A Season of Restoration I, Restoring Our Hearts

This is North Way tape number 470. This message on a season of restoration was given by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian Community on February 9th, 1986. Joshua chapter 5 beginning in verse 1. When all the kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan to the west and all the kings of the Canaanites that were by the sea heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they crossed over, their heart melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel. At that time the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the people of Israel again the second time. So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the people of Israel at Gibeath Haraloth. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war had died on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt. Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people that were born on the way in the wilderness after they'd come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the people of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness till all the nation, the men of war that came forth out of Egypt, perished because they did not hearken to the voice of the Lord. To them the Lord swore that he would not let them see the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. And so it was their children whom he raised up in their stead that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. What a tragedy it is. Just hold your place there. That the people that God ordained to receive the land perished on the way and their children, their children became the ones that received it. In their stead, verse 7 says. Verse 8, when the circumcising of all the nation was done, they remained in their places in the camp till they were healed. And the Lord said to Joshua, this day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. While the people of Israel were encamped in Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month, that evening in the plains of Jericho. And on the morrow after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased on the morrow. And when they ate of the produce of the land, and the people of Israel had manna no more, but ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. One of the most significant things that God has allowed me to learn in my walk in Christ has been the truth that he works in times and in seasons. God is a God of times and seasons. Many of you are given by God a knack of dealing with outdoor kind of things. And some of you love to garden. And there I know some here in the congregation this morning are into landscaping as a business. And there are others of you who have farms and so on. And you know this principle very, very well in the natural. You know the Bible says, first the natural, then the spiritual in 1st Corinthians 15. You can learn a lot, beloved, by watching nature. And I learned a lot by messing up God's ordained plan of times and seasons. Last year in the home that we recently moved into, there was a line of shrubbery along one of our boundaries. And I could tell that the shrubs were just a little bit awkward-looking, coming in and overgrown. But I waited and waited. You know how we all have so much free time to catch up on things around the house. And I waited until the things got kind of into bloom. And then I went out one day with this nifty little pruning thing that I picked up. And I said, I'm not sure about this. So I went seven bushes in, and I saw this one little bush that was just starting to look overgrown. And I said, I'm going for you. It started to weep. Don't do that to me. And I went ahead and pruned that bush, and made a mess of it. I'm talking about a major mess. And it looked so bad that I didn't have the heart to go to the other eight bushes. And so there, even if you drive by my house today, you'll see seven nice full bushes and one little scrawny thing. And then another one on the other side of it. Because I waited too long. I missed the season for pruning, which I guess is just about on us now. You know, God moves in times and in seasons. And two things that I find we're very prone to do. One is we turn, we tend to get ahead of God and run off before he moves. And the other thing we often do is we plant our feet down, and we don't want to move when he says now it's time. Those two things are constantly in tension with moving according to the timing of God. But how many of you know God's very patient with us? And he, by his grace, frequently comes back and said, are you ready yet? I just want you to know that that the camp has moved, but there's still time for you to catch up to it. That's the way God is. But beloved, I want to say to you this morning that there is a beginning of the things of God, and there is an end to some of the things of God. Perpetuation of zeal and form is not necessarily perpetuation of revival. Let me say that again. Perpetuation of the externals of zeal and form do not necessarily mean that you're going to perpetuate the move of the Spirit of God. Frankly, many of us, if we're honest, are here today in this church because someone in your church background missed what God was saying in their church. You were forced to come out of a church that you love because the leadership of that church would not move when the Spirit of the Lord says it's time to move. Am I right? And I want you to know that this is something that I, as a pastor, and those charged with leadership, are constantly, constantly dealing with before God. Lord, what are you ending, and now what are you beginning? What is it that's coming to an end, and what is it that now you're starting to move? Now, in this passage, beloved, we see a picture of the church. Israel, in this Old Testament scenario, is a picture of the church. Never forget that. When you read about it, it's not just a bunch of people. It's a picture of the church, and there between seasons, they have just ended a little sojourn in the wilderness that lasted how many years? Forty years of winter. Forty years of it. But it's not yet spring. You see, they've just crossed the River Jordan into Canaan, the promised