The Objective: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 So this morning we’re going to talk about the objective but in a few past lessons I’ve been going over Israel [unclear] getting out of Egypt going to the promised land and I’m still in that same vein that’s what God’s giving me so that’s what you’re going to get okay. [unclear] I already know all this stuff [unclear]. So as we know from the scriptures Egypt was [unclear] I’m sorry Israel was enslaved in Egypt and they went God delivered them from Egypt delivered them from slavery and they went in the wilderness and we discussed the wilderness last time and that’s where they rebelled we talked about them rebelling and how God brought him to a land full of milk and honey that’s what he calls it and and.

▶ 0:52 They rejected it they said they wanted to go back to Egypt and we never talked about them possessing and taking the promised land because at that point they had rejected it they went back and they were in the wilderness for wandering in the wilderness for forty years yuck. How many you guys want to just wander around as a Christian for 40 years never. Possessing the things that God has for you the kingdom of God is righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit and we want to possess those things the distance from Egypt to Israel wasn’t very long but it was long but it wasn’t very long it could be done okay it’s like over 100 how much [unclear] no I thought it was like over 100 miles eleven-day journey I think okay moving on.

▶ 2:01 So and I want to point out some important things when they were in Israel how did God deliver Israel from Egypt I don’t want you to answer that question in Exodus 6:6 Jesus says I am the Lord I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians I will free you from being slaves to them I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment I will take you I will take you as my own people and I will be your God and how does Jesus deliver us from the [unclear] the kingdom of darkness sin it says in Romans 6 verse 18 you have been set free from sin the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age now this is a lot like Egypt Israel being enslaved in Egypt sin will enslave you and the first step is accepting Jesus into your heart accepting his death on the cross that’s the power okay and as we know there’s nothing really that you’re doing okay.

▶ 3:23 Jesus is doing the work at this point to get you out of Egypt to get you out of sin God is doing the work God came with the ten plagues God came to Egypt and he did the work there right and when we get saved when we get delivered from sin it’s Jesus Christ who is coming and doing a work in your life forgiving you cleansing you and he’s setting you on a new path amen. What did Israel do to be saved Exodus 3 verse 9 now therefore behold the cry of the children of Israel has come to me so Israel was crying out to God Israel was trying to get God’s attention and that’s exactly what we are supposed to do when you want to we get saved and first John 1:9 says if you confess your sins with your mouth he is faithful and just to forgive you and this is all basic stuff okay I’m just reminding you we all know that but it’s it’s really clear in this example with Israel getting delivered from Egypt so if you want to get saved it says confess your sins with your mouth he’s faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you.

▶ 4:45 Just like Israel they cried out and he saw the oppression so now you’re free chains are broken you’re standing there I’m free. What do you do now. There’s I mean you can’t just stand there all day and say I’m free I’m free you know you got some days you got to look you got to get some provisions you have you know where are you going to stay what what what are you going to do. And. You know you hear statements from a lot of different people I mean she just mentioned a statement how you know you want you want your faith what did you say it works faith without works is dead I want to get out there you got to do something some people will say all you have to do is believe in Jesus and now you’re a Christian but there’s there’s more to it and I keep seeing that in these lessons and God keeps bringing it up to me that there’s more to being a Christian than just accepting Christ and staying in that area we want to possess the promised land so should you hang around Egypt and this is what Christians will do they will hang around the kingdom of darkness and start doing the same committing the same sins that they were doing before they accepted him and that’s fine you can get get forgiveness but you’ve got to make a decision to get out of

▶ 6:16 Egypt the kingdom of darkness you have to take some action. Should you follow Pharaoh in his laws you see in Egypt Pharaoh is in charge and you’re going to serve somebody are you going to serve Pharaoh which is Satan he is the example of Satan. Satan is going to he’s going to want you. sin he’s you know we think sin is freedom sin isn’t freedom sin will enslave you as you know in the Bible I mean you can do it go ahead sin is pleasurable for a season. so should we stick around Egypt no God’s requests through Moses God kept telling Moses go to Pharaoh and this is what I want you to say in Exodus 9 verse 1 thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews let my people go.

▶ 7:14 Sin has a hold on you let my people go so that this is important that they may serve me so you go what is this [unclear] I’m serving Egypt now I got to serve you and this is the example we have here and. this is the objective John 17 verse 3 now this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God Jesus Christ whom you have sent the kingdom of God is righteousness peace and joy knowing when he says know you were talking about possessing we’re talking about having a relationship you don’t want to just know about it you want to experience it you want to have it. When you have when I am when I got married I had a wife it wasn’t an idea it wasn’t this girl I was going to [unclear] now we’re living together and we’re married and it’s real big difference right.

