S1: Jesus is a taker. The most spectacular robbery didn't happen
S1: in the movie. It happened on a hill called Calvary.
S1: Jesus is a taker who comes to take away what
S1: you don't need and give you what you do need.
S2: Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr,
S2: senior pastor of Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm Steve Hiller.
S2: Glad you've joined us today as we continue our look
S2: at Joshua chapter one and this idea of being a taker.
S2: And I love the clip that we just heard. Pastor,
S2: the most spectacular robbery didn't happen in a movie. It
S2: happened on a hill called Calvary.
S3: Oh yeah, where Jesus Christ took our sins upon himself. Man,
S3: that's just so powerful that he loves us enough to
S3: allow our sins to be placed on him. And of course,
S3: we all know that in the expanse of that darkness
S3: of three hours on the cross, that fellowship was broken
S3: between the father and the son for the first time
S3: in all of eternity, because God can't look on sin.
S3: And Jesus had all of our sins, he took away
S3: our sins. And he's not only a taker, he's also
S3: a giver. Right? But, you know, we always emphasize the
S3: fact he gave us eternal life. He gives us salvation.
S3: But see, before he did that, he took him. Amen.
S3: And so I'm so glad that he did.
S2: Well, I think we are all glad that he did take.
S2: But as we began talking a little bit about at
S2: the beginning of the series, if we are to be
S2: like Jesus, we're called to be takers as well. He
S2: took our sin well. We got enough of sin. We
S2: don't need to take any more. In fact, we want
S2: to give him our sin. So what? What are believers
S2: to take today?
S3: Well, I think we need to take our Bible and
S3: read it. You know, someone facetiously said, we need more
S3: than a verse a day to keep the devil away,
S3: but at least get something in the Word of God.
S3: So we need to be able to do that. We
S3: need to take time to pray. We need to begin
S3: to evangelize and take the opportunity to share our faith
S3: with other people. We also need to take the opportunity
S3: to give and to serve and to worship. So we're
S3: we're called to be takers, too.
S2: Well, we're called to be takers, but we see examples
S2: of that all throughout the Bible. We see that in
S2: the book of Joshua, the series. We've been looking at
S2: Joshua chapter one. What do we see? Joshua taking their.
S3: Well, God made them a promise, and he promised them
S3: a land that flowed with milk and honey. That first
S3: generation didn't believe it. and they died in the wilderness
S3: because of their unbelief. They wouldn't take what God told
S3: them to take. And Moses pleaded on their behalf and
S3: God said, okay, I'm not going to totally destroy all
S3: of them. I'll let them wander through the wilderness. And
S3: I don't remember who it was. I think it was
S3: maybe Doctor Pink who said it took God one day
S3: to get Israel out of Egypt, but it took him
S3: 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel. And so
S3: they refused to do it. And so God shut the
S3: door because he opens the door and no man can
S3: shut it, and he shuts the door and no man
S3: can open it. And so when the door was opened,
S3: they wouldn't take it. They wouldn't walk into the land.
S3: They allowed the giants to cause them to cower in
S3: their presence, not remembering that God said the battle is
S3: the Lord's. And so this generation now the Joshua generation
S3: is about to go in and possess the land and
S3: to take it. And I think the theme is more
S3: in keeping with we need to be proactive rather than reactive. Sure.
S3: I mean, if you look at what's happening today, Steve, uh, Christians,
S3: we are letting the world set the agenda rather than
S3: the word set the agenda. We're becoming more reactive than
S3: we are proactive. And I know it's not every church,
S3: but many of us have a eight track mentality in
S3: an iPod world.
S2: You're right about that. I've not heard that. But I
S2: like it. Uh, may steal that from you. I'm going
S2: to take it. I'm going to take it. I'm gonna
S2: take it.
S3: That's good.
S2: We're, uh, in Joshua chapter one, first nine verses as
S2: we continue the message takers, here's Pastor Ford.
S1: David didn't know that watching his daddy's sheep was preparation
S1: for watching God's sheep. Huh? Now, listen, here's what it says.