land. They just had gone through, and it's not yet the time of things blossoming and coming to full bloom. And so they're in a transition period between the winter of the old and the spring of the new. The Spirit of the Lord was ministering heavily to me this week, saying, my son, this is a time between seasons for this people. We are in a transition period in the Spirit of the Lord as a church, beloved. And I want you to know that today, this message has very great importance to many of you who are wrestling with your place in this church, or for some of you who think that your place maybe is secure, but you haven't been listening to what the Spirit of the Lord is saying. It's a crossroads, and at that crossroads, back here in the book of Joshua, the Lord says two things. In essence, number one, he said, Joshua circumcised the people. I'm going to talk about that in a minute. And then, the second thing that the Lord does, he ceases the flow of manna. Two very significant things. For 40 years, the people have been eating manna. Every morning, got up, there it was on the ground, like a hoarfrost, it said, little white stuff that they gathered up, and that's what they ate for 40 years. The Lord said, no more manna. The Lord said, Joshua, I also want you to circumcise the people. Church, we're here today, nearing five years together as a people. Five years. We've exchanged the essence of our sort of nomadic sense of, well, we're going to pop up here, we don't know where we'll be next, and the Lord is saying, we're here now. We're here to stay. Hallelujah. We're all over the place. There are people that still ride an hour to get here to worship every Sunday morning, but are worshiping as part of a home group in their own geographical area. And the Lord is giving us more and more and more opportunity to minister. Do you know that people call and write frequently? I got a letter this week from a young man that said, I'm hoping to start a church, and I just wondered if you could talk with me sometime about that. I don't know why the Lord has granted us the favor that he has, but I know this, beloved, with every favor of God becomes a responsibility. God doesn't give you blessing just to have you just sit back and say, wow. And so we as a church face a time, a season of transition into a new realm of responsibility. And before we go on, church, I want us to see something that I have begun to perceive in this spirit. And I was reminded of it when I walked in my front door this week. I don't know why I have the house on my mind, but forgive another illustration on this. Our home is about 25 years old, and a lot of the flagstone that's in the the walkway is beginning to deteriorate. And I noticed something about the steps going up into our house. In one of the steps, imperceptibly at first, a crack developed. And then I could see the crack. You know, this was going on last spring and summer. And then I noticed that some layers of the stone were beginning to just peel off. So it was, you know, crumbling is the only thing I could say. I wasn't real excited about it, but I have no clue as to how to fix that right now. But it was still fine. And then one day, I was coming back in from the driveway, and I went up like this, and I jumped on that step, and my foot went right through that piece of stone. Right through it. I said, wow. I'm getting some power in those legs. I'll try it on the wall now. What had happened was that piece of stone had just deteriorated and crumbled until when my full body weight hit it, I went right through it. Now there's evidence there. Anyone wants to drive by, it's right there in the front of our house. Still there. I walk on the lawn now. I want you to know, as I was praying, the Lord was just so speaking to me that there are cracks. Imperceptible cracks in some of the foundations of we, His church. In some cases, it's starting even to chip off a little bit. But the Lord is saying this is a time to strengthen what remains. Hebrews chapter 3. Strengthen what remains. So that when God puts the full weight of His glory in this church, we're going to be able to stand. And He's going to be able to pour out the blessing that He's ordained for us from the foundations of the earth. When He raises us up into the destiny that He, long before we or the elders had any idea what He was doing, then He can do it because we will have strengthened our foundation. We'll be a place on which the glory of His foot. You know, the Bible says the earth is His footstool. I'm saying, Lord, make us a place where you can put the full weight of your glory. I want you to see now what the Lord told the people of Israel they had to do in order to be prepared to go into the promised land and take what God had ordained for them to receive. First thing is this. He said, get your eyes off of what you've seen. Forget the past. Okay, that's the first thing. Forget the past. Now up until this point, the Lord had done mighty things. First of all, 400 years of bondage was broken. And God delivered the people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. I just, how about you? Do you ever wonder how could anyone watch that take place and three days later start murmuring? All it says to me is miracles really never convince someone who doesn't want to be convinced. That's what that means. I mean, I could see him talking about it. Like, how do you do that? You know? They start, when they got thirsty, they said, how did Moses do that with that water? I mean, where did he get that? And they started trying to rationalize it and they started murmuring. But anyhow, God went ahead and then He had them strike the rock and the water came out at Meribah and then Sinai and the covenants and the glory of God in the mountain. And then even here in this book of Joshua, the crossing of the Jordan, where the Lord stopped a river. Right in midcourse and they flew, walked right through. So we're talking about major miracles here. And the Lord is saying, even though I've been supplying the manna for 40 years and even though I've done all these things, Joshua, it's time for things to be different. It's time for things to change. Because the people are becoming