Dear friends, some of you may remember the day I was installed in February of 2000, just a year and a half ago, and our District Pres. Krause was present together with several other pastors at Drinkwine Chapel.  But few if any will remember the sermon text Pastor Richard Holz used as he encouraged us all in our growth as God's people.  It was this one.

          I read the book of Joshua again last summer and taped part of it to my computer screen as a reminder of God's promise.  This past week I decided these encouraging words were exactly what the Lord wanted to say to us as we end one part of our congregational journey and begin another.  God told Joshua, and today tells us, "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.  Be strong and very courageous."

          The Israelites had been wandering in the desert forty years.  Their diet of manna bread and quail meat had long lost its taste, and quite a few of their original numbers had already left them in one manner or another.  Now the Chosen People had finally come to the point where God would lead them across the Jordan River into a new land, the place He had promised them long before.  Their roaming was nearly over.  Their moving from place to place, a nomadic life of living in tents was at an end, and the door to their new home was just a few miles away.  They were finally getting ready to take possession of what God had long ago promised them.

          It was an exciting time, but it was also a time of major change.  Moses was dead.  Their great and mighty leader through the Exodus from Egypt and all their years of wandering was gone.  He had been to the mountain and seen the Promised Land, but he didn't go in.  When Moses died, God buried him in a secret place to keep the people from worshipping him.  Moses was not the reason they escaped Egypt - God was.  Moses was not the reason they had succeeded - God was.  God had led them out of slavery in Egypt and Moses was merely His servant.  It was God's will to keep them in the desert forty years because they needed to be purified from the grumblers and complainers and whiners who didn't want to leave behind the old ways.  God made sure those who came into the Promised Land were ready to move forward, because they had learned to depend on Him, and not on the past.

          Joshua had been chosen the successor to Moses to lead the people into the new Promised Land.  His name in Hebrew, Yeshua, meant "God saves."  It was the same name later given to Yeshua Hanosari, Jesus of Nazareth.  Just like Yeshua, son of Nun, had helped Moses lead God's people out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land of milk and honey, Yeshua Hanosari, son of Mary and Son of God, would one day lead His chosen people, the Christian Church, out of their slavery to sin and into the promised life of grace and forgiveness.

          Joshua and the people stood at the threshold of something great and wonderful and so, dear friends, do we.  Today we are ready to move out of our wilderness of wandering from house to motel to mortuary to gymnasium to cafeteria and into a land of our own.  Today we remember that we have spent thirty one months, just two and a half years, wandering from place to place and wondering where God would take us.  By His grace, we came together, a gathering of God's people unlike most other new congregations.  By His grace we, a diverse people, have become a new and unified people.  By His grace we found new land to call our church home.  By His grace we have built a fine tabernacle where we will worship Him.  Next Sunday we will say with joy, "The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!" (Psalm 126:3)   But today, by the grace of God, we are poised and ready to enter that new place where all who come will be eternally blessed.

          God's message to Joshua begins with blunt reality:  "Moses is dead."  No dancing around, no masked phrases, just, "Moses is dead."  It was time to move on.  God had a new leader for them, and they had a new purpose.  They would have a new home where they could honor Him and live with each other.  The Israelites could no longer count on Moses being there to talk to God for them, or to lead them or to judge their disputes or settle their quarrels.  It was a time for changes, and I'm sure, many did not look forward to what was coming.

          Would they like their new tent of worship?  Would they sing the right style of Psalms?  Would they have more than one Sabbath worship service?  Would they use a Sabbath hymnal or keep printing out the Psalms?  Would they continue being the same quaint group of Jewish migrants or would some Philistines join them?  Just as some had complained that the desert was too hot compared to the cool River Nile, so some would certainly complain that taking over their new land would just be too difficult, too costly, too time consuming.  "This is all too much work, and there are just too many new things to learn!  Why did this trip have to take so long?  And whose idea was it to do things this way?  And isn't this an expensive way to get some new land?"

          I hope you can see we are much like those Israelites.  Many of us have come from more pleasant churches and softer pews.  Many of us have said that our new church isn't what we expected it to be.  Many of us haven't been sure of our leadership or have wished things could be like they were forty years ago.  And some have already left to join other clans where there are greener pastures.  Or else they have found staying home on the Sabbath to be easier and more rewarding than the harshness of putting on cloaks and sandals and driving the deserts of their freeway to worship God in a spooky new mortuary or a hard-to-find gymnasium or an old and crumbling cafeteria with purple dogs painted on its walls.

          It takes courage for a people to change.  It takes strength to follow God's leading!  And it takes courage and strength to lead a diverse people, making them into a unified group with purpose.  God told Joshua, "Be strong and very courageous."  Joshua must have wondered if he was up the task.  It wasn't like taking possession of a new house after closing.  Taking this new land would mean war!  They'd have to clean out a lot of trash and bury a lot of bodies before having their first backyard barbecue.  They were ready to go into the Promised Land, but there were vineyards to plant and bills to pay and -- the hardest of all -- local authorities who didn't want them there!  They'd have to make some sacrifices and juggle their Daytimers just to find the time to fight the Canaanites or worship the Lord in their brand new synagogues.

          Somebody asked me recently if I am looking forward to having this building finished and I just smiled.  Yet though I'm ready for time off, it can't be for long.  Have you seen all the housing being built on Wolfensberger?  A year ago there was nothing, and today frames are going up on both sides of the road.  A year from now 500 new homes will be filled with a thousand needy souls.  When we get into our Promised Land, our work is just beginning!  We have hungry people to feed, dirty sinners to cleanse, and wounded people to heal.  Fortunately, it won't be up to us to cleanse or heal them - that's God's work.  But it is our work to feed them.  Jesus, the Bread of Life, is waiting to be distributed to hungry sinners, most of whom don't even realize how hungry or sinful they are.

          The wonder of a church is not the beauty of bricks and boards, but the lives that are touched, including our own.  When our building is done, the work of the Gospel is just beginning.  God has led us to this point so we can share His love with others.  He sent His only Son to give His life that we might have eternal life.  Christ is our Lord and the Lord of all, whether we live in new homes or old trailers, drive fancy BMW's or beat up pickup trucks, whether we go to church or stay at home.  Jesus is the Savior of all, of you and me and of everyone.  He died to bring us salvation, and the Holy Spirit formed the church so that you and I can be shining lights, like stars on a high Rock, or lamps for all who need guidance.  Did you see the cross they discovered in the rubble of the World Trade Center?  Those who died there are mourned, but friends, Christ is alive!  He is the reason we have hope, and His hope is the greatest and best gift for this life.

          Today amid the anticipation of moving into a new church, there is the sadness of some of our pioneers who are moving away.  We honor two families today because they have been with us from the start.  A few months from now churches in California and Oklahoma will be better off than before because they will have two of our fine families.  Lagés and Sheehans, thank you for being with us, and may God be with you.  Moving is not easy!  I hope you and all here today will be encouraged by this Word of God.  I understand it's the Confirmation memory verse of one of you:  Listen to it again:  "Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid;  do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."  May we all be strong and courageous.  We need never be afraid, because our Lord is with us wherever we go.  Amen

Copyright © 2001 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.