This ones on you!

During our spiritual walk there are moments where we sit and watch God change, transform and rescue situations. However there are other times where he empowers us to do, and it is our participation that then becomes the reference point to the upgrade and development within our spiritual walk. Why? Because it is in these moments that our belief is fused with action, which then means the production of thing God loves the most, FAITH.  Sit back, relax and enjoy because This One’s On You.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Rima Reloaded with me, Sean Williams. It is a pleasure to have you all here with us today. Firstly, I want to say thank you for just being patient with me. It has been a little while since we did our first Rima Reloaded. I think it might be some months. But we're back. We have our flow. We know exactly what we want to do. And I cannot wait to jump into the word of God with you today. Today's Bible study comes from a sermon that I was asked to preach at the weekend. And let me give you a little bit of a backstory. My dad can be sometimes naughty. And when I say naughty, I mean mischievous, naughty. And we were having a conversation, and through the basis of the conversation, I thought that he was going to take the subject that we were speaking about and preach. And you know how the older generation are. This guy gets some bright ideas, and he's like, I think you should preach that on Sunday. Um, so after a little bit of deliberation, I thought about it and I was like, okay, let's do it. Um, it was a wonderful time we had. Um, the word was strong, the Holy Spirit spoke to us, and when I was talking to the team, we decided that we thought we should use it as a Bible study to um come back into our ring reloaded. So here we are with you all today. Um, the title of this Bible study is called This One's On You. Yeah, you can point to yourself and be like, This one's on me. Um, if you would, we're gonna go to the book firstly of Exodus. We're gonna be in the Old Testament, um, and we're gonna go to the book of Exodus, chapter 14, and we're gonna look at verse 21. And what I might do is I might read from a few verses before, and yeah, let me read a few verses before so I can give you a little bit of context of what's going on in this particular moment. And if we start from verse 15, and as you know, I want to get to verse 21, and I'll read just for time and purposes, and the fact that none of you are here with me, so I need to read. And the Lord said unto Moses, I'm reading from the King James Version, Wherefore criest thou unto me? God's saying, Why are you crying unto me? We complain to me for speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward, but lift up thy rod and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians. At this point, God is not just hardening Pharaoh's heart, but he's going, You see all of them? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna harden everybody's hearts, and there I will get me honor upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots and upon his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud went from before their face, and now stood behind them. Verse 20, and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these, so that the one came not near the other all night. Verse 21, our key verse. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. Now I want to give you a little bit of context to what's happening here and why God seems to be in such a non-playful mood with Pharaoh and the Egyptians. In the time of the Egyptians, especially these ancient period, time periods, pharaohs were seen as gods. So in the enslavement and the entrapment of Israel being in Egypt for the time that they were, Pharaoh would honor himself and would be honored amongst the people because they would deal with him as a god, they would worship him as a god, and when Moses went to Pharaoh and was like, God said, Let my people go, Pharaoh's first question was like, and what is the name of this god? Because Pharaoh himself thought himself to be a god, which meant that when God was bringing the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, there was a certain level of there is a word I'm looking for, zero tolerance policy. God had got to a place with Pharaoh and the Egyptians where he was just like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Since you're a God and you think that I should be serving you, then what we're gonna do is I'm gonna deal with you as an equal. So when we're looking at the plagues and when we're looking at a lot of the atrocities and the disasters that happen in Egypt, sometimes we look at it from a space of humanity and we're like, well, God loves everybody. Why would he allow that to happen? Because at this point, God is dealing with a man that is trying to set himself up as who God is. And we know from the first commandment, thou shalt have no other God before me. And yet here is a man trying to look in the face of the Almighty and say, basically, you and I are the same. God's like, No, we ain't. So, what we have at this point is that God has taken the children of Israel out of Egypt, they are coming through the wilderness and they have come to what we would describe a dead end. Why? Because at the back of them you've got the host of the Egyptians, and at this point, because Israel have left Egypt, Pharaoh's decided that he doesn't want to lose that economic wealth. To um leaders and governors and kings and queens at