Crossing Over

Morning to all of you. If you don't know me, I'm Jason. I work here. I am still part of this church, and I serve as one of the pastors here along with Matt. I've been gone a few weeks, and you know, it's like right about now this morning, I'm reminded, you know, you get tempted sometimes

when you're about my age or maybe younger, maybe older. You know, vacation, time off, maybe retirement sounds kind of good. And this morning, guys, I have to do this. I have to keep preaching. I can't retire. Don't retire me. Not yet. I'm too young. I'm too young to retire. But I

missed you. I missed this. We missed our church. We had a chance to go visit a couple other great churches, one in Florida, one right here in town. Community Baptist, by the way, fantastic church.

Took in a wonderful worship service, a great sermon from Pastor Joe. It was wonderful to be a part of that. But nothing is like home. Nothing's like being here and worshiping with you, and I'm just glad to be back. So thank you for the time off. I want to thank Matt as well and Todd Hobbigger for

covering for us and bringing you the ministry of the Word while I was gone. And before we get into things and we're going to pray in a minute, I want to update you as a church family. I know we've got an update later, but something going on right now. You guys, many of you might know one of our elders,

Paul Freit, and his wife Amber. They are not with us today. Paul is a licensed minister in the Missionary Church, and today he is actually candidating, preaching the sermon at Hillside

Missionary Church right here in town, on the south side of town. And so we just kind of stand by. We've been praying for this, praying for the Hillside people, our brothers and sisters of fellow Missionary Church, and praying that maybe it will be very, very clear today what God has for

them. Of course, if we lose them, it's their gain. But, you know, we'll grieve that a little bit, but it's nice to know that even if they do, they are right here across town. So we'll get to that in just a minute, and we'll pray. But before we do that, I just want to give you a bit of a chance to kind

of catch up. If you're new with us today, no problem, because we're only like the third week into this series in the book of Joshua. And I'm doing something different today. I'm going to be a grandpa real soon. The due date for my daughter and my son-in-law is Thursday. So we could show up

next Sunday and have a grandchild. So I'm giving in to age. Why are you cheering? You know, what I've been doing is I've been, if you noticed over the years, I've been doing this lower and lower.

And it's to the point it's kind of ridiculous. So here we go. Joshua chapter 1. Let me recap for us. Moses has died. And now through God's appointed successor, Joshua, the people are being prepared to

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

finally, finally cross over and enter the promised land. How awesome has it been that some of the songs we sang today deal with this time in the life of the people of God? How awesome has that been?

So that's going to mean conquest. And that's going to take courage and strength starting with Joshua himself, the new leader. And so that's why we hear this repeated anthem in chapter 1, be strong and

courageous. Chapter 2, Joshua gets busy right away. His first maneuver is to dispatch, not 12, but just two spies to go spy out the land and especially this massive walled city of Jericho.

There our spies are providentially intercepted by a prostitute, a local prostitute named Rahab. She hides them, misleads the authorities and gives them careful instructions and makes a covenant with

them for the safety, the deliverance of her and her family. The spies follow her direction to a T and they're able to safely return to Israel's camp. And that's where we pick things up here in chapter 3, verse 1. If you want to follow along with me, we're going to read the whole chapter.

Joshua chapter 3, verse 1. Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.

Joshua 3:1

At the end of three days, the officers went through the camp and they commanded the people, as soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests,

then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it in order that you may know the way you shall go,

for you have not passed this way before. Then Joshua said to the people, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And Joshua said to the priests, take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people. So they took up the ark of

the covenant and went before the people. The Lord said to Joshua, today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with

you. And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, when you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan. And Joshua said to the people of Israel,

come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will, without fail, drive out from before you the Canaanites,

the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the

Jordan. Now therefore take 12 men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man. And when the souls of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the

waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing and the waters coming down from above shall stand up in one heap. So when the people sent out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as soon as those

bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped into the brink of the water, now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest,

the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is besides Zarethan and those flowing down toward the sea of Ereba, the salt sea, were completely cut off.

