This message starts a new series called 5 Cups of Coffee. Each message in the series is based on a conversation that we can have with others that help explain our faith, why we have it, and why church is such an important part of our lives. They also help us understand and clarify God's vision for us as a church in our community.
This first message is the God conversation, but its about how God is leading us. One of the things that will be happening in each message of the series is that we'll be using a video featuring either folks from the church, or messages that they have written. The first video looks at how some of our folks were led to the our church.
My hope is, that as you were watching that video that you were thinking about your own story, of how you got to the church and started to take part in it. What's important about those stories isn't just that they got people to church, but it's also about how they tell the stories and the things that they remember. Remember the story of how they got there helps to focus us on where we go in the future.
Take a look at another similar kind of story. Our scripture reading for this message is Joshua 4:1-7. The story itself starts before all of this. The first thing to remember is that Joshua is taking over for Moses. Moses was the one who led the Israelites out of Egypt. Remember that story. Moses fled Egypt, ended up in Midian and thought he was going to settle down there for the rest of his life.
God called to Moses out of the burning bush and said that I'm going to send you out to do something. You're going to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Moses wasn't sure about that, but he went. Ultimately, he actually brought the people out. Following God's lead, Moses led them out of Egypt.
God told them that he would lead them to the promised land. They got out of Egypt, but they struggled. Ultimately they got in trouble by not being faithful to God so they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. However, that wasn't as much punishment as it was teaching. This was good discipline for the Israelites.
Over the generations upon generations they'd spent in slavery, they lost what it meant to be a people, or community, or even nation. They knew the words, but they didn't know how to live it because they weren't in a position where that would matter, not when they were under someone else's control. The time the spent in the wilderness was teaching them how to be a new people, how to be God's children, and how to be a new nation.
The time came for them to cross over into the promised land. To do that, they had one more journey to make--across the Jordan river. Moses, at this point, has died and Joshua is the new leader. God goes to Joshua and tells them what to do. He tells them to take the Ark of the Covenant and carry it into the river. Joshua does that, and as the priests are carrying it into the river, the water dams on one side and clears up so that they are standing on the ground.
Then the people of Israel cross over into the promised land. The Ark symbolized God's presence with the Israelites, but it was more than a symbol. For them, it was God's house, the place where God dwelled. By having it go first, God was saying "I'll lead," and they followed.
God spoke to Joshua again and told him to send 12 men back to the place where the priests stood with the Ark, and have them pick up 12 stones, one for each tribe, and bring them back to the camp and set up a memorial. Then, we get to my favorite verse of this passage.
What do these stones mean to you? That's the question that becomes important. This is the way that they would tell their story, in their own terms. That story always starts with what God is doing and how God led them out of Egypt. God was leading them
In our own way, this was the question that the folks from our video were answering. This is the question that we should all be able to answer. It is what becomes fundamental to our vision of who we are going to be as a church. We know the mission of the church. It's an old mission that we draw straight from Scripture, and that we use as a denomination.
Our vision is how we live that mission out. Our vision can only be accomplished when we begin to answer these questions. Most importantly, when we can tell the story of what these stones mean. This is why, that for each message in this series we'll have a question that will come with it.
The question is an important one to answer, but it's not for a big broad answer, but an answer we give in specific ways. How is God leading me, in my life, at church, and in my community? This questions starts us on the path to telling others what the stones mean, and helps us to share our faith in important ways. But, this only serves as the first part of our vision for who we are going to be going forward.
As you go through your week. Take some time to answer this question. Spend time in prayer and conversation with God and with others, and look for where God is leading you next.
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