Hello Fusion, it is great to see everybody here tonight.
Tonight is the first of our Fusion Worship experiences for the year. Looking
forward to see what God is going to do through each one of you and your youth
groups. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Charlie and I am the Student
Ministries Pastor at Two Rivers Bible Church.
Have you ever been stuck in a rut before? I'm talking about
a physical rut when your vehicle gets stuck in a rut. I have. As I was preparing for tonight this was one of
the things I was thinking about. When I was in my early 20s I worked for a construction
company that had a cabin. And at the
cabin they had an international scout which is a 4 Wheel drive SUV. This one did not have doors or a roof on it,
but it had those big mud tires. We had gone up to the cabin put a new roof on
it and while we were there the owners said that we could play around with the
four-wheel drive and the boat. A co-worker and I took this SUV out on the
trails and it was a lot of fun. We turned the corner on the trail and there was
a huge mud puddle. I was driving and I had to go through it, even though I
could clearly see that people had worn a path around it. But you guessed it, my
pride got the best of me. I had to show off
my driving abilities, show that I could do it. I couldn't let my coworker make
fun of me because I chose to go around it. So I headed straight towards the
puddle stepping on the accelerator ready to see the water and the mud fly as we
hit the mud puddle.
Have you ever felt stuck spiritually? Where you are spinning
your wheels but there is no forward motion? You are stuck and don’t know how to
get unstuck?
Today we are going to talk about how to get unstuck.
Well if you've ever been stuck in a rut there are three
tools that can help you get out of one.
1.
Placing some dry brush, rocks, or some wood
under the tires will help you get traction and let you continue on your way.
2.
A good shovel is a must in this situation like
this is it will help you dig all of the muck out from in front your tires so
that you can continue on your way.
3.
A good electric wench is such a handy tool on an
off-road vehicle, you pull the cable out and wrap it around a good tree or some
kind of solid anchor and that should pull you out of the rut.
These are three things that will help you get out of a rut.
But did you know that there could be up to four different things happen to you
while you're in the rut. Let me explain.
1.
The first one is you’re delayed in getting to
your destination. It costs you time.
2.
The second one is having a physical breakdown of
your equipment which costs you money.
3.
The third one's a biggie, it could cost you your
pride. Especially if there are people watching.
4.
The fourth one is it could cause you emotional
upheaval like concern, stress, or anger
You know there other ways of being stuck in a rut like the
mundane day-to-day life, or the one that I would like to look at tonight, being
stuck in a spiritual rut. Have you ever been stuck in a spiritual rut? If you
have your Bibles with you, a good paper Bible or electronic one, we will be in Numbers
chapter 13. While you're making your way to Numbers chapter 13 let me just give
you some background in where we are at.
So we’re talking about the Israelites and they have been in
slavery for many years in Egypt. Then comes this man named Moses and he says to
the Pharaoh, “let my people go.” And through a whole bunch of maneuvering, God
and Moses team up and they go against Pharaoh and his magicians. Finally Moses
leads the Israelites out of Egypt and God told them he was going to take them
to the Promised Land, a place that is flowing with milk and honey. After the
parting of the Red Sea and a long journey through the wilderness they finally
get to the edge of Canaan where the promised land lies.
Now this is where I’d like to pick up in Numbers chapter 13
versus 1&2. “The Lord spoke to Moses
saying, send men to spy out the land of
Canaan which I am giving to the people of Israel.” Let’s stop right there for just a second.
God just made Moses and the Israel nation a promise. You
know that God doesn't break promises right? Here's a group of people that God
saved. Through their journey they
learned about Him, and now he's saying I'm going to give you this land. That's
pretty cool stuff.
So anyway they pick these 12 guys and they send them into
the land for 40 days to spy. They were
going in to see the different cultures, the people groups, see how fortified
their cities were, and to see if this really was the land flowing with milk and
honey like God said it is.