sort of laid back and accustomed to all this. And so I want to talk first of all about the Lord ceasing the flow of manna. Forget the manna, Joshua. Tell the people that it's not going to be there anymore. Because they become accustomed. Have you ever been part of something that at first to you was a significant miracle? The longer it went on, the more commonplace it became until you took it for granted. I want to say that that is in our body a struggle with some of you right now. You see the manna that God's been pouring out week by week has for some of you become commonplace so that when some come forward to be delivered from bondages and released from the torment, an affliction of demon spirits or physical agonies, you're not even able to stay in the room until that's over. And so the God-ordained miracle of deliverance is something you're just so used to. That you can walk out on it. Instead of seeing and cherishing the fact that God is at work. And I have to say, beloved, and I say this with all the love that I can muster. There are some of you who come and just simply feed on the manna on Sunday morning and go off and do your thing for the rest of the week. There's no sense of commitment. There's no sense of participation. There's no sense of burden. There's no fellowship of the saints. There's no participation in the sufferings and the agony necessary to bring the kingdom of God. You just show up, you eat your manna, and then you go your own way. And I'm not talking about visitors. If you're here as a visitor, we want you to come. And be welcome. But I'm talking about people that over months and years have developed a pattern. And I believe with all my heart that the Lord is saying today, stop that. Because the manna, as you've come to know it, is drying out. And you're saying, well, it's it's kind of dry anyhow. I'm going to look for another place to go. Another place where I can pick up some manna. And I'll submit to you, if you will immerse yourselves in the ways of God and do the things that God is leading us as a community to do, you will be eating from a table that's set by God. There will be before you a feast of revelation. And I believe that God is just now whetting our appetite for what he's going to pour out of the goodness of his own person, the food of his righteousness. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The Lord wants you to be full, satisfied with the reality of who he is. But it will only come if you stop picking up the manna. You know, we said on Wednesday night, manna means, what is it? That's what it means in the Hebrew. That's right in your Bible. What is this? You know, gather it all up, fill it up. But what is it? It tastes kind of good, but I don't know what it is. And if you allow yourself, listen, you can get full, stuffed on what is it, but never really enjoy the finest and the best that God has to offer. Manna, listen church, manna was never meant to be God's best. It was God conceding to the murmuring of the Israelites. And so I just want to say to you, if you're just loading up on manna and going off, you're not getting God's best. And I want to say the Lord is setting a table and you can come to it and be part of what he's doing. It's the people who are entering into prayer, the people who are entering into the labor of fellowshipping and working out their relationship with one another, the people who are ministering and giving of themselves. They're the ones that are eating of the goodness of God. Hallelujah. And the Lord is saying to us, he's going to do more and he's going to do more. Stop looking at what's out there, what you've seen, all the past things. You know, I have to say something else about that. We are people, the Lord has spoken to me about this, we are people who are becoming accustomed to acting on what we see and responding based on what we see. How many of you watched in horror the space shuttle tragedy? At least a replay of it, alright? Did you ask yourself for that week as I did? As the nation, really, led by all the leaders and everyone else, moved into a period of real mourning. You know, there was more of a weight on our people about that incident than there was, I felt, when our 200 soldiers were killed in Beirut. A much more awesomely grotesque thing. I said, Lord, what is it about that? There's two things. I think the one was the fact that that dear woman, who was not a military person, she was just someone like us, so we identified with her. And number two, you could see it. You saw it happen. The power of seeing. And I want to tell you, it is a very subtle snare, church, that we get into when we have to see it before we'll do it. We have to see it before we'll believe it. Well, I'll believe when I see it. That is not the way of God. And it's a bondage to many people. You know why some people in your relationship don't ever change? Because you say, or you've told me this, some of you, you'll never change. We have to learn to see it, and then, in the Spirit, we'll believe it. As we see it in the Spirit, it can happen. Wasn't it Jesus who said to Thomas, Blessed are they who don't see and still believe. You know, I look down on the floor. I don't see any carpet, for most of you. But I don't look down there and say, Well, I'll believe it when I see it. I'm standing here today. I see it with my eye of faith. And I believe that it's going to come, by God's grace. I don't see us multiplying home groups. Adding, but not multiplying. I believe it with my eye of faith, and I'm going to see it. You see, and let me say one real personal thing. Some of you, some of us, struggle with the matter of letting people change. And we see somebody, a brother or sister in Christ, and they're the same today as they seemed to be six months ago, or a year ago, or two years ago. And, you know, we put a little prison around them when we say things like, They're always going to be that way. We don't let them break out of it by saying, I see in my eye of the Spirit. If you have a rebellious teenager, see that teenager in love with God. Declare it to them. I don't see you as off doing your own thing, and ridiculing everyone. I see you loving God. Begin to let