Do NOT Depart From the TENT!!

What does it take to be great?  I am fascinated by these things. 

And probably one of the greats really stands out to me.  Kobe Bryant.

Byron Scott told Business Insider:

"I heard the ball bouncing. No lights were on. Practice was at about 11, it was probably about 9, 9:30. And I go out to the court and I look, and there's Kobe Bryant. He's out there shooting in the dark. And I stood there for probably about ten seconds, and I said, 'This kid is gonna be great.'"

He taught himself to play Bethoven’s Moonlight Sonata by ear.

Bryant's most recent obsession has been "storytelling."

Bryant developed his own "Sesame Street"-inspired show called "Musecage," and then made an animated short documentary called "Dear Basketball," that took home the Oscar on Sunday. Bryant called it more fulfilling than a championship.He started investing, and call billonares at 3 in the morning.

This quote about how he wants to be remembered: "To think of me as a person that’s overachieved, that would mean a lot to me. That means I put a lot of work in and squeezed every ounce of juice out of this orange that I could."

Don’t we all want to be great, maybe not to that extreme. 

Maybe we want a great family, or great grades, or do great things for God, to be remembered as a great.

And so we work hard in the physical because that is what people tell us to do, and you should!! 

BUT….

Remember where it starts….(Kobe)

Let’s look at the beginning of Joshua’s story.

Exodus 33:1-11

33 The Lordsaid to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’² I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ³ Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people….”

The Tent of Meeting

⁷ Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyonewho sought the Lordwould go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. ⁸ Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent.⁹ When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord^[a]would speak with Moses. ¹⁰ And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. ¹¹ Thus the Lordused to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

What happens in the physical…

(become God’s man, walking in strong courageous faith, walls falling down in Joshua 6, sin being eradicated in Joshua 7, the sun standing still Joshua 10)

is birthed in the Spiritual!

This is where greatness lies…

So, what does the enemy do in our lives? 

Attacks the physical so that you don’t war in the spiritual. 

This is his age-old game because we are moved by what we see. 

Ex. 1  Eve seesthe fruit in Genesis 3:6 

Ex. 2  In the chapter before this story Aaron, Moses’s assistant creates a golden calf to worship so that the people could seea little god because Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain.

Ex. 3And the spies see giants in Numbers 13

Ex. 4  And David sawBathsheba bathing in 2 Samuel 11

Because what we see in the physical at time is the only thing that we believe.

But the battle never ever ever occurs in the physical it is an outpouring of the spiritul.

And the enemy is to get you focused on what you see and not what can be.

-How many times do we have an argument on Sunday morning?  It’s a physical attack so that you don’t war in the Spiritual.

-How many times does something come up for Wednesday discipleship or Sunday Semesters at 9:30 so that you don’t war in the Spiritual. 

-How many times does pressing snooze on an alarm clock seem better than cracking open the word of God.  It’s a physical attack so that you don’t war in the Spiritual.

-How many times will you not enter into the presence of God through worship because you don’t like the song, the singer, scared of what someone else thinks, it’s a physical attack so that you don’t war in the Spiritual.

-How many times do we quit praying and believing God for a loved one, spouse, family member, our schools, our streets, our community, our jobs because we go by what we seeand the physical attack so that we don’t war in the spiritual.

And when we fall for it, the plans of God cannot come into fruition.

And the enemy laughs because he knows exactly what is behind that door of you spiritually being steady fast and staying in the tent.

Illustration (tied cans with string) the string will be on the stage but the cans will be behind the kitchen door with blessing written on them,

God’s exact word through a Sermon, spiritual friendship and accountably and encouragement through Wednesday or Sundays, breakthrough because of worship, a friend or loved one coming to Christ will be written on cans.

Joshua understood that because HE STAYED IN THE TENT.

He knew in faith that the promises were coming.

He left his own tent, went into “the tent” and STAYED.

And the work that he put “in the tent” became the overflow of His life story.

Joshua does not become the man that we know today if he doesn’t stay in the tent.

Because he was not moved by the physical, he moved in the spiritual.

Knowing that the blessing and promises of God were there, he just had to stay.