After being there for 40 days they bring word back to Moses
and Aaron and the entire congregation of Israel and they showed them the fruits
of the land. In verse 27 it tells us, “and
they told him we came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its
fruit.” You have to understand what they
brought back was a cluster of grapes that was so big it took two men to carry. Sounds
pretty good to me, so far. It changes
just a little bit verse 28, “ however, the people who dwell in the land are strong
iand the cities are fortified and very large.
I want to challenge you to look at this passage in a way
that you've probably never looked at it before. You’re about to see two men who
were about to get into a spiritual rut. Drop on down to verse 30. Caleb quieted the people before Moses and
said, ‘”let us go up at once and occupy it for we are well able to overcome it.”
See this is a guy he's got a friend with
him named Joshua and they remember that God promised them this land. Check this
out in verse 31, “then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able
to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” There you go,
did you see the rut? It was not only to men that were stuck in a rut, but a
hole nation.
Isn't that a lot like us today? Do you relate to either Caleb and Joshua or
the other 10 spies? Let’s look back to last
summer. I know many of you went to a camp and you had this
incredible God experience where you began to see your quiet time perhaps you
were on the beach or a lake, or out on a deck maybe sitting out on the edge of
the woods. You heard promises in His Word
as you spent time with Him, and through the camp speakers that were there encouraging
you something started stirring within you.
Maybe the worship band's singing helped you open up and worship Him
intimately open. Then you left camp and
you said, “When I get back home I'm going to change and do more for God. Possibly you were on a mission trip and you saw
God working through you and through your teammates as you ministered to a
people group that was less fortunate than you.
You would go back to your quarters each night and your group had an
incredible time of worship. You felt God
standing right beside you. Your quiet time was just an incredible time of
experiencing God; the pages of your Bible just came alive.
For some of us we did come back changed, we came back with
the confidence of what God instilled in us through our camps and through our
mission trips last year. For some of us we came back and saw ourselves as
Joshua and Caleb and others may have been like the other 10. 10 of the 12 spies came back reporting that
they saw the Nephilim The Nephilim were a
giant race of people that were on the earth before the flood when Noah built
the ark. Were they really there? There were big people but they saw something
that they didn't think they could overcome. And at that point Caleb and Joshua
were stuck in a rut for many years to come because God would not let them cross
over into the promise land until everyone that was 20 years of age and older
had passed away.
We go back to my story that I was telling you at the
beginning of my message. I headed straight towards the mud puddle. I
stepped on the accelerator ready to see the mud and water fly as I split that
puddle wide open! See the people that
had gone there before me knew something I didn't know and that's why they were
going around one side of that mud puddle.
This puddle had a rut that was so deep I nearly flipped us over. The passenger side sank so low that water and
mud was coming in to the floorboard. My pride was injured. We got stuck but eventually we got out.
Do you remember I said there are three tools that will help
you get out of a physical rut? There are three tools that will help you get out
of a spiritual or even the everyday rut of life.
1.
The daily quiet time, is like a brush, rocks, or
the wood you put under your tires they are dry and help you get traction. Let's
be honest about quiet time sometimes it is dry. But I tell you it will give you
the traction you need over a longer stretch of time.
2.
An accountability person, is like that shovel
they will help you pull the muck out from in front of your life. A good
accountability person will be honest with you even when the truth hurts, and
they will lead you back to God.
3.
The Bible, this book right here is your wench
and through the reading of this word and prayer you stretch its cable and wrap
it around an anchor. It is so strong that it will not fail. This book will bring
you back to the cross. It is this anchor
that will pull you out of any rut you find yourself in.
I would like to give you a piece of advice;
this is coming from someone that has been in those ruts before the physical,
the mundane, and spiritual. Sometimes you need to look at your inner circle of
friends and you may have to make a hard decision and even though they’re a really
good friend, you need to move them to your outer circle of friends so that you
can move someone in closer to that can help you avoid the ruts.
God has a blessing for you. Take it from someone who's been there don't put your blessings off because of the
choices you make today. God has promised you a life of abundance
Let us pray