Taking God's Side | Pr Ronson

You're listening to a message to go from ex Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

So if you're a Bible I'd like to encourage you

to turn to the Book of Joshua. We're going to

read a chapter five, verses thirteen to fifteen, and then

we're going to read Joshua six one to five. A

couple of weeks ago, I chaid to you from Joshua

one about how sometimes God will put us into the

wilderness to test what is in us, and how Joshua

led the second generation into the Promised Land and him

needed to let go of his dependency. Why because back

then Moses was a key leader. He was responsible in

bringing the children of Israel out from Egypt into the

Promised Land. Nevertheless, because of the first generation's rebellion, all

of them did not enter the Promised Land, but they

were put into the wilderness until the next generation came

up and they are then to inherit the Promise Land.

So we will take a reading from Joshua chapter five.

We're going to read verse thirteen. If you have the

kids activities shit, you will see the Angel of the

Lord there together with Joshua. But for adults, you will

just imagine, okay, we's thirteen. And it came to pass

when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lift up his

eyes and look, and behold a man stood opposite him

with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went

to him and said to him, are you for us

or for our adverse series? Now let us pauset there

for a while. It says here it was the Angel.

Of the Lord.

A man right, a man stood there right. The man

is in capital. And it was fourteen. He says, so

he say, know, but as commander of the army of

the Lord, I have now come in Capital, see as well.

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and

worship and say to him, what does my Lord say

to his servant? Then the commander of the Lord's army

say to Joshua, take your sandal off your foot, for

the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so.

The let us pause there for a while. This is

no ordinary angel. Some scholars believe that this is the

Lord himself. So whenever you read scripture in the Old Testament,

when you see angel of the Lord in capital, or

man with the big m it is the Lord himself.

So this is in a context when before they enter

into Jericho, this will be the first battle they need

to fight before they claim the promised land.

So you put yourself in joshua shoe.

When you are in an unfamiliar territory, when you are

leading a nation and there is a possibility that people

around you are hostile, we are probably familiar with either

you fight, you flee, or you freeze. Right, So every

time when we face a dangerous situation, it's either we fight,

we freeze, or we run.

Right.

So this is one of the situations where Joshua faced

he saw a man, probably drawn out, saw a radio.

As a scripture says, probably is a warrior, and Joshua

wasn't sure. You know, are you forest or are you

against us? Now, let's take a reading further to Joshua

six ver was one. Now Jerry Cole was securely shut

up because of the children of Israel. None went out

and none came in. You might be wondering why was

the city shut up?

Right?

Why were they so afraid of the children of Israel?

Because across the years, stories of God's victory upon the

Israelites when they came out of Egypt was told to

the surrounding people. They would have heard how God played

the Egyptians with ten clique, how God led them across

the sea walking on dry ground, and how God uses

water in the Raid sea to just anihilate the entire

army of Israel, Pharaoh and his Shariots. So because of that,

fear came upon the surrounding people. So Jericho was shut up,

was heavily fortified and secured because the fear that the

Israelites will come and take over. In Onse two and

lost sake to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into

your hand. It's king and the mighty man of Wellrd.

Now the question here is have Joshua lift up a

sword to fight?

He has it, He has it.

But God has already promised Jeri Cole to the people Israel.

So the principle here is this that God has promises

for you and me. We need to do our part

to claim it. Because scripture clearly says that faith without

action is there. There's one thing about having faith to

believe in the promises of God. There's another thing about

walking in his promises. So God is telling, essentially telling Joshua,

that you need to walk into the promise that I

have for you. Believing is good, but believe and action

is even better. So in thestree says you shall march

around the city, all you men of war. You shall

go all around the city once this you shall do

six this. So God the Angel was just commanding Joshua,

this is a strategy. And seventh priests shall bear seven

trumpets of rams horns before the ark. But the seventh

day you shall match around the city seven times, and

the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to

pass when they make a long blast with the rams horn,

and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that

all the people shall shout with a great shout, and

the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and

the people shall go up every man street before him

the rams horn. You know, yesterday when we were just

praying on my campus ground, you guys know what a

shoufire is.

A show is like an old.

Testament trumpet made from rams horn. As well, we walked

around and we got the chauffa blowers and.

Blow the chauffa.

