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.
2) Crossing our Jordan River requires that we be prepared.
Everybody come to the place in their life when they will have to decide whether or not they are going to cross their own personal Jordan River. When we move forward for God we’re going to come under tremendous spiritual attack. That’s why we need to keep our focus on God and His Word. The Lord told Joshua how he was to prepare himself for what was coming
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."
Why is it important to focus on the God and His Word? Because not only does Israel’s strength and courage and ours will come from meditating on the Word of God, believing it’s promises, and obeying it’s precepts but we get our direction from the word of God. Paul said in Corinthians that our battle is not with flesh and blood, but that we are engaged is a battle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom that Satan is trying to set up. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness Jesus defeated Satan by using the power of the word of God. When we are totally focused on God and his will, people will notice what Jesus is doing in and through our lives. If we have decided to not cross our Jordan River then that means we have failed to understand God’s purpose and plan. God’s ultimate goal is that he wants you and I to become like Jesus. We may not like it but one of the ways that this get accomplished is by experiencing conflict. When we experience conflict and win two things should happen.
(1) We grow stronger in our faith and in our relationship with Jesus.
(2) Because we have been victorious that should cause us to give all glory to the Lord because He gave us the victory. When we are dealing with conflict it causes the children of the Lord to draws closer to Jesus and to develops a deeper relationship and dependence on Him. Remember the story of David and Goliath. The nation of Israel was focusing upon the fact that Goliath was bigger that any of them. When David came along he didn’t see this big character simply because he was focus upon the Lord.
3) To Cross our Jordan River we must ignore the distractions to our Christians walk.
Ten of the spies that originally went over to Canaan were distracted by the size of some of the people. Joshua and Caleb refused to be distracted and diverted from God’s ultimate plan. 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."
Would you underline do not turn from it.
In other words, God was telling them, don’t get distracted on your journey. Don’t quit and don’t take a detour! Paul wrote in Romans that we are not to allow the society to squeeze us into another mould, or way of thinking.
King Saul and David were entering the city one day. King Saul allowed what he heard to cause him to think thing about David that weren’t true. The people saw David as their warrior who defeated their enemies. Saul saw David as a threat to the throne. A lot of times I thing that we Christians find ourselves on a spiritual roller coaster? I want to share with you some of the things that can interfere or hinder our crossing our Jordan River.
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.
Our faith decisions are based on who Jesus is; not on what we see or feel.
Look again at Numbers 32:4-5. "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."
The tribes based their decision to settle east of the Jordan purely by sight and what appeared best to them. They did not consider how their decision would affect their brother and sister believers who were willing to obey God and cross over the Jordan. When we are not following the Lord game plan and we are doing what we want, the way we want, we are actually hurting ourselves and our fellow believers because we are being selfish. A lot of Christians think that when they rebel against God’s guidance for their lives that what they are doing is only effecting them. Here is the truth when this happens they are affecting not only their own witness as a believer but they are also affecting the witness of fellow believers by resisting the Spirit’s leading. Sometime by living our life our way we may be actually encouraging new believers to advance in their own personal spiritual walk with God instead of following the Lord game plan. When I first became a Christian I alway carried my Bible when I went to Church or to prayer meetings and I also took notes. As time went on I began to notice that the older Christians didn’t have their Bible and I also noticed that they never took notes or underlined stuff in their Bible. It wasn’t long until I began to follow these older Christians simply because I though that what I saw was how real Christian acted.
Moses said, in Numbers 32: 7. "why do you discourage the Israelites from going over in the land the Lord has given them?"