that time, to have slaves meant that you had economic wealth. Why? Because you had free labor, and the children of Israel, much of their jobs in Egypt was to help with the infrastructure of building, and basically any menial tasks that need to be done, they would throw it to the Israelites. So you're dealing with um Pharaoh in a state where he feels like he's lost face, and so what he's done, he hasn't just taken some regular guys from the army, he hasn't just taken the um the foot soldiers, or he hasn't just taken the territorial army, he's gone, no, no, no. Go get me my 600 best chariot drivers. That's who he's gone after the children of Israel with, okay? And as we can see here, that God has said to Moses, look, stretch out your hand over the sea, and I will cause the sea to go back. He's basically saying to Moses, I will be the force and power behind your visual presence, right? God is trying to show the children of Israel through Moses that he has planned everything, that there is no danger, and that there is no there is no threat of disaster. Why? Because A, God gave them his word, B, He's been consistent, and C, his accounting is good. How do we know this? Because we've seen the ten plagues of Egypt. Okay, so that sets the basis of what the children of Israel were in, what they were going through, and the point that they're at now. Okay, the next thing I want you to do is we're gonna jump very quickly over to the book of Joshua, chapter 3, and we're going to look um primarily at verse 17, but again, I'm going to give you some verses before. Okay, now what I want to do is I want to give you a little bit of a reference point with what we've got going on here. As we were just reading the book of Exodus, Moses has taken the children of Israel, excuse me, across um the dry land in the midst of the sea. I know, crazy, mental, doesn't happen. It's God, everything's possible with him. They have now spent an extended period in the wilderness because there was disobedience, okay? And through the disobedience, God has allowed, because of the time period that they spent in the wilderness, God has allowed a whole generation to pass on. Okay, so what we're looking at is everybody that we read about in Exodus chapter three, um, that's a lie, Exodus chapter 14. Um, we are now seeing that these people have come to the end of their natural life cycle, okay? And what we're about to read is the children of the people that we just read about, okay? And what we're gonna do is I am going to go from verse 12, and I'm gonna read down to our key verse in verse 17. So now, therefore, take you 12 men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe of man, and it shall come to pass as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above, and they shall stand upon an heap. And it came to pass when the people removed from their tents to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as they that bear the ark were come into the Jordan, so it's basically saying, as the priests that were picked from the tribe of um of Israel, as they took up the ark, now when you hear the term the ark of the covenant, you're basically hearing about the Ten Commandments, okay? It was God's law, as they came onto the Jordan, and the feet of the priests that were holding the ark were dipped in the brim of the water of the water, because at this point and in this time and season, the Jordan would often overflow its banks. So you're not dealing with calm, still water, right? You're dealing with water that is quite treacherous. And like most of us in our lives, there are certain things that we go through that become triggers of trauma. So the children of Israel will have a reference point to what water is, to the history of their people, because they heard and grew up on the stories of their parents telling them about the night they came through the Red Sea. And we go to verse 15. And as they that bear the ark were come onto Jordan, and the feet of the priest that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city that is beside Zeraton, and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off. And the people passed over right against Jericho. Verse 17. And the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over the Jordan. Now, let me fuse these two pieces of text together so that we can have the text in context, but more than that, I can give you a timeline of what's happening. Okay, so at the beginning of our text, when we look at it in Exodus chapter 14, we see the children of Israel coming to a crescendo point because God is taking them out of Israel, of out of Egypt. They're never going to see Egypt again, but God is going to do it with a miracle that they will never ever forget. If you are writing down notes, at this point I want you to put reference point. Okay, for what we've just read in the book of Joshua, Exodus chapter 14, verse 21 is our reference point because, as I said to you before, historically, the children of Israel, especially this generation that is at the Jordan, they would have grown up on the stories from their parents about the night of the Red Sea. Okay, so as we now get to the Red Sea point, the children of Israel were only meant to spend 40 days in the wilderness. But because of their disobedience, because of their sin, God was like, You're gonna wander for a little longer. 