Major Ian Thomas emphasizes the significance of the Passover in Exodus as a foreshadowing of Christ's redemptive work, illustrating that salvation is not merely an end but the beginning of a new walk with God. He explains that the Israelites were called to remember their deliverance from Egypt while also entering into the promised land, symbolizing the fullness of life in Christ. Thomas stresses that true Christian living involves walking in the Spirit, allowing Christ's life to be manifested in us, and moving beyond the wilderness experience to enjoy the abundant life He offers. He encourages believers to recognize their identity in Christ and to live in the power of His resurrection, celebrating their redemption in the land of promise. Ultimately, he calls for a commitment to let Christ take over our lives, leading us into a deeper relationship with Him.

Exodus chapter 12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their father. A lamb for an house. Verse 5, Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. He shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. Verse 11, And thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Ye shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover. Now these words in this passage will be familiar to you as it reminds you of the day that God, by the hand of Moses, led his people out of Egypt beneath the sign of the shed blood of the unblemished lamb of whose body not a bone was to be broken. That beautiful Old Testament picture of the sinless Lord Jesus made sin for you and for me, who was born uninhabited by sin, inhabited only by God, and who died as the lamb that taketh away the sin of the world, whose legs the soldiers did not break. He was the lamb without blemish, not a bone of whose body was to be broken. But says Moses, this month shall be unto you the beginning of month. It shall be the first month of the year to you. This is going to mark an entirely new chapter in your life history. He said you are to eat this, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand. In other words you are to recognize that this crisis whereby God will intervene and redeem you out of Egypt is but the threshold of a process, of a new walk, and you are to eat it with shoes on your feet. It is the threshold of a journey. Now that is of course what we always need to remember when we think of our redemption through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus. Wonderful as it may have been on the day that you put your trust in Christ, remember that wasn't the end of the story. That did not constitute your salvation. It constituted your reconciliation to God through his death. The act of faith that exposed your guilt as a guilty sinner to the adequacy of his atoning death. A wonderful day but not the end in itself. For the Lord Jesus said I am come. Not that you might have forgiveness. Not that you might escape hell and one day get to heaven. I am come that you might have life. The process of a lifetime. The walk of a lifetime. And when you shelter beneath the shadow of the cross it is but to poise you upon the threshold of a new walk. For you will remember in Romans chapter 8 and verse 1 it says there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus clothed with his righteousness imputed righteousness. No condemnation. Reconciled to God by what he did because of what you have done. But then the same verse goes on to say there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit the new principle. For what the law could not do nor even the life of Christ that he lived then through the weakness of the flesh for your flesh could neither satisfy the demands of the law nor could your flesh imitate the life of Christ. What the law nor the life of Christ could not do through the weakness of the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that only his life can fulfill that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh the old principle but after the spirit the power of an endless life the life of Jesus Christ. So when you are redeemed through his death because of what you have done you are qualified to receive the life of the Lord Jesus in the person of the Holy Spirit who fulfills in you today the righteousness of the law as he fulfilled it then. So we are back again to our old basic principle that the life he lived qualified him for the death he died there is the shed blood of the sinless unblemished lamb the life he lived qualified him for the death he died but the death he died qualifies you and me to receive the life he lives as the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us clothe himself with our redeemed humanity and fulfill in us now the righteousness that he fulfilled then. So the Christian life is the life that he lived then lived now by him through his spirit in you. Now that is simple isn't it? And I trust that by now if we have gained nothing else we have grasped this principle for this is the very heart the golden content of your faith the Lord Jesus in you. Now it all began in the day that the precious blood of the lamb was sprinkled upon the doorpost and the lintel of your heart and you were poised upon the threshold of a new life and the beginning of a new walk. So Moses says in verse 3 of chapter 13 remember this day in which she came out from Egypt out of the house of bondage for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. He says remember this day don't forget it always look back to it with profound gratitude to God. It is a day to be remembered the day in which you were cleansed from your sin