Imagine with me for a second that you are an Israelite and have been wandering around in the desert for 40 years.
All this time you’ve been hearing about a land that God had for you…one that flowed with milk and honey, that had wells you did not dig, houses you did not build and vinyards you did not plant that would all be yours.
THEN you get to cross the Jordan River…you see God literally put an interstate highway through it while it is at flood stage and over a million people walk through it on dry ground.
You are on a roll…you are about to receive what God has for you. He has promised you victory over your enemies and there is a sense of anticipation in the camp like NEVER before…
And then…
“At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.’ So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.”
WOW…bummer…news like that will seriously crash ANY party…but there is a lesson here…
EVERYONE loves the idea of progress…it’s the sacrifice associated with that progress that we have a problem with.
God was saying to His people, “you are about to go to a place that is greater than anything you could have ever expected…but it’s going to cost you.” OUCH!
One of the mistakes we can make today as church leaders is begin to believe the lie that we’re supposed to merely be comfortable when the call of Jesus on our lives is actually to carry our cross daily.
I think God has AMAZING things in store for His church…I think He wants to do GREATER things that we could ever imagine…and it’s NOT His power that is the limiting factor but rather our unwillingness to sacrifice.
AND…as in this case…sometimes the sacrifice gets VERY PERSONAL! (We love the idea of others sacrificing…we just don’t like it when it comes to us.)
We will never get to where God wants us to go in we are not willing to give up what He’s saying we need to let go of.
This means our personal preferences, our desire to please others, our adaptation to a denomination rather than being who Jesus called us to be, please the biggest giver, remaining silent when God says to speak b/c of fear…WHATEVER…needs to go out the window.
Progress does not come without sacrifice.