The Lord is now leading us into a specific place. I believe God is doing the same thing now that He was doing when Israel first went into the Promised Land.
Keep in mind that this came after 400 years of captivity followed by 40 years in the wilderness. They wandered because ten of the spies Moses sent in brought back an evil report: "We can't do it. There are giants there. There are walled cities. We don't have the weaponry." Because of that report, an entire generation, except for the children, died in the wilderness. Our story takes place at the end of those 40 years, only three or four months before Moses' death and Joshua leading the people across. It had been 40 years in a desert, 40 years of attending funerals almost every day until a whole generation had died off. They just didn't want to fight anymore. Some of you have come to Christ and said, "God, I know You have a call on my life, but can we put it on hold for a while? I just want to enjoy life and smell the flowers." God understands that. But He was saying to these people, "There is more for you than this. I have a journey for you, and it involves other people." He died for all of humanity, for whosoever will. Scripture says they cannot hear without a preacher, and there will be no preacher unless they are sent. The Holy Spirit is moving on us as His church in this last hour to go into places we have not gone before and to embrace a calling we may not have fully embraced.
"Then Moses said to them, 'If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war, and all your armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His enemies from before Him, and the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you may return and be blameless before the Lord and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the Lord.'" (Numbers 32:20-22)
In other words, "You have found what you want on this side of the Jordan. But if you will go over and fight with your brothers and sisters until they have obtained their inheritance, if you will live beyond yourself, then you can come back and enjoy this place." As we teach at Summit International School of Ministry, live for the benefit of others and give yourself so they can conquer what needs to be conquered.
"But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out."
Be sure. Over the years, this verse has usually been applied to hidden sin, like stealing from the workplace or being in an illicit relationship, with the idea that one day it will be exposed. That may be true for some, but that is not the context here. This sin wasn't hidden. If these tribes didn't go with their brothers and sisters to face the giants, everyone would know.
So what does it mean that your sin will find you out? The sin of selfishness, of self focus, of knowing what to do and not doing it, can be hidden by activity. It can even be hidden by coming to church regularly. But ultimately, it will find its way out in your character. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. You can hide it for years, but eventually it comes out.
Galatians 6:7 says, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." If you plant corn, you won't grow watermelons. Jesus said in Matthew 7:2, "With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." There is a day coming when you will be, as they say down South, lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut, and you will cry, "God, send somebody to me." But where were you when somebody in New York City was crying, "God, send somebody to help me," and you stayed on the east side of the Jordan because you just wanted to enjoy life?
God doesn't resent that. But the calling on your life and mine goes farther and higher. I am 73 this month, and I could easily retire. Every summer by the ocean I tell Pastor Teresa, "I could manage your life from here. I know how to work a laptop now. I could book all your speaking engagements, and we would both be very happy." But whatever we choose to embrace, that is what we become if we neglect what we are called to do.
I am not called to retire. One of my sons said it best: "Dad, how could you even think about retiring? You finally know something. Why do the people who finally get it right retire and leave it to the ones who aren't fully formed in God yet?"
God was saying to these two tribes, "If you neglect to do what you know to do, your sin will find you out." We cannot pick what we want from the Word of God and ignore the rest without consequence. You cannot be in a wrong relationship and think there will be no consequence. The wages of sin is still death. There is no exception because you are lonely. If you are unequally yoked with an unbeliever, thinking they will change one day, that is not necessarily so, and sometimes it gets much worse.
Years ago, I was asked to help a missionary whose name was a household name in his denomination. For almost three decades he had worked in a war torn country, and he was the one who took the president out of that nation when it fell. When the war was over, he was given the Presidential Medal, certificates, and accolades. Yet when he came home, he wouldn't come out of his basement. He had so much to say, but he wouldn't go to churches to speak.
When I went to see him, he was 72, the age I am now. I found out that almost 40 years earlier he had been wounded by a church, and he had refused to forgive the people involved. He knew what to do and wouldn't do it, and he covered it all with activity. He ended up with medals on his wall, ranting and raving in his basement at the very thought of forgiving those who had hurt him.
Be sure your sin will find you out. The bitterness he tried to cover with missionary work finally found him out and ruined his inheritance. These should have been wonderful years of telling churches about the faithfulness of God. Instead, in my opinion, he actually hated the church of Jesus Christ.