And the people passed over opposite Jericho. Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan. And all Israel was passing over on dry

ground until the nation finished passing over the Jordan. Let's pray, shall we? Heavenly Father, we know you are here with us this morning, and so we pray for your presence to be manifest to us. We pray that

you would open your word to teach us. And this morning, Lord, we think of one of our own. We pray for Paul. We pray for Amber. We pray for Paul as he right now is doing what I am doing, faithfully bringing your word to your people. So Lord, guide the Hillside Church and guide Paul and Amber. And Lord, if it is

your desire for him to serve there with them, make that abundantly clear. We pray this in the name of our Savior, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I don't know if you've ever crossed a river on foot. Anybody?

Maybe out west. They're a lot more shallow. You know, the Mississippi, the St. Joe, you don't do that so much. I remember years ago, I was a teenager living in Nebraska. And our youth group would do this annual canoe trip. I wish I had some pictures, but I don't. We didn't have phones back then like we do now.

We did an annual canoe trip down the Platte River. And you could think of the platte as in flat, because that's what it is. It's a very broad, flat river. Large sandbars everywhere. You know,

we spent half the time paddling the canoe and the other half dragging it. And depending where we were in that river, we might cross the whole river to the other side, to the other bank, because it was on the sides of the river where you found the current. And you knew you found the current because when you

got to the river's edge, you could take one step and it would be maybe like ankle deep, and another step and it might literally be over your head. Well, we had, you know, the canoes and a little bit of water and some snacks and, of course, our life vests. We did not have entire families with us.

We did not have small children and babies and the elderly, not to mention all the livestock, flocks, herds, the tents, the supplies. Crossing a river in the ancient world is a big deal. Remember,

no bridges, no rafts to ford it. You're going to be crossing on foot. And when your group is as sizable as this one is, the entire nation of Israel crossing is not going to be in some like single file,

narrow, narrow, easily forded area, like you might imagine in some of the Bible stories. You know, the spies maybe got across that way. These two, you know, able-bodied men maybe could swim it,

but it's going to be a much larger scale operation. Make no mistake, this is an obstacle before the nation and not a small one as our chapter opens. Josh was up early. Here's the report of the spies the

night before, up early, ready to go. The people have been prepared. And now we're told that they set out from their camp at Shittim in verse 1. This is the same place where they've been camping ever since they defeated the two kings, Sihon and Og. And they now come to the edges of the Jordan in verse

2. Now we think probably from Shittim to the edge of the Jordan is a pretty good trip. You know, it's probably going to take the better part of the day. Maybe it's evening, even maybe near nightfall as they get there. And so we're told that they lodge there for the night with probably everybody, including

Joshua, wondering what is tomorrow going to look like. Because as our narrator later tips us off, and this is not a small thing down in verse 15, we have to understand that this river is not at

normal stage. It's at flood stage. Now I've seen a lot of pictures of the Jordan, Jordan River. I've never been there. Maybe someday. In fact, I've got one on the screen that we can put up. The first picture of the Jordan. You can see here, it's not a giant river. It's not especially wide. It's a

little smaller as rivers go. And you look at it and you think, okay, not such a big deal. But actually things would be a very big deal given what's happening. We have to understand that this

is what the river looks like now. It is not what the river looked like back then. Back then, the Jordan River was a very different animal. What's happened is the dawn of modern farming, starting in about the

middle of the 18th century on through the 20th century. What's happened in this part of the world is there's been a lot of damming, a lot of tributaries dug off of the Jordan River for irrigation.

