How many early risers do we have here today?
When you wake up you are ready to go! Wide awake!
People who aren’t early risers can’t stand to be around you.
When travel, I like to leave early! Excited to get where I’m going.
Well, imagine dreaming and planning to go someplace your entire life. Your parents and grandparents dreamed of going there before you, and they would tell you stories from the time of your earliest memories about how great it would be when you finally got there. Now imagine this was not just a personal dream, but a national one. And that every other person in the nation was dreaming and planning to take the trip together.
All the people around you have the same dream. Everything you all (ya’ll) did was designed to move you all in that same direction, to get you to that place. Can you imagine how awesome that would be? And what if you were told that tomorrow, it was going to happen?
I would wake up early! Well, so did Joshua. After 40 yrs. they were almost there. We hear that "40 years number" a lot when we read about the people wandering in the wilderness.
But have you ever stopped and thought about how long that was How many of you here today are under 40? (Interesting how all the women raise their hands)
Did you ever stop to consider that all the people standing on the shore are less than 40 years old. With the exception of Joshua and Caleb. See, God raised up a new generation. The old one failed to cross into the Promised Land!
Just as they did 40 years ago, spies were sent out. Only this time they returned with a great report!
Joshua 2:24)
Now the command comes. It’s time to get their feet wet!
Read Joshua 3:1-5
This nation is at a place of decision. These people have never been here before, other than Joshua and Caleb. They’re at a critical point.
•This is where you either breakdown or you breakthrough
•This is where you decide if the dream is worth it.
•It’s one thing to dream it’s another thing to take possession of that dream.
An entire generation had quit dreaming at this very place 40 years earlier.
They sent spies into the land, but they decided they couldn’t do it. Now 40 years later they’re back!
Listen, when you are committed to follow God you will someday come to this place. At this place there are only 2 choices:
(1) cross over into the promise
(2) or settle down right where you are and give up your dream
I believe these critical places are “God spots”.
•They’re places of impossibility but also places of miracles.
•They’re places that reveal our weakness but they’re also places where God reveals His strength.
•They’re places of our helplessness, but also places of God’s sufficiency.
•They’re places where all self effort is not enough, but also places where we discover God is more than enough.
They’re the places where we put our money where our mouth is. Places where we take what we claim to believe in, in the safety of the pew, and trust it will work on the river’s edge!
Joshua tells the people, “Follow the ark.”
Good advice isn’t it?
“People, you go where God goes. “Then you’ll know the way to go…” That is great advice! That’s good preaching!
Keep your eyes on God. He will show you which way to go!
First Joshua fills the people in on the plan. Follow the ark.
Then he talks to the Priests; “You carry the ark into the Jordan river!”
The last time this nation faced this task, Moses was in the lead.
But Joshua is not going to be like Moses.
He’s not going to raise his arms and watch the water part. Instead, he tells the priests carrying the ark and lead the way into the water.
I can see the priests looking at each other, and saying, “You go first; I was first last week!”
These are smart guys, they know the ark is made of gold, and gold does not float very well.
All they have is a promise that when the Priests step into the water, God will stop the water from flowing!
“As soon as they set foot in the Jordan, it’s waters will be cut off, and stand up in a heap.”
Last night I had a dream… (If you want the full text of the dream e-mail me and request the dream) Each time Joshua said “HUSH! Trust in God!”
Read Joshua 3:14-17
“As soon as the feet of the priests touched the waters edge the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan.” (20 miles away)
Imagine standing there waiting.
“Hey Joshua you said as soon…” “Hush! Wait and trust God!” 3 times in my dream he said those words, “HUSH!”
I think one of our biggest problems is, we want to see victory before we ever get into the fight, We want to see the end before we ever start, The problem is God doesn’t always worjk that way. In fact, I think More often than not God works through a process. He gives us just enough information to get us moving and then only gives us what we need when we need it. That’s called living by faith!
To get past the obstacle, a first step was required.
They took the step. It was a step of faith.
They went into the water, and God honored that faith.
