Give Me A Blessing! | Sunday, September 10, 2023

You can be seated. Welcome! We're so glad that you're here this morning. In just a few minutes, we're going to be getting into the Word together. If you want to take out your Bibles this morning, if you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one.

We have been studying through the Book of Daniel during the summer, but we're entering a new season. So, we're going back to where we were prior to the summer, which is the Old Testament Book of Joshua. If you want to get out your Bible, we will be in Joshua eventually. However, I want to share a few things before we get into the Scriptures this morning, kind of as a fall update, because we are in a new season.

Last week was Labor Day, and pretty much all the kids—those of you who have kids—are back in school. All the parents say amen! I praise the Lord; God is good. We're getting back into routines, but that means we're not just starting a new season for all the families whose kids are back in school; it's also a new season for us here at the church.

I wanted to give you a few updates to plant some things in your mind—things to be thinking about and praying about. You may have noticed, and we saw this quite a bit over the summer, that there are a lot of new faces here at Cross Connection Church. God is bringing many new people to the church. We have been looking at attendance and other happenings here at the church over the last several months. Since January, during the most recent five-week period, the church has grown by an average weekly attendance of 60 percent.

Since January, we have seen a lot of new people, especially in the second service compared to the first service. Typically, our first service is a little lighter, although this morning there were almost as many people in the first service as there are right now in the second service. You may have noticed this because you walk in and find someone sitting in your seat. I know you laugh, but for some of you, that's actually true. You've been sitting in that seat for a long time; it has the indentations of your behind. You know that is your place, and you walk in thinking, "I can't believe that person took my seat."

To cap it off, they might even steal your jelly donut after the service, and now you have a new arch enemy at Cross Connection Church! With that in mind, as God is bringing a lot of new people to the church, we want to welcome you. If you are new to Cross Connection Church, we're so glad that you're here, and we hope that you connect with the life of the church in the various ways we will share about this morning.

We do have to say, because we are seeing so many new people, that within our staff and our leadership, we have begun to talk about adding a third service. I wanted to put that into your minds for several reasons. One, it's going to mean you can, if that's a good thing for you, praise the Lord.

Prior to COVID, we did have three services, and we were actually talking about going to a fourth service at that point in time. So, we're kind of moving closer to where we were prior to all the craziness that happened in 2020 and 2021. But that does mean a few adjustments. We're going to ask you to be patient and to have some grace because someone might steal your seat or take your jelly donut. I mean, it's a joke, but you never know. So, be patient with one another and be gracious to one another.

We want to encourage you to continue to invite new people and friends to come. We make these cards available; we have a number of different ones. They're always at the connection point after the service so that you can invite people to come to church. We know from research that has been done by a number of different groups, one called Barna Research and another called LifeWay Research, that it's normally about eight out of ten people who said that they would go to church if they were invited. So, the odds are in your favor that if you invite a co-worker, a family member, a friend, or someone you go to school with to come to church, they will probably say yes.

We want to make these cards available to you to make it easy to invite someone to come to church. But we also need to ask you to be praying about how you might plug in beyond just coming on a Sunday morning. We need people to help make this a reality every single weekend, whether it's singing on the worship team, helping with the tech team, assisting with videos, ushering, greeting, or hospitality. All the different things that happen here on Sunday morning require a lot of help, even with two services. If we add a third service, we're going to need a lot more helpers for children's ministry and all of that.

If you go to the website ccchurch.com/serve, you can fill out the application there. If you've been a part of Cross-Connection Church for six or more months and you are a believer in Jesus Christ, and you count this as your home church, we would invite you to be a part of one of the service teams here. This is one of the ways that you not only worship God with your time, but it's also a great way to connect with other people as well.

So, I want to encourage you, as we come into this fall season, to plug into a team and invite friends and family members to come to church. As you all know, if you've been a part of Cross-Connection for a while, our vision is to connect with God, one another, and the world.

