Sermon Notes – August 1, 2021
Sermon Title: What Are You Waiting For?(Click Here to watch full Sermon)
Pastor Richard Brown
Scripture Reading: Joshua 18:1-4
Ask yourself the question, what are you waiting for?
The Bible isn’t just the story of God and His Son Jesus Christ, but it is the story of our lives and how we came to be this way. The Bible sheds light on humanity. It instructs us, corrects us and strengthens us. The Bible has survived countless attempts to suppress it. The Bible’s pages are stained with the blood, sweat and tears of martyrs who laid down their lives so we could have the Bible in our hand, smartphone and most importantly in our heart. Why is the Bible essential? What is the purpose of the Bible?
It brings to us the declaration of God’s eternal intention and purpose of our lives. According to Ephesians 1:9-14 (NIV) He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. What is Paul saying? We have a purpose and an inheritance. Even those who were not believers. Every son of Adam. Every human being. There is something that God has for you – we weren’t born by accident or mistake, we were carefully crafted out in the mind and heart of God. As the Bible says, [we] are fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are [His] works, and that [our] souls know very well (Psalm 139:14). God knew that we would be here. He has a predestined plan, purpose, intention and inheritance for our lives. There is a predestined, predetermined and predesigned inheritance for us. He is God over the entire universe, space and time and He has a plan for us. He has unveiled His purpose for our lives through Jesus Christ. The Bible reveals to us the plan and intention of God. It makes known to us the path and navigates our steps to inheritance. If we are to live a victorious life, to become the best version of ourselves, we are not to live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Pastor Brown used to sing a Sunday School rhyme back in the day that went like this: B.I.B.L.E. – yes that’s the book for me, I stand alone on the Word of God, the B.I.B.L.E. The Bible can be considered to be “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”. The Bible is critical and important and that’s why it has survived. It will continue to reveal the plan of God for our lives. The plan is that there is somewhere we are supposed to be, there is something we are supposed to do, and there is someone we are supposed to become. The strategy of the enemy is to frustrate the plan of God and to distract you from that somewhere, something, and someone. That’s called spiritual warfare. It is a distraction of the enemy to divert you and to twist you and turn you aside from what God wants you to do and become. That is the definition of wickedness – it means to twist and distort. The enemy has done this to many of our lives. This causes us to do things that we were never designed to do. We ought to want to be everywhere God wants us to be, doing everything He wants us to do and being everything He’s called us to be. We are engaged in warfare. The enemy is trying to distract us and distort that plan. We need to know the Word of God.
We need to know our enemy. Joshua is placed within the 12 historical books in the Bible. They best display what spiritual warfare really is. Joshua is the first of the 12 historical books. Joshua to Esther are the 12 historical books. The Old Testament is made up of 5 books of the law, there are 5 poetry books, 5 major prophets, there are 12 minor prophets, there are 4 gospels, there is 1 history book, there are 9 epistles written by Paul the Apostle, and there are 9 general books written by the other Apostles. Grab the Bible, it reveals the plan of God for your life.
Joshua is one of the two books of the Old Testament. We should read and reread the books of Joshua and Daniel. The messages of both help us understand spiritual warfare. The children of Israel in the text finally began to take possession of the land. They go through Jericho and Ai and other cities. They’ve taken a lot of possession but for some reason there are 7 tribes that have failed to walk into their inheritance. 7 is the number of completion. The work is not complete until all receive their inheritance. There are believers that are still failing to walk into what God has for them. There are some of us that are still yet to walk into everything God has designed for us. That’s who this sermon is for – “What are you waiting for?” The Bible is saying that they failed to drive out their enemy. You can’t receive your inheritance until you drive out your enemy. Their land was promised to them by the promises of God, they had a right to the land, it was theirs for the taking, everything that God said would be there was there, they were looking at it, smelling it, they were singing about it, praying about it, preaching about it – doing everything but possessing it. Some of us do a lot of religiosity, a lot of talking, but not a lot of possessing. As we navigate a pandemic – the question is here, what are we waiting for?
Sometimes for us to go where we’ve never gone before, to see what we’ve neve seen before, to do what we’ve never done before, to be who we’ve never been before, we have to diss our enemy. As a teenager, Pastor Brown recalls how people talked about dissing each other. We have to diss the enemy. We have to diss lust. We have to diss addictions and diss lying. We have to diss cheating. We have to move anything that is keeping us from where God wants us to be, what He wants us to do and who He wants us to be, we have to diss it. The promised land belonged to the children of Israel. God had gifted it to them. It was their inheritance. There are some blessings that God has said we can occupy and possess but we have to dispossess our enemy. David couldn’t get to the throne until he dealt with Goliath. Move some of your associations, some so-called friends. Put your life in order so you can embrace everything God said is yours. Joshua sternly rebukes them. He says what in the world are you waiting for? How long will you neglect to possess the land of your forefathers? What he was saying to them was that there was a responsibility on them to walk into everything that God said was theirs. Our ancestors, our relatives, pastors and bishops are waiting on us. We owe it to the generation after us, our children and our children’s children are waiting on us to possess our inheritance to be in the right place, doing the right things and becoming the right person. In the King James version, Joshua said “how long are you going to be slacking?” There are things God said we’ll do, but yet we’re still gossipping about people, still depressed, addicted, dealing with lust and lying. No. We have to make a decision to possess everything God has for us. Life is precious and it comes with an assignment and a purpose. Jesus told us don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has been given to us. Command your morning and go about ruling it. What are you waiting for? Why are you so slow and neglectful to take up that which God has designed for you?
