On The Edge Of Greatness!

ON THE EDGE OF GREATNESS

TEXT: Numbers 13:30

30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

The title of this morning’s message is: “On The Edge Of Greatness”.

RECAP

Have you ever been there - “On The Edge Of Greatness”?

Because this is precisely where Israel was at in our text.

If you were here this last week you will recall

How we found ourselves in Joshua chapter 3,

And how through the Word of God we joined Israel…

As they stood along the banks of the river Jordon.

In affect – they stood on the very Edge of Greatness.

You see, God had great plans for His people…

And God had a great many blessings He wanted them to experience.

The Canaan Land and all that God had been promising was now right in front of them.

It was a time of excitement… and a time of great anticipation

As the people understood that the Lord had not only brought them to this place,

But that He was also leading them forward in a new direction towards something truly great.

And my view - is that spiritually speaking, this is exactly where we as God’s people are at today.

As yet another year dawns – we are on the Edge of Greatness.

We know that God is using us… that God’s spirit is moving within us…

And that God desires to lead us into something greater this year with Him.

Only their is a catch…isn’t there.

There is a challenge…

You see, for Israel there was an obstacle and a hurdle they needed to be overcome first,

They had to be willing to Cross over the Jordan.

And just like it was for Israel then – so too will it be for us this year.

There will be a river of opposition that we need to cross over with God

In order to experience true greatness with Him.

For us that river of opposition might be finances…

It might be a fear and trepidation of the unknown…

It could be persecution, or it could just be our own complacency and reluctance to embrace change.

Look Israel had their Jordan standing in the way of God’s best for them – and we have ours,

And we must be prepared to cross over our Jordan in order to experience great things with God.

Thankfully, as we discovered through the Word last week,

The Lord will always provide His people with what they need to cross over.

In fact, God gave Israel two fundamental things that assisted them with this task.

First of all God gave them a Direction

That is to say, He provided His people with a course and a heading to follow.

And after that, He then provided them with His Instruction,

And this was really the help the people needed in order to get to where they were going.

Direction and Instruction that was what God gave His people when it was time to cross Jordan.

And this is exactly what God is prepared to give us.

Remember Joshua and all the Officers…

Gave commandment to the people on that day saying:

“Just Focus on the Ark…and Follow it…

In other words, keep your eyes upon God and follow Him…

Because then God will do something wonderful.”

And do you know what - He did…

Because as the people focused on the Lord and followed His Direction for their lives,

God delivered them in the most extraordinary of ways,

Namely by holding back the waters and staying the flood that was right in front of them.

And in the end, the people crossed over the Jordan – unaffected and unimpeded.

In fact the Scriptures declared that when the time came for the people to cross over

They did so effortlessly on dry land - without even so much as mud marring their garments.

You see for Israel - the time had come for them to cross over into God’s best

And so too has the time come for us to do the same this year.

This can be a year of great things – But we need to be willing to cross over the Jordan first.

And we need to be willing to step out in faith with God.

INTRODUCTION

However, this wasn’t of course the first time Israel found themselves

Standing on the banks of river Jordan.

No, in fact here – in Numbers Chapter 13

Some 40 years earlier – Israel found themselves in the exact same place.

They were standing on the Edge Of Greatness…

And again, God’s very best was laid right out in front of them.

However, as you probably already know - the first time they were here,