yourself see what your faith wants to receive. That's what the Bible says is, Faith is the conviction of things hoped for. So the Lord's saying, number one to Joshua, I'm stopping the menace so people won't be dependent upon what they see and what they've had. Number two, the Lord then says, Focus on what is unseen. Focus on what is unseen. Now, this is something that I find, for us, is a great, great challenge. How do you see what you can't see? How do you focus on what's unseen? You know, beloved, it's the unseen things that support what you see. Here we go again. The base of my... The street on which I live. We'll get out of the house and move down the street. I didn't realize this when I put this together. There is a major drain, culvert I guess it is, with a grate over top of it. And it's a significant kind of indentation in the street so that if a person came tooling into our street and didn't see that thing, they would have smacked their car on the bottom of it. Well, this, late this fall, early winter, I noticed that that grate started to sink down. And we weren't talking about like six inches. This thing was down to a couple of feet. And I realized, you know, if someone pulled their car in and out, they'd go right down into the thing, possibly break an axle and, you know, a lot of damage to their car. And the next day, in fact, or two days later, there was one of those little horses in there with a light on it, flashing. What had happened? Well, the support underneath the whole system of drain, which, by the way, it was all bricks and everything, the ground had just softened, and finally it had collapsed. How many have been to Florida and seen a place where a sinkhole has been? Where whole parts... You guys are... God bless you. All right? This year, was it? Okay. But a whole portion of a street collapsed. You know, you saw cars can fall into those things. What happened? Well, underneath, there's a stream bed. And when it gets dry, that stream bed just begins to erode up toward the top. And finally, it falls down. Well, beloved, I want to say to you, unless you're building the unseen parts of your life, you are going to find a place where your life can no longer be supported by the frail underpinnings. And if you don't deal with what is unseen, your life is going to collapse at some point. Or at the very least, you will not be able to bear the fruit that God would have you to bear. It is very easy for us in our culture. I'm talking now to people who are responsible people. Some of you have companies that you own. Some of you are professionals. Some of you have worked for 20 years for another person and done a very dependable job. I want to say, it's easy for us, some of us, and the externals to get organized. Some of you women keep a wonderful home. Some of you women are very successful in a career pursuit. And all the externals seem to be in order. But underneath, if you're really honest today, you would say, I have not been building my unseen life. There is not an ordering going on inside of me. And I know that I'm adding more and more activity. Maybe even going to church more. Maybe being part of things. But underneath, the unseen part, there is not strength. There's no real progress this year from last year. There's no real sense of fruitfulness. I haven't seen anybody really change because of me. There's no sense of being led of God. There's no victories of faith. And the greatest danger, beloved, is to come to a place where you accept that condition as being normal. Where you think, well, no one else around me seems to be doing any better, so I just must be what God wants for me. Well, hear what God said to Joshua. He said, Joshua, have the people be circumcised again. How many of you know that was not good news to those people? All the warriors had died, but there's probably a few older ones still around. You see the children come and say, Grandpa, what does it mean? What does this mean? You're going to do what? And we get really all uncomfortable and flushed. We're talking about something that seems real private, and I don't understand. Have you ever wondered why did God use that as a sign to the people? I mean, that's the strangest. I can see Abraham when God first told him about it. God said, Abraham, I'm going to show you a sign of my favor and blessing. Okay, Lord, what is it? Oh, thanks. That's great. And without this being a teaching on that whole principle of circumcision, that whole act, I just want to say, there is a profound reason. God doesn't do things flippantly. Why did God do that? Well, just in essence, because he touched man at his most sensitive point, most intimate point, so that out of the very place where all the generations would come, as it were, God said, I have put my hand on you, and I will be the one to whom you trust and look to. It is a sign of my being with you. And the people had gotten off of God's plan and purpose. You know that. They'd wandered in the wilderness because of disobedience. And God said, I'm coming again, and I'm going to circumcise the people again. Let them know that I am the source of all creativity, all life, all the generations that will fulfill my covenant. And I want to say to us this morning, church, the Lord is calling us to a season of preparation where we are to come and circumcise our hearts before him. Because God wants to do something new with us, just like he did with these people. At one point he was giving them everything, and they were picking up the what is it and all that, but they were wandering. Now God says, you're in a new land, and you're on the way to conquest, and great things are going to happen if you'll obey me. And I believe that's the word of the Lord of this church, that if we'll come and submit our hearts to being cut off in the flesh before God, if we'll allow God to sweep over us, that he's going to put us in an order that prepares us to go and conquest in this land that's before us. Hallelujah. And so the Lord says to us in conclusion, break up the fallow ground of your hearts. Now that verse in Hosea chapter 10, I think it's verse 12, means this. Fallow ground is ground that's grown over. It's got weeds, and the soil's