Through Jesus' life in connection with God, we believe that this happens when we gather together. We worship God when we go through His Word, when we give, and when we serve. However, we also want to connect with one another, and we do that when we gather together in fellowship on a Sunday morning. Additionally, we connect through our group ministries here at Cross Connection.

We just announced that we have a number of growth groups starting this week and next. I think we have about nine different groups, and you saw some of the offerings from those groups. I want to make an appeal to you, not only if you're interested in signing up for a group, which you can do on the website ccchurch.com/grow, but also to encourage you to check your bulletin. All this information is in your bulletin, which you can look at every single week. If you're interested in joining a growth group, please visit ccchurch.com/grow to see where the different groups are and what they are studying.

In the spring, we had about 130 people who participated in our growth groups. In a survey of those who attended, one of the top responses regarding the best thing about the growth groups was that they met new people they didn't know. When you go to a church with multiple services, like we currently do with two and will have three in the future, you end up with many people in the church that you don't know. A growth group is a great place to get to know new people, delve into the Scriptures, and continue to see your life grow in Christ.

If you are a person who has a heart for people and is willing to open your home, we invite you to consider being a host for a growth group. It’s just a six-week, maybe eight-week, commitment in your home. If you have a heart for people, can serve your guests, and can talk about Jesus, you can be a host or facilitator. We would love for you to be a part of that. You just need to have been a part of the church for six or more months and be a believer in Jesus.

We want to add to our growth groups and have more opportunities for people to be involved. If you go to ccchurch.com/ggf, which stands for growth group facilitator, you can register to let us know that you might be interested in being a growth group facilitator. We would love to have you as part of the team.

This is kind of like a fall update. I know that this isn't really from the Scriptures and not what you might be anticipating hearing on a Sunday morning, but I just wanted to share this information with you.

A number of these things are on my mind as we get ready for this new season. There are going to be a lot of things happening here at the church over the next several months. Not just here at the church, but in just a few weeks, my wife and I, along with my friend David Guzik, who is the head of a ministry called Enduring Word, my friend Lance Ralston, who pastors Calvary Chapel in Oxnard, California, and my friend Chuck Musselwhite, who pastors at Calvary Chapel in Lompoc, California, will be leading a group of about 123 people to the Holy Land.

We will be going through Israel, and this year we are also going to Egypt for the first time. We will visit the ruins of the city of Ephesus in Turkey and Athens. These are some awesome things that we are doing. However, I have had a number of people ask when they can go on a trip to the Holy Land. We just finalized all the details for an Israel trip for next year.

From November 1st through the 12th, we will be doing an Israel trip. This will be all in Israel, going through the region of Galilee and the northern part of Israel, the Golan Heights, and then down to the south in the Dead Sea. We will end our trip in Jerusalem for four days. If that interests you, we have flyers out at the connection point this morning. You can also visit tours.enduringword.com to learn all about that upcoming trip.

Keep that in mind; there are lots of different things going on. I do want to share about the ministry called Enduring Word. How many of you here this morning are familiar with enduringword.com? Please lift up your hand. A number of you are. Enduring Word is the ministry of my friend David Guzik, who has written a commentary on the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. If you're interested in studying through the Bible on your own, a great place to start with your studies and understanding what certain texts mean is with enduringword.com.

I have the privilege of serving on the board of that ministry, so we as a church are partnered with it. I also built the website and manage the development of the mobile app. To share with you what you are a part of through Enduring Word, since January, we have had 11 million users who have looked at enduringword.com 56 million times, resulting in 56 million page views since January of this year. Our mobile app on iOS and Android has been downloaded 250,000 times and has had 10 million views as well. God is doing amazing things.

Around the world, we can see the map where people are looking at this constantly. Every 30 minutes, we have about 5,000 people viewing this all over the world, and it's absolutely amazing. We are translating all that material into about 12 different languages right now. I would encourage you to pray for Enduring Word and utilize the materials there if you're studying through the Scriptures, because I think it will be a great encouragement to you.

