Hello Fussion

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