A lot of time it is when Christians are discourage in their walk with the Lord that they become easy prey for Satan and they stumble. Remember when I said last week that 10 men caused the whole nation to disobey the Lord. A lot of time Christian just don’t want what the Lord wants. When this happen they have become very self-absorbed instead of God-absorbed. We have all heard the "Good New!" and the "Bad News!" concepts. Here’s one with a little different twist. I have some "Bad News!...Good News!...Best News!" for you. The bad news, you are dying! It’s no joke, biologist tell us that every day, to some extent, each of us are dying. The cells and atoms in our bodies are dying. In fact, every atom and every cell that is now in our bodies will die off within the next seven years. In essence, we are experiencing a daily dying of our physical being. The good news, you are being restored! Just as the cells and atoms in our bodies are dying, likewise new ones are being created to take their place. It is my understanding, that this process makes a complete transition every seven years. In one way, every seven years, you completely become a different person. So, when someone tells you, you’re not the same person you use to be, there is a whole lot of truth in it. But, even with this good news we will eventually taste physical death. The Best News! You don’t have to wait seven years to be made a "new person. A person can accept Jesus Christ and become completely new. When making decisions they should be based on our faith in Christ and who Christ is; not on our own self-interest. I want you to notice that in the first Chapter of Joshua the Lord didn’t lay down a complete plan for the people to follow. You can only get a clear vision from God when you are willing to get up and begin the process of following the Lord.
5) Crossing our Jordan River requires that we be Christians of our word.
So often I find that Christians will say that they made a promise to the Lord Jesus and they didn’t keep their word to the Lord because of what the promise was going to cost them.
Matthew 5: 33-37. "Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, `YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.' "But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. "Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. "But let your statement be, `Yes, yes' or `No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil.
Jesus is saying that He wants the children of the Lord to keep their word. The ultimate example of one who kept his word even though it hurt was our Lord Jesus Christ. Every child of the living lord is called to live by the same standard that Jesus lived by. The kind of life God wants us to experience today is a life where Jesus Christ, our Joshua, leading us in conquest and sharing with us all the treasures of His wonderful inheritance. It is extremely important to finish a task even though you may not directly get the benefits. Sometimes you will be called to finish some tasks only for the good others and for the good of the Body of Christ. Jesus said "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me...and you will find rest from your souls." Are we willing to take upon ourselves the yoke of Christ. To take on the yoke of Christ means to submit to Him, to His leadership, to His Lordship, to serve Him for the good of the Body of Christ and for God’s glory.
Two frog fell into a pot of cream. They tried and tried to jump out but they never could get a real good jump. So one of the frogs decided that he might as well as give up and he slipped to the bottom of the pot. The second frog began to swim around and around the pot. It wasn’t long until he could feel that the cream was getting thicker. He kept swimming around and them he found that he could get some solid footing and he jumped out. Don’t become like the frog placed in a kettle of room-temperature water with a fire under it. If we stay in our comfort zone eventually we will become very content. The thing is that contentment is a very dangerous spiritual environment that will destroy you. It is God’s responsibility to guide us. It is our responsibility to go!
Joshua 1:13-15 ’The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land... You are to help your brothers until the LORD gives them rest"
A lot of times we like to stay on the wilderness side of the Jordan because it suits us. When Christians are only half a Christians it is because they have never claimed the promises of the Lord. Their faith wasn’t based upon who the Lord Jesus is. We know that the land across the Jordan was a land that was flowing with milk and honey yet they were willing to settle for second best by not crossing the Jordan. Are we content in our spiritual journey?
Well here is the thing. If we are not content we need to realize that to find what the Lord wants we have to cross our Jordan River. I wonder if maybe Christians get to thinking that they have grown all they are going to grow so they don’t have a desire to go forward in their walk with the Lord. By not going forward means that they are willing to settle for less than what the Lord really has for them. That what not crossing the Jordan mean.
I know that you are wondering how can someone tell if they have become satisfied with their Christian life. Well the question that one must ask is HAVE I LOST THE DESIRE TO MOVE FORWARD WITH JESUS? Here is a principle of the Christian life. We will not experience the fulness of God’s blessings until we move forward in our walk with Jesus. Remaining where we are will spiritually stagnate us. By moving forward we will start experiencing God’s blessings; but we also need to be prepared to experience the "conflicts of Jordan." There are conflicts in the new land where we move to. But remember, God will turn those conflicts into your greatest blessings. "The issue isn’t whether or not we are doing a GOOD THING, the issue is, whether-or-not we doing GOD’S THING!" Going all the way with Jesus is the only way to get His fullest blessings. The thing is that there is no such thing as middle ground. Either we will stay in the wilderness land or we move into God’s Promised Land. As I have said 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. Going all the way with Jesus will move us out of our comfort zone and cause us to grow more in our relationship with Jesus.