And so it had the effect, or it had the effect now, of significantly reducing the flow of the Jordan. So it looks like that now. It didn't look like that back then, even at normal stage. Back then,

at normal stage, the river was between 90 and 100 feet wide. So I'm not sure, you know, where the St. Joe matches up with that. But you could think of maybe the Mishawaka Riverwalk, perhaps, through downtown South Bend, 90, 100 feet or so wide. Pretty good river. We also know that it sat

in a valley, the Jordan River Valley. And that valley was anywhere between 3 and 14 miles wide. And that river valley was packed with tangled brush and jungle growth. I've got a couple more pictures.

Let's go on to the next slide. Gives you a little better idea. By the way, this is flood stage of the Jordan River today. Today, after they diminished the river. After they cut off all the tributaries to make it less. So it looked like a lot more than what you're seeing back in the day that Josh was

in front of it. So we're told that it's flood season. It's the early harvest in the spring. And the river's floodplain, we know, is anywhere between 3 and 14 miles wide. And they tell us that

back then the river could swell to as large as a mile wide. A mile wide. Meaning that all that brush and undergrowth that we're seeing, it's all going to be underwater. It's going to be very, very difficult

to see, let alone try to navigate through. And what created the flooding? Well, it's the spring melt-off that happened every year from the mountains to the north. And not only did this melt-off bring vast amounts of water flowing down and increase the river's width and the depth. They say it was

normally about 10 feet, but it would be a lot deeper in the flood stage. It also was quite a raging river. It had a strong current. You can still see some of that today. Strong current. And that's because of the elevation drop in this part of the world. Please understand that the Jordan River flows south

and it drains into what's called the Salt Sea, the Dead Sea today. And the Dead Sea is the lowest lake in the world. In fact, the elevation drop is so significant that it ranges everywhere between 10 feet

and 40 feet per mile. That's a lot of drop. And at flood stage, please understand, that's going to make for a lot of dangerous rushing water. Hiding a mass of, again, tangled brush and jungle growth beneath the

surface. Quite simply, crossing this river could kill you, even if you're a good swimmer. And with the very young and very old in tow, not to mention all the herds and flocks and livestock and tents and

supplies they're carrying, please understand this is a very, very daunting challenge in front of them as everybody wakes up the next morning and gets a better look. But of course, this is not the first

water hazard, right? Water hazard that this nation has had to cross. And the same God who made a way out for his people from slavery is about to make a way in to the promised land by defeating a water hazard.

In verse 3, we learn that the officers have been delivering instructions throughout the camp, and it's this. They say, watch for the ark and the priests carrying it. As soon as you see the ark of the Lord your God being carried, remember it's got to be carried on poles, no one can touch it, carried by the Levitical

priests. Levites were the only ones authorized to carry it on poles, but here we'll do one better. It's going to be the family of Aaron, the priests that are carrying it. As soon as you see them, as soon as you see that, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. But here's where the instructions

get very interesting, very specific. Verse 4, keep some distance from it. In fact, make it about 2,000 cubits. That's 3,000 feet for us. A little over half a mile. Why? Well, for those of us more

familiar with the Old Testament, you might know that the Ark of the Covenant is the sacred symbol of God's presence with them. And it's something that the people could not get too close to. They could never touch it. You might even know that from an Indiana Jones movie or something, right? But seriously,

only the Levites can handle this stuff. And in this instance, it's the actual priests carrying the Ark. But why the distance? Why so much? Is it just because God's holy presence is there and it's for

their safety? It seems a little excessive for that. And the fact of the matter is, we actually hear the reason at the end of the verse in verse 4. Take a look at verse 4 again. Do not come near it in order

that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before. In other words, you're going to need to be backed off far enough so that you can see what's going on.

So everyone in this whole nation needs to be able to be in a position where they can look down into the Jordan Valley and see with their own two eyes what's about to take place. So those are the

instructions for now. Just one last thing for the people to do. And we find that in verse 5. Verse 5. Consecrate yourselves today, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

Consecration. What's that all about? Is this something the Israelites had ever been commanded to do before? And the answer to that question is yes. Several times in fact, starting with the very night of the Passover, the very first Passover, back in Egypt, on the eve of their deliverance out of slavery in Egypt,

through the miracle of the angel of death, and then the parting of the Red Sea, all that that happened. Before that, the people were told in Exodus 12 to consecrate themselves.