Remember Joshua’s response in my dream? "Hush"? I thought about that. Last week my family and I were at levant Wesleyan Church in Falconer NY. The Pastor there was talking about prayer. He said they needed to PUSH. Pray Until Something Happened.
We’ll I thought about Joshua’s response. "Hush!"
H hold
U until
S something
H happens
I think the miracles of God often happen to us the same way they happened for the priests in the water.
We have to wait. We have to Hold fast!
We have to stand in the water, we have to be willing to fight the current, to believe in the promise and after standing firm, then see the miracle!
Why did God do it that way? I don’t know for sure…
•It is not just the army of 40,000 that has to cross.
It is the whole nation, women and children included, anywhere from 1 to 2 million people. They would need a pretty large area to cross that many people. How would a 20 mile stretch do?
•Maybe it was simply that God wanted them to trust Him! To stand strong in the current!
•Maybe He did things that way because He wanted them to trust His faithfulness prior to the miracle.
Imagine the people beginning to see the water lower. Maybe someone on the shore saw it and yelled out: “Hey I think the water is getting lower!” Yeah! And then applause! Just joyous, God-praising, awe-inspired, full-out applause! The kind of thing God deserves from us all the time!
•Maybe God did it that way just to show us that is often how He chooses to set His people free, He takes His time! Sometimes it requires effort on our part, sometimes it is an intentional process…
•How ever He did it, for whatever reasons He did it the way he did it, it was a BIG miracle, it was a BIG deal! Something they would always remember!
The priests led the way. The first step was one of faith. Then they waited. And God came through! He always does!
When the waters receded they marched in, right into the middle of the river bed.
And there they stand. They take this stance of faith and trust in God. It is a declaration of trust and faith in a powerful God! They were standing there trusting God to keep holding back the waters, so the people could pass over to the Promised land.
Grab hold of this truth...God always Goes first. We may be someplace we have never been before, but God’s been there. We may be confused by the place where we find ourselves today. But God knows where we are, and he knows how to lead us out! He goes before us.
This is why uncertain places are no reason to worry or fear. Because God has been there before us. And He is with us now.
Logically speaking the people had good reason to be fearful or anxious…
See, the “Jordan River” – is not normally a wide river.
Normally, it’s about 40 feet wide at the widest point. However, in the springtime – at flood stage, it could be over 100 feet deep and as much as a mile wide. Crossing this thing was definately going to be a “God thing!”
There were no bridges. There were no boats.
There was just lots and lots of water. And lots and lots of people.
But it was time for these people to cross. Even if they didn’t feel safe. Even if they felt exposed and insecure. They were to cross.
Read Joshua 4:1-7
As they are crossing, Joshua gives the instruction that they were to collect 12 stones from the river to commemorate the event.
Now I imagine, these were not small stones.
I think these were big. They were rpbably as big or bigger than the pile of stones here at the front of the church.
These 12 big stones were to be carried to the shore. And they were to be be piled high as a testimony to God’s miraculous intervention.
And when they made their way to the other side, God finished the miracle by putting the river back.
God had done an awesome thing!
He had saved them over 40 years earlier, and they called it, Passover, as the death angel passed over their homes.
Now God saves them again as they "pass over" the Jordan. It’s a new act of deliverance to a new generation.
And their assignment was simply "never let your children forget."
Leaving this pile of stones on the side of the river was like etching it in stone. The stones would stand as a memorial to the mighty thing God had done!
And the place where the stones were placed was called "Gilgal", which meant, “the reproach has been rolled away.” The crossing of the Jordan ended a cloud that hung over this people for 40 years, a cloud of defeat and failure. And now it was being removed from them.
So, what do these stones mean here in front of us today? These stones that we have taken from our backpack each week as we have gone through this series "Drop the weight".
Well, just as in this story there was something the people had to do that really set the stage for what God was going to do. So too did we have a part to play in what God has done among us.
”Consecrate yourselves”. “set apart for service to God”
They were told to prepare themselves. Prapare their hearts.
