Boldly Go Where You Have Never Been Before

How many of you have seen the Star Trek TV series?  When Mike and I began dating, I learned that he was a Star Trek fan so we watched the TV series quite often after the evening news.  I can still see our older son, John, when he was 1 1/2 -2 years old, standing in front of the TV as the series came on.  He was mesmerized by the picture of the Enterprise ship coming into view and the following opening words:

“Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

When I was on the way to work one morning, God gave me those last words, and all I heard was "Boldly Go Where You Have Never Been Before".  Not the exact words from Star Trek, which said boldly go where no man has gone before.  Instead God said " Boldly Go Where You Have Never Been Before".  This was a break-through for me.  It was what I had been waiting for in order to know more exactly what God is trying to teach me through this message, and so this is the title of my message today - Boldly Go Where You Have Never Been Before

There are several reasons and situations that make this the perfect title for what God is teaching me: 

1) my approaching retirement

2) my desire to do some different type of work

3) my hesitation to go and do something that I have never done before

4) a re-assessment of what my skills are and where & how they can best be used

5) and more importantly, my recent discernment of a spirit of fear that Satan has held over me for a long time. 

There have been times when I thought it was something else, but I know now

that it has been a spirit of fear.  We know that God does not give us a "spirit of fear but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind". (2 Timothy 1:7)  Now is the time to address and attack these issues by boldly going where I have never been before.  God gave this message to me, but Greater Works is included in this!

Let us go back to the Star Trek series and consider the personnel on the Star Trek ship called the Enterprise. 

1) The Captain is Jean-Luc Piccard

2) his 1st officer is Will Riker

3) his navigator is a robot named Data

4) the ship's doctor, Dr. Crusher

5) the ship's counselor, Troy

6) and his chief security officer is a Clingon named Warf

These are his core officers who not only report directly to him but assist him in making decisions about the issues they face during their journeys.

The Captain is a well-experienced officer who has been well-educated in the Star Fleet Academy, has experienced a lot of missions, and encountered a lot of tough situations.  He has led them through each and every mission in the most capable way that he could.  He listens to the advice of his core team, but he makes all final decisions.  Through these experiences, the officers and crew of the starship Enterprise have come to trust their Captain.

They have faith in him because he has led them, guided them, and made the best decisions he could.  Because of this faith and trust, the Captain knows that he can ask his crew to do anything for the good of the mission, and they will not hesitate to obey.  Without this faith and trust, the crew would not give such loyalty to their captain.

So who is your Captain?  Who do you trust and have faith in? 

God is our captain, our leader, our guider; the one who has all wisdom and power; the one who guides us through obstacles and frustrations just as Captain Piccard guides the starship Enterprise through meteors and boulders and black holes to get to a safe zone. 

And when God allows us to go through tough times, we struggle, but God knows what He is doing.  Don't we eventually learn something?  Isn't God using these circumstances and situations to give us more testimony, to give us more life experiences which he knows that we will need down the road, to teach us more about Him, and to develop our faith?  He wants us to become good leaders too.

We all know people who have been good leaders in our lives and in the history of the world.  But I want to share with you about a bold leader named Moses. 

I think that Moses and Captain Piccard have several similarities.  Consider this:

Capt Piccard was assigned his tasks by a higher authority - Star Fleet Command	Moses was assigned his tasks by a higher authority - God
Capt Piccard had a "right-hand man" in Riker	Moses had a "right-hand man" in Aaron
Capt Piccard had Data as a navigator	Moses had God as his navigator
Capt Piccard had Troy as a counselor	Moses had God as his counselor
Capt Piccard had Warf as chief security officer	Moses had God as his chief security officer/protector
Capt Piccard had a dr and full medical team	Moses had God who is the greatest physician of all

So let me share with you a story about Moses's experience as a leader, and how he had to go boldly where he had not gone before?

The story comes from Exodus and actually begins in the 20th chapter, which you can read on your own time.  However the verses that God gave me are in Exodus 33:14-16. 

I am reading this scripture from the New International Version; however all other scriptures after this are in the King James Version.  The reason that these verses are in the NIV is because this is the Bible version I was reading in my office when God "popped out" the words to me as he has done before.

Ex. 33:14-16:  "The Lord replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.  Then Moses said to him, If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.  How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?  What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"

The one verse that God really brought out to me was this:   "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here."