just been kind of cluttered up with things. And that is not ground that is prepared to receive a seed. And the Lord is saying to us, he's saying to you as individuals, and we as a church, he's saying, church, it's time for you to take that plow and turn over that ground so that the soil is exposed. It's time to make your heart ready, and here's what God's going to do. He's going to begin to plant. I believe this, in the next six weeks, God is going to turn over the soil of our hearts. He's going to call some of us who have had a struggle and being a part of things to repentance. He's going to call some of us who think we know everything that's going on to repentance. He's going to call some of us who have no idea what we're to do to repentance, that we would hear his voice, to break up that fallow ground so that then, and I believe this, church, listen, penitence before God is always for the purpose of receiving the blessing of God. And I believe the Lord is going to do a wonderful thing through us of planting, gardening, and weeping. Most of us would rather God would just drop it down in our laps, but we always say, what is it? Now the Lord is saying, if you'll let me run my plow through your heart and circumcise it and cut off the flesh, if you'll let me then come and plant the seed of my word in your spirit, and if you'll tend it with the water of the word and the Holy Spirit, then I'm going to raise up a harvest that you will not be able to contain. And I think that's what God's saying. If you want to say hallelujah, you can. Praise the name of the Lord. I believe this is from the Lord. I believe this is what he wants to do. But it starts with us saying, Lord, I don't want to just look at the scene anymore. I want to forget what's behind me. I want to examine my heart and see what is unseen. And I want to begin to move in the restoration that's ahead. This is God's ordained purpose and plan for us. And we each have a choice in it, church. Will we go on or stay where we are? In a message like this, it's easy to close and say, no, okay, let's just spend some time before the Lord and confess our sins and ask God to give us new eyes for our heart. But the Lord gave me this application. I'm going to ask the brothers, are they ready with their sheets, Scott, ushers? We have prepared for you a sheet. I'd like everyone to receive one. Everyone take one of these sheets. How many of you know what season we're coming into in the church liturgical calendar? It's the season of Lent. I did not plan this message to coincide with anything that had to do with Lent. But I found it very significant that beginning this Wednesday, which is commonly known in the organized church or institutional church as Ash Wednesday, that historically the church has seen Lent as a six-week period of preparation. Before you read this, would you just listen to me so I can explain it for you? Let me explain it, then you're welcome to read it. What I'm going to call you to do is to ask the Lord what you might do for six weeks as a season of restoration in your own heart. Are you with me? A season of restoration of your own unseen inner private world. I'm saying this. It may mean for you that you fast one meal a day. It may mean that you give one hour a day to the Lord. It may mean that you adjust something in your social calendar so that you spend a couple hours a week at a certain time that you didn't meet before. It may be rendering something over. It may be giving something new. But I'm going to ask everybody in the church to take the next six weeks and say, Lord, make this a season, a season of restoration in my own heart. And I want to ask you to do it this way. On that sheet, I've just given you two places where you can say, Lord, this is what I'm going to do right now in the mighty name of Jesus. Lord, that you are a God of movement, a God of motion. That you are a God who has ordained from the foundations of the earth great and wonderful things for this your people and for each one who calls this place their church home. And Lord, we now enter into this time of being circumcised in our hearts, Lord, of being examined in the inner man, of putting our eyes on the unseen things of our foundations, Lord. And we trust you, Father, to lead us, to show us how we might cut off the things that are holding us back and embrace the things that would make for life. Oh, sweet, sweet Jesus, I pray you draw many, Lord God, into one of the most powerful and life-changing times of their whole lives. Fill me with your message once again. It's been so long since my heart broke within. Take me back once more to Calvary. Do one more time your message with me. Book me with your message once again. It's been so long since my heart broke within. Take me back once more to Calvary. Do one more time your message with me. Book me with your message once again. It's been so long since my heart broke within. Take me back once more to Calvary. Do one more time your message with me. The point of change is the receiving of the message of Christ, the rhema of God. I believe the Lord is right now imparting faith to many of you that there can be a turning over, there can be a circumcision, there can be a change. The Lord is releasing a great deal of hope right now for a number of people that have found their Christian walk as being unfulfilling and unfruitful, frustrating, disappointing. The Lord is saying this is a time when He's going to change you and bring you into a new and marvelous restoration. But this is a season to be prepared, a season to let that cutting instrument of the Lord prepare the soil of your heart. Sing a message once again. It's been so long since my heart broke within. Take me back once more to Calvary. Sing it one more time. Anyone else who wants to come right now? Not just a select few, for all in leadership and responsibility, for all those who sit and wait upon the Lord, for all of those that gaze and wait upon the Lord to appear in the midst of the stars. My appearing shall come not in the midst of the stars, but I shall arise in full glory from out of the midst of the hearts that are broken in repentance as the seeds of love and peace once more are sown.