reconciled to God and numbered amongst the redeemed and your name was written in the Lamb's book of life. He says remember this day it is a day to be remembered. But I want you to notice this that he went on to say something else. It shall be verse 5 of Exodus 13 it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee a land flowing with milk and honey that thou shall keep this service in this month. Seven days thou shall eat unleavened bread and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. This feast of unleavened bread this Passover feast when you remember the day was a day to be remembered listen in a land to be possessed. A day to be remembered but a day to be remembered in a land to be possessed. Says Moses to his people because God brought you out in order to bring you in the only place where you can genuinely legitimately remember the day and celebrate the day is in a land to be possessed. Now you can remember the day maybe when you were redeemed but tell me this have you ever been able to celebrate that day till now in the land to be possessed Canaan not heaven some day but Christ in the power of his indwelling life his resurrection victory now for only as you live in the power of what he is today can you really celebrate the blessedness of what he did then when he redeemed you but to be redeemed by what he did without enjoying the fullness of what he is is to miss the whole point of your salvation miss the whole point of the cross is to cheat him of that for which his blood was shed for he came that you might have life his life his abundant life his superlative quality of life that you might be more than conquerors through him that loves you with joy unspeakable and full of glory peace that parteth understanding and joy that parteth knowledge so his life without his death would have been inadequate but his death even if it redeems you without his life in you now and enjoyed by you now is inadequate both are necessary for us to satisfy the heart of God and for the Lord Jesus to see in us of the travail of his soul and be satisfied it's a day says Moses to be remembered but it is a day to be remembered in a land to be possessed how often was this celebration to take place well on each anniversary they were to remember their spiritual birthday when God redeemed them out of Egypt I always think back with gratitude to God to the day when I was born again 13th of August I'm sure I've never told you before it was a quarter to nine Saturday night 13th of August I can't forget it it was the biggest thing that ever happened to me I don't remember living until I was 12 I think I must just have existed but I've lived ever since just glance with me for a moment to the 23rd chapter and here it says chapter 23 in verse 14 three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread that was to remember the day thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days as I commanded thee in the time appointed of the month Abib and then for in it thou camest out from Egypt that's when you were converted that's when you put your trust in Christ and you were redeemed and you came out of Egypt and you became one of God's own people and then secondly verse 16 the feast of harvest the first fruits of thy labors which thou hast sown in the field thirdly the feast of ingathering which is in the end of the year when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field these three feasts were to be observed year by year by year in the land to be possessed how could they keep the feast of unleavened bread in the desert in the wilderness there was no corn in the wilderness the only way they could ever keep the feast of unleavened bread in the wilderness would be by the resources that they brought with them out of Egypt I may be wrong and I'm subject to correction but I can't find a record of any other occasion that they kept the feast of unleavened bread in the wilderness but on the second year of their pilgrimage and after that silence because you see after the second year all that they brought out of Egypt with them ran out and the tragedy is that all too many Christians who don't recognize that the Christ who died for them rose again to live in try to live the Christian life with the resources that they bring with them out of their unregenerate condition the energy of the flesh instead of the power and unction of the Holy Spirit and so long as it lasts the enthusiasm the novelty lasts all goes well but then you settle down to the somewhat boring routine of wilderness wandering is that what happened to you? the dull monotony of a desert diet after the first flush of enthusiasm wore off and what about the feast of harvest the first fruits of thy labors which thou hast sown in the field they sowed nothing in the wilderness if they had it it wouldn't have grown and there was no feast of ingathering because there was no harvest to reap so it means for forty years they were unable to celebrate the mighty thing that God did when he brought them out of Egypt what a sad thing of this celebration of the day to be remembered in the eighth verse of Exodus 13 Moses says thou shalt show thy son in that day when you celebrate the day to be remembered show your son this is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt when your small boy comes nosing around and he says dad what are we doing this for? you must tell him it's because God God reached down from heaven and he brought us out of Egypt he saved us we're his redeemed people can you imagine the bewildered look on the boy's face as he gazes into distant space