Moses is Dead

So today, everybody, not only are we celebrating 10 years in the life of our church, we're kicking off a brand new series called Momentum. Look at your neighbor and say momentum. So I've heard momentum defined like this, acceleration with ease. Acceleration with ease. Anybody ever driven an old car that you step on the gas pedal and that brother does not want to accelerate and it certainly does not accelerate with ease? Anybody old car drivers? Okay, maybe it's just me. When I had my first car, I got gifted a 1976 AMC Pacer from my grandmother. They made the AMC Pacer one year. It was such a pathetic, pitiful little car that they only made this thing for one year. Okay, if you don't know what an AMC Pacer is, think of the movie Wayne's World. Think of the licorice dispenser. Okay, that's what. I had a pacer, and when I put my foot on the gas, it did not accelerate at all. Certainly didn't do it with ease. It looked like a little flying saucer heading down the road. It was awful. I've heard momentum defined as acceleration with ease. I remember the first time I had a car that I stepped on the gas and it would actually go I thought, wow, driving is so much easier with a car that is responsive. I believe that this term momentum can also be identified by actively accomplishing something with ease all of us, no matter where we find ourselves, whether you were blessed to be able to drive an AMC Pacer or not, you have likely been exposed to this momentum in some form or fashion. Have you ever been in a season of your life where everything was just falling into place for whatever reason and you couldn't really make sense of it momentum? Have you ever been in a season of your life where no matter what you touched, it broke. No matter what you tried, it failed. Lack of momentum, either way, on either side, you have experienced momentum, whether it is momentum moving or momentum halting. We've likely been experienced to and become familiar with momentum. I truly believe that this season of our church, 10 years, is a season, a place, a time where God is divinely putting his hand on us again and giving us a little I'll call it a divine nudge. Somebody say a divine nudge pushing us down the pathway of a new season of life, where, both corporately and individually, we're on the doorstep of new momentum. Look at your neighbor and say, new momentum. Look at your other neighbor and say, I think it's even for you. Look at the person behind you and say, I'm not sure about you. I believe that divinely orchestrated, we are in a season of acceleration. But here's the thing, in order for us to experience the fullness of that momentum, we're going to have to understand a handful of little things about momentum, and they are these things right here. Momentum happens in three phases, or three stages of life, and so what I'm going to do over the next several weeks is we're going to break down these phases of momentum, and what may must take place in each of those seasons or phases of momentum in order for us to go from one phase or one season to the next phase or season, the first thing that We're going to have to do in understanding momentum is realize that phase one is the arrival phase, or the acknowledgement phase. See, upon arrival into a new season, we must acknowledge that this is a new season. It seems pretty simple, doesn't it? However. Most of us never experienced momentum, because we don't, we don't realize, we don't acknowledge the fact that we've arrived in a new place. Sometimes we arrive in a new destination, and we can certainly realize, okay, I'm in a new destination, I'm in a new place, and so I'm acknowledging that, however, what happens in life is you don't always have a change of scenery when you arrive in a new place. It's just a sense there's no scenery. It's just a sense that there's something different going on. I must acknowledge the fact that I've arrived somewhere new. See, chances are and I would encourage you not to go to a new church, not to go find a different scenery, but to realize, okay, Pastor Matt said it, he declared it, and I'm a part of this. And so we've arrived in a new season, in a new place. See, this 10th year, I think, is going to be marked by something different than any of the other years in the life of our church. I think that this number 10, actually, I know that the number 10 means divine order, and so some things that have been naturally ordering, coming to a head are about to be put in some divine order where things in the heavenlies are going to begin to align. But we must, we must acknowledge the fact that we're arriving in a new space so that we can continue to move forward, experiencing momentum. The second phase of momentum that we're going to have to realize is alignment and acceleration. Alignment and acceleration, there must be decisions and steps of alignment taken to what we've acknowledged from phase number one, we've arrived. We've acknowledged that now I've got to make decisions. I got to make choices to align to that so that I can actually accelerate. Imagine getting into my 1976 AMC Pacer and just thinking like a brand new Tesla that it would just drive itself, not aligning your right foot to the gas pedal, putting it down so that we could actually accelerate. Well, no, I'm going to keep doing things the way that I've always done things. No, no, there's gotta be some decisions, some differences. Sometimes, as a we acknowledge God is third, and every in your earth, then begin to export what the way that we're assignment. We come here, Joshua, one so, so in the testament aside, they speak it was in spiritual happen. In spirit, ends of Jesus, very important, that of Israel. God offer you read the old life