I wasn't sure what to make of this or how to interpret it.   What led up to this declaration from Moses?  I went back several chapters and read the story.  I want to summarize it for you because you have to know the entire story to understand this declaration from Moses.

Three months after coming out of Egypt, Moses went up to Mt Sinai to commune with God.  He was there for 40 days and 40 nights.  On the last day, God gave him the 10 commandments and laws to teach to the Israelites. 

While Moses was with God, the Israelites started to worry that he was not coming back to them.  They pleaded with Aaron to build them a golden calf, which he did, and God got very angry when he saw this happening.

God told Moses to go down and take care of the situation.  In Ex 32:7, he said "thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves".  (corrupted means to decay, cast off, destroy, perish, spoil).  Then in verse 9, the Lord told Moses, "I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people (meaning obstinate, stubborn, in trouble, hard-hearted):  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them:  and I will make of thee a great nation."

Moses pleaded with God and challenged Him on why He would consume these people whom he brought up out of Egypt.  Moses reminded God of the promise He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give them the land and multiply their seed.  Finally in Ex 32:14, God "repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people". 

Then Moses went down to handle the golden calf situation, which he did, and then he went back to the top of Mount Sinai to make atonement with God once again.

Moses pleaded with God to forgive their sin, and God finally told Moses to continue to lead the Israelites to the land of Canaan.  He promised that His Angel would go before them.  What???  Did you hear that?

God was going to send his Angel instead of going Himself???  He was definitely not happy with His people.  I wonder what was going through Moses's mind when he heard that?

In Exodus 33:3, God says "I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way."  This was the 2nd time that God had called them a "stiffnecked people".  Matthew Henry explained the "stiffnecked people" by stating that "God would have brought them under the yoke of his law, and into the bond of his covenant, but their necks were too stiff to bow to the yoke and the covenant."

Moses moved the tabernacle out of the camp, and the people mourned.  It seems that  removal of the tabernacle from the camp was to signify to them that they were no longer worthy of it, and that, unless peace was made, it would never return to them. God was letting them know that he was not happy with them.  So the glory of the Lord departed from the temple when it was polluted with sin.

Moses went into the tabernacle and scripture says "the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle,  and the Lord talked with Moses".   Moses again implored God to go with them to Canaan.  He expressed the great value he placed on the presence of God being with them.  Finally God said "My presence shall go with thee", and Moses immediately told God that they were going nowhere without Him.  "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here".

Moses knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would not dare take the Israelites one step further toward the Promised Land without the presence of God with them, and he was making that abundantly clear to God.  When he heard God state that He would go with them, Moses must have felt a huge relief.  I can just see him wiping his brow in relief at God's answer, and thanking the God of grace for staying with this "stiffnecked people".

Moses knew that God was more important to him and the Israelites than anything else in the world.  Just as Capt Piccard had his core team of officers, Moses had his core team of the one and only true God, who was his navigator, his healer, his counselor, and his protector.  But how did Moses come to the point of knowing this?  How had God come to be all of these things to Moses?

He knew because of two words - relationship and faith.   And he knew that he needed both if he was to carry out his assignment and boldly go where he had never gone before.

Moses had a relationship with God.  He had truly become a "friend of God".  God had led and directed his life from the beginning, and Moses obeyed God.  Moses shared a "holy intimacy" with God that many others never experienced.  He could talk with God as a friend talks with a friend - openly, honestly and directly.  How many others would rebuke God for a decision he was about to make?

Moses had a relationship with God that was based on more than sight and feeling; he had a relationship that was based on faith and trust. 

2 Corinthians 5:7:  "We walk by faith, not by sight."

Hebrews 11:1 tells us "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

For the Israelites, it was a different story.  They did not have a relationship with God.  If they had, they would not have been so upset about Moses being gone for 40 days and nights.  They would have had the faith to know that Moses would return to them.

 In Exodus 32:1, the Israelites were pleading with Aaron to build the golden calf for them and they told Aaron: "For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot (know) not what is become of him." So their reason for wanting another god was because they did not know if Moses was going to return to them from the mountain.  They were a group of little faith!

The Israelites solely depended on Moses to talk with God for them and to help them get through each and every day.  They counted on Moses to work things out with God, especially when they messed up.

