Touré Roberts - Protocols for Transition

Today, I want to talk about transition, and the specific title of this message is «The Protocols of Transition» and the biblical foundation of this. This morning, we will focus on Joshua chapter one and look at the first eleven verses of that chapter. Transition is an interesting concept because, first of all, it guarantees forward progress and the realization of your potential. It’s funny, you know, humans pray, which means we want change, but we don’t want to change. It’s ironic; we’re creatures of habit, and there’s not a person here in this room or watching via live stream who doesn’t want some sort of change in their life. However, we can be closeted—how can I put this? —behind closed doors, because we really don’t want to change, as change requires effort. Interestingly, when we look at creation, God infused it with the essence of change, with it screaming for transformation. Even the fact that the sun rises and sets every single day, or that your six-pack comes and goes every week, illustrates that change is all around us. Not only is it all around us, but change is also within us. You don’t look like you did when you were 16, 18, 25, 40, or even 60. Thus, the idea of change is so integral that God was committed to us embracing it, sprinkling it into everything he created in the universe; yet, we still struggle with it. We would swear that we don’t, which is why I say we’re closeted change haters because we claim we want change, but we cannot stand the process of change and transition. I’ll tell you right now: no transition, no destiny. I’m keeping it real with you—destiny, going from glory to glory and level to level, necessitates transition, but we don’t like it.

Now, even though transition is a blessing, I’ll be honest with you: it’s also a very dangerous season because it lacks the stability that non-transitional seasons possess. This makes it a precarious time, which is why there are protocols of transition that you must follow carefully. So, that’s transition. What I want to do is go through this text briefly and point out some truths we will see, and then I’m going to give you five protocols of transition that you need. Let me tell you something right now: our nation is literally in transition; we are electing our next president in November. Our nation is in transition—the most powerful, arguably, in the world—which means that the world is in transition because as America goes, so goes the world. What happens in America affects the globe. Our world is in transition; our church is now in transition, and I believe with all my heart that some of you are in transition. Where are my transition people at right now? Yes, yes, yes! And if you are not in transition, you will be, and if you reject transition, you will be stuck. Let’s move forward.

Here, the backdrop is that the children of Israel are in transition—they are moving from the leadership of Moses, and not just the leadership of Moses but the ways of Moses, and the nature of how things happened during their wilderness navigation. This differs from how things operated when they entered the Promised Land under Joshua. It wasn’t just a change of leadership; it was a complete change in how things worked. Oh, you’re not ready! This transition is not just a matter of someone dying; it’s a way of life coming to an end. That’s why people struggle with transition; often, we are more committed to the way things were than we are to our destiny.

Okay, here we go. I want you to still be friends with me, so let’s jump right into this. It says, «After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying, ‘Moses, my servant, is dead.’» Now, you may not see anything that jumps out at you, but Joshua already knew Moses was dead; Moses died in front of everyone. So why is God telling Joshua something he already knew? I believe that the reason God is telling Joshua—and even some of you today—that something is dead is because we have difficulty embracing the reality of that loss. Oh, I need to express that better—He’s telling him something he already knows. This, watch this, was not revelation; this was God saying, «Look, I know that you are longing for the past. I know there are things about the last season, things about the last level, that you wish you could resuscitate.» Well, don’t make me go deep here today; time is limited. I know there are things you wish you could revive, like, what do they call those electric shock machines? They couldn’t tell me in the last service, so I think you guys are smarter. What do they call them? A defibrillator, right? That’s it! Because they’ll make me say something silly. So, we could call it the defibrillator because…