▶ 8:24 there’s a big difference between I’m going to get married and when you’re married Ephesians chapter 5 verse 32 this is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church and he’s talking about marriage [unclear] is an example of Christ in the church and the reason I’m bringing this up is because I just told you that God wants you to serve him right and that sounds a lot like slavery but really when you think about marriage okay and yeah you can call it the ball and chain you can call it slavery if you want you can call it awful but really it’s two people that are willing to serve one another to love one another and that is what the relationship with Jesus is like and that’s what the scripture is talking about marriage is like the relationship between you and Jesus Christ you don’t you’re not enslaved you’re not you know I.

▶ 9:29 When I think about a relationship between somebody who’s forced to be with a man I don’t know I can’t remember to call that right now but that would be awful how many how many of us people would want to be forced to have to be somebody’s husband or wife would that’s that’s wrong right. And. That’s why I’m bringing up this example of marriage. The promised land so we want to get to the promised land as we’ve learned before he calls it entering his rest and it’s an example of eternal life and that is our objective to possess the promised land and God.

▶ 10:14 Had passed judgment on Canaan and for years he is waiting to pass judgment on these folks he said I’m watching Canaan I’m watching the Amorites I’m watching all these people that are in this land and I’m waiting for their sin to come to a head where I’m going to act and there was 400 years he’s waiting you know America we’ve only been around how many hello yeah a couple hundred years [unclear] hopefully we get to 400 right I don’t know we’re going down fast so God help us we need his his deliverance but God has passed judgment on Canaan and now he’s using Israel to possess the land this promised land that had all the goodies that God was talking about had people there the kingdom of darkness was there I mean sorry Canaan was there and the story of possessing the promised land starts in Joshua chapter 1.

▶ 11:28 In the New Testament it says in Matthew 11 verse 12 the kingdom of heaven suffers what is it violence and the violent take it by force. What is this who put that picture up here that is a picture of a rocket that was sent into space by NASA it’s the largest rocket so far that’s been sent up it was sent up to put up a satellite I can’t remember what satellite it’s a spying satellite so we don’t know what’s up there we don’t know what it is but I want to talk about this rocket real quick and how.

▶ 12:14 Much how many obstacles they have to overcome to get up into space there’s a lot of preparation that takes place for years these guys prepare these rockets I mean they’re sending this projectile up in the air and you know you got to know the calculations you have to calculate you have to build this thing you’ve got to get a team together I mean there’s so much that goes in and millions of dollars maybe even billions I don’t know but a lot of preparation money and all that precision as you know there’s there’s something called what do we call it’s called rocket science and we use it all the time it’s not rocket science. Well rocket science is you have to be very precise when you go out of the atmosphere you got to do to a certain angle everything is very touchy.

▶ 13:12 And you’ve got to follow some precise instructions. They’ve got to have enough fuel I mean getting I mean these things are really heavy and you got to get them off the ground and they send that thing flying in the air and by the time at the the fastest speed it reaches is around thirty seven thousand miles an hour that is fast that’s like Mach I think forty I can’t remember what it was it really fast I’ve never heard anything going that fast.

▶ 13:49 But starting out there going what zero miles an hour so you got to have enough fuel to get off the ground and of course you have gravity our wonderful gravity we love gravity gravity is good keeps us on the planet and like I said reaches a speed of 30 36 plus thousand miles per hour and then you’ve got to face these layers of atmosphere the beginning you have the troposphere the stratosphere mesosphere all these spheres that you got to get through and at that first troposphere is where the air is at and you’ve got it you got to push through there and what reason I’m bringing this up is because you know this rocket is this is like a violent thing going on you step away you’re out of the way of this rocket right you’re parked somewhere else you’re watching from afar you wouldn’t dare get close to this thing look at the fire coming off of this it is just violently pushing pushing.

▶ 14:57 Through the atmosphere and it’s got some power and lastly you know we all hear about the Houston we have a problem Houston we have liftoff Houston alright we’ve seen all the movies and you got a team of people working all the time making sure that thing gets off the ground there’s a problem they sense it I remember watching a video of one of the space shuttles trying to get off and it had it had blown up later on because something had hit the wing on the way up and so I can’t remember his re-entry or or even leaving the atmosphere it had blown up and you know it goes back to precision these guys they can’t make mistakes it’s huge. So I’m bringing all that up because we’re talking about possessing the promised land and the space and that example is the promised land you’re trying to reach.