40 days turned into 40 years until everyone in that generation had passed. Now at that point, Moses also passed, and we see at the beginning of Joshua chapter one that God gives Joshua a charge. In fact, I'll tell you what, let's go to Joshua chapter one and have a look at this charge. And I'm gonna read for you. Verse 1. Now, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over it. In fact, let me give you a minute there. This is the first time God speaks to Joshua after Moses has disappeared for an extended period of time. There is a lot of grief and trauma attached to this conversation. Moses was more than a father figure to Joshua. He was more than just a commander, he was his point of reference, he was his mentor, he was a father to him. But because of what God wanted to do in Joshua's life, he didn't want Moses to become a God to him. So, like God would do as the ultimate commander, he takes his new general, he says, I've got a little mission update for you. Moses is no longer here. Gives him no time to grieve whatsoever. None. And goes straight into it in verse 2 that Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people unto the land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel, every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon. Here we've got another reference point because we just heard about those priests going into the water and the soles of their feet touching the brim. So we now see that Joshua's instruction to the priest comes as the charge from God to him is given. So as God tells Joshua what he's going to do for him, Joshua then gets the instruction to give to the priest. So God gives Joshua the charge, Joshua then gives the people the instruction. Every place, verse 3, that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that I have given unto you, as I said unto Moses. Verse 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast. Verse 5: There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Verse 5 is very important. Verse 5 shows the consistency of God. Sometimes we hear, oftentimes, in church familiar settings, that he's the same yesterday, to tame forever. We see that in verse 5. The consistency of God. That as I was to your mentor, so I will be to you. There may have been parts of Joshua's thinking where he was like, Well, I'm not as wise as Moses. I don't have the same qualifications as him. God was like, that doesn't matter. How many times do we go to God and we tell him about what we don't have? And the only thing he's interested in is the one thing we do have. But because we're not comfortable, because we don't see or feel confident in the projection of who we are, rather than understanding the intention of who he's made us to be in him. That's what God was really telling Joshua that I've given you everything that you need. Why? Because I didn't call Moses for possession. I called you for possession, Joshua. I didn't call Moses to take lands. I called Moses to be a deliverer. I called you to take lands. So in verse 6, he says, Be strong and have a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide an inheritance for the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. This is very important. Why is it important? At this point, God is referencing the whole reason for the basis of the journey from Egypt into the wilderness onto the promised land. God said that thou wilt divide from inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers. This alludes to the promise and the agreement that God made to Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac was the father of Jacob, and through Jacob we get the 12 tribes of Israel. So at this point, the Israel we're looking at really started from a man. A man who had a family, a family that became a people, a people that became a nation. So God is trying to remind Joshua, as big as what you're dealing and managing with looks, it started with one man, one promise, one intention. So then as we get now to the book of Joshua, chapter 3, and Joshua is picking out these 12 men from the tribes of Israel. The reason why I understand God was telling him to be strong and be courageous, because how was he going to tell these men who visually are looking at a Jordan that is overflowing its banks and say, okay, guys, basically, you see the law that God gave Moses. And I know you're still grieving over Moses. I know that we haven't gotten over the fact that he's no longer here to help us because don't forget, this is the same Moses that they saw orchestrate the ten plagues that went through Egypt. They know it was God, but it was him that God used to orchestrate his plan. This is the same Moses that stretched his rod across the Red Sea and it opened. This is the same Moses that prayed and manna fell from heaven. This is the same Moses that went and had a face-to-face meeting with God when God was going to give him the law that would govern his people. This is the same Moses that rebuked the sin off of Israel. This is the same Moses that held the brazen suburbs that when the people looked at it, they would be healed. This was the guy that we went to for everything. And here he is. No longer. And now you're dealing with his number two. And what does God say to his number two? He says, I understand the nature and the hearts of my people. He's like, Don't worry, Joshua. I'm going to magnify you in front of the people. You see, that's the beauty of having a relationship with God, is that when you have a relationship with God, what he does is he quietens down the outside noise. Why? Because he's not dealing with them, he's dealing with you. And God is dealing with you so that you can deal with them. Sometimes