S1: Exodus 1710. So Joshua did as Moses said. Caveat follow
S1: him as he followed Christ. That's what he was doing.
S1: Here's the principle if you don't know how to lead,
S1: finish it. You heard me say it a lot. You're
S1: not fit to follow. That's right. Joshua learned how to
S1: lead under Moses, and he was ready. I showed you
S1: his process that he went through. I'm not going to
S1: go over it again. But here's the kicker. Here's the
S1: flip side. Elders, deacons, listen to me. Don't get mad.
S1: Listen to me. The flip side is this. Let me
S1: put it in the words of a counseling session I
S1: had here. It is there in the counseling session. And
S1: they're they're angry. I remember when they got married, I
S1: put two chairs out. They they practically sat in one
S1: pulled them together. Now, after three years, I put two
S1: chairs down and they pull them apart. And so, uh,
S1: I say, what's the issue? She won't follow. I said, well,
S1: you know, the Bible says that you're the leader, you're
S1: the head you ought to follow. You ought to follow, sister.
S1: Why don't you follow it? She looked at him, not me,
S1: and said, I'm not following because he's not going anywhere.
S1: You can't follow a parked car. Now, let me just
S1: say something. Let me just say something, even if that
S1: is true. She did the right thing in the wrong way.
S1: And let me just tell some of you ladies who
S1: want to try to get your husband to counseling. The
S1: reason why a lot of men don't want to come
S1: to counseling is because of what just happened. That is,
S1: they feel that you are going to castrate them in
S1: front of another man that you think has what you
S1: want them to have, that you think they don't. Did
S1: you hear me? That's why you can't get them. Because
S1: you came home talking about your pastor.
S4: For do this, for he called her sugar. You don't
S4: call me. No. You know, I heard him say he
S4: did this or that. First of all.
S1: You don't know if he's really doing all that. Second
S1: of all, I ain't Pastor Ford. Third of all, you
S1: ain't Sister Ford. Amen. But there was a point well taken.
S1: I'm not going to call her name, even though she
S1: gave me permission, because she may not remember. She gave
S1: me permission because with 15 years to go. But when
S1: the sisters came up to me 15 years ago, she said,
S1: Pastor Ford, I don't mean any harm to you or
S1: your elders, but you know what you need to do.
S1: I said, what do I need to do? I almost
S1: called her name. I ain't calling her name. I ain't
S1: even look at her right now. She said, take your
S1: elders to the elders store and get a refund. That's
S1: what she said. That's what she said. Why did she
S1: feel that way? Because you can't follow a parked car. Amen. Amen. Amen.
S1: And so when you look at what's going on here,
S1: I want to tell you something. I need every elder
S1: I send on an email. I need every elder not
S1: just to read The Turnaround Church by Doctor Perry. I
S1: need them to read the top ten Mistakes Leaders make
S1: by hand. Stencil. Don't worry about it. I'll send it
S1: to you. I just want to give him to you
S1: right now. Here they are. Now, I read this book
S1: as a student at Moody. I read it again as
S1: a graduate student at Trinity, but I'm reading it now
S1: again as pastor of Christ Bible Church here. Here's the
S1: ten in a nutshell. Here's the ten top mistakes leaders make.
S1: Here it is number one, top down attitude. You're large
S1: and in charge. Big baller shot caller, number one stunner
S1: player player from the Himalaya. And nobody can tell you anything.
S1: Number two, putting paperwork before people work. That this is
S1: all about fellowship. We are organism before we're an organization.
S1: Number three, the absence of affirmation. Paul in Romans 16
S1: told those people and get those names. Why? Because he
S1: wanted everybody to know I'm not in this by myself.
S1: Some of who are ministering, they're not looking for money,
S1: but they are waiting to hear somebody say thank you,
S1: I appreciate you. You're doing a job well done. Here's
S1: our tendency and let me speak for myself. Here's my tendency.