A couple more things before we get into the Scriptures: First, we are moving into the fall, and we have a lot of things coming up. We have, of course, the normal activities that we do every single year as we approach the holiday season. For our Christmas series, we will have the four weeks leading up to Christmas, and we will also have our Christmas Eve Eve service during that time. Additionally, we have a Nativity Night Celebration that we will be doing, along with a couple of other events that we are planning and working on. These are all opportunities for you to invite people to come so that they might connect with God.

One of my appeals to you this morning is that you would begin to pray. Pray that God would speak to you or reveal to you who in your life you are connected to. You might be connected to them through school, work, or perhaps they live in your neighborhood or are part of your extended family. Who are you connected to that is disconnected from God?

Think about that. Who are the people you are connected to that are disconnected from God? Within 10 miles of this building, there are more than a million people living in this area. Research conducted by various groups shows that it is less than 10 percent of those people who are connected to a Bible-teaching, gospel-driven church.

Consider that there are nearly a million people within 10 miles of this building who have no connection to God, and you are connected to them every single week. I want to encourage you to pray, "God, who are the people that I am connected to that are disconnected from you?" You will see this in your conversations with people. They will share with you about the things that are not going well in their lives. They may express feelings of disconnection, loneliness, or that things are just not going very well.

All of us know people like that. When you have those conversations, it is a great opportunity to say, "Hey, why don't you join me this week and come with me to church?" The odds are they will say yes. So, I want you to begin to pray, "God, who are the people that I am connected to that are not connected to you?"

I want to show you some people and then begin to pray, "God, prepare an opportunity for me to share the Gospel with that person or to invite them to church." When you pray that, you also need to pray, "Lord, help me to not throw in the towel when that opportunity comes." A lot of people get embarrassed, freaked out, and tongue-tied, and they miss the opportunity. So, God, help me to make the most of every opportunity. This is from Ephesians chapter five. We are living in times where wickedness abounds; it's very clear. Paul says to make the most of every opportunity, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

So, God, help me to know or see those people who are not connected to You that I am connected with. Help me to have an opportunity to share with them and then to make the most of that opportunity. When the opportunity comes, you need to take it. Invite those people to come to church and share the good news of the Gospel with them. It's as simple as sharing the good things that God has done in your life as you put your trust and faith in Him and begin to follow Him.

I encourage you to make these things a prayer request. I have one final prayer request I would ask you to pray with us and with our leadership team here at the church. You probably have noticed we have these big poles sticking up in this area. We're getting ready to put some shade sails there; that's been something we have been planning for a very long time. If you've gone over to the children's ministry area, the check-in area, or the restrooms, you may have noticed that we have a construction project happening there.

We have a list of about half a dozen different construction projects that need to be done here. Some of them are urgent. Our water main, which brings water to our sprinklers in this building, has basically been condemned. We have a team coming out to replace it because, if you go out there, you can see it's leaking water and has been for a while. These things cost a lot of money, so I'm going to ask you to pray about something. We don't do this very frequently, but occasionally we need to.

Our desire is to pay for these construction projects and upgrades without going into our reserves. We do have reserves and savings, so we want to pay for this above our annual budget, which is about 1.2 million dollars. This means that between now and the end of this year, and the beginning of next year, we need to raise an additional fifty-five thousand dollars. I'm asking you to pray about this. We pray to God, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills; that's what the Scriptures say. Some people wonder what that means. Well, He owns everything.

Sometimes I say, "God, would you maybe take a few of those cattle on a thousand hills to auction?" We need you to provide. I don't know about you, but I have seen God provide in miraculous ways many times. The Scriptures say, "You have not because you ask not." So, I'm asking you, as Cross Connection Church, to be praying with us that God would provide an additional fifty-five thousand dollars or more. Whatever He wants to do, if He wants to drop more on it, we have plenty of projects that we'll spend it on.