It is a prophetic and symbolic act of declaration that

every time we blow a trumpet, it is a sign

of a spiritual battle that is going to be manifested

to victory. And it is a time where we want

to open up the ground as well. Okay, so here

you realize that the strategy that God gave to Joshua

was very unusual. You know, any good leader will say

that it's time to take out our sword and it's

time to just go in and fight. But God clearly

told Joshua you shall do this. You will circle around

six days. On the seven days, you will circle seven times,

and when you blow, the city will be given to you.

So this is a context. Now, the first point I

want to share with all of us is this, then,

as believers, we should always choose God's side, a birth

man's side. In Chapter five, versus thirteen, Joshua asked the

Angel of the Lord, are you for us or for

our adversary? The Angel of the Lord says neither, right,

he says no. In Joshua's mind, he thought there's only

two sides. It's either your forust or you are against us.

But the Angel revealed that there is a third option

that is God's side. So we have to understand that

in our walk with God, often it is about Earth's

aligning to God's agenda, not Earth asking God to align

to a agenda. I spoke about transition many many weeks ago.

And if you really re evaluate back how we have

been praying to God, how often we say that, God,

I'm going to enter into this end you over, I'm

going to apply for this job. God, I'm considering a migration.

I'm applying to this country. God, I'm considering to do this.

Would you bless this? There's nothing wrong to ask God's

blessing to come upon this, but it is important for

Christians to always leave the room and ask God. God,

I desire to venture into a new role. I desire

to venture into a new environment. Would you reveal to me?

Because if we are anchoring our faith in God, often

God will give you what you need and not you want.

But if you were to check back how we pray,

often we are praying things that we want rather than

things that we need. So it's about aligning ourselves to

God's plan. Well, it's okay to ask God, would you

bless my plan? It's even better to say God, what

is your plan for me? Because we know In Isaiah

fifty five versus eight to nine, that His thoughts are

always higher than our thoughts, His ways are always higher

than our way. You see, Joshua could have told the

Angel of the Lord, say that, Lord, that's not how

we fight. That's not how we fight. Here you see

this sword. The sword is meant to attack, not the trumpet.

But clearly when you look at Joshua's posture, he had

a strong spirit of submission to the Lord. His heart

was still soft. He's putting a posture where Lord, though

it doesn't make sense to me, it doesn't matter makes

sense to you.

This is your will. I will do it.

Because in my heart I sense that many of us

are struggling between one thing, our ways, and one thing,

God's way. I can tell you that if you want

to follow God's way, it's never easy. Narrow is the

way that leads to life. White is the way that

leads to destruction. Lord calls us that if anyone would

like to follow Jesus, we will deny ourselves, take up

our cross and follow him. So if we are saying

that Lord, I trust in your way, I want to

believe in your way, we have to be ready to

go through either the fire or the.

Road that He has for us.

His will, which is his purpose, is always higher than ours.

His way, which is his plan, is always better than ours.

His work, his promise is always greater than ours. You know,

one day I'll share with you a testimony that recently

the Lord has allowed me to have, and we're just

reflecting on this testimony. It's about God often will put

people in the fire before he put people in the

front line. Many of us at times want to be

in the front line, but we don't want to go

through the fire. But God's way of preparing people is

often through the fire first, because when you go through

the fire, it refines you. Fire separates what is pure

and what is impure, and without the separation, there will

be no holiness. And without holiness, it will be important

to be in the front line. Joshua was in the

front line. So in that encounter, the Lord says, pick

out your sender, or the land that you are standing

on is holy.

So holiness is still.

Important in the modern world today, many people don't preach

about holiness anymore.

But when God.

Allows people to go through fire, it is meant to

produce holiness in you. So if we don't go through

the fire that God allows us to go through. We

are depriving ourselves from being purified to be holy, so

that when the time comes, when the time comes for

us to receive our breakthrough, we are ready. There are

many examples in the Bible. God allowed Joseph to go

through that fire before he became second to Pharaoh. God

allowed Daniel to go through the fire. God allowed Esther

to go through persecution and fire. In the past one

and a half years, some of you will know that

I had a very hard time at work Structurally. I

feel demoted, you know. I felt that I have lost

a space. I felt that I've lost a voice. I

felt that decisions were made that wasn't in favor of me,

and I wasn't sure I was a place where I

was also like, I'm in my wilderness, and I can

tell you that if we do not deal with offenses,

officins often can poisonous. I didnt realize that my posture

wasn't right in my mind. My posture wasn't right in

my heart of thinking of just different people in a

not a very godly way, and a lot needed to

humble me to go through that process.

