Crossing Our Jordan River.

Crossing our Jordan River.

Joshua 1:10-18.

1) Crossing our Jordan River requires that we follow Jesus game plan.

Joshua 1:10-11. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, "Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, saying, `Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you are to cross this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, to possess it.' 2) Crossing our Jordan River requires that we be prepared.

Joshua 1:8 "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth: meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."

3) To Cross our Jordan River we must ignore the distractions to our Christians walk.

Joshua 1:7 C "Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go."

A. We don’t see it as our task.

B. Allowing what our friends and family may say or think stop us.

C. Fear of facing the unknown.

D. Believing that we can’t make any difference.

E. Rejection.

F. Pride, being more concern with ourselves.

G. Don’t have the training or the education.

H. Not seeing the need.

4) Crossing our Jordan River requires decisions based on our faith in who Jesus is.

Moses said, in Numbers 32: 7. "why do you discourage the Israelites from going over in the land the Lord has given them?"

5) Crossing our Jordan River requires that we be Christians of our word.

Matthew 5: 37. But let your statement be, `Yes, yes' or No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil.

Crossing our Jordan River.

Joshua 1:10-18.

After I had been a Christian for a while, I felt that I was being called ton the ministry. I figured that the Lord had made just about his biggest mistake by calling me. When I told Barbara about what I felt, I rejoiced when she told me that I couldn’t be a pastor because all pastor’s need to be able to sing. I dismissed the Lord’s call and began to enjoy my life. The thing is that the Lord decided that just because I couldn’t sing wasn’t a good reason and he went to work on me. Barbara and I talked to some other Christians whose job it was to offer guidance to those feeling the Call of the ministry. The result is I began to study at home. It was very hard. When I had finished 31/2 years of a four years study the Lord began to tell me that I needed to go to college. Again I didn’t see how all this was going to work out so once again we kind of didn’t say yes right away. Finally we went to college and I was able to complete a four year degree with a double major in Bible in about 2 ½ years. That was the Lord plan. Here is the point that I want to make. Once we got on the Lord game plan everything fell into place.

1) Crossing our Jordan River requires that we follow Jesus game plan.

Joshua 1:10-11. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, "Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, saying, `Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you are to cross this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, to possess it.'

What I just read is the game plan that the Lord gave to Joshua. Most people struggle in their journey with God because they don’t have a clear understanding of What God’s plan is for their life.

Numbers 32:3-7. “the land the LORD subdued before the people of Israel — are suitable for livestock, and your servants have livestock. If we have found favor in your eyes," they said, "let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan." Moses said to the Gadites and Reubenites, "Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here?"

These tribes had a different idea of what they saw was God plan for their lives. They didn’t want to go any farther because they had to move outside of their comfort zone. They wanted to stay on the wilderness side of the Jordan River. When Christians stay in the wilderness they are saying that they don’t believe that God is really asking then to do something. It also means that they are being disobedience to the Lord and the result is that they don’t claim their spiritual inheritance. The question is do we as Christians want to experience God’s blessings or do we want to stay in the wilderness just going through life. God wanted the entire nation of Israel to cross over into the promise land. The promise land represents the Christian life as it ought to be: we gain victory through conflict, and our faith grows as we are obedient to the Lord. In the promise land we live a life of faith. This victorious life isn’t a once-for-all triumph that ends our problems. The victorious life is a series of conflicts and victories as we defeat one enemy after another and claim more of our inheritance for the glory of God. Life is a string of difficulties, and how we deal with each one show the depth of our faith in Jesus Christ. One of the dangers of the promise land is that as the Lord blesses his children they may have the tendency to feel that they can do it all by themselves. When this happen they are more prone to Satan attacks simply because they are not 100 percent dependent on the Lord.