I'm also going to ask you to prayerfully consider whether or not you might contribute to that with a special fund at ccchurch.com/building. This would be beyond your normal giving here at Cross Connection Church. I would just ask you to pray about it. If the Lord moves you to give to that, it would be a real blessing because we want to continue to expand what God is doing here. One of the ways that we're going to do that is with this facility.

Those are all the Fall updates. If you have any questions, I'd love to talk with you after the service about some of these things. Please be praying for our ministry team. We have an elders meeting today to discuss things that we're planning for the near-term future. God is doing an amazing thing. As I said at the beginning, God has brought a huge group of people here over the last nine months or so. We've grown by about sixty percent in nine months, which is absolutely phenomenal. So, continue to seek the Lord and pray for us as we move forward with that.

Take out your Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are in the Old Testament book of Joshua. It is the sixth book of the Bible. If you open to Genesis and turn to the right, you'll pass Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and then Joshua. We're going to be eventually in Joshua chapter 15.

Before we get to that, I feel the need, because we haven't been in Joshua for the last thirteen weeks, to give a little bit of a recap to help us position ourselves in the story that we're going through here in this passage. If you are new to Cross Connection Church, I'm sure you've noticed that we spend a lot of time in the Bible. We are a Bible-centric church. The Bible is central to what we believe. It not only details what we believe, but it also shows us how we ought to live and move in this world. We are convinced here at Cross Connection Church that the whole counsel of God, found in the whole of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, is important for the whole church.

Bringing this up is important because there are many good Bible churches that I know of that actually don't spend a lot of time in the Old Testament. I understand that, because the New Testament, which is the last third of the Bible from Matthew to Revelation, primarily talks about Jesus, His church, and the mission that Jesus is carrying out in the world from the time He came until the time He comes again. It makes sense to me that a lot of churches spend the bulk of their time, or all of their time, in Matthew to Revelation.

However, there is this huge section of the Bible that is also very important: from Genesis to Malachi, which constitutes two-thirds of the Bible. Many churches and a lot of Christians do not know much about the Old Testament. For the last several years, we have been delving into the Old Testament, and I chose several years ago, at the beginning of 2020, to begin with the fifth book of the Bible. This may seem kind of odd, considering that there are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers before Deuteronomy.

There will be times in the future when we will go back and discuss some of those earlier books. Today, I will give you a brief overview of some of the things we find in those passages of Scripture. I believe Deuteronomy is a very important book. In one sense, as I have shared before, it serves as a primer for the rest of the Old Testament.

The way I would put it is that Deuteronomy is a lens through which you and I can better understand what God is doing in the world and what He was doing during the time of the children of Israel living in the land thousands of years ago. This has significance for all people in all places at all times. Deuteronomy helps us understand God's workings in the historic books of the Old Testament.

When I refer to the historic books, I am thinking of books like First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, and First and Second Chronicles, among others. When you look at those books, much of it makes more sense when viewed through the lens of Deuteronomy. It begins to clarify what is going on and why it is happening. The children of Israel sometimes experience victory, and many times they face horrible defeat. Their victories and defeats become clearer when you read and study the book of Deuteronomy.

It is in Deuteronomy that God establishes His covenant relationship with the children of Israel. He emphasizes His requirements, or His law, for this covenant and tells them what they need to know.

He says, "If you will obey my commandments and if you will follow the covenant that you and I have established with one another, then you're going to be blessed. But if you don't follow those commandments, then these curses are going to come upon you."

When you read through Kings, Chronicles, and Samuel, and you look at the times when the children of Israel are having great victories and things are going really well, you might wonder why that is. It is because they are following the commands and the statutes of the covenant that God established with His people. Conversely, when they experience total failures and everything falls apart, when they are subjugated by their enemies and everything seems like a defeat, you can draw a line back to their failure to follow or adhere to God's commandments and the statutes of the law.