and sees nothing but the vast arid dried up desert he says I don't see anything particularly to be enthusiastic about to be honest I'm pretty sick of the desert what have we got to celebrate about being here don't you think it would be better to go back to Egypt from what I've heard of some folk who lived in Egypt once it was a better place than this and I think the small boy would be very unimpressed if his father had tried to celebrate the day to be remembered if he still lived in the wilderness I wonder Christian why some of your friends are unimpressed by your Christian life Christian parents I wonder why it is perhaps that your children are unimpressed by your Christian life or the faith of their father could it be that you've lived so long in the wilderness and never never had cause genuinely to celebrate the day to be remembered because you've never lived in the land to be possessed can you imagine the parents of this small boy egging him on to be a little bit more evangelistic in his outlook and telling him to invite one of his unconverted boyfriends to come and spend the weekend with them in the desert well he works up a bit of enthusiasm he says I suppose I'd better be evangelistic dad says so and so off he goes and he finds some poor kid and brings him home and do you know what they have for lunch manna do you know what they have for tea manna do you know what they have for supper manna and the small friend says I say what are we going to have for breakfast told shamefashedly he says well I think it'll be fried but it'll be manna sure as eggs sure as eggs it won't be eggs it'll be manna can you imagine it manna for 40 years of course they got sick of manna tired to death of it but God never intended them to have manna for 40 years they said the manna they said now is our soul dried away there's nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes yes manna was the most monotonous diet that you could imagine it was miraculous it was the witness of God to his redeemed people that God was still in the midst but manna manna was never designed to satisfy God's people we're told in the book of Deuteronomy and the eighth chapter and the third verse he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger Deuteronomy 8 3 he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna that sounds like a contradiction doesn't it he fed thee with manna and suffered thee to hunger while God was feeding them he was letting them hunger but God says I never designed that you should be satisfied in the desert I'll sustain life but I'll never satisfy your souls why should I satisfy you in the wilderness when I have laid the table in Canaan Christian you will never be satisfied in the wilderness you may try to remember the day but to be quite honest after the first flush of enthusiasm and the first novelty and the first love has worn off you will settle down as a Christian to the dull monotony of a desert diet that's a fact and you'll wonder why it is that your Christian life has so little luster and you'll wonder why it is that your friends and relatives neighbors maybe or colleagues in business are so little impressed by your testimony of what God has done for you they see so little of it in the drabness the colorlessness of your own Christian life no no the desert was not the place to celebrate the day to be remembered for Moses said in verse 9 of chapter 13 this celebration shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand shall be for a memorial between thine eyes and that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth for with a strong hand hath he brought thee out of Egypt in so many words Moses was saying this when you remember the day and it is a day to be remembered in God's economy it was designed to be a sign upon your hand that an entirely new chapter in your life's history was to open and everything that you do would be revolutionized it would change the things you do secondly it would be memorial between your eyes it will change the things you think it will be the Lord's law in your mouth it is designed to change the things you say when you celebrate the day in the land to be possessed the things you do the things you think and the things you say will be completely changed gloriously revolutionized for this you see is a picture of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus re-established by the Holy Spirit in the area of your human personality so that your mind your emotions and your will would be brought under the Christ rule so that you would do with your will everything that your mind declares with the full affirmation and consent of your emotions now that is soul peace the peace of God that passes all understanding it is the peace of God that God gives to those who walk in the Spirit who with their shoes on are stepping out each step at a time and you only walk one step at a time in the Spirit your mind your emotions and your will handed over without reserve for the exercise of the Lordship of the enthroned and living Christ within your redeemed humanity so that you can say to me to live is Christ He has changed the things I do completely He has changed the things I think completely He has changed the things I say completely He has filled my life and flooded it with God now that is the Christian life the life that He lived then lived now by Him in you and through you now what happened in all the time that they were in the wilderness they were a redeemed people no question of doubt about that that's how they are described if you turn with me to the book of Psalms and you'll