They depended on Moses to have the relationship with God - not themselves.  They wanted a "god" that they could see and touch and feel.  You can see and touch and feel a golden calf, but you can't develop a relationship with it.  A relationship requires communication between 2 parties.  It is a 2-way process.  So if you're doing all the talking, there is no relationship.

You can't learn to trust a golden calf or have faith in it.  All it does is just sit there - dead, with no life, with no leadership capabilities. 

Remember in 1 Kings, Chapter 18, the story of how Elijah challenged the Israelites and King Ahab to make a decision between Baal or God?  He said in verse 21, "How long halt ye between two opinions?  if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him?" 

Elijah requested King Ahab to gather all of the children of Israel and the prophets of Baal.  He proposed, and the Baal prophets accepted, to choose a bullock, dress it, and call on the name of their gods to light the fire under it on the altar.  They called on the name of Baal from morning until noon.  Verse 26 says "But there was no voice, nor any that answered."  Baal was a dead "god" which could not produce a fire under the bullock.  The people had no relationship with it, could not trust it nor have faith in it.

If you don’t have a relationship with God, you will not be able to trust Him.  And if you don't have trust, you don't have faith.  And if you don't have faith, you can't boldly go where you have never been before.

Hebrews 11:6: "Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

As a leader, how do you build trust and faith among those you are leading?  In Star Trek, Capt Piccard led his crew through a variety of missions, and with each one, his crew discussed the situations with him, watched him, learned from him, and saw that he knew what he was doing.  The Capt knew what the mission was, and he led the mission to that purpose.  Yes, he had a lot of obstacles along the way - sometimes with the crew and sometimes with space - but he showed how to handle or deal with them.  He earned the trust of his crew, and they obeyed his commands.  He led with boldness.

Looking at the story of Moses, we know that he was not a bold leader when God first gave him his assignment.  Probably Capt Piccard wasn't either.  Moses was not so willing to "boldly go where he had never been before".  He gave God 1 excuse after another as to why he was not the best candidate for this job to bring the people out of Egypt. 

Moses was fearful.   He told God that he thought that the Israelites would not believe him when he told them the reason he had come to get them; then he was concerned that he was not "eloquent of speech".  God was getting angry with him but decided to send Aaron to speak for him. 

But Moses did learn to become a bold leader because of his relationship with God which developed over time.  In the same way, Capt. Piccard's crew developed their relationship with him over time.  They saw him put his life on the line for them; they saw the trials & tests that he was subjected to; they had heart to heart talks with him; and they witnessed him make tough decisions.  

For Moses, he learned to trust God through prayer and worship and obeying God's directions.   He was able to lead the Israelites into places they had never been before, even if it was not into the Promised Land.  And he knew that God had set apart this people who were His Chosen People for purpose.

In Exodus 33:15-16, Moses said these words to God:  "How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?  What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" 

Exodus 19:5-6: the Lord told Moses to speak these words to the Israelites: "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar (meaning good, proper, special) treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:  and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."

Leviticus 20:26: "And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy; and have severed (meaning divide, differ, select, make separate) you from other people (meaning flocks, nations, troops) , that ye should be mine."

God's plan was and is for us to be a separate people, a special people.  If we were like everyone else and their religious beliefs, we would not be distinguished from anyone.  We have the kingdom message, and we are a kingdom of priests which sets us apart.

Throughout the Old Testament, God was with His people, but He did not dwell in them.

When Moses said: "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.",  Moses confirmed what God had planned all along - that God's people needed a Saviour to dwell within them; who is with them all the time no matter where they are or what they are doing.  God knew that He needed to send His Son to redeem us from sin us and move into that spirit realm so that He could be in us. 

This is what encourages us to go boldly.  We have our God with us 24/7.  Where we go, God is there!  And when we look at other Sons of God, we are not only looking at God but we are looking at the body of Christ!

So how can we boldly go where we have never been before?  We need to:

1)  strengthen our faith and trust in God. 

2)  thank Him for being our 24/7 God; Immanuel - "God with us"

3)  stay in constant and prayerful communication with Him. 

4)  trust that God will direct us at the right time and not on our schedule.

5)  claim the power and authority that God has given us to rebuke the actions of Satan no matter what

               they are!

People of God, we know what has been prophesied for this ministry and for each of us individually.  God wants us to go out into the world and to go boldly to "teach all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Therefore Boldly Go Where You Have Never Been Before!

~ Rachel West