There is another significant section of the Old Testament called the prophets. This is where you find books like the Book of Daniel, as well as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Obadiah, and Malachi. When you go through those books, you discover that these individuals, such as Obadiah and Nahum, were experts in Deuteronomy. They looked at what was happening in the nation of Israel through the lens of God's law in Deuteronomy. They would say to the people, "If you continue in this mode, if you continue to reject God and stubbornly go against His commandments, this is what is going to happen. You are going to have land that is unfruitful, and you are going to face all kinds of wars and issues of famine. All this stuff is going to come upon you if you do not turn back to faith and faithfulness to God."

The prophets were not only looking at the current events in their nation but were also applying what the Scriptures say. They were experts in Deuteronomy and the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. They were able to observe what was happening and see what God had said, declaring, "If you do this, then this is what is going to happen." Many of the predictions of the prophets were what I call conditional predictions. It is a condition that states if you continue in this manner, this is what is going to happen.

Every parent knows this because you say to your kids, "If you continue to do that, then this is what is going to happen." Can I get an amen? This is what will continue to happen in your life; it is a conditional prediction. You are predicting their future discomfort, right? Can I get an amen? Am I the only one?

We totally understand this, so Deuteronomy becomes a very important book. We believe here at Cross Connection Church that the whole of the Bible is important for us. All Scripture is given, as Paul the Apostle says in Second Timothy, chapter three. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God; another translation says it is God-breathed. It is profitable or useful for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, so that the men and women of God would be thoroughly equipped, ready for every good work.

The Word of God establishes what is right and true; that is doctrine. When you establish what is right and true doctrine, it exposes and reproves all the ways that you and I are crooked and not right. The Bible does that: it establishes doctrine, reproves or rebukes us, corrects us, and instructs us in righteousness. Therefore, Paul says to preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season, to convince, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering. The whole of the Bible is useful for these things. That's why we go through books like we are going through in Deuteronomy and Joshua.

We started Deuteronomy at the beginning of 2020 and finished it at the beginning of this year. Deuteronomy is really the last words, the very last message of that great lawgiver and leader of Israel, Moses. The same Moses that God used to redeem the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt. The same Moses that God used not only to redeem Israel from their bondage in Egypt but also to mold Israel into a nation. That happened at Mount Sinai. Then, he used Moses to lead the children of Israel through the wilderness and to prepare them to come into the promised land, the land that God had promised to His people about 500 years before the time that they finally came into the promised land.

Moses is really the focal point of the first five books of the Bible—well, four of the first five books: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and then Deuteronomy. He is kind of the key feature. However, after the book of Deuteronomy, when you get into the Book of Joshua, the story shifts a little bit. When you're looking at these books, I think it is very valuable to take a step back from the details of the stories, all the different names and places of the individuals that these stories are about. Sometimes, it's very helpful to take a step back from the details of the narrative.

To look at what these books seem to imply or what they teach from a spiritual or allegorical perspective, I want to give a snapshot of what this section of Scripture, from Genesis through Joshua, really puts forth for us. We can take away valuable lessons from this passage of Scripture.

If we go back to the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, we find that the word "Genesis" means origins or beginning. The Book of Genesis provides us with a number of very important and interesting beginnings. First, it is the beginning of everything that exists. In Genesis chapter 1, we read, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." In Genesis chapter 2, we have the narrative about the creation of God.

The number one thing that you learn about God in the opening words of the Bible is that He is. He is the Creator and made everything that is seen and unseen. Genesis gives us the beginning of creation, but just a few chapters later, it also reveals the origin of wickedness, sin, and evil. You and I live in a creation that is not the same as it was when it was first created. Seven times in the opening chapter of the Bible, God declares about His creation, "It is good." However, we now live in a broken world, a world filled with wickedness. We are constantly bombarded with the brokenness of this world, which is on display all the time.