promise, looking honey as we move. Turn the other neighbor, I got it good. I'm glad you got it. I got it today. Well, let's just jump in. Shall we? Joshua? Chapter number one. Joshua chapter number one, if you don't know this, Joshua was the servant of a man named Moses. Moses was a man who led the children of Egypt, or children of Israel, out of Egyptian bondage and captivity. He was the guy that showed up to Pharaoh and said,  Let my people go. And then made a reallydope song out of it for a movie several 1000 years later. It was awesome. It was awesome. So Moses transitions, and we'll read about it right here. After the death of Moses the Lord's servant. The Lord spoke to Joshua, son of Nun Moses' assistant. He said, Moses, my servant is dead. Somebody say, Moses is dead. See, Moses is dead. Is the title of this morning's message. Moses is dead. Somebody say, da, da, da. Therefore the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River, into the land that I am giving them. The time has come. You have arrived, Joshua, in a new season, and you must, in order to move forward, acknowledge the fact that you are now in a new season. See, Joshua was sitting around. He was the assistant of Moses. He was sitting around waiting for the next director, for Moses to come down, so that he could make the move to move forward for the people. But God showed up. He said, Joshua, Moses is dead. Moses is dead. Moses is dead. What is God saying to Joshua? God is saying, Joshua, there's something on the inside of you you have arrived in a new place. He's saying that the thing that got you here is not going to get you there. No more sitting around and waiting on some. One else to do what you've been called to do in this season. See what happens is we will get stuck in a grief cycle over what was for so long that we'll stay stuck in a place where we just wander. They've already came out of a season of wandering for 40 years, the children of Israel who were meant to make an 11 day journey to a land of promise, to a life of promise, because of attitude, because of complaining, because they couldn't get their hearts right. They wandered and they wandered and they wandered and they wandered. An entire generation had to die off before they could go actually, to the promised land. But Joshua had followed Moses his whole life, and he was waiting for Moses to show up. But the Lord showed up. He said, Hey, Moses, my servant is dead. He's saying, Joshua, you're called to this it's time for you to get up. It's time for you to go on this new journey. You have arrived in the place. You have arrived in the season. You gotta acknowledge it. Can I ask you a question today? What are you waiting on in this new season? What are you waiting on? We know Joshua might have been waiting, but what are you waiting on? What are, what are? What are you? What are you waiting on that God might be saying to you, hey, hey, it's time for you to move forward. Mourning is definitely appropriate for a season, but not indefinitely. Can I tell you something? Some of us have been through difficult seasons, and we're stuck in a season right now of mourning. Can I tell you something, it's time for you to arise. It's time for you to begin to move forward. It's time for you to thank God for the journey that he's taking you on. It's time for you to say thank you God for stirring up some of this. See, here's what I believe about the mercy of God. Not only does it meet you in your mess, but sometimes it gets really messy, and it makes a mess for you. In God's mercy and in God's grace, He will make things that are happening underneath the surface expose themselves so that you can move forward in a healthy way, not in a hiding way. God, I can't believe you did this. You blew up my whole world. You changed my whole marriage. You destroyed my career. You did all I've heard it, story after story after story after story. In this last year, more significant stories than we've ever heard before. Can I tell you something? It is the time. It is the season for you to recognize. You've arrived in a new season. Acknowledge, align to it. Stop waiting for somebody else, the Lord is leading you. Arise, mighty warrior, arise, mighty leader. Begin to move forward according to the Mercy, the plan, the purpose and the destiny of God. It's time to move. It's time to move. And that's not that we don't mourn everybody. It doesn't mean that we push past things. What it means is that it's appropriate for a season. Hear my voice. Moses is dead. He's dead. It's time to move forward. It's time to get moving. Moses is dead. Verse number three says this, I promise you what I promised Moses, wherever you set your foot, you'll be on land that I've given you, from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the West, including all the land of the Hittites. Come on, everybody. In the Old Testament, God talks about land, but in the New Testament, the promise is life, the whole life from the north to the south to the east to the west. It the whole life, the whole shebang, the whole the whole thing is for you, everything that you see, everything that God draws you to, everything that the Spirit of God stirs in you is available to you. You come to church and you see somebody with joy, and you're like, I want that joy. It's available to you. You see it. God highlights it for you. It's for you. It's not just for the promise, for the leader, that God that went before you. It's not just for the pastor of the church. It's not just for the No no, it's for you too. See, the reality is Moses did what he did to set up a generation to be able to follow the thing that God led us into. It's so that people can follow, not just so that it can be for us.  