And what that entailed was ritual washings of your body, of your clothing, abstinence from marital relations, and the confession of any sin. Consecration was a time of spiritual preparation.

Spiritual preparation for God's people. And they always did it in the lead up to something big God was going to do. That's why the command to consecrate is repeated again with the first generation of Israelites who are now gone when they came to the foot of Mount Sinai. Exodus 19. Again,

the command is consecrate yourselves before they receive the law. Same thing here. Joshua tells them, you're about to see a mighty move and you need to be ready and have the right eyes to see it.

Consecrate yourselves. Well, after giving some further instructions to the priests in verse 6 to take up the ark and pass on before the people, we see in verse 7 that the Lord now has a personal word

for Joshua himself. Take a look. He says, today, the Lord says, today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will also be with you. The Lord goes on to

deliver further instructions in verse 8 about how the priests are to carry the ark to the brink of the waters and how they're going to need to enter the river and stand still in the river itself.

But in verse 9, it's time for Joshua to turn and give some instructions for all the people. And he does this. He says it like this. He says, come here and listen. Listen to the words of the Lord your God. He says,

listen, you have the one true living God among you, a God who will without fail drive out all the wicked inhabitants of this land before you. Seven groups are named here probably as a representative of the

dozen or so groups that currently inhabit the promised land. Sometimes they're called by their proper name. Sometimes they're just given the blanket name of the Canaanites or back in Genesis, the Amorites. But understand it's all the same people. A far gone, incredibly wicked people

whose horrible iniquities have reached the breaking point of God's patient mercy. And what God is telling his people is that by means of this mighty work he's about to do, this is going to give them confidence

and courage. Here is how you shall know that I, the Lord your God, am among you, the living God. I'm going to give you this land. I'm going to drive out its current inhabitants. And watch what I'm going

to do right now. Verse 11, look, behold, check it out, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth. It is passing over before you into the Jordan. Now verse 12 is kind of interesting. Verse 12 is

almost a parenthetical aside. Tells us how they're supposed to select 12 men, one from each tribe representatively. And there's not much more said about this. This is actually something we're going to leave for next week because it's a preview of what we're going to read about next week in chapter

four. So stay tuned. But in verse 13, the people are all told what it is they're about to witness with their own eyes. Verse 13, when the souls of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord,

when those feet rest in the waters of the Jordan, those waters shall be cut off from flowing and the waters coming from above shall stand up in one heap. One heap. I thought about that this week.

What does a heap of water look like? Water doesn't behave that way. It doesn't stand up in a heap. It's not like a pile of gravel or mulch. And yet we're told that it's, that's what's going to happen.

I have no idea how. Can we imagine what it looks like? You know, it's funny in all the artwork that you find. It's, it's like people forget this is not the Red Sea. Often you see, well, two things wrong in most artistic representations. Number one, they show walls of water at the Jordan. Nope. Different.

It was a heap of water. Get it right. And the other thing they show is as if the wall of water is like right there. They can see it. When in point of fact, as we learn in the passage, they stand up way upstream, up river at this place called Adam, which is like 15, maybe 17 miles away.

How did they know about this? Did some of the Israelites like leave camp and, you know, walk up north the 15 miles and check it out and see what was happening? Maybe. I don't know.

Did they hear about it from some locals later on? You know what happened outside of town? You know, a few weeks ago, man, it just, this crazy thing. A heap of water. Stop the river.

But what Joshua describes is exactly what's going to happen. These waters are going to be held back and they are going to somehow heap up in a big pile because it's a miracle.

Coming to verse 14, the action finally starts. And it's kind of funny the way the narrator tells it to us. It's like he's just kind of building the suspense. He just piles on a phrase after a phrase. And it's not even until now that he adds like, by the way, it's at flood stage.