There is something in you, in all of your friends and neighbors—whether they believe in God or not—that desires the world as it was. We want the restored new heaven and new earth. Amen? That is what we desire. Ultimately, that is what all the people you interact with on a regular basis want. They might articulate what that world looks like differently than you would or differently than the Bible does. They might think there is a different way to achieve that than you might think or what the Bible declares, but they are still yearning for it.

In fact, the Book of Romans, chapter 8, says all of creation is groaning for that restoration. Everything in creation, even within us, is desiring that restoration. The Bible begins with the story of the beginning of creation, all things, and then we have the beginning of wickedness and brokenness in Genesis chapter 3 through the sin of Adam and Eve. In that passage, through one man, Adam, sin entered the world, and death through sin.

Spread to all of creation, we see the effects of those decisions in Genesis chapter 3, thousands of years later in our day. This came about by the temptation of one who is identified in Genesis chapter 3 as the serpent. The serpent deceived Eve and tempted Adam and Eve to reject God's law, and through them, all of this sin and brokenness came into the world. The world is broken today because of what happened there in Genesis chapter 3.

In Genesis chapter 1 and 2, we have the beginning of creation, and in Genesis chapter 3, we have the beginning of sin and the brokenness of the world. However, in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, we also have the beginning of God's redemptive mission to bring about restoration. This is the four-phase working of what God is doing in the world, sometimes referred to as the grand narrative of creation or the metanarrative of the Bible. It starts with creation, then moves into the fall, then into redemption, and ultimately ends with restoration.

At Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, we have the beginning of this redemption, which starts with a prediction where God says that He is going to bring about a child, a human child through the woman, who will destroy the work of the tempter, the serpent, that brought sin and brokenness into the world. This male child is going to come. From Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, we have this prediction of a coming male child who will ultimately bring about redemption and restoration.

Now, who do you suppose that coming male child is? Can I hear a yes? Yes, you get an A on the test! There will be a final on December 31st, but I promise there won't be. This is the big story: creation, fall, redemption, and ultimate restoration, which we are all desiring and looking forward to. That's what we have in Genesis.

So, that's the basic underlying story of the Book of Genesis. Because God makes this promise, this prediction in Genesis 3, verse 15, that an individual, a man, is going to come to bring about this redemption and ultimate restoration, the storyline of the Bible begins to zero in from that point on an individual and his family. That individual is a man named Abraham, introduced to us in Genesis chapter 11 and chapter 12. In Genesis chapter 12, God calls this man Abraham because remember, what is God doing? He has a redemptive plan.

The restoration plan is going to come through an individual, and that individual is going to come from a family. This family starts with a man named Abram, or Abraham. In Genesis chapter 12, God calls this man Abraham to follow Him by faith. He says, "Come and follow Me to a land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation. Through you, all the families of the Earth shall be blessed." This promise was given to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15, and it is through Abraham's descendants that all the families of the Earth are going to be blessed.

Now, who or what is the blessing that is going to come from Abraham? It is Jesus. The storyline of the Old Testament begins to focus on Abraham and his descendants. We are introduced to Abraham, then to his son Isaac, and then to Isaac's son Jacob, who was quite a rascal. He had all kinds of issues and problems, and we can probably identify pretty well with Jacob. However, he had a transformation in his life; God transformed him and also gave him a new name. He changed his name in the Book of Genesis from Jacob to Israel.

Israel had twelve sons, whose names were Judah, Benjamin, and so forth. These twelve sons became the Patriarchs, or the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. If you've ever heard Christians talk about the twelve tribes of Israel, it all traces back to Abraham, who had a son named Isaac. Isaac had a son named Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, and Israel had twelve sons who became the twelve tribes of Israel.

Now, how many of you understand the little end of Genesis? There is a lot more there; there are fifty chapters. When I was in high school, I struggled with dyslexia, and the thing that carried me through was Cliff Notes. So, this is like Cliff Notes Sunday. Genesis presents the creation, the fall, and the promise of redemption through an individual who is going to come through the family headed by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who became Israel, and Israel's twelve sons.