S1: The folk who are peripheral, that's where you give your
S1: time to and attention to. But the folk who are there,
S1: you know, going to stay there, you ignore them. When
S1: the Bible says the periphery of folk, you shouldn't put
S1: any time or treasure on them. That's what it says, teach.
S1: It says. It says find faithful, available, teacher Saint Timothy
S1: 222 and the things which thou hast both heard and
S1: seen in me do and the same. Commit thou to
S1: faithful people, who shall be able to teach others also.
S1: There it is. There it is. That's called discipleship. For
S1: those of you who may not know, here it is.
S1: Here it is. Let me just drop them real quick.
S1: Number four. Uh, mistake. Leaders make no room for mavericks.
S1: I said it on Wednesday. Sometimes we see new people
S1: as an intrusion when God sent them as an infusion. Now,
S1: not all because some people come from other places where
S1: they got all kind of mess, and they bring that
S1: mess in here. And when I hear that mess, I
S1: deal with that mess because it's mess and we don't
S1: want to be about mess. Amen. Number five dictatorship in
S1: decision making. That is you. It's always got to be
S1: your way or the highway. And when we were here
S1: with Doctor Perry. Imma let you in on on elder business.
S1: Even though I ain't supposed to. I said to them, okay,
S1: you know, somebody say, okay, he's a dictator. Okay then.
S1: And I and I asked them corporately and individually, somebody
S1: tell me some something that I did that violated your
S1: authority as an elder or a pastor or a bishop
S1: in this church and didn't repent of it. Whenever, whenever
S1: I did it. And so I picked on the campus pastor,
S1: I said, Pastor Avery, in front of all the elders
S1: and deacons. I said, what did they call me over
S1: at CBC three senior pastor. I said, what did they
S1: call you at CBC three campus? Pastor? I said, has
S1: there been anything where we have disagreed since we've been
S1: there over a little over a year at CBC three?
S1: He said, yeah, I said about eight things. Now, of
S1: those eight things that weren't biblical, no book, chapter verse.
S1: How many times did I overrule you? He said none.
S1: I said, I never said I like my way better
S1: with doing it. Not one time, and there ain't no
S1: elder in here that can say I ever did it.
S1: Because we have elder role and that's what I abide by.
S1: Because that's our system. We're not like the other churches
S1: where the pastor is responsible for everything. We have elder rule,
S1: and I, for one, respect the God given policy, despite
S1: the fact that often it causes us problems. I've shared
S1: with the elders my personal belief is that 90% of
S1: the problems in Christ's Bible Church is because of the leadership,
S1: not because of the membership. That's what I believe. But
S1: who or what do I know? I'm just the pastor.
S1: Number six dirty delegation. You like the limelight stuff you preach.
S1: And you there somebody else preach. Don't see you. You
S1: got a program. You there, somebody else got a program.
S1: Nobody see you. And the things you don't want to do.
S1: That's what you let other people do. Number seven communication chaos.
S1: You know what that is? Reading or singing from the
S1: same hymnal? Just not on the same page. Number eight.
S1: Missing the clues of the corporate culture. Now you know
S1: he's going to talk about in this fellowship. Look, in
S1: the Bible, it wasn't task oriented. Everything developed because they
S1: fellowshipped they became an organism. And like an amoeba, they
S1: begin to break off and multiply. Number nine, success without
S1: success soars. Not preparing somebody to take your place. I'm
S1: not guilty of that. I've been saying it for the
S1: last 15 years now. Sometimes, you know, I may get
S1: it wrong. And I tell you that. And I tell
S1: you and people I talk to, I say I might
S1: have got it wrong. You may not be the one.
S1: But you see what I've been trying to do for
S1: the last 15 years? Identify and raise up somebody to
S1: pass the baton. That's what Moses did. That's why God said,
S1: speak in his ear. Because you're going to die, man.
S1: Do you want somebody coming in here with a good sermon,
S1: with a good face, and able to able to sing
S1: and mesmerize people with his voice. And then. Then, oh,
S1: ignorant folk with one vote. Vote him in. And then
S1: a year later, 33 years of ministry down the toilet.