That process and I almost quit my job. So you

may know I almost quit my job.

I say that God, maybe my time is up, Maybe

your fee will have ceased, maybe your grace have ceased.

Maybe it's time for me to move on.

Because this coming June, second June will be my eighteenth year,

my company eighteen year. And I felt that maybe is.

It is enough?

But the lot opened the door for me. I applied

for another position in my company, which is a higher position.

I'll share with you the actual testimony one day, but

suffice to say I got the position.

Praise Scott. I got a position.

I would probably be responsible for close to one hundred

over staff now compared to ten.

But it was a fire. It was a fire. It

was the aparation.

And I felt that, you know, too many Christians give

up too early, too early, too early.

But the Lord's way is always perseverance.

Just because it's hard, it doesn't mean it is not

God's will for you to walk through. So if you're

in a place where you feel that you're in the dungeon,

if you're in a place where you feel that there

are so many challenges, there's beyond you. In a place

where you know emotionally like me, I wasn't healthy. At

one point. We need to seek the Lord because that

is the stage of fire. The fire separates the pure

from the impure, so that when you walk into the

Promised Land, when you walk into the new season that

God has for you, that which is impure has been

dealt with and you walk in the holiness of God.

You walk with the confidence that God has given you.

Fire will prepare you for confidence as well. So the

first point was choose God's side above man's side. I

want to encourage the church also, don't take sides. The

only side you should choose is God's side. Don't choose side,

choose God's side in every situation you're in, every decision,

the key decision that you're going to make, ask God,

Ask God, Lord, what is it that you want me

to do? What is it that you want me to say?

Point two surrender before on quests. This is very important,

the power of surrender. I want to remind the church

again that worship is not just music and songs. Yeah,

every time the chapison said worship basica, are you really

to worship God? We all get yes. So after the

last song, does worship continue or does worship stop worship.

It's not just limited on a Sunday. It's like, you know,

the chaperson declared the benediction, Amenny one amen, Then worship stop.

No worship continues because worship is a lifestyle. But when

you look at the root word of worship, the very

first mention of worship was I believe in Genesis fifteen,

I can't remember if it's a wrong there where Abraham

first sacrifice Isaac and he told his servants me and

the lad will go yonder and worship. So the root

word for worshipotentially is surrender. You cannot worship God without

the heart or posture that is surrender. Right, So chat persons,

somep I do this as well. Don't don't or worship leader.

Everyone please don't thrown stone at me something. You know

we can be very gung ho. All right, it was

a good worship. Praise the Lord. How many of you

enjoy worship? You guys heard that before? Yeah, yeah, Now

if we really ask God, Lord, how was today's worship

for you?

Land that sinking for a while? You know, when we

come we.

Worship God, have we fully surrendered our hearts to God?

One of Joshua's key secret why he was able to

conquer thirty one kings. If you read the scripture, I

think Moses only had three or four kings, but Joshua

thirty one kings were mentioned because he had a heart

of worship even while Moses was just ministering to the

Lord at the tabernacle. When Moses left, it was said

that Joshua was still found lingering in worship. Your highest

colleague as a Christian okay is first to be a worshiper.

We get a CGPA of four point zero. Can you

still worship God? When God allows successes to come into

your life? Are you still found to be worshiping God?

When challenges strike your family, strike your career, strike your studies,

are you still found to be worshiping God? Your highest

calling is to be a worshiper, So you can invest

in everything. You can invest in your career, you can

invest in your property, you can invest in your children.

All these are very good, But if you.

Don't invest in building yourself as a worshiper, the day

will come where the fire will finally test you to

know what is inside of you, to really test you

to a point where do you really believe what you profess,

or you're running away from things that you think you believe.

So Joshua surrendered.

The Lord in words in chapter three and four have

given Joshua commandment even a covenant renewal through circumcision. Before

the better came worship as well, before the better came holiness.

You know, worship, as I mentioned, is surrender. It is

also to me in this context to put God first,

aboth emotions above pride and a birth control. Because when

you reach a station in life, if you talk about finances,

surrendering it to God, I think some people find it

easier to surrender finances more than surrendering their emotions. If

you talk about surrendering time to God, some people may

find easier to surrender their time to God, to serve

God and to surrender their emotions and to surrender their pride,

then to surrender their form of control. God is requiring

something from you today, and you know deep in your heart,

if you do not surrender, victory can never come. So

when Abraham surrendered Isaac, the Lord promises Abraham that because

you have not withheld your only son, you shall possess

the gates of your enemy. So God's path to victory

often comes with a form of worship that renders a sacrifice.