discover that this is a story more quoted in the Bible in the Old and the New Testament than any other that's why I wanted so much this weekend to introduce it into this little series to whet your appetite to discover more of what God the Holy Spirit has to teach you about this lucid illustration that God has given you of the true implications of your conversion it says in Psalm 106 verse 7 Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies but provoked Him at the Red Sea they weren't particularly willing even when Moses led them there but he taught them the faith that appropriates he taught them how to take God's word as His word and they learned to say thank you and they stepped out of Egypt in spite of their unwillingness because they learned to take He saved them for His namesake for He's as good and as great as His name that He might make His mighty power to be known He rebuked the Red Sea also and it was dried up so He led them through the depths and through the wilderness and He saved them from the hand of Him that hated them and He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy and the waters covered their enemies there was not one of them left they were taken as they were baptized into Moses through the place of death raised by God out of the place of death and leaving in the place of death buried to a man the old tyranny the Egyptians then believed they His words verse 12 and they sang His praise they had enough faith to get out then they got dumped in the desert for the daily diet in the dumps they soon forgot His works they soon forgot His works they lost the first principles they forgot how they got out and they waited not for His counsel but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert and He gave them their requests and sent leanness unto their souls did it change the things they did in the desert you look in Deuteronomy chapter 12 Deuteronomy 12 verse 1 Moses writes these are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do in the land which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it all the days that ye live upon the earth it was a land to be possessed on the earth on the way to heaven verse 7 there in the land to be possessed ye shall eat before the Lord your God and ye shall rejoice in all that you put your hand unto ye and your households wherein the Lord thy God has blessed thee it's going to be a land where you'll rejoice evermore you'll rejoice without ceasing ye shall not do verse 8 ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day in the desert every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes that's what you do when you're a wilderness Christian it doesn't even say that you do what is wrong in your own eyes it says you do what is right in your own eyes you have your own ideas about how you should live your Christian life for Christ instead of allowing the Lord Jesus to implement His ideas as to how He's going to live His life through you every man does what is right in his own eyes I don't know whether you've ever served on a committee but if you've got six people all of whom insist on doing what is right in their own eyes and they're serving on the same committee you're going to have a few sleepless nights for says Moses verse 9 notice this very particularly for you are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you you've come out but you haven't got in you haven't come to that kind of rest which has taught a man the total sovereignty of Christ so that He no longer does what is right in His own eyes He lets Christ do what is right in His eyes the total capitulation to the utter jurisdiction of the risen Lord Himself the rest of faith for He that has entered into this His rest has ceased from His own works just look for a moment in Joshua and glance at the third chapter it shall come to pass verse 3 after three days that the officers went through the host you remember the resurrection morning the first Easter Sunday in the Old Testament picture they commanded the people saying when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priests the Levites bearing it then you shall remove from your place and go after it yet there shall be a space between you and it about two thousand cubits by measure come not near unto the ark come not near put a space between it and you to one end that you may know the way by which you must go keep well back let the ark of God go before you then you'll know the way do you see the principle involved Christians recognize that the Lord Jesus is the only one who has the right to exercise sovereignty in your life and stand well back stand well back so that he can lead the way give God room and give God time for maneuver all the biggest blunders in the Bible have been committed by good men of good sincere intent who were in a hurry they didn't give God time for maneuver they didn't stand well back Abraham did it God said in your seat all the families of the earth should be blessed and he wouldn't stand back he didn't give God time he hustled round and he thought God was behind schedule and he had a committee meeting with Sarah and they decided they'd have to get God out of the awkward predicament in which God had got himself for God somewhat absentmindedly had overlooked the fact that Sarah was an old woman had never born and Abraham was an old man and they said dear dear dear what will God do when he discovers what he's done he's promised us something that he can't implement we must hustle along and present the solution to God we must get him out of his dilemma now wasn't that nice of him and