The people break camp and they set out. Priests are carrying the ark in front of everybody. And as soon as their priestly feet come to the water's edge, guess what happens?

They step into the brink of the water. And even at the very last minute right here, the narrator adds the part about how, by the way, it's at flood stage. And here is where it happens.

Verse 16, the waters coming down from above do just what Joshua predicted. They stood up and rose up in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, completely cutting off any water

flowing downward toward the Dead Sea. And the people crossed over. And again, not in some narrow space, you know, knee deep. No. This miraculous stoppage would have meant that most, if not all, of the

Jordan River Valley is dry. Some of you are like, well, weren't there some puddles or something? Okay, sure, probably. Kids can splash while we cross. But not for the priests. The text is very clear.

Not for the priests who are standing there in the heart of the riverbed, holding the ark of the covenant as all the people cross over. They were not touching any water. They weren't even standing in any

mud or muck. No, their sandals might have gotten wet. But we're told in verse 17 that their feet stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan. And all Israel was passing over on dry ground

until the whole nation finished passing over the Jordan.

What an amazing story. If a preacher tells you that and it's boring, it's his fault.

What a moment in biblical history. You know, and for people like us, so far removed in so many ways. I mean, even the river is different today than what it once was.

We're removed by centuries. We are steps removed by ethnicity, by race. We remember what the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans, though. And always hold on to this when you're looking at the Old Testament. Romans 15, 4. He says, everything that's been written in the past

was written down for our instruction, church, to teach us, to instruct us as God's people today, to encourage us, to warn us. And so what's the big idea here this morning?

Well, I think it's this. I think the big idea here this morning is about God and the agents of mediation that He uses. Mediation, as in the work of mediating, going between two parties.

God is wholly other than us because He is absolutely wholly with an H. And for this reason, God uses agents to mediate between Himself and us.

In the story, whether it's the ark or some priests carrying it, or even a leader like Joshua Himself. God uses each of these agents of mediation to bring His people across a barrier,

a raging, dangerous Jordan, into His place of promise. Right? Into His place of promise. Today, I want to offer you three points. Three points about this mediation. Because this story,

again, is about more than just an ancient people crossing a river. It also provides us a picture. A picture of the miraculous work of redemption with a God who uses agents of mediation to affect

our salvation in crossing over from death to life. Our first point begins with what His people needed to do here. And what the people needed to do here is what God's people still need to do today. And it's this. Number one, we must watch, listen to,

and follow the agents of our mediation. We must watch, listen to, and follow the agents of our mediation.

What are Joshua's words to the people back in verse 3? It's about the watching. Verse 3, as soon as you see the ark of the covenant. And keep that distance from it. Don't get too close.

Stay back about a half a mile. Why? So you can watch. So you can see what happens. And so that you may know where it is you're going to go. Because you've never been here. You don't know the way.

You see, God's people needed to behold the miracle that God was about to do. Verse 11, they needed to watch the soles of the feet of those priests submerge into ankle-deep water or knee-deep,

I don't know how deep they went, before it all dried up. God's people needed to be watching. And they also needed to be listening. Listening. Whether it was the commands of the officers

for the people, or the commands from Joshua to the priests in verse 8, or those very, very explicit words from Joshua in verse 9. Again, what's he say in verse 9? Come here and listen to the words of the

Lord your God. God's people needed to watch and listen. And more than that, they also needed to follow. It wouldn't do any good to stand there. They needed to actually follow into the riverbed.

Follow what Joshua was telling them. Starting with all the instructions about consecration. You know, we ask ourselves, did the people of Israel, you know, they didn't have the book of Joshua.