we want to bring God into our situations a bit like a counselor or a therapist, and the Bible does say that He's a He's a wonderful counselor. He is, he's He's an amazing counselor. But God isn't at our behest. And when I say our behest, I mean He's not there just to do what we feel like we need him to do. There is a plan, there is a purpose, and you are here for an appointed time to do it. Say to yourself one more time this one's on you. Yeah, it is. So we get to the point that as the priest of Bear the Ark and the Covenant of the Lord, and it stood firm on dry ground, they did, in the midst of the Jordan, and the Israelites have passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. Now, before we get to that point, I think it's important to understand that the people of Israel are still in transit. They are going to a land that they've never seen but have been promised. You see, when God is causing you to follow destiny, a lot of the time the map doesn't seem familiar. The plan, much of the time, incredibly uncomfortable. Why? Because we're going somewhere we've never been. Which means that it requires a level of trust through faith. Because we know without faith it's impossible to please him. But what is the catalyst in faith? Action through belief. Do I think those 12 men would have been comfortable getting themselves ready to go on the banks of the Jordan? Absolutely not. Do I think Joshua would have been completely comfortable? Absolutely not. But when you don't feel confident and when you don't feel comfortable, that's when your faith needs to go into your relationship with God. Why? Because God and his word is older than my ability to think. It's older than my ability to do. His word is firmer than my idea of self. And not only that, God will always leave you a reference point to allow you to understand that he is not leading you anywhere that he doesn't want you to be. But he's not going to force you, and there are going to be times when he's going to need you to meet him at the spot. What do you mean when you say that? Sure, what do you mean God needs us to meet him at the spot? The Bible says, when you read in the scripture, that he was already in the midst of the Jordan. So, looking at it of two ways, he could have opened the Jordan before they got there, but does that require faith? No, because I can already see that the land is dry. When I look at our reference point, what did he do in the Red Sea? He said to Moses, he didn't tell Moses to step in the Red Sea first. He said, Stretch your hand. As he stretched his hand, the sea opened.

unknown 21:59

There

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Are times in your life that God is going to bring you to something that looks familiar, but he's going to do it in a way that you've never seen before? I'm gonna say that to you one more time. God will bring you to a place that looks familiar, but he will open up that situation or that opportunity in the way that you've never done before. Why? Because he requires your participation. How do I know that God requires our participation because when he was finished with creation, what did he do? He made a man. Why did he make a man? Because he needed a man to manage the thing that he'd made. And also he wanted fellowship with him. How do I know that? Because the Bible says that God would come down in the cool of the day. Him and Adam, the Garden of Eden, chilling. How are you, Adam? Good Lord. How are you? You're good. We've been up to today. Those crazy animals that you asked me to name, I named them. That's the level of intimacy and relationship that God wants to have with us. He wants to be in your everyday, but we have to participate. We understand that the basis of any great relationship is what? Communication. What does communication require? Conversation. What does conversation require? Two people. Or more than one person. Or at least two people or three people that are willing to do what? Flow within the reciprocity of information. I speak into you, you speak into me. We respond to one another. So in the book of Joshua here, we see that he's responded to God. Why? Because he's done exactly what God told him to do. And then what do we see? We see that the people have responded to him. Why? Because as he chose those 12 men, what did they do? They took the Ark of the Covenant. And they said, Alright, Joshua, you told us to go put our feet in this. You told us that it's time for us to go get wet. Alright. And maybe that is the subtopic of this Bible study. It's time for you to dip your toes in the water and get wet. What are you waiting for that God has promised you that fear and doubt and trauma, it stopped you moving towards? In fact, on that basis, let's very quickly go to the book of Luke. Just as I was talking to you, the Holy Spirit was talking to me, and I sat and I thought to myself, I need to share this with these wonderful people. And we're going to go to Luke chapter 8. And I'm going to start from verse 43. Okay. And a woman having an issue of blood 12 years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any. She came behind him and touched the border of his garment, and immediately her issue of blood was ceased. One of my favorite verses, verse 45. And Jesus said, Who touch me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, look at how big this multitude is. What do you mean? Who touched you? He said, Can't you see that these people are there's they're squeezing us up and that they're pressing