A New Way

CCI Fellowship is discussing the concept of change and transitioning into new experiences in their podcast. They refer to the story of Joshua and the Israelites crossing the Jordan River as an example of stepping into the unknown. They emphasize the importance of keeping one's focus on God's Word and promises during times of change. The podcast also mentions Jesus teaching his disciples to have a personal relationship with God, highlighting the idea of a new way of approaching faith. They conclude with the story of Peter's vision and his realization that God accepts people from all nations, signaling the need for a new way of thinking. Welcome to CCI Fellowship's podcast. Thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. Open your Bibles to Joshua chapter 3. And in seven minutes, I'm going to give you this whole sermon. Are you ready? I'm going to go quick. You may not believe it, but there's a first time for everything. Father, give us ears that are quick to hear, eyes that are quick to see, and hearts that are quick to receive what your Holy Spirit would encourage us with tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. The title of this message is A New Way. I've been contemplating change in life, change in the church, all the things that we've experienced already this year and what is to come, the fact that we're celebrating the last 25 years, what God has done to develop this church, to cause it to grow, all of the things that it has gone through, the ups, the downs, the trials, the tribulations, the successes, the victories, the rise in influence, the spread of the CCI Missionary Network, and how easy it is when we are looking back, to look back and say, those are the good old days, and those are the days that we want to stay in, but God is always calling us that we would look forward into what He has next, and we can look at that path that is coming. We tend to have the perspective when it comes to change and transition that, oh, this is hard, and I really don't want to go through this. As you know, when I was in the States with my daughter, she's going through a lot of transition right now, having moved from, finished her junior year, moving to my sister's house, moving into a new job, getting into a car accident, like there's so much going on in her life right now that she had told me, I just want to go home. I just want to go home. I want to sleep in my bed. I want to lay on our towel floor. I want to cuddle with the dogs. I need to get centered again, and you know, there's not one of us that doesn't feel that way when we're facing transition and change, and we're facing new things, when we're facing the unknown. It's like, nah, I just want to get back to what I know, because what I know is easy, and what I know is comfortable, and what I know I don't have to work at, and what I know is easier to control, but God says, I have a new way for you to go. That is the basis for this message. Joshua 3, verse 4, but keep a distance of about, well, let's just start in verse 3, which I do have later, I'm not picking it up like I forgot it. Verse 3 says, when you see the Levitical priest carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, move out from your positions and follow them, since you have never traveled this way before. They will guide you. I want to focus on, for you haven't traveled this way before. When God puts you into a new place, when he brings you into a new season, when he brings you into a new experience, you don't have to think, oh, I should be a pro at this. No. You've never gone this way before. You don't know the directions. You don't know the instructions, and the Israelites were, at this point, getting ready to cross the Jordan. They were getting ready to go into this promised land. The change that was ahead of them was something that they had never experienced before, and God tells them, through Joshua and through their spiritual leaders, the instructions. Keep your eyes focused on the Ark. What did the Ark represent? It represented God's Word. It represented his promises. It represented proof that he was going to go with them through what they were about to experience. And he said, keep your eyes on the Ark, and keep your eyes on your leaders, because they will know which way to go. You have not gone this way before. Here is your stability in transition. Here is your stability in change. It is my Word. If we keep ourselves centered on his Word, no change that we go through will be so terrifying that it paralyzes us, because we're keeping our eyes on the Ark of God, on the covenant that God has with us, that he knows which way to go. He knows when to turn left. He knows when to turn right. He knows when to go straight on. He knows where there's a pitfall on this side. He knows where there's a chasm on this side that we could fall into. He knows those obstacles that we will face, and by his Spirit, he will guide us. And by those he has put into our lives as spiritual leaders, he will direct us. And so as we face change, and as we face new things, when we find ourselves in the place of saying, I've never been here before, I don't know what this is like. We can comfort ourselves in knowing that there is one who has been everywhere already, and that is the God that we serve. In John 16, verse 23 to 27, it says, At that time, you won't need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth. You will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request, because you use my name. You have not done this before. Ask using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy. I've spoken of these matters in figures of speech, but soon I'll stop speaking figuratively and will tell you plainly all about the Father. Then you will ask in my name, and I'm not saying I'm going to do it for you. I'm not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you dearly, because you love me and believe that I came from God. One of the things that the Pharisees were so up in arms about concerning Jesus is how familiar he was with God. The whole thing about Abba Father, my dad, my close relationship. Jesus was showing that close relationship that we can have with the Father, which we understand, we know, we know what scripture says, but put yourself in the disciples' shoes. Put yourself in that place, when this guy that you have followed for three years who has said some pretty radical things and pretty ridiculous things tells you, you can have a personal relationship with the God of the universe, that up until now you have feared, you have served as the government, you have ruled your lives by a list of laws, but I'm telling you today, Jesus says, you can talk to him directly. You don't need to go through the high priest. You don't need somebody else to pray for you. You don't need someone else to make the sacrifice for you. I'm making the sacrifice, and you go in my name, and you talk to him. It represented a new way, and he even said, you've not done this before. He started planting this idea in them when he taught them to pray in the first place by