They didn't have the Bible yet. They didn't know what was going to happen. Did they have all the information up front? No. When that massive encampment woke up the next morning, did somebody paint a complete picture of exactly what was going to happen and how it was going to happen? No, not

right away. Once they got a real good look at what that flooded, raging Jordan River looked like, I am sure, remember, these are people like, you know, chip off the old block. First generation grumbled a lot. I hope they didn't do too much, but I'm sure they had some questions. I'm sure they

had some concerns. Did the way forward look hard? Even maybe impossible? Yeah. Joshua, are you going to lead us all to a watery grave? Is this really such a good idea? I mean, is this, get this, is this

really the right time to cross? If we just wait a little longer, we get out of the flood stage, it'd be a lot easier to cross. But God's people, and specifically the priests, needed

to listen and to watch and to follow. Even when a few of them are going to get their feet a little wet first, right? Somebody had to walk into the water and get their sandals wet. And that's a great

lesson for those of us who are God's people today, to know that we also need to watch and listen and follow God's agents of mediation. Now, God uses a lot of different people and things to mediate. He uses people who teach the word like me, or maybe counsel from a wise older Christian. But let's start,

and let's go back to the supreme agent, capital A, of our mediation. The great mediator of a new covenant. That's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We need to watch the amazing story of our redemption.

You know, we have it in the Bible. It's a little further ahead in these four gospels that we have. The biblical gospels show us the outworking of the life, and the ministry, and the death, and the

resurrection of Jesus, and even explains to us why and what the meaning is. These books of the New Testament are filled with the scenes and encounters, the parables, and the events that teach us the story

of our redemption. Our great agent of mediation culminating his work in mediating for us with his sin-atoning, wrath-satisfying death on the cross. We need to watch Jesus. Watch his life and ministry.

Watch his sacrifice. Watch his victory. But more than just watch, we also need to listen, don't we? We need to listen to him when he calls us to obedience. A couple of examples real quick. A

couple passages. John 14, verse 15. This is Jesus himself, our great agent of mediation. What's he say? If you love me, you will keep my commandments. You'll listen to what I'm saying. And we need to

John 14:15

follow him too. We need to follow his voice when it calls. John 10, 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. He calls all who are weary and heavy burdened, people like us,

to come to him, and he says, I will give you rest. And he also says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. This is watchfulness. This is spiritual listening with soft ears and soft hearts. It's the obedience of

being willing to be discipled, to be trained up to know him and to serve him and represent him better and better each day. Do we always get all the information when there's a great challenge or

obstacle in front of us in our lives? No, we don't. Often we do not know. You know, sometimes God gives us just enough information, not enough by our standards, enough by his, which is usually less

than we want. And sometimes God has this weird timing that seems delayed or inconvenient, but with God and anything, it's perfection. And so his timing is the perfect timing, even when it seems off to us,

too slow for us, too hard right now. Sometimes sticking with his instructions can be challenging and hard and even precarious. You know, I don't know if I'll be able to stay in this relationship if

you're someone dating. I don't know if I'll be able to stay in good graces with that family member if I don't make concessions, if I don't make compromises. Or maybe for some of you who are

professionals, I don't know if I can keep my job or get ahead in my career or please my manager or my principal if I don't set aside my moral compass here. But God calls for our obedience no matter how

precarious the situation may look or seem. We still need to watch and listen and follow. That's one takeaway here I see this morning. But there's another one. And the second one is all bottled up in just one

little verse. Verse 5. Second one is this. Being spiritually prepared will best enable us to see and

appreciate the moving of God. Right? Being spiritually prepared will best enable you and me to see and appreciate the moving of God when God moves. What do we read in verse 5? Consecrate yourselves.

Joshua commands this because he knows that God's people need to be spiritually prepared. To be spiritually prepared to better be able to see and appreciate what's coming. To be spiritually attuned

so as to fully appreciate God's mighty move that's about to happen with this river. And it's mighty. And this wasn't the only time in scripture. Again, talked about a couple times before with the nation.

But you know, even long before we had a nation of Israelites. As far back as Job. Anybody remember Job? The patriarch Job? Righteous Job. What was he doing?