At the end of the Book of Genesis, there is a very poetic and interesting ending. Genesis chapter 50, the last chapter, concludes with these four words: "a coffin in Egypt." It started with creation, but there was a fall into sin, and sin brings death. The story of the origins of all things ends with a coffin in Egypt.

Who is in the coffin in Egypt? It is one of the sons of Jacob, one of the sons of Israel. His name was Joseph, and God used Joseph in the last chapters of the Book of Genesis to rescue and save His people from a famine that would have killed them—a famine that might have destroyed the work that God was doing to bring about redemption and ultimate restoration.

Through God working through Joseph, he finds himself in a leadership position in Egypt, as the Prime Minister, if you will, over all of Egypt. He saves his family from this famine. At the end of the Book of Genesis, he is with his family in Egypt. They are not in the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; they are now in Egypt. Just before he dies, Joseph says to his family and his brothers, "Listen, I am dying, but God is surely going to visit you here in the land of Egypt, and He is going to bring you out of this land. He is going to bring you to the promised land that God swore to Abraham, our father."

Then he says, "Listen, I'm about to die. God's going to visit you and bring you out of here. Do not dare leave my remains in this place." After he dies, we are left with a coffin in Egypt.

Then you jump into Exodus, which picks up where Genesis leaves off, but it is now 400 years in the future. The people of Abraham, the descendants of Israel, are in Egypt, but they are no longer free people; now they are subjugated as slaves in bondage in Egypt. God raises up a deliverer whose name is Moses. God says to Moses, "You go and tell Pharaoh to let My people go." Pharaoh doesn't listen, so God comes against Pharaoh and Egypt with ten plagues. Ultimately, he relents and lets the children of Israel go.

Moses leads those people to Mount Sinai, receives the law from God, and the children of Israel enter into a covenant. They build a tabernacle, or a mobile temple, where they can connect with God. That's the whole Book of Exodus right there.

Remember, Cliff Notes Sunday is this right here: you have Genesis, you have Exodus. How many of you are kind of on board? Okay, I kind of understand. How many didn't know any of this before? It's perfectly fine. Oh wow, you all are like experts in the Scriptures! Well, we're going to have Bible Jeopardy sometime; you guys are going to be amazing.

The story that we get as we look at what the Bible says in Genesis and Exodus is this: point number one, if you're taking notes, because of sin and the curse, humanity is doomed to die and be in bondage in Egypt.

Egypt in the Scriptures is like a picture or a representation of the world. Because of sin and the curse, humanity is doomed to die in bondage in Egypt. However, God is the one who redeems. He promised in Genesis chapter 3, "I will bring a deliverer who will redeem my people, who will destroy sin, the curse, and death, and will bring about ultimate restoration." The whole story arc of the Bible points in this direction, toward this descendant of Abraham who will bring a blessing to all people: Jesus, who will destroy the work of sin that has brought death and the curse into the world.

That is the big picture. Here’s the awesome thing: this book that we read is actually a book of books—66 books written by about 40 different authors in three different languages on three different continents over a period of about 1,500 years. Yet, it is a cohesive story that gives us this overarching picture of the redeeming and restoring work that God intends to do through His chosen one. The chosen one, that word is Mashiach, Messiah, or Christos, Christ, who is going to bring about this work and is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so forth down the line.

God is doing all of these things. As you look at the allegorical or spiritual themes that apply to us in Genesis, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, you discover that God uses this Redeemer, Moses, to redeem the children of Israel out of Egypt. He brings them to Mount Sinai to enter into a covenant relationship with God as His covenanted people under His law. Then, God uses Moses to lead the children of Israel to the promised land.