S1: It's happening right now in some of our African-American churches
S1: in our denomination. It happens all the time. By God's grace,
S1: you will know who's taking my place in the next
S1: 5 or 6 years. I'm going to be here because
S1: I ain't pastoring all my life. No no no no
S1: no no, I'm not one of these people who going
S1: to die in the pulpit. No. No, I'm joining Garland
S1: and we going to go fishing or something.
S2: Well, he's not going quite yet. Stick around. He's going
S2: to be back in just a moment as we continue
S2: this message. Takers want to let you know that Treasure
S2: Truth is listener supported. And so if you're a regular
S2: listener to this broadcast and you're benefiting from Pastor Ford's teaching,
S2: I want to ask you to consider giving a financial
S2: gift to the ministry. You can give online by coming
S2: to Treasure Truth radio.org. Click on the donate button. There
S2: you can give a one time gift or an ongoing
S2: monthly gift. Again, come to Treasure Truth radio.org and click
S2: on donate. Well, if you're just joining us, we're in
S2: Joshua chapter one. As we continue the message takers, here's
S2: Pastor Ford.
S1: And so one last thing. Here it is in numbers
S1: 1316 God tells Joshua, change his name. Now what's his name?
S1: Say his name. Say his name. Hosea. Now, what does
S1: Hosea mean? Savior. He said, change his name. Now I
S1: like when he changed it. And not just what he
S1: changed it to. When did he change it? Right before
S1: he went into the Promised Land to spy out the land. Imma,
S1: Imma get that in a minute. What he changed it to?
S1: He said put Yahweh in front of it. Put your
S1: way in front of it. So his name now is
S1: Yahweh saves. What's he doing when you go into the land?
S1: The battle is the Lord's. You possess your possession, but
S1: you possess it because I gave it to you. When
S1: you go in to fight. Yeah. You going to lift
S1: up a sword? But I'm the one who's going to
S1: win the battle. Don't you take my glory. So in
S1: order for you to know that I want to change
S1: your name. Now, this. This. You ought to. You ought
S1: to turn this on. Um, Huntington post and I was,
S1: you know, I'm I'm I'm trying to get a little
S1: more computer literate. And so, you know, now to get
S1: some news, I go to Huntington Post and it says
S1: man gets job by dropping a letter in his name.
S1: I said, I want to see that because I'm talking
S1: about name on Sunday. So so so what I did
S1: was I hit it and then listened to it. I
S1: skipped the ad. He said, my name is Jose and
S1: he and he gave his last name. I think it
S1: was Menendez. Jose Menendez or something like that, he said.
S1: And I was on the internet looking for a job.
S1: He said. I have filled up no less than 50
S1: jobs a day for the filled out application, for 50
S1: jobs a day for two months, and not one response.
S1: I began to think, something's wrong. Let me try something.
S1: So I took one letter out of my name, the S,
S1: and now I was Joe and not Jose, he said.
S1: One week went by and I got offers. Yes, we're
S1: looking for someone with your qualifications and blah blah blah blah.
S1: And here's what he said. He said what got me
S1: was I only resent my application to the same people
S1: who had rejected me as Jose. See? He dropped the
S1: letter out. God said, drop some letters in it. Change
S1: it from Hosea to Yeshua. Yeshua? What do you mean, Yeshua? That.
S1: That I want you to know you're not the Savior.
S1: I'm the Savior. So what I want you to do
S1: is change your name, because you don't have the capacity
S1: to be able to do what needs to be done,
S1: but I do. The capacity to perform and to possess
S1: your possession is in the name. Okay. Y'all ain't gonna
S1: pray with me. Listen, listen, listen, listen. If I gave
S1: you a check, I got my checkbook. Where is it?
S1: If I wrote you a check for $1 billion. Anybody
S1: want me to write them? One? I'll write you one.
