Jul
03
2010
Good is the Enemy of Great
By Ivan
and has 1 comment.
The past is the past. We must let it go.
This was the thrust of a powerful Spirit-filled message delivered last night by Michael Henderson, Senior Pastor of New Beginnings Church in Matthews, North Carolina. God spoke loud and clear.
Pastor Henderson spoke from Joshua 1:1-2.
1:1 Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying, 2 “Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.
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Even though Moses was obviously dead, the people of Israel were not dealing with it well. In verse one, “death” is a noun, but in verse two, “dead” is a verb. God is emphasizing the fact that it’s time to move forward since he’s REALLY DEAD. Hope for the past, clinging to what was is not the orientation for God’s people to step into God’s best. This is what it seems the people were doing…hoping in something (or someone) who was dead. Of course — people who are dead are always better than they were when they were alive. Dead things take on a life of their own!
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Good is the enemy of great. With Israel, the bad was slavery in Egypt, the good was the journey between Egypt and Canaan (which they severely over-extended), and the great was waiting for them in the Promised Land. But good is always the enemy of great. We settle for good when God has destined us to be great. Individually. As a church. As a family. We tend to find good and forget about pressing on to the great.
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If our focus is on the past, our focus is on things that are dead. We cannot live in the past…it’s no-longer real. We must focus on the present and the future while giving the past a funeral. We can appreciate the past. We can celebrate the past. We can learn from the past. But we cannot live in the past. It’s dead. Bury it.
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We are famous for this in church. We cling to things that meant a lot to us in days past…experiences, programs, songs, styles and philosophies. And while we cling to those things of the past, we will fail to EVER become great in the present. The past is dead.
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God has a new thing. God loves new things. Faith is all about stepping into new things. Faith is rarely exercised by living in the known and familiar things. It is always lived out when we step into God’s new things. When we leave the past in the past, we can live in the present. We can then move from being dead to being alive, from being good to becoming great.