However, Moses is not allowed to bring the people into the promised land. Why? There are many details in the story about why that came about, but spiritually speaking, Moses in the Scriptures represents the law. What we see spiritually is that the law cannot bring you or me into the fullness of what God wants to bless us with. We cannot save ourselves by the law; we need another, other than Moses, to bring us into the promise of God's blessing. Who is the other? In the storyline here, it is not Moses; it is Joshua. The name Joshua is the Hebrew name.

In Greek, Jesus is represented by the name Joshua. He is not identical to Joshua, but he serves as a precursor to the coming one who is able to bring us into the fullness of what God has for us. At the beginning of this year, we studied Joshua as he led the children of Israel into the Promised Land after Moses's death.

We read this in Joshua chapter one: "After the death of Moses, the Lord spoke to Joshua and said, 'Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise and go over the Jordan River, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, as I said to Moses. Nobody will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, and you will prosper wherever you go. This book of the law, Deuteronomy, shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Do not be afraid; be strong and courageous. Do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.'"

The story of Joshua, which we studied through the first 14 chapters earlier this year, is a straightforward narrative. God, through the leadership of Joshua, brings the children of Israel into the Promised Land to conquer it. The first half of the Book of Joshua, which we covered earlier this year, tells the story of the children of Israel taking ground. I called this series "Taking Ground," as they were claiming the land that is theirs by inheritance.

As we move into the last section of the Book of Joshua, I must admit that I will need to discuss this more next week. I have a minute and 29 seconds left and six more pages of notes, and we won't get to it all today. The remainder of Joshua focuses on the children of Israel taking possession of the land. They have conquered the land, but now it is about possessing the possession.

In the first series on Joshua, I called it "Taking Ground." In this next series, covering the last chapters of Joshua, we will call it "Possessing the Possession." This is an important passage of Scripture, not just for understanding the history of Israel, but for grasping what it means for us today.

God wants to do a work in us, just as the children of Israel received the inheritance of the promised land. It was not wages; they didn't work for it. It wasn't something that God owed them; it was something that God granted to them by inheritance. They needed to possess that inheritance; they needed to lay hold of it.

In the same way, if you are a Christian today, you are a child of God and a member of the family of God. You have an inheritance that God wants you to possess fully. We need to take possession of that inheritance that God has given to us. I am very concerned that many Christians never fully lay hold of what God desires for them. They never fully experience the fullness of the spiritual blessings that they have in Christ.

As we get back into Joshua next week, we will see this important reality of possessing the possession. Point number three, and I will close with this: the possession of God's promised blessing requires faith and faithfulness. The fullness of God's promised blessing requires both faith and faithfulness.

We do not gain salvation by our good works and faithful efforts, but by faith, we lay hold of this awesome inheritance that we have in Christ. We take possession of the fullness of that inheritance through continued faith and faithfulness. That is what we will be discussing next week, as I don't have any more time this week.

So, I am going to ask you to stand with me. This is what we call a "to be continued" hook. I hope you are all here next week because I will have more points to share. I have two more points that I won't cover today.

I will end with this: God has a lot of blessings and inheritance for you that He desires you to take possession of. Jesus conquered sin and death; He destroyed the curse. He redeems us by grace through faith to inherit this great blessing. He wants us to lay hold of it, and that is done by faith and faithfulness. Faithfulness is the evidence of faith; it proves that a person has faith. God has so much more for you and me.

We saw this back in Joshua chapter 13 before we started the summer. God says to Joshua, "Listen, you're old, but there remains so much more to be possessed." That’s what God says to you and me now. Maybe He doesn't mention the old part for some of you, but He says, "There’s so much more that I have for you." He wants us to lay hold of it.

It is my prayer that I, and you, would lay hold of what God has for us. Amen.

Father God, I pray that You would do a work in us as we get into Your Word. Would You continue to transform us by the renewing of our minds, that we would show in our lives what is good and perfect according to Your will? Would You develop in me and in my brothers and sisters here a greater demonstration of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control? Work those things into us in abundance by Your Spirit, by Your Word. We pray this today in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Let's sing to the Lord."