So it's not about asking God you follow me, It's

about Earth asking God, Lord, let me follow you. So

when Joshua take up his sandals, the sandals, to me

represents human strength, past experiences, and also self dependence. Sandals

can have many symbolic meaning, but to me, it represents this.

One of these three things.

Because your sandals will tell you where you have been

in life. Sandals are powerful wakness. They may not be

speaking to you, but they are powerful wakness. Because sandals

also represents the journey you are in, and often the

representation include your past experience. So God called Joshua to

holiness even before victory. I remember many years ago you

talk about the power of surrender. In twenty fourteen, I

almost gave up this ministry. I think, how we will

know when you are when you're her longer? Because I

find that for four years observing the Lord twenty ten

to twenty fourteen, all good Christians, when we don't see

results and fruit, what do we say? Our season is up?

It's time to move on. So I met up with

my mentors. Can if I say that pastor, I think

it's about timeline for me to move on because there's

no fruit, there's nothing else. And you know, Pastor just

told me one thing. Why don't you go and seek

the Lord. You know, sometimes we can go to man,

we can go to well meaning leader and hoping the

leader to give you direction. Okay, this is what you

should do, ABCD. I thank God that my pastor have

always discipled me. You go and seek God, Go and

seek God. So whenever you consult anyone and the person

tells you go and see God, please go and see God.

Lad.

So it's not a way of chewing you off, but

to really tell you that God does speak to his

people when his people turn their hearts to him. God

does reveal his will to you when you seek him diligiently,

God can be found. God led me to the scripture

about the battle in Ziclect where King David lost everything.

This three hundred men lost everything.

The scripture says that three hundred men, imagine the most

musculine men you can think of wrestling and whatnot. Maybe

six packs, nine packs, I don't know, bicep are very big.

The scripture says that when they lost everything, they cried

until they had no tears, no strength, no tears with

a man of war. They lost everything and then they

wanted to turn against David. They say, we've followed you

and now we have lost everything. But praise God for David.

We know that David was a man after God's heart.

What did David do? Scripture says that he strengthened himself

in the Lord.

He's God. So when I read that scripture, I was

in a season where I was discouraged. You know what

I really needed to surrender. I need to surrender my

pride because I thought that the church growth was all

about me. If I didn't do this, the church is

not growing. If I do this, then maybe the church

will grow. And I had to turn around. I say

that God is your church. As you strengthened me, I

will go the next month to twenty fourteen to now

it's twelve years. I might say that over the many years,

God has been faithful, But where does it start?

Surrender?

And when we didn't have a venue for our kids here,

you guys probably would have hurt me for one or

two years.

Say we're gonna start ex kids. We're gonna start ex kids.

A man do from Neli springs to hear there wasn't

ex kids, but there was a declaration. I need to

surrender the pride. I need to surrender the emotions to

recognize that God's timing is always perfect. So we launched

a X kid on our sixteenth and it was sixteenth

birthday here and since then, Joey doctor Ronnie Danny tells

her they have been sewing into our kid's life. If

you want to do anything at all, you want to

do great things for God, you got to learn to surrender.

Don't strive with one another, don't strive with God. Maybe

someone were in the season where we wrestling, we got

just like Jacob we wrestle, we got wrestle wrestle, wrestle wrestle.

I guess it's part of human nature sometimes that we

wanted our way, we want our independence.

We think we know it better. But in God's eyes,

even if I'm.

Forty, you are fifty, you are twenty, you're ninety two,

you're ninety nine, or you're like our former prime minister,

it might be one hundred or hundred, and in God's eye,

that's right, And then you can't say it louder correct

in God's eyes, we are all still very young, like

a baby, because His wisdom is far more supreme.

His wisdom is endless.

Sometimes the wisdom of men will tell us that in

this situation, you should do this. In this situation, when

injustice happened to you, you should fight. You should fight.

The striped you of your voice. You should fight is

your right. And we live in a world where it's

our right. You know, when something goes wrong, it's our

right to correct this person. It's our right to say

whatever we want. It's our right. But if you want

to live for God, you want to live for Christ,

you've got to surrender your right before him, because he

will then tell you it's not just about your right,

and it has never been about your right. It's about

what is righteous. And when we choose what is righteous,

it is about aligning to his will. It's about aligning

to his call. Because Joshua could have just fight, tear

down the walls. In fact, if you were to choose

that path, I don't think the war will come down,

and God will just humble him and say, is that

you see?