I asked him, "Why did you go to the mission field?" He said, "To get away from the church." I asked, "Were you called?" He said, "I really don't know. I just needed to get away." Isn't it ironic? He represented a kingdom of forgiveness, the One who said on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do," and yet he would not forgive. If we represent the kingdom of God, isn't forgiveness our message?
Jesus told of a man who owed a terrible debt. His master was moved with compassion and forgave it all. But that same man went out, took a fellow servant who owed him very little by the throat, and said, "Pay me what you owe." When the master found out, he delivered him to the tormentors.
This missionary was tormented. I take no joy in sharing this story. I left there with such heaviness, saying, "God, how can a man serve You all these years and end up like this, with such an awful testimony to his children and grandchildren?"
Self focus is the opposite of taking up one's cross and following Christ. When we first come to Christ, it is all about me: my freedom, my mind, my addictions. That's fine at first. We are babes in Christ. Spend time with a toddler and all you hear is, "That's mine. My ball. My coloring book. I'm hungry." It's cute until you are 28 years old. In a family business, you are expected to grow up and look beyond yourself to what the family is about. So in the kingdom of God, aren't we expected at some point to escape ourselves and get involved in why we are here as the church of Jesus Christ?
Scripture says, "How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?" I can't add a verse to Scripture, but I can add a thought: how shall they be sent unless they are willing to be sent? Unless they will leave their comfort zone, cross the Jordan, and fight for somebody else? It is about the kids being lied to in their schools and confused on every level. It is about families being broken to pieces, and people who are addicted, depressed, and suicidal. At some point it has to be not about me, but about them.
In Luke 15, a son asked his father for his inheritance. It is like when we say, "I want the freedom, the forgiveness, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the good feeling of knowing my sins are forgiven." The father gave it to him, but he went into a far country, far from his father's heart, and wasted it on riotous living, which at its root is self focus. He wasn't fighting for anybody. He was just looking for comfort.
Don't misunderstand me. Some of us were unhappy for so long that when we got saved, we just wanted to enjoy life for a while. God understands that. There is a season of healing and growing in grace. But there is also a point of maturity, where we understand that if anyone would be His disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him.
This young man went into the land of self focus. Maybe he even found a church like that. Be your best you. Get that big promotion. A gospel that only reinforced his error. But in the land of selfishness you get hungry. Because we were made for so much more, we start to starve when we focus only on ourselves. He got so hungry he wanted to eat the pigs' food, and nobody there would give him anything, because everyone was just as selfish as he was.
Then he came to himself and said, in essence, "I don't fully understand my father's house, but it's better than here. There is plenty there." So he headed home. His sin of neglecting what he was called to do had found him out. As a son of his father, he was starving.
You might be a child of God today and yet spiritually starving. You may be asking, "Why am I so unfulfilled? Why am I always struggling not to eat pigs' food? Does this walk just not work for me?"
The young man started home, not knowing what to expect. "I have failed. I haven't been about my father's business. Will he reject me?" While he was still far off, how shocked he must have been to see his old, gray haired father running down the road toward him. He didn't know if his father would hold up his hand and say, "No farther. You deserve everything you got." Instead, his father threw his arms around him, kissed him, and hugged him like he had never been hugged before.
Be very, very sure of this. If you have not been what you ought to be, if you have neglected truth in some way, when you head toward God, be very sure He will get to you before you get to Him. Be very, very sure that He loves you and wants to forgive you. Be very, very sure He wants to take the stain of any failure upon Himself, to cleanse you, change you, call you His son or daughter, and send you out to do what your life was meant to do from the beginning.
After the robe, the father called for the ring, the ring of authority. Be very sure God has a purpose for your life, and that authority comes with it: words of wisdom, words of knowledge, gifts of the Holy Spirit, and a direction you never could have found by natural reasoning. Be very sure that when you walk into a room, the power of God will walk in with you, and people will start asking you for the reason for the hope that is within you. Be very, very sure God will empower you, use you, and put a new song in your heart.
Then the father put shoes on his son's feet. Be very sure God has a pathway for you, a journey across the Jordan into somebody else's struggle. And be very, very sure you will not walk in alone. You will walk in with God. No giant can stand, no prison door can stay closed, no blind eye can stay blind, and no lie of hell can hold the people any longer, because God has an army in the end times. As the old song says, "God has an army marching through the land. Deliverance is their song, with freedom in their hand. Everlasting joy and gladness in their heart, and in this army I've got a part."
Those two tribes said, "We will go." And Moses said, "After you do, you can come back and enjoy your families."