▶ 15:59 something new a new place okay. In Joshua 1 verse 11 he says command the people we’re talking about Joshua here command the people prepare provisions for yourselves for we are going to possess land he is just being very clear right here Joshua is telling the people we’re going to possess the land get ready and when they went around Jericho there were armed men and they took the ark of the covenant so they had priests and they had armed men they had to arm themselves for battle you see when you prepare you’ve got to be ready you got to arm yourself and as we know in Ephesians chapter 6 says put on the whole armor of God Mr. Barnes has reminded us that many times growing up as young people put on the whole armor of God there is a breast the breastplate of righteousness you put that right here it protects all of your what is it called what organs what are they vital organs I mean you know if you want go ahead throw out righteousness do some some things that are sinful you’re going to have destruction in your life if you’re going to go and and get intoxicated if you’re going to go and do drugs if you’re going to go and sleep around that is going to destroy you and the people around you.

▶ 17:29 That’s why the righteousness is so important it protects the vital organs you know when you when you do the sins that aren’t you know don’t have a big consequence you know that’s off here on your arm your you know I got shot in the foot it hurts but it can be repaired now you get hitting the heart you get hitting the lungs you get hitting the stomach the liver all these places you know you can’t you’re not coming back from that that’s why righteousness is so important and people we throw it out that’s why a lot of homes are destroyed people are destroyed feet shod your feet with the gospel of peace [unclear] Barnes they were talking about that today going out to. The park sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ she quoted the scripture talking about the gospel of peace and you.

▶ 18:24 Know as young people you know Anthony’s over there. [unclear] wherever you’re [unclear].. Christianity you’ve got to learn about Jesus Christ dying on the cross Jesus Christ forgiving of sin Jesus Christ rose from the dead can you share that with somebody can you can you offer them a chance to accept Jesus Christ and it’s a it’s a simple message but you got to learn it you got to be willing to communicate it. Shield of faith gotta have some faith goodness gracious you know we don’t have video data we don’t have video storage of Jesus raising from the dead we just have what people wrote down it’s going to take some faith you know and also we got Jesus he comes and he visits us you can’t see him so you got to have some faith that that’s him but why would you reject him I.

▶ 19:30 sword of the spirit that is the Bible we’re always harping on this read your Bible pray everyday we even came up with a song read your Bible pray everyday and you’ll grow grow grow praying talking about the spirit reading your word because the word is [unclear] the word is so important to have in your life. Preparation. You know you reading your Bible in the morning it’s like why do I have to do this and I was [unclear] what is this [unclear] and they had the son of and the son and the son of that and the son of this guy. What is the point of this because you’re preparing you’re preparing you know God will bring that stuff back to you but you’ve got to put it in you you’ve got to prepare it you know when you’re making a meal you’ve got to have something to cook.

▶ 20:30 You’ve got to have your sides and your chicken and or whatever is it you’re cooking. If you don’t have it at home then you have nothing to cook with say okay God all right buddy I’m ready to tell you something but you don’t have anything in your fridge I. Know I’m always using examples and sometimes people like what is [unclear]. Praying always. So these are the things we do to prepare and we’re talking about possessing the promised land and I’m talking about the steps that it takes preparation when Joshua went to possess the land they said prepare arm yourself. You know you’re not necessarily going to start fighting right away but you need to be ready.

▶ 21:27 Precision this is important precise instructions some of us you know God if somebody comes in and says I want you to stand on that square right there you see this is what they do you only stand on that square I’m not staying on that square [unclear] you know what see you later. You know that’s one thing when somebody wants to harp on you about stupid things that don’t matter but when Jesus comes and he has some specific instructions this morning Brooklyn came to me and said daddy I’ve got sand in my shoe said okay go outside.. Pour it dump it in the gravel okay now if she would have just [unclear] in the house that is a big you know she’s not following the specific instructions so Joshua he met the angel on the road going to Jericho and the angel starts to lay out specific.

▶ 22:30 Instructions. Specific with numbers and positions he said I want the men of war to go around not sideways not jump up and down not in and out around specific right. The city once not twice not half one for six days how many days six. Not one day not ten days six. You know this guy’s like what what is this where are we going to do this you know God what is your deal you know I got a lift my hands I got a sing what is all this yeah now he didn’t tell him that they had to walk on this specific [unclear] or this specific path they just said go around all right when God says you need to sing he’s saying you can sing whatever you want just sing.

▶ 23:31 Speak shout you can shout whatever you want but shout. Seven priests shall walk before the ark with seven trumpets and they can’t be of brass they can’t be of iron metal they have to be what ram’s horns. Seven on the seventh day I want you to compass the city seven times I mean. Now. Depending on your response. Now you can take this and be like yes six days so [unclear] and you can just mix it up because you don’t care or you can take it and just say I’m not doing this I’m just gonna do it my way like Saul we remember Saul he wasn’t supposed to be doing the sacrifice he was supposed to wait for Samuel to come but he didn’t wait and he did it himself.