S1: I'll write you one for $1 billion. You want to write? Okay,
S1: I'll write you one. But when you get it, Can
S1: I just tell you something you may not know? When
S1: you take it to the bank, it's going to have
S1: more rubber than Goodyear. Got tired. Since it's for $1 billion,
S1: they're probably not just going to write insufficient funds. They're
S1: going to stamp it. Insufficient funds, insufficient funds, insufficient funds.
S1: Then turn it over. Insufficient funding. But if Bill gates
S1: walked in here and wrote you a check for $1 billion,
S1: or Warren Buffett came in here and wrote you a
S1: check for $1 billion, or if Oprah Winfrey came in
S1: here and wrote you a check for $1 billion. Now
S1: your bottom line has changed. You want to know why?
S1: Because in the name of Ford, there was not the capacity,
S1: but in the name of Oprah and and and Warren
S1: Buffett and Bill gates that they have great capacity. That's
S1: what he says. I want you to change that name.
S1: And I don't know about you, but I'm so grateful
S1: that God has given us a name. Not just any name,
S1: but it's the name about which Moses inquired. It's the
S1: name of an individual that said, come unto me, all
S1: ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give
S1: you rest. It's the name that David sang about, and
S1: it's the name that Peter was wild about. It's the
S1: name that John wrote about. It's the name that's above
S1: every name that at the sound of that name every
S1: knee shall bow. Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ
S1: is Lord. It's the name that has the capacity to
S1: give you a so great salvation. It's the name that
S1: has the capacity to take away your sins. It's the
S1: name that God has given. Now, let me let me
S1: just close because I came to tell somebody Jesus is
S1: a taker. The most fantastic, spectacular robbery didn't happen in
S1: the movie. It happened on a hill called Calvary over
S1: 2000 years ago. Jesus is a taker who comes to
S1: take away what you don't need and give you what
S1: you do need. Because he's a taker, he comes to
S1: take who you shouldn't have, to give you who you
S1: should have because he's a taker. See, on Calvary he
S1: took the sting out of death. On Calvary, he took
S1: victory from the grave. You want to know why he's
S1: a taker. He took the power from the devil. You
S1: want to know why? Because he's a taker. He took
S1: souls out of hell. You want to know why? Because
S1: he is a taker. I don't know about you, but
S1: I'm glad he's a taker. Because he took away my
S1: sadness and gave me gladness. I'm so glad that he's
S1: a taker. Because he took away my darkness and gave
S1: me light. I'm so glad he's a taker because he
S1: took away my brokenness and gave me his wholeness. I'm
S1: glad he's a taker. He took away my fear and
S1: gave me his faith. I'm glad he did. He took
S1: away my depression and gave me joy. I'm glad he's
S1: a taker because he took away my sin and gave
S1: me salvation. And Isaiah said it this way surely he
S1: has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Why? Because
S1: he's a taker. He's a taker. And in this book,
S1: let me give you now the theme. Here's the theme
S1: of this text. God will give us the manifestation of
S1: his revelation when we meet his qualifications. So for the
S1: next three Sundays, we're going to talk about the qualifications
S1: for possessing your possessions and becoming a taker. Here it is.
S1: Verses one and two respond to God's plan. Verse three
S1: and four rest in God's promises. Verse five rely on
S1: God's protection. Verse verse six through eight readily obey God's precepts.
S1: of verse nine, realize God's presence and then let him through.
S1: 15 Recruit God's people. Takers.
S2: Well, that is the title of today's broadcast takers from
S2: Joshua chapter one and will continue this teaching next time.
S2: Do hope you make it a point to tune in.
S2: If you ever miss a program, you can always come
S2: to our website and listen online. You can also sign
S2: up to begin podcasting the program. That's a great way
S2: to make sure that you don't miss a future broadcast,
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S2: When you come to Treasure Truth radio.org and click on
S2: the Stay Connected bar. Well, thanks for listening today. Thanks
S2: also to our producer, Amy Rios for Pastor Ford, I'm
S2: Steve Hiller. Treasure truth is a production of Moody Radio,
S2: a ministry of the Moody Bible Institute.