He was consecrating his children after every family feast. Just in case. And then you had the patriarch Jacob consecrating himself and his entire household before going on to Bethel. Verse

Genesis 35. Consecration. Consecration was an important step for preparing yourself spiritually to see something significant from God. Now of course in the Old Testament it was done differently. It was done

through ceremonial washings and abstinence from certain things and confession of sins. Today it looks a little different. Because we prepare not our bodies but our hearts and our minds. So confession still,

yeah. Confession of sins still applies. But no longer those outward rituals. We know the consecration now is inward. It's an inward spiritual work in us. And we ask ourselves, when and why might we want to do

this? Consecrate ourselves? Well, maybe you're facing some big event in life. Some major life decision that you've been seeking God about. You've been praying about. That might be a time. Or maybe it's some major

crisis that's happening in life. Or in the life of somebody you know. Some believers engage in practices like fasting as a means. Not of manipulation. Please remember that. Not manipulation. But as a means of

spiritually preparing God to move? No. Our fasting, our prayers don't prepare God. He's ready. They prepare us for Him to move. They prepare us to be able to see and appreciate that it's Him moving. I remember years

ago before I came here at our former church in Wisconsin where we were in a care group leader and our care group leader left his wife for another woman. Our group, we prayed. We prayed about Brad.

And we also fasted. One particular day, we fasted the whole day. We consecrated ourselves in that way before the men of the group met this guy, our leader for dinner. And we confronted him.

And the Lord did an amazing work. They're together today. Sometimes this type of spiritual preparation is important for a crucial moment. A special ministry task maybe. You know what? It can also become a part

of ordinary rhythms of life. I was really challenged and struck by a former pastor I once had who told us as a congregation that we should be preparing ourselves spiritually for every Sunday.

Did that mean take a shower before church? Well, I don't think that's what he meant. But he was really challenging our young church. We were church plant. He was challenging our young church to think about what we were doing the night before. How we were using our weekend.

Were we preparing ourselves? Were we preparing our children for the excitement of gathering together with God's people to fellowship and worship and hear the word? Or were we doing what most Americans do,

most people in the world do, which is stay up all hours of the night because you can sleep in and you can have a great time Friday, Saturday night and well Sunday comes, you better get it together.

We can also consecrate and prepare ourselves for our lives each and every day. Time in the word. Sometimes time in the word is tough when you're tired, when the coffee hasn't kicked in yet or when you're getting interrupted constantly.

And sometimes there's a way, a value I should say, in preparing ourselves by just a simple prayer before you read the word. Lord, open your word to me now. Lord, teach me.

Remove distractions from my mind for just a few minutes as I look in your word. Remember, it's just a single verse here, verse 5 in our passage, but that doesn't mean that this is an insignificant thing. Because God's people are always going to benefit from good spiritual preparation.

That's going to help us best see and appreciate the movement of God. I could preach a stinker of a sermon, and I have, but if you come spiritually prepared, it's a win for me because you think it's amazing.

So just do that every time. We'll be fine. I like how one scholar talks about it. He says, I think he hits the nail on the head, Dale Ralph Davis, he says, it's so easy to punify God.

I didn't know that was a word. It's a form of the word puny. To make puny. Punify. He says, it's easy. We, I'm going to quote, We have a tendency to punify God. To carve him down to our stature and limit him to our possibilities.

We do this when we have a medical need and we've got to give God like the medical report so he knows how to work.

There's nothing wrong with doing that, but God knows. He knows what you need before you ask him. Somebody said that. Is part of the reason we tend to punify God because we haven't prepared ourselves spiritually?

Remember, we're best able to see and appreciate the amazing significance of God's moving, God's work, when we come to these things with expectancy and the right spiritual preparation.

Now let's bring this home. Number three, third takeaway before we finish. And listen, this last one shines brightest here at the end of our story.