against us? And again, Jesus said to him, I'm not talking about human touch. I'm talking about spiritual touch. And he said again, who touched me? Verse 46. And Jesus said, Somebody have touched me. For I perceive that virtue, okay, when we speak of virtue, what he's talking about that it's the anointing, it's it's it's the substance by which he's made of. He's trying to say that virtue is gone out of me in verse 47. And when the woman saw that she was not his, she came trembling. And falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him and how she was healed immediately. So she basically gives her testimony. She's like, Jesus, listen, I know I ain't meant to be here. How do we know she's not meant to be here? Because to the law and the people that were running the temple and the synagogue, a woman in her condition was unclean. She was not fit to be around people. Much like lepers, they would have made her announce herself with a bell or some other form of degrading tool to let people know that she's unclean. Imagine having an issue that you did not bring on yourself, and nobody having the empathy or the love or the sympathy enough to say, do you know what? It's fine. Every time she wanted to go in public, she was reminded that she wasn't the same as everybody else. Every time she wanted to go and get something done, she was reminded that she was not the same as everybody else. But we get to verse 48. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith have made thee whole. Now, what do you see there? It was her action. It was her belief in who he was. There would have been signs to that woman that he's the Messiah. But there would have been signs to everybody. So what was the difference between her believing and them believing? One of the things that we see in the book of Joshua after the miracle of the Jordan, Joshua tells the priests before they come out to choose a stone each. As they choose a stone, these stones would become the memorial that generations after them would remember that God was in the midst of the water, met them there, and saw them through. I know you've been through situations where God has met you in the midst of the thing, seen you there, and walked you through. Now I'm gonna say to you, imagine in this point in Luke chapter 8, God is almost giving them a thousand-year reference point. You say, I'm sure in a thousand years is a long time. I know, but let me qualify the statement. If the Red Sea was a reference point, I'm just gonna have some of my coffee.

unknown 29:06

It's good.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Brought to you by no branding here. Um if the Red Sea was a reference point to the children of Israel and the Jordan, right? So when they got there, and when they got to that point, Joshua felt a confidence talking about what he wanted to happen because they had the reference point of knowing they serve a God that can open water. Then for this woman with the issue of blood, the reference point for her was what happened in the Jordan. Now you're sitting there going, Sean, what on earth are you talking about? That makes no sense because this is two completely different situations in two completely different time zones, and yet you're trying to tell me there's a link. Of course, there's a link. Why? What does the Bible often refer or use people as in terms of an environmental reflection? The sea. So conceptually and in a metaphorical sense, this woman with this issue stood at the edge of a sea. And like in the book of Joshua, when God told Joshua to instruct the men, what did he instruct them? Joshua tell them that as the soles of their feet touch that water, it will open onto them. As this woman pressed her way through this people, the minute she touched them, that sea opened. And who was she trying to get to in the midst of that sea? Jesus. And who is Jesus? God manifest in flesh. Almost a millennia after God is still keeping his promise to a dead man. She would have seen and grown up geographically in that space, in that time period, she would have seen the twelve stones that were laid. And now, at the point of her miracle, God uses the same process to the point where in the book of Joshua, we never hear that God speaks to the twelve in the Jordan. But this woman who just wanted a touch, Jesus is so taken back by her faith that he stops what he's doing. Jesus was on his way to go and heal Jairus' daughter. He wasn't trying to heal this woman. This was faith in transit. So when I tell you this one's on you and God needs your participation, this woman is living proof you can go and get yourself a faith Q jump. Yeah, you heard me. The same way some of you be going to places that you shouldn't be going to get Q jump, this woman had a faith Q jump. Your faith can get you a Q jump. Why? Because it requires you to act. And I don't know what your sea is. I don't know what your storm is. But if you can find the faith to walk, I promise you'll find him not only walking with you, but he's already in it. He just wanted to know if you trusted him enough to meet him at the point that he told you to. Sometimes we're waiting for things to come to us and we're praying, we're like, Lord, bring this and Lord, help that, and Lord, do the other. And he's like, I'm God. I see time as it is. You experience time as it's happened. I've done it. I want to know will you step up? Will you get your feet wet? Will you participate? Because this time, this one's on you. Until next time, guys.

unknown 33:12

Bye.