You have go by your own strength? Why don't you

follow my ways?

I can tell you the path to reconciliation if you

have conflict with anyone, whether it be at work, in

the family, in church, the path is always God's path,

which is reconciliation. The path has never been up burring offenses.

So we got to surrender that. There's a high calling

to live as a Christian. You know, I reflected in

my journey. I harbored a lot of resentment. It's very unhealthy,

so unhealthy to a point I sense it when my

spirits alwaists. We are resenting our parents as well. I

don't know whatever has happened. It's so upen to a

point where the Holy Spirit told me once and you're

tired because you have been sleeping with your emotions. That

means when I sleep, I carry that burden with me.

When I wake up, I feel tired. So let go

surrender of that emotion. So what sandals must be removed today?

Is it pride? Is it fear?

Is it dependence on experience? Is it control?

Something for us to reflect on the last point for

today see God's voice before taking God's victory. So in

verse thirteen, he started by saying, and it came to

pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his

eyes and look, you know what. Lifted his eyes and

look doesn't just mean if I were to stand up here,

I lifted my eyes and I looked physically like that.

It's more than that. It is also a symbolic of prayer.

When we lift up our eyes, we are supposed to

see from our spiritual eyes. We are supposed to lift

it up in a prayer full manner and true enough

that the scripture say is that when Joshua lifted up

his eyes, he saw the Angel of the Lord. He

saw the Lord's commander of the Lord's army. The question

I have for is this afternoon is Jericho is a

symbolic of a challenge when you lift up your eyes,

as scripture says, as you lift up your eyes and look,

what do you see? Do you see just Jericho or

do you see God? Because when we are in the

heat of the challenge, when we are in the midst

of the challenge, often if you're not careful, it's difficult

to see God. When I was in my wilderness in

ministry and work, I need to consistently remind myself Lord,

I need to see you.

I need to see you, because.

It is only his grace, is only his strength that

will be able to sustain me. And we need to

learn to lift our eyes above fear, above our jericho,

and above our emotions. So I end by saying this, friends,

some of you need to hear this, that the Lord

is still with you. The Lord is still with you.

His voice can still be heard because each and one

of you are precious in in sight. The stage of

life you're in now, whatever season, whatever phase you're in,

is temporary.

It's temporary. No season is a permanent season. So don't

feel discouraged if you feel there is opposition everywhere. Don't

feel discouraged. If you feel you're putting a lot of effort,

there is no progress. Don't feel bad if you feel that,

Why are my friends progressing so well? But I look

at my own life, I'm nowhere near them. Let me

remind all of us we each have our own race

to run. We each have our own lane. My lane

is very different from your lane. My challenge my giants

will be very different from yours, and likewise, yours will

be very different from one another. But one thing you

and I can rest a shirt in. We serve the

same God, the God who will never leave us nor

forsake us. The God who will never let his people

be put to shame if you were to trust in

him mohartedly one day I'll share with you.

You know, in my journey of work, I felt God

have bring about not just a restoration in my position,

but a restoration in my heart. In fact, I felt humbled.

Sometimes we may think that when things don't go our

way and people are against us for a reason, God

will use the very reason to humble you.

It was a very humbling process for me. I need

to walk through that fire. I need to let go

of my pride, I need to let go of my

things that it's just.

Not emotionally healthy. Because I also realized that it was

during that point my exema was flaring up left right center.

I think you guys will notice as well. And I

realized that there is always that connection between every state.

Your spiritual state, your emotional state, your physiological state is

always interconnected.

And the first step is always the spiritual state first.

And we strengthen ourselves in a lot when allowed God

to heal us that it will commit true to other

domain of our life. The soul will be healthy, the

physical body will be healthy when the spirit is healthy.

Once the spirit is broken, once the spirit is not healthy,

then it will go to the soul, it will go

to the body. So when we do let's say visitation

for people who suffer from different form of sicknesses, it's

very important. One of the questions we need to ask,

is there anyone you need to forgive? Is there anyone

you need to forgive? Right not to say everyone who

is suffering a form of sickness they hold un forgiveness.

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that sometimes it's

good to.

Us so that when there is a full surrender, there's

a full release, healing can come.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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this week is going to be a good week, a

hit for you. God bless