saying, our Father who art in heaven. I heard this verse read in Matthew 6 a couple weeks ago, and what jumped out to me this time, of course, when we think our Father, we think our Father, but when Jesus says our Father, it wasn't just an instruction to say, our Father, he's our Father, and that just blew me away. So when I go to the Father in the name of Christ, I go to the Father who is also my brother's Father, and Jesus said in the garden in John chapter 20, he says, I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Jesus makes it very personal and very specific. You've not done this before, this is a new way, but let me tell you that he's our Father. You can go to him and say, in the name of my brother, your son, I come, because you're our Father. In Acts chapter 10, which I feel like has been a focus the past couple weeks, Pete talked about Acts 10 last week on the day of Pentecost for Cornelius, the story about Cornelius and Peter going there, so you know the background of that story, and Peter has the vision. He sees the sheep led down with all the unclean animals, and God tells him, or this voice tells him, kill and eat, and he said, ain't no way, God, that's illegal, and I have never eaten anything that has been illegal to eat. There's no way I'm doing it. And he has this thing again, this dream again. God says, kill and eat, and Peter says, no, and he has it one more time. And Peter says, what did he say, do you get it? He said, no, I'm not going to do it, God. I'm not going to eat that which is unclean. And God says to him in verse 16, the chapter of the book of Luke again, do not call something unclean if God has made it clean. God was preparing Peter not to open up to him a new dietary practice, although praise God that it was. But the focus was not bacon. The focus was the Gentiles. I've enjoyed some good bacon with some Gentiles. Shortly after that, God said to Peter, some guys are going to come to the door and you're going to go with them. It was no longer this vision of kill and eat and Peter having an option. No God, I mean, you know, I'm trying to stay holy before you. God said, these guys are coming, you are going. And so he gets there, he gets to Cornelius's house and Peter being Peter, still, you know, not really with the program. He says in verse 28, you know, it's against our laws for me to be here. A Jewish man cannot come into a Gentile house. That's not the way it goes. But God showed me that I was supposed to come. So why am I here? What do you want? Why have I now defiled myself to be in your house? And of course, Cornelius said, God told us to call you because you have a message we need. And he began to preach to them. And you know the story, they in the middle of the preaching, the Holy Spirit falls on them for they believed. And they began to speak in other tongues and prophesy. And Peter, ever so attentive, verse 34 and 35, then Peter replied, I see very clearly now that God shows no favoritism, now get it. In every nation, he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. God was trying to tell Peter, there's a new way ahead of you. And it doesn't make sense with the old way, and it may go against every fiber of your being and it may go against everything that you understand to be righteousness and holiness. But this new way opens up things for so many people. I just need you to walk it out. This is the life of faith, walking out the change, even when we don't understand. We don't walk by sight. We walk by faith. Faith takes the step forward and the understanding of what's going on comes afterwards. So as the worship team comes, there's three things that we can pull from these three instances. One, regarding a new way, regarding change and transition, the path will be established and revealed by God's word or His ongoing instruction through the Holy Spirit. A new way, you will find success on this new path as you honor God's word and follow the leading of the Spirit through the spiritual leaders that He Himself has placed in your life. I remember a conversation I had heard of where, I know I'm taking an extra moment here, but a guy was talking to somebody else, it was actually in our congregation, and this guy was trying to figure out what to do. And the person talking to him said, well, you should really go ask your pastor. Talk to him, see what God would tell you through him, see, you know, get that covering and that blessing for what you want to do through the person that God has put over your life. He said, I'm not doing that. He doesn't have any business in what I'm doing. Well, okay. Did he have trouble in the next things? Yes, he did. Not because he didn't come talk to me, but because he had a heart that was resistant to what God wanted to do. The change, the transition, the moving into this new project, there were so many obstacles because he tried to do it in a way that said, this is a new way, but I'm going to figure it out myself instead of depending on the word of God, on the leading of the Holy Spirit and the confirmation that comes through that spiritual leader in my life. And the third thing regarding the new way is in the moment, you may not understand the change. In the moment, you may not understand the transition in the moment. You may not understand why God has given you the instruction that he has given you. Abraham found himself exactly in that place. When God said, kill your son, what he could have had a long discussion with God. But Abraham said, I don't understand it right now, but I trust you. We may not understand it in the moment, but as it develops, God will show us what he is doing and we will be able to say the same thing as Peter said, now I clearly see. Now I clearly see. Don't fear the change. Don't fear the transition. Don't fear the new things that God would speak to you. Don't fear the things that you have grown up and have been part of your foundation. If God wants to say, hmm, let me tweak this for you. Let me bring you into a new understanding of this. He brought Peter into a new understanding. Don't resist those moments because every change in God is to better your walk with him and even your interaction with other people. Change and God are synonymous when it comes to us. God never changes. Hebrews says, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. But when it comes to us, change is a part of our walk with him. Going from faith to faith, from glory to glory. May we never stop changing. May we never stop embracing what God wants to do in our lives. Amen. Thank you for listening to this week's podcast. If you are ever in the Tegucigalpa area and looking for an English-speaking congregation, please join us on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. in the main auditorium of the Glacier CCI in Colonial Treviches, just off Boulevard Cuyapa, near Puna. If you'd like prayer or more information about our church, contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com. That's fellowship.cci at gmail.com. Or follow us on social media. We hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings. Amen.