It is amazing what we will tolerate that is displeasing to God, and then make excuses for our wrong behaviors.
Friends, if we want to see God at work in our lives, He expects us to call sin, sin – to confess it – and repent of it. That is our first step.
I wonder…How many times we’ve missed God’s blessings because we failed to prepare ourselves.
•How much of Gods power do we forfeit when we allow our lives to become cluttered with sin.
•How many times have we walked away from a worship service, empty, because we failed to prepare ourselves.
•How many have started across Jordan but because of some wrong desire or attitude, some hidden sin, some behavior we are unwilling to change, they’ve come up short and were swallowed up by waves of despair, guilt, or condemnation.
I believe if you have come through this series, prepared, then these stones mean something to you today. Because you met with God here, and He has done amazing things in you.
Some here have given their hearts to Christ through this series. Some stepped out and accepted Jesus as their Savior right here at this altar. Others quietly prayed for Jesus to come into their lives right in their seat.
Some have dropped weights they have carried for a long time. Weights of bitterness, anger, resentment, jealousy, greed and more.
Some have recommitted their lives to God through this series of messages. How about you?
Were you prepared? Did you see God do amazing things in your life? That’s the promise. If we will consecrate ourselves He will do amazing things among you!
What do these stones mean?
They Remind us that God desires Total Dependence upon Him:
They were told to watch the ark and follow the ark.
They couldn’t have made it across the Jordan river on their own power. Neither can we lay down weight of sin, become free, or have new life in our own power.
What do these stones mean?
If we want His promise we Have to be willing to get our feet wet:
Giving our life to Him, pursuing His promises requires faith!
Not a passive faith that causes us to sit in our pews feeling religious and righteous…but a faith that is actively lived out, fleshed out in the real world!
Soren Kierkegard, the 19th century Danish religious philosopher, told a story about a town where only ducks lived.
Every Sunday the ducks would waddle out of their houses and waddle down Main Street to their church. They waddled into the sanctuary and sat in their proper pews.
The duck choir waddled in and took its place, and then the duck minister came forward and opened the duck Bible.
He read to them…
Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fence can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings and you can fly like birds.”
All the ducks shouted “AMEN!” and they all waddled home.
Most of us don’t like risk. We are comfortable.
We enjoy our cushioned pews. We desire predictability.
Cross over times can be frightening.
They are new, and different. They can be difficult.
But with His help we can live the life of faith!
What do these stones mean?
They remind me that God loves me.
These stones speak to me of God’s grace. They are my pile of stones that remind me that God has worked powerfully in my life in times past, and He will do so again.
I helped pick these stones up with Pastor Charles, Dustin, Jessica. This family is a gift from God to us, to me.
These stones remind me of the thousands of stones God has moved in my life, of the thousands of rivers He has helped me cross, and of the thousands of changes He has made in me.
And He has done the same for you.
At least he wants to.
If you think that God has never done anything for you, that he doesn’t love you, listen to these words
(Anette sings, "All For Love")
The bread and drink on the communion table remind us to never forget Jesus and what He’s done for us on the cross.
He wants us to know the victory of the cross.
He wants us to know victory over brokenness.
He wants us to know victory over death.
God wants us to know the victory that comes with making that step of trust and obedience, which will unleash His power in our lives.
Take the step…be fully committed to following the Lord wherever He will lead you; it is a journey that you will never forget.
Take the step…deal with those issues that God has brought to Your mind, and find out how God can powerfully help you.
Take the step as a church…go into the water, going not where we want to go, but where God leads, not for our glory, but for His!
Communion
(During communion I had ushers with 2 baskets with small river stones in them. People came to take the bread and dip it in the cup, but first they picked up a stone and walked up to the altar of rocks, each with a sin written on it that we had spoken about during the series. Each person was encouraged to drop the river stone on the huge pile of stones, symbolizing the weight that God had lifted from their lives, either through the series, or at an earlier time in their life. This was very moving.We closed with "I surrender All)