Joshua is trying to get them to understand this one principle: You’ll conquer it if you confront it. The land, the promise, it’s given by God, that better life, it’s been spoken by God. You’ll conquer it if you confront it. Your future is being decided by your decisions today. The only future that God can endorse is the future that you authorize Him to endorse. You have to authorize God. Of the works of my hands, command ye me (Isaiah 45:11). Everything God has told us of, He is obligated to bring it to pass. God is obligated to fill emptiness. Bring emptiness to Him and He must fill it. They that hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled (Matthew 5:6). The only future that God is authorized to endorse is the one you create with your decisions. What are you deciding? God told Job you shall decree a thing and it shall be established (Job 22:28). What are you deciding with your faith right now? Joshua decided to go after his destiny and he embarked upon a 25 year adventure in which he saw rivers part, walls fall, and the sun stand still and 31 kingdoms bow before him. This was all because he decided he was going to walk in his destiny. Not even nature could stop him. When Joshua was fighting a battle, and he needed daylight to defeat his enemies, Joshua looked at the sun and said you have to cooperate with my assignment so the sun stands still until I do what I have to do. Even the elements must obey you on your assignment – that’s why even the wind and waves obeyed Jesus because the storm was not His assignment because He knew where He was supposed to go, what He was supposed to be doing and who He was supposed to become. When you decide by faith that you are going to start the business and be healed, you have to make a decision. What are you waiting for?
Joshua confronted everything and anything that stood in the way of his destiny. You need to confront any and everything that stands in the way of your destiny, you need to dispossess your enemy and crazy feelings. Your enemy is not flesh and blood but principalities and powers. Dispossess those evil powers, principalities and crazy emotions. Resist the devil he will flee from you – this means engage in a fight! Resist lust with all your might – it will get in the way of your destiny. How long will you be fearful and lazy and unwilling to engage your enemy to dispossess him to walk in your destiny. Anything worth having is worth fighting for. You have to diss that enemy, don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today. There was a promise from God, it was ordained by God, all that was needed was that they needed to forcibly go in and possess what was theirs legally. When are you going to diss your enemy? The Kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force ( Matthew 11:12 ). One reason why many of God’s people are cheated from their inheritance is because they don’t know what belongs to them. They are unfamiliar with the will of God and yet familiar with everything else. Unless you know the Word of God you will be cheated out of the Word of God. Some are unwilling to fight and are comfortable in their mess. But God didn’t design you or predetermine you to take that road. Every road has a destination, what road are you on, is it the right road? It is taking you somewhere. The lesson that we are learning from one of the hardest seasons of our lives is not to wait but to do, go and be.
What are you waiting for? We sing songs like “there is a mansion that is waiting for me”. Canaan wasn’t an example of heaven, they had to fight in Canaan, Canaan is a type of rest in Jesus Christ that we find in Him. God has given us everything. We’ve received everything pertaining to life and godliness. The devil’s greatest fear is that we’ll come to know, understand and discover who we are and who we can be and we’ll take possession of who He’s called us to be. You have to pull down those promises. Joshua is still speaking today, “What are you waiting for”? The devil will try to convince us that there is nothing for us to fight for. We have believers trying not to do anything in this world. There are things God wants you to have in this world. The truth is that God willed for us to have some stuff and to have it right now. We don’t need money in heaven but rather, we need it right now. We don’t need healing in heaven or power over the devil in heaven but right now. Joshua realized that in order to get them motivated, they needed a revelation of what they could be so Joshua tells them to go view the land. We still need to see it. That’s why Paul prays for the Ephesians that the eyes of their understanding may be flooded with light. Paul was praying, “God let them see it”. May God allow us to have a glimpse of who we can be, may the eyes of our understanding be flooded with light so that we may know who we are supposed to be, what we are supposed to do and where we are supposed to go.
We need to spy out the word, we need a revelation of who God has designed us to be and we are going to do it by the Word of God. It is time for us to stake a claim. As we read the Word of God and we see these promises, we need to stake a claim and personalize the promises of God. “It’s for me”. Every promise in the Word of God is for me. If you don’t personalize them, you won’t possess them. If you don’t personalize it you will never possess it. Personalize every promise in the book: “It’s for me and my children’s children, wealth and riches are in my home. I am healed and delivered,” – that’s personalizing the Word of God. Believe the promises of God from cover to cover. If you don’t know and personalize the Word of God, you’ll never experience it. Train your mind to see what your spirit sees. Don’t just read it, embody it. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). The letter kills but the spirit gives life. Take the spirit of the Word of God and personalize it to your life. Decide today, see it today, and embody it today. What are you waiting for?
Stop praying for what you already possess. Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Why are we praying for blessings? 2 Peter 1:3. His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, God has given us dominion, Adam lost it but the second Adam came about and shed His blood, went down to the crevices of hell and fought for the keys of death and against hell and rose with victory from the grave from life and for your future. He gave gifts unto men which we already possess. Stop praying about it and walk in it. What are you waiting for? Your assignment is to personalize the Word and possess it. The question is not whether it belongs to you or me. The same question is what Joshua asked eons ago, how long are you going to neglect the promises of God to take possession of that which God has already given you, what are you waiting for?
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