of Hagar the bond woman Ishmael was born father of the Arabs and if Abraham is able to look down from heaven now and see what's happened as a result of his enthusiasm the Jewish nation surrounded by the Arab countries for the Arabs are the seed of Ishmael oh we've seen it happen so often some of us a little while back saw how Moses rushed in didn't give God time became a murderer instead of a missionary motivated by a sense of the need of the hour and there are some of you been doing the same some of you professed yesterday your willingness to go to the mission field may I urge upon you give God time don't rush off in a hurry stand well back for you see if they'd all rushed ahead of the ark they wouldn't have known the way you had to have had ten sub-committees to decide which way to go and one committee said this is the way and the other said no that's the way there have been a few exclusive people who say no we know the way we're the only ones who do what a mess no God said stand well back it isn't now good enough to do what's right in your own eyes stand back and let the ark of God go on ahead you haven't been this way before it's a new way but every man was still doing what was right in his own eyes in the wilderness perhaps you have until this weekend so it didn't change what they were doing did it change what they were thinking well I think we got the answer to that on Saturday night in Numbers 11 do you remember Numbers 11.4 the mixed multitude that was among them Pellelusting and the children of Israel also wept again and said who shall give us flesh to eat we remember it's with your mind and with your imagination that you remember this is the thing that they were thinking about the things that pertain to Egypt no no alas for forty years although God had buried their enemy to a man they lived under the subtle influences of a defeated foe and their minds were filled with the thoughts of Egypt and where your treasure is there will your heart be also I wonder where you live in the area of your mind where do you go to in your imagination is your body here at the Narrawakia convention you've propped it up on a bench would you tell me this even since you've been in this tent this afternoon where have you been where have you been how far have you been I say who have you been with tell me this what have you been doing since you've been sitting there you thought you deceived me you propped yourself up and stuck your back against the bench and kept your eyes looking moderately in my direction and you thought I'd think that you were there you weren't you were miles away I say supposing I had accompanied you would you have considered me to have been an intruder would it have embarrassed you where have you been back into Egypt have you nice bit of cucumber for 40 years that's where they were living in their imagination back in Egypt even though their bodies were numbered amongst the redeemed it didn't change the things that they thought I wonder if the Lord Jesus has been allowed to establish his supremacy in the area of your mind so that your imagination now instead of being an art gallery you are ashamed is an art gallery of beautiful things of which you are unashamed you remember what Paul says in his epistle to the Philippians finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are poor whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise think on these things allow the Lord Jesus to fill you with his thoughts Philippians 4.8 that is in other words allow the Lord Jesus to be what he is in the area of your mind and your emotions and your will for he that is truly spiritual hath the mind of Christ 1 Corinthians chapter 2 remember this if you are legitimately to remember the wonderful day when you were redeemed it can only be to God's satisfaction when you are in the land in the promised land a land to be possessed because the things you do have been changed and the things you think have been changed what did they say in the wilderness you look in number 16 and see the things they said they were very pious it is described in the new testament as the church in the wilderness it is a special denomination but it is interdenominational for there are many churches in the wilderness they gather themselves it says number 16 verse 3 they gather themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and this is what they said ye take too much upon you seeing all the congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord that is what the church in the wilderness said they said we are perfectly satisfied with ourselves all the congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is in our midst what more do we want to know than that can you imagine it these people half naked who half drunken had worshipped a golden calf again and again in whose hearts they said let's get back to Egypt let's get rid of this man Moses let's create our own captains let's establish a form of religion that excuses from any sort of holiness any sort of consistency we are holy enough they said I say you can always be holy enough by your own standards but how holy were they by God's standards God said you are so holy enough by your own standards that I have no option but to bury you in the wilderness and I want to tell you this that if this is your standard of holiness that's where God will bury you you'll get to heaven you'll be redeemed for you're out of Egypt but if you're not prepared to accept God's standards he'll bury you by your own standards in the wilderness but don't complain if your Christian life is boredom don't complain