Right when our priests are standing there, not in that ankle deep water, but with wet sandals on the dry riverbed. Number three is this. God's exalted agent of mediation firmly grounds our access to blessing.

You can make that a capital A if you're into capitalizing titles for the divine. God's exalted agent of mediation. Jesus firmly grounds our access to blessing.

Again, what's the Lord tell Joshua he's going to do on this day? Verse 7, today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel. We know Joshua is a type.

He is a foreshadowing. He is the God saves of the Old Testament. And his name, Joshua, which becomes Jesus, is Jesus is the God saves of the New Testament and of all time.

And when the people followed Joshua's instruction, what those priests did is they firmly grounded the people's access to the blessing that was ahead of them, didn't they?

The blessing of finally entering. Remember, this is the first time any Israelite besides spies have set foot in the promised land when they got to the other side of the Jordan.

And those priests stood there in that riverbed. And as they did, how do we hear it in verse 17? Verse 17, the priest bearing the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground.

Joshua, the exalted leader, God's Ark at the very center of everything, with those priests firmly grounded, all agents of mediation for the people's safe crossing.

And in all of these ways, right now today, in this era of grace that we live in, we have an exalted agent of mediation who is and does all of these things.

Because it's no longer a wooden box overlaid with gold, carried on poles that contains God's presence. His presence was manifest fully in his own incarnate son, Jesus.

And he is exalted, not just as a human leader, but as the God-man himself by his death and resurrection. Lifted up on a cross, laid in a tomb, raised up again on the third day,

and ascended now into heaven until he comes again. And there in heaven he stands. Our great high priest, whose name is love, firmly grounding our access to blessing.

And listen, as long as his feet are grounded there before the throne of God, no tongue can bid us thence depart.

And we can enjoy safe passage and complete access to all of the Father's promises. Let me ask you today.

Do you have this mediator, this great agent of mediation, working on your behalf personally? Each and every one of us, when we come to an age that we can understand, we have to make this decision.

Is Jesus your Lord and Savior? God has exalted him, and he will one day be exalted, and every knee will bow. But it's up to each and every one of us right now to decide whether we will willingly exalt him in our own hearts.

If you don't have Jesus, I'd love to pray with you today. Find me, find someone else, another believer. Make that decision. And for many of us who do have Jesus, if you're already a believer,

are you trusting that he does indeed firmly ground your access to blessing? Remembering that no failure on your part or mine, nothing and no one can send those waters of judgment rushing down over you, not while in heaven he stands,

firmly grounded as your mediator and intercessor. Can some days be hard? Sure. Are there some seasons of life that are fraught with difficulty and obstacles?

Yes. And do we sometimes only see a partial picture of what God is doing, and maybe not get all the information up front, and maybe really question the timing?

Yeah. But this morning, you can know that God delights to show his might, show his might, in the face of our utter helplessness.

But we must watch, and listen to, and follow our agent of mediation. And we must spiritually prepare ourselves so that we'll be able to best see and appreciate the moving of God when it happens.

And we can rest in the glorious, reassuring truth that God's exalted agent of our mediation firmly grounds our access to blessing. I'm going to ask the team to come.

I'm going to have you stand with me as they do, and let's pray.

Heavenly Father, what a joy to know that while in heaven, your Son Jesus stands, that Father, no one can bar our access. No accusation, not from the enemy, Satan himself,

can rid us from your presence because of Jesus. No rushing waters of judgment will flow over us because you stand firmly grounded like those priests once did with that ark and that riverbed.

We thank you. We thank you that you bring us into a place of blessing as we know you and follow you and live for you. And Lord, we know this life can be hard, and we know we don't yet have rest.

And we know for the people of Israel, there is conquest ahead. There are wars to be fought. They will not yet have rest. And in a similar way, we look forward to the day that we are at home with you in our eternal rest.

But until then now, Lord, grant us strength. Give us courage and wisdom. We thank you for Jesus and for the Spirit left here on earth that lives inside each of your children today.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.