▶ 24:39 And sometimes we get we don’t we don’t want to follow God specifics all right Bible says I’m sorry I’m getting ahead of myself sorry the priests shall blow with the trumpets a long blast not short not a toot. Long and a blast and when that’s done shout don’t sing don’t speak don’t look up I want you to shout I mean this angel is laying out some specific instructions. The wall will fall and then all the people will ascend up to the city every man and they did just that. exactly what the angel told them to do and God backed them up you see it’s so important second Corinthians 10 verse 4 the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds Psalms 104 this is an example enter into his gates with thanksgiving into his courts with praise we don’t come in here praising and singing because it is a you know [unclear].

▶ 25:58 this is [unclear] feels like doing today we don’t come into the church and start moaning and groaning about how this happened to me and that happening that is not what we do and it’s not because we have all of our opinions of what we should do is because we have some specific precise. Instructions. From Jesus Christ let the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice I would that all men lift up holy hands we have specific precise instructions and God God is giving them to us in the scriptures and he’s saying this is what I want you to do this is what it’s going to take. Be thankful unto him and bless his name dance sing shout stand kneel some of us don’t like to do these things clap let’s see if we can clap all you people lift up let’s see if we can lift up our hands can we do that oh yes.

▶ 27:07 Bible says Jesus says to do these things David reminds us in Psalms. Singing that word is used so many times in Psalms it’s not just once I mean he says he just repeats it over and over and over and then praise the Lord that’s used so many times. and when it comes to the scriptures sin. You know. You know we can’t decide what sin is what right is we can’t decide that all of a sudden this sexual immorality is okay we don’t decide that we have precise instruction. We don’t decide that okay I’m 60 years old now so that means I can smoke some marijuana do some drugs [unclear].

▶ 28:11 [unclear] he’s got specific things for us to possess the land. So Joshua 6:20 the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat and these guys they followed what God told them to do they followed all the specifics they went around the city they’d put the priest in the front I’m sorry the armed men in front the priests were in front of the ark of the covenant they followed it all and God backed them up and that’s what we need when we go out there when we’re doing the the park outreach. And our church services we want Jesus to be the one pulling down the strongholds you really you know I don’t have the talent I don’t have the power I’d like to think that I do but I really don’t.

▶ 29:09 Jesus and that’s what [unclear] has been talking about it’s been really good he’s talking about apologetics and how we want to answer everybody’s questions but really Jesus needs to talk to people when Jesus comes and speaks to them when Jesus comes and convicts them when Jesus comes it makes a world of a difference and we that’s why we’re always looking at the scriptures and we’re saying are we following these specific instructions right. Amen. Joshua 6. I have given into thine hand Jericho. This is God talking to Joshua 2nd Timothy 3 verse 16 all scripture is given by the inspiration of God that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work.

▶ 30:17 You’ve got to understand in possessing the land God has equipped you God has given you what you need he can he will give you what you need you’ve done the preparation you you’ve got the sword you’ve got the breastplate you’ve got the shield and now you need something more like this fuel this thing is going from 0 to [unclear] 36,000 miles per hour it you need Jesus Christ his life his fuel. And you got to remember there was a wall right the people of Israel how are they going to defend themselves against the wall the children of Anak were there the giants there were giants in the land Canaan they could have been giants in Jericho.

▶ 31:10 They Israel was up against a tough a tough army a tough people but you see God gave them and it gave them into their hand he equipped them and as a young person you guys got to remember young Christians young people Anthony Tamara you guys God has equipped you as young people to overcome you can overcome obstacles he’s equipped you to possess everyone in here he’s equipped us. We have the life Jesus said I’m the way the truth and the life when you think of that rocket fuel that’s Jesus Christ he is the propellant he is the thing the force that will get you off the ground.

▶ 32:04 Gravity is the force that keeps the body of mass attracted to the center of the earth and I’m not going to get into all the science of it okay yes I know that gravity is on Mars gravity is on Venus it all has to do with we’re not going to get in there okay because I’m going to say something wrong and all of a sudden I’m going to get [unclear] you know we know we understand what gravity is okay it keeps a body of mass attracted to the center of the earth in. Luke 21 and gravity and Luke 21 verse 34 it says be on your guard so that your hearts will not be weighed down with dissipation drunkenness and the worries of life a lot of us there’s a lot of worries in our life there’s a lot of problems in life I mean Saturday I was just overwhelmed in.