if you wander through time a spiritual non-entity don't complain if you have no cutting edge to your testimony and the world around you is left unimpressed they said in the wilderness we are holy enough all this stuff and nonsense that you talk to us about Canaan it may well be that Satan himself may have initiated just such a complaint within your own heart all this business about a grain of wheat dying to itself letting go of what it is so that it can become what God wants it to be stuff and nonsense I'm good enough for what I am all right you will be but not for God and he'll bury you in the wilderness but there were those who weren't satisfied to live in the wilderness Caleb and Joshua are described in God's words as those who followed God fully men of another spirit who said the God who brought us out is the God who can bring us in and we will not we cannot we dare not stay here we're going on and we're going in and on that wonderful third resurrection morning in they got and as our closing word I want you to turn with me to the fifth chapter of the book of Joshua and it describes what happened it describes what happened on the day that they got in as they got out you remember how they got in they got in exactly as they got out they got out by standing still and allowing God to do his own work faith they stood still and by faith released divine action that redeemed them out of Egypt and they got in by standing still by faith releasing divine action for their sanctification they stood still in Egypt and God opened the Red Sea they stood still in the desert and God opened Jordan and they scratched their heads and say is it as easy as that to get in the way we got out what have we been doing for forty years fancy taking all that time to find this out that as I have received Christ Jesus the Lord so I am to walk in him by faith remember as you have received act of faith so walk one step at a time attitude of faith but it's all faith the faith that recognizes your own inability and his utter ability your confidence in his competence first to redeem you and now to fill you with himself an act of faith redemption an attitude of faith step by step sanctification what he did redemption what he is sanctification isn't it simple and how complicated we make life for ourselves if only God could bring us back to the simplicity which is in Jesus well when they got into the land it says this verse nine God said to Joshua Joshua five nine this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you at last for forty years I've been waiting to do it but you wouldn't let me but now at last I have rolled the reproach of Egypt the defeated foe that I buried forty years ago his subtle influences at last have been broken wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day and the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal and listen they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month and even in the plains of Jericho they were in the land and they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover unleavened cakes and parched corn in the cells same day there was a day to remember in the land to be possessed and for the first time in thirty-eight years they had joyful legitimate grounds to celebrate the fact that God had brought them out because he had brought them in and I believe there are some of you going away from this convention this weekend and from this camp saying thank God it's taken him an awful long time and it's all my fault but now I'm going away from this place believing that I'm going to walk by faith in what he is as once I trusted him for what he did in the measure in which I have appropriated my Lord Jesus to be my life from now on instead of the diet in the desert it's going to be the plenitude of God's bountiful provision and it says verse twelve the manna ceased the manna ceased not even fried not even minced once and for all they said goodbye to manna not that they were not to be fed but God was going to relieve them of their hard rations and give them a full diet the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land neither had the children of Israel manna anymore no more boredom their life was no longer a burden a weary wandering in the wilderness they were now going to rejoice in everything that their hand was given to do they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year now I want you to know this that the Lord Jesus cannot give you more than He is and you already have what He is what He is you have in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead body the full balanced diet that God has provided for every redeemed sinner He wants you to say thank you for what He is and enjoy what He is don't ask Him for His strength He is your strength don't ask Him for His wisdom He is your wisdom don't ask Him for His power He is your power don't ask Him for His victory He is your victory believe it and thank Him for it and act on the assumption that is true don't ask Him to help you win souls you can't it's His business thank Him that He's the one in you and through you who will win souls and live hilariously by faith in the future and say Lord Jesus horizons of blessing thank you for people I've never seen whose names I've never heard but to whom you're going to be a blessing through me because now I'm at your disposal and as you died once to redeem my soul from the penalty of sin I thank you now that you fill me with the power and fullness of your resurrection life but remember it is a walk one step at a time and the faith that you apply to what He