Come on. The second thought is this. Us. You've arrived. You've not been abandoned, you've arrived. You've not been abandoned, you've arrived. You've not been abandoned. You ever felt lonely when you got into that new season? Nobody's here, nobody's here. And the enemy tries to trick us into thinking, trap us into thinking, we've been abandoned. You haven't been abandoned, you've arrived. You've arrived in the one place that you'll have to depend on God more than you have to depend on anybody else. See the problem with many of us as believers, that we depend on people too much, and not the God that is in the people that we depend on. The reason that people fail us is because they're flawed humans, and we trust them more than we trust God. Come on, if you've ever had a conversation with me, I never tell you I trust you. I always tell you I trust the Spirit of God in you. I learned a long time ago that people cannot be trusted. I don't care who they are. I do not trust my wife. I trust the Spirit of God in her. Do you hear what I'm saying? I don't trust my best friends. I trust the Spirit of God in them. I'm not saying that to become hard hearted toward people, but I'm saying you better be doing life with the right people, the people that are pursuing the presence of God. I'm here to tell you this morning, you have not been abandoned. You've arrived. You've not been abandoned. You have arrived. You've arrived. Not been abandoned. Trust the promise, trust the process, trust the Lord, can I tell you what the memorial of Moses? The memorial of the reason we celebrate 10 years, you might be here for the very first time, and we celebrate 10 years. Why do we do that? Because there's been a memorial established Not without you, before you, for you, for you. God didn't do all this for me. He did this for us. God doesn't think one generation at a time. God thinks hundreds of generations, 1000s of generations at a time. That's how God does things. You've arrived, not been abandoned. Verse number six, Be strong and courageous for your the one who will lead these people to possess the land that I swore to their ancestors. Be strong and very courageous. Look at this, everybody. See this repeat strong and courageous. Be very strong and courageous. You know what I think is really interesting about this. Often times we think that God spoke this because Joshua was strong and courageous. But I don't think he spoke this because Joshua was strong and courageous. I think it was because he was weak and scared. I don't believe that God calls the equipped. I believe that He equips the called. See, over the last 10 years, God has developed a giftedness of strength and courage in me. But if you go back and listen to our early messages, I preach with a lot of apology. I got a lot of questions. I was uncertain of who I was. I had no idea what I was doing, God, why did you make me come here? He didn't call me because I was strong and courageous. He called me because he knew that I would let him be God in me. See if I was strong and courageous, I would have come and built this church, and I would have celebrated me, and I would allow everybody to celebrate me because I was so strong and courageous, I didn't need God. See, God called me because I was weak. God called me because I was fearful. God called me because I was a mess. God called me because I had no clue what to do. He doesn't call the strong and courageous, but he calls us to be strong and courageous. Do you hear what I'm saying? And so without apology, we've gotta lean into the Spirit of God. We've gotta allow the voice of God, the Word of God, to shape, to mold and to form us. Come on, everybody, where have you been weak? Where have you been fearful? That's probably the place that God is saying you have finally arrived, because it's the place where you need him. It's the place where you need to lean into him. It's the place where you'll be desperate for him. It's the place where you can't be without him. That's the place that he can move strong and courageous, my friends, was not an observation of Joshua's life. It was a declaration over his life. It wasn't an observation of his life. So you look at other strong men and women of God, and you think, Oh, they're amazing. I'm terrible. Guess what? They're just as terrible as you are, they need God just as much as you do. Listen, if we don't need God, then we're God. And I don't want to be God. I want him to be God. Verse continues on, says, Be careful to obey. All the instructions that Moses gave you. So don't do away with Moses, but don't live in that. Don't don't stay there, don't deviate from them, turning either to the right or the left. Then you'll be successful in everything you do. Verse eight, I love this. This one of my favorite scriptures in all the Bible. I remember our pastor coming up in Rockford. This was his life verse, and I loved the way that he talked about this verse. This verse made me fall in love with the Word of God. Study this book of instruction continually. Don't stop. Meditate on it day and night, so you be sure to obey everything written in it. I think this is more important now than it's ever important, because as we arrive in this new place, our culture is arriving in a place that is so moved by however we feel, we've begun to shape the Scripture based on culture. We've began to change scripture based on culture. We've begun to believe certain things about Scripture based on the way that we feel or culture. But this, this word says, Obey everything written in it. If the Bible says it, I believe it. If the Bible says it and I don't believe it, if I don't agree with it, then my life needs to change, not the Bible. Do you hear what I'm saying? Come on, my feelings, don't