▶ 33:02 My head with problems I don’t you know I was just so upset and of course I pulled out the [unclear] and I pulled out the guitar and I started singing and and God met me and he helped me out I mean it was great. But. There is a force that wants to keep you down there’s a force that wants to keep you from getting to possess the land and you’ve got the worries of this life you’ve got all the problems in this life you’ve got the kingdom of darkness there’s some things that are against you. John 16:33 in the world you will have tribulation. There’s cares of this world you have your children your family your spouse there’s there’s some things that could keep you.

▶ 33:57 But of course it says in 16 verse 33 be a good cheer I have overcome the world. We can overcome. We can overcome you prepare yourself like we talked about you follow these precise instructions you are going to get there some of these rockets they don’t make it they blow up but you know what you just rebuild you get another rocket going you prepare again you go at it again maybe it didn’t work out we’ll start over you can do that it’s okay. Jesus still loves you. He’s got more than the fuel to go around if you run if you blow up don’t worry about it just get back down there get with the team go back to preparation follow those precise instructions of the word and get moving again amen.

▶ 35:13 We can overcome Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24 let us consider one another to provoke unto love and the good works like I said you have Houston sitting there in a big room and they’re looking at everything they’re saying oh they don’t have enough oxygen oh there’s a problem this piece oh. Right and that is the church Hebrews 10 verse 24 let us consider one another to provoke unto love and the good work so Mr. Barnes comes in say hey Michael [unclear]. God bless you all it’s so good to see you this morning you know he’s not just saying that to say it they’re saying it because they want to encourage. And we got to learn to encourage one another love one another.

▶ 36:07 Amen. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together maybe somebody was mean today maybe I was mean to you I can be mean I’m not a nice person sometimes but do not forsake this it’s not about feelings all the time it’s about following Jesus assembling yourselves together you know within that big room if somebody’s out you know if the guy that was supposed to be watching the oxygen tank if he’s out oh we don’t have any oxygen where’s the guy he’s not here what we got a problem Houston we have a problem. Not forsaking the assembly as the manner of some exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching exhorting encouraging.

▶ 37:04 Building you guys we got to remember that you know we don’t want to sit here and tear each other down okay Jesus let him do the tear down let him do the tear down okay let’s build one another let’s love one another and yeah we got problems [unclear] she was holding up all three hands up here you know I was only holding up like a little bit. I’m just kidding but we’ve got to remember where you got to build one another. We don’t want to spend our whole life wandering in the wilderness like Egypt unlike Israel they rejected the promised land they rejected what God had for him they rejected it because they were afraid they didn’t trust in God you know they had just walked through the red sea and still they’re saying oh we can’t overcome that or maybe they didn’t want to fight against the kingdom of darkness and maybe we don’t like confrontation.

▶ 38:11 You know God he wants to free people from sin yeah [unclear] he loves [unclear] he wants to free people from from sin he also wants the word to have an influence in our country in our world are. We okay with that are we okay with the Bible having influence. Or do we just want to say oh let me do my thing you could do your thing when [unclear] is hurting millions of people. Jesus he wants to influence he wants his word to be the one that’s followed. so it depends on our willingness to obey the scriptures to seek after Jesus that we just talked about we just talked about these things you know are we going to prepare ourselves are we going to follow those precise instruction of the Bible is not suggestive you know Jesus loves you but he’s not suggestive.

▶ 39:28 Now he’s trying to help you out. God is waiting for us to see what’s in our heart he’s waiting to see if we like in Israel they were wandering through the wilderness or before that and God is trying to show them what’s in their heart they’ve got a you know complaining heart they’ve got a heart that is just rejected just awful and they wouldn’t see it they can’t see it you know if God is trying to show you can you see it when God is trying to show you the way you are I have a really tough time sometimes. Romans 14:17 the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness peace and joy.

▶ 40:20 We don’t want to wait till we get to heaven to have these things we can have them now you can have the righteousness peace and joy in your life you know I would hate to have peace. Right there and I could obtain it but I decided not to that’s basically what a lot of people do they decide not to obtain. And this is going back to being a Christian it’s not just about believing it’s not just about being part of some. sect of Christianity. It’s about possessing the kingdom of God it’s for every sect whether you’re Presbyterian protestant what doesn’t matter where you are we can all possess the kingdom but we’ve all got to follow the same precise instructions we’ve all got to prepare we’ve all got to have some faith we’ve all got to have the breastplate of righteousness on we’ve all got to do it and we can decide if we’re just going to stay in the wilderness you know can you imagine a rocket going off and just [unclear] we’re just going to stay in the stratosphere oh no pretty soon you’re going to run out of fuel and you’re going to hit the ground.