is in you for this step is not enough for the next step as you thank Him for what He is now you must thank Him for what He is then and remember this that at any given moment you can take a step other than independence upon what He is and if you do that it will be dependence upon what you are and that's bankruptcy the Lord Jesus said men ought always to pray and not to faint always to pray and not to faint what do you do when you faint? you fall back on nothing that's a faint now when you pray you fall forward on Him you see that's praying praying isn't begging and asking praying is just reckoning upon Him exposing every situation laying the table with your need and then standing back and saying my need your riches thank you very much that's praying and men ought always to pray pray without ceasing maintain as a relentless attitude this dependence upon the one who being in you is adequate now if you don't depend upon Him in any situation by failing to depend forward on Him you'll depend backwards on yourself and that's nothing you'll faint so men ought always to pray and not to faint so go out of this tent today not saying to yourself well I shall never sin again of course you can sin again if you live to be a hundred you'll be just as wicked as you are now for what you are without Christ it's only Christ who is in you who is victory it's only Christ who is in you who is righteousness it's only Christ who is in you who is your purity and your power and your wisdom and your knowledge the moment you cease to depend moment by moment step by step joyfully hilariously saying thank you on Him you're thrown back upon your own bankruptcy recognize the symptoms it'll happen don't bury your hand head in your hand and weep your eyes out and say all is lost it isn't the devil's just cheated you for a little while of what you have he hasn't robbed you of what you have he's cheated you of the enjoyment of what you have he can't rob you of your victory because Christ is your victory but he can rob you of the enjoyment of your victory if he can persuade you to depend upon yourself instead upon him will you recognize the symptoms instantly confess it say so sorry Lord it grieves me as it grieves you I've depended upon myself instead of upon you look at the mess I've made I don't even know how to clear up the mess but I thank you Lord for cleansing all I can do with the sorrow of my heart is to ask you and trust you to clear up the mess I've made thank you very much now you're back you've rebounded to your true position of faith don't let Satan capitalize upon any occasion when he causes you to relax into self confidence defy him to his faith and say you haven't robbed me of Christ you haven't robbed me of victory you haven't robbed me of strength you can't for Christ is this and all to me and then turn your back on him and your face to Christ and thank him that he's still there just the same as ever this is the plenitude of God's provision and it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua went up unto him and said art thou for us or art thou for our adversaries whose side are you on are you on our side or are you on their side and he said nay but as captain of the Lord of the host of the Lord am I now come and Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said to him what saith my Lord unto his servant a man a man with his sword in his hand and Joshua went up and said whose side are you on our side or their side he said no I'm not on your side I'm not on their side I haven't come to take side I have come to take over that's Canaan not God taking your side you don't have a side to take you were buried nineteen hundred years ago God doesn't take the side of the dead he doesn't come to take side he's come to take over isn't that wonderful and this was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of Israel in the land to be possessed what saith my Lord who comes not to take side but to take over what saith my Lord to his servant my sole responsibility is to be available and the captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua loose thy shoe from off thy foot for the place whereon thou standest is holy you are in the presence of God and Joshua did so and I suggest that in these closing moments we recognize that we are in the presence of God of the man with a sword in his hand who hasn't come to take side but who has come to take over will you bow and worship him and say Lord what saith my Lord unto his servant let bow our heads in prayer this day have I ruled the reproach of Egypt come off maybe you'd like to make this the language of your heart Lord Jesus I see it now I never knew that I was so wealthy forgive me for having lived so long in self imposed poverty the monotony of the wilderness and the dullness of the diet had been provided as I have trusted thee for thy redemption I trust thee now for thy indwelling gracious presence thy life that imparts to me thy victory thy strength thy righteousness in quiet submission I place my redeemed humanity at thy disposal not to take my side but to take over to be to me life itself from this time on thou art for me every step of the way the will of God take me where it will for I know that for every step of the way in the will of God thou thyself wilt be adequate true to thine own will equal to thine own will I am more than conquered through him that loves me henceforth it is for me to reign in life by one Christ Jesus the man God's man with the sword in his hand thank you Lord Jesus for horizons unlimited filled with the fullness of God for thy name's sake