change the Scripture. The Scripture change my feelings, my beliefs. Don't change the Scripture. The scripture changes my beliefs. I don't need to God. I need you to help me understand, study and stay. The people that I've seen leave over the years have not made a commitment to God's word. We've got to make a commitment to God's word. And you know, over the last several years, we've ramped up our intentionality, reading plans together, devotionals together, in the life of our church. We cannot afford to be a biblically illiterate church in this season of acceleration that God has for us. We have got to stay like in tune with his word, but we've got to stay sensitive to His Spirit. We don't have the luxury culturally to not know God's Word. We desperately need to know it, not just what we're taught on Sunday mornings. Can I tell you something I could be delivering you absolute garbage every Sunday. Now, by the grace of God, I never will, but we don't know. We've gotta test every word against the word, and if it doesn't align with the word, then it's got to go, otherwise we won't be able to stay. Either it stays or we stay. It's not going to be both. I want to stay in God's Word so that I can stay in the land that God has promised me, the life that he's promised me,  see as much as we celebrate, let me just read the Scripture only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do? This is my command one more time. He says, Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Hey everybody, we're here. Let's stay a while. We're here. Let's stay a while. One of the most heartbreaking things about these years of celebration are all the marriages that started to be restored, all the lives that God started to touch, and for various reasons, they're gone now. Many people God has moved on. Many people God has blessed Many. Many people have moved on seasons. But guess what? We're still in relationship with all that. So essentially, they've stayed But inevitably, there are going to be relationships that fail, that fall away. Pastor Carrie and I were in a meeting on Monday evening with an old friend from our season of life in Rockford, when there were several young couples on staff. We. And of those couples, we're the only two still doing this, not just ministry, but many of them aren't even living for the Lord anymore. And I just always ask, God, how are we still here? How are we still going? And of course, it's by His grace and by His goodness. But the bottom line is, man, we just kept going. We just kept showing up when we disagreed, we kept showing up when we were hurt. We kept showing up when someone failed us. We kept showing up when we failed. We kept showing up when we sinned. We kept showing up when they sinned, we kept showing up. We just purposed in our hearts. We're going to trust the gift of God in people. Sometimes still, people are going to fail, but we're just going to stay at the end of the day. God, I just want to be faithful to you. I'm here to tell you this morning, everybody, Moses is dead. Moses is dead. Some of us walked in here this morning and we were feeling heavy. Some of us walked in feeling stagnant, feeling stuck. Some of us came today feeling hopeful, maybe hesitant, encouraged, however entrenched. And I'm telling you, Moses is dead. You've arrived. You haven't been abandoned. It's time for you to acknowledge your arrival. Some of you here for the first time. You like? You talking to me? Yeah, I'm talking to you. God called you here today. He's got a plan for you today. You don't have to stay broken, you don't have to stay lost, you don't have to stay hurt, and you don't have to stay alone. God saw you and he brought you here. Here's what you have to understand about your past is supposed to stay in your past. You don't have to carry it into your future. The greatest lesson I've ever learned in life is this, my life doesn't have to be defined by my past. It can be defined by the grace of God that's currently at work on the inside of me, old Matt, the addictions, the abuse, the abandonment, the rejection. That doesn't have to define me unless I let it. God, I want your grace to define me. Strong and courageous. You got it. I receive it. Do you hear what I'm saying? It's the beauty of God's mercy. He gives you something you don't deserve, you could never earn, and you can't work for Grace extended. You get that here, nobody's gonna judge you in this place, religious judgmental folks don't last long here. It's hard to do church, hard to do life here like that. Thank God, because I used to be that person, broken and rescued, and then became like the older brother in judgmental and exacting but God broke my life. He broke my heart, and I knew that we needed to create a church where everyone could always belong, no matter what season of life they find themselves in. Think we're just getting started. Can I pray for you, father? I thank you for the men and women in this room. God, I thank you that our past can be that in the past, Father, I believe that people in our rooms realize that Moses is dead, that we have arrived in a new land, a new life for us, a new way of living, a new way of responding, a new way of interacting. There is new opportunity, God, and if we don't know it, let us witness the life. Someone else, Father, let us remember the things that we've seen in the past that are good, that are hopeful, that are helpful, that do bring life. God, I declare that as we move forward, we would do it in faith that we would realize we've arrived. We would acknowledge the fact that things you're doing can be different. We declare and we witness and we will win this more and more and more, because you've done it before. We declare it today. God.