my feelings got hurt, and I felt ignored. And so this voice, like from way out in the wilderness somewhere, started speaking to me and saying, well, you should really, you know, like return some real passive-aggressive moves there, and that will really punish her and show her that your feelings are important. They are tender, and they are sensitive. You are a sensitive person, and you should not be fussed with, and I'm thinking this voice is saying this, and I'm thinking, yeah, and so I'm looking out at that voice, but I got to kind of crane my neck because there's a stone monument in the way, you know? So I'm like, tell me more, wait, wait. The monument tells me I've died with Christ, and I no longer live, and I'm pretty sure dead people don't care that much about their feelings. So see, I got to make a change. You know, this all happens in 10 seconds in your head, right? But the stone monument makes me say, no, that's a wilderness voice. That's my evil twin in the wilderness. She lives out there my whole life. She is out there. She is saying things, and she's whispering things to me like, you know, she's whispering things like entitlement, like I think you really deserve to be treated a whole lot better than this. I'm like, yeah. No, there's a monument in the way, you know, and she whispers pity to me where I should be going around telling my family how many sacrifices I have made for them, you know, for their life. Or she tells me she's the voice of pride and says to me, pruning, God should just accept you just the way you are, which is true. God always accepts us just the way we are and never leaves us just the way we are. And then she's that voice of temptation out in the wilderness. wilderness that says come on back we do whatever we want out here you know but what's between her voice and me the stone monument and when I hear her voice I say to her I gotta get back to Gilgal because apparently there's some more pruning that needs to be done that's how those stone monuments can be useful because you know what God has a purpose for each one of you he will fulfill his purpose for you don't worry you don't have to get busy it's like I got to work harder I got to try harder no all you gotta do is die submit to pruning how easy is that father God we thank you for this important lesson Lord to me the most important reminder is that we need consecration before we can conquer and so Lord I pray that you would help us to you know just roll this into our own heart to be aware of what it looks like when we hear those voices from the wilderness that want to draw us back and draw us into things that are out of agreement with who you are because Lord we want to circumcise the foreskins of our heart and be no longer independent be no longer stubborn or stiff-necked but be completely submitted to you and thank you Lord that you have a purpose for my life for every life here Lord help us to walk in that purpose in Jesus name Amen you