Years ago I was in prayer, telling the Lord I would like to enjoy my children and grandchildren after missing so many events while traveling. The Lord spoke to me as clearly as I am speaking to you. He said, "Carter, your children are all home, and you have eternity to enjoy them. But My children are not all home. Let's go get Mine first, and then we can both enjoy our children for all of eternity."
I think I am more committed now than ever. As long as God gives this body breath, I will keep going into colleges and speaking to young people. Our prayer this summer has been, "Lord, You let me live, so now let me live." What good is a new physical heart if the years I have left are not lived for Him? I don't want to love Him less at the end than I did at the beginning. I want Him to send me where He wants and give me a largeness of heart to care and the courage to speak.
I am not going to live on the wrong side of the Jordan. My name is already in the Lamb's Book of Life, and my grandkids are already home. I had a beautiful summer. My grandsons were on Welcome to My Morning, standing strong for Christ. One of my 11 year old granddaughters said, "Papa, I want to testify." I told her I couldn't put her online because it could be dangerous. The boys are hockey players and can handle themselves, but I was concerned for her. She said, "I want to do it anyway." So we did a pretend episode on camera.
I asked, "Do you have a Bible story for us?" She said, "Once there was this woman who cheated on her husband. The people wanted to kill her. But Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground. We don't know what He wrote, because the Bible doesn't tell us. But when He stood up, everybody dropped their stones." I asked, "So what's the moral?" She said, "We should forgive the people Jesus wants to forgive."
Eleven years old, and she understands the truth the 72 year old missionary missed. I pray God always gives her grace to walk in what she knows.
I am enjoying these moments, but they will not stop me from crossing the Jordan. Pastor Teresa shares the same heart, and we are heading to California shortly, where I will be speaking in several places, reaching this generation by focusing on their need rather than ourselves.
The Lord said, "If you don't do this thing, be sure it will find you out."
So here is my challenge. What is God asking you to do that you have put on hold? You know what it is. Forgiveness is a big one. You won't know the power of God until you are willing to do what you already know to do. The Christian life is not about living for ourselves. It is about living for the sake of somebody else.
You may have escaped drugs, bad relationships, or drinking. But have you escaped yourself? The heart that doesn't want to fight for somebody else? You will still get to heaven, but you will have lived on the wrong side of the Jordan and fallen short of God's purpose for your life. I don't want that. I want to finish like the Apostle Paul: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing." By the grace of God, I appeal to you: be the church of Jesus Christ.
Keep it simple. "God, I'm going over the river for somebody else's sake. I'm already saved and I've found my green pasture, but this is not about me now." It is about the single mom crying every night, wondering how she will raise her family. It is about the kids being lied to, who don't know if there is even a reason for living. It is about those on the edge of taking their lives, the addicted, the afflicted, the marginalized, the poor, the nobodies of society. It is about the Nicky Cruzes of our generation, labeled irredeemable, too damaged, too dark. Let me remind you that this "irredeemable" man has preached the gospel to 80 million people in his lifetime.
I want to go across that river again, whatever it costs, because somebody there will not get the victory if I don't go. That is what Moses told those two tribes: "If you don't go, somebody is not going to get their inheritance." I know in my spirit that you are going to go as well.
You are not the strongest, most knowledgeable, or most noble. Nobody God chooses ever has been. It is ordinary people like you and me who say, "Here am I. Send me." In Isaiah 6, Isaiah was the only one in the whole scene who needed redemption, yet he raised his hand and said, "I'll go, and whether they listen or not, I'm going to fight for them."
Fighting for people doesn't mean going into public ministry. It means stopping to talk to somebody crying on the street corner, or visiting the neighbor who always seems so down. It is having the courage to say, "How can I help you?" That is crossing over into their battle.
That is the church that will be the church in these last days. Not a few hotshot preachers, but the church crossing the river to fight for those who need freedom. It is you, my brother and sister, where you live and work, on the streets you walk, the subway you take, the neighborhood you live in. You are not just trying to survive. You are an army. You are the voice God wants to use. Somebody is going to live because you made the choice to cross their river and go into their fight.
I have learned over the years that wherever the Lord has ministered, there is always joy. God sends His people out with strength and joy. Nobody needs to hang their head and say, "Maybe I've missed it." Instead, let your testimony today be, "God, I feel Your embrace, Your willingness to cover me, and Your willingness to use my life for Your glory."